Ssam: I'm glad you like the story! I hope you'll stay with it!  And I'll try to explain their powers, demons, and stuff as I go for people who don't watch Charmed a lot.

Sarah: My very first reviewer!! you like how I crossed charmed and lotr? I seriously don't think that there are enough of those kind of stories out there.  And I know that Belthazor was dead, but let's just say he got resurrected, okay?

Ch. 2

Arrival at Rivendell

Angel stirred in her sleep.  For a brief tantalizing moment she thought she was back in her bed at home.  Then the memory of what had happened came rushing back to her.  She sat up and opened her eyes, and stared dumbstruck at her surroundings.  She was in a large bed beneath the covers of a soft velvety blanket.  The room she was in was large and decorated with various pieces of beautifully carved furniture.  Beside the bed there was a tall nightstand and a table.  Somebody had cleaned her switchblade and put it there, but apparently they did not know how to retract the blade, because it was still out, glinting in the moonlight.  There was a balcony outside nearby supported by pillars wrapped with flowering vines and orchids.  The stars glittered in the blue-black sky.

Where the hell am I?  Angel leapt off the bed with a mounting feeling of confusion and fear.  Her jeans were rolled up to the knee on one leg, and her calf was bandaged with some soft white dressing.  She walked the length of the room, wincing in pain with every step.  She was limping, but with some effort she could conceal it.  Angel still had on her pullover, but someone had taken off her shoes.  She turned her gaze toward the foot of the bed and saw that her sneakers were there.  There were also the half-healed cuts and bruises, but otherwise, she wasn't too badly hurt.

There was a loud click as the bedroom door suddenly opened.  Angel jumped and whirled around, holding out her hand as she prepared to vanquish another demon.  But it was not a demon that stepped over the threshold, it was a man – or was it?  He had long dark hair and was wearing a circlet of silver on his head.  He gave her the impression of someone stern, but powerful and was dressed in medieval-looking light purple robes.  Angel had an odd feeling that he was not completely human.  He saw her and smiled.  Angel lowered her hand.  Maybe he was not an enemy.  He said something in a strange, unintelligible language.  Angel stared at him quizzically. (A/N: No. . . this is NOT Elvish I'm talking about here.   Elrond is speaking Westron, which Angel does not understand b/c English and Westron are not the same thing.)

Angel just stared at him with a look that must have made her look like a befuddled toad.  If she was going to get anywhere around here, at the very least she had to understand what others were saying.  A translation spell would work nicely, but. . . did she know one?  She dug deep into her memory and tried to remember such a spell.  Under her breath, she muttered as quietly and indistinctly as she could,

"Please help me understand

This stranger from a distant land,

Come he far or come he near

Take our words, and make them clear."

Elrond's sharp elven hearing picked up the incantation, though he understood none of it.  To him, Angel realized, it must have sounded like rambling.  'Great,' Angel thought glumly.  'The first person I come across in this place, and he thinks I'm mad.'  Angel did not answer. 

Elrond repeated the statement.  "I see you have awaken." 

She watched him warily, not yet ready to call him a friend.  Her years of fighting evil had taught her to never trust too readily.  "Who are you, and what is this place?"

He walked towards her.  "I am Elrond, master of Imladris.  You are in Rivendell, city of the Elves." He gazed at her with gray eyes.  "Perhaps I may ask you who you may be."

"My name's Angel," she said.  "Um . . . what happened?"  But even as she was saying this, her mind was somewhere else.  Elves?  But Elves were only about the size of Dwarves, and this man was the same height as any human.  And where was Rivendell?  She had seen a lot of strange stuff as a Charmed One, but she wasn't ready to buy that one yet. 

"My scouts found you unconscious in the forest and brought you here into the refuge of Rivendell." 

Angel blinked.  Middle-earth?  Elves?  Where was she?  Had she somehow been taken into another country?  What she wouldn't give now to be at home with Adrian, Kendall, and Wyatt.  They would be worried sick by now.

Elrond had been watching her with concern.  Perhaps the head injury had affected her memory.  She had an expression as if she did not understand anything he had said.  "Where are you from, my child?"

Angel frowned.  She was eighteen and could hardly be called a child anymore.  "New York City."

"New York City?  And where may that be?."

"It's in America." 

"I have never heard of such a place." 

"You've never heard of the America?" asked Angel incredulously.  What kind of a place had people who had never heard of America?  "You know, the United States, land of the free, home of the brave?"

Elrond smiled amusedly.  "Home of the brave, is it?  Such a land is unheard of among those who inhabit these areas."

