Hi guys! A little late with this chapter, I do apologise for that. My head's not been in the best place this past week or so. I hope you will all enjoy this cha[ter xx

Review responses;

MrsTChrist – I'm glad you're enjoying this! And you're right, Sophia and Aiden are enjoyable, not to mention little Aiden being just adorable. I hope you will continue to enjoy this story xx

Chapter 6

After some time, we finally make it down the cliffs, Fili and Kili helping me with Aiden, and are now walking across the bridge into Rivendell. As we reach the courtyard, I can't help but look around me in awe. This city is absolutely beautiful! The buildings are beautifully crafted and the waterfalls that surround it. . .it's like being in a dream. Looking next to me, I smile as I see Bilbo is just as speechless as I am.

"Amazing, isn't it?" I ask him.

He smiles at me. "It is. It's more lovely than I ever imagined it to be."

"Pretty." Aiden comments, causing Bilbo and I to grin at him, while I kiss his head.

It seems the three of us are the only ones to appreciate the beauty of this place as I can feel more than see just how tense the dwarves are. A dark haired elf soon walks down the stairs to greet us.

"Mithrandir."

Gandalf looks up. "Ah, Lindir!"

"Stay sharp." I hear Thorin whisper to Dwalin.

"Lastannem i athrannedh i Vruinen." Lindir says to Gandalf in elvish.

I look up at this, shock and surprise going through me. I know I have no clue on how to speak or understand the languages of elves, but I recognised exactly what Lindir had said to the wizard;

'We heard you had crossed into the Valley.'

How the hell did I know that?

"I must speak with Lord Elrond." Gandalf says in English, or Westron they call it here.

"My lord Elrond is not here."

"Not here? Where is he?"

I look around as I hear the horn from earlier to see a group of armed horsemen approaching along the bridge at a rapid rate.

"Ifridî bekâr! Hold ranks!" Thorin exclaims.

As I am pulled into the middle, along with Aiden and Bilbo, I realise I understand what Thorin said;

'Ready weapons!'

When the dwarves have spoken in their own language on this journey so far, I have not been able to understand any of it. So, how is it I am able to understand it now, as well as elvish, even though I have never learnt before? Does it have something to do with these feelings I've been getting? The feelings of deja vu?

I am brought out of my thoughts by the clippity clop of hooves as the mounted Elves arrive and ride in circles around us. Aiden holds on tight to me as we watch the horses circle us. Eventually, they stop, and one elf, separates himself from the others. Long smooth brown hair, wearing a shiny bronze coloured armour and an elaborate circlet on his head, I take him to be the leader of Rivendell.

"Gandalf."

Gandalf bows gracefully. "Lord Elrond. Mellonnen! Mo evínedh?"

'My friend! Where have you been?' My brain is translating.

Farannem 'lamhoth i udul o charad. Dagannem rim na Iant Vedui.

'We've been hunting a pack of Orcs that came up from the South. We slew a number near the Hidden Pass.'

Elrond dismounts from his horse and walks over to Gandalf where the two embrace like old friends, which I believe they are. Although, as I look at Elrond, something keeps niggling at the back of my head. . .again. I'm sure I know this elf, as well as Lindir. . .but I know I have never seen an Elf before in my life. . .so how could I know them?

"Strange for Orcs to come so close to our borders. Something, or someone, has drawn them near."

Elrond holds up an Orc sword and shows it to us before he hands it to Lindir.

"Ah, that may have been us."

As Elrond looks to us all, Thorin steps forward, Elrond now looking upon him with recognition.

"Welcome Thorin, son of Thrain."

"I do not believe we have met."

"You have your grandfather's bearing. I knew Thror when he ruled under the Mountain."

"Indeed; he made no mention of you."

Elrond ignores the insult before he turns to us and speaks in Elvish. The dwarves, Bilbo and I don't understand what he is saying.

"Nartho i noer, toltho i viruvor. Boe i annam vann a nethail vin."

'Light the fires, bring forth the wine. We must feed our guests.'

