Yo! I'm really sorry about the late update with forgotten family, but I've had my final exams looming. Which on that note may cause my updates to be infrequent in the next 3 weeks, as I'm actually in my exam period now. But I haven't dropped any of my stories; they're just on the back burner for now. I'll try and get another chapter up on the other two soon. REVIEW!! It will make me write faster! :) See you soon, Blazing Aurora
Disclaimer: 'I don't own the Lord of the Rings'
Eomer: 'But you'd like to… Go on say it! I know you want to!'
Blazing Aurora: 'Just because you're a king doesn't mean you can order me around Eomer! This is MY fanfic!'
Eomer: 'Wait. I'm a king? What happened to Theodred? He's next in line… BLAZING AURORA!!' Brandishes a sword in a threatening manner
Blazing Aurora: 'ARGH!!' Runs away
Eomer: 'That was easy… Too easy…' sees Blazing Aurora come back with elven friends 'Uh oh…'
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Recap
"Alice? Sam? But… I don't understand. What's going on?"
"That's a rather complicated issue that cannot travel further than this room if you wish for our delightful additions to the family to survive…" Gandalf was standing at the end of the hall.
"Gandalf! I thought you were in the black lands! How did you get back so fast? We weren't expecting you for at least another week!"
"I pulled in some favours to get here quicker… and by the look of things it's just as well!"
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"What do you mean?" Half of the table had stood up with a combination of outrage and worry on their faces. But it was Thranduil that had voiced the thought that was running through everyone's head. Gandalf sighed.
"Seven years ago Sauron captured and questioned an elf maiden and a rider of Rohan. The atrocities that they had to endure I will not voice at the dinner table. Two years after their capture; a rare lax in security enabled their escape. The only reason they weren't killed outright was because they were not being held in Mordor itself; but at the fortress of Isengard. I was there serving under Saruman the White at the time and was able to use my sorcery to transport them away from the fortress to safety. Unfortunately it had some unexpected side effects. Yes it did transport them away from the danger they were in; but it transported them across dimensions with no conceivable way of getting back. At least at the time there wasn't… They remained in that dimension for three years until I discovered a way of manipulating the dimensional barriers to our benefit. There is a specific black stone that is only found at the foot of Mount Doom that exerts the same effect as the wild untamed sorcery that I used. Eomer here volunteered to be sent as, because I had magic myself, the stone wouldn't work for me as I would negate the effects without even thinking about it."
"It was the least I could do to come to the aid of my kinsman. He is my mother-brother after all."
"What does this have to do with Alice and Sam?"
"Patience Galadriel… Eomer returned ten days later by our time; but according to him he was only in that alternate dimension for just over one full day! By that we deemed that the movement of time itself was altered. That wasn't the juiciest bit of gossip though. You see Eorl and his wife had had two children, a girl and a boy by the names of Alice and Sam. The only anomaly I see here is that when Eomer met them they were most definitely human! One can only assume that the journey across dimensions has bought out their Elvish half, where it was once dormant and their human half was dominant. After all from what I can gather, Elves and magic don't exist in that dimension."
"Um… Hello?! Still here, and not appreciating being talked about and not to!" Gandalf looked around surprised for he had indeed forgotten that the Alice and Sam he was lecturing about were right in front of him.
"My sincerest apologies Miss Alice. I think that from the information I have gathered, that you were mostly human in your dimension, most of your Elvish traits were suppressed. On equal accounts, in this dimension you are mostly Elvish with most of your human traits suppressed. I don't know if your two halves will meld, as you grow older. But that is the case for now."
"Right. The question is. What are we going to do about this situation? I can guarantee that the longer we stay here the more mum will freak; and trust me. You don't want to see mum in lecturing mode. It's scary." Sam shivered in memory.
"Who is your mother? I only discovered your father's name when Eomer reported back… He never mentioned anything about your elven mother." Every single ear rose in the hall at that. The Elves had been trying to determine the Elfling's precise age and parentage for days now; but in Elven society it was considered rude to openly ask such questions. It wasn't polite to ask an elf thousands of years old his age after all… But they were willing to let it pass this once. They were innately curious after all…
"The people around us call our mother Joy; but I doubt that was what she was known as here… All of the names here are in Sindarin." Sam was curious too.
"How do you know about Sindarin? Your heritage allows you fluency in both languages! You shouldn't have noticed this much about our culture!" Gandalf was standing over Sam, who looked slightly scared now. Legolas got up and put himself between the two with a protective look on his face.
"Even if they are only half Elven. They still have direct elven blood! I will not allow you to intimidate them!"
"Peace Legolas! He means them no harm…" Thranduil looked at is son in understanding but firm rebuff.
"Joy is translated into Enelya in Sindarin." Aragorn had been watching the course of the conversation in silence but decided to put in his farthing worth. The Lothlorien group gasped in shock for what seemed the infinite time since they had arrived in Mirkwood. Really! It wasn't proper for elves to look like gaping fish all the time! It doesn't suit the image.
