What Happened Thereafter {A LotR Fanfiction}

Ivy

[I dedicate this chapter to Cinomari because she is a fantastic person in real life, and one of the best actresses I know! Thanks for being so nice to me, Cino! I can't wait to see you and be with you in more school productions!]

It was cold. It was cold, damp, and dark. The ground was hard and dirty; the bars of the cage around her strong and menacing. Ivy didn't know how long she'd been there, but it felt like ages. She'd drifted in and out of a fevered sleep, dizzy when awake and scared when asleep. Her nightmares tormented her and though she tried to stay awake, the terrible smells and awful screeches and howls convinced her that sleep was a better place than the cave she was in now. She hadn't known there were any caves in the Shire, but if it wasn't a cave, then she had no idea where she currently was. It was dark like a cave, and she thought she heard running water somewhere, but every once in a while a light would shine from the farthest side, reminding her of the sun's piercing rays. 

Ivy hadn't been fed or given anything to drink, so she was starving and incredibly weak. When she could muster the strength, she would run her fingers along the ground, trying to find the wet spots created by underground springs. It wasn't much, but the coolness against her tongue when she licked the water from the rocks was worth it. She wondered what her friends were doing. She wondered if they had won the war, and if Saruman was gone and just forgot about her. She wondered if anyone remembered her at all.

A tear escaped her left eye and made a trail down her muddy cheek. She was so scared and alone, with nothing to do but think all day, and experience horrors when she slept. She brushed the tear away, determined to keep as much water in her body as possible, then forced herself to sit up. She blinked, but it was so pitch black that it was difficult to see anything. The noises from before had almost stopped, reduced to scuffling and murmuring voices. Ivy crawled over in the dark until she hit the bars of the cage and after a moment's hesitation, stuck her arm through the gaps and felt around, for something, anything she could use to escape. 

Nothing.

Defeated, Ivy slumped onto the ground and closed her eyes; biting back tears that threatened to spill. Why was she trying anyway? So far no one had come looking for her, so why should she assume that anyone was looking for her now? She knew that no one really liked her, probably not even the ones she called "friends". Probably not even Sam, whom she had thought was different. It would be easier for everyone if she just starved to death here then to go back home and be laughed at again. Maybe she should just---

No! No, what was she thinking? Ivy took a deep, shaky breath and berated herself for thinking this way. She knew that her friends liked her, otherwise why would they hang out with her? And she knew Sam liked her, because he told her both with words and with the things he did. She remembered the time they went swinging; the time when she had held his hand and how wonderful it felt. She remembered his clumsiness and awkwardness around her, and could almost feel the butterflies dancing around in her belly, making their way up her chest and to her heart. He wouldn't want her to give up. And neither would Nettle, Thorn, or Daffodil. She owed it to them--her friends--to get out of this place. 

As Ivy was thinking this, her hand, almost on its own, ran through the length of her hair and....stopped abruptly.

Ivy gasped and sat up, this time using both her hands to feel her hair, which was beginning to lose its softness. Her hair! What had they done? Where had the the familiar weight gone? Ivy smoothed her hair down and realized that it was true: her hair, that used to reach her waist, had been cut. Now it only reached a little past her chin, and was choppy and tangled. Whoever had cut it had done a terrible job. 

Well, it didn't matter anymore. Nothing did, except getting out of this horrid, awful place that smelled like waste and felt like torture. With new vigor, Ivy stood up, dusted herself off, shook her hair, and took a deep breath. She was getting out of here, once and for all. 

She waited for what seemed like hours until the light finally appeared at the end of the cave, then she quickly scanned the area for something sharp. Before she was able to spot anything, however, she found the door to her cage and saw that it was only being held shut with a sturdy log and a rock. When the light faded, she had already began pressing her feet against the stump, using everything she had to move it from the door. When that didn't work, she put her hands through the bar and tried pushing the rock off. Still nothing. Finally she kicked the door and shoved the weight of her body against it over and over again. 

She was making a terrible racket, but thankfully no one seemed to notice. They must have all been out fighting or something, or perhaps they thought it was one of their comrades checking up on her. she slammed herself against the cage until she was bruised and bleeding, and all out of breath. She cried out in frustration and fell to the ground, gasping for breath and desperate for water. She was so thirsty. So parched. 

"Trying to escape, are we?" A voice beside her said. Ivy jumped and moved away from the door as it opened and a man came in. Her eyes had begun to adjust to the dark, so even though it was still hard, she could just make out the shape of the enemy who was striding towards her. He had a piece of cloth in his hands, and held it out in front of him like he was planning on wrapping it around her mouth.

"This'll shut you up," he said. Ivy was able to dodge him and dive underneath his legs, but as soon as she had put one foot out of the door, the man grabbed her shoulder and whirled her around. She screamed and took a step back, and tripped backwards on a loose stone. She tumbled down, down the path that the man had come up, for she hadn't realized it, but she was very high up and in order to get up to the cage one had to climb the stairs that had been chiseled away in the dirt. She curled into a ball and held her knees as she rolled down the stairs, thankful that they were made of dirt and not rock. 

When she finally came to a stop her joints were aching and her whole body was crying out in silent protest. She lay there, staring up at the darkness, barely able to breath, hurting all over. She vaguely heard a commotion somewhere in the cave, and then, as she drifted out of consciousness, nothing.

---

When she opened her eyes, Ivy had the one headache to rule them all, and it took her at least two minutes to remember what had happened and where she was. For a while she couldn't move; just lay there in the same position feeling sore all over, but she finally pushed herself up and blinked several times to adjust to the dark once more. She looked up and saw the faint outline of a ledge overhead, and a staircase of dirt leading up to that ledge. That was where she had fallen down, and she was now at the bottom of the stairs and to the side, in a corner that hadn't yet been searched, thus hiding her from the enemy. What luck!

Ivy stretched and focused on good things, like sunshine and laughter, and was able to put her mind off the fact that she was already going faint with dehydration. It took all her strength to hoist herself to her feet, and she had to lean against the wall for support while she fought off a bad case of vertigo. It felt like her head was being pounded on by nails and hammers. She really should have had something to drink that day she was captured before going into battle. She hadn't known she would be kidnapped then, but in the future she would tell herself that it never hurt to be careful.

Feeling her way with one hand against the wall, and the other in front of her, Ivy slowly made her way forward. She walked for what felt to her like hours, but pressed on, even when her legs started shaking and her thoughts became blurred from weariness. 

At last the light came, and Ivy realized how close she was to the entrance to the cave. It was covered by a blanket, which explained why the light disappeared from the back of the cave. She was on the far side of the opening, however, because she had been walking along the wall. Still, she kept a fairly steady pace and continued as she had been. No one had seen her yet, and if she was going to escape, she would really rather not attract anymore attention than she had.

When she reached the opening she paused to make sure nothing was coming through the opening, then carefully folded the blanket back and stepped out into the sudden, painful, bright light.

She was free.