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Elana was nearly in hysterics. She ran blindly through the undergrowth, hoping to see something that resembled her idea of her location. She could not see anything beyond a few trees ahead, the moon already high in the sky. Her feet carried her quickly, though not far when she came to a clearing. She looked around and once again tried to gather her bearings. Trees. That was all she could see.

They were just there, looming high over her head, intimidating, frightening, suffocating. There was a small glint of the moonlight through the branches, not hardly visible. It was growing late. She scanned as far ahead as she could. The trees only seemed to grow more dense farther ahead. The clearing she was in now was the first opening she had seen. The undergrowth here was a little more sparse. Taking the opportunity she had to have a break from confinement, she half sat, half collapsed on the ground, out of breath, reflecting what has happened to this point.

She had went out walking on her own during the day. She wasn't aloud to go trekking through the woods alone, and now she knew why. She believed she had enough experience to keep her bearings, but she proved herself wrong to find herself very, very, lost. She drew her knees to her chest and let out a shuddering sigh, tears staining her small face from crying for such a long time. She should have just obeyed her mom. She knew it was a bad idea, though she still thought she would be just fine on her own. She wasn't nine anymore, having just turned ten years old, for crying out loud, and she was in a whining, crumpled heap on the forest floor.

She tried to remember what had happened to initially make her lost. She had went into the small wood near her home, and without her mom's consent or knowledge, was alone. It was a beautiful day, with few clouds and a cool breeze. She had followed the trail she always had with her dad or grandpa before. She was merely walking when a rabbit darted by, heading away from the trail when she stepped on a leaf, alerting it of her presence. As she watched it hop away, she grew curious. She had never gone in that direction before, so she thought there could only be more to discover. She wouldn't go far..

She went the direction the rabbit had, the tall grass tickling up passed her knees. The trees grew a little more dense the farther she went, though not by much. Enjoying the feeling of discovery, she heard a small stream flowing nearby. When she got closer to the sound, she saw it flowing steadily along, fairly shallow. They hadn't received much rain lately. Excitedly, she walked to it and kneeled down, minding the mud. She dipped her hands in it, enjoying the coolness of it. When she pulled her hands out, she shook them dry and pulled out her phone to see what time it was. It was hardly a phone, just a small flip phone with no cell service, but it took pictures and told the time well enough. She had begged her mom to let her use it after she got a new one herself. She gave it to her as an early birthday present. The screen lit up and read, 4:33.

Good she thought. Her mom didn't get back until 5:30, and decided she still had enough time to enjoy herself more. she sat down completely by the water to take a picture of it/ feeling satisfied with the one she got, she decided to rest a little, and leaned back against a tree. She hadn't noticed that she began to drift off to sleep. When she had opened her eyes, it had grown darker, almost dusk, and in a panicked frenzy, stood and began to walk quickly in the direction she came. That was when she noticed that nothing seemed to look familiar at all. Did the trees not have more leaves before? She broke out into a run, though a stubborn root seemed to stick up intentionally for her out of the ground, and her foot caught on it. She had walked farther until had grown too tired.

Elana came back to reality when she heard a low rumble of thunder a ways off.

Well that's just brilliant.

Her heart now pumping a lot harder than before, she tried to remember what her dad would always tell her. He would want her to keep calm, not panic.. Think logically. She took a deep breath and stood shakily to her feet. She loped around once again, and tried to discern one direction from another. The only issue was the sun wasn't out, it was the dead of night, and she had no idea what part of the sky the moon was in verses the direction. It was also extraneously quiet, until she heard another roll of thunder vibrate through the sky, sounding even closer.

oh no..

She looked around, trying to find something she could use as shelter. Frightened even more now, she took off in a random direction in search of a large tree, cave, rock, anything that would keep her dry. As she stumbled through the leaves, she tripped and slid countless times.

I don't remember there being so many leaves on the ground before..

The thought was thrown away when she spotted a small hill, which had rocks that seemed entrapped in the ground halfway, leaving some large crevices between them. She saw a larger overhang, which seemed to form a small cave-type shape. She rushed over, feeling the beginnings of a storm sprinkle on her nose and arms. Though it was easier said than done, because there were countless other rocks strewn about, which were very difficult to navigate through, especially with her sore foot. When she had finally reached the foot of the hill, she realized a problem. She would have to climb in order to reach the rock overhang. Suddenly there was a blinding flash of lightning, and soon after a crash of thunder bringing along what seemed like buckets of rain. She frantically started to climb the already-wet rocks, excessively glad she had worn her sneakers instead of flip flops or sandals. Carefully but quickly, Elana used bits of grass growing between the rocks as a grip to pull herself up. It really was not that steep, thought it was a lot more difficult than one might expect. With that thought, her foot had slipped, and she lost her hold on the grass and slid down a bit. Wincing when the rock had bit into any exposed skin, she was relieved to see that she didn't slip far. She tried not to cry as she attempted climbing again, this time reaching the overhang.