"Enelya was my sister! We thought she had died at Sauron's hands! Now you not only tell us that she is alive, but that she has had elfling's! I demand custody!" A blonde haired male Elf sitting next to Celeborn had pushed his chair back 2 metres in his haste to stand up.
"Demand Haldir?" Haldir felt the dark dangerous aura Legolas was giving off and decided to rephrase that.
"I mean I offer to look after the elfling's as they are my direct kin your highness!"
"YOUR HIGHNESS?! YOU'RE A PRINCE!!" Everyone looked once again at Alice and Sam. Sam sighed and placed his head in his hands in exasperation. Somebody needed to teach his beloved sister how to keep her voice down. That hurt! Still she had managed to divert the conversation; he gave her that much.
"Yes. I am the only son of Thranduil and heir to Mirkwood should my honoured father fall for some immense reason. Didn't you know?"
"He has a point Alice. All those sleepovers with your friends, and you didn't even know that?" Alice knew blatantly well what he was talking about and walked out of the hall her face flaming in embarrassment. Everyone else however was looking at them in complete and utter confusion.
"Sleepover?" Sam looked at Legolas with a nervous look in his eyes.
"Trust me. You don't want to know. It scares me to this day what I overhear at sleepovers…" Sam shuddered.
"Right…" Legolas still looked confused but let it drop. Sam turned to Gandalf.
"You wouldn't believe us right now if we told you how we know so much about Middle Earth. For now just accept that our parents told us a lot about this place ok?" Sam wasn't going to mention that it had been bedtime stories from The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings… He suspected Gandalf might freak at that.
"Should we go after her?"
"Leave her. She needs time to cool down and think, she'll come back when she's ready." Several elves looked at Sam surprised. This was a level of maturity unexpected from the young elfling.
"What? Just because most people my age like to bury their heads in the sand doesn't mean all of us do!" Hmm. That was enough for them to think about for now. Sam sat back in his chair in a relaxed gesture. Gradually the Elves and their guests relaxed and started eating and chatting once more. Although this time Alice and Sam were the subject of it. A place was found for a shell shocked Gandalf near the head of the giant table, he looked every now and again at Sam as if wanting to ask him more, but Legolas intercepted these every time, sending back warning glares of his own. Sam chuckled at the pair and turned to Gildor with a question he had been meaning to ask for some time now
"What date is it today?"
"It's 3rd March 2941. Why?" Gildor looked at Sam in curiosity as said elfling gasped in surprise.
"Ah. I hadn't realised. It's Alice's 18th birthday in 5 days time."
'Well that answered one question!' Gildor thought, 'and considering that Sam is younger than Alice by quite a few years he must practically be a baby! What a mature mind at such a young age! I had him for at least 50 years old with that mind!'
"I know she was planning on a big party with her friends with lots of music and dancing as it was her coming of age party." Sam huffed. "What will we do?"
"Coming of age? I thought men came of age at 16?"
"The land we've lived in for all our life is at relative peace for a while. So the age was changed to 18. Inevitably war occurred again, but we haven't got round to changing it back again yet…"
"We can't replicate exactly what she was hoping for… But if it is music and dancing she would like then we can certainly do that!"
'Besides. No good Elf passes up the occasion for a party. Especially if it concerns these two…'
"Let me go talk to Thranduil and Legolas. I'll see what we can arrange…" Gildor got up and dutifully went over to his king and liege. Although Sam thought it was with a bit too much spring in his step. Sam got up and made his way over to his cousin who he noticed had been glancing over in his direction for the past ten minutes.
"Sam! It's a pleasure to see you again!"
"Father wasn't kidding when he said you were named after the Rider of Rohan was he?" Sam laughed out loud with Eomer, although the other riders didn't get the joke. Sam curled himself up next to Eomer in a relaxed pose and Eomer, slinging an arm round his shoulders decided it was time for a man to man chat.
"This is all very confusing for you isn't it?" Sam sighed.
"I don't know where I stand anymore. Everything used to be so simple… But nooo… That's being too nice! Nope I'm an Elf in disguise, suddenly with a reason for all that speed, strength, agility and intelligence that I was bullied for. I feel out of place here and everyone's going out of their way to be nice and…" Sam drew in a shaky breath,
"Hey! It's ok! Look why don't we go for a ride? It'll clear your head… Did you bring horses with you?'
"We don't have horses. We live in the middle of the city…"
"Oh. Do you keep them on the outskirts of the town then?"
"We don't have horses at all… In fact I think I've only ever ridden once. Maybe twice…" Sam stopped talking as he noticed Eomer looking at him strangely. "What?"
"You're the only son of a rider of Rohan and you don't know how to ride?" Eomer was staring incredulously. "Come with me!"
Eomer led his cousin out of the hall as Thranduil announced the party occurring in 5 days time to celebrate Alice's 18th birthday.
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