The snow melted soon after, and the weather warmed up. Katie spent an idyllic month enjoying the beauty of Rivendell in the early spring. Often, she and some other fellow inhabitant would wander off and just walk through the valley, reveling in its loveliness. Sometimes she and Lithorniel would take large baskets and shears and go out into the gardens and along the river and cut flowers to put in the house. Once or twice Estel or one of the twins took her on a ride through the area. Katie had spent a couple of weeks with Megan the summer before, and her roommate had taught her to ride. Now the children of Elrond worked on improving her skill. Katie actually found riding elven-trained horses to be much easier than Megan's; the elves bred their horses for great intelligence, and trained them to obey voice commands. Elrohir, one day, had her drop the reins and cross her arms, only commanding the horse verbally. To Katie's delight, it had been relatively easy.

The commands, of course, were in Elvish, but Erestor had been true to his word and taught her a bit of that tongue along with a general history of Arda and of the elves. Katie had some trouble learning the rules of the language, as it was so much different from English. At least in Spanish, as Katie confided in Erestor, the plurals were created by adding "es" like in English. Elvish functioned on entirely different rules.

And forget about learning to read and write it! Katie gained a basic vocabulary and learned a number of useful phrases, but she could not for the life of her learn to write them. All of the letters of Elvish looked so much alike! She had a suspicion that many of the poor elflings must have suffered from dyslexia at some point, trying to learn an alphabet like that!

Luckily, there were plenty of books in the library, and a good number were written in Common, so Katie did have some reading material.

Elladan glanced in her door one day and found her sitting by the window, reading. He leaned on the doorframe.

"Tsk, tsk. A beautiful spring morning, and you intend to spend it indoors reading?"

Katie looked up and smiled. "Now, what would Erestor say about your attitude toward books?" she answered back.

He laughed. "He would dredge up every story of my misbehavior during his lessons that he could think of. But we need not jog his memory!" He straightened up and walked over, leaning on the back of the chair facing her. "Elrohir and I are going across the Bruinen this morning, and we wondered if you wanted to come along."

Katie pretended to think hard about it. "Oh, I don't know," she said slowly, "I think I might prefer to stay here for Erestor's daily history lesson."

Elladan shrugged. "It is your decision. I think I heard Erestor saying he was planning to test you on your knowledge of the Elven kindreds again today…"

Katie put a marker in her book and jumped up. "Say no more! Picnic it is!"

000

They rode down the Great Road out of Rivendell in the cool shade of an early spring morning. Katie had seen a little less than usual of the twins in the past week, so she was very happy to be spending time with them. They entertained her on the ride with cheerful banter, and Elrohir sang a song in his broad, beautiful voice.

They reached the Ford at about noon. Katie was nervous about riding a horse into the water, but the twins assured her that Serondrych would be fine.

"She has forded this river many times," Elrohir said, leading the way into the swirling water. "You needn't worry that she will throw you."

Katie made a face in disbelief, but followed him. Serondrych indeed was perfectly calm crossing the Ford.

"There are times when it is not safe for you to cross the Ford by yourself," Elrohir told her seriously once she had reached the other side. "In times of danger, our father tightens his guard on this border to our lands. No one may cross unless they are of Rivendell, or are with someone of Rivendell."

"It's not a 'time of danger' right now, is it?" Katie asked in vague alarm.

"No, no," Elladan reassured her. "Although it was when you arrived, as we were not sure of the whereabouts of the bandits that were roaming this area. It was good that you crossed the river with Glawar and did not attempt to cross it on your own."

"Other than the fact that the water would've been up to my chin, and for all I knew, it was freezing cold," Katie pointed out. "What would've happened if I'd gone in alone?"

"The water would have risen and swept you downstream," Elrohir answered. He caught a look at Katie's expression, and he smiled at her. "Do not worry. We tell you this only so that you will be careful. It is rare that Father raises the river, and you would have little reason to be near the Ford at those times, anyway."

The three of them made their way to a clearing the twins knew of, in which they could eat their picnic lunch in peace and quiet. They took the saddles and bridles off of the horses and allowed them roam at will. Being elven-trained, they would return to their handlers quite obediently when given a command.

A blanket was spread on the ground, and they laid out the food. Katie stared at the dazzling array with shock. "This is incredible," she stated baldly. "I have never seen such great food for an impromptu picnic!"

Elladan picked up a stuffed egg and leaned over on one elbow. "Yes, the cooks in our father's hall are quite good, are they not?"

Elrohir grinned at his brother's nonchalant attitude. "They have spoiled you," he said teasingly as he served himself.

"You should talk," Elladan answered, eyeing his twin's quickly filling plate.

Katie rolled her eyes. "Play nice, children."

"Children?" Elrohir exclaimed in mock indignation, and Elladan chuckled and nearly sprayed some of his food across his plate. "Very mature, Elladan," Elrohir added to him in exasperation.

Katie was right; the meal was delicious, and all three beings were very full by the time they were finished eating.

"More pie, anyone?" Elladan asked, eyeing the last few pieces.

