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We touched down outside of the castle on the landing circle. Anna and Will each carried the backpacks that I got my fan mail in. I carried the remaining flowers and cards I had received. Andrew was empty handed. But he was special like that though. We walked from the helicopter into the castle. Everything seemed oddly quiet. Nothing was echoing. Nothing was moving. It was creepy. "Andrew, where is everybody?" I asked. I turned to see him with a blindfold. "I want to do this to take you somewhere. I'm not going to hurt you." Andrew said. I nodded slowly; trusting that Will or Anna would do something if he tried. Andrew tied the scarf with black tape on it around my head. Then I felt someone lift me off the floor. I screamed slightly as they carried me down the hallway and down a flight of stairs. "Be careful." I said, fearing that they would drop me. I felt the person readjust me in their arms and keep walking. Then I was set down in a chair. I didn't know where I was and I felt like a lot of people were watching me. "Keep your eyes closed. I'm taking off the blind fold." Andrew's voice said. I nodded and closed my eyes. I felt the blindfold come off. "We have a surprise for you. You are going to love this. Open your eyes on three. One, two, three." Andrew said. I opened my eyes to see my mum standing there. I squealed and then ran up to hug her. I hadn't seen her in the longest time. "I can't believe it. When did you get here?" I asked, almost crying. "Last night. It was the earliest plane I could get. All the rest were booked solid." My mum said, wiping her eyes. I felt a tear roll down my cheek. "How long are you staying for?" I asked. "Just until the day after tomorrow. I could only get that time off of work." She said. She pulled me into another backbreaking hug. "We have one more surprise." Andrew said. My mum took my hand. Andrew led us to a set of double door. "Close your eyes." He said with a smile and I did so. I heard the doors open. "Take three steps forward and turn around." I did so. "SURPRISE!" I heard a bunch of people yell. I turned around and saw everyone from the cast and crew there with party hats and noisemakers. A big banner over the group read, "HAPPY 18th BIRTHDAY LIZ!" I laughed. I forgot today was my birthday. With the switching of seasons, I was waiting for the snow. But there is no snow in late November. "I forgot to today was my birthday." I said while laughing. "We didn't!" Odette yelled. I hugged her tight. She was the only person that didn't visit me in the hospital. I introduced my mum to everyone, since she was the only parent they hadn't met. I was shuffled through the crowd, getting pats on the back and lots of hugs. Eventually, I reached a big table loaded with presents. "Your grandparents have something in there too. They can't wait for you to get home." My mum said. I laughed and looked at the cake. There was picture of a bow and arrow, a sword, and a tree drawn in icing on the cake. These were all in blue and in yellow, there were the words: "Happy Birthday Liz!" written. "I drew the tree!" Georgie said. "We made the cake in our makeshift school." Anna said. I laughed and then Andrew lit the candles. We all sang happy birthday to me and then I cut the cake and then another one that had been made. We all had a good time while we ate the cake. "Time for presents!" Skander said happily as he finished his piece. I nodded, eating the last bite of my own slice. "Everyone! Liz is going to open her gifts now!" Andrew called. We had been talking about my new training schedule while eating cake. Everyone settled into chairs that almost magically appeared against the walls. It's funny how little I notice the world around me when I have food in my hands. Or at least good food. I went behind my mountain of gifts and pulled one off the top. "This one is from the Marshall's army." I said laughing. The group of guys that were extras and would be the troops in Marshall's army during the battle cheered. It was a big box and I ripped off the paper hastily. In the box, there was a single sheet of paper. I pulled it out and found a $200 gift card to my favorite clothing store. I laughed and thanked them. I had no clue how they found out. Marshall must have told them. I pulled a relatively smaller box towards me. "I think this one is from James." I said, looking at the tag curiously. "Yep!" I heard him yell from the middle of the crowd. I laughed and raised a hand in a wave. I opened it to find a pair of earrings. They were very beautiful. They were just drop earrings with diamonds as the stone. "Diamonds are a girl's best friends." I said after thanking him. The gifts went on and on. Andrew got me a book. It was the making of book from the last movie. I was constantly asking questions about the last one and how he did stuff and if the same stuff was going to be done. So I guess this was his way of answering a lot of those. Don the film dude man got me a camera to film around set with. This was going to be fun. The editor person, I could never remember his name, gave me a bunch of CD's by my favorite artists. I didn't have any of them. He must have looked in my room while I was gone to make sure. Georgie got me a necklace to match the earrings that James gave me and Skander gave me the matching bracelet. There was a gift of tee shirts from Howard and his set of makeup artists. There were shirts of types and they had a lot of different sayings on them. I loved them. Will said that he would give me his gift in private. Marshall and Odette were able to come up with a brand new iPod 8G nano. "You are always listening to music in the mornings. Your call times are God-awful and your room is right under mine and above Marshall's." Odette said. Will said that he would let me borrow his laptop to put music on it. I thank everyone for their gifts and told my mum that she should thank my grandparents for the autographed copies of all of the books. "The last gift is from the combination of Weta Workshop and Isis with her team of people." I said. I picked up the black velvet box and opened it. Inside was a slip of paper. I pulled it out and read it to myself. I ran through it a couple times, confused. This was what the note read:
