A Long Strange Journey

Return to Mirkwood

It would be roughly a year since the end of her adventure with Bilbo and the Dwarves before Hannah next saw her friend Legolas and his father, the Elvenking Thranduil, again beneath the shade of Mirkwood. In the meantime she lived much as she had before. One noticeable change, however, was that she appeared to have developed a taste for flying ever since their flight with the eagles, and she had taken to designing flying machines in her spare time. At first Gandalf and the Elves of Rivendell humored her attempts, but after one trial ended with particularly disastrous results and a broken bone, the wizard and Elrond decided it was time to put a stop to Hannah's experiments before the girl broke her neck.

But as Hannah grew older she also grew bolder, and they found convincing her to give up her new pastime more difficult than anticipated. In the end she refused to give it up completely, so they began arranging various tasks and outings to keep her busy whenever they caught her working on those diagrams again as a distraction.

It was on such an occasion in late autumn that Hannah one day found herself accompanying the twin sons of Elrond, Elladan and Elrohir, and a boy named Estel on one of their excursions to track a small pack of stray orcs reported to have been spotted in the wild. That her guardians would prefer to send her out hunting for orcs showed just what they thought of her attempts to fly. But she could not have been in better hands. The rogue orcs had been found and disposed of with relative ease. Elladan and Elrohir were skilled warriors with close ties to the rangers, and Estel, though young, was very strong and talented; and he often accompanied the twins on their travels while they taught him how to fight and track and fend for himself in the wild. Although they were both human children under the care of the elf-lord of Rivendell, Hannah and Estel weren't overly familiar with each other, because he was usually away with the twins, and she was often busy conducting research and traveling with Gandalf. In fact, this journey was the first time the boy and girl had ever interacted with each other for an extended period of time. During this time, Hannah learned that Estel was twelve years old, making him four years younger than her since she turned sixteen years old that May. Twelve—the same age her younger brother would be this winter, and the same age Hannah had been when she first came to this world. The last four years seemed to have flown by in the blink of an eye. For the first time in a good while, it hit her very hard just how long she had been away from home, away from her family.

She was startled out of her deep and lonely thoughts by the sound of a clear horn announcing their return to the Valley. Hannah looked up as the gates of Imladris opened before them. She had been so lost in her own musings that she hadn't realized how close they were. Their party of four was welcomed back with smiles, and a couple of elves came forward to stable their horses for them. Hannah was tired from the journey, and she wanted some time to think, so she parted from the others to head for her room when Lindir called out to her.

"Ah, Hannah," he said, stopping her. Hannah turned to see him step out of the main hall to approach them. "I am glad to see you have returned. Unfortunately there was a small mishap with the 'mystery clock' in the library. Could you have a look at it?"

"Of course," Hannah replied politely. "I don't suppose Mr. Gandalf has come back yet?"

"No, he is still away at the moment. Are you all right?" asked Lindir upon noticing her smile seemed a little strained. He glanced at the twins, wondering if they had been teasing her too much, as was their habit of showing their fondness for her.

"Yes, I'm all right. Thank you, Mr. Lindir, but I'm just tired. I'm sure I'll be right as rain once I've had a good soak and long nap," she said increasing the wattage on her smile. "But, first, I think I had better take a look at that clock. It can be a bit temperamental. Is Lord Elrond about?" She was hoping to have a word with him.