Katie groaned from her seat against a tree trunk. "No more for me, thanks. I feel like I'm going to explode."

"Elrohir?"

"I could not consume another crumb."

Elladan looked down at the plate.

"More for you," Katie commented.

Elladan shook his head. "I think not." He put the plate down. "At this rate, I will not be able to rise to my feet to mount my horse."

Katie chuckled and closed her eyes, leaning her head back against the tree. "Anybody care to sing us a song?"

"Your turn," Elrohir answered, his voice muffled. He was lying face-down on the blanket, soaking up the warm spring sunlight.

"No way," Katie answered.

"What was it Legolas said to make you sing?" Elladan mused, staring up at the leafy canopy above in thought. "Ah, yes. 'She probably does not know any songs.'"

"Nice try." Katie didn't even bother to open her eyes. "That was Legolas. I don't have to prove anything to you two. And it might not even work if Legolas said it now, since we're friends."

Elladan suddenly sat up. Katie began to ask what was wrong, but he held up a hand to stop her and sat still, listening. Elrohir sat up as well. After a moment, the two of them exchanged excited grins and jumped soundlessly to their feet. Going over to their gear, they picked up the bows and quivers they had left there.

"Deer," Elladan said quietly by Katie's ear. "Will you be fine staying here alone?"

Katie smiled casually. "Sure. Have fun."

"Thank you." The twins slipped silently into the trees.

Katie grinned and rolled her eyes, shaking her head at her two companions. So wise one moment, warning her about the river, and so childlike the next—running off like children excited to be using a bb gun for the first time. They really were like older brothers to her.

She leaned her head back and closed her eyes again. The day was sweet and peaceful, and she basked for quite some time in the halcyon atmosphere of spring. Katie was sure she was going to fall asleep soon if the twins didn't return.

Unfortunately, the peace of the morning was shattered quite suddenly when hands grabbed her roughly from behind.

TBC

AN: I know, very short chapter. Sorry about that. But I know it's been a long time since the last, and it really was the best place to stop—that is, the place that will hold you in the most suspense. Mwa ha ha…

PS: I took the LOTR Mary Sue Litmus Test just to see where I ranked. Is that service, or what? lol I answered yes to 24 questions out of 190, so I think I'm doing pretty well. :) The yes's were things like, Katie is my gender, my age, my race, teens to early twenties, comes from earth to Middle-earth for (what seems like) no reason except that she just does (although as you know, there is a reason), is approved of by Aragorn, everybody seems to end up liking her, I like her, there's Elvish in the story, canon characters and my character are wounded, and my character saves the day/somebody's life. And a couple others that I can't reveal my answers to yet. :) But I have high hopes that by the time I'm done with this series, I'll be able to say it's different from any LOTR fanfiction I've ever read! (If you want to see the litmus test (and it's very funny!), google "LOTR Mary-Sue Litmus Test").

fk306: A coronary is a heart attack.

werewolflemming: Yes, I became attached to the idea of Erestor after reading Don't Panic, and decided to include him. He's going to be a very useful character later on.

IwishChan: Agreed! And I still don't know the difference between the Nandar and the Silvan elves…

lunelwe: You'll have to give me your email address for me to send it to you!. :)

Laer4572: lol!

Arlindor: You'll just have to wait and find out! I can tell you that she's not always there to save lives.

RavensDestiny: I'll have to see Jekyll and Hyde before I can debate with you! —dreams of Phantom of the Opera—

RenegadeKitsune: Yeah, but you have to remember, Erestor has had waaaaay more experience than any teacher you can name—he's like, an uber-teacher. So he'd be really interesting. I don't think it would be all that bad. Hey, I would give my rubber-ducky socks (and a lot more!) to go to Middle-earth and be taught by an elf! lol

Erasuithiel: The weather was just a coincidence. And in fact, it most definitely did not help the traders out, so they wouldn't have called it, even if they could. But some of your other thoughts definitely deserve some consideration… Legolas will not be appearing in this fic, but I'm certainly not ruling him out of future sequels. Oh, and I need your email address, too, to send that thing to you. Actually, the Maiar were all Ainur, as were the Valar. It's just that the Valar were of a higher order than the Maiar. So Katie can't be a Maia, since she's human. She has never had contact with a Vala, either, so she's not serving them, per say. But she is definitely doing a service to Middle-earth. More on that subject in the sequel. :)

Princess Siara: I don't know; do you think there's some romance going on? —smiles mischievously— Yep, I do indeed take ballet. In fact, I've got a performance tomorrow! I started when I was four, so you've got a one-year jump on me. :) Oh, and on your review for chapter 18 of Something Rotton: Congrats! You recognized the allusion!

Madd Hatter: My goodness; you needn't apologize to me! I don't demand a reviewing fee! lol Usually I'm the one begging forgiveness from my reviewers if I don't get a chapter out quickly! I guess it's a delicate balance: people who like the read the story don't want the author to quit writing, and the author doesn't want people to quit reviewing!

Thanks also to Eleniel of the Stars and Thalion!

In order to retain the delicate symbiotic relationship between the writer and readers, Please review!