Thanks for the reviews and to everyone who has read it so far! Hope you're enjoying it. I probably wont be able to update quite so frequently as I'm back at work tomorrow, but I'll do my best. Here's chapter 3 - time for the girls to meet some dwarves...

I own nothing but Katy & Sarah...

Chapter 3

It was now evening in Hobbiton, and Katy and Sarah had spent a fairly pleasant day with Bilbo Baggins. Well, it was probably a bit more pleasant for the girls than for Bilbo, as Sarah had taken to touching a lot of stuff in Bilbo's house (which they learnt was called a hobbit hole), much to Bilbo's increasing annoyance. Katy had concentrated on keeping as calm as she could, and she kept telling herself that Gandalf would return with a solution to how she and Sarah were to return home and get off on their own adventure.

As the sky grew darker, Bilbo, Katy and Sarah sat down to a dinner of fish. The girls were very grateful that Bilbo cooked them dinner, and it smelt and looked delicious. The hobbit had given himself a considerably larger portion than the girls, but neither of them found it in themselves to ask for more. Suddenly, there was a knock on the door, and Katy's face immediately lit up.

'Gandalf!'

She grinned at Sarah, who had a mouth full of fish.

'I'm sure he'll have found a way for us to get home, don't you think?'

Sarah nodded. 'Yup, he is a wizard after all!'

They heard voices as Bilbo answered the door, and then were shocked to discover that instead of Gandalf, a tall, (well, taller than they were) bald chap came into the room. Noticing the girls, he bowed.

'Dwalin, at your service'

Sarah's mouth fell open, still full of fish, and for once in her life, she was speechless.

'What the…' Katy muttered.

Suddenly, Sarah found the right words, and after swallowing the fish, stood up to greet the stranger.

'Hi there, Dwalin, was it? Are you a hobbit or a wizard?' she inquired.

'I'm a dwarf!' Dwalin grunted at her, 'What are you?!'

'Erm, long story, but we're women who seem to have shrunk a bit, not really sure why yet.' Sarah replied, trying to keep the smile on her face as she watched Dwalin eat Bilbo's dinner.

She then turned to Bilbo. 'Were you expecting company? I mean, other than Gandalf?'

Bilbo looked a little flustered. 'No I certainly wasn't!'

Katy wasn't sure if she should eat her dinner or offer it to Bilbo. Before she could decide, though, Dwalin went to lift her plate.

'Are you going to eat that, or can I have it?' he barked at her.

Katy just mumbled at him, and watched him eat her fish.

She was thinking of something to ask the dwarf, when there was another knock on the door, causing even more panic on Bilbo's face. As he went off to answer it, Katy and Sarah rushed into the living room. Dwalin was a bit intimidating.

'Sarah, who is hell is that? First wizards, hobbits, and now dwarves?! Where the hell are we?'

Sarah peered into the dining room to see another dwarf join Dwalin. This one was older with white hair.

'Don't worry, Katy, I'm sure Gandalf will explain everything'.

'Ok, but I've been thinking. All these names, Bilbo, Gandalf. I'm sure I've heard them somewhere before.'

Before Sarah had the chance to reply, there was a third knock on the door. Both girls peered around the corner to see Bilbo open the door to two young dwarves.

'Fili'

'And Kili'

'At your service'

As Bilbo once again made upset noises, Katy turned to Sarah.

'More of them! How many more can there be?'

Sarah smirked. 'As many as possible, if they all look like that', nodding her head at the dark haired dwarf who was now scraping his boots on Bilbo's furniture.

'Really? A dwarf?'

'Not just any dwarf, a hot dwarf. Look, his mate isn't bad either, one for you!' Sarah grinned.

Katy was about to reply when she properly looked at the other dwarf.

'Hmm, you're right, not bad, actually...'

Sarah started laughing, and both girls followed the dwarves back through to the dining room, where they were moving tables and collecting as much food as possible. Poor Bilbo, thought Sarah.

Before they could introduce themselves to the new arrivals, there was an even louder knock on the door. Bilbo wasn't impressed, and even less so when eight more dwarves tumbled into his hall, and a familiar face stood behind them.

'Gandalf!' Katy and Sarah squeaked at the same time.

The wizard smiled at the girls. 'Good evening, my dears. And I see that you've met some of the dwarves!'

'Erm, we've not really been properly introduced, to be honest. They all seem a bit more focused on getting food than meeting us', Sarah explained.

