AN: Hey all, I hope you all like this chapter. Extermely sorry if it sucked but it will get better. Now that you've found out a little about Saige and Taylor, you will learn more throughout the story. Can't give everything away.

Feedback: Always appreciated and to all my reviewers, thank you for being patient with me. I hope you like this chapter as well. Enjoy and Happy Reading!

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Chapter 5

Lord Elrond looked at the 2 girls standing there, not quite sure what to do and then his eyes fell to the floor where the plant once stood and grinned, "I see the two of you are feeling better," He said as his eyes met theirs, "But it is more then I can say for the plant."

Taylor and Saige looked down at their feet. The clay pot had been broken in pieces, dirt was scattered across the floor and the plant was no longer straight and a few of the branches were broken and missing. They looked at each other with worry as they thought they would be in trouble, written across their faces.

"We are so sorry about the plant," Taylor said, afraid to look up into the curious eyes of their beholder.

"It was an accident," Saige added, "We were just trying to find someone to help us and we happened to hear you guys and we thought you could, but we didn't mean to kill the plant. It was my fault. I wanted to see too. This wouldn't have happened if I wasn't so clumsy." The tears burned her eyes and before she knew what happened, Saige started to cry. She looked up at the strange man, tears falling from her eyes and she lost control of her emotions, "I'm sorry."

Taylor turned to Saige. She could see the hurt, the frustration and confusion on her face as the tears fell, "Oh Saige, what's wrong?" Taylor asked as she hugged her friend.

"I…I broke the plant, it's all my fault," Saige cried out as she rested her head on her shoulder, "And I wanna go home."

"It's okay Saige," Taylor said softly, feeling her own tears beginning to burn her own eyes, "It will be okay. I wanna go home too and we will. We will find out where we are and how to get home."

"You promise?" She asked, as she pulled away from Taylor's embrace and whipped the tears off her face and looked up at her.

"I promise," Taylor said and smiled.

Lord Elrond stood there for a few minutes and watched the two girls, the way the one girl had comfort her friend when she was upset and at that very moment, he knew that there wasn't an evil bone in their soul, that they weren't sent to Rivendell as part of a plot to destroy all that their was good, but to possibly aid them in stopping the darkness that has plagued their homes. He then thought of something…

He walked carefully up to them, not trying to alarm or frighten the girls.

Taylor and Saige looked up as Lord Elrond approached them. Saige swallowed the lump in her throat as she met the soft, caring eyes of the man and waited to get yelled at for intruding and ruining the plant. Taylor stood there a little uneasy as she watched the same man that had saved their lives the day before, come to them. She noticed something quite different about him…his hair was long, longer then hers, and brown, his eyes were also brown, but they weren't full of hate or upset from them spying, but soft and caring and full of love. His smile was warm and that made her feel a little better. He wore a silver crown and he wore a gray robe, but the one thing that stood out to Taylor the most, was his ears…they were unusually pointy, pointer then hers or Saige's. She didn't understand or know how that was possible, unless they were sucked into some fairy tale, because fairy tales only have someone that looks so perfect in every way. But then again, she had seen her share of weirdness over the years. She fought the weirdness, the darkness and the ugly, but this man was not ugly, he was handsome and perfect.

'This is weird,' Taylor thought to herself as the 'man' stopped in front of them and smiled.

Lord Elrond smiled and looked over at Saige as he could sense her worry and fear of being yelled at, "Do not worry my young child about the plant," He told her softly, "It is not worth pain to worry about an old tree that can be replaced. It was an accident and it can be fixed."

Saige blushed as she looked away, all worries was for nothing. He was kind and nice about it.

"I am Lord Elrond, Lord of the Elves of Rivendell. Please, come sit," He said as he pointed to a set of chairs, "There is much we need to talk about."

Saige looked at Taylor curiously and mouthed the words 'Elves.' Taylor shrugged her shoulders, not understanding herself and started walking to the chairs Lord Elrond had pointed too. Saige sighed as she followed.

Taylor slowly sat in the white chair and looked around. Her eyes fell on the 9 people in the back and remembered that they weren't alone. She smiled awkwardly as her eyes met theirs but quickly looked away when Saige sat down next to her. A few minutes later, Lord Elrond and an old man dressed in gray as well, joined them.

"This is Gandalf," Elrond said as he introduced the old man to them, "He is a powerful wizard and knows much about portals and gates and he might be able to help you two get back home. We will take this one step at a time. You have been through a great deal and we do not want to pressure you into answering our questions, like your names."

