Well hi!

It's been long since I wrote my last english FF, and i don't have a beta, so please be kind.

The original FF is written in german and is a coproduction of two authors (me and LilórienSilme) and I just had some time to translate the first chapter.

Please tell me if you like it and if I should continue translating the story (the story is completed in german)

Every chapter ist written in the POV of one of the two sisters.

Chapter 1

How to save a life

Fearwynn

The scratching in my throat began again. My body trembled as I was once again hit by one of my coughing fits. I desperately tried to catch a breath and it was harder than an outsider might guess. I was glad that no one of my family was nearby. After my last attack of dyspnea last night I had been relocated from my normal hospital room to the ICU.

Exactly 3 weeks ago, when doctors suspected a serious pneumonia, I was rushed to the special clinic that I now called my home. Normally an early stage pneumonia was no reason to be rushed to hospital, especially a special clinic. Concerning me, this was very different. After a little incident 19 years ago four letters haunted my life: AIDS.

"Wynni, your mother's here." Martha, one of the younger nurses whispered while she poked her head through the door of my room. After I almost collapsed while my mother visited yesterday, the nurses made sure I was okay before letting anyone inside. Trying to put my coughing under control I nodded to her. I didn't want my mother to worry more than she already did.

I knew she felt indirectly responsible for what had happened to me. She thought it was her fault, that she could have prevented it. We had been on an extended school trip to a small Eifel town and she had been one of the parents accompanying us. During a short night trip she was responsible to watch after our little group of Girls, that meant my twin sister Gwyneth and a few of our school friends. For a brief moment she was distracted by a call of her best friend an she didn't realize that I fell behind while they were moving on through a small park. I kind of did it for a dare and I wasn't going to lose it. Back then I considered myself brave and not afraid of the dark. Guess that changed after that night, like the rest of my life did.

Not far from the spot where I left the others, a dopehead had made his camp. Of course I was too young to realize the danger ahead, honestly I didn't even know what a dopehead was. The camp was empty and there was no clue, that his owner would return anytime soon. I was scared to the bones when the dopehead suddenly appeared in front of me. His gaze was fixed on me but he seemed to see right through me, or something different than a small girl of 10 years.

Something in his head went mental and I could see it in his eyes. Of course I began to freak out. I wanted to run away, but he was tall enough to reach me with a single step and tried to grab me. Apparently he hadn't expected that he grabbed a human and his hold on my arm was to light to really stop me, but it was enough to get me out of balance. I stumbled right over his stuff, crashed some bottles and fell into one of his syringes.

I didn't realize the thin needle in my arm, due to the pain of the various cuts from the splintered glass, until I reached the others. My mother immediately panicked and rushed me to an emergency doctor. Of course he tested me for the HIV Virus and after several weeks we got the result that the test was positive.

By now, 19 years later, I was 29 and the disease had immensely weakened my immune system.

"Fearwynn. How are you?", my mother asked anxiously. In her eyes I saw how much it hurt her to see me wired to all this medical equipment. I suppose she would have loved to tear it all apart and just take me home with her, live a normal life. Again and again I tried to quench the irritation, to stifle my cough. But that resulted into me only being able to give my mother a short, cut off nod.

"Happy birthday darling. Gwyn asked how you are doing, when I called her today.", she said in a whisper an I heard a slight sadness in her voice. Yes, today was my 29th birthday and it wasn't sure if I would see another birthday. But I knew that wasn't the only reason for her sadness. The other was Gwyn. Gwyn was my 15 minutes older twin sister Gwyneth.

"If she wants to know how I am, she should come, see for herself.", I answered and didn't try to hide my resentment. Gwyn and me were non-identical twins but that didn't mean we were close, in fact by the time I got infected our relationship started to break until there was a wide gulf between us. After our parents got divorced 10 years ago she stayed with our father and we saw little of one another.

"Actually, she had been thinking of coming, but she wasn't sure, if you wanted to see her." I saw in her eyes, that the detached relationship between her daughters wasn't something that she took lightly, but she had to accept it. Gwyneth had always been daddy's little girl while I had become a red rag for him after my infection. From the day the diagnosis came to us he had turned away from me, tried to spend as little time with me as possible. I suppose they both were afraid of being contaminated, even if that wasn't possible, at least when you knew what you were dealing with. They were apparently disgusted by me.

This misconception on my part had led to the divorce of my parents and a even greater divide between my sister and myself. Since then we only spoke with each other on Christmas and our birthday.

Then I could no longer hold the cough back and I immediately realized how the cough worked through my already sore throat with more sandpaper. I once again struggled to breath and with shaking hands my mother filled some water into a glass. But I didn't reach for the glass of water, I reached for a tissue, because I realized how a warm liquid started to come up with the cough and I knew exactly what that was.

My mother froze for a moment when she saw the red blood on the tissue and on my lips but after a moment of utter immobility she ran out of the room calling for a doctor. This was not the first time this had happened, but I hadn't told my mother. I didn't want her to worry more than she already did. The doctor had already told me, that there was no way getting around a tube in my throat when blood came up again, but I guess they didn't expect it to be this soon.

"We have to do the surgery right now, Miss Johnson", the doctor said when he entered the room with a few scampered nurses and some instruments.

"Isn't it too risky to anesthetize her right now?", my mother asked, her voice shaking with fear now. Of course it was risky, anesthesia was always risky, if you were ill or not. But I was willing to take the risk, considering that it was better to fall into eternal sleep than to suffocate because of my own blood pouring into my lungs. In fact, the thought of my miserable life ending wasn't that bad after all.

