"All right, I'm going to need you to listen to me now, okay, sweetheart?" Samara clutched her daughter's small face in her hands.
The little girl nodded, her chubby face puckered in confusion and fear. "Amad, what's going on? Why did Adad stop?" she asked fearfully.
Ignoring the questions, Samara continued. "I need you to take your sister's hand when I tell you to, and I need you both to run to the trees over there, where you're both going to climb a tree and hide there until your adad or I come find you, all right? It's just like the games we played back home. Do you think you can do that?"
The little girl nodded again, tears filling her round eyes as her mother lifted her sister off the pony. "Amad, I'm scared," she said with a sniffle.
"I know you are, honey. I am too. But you'll be all right. I promise."
A deep voice broke into their conversation. "Samara, send them off. They need to go while there's still time." A heavyset figure knelt in front of the two girls, his normally rough voice gentle as he spoke. "You two are going to have to be very brave now. Your amad and I have to go. Can you be brave for me?" The two girls nodded, forcing back sniffles. Giving them a small smile, Thokar kissed them both on the forehead, before whispering something into their ears and getting up.
Moving to his wife's side, he gently laid his forehead against hers. After a moment, he laid his hand upon her cheek and gently kissed her. "I'm sorry it had to end like this," he said softly.
Samara smiled at him through tears. "At least it will be together," she returned, voice thick.
Thokar nodded. "Together." Taking one last look at his wife and daughters, he said, "I'll see you all in his halls." Drawing his axe from its place in his belt, he turned and strode around the large boulder they had been hiding behind.
As soon as he had turned around the bend, Samara knelt in front of her daughters. "Girls, I need you to run now. And don't look back, no matter what you hear. Either of you. You keep going. Do you understand?" They both nodded unhappily. "Good," their mother said, smiling through her tears. "Remember, your adad and I love you very much. Don't ever forget that. Now go!"
Galvanized by their mother's urgency, the two girls took off running on the opposite direction of their parents, towards a large group of trees a short distance away.
Waiting until they were out of immediate earshot, Samara whispered, "I'm sorry. I love you both. May you be safe until we meet again." Drawing her sword and a dagger, she turned and left to join her husband in a hopeless fight against a relentless evil.
xXx
The girls were almost to the woods when the howling started. One of them faltered. "Don't stop, Cel! Amad said we have to keep going!" her sister reminded her.
Picking up the pace, she answered her, "I know, I know." Forcing themselves to keep going, a loud shout from behind them suddenly distracted Cel, causing her to stop and look behind them again. Nothing could be seen, but loud howling and vicious shouts and snarls could be easily heard.
Shivering again, her eyes filled with tears, Cel turned back to the woods, but there was nothing there. "El?" she asked with a quavering voice. There was no answer. Cautiously stepping into the dark forest, she immediately felt a deep fear come over her. "El?" she asked again. Still nothing but silence.
Following the footprints that seemed to be her sister's, Cel made her way further in to the forest. "El, please come out! This isn't funny!" Cel shouted suddenly, thinking that perhaps her sister was playing a trick on her again. She stopped when she saw a curious bare patch up ahead.
There were dark and menacing trees all around her, along with some of the biggest spider webs she'd ever seen, but there was nothing in this patch. Not even grass. Just a large, circular patch of dirt. She stepped towards it curiously, but whipped back around when a branch snapped behind her.
"El?" she asked nervously. There was nothing there. Until a hideous black spider that was larger than any she had ever seen lowered itself from a tree and crept towards her menacingly. Cel screamed in fright and and stumbled back a few steps, into the bare circle.
No sooner had she fallen into the circle than she felt a sucking sensation, like wind, drawing her backward. The spider, seeming to sense its prey was escaping, began rushing towards her. Cel began screaming, only to have her fear double when the sucking sensation began to increase. The spider rapidly dwindled in size into nothing, as the scenery around her began to change, and morphed into a barrage of images at a dizzying speed. Feeling pulled in a thousand directions at once, and overcome with the rapid amount of emotions she was experiencing, Cel lost all sense of consciousness and blacked out.
xXx
"My sister and I were found, unconscious, in the backyard of a deserted house about fifteen years ago. We were found by some kids who were sneaking through to have some fun. They called the cops, who took us to the hospital where we woke up about three days later, with no knowledge of where we were, or any memory of what had happened to us. The authorities searched for our parents for a while, or for anyone who knew us, but didn't find any one.
"My sister and I were too little to really know what was going on, or to be of much help. Eventually we were placed in an orphanage, only to be left homeless once again a few years later when the orphanage was burned down by a... a problem. No one was hurt, but the orphanage had to ask people to take us in temporarily until it could be rebuilt. We were lucky. We got taken in by a woman who was very kind to us, and decided to adopt us. A lot of the other kids had to go back to the orphanage, or were stuck with people who only wanted to adopt them for their work potential."
