Summary: Shortly after arriving in Rivendell with Frodo, Sam stumbles across a mystery. Could it be elvish magic at work?
Elvish Magic
By Nieriel Raina
Sam peeked around the corner and down one of the halls of the Last Homely House
before slipping down the passageway. He was on a mission. Since arriving here, he had seen many strange things, but none as disconcerting as his recent sightings. Many strange people could be seen wandering the halls and valley: elves, of course, since it was an elvish place; and a few men like Strider, tall and dark; and dwarves, though they weren't completely strange to Sam since they traveled often through the Shire on the road to and from the Blue Mountains.
But it was the elves that had poor Sam discombobulated. He had overheard Strider say something about Master Elrond's son returning home last eve, and since then he had seen the dark haired elf on several occasions. That wasn't the mystery of itself; rather, he had seen the elf speaking to Strider in the library as he passed by the doorway on his way to take an apple down to Bill, lodged in the stables. Yet, when he arrived, there was the elf! And he had changed his clothes to boot!
There was simply no reasonable explanation for it all. And it hadn't been just that occasion; several times today he had seen the elf in one place, only to come across him again somewhere else, wearing different clothing and doing something completely different from what Sam had seen him doing the time before. Sam just knew some elvish magic was at work.
As he followed the son of Elrond, his mind wandered back to the time, back home in the Shire, when he thought he saw an elf in the woods. Come to think of it, that elf looked an awful lot like the one he was currently trailing, if indeed it had been an elf he had seen.
"Elf magic, for sure, it is," Sam muttered, as he shuffled on, glancing this way and that.
"What is elf magic, little one?" a cheerful voice asked from beside him, causing him to jump and his neck to jerk his head up. Way up.
"Well I'll be," Sam gasped as his eyes collided with the elf he had been following. "How'd you get here again when you were just…" Sam looked back to the retreating figure he had been following. The elf was still there, walking down the path towards the garden, yet here he was beside Sam too!
"Beggin' your pardon and all, sir, but I thought, I mean, well, how can you be there," Sam pointed at the retreating figure, "And be here too?"
The elf frowned in confusion, his eyes following Sam's finger to the dark haired elf just slipping out of sight. Then he began to laugh. "Elladan! Elladan, come here!" he called.
Sam watched, wide eyed, as a duplicate of the elf beside him retraced his steps towards them. Standing side by side, he glanced between the identical faces. "Elf magic," he whispered in awe.
The two beings smiled at one another. "You must be Sam," the elf who had stopped him said. "Estel described you well enough. I do believe you have been confusing my brother and myself for the same person. Let me assure you, there is no elvish magic at work; there are two of us. I am Elrohir. This is Elladan. We are the sons of Elrond."
"Well I'll be!" he exclaimed. "Twins! Never crossed my mind that elves could have twins. We hobbits now, they pop up now and then, but elves? No sir! I had me no idea." Sam bowed awkwardly, somewhat disappointed to have not seen elvish magic after all. "Pleasure to make your acquaintances." His mind scrambled over what Elrohir had just said. "Pardon me for asking, but I don't be knowing anyone called Estel. Sounds like an elvish name, and I've not been here long enough to get to know any of you very well. How could he know me well enough to tell you about me?"
Elladan answered after a glance at his twin. "You call him Strider, I believe. Estel is Aragorn's elvish name. My father gave it to him when he was only a small child."
Sam nodded. It would make sense, he supposed, that that ranger would have an elvish name if he had stayed here as often as he had claimed. "I don't suppose either of you have ever been to the Shire before. I thought I had seen me an elf once, in the woods. Seems he looked a lot like the two of you.
The twins glanced at each other and they both grinned. "Perhaps," was all they would say.
: - : - :
"Da? Did you ever find out who that elf was?" little Frodo asked Sam as soon as he concluded his tale.
Sam let his eyes wander over the rest of his children. "Well, now, I talked to Strider about it once, and he did say that those sons of Elrond had come to the Shire once or twice to bring messages to the rangers a-keeping watch over us. So I suppose it was one of them I had seen."
Young Frodo nodded his head. "I think it was."
Elanor tilted her head, looking disappointed. "So, you never did see any elvish magic, Da?"
Sam smiled slowly, throwing a wink at Rosie. "Maybe I did, but that is a story for another time. Now, off to bed with you!"
As the youngsters scampered off with Rosie following behind to tuck them in, Sam reverently closed the Red Book. "Elvish magic, indeed!" he chuckled.
