Disclaimer: This is a work of fanfiction. I do not own any of the character, places, names, or anything associated with the works of J.R.R Tolkien or the Lord of the Rings (books or movie, whatever). My characters are Anita, Leila, and Arlandria and that is all.

Author's Note: Thank you guys so much for your patience! I wrote this chapter well over a month ago but hated the first draft, and after weeks of staring at it not sure WHY I hated it I just scraped it and started over again. I ended up rewriting this chapter three times. Anyhow, no excuses and no more delays.

Chapter 29: Stand My Ground

The sun had started to reach its crest in the sky, and Anita was nowhere to be seen. After the little performance she had put on last night , trying to stab the Lord of Gondor and all, Leila could understand her twins absence from breakfast. But it was almost midday now, and Lei was at the end of her patience waiting for her mischievous sister to finally emerge from her hidden sanctuary. Normally Lei had far more tolerance for her twin's antics and general poor behavior, but her dreams had been plagued by nightmares as of late which were making her less than pleasant during the day. On top of the dark and twisted dreams there were also the secretive activities and meeting happening in her very own house, and none of it sat very well with the young elf.

Arriving at her sister's bedroom door, Leila was taken by surprise as the door opened mere seconds before she could knock on the hard wooden surface, leaving her standing there dumbfounded with her fist hanging in the air. Legolas seemed just as taken back by seeing Leila standing there as she was seeing him opening the door to her sister's room. After the short moment it took her to recover herself she lowered her arm, smoothed her hands over her dress to feign composure while shaking her head slowly.

"You two are not even trying to be subtle with your activities I see." Upon hearing Leila's voice, Anita materialized from behind the Elven prince and poked her head out of the doorway, the cascading locks of black hair tied into a simple braid over her shoulder.

" Morning Lei," The darker twin greeted her with far more energy and cheer than was characteristic of her personality. Leila's blue eyes slid back toward the handsome man standing next to her sister, there was little doubt in her mind that Anita's brightened mood was directly affected by the rekindling of their romance together.

"Ani I need to speak to you please, privately." It wasn't hard to tell that Leila was being very serious, the tone in her voice even hinting at something dire. Anita turned away from her sister to reach up and give Legolas a kiss on smooth perfect expanse that was his cheek.

"I'll see you tonight," She said dismissively, and the young prince bowed to them both before silently excusing himself from their presence. Both the girls watched his figure recede down the hallway, Anita had leaned back to rest her body weight against the door jam, while Leila stood rigidly; tension contorting her normally graceful stance. "So what's up?"

"It's such a lovely day, perhaps we should take a walk in the gardens?" In a household full of Elves, having a private conversation was a near impossibility. Always nearby there were a set of ears that could overhear any private conversation with ease. In the years since moving to Rivendell, the twins had come to an understanding between them that 'walk in the garden' was code for 'I don't want anyone to overhear this'. Anita immediately stood straight up, pulling her weight off the wall as a frown creased her face. Nodding in silence, Ani reached inside the doorway to her bedroom and grasped a leather belt complete with a leather dagger sheath before she closed her bedroom door. Sliding the belt around her waist to complete her simple legging and tank top ensemble, she began to follow her twin through the winding halls and staircases of their home. Leila however did not stop once they had exited the house, nor did she stop when they had entered the gardens, but instead continued to walk at a fast pace putting much distance between them and even the slightest chance anyone could overhear them.

"Lei what the crap?" Anita finally grabbed her sisters arm and dragged her to a stop as they neared the city's outer wall.

Leila's long flowing hair swirled around her shoulder's as she swiveled her head looking for another soul, finding none she finally answered. " Ani something is going on around here, I don't think that Dad or anyone for that matter has been very forthcoming with the truth as of late."

"Really? You think the people that orchestrated an eighteen year lie are lying to us? Say it ain't so!"

"Anita I am being perfectly serious," Lei hissed in response to her twin's sardonic attitude. "Haven't you noticed anything strange?"

"Leila," Ani said the name with a heavy sigh as the duo began slowly walking along the tall stone walls surrounding Rivendell, "We are the twin daughters of two Elves, and we live in a castle in a valley guarded by magic, and were brought here by a wizard…. I find very little falls under the category of 'strange' anymore."

"It's more than that though, or are you truly so oblivious? Glorfindel doubling the guard on patrol, the constant messengers coming and going, the way that our family abruptly changes the conversation when we enter a room, or despite that their escorts have left the lords of Gondor and Mirkwood are still here?"

Anita didn't have a reply for that last one. It wasn't all that unusual for guests to stay for a few weeks, but normally escorts remained with them, there wasn't any reasonable explanation that the girl could conceive of that would allow Legolas or Boromir to remain here without their escort guards.

"I think it has something to do with the hobbit." Leila's voice dropped into a secretive whisper.

"Bilbo?"

"No, no. Frodo. None of this started until he came here, that is also when my dreams became dark and fearful."

