Fellowship of the Ringwraiths

[Grey_Wolf]

After Wikkie shrieked with pain he ordered the others to mount their steeds and head towards Gundabad on the quickest possible route, which was first of all to the junction of the Gladden River and Anduin.

[CrazySquirrel]

Their first night at the bank of Anduin was warm and starry. All the Nine felt excitement mounting, as it was Gordis's 4432 BIRTHDAY!

Wikkie spent all day at some complicated spells, bringing out of nowhere tables, chairs, napkins, silver spoons, forks and knives, bottles of wine, golden plates with venison, deer, pork, cooked nightingales, oysters, strawberries, cherries, cheese and salad. All the items came from not-too-distant Lorien, and the preparations for Lady Galadriel's 7000-th begetting day were utterly ruined.
Gordis was occupied with lesser spells devising little ghost-lights on the tables and the nearby trees. The rest of the fellowship were lading the table.
All the fellowship expected a pleasant feast; though they rather dreaded the after-dinner speech of their host (an inevitable item). She was liable to drag in bits of what she called poetry; and sometimes, after a glass or two, would allude to the absurd adventures of her mysterious past. The guests were not disappointed: they had a very pleasant feast, in fact an engrossing entertainment: rich, abundant, varied, and prolonged. The stock of provisions in Lorien fell almost to nothing in the ensuing weeks; but that did not matter to the wraiths.
After the feast came the Speech. Most of the company were, however, now in a tolerant mood, at that delightful stage which they called ‘filling up the corners’. They were sipping their favourite drinks, and nibbling at their favourite dainties, and their fears were forgotten. They were prepared to listen to anything, and to cheer at every full stop.
"My dear People", began Gordis rising in her place between Wikkie and Khamul. ‘Hear! Hear! Hear!’ they shouted, and kept on repeating it in chorus, seeming reluctant to follow their own advice. Gordis left her place and went and stood on a chair under the illuminated tree. The light of the lanterns fell on her beaming face; the diamonds shone on her gorgeous evening dress.
"My dear Wikkie and Khamul, she began again; and my dear Goth and Mor, and Five, and Lily, and Eight, and Viv!"
"And the Snake!"’ shouted Lily.
"And the Snake!" repeated Gor.
"Today is my four thousand four hundred thirty second birthday! " ‘Hurray! Hurray! Many Happy Returns!’ they shouted, and they hammered joyously on the tables. Gor was doing splendidly. This was the sort of stuff they liked: short and obvious.
"I hope you are all enjoying yourselves as much as I am". Deafening cheers. Cries of "Yes" (and No). Howls of approval. But Gordis had not finished. Tossing her head, she let out a piercing shriek. The noise subsided. "I shall not keep you long," she cried. Cheers from all the assembly. "I have called you all together for a Purpose! First of all, to tell you that I am immensely fond of you all, and that four thousand four hundred thirty two years is too short a time to live among such excellent and admirable ringwraiths". Tremendous outburst of approval.
"I don’t know half of you half as well as I should like; and I like less than half of you half as well as you deserve". This was unexpected and rather difficult. There was some scattered clapping, but most of them were trying to work it out and see if it came to a compliment.
"Secondly, to celebrate my birthday". Cheers again. "It is also, if I may be allowed to refer to ancient history, the 1500 anniversary of my arrival to Angmar; though the fact that it was my birthday slipped my memory on that occasion. I was only 2932 then, and birthdays did not seem so important. The banquet was very splendid, however, though I had a bad cold at the time, I remember, and could only say ‘thag you very buch’. I now repeat it more correctly: Thank you very much, dear Wikkie, for organising both parties".
Wikkie smiled and gave Gor a smouldering kiss. Goth and Five, supposing Gor to have finished (since she had plainly said all that was necessary), now got up an impromptu orchestra, and began a merry dance-tune. Mor and Viv got on a table and with bells in their hands began to dance the Springle-ring: a pretty dance, but rather vigorous. The others soon joined. That was a night to remember.

[Telcontar_Dunedain]

Khamûl danced uneasily with Viv. He was the only one of the Nazgûl who had not felt the pain, but he knew clearly what had happened. He had had to act the pain, so as not to make it to obvious what was going on.
'Damn him,' thought Khamûl. 'He nearly blew my cover. I have to get away and ssspeak to him.'

[Gordis]

"You are my best friend Lil", said Gordis, tipsy and affable. "I am so grateful to you…We should not quarrel anymore"
After that, Gor danced a round with each of the remaining Nine.

[Grey_Wolf]

Finally, Khamul was able to sneak off to make his report, looking into P-tir.
*Report commencing*
"We are, as you well know, on the banks of two rivers Gladden and Anduin. We're making for Gundabad. Will try to find further evidence of ring's whereabouts."*End of Report*

[Gordis]

"End of report???" Sau roared in frustration. "Why can't we have a normal conversation? Khamul is shy as a mouse!"
"Perhaps he is just sly as a fox?" suggested Mouth

"ARRGHHH!" roared Sau, flinging his palantir (Made in Valinor TM) at the Mouth's head, and missing it by mere inches. Mouth leaped for the door.

