They had been wandering around aimlessly for hours now and Millie's feet were hurting. Having spent so much time moaning about her arse(that's aRse not ass by the way)on the way to Rivendell, she didn't think she should start complaining now. So Neithan did it for her.

"Bugger." He hissed as he stubbed his toe for probably the hundredth time since he'd entered the mines. "Is there no chance we could stop for a while, I swear we've been walking in circles for the past hour. I'm sure I've seen that total blackness before…"

"Sure you have…" Emma had finally begun to stop being quite so moody, but wandering around half-blind in a vampire nest for hours on end has a way of getting on people's nerves, and she still hadn't quite forgiven the boy for being so 'different' when he remembered what she was.

"Maybe we should stop." Millie suggested.

"As if Neithan wasn't strange enough earlier siding with you, now you're gonna be just as strange and side with him…amazing."

"Emma, you don't seriously expect us to walk round here forever do you? If we're found by the vamps I would like to be awake enough to fight them."

"I never said we couldn't stop, I just pointed out the strangeness of you siding with him."

"Great so you want to stop too, that just leaves Legolas…"

"I don't want to stop, I just don't mind if we do."

"What ever it still leave Legolas whatever you say, so…"

The elf had been very quiet, as usual, now he seemed barely to notice he had even been addressed until Millie nudged him, "Oh, sorry, yes um we probably should stop, sleep, eat and such."

"Are you Ok Legolas?" Emma asked, genuinely worried for the elf.

"Of course, I was just…thinking."

"Oh."

What Legolas had been thinking about was Millie. He was worried about her newly developing powers for one thing. He was also trying to decide how he felt about the girl who was so strange to him-strange but lovely. Most of the women he knew were dull in comparison, but there was still so little he knew about the girl.

When they finally did find a place to stop and had eaten some of the small supply of food they had brought with them, Millie and Emma ended up talking:

"Do ya think we'll ever get home?" Emma asked.

"Of course." Millie answered with her usual if misguided enthusiasm.

"How?"

"Oh we'll just get rid of the vampires, quest about Middle-Earth for a while, you know just until we're starting to get used to it. Then we'll come across-totally by accident mind-some powerful spell that'll send us straight back where-and when-we came from. We'll eat pizza and chocolate, sing, dance and generally be merry, then realise that we're so used to this place we can't remember any maths-or physics in you're case since you dropped maths."

"As long as we don't die some long and painful death here."

"As if! Some puny vamps couldn't kill us!"

Emma smiled, "Ever the optimist…so if we do go back home-and I get to eat chocolate!-will ya miss Legolas?"

"Huh?"

"I think he'd miss you?"

"What makes you think I wouldn't just take him with me?"

"Where would he stay? Plus an elf on Earth…it'd be worse than us in Middle-Earth, not that it wouldn't be fun, but…"

"Fine he can stay here, I think I could live without him."

"Aww, I thought he was kinda sweet on you."

"If you're gonna start talking about whose 'sweet on' who-very strange phrase by the way-why don't we talk about Neithan?"

"What about, Neithan?"

"What'd he do? You don't sound too happy with him? Do ya need me to sort him out?"

"Do you need an excuse to 'sort him out'? I'm surprised you two haven't killed each other yet, and I thought we were bad!"

"Don't avoid the question."

"It just annoys me how he can be fine and…just fine one minute and then suddenly changes when he remembers what I am."

"What you are?"

"A fucking werewolf. It's not like I asked to be one!"

"I thought you'd quite like being a werewolf."

"So did I, until I became one and people started trying to kill me for it."

"Look, just talk to him, I'm sure he'll be fine with it, when he gets used to it."

"Hmm…hey I thought you didn't like him anyway."

"He's starting to grow on me, but couldn't you have taught him a slightly better swear than 'bugger', it annoys me."

"I never told him that."

"It sounds like the crappy sort of thing you'd say."

"Well it isn't, I only really say fuck and shit."

"And then only once every blue moon."

"Piss of Millie."

"So anyway, if you didn't tell him that, where the hell did he get it from? I never said it!"

"Well I don't think anyone in Middle-Earth would say it, as far as I know."

"Well as you're the expert in such things I'll agree with you. Which still begs the question of where it came from. And that's not the only strange thing about him."

"Hmm?"

"Well like how does he know so much about these vamps, and he knew about werewolves and things too."

