Forest Fire

by Cate Wolfe

A seven-year-old elf gets lost in the garden— and ends up in Mirkwood. After hitting her head hard enough to forget her address, she has to learn Sindarin, get used to the name her caretakers give her, and figure out why nobody likes to look at her hair. And maybe, once she's big enough, she'll be able to find her way home. No romance subplot, slightly AU.

1. Prologue (Amnesia)

PROLOGUE

Amnesia

The trees were so wild.

I did like wild trees on occasion, but the trees here were supposed to be nice tidy trees with stone paths between. Maybe I had wandered out of the garden during that dizzy spell.

My opinion on wild trees, I decided, was mostly dependent on whether Mama and Papa were with me. And on whether the sun was up. Mama and Papa were not with me, and the sun was not up, so I did not like wild trees at the moment.

Where were Mama and Papa? They were supposed to come get me once they were done talking to all the other grown-ups. I shivered. It was getting cold.

Maybe I had gotten lost. I sat down on the cold dirt and shivered some more. Mama and Papa would find me soon. They just had to.

Everything was really quiet, but sometimes I thought I could hear howling, or scratchy sounds like something strange walking through the forest. Were there wolves in this forest? Or worse, those horrible not-wolf things in the stories…

The scratching sound started again. What could it be? Another elf? A squirrel? A spider?

Ordinary spiders made no noise at all, so if the scratchy noise was a spider it had to be a really big spider. Had Ungoliant come back? Those were the most frightening stories— the real thing had to be even worse!

I had to warn Mama and Papa! I leapt to my feet, making sure to brush all the clods of dirt off my dress. I started to run, but my foot slipped on a rock and I fell.

As I scrambled to my feet, brushing the dirt off my dress again, I remembered that I did not know which way Mama and Papa were. I turned in a circle, but could not see any end to the forest.

Wait! If I climbed the tallest tree, I could see over the rest of the trees, and I could see the lights where all the people were! That would work. I ran to a tree, and jumped up to catch hold of the lowest branch, but it was too short.

But! Over there was another tree, and it was littler and younger, and I could reach its branches.

I climbed to the top of it, but the top of the little young tree was still far too low to see over the old tall trees.

But to my left there was a branch that came oh-so-close to my little tree, and perhaps I could leap to it, for it was attached to an old, tall tree, and I could climb up it and see all the way home.

Slowly I walked out close as possible to the large branch— the little tree's bark hurt my feet— and I breathed deeply, deeply as I could, and jumped—

And fell—

And fell—

And fell— and then darkness.

Fin