Behind you. Under the sheet. "Behind you? Under the sheet?" I questioned aloud. I turned around and it dawned on me. There was a big box about the size of refrigerator box. I walked over and pulled off the sheet. It was a blank cardboard box with the words, "PULL HERE" written next to a piece of string. I pulled the piece of string and the box fell apart. I squealed with delight. There, hanging on a mannequin, was my armor for the battle. It wasn't plate armor like Will's but it was gorgeous leather armor that was soft to the touch but mad strong. My sword was hanging on the waist of the costume was a new belt for my sword that matched the mood of the outfit. On the back of outfit was a double-ended pole arm just like the ones that I used in The Lord of the Rings. I was almost moved to tears. This was the coolest gift I had ever gotten. "I thought you might like it." Richard said, coming out of the crowd. I hugged him tightly. Isis came out and I hugged her soon. "We have photo shoots to do tomorrow. We thought that this would make a great birthday present and a 'welcome back to hell' present as well." Andrew said with a laugh. I pushed him slightly on the shoulder and circled the costume. It was gorgeous black leather that was tempered and buffed and just perfect. I couldn't stop smiling and just laughing to myself. I was on the set of one of my favorite movies, surrounded by the crew at its entirety, I had just gotten out of the hospital after having an operation on my appendix, my mum was here, and it was my birthday. The entire thing in perspective was just completely hilarious. "Thank you everyone. This is one birthday I won't ever forget." I said, wiping my eyes. "Group hug!" Andrew yelled. Everyone suddenly crowded around me and just hugged me. I felt someone kiss the top of my head. I looked up out of the massive hug and saw Will smiling. I smiled back at him. Then the hug ended and we started to clean up the party. My mum was right next to me, and I was telling her about everything that she had missed in my experience here. She was interested to hear everything that was going on. She also told me that everyone was waiting eagerly for me to come home. She also told me that Elijah had straightened out. He was in college, straightened out his promiscuous ways, and he quit drinking. He had gone to rehab and was completely clean of all of the alcohol. This made me smile. He was trying to be a good person. Hopefully it would be permanent. But soon enough, everything was clean and the party was over. Soon it was just myself, Anna, Will, Marshall, and Odette awake. I had already said goodbye to my mum. It was painful to say good-bye after such a short time together. But she had to get back. After many tears and hugs, she was gone. The five of us were sitting in the chairs that had been moved to a break room of sorts. "I had been wondering what all those spare cameras were for. They came in the day before yesterday. I knew they couldn't be for filming." Odette said, taking a sip of her tea. "Very true. I hope that there are some cool shots we get to do together." Anna said. "This will be fun. I hope we get do some cool stuff for the movie cover or something." I said, staring off into space. I had a glass of iced tea in my hand. "But I want to get this stuff done. I want to film the battle." Marshall said with a lustful look in his eyes. That was a new one. "Five dollars says that the scene we shoot last will be the love scene between Liz and I." Will said with a sigh. "Probably." I said, nodding. We all lapsed into silence. "It is going to be oodles of fun from now on." Anna said, finishing her tea. Marshall laughed and downed the rest of his. Will had finished his tea a while ago. I drank the last drops of mine and looked blankly at the empty cup. "I think we should get to bed. God knows that we are going to have an early start tomorrow." Odette said, standing up. I nodded and we all got up. We all walked up the same stairs. Marshall got off at the first landing and Odette and Anna went up after Will and I were at ours. "You said you had your gift for me." I said in a sly voice. "Yes I did. Let's go in your room and I'll give it to you." Will said in a matter-of-factly way. I smiled and nodded. I opened the door and found it perfectly clean and everything was in order. I sighed, not liking the squeaky clean of my room. It was unnatural. I'd have to mess it up soon. Will closed the door with a snap behind me. I turned to see him holding a little black box. "What's that?" I asked. He handed it to me. I opened the little box and found a note. "I owe you one promise ring. Preferably the one pictured below." It said in Will's handwriting. I laughed. The ring was gorgeous. The gem was a sapphire and it was in the shape of a heart. There were little vines going to either side in the silver band. It was gorgeous. "You can't obviously wear it now because of filming. So after this is all said and done, I will give you that ring. I have it set aside at the jeweler in Wellington. We just have to go and pick it up." Will said. I smiled and looked up at him. I hugged him in thanks. I didn't need to say anything. Neither did he. We just stood there, holding each other for the longest time. Soon enough, though, I let go and pulled away. "This was the best birthday ever." I said, barely above a whisper. Will smiled and then took my hand. "I'm glad that you're back." He said, squeezing my hand slightly. "Me too." I said, my voice cracking. Will bent at the waist into a very gentlemanly bow. He kissed the back of my hand in a formal fashion, and almost clichéd. I smiled and he stood up. I set the little box and the piece of paper down on the table nearest to me. "You know that Andrew changed the script while you were gone." Will said, taking my other hand in his. "Like how so?" I asked. "We have two choices for the ending. We can either go with the one that was originally written where Areneth and Peter remain together and they have a child etcetera. Or we can go with the ending where Areneth loses her battle with Ziven and Peter kills Ziven instead. Areneth then dies in Peter's arms and instead of the re-coronation, it is a funeral." Will said, looking at me dead in the eyes. "This will be interesting to see which one he chooses." I said with a sigh. "I think he might film both. We are ahead of schedule, funnily enough." Will said with a laugh. I chuckled and looked at him closely. He looked so much older than 18. I sighed. "It's late. We should be getting to bed." I said with a sad smile. He nodded and then cupped my face with his hands. "Until tomorrow then." He said with a smile. I smiled back. He quickly put his lips against mine in such a sweet manner. He did these little things all the time and they always made me melt. He was such a gentleman. I kissed him back sweetly. I knew that nothing could ruin this. We pulled away after a few seconds and looked at each other, smiling. "Good night." I said in a whisper. He repeated it and walked out the door after giving me another smile. He shut the door quietly and I sighed.I looked around again before changing into my bedclothes. I jumped into my bed with a smile. My sheets had been washed and it felt good to be back in my own bed. The hospital beds were too firm. This bed felt like a cloud and I loved it. I got up again and shut the blackout curtains and blew out the candles. I smiled brightly as I got under my covers. "Tomorrow is going to be an interesting day." I said with a last smile. I shut my eyes and fell asleep, still smiling to myself. 