Disclaimer: Not mine.

A/N: I meant to say this before, but I didn't have the reviewers' names handy and I was in a rush to post (my brother wanted the computer, too.) VagrantCandy got the big Ewan-shaped cookie (yum) for knowing who Estë, Vairë, and Nessa were. And kukumalu, who always leaves such wonderful paragraph reviews (woot, you rock…when are you going to write a fic for me to read!), compared Mirkwood to too-perfect place darling Ewan graced with his presence and made me a very happy girl. I'm really upset, though. Big Fish was on HBO today and I didn't get to see it because I was working. Poo.

And so, on to chapter 14:

1.

My stomach growled loudly in reply to Estë's suggestion that we wait for a member of the Istari. Nessa's eyes twinkled as she offered her apologies. "We did not realize how long you would be here," she said, smiling, "We do not have enough here for all of us to eat, and the Istari shall be here any moment. I will send for a meal," she said, walking up the stairs that we came through and exiting.

Not fair. How come it wouldn't open for us? Laura thought to me. I shrugged and huddled myself down into the chair. It was getting damn cold in this little cellar. It was Estë's turn to look sympathetic. She pointed to the fire and it leapt up suddenly, leaving Laura and I only to blink in confused terror.

"Leaving now," Laura squeaked.

"Come on, boots, start a'walkin'," I added. We were, however, stuck in our seats. It would take a while for us to work up the courage to run out - besides, the door had closed behind Nessa, and there was no way out. So Laura and I sat tight, hoping that Estë wouldn't freak out and start pointing that finger at us.

"Relax," Vairë said impatiently, "the Istari will be here any moment."

Oh, yeah, I'm really going to take a command of 'relax' from a demi-goddess with constant PMS, I thought nastily. Laura shot me a look. I rolled my eyes. I figured that Estë hadn't let Vairë skin us alive just yet, and as weird as that chick was, she certainly did seem to want to keep us alive.

The Istari arrived before Nessa did. It turned out that there was another exit besides the passage in the library. Directly opposite me, just to the left of the fireplace, the wall opened up again with the sound of stone rubbing against stone. Gandalf - who else? - made his way quietly into the room. No blinding light, no arrow reflecting, sword-melting heat, just a tired looking old man with a perfectly white beard.

"Greetings, young ones," he said to Laura and myself. He then looked between Estë and Vairë and offered a very deep bow. "I would kneel, my ladies Valar, but these bones have grown quite old these past years, and I do fear I wouldn't be able to stand again," he said warmly. He regarded them with a type of gentle reverence, and I wondered about the Undying Lands, and if the Valar walked among the elves there.

"You are ever young, Master Mithrandir." Estë addressed him with a smile. Had I not been used to strange occurrences since falling into Middle Earth, the sight of a beautiful seemingly twenty-something year old woman addressing the white haired Gandalf as "ever young" would have made me snicker. Then again, the Valar were older than I could even begin to imagine. The fact that none of this should even be possible eluded me.

"Right," I said happily, turning around as Nessa walked back in, followed by three elf girls carrying silver trays laden with what smelled to be an extremely satisfying lunch. Gandalf was a character that I'd always admired, and I felt a lot better now that he was here with Laura and I instead of just these strange Valar Queens who could point at fire and make it spring to life.

The girls placed the food on the table that Vairë had cleared. She moved her spinning wheel dejectedly in a corner and throughout our meal would shoot anxious glares at it. Nessa turned to the three elven girls who had brought the food from the kitchens. "You will forget about this place," she said softly, pressing her fingers first to her lips and then to their foreheads. They bowed their heads in acquiescence and left one by one to return to the kitchens. I felt Laura shudder besides me and I mirrored the gesture. Friendly or not, I didn't want Nessa to touch my forehead and play some Middle Earth version of a Jedi mind trick on me. No thanks.

"Please, join us," Gandalf said, indication Laura and I. "There is much we have to discuss."

Our own hunger led us and I quickly found myself seated between Vairë and Nessa. Laura sat on the other side, between Gandalf and Estë.

"I have traveled far. Would it be all right if we spared ceremony and ate as we discuss the situation facing Middle Earth?" It was Gandalf's polite way of saying "I'm hungry, damn it, lets chow." He, too, seemed to be able to read my mind and regarded me with twinkling blue eyes over his turkey drumstick. I grinned back, the smell of Elvish cooking and the sudden warmth of the magical fire relieving my mood considerably.

Despite his suggestion that we eat and talk at the same time, it seemed that for the moment everyone was intent on just eating. The Valar Queens seemed to enjoy Elvish cooking just as much as I do, because they each loaded their plates to full and were taking their time and 'chowing down.'

