Rory knocked on the door, and a male voice she did not know called come in'.
She opened the door and entered the room and sawtwo male elves that she had not ever met. The startled look on her face prompted one of them to speak 'you are looking for Father?' he questioned her. Rory looked even more puzzled if that was possible. 'Are you not Lady Rory?' the elf asked.
'Yes, I am', she answered.
'Leave her be, brother', said the second elf, a mirror image of the first. 'Clearly she has no idea who we are'.
'You can say that again', she said, in a questioning tone that begged the two to clear up the mystery.
The second speaker suddenly laughed, 'My dear brother loves to confuse people, when we were children he was always making me agree to schemes to create trouble, and then of course no one would know which of us caused the problem, and thereby got us both punished. Now he has bemused you as to who we are he is happy.'
'You do exaggerate Elrohir, I did not set out to confuse the lady' the first elf said.
Light broke upon Rory, 'You two are Elrond's sons! I didn't realise you were twins!'
Both the elves burst into laughter, and Rory found that she too was laughing; there was something so very happy and charming about these two.
Finally, everyone managed to control themselves and Rory asked where Elrond was.
'We do not know, Lady,' replied Elladan, who she could now see was a fraction taller than his twin. Seeing the two together, she thought, I could tell them apart, but not if I saw one without the other.
'So you might as well take a seat, and wait with us. I daresay Father will not be long, wherever he is', Elladan continued, staring at her in a way that made Rory feel most uncomfortable.
'We have heard some very interesting tales of you, Lady Rory,' Elladan continued, 'so perhaps you can entertain us while we wait'.
'Please don't call me Lady, my name is Rory,' she replied, 'and anyway what have you heard? I'm getting a bit alarmed here, everyone has heard stuff about me and it's making me nervous'.
'Well then, Rory, we have heard many things', Elladan replied to her, 'Many indeed', continued Elrohir, 'including you were with the Last Alliance in Mordor.'
'Yep, that's true', Said Rory. Anyways, Elrond has already told you both all of this'.
'He has', said Elladan, but we want to hear it from you. 'You spent two years with the massed Armies besieging Mordor?'
'Sure did', she said.
'Why did you stay there? Why did you not go somewhere safe?' said Elladan, who seemed to have appointed himself spokesman for both brothers.
'Uumm. Like where would I have gone? And wandering about the place on my own was considered as dangerous as letting me stay, so stay I did,' Rory answered.
The twins looked at each other, 'It never occurred to us that you would have nowhere to go,' Elrohir finally said to her.
Elladan spoke again, 'The final battle, you actually fought in it?'
'Nope, not as such. I ran messages between the various commanders, it was thought I would be in less danger that way, but I think that it probably brought more danger on me. Of course, I was armed and had to do quite a bit of fighting on the day, mostly to get to where I was going with messages, but once or twice because I had nothing else to do at the time'.
'You were with father when Isildur betrayed the Last Alliance, weren't you?' Asked Elladan.
'I wouldn't say Isildur betrayed anyone. That's a bit harsh; taken over by the Ring would be more truthful. And yes, I did have a go at making Isildur chuck that darn thing in the mountain by force, I like your father was injured worse than I thought, and Isildur did defeat me and knock me unconscious. By the time I came to, Isildur was long gone, only Elrond and myself were on the mountaintop. I had a great deal of difficulty in getting Elrond to move, but eventually we got down. And that's the story, not so interesting after all is it?' she said.
'Father said you carried him down,' Elladan said, looking at her in a disbelieving way. 'Surely you could not have done such a thing, you are tiny person!'
'Elrond exaggerated a little' she explained. 'He was wounded too, but in a pretty bad state mentally. I simply supported him on our trek down the mountain, he was having a lot of trouble walking, and things weren't helped by the fact that it was a very dark night.
The twins gave Rory a wondering look. 'Have I answered all your questions now,' she said.
'Yes, we think so', said Elladan, still speaking for both.
Rory was about to speak again when the door opened and Elrond walked in. The twins rose from their seats to greet their father, and briefly spoke softly in Elvish to him.
Then Elrond dismissed his sons, obviously wanting to speak further to them alone. He turned to Rory who was admiring the view from the window. 'Did those two rascals entertain you?' he asked.
'Twenty questions again. It must run in the family' she answered.
Oh' said Elrond. 'Those two have been living with the Rangers too much, and it has affected their manners'.
'No, they were very well mannered', she said 'just curious, which also runs in the family'.
'Does it', said Elrond. And of course, 'you are not curious now yourself, are you?'
'Never said that, in fact I am', Rory said.
He picked up a small package sitting on the table. 'This is for you, my friend', he said a small token of gratitude for your help all those years ago'.
'Thank you' said Rory, 'but you really don't have to give me anything. You would have done the same for me'. She opened the little packet, and stared in astonishment.