Chapter 4.

Please review, and check out my other story, Plain Jane, if you have the time. :) Let me know what you think of my characters, so far. Can you guys guess the pairings, yet? Better yet, what pairings would you like?

I don't own Lord of the Rings, or I Want a Hippopotamus for Christmas. I'm not making a profit off of this or anything, I'm just writing for my own enjoyment.

(Sophie)

"Collin, what are you doing with a sword?" There was nothing more frightening than my best friend swinging the dangerous weapon around.

Gandalf had left us to stay in Edoras for a while so he could go chill with someone he called Radagast the Brown. It kind of made me wonder if being named after a color was normal in this world, because if it was, I'd want to be Sophie the Blue. Maybe Gandalf would let me have his cool blue hat!

Anyways, we'd been staying in Rohan for about two months now, and I was expecting to wake up and have a relatively ordinary day. Fortunately, or unfortunately, having friends like Collin made it nearly impossible to have an ordinary day.

Collin was swinging the heavy sword around carelessly, and I was sure that he'd cut his leg off if he continued any longer. My friend flashed me a bright smile and held the sword out for me to hold. "Theodred and Eomer are teaching me how to use a sword. It's heavy, huh?"

I nearly toppled over due to the weight of the sword. Dang!

"Take it back, take it back!" Collin relieved me of the burden and I rubbed my arm muscles. "Uh, ow?"

Eomer laughed and took out his own sword. "Oh, it's not too bad, Sophie. You just need to build up your strength!"

"No thanks, I'm good." I watched my friends spar for a while with wooden swords, quite worried about Collin's well-being. Fortunately, Theodred and Eomer were good teachers, and Collin got along well enough.

We were adapting to this world quite well, if you ask me. It took a while to get used to crapping somewhere other than a toilet, but all in all, life was good. Collin absolutely insisted on filming anything and everything now that his battery refused to die. Whenever he was too busy to film, he'd make me do it, such as now, when he was training to be a swordsman.

Wow, Collin was actually learning how to fight with a sword. That's terrifying.

As Collin adapted by becoming a soldier, I adapted in my own way. Despite Eowyn's constant insisting that I should be trained in the art of the sword, I decided to instead take a road a little less... violent. Remember Byrde and Lyfides, the dressmakers? Well, I was occasionally working for them, now. No, I wasn't a dressmaker, I cleaned. For a small pay, I'd occasionally come in, clean the shop, and then at the end of the day, Byrde would teach me how to sew and make clothes. A pretty good deal, if you ask me, and it got me away from Wormtongue.

Ever since Gandalf left, Theoden's gotten even worse. I think that Collin was right about Grima, something's definately wrong with him.

Of course, there was nothing much that we could do about it. You can't just waltz into Meduseld and declare the king's chief advisor of brainwashing people. Not exactly a good way to keep your head around these parts.

(James)

"There she is... You ready?" Legolas and I were hiding behind a pillar, watching Maerwen stroll the gardens. I'd spent the last two months working on my elvish and trying to get closer to the beautiful woman who had captured my heart. I know, I'm quite the romantic, aren't I?

Point is, Legolas was insisting that I ask to court Maerwen, and I was petrified. Seriously, I'd known her for two months, and I'd lived amongst the elves long enough that that's hardly enough time for them to want to start courting someone. These people waited years before even considering becoming more than friends, they moved at a snail's pace, and I didn't have that kind of time. Legolas made that painfully clear.

"I wouldn't exactly say that I'm ready, since you're forcing me to do this..." There was a little more than anger in my tone of voice.

Legolas simply smiled. "Don't lie, you know you want to do this. Now go." He shoved me out of my hiding spot and into the sight of Maerwen.

She smiled and waved to me. "Hello, James."

I gulped and slowly made my way towards her, trying my best to appear confident. "Mae govannen." I completely butchered the pronunciation. It kind of came out sounding like 'meh-gov-nah.' Don't criticize me, I'm nervous.

Maerwen shook her head and laughed. "Needs more practice, human boy. Stay with common."

Her laughter made me think of a rather cheesy and grossly romantic phrase. "Melin ceni hin lin sila i 'eldhach." I love to see your eyes shine when you laugh. Something ridiculous that I wouldn't say unless it was completely true. She was the most beautiful thing...

