Dear Readers!

I hope you enjoy this story!

Disclaimer: I own nothing related to LOTR.

As she lay on her back Andrea watched as a small green leaf gracefully fell from the tree above her head. The leaf swivelled and turned as the breeze toyed with it in the air; prolonging its fate to meet the ground. The pace was slow, but the outcome was certain... or so it would have seemed, because just as the leaf's journey appeared to have come to an end, on a pile of mounted earth where it would rot away, the wind took pity and with a final puff blew the little leaf into the lake. Ripples formed around the leaf and Andrea looked longingly at the green boat, now slowly drifting down the stream, delaying its fate and extended its voyage.

How Andrea wished she had a wind that could just blew her into a different direction and grant her the wonders of exploring a new world. How she longed to be free from this prison she called home. She sometimes thought about running away, but Andrea knew she would never last a day in the harsh life of the city. She had no money, no other family and no experience. She knew next to nothing about modern aged technology, like computers and cell phones. Her uncle, Mr. Galloway, had most of the latest technology money could buy; she and the other girls just did not have access to it. Only direct family was granted this privilege, namely him and his two sons – Max and Julian.

Max Galloway was about four years older than Andrea and was the most likeable among the three. He was even-tempered and sometimes took pity on the girls, but never came into direct disobedience or conflict with his father. He was submissive to his younger brother and also frequently came unto his uncle's scorn for not stepping up to be a real man. Some labelled him as weak and cowardly, but to Andrea, she would gladly take his lily-livered nature than his brother's brutality.

Julian on the other hand was beyond doubt his father's heir. Not by birthright, for he was not the first born, but by his thirst for power and violence. He deliberately stirred up trouble and like a vile, sneaky little snake would shift blame onto an unsuspecting victim. To Andrea's dismay, her back was permanently painted red with his target.

The older women in the house said Max was raised with better values due to his mother's influence, though Andrea was not convinced that four years could have had that much difference.

Mrs Galloway, her mother's sister, died at giving birth to Julian – many branded this as his first act of violence. By draining the life out of his mother, Julian's appetite for brutality manifested and started to bloomed, but that was just the private, harsh thoughts of the bitter, bruised women.

Andrea Rose was born in the same year as Julian, but like a curse on the Rose family her mother died in a car accident when she was seven years old. She never knew her father and her only know family was the Galloways.

Life in her uncle's house was bearable in the beginning. He only seemed to punish her when she was in his way and fortunately for her there were several hiding places when she was still a child. Though as the years went by and the hiding places became fewer, Andrea was face to face with her uncle more often than she would have liked. Unsatisfied with the smallest of her behaviours, Mr Galloway would proceed with unfair and merciless punishment and when he noticed that beating and chores were no longer effective, he would chastise the other woman on her behalf. Andrea dreaded this kind of retribution the most and took meticulous care in doing everything as thorough and neatly as she possible could.

The older women in the house took care of Andrea and to her she had many new mothers. They would sometime take some of her chores to ease the workload and grant her a few hours of rest and freedom.

The little hours she had off on Wednesdays and Saturdays became like a crutch for her sanity and her salvation she found at the waterfall in the woods near her uncle's estate.

Andrea glanced down at the simple, plain watch she had on her arm. All the women had one – it was like a constant reminder of their precious time that belonged to her greedy uncle.

16:25

Andrea frowned at the little offending digest. She had about an hour before she was missing back at the house. Considering that it took half an hour's running distance from the waterfall to the estate – she was only limited to a few more minutes of freedom.

With the knowledge of knowing that nobody else knew of the sacred waterfall; Andrea quickly stripped her from her clothing and dove into the deep cool waters of the pool. The liquid blanked engulfed and welcomed her from the sweltering heat outside and if it was possible to sigh under water, Andrea would have.

Andrea absolutely adored swimming. When she was a child – she could remember her mother tell her stories about mermaids and mermen. They were different from the stories other mothers would tell their children. These merpeople did not live in the sea nor had they the tail of a fish – the stories her mother told was about beautiful creatures that looked like humans with pointed ears and lived in the lakes and pools deep within the forests. They sung beautiful songs and enjoyed conversing with people, but should you become too fond of them and follow them down the abyss of their world – you were sure to never come back. She also said not to convince one of them to leave their waters, for when they do, they can never go back. The merpeople mourn the loss of their home too greatly and start to fade.

As a child Andrea always wanted to see one of the merpeople and began swimming at a very young age. As she grew older and became able to distinguish between reality and fiction the thought of merpeople began to die away, but her love for swimming never ceased and she considered it to be her escape from a harsh life.

After her lungs held no more breath, Andrea turned towards the surface of the water. Her feet moved in rhythmic form to paddle her way to the top, but just before she reached the surface a silver glint caught her eye. Turning her head fully into the direction, Andrea noticed it coming from below the edge of where the waterfall above was roaring.

She wanted to investigate the flash, but desperately needed air first. Breaking the surface, Andrea swam to the side where the waterfall was and taking a deep breath she plunged back into the water. She skilfully made her way down to the bottom of the pool. She searched the corner where she thought she saw the flashing object, but could not locate anything that might have caused it. The sun's rays did not reach all the way to the bottom, which made seeing the bottom quite difficult. Bracing her one hand against the rocky surface of the mountain, Andrea searched with her other free hand for the something unusual. She was almost out of breath when she felt something strange. Her whole body was unexpectedly surrounded by icy water, like there was a ghost lurking below in the depts. Andrea also noticed that her hand was no longer pressed to the stone face, but drifted aimlessly in an empty void next to her.

