Chapter Three

A/N: Oh my gosh! I just really want to say thank you, to all of you! All of you who reviewed, favorited, or put this story on alert, thank you so much! It just makes my day to see that little message in my inbox. :)

Oh, and I revised the ending of the last chapter. Check it out if you want to, it's not really necessary, just a bit of fluff. :)

Reviews:

The Zombie: Thanks! *le gasp* You don't know what a Jolly Rancher is? Oh, you poor, deprived child. It's a hard candy that comes in different flavors like cherry, watermelon, blue raspberry, and green apple. The green apple ones are known for being particularly sour, and the blue raspberry one 's are generally the over all favorite. :) Glad you liked the story!

The Mediocre Writer: Thank You! The CC is much appreciated, and I'll try my best to keep my girls from straying into the desolate land de la Sue. :)

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Caroline looked at Elrond, on the verge of tears.

" She's not here?" She said in barely more than a whisper, her voice sounding small, and utterly helpless. Elrond just shook his head, and then reached behind him.

" My sons did find this, however. Is it yours?" He pulled out a tan messenger bag. Caroline brightened instantly.

" Yeah, it's my school bag!" She said, and took it gratefully from Elrond. She peaked into it, and found it empty. She gave a small little sigh, and then moved it to the side.

" I am sorry that we can not find your sister. We will try our hardest to make you feel at home here, as it looks like you are stuck with us." He gave the tiniest hint of a smile, and then stood.

" I will send my daughter Arwen up to you with the mid-day meal." He said, then swept out the door in a stately manner. Caroline sighed, and dragged her bag back over to her, taking some semblance of comfort from it.

After sitting there for a good fifteen minutes, she got bored. She found herself wishing for a good book, or her laptop. Suddenly the bag on her lap became heavy.

Curious, she opened it, an found one of her favorite books ( The Lord of the Rings) sitting there. Her eyes widened and she quickly wished for her cell-phone. And there it was.

" Wicked.." She breathed, and then set about experimenting with her new-found magical bag.

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Charlotte woke with Aragorn shaking her shoulder.

" M'up" she grumbled, forcing her eyes open. Aragorn had already moved on to wake Merry and Pippin. Sam was frying something in a small pan over the fire. It smelled absolutely heavenly.

Charlotte scrambled out of her sleeping bag and rolled it up. Then she looked around, wondering where to put it. She knew that she could take things out of her bag, but could she put them back in? She shrugged, figuring it was worth a shot.

She pulled her back over and set about shoving the sleeping bag in. It slid in surprisingly easily, and when she was sure it was all the way in, she shut the bag. It immediately grew lighter, and Charlotte opened it to find it empty again.

" Brilliant!" She cheered, and then walked over to where Sam was cooking, slinging her bag over her shoulder as she went. When she looked into his pan she saw a bunch of little sausages. She reached into her bag, and pulled out a packet of bacon.

" Sausage and bacon just go together, don't you think?" She said to Sam as he took the offered bacon with wide eyes. She could have sworn she heard Strider chuckle in the background.
Breakfast went fairly quickly, much to the chagrin of the hobbits. Afterwards Strider told them that they still had a ways to go, so they had better hurry. They set off, and Charlotte couldn't help but notice how Strider placed himself close to her, no doubt to intervene if she did something against the hobbits. She couldn't really blame him either.

While they walked she and the hobbits talked, with Aragorn putting in the rare comment or two.

" Tell us a story, Miss Charlotte!" Cried Pippin. The other hobbits all agreed, and then ganged up on her.

" All right, all right!" She said, laughing a little. She wracked her brain for a story to tell them, but then remembered that she had a bag that she could get any story she wanted from. She pulled out her iPod and a speaker, which she clipped on her bag so that it hung there, and then she sifted through the many songs till she got to the H section.

She clicked on the Harry Potter and the Sorcerers Stone audio book, and pressed play. The theme music started playing and the hobbits, who had been watching her disinterestedly, jumped about a foot in the air, and Strider drew his sword, looking around as if he expected to see some flute playing foe.

Charlotte gave a small laugh, and pressed pause. It took her about thirty minutes to try and explain the concept of an iPod to the them, and then another twenty to explain a speaker. When she finally got to the point of starting the story up again, the hobbits were looking a little bit overwhelmed.

As the first words started, she saw the hobbits looking more and more confused at the terms they didn't know. She found herself pausing the story every five seconds to explain a term.

That'll slow down a bit once he leaves Privet Drive, thought Charlotte. Nevertheless, she was in for a long, albeit entertaining, day.

