Lord Of The Rings Fan Fiction ❯ The Rifleman ❯ Cracked ( Chapter 4 )

[ T - Teen: Not suitable for readers under 13 ]

do not own Lord of the Rings or any of it’s characters
I do ,however, own all OC’s that appear


Miira slowly opened her eyes and quickly sat up when she realized that she wasn’t in the same place she was in when she went to sleep. She was still wearing her gear but she was in the most comfortable bed she had ever been in in her entire life. She looked around and saw that everything in the room had a leafy and natural motif. “We must have arrived in Rivendel while I was still asleep, which would mean….” Her hands suddenly flew up to her cheeks as her face turned bright red “Which would mean that Rochben carried me up here while I was asleep!” Miira jumped off the bed and ran into the hallway until she spotted a nearby elf. “Excuse me, have a seen a strangely dressed young man anywhere around here?”

“Oh you mean Sergeant Rochben” answered the elf “yes he is in the library just down there with Master Gandalf” The elf pointed further down the hallway.

Miira thanked the elf and made her way to the library. She heard voices coming from the room so she stopped just outside. She peered inside and saw Rochben leaning against a bookcase talking to an elderly man dressed in gray robes.

“….. and then we finally got here.” Rochben must have just finished recalling the last few days to the elderly man, who was probably Gandalf.

“Sounds like you’ve been busy these past couple of days.”

“You have no idea.”

Miira retreated behind the doorframe and found herself panicking. Did he tell Gandalf everything?! About her melt down and that moment during the deer hunt!? She peeked back around the door.

Gandalf’s eyes sparkled in a mischievous manner. “This Miira girl certainly sounds interesting. You two must have had some bonding moments out there in the woods” he cocked up an eyebrow “all by yourselves?”

“Nothing happened!” Miira felt almost disappointed to hear him deny it like that. “Besides that’s not why I’m here and you know it.”

“Of course, it is just about time for you to go see Elrond. I hope you find the answers you are looking for my friend.”

“Thanks, me too” Rochben replied as he turned and left the library by the door on the opposite side.

Miira let out a quiet sigh of relief, Rochben hadn’t revealed any of their private moments. Maybe he wasn’t such a bad guy after all.

Suddenly a gruff voice sounded off “Just how long do you plan on hiding there?”

Miira flinched, she’d been caught. She peeked around the corner. “How long did you know?” She asked.

“Since you arrived”

“Damn, I thought I was good.” She was clearly disappointed with herself.

“You are good. Most people wouldn’t have noticed you, Rochben didn’t.”

“That’s not much of an achievement” Miira said dully.

“You’d be surprised, Rochben’s senses are far sharper then even he realizes.”

“Whatever you say. So what does Rochben need to see the leader of the elves for?”

“I trust he told you about his memory problems?” Miira nodded her head. “I told him Elrond might be able to help him recover some of it.”

“Can he?”

“I can’t say for sure.”

“Oh”

She turned to leave but stopped when she felt a hand fall on her shoulder.

“One more thing, there’s going to be a council meeting to determine the fate of the Ring. I asked Rochben to be there and he in turn asked that you be present as well.”

Miira’s eyes widened in surprise. “Why would he want me to be there?”

“He said something about owing you one. Regardless of that, since the two of you aren’t officially representing any race or country at the council there won’t be any seats for you so you’ll have to stand off to one side of my chair. The meeting will be tomorrow at noon, make sure you turn up.” With that, Gandalf left through the door.

Miira couldn’t help but smile inwardly. Rochben wanted her to be there! Wait, why did she care what Rochben wanted!? She stormed down the hall, intent on giving him a pounding for not waking her up when they arrived.

Rochbe n stepped out of Elrond’s study with a look of slight disappointment on his face. He now had no more answers then when he had started his journey. Deep down he had been expecting that though. Maybe he wasn’t suppose to find out, maybe he shouldn’t.

“I’m sorry I couldn’t help you.” Elrond said from the doorway.

“It’s no problem, we’ve got more pressing matters at hand anyway. I won’t be able to recover my memory if the worlds been destroyed.”