A cave?

After 10 years of swimming in this pool, Andrea has never encountered this underwater cave. With a quick retake of breath, she swam to the mouth of the fissure and peered inside expecting it to be pitch- black. To her surprise the cave seemed to have a odd bluish glow. It appeared that the surface was embedded with faint gossamer cracks of light. How this was possible, Andrea did not know, but what was even more fascinating than the strange sparkling groves, were the beams of the sun breaking through the surface on the other side.

Spurred on by fascination and lack of better judgment, Andrea propelled her trough the cave to reach the other side.

As she broke the surface on the other end of the tunnel, Andrea noticed that she was in a small cave room just behind a thin waterfall. She hoisted herself up on the edge of the smooth stone floor and sat down with her feet still dangling in the water. She was short of breath, not only from the lack of oxygen from her swim, but by the sheer beauty of the cave walls. The walls were adorned by the sparkling tears and with the rays of the sun they gave the impression to shine more fiercely.

Andrea has never seen anything quite as beautiful as the picture before her. Hundreds of delicate lines raced down the stone walls and disappeared beneath the water y surface. The shimmering walls casted a light over her naked body and made it look like her skin was glowing. She lifted her one hand to examine the strange sight more closely.

At one end of the wall, just on the edge of where the waterfall started, Andrea noticed faint lights that looked like letters. Cautiously crossing the wet surface, she made her way towards the inscription.

Traveller from a world beyond

We welcome you to our home

We grant you access to our pond

But on our land you may not roam.

As you swim and explore our waters

Our light will protect your way

Just remember behind the waterfall's quarters

Is the only grounds on which you may stay

Should your feet touch our earth

Your gate will close evermore

You will not return to your place of birth

And will be forever forgotten lore.

Andrea read the message twice. Who would write something like this on a wall out here and what did it mean? She looked for further clues, but was only met with strange cursive writing in another unknown language.

A strange feeling came to settle in the pit of Andrea's stomach, but could not quite determine the meaning. She once more glanced around the cave and then looked back at the white waterfall.

What was behind that curtain of water?

She cautiously lowered herself back into the water, this time not so startled by the cold and floated to the line of raging water. She took a deep breath and dove to swim underneath the waterfall. When the surface atop was smooth with no bubbles, Andrea knew she was a safe distance from the waterfall.

As she broke the surface of the water, Andrea opened her eyes to a world vastly different from her own. With her mouth agape she stared at the extraordinary forest that surrounded the little pool she drifted in.

There was a clearing of green grass that hugged the edges of the water. Its soft strands glistened with diamonds from the spray of the waterfall. Nestled in the green patch were tiny golden flowers – not yellow, but gold. The stood proudly in the adorning pale sunlight.

Around the glade immense trees loomed up into the air; their height not measurable from where Andrea was floating. Vines of silver entwined with the grey trunks decorated the trees and the colossal, dark green leaves created a thick canopy above.

A bird was whistling an intricate tune the fluctuated with mesmerising notes. Its song echoed in the clearing, giving it a mystical sound. A small stream leads away from the pool into the thicket of the forest and away from Andrea's sight.

Andrea turned to look behind her and was met by the white waters of the fall. Its origin started from high above, plummeting its way down. The pool lies at the foot of an impressive mountain – though Andrea could only see the place where the water came from. The parts of the mountain visible were covered with strange plants and shrubs. Unlike anything Andrea has ever seen. Some even looked edible and tempting.

"What is this place?" she breathed out load and wiped away a trickle of water that threatened to enter her eyes. The moment her hand came close to her face, Andrea noticed that her skin still glowed like it did within the cave.

It looks very pretty, but I do hope this goes away before uncle sees me!

Uncle!

Oh shit! What time is it?

Andrea's watch was not waterproof and she left it along with her clothes on the bank. Without thinking she dove back to into her world – this splendours world would have to wait until further investigation. She hand more pressing matters on her hand. With luck she can slip within the estate without her uncle or cousins noticing.

As the wind lazily ruffled the leaves of the tree, the rustling motion snapped a dumbfounded elf back to his wits. Once huddled up on a comfortable branch, his balance affected by the sight he saw in the pool, he slowly descended from where he was previously perched.

With slow and calculated steps he moved closer to the water's edge. His keen eyes searched the surface and the visible depths, but could not locate anything unusual.

There was a glow. He was sure of it. And a woman! But how?

He waited for the vision woman to appear again, but after standing like a statue, motionless and hardly breathing for twenty minutes, he concluded that he might have had too much mirrivore to drink.

Picking up his bow that rested at the base of the tree, he strapped his quiver to his back and silently disappeared through the green undergrowth.

I know this chapter is probably quite short compared to most of the other fanfics out there, but I feel that most of my chapters would be about this length. I hope this is not a problem.

Please excuse grammar en spelling mistakes. I do not have a Beta yet. If you are interested, please let me know. I would love if someone could proofread my work first.

If you like the story, please be so kind and drop a review – it would be greatly appreciated.