Understanding what Elrond is saying, I don't take his facial expression as serious as how the dwarves are, them believing he has spoken something awful about us.

"What is he saying? Does he offer us insult?" Gloin growls.

The dwarves become hostile and grip their weapons uneasily, Aiden clinging onto me at this. I soothingly run a hand over his head.

"No, Master Gloin, he's offering us food." Gandalf simply says, Elrond looking on in amusement behind him.

I just breathe a sigh of relief at this. Not a good time to have a sense of humour, I must say. The dwarves quickly discuss this amongst themselves.

"Ah well, in that case, lead on."

Before we walk on, Elrond stops us, his gaze on Aiden on I.

"You have a woman and child with you, Gandalf?"

"Ah yes, Sophia and Aiden." Gandalf holds his arm out to me, and I step forward, with Aiden in my arms, out of the protective circle of the dwarves. Standing beside the wizard, he places his hand on my shoulder. "We found them on the road a week ago. I was hoping you would be able to help them get home, they are not from here."

Elrond's eyebrows raise slightly as he looks over Aiden and I for a few moments. He soon nods.

"Tomorrow. Let them rest for tonight. Lindir will show you to a room."

"They stay with us." Thorin says as he steps forward.

I am surprised at him trying to keep us close by. After all, he is the one who said that we would be staying with the company until they found somewhere safe for us to stay. Well, we've found that in Rivendell, so Aiden and I are no longer his responsibility.

"You need not worry for them, they are perfectly safe here. I am sure they would just like their own room for privacy." Elrond explains.

I turn to Thorin and give him a reassuring smile. "Don't worry, Thorin, we'll be fine."

Lindir then leads Aiden and I up the stairs and through the halls until he stops at a door and opening it before stepping back for us to go through. The room is quite large with a king bed in the middle, a wardrobe in one corner with a dressing table next to it. A screen separates the room into two where a bathtub is placed behind it with washing essentials and a large open window with a balcony which overlooks the gardens.

"I hope it is to your liking." Lindir says to me.

I turn to him with a smile. "It's lovely. Thank you."

He smiles back. "I will have someone come and prepare a bath for you."

He leaves before I can object to that, always being an independent women, I've never felt the need to have anyone help me with bathing or anything like that. I just sigh as I set Aiden down and take off his backpack, doing the same with my own before sitting Aiden on the bed and kneeling in front of him where I can take a closer look over him.

"Are you alright?" I ask, worrying about his well being, especially after what's just happened.

He nods. "They were scary, weren't they mummy?"

I smile. "They were, but we're safe now, we'll be safe here until we go home."

He looks down for a moment, not saying anything. "Mummy, why can't we stay here?"

I look sadly at him, knowing where his fear is coming from. Moving a stray hair from his face, I speak gently to him.

"We can't stay, sweetheart. We have no where to go."

"We can stay here, in Riverdale."

"Rivendell, sweetie. And we can't just invite ourselves to stay in someone else's home, it doesn't work that way."

"Well, it should! I don't wanna go home!"

I don't say anything as I sit on the bed and pull him onto my lap, holding him close. I also don't wanting to go home, but also know that we don't have a choice in the matter. A few minutes later, a female elf comes in after knocking and helps to get the bath ready, and has also brought some clean clothes in for us both. I frown at the dress, as beautiful as it is, I've never been a girly, dressy type, always preferring jeans, trousers and leggings.

Thankfully, after requesting for trousers, the elf says she'll go have some brought over while I bathe. I thank her as she leaves and get Aiden undressed before leading him to the bath. After he starts shaking, crying and refusing to go into the tub, I decide to change and get in with him, which calms him down, luckily he gets in and allows me to give him the first proper bath he's had in over a week. During the bath, the elf returns and leaves the clothes on the bed before leaving again, taking our old clothes to be washed.

Once we've finished our bath, we get out and after wrapping myself in a towel, get Aiden dried off and in brown trousers, matching top and boots. He reads one of his books on the tablet while I dry off and dress in grey leggings, a blue tunic which goes to my knees and knee length brown boots. After looking at myself in the mirror, I really like the look.