She pulled herself in, minding she sharp bits of rock, and went as far back as she could. It was not very deep, but it kept her from getting anymore wet than she already was.

It was cold. She hadn't really noticed it until now, but now she could feel the wind blowing rain at her, biting at her stinging scratches. She wrapped her light jacket around herself, providing little protection but some comfort. She looked down to see that she was absolutely filthy. Her jeans were smeared with mud, her shoes were hardly recognizable any longer, and the shirt she wore was soaked through and through, with dirt smeared on the front. She had worn her sister's shirt that day, and it took a lot to convince her to allow her to do so. Though now she ruined it, and one would not be able to see the design of her state on it. She tried to put away the guilt she would have to face when she returned home.

"Now what?" she asked herself.

Deciding to wait out the storm, there not being much she could do in the poring rain anyway, she huddled as best she could in protection from the cold, sharp wind, and couldn't help but let out a sob, the tears coming in streams now, breaking the wall she had tried to keep up. She had fallen asleep like that, crying and praying to God that she would be alright.

Elana woke up shivering. She moved her hand in search of her covers, trying to pull them up when she must have kicked them back in her sleep. Instead she knocked her hand on something hard, jolting her fully awake. As soon as she opened her eyes, everything came crashing down at her at once. The air was thick, and humid, reminiscent of the rain from before. Feeling extremely stiff which realizing she had stayed in the same position the entire time, she let out a gasp as she unbent her legs, never remembering a time she felt so sore. As she stretched a bit, she felt a little better, though her foot still hurt. When she had felt an uncomfortable stickiness on her face, she brought a hand to her check and hissed as she accidentally roughly rubbed one of the many scratches she earned from trying to climb. Removing her hand, she cautiously looked outside of her shelter to find it hardly dawn, the sun barely over the horizon.

Looking down, she felt a pang of annoyance as she realized that the rocks she struggled up were not nearly as high, or large as they had seemed in the dark. She then stiffly swung her legs over the edge and carefully crept down to the ground. When she put all her weight on her feet, her foot didn't hurt as much as before, but still was a little stiff. After bending it a bit a bit to loosen it up, she continued walking. Though she didn't get far when she heard a voice.

It was a cruel, scratchy, angry sound, and any other voice she would have grown joyous, but this one made her blood run cold. She saw a bush and darted for it as quickly as she could, all but jumping behind the scratchy leaves.

Whoever it was, was not speaking english. It sounded harsh, almost painful to listen to. Then she heard another voice respond.

So there's more than one of whoever it is.. With some loud rustling, the voices grew closer.

With her heart in her throat, she stepped back as quietly as she could, ready to make a run for it, no longer caring that she was lost. Though when she started to run, she wasn't looking where she was going and fell, letting out an 'oomf' when she hit the ground.

The voices stopped. With her limbs shaking uncontrollably, she stood once again and took off once more. Something whizzed passed her ear. She saw it plant itself into a tree near her, and she only half-processed that it was an arrow, poorly aimed for her. The voices grew louder, angrier, more commanding, which pushed her to run faster. Though it was not long until she felt a rough hand grab her by the neck of her shirt and hair, pulling her back. Elana let out a scream as it grabbed her arms, and lifted her in the air before tossing her like trash on the ground. She pushed herself up, urging herself to get up and run, but she couldn't bring herself to as she coughed and hacked, trying to get air to enter her lungs once again.

"Now what do we have here?" Barked the same gruesome voice, but no longer in the unfamiliar language. Elana looked up, and gasped (painfully) at the two large creatures standing before her. They were black, with disfigured skin and bodies, wearing harsh looking armor with very deadly, dark looking weapons in their evil looking hands.

These were not human. These things were not of any race she knew either, nor animal. But, there was something... Something familiar about them, though she couldn't place what it was.

"A she-elf." The other replied in a higher-pitched tone.

She-elf..? what was that? Where am I?

Elana laid there, still gasping for air when one approached her and pulled her roughly up again, and in one quick motion, pulled out a filthy blade and held it to her throat.

"Why do you not kill it? I haven't any meet to eat for days!" cried the other. Elana's blood ran cold. Eat? what kind of creatures were these things?

"No! please no!" She managed to strangle out a cry. She felt the blade get pushed closer. "You keep it shut, filth!" Elana closed her eyes and let out a whimper as his grip on her neck tightened painfully.