Maerwen looked down and smiled. I could see a slight blush growing on her cheeks. "Better. Still, speak common. I practice more. I speak good common, you speak unhappy elvish."

One of Maerwen's mistakes with speaking common was the wrong word usage, but you typically get the idea.

"So you come to compliment my eyes? Or is there more?"

Crap. Naturally, I'd been acting strange around her all day, and she's smart. She'll know that something's up.

"Yeah, uh..." I rubbed the back of my head nervously. "Well, Maerwen."

"Well, James." She smiled patiently.

I could almost hear Legolas speaking in my head. 'Just like we practiced, James.'

"Maerwen, I think you're beautiful." Not how we practiced, but true enough.

She eyed me slightly. "Do you not find all elves beautiful?"

Slowly, I shook my head and looked her right in the eyes. "Not nearly as beautiful as you."

Maerwen frowned slightly, and my heart sank. "You do not think."

"Well, it's kind of hard for me to think around you." Even more true. I hated it, because I was supposed to be the calm and cool one of my friends. "Would you not give me a chance?"

She looked away and let out a frustrated sigh. She began to mumble in elvish under her breath, things I didn't really understand. Finally, she looked me in the eye and sighed. "Maybe."

"Maybe?" Better than no, but not close to a yes.

Maerwen nodded, a slight smile crossing over her lips. "Maybe."

"What does this mean?" I didn't want to be pushy, but maybe doesn't exactly give me much to work on.

"It means you're new. Get a home, get a job. We'll see." Her smile brightened a little, and my heart lifted.

So she did like me. She was just a girl who wanted a stable future. I can respect that, and I'll do everything to be that man.

Without another word, Maerwen turned and walked back inside, leaving me in a daze. How the hell did I manage that? Legolas moved from his hiding spot and approached me, a cocky smile plastered on his lips.

"I told you she liked you. Maerwen's always been different from other elf maidens."

Yeah, no kidding.

(Kristy)

"Iiiiii want a hippopotamus for Christmas... Only a hippopotamus will do." I sang happily while hanging ribbons and garlands all around Bag End. No, it wasn't Christmas. Yes, it was May. But did I care? Of course not. Over the past two months in the Shire, I'd developed quite the case of homesickness, and what better way to cure that homesickness than to prematurely celebrate Christmas?

Of course, these darling hobbits had absolutely no idea what Christmas was, and some of them were suffering from a severe lack of Christmas spirit.

"Well, don't you just have the loveliest voice?" Bilbo had entered the entry room to examine my progress and just happened to hear my cheery singing.

"Oh, thanks!" James, Sophie, and Collin had always suggested that I had the voice of an angel. They were the only people I ever had the guts to sing in front of. "Soooo. How do you like it?"

I'd covered nearly the entire house in red and green, put mistletoe everywhere, and even cut a bunch of parchment into paper snowflakes. It was Christmas central, and still, my homesickness refused to be quenched. Frowning, I didn't even bother to wait for Bilbo's reply as I began to take down the numerous decorations I'd spent days putting up.

"Dear Kristy, what are you doing? It looks wonderful!" Bilbo watched me worriedly as I tore down several snowflakes.

"No, it looks terrible. James would have done a much better job."

Bilbo sighed and put a comforting hand on my arm. "Kristy, sit down."

Reluctantly, I took a seat at Bilbo's dining table, and he poured me a large cup of tea.

"You miss your home." It wasn't a question, but a statement. A painfully true statement.

Tears began to form in my eyes and I curled up and wrapped my arms around my legs. "More than ever."

The old hobbit nodded and gave me a comforting smile. "Would you tell me about your friends?"

Oh, where to begin. "Well... There's four of us. Me, my twin brother James, Collin, and Sophie. We typically do everything together. James and I look rather different from each other. He has blue-green eyes and dark brown hair, while I have green eyes and blonde hair. He's really tall, and I'm about average..." I was sure that Bilbo didn't care about the basics, so I did my best to try to go deeper into the character of my brother.

