the little vampire lover: Glad you love it. Here's the update.

Mystic Myra 8: Here's the next chapter you've been eagerly waiting for. Enjoy!

Disclaimer: I do not own "The Hobbit."

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Chapter 4: Meeting Thranduil

Sarah felt very small as she stood next to Edana, looking up at the Elvenking sitting on his throne high above their heads. She was grateful for the fancy dress she had been given; she never would have had the courage to face him in clothes she would normally wear back at home. Thranduil looked down on the two girls with a stoic face. Sarah wondered what was going on inside that immortal mind of his. Then again, she probably didn't want to know.

"So you are the two trespassers my son found in the forest," Thranduil stated.

"That depends on your definition of 'trespassing,'" Edana began. "The dictionary definition is 'to enter someone else's land without permission.' I don't think it counts if the so-called trespasser is unaware that he or she is trespassing, especially if they don't know where they are in the first place." Sarah facepalmed. "What!?" Edana exclaimed when she saw her cousin.

The king glared at Edana before asking for their names. They gave them to him. Thranduil then turned his attention mainly to Sarah.

"My son tells me you were unaware that you are an elf."

"Yes," Sarah replied.

"Why?"

"Because until he found us and pointed it out to me, I had been a human."

"Are you saying that you suddenly transformed into an elf?" The king asked with a doubting voice.

"I had seen myself in mirrors plenty of times before yesterday," Sarah answered. "I was most certainly not an elf then."

Thranduil gave her one last thoughtful look before turning to Edana.

"You are not human either," he said. "That much I can tell. So what are you?"

"No clue," Edana said. "My situation is the same as my cousin's, with the exception being that I didn't turn into an elf."

"You two cannot possibly be cousins," Thranduil said. "You are not even of the same species."

"Our fathers were brothers," Sarah told him, "which makes us cousins. We don't know why we became an elf and a. . . a. . ." At a loss for words, Sarah looked at Edana.

"A 'whatever,'" Edana said. Sarah rolled her eyes before turning back to the king.

"We don't know why we became. . . what we are when we woke up in the forest," she said.

"What do you mean you 'woke up in the forest'?" Thranduil asked.

"There was an earthquake," Edana began. "Sarah and I were running to safety when the ground gave way beneath us. We passed out and woke up in the forest."

Thranduil raised one eyebrow, as if he didn't quite believe her story. Instead of asking her to elaborate, he changed the subject.

"Legolas said the spiders were talking instead of attacking you when he approached the area. What were they discussing?"

"Something about a copper fire burning in one of. . ."

Edana stopped talking as the king stood up suddenly, shock and disbelief on his face.

"A fire? Are you absolutely sure they said a 'copper fire'?" His voice was low. The girls could still hear him clearly, but he had been talking quite a bit louder until that point.

"Positive," Edana said. Both girls were looking at him in confusion, wondering why what the spiders said could change him so suddenly like that.

"Which one of you did the spiders say had the copper fire?" the king asked.

"We don't know," Sarah answered. "They didn't specify."

"Could you sense them?"

"What?"

"Could you sense where the spiders were?" Thranduil asked. "Could you know where the spiders were without looking?" Sarah's heart stopped.

"I couldn't," Edana answered. "Sarah, however, seemed to know where they were. We were able to evade them for a while thanks to her before they finally surrounded us."

Thranduil was silent for a moment as he looked at Sarah, who grew very nervous under his piercing gaze. After a while he called for Legolas, who had been standing nearby and now came up the stairs to stand behind the girls.

"Escort Edana back to her room," Thranduil commanded. "I need to have a few private words with Lady Sarah."

Legolas gave his father a curious look before offering his arm to Edana, who simply looked at Sarah.

"Go," Sarah told her cousin. "I'll be fine."

But as Edana walked away with Legolas, Sarah felt her heart beat faster than she had ever thought possible. She forced herself to breathe and stand still as Thranduil descended from his throne to stand in front of her, not taking his eyes off her for even a second. Her knees felt like they were going to give out at any second, and she would have preferred the silence of Mirkwood forest to the silence she was experiencing now. She was starting to make plans to turn and run when Thranduil finally spoke.

"Who are you?"

Sarah blinked. Whatever she was expecting him to say, it certainly wasn't that.

"I'm not sure what you mean by that," she said, forcing her voice not to squeak.

"Who are you?" Thranduil repeated. "Who are your parents? Where do you come from? How old are you?"

"What?" was the only response she could give him at that point. "Why are you asking me all these questions? What does this have to do with what the spiders said?"

Thranduil ignored her questions. He started to walk around her. Sarah stood still, following him with her eyes until she couldn't see him anymore. She looked to her other side and waited for him to come around. Instead she felt a hand on the back of her neck, pushing her hair to the side and revealing the mark that Edana claimed was there.

"Impossible," she heard him whisper.

Sarah turned around and swatted the king's arm away from her. She looked at him, ready with a few choice words for him, but stopped when she saw his face.

He was crying.

"Who are you?" he asked a third time.

Before Sarah could think of something to say, a new, yet familiar, voice spoke up.

"That is enough!"

Sarah and Thranduil looked to see Gandalf standing there, his face contorted with anger.

"This girl has been through enough already, Thranduil. She does not need you interrogating her on top of it all."

"You know something about this," Thranduil said. It was not a question, but a statement.

"Indeed, I do," Gandalf said, "but now is not the time to tell her story."

"It is the perfect time. How could you keep this knowledge from me?"

Now Thranduil was looking angry. The two men obviously knew what the other was talking about. Sarah was still in the dark, however. Gandalf moved to stand between her and the Elvenking, shielding her from his view.

"I will send her someplace far away from here if you try to gain that knowledge before I believe you are ready to hear it," he said in a very threatening voice. He noticed someone coming up behind Thranduil. "Legolas, please take Sarah to rejoin her cousin."

Legolas gently took Sarah's arm and led her away. She made sure to keep as far away from the king as she could until they were down the stairs and walking away. She could hear Thranduil and Gandalf talking in rapid elvish until she was too far away, but she couldn't understand any of it. She and Legolas were silent as he quickly escorted her back to the room she shared with Edana, who was waiting for them when Legolas opened the door.

"Oh, my gosh, Sarah, are you alright?" Edana asked as she hugged her cousin.

Legolas left them like that, shutting the door behind them. As soon as it was closed, Sarah's legs gave in and she fell to the floor. She held onto Edana like her life depended on it.

"What happened?" her cousin asked. "Legolas handed me off as soon as he could and went back to get you. What did the king talk to you about? Did he hurt you?" Sarah shook her head.

"He didn't hurt me," she said. "It was strange. He started asking about my parents and how old I was, and he kept asking me 'Who are you?' And then he saw the mark on my neck and Gandalf showed up and. . ."

"Gandalf's here?" Edana interrupted her. Sarah nodded.

"He knows something about me," she continued. "The king does too. . . I think. I don't know what's going on. I want to go home."

Sarah started crying. Edana held her as she let her cousin cry, planning in her head what to say when she next saw Thranduil and Gandalf.

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So what did you think? Answers about Gandalf's appearance and the copper fire and Thranduil's behavior in the next chapter.

There is also a line from a movie somewhere in here. Cyber-cookies if you can find out which quote from which movie.

Please review.