I was standing in the battlements of Helm's Deep. The battle had already begun. My two companions were fighting the infantry. I still had my bow out shooting as many as I could.
"Legolas, there," Aragorn shouted above the chaos. I looked to see a loosely armored Uruk Hai holding a flaming torch sprinting to the wall. He was cheered on vigorously by his comrades.
I fired an arrow into his heart. He was still running. Another arrow. Sprinting faster. Yet another. Too late.
There was a gigantic explosion as rocks and bodies were thrown upwards. I was thrown as well. Upward and backwards. I tried to brace for impact, but to no effect. I fell hard on my back, my head flew backwards with whiplash and hit the smooth floor hard. I gasped for breath as darkness began to close in at the corners of my eyes. It was no use, I blacked out.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
"Wow, look at him," a faint voice whispered.
"Isn't he gorgeous?" squealed a girl.
"Where is he?" called another girl.
"Shh! You'll wake him," hushed a few.
"He seems so majestic," sighed someone very close.
"And the ears, did you see the ears?" pointed out a girl.
"Ohmygod it's Legolas!" gasped yet another girl.
"Who?" asked a couple.
"Legolas Greenleaf! Legolas of the Woodland Realm! Legolas Prince of Mirkwood! Legolas son of Thranduil! This is ringing bells, I hope," whispered an anxious girl.
My eyes remained closed, my mind was still clouded from the fall. . . That's right. I was at Helm's Deep. There aren't any women in the battle, unless I was truly thrown into the caves. But that can't be. Then where am I now? I let my eyes flutter open and hear the gasps of a group, a pack, a throng of giggling girls. They were all crowded around him, some kneeling to get a better look. "He's woken up! Now you've done it," one of the girls elbowed the girl next to her. The news traveled through the throng like a ripple through water.
"He's awake!"
"What color are his eyes?"
"Come on, I can't see!"
"Relax, you'll get your turn."
They were huddled so closely together, I could hardly think they could breath. A small girl pushed herself forward. What were they saying?
"Hîr nín! How did you get here," she asked, shocked. "But where are my manners, elen síla lumen' omentielvo." Finally, my native tongue. I sat up tentatively, wincing with a slight pain from my back.
"No, hîr nín, stay still! You are hurt," the girl who spoke Sindarin said, to many more gasps.
"He's hurt? How awful!"
"I don't see what the big deal is, he's ugly," said one girl with curly brown hair. I still couldn't understand their foreign tongue.
"Shut up, Pluts. You don't know what you're talking about," shunned yet another nameless face. What now?
I say this because they all looked much the same. The same odd clothing, short skirts only down to their knees or higher in some cases. Some odd garment covering the top, and every one of them female.
They moved closer to me, but were pushed away by that one girl who spoke my tongue. As they continued to push forward, she continued to push back.
In exasperation, she muttered "Amin n'rangwa edanea."
More of my own tongue. She seemed to be fairly well versed in phrases. To hear my own tongue was a comfort in the strange place with stranger people. Not a single Elf to speak of, but since we left Lothlórien I had become used to that much. They seemed like Men, no Dwarves. But how had I gotten to this strange environment? There was a hard floor beneath me, and nothing but a wall of giggling girls around me.
Suddenly, a terrible noise rent the air around me. It was worse than a thousand orc battle horns, and louder even than that. It was shrill, high-pitched, unnatural. I clapped my hands about my ears in a vain attempt to block out the sound. It was over soon, but it seemed to last an eternity.
It had an immediate effect on the girls. It seemed to mean something because they started leaving, bustling this way and that. I heard the odd mutterings of displeasure as the bodies dispersed. The one girl stayed near me, trying to keep a stationary position in the hustle and bustle that was worse than the armory while the peasants were being armed.
After the chaos subsided, I was finally able to properly assess my surroundings. I was lying on some sort of soft rug made of a scratchy fabric like wool. Some metal cabinets lined one wall with the other mostly bare but made of some material I had yet to discover in my travels. There were several doors on either side of the hallway.
"Shoot, I have history now," she muttered. "I'm sure Miss Smith will understand. I have to attend to an elven prince, I hope she'll forgive me." She clutched some thick books close to her chest along with a large thick thing that contained many papers. I hoped she would speak more of my own tongue soon so that I could understand.
"Excuse me," I said, finally speaking.
"Oh, sorry, just talking to myself," she quickly apologized, or so it seemed. "Also, sorry if I gave you the impression that I was fluent in the elven tongue. I'm getting there, but we'll have to talk in English," she said, kneeling.
I had a thousand questions in my head, but the most urgent one in my mind was to name this remaining unknown girl.
"You seem to know me," I began, "yet I don't know you."
"Oh, yes. My name is," she paused here to think, "Elenelda."