"If you don't kill it, I will!" Said the other as he pulled out a crude looking knife. Elana's breathing hitched further as it took as step closer.

"No! Not yet." growled the other. "Why do we not have a little fun with the she-elf first?" He finished, and then said something further in the broken language spoken before. Elana did not like the hungry glares they sent her, a shiver running down her spine. One of them said something and motioned to another direction, and the other one answered in english.

"The maggot-filth won't be here for a while yet!" he looked back at Elana and pulled her up in the air, leading her to let out a gasp as she could no longer touch the ground. She did not know what was in store for her, but she did not want to find out. The knife no longer on her throat, she attempted to pull his hands away and squirm out of his grip, though it was in vain. The blade was now pressed against her side, threatening the soft flesh. He was about to say something else, when the other creature yelled something in their own language once again, in a panicked and angry tone, gesturing toward something behind Elana.

Something whistled passed her ear, followed by a thud. Elana hit the ground. Hard. The beast lost its grip on her, though when he dropped her the blade grazed her side as she fell to the ground. As quickly as she could, she looked up only to see the creature which previously had her in its grasp, collapsed on the ground with an arrow sticking out of its neck.

She had almost lost any contents still left her stomach, but she managed to hold it at bay. She would have to keep it together. The other monster had pulled out its blade, looking ready to fight something, though what, Elana was not sure. She tried to sit up to push herself back to put as much space between her and the thing as possible, though she had to land in the most inconvenient and awkward way possible, her legs tangled under her. Finally gathering herself, she sat up and was about to stand, when a small rustling in the trees had grown more apparent, until breaking from the undergrowth was four more of the horrid creatures, running straight in her direction.

Elana was glued to the spot with both fear and shock, not able to move a bit. That is, until the sound of hooves came from behind her, thundering against the ground and breaking her out of her reverie. She pushed herself farther back as three large horses came from directly behind her, and in that moment she was more afraid of getting trampled to death than falling to one of the creature's blades. On top the horses were three men, followed by a fourth, all armed with blades or a bow. Elana scrambled further back, right into a bush, and pushed back until she could go no further. With the movement, her side let out a screaming pain, and Elana moved her hand to it with a hiss, feeling a warm wetness forming there, and she couldn't help but tremble.

She watched through the leaves as the horse-warriors battles the remaining creatures with such confidence, and skill. They finished the job quickly, for before she had realized it, it was all over. All the black beasts now lay slain, scattered amongst the grass.

One of the men slid off his horse with ease and gathered used arrows, speaking softly to the others in a strange language. Though this one was not at all unpleasant, but instead almost musical. He had long, impossibly blond hair, reaching his elbows, styled intricately and completely foreignly to her. The others had dark hair, almost black, around the same length. The last one had dark hair only to his shoulders, with a slight wave. He seemed more rugged than the other three, as if something was different about him that placed him apart from them.

Leaning forward to get a better view, Elana accidentally broke a twig, emitting the smallest of snaps. Though, it is enough to grab the men's attention. Their attention is instantly thrown at the direction the sound came from, which a couple even re-drew their blades. Elana's breath quickened and she sat as still as she could, mustering all the courage she could to not just break down. The blond man approached the bush that was currently her protection cautiously, hand hovering close to his sword. Though when he pushes through the leaves, he finds something he did not expect, as he observes a small child, a girl, filthily head to toe, huddling close to the rock behind the brush, tears staining her face, staring up at him with doe-like eyes beholding great fear.

Very cautiously, he kneeled to the ground and said in English, "What is a child such as yourself doing here?" His voice was strong, powerful, but also soft, and comforting. But Elana was still very wary of this stranger with strange clothes and weapons. She only sat there and stared at him, afraid that should she move, he would turn on her. Though he stayed where he was, about three feet away, waiting patiently for a reply. Knowing she would have to give one, Elana shook her head as some sort of response, knowing her voice would fail her.

"Come." He said, holding out a hand towards her. Instead of taking his hand, Elana's mind was whirling.

Where did these people come from? I have never seen them before.. Am I still in the same woods..?

The thought crashing down on her hard, she quickly crawled out and stood in one fast motion, looked at the men all standing around her, before she turned and fled in the opposite direction. At first they made no move to catch her. She had to still be in the same wood as before. It was not that big, but then again, nothing had looked familiar, and if she had kept walking she would have come up to a concrete trail at some point whichever side she would emerge from. There was only one explanation. She was not in the same place. Where she was she had absolutely no clue, which is why she was running as fast as she could, away from the strange men.

