Disclaimer: I do not own Middle-earth or anything affiliated with it. Those belong to John Ronald Reuel Tolkien, and him alone.

Noelle lay awake staring at the ceiling on the straw mattress Morwen had provided for her and her sisters. Éothain slept near the door, and Morwen and Freda slept on the other end of the room.

If this is really the Middle-earth universe, Noelle thought, I wonder what time we're in now? Maybe it's near the end of the Third Age, because I'm absolutely sure those people are Morwen and Éothain and Freda, and if this was the Fourth Age, they wouldn't be in this place.

Which meant that this was in the middle of the War of the Ring. And Noelle had better not mess up the plot for this one. Maybe the plot would go the way Tolkien wrote it no matter how hard the Thompsons tried to make it go elsewhere. Or maybe, horror of horrors, this was an alternate Middle-earth universe and it would be too easy for Noelle to mess it up. But if they were in Middle-earth, did that mean that Middle-earth was actually real and what Tolkien had written down actually happened at a point in time? And if that was so, did the act of Tolkien's writing The Lord of the Rings actually create the events that happened in the LOTR timeline and now the Thompsons were living in an alternate fictional universe? Or did Tolkien know that what he was writing down was true but it was masqueraded as fiction, albeit perhaps not by him? And if he did know it was true, then how did he know?

Noelle pondered these questions in vain. It was not until well after midnight that sleep came upon her.

Noelle awoke early the next morning. When she first opened her eyes, she could only barely see the light of the sun arising over the horizon. But apparently she was the last to wake up.

"Rise and shine, sister," said Aubrey. "Freda's already awake, and so is Trish. Dame Morwen doesn't take boarders who don't work, she says, so she wants you and me to sweep the floor." Aubrey handed Noelle a broom. Noelle took it. She may have been a city girl, but sweeping was one chore she at least knew how to do, even if she had hated doing it back at home.

"What's Tricia doing?" Noelle asked after a while.

"She and Dame Morwen and Éothain are outside," said Aubrey, "doing something, I'm not sure what."

"At least Dame Morwen doesn't have a big house," Noelle sighed. "Then we'd be doing a whole lot more of this."

Noelle and Aubrey worked for several more minutes. It seemed to Noelle that she would never get the whole floor done, and whenever she thought she had got all the dirt off of a spot, Aubrey showed her that she had not.

"Aubrey?"

"Yeah?"

"Remember Númenor?"

"Well—I haven't read the Sil, but you have told me about it," Aubrey replied. "The Sil" was short for The Silmarillion.

Noelle began to sing:

The War of Wrath at last was done;
Now peace in Middle-Earth was won.
For all the men who gave them aid
The Valar had an island laid.
O Númenor, O Blessed Isle!
Thy shores did know the Valar's smile!

Aubrey knew this song. She joined in on the next verse:

Their span of life was lengthened long;
To lesser men were kind and strong.
Through ages long thus reigned their kings
Of whom no man now tells or sings.
O Númenor, O Land of Star!
No shadow did thy beauty mar!

Yet was a Ban upon them laid;
To sail too far West was forbade.
At first they did with this comply
And of the Ban was heard no sigh.
O Númenor, O righteous land!
In early days for Truth did stand!

Tricia had joined in on the third verse. Noelle and Aubrey had not heard their oldest sister come in, but still they continued on to the fourth verse.

But then came fear and doubt and scorn
Concerning those of Valinor.
Unto the men of Westernesse
Their many blessings now seemed less.
O Númenor, beware! Take heed!
Let not the Darkness in thee breed!

"There, that's as far as I remember," said Tricia.

"But it's a cliffhanger!" whined Aubrey.

"Dame Morwen and Éothain and Freda probably heard us, anyhow," Tricia laughed. "I wonder what they think of it."

"But there are eight more verses to go!" Aubrey exclaimed.

"Well, do you remember them all?"

"Noelle does," Aubrey said smugly. "Noelle remembers everything."

"That's not exactly true, Aubrey," said Noelle modestly.

"Yes, it is," said Aubrey.

Noelle shook her head.

Aubrey shrugged. "Whatever."

Noelle changed the subject quickly. "Well, Tricia, where have you been this morning?"

"Milking the cow," replied the fifteen-year-old. "I think I finally got the hang of it."

"Yeah, that's great," said Aubrey. "Hey, have you seen Dame Morwen? Have you seen anybody?"

"Dame Morwen's gone to deliver the milk," Tricia told her sisters.

"I wonder what happened to the father," Noelle mused.

"Freda told me," Aubrey put in. "Their father was named Wilhelm. He was one of the Riders of Rohan. He died some way—she didn't say how."

"Did she tell you why her mother has an Elvish name?" Noelle asked eagerly.

"No," answered Aubrey. "Noelle, I expect it's just because Dame Morwen's mother thought it was a cool-sounding name. Or maybe Morwen is a Rohirric name too. You can't always come up with awesome adventure back-stories."

Just then, Freda walked through the door. "Good morning," she said. "Are you well?"

"Yeah," Noelle sighed. Tricia smiled and said, "We are well." But Aubrey ran and hugged Freda, who gladly responded with the same. Noelle smiled a little. So Aubrey and Freda were best friends now. But what did she expect? Aubrey and Freda were the same age, and Aubrey hadn't met a single other girl in all the Thompson sisters' stay in Middle-earth. Of course they would be "besties", as cousin Sam would say.

"Noelle, come help us prepare dinner," said Tricia.

"All right," said Noelle, and went to help. It was going to be a long day.

A/N: The song Akallabeth has been used in this story with express permission of Celebrant, the FanFiction writer who composed the beautiful lyrics to the poem. Thank you, Celebrant! (I wonder how the Thompsons knew about it, then? Maybe they jumped in another time machine and saw this on FanFiction—oh, good grief. They'd be stuck in a never-ending paradox if they did that. Yikes!) In case you were wondering, I actually composed music for Akallabeth.

Anywhosies, please review and tell me what you think! And if you want, follow and/or favorite this story as well. Thanks for reading!