"Elenelda? You are learning Sindarin, has an elven name, possesses some form of elven beauty," here she interrupted.
"Sir, you are too kind," she said, blushing.
"You must be an Elf under some sort of spell to make you appear so human," I said, finally voicing my suspicions.
"I wish," she answered, laughing slightly. "How I dearly wish that were true and I truly were one of the Eldar."
"Elenelda, where am I?" I asked.
"That will take some explaining, but to start you are in Montrose School, it is approximately 12:30 in the afternoon on Monday, January 24th of 2005, and you are sitting in the middle of the upstairs hallway," Elenelda informed me.
"2005? What Age is this? I left the Third Age, so when is this," I asked, confused.
"It is the Fifth or Sixth Age, my lord."
"How can you not know which Age it is?"
"We stopped counting Ages and started counting years a long time ago. I would think it the Fourth Age of Men, but so much time has passed since then it might very well be the Sixth Age."
"I see," I said dejectedly, sitting back on my elbows.
"Where did you come from, my lord," she asked, sitting cross-legged like a child near me. She looked like a small girl waiting eagerly for a bed-time story.
"Helm,s Deep. We were in the midst of battle when the wall was breeched by some explosion. I went flying with the rubble and woke up here."
"Saruman," she spat bitterly.
"You know of him," I inquired, surprised. The times seemed had changed and Ages had gone past, yet she seemed to know much of Middle-earth.
"I know much of him and you and all that has happened and will happen in Middle-earth. It is fascinating," she said, her eyes sparkling.
"I should like to know what will become of my comrades and I," I said eagerly.
"I shall tell you in time, but can you try to walk? We can't have you lying here all day. Let me help you up, and we'll see if my dad can pick us up," she said quickly, offering me her hand.
I took it, and with some difficulty managed to stand. She put my arm around her shoulders, then reluctantly moved it to rest on one. She seemed aware of her smallness yet not fully accepting it. I used her support to help walk and she led me to a staircase. While we were still in the hall, however, a booming voice made us stop.
"Lona! What are you doing in the halls? Get to class -- who's that with you?" shouted a woman in stranger garments than the girls. She wore male leggings and some odd top.
"Miss Mariani, um, I don't know how to explain this, but, er, here it goes." Here she spoke very quickly, "Saruman transported Legolas here with his magic and Legolas was helping his friends at Helm's Deep until the wall crashed and he woke up in the middle of the hallway and I'm trying to get him at least to my house so we can think of what to do."
"That was one very long grammatically incorrect sentence that I didn't understand. Where are you going," she asked.
"Home," she answered simply, turning back to the steps and leading me onward.
We got down the steps with some difficulty. She supported me as best she could. I understood she would have carried me if she had the strength. At the bottom, I noticed the floor had changed into an unusually smooth stone. Walking became easier and I was able to manage without her help. We reached an opening in the hallway that lead to two large wooden doors. Nearby there was a small bench.
"You can wait here," she said, indicating the bench near the doorways. I walked over there and sat down gingerly. Elenelda walked into another room, with a couple other new women inside. "Miss Carmona? I need to go home."
"What's wrong," the woman at the desk asked, sounding concerned.
"Um, I really don't feel well. Could you call my dad to come pick us, erm, me up please," Elenelda asked.
"Sure, honey." The woman picked up some black thing and pressed other round bits in a special order. "Hello, Mr. Castro? I have your daughter here and she's not feeling well. Could you come pick her up? Great, I'll just have her go get her things." She put the black thing down again.
"Don't worry, I've got everything I need."
"Alright then, you can wait in here or by the door, hope you feel better," the woman called as Elenelda went to sit by me.
"Hannon lle," I said. She had lied on my behalf, and for that I was grateful.
"No problem. You just sit back and try to relax," she said comfortingly. I did as I was bid, relaxing as well as possible on the uncomfortable bench. Soon, a man came in through the large wood doors.
"Elona, who's that," he asked somewhat out of breath.
"Um, Adar, you know Legolas," she said awkwardly indicating me.
"Sir, you have a very kind daughter," I said, shaking his hand. "Elen síla lumen' omentielvo."
"She says that all the time and I still don't get it," he muttered under his breath. "We'd best be off then, the two of you can explain a bit on the ride home."
The man led us out the doors, holding them open. I was suddenly glad I had been swept away from Helm's Deep because I was in full armor. I was met by a sudden gust of cold wind the moment we exited the building. Elenelda was shivering, so I held her close for warmth. We walked together toward some sort of a vehicle and entered. It was warm inside, and it had soft seats.
"Hîr nín, try to rest and I'll explain," she suggested. I gratefully obliged, leaning back and shutting my eyes from the new strange world. We began to move.