"James is really calm and collected, girls just love him and his serious attitude. He's always been really protective of me, ever since we were little. Every time a guy would try to talk to me, he'd give him the worst death-glare in the world. It's not really easy to explain James... You've just kind of need to get to know him yourself. One thing that I can tell you about, though, is that he's one of the fastest runners in our country."

Bilbo seemed to grow more interested at this fact.

"In my world, we have this thing called the Olympics. Every four years, people from every country get together for the biggest sporting event in history. Nearly every sport is played, and countries compete for glory in a non-violent way. One of the more popular sports is track. In track, there are many different categories you can go into. James is a sprinter, but he's great at long distance running, too.

"When we were young, James got in trouble with the authorities. He was only ten, and he stole some stuff from the store. When the security guards caught him, he took off and led the police on this huge chase. Even as a short ten year old, it took forever for them to catch him. A local trainer saw him running in a video, and contacted my dad, offering to train him. Ever since then, James has been training to be a runner. He'd just come in second in nationals, and was highly considered for the Olympics..." I didn't know where he was now, but I was hoping that he was following his dream.

"Now for people who I can actually give you good descriptions of. Sophie and Collin. Those two are absolutely attatched at the hip. It's impossible to find one without the other, especially because Collin always breaks into her house at night to talk to her. Sophie's really short with brown eyes and brown hair, and she's really pretty. She's always happy, and always smiling. Stubborn as hell, but also one of the funniest people I know.

"Collin's crazy, to put it simply. Absolutely nothing bothers him. He carries his camera around with him everywhere, recording everything that happens to him. I've never met anyone with such a short attention span, it's absolutely ridiculous. Initially, one might take him for a dreamer, someone who has no idea what's going on around him. He is definately a dreamer, but he's also the smartest man I know. That boy observes everything. Also, you could throw him into some random city, and he'll gain ten friends within his first hour. He's absolutely beautiful; blonde hair and the brightest blue eyes I've ever seen." That was saying a lot. Have you ever seen Frodo's eyes?

"I used to have the biggest crush on him, but I grew out of it. Now, I'm convinced that he's in love with Sophie." Honestly, the poor girl was completely oblivious to it. Then again, most people are. "Well, that's basically it, Bilbo. I don't really feel like rambling on much longer..."

Bilbo smiled and gave my hand a firm pat. "Not to worry, my dear. Your friends do seem to be wonderful people. I hope to meet them one day."

Smiling, I took a sip from my tea. "I hope so, too." Really, the sooner they found me, the better.

(Sophie)

"I told you that you weren't ready to fight with a real sword." Collin sat cross legged on my bed while I washed and stitched the large cut on his shoulder. The man was too stubborn to go to an actual healer, so I was stuck with the job. "Why do you find it so important to learn how to fight, anyways?"

Collin would have shrugged, but I was kind of digging a needle through his shoulder at the moment. "So I can protect us, Sophie. Naturally. Orcs sound rather frightening."

"Why would we need protecting? We've got all of Edoras, and even Gandalf. Do you see that big stick he carries around? I bet he could do some serious damage with that thing." He acted like a weak old man, but it was obvious that he could kick some major butt if he really felt like it. I wouldn't want to get on his bad side. r

Collin slightly adjusted the camera that he now refused to turn off. "Because, Soph. I don't really want to be living off of the charity of other people for the rest of my life. I want to travel the world. Hey, maybe if I'm lucky, I'll end up like Gandalf one day. Only I'd want a hat that matched my robes. And my beard would be braided. Kind of like a motercycle gang member, only I'd be riding around in a wagon."

Dearest Collin. What are we ever going to do with you?

"What about you, Soph?"

Well, I hadn't really thought about it. This world was huge, and I'd only seen Edoras.

"I dunno. Maybe I'll go to Gondor. I hear it's pretty hardcore." Really, I'd just heard that the steward had some attractive sons. No, I am not boy-crazy. It took a lot for me to like a guy. Still, that didn't mean that I couldn't enjoy looking at attractive men until I found that special one.

"You wouldn't leave me, would you?"

"Of course not." Leaving Collin would be absolutely impossible for me.

He smiled and moved his arm as I finished the stitching. "Good."