“Well said, I expect that means you plan to participate in whatever we intend to do to the Ring.”

“I’m into it up to my neck now anyway. Those riders hunted me down and that could only mean one thing since I didn’t have the Ring, they consider me a threat.”

“Yes, the Nazgul. To have avoided them long enough to get here would have required extreme skill from both you and Corporal Miira.”

“She’s very good, she deserves better then to be scouting in an area with so little enemy activity.”

“Is that your “Professional” opinion or are you saying that you want her to go with you?” Elrond asked, raising an eyebrow.

“I’m outta here” Rochben responded, jogging down the hall

“You didn’t say no!” Elrond called down the hall with a smile on his face.

Rochben jogged faster down the hall until he reached an outside terrace and leaned on the rail. He didn’t want to have to think about that right now. He was having enough trouble dealing with what had happened during that deer hunt! He stared at the gardens under the terrace, still unable to get the image of her emerald green eyes out of his head. He was still thinking about just that when he suddenly heard the sound of many small feet approaching him from behind. He turned around only to have his hands seized and shaken up and down by a super excited Merry and Pippin followed very closely by Frodo and Sam.

“We’d heard you’d made it here!” said Pippin excitedly.

“We thought we’d never find you! We‘ve been looking forever!” Frodo said happily

“Sam said to forget about you, that the Ring Wraiths would probably get you” Merry stated in a very matter-of-fact tone.
“I said no such thing!” Sam responded. “All I said was that we shouldn’t get our hopes up was all!”

“All right all right!” Rochben cried, trying to pry Merry and Pippin off his hands. He was surprised that they had gotten so close to him in such a short time. “So what happened to you guys after you got across the river?”

All the hobbits, except Frodo, opened up at once. They recounted their encounter with Strider at the Prancing Pony, the incident with the Ring, and finally the climactic encounter on the old watchtower where Frodo got stabbed and was eventually saved by Lady Arwen.

“Sounds to me like you guys were in better hands bein’ with Strider then if you’d stayed with me.” Said Rochben after they finished the story.

“He’s alright” said Sam “he was kinda creepy at first but he turned out to be a nice guy.”

“What about you?” asked Frodo with curiosity written all over his face. “How did you get away from the Ring Wraiths?”

Rochben retold the story for the hobbits. He left out Miira’s meltdown and the moment during the deer hunt, but he didn’t leave out any other detail.

“You jumped off a sheer cliff?!” Sam asked, eyes wide with amazement.

“Well ya gotta do what ya…..” Rochben never got the chance to finish his sentence as a cry of “AN OPENING!” was heard and he was forcefully punched in the back of the head. “Yow!” he exclaimed, grasping the back of his head. He turned around to see Miira standing there, hands on her hips, looking extremely perturbed. “What the hell was that for?!” Rochben asked, genuinely confused.

“That was for not waking me up when we got here! And for carrying me up to that bed!”

Rochben became more confused. “Isn’t that the kind of thing people generally get thanked for doing!?”

“Not when your trying to come across as strong! Thanks to you my reputation is going to take a hit!” Miira yelled at him.

“You hadn’t slept for a long time, I just figured it would be better if I let you sleep!”

“What about you!? You’ve slept less then I have! If anything you’re the one who should be taking naps!”

“Since when are you so concerned with my wellbeing?”
Miira’s face turned light red with frustration. She wound up and slugged Rochben in the face, making a sickening “Crack”, and stormed off down the hall. Rochben stood there for a moment, his head still tilted up with his hand gripping his nose.

“Something tells me she’s not very happy.” Sam said candidly.

“Thank you for that sharp observation Sam” Rochben responded nasally “but I worked that out on my own.”

------------------------------------------------------ -------------------------------------------------------

It was starting to get dark as Miira stormed down the hallway. “How dare he!” she muttered to herself “He thinks just because he’s a man he’s tougher then me! Well I’ll show him! I’ll stay up for three straight days just to….” Miira suddenly tripped on something and fell to the ground.

“Oh! I’m very sorry I must have been sticking my feet out too far!” Called a strong but gentle voice from above. Miira felt a strong hand grab her arm and lift her off the ground and then proceeded to dust her off. “I trust you were not hurt to badly?”