When I'm done brushing mine and Aiden's hair, Lindir returns to escort us to dinner. Holding Aiden's hand, we follow him through the halls, in which I look around in awe at the beauty of the city, and soon reach a terrace where we find the other members of the company already sitting, minus Thorin and Gandalf. Fili and Kili immediately call us over, making room for Aiden and I in between them, so that's where we sit.

Looking over the table, I see a spread of meats, salads, fruits, vegetables, cheeses and breads. I load Aiden a plate of food and myself. As I'm eating, I look over at Dori and watch him trying to entice Ori to eat the green lettuce leaf, or it looks like lettuce anyway, and him not being sure. Luckily, I raised Aiden on fruits and vegetables and have no problem with getting him to eat.

"Try it. Just a mouthful. Look, little Aiden is eating it happily."

Ori looks over to Aiden who is greatly tucking into his vegetables, before looking back at the leaf in his hand.

"I don't like green food."

Oin holds up piece of onion with his knife and looks at in disgust.

"Have they got any chips?" Ori asks.

I do have to smile at this as I happily eat away, really thankful I'm not having to fight with Aiden to eat his food. I look up and watch as Elrond, Gandalf and Thorin soon appear and sit at the head table. From next to me, I notice Kili and en elf maid that is playing the harp eyeing each other, Kili giving her the occasional wink, until he notices Dwalin staring at him.

"I can't say I fancy elf maids myself. Too thin. They're all high cheekbones and creamy skin. Not enough facial hair for me. Although, that one there's not bad."

He cocks his head at a passing elf behind us. I look up and soon look away, my lips pursed tightly together, catching Dwalin's eye as I try not to laugh. He gives me a small smile and a wink before turning to Kili.

"That's not an elf maid."

Kili looks as the elf turns, revealing himself to be no elf maid. Shocked, Kili looks back at Dwalin who also gives him a wink. They begin to roar with laughter, banging against the table in their amusement. I'm also giggling away.

Kili awkwardly picks at his food. "It's funny." he says sarcastically.

I just pat Kili's arm in sympathy before continuing to eat. Another elf maid passes the table, playing the flute. Oin stuffs a napkin into his hearing trumpet, to my amusement, blocking out the music. I'll admit, the music is not to my taste, but it's still enjoyable to listen to.

I look up in time to see Thorin excusing himself from where he's sitting and walk behind us, not looking too happy. Looking back to Elrond and Gandalf, wondering what they could have been talking about to make him so upset. Turning back to Thorin with a worried expression, I catch his eye and he just gives me a small, reassuring smile. Saying nothing, I turn back to my food.

"Change the tune, why don't you? I feel like I'm at a funeral!" Nori suddenly says.

"Did somebody die?!" Oin exclaims.

"Alright lads, there's only one thing for it!" Bofur suddenly jumps onto a plinth next to the table, and starts to sing;

"There is an inn, a merry old inn

beneath an old grey hill,

And there they brew a beer so brown

That the Man in the Moon himself came down

one night to drink his fill.

The ostler has a tipsy cat

that plays a five-stringed fiddle;

And up and down he saws his bow

Now squeaking high, now purring low,

now sawing in the middle.

So the cat on the fiddle played hey-diddle-diddle,

a jig that would wake the dead:

He squeaked and sawed and quickened the tune,

While the landlord shook the Man in the Moon:

'It's after three!' he said!"

I just grin as a food fight breaks out, a piece of bread coming close to hitting Lindir in the face. As Aiden picks up some bread, I quickly take it out of his hand as he lifts it to throw, causing him to pout at me.

"I don't think so. Was the food fight really necessary? You dwarves are a bad influence."

The dwarves laugh, Fili ruffling Aiden's head.

"We don't mean any harm, lass." Dwalin says.

I just smile and shake my head as I continue to eat, knowing that to be true. Once we have eaten, we all disperse to do our own thing. I take Aiden for a walk around the city and we soon find ourselves in a beautiful garden, many flowers and trees dotted around. I had never seen anything so beautiful in my life. . .except for Aiden when he was born of course.