Suddenly a tall man walked into the room.  He resembled Elrond, and Angel guessed that they must have been related.  He had those same gray eyes, the long dark hair, and the proud way he held himself.  He turned his gaze toward Angel.  "Welcome to Rivendell.  How fare you, my Lady?" 

 "I'm fine, thanks.  I'm Angelyn Halliwell, Angel for short," she said with a slight blush.  No one had ever called her "Lady" before.  And coming from a cute stud like him too. But at least it was better than "my child."

"I am Elrohir.  It is good to see that you are well."  He looked at Elrond.  "Ada, may I escort the Lady Angel to the dining hall?"

"Very well," said Elrond as he turned towards the balcony opposite the bedroom door. 

Angel bent down and tugged on her sneakers. Elrohir held the door open for her and offered her his hand. 

Angel put her hand in his and murmured a soft thank-you.  She was unused to such courtesy from a guy.  'If only the guys back home were as civil . . .'Wyatt could certainly learn a lot about being a gentleman from this Elrohir.  'Or as hot . . .'

They were walking down the halls of Rivendell.  Angel gazed around in amazement at the place Elrond and Elrohir called Rivendell.  She had never known a place so serene and beautiful. 

"How old are you, Lady Angel?" 

"I'm eighteen."

"Only eighteen years old?" laughed Elrohir.

Angel looked at him, slightly puzzled.  "Yes, why?"

"Eighteen is no age for a child of the Edain to wander off on her own without companion or weapon," said Elrohir. 

Elrohir himself looked hardly more than twenty.  "How old are you, then?" 

"I am over two thousand years old."

Angel smiled skeptically.  "Two thousand years old?  Right . . . How old are you really?"

"I do not aim to ensnare you in a falsehood," insisted Elrohir. 

Angel had to take a few seconds to translate what he had said into normal English.  "Uh-huh.  And I suppose you're immortal as well?"

Elrohir nodded. 

 Angel just stared.  Elrohir was not showing any signs that he was joking.  She was ready to tell him to stop kidding around with her when she realized that it was not altogether impossible.  One of the hardest demons she, Adrian, Wyatt, and Kendall had ever vanquished was an immortal devil from the underworld.  Knowing how stupid she would sound if Elrohir was teasing, she asked "Really?"

"Yes.  All Elves are immortal."

Angel did not respond.  She was beginning to suspect that she had been transported much farther than she had thought.  "Am I still on Earth?"

"Earth?"  Elrohir turned to her with a confused look.  "We reside in Middle-earth."

The color drained out of her face.  "I'm not even still on Earth?" she asked with a feeling of dread.  "Are you telling me I'm in another world?"  'How the hell did this happen?  How was that demon able to create a portal to another world?'

Despite her panic, Angel tried to keep a level head.   As they resumed their walk, she took a deep breath.  She was in a world called Middle-earth with Orcs and Elves.  There was a demon loose and she had no idea how to get back home.  She would orb if she could, but it was Wyatt and Adrian who had that power.  And unless Wyatt or Adrian could hear her from a world away and orb her back home, she could be stranded here forever.  Or unless they could obtain a spell to find her.  And she was sure that they could.  So all she had to do was to wait until they found that spell.  Angel sighed.  Today was supposed to be a chance to be 'normal' and it had all backfired in her face.

"Is everything all right?" asked Elrohir with concern.

"Yes.  I got attacked by a bunch of . . . of orcs and I got transported into another world, but yes, I'm okay.  I've never been better," said Angel in an unnaturally high voice.  If she wasn't a witch she would have freaked, but being attacked by the forces of evil every week had taken away most of the shock. 

They walked in silence for a few moments.  A group of Elves passed them, speaking in a flowing, almost musical, language that Angel assumed could only be Elven.  They halted and looked at Angel with mild curiosity.  Angel noticed that they were all pretty good-looking.  Are all Elves hot or something? 

One of them smiled at Elrohir.  "Greetings, Elrohir.  The Lady has recovered, I take it?"

"Yes, Lindir.  We shall see you in the Hall of Fire after dinner and our tour," answered Elrohir. 

Angel forced a smile.  "Hi.  My name's Angel."

"I am Lindir.  Welcome, Lady Angel, to Rivendell."  Lindir looked at her with light blue eyes.  "Enjoy your meal and tour."

Angel said her thanks and bye as they left.  It was nice to be in a place where everyone was so welcoming, but she still missed New York.  And yet she tried to forget the fact that she had been thrown violently into another world.  Wyatt, Kendall, and Adrian would find her somehow, she assured herself.  They would be frantic once they found she was missing.  Or maybe they had already found out.  "How long how I been asleep, Elrohir?"