Taylor nodded, "I'm Taylor and this is Saige. All we want to know is where we are and how do we get back home. I'm sure that you've figured out that we're not from around here and that we don't belong here."

"You're correct, we did," Gandalf spoke, "Can you tell us what happened? What you were doing before you were brought here?"

Saige shifted in her seat uncomfortably as her eyes roamed around the room, the nine members had all taken their seats as well and listened. She turned and looked at Taylor worried…how were they going to explain to them what they do. No one knew about their secret they've kept from the world. How could they? No one would believe them that two average teenage girls kept them safe from all things that go bump in the night, that it wasn't a calling, but more of apart of their lives, past down in their family for generations and generations to come, that they were trained since the age of three to do this, only a hand full specialized in their line of work. It just wasn't possible to explain without having to answer questions that they might not even have the answers too.

She sighed deeply, letting the air out slowly as she turned to the two older men, "We have secrets that are to be kept, and our lives depend on it. All that I can tell you is that we are trained to deal with the darkness and evil that spread across our town. We were doing that and after we rid our home of the darkness, something happened…the earth started to shake like the earthquakes they get in California and before we knew what happened, we were sucked in and ended up here," Saige explained, "We don't understand or know what happened…I don't really even remember what happened…it just felt like my body was being torn to pieces, my insides being ripped out, the pain was so unbearable that I couldn't breath because it felt as though my life was being sucked out. And then I woke up in a strange room with a strange man standing at my door."

"You were knocked out when the portal spit you out," Taylor told her as she looked to the middle of the room where the pillar once stood, "You landed pretty hard on the pillar, breaking it. You must have broken it because when I came around, you were knocked out and the pillar was in pieces."

Saige rubbed the back of her head and felt the rather large lump, "Explains why I have a killer headache," She said and smiled at Taylor, "Let's not try that again okay? I can't take another hit to the head without doing some serious damage to my brain."

"I agree," Taylor said as she rubbed her own bruised side, "I think I might have broken some ribs when I crashed landed or I bruised them pretty bad."

"If you would like, I could have one of the healers take a look," Lord Elrond said, "We have the best healers here in Rivendell."

"That would be great," She told him, as she rested back in the chair. Her mind searched over the event from yesterday and then turned to Lord Elrond, "You helped us, why did you help us when you didn't know who we were, and you still don't know who we are."

Lord Elrond smiled at the young girl, "It is what we do, we help those who need it. You and your friend may not be from around here but I could not turn away when you needed the care."

"Well then, Saige and I are grateful for your hospitality and for taking us in," Taylor smiled back, "How can we ever repay you for being so kind to us?"

"No need to repay me or my kin," He told her, "Seeing you alive and well is all that we want."

Saige sat back and listened, occasionally letting her eyes wander around the opening where they sat. She saw things that she has never seen before, the people she saw sitting across from her and Taylor were so different but yet in some ways similar to the people back home. Short, tall, skinny, fat, good looking, ugly. One was hairier then the others, three that she could see were smaller then the rest but yet they seemed older then she could possibly imagine. One had the bluest of blue eyes she had ever seen and rather breath taking when she looked him over. But the two that sat next to him was what caught her attention the most. They looked the same, like the men that lived in Maple Grove, except one was more clean cut and high priced while the other man was more scruffier looking and looked like he spent the last week out in the woods, cutting down trees…but there was something else about that man but she couldn't pin point exactly what it was. The pieces that were missing to her puzzle started forming and coming together, "Where did you say we were again?" She asked as she turned to Lord Elrond and Gandalf.

"The House of Lord Elrond," Gandalf said, "Rivendell, home to the Elves."

"I was afraid you'd say that," Saige said.

"What do you mean Saige," Taylor asked and looked at her confused.

"Well think about it Tay, when we got sucked into that portal, if it was even a portal, what if it sent us here for a reason," She started to say as she looked out as the sun started to set, "My grandfather would always tell me that things happen for a reason. What if we were meant to fight that demon because in some weird, crazy reason, we were meant to come here? I don't know why but what if we were?"

"I'm not following you. What are you talking about?"

Saige turned to Taylor, "I don't know, as I try to remember what happened, things aren't adding up. I don't understand why this is happening, why we are here in a strange place with strange people that two of them happen to have pointy ears, there's talk about Elves and Wizards and before you know it, we're gonna learn there are dwarves and trolls and fairies too, but all that my conclusions come too is what if this was all suppose to happen? What if someone did this to us…made that portal so that we would be pulled in and come here? What if it's a plot to get rid of us because you know that we have pissed off quite a few people or someone that we know, personally, knew about this and didn't tell us because they knew that we wouldn't do it?"

