THE FORGOTTEN

Return to Study Hall

Disclaimer: I do not own anything.

Author's Note: The chapter in which – Lothril goes back to Michigan and gets a really big surprise…or two… Just a reminder – Lothril, then Jennifer, came from the year 2004 and to 2004 she returns. Just bear that in mind with clothes and technology and things like 'logging onto the internet'.

Lothril walked towards the white light, and the moment she seemed to reach it, she felt something very large bump into her with some force which caused her to stumble forward into the narrow aisle between desks, tripping on her friend Margie's large trapper keeper which was propped up next to her chair. She caught herself and whipped around ready to fight off whatever had knocked into her. To her shock, there was Legolas, looking horribly confused and in his traveling clothes, bow, quiver, knives, and all. She looked around. Nobody seemed to notice. More than that, nobody seemed to move. In fact, everyone seemed frozen. Something on her desk caught her eye. It was a large folded letter with the words, "READ IMMEDIATELY. DO NOT SIT DOWN." written in large letters across the front with a large red seal. She opened up the letter and held it so Legolas could see. It read:

Lothril,

Do not sit down. We have been permitted to stop time for a little while so you may change your clothes and arrange yourselves. Once you sit down, time shall resume. We have sent Legolas with you as some of the aid we promised. As you may recall, your friend Avery has been abroad with his family the last few years and is returning soon to your home country. Some things have changed however. He is returning alone and shall be staying with your family as he finishes his studies and begins new ones. Everyone shall see Legolas as your friend Avery. This was necessary so as to keep your task as secret as possible. We ask you hide your true nature and purpose as much as possible, for if too many are made aware, it shall cause problems we cannot remedy. We cannot aid you very much, but we have arranged what we can and can tell you that the orcs you are hunting are in the north and western part of your land and have not crossed the great bridge. For your convenience, we have a change of clothes for each of you on the desk and all doors are unlocked so you may stow your weapons.

When your task is completed, you shall be offered your choice again and should you still choose to return to Middle-earth, we shall grant you time to make your arrangements. We do not know what He discussed with you, but we are to assure you He shall keep His word if you do return. We wish you all speed and good success and shall do all we can to aid you.

-Manwë

"That at least explains why I am here," Legolas said. "I watched you walk in and it seemed the minute the light consumed you it enveloped me also and I was bumping into you."

"Huh," was all Lothril said thoughtfully. "I wish we would have some notice of your co… Oh! Galadriel's message to me!"

"Her message?"

"That Gandalf gave us in Fangorn. The last two lines were, The hour will come and you shall depart, And you will go thither with all of thine heart. I cannot believe I did not see it sooner!" Lothril said, rolling her eyes and shaking her head slightly at herself.

"I did not guess the answer either and I heard it as well, so be not too hard on yourself," Legolas said. "What ought we do next?"

"Change our clothes, stow our elvish things, and finish out the school day, I suppose. Not much else to be done," she replied.

"Can we not head out directly?" Legolas asked.

"I wish," Lothril said with a frown. "But it's quite out of the question. Mom is one of my teachers and her class is the last one of the day today so there's no skipping out early. This is really unsettling being in here with everyone frozen. Let's head out into the hall and get going," she said as she grabbed the clothes tied together with silver ribbon and headed towards the door.

"It is unsettling at that," Legolas agreed as he followed her out of the classroom. "When shall we be able to begin our task?"

"The last day of school is May twenty-eighth. Today is May fourth. I cannot even begin to entertain the idea of leaving before the twenty-eighth," Lothril answered as she headed straight towards her locker and then stopped. "I am sorry you have to sit through the rest of the school day."

"Sorry? I am rather excited. After you telling me about it, I am dreadfully curious to see how this school thing goes. I must say though, the architecture and look of this place is…" he trailed off trying to think of a tactful way of wording it.

"Hideously dull and spirit crushing?" she suggested.

"More or less," he said, looking around again and frowning ever so slightly at the hideous beigy-brown industrial tile floor and plain whitewashed walls and black lockers. "How do you say your friend's name?" Legolas asked.

Lothril carefully pronounced Avery for him and he practiced it a couple times. "And don't forget, my name is Jennifer. But Avery always calls me Jenny."

"Jenny?"

"Yes, it's a shorter version of my name. A lot of people call me that."

"Why did you not tell me before?"

"Because I don't really care one way or the other. But never mind that right now. Here's your new clothes," she said as she handed him a bundle that consisted of a green t-shirt and a pair of jeans. She finally paid attention to her clothes bundle and realized it was the same green polo and khaki skirt she had been wearing a year ago. But of course! She tucked her bundle under her arm and turned towards her locker.

"What are you doing?" he asked.

"Grabbing my book bag," she said as she opened her bottom locker and pulled out a dark blue canvas backpack.

"What and why?" he asked.

"This," she said as she held it up. "And to stash our clothes in. Or at least mine. I do not think my pack has room enough for this outfit. Definitely not my boots."

"My pack is rather full at that," Legolas said. "But you called it a book bag – shall you not need to carry books?"

She thought a moment and then went back to the study hall door and looked at her desk. She just had a notebook out with half of a sketched out landscape on it. She didn't have homework. "No, not today. I finished all my homework before you showed up," she said, remembering suddenly. "And I will do any history homework during class next hour. Mom does not care if we start on it during class."

Legolas nodded and she led Legolas to the boys bathroom while she went to change in the girls. To her shock and surprise, her old clothes still fit her, but then she checked the label and realized it was actually a larger size. She wasn't sure how or why that was, but at the same time she wasn't sure how the Valar managed to get a hold of her clothes at all or stop time. She just hoped all her clothes were now magically larger or else she was going to be in desperate need of a new wardrobe. A few minutes later she exited the bathroom, once again in her lime green polo and khaki skirt, but without nylons and wearing her elvish slippers. She didn't care how much trouble she got in, she was never wearing nylons again.

"Where are your loud shoes?" Legolas asked, casually leaning against the wall and wearing carpenter style blue jeans and a green t-shirt that fit him very well with his pack and weapons leaning beside him against the wall. Not that she had any doubts before, but the t-shirt made it pretty easy to see he was very fit, trim, and fairly muscular.

Lothril laughed and only partially because of his teasing but mostly because have mercy! him in a t-shirt! "Do you miss them?"

"No. Now what shall we do with our packs and weapons?" Legolas asked, handing a very neatly folded pile of clothes to her to put in her book bag.

She held the bag with one hand and gently placed them in with her things and replied, "Well, I think our best course would be to put them in my mom's mini-van. Come on, I'll show you what a mini-van is," she answered, zipping it up. She looked at him again then said, "You know, I've never seen you in short sleeves like this before."

"That is because I have never worn sleeves this short in front of you before," he replied. "Why do you mention it?"

"Do you really want to know?"

"Decidedly. You are light pink around the ears," he answered with a slight grin teasing his lips.

"Your um, rather well-defined arms caught me off guard. I don't know why I didn't think after all those years of archery, sword play, and knife fighting you wouldn't have arms that looked sculpted of marble, but here I am – surprised and impressed," she answered. "And to be perfectly honest – I'm suddenly curious as to what the rest of your musculature looks like."

"Lothril! You surprise me!"

"Are you disappointed?" she asked, suddenly feeling rather self-conscious about saying anything.

"No, I am rather relieved. For a long while now I have wondered if perhaps you did not find me fair of form," he said looking a cross between earnest and teasing.

Lothril turned about as red as Legolas had ever seen her and he fought the temptation to look into her head and see the swirl of thoughts driving the look on her face, but he refrained. As a reward for his restraint, he was gifted the reply, "Quite the contrary. Very much contrary."

Legolas laughed and pulled Lothril into a very tight hug. "Oh, how I love you, dearest Lothril!"

This confused her as much as anything else, but the rapid way in which the day had turned on its head and gotten longer by several hours made her grateful for the hug. However, time was frozen and she was suddenly cognizant of that and so muttered into his shoulder, "Thank you, but I think we need to hurry."

"Right," Legolas replied, letting her go.

Quickly she led him down the hall then down stairs. Legolas took stock of the surroundings. It took about four seconds for Legolas to conclude if their roles had been switched and he had been stuck in that building all day and some elf came riding up out of a ball of light, he would have jumped out of the window too. After the stairs they took a hard right and he realized the stair was at the end of the hall and the next left revealed a set of double doors. She led him out the door to the parking lot where Legolas was greeted with the sight of large, brightly colored objects on thick black wheels.

"What are these?" he asked, staring around at the handful of cars.

"Automobiles. They are used for transportation," Lothril explained.

"How do they work?"

"We can talk about that later. I think we should hurry," she replied.

"Yes, I think you are right. Which of these belongs to your mother?" he asked.

"That one," she said, nodding her head towards a pale green mini-van just ahead. She tried the door handle and it was open. Inside in the back she saw a couple large suitcases and a guitar case and realized her mom must have picked up Avery from the airport before coming in for her afternoon classes. Lothril carefully placed their weapons under the back seat and tossed over them their elven cloaks. She shut the door and they hurried back inside. They reached the bottom of the stairs before Lothril paused and said, "Wait, before we go a step further – how are you?"

Legolas stopped and a looked a little confused and answered, "I am fine. Why?"

"Because as far as it goes, Middle-earth was far less foreign to me than this world is to you, and I went with you with both eyes wide open and some warning. You came here without warning and no frame of reference. I at least had read about Middle-earth," she replied.

