Chapter 24.

The epilogue of Plain Jane will be up, soon! :D Huzzah and Hurray.

Not really, I'm bummed.

Anyhoo.

This has been a productive writing day. This chapter's just for fun. I needed a good stress reliever.

I don't own Lord of the Rings.

(Kristy)

So. Tired.

So. Very. Tired.

But I had to stay awake. I wanted to help the elves clean up.

Not that there was much to clean, really. Elves are the ultimate dream kids; they pick up after themselves, they're pretty quiet, and they don't really argue that much... They're lovely people. The only messes we needed to clean came from the visiting humans, dwarves, and hobbits. But mostly the hobbits.

I yawned and continued cleaning off one of the many banquet tables. My eyes were blurry, and my coordination was a tad... off.

"Are you alright, milady?" One of the servants asked, eyeing me as I carried a large tower of extremely breakable plates.

"Yeah, I'll be fine. We're almost done, anyways." I sleepily dragged myself towards the kitchens, practically dead on my feet. Remind me to never offer anyone my help again.

Ever.

I had just decided that this was the last pile of dishes I was taking away before bed, when suddenly, I decided to fall on a little invisible water spill.

My first instinct was to cling onto the plates even tighter. That's right, Kristy. Save the plates before you save yourself.

Just when I thought that I was a goner, strong arms were wrapped around me, and I fell into someone's chest.

"Are you alright, miss?" My savior asked softly. He helped me regain my balance, and I turned around to face a beautiful, tall, blonde-haired blue-eyed elf.

"I'm fine." I smiled. "Thank you."

He took the dishes out of my hands and smiled down at me. "It is wonderful of you to help the servants, but I think that you would be better off if you were to get some sleep."

Psh. No kidding. Even though the adrenaline rush I got from nearly breaking my neck woke me up a little bit, it wasn't nearly enough to make me want to stay awake any longer.

"What time is it?" I asked through a yawn.

"It is well past midnight, milady." His bright blue eyes seemed to burn holes into my own. In a good way. "Might I ask you your name?"

"Kristy." I smiled. "And yourself?"

"My name is Legolas." He bowed and kissed my knuckles. "It is a pleasure to meet you."

"Chyeah. It's always fun meeting people in the dead of night." I shrugged. "I probably look like a zombie, huh?"

Legolas raised an eyebrow at me. "A zombie, milady? What is that?"

"You know, when someone dies, you bury them, but sometimes they're not totally dead, and they dig themselves out of the ground...?" Legolas just stared at me. "Then they limp around and eat people's brains?" More staring, but at least he had a grin on his face. "No? Yeah, well... It's late, I'm a little slap-happy... It's not the best time for me to make new friends..."

The elf chuckled and shook his head. "I suppose I should let you get to bed, then?"

"Yeah..." I yawned again. "Probably. Unless you like talking to a zombie."

"Well then," He took my hand and kissed it once more. "Would you like for me to walk you to your room?"

Tempting... "No." I shook my head.

The slight flash of shock on his face suggested that he wasn't used to rejection.

"Ah... Well, I'll I bid thee goodnight." He bowed to me, and I waved goodbye.

"Goodnight, sir!"

I strolled off to find my happy, warm bed.

No big deal. Another day, another elf.

(Sophie)

"Merp..." Collin poked me right in the stomach, and was rewarded with a glare.

But the poor boy doesn't know when to stop.

"Merp merp..." He poked me in the belly, and the nose.

"Collin..." I warned, but he continued.

"Merp." Another poke to the gut.

I turned my head slowly and stared at him, but he looked off in another direction, trying to look innocent.

After quite some time of evil glaring, I slowly turned back around to my breakfast. All was silent, and there was no poking. I'd finally won.

"Merrrrrrrpppppppp..." Collin moved his finger towards my stomach like an airplane, and made an explosion sound when it made contact.

Sighh... "I didn't want to have to do this, Collin." He ignored me and continued to poke me. "But you leave me no choice..."

Without another word, I took the bacon from his plate and shoved it into my mouth.

Collin gasped, and stared at me with wide, terrified eyes. "Sophie!"

"Collin!" I shouted through a mouth full of crunchy meat strips.

My friend pouted like a five year old and stared at his now baconless plate. "Well, that was unneccessary Miss Sassybutt."

"What? I can't hear you! I can't hear you over the crunching of my bacon!" I yelled out in my friend's ear, earning several odd looks from some of the visitors in Rivendell.

The other elves were already used to our odd actions.

Breakfast resumed, but Collin continued to sulk about the bacon. Nothing unusual.

I was surprisingly awake that morning, considering the fact that Boromir and I were awake long into the night, talking about random things, and of all of the things that had happened at Minas Tirith since I'd left. Nothing too significant, though. I had a feeling that he and I were going to be just fine.

"What I wouldn't do for some coffee right now..." Kristy yawned as she sat down to my left. "I am exhausted..."

"Well, you can't be as bad as James." I shrugged. "I mean... Look at him."

James was sitting across the table from us in a deep sleep. He kind of just passed out after picking at his food for a little while. Now, his face was enjoying a comfortable pillow made up of freshly cut fruit.

"Shouldn't we wake him up...?" Kristy questioned as she stared at her poor brother.

"Why would you do that?" Collin laughed. "This is great entertainment."

Do you see what we have to do for entertainment these days? This is why they invented video games.

Aragorn strolled up, looking nice and scruffy after a long night of classy partying.

"Good morning, friends." He smiled as he took a swig of his morning tea.

"Heyyy Aragornnn..." We sounded like one of those rehab classes. Such a gloomy bunch, we are.

Aragorn looked down at James and blinked, like he had no idea what to do in such a situation. "Ermm... Is he going to be alright?" He reached his hand out to poke our sleeping friend, but I slapped his hand away.

