GHOSTS OF THE PAST

DISCLAIMER: I own no part of LOTR.

NOTE: This is a teaser chapter, just to get the story into the swing of things, which explains why it's so short.

"Lord Faramir!" "What is it?" he asked hurriedly slowing his horse to see what was being called to his attention. And he saw it quickly enough. Along the misty banks of the Anduin where the company of Ithilien had been riding was the pale form of a noblewoman in the icy water. He dismounted his horse quickly, two of his men were carrying her limp body from the water. "Is she alive?"

"Barely my lord. She's hardly breathing." Faramir nodded.

"She's a noblewoman, look at her garb, do any of you know her? For I do not." The men shook their heads.

"Perhaps she's a thief sir!" called another. "Maybe she stole the clothes."

"Check her hands" ordered Faramir. "If she did indeed steal them her hands would be hard."

"Nothing sir, soft and unblemished, her nails aren't broken." Faramir sighed and went to inspect the girl himself. He looked over her, her ashen- blonde hair which clung wet to her face. His attention was drawn to the chain which fell around her neck, "This... This is elvish, It reads Estel which is Hope. He looked then at the finely crafted stitching upon her blue silk dress, and the stitching is of elvish fashion, yet this girl is not an elf." He pondered to himself for a while. "Anyhow, she must get to the houses of healing in Minas Tirith, take her there and alert the King to what we found. Three guards wrapped her body in their cloaks and propped the girl upon a horse and rode at fast pace towards Minas Tirith in the West.

"It cannot be!" said Aragorn exasperated, looking over the body of the girl in the houses of healing. "She looks like, my mother. And she has the heirlooms of her house, but surely it cannot be Gilraen." He paused and took the girl's hand, it was cold. He looked at her soft face and her light hair. "Gilraen" he said.

A hand reached for his shoulder, The Queen Arwen kneeled beside her husband and stroked the girl's face. "She bears an extraordinary likeness to her. How can it be?"

Aragorn Sighed. "I do not know." He then turned to the healers who stood in the doorway. "Where did she come from? Has she any family?"

The healer shook his head. "He found her on the bank of the Anduin, in Osgiliath. It was Lord Faramir who sent her here. She has been unconscious since yesterday. No one has ever seen her before, no one even knows her name. She is most certainly alone."

Aragorn frowned, as the healer began to speak once again. "Though there is something most particular, she wears the dress of a noblewoman." He took from upon a chair her garments which she was wearing when she was found, a long gown fashioned from dark blue silk and small fur slippers. "If she were alone, would she have such a garment?"

Arwen's eyes widened, "I do recall Gilraen wearing something similar, but that was years ago, this girl cannot be more than seventeen."

Aragorn was taken over by a feeling of unrest. "Than we must do what we can for her. I can't deny that she is not like Gilraen. I cannot let this girl go out into the world with no home." And with that he turned and left.

"Why has she come back to haunt me?" he asked Arwen later that night.

"Consider it a second chance, do you remember what she said all those years ago, Onen I-Estel Edain, Ăș-chebin estel anim, This may be her new hope, the hope which she gave to the DĂșnadain has now granted her a new grace." Arwen replied, and this made sense to Aragorn who thought long and hard through the night until early before the dawn had risen, message came to him that the unknown girl had awaken. Without waking Arwen he accompanied the messenger to the Houses of Healing.

"My lord!" cried the healer, "It's a miracle, the girl has woken, we did not think that she ever would."