[The Silmarillion] Romimus

Elrond and Glorfindel returned to their companions first, and briefly told them about the experience just now and the decision they made. As expected, the rest of them were amazed and doubtful, but in the end because of With the trust of these two people, everyone agreed with Elrond's idea.

"Then, I will trouble you to lead the way." Elrond said to the water demon.

"Why are you polite?" The water demon waved his hand boldly, "Luo Mi's illusion is indeed not very friendly to people who are not familiar with this place, but we are really helpless. Come with me."

With the nixie leading the way, they were indeed able to advance much faster, but the degree of fear was not relieved at all. Elrond would ask Glorfindel in a low voice almost every half hour if they were being led astray.

"At least in terms of direction, we should be on the right path." Glorfindel answered him every time.

They walked like this almost non-stop for half a day. When it was almost noon, the water demon stopped in front of a reed bush and looked back at them.

"There is one thing I have been forgetting to ask," she said. "What is your relation to Mordor, or to Sauron?"

"We have heard of the prestige of Mordor for a long time." Glorfindel replied cautiously, "But to be honest, although I have known Romimos, I have not yet met Sauron, the Dark Lord. friendship."

"Hmm." The water demon nodded, she didn't seem surprised by this, she frowned and pondered for a moment, then suddenly turned around and dived into the bottom of the water, a string of bubbles emerged and then remained silent.

"Where did she go?" The elves were stunned for a moment, and then immediately started making noise, "Could it be that she went to find someone? Have we been tricked by her?"

"Be quiet first." Elrond ordered them to stop, but his eyes couldn't hide his anxiety, "If she doesn't come back after 10 minutes, then we will withdraw decisively."

After a few minutes of fidgeting and fidgeting, the water demon still disappeared, but there was a rustling sound from far and near in the reeds. arrive.As the sound got closer and closer, the reeds swayed without wind, and finally the whole reed bush was split in two, and a bow of a boat emerged from it.

Both Glorfindel and Elrond couldn't help but put their hands on the hilts of their swords.

The boat was neither too big nor too small, and moved very slowly. It wobbled and continued to float towards the elves until the entire hull was exposed. However, there was no one in the boat, only a few oars and a bundle of ropes.

The water demon poked her head out from behind. It turned out that she had been pushing the boat just now.

"What are you doing there stupidly?" she said, "Go on board."

"By water? I thought we should go south." Elrond questioned as implicitly as possible.

"That's the shortest road, but there are orcs wandering all over that road, and no one wants to deal with them unless there is no other way." Said the water monster, "Let's go east along the Granduin first. , and then turned south."

Elrond and Glorfindel exchanged a look.

"It's already here, just do as she says." Glorfindel smiled wryly.

Along the Granduin River all the way to the east, although the elves rowed hard, the speed was not fast because they were going up against the current. At first, the water demon was still helping them push the boat in the water, but as they walked forward, the river water It became obviously turbid, and a lot of filth drifted down the river, among which were many mutilated corpses of livestock. The noisy crows of the crows came from a distance accompanied by a pungent rotten smell.And the water monster's complexion became more and more bad, and finally couldn't help asking: "Can you make room for me on the boat? I really can't stand the water here."

Elrond moved aside silently, and Glorfindel pulled the nymph out of the water.

As soon as it came up, the water demon lay on the side of the boat, retching for a long time.

"Are you all right?" Elrond asked kindly.

The water demon waved his hand: "My God, those orcs have completely ruined this water."

"Doesn't Lord Romimos care?" Glorfindel's words contained sarcasm, but the water demon didn't seem to hear it.

"Ha!" she let out a short jeer. "Even training a monkey to be hygienic and polite is much easier than disciplining these things."

"You seem to dislike Orcs," said Elrond.

The water demon looked at him like an idiot: "Are you asking the question knowingly? Who would not dislike those disgusting things?"

"Perhaps you can also consider leaving here and going to other places." Elrond tentatively asked.

However, the water demon rebuffed him straight away: "That's impossible, I won't leave Swan Lake."

"Why?" Elrond couldn't understand, "There are many beautiful and clear ponds and lakes in the Eriador area, if you don't want to endure living with Orcs, wouldn't it be a better choice to leave here and find another place to live? "

"Living with orcs? What are you talking about? We—" the water demon suddenly stopped talking, "Oh, here we are."

The elves looked around: "What's here?"

"The entrance to the Twilight Land."

"What?" Glorfindel and the others were taken aback, "Don't we have already entered the Land of Twilight since Swan Lake?"

"Broadly speaking, Luo Mi's illusion belongs to the category of the Twilight Land, so it's okay for you to say that." The water demon shrugged, "But for us 'insiders', there is only the second place. The real twilight is within the Illusion Realm."

"Is there a second illusion?!" The elves could hardly control their expressions of despair.

"It's normal if you don't know. After all, most people can't even get through the first illusion." The water demon said naturally, "Okay, don't waste any more time, let's move on."

"Okay." Elrond replied, then stopped, "Which way are we going?"

