::Blushes.:: Sorry it took me so long to get this part up. I know that probably only my friends are really reading this story, but I figure as long as someone wants to read it I'll write. The reason it took so long was that I sent it off to my beta, who had a lot of work on her hands as it was, so it took a while for her to get back to me. Then it got deleted. I had finals, work and graduation going. Then I had to retype it. But anywho.

I want to thank my beta, Silverangel, I *really* didn't want to screw the narrations up.

So here it is!

~*~

I appeared in the now well known to me, "misty room." My three Superiors were in front of me.

"There had better be a damn good reason as to why you dragged me away from the first vacation I have had in a few *centuries* when it has only just begun!" I crossed my arms and pressed my lips together. I like my job and I loved God, but I was worn out! And my Superiors drove me nuts! They were the beings in charge of all of the Travelers.

"We have an assignment for you," one of them said.

I blew out a breath. "I.e. My vacation is out the window." I sighed. "Ok, I'm ready." I braced myself to be literally dropped where ever the assignment was.

"Not quite yet," another Superior spoke up. I looked at them. "For this assignment it has been decided that you will have a partner."

I gaped at them. "Are you kidding? You know that I prefer to work alone!"

"You have in the past, yes," the third Superior agreed, "and you have done very well."

"So why rock the boat?" I had nothing against other Travelers, I had, on a few occasions, met up with some of them and sometimes asked for some help on a certain aspect of an assignment. But I had never worked *with* another Traveler. I worked alone, in fact I was called by many of my fellow Travelers and beings who knew what I was the "Lone Traveler." My name in M.E., Erfëa, meant, roughly, "Lone Spirit."

No. 2: "This will be her first assignment and we thought that this would be a good assignment for, not only you, but her as well."

I sighed. 'Great, a newbie.'

No. 1: "It will be a sort of apprenticeship."

"Wait! This person gets to have a seasoned Traveler show her the ropes, but for me you just dumped me in M.E., no help what-so-ever, no my first go?" I looked at each of them, incredulous.

The looked at each other; then turned to me and simultaneously said, "Yes."

I rolled my eyes and threw my hands up in the air in defeat. "Arg!" I blew out a breath. "Ok, so who is it?"

No. 3: "You will be able to as her yourself."

I looked at them suspiciously. "Where is she?"

No. 1 looked up toward where the ceiling *should* have been, though I had never seen one: "She should be here momentarily."

My eyes widened as I followed his gaze. "Oh no!" I groaned. 'This is *not* good!'

Someone was falling toward us. She hit the ground with a yelp of pain.

I winced sympathetically, knowing, from immeasurable amount of experience, how much that hurt.

"Where the *hell* am I!?"

I recognized that voice. My jaw went completely slack. "Liz?!" I squeaked in shock.

She leapt to her feet; she was about two years younger than me with chin length blond hair. Her blue eyes, which were already open wide, went even wider when she saw me.

"Mel?!" she cried.

I was able to smile weakly. 'Oh shit!' "Uh...hi?" I was completely chagrinned.

I then realized that she was gasping for air and might go into shock. "Breath, Liz. Breath," I encouraged her gently. "It's ok."

Liz took a couple of calming breaths; then said, "Ok, two questions: One: Where the hell am I?" She said this calmly. "Two: WHAT THE *HELL* IS GOING ON!?" She screamed that part.

I winced.

No. 1 stepped forward. "Please calm down Elizabeth. We shall explain."

I snorted and gestured into the mists; two seats appeared. Liz's eyes went wide again. I sat down and gestured her to do the same. "I would sit down if I were you. Not only will this take a long time, but trust me, you will *need* to sit down."

She eyed the seat a little distrustfully, but since nothing bad had happened to me when I sat down she seemed to decide that it must be all right and took a seat.

~*~ (Liz's POV)

(A.N. Since you already know the details of a Traveler's job I will spare you the long explanations that followed.)

The Superiors finished explaining everything to me then they, along with Mel, watched me silently. I just sat there, deep in thought.

Here I was, a normal fifteen-going-on-sixteen year-old. I had an older brother, who could be such a dork, but he was my brother. A mom, whom I loved and all in all got along with. And a dad, who sometimes drove me nuts, but I loved. I was a sophomore in high school. I *loved* to sing. I played badminton. I was addicted to wall climbing. And I wrote fan fiction.

Today started off like any other school day. I went to my classes and lunch, Mel often would pop in during the very beginning of the period and talk for a little bit before she went back to her class. Then as I was heading down the steps to the gym for the open gym time so that I could practice badminton I tripped on the third to the last step and fell. I had tried to grab the railing, but I missed. I closed my eyes in anticipation of hitting the floor, my hands in front of me, to break my fall. The fall had felt like it was lasting longer than it should; the next thing I knew I was sitting on my butt in this place.

"So?" Mel's voice drew me out of my thoughts. "Aren't you going to say something?"

I thought for a moment then turned to her. "Cool." My voice was calm, but excited.

She gapped at me. "'Cool'? You are just going to accept what you have just been told, that you can jump through different times and realms, with just a 'Cool'?"

