Many thanks to everyone who reviewed. I was so thrilled to hear what you thought about my first chapter, and it encouraged me to continue.

The Silent Senshi: Thank you for telling me about the formatting problem. I hope this is better!

Shadow The Tiger: Thank you for your encouraging review. I really appreciate it…it made me hurry with this next chapter J

Senshi of Books: I am so glad you like my story. Your review was much appreciated.

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Alex and Mark were led to two separate bedrooms. After they were left to themselves, Alex laid on the bed sighing and taking everything in, while Mark paced his room trying to think of a way to get back home.

Alex was thinking about what will happen next in the Fellowship of the Ring when she shot up on her bed.

'If I hurry, I can catch Boromir and Aragorn together!' she thought.

She raced out of her room and ran right into Frodo, who, she assumed, was on his way to see Bilbo.

"Could you tell me where Boromir is?"

Frodo pointed over his shoulder and said "I saw him heading in that direction".

She slowed her pace, trying to look very regal but trying to hurry at the same time. She started walking down a hall and heard Aragorn's voice.

They couldn't see her, but she could see both Aragorn and Boromir talking with each other.

'Oh, what perfect timing!' Alex said to herself as she heard a slight gasp from Boromir. She saw that he had been testing the edge of the blade and it had drawn blood.'

She tugged at the bottom of her t-shirt to tear off a bit and give him a makeshift bandage.

'This will be great. He'll have to introduce himself, I'm here to tend to his cut. Life couldn't be better!'

She started towards them, but she couldn't get her t-shirt to tear.

'No no no...' she yelled in her head.

Boromir was walking away and she started after him, but by the time she reached where Boromir had been, he was gone, and it would be obvious that she was spying on him if she ran after him and offered "a bit of t-shirt" to bandage him up.

Alex sighed in disappointment and turned to see Aragorn standing by the sword, looking at her.

She was a little embarrassed that he saw her trying to chase after Boromir.

He gave her a slight smile and said "My lady" then he bowed and left.

'Whoa, I wish guys were like that where I come from!' Alex thought. 

She turned and started back to her room. She heard Mark before she saw him. He was standing in the hall, banging on her bedroom door and yelling her name.

She called to him "Here I am! Now stop shouting please! Everyone will notice".

Mark walked over to her and said "Where have you been?? I've been standing here for like 10 minutes at least".

She rolled her eyes at his over-protectiveness "Good grief, Mark. We're in a new, exciting place with the one guy I've dreamed about for the past three years. Do you think I'm going to sit locked up in my room?" she replied.

He looked at her and then brought his eyes to the floor. After standing there for a minute in silence, Mark said "You've got to come back to reality sometime Alex. We need to get home!"

Alex looked at him with all seriousness and replied "What for?" then she turned, without waiting for a reply, and walked to her room.

Mark just stood there, trying to think of just what it was that was making him want to go back home so badly. He heard the sound of footsteps before he finished his thoughts. He looked up to see that a girl was walking towards him.

She had black hair that reached her waist, and blue eyes. She looked about his age, but he knew she must be hundreds of years old as she was obviously elvish.

As she neared him she said, "Good day to you."

He looked at her and said "Hi there" then turned to walk towards the garden.

"Your homeland is not known to me, would you tell me about it?" She said.

Mark turned back to her "Uuhh...I guess so. Let's go sit in the garden, okay?"

Without looking back to see if she was following, he went and sat on a bench in the lush green garden. The surroundings were beautiful and breathtaking, but being a guy, of course, he noticed none of this. The girl came and sat gracefully beside him.

"My name is Laurien." she said with a slight nod.

"Oh, uh, nice to meet you. I'm Mark" he replied.

Laurien placed her hands in her lap, and looked around at the garden.

Mark was quickly getting bored and said "What do you guys do around here for fun?"

Her eyes lit up as she replied "I am the caretaker of the garden we now sit in. I find great pleasure in helping the plants grow".

Mark groaned a bit and said "Ooh, I see. Well, um, what do elf MEN do for fun?"

Laurien didn't seem very happy at his remark, but she replied "At the moment, they are all practicing arts of war with the visitors that have arrived. If you would care to join them I will show you the way"

He looked at her, and wondered if he really even wanted to join them in "practicing the arts of war", but before he could reply she stood and said "Follow me".

She led him to a large clearing where all of the men were. He looked around to see elves, humans, dwarves and a couple of hobbits. They were all occupied with some activity or another, whether it was archery, swordsmanship, rock throwing, or wrestling.

Mark turned to talk to Laurien, but she had turned and was walking away. His eyes scanned the field.

He recognized Boromir, whom Alex had pointed out countless times in the movie, or in magazines, photos, etc...

'Hmm, so this is what he looks like for real, eh? I don't see what's so great about him. Sure he's tall, but come on, I mean you don't wanna be too tall' he thought to himself unaware that he was standing slightly on his toes.

'I bet his muscles aren't any bigger than mine, underneath all those clothes. He probably just wears that armor to hide his small frame...'

He stopped thinking along this line when he saw someone walking towards him. As the man came closer, Mark realized it was Aragorn.

When he reached him, Aragorn handed him a sword and said "Come lad, show us your skill!"