The White Armoured Shifter. [The Hobbit FF-ThorinxOcxAragorn Love Story]

16. The Mirror of Galadriel.

The Fellowship is asleep. A glowing figure in a flowing dress walks by them. Frodo wakes up with a start. Galadriel glides past him. Frodo slipping free of Ayrn's cuddle, follows. Galadriel descends to a glade and fills a silver pitcher with water from a stream. She stands before an ornate stand with a shallow silver basin upon it. The Lady turns towards Frodo. "Will you look into the mirror?" she asked,

"What will I see?" he countered. Galadriel stepped up to the basin, "Even the wisest cannot tell. For the mirror... shows many things..." She begins to pour the water into the silver mirror. "...things that were... things that are... and some things..." She empties the ewer and steps back, "that have not yet come to pass." Frodo steps up onto a low platform below the mirror to take a look. He peers down and sees nothing but his reflection. 

Then the mirror clears and shows a vision of Legolas, Merry and Pippin and Sam from the platform in the woods. Then the Green Dragon Inn appears in the ripples. Suddenly, fires belch up, flaming from windows and doors. Orcs lash whips. Frodo gasps, his eyes wide. Beneath grey skies and dark hills shouldered with machinery and industry, a line of Hobbits, including Samwise, is driven into a mill to work by slave-masterly Orcs.

The Eye of Sauron fills the mirror. The Ring hanging from Frodo's neck pulls him closer to the water. Steam begins to curl up from the basin as Sauron speaks to Frodo. Frodo grabs the Ring and jerks back, throwing himself off the step and landing on the grass. 

***

Ayrn wakes with a jerk as she can sense the presence of the Eye and her hand if throbbing in pain, Aragorn who is nearby and watching over the fellowship, sees Ayrn jerk up and clutch her discolored hand. Rushing to her side, he's got her hand in his and is rubbing out the tense and soreness. "Where is Frodo?" she asked when she didn't see him beside her where he'd been when they fell asleep, 

"He's with Galadriel," he said and she relaxed only a bit. "I can sense the Eye, it's what woke me," she panted out as he continued to try and massage out the pain in her hand, Legolas who stood nearby frowned, "I will go and see what's going on," he said and walked off, him going to check made Ayrn relax more. 

*** 

"I know what it is you saw, for it is also in my mind." Her voice echoes in Frodo's head, "It is what will come to pass if you should fail. The Fellowship is breaking: it is already begun. He will try to take the Ring. You know of whom I speak. One by one, it will destroy them all." Frodo silently speaks, "If you ask it of me, I will give you the One Ring." Opening his palm, he offers the Ring to her. "You offer it to me freely. I do not deny that my heart has greatly desired this."

She approaches Frodo and places her hand over the Ring, her hand quivering. Her appearance begins to change. She towers over Frodo, her cloak running ragged in a wind, her eyes like dark hollows, arms flung high. "In place of a Dark Lord, you would have a queen!" She now wears a breastplate; her hair billows around her. As though underwater, the glade becomes murky and green. "Not dark, but beautiful and terrible as the dawn! Treacherous as the sea!"

Frodo backs away in fright. "Stronger than the foundations of the earth! All shall love me, and despair!" she continues. The great murky light fades and Galadriel lets her arms slowly fall, her transformed image disappearing. Breathing heavily, she speaks to herself. "I pass the test! I will diminish, and go into the West, and remain Galadriel." she says as her wave of power fades away, she begins to turn away.

"I cannot do this alone." he gasps, Galadriel turns back. "You are a Ring bearer, Frodo. To bear a Ring of power is to be alone." Galadriel lifts her hand up. A ring adorns her finger. "This is Nenya, the Ring of Adamant, and I am its Keeper. This task was appointed to you, and if you do not find a way, no one will." she explains, "Then I know what I must do. It's just... I'm afraid to do it." he says and she smiles softly, Galadriel bends down to meet him at eye level.

"Even the smallest person can change the course of the future." she says and he can barely manage a small smile, Legolas coming in, is beside Frodo in an instant after a small bow is given in greeting to Galadriel, "Legolas," Frodo said softly a tiny smile present, "Ayrn is worried," Legolas said and Frodo nodded, "I didn't mean to worry her," he said and Legolas lead him back to where everyone was sleeping.

Ayrn was sitting where they'd set up at the beginning of the night and Aragorn knelt next to her, Frodo jogged a little to get to her side when she'd seen him out the corner of her eye, her arms were open and he didn't hesitate to hug her, he liked how she treated him, she loved him like his mother did, even though he's already an adult. It was comforting and he needed this.