Chapter Eighteen: With Regard to Certain Happenings
Respectfully silent was all I could be while I listened to Radagast blather on about being a wizard. I didn't honestly care about what being a wizard was like. What I cared about was my random appearance in a fantasy world. But, I decided pressing a wizard for answers would not get me much of anywhere. In my efforts not to be hasty I subjected myself to ceaseless gibber from a deluded old man. That just made my day.
The truly awful thing about it all was that just when you thought the guy was done talking, he kept going. It was bordering on evil. I was just about to go insane when Mallor's temper got the best of him and he snapped at Radagast.
"We have not come all this way to hear you speak of such trite matters! We came seeking answers that the Lady Galadriel told us we could only find here in Rhosgobel. Are you the wizard we have come seeking or are you not?" Mallor demanded, rising from his chair to fume at the old man.
Radagast just stared at him, slightly alarmed. His expression then turned to a slightly amused one, which only made Mallor more frustrated. "You should not ask questions to which you already know the answers! Of course I am Radagast! I have the answers you seek, friend, but such haste shall not gain you anything more than what you had previously. Mind your temper, lad, and sit you down and perhaps we might address the issues by which you have plagued these past days!" said the wizard.
"Come on Mallor, sit. We just have to be patient," I told him, even though the old man was getting on my nerves as well. Mallor sat and then started at Radagast angrily.
"I am certain you wish to know why you are here?" asked Radagast. I'm certain that question was meant for me, but it seemed to be directed at both of us. We both nodded in response.
"Then I shall try to explain what has happened here in the simplest of terms. One month past I had a dream," he started. "I foresaw, briefly, a sort of chaos within the capital city of Gondor. I knew not what it was from at first, what would cause such troubles. It was what I saw next that troubled me the most. I saw you, lad," he pointed to Mallor, "being slaughtered by angry citizens."
At this Mallor blanched, and I'm quite certain that I must have done the same. Mallor being murdered? That was unexpected, and very odd to say the least. Of all the people I could picture meeting an untimely end in Minas Tirith, my companion was not one of them.
"I gained little knowledge from that dream; I only knew where and to whom it happened. The next night I had another dream. In this dream it was you that I saw," Radagast said, pointing to me. "Your world was strange to me and I knew not of what I was seeing. When I saw you, there seemed nothing wrong, but you were sad, and I could not place why. I pondered this mystery for many days. Once more I had a dream and in that dream I saw what would have been and what now may be. And so you are both here now," he said.
I just stared at him. What had just happened? I scratched my head and thought for a moment. Alright, so Radagast had three dreams. In the first Mallor was murdered. In the second I was home and I was sad. In the third he saw what would have been and what now is. What would have been, that was what I was wondering.
"What would have been? I still do not understand," I said, confused.
"The King of Gondor disappeared. The king's escort, that being you, lad, was blamed for his death. As retaliation for Gondor's loss, many irate citizens came after and killed you," explained the wizard. "And you, lass, would have been stuck in your solitary world, sad and alone."
"So that is what would have been. What is now?" I asked. I was beginning to understand, or at least I thought I was.
"I found a way to bring you from our world to ours, through the help of beings more powerful than myself. In placing you in Minas Morgul, events came to pass that led you and your soldierly companion away from the city, saving his life and providing you with a chance for a new world of happiness."
I thought about it for a moment. I wanted to be angry now, but I could not. I wanted to scream and yell in my righteous indignation, but I could not. My supposed loss was really a gain that had saved my new best friend.
If I was angry then I did not value the life of my friend.
If I was happy then I knew I had finally lost my mind.