Ahead is a fork in the river. Two tributaries converge to form the river they are in now. The water surface on the left is wide and peaceful, with tender green algae rippling with the waves; The vortex under the deep pool can be seen everywhere.

Generally speaking, it is obvious that the river on the left looks easier to walk, but as a country that is not as concealed as Dorias and Gondolin in the past, in order to prevent outsiders from intruding as much as possible, the road leading to the land of dusk It should be more rugged and dangerous.Of course, it is not ruled out that this is an empty plan. Maybe Romimos also expected that most people would think so, but he did the opposite and chose the other side?Or, in fact, this is also part of the second layer of illusion, these two rivers are not what they look like now...

"Don't think too much, just follow me." The water demon tied one end of the rope to the boat, and jumped into the water with the other end, "I will control the direction of the boat, you just need to row forward vigorously." That's it."

This sounds unreliable, but Elrond and the others can only trust her as much as possible.

After everything was ready, according to the order of the water demon, the elves started to row their oars at the same time according to the same rhythm, and the water demon was leading them all the way forward, but when she reached the fork, she neither turned to the left nor Turning to the right, he headed straight for a boulder between two river channels.

The elves were startled, but it was too late to slow down, and they could only watch helplessly as they bumped headfirst into it.

The expected strong impact did not come, but something cold hit their heads from top to bottom, and then shattered, blocking their noses, ears and mouths, and a sense of suffocation came over them. , the only good thing is that the feeling only lasted for a short second or two, and then the elves escaped from the shackles of the water prison, returned to the embrace of fresh air, and everything returned to calm.

"What the hell... what the hell?!" Elrond wiped the water off his face, opened his eyes and looked back, it turned out that they had just passed through a small water curtain (obviously this small waterfall that separated the two worlds) Some small hands and feet were made by the owner here), and entered a cave that was not very spacious and only about the height of one person. The water flow was much calmer here. driving.

Elrond turned back again, and as expected, the water demon was not far in front of them. Seeing the embarrassment of the elves, he smiled meanly.

"Even once, can't you tell us in advance if you have any plans?" Elrond couldn't get angry, and after holding back for a long time, he could only complain helplessly.

"I'm sorry, I'm sorry." The water demon said without sincerity, "But even if I told you all earlier, I still can't escape being drenched once. Anyway—"

While speaking, the bow of the boat turned a corner and slowly floated out of the cave, as if all the senses had been reactivated, bright white light suddenly surrounded the elves, and the cries of frogs and insects mixed with gurgling sounds. The gushing sound of the resting springs one after another, loudly and vigorously proclaiming their presence on this land.

The water demon happily folded a large handful of wisteria and wild lotus by the pond, and looked at all the elves who opened their eyes wide in surprise,

"Welcome to the Land of Twilight."

"Bell!" Someone on the shore shouted, but there was no one around.

"Herudil!" But the water demon named "Bell" obviously recognized the voice, and jumped onto the shore briskly, but he didn't see anyone when he looked left and right, "Where are you hiding?"

A human youth who looked to be about sixteen or seventeen quietly poked his head out from the lush branches of the old oak tree by the stream, and jumped behind the bell like a big cat, also without making a sound, stretched out his hand to go around The most beautiful flower in her hand was taken away by Ling Ding's shoulders, and he followed the bell as soon as he turned around, until after several rounds without catching anyone, Ling Ding was finally annoyed: "Ah! You tease me again , I'm leaving now!"

"That won't work, you haven't been here for almost a year." Herudil finally stopped moving, and put the flower in his hand into Bell's hair with a smile, but when he turned his head to look at the elves, he narrowed his eyes slightly , "Who are these people?"

"They are friends of Luo Mi, elves, not people from Mordor." Bell answered him.

"Elf?" Hrudir widened his eyes and looked at Glorfindel and the others in amazement. After a long time, he retracted his gaze. To the surprise of Elrond and the others, when he spoke again, what he said He spoke fluent Elvish language, "Since you are the guest of Lord Romemos, please come with me."

"No more trouble," Elrond refused as tactfully as possible, "If there is no third illusion ahead, please point us in a direction, and we can go there by ourselves."

But Hrudir insisted: "I'm afraid there is still a long way from the Tower of Twilight. Please come with me first, and I will prepare the horses for you, and you can also dry your wet clothes during this time." Dry."

With such enthusiasm, even Elrond seemed to be unable to find a suitable reason to shirk for a while, so Hrudir gave a shallow salute, signaled to the elves again, and then walked away first.

"Keep up, keep up, didn't you keep saying that you want to see Luo Mi as soon as possible?" Bell bouncing in the second place, while complaining to Herudil, "These elves are good everywhere, just talk It will take them a long time to react..."

"So she can walk on her legs?" someone among the elves muttered softly.

"Follow?" Glorfindel whispered, it wasn't a question.

"Everything here is too weird." Elrond also replied softly, but this was not a sentence expressing negative wishes.

They simply have no choice.