It had been two days since the orc had "attacked" their camp. They were
camped along the Anduin River and were
planning to set out as soon as the sun dawned on the horizon with the boats
they had gotten from a small town only about a
mile away. Aragorn was on watch as everyone slept, or looked like they were
asleep, for that matter. He was deep in thought so he didn't notice one
person slipping into the shadows and sit next to the river, but Emma did.
She lightly shook the hobbit next to her to get her to wake up. When the
hobbit opened her eyes to see who was disturbing her sleep she groaned and
rolled onto her other side. Emma rolled her eyes and tried again, this time
succeeding in getting the hobbit to listen to her.
"What do you want?" the hobbit asked rolling back over to look at Emma.
"Kristen, I think something's wrong with Sara," Emma replied. "You know she
doesn't like being away from her family for any more than two weeks and I
think coming to a different world isn't helping."
Kristen stood up and looked around trying to adjust her eyes to the
darkness. Once she did she finally saw Sara and started walking over to her
with Emma following. Kristen sat down next to Sara and Emma did the same.
Kristen looked at Sara with a worried look. She had never seen Sara like
this; she looked like she was scared.
"Sara, are you okay?" Kristen asked. Sara just shook her head and wiped
away the tears welling up in her eyes.
"What's the matter?" Kristen asked. Sara just sat for a moment before
answering.
"I want to go home," Sara replied. Kristen closed her eyes, she had been
afraid of this.
"Why?" Emma asked.
"I was fine until that orc came to our camp. Kristen could have died and I
realized that that could have been me. I never wanted to come here in the
first place!" Sara said. The orc had scared her! That's why she has been
acting so strange the past couple of days! Kristen thought.
"You think it will happen again?" Emma asked.
"I don't know, but I do know that I don't want to be here if it does
happen," Sara said looking out at the running water.
"But there is no way to get you back home. Besides, there has to be three
of us here. Where would we find someone else?" Kristen said trying to get
everything sorted out in her brain.
"Ashley seems more interested in this stuff then I am. What about her, or
Caleb or Ellie? Even they are more interested in this then me," Sara said.
"Caleb! I may have said I missed him, but not enough to let him tag along
as my shadow! He's been doing that since he was born!" Kristen yelled
getting the attention of everyone else at the camp who were, by now, awake
and getting ready to leave.
"And what is with Ellie?! How can you tell us to bring her along when you
know that I can't stand her!?" Emma practically screamed.
"Sorry! I just thought I'd make the suggestion, I wasn't telling you to
bring them if you didn't want to!" Sara replied.
"If there was any way to get back we'd bring Ashley along, but we can't get
back," Kristen said going into her brainstorming mode, which, by now, her
two friends had gotten used to.
"Maybe Gandafl could help us! I remember hearing Lord Elrond talking to him
just before we left. He was thanking Gandalf for helping Isung get to our
world and bring us back," Emma said.
"It's worth a try. Emma, since it was your idea you can ask him. I think he
got mad at me when I disappeared today, delaying our journey," Kristen
said. All three laughed as they remembered what she had done.
~*~FLASHBACK ~*~
They had just entered the small town that no one in the group knew the name
of, and were in search of boats. They finally found some and while Gandalf
tried to make a deal with the seller Kristen absent mindedly wandered off.
No one seemed to notice that she was gone until Frodo went to talk to her,
but she was nowhere to be seen.
"Where is Kristen?" he asked. Everyone gave him a puzzled look like he had
gone insane and looked around to find her and point her to the poor hobbit,
but to avail. Frodo told Gandalf, who was still trying to make a deal with
the seller, what had happened. They talked about it until Frodo came back
with the news that they would go to look for Kristen while Gandalf made a
deal with the seller.
They searched the small town for about an hour before Sara and Emma found
her. It turned out that someone had asked her to watch their children they
left for five minutes. When they returned they invited her back to their
house for something to eat. Being a hobbit, she accepted, without telling
anyone else, and left.
When they returned and told everyone what had happened they all laughed,
everyone, that is, except for Gandalf
~*~END FLASHBACK~*~
"Why can't Sara ask?" Emma asked.
"Because. she just can't. Now go! We will be right behind you," Kristen
said standing up and pushing Emma, who was already standing, towards where
Gandalf was resting against a tree smoking his pipe. Emma walked over to
Gandalf with the hobbits on her heals.
"Gandalf?" she asked. Gandalf looked up.
"Yes?" he asked.
"We have a question," Emma said. "We were wandering if there was any
possible way to get us back home for about five minutes."
"Why?"
"Well, you see, Sara is home sick, so we thought that we could go home,
drop her off, get another one of our friends, Ashley, and come back. Ashley
should be at the time-share by now. Please," Emma said as the other two
gave him pleading looks.
"Alright, alright. Get ready," Gandalf said standing up. He chanted for a
minute and the next thing they knew they were back in the time-share. They
noticed a smell coming from the kitchen and ran to see what it was.
Standing in front of the counter was Ashley. There was a bag of popped
popcorn in one hand and a drink of Dr. Pepper in the other. Ashley smiled
when she saw them.
"Hey guys, how's Middle Earth?" she said. That really confused them. How
did she know? "Your families left a few minutes ago to get something to
eat. Last night an elf, although in my opinion she looked more like a
fairy, came and told us where you were. What are you doing back so soon?"
"I got homesick and they need you to go back to Middle Earth with them,"
Sara said.
"Go to Middle Earth? With you two?" Ashley said getting a horrified look on
her face that soon turned to one of excitement. "Are you kidding!? I'd love
to go!" Everyone smiled. Emma Kristen, and Ashley hugged Sara goodbye
before running into the living room. After waiting for about thirty seconds
they found themselves in Middle Earth standing in front of Gandalf.
"You must be Ashley. Welcome to Middle Earth," he said.