"This is all true, and I can already tell this world is going to be very different. Between those auto things and the clothes, I can already tell things are very strange here. However, I am here with you and I know this is your home. I am in a much surer position than you were – I know you, I trust you, and I love you. I know you shall keep me well," he answered. There was nothing but confidence in his voice and in his eyes was nothing but pure faith and trust in his beloved. He had no fear diving into the unknown because he knew she was there to catch him.

She stared a moment at him in utter awe at the complete faith he was putting in her. If she didn't already know beyond doubt that he loved her…"I will do my absolute best," she said quietly as she tried to focus on what they needed to do next. "Oh, and they're called automobiles but we generally call them by what kind of automobile they are - cars, trucks, mini-vans… I will explain that later too," she said.

"I think you will need to explain many things to me," Legolas said.

She nodded. "Oh yes. You are about a century and a half behind in inventions. It is fine though. I'll help you catch up."

They continued up the stairs and went back to the classroom. Just before they went into the study hall room, Lothril looked at Legolas and said, "Remember, you're Avery, I'm Jenny. And if anyone says anything about your hair, tell them you're growing it out for charity."

"For charity? I do not understand, and I have always had long hair."

"Yeah, but Avery hasn't. And he sent me an- a letter a while ago telling me he was growing out so he could have epic fantasy hair and figured he would cut it and donate it to places that make wigs for sick children when it gets long enough."

"What is epic fantasy hair?" Legolas asked as they closed the school doors behind them.

"Your hair," Lothril replied with a grin. "And speaking of which, long hair like that is not exactly… shall we say normal for the general male population, however most men that do have long hair like this I see them wearing it pulled back at the nape of their neck so I think we ought to undo your braids."

"That is all? How dull. Ah well, you took to our ways right away, so I shall take to yours," Legolas said as he began undoing a braid. Lothril helped, fetched a brush out of her book bag and quickly brushed his hair smooth and then used one of her brown elastic hair bands to pull his hair into a ponytail. "This is a switch having you do my hair."

"So it is, but so is everything in the last few minutes. There, that will do," Lothril said.

"How much longer is left of your school day?" he asked.

Lothril glanced up at a clock in the back of the classroom through the open door. "An hour and forty minutes. So study hall and then history class then we're done."

Legolas nodded. They re-entered the frozen study hall and Lothril told Legolas to sit in the empty desk behind hers. Before they sat though, she paused and then wrapped her arms around his neck and gave him a rather passionate kiss.

As soon as they broke apart Legolas asked, "Not that I am complaining, but what was that for?"

"An act of rebellion and one last open kiss before we have to pretend to be just friends," she answered.

He frowned, "I am not sure I like the idea of pretending we are only friends, but I suppose we do not have much of a choice." He gave her one more kiss and then they sat down.

As soon as she sat down, the clock began ticking again and the sounds of pages turning and papers shuffling resumed. For the rest of study hall she spoke to Legolas mentally and they discussed a little things or people he might wish to see that she had told him about and what he was going to do while they waited for the school year to end. It almost seemed a shame she returned to just when she left, as there was still the entire month of May ahead of her to finish. What was Legolas going to do for a month while she was in school?

Just before the bell rang to end study hall, she warned him that the fool thing was loud and horrible sounding. Even with the warning he started and both of them wanted to clap their hands over their ears. Lothril didn't remember it being so loud before, but perhaps she had just forgotten.

Legolas was immediately approached by a couple of her classmates walking past him to say hello and welcome back as they headed out to their next classes. This might have been a more unusual experience as they all seemed to know and recognize him, but being a prince, he was weirdly sort of used to being recognized by people he didn't know. What was odd was everyone acting familiar with him. Legolas politely greeted and thanked them all with a very vague comment on perhaps catching up later then followed Lothril out of the room.

He followed Lothril to her locker where she quickly stowed her other books and pulled out her history book and an extra notebook and handed it to Legolas. "Here, in case you want something to do during class. You can write or draw or whatever. I've barely used this all year, so you can have it."

"Thank you," he replied as he carefully opened the spiral bound notebook. She also handed him a pencil and he followed her to her next class which happened to be about three feet from her locker.

"You know, you are doing a very good job acting familiar with all these strangers." Lothril said mentally as she set down her books and assumed her usual seat.

"I have had a lot of practice," he answered as he took the seat behind her. The bell rang for class to start and after some welcoming remarks from Mrs. Erickson directed at Avery, class began and passed uneventfully. At least to Lothril who was very preoccupied with her own thoughts. Legolas however found that hour was full of fascinating things. The history Mrs. Erickson was speaking of was interesting enough even without full context, but the notebook Lothril had handed him was a veritable treasure trove of fascinating reading. She hadn't used very much of the notebook, maybe a third of the pages, and for as sure as Legolas was that he didn't know the characters she used to write, he could read them anyway. This brought to mind a rather interesting string of questions which he promptly set aside when he began to read what she had written. There were fragments of a story she had been working on, some poetry, some notes written in two separate hands that seemed to have been passed back and forth during some rather dull lecture, some doodles and sketches, some random musings, one page was dedicated to writing out all the letters of the alphabet in different styles ranging from print to cursive to several different calligraphic hands, and an abandoned attempt at note taking that didn't make it past a heading and a two sentence introduction and ended with a rough sketch of a forest with mountains behind it. Her drawing definitely improved over the last two months. Once he reached the last used page, he turned to a clean one and began sketching out a picture of his own.

As he drew he became increasingly aware that several of the girls in the glass were surreptitiously throwing glances in his direction. At first he didn't think much of it because if Avery had been gone and then returned, it would only make sense the others would pay some attention to him upon return. However, as class wore on, he became increasingly aware of the fact that a couple of girls had intentionally turned in their seats so they were sitting sideways, and that they kept looking at him. This didn't bother him much either because it wasn't entirely uncommon to get that reaction from humans in Dale or Laketown whenever they went there. Elves were a novelty amongst humans. Always had been, always would be. But then it occurred to him it was exactly like that. He wondered if they could see he was an elf. No, no, that couldn't be it because of the note and Lothril had mentioned a few times Elves didn't exist here. So they must not be able to realize or see that he was an elf and simply find him fair. Well, if that was the case, they could stare all day and it would not bother him one bit. Besides, he was very happily betrothed. All that said though, he decided to draw Lothril with her hair in over her ears.

Mrs. Erickson's lecture ended before the bell and she allowed everyone to start on their homework. Lothril quickly whipped through it so she wouldn't have anything to bring home. The final bell for the day rang and after another round 'welcome back's' from Jennifer's classmates and a couple of the girls introducing themselves, the room emptied.

Mrs. Erickson walked up to Jennifer and Avery and handed Jennifer the keys saying, "Why don't you go unlock the car? I've got a few things to turn into the office then I'll be out. I'll send Julie and Eddie your way if they head up here first."

"Sounds good," Jennifer replied and headed out to her locker.

Legolas followed until he heard Mrs. Erickson say, "Hey Avery, is there anything in particular you'd like for dinner tonight?"

"No, anything is fine, thank you," he answered.

"How about shish kebabs?"

He didn't have a clue what that was, but what was life without the odd surprise? "Yes, that sounds good."

"Alright! I'll drop you guys off at home then swing by the store for stuff. I'm sure you're tired and want to get settled."

"Yes, getting settled would be nice, thank you," he replied.

Mrs. Erickson turned back to her work, so Legolas left the room to find Lothril waiting for him with a pack slung on her shoulder.

"What are shish kebabs?" he asked very quietly.

"Skewered meat and vegetables cooked on the grill. Why?" she answered.

"That's what I agreed to have for dinner," he replied.

"Good choice," Lothril said as they headed down the stairs and back towards the mini-van.

They got into the mini-van and left the door open so the breeze could waft through.

"Lothril, I think I must commend you on handling the differences between our worlds with such grace. Having those girls introduce themselves to me caught me off guard, but no one else, including your mother who saw the exchange, did not seem to think them forward. Is it common practice to introduce oneself?"

"Very common. I think one or two of the boys would have also, but for them and some of them having longer rides home," she replied.

Just then Jennifer's younger sister and brother came up.

"What are you doing in the back seat?" her brother asked.

"Sitting," she replied.

"But you always sit in the front seat," he retorted.

"And today I'm sitting in the back."

"I call shot gun!" her sister yelled as she threw the passenger front door open and jumped in.

"Aww man!" Eddie said as he climbed into the middle row seat into his customary spot. He turned around and asked Avery, "So, how was your trip?"

"Shorter than I expected," Legolas answered. Indeed, he had supposed they would ride some more miles that night before making camp but then lo! Here he was in a strange land called Michigan in a journey that took but the blink of an eye.

Eddie nodded then turned around and pulled a toy out of his backpack to play with. A moment later Mrs. Erickson appeared. Lothril shut the mini-van door and warned Legolas about what was going to happen next.

He found the experience of riding in a car fascinating, and though he wasn't overly fond of the noise, he couldn't deny the speed and efficiency.

"I have wondered what you meant when you told us you had traveled far but not long. I see now how you could go a great distance in the span of days with such a thing as this," he said to her mentally.

"This definitely speeds things up. I am going to warn you now – I do not know where on earth you are going to stay. We barely have room for ourselves, let alone anyone else. We had to convert the dining room into a bedroom for Eddie," she replied in kind.

"I am sure something has been arranged, or else why should your parents have agreed to host Avery until his family returns? I am not worried."

"Good for you. I am. Unless you are to sleep in the attic next to our old clothes and toys, I cannot fathom where you shall be staying."