"I think you are being a little bit paranoid sis." Leila bristled as her twin's accusation. In her gut she could feel when something was wrong; in her heart she could feel that something was horribly amiss. Anita would have felt it too if she hadn't been so wrapped up in her little tryst with Legolas and Leila was acutely aware of that.

Coming around a small curve in the wall's great length, both the girl's ears pricked up when they heard the faint sound of voices. Continuing on in the direction of the voices, the elves were alarmed to find none other than the subject of their whispered discussion not a few moments before.

"Frodo…Sam…what are you two doing out here?" Leila and her sister came to a stop in front of the two small figures who were sitting quite comfortable with their backs against the trunks of a pair of trees, open books in their laps.

"It tends to become a bit crowded in the house." Frodo replied with an innocent smile, flipping the page of his book.

"Mr Frodo wanted from fresh air." Sam instantly jumped to the defense of his closest friend.

" I do not think that my grandfather would be pleased to see you both out this close to the walls, wouldn't you agree Ani? Anita?" Leila sharply snapped her twin's name when she didn't get a reply the first time, but Ani wasn't paying any attention to the conversation happening before her. Her dark discerning eyes were turned towards the wall, her head cocked slightly to one side as if she were listening intently.

"The birds…" She finally whispered to no one in particular.

"What about them?" Again Anita didn't answer back to her sister. Leila didn't notice because she hadn't been taught to notice such things, but Anita had. There were no birds, there was dead silence on the other side of the walls where wildlife lived uninhibited, free to come and go as they pleased. A cold shiver went down Ani's spine as a memory occurred to her about the last time there had been a distinct lack of such natural forest noises. Her head snapped around and her eyes came to rest on the curly dark haired hobbit sitting at the foot of the tree quietly reading. It had been when Glorfindel had rescued this small creature after being poisoned. Perhaps Leila wasn't so paranoid to think that the recent strange events were connected to this little man.

Ani turned her attention back to the wall when a peculiar sound finally began to drift from the space beyond the cities limits. Listening carefully, it occurred to her that the sound she was hearing was a sound she had heard before at the smithy…the sound of metal being roughly dragged over rocks.

"Leila is right, perhaps you all should to go back to the house."

Her grave voice caught Lei's attention. "Ani, what's wrong?"

"Leila Celeste," Anita said through gritted teeth as the sound coming from the wall grew steadily louder, " Take the hobbits inside the house."

Leila turned her head upward to follow her sister's eye gaze where it fell on the top ledge of the wall, several feet above their heads. As her eyes fell on the smooth stone, she focused on a bit of movement that caught her attention. An uncontrollable gasp fell from her perfectly heart shaped lips as the slight movement became the head of a goblin that had scaled the wall.

Ani reacted as her twin stood locked in place by the sight of the creature that was hauling it's mangled body over the wall like a bad zombie movie. She spun around and grabbed a hobbit in each hand, heaving the smaller people to their feet with one hard yank before practically throwing them in the direction of the house. Turning back, Anita roughly grabbed the back of her twins dress, yanking her off balance and pulling her from the catatonic state she was stuck in.

"Leila run!" The fairer sister took the hint, and without another second of hesitation, herded the two hobbits in front of her like a mother duck and made a break for the safety of the house. Anita unsheathed the small dagger she had, ever thankful she had remembered to grab it before leaving her room this morning, and fell into a half crouched position waiting for the goblin to fall to the earth below. Even as the filthy creature crested his climb on the wall, two more goblins appeared; pulling themselves over the smooth stone barrier as Ani's eyes widened in horror.

"Well shit." She mumbled to herself as the spark of panic had begun to grow in the pit of her stomach. Three against one with only her dagger as a weapon, those were not odds that the girl liked very much. She needed help. But as the panic was overwhelming her system it began to mix with the inevitable rush of adrenaline that her fight instincts gave her, she forgot the whistles she had been taught by Glo to call for the guard. Lark? No. Ravens? God no. Her mind was a blank, unable to remember the simple sequence of notes that would signal distress and bring the guards on duty to her aid.

It was far too late anyway. She felt the earth vibrate beneath her sensitive feet as the three intruders jumped from the top of the wall to ground in front of her. Anita positioned her body between the goblins and the escape path that her sister and the hobbits had used back to the town and the house, if nothing else she could slow these things down.

'Your greatest advantage in any fight, more so than your quickness and even moreso than your agility, your greatest advantage is that you are a woman.' Glorfindel's words surfaced unbidden from deep within her brain, the years of training she had undergone as his student taking over naturally. 'Because you are a woman, they will be unable to perceive you as a threat, but merely as easy prey."

Glo's words rung true as the three goblin intruders sized up the elf in front of them. They looked fearsome enough, but there was also a look that could almost be called bemusement etched across their mangled and ugly features. The first goblin advanced on her, almost lazily, so self-assured of his victory against a poor female elf.

'When you are outnumbered, you must strive for quick, efficient kills. You are not trying to impress them afterall, you are trying to survive.'

