Many know the story of my father and how he became king; and of course the part he played in the War of the Ring. They know he is a great swordsman and leader, they know he is married to Arwen and has five children. But they don't know him, not like I do. Of course these thoughts were the farthest from my mind as I struggled to keep up a defense while also being able to land a blow using my twin swords. My father certainly hasn't slowed down a bit, he was still as ruthless at swordplay as ever. But then again he is highly motivated; he wants to make sure I know how to defend myself in high stress situations, there was absolutely no coddling when it came to my training. I can't even begin to count how many bruises and cuts I had received over the years.
Hah, there! Quickly I pressed my advantage and drove him back raining continues blows. This is not to say he didn't fight back, he did and hard but I was determined to beat him this time. And I have often been told often that my stubbornness is my greatest strength and my biggest downfall; depending on who you asked. My brother had also told me once that to beat dad you needed three things: uncommonly good skill with a blade, an iron will, and quite a bit of luck. I usually had two of the three but today was different. His foot slid a little on a rock which caused a very brief distraction, it was now or never. I went for it, managing to catch his sword against mine and trap it against his body while my other sword tip hovered at his throat for a few seconds before I let it fall.
He grinned and hugged me, sweaty clothes and all. "Addie, well done! Though you still need to work on your patience, you tend to jump right in and rely on your speed to compensate."
I rolled my eyes after he released me from the hug. "I know dad, I'm working on it. I'm much better at waiting for the right moment than when I first started you have to admit." I sheathed my swords and then wiped a few pieces of dark brown hair that had managed to escape my braid away from my face. I couldn't keep the grin off my face as I replayed every moment of the fight, especially the end. I couldn't wait to crow about it to my brother. But first I wanted a bath, and new clothes, oh and food, food sounded good. Bath first, then food. With a cheerful "Bye dad, see you at dinner." I headed off to my rooms to do just that.
I was humming quietly to myself and the hallway I was in was causing the sound to echo. I was so lost in my thoughts that I didn't notice that my surroundings had changed until the sound abruptly stopped bouncing off the stone walls. I paused in confusion. Colors started to blur together and I got the sense that I was traveling but I myself was standing still. Kind of like when I was at the beach and stood in the waves and was pushed sideways. My hands inched up towards the hilts of my swords strapped to my back. What was going on?
The scene came into focus again. I was not in Minas Tirith that was for sure. For one, I was standing on wood not stone and seemed to be in a forest. I drew my swords while I walked to the edge of the platform that I appeared to be on. I peered over the edge and only one place came to mind, Lothlórien, former home of my great-grandmother and great-grandfather. My grip relaxed slightly on my swords but not completely, you never know. I took a couple of steps back from the edge still trying to process how exactly I had traveled from Minas Tirith to Lothlórien of all places.
"Welcome child, I have been expecting you."
I spun around in surprise with my swords raised in a defensive position, recognizing the language as Sindarian to stare into the face of a female elf with blonde hair and pale blue eyes dressed all in white. Galadriel?
"There is no need for that Addie, you are safe here." She slowly walked towards me as I sheathed my swords.
"And yes, I am Galadriel."
How did she… oh right mind reader.
"How are you here? You sailed to Valinor before my birth? And how… why… am I here?"
"You have traveled back to the time of the fellowship; even now they journey from the Mines of Moria, they should be here by tomorrow." She seemed to be examining me and I fought the urge to squirm. I felt very underdressed in my practice clothes, a dark brown tunic over trousers and boots. And of course there was my hair in all its sweaty glory. One of her hands closed the gap between us as she gripped my chin forcing me to lift it up a few inches to meet her gaze with my own. My green eyes met hers stare for stare. I was slightly in awe. I had heard so many stories from my mother and father about her. My mother had spent many years here after all and it had been here that my parents became betrothed.
She dropped her hand from my chin and a slow smile appeared on her face.
"You didn't exactly answer my earlier question, why am I here?"
"You have a part to play in all of this, learning from childhood the events that are about to take place is certainly a part of it but not all." I raised an eyebrow in response, still not very specific. Her smile seemed to grow as she continued on. "Addie, you were sent for many reasons, one of them to bring the Fellowship hope, especially to your father. One of his driving reasons to become King of Gondor is Arwen. Once he learns of you it will motivate him more to end the war that is coming."
"So you're going to tell him that his daughter was sent from the future to what, give him hope? That doesn't exactly sound like a good enough reason to me."