The ósanwe conversation continued with Lothril pointing out to him who lived down a given road or in a given house and telling him all about the short little two mile drive home and how things were when she was young and how they have changed. For the whole three minutes that took, Legolas found his heart warmed at seeing her so eager to share all this with him. Then they turned into the old neighborhood Lothril had called home her whole life, and suddenly she felt incredibly homesick and a little giddy. Even though she knew it was temporary, even though she had already firmly decided her life was with Legolas, she couldn't resist the feeling of coming home. Even if it was only for twenty-four days. They wend their way down the curving road and Legolas was charmed by the smaller houses and cottages and how many of them seemed so happily situated in the old trees that thickly dotted the place. There were also several varieties of tree he hadn't seen before and was eager to get to know. Then at last they made the last turn down the shadiest street yet and onto a gravel driveway with a white picket fence. There were three houses, one on the left, two on the right, though the two on the right were heavily obscured by thick trees. They followed the drive that curved up and away to the right and at the top Legolas saw something that surprised him and Lothril – a little two-story house sitting atop the hill, all green with white trim. This looked similar to the one he had been seen when Lothril had showed him her bad dream in Rivendell, except that house clearly only had one level and this decidedly had two.

"I thought your house had but one story?" Legolas asked as the min-van came to a stop.

"I thought so too," came a reply that was simultaneously shocked and excited. This clearly wasn't the exact same house she had grown up in, but then this was rather exciting and she was eager to explore it.

As everyone piled out and Lothril signaled they leave the weapons under the seat until later then climbed out. Her mother was opening the rear hatch and said, "Why don't you help Avery haul his stuff upstairs so I can get to the store for stuff for dinner."

"Okay," she replied. Quickly, Lothril and Legolas unloaded the rear of the van. Her mother went inside to dump her school stuff and change before heading to the store. Lothril quickly grabbed their weapons, still wrapped in their cloaks, and they headed inside.

The changes to the house were immediately noticeable to her. The little enclosed porch was now bigger and a fully finished mud room that held the washer and dryer. Just past it, the kitchen was a little bit wider, as was the whole house, and the door that separated the kitchen from what was the dining room (that used to be her brother's bedroom) was now just an arched doorway, through which Lothril could see a fully furnished dining room and a glimpse of a wood and wrought iron spiral staircase.

"This way," she said. "I think," she added under her breath.

Legolas followed her through the kitchen and realized they had entered through the back of the house, which seemed a little strange, but perhaps this was their custom here. She had noticed Eddie head through the living room and into what had previously been her and her sister's bedroom and concluded she must be upstairs along with any guest rooms and so she led him up the stairs, quickly gawking at the changes as they went. At the top of the stairs she looked around. Behind her was a window facing the front yard, before her was a hallway with four doors off it. Just to her left was an open space with a table and chair and a free-standing cupboard and a sewing mannequin on which was draped a half finished project she had been working on before she left. Her mother's sewing machine was on the table and much to her glee, Lothril realized she had a sewing nook. But she didn't linger more than a second or two at the top of the stair and proceeded down the hall. On the right the first door on the hall was open slightly. Carefully she nudged open the door and decided it had to be the guest room.

"Here is your room, Avery," she said out loud. They went in and set down everything and she said, "Well, I'm sorry it isn't as nice as the room you gave me, but it's a lot better than I thought a few minutes ago."

"It's very nice," Legolas said. "Rather cozy."

"Well, feel free to put all your things in the dresser or the closet. If you need anything, I'm… I'm not sure," she said, suddenly feeling like a stranger. Without another word she poked her head out the door and noticed the door directly across the hall had a horse poster on the door. That was Julie's room, without doubt. There was another plain door next to Julie's and she quietly made her way kitty-corner across the hall and opened the door to discover a rather nice full bathroom, which left the room right next to the guest room as hers. She turned around and sure enough, the door sported a couple of her favorite short poems written out in neat calligraphy, a few pictures of different places she had been on vacation, and a picture of her and her friends. She turned back to Legolas' room and saw he was standing in the doorway.

"I take it that one is yours?"

"Yes, and across the way is the bathroom. Would you like a tour of my room?"

"Oh most definitely," he answered.

They went inside and Lothril shut the door behind him. The room was a little bigger than the one she used to share with her sister, and had four large windows – two looking east, and two side by side looking south. It was painted a dreamy greyish blue and had thick dark blue curtains that were pulled back with a silver cord, with a gauzy white curtains beneath that were still closed shut, diffusing the afternoon light in the room. Her large wooden bookcase her father had made for her a couple birthdays ago stood against the far corner wall on her right with a large beanbag chair in front of it and the closet door to its right nearer to her and festooned in more calligraphy and pictures. The wall directly across from the door was the one with the two windows facing south, and in the corner of that wall and the east facing wall on her left was her bed. It was a full sized low bed, coming up only to the bottom of the window panes near the foot and covered in a cream quilt with a green and blue ring pattern. There was nightstand that matched the maple vanity that was on the same wall as her bedroom door (just to her left). The floor was wood and a large shaggy grass green throw rug was in the middle of it.

"I did a nice job," she said quietly.

"Indeed, it reminds me of Lothlorien," Legolas said.

Lothril nodded.

"What have we here?" Legolas said, heading over towards the bookshelf. "What are these?" he asked, pointing the short top shelf full of CD jewel cases.

"Those are called CDs. You play them in that," she said pointing to her large black stereo. "They contain music or stories or whatever you want to listen to." She pushed the play button and Legolas watched with fascination as the little screen lit up and he heard a whirring noise inside the box. Then the first notes of a Pachelbel CD Jennifer had in there began to waft out of the speakers.

"How does it work?" he asked, turning to her with wide eyes.

"I don't really know. I mean, my dad tried explaining it to me once, but I still don't really understand it."

"And here you humans speak of elven magic, but then you create such wizardry as this," he said very quietly, giving her a teasing smile. "And what have we here?" he said, looking down onto the next shelves where rows of books were neatly arranged. The titles and authors meant nothing to him until he came across – "The Silmarillion? The Hobbit? The Lord of the Rings? Are these the books you were telling me about?"

"Yes, but don't – actually, I suppose you may as well read them. At this point I don't think they're going to tell you anything you don't know or haven't guessed or planned yourself," she answered.

"And what is this?" he said, picking up a battered and doodled on spiral notebook from the bottom shelf. "An old diary of a young Jennifer! How old were you when you wrote this?"

"Probably nine or ten," she answered, turning a little pink. "But go ahead and read it if you wish. Probably for the best you understand what you're getting yourself into."

"Is this the only one you wrote?" he asked, looking for other such notebooks.

"No, here," she said, pulling out three much nicer books and handing him the lot. "Here are the rest. After the notebook, read this one, then that purple one is next and the brown one is the current one."

"Do you mind?" he asked.

"To be honest, I think I want to go hide under the bed right now, but I'm going to say no, no I don't. Just do me a favor – if you come across anything I haven't told you, let me know so I can see what sort of person I've been and forgotten about."

Legolas laughed. "I shall. Well, now I at least know what I shall do for the rest of the evening."

"Alright, go read. I need to change anyway," she said, ushering him towards the door.

"Very well. Oh, one more thing – how should I dress for dinner?"

"Not at all how you're thinking. I'll come by in a little bit and help you unpack," she said, then shut the door.

Legolas grinned as he headed back to his room. He gently shut the door behind him with his foot and set the stack of journals on the bedside table and took quick stock of the room. It would be uncharitable to compare this place to anywhere he had been with her in Middle-earth for it was plain these two worlds were very different. Even so though, the room seemed very nice. Maple trim and frames around the windows, the door also of solid maple and a hardwood floor which was covered in a very nice throw rug. The bed was also wood and matched the dresser which seemed to be of sturdy make and good craftsmanship though perhaps a little more plain than what he was used to, but not uncomely by any means. His room was a nice soft green with light brown curtains that could be tied back with a dark brown cord. It all complimented very nicely and he appreciated the fact that they had filled the house with colors.

Indeed, all the walls were painted colors in this house, which he found delightful and whimsical, especially after the dingy white washed school. And such colors! The kitchen had been a textured off white and beige with fruit painted along the top of the walls. The living room was a cheery yellow with a bright spring leaf green around the windows and doorways, the dining room was the same pleasant textured off white color also and complimented the kitchen, but without the fruit stamped around it. Indeed, it would have been too much as the monstrous floor to ceiling and nearly corner to corner window had a set of pine green curtains hanging partially closed, and with a hardwood floor like the living room. The upstairs hallway was also wood floors with a long diamond patterned hall rug in blues, greens, whites, and browns. The hall itself was painted a color he couldn't quite place… not quite tan, not quite peach, and it was more of that textured look. Of course he hadn't spent much time in human homes anywhere, but the way every room he had seen looked different, and that precious little of the furniture in the house seemed to be matched set but all of it complimented. Clearly Mrs. Erickson wasn't afraid to be eclectic. He liked it! There weren't very many paintable walls in his father's halls, and painting stone always chips and flakes after a few decades and is a chore to touch up constantly, so his only variety in color came from wall hangings.

He supposed Lothril wouldn't take very long to change, but the temptation was too great so he settled in with a battered notebook scrawled out by a young human girl who thought cursive was very hard. Her large and scrawling hand grew more uniform and refined as she went along only to be replaced by spidery cursive which slowly but surely began to take on its own refinement. Regardless though, her writing was still large and very simple, and so it was he finished the first journal in about five minutes and then came a knock on his door. He quickly set it aside and answered the door.

"How long until I show up?" he asked.

"What?" she asked as she came into the room.

He held up the second journal. "When do I show up?"

