Chapter Text
Casper
Instead of the usual warm, soft bed, I feel something hard and cold under me when I start to wake up in the morning, and that's not the only strange thing. My hair seems to be much longer than it used to be and my pajamas aren't my pajamas anymore. Someone touches me, and I start to squirm and slowly open my eyes to see who's bothering me, but it was a shame because I literally scream from the sight. A snow-white distorted face and night-black eyes.
"Calm down, young man!" Comes the orc's voice, and I scream again. I don't understand how this is possible, but for some reason I dare to bet that this guy is not a cosplayer. "Calm down, don't scream!" He reaches out to me, but I back away from him.
"O-o-orc!" I groan, trembling, at which the figure in front of me freezes and his gaze, which had been relatively warm until now, turns icy. He doesn't say anything, he just grabs my arm and pulls me up off the ground. It's then that I realize I'm wearing nothing but a shirt, but that's the least of my worries. The orc grips my arm painfully and starts pulling me after him.
"You say one word and you're dead!" He hisses in my ear, I swallow hard. That's it, I know, I'm dead. Please, someone up there tell me this is just a dream. The orc drags me into a large room where there's only one figure standing in front of a mirror, but the figure in the mirror isn't the one standing in front of it. In the mirror, there's a figure with orange red hair and burning orange eyes. In front of it is a completely blonde figure. He sees us in the mirror, then smiles and snaps a finger. My clothes suddenly change completely and I blink hard as I look at myself. Tight-fitting pants, black boots, a dark shirt, tied at the waist.
"Look, what a handsome guest we have." I swallow hard and look at the man with dilated pupils, who turns to us with a smile. "My name is Annatar, and it's..." He doesn't finish, but I think it's because I'm starting to tremble.
"M-M-Mairon!" I groan, yes, the disadvantage of excessive Tolkien mania is that one uses the characters' original names. My brain spins terribly slowly, but the shock gradually arrives. The warm gaze of the main villain of The Lord of the Rings suddenly fills with murderous fire.
"What did you say?" He hisses softly, but I just swallow a huge one.
"He sees through your spells, my Lord! He sees me too!" The orc speaks next to me, in the eyes of the dark leader, as if recognition flashes, but quickly disappears.
"So he is dangerous to us! In that case, we need to get rid of you, my dear friend." He steps towards me with that typical smile that even a fool knows means anything but good. I take a deep breath and try to calm down, that doesn't get me from one thing to the next when I'm nervous. A few deep breaths and the shock disappears from me. "To make you see how kind-hearted I am, I'll grant you one last wish! You can ask for anything! Think carefully about what you choose!" I look deeply into those orange eyes, something trembles inside me, but I suppress it, this is not the best time for such thoughts. It takes me a few moments to decide what I want and when that happens, I gather all my courage and speak.
"Make it quick and painless!" With my words, I manage to make the orc standing next to me open his mouth and make a half-smile creep into the lips of the man standing opposite me.
"You know that whatever would have included me letting you go, right?" He asks, in a tone that means he's tricked me, and I close my eyes and take a deep breath.
"It would have ended the same. I don't think I could last more than a week. I have no idea where I am, how things are going here, and I could gather a large group of haters in a matter of seconds if I spoke up. Or as soon as I left, you would have sent someone after me to kill me. Just because you let me go doesn't mean the orcs will let me go. In the end, I would just die anyway, and if I have to die, let it be quick and painless." A bittersweet smile crosses my lips as I think about my situation.
"What are you smiling about, young man?" The man snapped me out of my thoughts.
"Oh, nothing, I just thought that only I could be so unlucky, I get to this world and where would I end up? In the home of the second most powerful creature in the world." I close my eyes with a sigh.
"I am the greatest!" My gaze meets his as I raise my eyebrows.
"A thousand apologies, let me correct myself, the most powerful creature in Arda with dark powers. I hope we can agree that Melkor is stronger than you." As soon as the name leaves my lips, the man's eyes widen, in the heat of the moment I don't even understand why, but is quickly downs on me and I would like to hit myself in the head.
"Who are you? There is no living creature in Arda who dares to call the Great Lord Melkor that, except me. Are you some kind of valar?" And boom, I just died, but I'm still trying to get something out of myself.
"I am Casper Tellanor and I'm not a valar, just a human." I scratch my neck.
"What do you know about Lord Melkor?" I start to grimace at his question, but finally give in.
"Should I tell you the whole story now?" I ask the question and before he answers, I continue. "Melkor Sulimo. The eldest child of Eru Ilúvatar. In the beginning, when the valar sang the future of Arda, he created disharmony in the song of the valar. Although, if you're curious about my opinion, he must have had good reason for it, I dare say that the song of the valar must have been boring. He was one of the first to come down to Arda and began to shape it. He knocked down the lamps of the valar, which gave constant light, I note that this was a completely logical step, the continuous daylight must have been annoying as hell. He put several maiars beside him, who became the Balrogs. And of course you, who became his lieutenant. He stole the Silmarils from the home of the Elven king Finwë, with the help of the spider Ungoliant, who betrayed and poisoned him when he wouldn't give her the Silmarils. From then on, Melkor could not change shape. He created the dragons and the orcs. He fought a war with the elves to keep the Silmarils, it was a long struggle. The Starers, I mean Beren and Luthien, managed to get one Silmaril, and from there the fight went downhill for him. Then there was some business with the eagles that clawed his face, and some beaten child from section "F"."
"Section "F"?" He blinks at me.
"Yeah, Finwë's children, did you noticed that almost all of their names begin with "f". No one can remember them." I wave, then I prop my chin up with my hand. "After that, there's only the War of Wrath that I can recall as being an important point. The great black dragon, Ancalagon, died there, killed by the Dawnstar sailor." I grimace, which makes the man smile in front of me. "Then the valar destroyed his entire army and temporarily banished him to the outer darkness."
"Temporarily?" He looks at me in confusion.
"Damn. So Mairon doesn't know about Námo's vision." I hit myself in the head. I'm giving spoilers to the dark lord here.
"What vision?" He asks in a curious voice.
"About the Dagor Dagorath! Melkor will be released, he will plunge the world into destruction and the light will fail, and then Eru will come and cleanse everything. Although it may not even happen. After all, this is not canon." I think out loud.
"What is a canon?" He looks at me curiously, and I bite my lip. I can't get out of here without an answer.
"Maybe we should continue this interrogation sitting down, I have a feeling it will take a while!" At my request, he nods and snaps a finger to make a table with two chairs appear next to it.
"Azog, you can leave!" He turns to the orc, and I observe the creature known as the White Orc in surprise. "Take a seat, Mr. Casper!" The man leads me to the chair by the back, and after a quiet thank you, I take a seat.