A/N: Enjoy this new chapter!
The two elves standing silently on the bank were identical, down to the dark widow's peak that pointed towards their sharp profiles, their dark hair and eyes, and high, fine cheekbones. The one of the left was slightly taller, and his buttery-smooth bow was already in his hands, although his arrows were still in his quiver. They melted into the treeline once more, staying completely silent and out of sight of the five newcomers who had fallen from the sky. After a long moment that was taut with tension, the shorter one - respectively speaking - spoke up, breaking the glassy dome of silence that had settled over the whole forest. Not even the birds were twittering.
"These are not the warriors we are looking for," were the first words out of Elrohir's mouth. His mouth tightened slightly to show the depth of his displeasure, and his fingers twitched of their own accord. He itched to notch an arrow to his bow and challenge these five strangers, but the serene presence of his twin kept him from doing something he would no doubt regret. Elladan lay a soothing hand on his brother's shoulder, dark liquid eyes never leaving the motley group of strangers who were sitting on the ground in a circle.
"We are not searching for warriors, brother," Elladan said in Elvish, his voice as low and silky as a whisper in the night. "Mithrandir has told us to look for scribes. And from the looks of that young woman over yonder, they carry the look and demeanor of that very profession."
"But look at them!" Elrohir said irritably, forgetting to whisper. His rapid Elvish flowed from his lips like water twisting around a rock, and his brows furrowed into a V as he gestured to the group of people. "They bear no signs of ever being in Middle Earth before. Surely Mithrandir could not have meant these…children."
"They are not children," Elladan said softly, and his grip tightened on his brother's forearm. "And they are more than they appear, if my eyes have not yet failed me."
"You would be willing to trust complete strangers?" Elrohir asked incredulously. Elrohir finally tore his gaze from the small bunch, and their black eyes locked. In a voice that was darkly low and perfectly serious, he growled at his twin.
"That…miscreant…is threatening our entire lives, brother! How can she be our sister? I would trust strangers to get rid of them, yes, even mortal strangers! I would trust dwarves if it meant getting rid of that abomination!"
"You cannot be serious, brother," Elrohir gasped. "Dwarves? In Imaldris? Impossible! The last time they were here was with Mithrandir himself, and that was only for a few days at best."
"If it means losing our dear sister," Elladan growled, his jaw clenched as he spat out the last word, "I would put my own life in their hands."
"Do not honor her with the title of our kin," Elrohir snapped. "It is completely absurd to grace Melamin Lirima Anar Ithil Elen with the label of our sister. And I fear for Arwen; she was reduced to tears last evening over her sharp remarks concerning her dress."
"All the more reason we must escort these people to Imaldris," Elladan said. "Come, brother. Let us introduce ourselves."
Melody lay on her stomach, piling rocks on top of one another carefully, forming a pyramid of smooth river rocks that nearly touched her chin. When the final pebble was perched tremblingly on its side, she stuck a leaf into the crack. With a catty smile, she leveled the structure and once more turned her face towards the rest of the group. They had been bouncing around ideas of where they were for the past twenty minutes, and Melody was getting very bored. Daphne was becoming very bossy and pushy, and a dispute between Isabella and the spiky haired blonde had nearly degenerated into a brawl. Madison, or Maddie as Daphne called her, was pretty much staying quiet and out of the picture. Michael had been flirting constantly with everybody ever since they had introduced themselves. He was one of those annoying males who had the nasty habit of directing his comments to a certain place just south of her chin instead of her face, a habit which Melody was going to correct the next time he checked her out. Melody was about to roll onto her back and insist that they stop yakking and find something to eat, when they all saw something approaching them silently from the left.
Maddie, naturally, had the loudest and most vocal reaction; namely, she shrieked to the heavens and fell to one side as the two elves knelt next to them. Daphne, who had been sitting next to the bushy-haired bookworm, caught her carefully, then got to her feet. She was diminutive at best, but her plump features and silver-green eyes were enough to startle Elrohir into keeping his tongue. "This is ridiculous!" Daphne snapped. "Who are you? And don't do that again!"
"Do what again, my lady?" Elladan asked innocently. "We merely came over to make your acquaintance."
"No, you haven't," Isabella said, steepling her fingers in her lap. Her dark eyes narrowed with satisfaction. "You've been standing over by those trees for the past twenty three minutes and eighteen seconds. You were talking in a different language which I believe to be a combination of French, Latin, English, and rooted in some language I haven't had time to analyze yet. But judging by your body language, I would hazard a guess that you were decided whether or not we were dangerous. And as you can very well see from all the way over there, we are relatively alone and unarmed. Considering you already have this fact in your arsenal, you came over here to either discreetly check us for weaponry at closer inspection, or you have decided we do not pose a threat and have come to see if we will volunteer more information about ourselves." She looked around at the six blank faces around her. "It's elementary, really."
"How did you keep track of the minutes and seconds like that?" Madison asked. "It's fascinating, and also intriguing to know that your brain has multiple levels of concentration pertaining to such a high concentration. Did you train yourself, or-"
"Yes, as fascinating as it is," Daphne said, loudly overriding Madison's interested questions, "we need to find out who these two gentlemen are." She stressed the word "gentlemen", stretching it and warping it until it sounded positively insulting. However, Elladan seemed quite unperturbed.
"My name is Elladan, and this is my brother Elrohir. We are the sons of -"
"Elrond, and your sister is Arwen Undómiel, the Evanstar of her people," Michael interrupted, his chocolate brown eyes wide as saucers. "You live in Imaldris, you're twins, which is quite rare among the elves, considering they can only have one child every ten years. Holy shit, do you guys know what this means?" Michael asked, looked excitedly around at the rest of them. "It means -"
"We're in Middle Earth." Daphne, Isabella, Madison and Melody supplied, all sounding as though they were in various stages of shock. There was a long silence, broken only by the rippling river in the background. Then Melody slapped her thigh loudly, and in the still calm of the midmorning, it was positively explosive.