“I’m fine!” Said Miira, extremely agitated. She pushed the hand away from her, she just couldn’t get a break! “Just who do you think you are anyway!?” She looked up to see an extremely handsome face looking down at her.

“Well since you asked, I am Aragorn son of Arathorn.” Miira’s eye’s suddenly went wide. “I am…”

“I know exactly who you are my lord!” Said Miira, dropping to one knee. Aragorn looked surprised. “I apologize my lord, I have been troubled and I did not recognize your face!”

“You know who I am? How? I have revealed my true identity to a select few and they would never tell a soul!”

“While I was training with my garrison in Minas Tirith I spent many a long night pouring through the books in the Hall of Records in an effort to increase my understanding of the history of Gondor and Middle Earth as a whole! While in the Hall one night I discovered a book that contained a list of the descendents of Isildur! The name Aragorn was the most recent on the list!”

“I see… Please stop kneeling, you are in the presence of a friend.” Said Aragorn, once again lifting her up with his hand. “You mentioned that you were troubled?”

Miira lowered her head nervously. “Well, it’s just that I’ve been trying to prove my strength, but there’s this guy who seems to sabotage me!”
“Ah, that is why you became so perturbed when I helped you up.”

“Yeah sorry about that” Said Miira, extremely embarrassed.

“Not at all, but I must ask, why do you feel you must prove your strength?”

“Well it’s just that I’ve always been looked down upon as a warrior because I’m a woman! The only assignments I ever got up until now were all scouting missions!”

“What do you mean by ‘up until now’?”

“Well after I met that guy everything got turned upside down. Next thing I know I’m being called to secret meetings and getting chased by black riders! I’ve seen more action in the past couple of days then I ever did when I started scouting!”

“Sounds like you owe it to this guy, maybe you should thank him, if of course that kind of action is really what your looking for”

“I guess your right” Miira suddenly had a look of worry on her face.

“What’s wrong?”

“I kinda punched him in the head, twice. And one of those punches may of possibly… broken his nose…”

“Oh, well you should talk to him none the less” Said Aragorn, laying a hand on her shoulder. “we can’t have our allies fighting with each other like this.”

“Yes sir!” Said Miira brightly, saluting Aragorn.

“You don’t have to do that you know”

“Yes sir! Sorry sir! Thank you sir!” Miira took off down the hall leaving Aragorn shaking his head, a look of bemusement on his face.

------------------------------------------------------------ -------------------------------------------------

Rochben walked slowly down the hall, his head still tilted back and his hand still on his nose. “Damn that girl!” He had blood all over his mouth and chin, his blood. She had most certainly broken his nose. Blood was still dripping from his nose as he headed back to his room to get bandages from his supply bag. Rochben rounded a corner and suddenly stopped in his tracks. Standing just down the hall was one of the most beautiful women he had ever seen. She turned and look down the hall in Rochben’s direction. A look of shock washed over her face.

“My goodness are you alright?” she asked with a little distress in her voice.

“Huh? Oh! Yeah, it’s just a broken nose. Nothing a little bandage can’t fix.”

She approached Rochben. “Here, let me help you, I’m an expert at the healing arts.”

“Uh, okay.” said Rochben unsurely. She gently move his hand away from his nose and placed both of hers on it. Rochben heard her chanting something in elvish as she moved her hands gently over his broken nose. He was entranced by her beauty. She then jerked his nose to the left, producing a cracking noise much like the one created when his nose was broken in the first place, popping it back into place. Rochben let out a loud yell of pain as he withdrew his face from her hands.

“I’m sorry did that hurt?” she asked with curiosity written on her face.

“Well actually, it doesn’t hurt anymore” said Rochben, thoroughly surprised. His nose felt fine now, if not a little sore. “How did you do that?”

“Just a little Elven magic” She said with a smile on her face. “Come, we should wash up.”

Rochben realized then that he still had blood all over his face, and now she had it on her hands. “Yeah sure” he said. The Elven girl led him to a fountain and took a basin off of a shelf and used to clean her hands before handing it to him. “So who are you, if you don’t mind my asking?” he questioned as he washed his face off.