She took the journal and began flipping through it as she absentmindedly entered and sat on the bed. "You should be in here fairly early on. We've been taking vacations with the Miller's for nearly my whole life and I'm sure I mentioned them. Ah, here you are," she said pointing to an early entry from a summer gone by, "I shortened it to Av."

"Ah, you have known him a long time then?" he asked.

She nodded. "Since we were toddlers."

"I haven't started this one yet, but looking over your shoulder, I should not wish to rely on you for a record of current events, and I do not think you are particularly good at chronicling your own life what with seven or eight months between some entries, but as for insight into what goes on in your head – these shall be invaluable, I think. I dearly wish you had been keeping a journal of your time in Middle-earth," Legolas said with a grin.

"To be perfectly honest, I probably would have neglected it. You said yourself I'm terrible at chronicling my own life," she replied. "Ready to unpack?"

"Quite. You really must explain this world's fashion to me. When I found you I thought your outfit a bit odd and horrifyingly impractical, but then you seemed to take to our way of dressing so easily, that I thought perhaps there was some context I was missing, but now that I have spent a couple hours at your school and observed what your siblings and mother are wearing to go to market, I am out of my reckoning," he said as he closed the journal and set it on the nightstand.

"It will probably be easiest to explain it as we put Avery's things away," she said. "Since you're going to be in his clothes anyway."

They put the huge suitcases on the bed and unzipped them. "Bless the boy, he's neat!" Lothril said. "And apparently went shopping right after he got back." She pulled out a bag from Target that contained a receipt time stamped for earlier that day and a pack of socks, underwear, and under shirts along with a toothbrush and deodorant. "Well, this is interesting," she mumbled to herself. "The airport must have lost some of his luggage so they got this stuff on the way home. All for the best though, I'm sure. I doubt you'd want to wear someone else's underclothes anyway."

"Decidedly not," Legolas said.

"Well, let's take a quick detour from unpacking to modern laundry. We should probably wash our traveling clothes anyway. I am sure everything smells of horse," she said. She went back to her room and grabbed a laundry bag and dumped their elvish clothes from her book bag into it and then went back to Legolas' room and quickly unwrapped and then dumped in those things then they headed down stairs.

"How long does it take you to do laundry?" Legolas asked as they went through the kitchen to the back porch.

"I think it comes out to just over an hour between washing and drying," she answered. Though, I am going to hang our elvish things up in my room to dry." She stopped at the large white boxes and opened the one with a round window on the front and put all the clothes inside then shut the door and opened the top narrow drawer and put in the laundry detergent and picked a setting and it began. "Want to stick around and watch it spin?" she asked, wide eyed with a huge grin.

"The box spins?" Legolas asked.

"The metal drum inside does. You can see it through the window when it gets going," she said.

He could already see the inside filling with soapy water and said, "I do, but there are many things I am wanting to explore now that I am here, and I have only just arrived. I think I shall skip this wonder for now and focus on figuring out what to wear for dinner."

"I will solve that mystery for you – what you are wearing will quite suffice," she said.

"If you say so," he replied. Just then, the washing machine started the agitation cycle and his attention was drawn back to it and for a couple seconds he watched as the colors swirled around a little bit.

"Mesmerizing, isn't it?" she asked, sounding more than a little amused.

"Surprisingly so," he answered. "Enough of that, let us go back upstairs."

They headed back upstairs and as soon as they were back in the room, Lothril shut the door and said, "I just realized they are likely to be back soon and we ought to capitalize on the fact we are actually alone."

"I take it you do not expect this to happen often again," he replied.

"Not at all," she said. "Generally speaking, I have not been accustomed to much privacy. Although having my own bedroom may prove to give me more, but that will not necessarily translate into us being alone together."

"So what you are saying is that I ought to take every advantage of every opportunity we have alone for we shall not have many," Legolas said with a smile.

"Exactly," she answered.

"I can do that," he replied before pulling her into a tight hug and then giving her a kiss.

Lothril was only sort of surprised to feel he was overwhelmed. The longer they kissed though, the less overwhelmed he felt, and the less wound she felt too. She had been vaguely hoping the uncomfortable, against grain, too tight itchy wool sweater feeling would take a few days to resume, but no. She hadn't been back three hours and she already was feeling like she was wearing an itchy wool sweater, despite the fact she was in black yoga pants and an oversized t-shirt.

"This world is strange," Legolas said when they broke apart.

"Very," she agreed and kissed him again.

"You feel very uneasy," he said.

"I am just shy of feeling paranoid," she confessed, resting her head on his chest. "I am living in no small amount of terror at the thought of us getting found out."

"Found out?" he asked.

"That we get caught like this," she said. "I am not even allowed to date yet, er, court anyone."

"And yet you are now betrothed," he said, letting his hands settle around her waist.

"Yes, well, I can't say I would have been allowed to climb out of the window either if I had bothered to ask permission, but it seems these days I am not much of one for asking permission," she replied.

"You are not, and I like you that way. I like you knowing your own mind and acting upon it," Legolas said with a grin.

"You like that, eh?" she asked with a smile.

"Very much," he said and then gave her a kiss. "I find it very attractive," he added in a low voice before he gave her several more kisses.

"And yet you fell for me before we left Rivendell," she teased.

He stopped and looked her in the eyes, amusement teasing his mouth. "Just because you gained confidence as you went along, does not mean you did not know your own mind, nor that you could not be bold or assertive and act upon it. You proved you are bold by insisting you would not slow us down on the way to Rivendell, and asserting you would leave with the Ring, and facing every strange thing placed before you head on. It was one of the things that amused me to no end – there you were, a young girl who was stumbling around and apologizing for being human while simultaneously daring to tackle a dangerous journey and dealing with things none of the rest of us could fathom as you turned into an elf and balancing your studies with friends and everything else."

"And now?"

"Now you are the most enchanting, confident, fair, and lovely elleth I have ever had the pleasure to know," he said warmly before he kissed her again.

"I could kiss you all day, I think, but it would probably be prudent if we got your clothes put away and made it look like we had some other preoccupation whilst we were here alone," she said.

"Possibly, but I am not sure anyone shall know one way or the other," he replied before giving her another series of little kisses.

She grinned and said, "Probably not, but you still need to learn our fashion." She pulled away from him and went to Avery's suit case and pulled out a stack. "Here are his t-shirts. These are casual that you can wear around the house or going to a friend's house or going shopping or pretty much most places where something nicer isn't required, which is most things." she said as she handed him a couple stacks of brightly colored t-shirts. Some were plain, some had text and pictures. Legolas put them in the second drawer. "And here are some shorts. I can't say I've seen him wear these much, but typically these would just be worn around the house when you're not doing anything much or if you are exercising."

"Is that not contradictory?" Legolas said, sounding confused, as he took the shirts and put them in one of the drawers.

"Now that I've said it out loud- yes. It made sense up until five seconds ago. I guess it's because they're very lightweight, comfy, and breathable."

"What do you usually wear when you're doing nothing?" Legolas asked.

"Something like this," she replied, gesturing to her yoga pants and t-shirt she was wearing. "And when I'm exercising I wear shorts or pants in a similar material to those and few t-shirts I have that breathe and I don't mind getting dirty. I must confess to you, Legolas, one of the hardest things I ever did was wear that beautiful outfit you all gave to me in Mirkwood for traveling and fighting and all. I felt terrible the first time I got it dusty riding horse. I'm used to much plainer clothes."

He chuckled, "I can see that now. Is there anything else to put away?"

"In this suitcase – just a pair of pajama pants and some jeans and shorts. I guess he must either wear a t-shirt or an undershirt to bed and pajama bottoms or shorts. Here, these are the pajama bottoms, so these you would wear to bed, and these you would wear pretty much the rest of the time. Shorts when it's warm out, jeans whenever."

Lothril unzipped the second suitcase. On top was a dark grey suit. "This will need to be hung. And use one of those thicker wooden hangers in there," she said, handing the suitcoat to Legolas. "You can drape these pants on the hanger too." He carefully draped the pants over the straight bottom bar of the wooden hanger and then neatly hung the coat on it.

"When would I wear this?" he asked.

"So, that's for more formal things. I doubt though you'll be going to any weddings or funerals, so I'm thinking if you wear it, it will be to church."

"What is church?"

Lothril's eyes grew wide as she realized the gap between Avery and Legolas was enormous and she slowly sat down on the bed to think.

"What is wrong?" Legolas asked.

"Wrong? Well, nothing, I suppose. But boy do I have a lot of explaining to do. So, remember all those long talks we've had about how I was raised and all? I tried to keep everything in terms I figured you would understand because I never dreamed you would be here." She looked over at the still full suitcase. "But clothes first," she said as she stood back up. "The short answer though – church is where we go to learn about and worship the Creator with fellow believers. You're probably going to be spending a fair amount of time in church the next three weeks too. My parents are both very involved so we are there a lot. Here, hang these polo shirts," she said handing him a neatly folded red one then pulling out three or four more.

Legolas nodded and as he hung the shirts he asked, "When would I wear these?"

"You could wear that to church too. As you saw today, the guys wear them at school, some of the girls do too when they feel like it. Some people just wear them around because they like them. Avery usually wears them to church though when it's warm out," she answered and handed him another one.

"I believe I shall be consulting you most mornings for a little while," Legolas said as he put the next shirt on a hanger.

She smiled, "That's fine."

"Where is your church?" Legolas asked as she handed him another shirt.

"Actually, you were in it already. My school and church are in the same building. I think I have spent more time in that building than I have at home, to be honest with you," she replied.