Then, all of a sudden the door to my room opened again and my sister stepped inside. Her eyes widened as soon as she realized what was going on. She looked at me dumbfounded and tears started to rise in her eyes while she slowly walked to my mother. Apparently it affected her to see me lying there, still caught in the new, bloody coughing fit, not being able to catch a breath. But I couldn't buy the feigned attachment she showed, or at least I didn't want to take it as real. I was sure she only feigned it for the various nurses and doctors trying to save my life.

"We can talk later.", I said disinterested to her while I continued coughing. Just as the white fluid started to run straight through the small tube linked to my veins I saw the bunch of Gerberas in her hands, my favorite flowers. Then everything started to blur and went into deep blackness.

"Look over there!" A muffled sound came to my ears . I could only guess that the tube was placed, the surgery over and anesthesia was slowly losing its effect. But I did not feel woozy. The normal feeling after a general anesthetic was missing.

I slowly I opened my eyes, but I closed them again immediately. I could not believe what I saw. My eyes had to play a trick on me. I opened my eyes again and was expecting to see the well known walls of the ICU, but like the first time I just saw something green before my eyes. By my somewhat blurred view I could not see what was the green in front of me . What surprised me the most was the smell that reached my nose. It was a mixture of earth and wood, which didn't quite fit in with the place where I thought I was.

"What business has a lady like yourself in the wilderness? " The voice was unfamiliar to me, but I could make out that it belonged to an older man who seemed to stand behind me.

"In the wilderness?" I turned around slowly and now saw that the man was actually old and knelt behind me. Then my eyes focused on the environment. There were trees everywhere.

"Who are you and why have you brought me out of the ICU?" I asked pretty worried. Didn't he know how dangerous it was for me out here? It was then, that I noticed that the man was not wearing a white coat, which pointed out that he surely wasn't a doctor. Slight panic rose in me. Had I been kidnapped? What did someone like him want to do with me?

"I do not know what you mean by an "Iseeyou", but be sure, I have not brought you here , I just found you lying here sleeping." He said. Which didn't make things better for me. I didn't have the slightest idea where I was and who this guy was. But the idea that he didn't know what an ICU was, let alone how to pronounce it, made me nervous.

He was probably one of the hillbillies living in some parts of the country. One of those people who still rejected all forms of modernity, because that also was what the long garment that he was wearing looked like. It was worn out at some places and looked as if he had been wearing it for quite a long time.

"Deorhain!" I heard another voice, and the old man turned in the direction from which the call had come. Was that his name? Deorhain? I already found my name very exceptional, but Deorhain? What mother called his child Deorhain? If I wouldn't have been in such a situation, I would have certainly started to laugh at the name, but I still didn't know where I was and how I got there.

"I'll be right there, my young friend." he called back and looked at me.

"You cannot stay here, child. Not in these perilous times.", he said with an urgency in his voice that made me realize that he was convinced of what he said. I normally was an expert on knowing people, and this man didn't seem to be a threat.

He reached down to me and I took his hand to get up. I already expected to sway a little bit but my legs seemed to be strong. That was the first time I was looking down at me. The first thing I saw was that my clothes seemed to consist of three parts. A black, tight leather pants, a black Leather corset and a long dress-like, olive green cape that was corded up on the front. My feet were covered in black leather overknees.

The old man motioned for me to follow him. We trudged a few meters through rough terrain right through brambles, but their spines didn't affect the thick leather that was covering my skin.

"Where are you taking me?", I asked when I realized that, against my hopes, we weren't going to a street where I could catch a cap or be picked up by an ambulance. Then I realized that I didn't cough anymore and there was no irritation in my throat, so I assumed at least the surgery was successful.

"I'll take you to the others . Maybe they know something about you.", he said, and went his way without further explanation.

"Ah, there you are Deorhain! ", I recognized the other mans' voice. Shortly after that I was able to see him. He was tall and his short, dark brown hair played with his rather rectangular face. A slight hint of a beard emerged from his chin all the way up to his hairline , but he seemed to trim it on a regular basis.

"Who's that company of yours old man? " He asked, looking at me questioningly. The old man grinned mischievously. "What did he tell you? He was a magician and just looked old? Or something else? " Now I saw back and forth between the two men. What was going on here?

"Watch your tongue or you will lose it in old age.", said Deorhain and the young man laughed. "I found her lying on the forest floor, unconscious." The boy eyed him skeptically, then looked at me and I nodded.

"How did you get there?"

Very funny, ha, ha. How should I know? After all I was the one, who was placed under anesthesia and woke up here. "If I knew, I knew who I would have to sue for incompetence!" I snapped at him sharply.

"In-what?" I breathed in and out deeply. That couldn't be real. Where did I end up? "Incompetence! The inability of people to do something properly! Such as to bring someone under anesthesia back into the recovery room and not take them into a forest and leave them there!" I realized how anger boiled up inside of me, the frustration of the last years reaching the surface of my mind.

"And besides, one of you two freaks undressed me! Do you know how dangerous it actually is? Isn't it enough that I suffer from pneumonia, no you want to kill me ... oh wait a moment, I'm dead already... " I stopped frozen. Was it just that? Was I dead or propably in a coma? Was this all a dream? I pinched myself once an it hurt so much, that I was sure that I wasn't dreaming, and this definitely didn't look like paradise.

The men were still staring at me with open mouths, apparently they understood nothing of what I said. I had approached them with rudeness that they certainly didn't deserve, they had nothing to so with my situation. On the contrary, Deorhain even helped me, without him I certainly would have been lost in this forest.

"I'm sorry, my name is Fearwynn.", I said and looked at them a little embarrassed , but the two men smiled at me.

"As you've heard I'm Deorhain , Thorhelm's son, and this young fellow here is Erebor, Retren's son. "