“I am Arwen, daughter of Elrond.” she said in a very stately manner.

“Ah, you must be the Lady Arwen that saved Frodo” Said Rochben, shaking her hand. “I’m very grateful for that you know, if he had died I would have felt responsible since he was under my watch when we left the Shire.”

“And that would make you Sergeant Rochben. The hobbits spoke very highly of you, you know. They said that if it weren’t for you they might be dead.”

“Well I don’t know about that” said Rochben honestly “their a clever bunch I’m sure they would have figured something out.”

“I’m sure. So how did you break your nose?”

“Ah well, I ran afoul of a Gondorian scout”

“Oh” sounded Arwen.

“A female one”
“Oh” she said again, but this time with much more understanding in her voice. “What did you do to make her hit you like that?” Arwen’s eyes suddenly narrowed. “You didn’t try to take advantage of her did you?”

Rochben waved his arms in front of him. “No no no no no! It’s nothing like that!”

“Oh, good.” Arwen relaxed her gaze. “Then what?”

“She seems to have this idea in her head that I’m trying to make her seem weak whenever I can”

“Are you?”

“Well no, I’ve helped her out a few times though and she seems to translate this into an attempt to make her look weak. I owe my life to her and I just wanted to help her out whenever possible.”

“Sounds like a simple case of a misunderstanding between two people. You should go speak to her.”

“Yeah I should” Rochben stood up “Thanks for fixing my nose.” He walked down the hall in deep thought. Arwen simply smiled and headed off in the opposite direction.

------------------------------------------------------- ------------------------------------------------------

Rochben walked down an outer hall, looking at the dark outside as he walked by. He was trying to work out where he might be able to find Miira. “Hmmm where to look first? Ah! Of course! The practice hall!” Rochben began jogging slowly down the hall to look for an elf so he could ask for directions. As he approached a T junction in the hall someone suddenly flew around the corner and ran straight into him, knocking him over. Rochben was knocked silly and his eyes were unfocused. He heard a groan him and blinked several times in an attempt to gain focus. With a few final blinks the face over him finally came into focus, it was Miira. She must have regained focus at just about that time because her face turned bright red. Miira quickly rolled off Rochben, pushed herself off the ground and helped Rochben off the ground, this time without incident. They looked at each other briefly before quickly turning to look out over the dark gardens. They just as suddenly turned to each other.

“Thanks!”
“Sorry!”

The y both looked very perplexed.

“Why are you apologizing?” asked Miira

“Why are you thanking me?” Asked Rochben

“Well, I’ve become involved in a major incident where I’ll finally be of use to my full ability.” She lowered her head “And I just felt that I should thank you for that. And you shouldn’t be saying sorry!” She said in a very matter of fact tone.

“Why not?! Most people wouldn’t thank some one for getting them involved in something that could get them killed!”

“Well I am! Besides” She bonked him on the head lightly “I should also be the one apologizing for breaking your nose… Hey wait a minute your nose isn’t broken anymore!” She said in a surprised voice, inspection his nose.

“Oh yeah, Lady Arwen fixed it for me.” Said Rochben touching his nose lightly. “She used some of that Elven magic on it and patched it right up.”

“Interesting!” said Miira, genuinely intrigued. “Does it hurt any more?”

“Nope.”

“Wow! Well I guess I can take back my apology then!”

Rochben made a face at her. “Your so cruel.”

Miira laughed out loud and stuck out her hand. “Friends again?

Rochben smile as she grabbed her hand and shook it. “If you insist”

Miira laughed again. “Well we should get to our rooms, we’ve got a long day ahead of us tomorrow!”

“Yeah your right. Well I’m down this way.” Said Rochben, pointing his thumb down one end of the hallway.

“Oh, well I’m down that way.” She said, pointing in the opposite direction.

“Well I guess I’ll see you tomorrow.”

“Yeah, I’ll see you at the meeting.”

“Bye.”
“Bye.”

The pair walk away from each other awkwardly. Their friendship was now renewed, and likely stronger then before.