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Caroline was a little bit lost without her sister. Okay, a lot lost. They had never been apart for very long, and now it was a very real possibility that they would never see each other again.

Arwen had come at midday, as promised, and the two girls had quickly become good friends. After getting the okay from Elrond to tell others that she was from a different world, Caroline had enjoyed telling Arwen about her world, and in turn Arwen told her everything about their world that she didn't already know. And, of course, a certain ranger came into the conversation quite a lot.

It was on the now the second day of Caroline's stay at the Last Homely House. She pulled open her eyes, staring dully at the ceiling. Then she forced herself to get up, something she was never particularly good at. Charlotte had always been the one who seemed to need no sleep, and could stay up all night and still be up at a freakishly early hour of the morning.

Caroline sighed and walked over to the wardrobe that stood on the far side of her room. She opened the doors and had to hold in a gasp as she saw the ornate dresses inside. They were fit for royalty.

" They're yours." Came a voice from behind her. Caroline jumped about a foot in the air, and then spun to find Arwen standing in the doorway, looking amused.

" I'm glad you find amusement in my panic." Said Caroline wryly. Then both started to laugh.

" I have to be honest," said Caroline after they had gotten it together, " I have no idea how to lace up one of these dresses." Arwen gave her a knowing smile, and moved forward, taking a light green dress out of the wardrobe, and laying it over the bed.

After the whole ordeal of getting into the ridiculously complicated dress, the two went down to breakfast together. Elrond was already there.

" Good Morning, girls." He said, giving them a light smile. They greeted him in turn, and then sat and continued on with their conversation. After about ten minutes the door burst open, and two figures came sprinting in. Distant Elvish yelling could be heard behind them, and judging by the looks on Arwen and Elrond's faces, it was very colorful indeed.
The two figures hurried to close the doors, and then turned and smiled brightly at Elrond.

" Morning, Father!" The two chorused. Now that they had stopped running, Caroline could see that they were identical twins. With a pang of sadness, Caroline thought about Charlotte. She recognized the two as the twin sons of Elrond, Elladan and Elrohir.

" Who have you angered this time?" Asked Elrond in a weary voice. The twins grinned sheepishly.

" Well, you see, Glorfindel and Erestor were down on the training fields, and-" They were cut off by the doors bursting open yet again. Both twins started, looked around, and then immediately ran to cower behind Elrond's chair. Standing in the doorway stood two very, very angry elves, both drenched in what looked to be green ink. One of them was blonde, the first blonde that Caroline had seen in Imladris. The other had a certain stately manner, not so much as Elrond, but enough to make Caroline straighten even more in her chair.

" Sons of Elrond!" Said the brown haired one, seething. " You insufferable little elflings! I swear, if you do one more thing to annoy me, I will string you up by your toes from the Chandelier in the library!"

The twins were about to answer when they were all interrupted by a small snort of laughter. All heads turned to Caroline, who was having a very hard time concealing her laughter, shoulders shaking. The advisor immediately looked abashed. The Balrog-Slayer had seen her already, and he too was having a hard time containing his laughter.

The twins seemed to straighten immediately, and were instantly at her side.

" Mae Govannen, Milady. I do not believe we have met, for I would remember such a charming female as yourself," Said the closest one. Caroline blushed, as Arwen let out a snort from the other side of the twin. " My name is Elladan Elrondion. It is truly," he said, bring her hand to his lips, " a pleasure to meet you." Caroline blushed again, just as one twin was replaced by the other.

" Mae Govannen, Milady. Forgive my brother, he is very blunt, is he not? I, however, am much more charismatic, wouldn't you say?" There was an 'Oi!' from Elladan, and by this point Arwen had practically collapsed on the table she was giggling so hard. Elrond had his head in his hand, and the Balrog-Slayer was in much the same position as Arwen.

" Well, if charisma is defined by how well you can flirt then I'd say you two are pretty much neck and neck." Said Caroline, with a grin. She then stood, and held her hand out. " My name is Caroline. It's very nice to meet you, Elladan, Elrohir."

The twins immediately rushed at her hand, chorusing things like 'The pleasure is all mine' , and other cheesy stuff that sounded like a bar pick up line.

Arwen had completely lost it at this point, and Caroline was getting there herself. If this was what the twins were always like, then the rest of her time there would be very eventful indeed.

A/N: Well, that took forever. Considering I'm writing this when I'm supposed to be doing school, I think it came out quite nicely, you?

If I missed anyone when I replied to reviews, I'm really sorry, I've just kind of lost track of it. I promise that next time I'll be better about it. :)

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