A high pitched voice broke into Celia's story. "Mith Thelia, what doeth 'work portenshul' mean?"
Celia smiled down at the little boy she was babysitting. "It's 'work potential,' Jimmy. And it means how much work they can do. Some people don't want kids to love them, they just want people to work for them for free. People like that usually aren't very nice."
Jimmy Forner frowned a bit, mulling this over. "But your mommy is nice!"
Celia laughed, sweeping her black braid over her shoulder. "That's right, she is. And so are your mommy and daddy. But right now, I think it's your bedtime. Time to get ready for bed!"
Jimmy's big blue eyes widened. "Nooooo!" he shouted, taking off running down the hall. Celia laughed again. He did this literally every time she came over to watch him, and always seemed so surprised when she caught him.
Half an hour later, Celia leaned against a wall to catch her breath. Jimmy seemed to be learning, because it had taken her an extra ten minutes to find him and get him ready for bed, before finally getting him to fall asleep. Glancing at the clock, she realized that his parents would be home soon, and she still needed to get the house cleaned up from earlier. Moving swiftly around the room, she managed to put the last toy away just as his parents pulled into the driveway.
"Hello, Celia. How did your evening go?" his mother asked as they walked in.
Celia smiled. "It went great, and he didn't run into the bookcase this time, so, even better than last time!"
Jimmy's parents laughed. "Well, thank you for agreeing to watch him on such short notice," his father said, handing her a twenty dollar bill.
"No problem," Celia said, pulling on her coat. "Tell Jimmy I left a surprise for him in his toy box."
"Sure thing," Mr. Forner said, opening the door for her. "Have a nice night."
"Thanks, you too!" Celia said, heading out the door.
Once outside, she took a moment to enjoy the cool, spring breeze. The snow had melted by now, and the grass was green, but flowers were less common than they would be a few weeks from now, and the evenings were still a bit chilly. Turning on her flashlight, she headed for her house, a large two-story building a few blocks away, on the edge of town.
It was a quiet evening, and few cars drove by as she walked, allowing her to think without distractions as she walked almost on autopilot, hardly paying attention to where she was walking. The story she had told Jimmy tonight was mostly true, but there were a few points that she had left out. One was that the orphanage that she and Elena had stayed in, had been burned down by a drunken arsonist, not a "problem." Another had been the fact that there were no footprints leading to their bodies when they were found... It was like they had just appeared there out of nowhere.
"Hey, you planning on coming in, or are you just going to keep on walking forever?" Another voice broke into Celia's thoughts. Looking up, she saw her sister Elena, short brown hair only slightly held back by a pair of bobby pins, standing in the doorway of their home.
"I was deep in thought, before you so rudely interrupted me," she said with a mock pout.
Elena laughed, her warm brown eyes crinkling as she did so. "Deep in thought about what? The stuff you still need to pack for our camping trip tomorrow?"
Celia gasped, her green eyes reflecting her dismay. "The camping trip! I forgot all about it! I still have to pack everything!"
Elena smirked. "I know. That's why I decided to be the older sister today, and pack for you." Celia smiled at her in gratitude.
When they had been found, they were obviously sisters, and had appeared to be the same age, so it was assumed that they were twins as well. Since they didn't know who was older, they had eventually set up an agreement that whoever was more responsible that day would be the older sibling for the day. It was an odd quirk, but their adoptive mother, Laurel, had quickly grown used to it, and had taken up the practice as well.
"Thanks, Sis," she said gratefully. "Did you remember to pack my bow and arrows?"
Elena nodded. "And my axes." Their mother had been rich enough to send them to a private school, where they were able to be tutored in many different areas. But when she offered to let them take sports, they had both declined and chosen a different field of interest instead: weapons.
Celia had chosen to become an archer, whereas Elena had taken the slightly more unique route of deciding to become proficient in using two smaller axes. Though neither could explain their choice at the time, at approximately 20 years old they were both skilled at their weapons of choice, and used it in the occasional hunting job as well. At least, Celia did. Elena's axes weren't the best for hunting, so she usually stuck to stationary targets.
"Are you both going to stand there letting the cold in all night?" A third voice broke in, with a bit of a humorous edge in it to let them know that the speaker wasn't angry. Both girls turned sheepishly to their mother. At forty-five (at least, that's what she told them), she looked every bit as young as she did the day they met her thirteen years ago.