"As well as provide knowledge of coming events. It will give them comfort to know of Sam and Frodo when they go their separate ways. But be careful, you can change little things, but if you prevent the death of Boromir it will throw things out of balance and stop things from happening as they should." I shifted in place while I thought this over. It would be extremely hard to know what was going to happen and to not blurt it out or prevent deaths. And then something else occurred to me.
"But doesn't me being here, won't that change things? In all the stories I have been told there was no mention of a woman traveling with the Fellowship."
"Anyone that was not in the fellowship will not remember your presence here and they have been very careful to not let anything slip when they told you those stories."
I frowned a little. It was a true there were many times when I knew for certain that I wasn't being told the full story. I had written it off as my father not wanting to tell me all the details of gore and violence that he had seen but it made sense in a way. All that times that he would look at me thoughtfully and especially recently, ever since my nineteenth birthday, on the verge of saying something but he stopped himself every time.
. "It is getting late and you will need your sleep, and a bath, and weren't you thinking of food earlier? I will tell Aragorn of your presence here and who you are when he arrives tomorrow."
A bath sounded absolutely wonderful as did food but I mentioned that earlier didn't I? "Are you going to tell the rest who I really am or make something up?"
"I will not tell them, not yet. I will come up with a reason for your presence here and your subsequent traveling with them. You must tell them who you are when the Fellowship breaks but not until then. It would have disastrous consequences if you tell them too soon. Boromir is a good man at heart but the darkness of the ring has been corrupting him. If he learned who you truly are he would demand answers about the future from you and would not stop. He would try to kill you and would wound you. His death then would be at the hand of your father and not at orcs. He would not regain his honor and his death would be devastating for the moral of the fellowship and would weigh heavily on Aragorn's conscience. This is why you must not tell until the right moment."
"I understand." My answer was subdued.
She turned and I followed after her as she led me to where I was to bathe and sleep. She left me there and I remained standing trying to wrap my head around what had just happened. I walked over to the bath that she had shown me and began to strip and got in. Bliss, utter bliss. I undid my braid and shook out my hair before I dunked my head under the water. Some time later I got out and found a towel and a dress laid out for me. I dried off and slipped into the sapphire blue dress. I sat down on the nearby bed with a thump while trying to figure out where I could find a comb and how I could get some food.
Galadriel entered again carrying a tray of food that she set down on a nearby table. I perked up and sat down on a chair. One thought was buzzing around my head, why was she bringing me food and not a servant?
"I want to get to know you better Ancalimë." I winced at the use of my given name.
"Well you can start by continuing to call me Addie, everybody does except on very formal occasions.Ancalimë is a bit of a mouthful." She nodded thoughtfully.
"I am curious how you got Addie from Ancalimë."
"Family legend has it that my sister couldn't pronounce Ancalimë and what came out sounded like 'Addie' it caught on and most everybody calls me by it now. I'm used to it." I eyed the food for a moment before I dug in. a training session with dad usually had me devouring platefuls of food. I also tended to guzzle a lot of water afterwards. After I had finished I turned to see Galadriel watching me quietly. She produced a comb from somewhere and I reached out to take it from her. She drew her hand back for a moment.
"Let me, it has been many years since I have been able to comb my daughter's hair."
I shrugged and turned around to give her better access to my hair and folded my hands in my lap. It was soothing, having her do this. I was almost lulled to sleep by the gentle tugging on my hair. Almost but not quite. She finished and handed me the wooden comb.
"It is yours to keep. I expect that you will want it on your travels." I thanked her and she left which was a good thing because by this point I was so tired I was barely able to think. Apparently going back in time tends to do that to a person, who would've thought?
I crawled into bed and tried to figure out how I was going to address my father. Aragorn? That didn't sound right. As did calling him Estel or Elessar. I had to figure it out pretty soon though. I lay there twisting my hands together as I thought more of what traveling with the Fellowship meant. Constant battle, not many chances to bathe, and Rohan. I was not looking forward to the three days of running that were going to happen then. I considered myself to be in good shape but three days straight of running. I shuddered at the thought. I put it out of my mind for now and tried to focus on other things. It didn't work. Three days of running continued to go through my head…
A/N Addie's story just popped into my head one day and wouldn't leave. I searched for her name but found out that Tolkien didn't give her a name or specify how many sisters she had. And thus began the hunt for a proper sounding name. I ended up giving her the name of the first Queen of the Númenóreans. I am not even going to try to translate elivish, I know I would mangle the grammar terribly so any elvish spoken is going to be in italics but you probably already figured that out didn't you. Please review and tell me what you think! And now I am going to end my super long rambly author's note.