"Add that to his totally unMiddle-Earthian vocab and the fact that he can fight like…well just fight very well and yet is only a stable hand…and there's definitely something strange about him."

Millie nodded, "Maybe you should talk to him…"

"What?"

"Just see what you can find out about him, where he's from, how he learnt to fight and where the hell those swords come from."

"Where the swords come from?"

"Yeah, I quite like them." Millie grinned.

"Why me?"

"'Cos he likes you."

"But I don't know what to say to him?"

"Say 'hello I think you're an evil bastard' for all I care, just go find out if he is."

"If he is what?"

"An evil bastard. Oh and if he is…I want his swords!"

Emma sat down next to Neithan, she suddenly felt very hot and didn't at all want to speak with him, but Millie was very good at convincing people to do things.

"Um…look I'm sorry about being such a git earlier."

"You were in a really bad mood, it's not you're fault." Neithan replied easily, "And, I'm probably more than a little to blame for that." He continued a little less easily, "Sorry."

"Look I can't help what I am, I'm not usually a werewolf you know, I'm normally quite dull."

"I like dull." Neithan replied with a smile he hoped the girl could see through the darkness even though he still couldn't really see her. "I'm not exactly the most exciting person in the world my self."

"But you can fight like…well like someone who can fight…very well, you know?"

Neithan laughed making Emma frown though he didn't know it in the darkness, "Thanx."

Emma tried to remember any of what Millie had told her, what was she supposed to be finding out? Did it even matter? "Um, where did you learn to fight by the way, it doesn't really seem the sort of thing a stable hand would learn."

"Oh…around."

Very suspicious…but not very informative. "Millie said you know something about werewolves?"

"Only, you know, the basic things…wolf bite, full moon etc. why?"

"Oh…um, I'm just generally curious." And want to know if you're an evil bastard… she added silently. How was she supposed to find out anything from him! "Do you now anything about this guy the vamps follow?"

"What Radhnor(do you know how long it took me to find this name? Ok so only three minutes, but it seemed a lot longer than that!) He's a sorcerer of some kind I think, the vamps are under his thrall. Why? I have no idea. And I have no idea what he wants to do with them."

"Do with them?"

"Well he must have brought them here for some reason."

"Brought them here?"

"Well they're not from Middle-Earth are they?"

"I guess not. So where are they from?"

"Did you have vamps wherever you came from?"

"What makes you think I'm not from Middle-Earth?"

Neithan laughed again, "It's kinda obvious, the rest of the council may be fooled into believing you're from some lost village somewhere but even Legolas can guess you're not from this world."

"Atan thought the Valar had sent us."

"He would, very religious, if you can call it religion. Did they?"

"Did who what?"

"Did the Valar send you?"

"I don't know, we certainly weren't expecting to end up here."

"Are there vampires where you come from?"

"Not real ones, there's books of them, but then there's books of this place so that doesn't mean that they don't exist somewhere. So you think this Radhnor guy used some magic to suck vamps out of some parallel dimension and drop them off here?"

"Something like that, and maybe, somehow, that weakened the walls between realities and you and your friend ended up here as well."

"Maybe. So how would we get back?"

Neithan paused for a moment as if thinking about that, or maybe just about the fact that she would be going home. "I 'spose you should be able to reverse the spell Radhnor used, send the vamps back, and you too…maybe."

"Maybe, or maybe we'd end up with them in whatever world they come from."

"If we knew how the vamps got here it might be easier to work out how to send them…and you back. At least we wouldn't have to kill them all!"

"There is that, so even if me and Millie end up in a world ruled by vamps, we'll at least know this place is safe…great comfort."

"It's not all that bad."

"What isn't?"

"Huh?"

"What isn't that bad?"

"Um…I mean you probably won't end up in a world ruled by vamps." The boy answered unconvincingly.

"Sure."

"Plus we have to get to Radhnor without being killed or…"

"Vampified?"

"Something like that."

"I guess, you know I always wanted to see Middle-Earth, now I think I'd rather have stayed at home."

"Has it really been that bad?"

"Oh between finding out I'm a werewolf, getting attacked by God knows what and generally being pissed off at everyone…oh not that bad at all!"

"There's been nothing you'd miss?"

"Oh some things…archery's cool, and the horses and…"

"Yes?"

Instead of answering she touched her lips gently to his feeling a little self-conscious as he took her in his arms again.