Tall and beautiful, with every bit the elegance of a queen, Laurel Owens had never shirked from getting her hands dirty, even encouraging the girls in learning woodcraft and helping Celia with her archery at times. Her backstory was a bit of a mystery as well, but the girls had eventually given up trying to find out, and just dubbed her a runaway princess and left it at that.
"Sorry, Mom," Elena said repentantly.
"Me too," Celia added. Laurel smiled at them to let them know that all was forgiven before ushering them into the warm house.
Once inside, she turned to Elena and asked, "Did you remember to pack flashlights and extra batteries?"
Elena started to nod but then stopped. "I packed the flashlights, but not the batteries. I can't believe I forgot them again!" Shaking her head at her forgetfulness, she hurried up the stairs to her room. Celia smiled at her mother before quickly following her upstairs to their shared room. There had been plenty of room for them to each get their own, but they had insisted on sharing, having been used to it for as long as they could remember.
She walked inside their room to see Elena packing the batteries into their waterproof case before stuffing it into her backpack. A similar backpack was sitting on her bed, on the other side of the room, with her bow and quiver of arrows lying next to it. A list of checked off items sat beside it. Pulling her long hair out of its braid, she began to brush through it as she watched her sister zip the bag shut with a satisfied nod.
"Finished at last," she declared proudly. "All we have left is the water, and we can get that in the morning."
"Great!" Celia said. "We still have a couple hours before we should hit the sack. What do you want to watch, a couple episodes of BBC's Sherlock, or the last Lord of the Rings movie?"
Elena thought about it for a minute before answering. "Let's watch the Return of the King. We watched the Hobbit trilogy, and the first two movies a couple weeks ago. We can watch Sherlock when we get back."
Celia nodded. "Sounds good to me," she agreed easily, grabbing the movie off the shelf next to its companions, and sticking the DVD into the player before settling down next to her sister to watch the movie.
xXx
The next morning, both girls were up bright and early, wanting to get a good start to their day, as they would be walking to their campsite several miles away, in a small forest near their town.
"How do you want your eggs, Elena?" their mother asked as she grabbed a carton out of the refrigerator.
"Scrambled, please," Elena said.
"And me," Celia chimed in, grabbing a piece of toast and buttering it.
Breaking the eggs into the pot, Laurel said, "Are you sure that you have everything? Rain coat, sleeping bags...?"
Celia nodded, her mouth full of toast. Swallowing, she added. "We packed the tent, too. But we still have to attach the sleeping bags to our backpacks to make it easier to carry them. I'll go do that." Leaving the room quickly, she bounded up the stairs to go do her appointed task. By the time she got back, the eggs were done, and Elena was eating them as quickly as she could, eager to get started.
Quickly finishing their breakfast, both girls got up and carried their dishes to the sink. "I'm going to go the bathroom, really quick," Elena said, leaving the room.
"I already went," Celia added, looking up at her mother. Both Celia and her sister were rather short, measuring up to just under 5'1", while their mother was unusually tall, being almost six feet tall. It got them a few odd looks from strangers, but they had all gotten used to it, and no one really cared about it anymore aside from the odd short joke here and there.
Elena reappeared, her backpack on, and hair pulled back carefully. "I'm ready to go if you are, sis," she said to Celia.
She nodded. "Let me grab my backpack." Darting upstairs, she swung her backpack on, made sure that her french braid was secure, and ran back to the kitchen where her mother and sister were waiting, before all three went to the front door to say their goodbyes.
"Good-bye, Mom," Celia said, hugging her mother. "I love you."
"I love you, too," Laurel said, kissing her on the forehead before releasing her and embracing Elena. "Whichever of you decides to be the older sister today had better be really responsible."
"I will, I promise," Elena said, smirking at her sister, who looked offended at the notion that she couldn't be responsible. "Love you, Mom."
"I love you too," Laurel said, letting her go with a kiss to the forehead. "Have fun, but be careful. I know you're not bringing your cell phones, so be responsible. And remember, while both of you have taken first-aid courses, Celia has completed her training to be a paramedic, so she'll be in charge in that department, should the need arise, although I hope it doesn't."
Now it was Celia's turn to smile smugly at her sister. Although neither of them really cared who was the "older sister," they did have a friendly rivalry going at almost all times that occasionally exasperated their mother with their antics.
Hugging their mother one last time, both girls set off down the dirt road, whistling the 'Hogan's Heroes' theme song as they went. Waving goodbye as they left, Laurel watched until they vanished from sight, whispering a soft, "Please be safe," before heading inside and shutting the door softly.
xXx
It was almost supper time by the time they reached the forest, but both girls were in good spirits and more than ready for supper. Picking out a good site for a campground, Elena began gathering wood for a fire while Celia prepared the food. "Hey Celia, can you hand me one of my axes?" Elena asked. "This branch is too big, and I'd rather use my axe to cut it than try to break it."