I watch Aiden as he runs around in front of me, smiling at him just being a boy and having fun. It's moments like this that I treasure, because we haven't had these times very often, another reason why I don't want us to return home, not wanting to put Aiden back through all that trauma again.

Up ahead, I see Aiden run around the corner. I smile as I pick up my pace to follow but soon frown as he comes running back towards me, hiding behind me.

"What's wrong, Aiden?" I ask as I look back to him.

"Hi!" A voice calls out.

Looking in the direction Aiden ran from, I see a human boy standing there, smiling away. He has dark brown shaggy hair and is wearing a red tunic top, black trousers and boots. He looks to be a little over Aidens's ages, eight maybe nine years old.

I smile at the boy. "Hello there."

"I didn't scare him, did I?"

Shaking my head, I reach behind me and place a hand on Aiden's back. "No, he's just shy. What's your name?"

As he opens his mouth to answer, a female voice speaks up from around the corner.

"Estel, what are you doi-oh, hello."

A woman, who looks to be in her early to mid thirties with blonde hair joins us. She's wearing an ankle length green elven dress, with long sleeves that bell out at the elbow.

"Hello." I greet with a smile.

"I've not seen you here before." she states.

"Yeah, I just came here today."

Recognition appears on her face. "Oh, I had heard a woman and child had arrived with Gandalf and a group of dwarves. I am Gilrean, this is my son, Estel."

I smile. "It's nice to meet you, both. My name is Sophia, and this is my son, Aiden."

She smiles at Aiden before turning to me. "What brings you both to Rivendell?"

I give a nervous chuckle. "That is actually a long story."

"Well, why don't we take a seat and you can tell me."

I smile as we walk over to a bench and sit down, Estel taking Aiden to play nearby where we can still see them, Aiden not wanting to go too far. Without going into too much detail, I tell her about how Aiden and I found ourselves in the forest just almost a month ago and how we came to be in the company of the dwarves. She has a whole run of emotions go through her face as I'm explaining, ranging from shock and disbelief to horror.

"That's quite a story, but thankfully the dwarves came to your rescue in time." she says as I finish talking.

I smile. "Yeah, I will forever be grateful to them for that, and for making sure Aiden was safe."

We turn to watch Estel and Aiden as they're now sitting on the grass, relaxing after running around and chasing each other.

"What will you both do now?"

"Gandalf is hoping that Elrond can help us return home."

She nods. "And if he cannot?"

I sigh at this. "I don't know."

She smiles. "Well, I'm sure Elrond will allow you to stay here."

I just smile, not really having anything to say to this. The four of us stay outside for a few hours, Gilrean and I talking away as Aiden and Estel continue to get to know one another. I decide to call it a night when Aiden begins to drift off, so taking him into my arms, we say goodnight to them before returning to our room where I lay Aiden on the bed and curl up with him, thinking on what Gilrean said to me.

The thought on what if we can't go home came into my head multiple times this past week, but I would often push it aside with the thoughts on we don't belong here and it isn't our world. Looking to Aiden, I also think about what could be waiting for us back home. How could I send him back to that? With how he is with any strange males, not to mention his fear of water, all from the man who was supposed to love him unconditionally and always be there for him. But, the only person Aiden could count on was me. But, how could we stay? We are not from this world. I just sigh as I snuggle more with Aiden and close my eyes. Maybe things will be clearer tomorrow.

Well, here we have it with Chapter 6. Sophia and Aiden are finally in Rivendell. I hope you all enjoyed this chapter. Xx

Translations;

Lastannem i athrannedh i Vruinen. - We heard you had crossed into the Valley.

Ifridî bekâr! - Ready weapons!

Mellonnen! Mo evínedh? - My friend! Where have you been?

Farannem 'lamhoth i udul o charad. Dagannem rim na Iant Vedui. - We've been hunting a pack of Orcs that came up from the South. We slew a number near the Hidden Pass.

Nartho i noer, toltho i viruvor. Boe i annam vann a nethail vin - Light the fires, bring forth the wine. We must feed our guests.