Maggie slowly opened her eyes and looked around. She found herself in a large room; with the walls built as high arches allowing a gentle breeze to pass through the room. She slowly sat up and looked around again. The four other beds in the room were occupied as well; looking closer she saw Gill, Steph, Ellie and Nat, four of her friends.
Maggie carefully got up and went over to stand next to one of the pillars, looking out. She smiled slightly as she looked around, taking everything in. Her smile slowly began to fade as she looked around again and then turned back, looking around the room. She noticed a movement in the bed Gill was, and made her way over to stand next to it.
"Gill?" Maggie asked as she perched on the edge of the bed.
"What?" Gill muttered sleepily, moving out from under the covers.
"Can I ask you something?"
"What?"
"Where are we?"
"What do you mean 'where are we', we're…" Gill faltered as she sat up and looked around.
"This is what I mean," Maggie gestured to the room they were in, "and looking outside reminds me of Rivendell."
"… Rivendell doesn't exist."
"I know. But still, it reminds me of it."
"Where are we?"
The two girls looked over to see Ellie sitting up and glancing around the room.
"That's what we want to know," Gill told her.
"Maybe we've been abducted by aliens," Ellie suggested smiling.
The other two girls rolled their eyes and shook their heads in pity.
"I doubt it," Maggie stood and walked back over to the empty bed, sitting down again.
"Why?"
"Does this really look like anything an alien ship might resemble?"
"Er… no."
"Then there you go."
"If we were abducted by aliens, why'd they take you?" a new voice spoke up.
The three girls turned to see Ellie's twin sister, Nat, slowly sitting up and yawning.
"It does look like Rivendell," Gill broke the silence as she looked around.
"Who wants to wake Steph?" Maggie looked at the others.
A silence descended over the room as they all turned to look at Steph, who was slowly waking up.
"Are we there yet?" she yawned as she sat up.
"No. But I do have two pieces of advice," Maggie replied, "one, we need to stick together."
"And two?"
"Always know where your towel is."
"I think I speak for everyone when I say… huh?" Ellie broke the silence.
"Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy," Maggie explained.
"Moving swiftly onwards," Ellie declared, "where are we?"
"You are in Imladris."
The girls all turned to face the door to see someone dressed in flowing robes standing there.
"Ah! Agent Smith!" Gill yelled as she pointed at him.
He turned to face her and raised an eyebrow, which caused her to hide under her covers.
"You see, this is why you always have a towel on you," Maggie told the others, "you never know when you'll need one to beat back the evil guys."
"I can assure you, I am not an 'evil guy' and I am not this 'Agent Smith' of which your friend spoke."
"Then who are you?" Steph spoke up.
"My name is Lord Elrond."
"As in the lord of Imladris?" Maggie questioned.
"Yes."
"How…" Nat began.
"Why are we here, and how do we get back?" Ellie inquired.
"You are here because you were found unconscious in the woods around Imladris. Where is it you wish to 'get back' to?"
"Our home," Steph told him, "now how did we get there?"
"I do not know," Elrond told them.
"Well that's just great," Steph sighed.
"Now what do we do?" Nat asked anyone.
"Grab a towel and try to escape," Maggie smiled, "or try and wake up."
Elrond watched the girls as they spoke amongst themselves. He had the feeling that he had seen the five of them before somewhere, he just could not remember where exactly. Then he got an idea and quietly left the girls and heading down he corridor to another room and went inside. Elrond quickly found the picture Oloriel had painted and headed back to the room the girls were in.
"Where did yo go," Ellie asked when he came back in, "and what's that you've got?"
"It is a picture that was painted many years ago," he turned the picture so that they could see it.
"That's us…" Nat broke the silence as they looked at it, "how long ago was this painted?"
"Two hundred years. Do any of you recognise the writing?"
"Yes," Maggie spoke up, "why?"
"We would like to know what it says. Oloriel just wrote the verse without knowing its meaning," Elrond passed her the picture.
"It says… 'To Burn the Wicked, To Drown the Evil, Mountains… will shake, Cities will fall, Souls will be Damned, Five there will be… And Five shall come. In Fire, Earth, Air, Water and… Spirit, In the Third… Age of the Sun. Fifty-five before three thousand, and then seventeen more; Five shall come," Maggie translated, following the words along with one finger.
