Aunt Taylor's Library

Chapter 18 (Marie)

(Marie's POV)

This was too good to be true. We were inside Lord of the Rings, at Bilbo Baggins's birthday party. I was about to die from pure joy.

Practical Ellie, of course, didn't believe it. "There's no way we could be inside the book. That's silly." I'm pretty sure her logical brain was having a meltdown with all of this.

"It certainly looks like the book. Do you have any better ideas?" I said, smirking a bit. Ok, maybe the smirk was just in my head. I couldn't get the enraptured grin off my face from just being here.

Ellie didn't answer that, and turned to Tyheim instead, who was looking around stupidly, completely oblivious to the wonderful thing that had just happened. "What do you think, Tyheim? Isn't being in a book a ridiculous idea?" He shrugged, apparently not wanting to join our fight.

Before I had time to retort, the show-stopping dragon firework flew into the sky. I laughed as all the hobbits (and Tyheim, that shank) screamed and ducked. Then, I turned triumphantly to Ellie. "Believe me now?"

"It...it can't..." Ellie was probably in serious danger of having a panic attack, seeing as the world of logic was crashing down around her, but she could deal with that.

"Why is everyone so short?" At first, I though Tyheim was joking, but he looked completely serious.

"They're hobbits," I said, rolling my eyes. Seriously, does he even read?

My thoughts were cut off by Ellie shrieking, "It's Gandalf!" I instantly whirled around to see who she was talking about.

Gandalf was towering over the hobbits, and if that wasn't enough to set him apart, his old gray hat and robes did the trick. Ellie and I glanced at each other, then took off running to go see him.

A few feet behind him, I suddenly stopped. "What?" Ellie asked.

"We aren't exactly supposed to be here...what if he thinks we're working for Sauron?"

"Don't be silly, he'd know two teenage girls weren't working for Sauron. Anyway, I wouldn't be surprised if he can't even see us. None of the hobbits have been looking at us strangely."

With that comforting thought, Ellie and I both stepped in front of him.

Not only did he see us, he seemed very disturbed by the sight of us. I decided to let Ellie do the talking.

"You two don't belong here, I see," he said quietly, leading us slightly away from the crowded pavilion.

"Um..." I said.

"We didn't mean to come! It was an accident! Marie just picked up the book, and then we just appeared-"

"No, no, calm down," Gandalf chuckled, and Ellie grew even redder than she had been before. "You aren't the first who have turned up here on accident, and I doubt you'll be the last."

I gave Ellie and odd look. "Who-"

Gandalf didn't seem to hear me. "I'm afraid I can't tell you how you got hear, but I can tell you that to get back, you'll need to fix the story. I myself don't know how it goes, but I have a feeling that book in your hand will help you."

Ellie seemed even more disturbed by this news than she had when we appeared here. "We can't get back?"

"Not yet. Somehow, you'll have to fix something that you change."

"But we haven't changed anything yet," I said quickly.

Gandalf chuckled. "I wouldn't be too sure of that. Now, if you'll excuse me, I have a feast to attend." And without another word, he strode off to join the hobbits in their feasting.

~~~~

"Where have you been?" Ellie asked suspiciously as Tyheim ran up, put of breath.

"No where," he said evasively. "What'd I miss?"

"Oh, just one of the best speeches of all time," I said coldly.

"So nothing, then?" He grinned at me.

"Whatever," Ellie said. "Listen, Gandalf told us-"

"Is he that old guy in the funny hat?"

"What?" Ellie frowned at Tyheim like he'd just grown a second head.

"Is he that old-"

"I know what you said!"

"Then why'd you say what?"

"Cause you're an idiot."

"That's really nice. Sisterly love right there, huh?"

Ellie rolled her eyes. "Do you want me to tell you what Gandalf said or not?"

Tyheim made a big deal out of deliberating over the question before saying yes, much to Ellie's frustration. "I guess so," he said.

"Basically, Gandalf said that somehow the story is messed up, and we'll have to fix it before we go home."

"And how am I supposed to know how it's messed up? I've never seen the movies! Or read the books!"

"That's your fault," I said.

"Hey, they're long, ok?"

"Lucky for you," Ellie said loudly, "Marie has the book, so you can use that as a reference. I guess we just have to find out what we messed up."

Tyheim shrugged. "Maybe when we appeared here, we crushed one of the tiny people, and since they died, the whole story will be ruined."

"There weren't any dead bodies under us when we got here," Ellie said distractedly.

"Maybe we scared one of the baby tiny people-"

"HOBBITS!" I shouted.

"Right, sorry, anyway, maybe we scary one of the baby hobbits and they'll grow up to not fulfill their potential in the story."

"That's the dumbest thing I've ever heard," Ellie said, rolling her eyes.

"Well I don't hear you coming up with any 'brilliant ideas'," Tyheim said hotly.

"Maybe if you'd shut up, I could think," she said. We both shut up.

After a few minutes, Ellie sighed. "I don't know...I guess we'll just have to hang out around here and see what happens."

That sounded reasonable. A few minutes later, we set off in search of Gandalf, wondering where we would sleep. He convinced Frodo (OH MIJN GODEN FRODO!!) to let us stay at Bag End, which even Tyheim thought was pretty awesome. And Frodo was really nice. We stayed up really late just listening to his stories about his friends, and let's just say that I was exhausted when I fell into bed that night.