"Then you must be very holy," he replied with a grin.

She laughed rather hard at that and said, "If that was how it worked, then yes, but that's not how it works."

"I did not think so. Otherwise, after living a year in a world without churches, would have turned you into a reprobate. As it stands, your beliefs seem to be intact."

"The important things anyway," she said as she handed him a button up shirt. "You would wear this with the suit or your khaki pants. And you do not have to wear the suit coat with it if you do not want to. But anyway, that reminds me – remember that conversation I had with you and your father about teetotalers?"

"Yes, and worry not – your drunken escapades shall never be learned of through me," he teased.

She lobbed a pillow at his head which he caught and tossed back at her, laughing all the while.

"Not. One. Word! It might not be a sin, but that almost makes it worse!"

"That is something I do not understand," he said as he bent over and picked up the shirt he had dropped. "If it is not wrong, then why treat it as such?"

She sighed. "I don't know. We have a term for it – it's called legalism. We preach against it even, and yet we're guilty of it. I think some people abstain because they figure the easiest habit to break is one never formed. And that's fair enough. And some people don't because they do not wish to be a stumbling block to those who perhaps struggle with drunkenness. To that I would contend merely not indulging around that person would be adequate, but if they wish to not drink at all, that is their decision to make and I have no problem with it. They don't have to. It's just that somewhere along the way, the idea of never having to break a bad habit or not causing someone who struggles to fall into old habits turned away from being a decent idea and a personal choice to something that would cause your fellows to look down upon you for doing it. Then comes the disapproving looks, 'I'm praying for you's', the concerned friends and family members talking to you about it, arguing points about it endlessly – it's just not worth the hassle. But in some ways though, that's all beside the point for us – theoretically, you're seventeen and I'm sixteen. That makes it illegal for us to drink anyway."

"Such a strange world. What are those?" Legolas asked, noticing a bunch of brightly colored rolls.

Lothril picked one up and it unrolled. "Oh, it's a necktie. It's worn around the neck with button up shirts. There's a certain way to tie the knot to wear them. Dad can teach you and he will think nothing of it. It is the sort of skill that one forgets easily if it is not done often. It would probably be best to hang these too." She got up and looked through the hangers and found a tie hanger. "Here, hang them on here."

"I am starting to deeply appreciate just how outside of your experience being in Middle-earth was," he said.

"Why do you say that?" she asked.

"I am not entirely sure how comfortable I am with the idea of wearing shorts, but I am not very fond of these clothes either."

Lothril laid a hand on his shoulder and said, "Well, I am afraid I must leave that quandary to you to sort out."

Legolas frowned. "I suppose you must. Shall we also unpack those?" He pointed to the last two bags on the floor.

Lothril zipped up both suitcases and stowed them in the closet and Legolas put the last two things on the bed. "That odd shaped one is a guitar case," Lothril said, turning around.

Legolas opened the guitar case and his face lit up. "Oh, I have not played anything quite like this, but," he strummed the strings. "It is out of tune, but I shall enjoy playing with it, I think. What is the other?" he asked as he closed the guitar case back up.

"It's called a duffle bag. Probably all stuff that needs to be washed," Lothril said as she unzipped it. "Whoa!"

"What is it?" Legolas asked, trying to look inside.

Lothril opened it up further and inside were stacks of hundred dollar bills and another note with the seal of Manwë. Legolas opened the letter and read it then said, "Apparently this is a very small portion of my father's treasury rendered into your currency. It is to be used to cover our expenses and help us with our quest."

"Do they give a total amount?"

"No," he replied.

"Good. I'd rather not know."

"Why?"

"Because if all the stacks are like this one," she said holding up the thick stack of hundred dollar bills, "I might be tempted to be irresponsible."

"Is that a large sum you're holding?"

She nodded. "Large enough to make me wonder if we will even spend half of this stack." She replaced it in the bag and they decided to zip it up in one of the empty suitcases. Lothril reckoned that was the safest place as neither her siblings nor her parents were likely to disturb his stuff.

"You know, you have slipped back into your old mode of speaking rather quickly," Legolas commented as she stood back up.

"It is a bit intentional," she said. "As I'm fairly certain my accent is off, I figure I ought to get back to using more contractions like 'don't', 'won't', and 'didn't'."

"If you think your accent is off, I must have a pronounced one for I think you sound very similar to how you did when I first met you and I thought you sounded strange," Legolas said.

"Yes, actually, you do. You sound… vehr-eye prohper ahnd ahlmost English with vehr-eye tahll vowehls," she said, imitating his Sindarin accent in English at the end.

"Then yoo arr theh ahpposi' wi(th) yur braahd 'A's an' drohpped fiinal ledders an' maaaking awl yer T's in de middle a yer werds soun' like Ds. Tuh saaay nuthin' of yer librill use of 'eh' and 'ope'. And what does 'ope' mean anyway? I have been here three hours and I have heard it from nearly half of the people in your class, including your mother."

"It's a filler word. So if I bumped into you, I'd say 'ope! Sorry 'bout that!' and then you'd say 'No problem!' or 'No worries!' or something like that," Lothril replied. "And ya did a good jahb with yer Michigan accent," she added, laying it on extra thick. She looked around and said, "Well, that's that. Everything put away."

"Indeed, it is," Legolas replied.

"I wish I knew when they were coming back," Lothril said with a frown.

"We shall certainly hear them long before they make inside. I heard them leaving from here without a problem," Legolas said.

"So did I," Lothril replied quietly with that thoughtful calculating look on her face. "I might be playing with fire, but I seriously cannot imagine we will have very many opportunities to be alone like this for at least a month," she added before she took his hand and pulled him close and kissed him, all the while in the back of her mind she was calculating if, when, and where she might be able to find little pockets of time and privacy enough to risk even brief kisses between then and the end of the month. She didn't know where the orcs were or how she would get to where they were, but she was bent on having it all figured out by the last day of school and getting everything over and done with as quickly as possible. She didn't want to risk her relationship with her parents over kissing him and being alone with him, but if there was a means by which she could have her cake and eat it too, she would find it.

"What are you thinking about?" Legolas asked as he started a series of kisses trailing around her ear and neck.

"What makes you think I am thinking of anything?" she asked, trying very hard to keep her voice steady and breathing even. She could almost manage the voice, but she sounded a bit breathless.

"You have that distracted… reckoning… Mithrandir with half a plan… searching for the other half look," he said, punctuating his words with kisses that traveled from her neck back up to her lips. "Tell me your plans… oh wizard."

They kissed twice more before she straightened up a little and said, "I am plotting if, when, and where we might steal moments alone."

"Any ideas yet?" he asked.

"None yet, but give me time," she answered, looking a little distracted. "Perhaps we should focus for a while on exploring our emotional and intellectual relationship."

Legolas turned it over in his mind for a moment before he replied, "We have been very diligent in that since we met. However, if I cannot have your lips," he kissed her and continued, "then at least give me your verses."

She kissed him and said, "I will write you stacks of verses."

He smiled wide and said, "Oh, I dearly hope so!"

They were in the middle of a kiss when they both heard her mother's mini-van pull up the gravel driveway. She held him tight and rested her head on his shoulder for a moment before she took a deep breath, stood up straight and made sure she was straightened out, and then headed to the door.

"Wait," Legolas said quietly.

"Yes?" she replied, turning to look at him.

"Are you sure this is suitable for dinner?" he asked.

"Sure," she answered. "Or anything else you might find more comfortable. We're pretty laid back."

They headed downstairs and out the door to help bring in groceries.

"Oh, thanks guys," Mrs. Erickson said as she handed grocery bags to her daughter and Avery.

As soon as they got everything inside, Mrs. Erickson began pulling out ingredients for dinner and Legolas asked, "Would you like any help?"

"If you want to, but if you're tired you can go lay down. I don't mind," she answered.

"No, I would much rather help. What would you like me to do?"

"Wash up and I'll have you cut up the meat and vegetables."

He nodded and with an assist from Lothril he managed to work the modern faucet effectively.

"Hey Jen," her mom said, "Why don't you help him with this and I'll go start up the grill."

"Sure thing," Lothril said. "Just let me bring this laundry upstairs first."

"Okay," her mom said as she began looking for a lighter. By the time Lothril got back downstairs, her mom was just walking out the door and Legolas was patiently waiting for her by the kitchen table.

"I have no idea where anything is in this kitchen," he said.

She chuckled, "I'd be shocked if you did. Here," she said reaching into a cupboard behind him and pulling out a large cutting board. "You'll want this and – pick your weapon," she said presenting him with a wooden knife block. Legolas pulled out a couple knives and settled on the big chef knife. Lothril laid out all the vegetables for him and the skewers and said, "So basically, you want to cut everything so it fits on one of these skewers and so you can eat it off of it in one or two bites. Except these cherry tomatoes, the mushrooms, and green olives. You can leave those in tact. Though I guess that just leaves the onion, bell peppers, and meat."

He nodded. "Easy enough. Is that all there is to this? Meat and vegetables cooked on a skewer?"

"Well, maybe a little seasoning, but yes. And you eat it off the skewer. But yes. That's about the end of it."

"Hmm… This has some rather interesting possibilities," he said as he began peeling the skin off an onion.

"Yes, indeed," she replied as she began opening the packages of meat. "Looks like mom got beef, chicken, and sausage."

Legolas glanced over at what Lothril was doing as he began quartering the onion. "I think I have an idea of how I wish to assemble some of these. Is there something I can put this on until I have everything cut?" She turned around and pulled a bowl out of the cupboard and set it down in front of him. He thanked her and picked up a green bell pepper. "How would you advise I cut these?" he asked.