Once she had sat back five balls of light appeared in the room. One red, one green, one blue, one yellow and one bronze. The girls all suddenly started to float upwards.
"I wanna go down!" Steph yelled.
"What's happening?" Ellie asked as she looked around at everyone.
"This day just gets better and better," Maggie sighed.
"Meh," Gill muttered.
"Whoever is doing this, stop!" Nat called out.
"Ignis," a deep voice declared as the red light flew into Nat.
"Terra." The green light flew into Steph.
"Aer." The yellow light flew into Ellie.
"Aqua." The turquoise light flew into Gill.
"Aminus." The bronze light flew into Maggie.
After a few more moments that seemed to last for an age the girls were slowly lowered back onto their beds, but their spirits did not follow as of yet, they just began to float higher. Elrond quickly checked each of them, finding them still alive. The turned to look at the picture and saw that the verse was slowly disappearing and that the five girls pictured had gone as well.
"So, where are we this time?" Steph looked around the 'room' they were all currently in.
"What am I wearing?" Gill asked as she looked down at the blue dress she was wearing, glaring.
Looking around she saw the others were in dresses as well, each the same colour as the ball of light that had gone into them.
"What was with the lights?" Ellie broke the silence.
"What was said with them?" Nat asked after her sister.
"It was Latin," Maggie told them, "ignis is fire, terra is earth, aer is air, aqua is water and aminus is spirit. The five elements."
"So what's going on, exactly?" Ellie looked around the 'room'.
"You five have been ch…" a deep voice began.
"Chosen to do the usual. Something so greatly important that we save Middle Earth and everything on it while at the same time getting rid of the evil that has begun to spread," Maggie finished, "it's the bog standard Mary-Sue plot."
"NO!" Gill cried out loudly, "I refuse to be a Mary-Sue!"
"You…"
"Have no choice about it so live with it," Steph interrupted the voice.
"What's a Mary-Sue?" Ellie asked.
"Think of a Disney Princess, they have horrible lives and then meet Prince Charming and live happily ever after," Gill explained.
"Oh, I get it now."
"So, anything else we need to know?" Nat asked looking up.
"You will slowly come into your powers and each of you will find…"
"DON'T SAY IT!" Gill yelled. "I FOR ONE WILL NEVER ALLOW THAT TO HAPPEN!"
"Why do I even bother?" the voice muttered.
"I'm sorry," Maggie called out, "it's just that it's so predictable."
"Thank you. Now back to your bodies, it's been a week since you all were given your powers and Elrond's starting to worry," the voice told them as it started to fade.
The five girls all suddenly sat up, finding themselves in the same room they were in before. Elrond was sitting on a chair, looking like he was reading.
"Is he asleep?"
"Probably."
"But his eyes are open."
"That's how Elves sleep. Except when they're injured or fading or something serious."
"That's creepy."
"You are awake." The five girls jumped when Elrond spoke.
"Don't do that!" Ellie exclaimed.
"I am sorry. I was beginning to worry that you would not wake."
"We had to talk to the voice that got annoyed cause we knew what he had to say," Steph told him.
"Are you the five chosen to deal with the elements?" he looked at each of them.
"Yes," Maggie spoke up; "the five words said when the lights entered each of us were the names of the elements in Latin, an ancient and pretty much dead language."
"Yet you know it."
"I got bored so I taught myself it."
"Separate rooms have been prepared for you all," Elrond stood up, "someone will bring some clean clothes for you and then take you to them. They are all next to each other. I would like to speak to you once you are settled."
"Sure," Maggie agreed on behalf of the five of them.
Elrond left and a few moments later an elleth came in carrying five simple dresses, each in one of the colours of the elements.
"Lord Elrond said that you would know which dresses would go to who," she told them as she placed the dresses over the back of the chair Elrond had occupied. She pointed to the second room in the room; "there is a small room you can change in beyond that door."
Soon all the girls had changed and were following Ondolle through the corridors towards their new rooms.
"The three on your right and the two on he left have been given to you to use, you'll have to decide between you who gets which room."
"Thank you," Nat smiled at her.
"I have to go now. I'll be back in a while to see if you need anything."
Nat nodded and Ondolle carried on walking down the corridor.
"So," Steph broke the silence, "who wants which room?"
Should I carry on? Please let me know what you think.