I shrugged. "Well you are here and are acting normally and if this were a dream you would be acting weird, not normally. Besides, I have always known there was something weird about me."

The three Superiors looked at each other, then back at me.

No. 3: "Well that is certainly a different reaction than Melissa. She kept saying, 'This must be a dream. This must me a dream.'"

Mel gave them a withering look.

No. 1: "We must go now."

And they immediately disappeared, literally, into thin air.

"Hey!" I jumped to my feet. "Aren't you going to tell us what our mission is?!"

Naturally there was no response.

I turned to Mel. "Do *you* know what our mission is?"

"Nope." She stood up and the chair disappeared.

"Well, then, what are we supposed to do?"

She nonchalantly looked at the nonexistent watch on her wrist; then held up three fingers. "Three." She dropped one. "Two. One..."

And the floor dropped out from underneath our feet.

"What theeeeeeeee...!" I screamed. We free fell for quite a while until we hit the ground with a crash/clatter.

"Do they *always* drop us with no info like this?" I turned to Mel, who like myself, was fighting her way out of pots, pans and the like.

"To quote the immortal words of Piper Halliwell, 'Leave it to them to zap first and give instructions never." She finally was able to get up; I followed her suit. We headed out of the room, which I now saw was a small kitchen; we had to bend over slightly to get through the *round* doorway, which held no door.

We stepped into a sitting room...And my jaw hit the floor when I saw the room's soul two occupants. One was quite a bit shorter than Mel, the other occupant and I, while the other occupant towered over all three of us. The were looking at Mel and I with surprise. Mel said something to them in another language. Then she turned to me. "Liz, meet Gandalf the Grey and Frodo Baggins. What do you want your name to be?"

I looked at her, confused. "Say what?"

"You can't go by your Earth name here," she explained.

"Oh! Umm..." I thought. Liz was what my friends called me, short for Elizabeth. Beth was another nickname that my family called me, but that still a little too uncommon to be used here. I flipped through my mind, trying to find a name, when one thing came up: Rethe. I had heard it somewhere in reference to J.R.R. Tolkien's M.E. and it was close enough to Beth that I was pretty sure I could easily adapt to it and respond when called it. "Rethe. My name will be Rethe."

Mel raised an eyebrow.

"What?" I looked at her confused.

"That is the name of the third month in the Elvish calendar."

I grinned. "Cool, my birth-month."

She shook her head in amusement as she turned back to Gandalf and Frodo.

~*~ (Erfëa/Mel's POV)

When we first entered the sitting room of Bag End Frodo and Gandalf looked at Liz and I strangely. I told them, dryly, "Don't ask."

I turned and introduced Gandalf and Frodo to Liz and asked her what name she wanted, though I knew that Gandalf would know what her real name was since I had taught him English when he had taught me Elvish and Westron.

I was surprised when she chose Rethe since that was her birth month and I didn't think she knew that. But apparently she had heard of the name and it really was a lovely name.

I turned back to Gandalf and Frodo. "This is Rethe, my friend and fellow Traveler. She doesn't speak Westron, and she only knows a couple of words of Elvish."

"Mae Govannen, Rethe." Frodo extended his hand for her to shake.

~*~ (Rethe's POV)

Frodo Baggins put out his hand for me to shake and said, "Mae Govannen, Rethe."

I bit my lip and whispered to Mel as I slowly reached for his hand, "That means 'Welcome,' right?"

"Actually it means 'Well Met,' but when roughly translated, yes, it can mean 'Welcome'."

"How do you say 'Thank you'?"

"'Hannon le'."

"Hannon le, Frodo Baggins." I shook his hand, smiling.

I turned to Gandalf, he smiled, amusement twinkling in his eyes. He shook my hand and said something in another language that I did not understand. I was about to turn to Mel for a translation when he said, *in English,* "It is Westron, or Common Tongue, for 'Welcome'."

I want to bet that my eyes just about fell out of my head. "You speak English?!"

He chuckled.

"Gandalf taught me Westron and Elvish. At the same time I taught him English," Mel explained.

"And how did you two meet?"

"It was my first mission. They sent me her on the quest to Lonely Mountain..." She furrowed her brow, trying to remember. She turned to Gandalf. "How many years has it been here?"

"Seventy-seven."

"Hannon le." She nodded to him gratefully; then turned back to me. "Seventy- seven years-ago here, and two years-ago in our world."

I nodded, I had never read "The Hobbit" and thus didn't know really anything about what happened in it except that it was when Bilbo found the Ring, but something was nagging me at the back of my mind about it being seventy-seven years since "The Hobbit".

I noticed how Frodo was fidgeting, rather uncomfortable at being out of the loop.

I nudged Mel and nodded to Frodo.

At first she didn't quite understand, but then her eyes went wide with comprehension and embarrassment. "Ai, Frodo!"

~*~ (Erfëa's POV)

"Ai, Frodo! Edaved nin!" (Oh, Frodo! Forgive me!) I kicked myself for being so rude, and to my own host!" I had almost forgotten that Frodo didn't know English.

"It's alright, Erfëa."

