Returning Home: A Hobbit Fanfiction

Chapter 15 - Royal Pains

~~Celia~~

Gandalf, Thorin, Balin, Bilbo, and the girls all rose with Elrond and followed him through a series of hallways until they were outside, a short distance away from the house, and in the middle of a spacious garden, the sound of the Company joking together still audible in the distance. Elrond turned around and said, "You may speak freely here. And I ask that you speak the truth. What are you doing here?" 

Gandalf  glanced at the others before speaking. "Old friend, the two young ladies that you see before you have been sent on a mission that may well prove to be more dangerous than our own. There is a magic about them, but it is not of any evildoing. They are randir."

Elrond drew back, startled, looking at Gandalf in consternation. "Randir? Are you sure? There have been no reports of randir since the Greenwood was in peril. The gates were shut." 

"They have been reopened," Gandalf informed him gravely. "And it would seem that more than just the Greenwood may be in peril, if what they know is true." 

Elrond turned to look at the girls, scrutinizing them carefully. "Is what he says true? Do you know of what he speaks?" 

Celia glanced at her sister, who shrugged. "Sort of? Back in our world, we didn't know that this world existed. There were only humans, and none of this was real. Then, one day, we were out in the woods, and found a bare patch of dirt, where nothing grew." 

She shivered, remembering everything that had happened that day. "It felt cold. And dead. Then, it started pulling at us, and we couldn't get away. Bilbo found us lying unconscious in the Shire some time later, I don't know how much, now looking like dwarves. He took us in until we got together with Gandalf and the rest of the dwarves, where Gandalf was able to figure out who we are."

"There is something else, that is important as well," Gandalf interposed. They all turned to look at him. "Elena and Celia were not like the randir that have come here in the past." 

Elrond frowned. "What do you mean?" 

"Elena and Celia were born in this world, to Lord Thokar and Lady Samara of Erebor, before being taken to the other world, and eventually returning here to be found by Bilbo," the wizard explained. 

"It's true," Bilbo spoke up. "And when I found them, they seemed shocked at the very idea that I was a hobbit, seeming to believe that it was a trick of some sort." 

Elrond turned back to the girls. "So if you are both randir, then what is it you are supposed to do? What is your purpose?" 

The sisters glanced at each other. "We don't know for sure, but we know what's going to happen, and we're trying to change things for the better," Elena answered. Balin looked unsurprised at the news, leaving Celia to guess that either Thorin had informed him of this, or he had correctly guessed on his own. 

"And how does that business involve the Company? What are you doing with them?" the elf lord asked. 

Thorin frowned, but Celia answered before he could. "Because what they are doing is vital to the future of Middle Earth." She lowered her voice. "The Enemy is rising again to power. He will strike, and soon. If we are not prepared, disaster will fall."

Elrond drew back in shock. "He was defeated long ago." 

Elena shook her head. "But not destroyed. Even now, his forces are drawing strength in the fortress of Dol Guldur, something of which Gandalf is aware, and has some proof of it, I believe," she added, eyeing the gray wizard. 

He nodded. "Elena is right, I'm afraid," he admitted. "There is an evil lurking there." 

"And that's not all." Celia lowered her voice. "The weapon of the Enemy will be found. And soon. By the only person with whom it could safely reside for any amount of time. But if we fail, Middle Earth will fall."