Sunfire

by Golden Lady Serenity

*Disclaimer: I do not own LOTR. It belongs to Tolkien. But I do own me. Well...sorta...I stopped payment on myself a while back. XD o.O;;*



Weary in both body and spirit, the Fellowship welcomed the chance to rest in fair Lothlorien. Some were content to wander the forest paths or to sit in silence or song, allowing the pain and burden of their troubles to slip away, if only for a moment.

"Well, Mr. Frodo, we seem to have landed in a right lovely place. A horrid shame how we came to be here though." Samwise Gamgee shuddered at the thought of their flight from Moria, and the terrible loss of Gandalf. "A right horrid shame..." He shook his head in sorrow.

"All too true, Sam, and I couldn't think of anything so much worse as to lose a dear friend. But come! Let's not speak of this any more, for my heart cannot bear the grief any longer." And so Frodo and Samwise turned their minds and hearts towards happier times in the Shire before they knew of the Ring's terrible power. Soon they were lost in happy reminiscence, yet eventually the subtle groupings of the Elves caught their attention: they seemed to be highly interested in the western area.

The two of them threw anxious glances around, wondering what the quiet furor was all about when Legolas appeared beside them, Gimli seconds behind him. "An intruder in Lorien," the Elf breathed. "No one knows how this happened, but they're within the borders."

It seemed incomprehensible that anyone should be able to penetrate the Golden Wood's defenses, and yet it seemed to've been done. Sam spoke up. "Well, could it be a spy?" The thought disturbed him. Spying on Frodo to help him was one thing, the spies of the Enemy were another.

"Nay, it seems she--there is word that it is a lady--has no wish to hide her presence," Legolas replied. Even as he spoke a group of Elves appeared, leading a young woman towards Caras Galadhon, one of them holding two strange bundles. "She is to be judged by the Lord and Lady."

"What is that Elf carrying, there?" Frodo inquired.

"One would be a pack, the other...I do not rightly know; it is not a thing of the Elves or anything we know of."

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How humiliating! To be lead along like some petty criminal, yet she didn't do anything! At least not intentionally. She'd been packing a bag for a weekend at her friend's house, and putting some batteries into her portable stereo when she looked up and found herself in a damned forest of all places! Then all these...Elves?...come and threaten her with bows and arrows!

Now, to make matters even worse, they wanted her to climb up some damn tree and meet some lord and lady. Who the hell met anyone up in a goddamned tree? Worse, they took her things too. Swearing to herself, Karen climbed slowly, grimacing at the distance she needed to travel. Damnit, why couldn't they just get this over with--whatever it is--at ground level? Or better yet, in a building? Finally she reached the top.

Four people were there already: two of those Elves, male and female, and humans, both male. One of them, the male Elf, came up to her. "It is indeed rare that anyone should pass beyond our borders without our knowledge. What business do you have in Lorien?"

She just stared. Lorien? What was that? This place? "Umm...I'm not following you here..." As the others stared at her, she shifted rather uncomfortably. "...What?"

At this the woman spoke up. "Perhaps we should try a different approach." She turned to Karen and said, "Young lady, few come to our land, and in this perilous time we must be wary at all times. We only ask that you tell us your reason for coming here."

"Well...I don't know..." She frowned a moment. "I have no idea how I got here." Annoyance was quickly changing into worry: what if these people didn't believe her? Who know what the law was like here...

The woman gave Karen a long, searching look that seemed to see inside and out of her, then broke into a smile. "I see you speak the truth. Come now, we will not ask further of the reason for your presence."

"Thanks...Oh! And, well, I should probably tell you my name. It's Karen." The woman's actions had been very reassuring, and she found herself smiling back.

"Ah! In our suspicion our manners were driven from us, it seems. I am Galadriel," the woman stated, then introduced the others as her husband Celeborn, the Lord of the Galadhrim, Aragorn son of Arathorn, and Boromir son of Denethor. "If you wish, you may stay here."

She could've choked. Those were Lord of the Rings names...Instead: "Thanks. Though I think I should figure out a way to get back...speaking of back...does anyone know what happened to my stereo and backpack? I'd...kinda like them back now..." Something of her normal humor was returning, and with it came the need to have her things with her.

Unnoticed to her, some of the Elves had gathered nearby, one of them being in possession of her things. At a nod from Celeborn he turned them over. "Your possessions, lady."

"Heh. Thanks, yet again. Shall we try for four?" The others present laughed at this, when Boromir spoke up.

"What might that be?" with a gesture at the stereo.

"This? It's a stereo. Hang on a second, I'll show you what it's for." Setting her things down, she rummaged through her backpack and pulled out a CD case. "All right...I don't think I'll get any radio stations here...nope...so that leaves the CD and tape player. Yeah, okay." Flipping through her CDs, she began muttering to herself. "Madonna? Maybe...Janet...Maybe...Fleetwood...City of Angels...Nah and nah...Sailormoon...heh, maybe...Celine...nah...3LW...maybe...Nelly...maybe...Santana...maybe...ah hell...Santana." She inserted the CD and, after setting it on the right track, hit play. At the first notes of Smooth everyone else promptly freaked out.

"What is that?!" Boromir promptly yelled. What kind of contraption made those sounds, and who would want them to? Suddenly he noticed Karen laughing.

"I can't...believe...you...That's so damned classic!" Taking a few deep breaths the redhead grinned. "Well, I better not waste the batteries..." She shut it off. "Anyways, um, where am I staying? And all like that."