"Personally, I cut it into thick slices then cut the slices in half."

He nodded and set to it with all four peppers, trying each as he went. He decided he liked red and yellow best, but he would give all of them a try cooked. After the onions and bell peppers were cut, they moved onto meat. He started with the beef and rapidly worked his way through it, the chicken, and the sausage and soon the cutting board held three very neat piles of even cubed or sliced meat.

"You're very good at this," Lothril said.

"This is hardly my first time cooking," Legolas said.

Lothril didn't say anything as her mother came in just then to help. Mrs. Erickson got a large tray out and they began assembling.

"So how are your folks?" Mrs. Erickson asked.

Legolas glanced at Lothril who said mentally, "I'll help. Never fear."

"They are quite well. Father expects they'll be returning around Christmas for a month for a visit and then for good next March," he said.

"Oh good! I miss having them over! Do you have any plans to go visit Grandma Sue over the summer?"

"None yet. It has been hard to get hold of her." This world had such odd vernacular…

"Well, I'm sure now that you're back state side it'll be easier."

"How have you and yours been?" he asked.

"Busy, mostly. But the school year is always busy. Though now that the spring play is behind us, I've got a bit more free time."

"Spring play?"

"Yes, we did three one act melodramas. It was a nice change of pace. Have you given much thought about whether or not you want to sit in on classes the rest of the year?"

"To be honest, I have not," he answered very truthfully.

"That's fine. I expect the next couple of days you'll want to catch up on sleep and readjust to Eastern Standard Time. Are you guys done with your kebabs?"

They answered yes and set them on the tray along with the others and then Legolas carried them out to the grill for Mrs. Erickson who then told Avery to go inside and relax and asked Jenny to set the table in the dining room while she watched the food.

"Where shall I sit?" Legolas asked as he took a stack of plates from her.

"Probably at one of the ends of the table," she answered as she pulled down six cups. "When the table was in the kitchen, it was pushed against the wall where the door is, and Dad was at that end, mom's there, I was next to her, Julie was across from me, and Eddie was between her and dad. I imagine that order is still true, though I don't know which end Dad sits at. And in case you're wondering, where we sit has no significance outside of keeping the peace," she said. "Oh, wait, there's his chair. So he sits there and you can sit opposite of him."

He nodded. "Things seem very relaxed here. It is a wonder to me you adjusted to our more formal ways as quickly as you did."

"Honestly, I had an advantage, culturally speaking, we used to be more formal, so I was familiar with a lot of the ideas even if I didn't practice them much." Just then Julie and Eddie came walking up the driveway with the little fourteen pound fluff of a dog on a leash. "There she is!" Lothril cried as she stared out the kitchen's picture window.

"Who?" Legolas said. "Your sister?"

"No, the dog. I was wondering where she was. She usually comes to greet us at the door."

"Oh yes, I believe your sister had taken her into her room by the time we went inside for I heard her door open before they left and your sister say something about a car ride. I can only assume the dog went with her," Legolas said.

They heard the backdoor open and the leash get unclipped, then the door to the kitchen open and in bounded the cutest, fluffy ball of energy Legolas had ever seen. She ran straight through the kitchen and up to Legolas who immediately crouched down to pet her.

"Hello you sweet thing! What is your name?" he asked as she grinned up at him and wagged her short little tail furiously.

"Honey," Julie answered.

"It is a pleasure to meet you, Honey," he said and received a very happy bark in return.

"She certainly seems to like you," Lothril said.

"Yeah, but she loves everyone," Julie said.

"Well, that's true," Lothril admitted. "But still. When was the last time you saw her sit so still for a new person?"

And true enough, she sat very still instead of jumping and running in circles as usual. Legolas picked her up and she seemed to be very happy to be held.

"You have not greeted Jennifer yet today," he said to the fluffy little dog as he took a step towards Lothril.

Lothril scratched behind her ears and Honey looked like she was trying to get a good sniff of her fingers then suddenly she was trying to squirm out of Legolas's arms into Lothril's. Lothril took her and Honey gave her a very thorough once over and then began tail wagging again sounded like she was trying to talk to her. To Lothril's surprise, she seemed to understand what she was trying to say, and it sounded distinctly like, "You finally smell right!"

Lothril looked at Legolas who only gave a small half shrug in reply.

"Did you make a shish kabab for me?" Julie asked.

"Yes," Lothril answered. "Mushrooms, red bell peppers, tomato, and olive. I made two of them for you."

"Thank you," she said. "Do you need help with the table?"

Lothril shook her head. "No, we're pretty much set."

"Where's the sauce we got? I want to try it tonight," Julie asked.

"No idea," Lothril replied.

"It's probably still in the bag then," she said as she turned and left for the kitchen.

"I imagine dinner shall be done soon?" Legolas asked.

"It usually doesn't take very long," Lothril answered. "What would you like to drink? Wait, I don't even know what we have. Want to go explore the fridge in the kitchen?"

"I assume the fridge is that tall white thing with doors?"

"Yes."

"Oh good! I am figuring things out!" he said with a smile.

They went into the kitchen and Lothril flung the door open wide for him. He loved the fact it was lit up inside, and he was fascinated at how it kept so cool, though of course he was careful to only express this mentally.

"Looks like we have water, orange juice, grape juice, and milk," Lothril said.

"What is orange juice?" he asked mentally.

Lothril said nothing but got a glass out of the cupboard and poured him a mouthful. He took a sip and his face lit up.

"I like that! Very sweet and bright." He then added aloud, "I will have that with dinner, please."

Just then Mr. Erickson pulled up and Mrs. Erickson came in with the kebabs with Eddie opening and closing the doors for her. "Alright, Eddie, wash up and let's eat!"

"Oh! Looks like I have perfect timing," Mr. Erickson said as he walked into the kitchen. "Hey Avery! How are you?"

"I am well sir," Legolas replied.

Lothril gently pushed him towards the dining room where Eddie and Julie were already sitting and poking at each other and Mrs. Erickson was telling them to knock it off. She sat down across from Eddie, Lothril sat down across from Julie, and Mrs. Erickson told Avery to sit down at the end of the table next to Jenny. As soon as Mr. Erickson sat down, they prayed, which Legolas found interesting and decided he would ask Lothril about the ritual later, and then Mrs. Erickson began handing out kebabs.

"Here guys, the rest of these are yours," she said handing Jenny the platter.

Lothril put hers on her plate then handed it to Legolas who gingerly set his on the plate and then set the platter down in the middle of the table. He found the shish kababs quite tasty and rather ingenious. Everyone could have just what they wanted, no matter how plain or creative, minimal effort for whoever was cooking, almost no clean up afterwards, and he imagined one could put nearly anything on it. In fact, that is exactly what the dinner conversation turned to. Julie brought up the idea of having a cheese kabab, which immediately sparked a serious discussion on what kinds of cheeses would work best and then a debate on whether or not one ought to put it directly on the grill or on what they called tin foil (which Lothril was kind enough to explain to him before he had a chance to ask). The conversation took a surprising turn though when Mrs. Erickson got up and pulled six different kinds of cheese from the fridge and with input from Julie and Mr. Erickson, created two different cheese kababs which were promptly taken out to the still hot grill. Legolas and Lothril stood and followed the others outside, Eddie carrying his meat kabab with him. They put one on the grill rack directly and one on foil.

As everyone watched with some anticipation, Legolas asked mentally, "Is this typical of your family dinners?"

"Well, it is not like we stop dinner every night to run food experiments. So no, it is not typical to abruptly end dinner like this. However, this is decidedly something my family does and not just with food. So no it is not, but yes, yes it is." She replied in kind.

The conclusion of the experiment came when they decided they were about to lose some of the cheese, and so quickly picked them up and brought them inside, with half the cheese a gooey mess. This sparked more discussion on which cheeses would likely hold up better as everyone either picked at the last remnants of their dinner or began cleaning up.

While discussions continued, Lothril lingered a minute on the porch to put the clothes in the dryer and then pulled out the elvish clothes, deciding that air drying was probably safer than tumble dry. She quietly folded up the damp clothes and put them in the laundry sack she had brought everything down in and then turned on the dryer for the rest of the load she and casually made her way upstairs. She quickly hung everything in the corner of her closet then lightly made her way back downstairs to help clean up without anyone noticing.

The table conversation was down to Legolas and her dad and had turned from cheese kababs to archery and it looked like things were about to reach the show and tell stage. Legolas seemed to be handling the conversation well, so Lothril merely kept an ear on the conversation as she began loading the dishwasher. Sure enough, she had no sooner put in the last glass than she heard two sets of footsteps – one going upstairs, one heading across the living room and down the hall. As no one else was in the kitchen, she quickly threw in the last few things and then went into the living room where her mom was sitting with a book and her siblings were watching cartoons. She sat down and waited for one or the other to reappear. They both showed up in the living room about the same time.

"Hey Jenny, we're going to go shoot some arrows. You should go get your bow and come too," her dad said.

Lothril smiled and said, "Sure! It has been a while since I've practiced."

She headed upstairs and by the time she came back down, her dad and Legolas were outside hauling hay bales into the woods and setting up targets. She headed out to where they were and waited by what she figure would be where they would shoot from. At any rate, there was a large oak conveniently positioned to hold up their quivers, and the angle from there wasn't bad for a bit of easy target practice. Legolas strolled up, brushing hay off himself as Lothril handed him her bow and said, "This is my take down recurve. See these knobs? It unscrews so I can pack it away in smaller case."

