Chapter Three
A/N: I suppose I should start by apologizing like mad for the severe lack of updates. So I'm sorry ten thousand times –grovels- Hokay. Nextly I would like to thank Freelance, Pink Aphid, and Ray for the reviews that I treasure with my life. I love you all. And lastly: YES! 'Froody' is a link to hitchhiker's, which is like my new obsession, and you totally made my day by recognizing it. Enough chitchat and on with the chapter!
We hadn't been wandering very long, but the time past slowly. Rivendell was absolutely beautiful. Each window let in the strong midmorning sunlight, which bathed each entity in the hallway in a light that made it glow. Rivendell simply radiated beauty.
We stopped every few minutes to rest because, apparently I need more help walking than I realized, and Maggie was getting really tired. But even so, Maggie was determined to get us to our destination and to the food. She led me down on hallway, up another, turned left and then right. Then she stopped.
"Need another break?" I asked her.
"No…" she said slowly, looking around the corridor. "I just realized that I have no idea where we are." She led me over to the large, glassless window that stretched almost for floor to ceiling and helped me onto the sill. She sat down beside me.
"Well, I'm not surprised," she continued. "This place is huge and I have only had the pleasure of wandering about it once. Elladan and Elrohir stopped me about five minutes into my little escapade and made me go back to bed."
I smiled and let the warm sunlight wash over me. "What are the people here like?"
"I've only had the pleasure of meeting a few"
Before she could finish, a voice interrupted her.
"Lady Maggie! What are you doing out of bed?"
Two elves, identical with long dark hair stood several feet down the hallway from us. As they approached they seemed to realize that Maggie was not alone, but with me: Binks, the broken-legged wonder.
"Lady Bianca, I presume?" acknowledged the elf to the right.
"Yeah, that would be me," I said with a smile, looking back and forth between the two elves before me. There was no difference in either of their appearances other than what they wore. The one on my right wore black trousers and deep red tunic. The other wore tan and blue. Their hair was long and dark, the front pulled back and fastened to keep it out of their bright gray eyes. They were both grinning in a mischievous kind of way. The one to the right addressed me again.
"My Lady, allow me to introduce myself. I am Elrohir."
"He lies," interjected the other. "I am Elrohir."
I shifted my gaze from the two elf lords that stood before me to glance at Maggie, who had dissolved in a fit of silent laughter. "I take it you've already been though this, then?"
Maggie nodded her red face silently. Elladan and Elrohir continued to grin. I remained completely and utterly confused.
"Fine," said the one to the left. "I see that you are weary. I am Elladan. Truthfully. You on the other hand should be in bed. You are not well."
"No," I said. "We aren't tired at all. We don't need more bed rest." Maggie placed her hand on my shoulder and tried to talk but was interrupted by Elladan speaking loudly to his brother.
"Ignoring us? She's ignoring us, Elrohir."
"Well, we can't have that."
"No, we can't have that at all." In one sudden and graceful movement, Elrohir lunged forward and before I could say "What the hell?" I was being carried down the hallway in Elrohir's arms. Maggie and Elladan were walking on either side of us.
"I tried to warn you, but they're too fast," she said trying to hide the amusement in her voice. I shot her a venomous look and tried to struggle against my captor.
"Put me down! I can walk by myself!" I insisted.
"Really? I would like to see someone walk with just one leg."
"Give it up," said Maggie. "It won't do any good to fight them. There's no point and I find them to be rather stubborn." I stopped. She was right. What point was there in fighting him? All he was doing was encouraging my laziness by giving me a lift back to my room. Elrohir turned to his brother and said something to him in what I assumed to be elvish. I pondered about what he was saying when I realized that this could be a serious problem. An elf who doesn't speak elvish? Odd, indeed.
I wondered what I would do if he were to address me in elvish. A little flood of panic ran through me. A rather useless panic as it turned out because the next thing he said to me was in the common tongue.
"Are you hungry, Lady Bianca?"
"You bet. That's why we were out in the first place. Hunting for food."