"Perhaps you would rather be at ground level," Celeborn spoke up. "If Aragorn would oblige, you might stay with his company." At this Aragorn nodded his assent.

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Not wishing to involve themselves needlessly, the Fellowship (on the ground) retired to the pavilion. Each of them lost themselves in thought as they pondered the arrival of the strange girl in Lothlorien. All but Legolas, who was content to watch the play of the leaves. Yet the others were concerned, and spoke of it until--much to their surprise--Aragorn and Boromir appeared with the girl in tow.

Both men had a slightly amused look as they saw the questioning looks on their companions' faces. "It would seem the young lady is staying with us for the present," Aragorn explained, and commenced with the introductions. "Bishounen..." Karen murmured when Legolas was introduced. Things would have fast become awkward after that if not for her next comment.

"Wai...I just realized...no electricity...no internet...no RP posting...no Fanfiction dot net...no IMing...NO FLARE-CHAN!!" At this she threw herself onto one of the couches in comic dejection, effectively breaking the ice. Soon she found herself at the mercy of eight inquisitive people, some more than others.

"What's electricity?" "And internet?" "RPs? What's that?" "Fanfiction?" "IMing? What's Flare-chan?"

"Whoa, whoa! Hang on...lemme think how to explain all this...okay...let's skip electricity cause frankly I don't think any of you have it...but it's a powersource...currents...positive and negative charges..blah, kinda hard to explain. Internet...well, now I gotta explain computers. Those are devices--there's different kinds--that hold and process and retrieve information. So you could save something and later if you wanted it, if you knew where to look (that's the only problem, forgetting how to get what you want back) then you could find it and bring it back even if you lost it, long's you saved. RP stands for roleplay, I happen to enjoy taking part in roleplaying games. You make up a character and act them out in posts (more internet stuff...blah, let's skip that). Basically I get to act like someone else. Laaaaa! Oh, yeah...fanfiction. Well, a lot of shows and animes and movies and books and such have fans, people who admire them greatly, and the fans write stories about them, like what might've happened at such-and-such time, or why that didn't happen, or why who is like this or that. I write fanfiction. But right now I'm bloooooooocked. Help! IM means Instant Message, it's an internet thingy, and I can talk to all my online friends and family even though some of them are kinda far away, like in different countries even. And last but not least...Flare-chan, my dear, sweet, kawaii, lovable mate (boyfriend, love of my life, et cetera and so on)!" She paused to take in a much-needed breath. "Did I miss anything?"

Grinning they shook their heads. "No indeed!" Frodo laughed. "I have to admit a lot of it went over my head, but I suppose that's all right. What where you planning on doing before you came here?"

"Blah...I was going to go visit a family friend and my brother out in the country. Laze about, that kinda thing. Halfheartedly hope that their internet was working (damn AOL 7.0!). Maybe dream up stuff to post...laze about. I don't know how to get anywhere cause it's kinda out of the way and all...ner. But if one of them would drive me I wanted to get a new CD. Don't know what...anything that catches my eye...maybe No Doubt. Huh. And I wanted to get some more Final Fantasy in. Gods, I gotta get outdoors more. And I should stop rambling!"

Laughing, the others assured her that it was quite all right. They spent the rest of the day in merry companionship.

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Exhausted, the members of the fellowship had drifted into sleep, save for Aragorn, Legolas, and Karen. Each was lost in their own thoughts, wondering what the next turn in their life would be, albeit the mortals moreso than the Elf, who was softly singing to himself.

An extra couch had been set up for the redhead, much to her pleased and gratified embarrassment. Laying there, she let her mind drift, idle. Suddenly, a laugh escaped her lips, startling the other two.

"Hm?" Legolas stopped his song. "What do you find amusing?" He had said little throughout the day, yet finally his curiosity was just the slightest bit sparked: this was an unusual girl, mortal or no.

"Hee! Ah, well one of my friends has his buddy info set up it shows these odd but funny questions and I just started thinking of them." A grin spread across her face.

"Questions." He could find little connection between humor and queries; in his experience the latter was centered on trouble and darkness.

"Yup. Like, would a fly without wings be called a walk? And does anybody ever vanish with a trace? If vegetarians eat vegetables, what do humanitarians eat? I can't believe I just said that one. What happens if you get scared half to death twice? Why isn't phonetic spelled the way it sounds? What do sheep count when they can't sleep?" By this time she was laughing nearly hard to hear correctly, but the Ranger and Elf understood them all.

Smiling, Legolas couldn't resist commenting, "You're a very odd girl."

"Aww, thanks. That means a lot to me," she replied with a grin. "Ner...weird...I'm tired..." She blinked. "I haven't even been up for twenty hours. Huh."

"Then sleep," Aragorn advised. "The night is near half finished, in any case."

"So? I'm usually stay up all night then go to sleep at anywhere between five in the morning and sometime the next night!" she retorted. "But...ner...yeah. I should go to sleeeeeeeeeep. G'nigh'..."

And with that she dropped into a quiet slumber.

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And that's it! Do I get back? Do I stay? You decide. Wanted to leave that option open. Oh, and I didn't invent the Ner. I found it in a fanworks site; it was created by a girl named Kari. ^_^ I just happen to like it. A lot. Ner! Well, hope you enjoyed reading this. Review please! 10Q!