She heard them calling to her, but she didn't listen. She tried to convince herself that if she kept running she would eventually come across the trail that would take her home. But, something in her heart told her that was not true. She refused to believe it. Instead she stumbled on further, that is, until the pain in her side flared once again, along with exhaustion overtaking her. Not able to run one more step, she came to a painful halt, her breath coming in gasps. A hand flew up to her check, and she realized she had been crying again. Overwhelmed with everything that has taken place, she collapsed to her knees. She kept one hand firmly pressed on her wound as she let sobs wrack her small body. She should be better than this. She was old enough to figure this out!

She suddenly felt very tired and her head felt extremely heavy, let alone her eyelids. She tried to keep them open, but when she did her vision grew blurry, making her feel nauseous. Her breathing was still labored, feeling as if she just could not get enough air in her lungs. She was only half-aware of figures approaching her, saying something in that melodic language again.

That was how the group of three elves and one man had found her. She had not gotten far, and they debated whether or not to go after her until they heard her cries. She was in a crumpled heap, arms covering herself. Her clothes were covered in mud, and instantly they saw the growing dark spot on her side. Her soft skin was adorned with many scratches as well. She would occasionally let out a weak sob as they approached her, her eyes tightly closed. One spoke words of comfort as he attempted to confront her again.

Elana was barely conscious of the voices and figures. She felt a large hand rest on her shoulder, and another on her side with the wound. She let out a squeal at the touch on her side. A hand was brought to her face, raising her chin up. Very slowly, she opened her eyes to see. It was the same man who had tried to coax her out of her hiding spot before. Closer now, she could see the details to his face. He had dark brown eyes that seemed to hold concern. His lips seemed slightly pursed, and his entire face seemed more angular. His hair was brought to the sides in two small braids, the rest let loose. To her, he seemed to be glowing, though she thought it only seemed that way due to her current condition. That was when she noticed his ears. They were different. Instead of rounding off at the top, they came to a bit of a delicate point. She couldn't look away from them. He then brought a hand to push back hair that had fallen in her face, surprise etching his features.

He said something in the same language, and she only looked at him with confusion, not understanding. He looked at her with a troubled gaze, and then said something in English.

"From where do you come from, little elleth?" It seemed to be a repetition of what he had previously said, but Elana could not answer him. She could feel her entire body grow heavy, and she could hardly keep her eyes open. Finally, she gave into the bliss of sleep, falling limply into the arms of the man. The last thing she remembered was being gently lifted from the ground in sturdy hands.

Elana woke with a start. She jolted up, completely forgetting where she was. For a moment she thought she was back at home, perhaps in her bed. It took her a moment to figure out why she thought that, when she realized she was laying on something soft and had a cover of some sort. She looked around, and nearly jumped when she saw the same figure from before, sitting right next to her and looking at her with an odd expression.

"Peace, child, you are safe." Said the man, reaching a hand out to calm her. Elana looked up to see that not much time had passed. She looked down to see that her shirt was drawn up partially, exposing the cut on her side. It looked as though it had been cleaned a bit, and when Elana looked back to the man next to her, saw that he had a rag of some sort in his hand. She leaned back a bit, deciding to allow him to finish. He looked at her cautiously, before returning to his work.

When the cloth touched her side she couldn't hold back a hiss of pain, her face eyebrows drawling together and her teeth clenched. She had never really been hurt before, not like this. The man seemed to look at her apologetically, but he had to continue. With much effort, she was able to stand him to finish the job well enough to not let herself cry. She was tired of crying. She really didn't think she could anymore if she wanted to. The man dug in a bag of some sort, and pulled out a long strip of cloth. He motioned for her to straighten up, and then wrapped the material around her torso. When he finished, he pulled her shirt back down. He then wet another piece of cloth, and moved to clean the scratches on her face. As he did so, he spoke.

"Where do you come from? Why are you out here alone?" His voice was not rude, though it seemed inquiring. Elana didn't respond to either of his questions, not really having an answer to them. Instead she had one herself that she had been burning to ask.

"Where am I, and who are you?" Her voice was hoarse from not using it, and her throat was dry and unpleasantly scratchy. She looked once more at his ears. "What are you?"

He stopped his movements abruptly, and pulled back his hand to look at her questioningly. "You are within but a few leagues of Rivendell, House of Lord Elrond. As to who I am, my name is Glorfindel. Now what I am, I must ask, what do you mean?" He said, with confusion tinging his voice.

Elana pointed to his ears as explanation. He then seemed to grow only more curious, as he replied, "I am on of the Elder, an Elf, much like yourself." The last part he added caught Elana off guard.

