To make our story more appealing to the reader, it is necessary that I take a few steps back in our storyline and reveal what happened to the others in Middle-Earth when we left. Let's see….

White light, white light, GAH, and all that, er…

Zap!!!!!!

All of a sudden, we all disappeared, and Gandalf looked about him.

"It worked! My time experiment has succeeded! They're…gone. Uh-oh…."

At that precise moment when Gandalf realized what exactly he had done, Elrond walked into the room. Really bad timing and all that, but it wasn't his fault.

"Gandalf, have you any idea where Arwen is? I've been needing to talk to her, and..."

He trailed off as he saw the horrified look on Gandalf's face.

"Gandalf…what did you do?" He asked, praying it didn't involve his daughter in any possible way, yet knowing inwardly that, if irony existed at all, it did.

"Oh, uh, well, I was doing a bit of an experiment with the time-space continuem, and , uh---"

"The WHAT?!"

"A time experiment! And it sort of…well…I'm sure they are all completely fine and you have nothing to worry about. You see, I accidently sent them into a…er…timish little thingamabob…."

"you did WHAT?! To WHO?!"

"I sent your daughter into the future. But don't worry, she's with Galadriel and Aragorn, so she'll be fine."

You'd think Elrond would have had another outburst, but considering he'd already had two, he didn't really have anything else to do but give Gandalf the Icy Glare of Death. Lord Elrond was the master of that look. It makes you look about eight inches shorter than your real size, and considering how short us hobbits are already…oh, but Gandalf wasn't a hobbit. He was a wizard. But he was still shorter than Elrond, so the glare worked. Complete silence reigned for a total minute, then Elrond spoke.

"What part of 'With Galadriel and Aragorn' computes into your brain as 'fine', Mithrandir?" Elrond asked coldly, trying to keep a level tone.

"Oh, well…."

"Don't answer that," Elrond yelled, "just get my daughter back here before I-"

"Here's the thing," Gandalf began, but he got no further because the doors opened and Gimli the dwarf walked in looking for Legolas. Gandalf wouldn't have gotten far anyway, Elrond looked just about ready to pound the wizard's head in.

"Has anyone seen Legolas?" Gimli asked. Elrond glared at Gandalf murderously, and Gandalf spoke.

"He's…er…unavailable right now." Gandalf said, sounding like a voicemail or something. I mean…yeah…

"Don't tell me you sent HIM along too!" Elrond cried.

"Well, sort of…"

"How many people did you send?!" Elrond pressed.

"Oh, well, there's Arwen and Galadriel and Aragorn and Legolas—"

"Yes, we know THAT!" Elrond cut in.

"And Éowyn and Faramir and Éomer and Frodo and Sam and Merry and Pippin. Yep. That's about it." Gandalf finished.

If Elrond had been a lesser elf he would have fainted. The complete shock of his only daughter being sent into who-knows-where without his supervision was bad enough, but us poor hobbits…well, alright, so he probably wasn't that upset about Merry and Pippin, but I was the ringbearer, and thus, was important. As it was, there was now no king of Gondor or Rohan, nor a steward or his wife, nor a Lady of Lorien…need I go on? This was an awkward position for Gandalf to be in, for, as you've probably guessed, he had no earthly idea how to send us back. Typical, really.

Elrond took a deep breath and then spoke to Gandalf.

"You do realize the extremity of what you've done? You are going to have to explain to the citizens of Gondor and Rohan what happened to their rulers And, of course, you'll have to tell Celeborn about Galadriel."

Gandalf's eyes widened.

"Well, howsabout I tell the people of Gondor and Rohan about their kings, and you tell Celeborn about Galadriel."

"Why me?" Elrond said with a sly smile, "What do I have to do with this?"

"He…knows you better!"

All this time, Gimli had been standing there, calculating in his head precisely what Gandalf had done. Or at least trying to.

"So you sent Legolas and a whole bunch of public figures into the future?" he asked finally, almost not believing it.

"Yes…"

"Well, just send them back!"

"It doesn't quite work that way." Gandalf protested.

"He's trying to say that he has no idea how to do it!" Elrond cut in.

"I do have an idea, it's just….I…need to know exactly where in time they've landed so I can reverse the formula and all that. Perhaps they got lucky and landed in a time with miraculous inventions, and they can get themselves back."

"I highly doubt that!" Elrond shouted.

"What will we tell the people?" Gimli asked.

"The truth, of course!"

"No, we can't!" Gandalf cried, "We can't just walk up to the citizens of Gondor and say 'oh, I'm terribly sorry, but your king and queen and steward have been zapped into the future and we don't know how to get them back'! It would cause mass panic!"

"As well it should." Elrond mused.

"So…we're going to lie?" Gimli pressed.

"Yes!" Gandalf decided, "We'll say that they went to the Bay of Belfalas for a swim, but got captured by pirates!"

"They're never going to buy that!" Elrond scoffed.

"Well, almighty Elf Lord, have you any better ideas?"

"Yes. Just simply pretend we don't know anything about it. The disappearance baffles us. No one but us three knows what really happened, so if we pretend we don't know either—"

"But that's bound to cause more mass panic than telling the truth!" Gandalf cried.

"I say we tell them that they've all found magic rings that made them invisible. But the rings got stuck on their fingers, so they can't get them off." Gimli suggested.

"No, how about they fell down some diggings deep in the palace dungeons?" Gandalf countered.

"And what were they doing there? No, I say the Valar graced them with a look at the divine and so they'll be detained from everyday life for a while." Gimli said.

"Highly improbable. It would be more likely that one of the blue wizards became evil and decided to come back and wreak havoc on Middle-Earth by depriving it of its leaders."

"That's preposterous, the lot of it!" Elrond finally said, "Don't you see what needs to be done? One of us has to go into the future, year by year, until we find them."

"Or we could let Gandalf try his magic incantation for every year into the future instead." Gimli said.

"No, it would end up bringing back all sorts of creatures with it." Gandalf shuddered, "No, no. The only way is if we send someone to a different year each day, then we send them back in the evening, and they say if they've found anything or not."

"But the person would have to brave terrible dangers and witness all sorts of horrific future events!" Gimli gasped, "They would be scarred for life!"

"Send me." Elrond sighed, "I have forsight, so I know how to deal with knowing horrific future events, and as for braving terrible dangers, well, I fought many battles in my time, you know. You'll have to make do with the pirate excuse, it's the most logical one out there, even if it is ridiculous."

"What are we to tell your sons?" Gandalf asked.

"I'm on the pirates' tale with a boatload of sailors. I don't know, be creative." Elrond said, "I have to go pack, I'll be back in about an hour."

As the Elf Lord left, Gimli raised his eyebrows.

"Wow. He's got pluck, that one. For an elven lord, that is."