"Then if that is the case Saige, who would do such a thing to us? I know that we've pissed a lot of people off but I don't think they would have that kind of power to create a portal and send us to who knows where the hell we are. If they wanted to get rid of us, then why have the portal open to someplace else, why not trap us? That would be the easiest thing and we don't know anyone personally that has that kind of power to do this either."

"We both know that's a load of bullshit there. Our parents have the power to do whatever they damn well please. You've seen both of our parents working the heavy mojo a few time, you've even told me your self as well as I have. What if…"

But Taylor wouldn't let her finish. She flew out of her chair and turned to Saige in horror, "You're not suggesting that our parents are the reason why we are stuck here?" When Saige didn't answer her right away, she grew angry, "I can't believe you would think that. How can you think that?"

Saige stood up next to her, "Taylor, I'm not saying that our parents did this to us, but think of the possibility, what if they did? What if we don't know our parents as well as we thought? It could have been by accident or on purpose or they knew that something was wrong someplace else and they knew they could use our help. I don't know, I honestly don't know who or what did this to us. But when I do find out what caused us to be here, I will gut them without thinking twice because they could have gotten us killed or even worse and I don't even want to think about that. And I'm sorry to say, I DON'T like having my life threatened."

Taylor turned to Saige with tears in her eyes, knowing that all that her friend spoke of could be true and just that fact alone, scared the crap out of her. She wrapped her arms around her self just as the first set of tears fell from her eyes and slid down her face before asking the question she dreaded to know the answer too, "What if it was them, then what?" She asked barely above a whisper, afraid she would break down and cry.

"Then they would have some heavy duty explaining to do," She told her as she reached out and touched her arm, "Remember, these are all possibilities. I could be wrong about it all and it could be just one of those things that shit happens, we were at the wrong place at the wrong time. I just know that something doesn't feel right about this." She then turned to Lord Elrond and Gandalf, "Whatever you need to know, I'll tell you, whatever it takes to find out how this happened and if we can return home. I'll even tell you my shoe size if that's what you need."

Taylor laughed as she whipped the tears off her face. She felt the wondering eyes on them and shivered as she started to feel silly for her sudden out burst of anger and tears. She looked over at Saige, wondering she too felt what she felt, but she didn't see it in her eyes when they met and then she looked over to Gandalf, "He says you are a wizard and powerful at that, do you think you can find out how or why we are here?"

Gandalf looked from Taylor to Saige and back to Taylor again. He stood to his feet, "I will do my best to give you the answers you are seeking for, but the time is not now."

"What do you mean the time is not now?" Saige asked as she felt the anger rise up again and shot Lord Elrond a look, "What's that suppose to mean?"

Lord Elrond stood to his feet, "Gandalf and others are heading out due tomorrow morning for a quest that they were appointed too. You may wait here until he returns and gather information we would need to send you back home."

"You've got to be kidding me right?" Taylor asked, not believing her own ears or the words that were coming out both of their mouths.

"I'm afraid not," Gandalf said, "Doing this will take time and I will need to gather my resources and the items I would need to do something as big as this."

"And how long would it take you to get back here?" Saige asked.

He shook his head, "I do not know how long, it could take a few weeks, months or even a year. It would depend on the road ahead of us."

"You're kidding right? It could take up to a year possibly more before Taylor and I could get home? Are you nuts if you think we will wait that damn long?"

"You leave us no choice but to say, we're going with you. If there's a chance that you can do it sooner, then we're going with. There's no way you can make us wait that long, so we'll go with you and help," Taylor said.

Saige shot Taylor a look, "We will?"

"Yes, because I'm not waiting that long to go home Saige. If Gandalf can do it sooner, then we should be there," Taylor told her and turned to look at Lord Elrond, "Either you let us go with, with your permission or we'll go without it."

Lord Elrond raised his eyebrow as he looked at Taylor. He saw the determination in her eyes and knew just by the look of them, she wasn't lying. He sighed heavily, "Very well, you will have my answer by morning, until then you need your rest. If you would follow Cinire back to your room, she will tend to your wounds," He told the girls as he pointed to the dark haired elf woman who was standing at the top of the stairs. He quickly spoke to her in their native tongue on what to do.

"If you would follow me," Cinire said, "I will take you to your room."

"Your work here is done for today," Lord Elrond said, "Go get some rest."

Not arguing with the Elf man, seeing the stern look of he meant business on his face, Taylor grabbed Saige's arm and walked away to follow the Elf woman he had called Cinire.