Ponysteph15 – Yes, there will be a sequel. You may now begin squeeing for joy.

Ogreatrandom – Glad you like it so much…I fear the sequel will be going on a different tack, though.

Elflette – Have fun with the poking…it’s especially fun to do to Legolas…he’s so ticklish!

Waterstar2.5 – Exactly, but they never specified where.

Time and Fate – Sorry you had to wait so long.

Socks are Yummy – I hate to say this, but maybe for once you should actually take your meds.

TheDreamChild – Why would I want the Mouth of Sauron to take over? He has A) a foul mouth, B) no table manners, and C) his reactions to being threatened with eunuchness are not funny.

Ames – I can use a cliffie when I wants to use a cliffie.

Tathren Lalaith – No, it wasn’t the trees. And, yes, there will be a sequel.

RespectTheSporks – Tried the toblerone. Loved it. If only it wasn’t so expensive…thanks for educating me about it.

Hopexforxsnow – Thank you for the compliments. I’ll try to write up to your expectations.

Protector of Canon2 – She has to go home. You know it, and I know it, so why vex ourselves about it?

Disclaimer: I own nothing but Merry. – sniff – I am so poor!

---

“Why does she have to do that?” Elladan asked sadly.

“Do what? Sing or faint?” Legolas queried.

“Both, I think,” replied Elrohir dryly.

“Faint, actually, ‘Rohir,” cut in his older brother. “I hate to say it, but I’m getting used to her singing. But now, with the fainting, someone has to carry her.”

“We could…” Legolas began, but Elrohir quickly interrupted.

“No. We are not leaving her out here.”

“Then you carry her,” Legolas and Elladan said at the same time.

“Fine,” Elrohir sighed. “Really, sometimes you two are just soooooooooo juvenile.” He bent over and picked up the unconscious girl. “She is heavy. Legolas, Elladan, which one of you has been feeding her?”

“Not me.”

“Not me.”

“Mmhmm. She weighs as much as an oliphaunt. Seriously, though, who fed her?”

“I told you: it wasn’t me!” exclaimed Elladan indignantly.

“Elrohir, come on. All three of us know better than to feed Merry unless she is very, very hungry. Especially sugar. We’ve all experienced the terror that comes when she gets…”

“Hyperactive,” put in Elladan.

“Yes, that’s it. Hyperactive.”

All three elves shuddered. When Merry was hyper – really hyper, mind, not merely borderline – things became troublesome. She might start bouncing off the walls or yelling or behaving very unseemly. Thankfully, these bouts of hyperactivity were rare and only accompanied huge intakes of sugar. Merry barely ever got hyper in Middle-earth, but when she did, it was terrible to behold. After letting her over-indulge at a feast once, the twins had realized that her sugar intake had to be closely watched.

“So, what are we going to do with her?” asked Legolas as they strolled through the woods.

“We could…”Elladan began, but his younger brother shushed him with a look.

“No. NO. Now stop wanting to do it.”

“Can I at least pinch her?”

“No, ‘Dan,” Legolas sighed. “You should have taken the chance the other day and swatted her instead of letting me do it.”

“Right. How ‘bout we drop her off in the tent?”

The others agreed, and they did so.

“And now,” Legolas grinned as they exited the tent, “it’s time for archery practice.”

---

Soon after Aragorn’s official coronation, Merry began to sense it was time for her to return home.

The night before Elrohir and Elladan left to join their father and sister, Merry came to their room late at night.

“This is, er, unexpected,” commented Elrohir as she slid in through their door.

“Very,” agreed his older brother.

“Guys, I just wanted to tell you I probably won’t be here when you return,” Merry whispered.

“WHAT?” they exploded.

“I think it’s time for me to go home,” she told them, sitting down in a big armchair. “I’ve been here making you miserable for long enough.”

“Does Legolas know?” asked Elrohir softly.

“Ah, no. I think I’ll just leave him a note.”

“Very well,” Elladan sighed. “We’ve know you for long enough to know we can’t stop you.”

Merry got up and hugged both of them extremely hard.

“I’ll miss you,” she murmured.

“We’ll miss you, too,” they replied.

“Don’t,” the teenager told them with a soft laugh. “I’ll probably be back before you know it, and long before you start missing me.”

“Namarië,” the twins whispered.

“Aye. Navaer an si.”

Merry slipped out their door, leaving the two of them to exchange looks.

“She is flighty,” commented Elladan.

“Yes, but she has a good heart,” mused Elrohir.

“True, but… For once in her life, could she do what’s expected of her?”

“No. Then she wouldn’t be our Merry, and you know it.”

Elladan sighed. He knew it.

The next day, Merry did her best to pretend all was normal, hanging out with the hobbits, wandering around the city with Legolas, and grooming Azul. She seemed slightly tired, however.

“Merry, are you all right?” Legolas asked her at one point.

“I’m fine.” The flautist forced a fake smile.

“You’re sure?” There was a touch of concern in his voice.

“I’m fine.” Merry smiled, a sincere one this time. “I just feel sleepy. I’m going to go get some rest.”

With that, she left the elf for her rooms. Under pretense of sleeping, the thirteen-year-old packed up her things and wrote a note to Legolas. After going over it several times, her note read thus:

Legs,

I am sorry for having to dash off like this, but I’m sure you understand, right? Good. It’s time for me to go home, and, I must confess, I’m starting to miss my family. Don’t worry, Thranduilion. I’ll be back soon. Wild mumakil couldn’t keep me from Middle-earth. Besides, you and the twins haven’t taken me through Moria yet. You do owe me one there.

’Bye,

Merry

P.S. Keep Azul for me, will you? Thanks.

Pleased with her note, Merry dashed out into the passage and slipped it under Legolas’s door. She then tiptoed back to her room and grabbed her pack. Holding it carefully, the girl willed herself awake.

---

The phone rang loudly over and over. A hand reached out and picked it up.

“Hullo?” asked a groggy voice.

“Good morning, starshine, the earth says hello!” exclaimed the voice on the other end.

“Jack!” Merry groaned. She sat up in bed and ran a hand through her bed-head. “Do you have to be so peppy at,” she grabbed her watch from the nightstand ”Eight in the morning?”

“Dollface, check your clock again. It’s noon.”

The girl checked her watch once more. “OK, Jack, it’s noon. I just had one of my dreams.”

“Oooh.” That piqued his interest. “Give me ten minutes, and I’ll be over there with my sax.”

“Ten minutes!” Merry squawked. “Ten minutes!”

“I’ll bring breakfast burritos,” Jack coaxed.

“I’ll be waiting.”

Merry hung up the phone and ran to the shower, the last of her drowsiness fading away. Music practice, a talk with her best friend, and breakfast burritos? What more could a teenage fan-girl/flautist ask for?

Fin.

---

A/N: As usual, I will give you a little sneak peak of the next sequel. Read on to find out.

“Don’t hurt me,” the seventeen-year-old whispered, withdrawing even further into her dark corner.

“It’s all your fault, really,” the elf snapped, whopping her with the pole out of sheer irritation. “If you weren’t such an abomination, you wouldn’t be here.”

“I am not an abomination,” Merry murmured to herself. She has hit again for it. “I’m not, I’m not, I’m not.”

He gave her another hard blow and left, laughing as he went. Although she struggled to keep up her morale and eat, a new question had entered her mind. Were the elves right? Was she really an abomination?