"I don't believe this! We're in another, fictional, world? How is that even possible?" Melody asked, running both hands through her hair. "We died or something, and ended up here?"
"Well, it beats being dead, doesn't it?" Daphne said rudely. "Now if you'll both shut up so Elrohir and Elladan can explain properly, we can continue."
Madison, however, was not about to shut up. "Which part of the story are we in?" she asked excitedly. "I mean, which chapter? Has the Council of Elrond already happened yet? Did Arwen and Aragorn fall in love? Has Frodo taken the One Ring?"
"Shh, Maddie, you're giving away the story!" Daphne hissed. "Just ignore everything she just said," she ordered, and Elladan and Elrohir nodded obediently, masking their complete bewilderment under a stoic mask of chilly indifference.
"I believe Mithrandir would be better suited to explain," Elrohir said hesitantly. There was a delighted squeal from Madison.
"We're going to meet Gandalf?" she spluttered, clinging to Daphne in her eagerness. The spiky-haired blonde sighed and calmly peeled her demonstrative friend off of her arm.
"No, wait, why would Gandalf be better suited to explain?" Isabella asked, her eyes almost closing. Then she snapped her fingers. "He brought us here, didn't he?"
"I shall not ask how she figured that out," Elladan murmured in Elvish to Elrohir. "More then meets the eye, eh, brother?"
"Indeed." Elrohir breathed back.
They stood, stretching various kinks in joints and muscles, and began to follow Elrohir and Elladan to the river's edge. Madison suddenly looked very frightened. "We're not crossing the river, are we?" she asked worriedly. "I mean, not that I'm scared, or anything, but, the last time I was in there, I nearly drowned."
"There is nothing to fear, my lady," Elrohir said soothingly. "The river narrows further up, and there are stepping stones in which you may cross over upon. Follow us." He took off upstream, his feet dancing lightly atop the ground, hardly seeming to touch it. Elladan was bounding ahead, feet brushing the rocks with the scantest amount of weight possible. The rest of them trudged along, shuffling through pebbles and scourging up ruts in the sandy rocks. Michael couldn't keep quiet about Lord of the Rings, and Daphne was centimeters away from strangling him. Fortunately, they arrived at the crossing only a few minutes later. The river had narrowed considerably, and there were five smooth boulders dotted seemingly randomly across it, marking a jagged path in which one could hop from rock to rock and reach the other side. Elrohir streaked across it, faster than Daphne was able to register, and was standing calmly on the other bank before anyone could blink. Elladan followed him quickly, and this time they all watched closely. His foot nearly slipped, but he was so fast it was difficult to tell.
"Come, there is nothing to fear," Elladan said briskly. "There is nothing to it."
"Nothing to it for elves, maybe," Melody grumbled, and folded her arms. "Whose going first?"
Nobody answered, but Daphne took a deep breath and leaped to the first rock. It was a lot slipperier than she had imagined, and she nearly took an unwanted bath in the icy stream. Then, with some trepidation, she mounted the next one that was situated rather far off, and she managed to cross the rest of it without too much trouble. Finally, she wiped her hands on her damp jeans and brushed her wet hair back from her forehead. "Come on, you guys," she encouraged. "It's simple."
Michael crossed next, and despite his agility and dexterity, he slid halfway off the third rock and soaked his pants up to the knees. Deciding he was already wet, he pushed off from the rock and swam to shore with three powerful strokes. He tossed his leather jacket on the bank and clambered up after it, grinning that shifty, one-cornered grin. "Gimmie some love, Daffi!" he said, and the two of them high fived. "Yow! C'mon, Maddie, let's rock 'n' roll!"
Isabella meandered upstream a bit, and emerged not ten seconds later with a green stick she had apparently snapped off a tree. Elrohir looked horrified, and Elladan seemed as though he were trying hard not to swim across the river, snatch the limb out of her hands, and pray to whatever deity he could think of to bless the broken branch. Isabella picked at the thick end of it with her thumbnail, then gripped it hard. She backed up until her back scraped the treeline, then raced towards the stream. She toed off with the branch, arching neatly over the rushing river, and landed hard on her hands and knees, skinning both of them harshly. Daphne felt an unfamiliarly smug feeling against the young girl's injuries, but it vanished like a candle flame when Isabella got to her feet. "Not a problem," she announced, as if the whole world should stop and write it down. "Come on, Madison." she said, although it sounded more like a provocation than encouragement.
Melody glanced at Maddie, who was chewing fiercely on her knuckles. Shrugging, Melody skipped across the boulders neatly, exactly as Elrohir and Elladan had done, then brushed her hands off. They all stared at her, jaws slack. "What? It's not hard." she said, then flipped her blonde hair. Nobody noticed her long fingers dipping into Elrohir's pocket and sliding a small object into her own orange jumpsuit. She brushed her bangs out of her eyes and folded her arms. "Let's go, Maddie!" she cried, and their attention was focused on the short girl with the frizzy hair and thick glasses. Maddie gnawed furiously on her thumb, then licked her lips nervously.
"TOWANDA!" she shouted, and charged atop the first rock. Bit by bit she managed to crawl her way across the river, getting herself completely soaked in the process. When she stood, dripping wet but wholly triumphant, on the other side, she was beaming. "Excellent!" she said, and wrung out her damp hair. "Shall we depart?"