Ani's sharp eyes watched as the goblin swung his crude heavy weapon in a high arc, leaving himself exposed. Her reaction was fast. Springing forward from her crouching position, she brought her dagger up and sliced across the goblins unguarded throat. Even hearing the satisfying squish of blade sliding cleanly through the skin, Ani could hear her mentor's voice still encouraging her follow through on your kill. As her blade cleared past his gushing neck, she snapped in back, lodging it between the bones of his vertebrae in the space between the shoulder blades. Anita drew her knee up as her fist pushed the goblins body down, and she could feel the bones in its chest give way with the force of her knee's upward swing. With its throat cut, spine severed, and chest cavity collapsing, the goblin was dead before Anita allowed its body to hit the ground. She didn't stop to savor her first victory, but immediately dropped back into her half crouched position, awaiting the move of the two other opponents.

Seeing the lifeless form crumpled on the ground, one of the other goblins let out a bone chilling howl before it launched at her, its companion right on his heels. This time Anita didn't wait for him to swing his sword at her first. As the goblin flew at her, she caught sight of a knife hanging its belt and an idea brewed in her mind. Throwing herself forward into a roll in his direction, the goblin didn't have time to react to her tactic, swinging his sword clumsily and missing. As she rolled back onto her feet, she reached out and ripped the knife from the goblin's belt as his forward momentum spurred him past her. Using the velocity that her roll had granted her, Anita gripped the stolen knife and threw it at the third goblin. Her aim ever true, it struck the third oncoming threat in the forehead, cleaving the bone and puncturing the brain.

Ani spun on her heels back around to face the final intruder, and was rewarded by a solid backhand to her face. As she hit the ground, the elf realized only too late that she had misjudged the timing on her attack, and was now at a distinct disadvantage. She rolled through the leaves away from the goblin trying to regain her footing, but the goblin wasn't letting up; now fully aware of just what kind of threat this little girl was. Ani let out a cry as a booted foot smashed into her ribcage, not hard enough to break bones but there would be bruises for sure.

She was ready for it the second time. When the goblin swung his foot to kick her again, the girl caught the boot in her hand and used the goblins own weight to drag him off balance. The goblin made a heaving sound when his body crashed into the dirt, and Ani instantly scrambled to her feet. Dagger, dagger, dagger….where had she dropped her dagger? Her brown eyes scanned the leafy earth around her searching for her only weapon. There! She dove for it, acutely aware of the sound of the goblin getting to his feet behind her. As her fingers wrapped around the hilt, she could hear and feel his footsteps approaching. Survival instinct mixed with adrenaline were controlling her every movement now. Gripping the dagger in both hands, she turned and swung the small blade in a wide upward arc.

The spray of black blood that washed across her hands, arms, and face were the reward for successfully driving her dagger into the tender unprotected flesh of the goblin's upper thigh and forcing upward to cut underneath the chest armor, spilling his guts over the earth. The body went limp, and slowly slid itself off her blade to fall beside her. Anita remained frozen, kneeling, with blood and guts all over her hands still gripping the dagger.

After a moment, she stood and looked around her dazed and shocked by what had happened. The dead bodies and spilt blood…those were her doing. Anita realized she was shaking quite uncontrollably, her body still pumped up on adrenaline and exhilaration from surviving a goblin attack. But no sooner had that exhilaration set in than another thought trampled through her brain. Why were their goblins in her town? What would have compelled these creatures to risk sneaking around the guard to infiltrate the town? Just to attack her and her sister and two hobbits?

Anita wanted answers. She left the bodies there as she turned and stalked back to her house. She ignored the horrified looks she got from the other elves as she walked up the main road back through the town to her family's house. The blood was starting to dry on her arms and face, becoming sticky and itchy. She didn't care. The guards that had recently been posted at the front door didn't bother to stop her, in fact they scurried to get out of her way. The dark haired elf stomped up the stairs, past the tall columns in the hallway, and kicked open the door to her grandfathers' study.

"Anit…" But her father pulled up short when he saw the state she was in. Elladan dropped the book he was holding and came around the desk towards her. She shrugged off his hand when he tried to grab her arm, her eyes remaining locked on her target. Shoving past her father, Anita threw her dagger blade down onto the table in front of Glorfindel, the goblin's blood crusted to once shiny blade.

" 'Goblins will rarely risk entering out lands. Rarer still will they risk entering the Valley of Imladris…"

"Anita what…"

"' But NEVER," The girl continued as if her mentor hadn't interrupted her, " never has a goblin made it within the walls of this city'. Those are your words, Glo, 'never made it inside the city'. You want to explain to me how it is that three creatures that 'rarely' enter our valley managed to scale the outer wall and attack Leila the hobbits and myself?"

She didn't know if it was the dagger she had thrown at him, her tone of voice, or the fact that she was covered in the black blood of the goblins, but she knew by the look on her mentor's face that she was being taken seriously. There was an almost imperceptible flicker of Glo's eyes in the direction of where her grandfather was seated, an unspoken question clearly written on his face.

"Anita my dear," Elrond came over silently and placed a hand gingerly on her shoulder to draw her attention. "Sit down, there is something you need to be told."

Stand My Ground- Within Temptation