Gandalf smiled as the dwarves around him noisily made their way into the kitchen. 'Yes, I think we best leave the introductions until a bit later.'

The wizard went off into the hobbit hole, muttering under his breath and counting dwarves. By the looks of things he was missing one.

Sarah turned to Katy. 'Fancy something to eat? You never did get your fish. And by the looks of it there won't be much left for much longer.'

Katy sighed. 'Yeah, might as well as find something to eat! We might even be able to chat to those cute dwarves!'

Her friend grinned back at her. 'That's more like it! You've lightened up at bit!'

'Well, I feel better now that Gandalf is here,' Katy shrugged.

The two girls made their way among the dwarves, trying not to trip up on any furniture or be hit by any food.

By the looks of things, Bilbo was less inclined to just let the dwarves get on with feeding themselves and generally making themselves at home.

'Excuse me, that is a doily, not a dishcloth!'

Katy and Sarah smiled apologetically at him, before carefully reaching for some bread and cheese. 'Sorry about your kitchen, Bilbo…' Katy said quietly as she looked around for somewhere to sit.

Sarah, meanwhile, had spotted the two hot dwarves and was making a beeline for them.

'Hi, I'm Sarah, I'm a friend, well kind of, of Gandalf's, can I sit here?' she asked the dark haired dwarf, pointing to the empty seat next to him.

He smiled brightly at her, 'Of course! I'm Kil-'

'KATY! OVER HERE!' Sarah bellowed across the room, as she sat down next to Kili.

'Oh, excuse me, can I just- I'll just squeeze in here, thank you!' Katy said as she eventually made it across the kitchen. She went to sit next to Sarah who gave her a look before nodding to the space next to Fili.

'I think that seat's free' she said knowingly.

'So obvious…' Katy muttered, as she sat down.

She smiled at Fili. 'Hi, I'm Katy, nice to meet you.'

The two young dwarves appeared delighted at the attention.

'Fili'

'Kili'

'At your ser-'

'Oh, you've already done that!' Sarah said, giggling.

Kili blushed. 'Oh, er, right! Where did you say you were from?'

The girls shared a look.

'Erm… a small village in Kent? I don't think it's near here' Sarah said after a few seconds.

'Yeah, we've travelled far, still working out how…' Katy added.

The two dwarves only seemed slightly puzzled with that answer. 'Are you joining us on our quest?' Fili asked Katy.

'Quest? What kind of quest?' she replied.

'Like the crystal maze?!' Sarah offered. Katy rolled her eyes at her friend, but before either of the dwarves could tell them anymore, they were up on their feet with the rest of the gathering. Dishes were soon flying everywhere, and Bilbo looked like he was going to have a fit. He asked them to stop, which only resulted in them starting to sing about blunting the knives.

'I THINK THEY ARE JUST TIDYING UP!' Sarah shouted across to the hobbit, but he didn't seem satisfied until he had seen all the dishes stacked neatly and cleanly in the kitchen.

'That was impressive…' Katy whispered to Sarah, who nodded in agreement.

Suddenly, there was a loud knock on the door, and the room fell silent.

'Is it another dwarf?' Sarah asked, more loudly than was needed. Katy shrugged.

Gandalf opens the door, and as another dwarf entered Bilbo's home the two girls tried to step back into the corner of the room. As far as first impressions went, this dwarf didn't seem as friendly as the others. There was a definite sense of power about him, and the other dwarves clearly respected him, as they remained silent.

Gandalf introduced Bilbo to Thorin Oakenshield, and the dwarf started asking the hobbit about weapons.

'This is all getting a bit serious, don't you think? I preferred it when they were throwing food around' Katy muttered to Sarah.

Suddenly both girls felt the eyes of the whole room on them.

'And who are these females?' Thorin asked Gandalf.

The wizard looked at the girls for a moment, as if deciding what to say. Sarah spoke up, before he had a chance to reply.

'I'm Sarah, this is Katy. We're, um, girls from somewhere far away, and we're a bit lost'

'And what are you doing with my company?' Thorin replied.

'Erm, somebody mentioned something about a quest, I think? Not really sure if it's our kind of thing, really. We're headed for New Zealand, if you must know'.

Sarah felt Katy's nails digging into her arm, which she took as a sign to stop talking. Fili, meanwhile, was doing his best to avoid Thorin's gaze. He probably shouldn't have tried to impress a girl by mentioning the quest…

Thorin merely grunted in response, and strode into the kitchen to find something to eat.