Finding the ring with the yellow stone, Sau brought it to the flames, grinning evilly.
Far away, Khamul suddenly howled.

[Lotesse]

As he turned around, still wrapping up the palantir, Khamul bumped hard right into Viv, who had been standing quietly almost at his elbow the entire time.

[Grey_Wolf]

Viv, her beautifully shaped eyebrows slightly arced in query.

"What are you doing reporting to Sau behind our backs." she asked."Hey, guys, Big K is playing two-ends-against-the-middle which means we be losers if we don't keep tabs on him from now on."

[Lotesse]

Which she said sarcastically under her breath, out of earshot of the fellowship. Khamul looked at her for a minute.
"Whatever you'd like, you name it, I'll get it for you, but DO NOT let them know, Viv." said Khamul. An eerie edge crept into his voice as he spoke. "You KNOW what they'll do to me if - if - and never mind Sauron; I'd lose my shape AND spirit."
"Please, Khamul; how long have we known each other? You're secret's safe with me. On my honour. " Viv put her palm to her heart, then to his, and gave him one of her saucy redeye winks, and a flash of a smile, then jogged off to look for more fun trouble along the Anduin.

[Butterbeer]

"hey diddle diddle, the cat and the fiddle ..." chorused the jolly seven swinging large pitchers of champagne from side to side as Gor high on a table River-danced folksy-style jollily under the moonlight singing "the man in the moon, he hated the noon ..."

Like a charm our Snake rose into the air vertically and swayed in rythym: it was enjoying itself enormously.

Even Khamul somewhere in the distance appeared to be joining in the fun as a sudden soul searing Howl rent the night ...

[Lotesse]

Viv, at this point pretty giggly and tipsy, sidled up to Gor and presented her with a little gift.
"I found them myself," she said shyly as she handed Gor a beautiful pair of mithril and steel wire-wrapped earrings. "I thought you'd like something to match your outfit. Do you like them?"

[Butterbeer]

wikkie also then sidled up to Gor with some Anduin-native flowers and embarrasedly pretended he didn't knoe their names ...

[Telcontar_Dunedain]

Khamûl pulled Viv aside during dancing.
"Thought anymore about the bribessss?" he hissed.
"Yes, but no," she smiled slyly. "Why? Do you not trust me?"
"No. I trussst no one," he said.
"Not even poor Viv," she whimpered.
"No," replied Khamûl, pulling a short blade out of his sleeve and putting it against Viv's neck. "Not even poor Viv."
"You wouldn't, would you?" said Viv.
"Oh yessss, and much more. You haven't heard of the horror'ssss I've been brewing in Dol Guldur, horrorssss even to sssscare a Nazgûl. You will be the firssst to experienccce them if you even breathe a word to anyone. And I'm sssure that a little more pain sssimilar to earlierssss can be arranged if needsss be. For I am allied with the Dark Lord," hissed Khamûl sinisterly. "And I will be sssecond to him when he conquersss, and you could be my queen, if you know how to hold your tounge."

[Butterbeer]

at that very momment as if many demon's spoke through her: suddenly a chorus of other wordly voices raised a great cry in many strange languages as if from many far-off places "happy birthday Gor!" cacaphonied through the possessed Wraith, eeerily echoing around as if from some far off world ...

Khamul, suddenly very wary backed off for the momment looking askance at VIV and wondering ...

placing his knife in his pocket khamul ...

[Lotesse]

...slinked away, after throwing Viv another warning look. "What an asshole," muttered Viv to herself. "How th'abyss does he think he can threaten ME?!" But she kept the little exchange to herself for the moment, filing it away in her mind to think about later. Right now, there was a party to be had, and she wasn't about to let that dirty backstabber ruin her champagne buzz.

[CrazySquirrel]

Mor approached shyly and asked Viv for a dance. "What is the matter, baby?" he breathed in her ear tenderly. "You look ashen. Has that Easterling swine frightened you?"

[CrazySquirrel]

Meanwhile Lily withdrew from the dance. She approached the Snake, turned it to its back and examined its ventral side minutely, running her fingers all along its black shiny body. The snake purred in delight.
"Mmmm, I wonder, is it a he or a she?"

[Butterbeer]

seeing Mor approach Viv both eight and five almost knocked into each other in the haste to ask lily for the next dance ... she looked so wanton when she was in the mood ... they both had fond memories surfacing in their champagne supernova minds ...

they squared off, not noticing that Lily was stroking the snake ...

[CrazySquirrel]

Thinking quickly, Lily grabbed Five in her arms for a slow dance. The snake of unknown sex coiled around the couple.
"Why him?" asked Eight
"Pecking order, dearie, yours is the next dance"

[Lotesse]

And Viv's ashen, troubled face suddenly grew pink with a blush. She found herself rather enjoying Mor's attention, and shyness at the idea of being adored rendered her momentarily speechless. They continued their impromptu slow-dance, Mor holding her gently from behind and giving her neck a little nuzzle. Yes, it HAD been a while since Feanor; maybe it WAS time to move on.