Elrohir chuckled softly and addressed his brother in elvish once more, who also laughed softly. "If you were looking for the kitchens I don't think you looked very well considering they are almost around the corner from your rooms." He smirked. Maggie and I shared a look of amusement and embarrassment as Elladan opened the door to my room and held it open first for Maggie and then his brother, who would have been incapable of opening the door himself.
Elrohir placed me gently down in the chair beside my bed and Maggie threw herself onto me bed in a rather graceful way. Elladan and Elrohir left the room without a word, closing the door behind them.
"Dammit," said Maggie under her breath. "What about our damn food?" she screamed after them, but she didn't get a response. She walked over to me and slowly hoisted me up out of the chair by my arm.
"Maggie, what the hell are you doing?"
"I'm going to go get something to eat, and your coming with me." I rolled my eyes and shifted my weight onto her arm. We couldn't have taken more than four steps when the door flung open. One of the elf lords was standing in the doorway and said, "Don't even think about it." He moved out of the doorway allowing a small figure with a tray to slip past him and into the room. The elf lord smiled as he shut to door behind him.
The figure with the tray looked up and forced a smile. A guilty smile. Maggie helped me back into my chair and threw herself gracefully onto the bed again. Leaning back on her elbows she watched as the figure placed the tray on the nightstand.
"Well, well, well. If it isn't the ratfink, Silmarwen."
Silmarwen stared at Maggie and said sternly, " I am not a fink."
"You ratted us out to Elladan and Elrohir. Don't deny it. You're a fink and you always will be." Maggie was practically shouting now.
"I was doing my job," she responded evenly.
"Wait," I interjected. "How do you even know what a ratfink is?"
Silmarwen stared at me, speechless. She flushed a pale red and mouthed wordlessly at me. She seemed rather flustered.
"I- I- I don't," she finally squeaked out.
"Then how do you know that you weren't one?"
"It sounds derogatory. I simply assumed…What is a ratfink, anyway?"
I gave her a suspicious look. I quickly debated telling her. But that would probably require the explanation of the alternate universe that Maggie and I hailed from. I debated that in my mind next.
"She already knows," said Maggie, as though she was reading my mind, a talent she had acquired after knowing me for nearly twelve years. "Elladan and Elrohir asked me where we were from and I didn't think it would be wise to lie to them since the truth would come out later anyway."
"Good choice," I said, thankful that I wouldn't have to explain anything to anyone any time soon. "Their reactions?"
"They weren't all that shocked. I was surprised that they didn't freak out and ask a million questions. It's almost like this has happened before, like they knew that we came from a different world in the first place. It seemed kind of strange."
I thought about this for a moment. It was rather strange. "It could be the Mary-sue factor," I suggested.
"I guess. But the way they reacted. It was defiantly like they had this happen to them before. Like it was a common occurrence or something."
"Maybe all the stories are true. Maybe it does happen sometimes. You know the whole transfer of worlds thing."
Maggie shrugged and reached for some sort of sandwich like thing off the tray. She handed me one too. I took a bite and continued to think. Silmarwen had made her way to the window and was gazing out it absent-mindedly.
"It's rather odd how you two showed up here. I've only heard of it happening once before," she whispered more to herself than us. "That was a long time ago."
"What happened to them?" I asked her, interested.
"I don't really know. They just kind of disappeared." She turned back to look at us. "That was a long time ago. A long before I came to Imladris. I don't think it matters much now." She slowly looked over the both of us and apologized for sending Elladan and Elrohir after us. I accepted her apology on one condition: she had to teach me elvish.
My lessons, she said, would begin in the morning.
A/n: This chapter was inspired by crazy 90s music that I haven't listened to in forever. I hope you liked it, anyway. I'm sorry again for such a long time between chapters but I had like 5 or 6 school projects to do and I had to read The Grapes of Wrath, which was really long. I promise that I won't be so long with the next chapter. I'll try to be anyway. Reviews please?
Kaimelar