"Fascinating," he said, taking the bow from her as she began donning her old shooting glove. "This does not seem to be a very heavy bow though?"

"No. It's about a thirty four pound draw. Nice for target practice, but I wouldn't want it for anything serious."

"Nice glove," he commented, looking more curious than anything else.

"Thanks, it's my grandmother's old glove. The leather is old, but supple. Here, help me with this," she said as she handed him her arm guard.

"You never were good with this on your own," he said mentally.

She said nothing, but her eyes did seem to glitter merrily.

Just then her father came back and picked up Legolas's unstrung bow from beside the tree. "Wow, this is nice," he said appreciatively. "Where'd you get it?"

"It was a gift," Legolas replied as he finished tying Lothril's arm guard. "I received it a few months ago, but I have already shot more than a few arrows from it. It is a lovely bow to shoot."

"And matching quiver and arrows," her dad said, carefully setting down the bow and drawing one of the arrows from the quiver. "That's a pretty serious arrow head."

"Designed for serious shooting," Legolas replied. "The bow, quiver, and arrows were a set."

"Very nice," he said as he returned the arrow. "I like the old school design, but I do like having a grip and arrow rest," he added as he picked up his bow and strung it then offered it to Avery.

"May I?" Legolas asked nodding towards the target.

"Fire away," Mr. Erickson replied.

Fire away? For a split second he was confused until Lothril, who was standing next to her father gave a subtle nod. What a strange world! Who would light an arrow on fire? He pushed those thoughts aside though and picked up one of her father's arrows, nocked it, drew back and thwap! Bullseye.

"This is a nice bow. It reminds me of my old bow. A little lighter draw than that one," he said with a nod to his bow against the tree, "but still quite nice. The grip feels nice too, but this would not do for left-handed shooting." He handed it back to her father and grabbed his and strung it. "Would you like to try mine?"

"Yeah," he replied, looking like a little boy who was just offered his friends cool toy truck to play with. Legolas handed him one of his arrows and Mr. Erickson carefully nocked, pulled back and thwap! A little left of center and a little deeper into the target than the arrow from his bow. "That's definitely a heavier draw than mine," he said.

"Try a few more arrows to get the feel of it and see what you think then," Legolas said.

Mr. Erickson nocked and released a few more before handing it back to Avery. "That is a very nice bow. And it is just me or does the string make almost a singing sound?"

Legolas and Lothril both looked a bit surprised but then Legolas said, "It does. Jennifer – you should let me try your bow." She handed it to him and he loosed a couple arrows with it and handed it back. "That is a nice bow for target practice." Then he added mentally, "reminds me of the one I gave you on your first day."

"I'm fond of it," she answered.

For a while they each had their respective bows and just loosed arrows, making the odd comment on how happy or displeased they were with a given shot. Mr. Erickson kept complimenting his daughter on how well she was doing compared to last time they shot, and she had to remember to send the odd arrow way off target and into either the top or bottom of the bales. Legolas decided it might be fun to try and shoot patterns into the target. At that distance with still targets, it would was entirely too easy to make bullseyes.

After a while of this though, Mr. Erickson, not being an avid archer, and Legolas and Lothril not needing to do any more practice, decided it was time to pack it in and find something else to do.

"Hey dad, do we have any marshmallows?"

"I dunno. Why? You thinking of s'mores?" he asked.

She nodded, "Yeah. I'll go see if we have any." She dashed ahead and ran upstairs and put her things on her bed then dashed back down the stairs and began rummaging through the kitchen. "Hey ma! Do we have any marshmallows?" she yelled.

"Check above the dishwasher," her mom called back.

Lothril rummaged through the basket full of buns, bread, potato chips, and any other number of odd things that might get tossed in and found the marshmallows buried half way down under some hotdog buns and a pack of cookies with only two left in it. She shook her head, ate the cookies and remembered why she hated those cream filled sandwich cookies, threw out the package and turned around to find Legolas next to her.

"Your father wishes to know if you also found chocolate and graham crackers. He is outside now gathering wood for a fire," Legolas said. "Do you have bonfires every night?"

"No, not usually. I think it's because you're here and it's a nice evening. And I found the mallows, but – oh! There's chocolate," she said as she fished a half gone package of fun sized chocolate bars out of the basket. "And up there are the graham crackers," she said, getting them off the top of the refrigerator.

"What are chocolate and graham crackers?" he whispered. Lothril opened up one of the chocolate bars and handed it to him. He took a small bite and made a surprised face. "For something that looks like mud, it tastes lovely!" Lothril suppressed a laugh then handed him half of a graham cracker as they made their way back outside to the side of the house with the fire pit. "Oh, now this looks like some sort of hard tack or cracker." He took a bite. "But sweet. Oh, I like this. Now what of marshmallows?" She fished one of those out of the bag and he squished it a little between his fingers before taking a bite. "Oh, we make something like. They are a little different, but I think the idea the same."

"Really?" she asked, sounding quite surprised.

"Oh yes," he said as they reached the fire pit.

They sat down on the canvas camping chairs her dad had set up. As he was nowhere to be seen Lothril looked at Legolas and said, "Watch this!" She gathered up some small twigs and put them in the middle of the pit and stacked up a couple logs. She held up her hands and said, "Nothing in my hands and nothing up my sleeves. She crouched down and put her hand near the twigs in the center and said, "Naur," As she snapped her fingers. Suddenly a fire sprang up and began crackling.

"When did you learn to do that?" Legolas asked, looking rather impressed.

"After the war but before the coronation. You were off somewhere with Gimli and I was looking to make a fire so I could have something hot to drink and all the wood was damp, so Gandalf showed me that little trick."

"Next you shall be making fireworks," he joked.

"I think not," she said, carefully placing another log on the fire.

Just then her dad came up along with her mom. Everybody sat down and a minute later Julie and Eddie came out and everyone began either toasting marshmallows or just eating them plain. Legolas found their banter entertaining and was very glad he was getting a chance to see what sort of family Lothril had. About the time they ran out of marshmallows it was sunset and dusk was settling in beneath the trees, though glimpses of it were still to be caught low on the horizon between the houses and trees, but it would be below the neighboring hill soon and Mrs. Erickson declared it time everyone get inside and do some homework.

"Avery, would you like to help me study for my English Lit quiz?" Lothril asked as she stood up.

"Yes, if you think it shall be helpful," Legolas answered, legitimately not certain what English Lit was.

Mrs. Erickson reminded him he could sleep in tomorrow if liked and that he could help himself to whatever food he found in the refrigerator while he was there. He thanked her and asked what they wanted him to do with the metal roasting stick. Mrs. Erickson told him to leave it on the counter in the kitchen and with that he went inside.

Upstairs he found Lothril sitting on her bed with a book open.

"I presume my helping you study was a ruse?" he asked in elvish as he sat down cross legged on the other end of her bed.

"It is only partially a ruse, but to be perfectly honest I cannot believe that it worked. Here, ask me who wrote these books," she said, handing him her notebook, There were about twenty books and authors listed, all of which she recited easily. "Now it is a ruse," she said. "Is Julie's door closed?"

"It is shut."

"Good," she said, switching back to English. "Today is Tuesday, which means tomorrow is Wednesday and we have church on Wednesdays."

"Yes, you mentioned something about that."

"Avery grew up in church, so you need to know at least a little bit of what's going on. I think as far as how the services go, experiencing it is as good as anything. It's nothing complicated and you can't really do anything wrong, and I'll sort of warn you as things come up. We go to church Sunday morning, Sunday night, and Wednesday night."

"Every week?"

"Yes. Now, we don't exactly have any rituals per say, but we do have a lot of -"

"Ro-mell nin, ro-mell nin, n-at sídh! (my dearest, my dearest, be at peace!) You are worrying and you have been tense all day. Why?" he asked gently.

"Because I have a life time of knowledge I have to give you in a few hours."

"But why?"

"Because you are supposed to be Avery and you're not."

"Lothril, my dearest Lothril, I cannot be Avery. No matter how very hard we try, I cannot be him nor learn everything he knows. With any luck, we shall not be here long enough to make the attempt worthwhile. How long must you stay for school again?"

"Near four weeks. Last day of school is the twenty-eighth. Today is the fourth."

"That is not so long a time. By then, we shall hopefully have a plan for pursuing our quarry and be gone on our errand. In the meantime, for as interested as your father and mother seem to be in their friends, they have not asked many questions. Indeed, did it not seem strange to you that they made no more than general inquiries? I think they shall not or cannot ask questions that you and I cannot answer."

"That is somewhat because they have been writing back and forth, but I hope you are right," she replied. "I mean, everything we answered today was in Avery's last e-mail, er, letter to me." She took a deep breath and sighed. "Well, what do we do then in the meantime?"

"That is what we must figure out, I think. What means have we for gathering news where Manwë and Elbereth said the orcs may be?"

"Well, I suppose we could see if there is a local paper on the internet."

"What is an internet?"

Lothril frowned, "Honestly, I have no idea how to render it into terms you would understand. However, I should probably show you how it works as it's probably the main means we have of figuring out what's going on."

Legolas followed Lothril downstairs to the desktop computer they had in the living room. It seemed her parents were still outside. She sat down and he stood behind her and watched with no small amount of wonder as she logged on the internet and pulled up a search engine and found several newspapers for the northwest corner of the lower peninsula. She sifted through headlines, going back a couple weeks, and came across a few interesting articles that she quickly printed out. All of them had headlines like, 'pack of predators on the loose' or 'keep small children and pets indoors'. On a hunch, she did a search for recent animal attacks in the region and came across a map showing where and when a string of recent animal attacks had taken place. She printed that too and then they logged off the internet and headed back upstairs.