For the first time since Liz - er - I mean Rethe - I needed to get used to calling her that so that I didn't slip-up - and I had arrived I noticed how Frodo was dressed. He was wearing traveling clothes; a pack was on his back and a walking stick in his hand. I then remembered that Gandalf had said that it was seventy-seven years since the Lonely Mt. quest; thus it was seventeen years since Bilbo's party...when Frodo set out from the Shire for Brie. I now had a good idea of what They wanted us to do.

I opened my mouth to explain why we were here when we heard a rustling in the bushes outside the window.

"Get down!" Gandalf told Frodo in a low voice. He grabbed his staff as Frodo dropped to the ground.

I looked over at Rethe and winked with an amused smirk.

She nodded with a smirk of her own. We both turned back to watch.

~*~ (Rethe's POV)

Things had become increasingly familiar as we had stood there, but everything had fallen into place now. I watched as Gandalf swiftly leaned out the window and hit Sam on the head. We heard Sam cry out in pain. Gandalf threw his staff behind him without looking. Unfortunately the butt end of it was heading straight at me. In instinctively grabbed it and flipped if in my hand so that it was upright.

Mel raised her eyebrows and muttered, "Nice."

I shrugged. "Badmintion."

We both turned back to see Gandalf all but throw Sam on the table. He shouted something in what I assumed what C.T. (Common Tongue), and although I didn't know the language I knew what he had said.

I had to fight to keep from laughing; I could see Mel and Frodo were in similar states.

Gandalf finally glanced up at the three of us, as if sharing a secret. Then he looked back down at Sam, leaning closer and whispering.

~*~

Gandalf sent Sam off, I assume, to get packed. I glanced down at my clothes, which I hadn't noticed until Mel - uh - Erfëa pointed it out to me. I was wearing dark brown britches and boots, a lavender shirt, a lighter brown tunic, which was cinched at the waist by a woven leather belt, and a dark brown hooded cloak. Erfëa was dressed the same as I, except she wore a dark blue shirt and leather arm braces, to protect her arms when she used her bow and arrows. Her bow and quiver were strapped to her back, with a pair of Elvish knives attached to the quiver. We were both carrying packs with food and other essentials.

Just after Sam left Mel told me to call her Erfëa, since that was her name here in M.E. I asked her how she came up with it. She just looked over at Gandalf and said that he had given it to her. She had then explained to Gandalf and Frodo that we had been sent here and that she believed that we were supposed to go with Frodo, which I was quite thrilled to hear. Gandalf, rather than arguing as I thought he would do at the thought of two "young ladies" going on a potentially dangerous mission, seemed relieved that we were going.

We first walked to where Gandalf had left his horse, which was where Sam was going to meet us.

He rummaged through one of the saddlebags until he pulled out a sword, it wasn't very big but it wasn't really small either, and handed it to me. "This should be a good weight for you to handle, not the best, but it will suffice, for I fear that you may need it."

I unsheathed it, testing it's weight, I twirled it like I often did with my badminton racket until I go the feel of it and it felt more comfortable in my hand; then I resheathed it and hooked it onto my belt. "^Thank you,^" I said in C.T., Erfëa had taught me how to say it.

He smiled. "You adapt very quickly, that will serve you well."

I grinned. "^Thank you.^ I really want to learn Elvish the most though."

He chuckled. "You are well on your way. You will have a lot of help from this group in both languages."

I smirked. "What better way to learn a couple new languages than total emersion?"

He chuckled.

Erfëa came over to us and extended a sheathed dagger to me. "In case the sword is beyond your use for some reason."

I stared at the dagger as I took it and unsheathed it halfway. I then looked up at Erfëa who gave me a grim smile. I hooked it onto my belt as well. "Thank you."

Erfëa nodded.

Suddenly we heard a clamor of clanging pots and pans and we looked up. I almost burst out laughing at the sight of poor Sam carrying the huge pack.

Once he had caught up to us Gandalf immediately began walking briskly; leading his horse. He called back to us in C.T. and I was pretty sure it meant something along the lines of "Come along" or the like.

He was the tallest of the group and his strides were so long that I almost had to run to keep up. Poor Sam was having the hardest time keeping up with us.

Finally we came to the point, in the movie, where Gandalf parted company from us. He knelt down in front of Frodo and spoke to him, I listened carefully, I knew the movie by heart and knew what Gandalf was saying to Frodo; I found myself able to pick out a few words and figure out what they were. I repeated them over and over in my mind to commit them to memory.

He then stood up and spoke to Erfëa in what sounded like Elvish.

"Yé. Namarié, mellon nîn." Erfëa nodded; then, abruptly, she hugged him. She pulled away and stepped back, next to Frodo.

Gandalf raised an eyebrow at Erfëa, but said nothing. He then turned to me. "It had been a pleasure to meet you, Rethe. Keep safe until we meet again."

I nodded. Then watched as he leapt onto his horse (and trust me when I say, seeing a man of his age leaping onto a horse is *very* odd) and rode off.

~*~

I don't know if that was any good, but it was most just a chapter to introduce Rethe. And if my characters are Mary Sue-ish I have gotten to the point where I don't care!