She jerked back from his touch and said, "What? No I'm not! You must be mistaken, elves don't even exist, and.." Her voice trailed off as uncertainty began to take over. Slowly, she brought a hand to one of her ears, almost jumping out of her skin when she felt the tip come to a soft, delicate point, much like the apparent elf right in front of her.

No..No no.. That's not right.. What has happened?

"But I.. I can't be.. What?!"

Elana could not process this at all at that moment. What was all this about? Was it some sort of prank? And what did he mean by 'Rivendell'? Why did that name sound so familiar?

Then a memory hit her.

"What are you watching, daddy?" Elana asked as she came to sit next to her dad on the couch. He put an arm around her shoulders welcomingly, and said, "A movie, called Lord of the Rings. You may not want to watch it."

Elana looked up at her dad, and then to the T.V. to see two small people with rather large feet discussing something with a regular sized man. The scene changed to show two more of the small people, both with curly hair like the others, talking amongst themselves as well.

"What's it about?" She asked, curious now. Her dad looked at her and then the movie and said, "It's about a group of different people that go on an adventure, or quest, to save their world. It's pretty complicated to explain. You can stay for a bit and watch a little if you want to. But there are some parts you probably won't want to see."

For the rest of the time it took for her dad to watch the movies throughout the week, Elana would always come in the middle of some scenes and ask an abundance of questions as to what is going on. She could never really understand, and could hardly tell some of the characters apart. She liked it well enough, but she just could never follow the story line. It didn't really help that she had always come in during the movie. Though her favorite characters were the little people, or Hobbits. She always liked how they would surprise the others with their abilities.

Middle-earth. That's what it's called. Her dad told her that countless times when she would join him to watch the movies. But it wasn't real, was it? It couldn't be.. It was only a movie.. At least, she thought it was. This couldn't be a dream, her side hurt too much for that.

"W-wait... D-Do you mean that this isn't Oklahoma?" She was almost too afraid to hear the answer. Her voice sounded small and timid in the silence.

The man, or elf, looked at her with confusion. Was that suspicion in his eyes? "I do not know what Oklahoma is." He said, his pronunciation of 'Oklahoma' sounding odd in his accent. "Who's protection are you under? Were you separated from your parents?" He inquired, now more curious.

Elana just looked at him without having a good answer for either of his questions. She attempted one though, "Well... I was at home.. and.. I left and.." Her voice trailed off, uncertain as to how to finish that statement. Glorfindel now looked at her with uncertainty, not really knowing what to make with the given information.

"You left?" He repeated, this time as a question. Elana only looked at him, not very certain of what to say. She nodded her head and replied more timidly, "I was going to go back, I just was going on a walk..." She shifted a bit on the ground, only to let out a grunt of pain with the movement. "I was just walking.. and.. then I didn't know where I was and those monsters came out of nowhere and.. and.." Her voice trailed off as she began to picture the prior situation with the creatures, letting out a shudder. She felt a warm hand on her shoulder, and looked up to see Glorfindel looking down at her reassuringly. "What were they?" asked Elana.

He withdrew his hand and leaned back slightly as he spoke. "They are called Orcs in the Common Tongue. They are very dangerous, and it is very good that we were in the vicinity, tracking the pack that attacked you. I am glad we came when we did." Elana felt her eyes grow heavy as he spoke, his words sounding like a melody to her tired mind. Glorfindel must have noticed because then he said,

"Enough questions for today. You need to rest. Come." He stood gracefully, bending down to pull her up by her arms. Very slowly, they made their way to where the others were resting already. Elana could hardly stand their inquisitive stares. They were all looking at her. Elana hated being the center of attention. It made her skin crawl. She felt very childish as she looked down, and then tried to focus very hard on elf who was guiding her's cloak as it brushed the ground. He led her to a spot near a newly made fire, and laid out a blanket for her to lay on. He led her to the ground, and she felt very grateful that he didn't let his grip go until she was completely on the ground.

He gave her another blanket to cover herself with, and she curled tightly into a ball and closed her eyes, the heat of the fire on her back. She felt a hand brush her hair behind her ear and heard Glorfindel say, "Rest well, little one." He withdrew his hand and stood a little ways away.

As Elana fell asleep, her last coherent thought was her wandering and praying that God was still here, wherever she was.

Glorfindel retreated back to where the others sat, all watching him curiously.

"Did you find anything out?" Said the man with short dark hair. Glorfindel replied as he took a seat in the grass, "Nothing that would explain what she is doing here. I am going to bring her back to Imladris, seeing as she does not know where she is. Perhaps Lord Elrond could aid us in this matter." The four figures all had their eyes fixed on the small form, whose chest was now rising and falling in the rhythm of sleep, the same though running through their minds. What would an Elleth be doing out alone in the wild?