Elrohir was glad that she was not sounding too distressed.  But perhaps that was because she was still in shock.  "Since morning you have slept, Lady Angel."

Angel opened her mouth to reply, but her stomach gave a very audible growl.  Angel blushed scarlet with embarrassment.  In the light of everything that had happened, she had forgotten that she hadn't eaten all day. 

But Elrohir smiled.  "I see that you are hungry.  We are not far from the dining hall." 

Seconds later, the hallway opened up to a great room.  Elegant tables and chairs filled the room beneath tapestries hanging from the ceiling.  The entire right side of the dining hall was open to the starry night, extending outwards like a balcony.  But it was the Elves that amazed her the most.  They seemed to be surrounded by a golden aura that she could see out the corners of her eyes, though every time she tried to get a closer look, it seemed to disappear.  And Angel was puzzled by it.  Auras were the soul energy that every human possessed.  Its strength was determined by the amount of goodness a person created.  But auras weren't visible, in any case, not normally.  But seeing it helped her relax a bit.  At least she could be sure now that these Elves weren't evil, though she had never believed that they were.  

Elrohir led her onto the balcony, greeting many of the Elves as they passed.  They approached a table close to the rim of the balcony, and Angel felt her anxiety ebb a little.  Apparently, she wasn't the only one who was not an Elf.  There was an old man with a long grey beard and white hair, sitting beside four beings who were distinctly shorter than all the others.  There were other Elves, one of whom Angel recognized: Elrond.  There was also another Elf who looked a lot like Elrohir.  Wait. . . he looked almost identical to Elrohir. . .

Elrohir noticed her bewildered glance at Elladan and smiled.  He walked over to his brother and placed a hand on his shoulder.  "This is my brother, Elladan.  It is my pleasure to introduce you to the Lady Angel.  To his left is my father, Elrond, as you already know.  Seated across from him is Peregrin Took, Meriadoc Brandybuck, Frodo Baggins, and Sam Gamgee," he said, indicating to the four short beings.  "And beside Sam is Mithrandir, or more commonly known as Gandalf."

"Um. . . hi!" said Angel meekly.  She wasn't exactly sure what she was supposed to say.

This was more awkward than when she had been introduced in the front of the class when she had transferred to Central Park High School.  Elrohir pulled out the chair beside Peregrin and Angel took her seat, breathing a small sigh of relief as one by one, the curious looks receded and conversation resumed at the table.  Elrohir sat down beside his brother.  Peregrin and Meriadoc turned to her with cheerful grins. 

"Hello miss.  I'm Peregrin Took, but I generally go by Pippin, or even Pip," said one of them.

"You can call me Merry," said the other. 

"I'm Angel," replied Angel.  She smiled, glad that these two, at least, were friendly and not quite as stiflingly formal as the Elves. 

"Angel," repeated Pippin.  "It is a strange name –" he faltered at a sharp jab in the ribs from Merry.  "– but a good one," he added hastily. 

Angel laughed.  "I know that it's not a name that most parents would name their kids, but my parents were never really the type to go by the traditional way of doing things."

Pippin noticed that she used 'were' instead of 'are', but he bit back his question. 

Two hours later . . .

Angel lay in bed, exhausted but feeling more content than she had in a long time, despite the fact she was in a strange world and didn't have so much as an inkling as to how to get back.  Elrohir had escorted Angel back to the room after the meal and a brief tour of his home.  He told her that she could stay in that room now, and to ask him if she needed anything. 

Rivendell was by far the most beautiful place she had ever seen.  Building it must have been an enormous task, a feat that not even the architects of the World Trade Center could brag about.  Rivendell was in perfect harmony with nature.  The Elven city was built into the walls of a valley, surrounded by cascading waterfalls and lush vegetation.  And the way the silvery starlight seemed to soak the entire city with its eerie radiance gave it a surreal and dreamlike quality. . .

The evening had been nothing short of fascinating.  She was in the company of beautiful, immortal beings with auras so strong that they could be seen.

And she had also been invited to some sort of council tomorrow.  Angel frowned slightly.  From the way they talked about it, this council seemed to be of great importance.  It was Gandalf the wizard who had invited her, and she could easily tell that Elrond and the others did not understand why.  And they were right.  Why would Gandalf invite her to such an important meeting?  She had been in this world for less than day; what business could she have in their troubles?

But Angel pushed the question aside as she began to feel the onslaught of slumber.  She could sort that all out tomorrow.