A/N: As usual thanks to our loyal reviewers, in this case: Fern Timberlake, Queen of Monkey Magic and Hope and Love. Cookie for all.

Chapter 6: The Briefest of Explanations

……………………………………………………………..

They had calmed Jess down and had wrapped Fern, Jess and Susan in blankets as they prepared to leave.

"Elfling…" Legolas began to say to Mel.

"Mel," she told him firmly.

"Yes, Mel, what are you doing here?"

"We're not quite sure, see we were captured,"

"Where from?"

"This forest with giant freaking walking trees,"

"Fangorn Forest, ents,"

Mel stared at him for a moment, "Anyway, can you please explain to me WHAT THE HELL IS GOING ON HERE?"

Legolas looked at her, "What do you mean?"

"We woke up in THE FOREST, with pointy EARS! Which, might I mention, we HAD NOT previously HAD! And," she continued before he could comment, "we were not wearing these clothes when we first got here, we woke up and POOF! Different clothes, very different clothes; and weapons! Old-fashioned weapons, I got a freaking bow and arrow for Christ's sake! And them," she said pointing at the Urak-hi, "what on earth are they?"

"Those are Urak-hi, an advanced form of orc…the uh, smaller ones."

"Alright, sworn enemy kind of situation? And you are an elf," Legolas nodded. "And that dude," she indicated Aragorn, "Is not,"

"Correct,"

"And the short hairy one I'm guessing is a dwarf. And you say we, meaning me and the other girls, are elflings…which are?"

"Young elves, very rare,"

The twin elves came up to them, they, as had the others, had been listening to their conversation. One began: "Elves are immortal but that longevity does not come without a price; precious few children are born to us. While the birth of a child is an almost common occurrence to the other races of Middle Earth, the Elves rarely enjoyed that blessing. Precious few youths are born to us, and as such, the Elves are very protective of their offspring. Children mean more to us then any other race could possibly understand..."

"A child is an elfling for around fifty years," his twin finished.

"Though some of the ancient ones call you an elfling until your first millennia!" the other said, quite grumpily.

"Only ninety-seven more years," Legolas said.

"For YOU maybe!"

"That WAS the point,"

"Anyway," Mel said, "back to the topic at hand, where the F HELL are we?"

"Middle earth,"

"Never heard of it, though I suppose I'm going to hear a lot about it very soon,"

"Middle Earth is inhabited by humans, elves, dwarves and hobbits or Halflings: child sized people, smaller then dwarves, with hairy feet; these are all the good guys, guys like this are…not so much," he said, indicating the Urak-hi at his feet, "there are also Orcs, trolls, goblins etcetera, as well as some not so nice humans."

……………………………………………………

The Ranger's helped the girls onto their horses; each would be sharing one as the rangers had thankfully had no casualties. Fern had ridden off with Elrohir, the younger twin, as soon as possible; they were headed for the city of Rivendell, where Elrohir's father would need to heal Fern immediately.

Jess was carefully lifted by Elladan, the eldest of the twins, onto his horse.

"What's this on your back?" he asked as he felt something under her tunic. She reached back and found two slim twin daggers in their casing strapped to her back.

"Do you all have weapons then?"

"Our weapons!" Mel cried, as she sat atop Legolas' horse.

"Don't worry lass," Gimli said, walking over, carrying a bag, "I believe this to be yours," Legolas raised a curious eyebrow. "After you informed me that the elvish sword was given to Jackie, I saw fit to investigate this bag of weapons that had remained untouched,"

"In other words, you were nosy," Aragorn said.

"As I was saying, before I was rudely interrupted, I found these beautiful weapons; I especially liked the glaive,"

"That's Susan's, the knives are Ferns' and the bow and arrows are mine," Mel told him.

Gimli handed Mel her weapons and stowed the others.

"Nice bow," Legolas said as he jumped on their horse.

"Thanks," she whispered as they rode off, her hands around his waist.

……………………………………………………………………………..

A/N: Please review.

And, finally, one of the completely random story type things that came about during development.

" On the other side of the world Elrond was stuck in a burning ship; which quite sucked as Fern was still on her way to Not die. A passing phoenix was crying over a lost leaf and a teardrop landed on Fern, healing her instantly. Galadriel on the other hand had jumped in the water and was screaming "I'm melting! I'm melting!" "