"Sure," Celia agreed, putting down the meat she had been preparing, and grabbing an axe out of the sheath Elena kept it in. Handing it to her sister, she turned back to the food. "The hamburgers are almost done. Is the fire ready?"
"Almost," Elena answered. "I just have to light it... and... done!" she exclaimed triumphantly as a blaze appeared suddenly. Placing a grill over the fire, she took the prepared hamburgers from her sister and carefully set them on the grill.
"I'm going to go rinse off my hands," Celia said, rising from her kneeling position and heading towards the sound of a nearby river.
"OK. Be careful," Elena called absentmindedly, still focused on the meat. Celia rolled her eyes, but couldn't help but smile. Elena had sounded just like their mother when she said that. The river was a few minutes walk, but she didn't mind. When she got back, carrying a bucket filled with water, Elena didn't take her eyes off the fire, but called out, "Did you take a bath? I've already flipped the hamburgers in the time you were gone. And they take forever to be ready to flip."
"Very funny," Celia deadpanned. "I've got some water." Setting it by the fire, she sat down next to her sister and waited for the food to cook.
Although it took far longer than they wanted it to, the hamburgers finally cooked, and both girls dug into the juicy meat placed on fresh buns bought from the store the day before. After finishing their meal and rinsing their plates, Celia set up a few targets for her and her sister to practice with before bed. Grabbing their weapons, the two lined up in front of their respective targets and began to fire.
"You know," Elena commented as she hurled her axe into a log, "It's kind of funny how both of us are bookworms, but we both love using weapons as well."
"I say it's because our birth parents were secretly ninjas," Celia said, firing her arrow at a small tree branch. "And we inherited their love of fighting, or something."
Elena paused in her throwing to look at her sister. "Right. Because ninjas love axes and arrows. They're totally inconspicuous weapons."
Celia shrugged, putting down her bow. "Just saying. It could be true. Let's go grab our stuff."
After practicing with their weapons for another hour, the girls set up their tent, and then sat around the fire, soaking up its warmth as the temperature began to cool off. Elena sketched in a notebook she had brought along, filling it with all sorts of doodles, while Celia read a book she had brought along.
Eventually it got too dark to focus, and both girls reluctantly put their books away. After roasting marshmallows, which quickly led to a marshmallow fight with no declared victor, both girls were exhausted, especially after their long day's travel, and fell into their sleeping bags and were asleep within minutes.
The next morning, after an ice cold swim in the river that left both of them shivering, Celia grabbed a knapsack out of her backpack, and began stuffing items into it. "I'm going to try and go hunting for a couple hours. Maybe bring down a couple rabbits for supper, or something."
"Okay," Elena nodded. "I'm probably just going to try and sketch by the river. The scenery there is gorgeous."
"Have fun sketching," Celia called, grabbing her bow and quiver along with the knapsack and heading out. "I should be back sometime after lunch." Waving good-bye, Elena grabbed her sketchbook and pens and headed down to the river.
She had only been sketching for about fifteen minutes when a terrified scream disturbed her concentration.
"Elena, help me!"
Dropping her sketchbook, Elena scrambled to her feet. "Celia, where are you?" she called, running back to the campsite.
"Elena! Help!" Celia''s voice was getting fainter. Grabbing her axes from where they lay, Elena raced into the forest, trying to follow the sound of Celia's voice.
"Celia, are you all right? Where are you?" But only the mocking echoes of her call answered her.
She called repeatedly, but got only the echoes of her calls in response, seeming to mock her. Spotting Celia's footprints, she quickly followed them, running in the direction they headed. Calling as she ran, heedless of the branches that smacked her face, she came to a halt suddenly as the tracks seemed to disappear.
Looking around her, she noticed that she was standing in a bare patch of dirt, a large circle where nothing seemed to grow. Getting a bad feeling, she tried to back up, but found she couldn't. Instead, a strong tugging sensation seemed to come out of nowhere and knocked her onto the ground.
She gasped, trying to stand back up, but the sensation was getting stronger. In fact, she felt herself being pulled backwards at a rate she could barely comprehend as the trees around her merged into a blur. Holding desperately onto her axes, she tried to lift her head against the strong current, but was unable to as the force seemed to increase as she did so.
Bright colors began racing in front of her at a bewildering speed, as she felt her body being pulled in all directions. Just when she began to think that it would never end, she felt the force begin to lift, and the images begin to slow, only to be slammed into an immovable object with such force that she blacked out, her still form lying limply on the ground next to her sister.
A/N: To be continued...
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General Disclaimer: I don't own the Hobbit, it belongs to JRR Tolkien.