"So," Laura said amiably, picking up her goblet and taking a sip. "As goddesses or whatever, do you seriously have to eat?" Estë grinned, the first true smile that I'd ever seen from her. The other times she'd smiled it had just been one of those eerie tilting of her lips thing. Not very settling, I'll tell you. Seeing her smile like a normal person set me at ease a bit more, or it might have been the fact that the wine, while watered, was still potent; and the food was making me sleepy. Damn elves.

"We are immortal and therefore do not suffer from hunger or thirst. The cooks at Mirkwood, however, are some of the more spectacular cooks that we have encountered during our travels of Middle Earth, and so eating here is quite a pleasure," Estë answered. Laura nodded, "Amen to that," she said.

"No, for the matter at hand," Gandalf said. "I know it must be very strange for you two, having just fallen from your homes into this world. Usually the girls that come here are able to adapt to the changes around them; to be honest, sometimes they are made to change." I shivered at the thought. I didn't want to be made to do anything.

"Quite," Gandalf said quietly to me, and even Vairë looked sympathetic. "The fact is that you two, while altered physically -" "Harrumph!" said Laura, and I made a face. Gandalf's eyes crinkled in a smile. "Your mental states are still very much the same as they were when you got here. I'm sure you have asked what happens to the other girls and my ladies," he nodded deferentially to Estë, Vairë, and Nessa, "have tried to answer you. They, however, have not witnessed the trials of the others. I have." He pulled out a very small book from somewhere inside his many robes and handed it to me. "I have written down the accounts of all the visitors to Middle Earth from your world. You may keep this with you during your stay, but I shall summarize in short, if you do not mind."

"Summarize away," Laura said.

"Please do," I added, wiping my mouth with a handkerchief and folding it in my lap.

"You were told that girls upon occasion 'fall' through the fabrics of time and space from one dimension to the next. They are then pulled towards the beings that they had been enamored with in their world - in your world, beings that are 'fictional.'" Gandalf said. Laura and I nodded, leaning back in our seats and wishing that our bodices had not been laced up so tight. I pulled out a fan from one of the deep pockets of my skirts and unfolded it, fanning myself slowly. The mixture of a warm atmosphere and full belly were quite enough to put me to sleep, but unfortunately Estë must have sensed this. She pointed at the fire again and it lowered considerably. The room began to cool. I groaned and sat up.

"These girls then undergo changes. They become 'more beautiful,' to standards that exist in your world, I suppose. Taller, thinner, paler even. They are also changed mentally - they think like ladies instead of erratic teenagers -"

"I beg your pardon!" Laura gasped. "How base of you, Master Gandalf," I said dejectedly. Amusement was back in the old wizards eyes as he continued, "The way they speak is changed," he said pointedly, and Laura and I dropped our feigned indignity like hot coals. Still amused, Gandalf went on. "They form relationships with beings of this world - often beings of renowned valor. You may have heard of some of them: Legolas Greenleaf, a dear friend of mine, one of the nine Companions that set out from Rivendell to destroy the One Ring of Power, Sauron's Ring -"

"One ring to rule them all, one ring to find them, one wring to bring them all and in the darkness bind them!" Laura and I recited, like good little school girls saying the Pledge of Allegiance. "Azg nazg yadda yadda," we went on.

Gandalf blinked. "Ah, yes, forgive me. For a time, these girls alter reality of Middle Earth. The length of their stay here is often uncertain, but once they leave it is up to the lady Vairë to undo what has been done. Naught but the slimmest of memories survives them, certainly nothing worth writing down from the perspective of Elves and Men."

"And the girls?"

"Well, very often they go back to your world. I am told that they remember their stay here as if it was a dream. Very often they write about it," Gandalf said. Laura and I exchanged looks. We had just uncovered the very root of Mary-Suedom.

"It has become quite routine. But something about you two has changed all this. I do not believe your involvement in this is merely chance. You two are different. You have been changed physically, but you retain your mental state - as debatable as that mental state may be."

"Hey!" I groused.

"A jest, little one," Gandalf said apologetically. "The difference is in this: Instead of altering you entirely, it seems that the change is becoming external. The reality of Middle Earth is changing instead of your psyches. Middle Earth is becoming, to appropriate a term from your world, a Mary Sue."

A/N: I figured I'd leave it there…It's 10:42, I have work tomorrow, and I'm tired from work today. Also, there's chocolate cake in the fridge and yo tengo mucho hambre. Review, please!