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Chapter 4 – Arachnophobia

Kels' POV

The sun had just risen in the sky when Seph jumped on me in a wild attempt to wake me up from my peaceful slumber by climbing up one of the trees and then dropping down on top of my chest.

"For the love of Gandalf Seph! Stop doing that!" She chuckled and skipped off. I remembered the events of the last two days. I was an elf. I had always wanted to be one of the Eldar. I sat up and Seph shared around some strips of beef jerky and gave us each a sip from her flask.
"Allons-y!" I yelled, leaping up and running through the trees, closely followed by my companions. As an elf I was able to run much faster than as a human. Life was perfect. Everything about my new body made me feel strong and confident. It had also however made Seph even more reckless than usual. She would leapt from tree to tree and, every once and a while, drop down unexpectedly and land like a cat. The final count was twelve heart attacks for me, fifteen for Fin and none for Di as she seemed to expect our friend's sudden appearance every time.
"Hey Kels, Fin..." whispered Seph. "How about we freak out our never-scared companion known as Diana Asimova?"

"How?" I replied, keeping a low volume.

"Spiders," she whispered, eyes twinkling with mischief. Seph had always had a love for tricks. She would create endless trouble and lie her heart out when she had first arrived in Cardiff from Greece. Everyone began to call her Silvertongue for her ability to carve words. This also meant that she told fantastic stories. That's how we became friends. She was telling a story to the preschoolers one day and I found myself being drawn into the little world she was creating. Soon we were talking and I introduced her to Fin and Di. We had been inseparable since.
We searched the forest floor and I successfully found a spider of quite a reasonable size and weight and passed it to the master of crime.

"Oh damn, I dropped my lighter!" said Seph, bending down to pretend to find it. What an amazing actress she was! The all-knowing Di didn't suspect a thing. Seph had actually dropped her lighter on purpose and had bent down to not only pick it up, but to place the large arachnid onto the shoe of the victim. We continued to walk when suddenly Di froze.
"There is something on my leg!"

Seph grinned, making her appear wild and feral. We watched intently as the spider, which I had christened Big Joe, crawled slowly up her jeans.
"SPIDER!" screamed Di losing all of her normally stable composure in a moment of sudden fear of a creature no bigger than her hand. "It could kill me!" Seph and I began to roll around in
the grass in a fit of total hysterics.
"You!" she yelled at Seph. "You did- Arggghhh!" She screamed as Big Joe moved up onto her lower torso. After Seph had finished crying with laughter she calmly removed the spider and walked back to Di.

"Sorry about that Di, but the trickster inside me was bored." Di rolled her eyes and continued along trying to pretend none of it had ever happened. I ran ahead with Seph feeling my muscles relax as the warm morning breeze ruffled my chocolate hair and smiled as I watched Seph's hair fly out behind her like a caramel coloured banner.

"I love Middle Earth!" exclaimed Seph and I nodded in agreement. All of my wildest dreams had come true in one freak moment of crossing ley lines. A rift. But that would not be the only rift in our story.

"I would actually prefer to go home..." muttered Fin.
"What?" asked Seph turning around to face Fin. "How can you want to return now?"
"We are teenagers Seph! We can't stand up against the might of Sauron's army! We are weak! We need to finish school!"
"Well I love it here!" retorted a rather upset looking Seph. "It's perfect! And who cares about school?"

"All I want to do is get to Rivendell so Elrond can help us get home!"
"If anyone can get us home it's Seph," pointed out Di, "as she brought us here."
Seph took a step back and shook her head.

"Look guys, I haven't the slightest idea how to get back," she begged. "I have no clue!"

"Then you're useless!" Fin yelled. "If you aren't gonna help us, go away. All you are going to do is make our lives a misery by playing your stupid tricks and messing our heads with your silver tongue! You know, despite everything you say, you are just as feeble as Persephone from Greek mythology. I know you will never admit it but you are as worried about home as I am. I want to go home to my parents. I know you live with your aunt and you have no parents Persephone, but you must at least care a little bit about the world we left behind."

Fin and Di carried on but I stayed to put a hand on Seph's shoulder as a couple of tears rolled down her face. Fin had touched two very sore spots in one go. Her name Persephone which Seph hated as it made her sound weak, and her parents. More tears slid unbidden down her cheeks and she wiped them away with the edge of her sleeve as her stormy ocean blue eyes began to gleam as they always did when the trickster inside of her began to formulate a plan.
The Silvertongue was at it again. The rest of the day passed smoothly but the tension seemed to flow like tar through the air. Whatever plan Seph had concocted, she was waiting to set it off.
We set up camp without any problems and I soon began to doubt that she was actually going to pull some prank on the others. That was of course until she offered to take first watch.
Suddenly I was worried about Fin and Di's health. I sat up next to her and stared up at the stars.

"Kels..." she whispered tentatively, so the elvish ears of our friends could not hear. I turned to her and she stared deep into my eyes, their gleam gone. "I'm leaving."
"WHAT!" I hissed just a little too loudly. She put a finger on my lips, silencing me.
"I'm not wanted here... I'm going to the Shire. If I can't protect my friends then I will go and find Frodo and protect him!"

"I'm coming with you, then!" I said smiling encouragingly. "I want to meet some hobbits."
I stood up, grabbing Seph's hand and pulling her up. I watched as Seph pulled out a sheet of paper and a pen from her bag and wrote a small note before joining me and handing the sheet to me. Quickly reading it through I shook my head and sighed,
"Always had a penchant for the dramatic, haven't you Seph?"

She grinned, but I could see the troubled depths of her eyes - she was just as uncomfortable as I about leaving our friends here. I added a few lines of my own to the letter and then placed it next to Fin's makeshift bed. We walked away into the night without looking back, otherwise I was sure to lose my resolve.

A.N/

Emilyy: Thank you so much! The glasses thing was a spur of the moment thing, we came up with the idea and just couldn't let it go! More actual story plot will be happening in the next three or four chapters.

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