'That was painless…' Sarah muttered.

The girls followed the rest of the dwarves into the kitchen, and folded themselves into a corner out of the way while the dwarves gathered around the table, listening to Thorin. The girls didn't understand a lot of what was said, but could sense that now was not the time to ask questions. More talk about a quest, a lonely mountain, and then a dragon. At the mention of the dragon, Katy suddenly let out a little squeak and covered her mouth with her hand. Sarah immediately saw that something was wrong.

'What is it? You look like you're going to be sick!'

Katy removed her hand and took a deep breath. She was visibly shaking.

'Not here', she managed to mutter.

Sarah looked around at Gandalf and the dwarves. So far, it didn't look like any of them had noticed Katy's reaction, and taking her friend's hand, Sarah tiptoed out of the kitchen and into a small study across the hall. The wizard noted their exit out of the corner of his eye, but said nothing.

Katy gave herself a minute to compose her thoughts before she spoke.

'Ok, you know how earlier I said that the names Gandalf and Bilbo seemed a bit, well, familiar?'

Sarah nodded.

'Well, it just came to me in there, when they were talking about reclaiming their home, or whatever that was. I know where I've heard these names before.' Katy explained.

'And…' Sarah encouraged her to continue.

'From a book. Actually, a children's book.'

Sarah just stood staring at Katy, not quite sure what to say.

Katy continued talking. 'I mean, I haven't read it, or I don't think I have. It's weird, it's as if something in my head is trying to remember it, but at the same time there's something else that's trying to make me forget. If that's makes any sense?'

'Well, about as much sense as the rest of the day has made, to be fair.' Sarah replied. She paused for a moment before continuing.

'So let me get this straight. You think we're in a book. That somehow we got taken from our boring village into a book.'

Katy nodded. 'A children's book.'

'A children's book with wizards, hobbits, dragons and hot dwarves.'

'Yeah…' Katy looked a bit sick again.

'So it might not be as easy to get home as we thought, I mean we can't just keep walking and suddenly we'll be back in England. We're stuck here. Until what, the book finishes? What happens at the end?' Sarah voice grew louder and louder, and for once it was Katy trying to calm her friend down.

'I don't know, like I said I don't think I've read the book, but you need to keep quiet or those dwarves are going to find out they're fictional characters, which might not go down so well!' she hissed at Sarah.

'You're right. We need to stay calm. I mean, if we can get into a book, surely we can get out of it again, right?'

Katy nodded hopefully.

'God, I think I might faint,' Sarah whispered.

'Me too,'

Just as Katy had spoken, the girls heard a loud thump, and opened the door of the study to find Bilbo lying flat on the floor, out cold.

'Well at least we're taking it better than he is. Do you think he heard us?' Sarah asked.

Some of the dwarves started to drag Bilbo into a chair.

'I doubt it, maybe someone broke one of his grandmother's dishes or something.' Katy answered.

Gandalf came over to the girls. 'Everything alright, my dears? Don't mind Bilbo, he just needs to get his head round the idea of an adventure'

Sarah turned to the wizard. 'Were you able to find out how we can get home? It's just, we're getting a little bit concerned that we're, erm, further away than we originally thought.'

Gandalf frowned.

'Did anything out of the ordinary happen to you, right before you became lost?'

Katy looked at Sarah, and the two girls briefly explained what happened to them yesterday, right up until they ate the apples and fell asleep. Katy left out the bit about being in a children's book, as she was still having trouble remembering anything about it. Her head hurt when she thought about it too much.

'Hmm, a fortune-teller, you say? How odd. Leave it with me, I'll try and find some answers for you.' Gandalf said to the girls.

Sarah smiled at him.

'Thanks, Gandalf. Erm, so what do we now, then? Do you think Bilbo will let us stay here?'

The wizard turned to look at the hobbit, who was still out cold in a chair, but before he could speak they heard a voice from across the room.

'The females will come with us.'

Katy and Sarah turned to find Thorin staring at them.

'What? You want us to come on your quest? Are you nuts?' Sarah yelped.

'I heard what you said to Gandalf - tales of fortune-tellers and mysterious places? Who knows what you really know about this quest? I don't trust you, and I don't want you out of my sight. Not until we know more about where you've come from. Plus, it looks like the hobbit won't be much use,' Thorin replied.

Sarah smiled slightly at Katy.

'Well, it looks like we're getting our adventure after all'.