"Don't ruin this for us, Aragorn." I shot a warning glare at him, and he took a step back, hands raised in surrender.

"Alright, then." He then clapped a hand down on Collin's shoulder. "Are you ready to begin training for the quest, Collin?"

Collin shrugged? "Dunno. I kind of feel like spicing it up, today."

Oh no. Collin, spicing up swordfighting? This is either going to be really entertaining, or really dangerous.

I'm placing my bet on dangerous.

"How do you propose we train, then?" Aragorn raised an eyebrow at our eccentric friend.

Collin grinned mischievously. "Oh, you'll see..."

.

.

.

"Collin, what's this have to do with swordfighting at all?" I couldn't believe he was doing this. Should I be proud?

"Don't ruin my thunder, Soph!" Collin frowned. "You've already stolen my heart, and my bacon! What more do you want from me?"

I rolled my eyes and sat down on a bench next to the playing field. "By all means, proceed."

Collin smiled and turned to his players; the fellowship, and James' elf friend, Ainion. "Alright, men! Are you ready to play?"

Merry and Pippin cheered, but Sam was scratching his head. "I'm just not sure how this is going to help us get to Mordor..."

Gandalaf sighed and shook his head. "Just humor him, Samwise. He will not rest until we've done as he's asked. It's best to get it over with now."

The poor hobbit sighed and and shrugged. "I'm as ready as I'll ever be..."

"Great!" Collin smiled. "Alright, line up!"

Everyone got into their positions with their chosen team. Team Dragon (don't ask me, Collin chose the name) consisted of Collin, Aragorn, Gimli, Sam, Merry, and Sam. The other team (they refused to pick a name) was Gandalf, Boromir, Legolas, Frodo, Pippin, and a half asleep James. In case you were wondering why Pippin and Merry aren't on the same team, it was a group decision. They're too dangerous together.

"Hut hut, hike!" Collin tossed the homemade football between his legs, and it nailed Aragorn in the gut. "Aragorn, you're supposed to catch it!"

The ranger looked down at the ball and rubbed his bruised stomach. "Oh..."

Collin sighed and grabbed the ball. "Alright, redo!"

I can't tell you how long it took for the men to figure out how to play football, but once they got the hang of it, it became the most dangerous sport known to man. There was a lot of tackling, yelling, and elf-dwarf rivalry going on. Terrifying.

Gandalf was defense, which sucked for Collin's team, because Collin was the only one brave enough to go near the mighty wizard.

"Pass it, pass it!" He called out to Aragorn, who was becoming cornered by Boromir and the hobbits.

The ranger chucked the ball into the air, and it conveniently landed right in Frodo's arms. Now the opposing team had the ball.

"Run, Frodo, run!" I called from the sideline.

The little hobbit stared at the ball, and then looked back up to the giant men that were taking off in his direction. At that moment, a yelling, ferocious Samwise Gamgee came sprinting towards his friend.

"Don't you touch him!" He shouted, and rammed into Collin.

"No, Sam, noooo!" I cried from the sideline. I was a wishy-washy cheerleader for both teams. "You're defending the enemy!"

Frodo panicked and tossed the ball into the air. It landed in the arms of sleep-standing James.

"James!" Legolas cried out, and my friend leapt up as he was awakened.

"What, what?" He looked around frantically. His eyes widened as he saw Aragorn and Gimli coming after him. Immediately, he took off in the direction of the make-believe goal line, easily outrunning everyone on the field.

Pretty soon, everyone just stopped and watched our friend sprint down the wide courtyard. He ran past the goal line and into the woods.

"Wow..." Aragorn breathed as he haunched over to catch his breath.

"Yes..." Gandalf nodded, even he was out of breath. "I have a feeling that he's going to come in handy..."

Yeah, no joke. Even I was stunned to see James run so fast; life without fast food has done him some good.

(Kristy)

I was just sitting in the garden, minding my own business, when suddenly, James ran right past me. He was running like his life depended on it, clutching what looked like a makeshift football. The man didn't even look at me as he continued forward, right back into the forest.

I blinked and shook my head.

I must be going crazy.

A few seconds later, another person zipped into the gardens, but this time, it was an elf.

"Legolas?"

The elf stopped and sighed.

"Good day, milady..." He was glaring off in the direction where James disappeared, but he soon turned and smiled at me. "Have you seen a man with long dark hair run through here? His name is James."

So I'm not going crazy! "Yeah, he came through here little while ago. Why?"

Legolas shook his head and sat down on the bench next to me. "My new acquaintance, Collin, is teaching us how to play a sport from his own country. Football, he called it. Well, James ran off with our ball, and they sent me to retrieve it."

"Ah..." I nodded. "Well, good luck catching him. He didn't show signs of stopping any time soon.

The elf sighed. "I suppose he will return in his own time."

"More than likely." I shrugged. Now that I was fully awake, I was more aware of the attractiveness of this elf, and I felt far more shy than usual. "Soo... Tell me about yourself?"

Legolas smiled and looked up to the sky. "I'd rather know more about you."

Cheeks, if you blush, I'm gonna kill you.

The bushes rustled, and James went running by once more, but this time, he was running in the direction that he initially came from.

Legolas sighed. "I suppose that means I must return to the game..." He stood and stretched his legs a bit. "I do hope that we may continue this conversation later this evening?"

Is that a date?

"Uhh..." Should I say yes? "Sure." I smiled. "That sounds nice."

"Perfect." Legolas grinned and bowed to me. "Until then..."

I watched him run off into the trees, admiring his cuteness as his form retreated into the forest.

Hmmm... I need to figure out more information about this Legolas man.