LotR - Rise to War {LegoRomance}

II Xena: The Warrior Princess

Disclaimers: I don't own any of the characters or settings from Lord of the Rings or Xena the Warrior Princess

Author's Note:

This is a LegoRomance (slow-burn)

~Second Chapter: Prologue - Part Two ~

~ Xena: The Warrior Princess ~

Bring me home in a blinding dream.

Through the secrets that I have seen.

Wash the sorrow off my skin.

And show me how to be whole again.

Outskirt of  Imladris, 3018 TA, September 30

She reached out longingly, but it was to no avail. She could sense that Gabrielle was finally free of her. In the world where Xena was born, lived, and died. Gabrielle continued living in that world, and Xena faded from this world; moving on in Tuataras or worse in the Elysian Fields.

The enchanted forest beckoned her into its pulsing heart. How could she resist such a lush of light lost in darkness? The deep, haunting ballad of its ancient song called out to her. With a light heart, she plunged into the overarching vault of leaf and limb. The smell of the forest was pulped, awaking more of her senses. It was not what she had expected. Coils of vaporous mist enwrapped the fuzzy heads of the oak trees. They writhed around them like a conjurer's milky smoke, sensuous and illusory.

Xena woke and found herself lying in a leafy bed paradise. At first, she thought she had slept late, after a long, unpleasant dream that still hovered on the edge of memory. But the trees looked like the towers of the forest, that unfamiliar forest that somehow was heartwarming. She lay a little while longer looking at the sunlight that was escaping through the creaking branches. "Where am I?" she said out loud, realizing she should be long gone ... vanished.

She was not.

She sat up. Her eyes dropped on her body, and her hand touched her arms and legs. Everything on her body was solid; she was alive. "Alive?" she scoffed at the irony. She felt comfortable and peaceful to be back in her own body. She recalled now saying goodbye to Gabrielle and vanishing. But here she was now, alive and well.

But where was here?

The moss-veiled trail snaked through the careworn forest. That trail was lying in front of her; she could see it now, as she had sat up and leaned against an old tree. Her mind was still spinning, and it took her a moment to refocus. Then she searched for her armour and weapons, but she was only wearing her short cotton garments. Her upper-body armour, black leather bodysuit, boots, swords, and Chakram; all gone.

She was wearing her short garments, grey and clean, covering her main body. This situation only irritated her. She finally stood up, taking note of her surroundings, and every scene was unfamiliar. She felt it to her bone; she was in an alien world. The forest that surrounded her was primordial. Centuries-old trees with sprawling limbs guarded the darkness, blotting out any sunlight.

That was not all; now she had focused, she could hear sounds. Everything around her was now brought into silence. She could hear the creaking sounds coming from the trail in front of her. It did not take long, and she watched creatures run towards her. Those were not human alike; they looked like monsters. "Maybe I am Tuataras after all," she scoffed to herself as she stepped back, taking a fighting position.