"I may not understand what the internet is, but it is obviously useful. I thought it would take much longer to get news," Legolas said.

"It's definitely useful," Lothril commented. "Here, you read these articles and I'll read these and tell me what you think."

Legolas quickly read through the papers she handed him and said, "This certainly doesn't sound like any pack of wild wolves I have seen. What is a coyote?"

"It's like a smaller version of a wolf."

Legolas shook his head, "This sounds like orcs. In times after they have been beaten back, you will sometimes see things like what is described here as they retreat. After Smaug fell and we defeated the orcs of Gundabad, there was a string of mauled animals found in their retreat, badly hewn and only partially eaten or carried away. These orcs are in retreat. Though, you see how the last few attacks are so close together? I wonder if they have found a place suitable to them. What is it like there?"

"I don't know about there specifically, but generally that area is more hilly and forested. Definitely less populated than here."

"Then that is where we ought to start. How far is it from here?"

She frowned, "I'm not sure of the miles, but it is around four hours of driving. Now that we know where, we have to figure out how we're both going to manage to get there without either of us getting in trouble."

"Why should we get in trouble?"

"Because everyone thinks I'm sixteen and you're seventeen and there is no way on earth my parents are ever going to be okay with me going off with you alone on a hunting trip."

"And yet you climbed out of a window and rode off with me without a second thought," he said with a grin.

"A decision I have questioned since I made it," she shot back.

He laughed and said, "I have often wondered that you did it, especially after I got to know you. Nevertheless, I am glad you did. But I suppose such impulsiveness shall not do now."

"Not at all."

"Well, we have nearly four weeks to think of something. Or perhaps something shall present itself. In the meantime, perhaps you could answer some questions I have?"

"Certainly," she answered. "I shall do my best."

She spent the next hour and a half answering questions as best as she could about modern living and then he surprised her and asked, "Could you lend me your sacred book to read?"

"Uh, sure. I have a couple, so take your time," she said as she handed him an older copy she had.

He opened it up and flipped through it and a look of surprise came across his face. "Why have you marked your holy book?"

"Well, I underlined or colored parts that really resonated with me or ones that I memorized. If you look closely, you will also see little notes from sermons either referencing another verse or a note on the original language."

He nodded. "For as devout as you seem, if you deem it acceptable to mark your sacred book, I shall not judge you for it. It is dark out. I am sure your mother shall be ill pleased if she finds me in your room keeping you awake," he said with a grin.

"No, she shan't. Good night!"

"Sleep well, my beloved," he said, leaning forward and placing a soft kiss on her cheek. "Should I bid your family good night also?" he asked as he got off the bed.

Lothril shook her head. "No, it's fine. They probably figure you for asleep already."

He nodded. "Good night then," he said and placed a small kiss on her forehead.

"Good night," she replied as she watched him walk out the door.

Legolas returned to his room and shut the door and turned on the lamp as Lothril had instructed him how. It was a good deal brighter than the oil lamps he was used to, but still far less bright than the lights in the ceiling. He couldn't decide if he liked them or not. He changed into what Lothril had told him one wears to bed and wondered why all the clothes here weren't that comfortable as he settled onto the bed and considered which book he should read first.

He dearly desired to continue reading her journals, but given her angst earlier about him being (very understandably) ignorant on religion, he decided perhaps reading her sacred book might be best. The title was printed on the cover and he couldn't decide how it ought to be said. Holy Bibble? That seemed silly. Biblĕ? Maybe the 'e' was silent and it had a long 'I' sound? He decided to ask her come morning.

He opened it up and was greeted by her name written carefully on the first page, then he saw the table of contents and realized this was actually a collection of books in a single volume. He did not get much past Genesis 4 before he realized if he were to keep track of all the odd names he would be in want of pen and paper. He opened the drawer on the night stand and found inside just what he wished. With no small degree amusement, he clicked the pen, as he had seen some of her classmates do, a few times before finally copying down names and whatever it was that they did that seemed important. For as much as certain little details and instances of Genesis had eluded the understanding of Jennifer, Legolas found he was having little trouble keeping up. Obviously the human family the book seemed to be following so far was at least semi nomadic, and though it was clear there were some societal structure differences from what he was used to, things like Tamar taking Judah's cloak, staff, and ring made sense to him and he was simultaneously amused and horrified that he would basically hand over everything that could identify himself as Judah to a woman he thought was a prostitute. How sex addled were humans, anyway? No wonder Lothril seemed so paranoid about getting carried away. The whole book was very sad and grieving to him, and yet there kept being moments where it seemed the stars were allowed to shine forth and he could see some beauty and hope in the midst of the wickedness and absurdity of Man.

He made it all the way through Genesis and wondered if Exodus would explain why Jacob and his family never returned to the land God had given them after the famine ended, or perhaps it was the tale of the return? It was called Exodus after all… Genesis and Exodus did not take very long for him to get through and as Exodus had fewer characters it was following, he decided to abandon note taking for a little while which sped things up quite a bit and then came Leviticus. The book most dreaded to read through as it is nothing but laws: moral, civil, religious, and dietary. However, as an elven prince who dealt with laws and regulations for a living and had helped draft a few himself, he found this fascinating. Immediately the structure of that nation became apparent to his mind and many things fell into place that he had read back in Genesis that had puzzled him a little. He found Numbers an interesting read because even though it is largely a roll call of each tribe, this was basically like reviewing the census but with weird names he couldn't begin to pronounce, and as he sincerely doubted the future books would focus on all these people, families, and tribes in great detail, he skimmed through the census bits rather quickly and only taking general interest in the size of the peoples and then paid a little more attention to any laws or historic details, but more or less just skimmed the whole book. Deuteronomy seemed to be a mix of history and laws and so forth, and right around midnight and the end of the Pentateuch he decided he was very tired and a quick skim of the introductory paragraph some very thoughtful translator put at the top of each book (at least in that particular copy of the Bible), he saw that Moses would be gone, Joshua would be leading, and with hope that these wandering people would finally get back to where they ought to have returned to at the end of Genesis, he marked his place, turned off the light, and went to sleep with very deliberate dreams of home where everything made sense.

Meanwhile, back in her own bedroom, Legolas left and Lothril put on a Debussy CD and lay sprawled out on the floor, staring up at lamp lit ceiling. This was so weird. Having her own room after sharing most of her life with her sister was weird. Having a two story house was weird. Having Legolas in the next bedroom in her parents' house was weird. The only not weird thing, which was honestly pretty weird in and of itself, was finally knowing why she felt so self-conscious and out of place – she is an elf. She really, really, really wished she could go next door into Legolas' room right now like she would at times in Rivendell, but she felt like she was imprisoned in her room. She had never realized it before, but that was how she had always felt. Like if she didn't have a specific reason to be somewhere or doing something, that she ought stay put and do nothing. But why? Why did she think that? And why was it after Legolas shoved her out the door after her first 'elf lesson' that she felt like she had the run of Rivendell?

She looked over at her clock. It was nine-seventeen. It wasn't her bedtime yet, was it? She couldn't remember. Her face involuntarily fell. That she had a bedtime… even a loose one barely enforced… and a curfew… After spending months traveling through Middle-earth, spending weeks and weeks staying up as late as she wished star gazing, after fighting in a war and getting betrothed and earning the respect and friendship of kings and lords on and off the battlefield… a bed time! The feeling like she was trying to wear a jean jacket a size too small was going to drive her crazy if she didn't do something about it. She grabbed her copy of George MacDonald short stories off the shelf and headed downstairs.

She might be back in a world of Men with accompanying rules and restrictions and she might have to live again as a human teenager, but she was bound and determined that instead of living far within the bounds of the rules like she used to, she was going to exercise every inch of freedom she had within them. And maybe break a few stupid ones and few stupid unspoken rules and social conventions. If she was going to be stuck in a holding pattern for a month, she was going to live as fully as possible and how she pleased as much as feasible. And right now she pleased a cup of tea and a book at the kitchen island.

Her parents were in the living room. The television was on but they were talking and half ignoring the show. As she set the tea kettle on she had a passing thought that she ought to go join them, but at the same time… she wanted to sit there within ear shot but not join them. Really, she was feeling a bit disoriented and scrambled and, had she thought about it, jet lagged. She went from approximately eight in the evening back to one-thirty in the afternoon in a second and her poor confused body couldn't decide if it was nine-thirty at night or four-thirty in the morning. She was simultaneously exhausted and yet too awake to even consider sleep just yet. Hence some peppermint tea. She knew chamomile was technically more what she needed, but she liked peppermint and it was in the drawer in the kitchen.

For half an hour she sat there with her book open to the tale of "Photogen and Nycteris" but she couldn't really focus on it and in the end, it wound up face down on the table and her staring mindlessly into her tea cup between sips. In the end though, she felt relaxed enough to fall asleep, so she went into the living room to say goodnight to her mom and dad for the first time in a year and gave them both a hug and a kiss goodnight.

She managed to make it all the way into the shower before she broke into silent sobs. Her parents loved her. Even though at the moment their minds were going in two or three directions and there was a mix of feelings in the background she knew had nothing to do with her, in that moment, distracted and pedantic as it was, they loved her deeply.

In a moment her view of the next twenty-three days changed from being very long to very short. How did Arwen do this? How did Luthien? How was she going to? At the same time though… she loved Legolas. Hearts were going to be broken soon and one of them would most definitely be hers.