AN: Another week, another update! I hope everyone's safe and everything, considering the storms that have been running amuck in Florida. Where I live, we've been getting a lot of the residual rain. I practically had to swim to dance class today, that's how much rain we got here today. Anywho, I hope school's going well for everyone and that everyone likes their teachers and stuff. I have this one professor who only shows up to one class a week. We're supposed to have her class twice a week! I guess the good side to that is I get to have lunch with my sister. Even if she gets mad when I show up and tell her I have no class. So far, though, my favorite class is Microbiology. The labs, though they leave my hands assorted colors from the dyes we use (I have purple spots on my hands this week), are a very good time. Even if I say it all the time....thank you for your reviews! They're the best and are really great to get after a rough school day. Please, keep them coming!

sunni07: Ah...the fun of Chemistry labs! I know some people who have had huge misadventures in that lab. We were trying to distill the oils from orange peels once and one of the girls in my Organic Chemistry class knocked her entire distillation device (all made out of glass tubing with rubber hoses to let water in and out) into a sink. Most of it broke and the lab guy was none to happy with having to clean it up. I think he made her pay to replace the broken glassware. Anywho, I'm glad you liked the fact the twins are in the story. I know I'm not really playing by any strict book or movie-verse but I really wanted to get them involved. They seemed like fitting characters for the story.

IrethAncalime3791: I don't think I'd mind having them as uncles either. It might be a good time! Well, I hope you like this next chapter just as much as the previous one.

Lindiel Eryn: I'm glad you liked the mental conflict thing Niphredil has about Doc's rule. She hasn't had a chance to "show off" her Tae Kwan Do skills and Fire's the type to push buttons and make her want to use those skills. She has to keep that part of her mind in check. As for her uncles, they're going to provide a slight contrast to her parents. They're going to show her the OTHER side of being royalty.

Disclaimer: I own nothing except for a handful of made up characters. Tolkien thought up the concept and, as such, it belongs to him. I'm just playing in his world. I'm broke and in college. All I own are Pointe Shoes.

Ignoring any questions or comments, Niphredil told her uncles- Was that ever a weird word for her to use in conjunction with someone since she hadn't had uncles in the Muggle World?!- the abbreviated version of her story. Well, as much as she knew and understood about her own stories. Despite gaining more information from family members and, sometimes, their friends, there were parts she didn't understand. Especially the parts involving how she had gotten to and from Middle Earth...both times.

Maybe she could reconcile Gandalf's abilities with what she saw as his status within Middle Earth. He wasn't the atypical wizard, the kind she saw in fairy tales in the Muggle World. Underneath the appearance of an old man there seemed to be a simmering power source. He wasn't what he seemed. What he was, though, she couldn't say.

It was the other wizard- this Patrick character- that baffled her. He wasn't from Middle Earth yet he had the power to go to and from Middle Earth at his wish. He'd done it at least two times, takings things from Middle Earth with him. He had to have some power but she couldn't quantify or classify it. That fact bothered her just a little since this person could be anywhere, moving things to and from this world or the Muggle World.

For whatever reason, she was afraid that Patrick was going to bring the Jones family to Middle Earth. That would have been a real tragedy; for evil people like that to spoil her new home.

"And that's how I wound up here with a new family- really a new life- and this choice hanging over my head," she wrapped up, putting a final spin on her story.

Both of the twins were strangely silent. They seemed to be processing the story in their own ways. Ways that Niphredil assumed were alike in many ways since everything else about the pair was alike.

They started to speak to each other in low musical tones; tones that were more familiar than the ones used by Ice and Fire. The rate they were speaking, though, prevented Niphredil from fully understanding their conversation. About all she understood was her own name, which she took as a good sign.

Human children, or so she had been taught, learned to recognize their names first. Since she was picking up her name in her "native" language that had to be a good sign.

"This is a very...strange turn of events," one twin- Niphredil guessed Elladan- commented, his voice sounding as baffled as he looked.

His brother, wearing a very similar baffled expression, added, "You must forgive us, Niphredil. It is just that we did not expect to meet someone like you."

For her part, Niphredil gave a low laugh. Her appearance in Middle Earth seemed to have a shocking or a baffling effect on people. She assumed it was because no one had expected their king to have a daughter who was not only born before he and his wife were formally married but was elven to boot.

"It's alright, really," she assured the pair, taking a seat on the floor and leaning against the stone wall of the kitchen, "I'm use to that reaction...seems to follow me wherever I go in this city."

The twins shared a knowing laugh and took seats on the floor as well. Elrohir pulled one of the large sacs over to him and began to search through it. His twin started to do much the same.

"Many here had never seen an elf before Legolas came through here at the end of the war. To them we are a rumored race that is rare to see and will live only in legends once we all leave these shores," Elrohir explained, placing the removed items on the floor in front of him.

"Traditions reign supreme here," Elladan continued, "even if Estel is one for breaking them in his own way. It will be a long time before they would even consider you as a fit heir. The elven blood in your veins prevents you acting as your father's heir."

Niphredil wanted to ask one question but another, one she really didn't want to ask for it made her sound a bit silly, came tumbling out instead.

"Who's Estel?" she asked; face staining red as the liquid one of the twins was pouring out of a large flask.

"They never told you," Elladan commented, sounding a bit incredulous.

"Is it our place to tell her?" Elrohir questioned, turning to face his twin. "I would not want to be responsible for disrupting any surprise they are planning."

His brother seemed to consider the words and stated, "She has a right to know. There have been enough secrets in her life and she knows very little about our family. It would only be fair for us to tell her."

Hearing enough for the back and forth conversation, in a strange sort of stereo voice, Niphredil spoke up, "What do you want to tell me? I want to know!"

Four eyes, alike in every way, rounded on their flustered niece. Smiles spread across their faces as easily as the crimson color was spreading across Niphredil's cheeks. They liked her response, her outburst really, quite a bit. It showed a certain type of spirit or spunk the liked.

"When your father was a child, he lived as a foster child of our father's- that is, your grandfather. There were certain parties would not have wanted him to rise to throne and, as a result of this, he was given a new name. That name being Estel," Elrohir explained.

"So he was undercover, in a way, before him became king. Now that sounds like something out of a fairy tale from the Muggle World. Why Estel, though?" she commented.

The first part of her statement seemed to go over the heads of the twins but she had come to expect that response. There were very few in Middle Earth who knew about things from the Muggle World. A small minority in fact.

The latter part, however, was completely understandable to the twin male elves. That was a question they could answer.

"Estel, in the speech of mortals, means 'hope.' He was called that because he gave hope to the race of men," Elladan answered.

An odd look crossed over Niphredil's face. It was a mix of confusion and amusement that gave her face an odd cast. A look the twins picked up on a questioned her about.

"Why does that amuse you?" one twin requested.

"It's not my father having another name that amuses me. It seems like he's had a lot of them over his lifetime. It's just that I had this friend in the other world whose name was Hope. She was one of the few people- well, her and her family- who was nice to me," she mused, happily.

"Was she called Hope for a reason, as your father was?" Elladan asked, curiously.

"Actually, she was. Not to hide her identity or anything like that, thought. It was more a choice her parents made," Niphredil commented, settling in to tell another story.

FLASHBACK

The party was rather boring and the DJ was painful to listen to. Daisy and Brownie Girl Scouts ran the length of the gym floor, shouting at the tops of their little lungs. They may have been small but the noise the made was bigger than one thought possible.

Dressed in lurid heart spangled red pants with a matching sweatshirt, Niphredil sat and watched everything with narrow eyes. This was supposed to be some kind of Valentine's Day dance with the color red as a theme. Even the food in front of her was red- from candy hearts and peanut butter and strawberry jam sandwiches.

What is was really was a chance for the younger scouts to eat lots of candy and run wild while the older scouts looked on in dismay.

"Is this seat taken?" came a barely audible voice.

Niphredil looked over and couldn't help but laugh. Dressed in bright red jeans and, over a vivid red long sleeved t-shirt, a black shirt with the anatomical structure of the heart over it, was Hope. She carried a heaping dish of red colored things to eat, though she looked quite disinterested in all of it.

"Nope, you're free to sit here," Niphredil responded, moving her own dish over and watching the smaller scout sit.

For a moment, the pair was silent. Hope was nibbling on some bright red piece of candy while Niphredil watched the goings on around her with abject disgust. This had to have been, by and large, the worst party idea ever.

"I take it you're not having fun either," Hope stated, in a matter of fact tone.

"What was your first clue," Niphredil quipped sarcastically.

"Um...the fact you're sitting here alone. The fact you look like the next red thing you see is going to make you mad. The fact you're broadcasting your emotions so loudly every psychically powered mutant within a hundred miles can hear you," Hope listed, a laugh in her voice.

There might have been many people in the troop, between parents and other scouts and all the people involved with the scouting movement, but Niphredil was the only person to know that there was a mutant in the troop. It was only to Niphredil that Hope could make such jokes about mutants and their powers.

Niphredil gave Hope a wiry smile, a knowing smile.

"I guess I really don't want to be here," Niphredil commented, "I mean, we're not even doing anything except sitting here and staring into the walls. I hope, Hope, that this is the last party like this we ever have."

Niphredil paused, replaying her words in her head. The two "hopes" in a row- one as a name and one as a verb- sounded odd to her.

"Hey, Hope," she asked, carefully, "why did your mother name you that? Everyone says it's because she's a crazy hippie or something."

Hope made a sour looking face. She'd heard that rumor before and really didn't appreciate it. Her mother was no hippie- though there was nothing wrong with hippies. She was, nearly, like all the other mothers in the troop. Just maybe a bit younger.

"No...that's not the reason," Hope said, slowly, "its silly really but she named me Hope because my parents hoped the world was going to be better for all of us. It may not have happened yet but it just might."

Niphredil nodded, understanding what her friend was telling her. She had no such stories to tell Hope for she didn't know why she had been given her name.

"You're young," Niphredil commented, "there's still plenty of time."

"If this doesn't kill me first..." Hope stated, with a laugh, turning her attention to the party going on around them.

END FLASHBACK

So lost in her reverie was Niphredil that she failed to notice the feast set out before her. Not really a feast, just the food Ice, Fire, and their merry band were trying to take.

"What?" she asked, staring confused at the food.

"This is only going to go to waste. I think we should eat it and prevent that from happening," Elladan commented, handing her a cup of something vaguely berry colored.

"But this belongs to the kitchen's staff. Eating it just seems wrong and not very becoming of a people who are supposed to be royalty," Niphredil commented, accepting the cup anyway.

"You do not know us, then," Elrohir stated, "you have much to learn, young Niphredil, very much to learn."