Chapter 11

**** Bold text ~ Elvish ****

Annelise's thoughts were quickly interrupted when her father suddenly moved from her side and approached Gandalf. She could tell from the way he was holding himself that he was not happy that the wizard had led them to a land full of elves. She followed after him, hoping that her presence might prevent her father from saying anything too bad to Gandalf.

"This was your plan all along. To seek refuge with our enemy," he whispered angrily so the others would not hear them. Gandalf seemed to have no such worry and replied with his usual booming voice.

"You have no enemies here, Thorin Oakenshield. The only ill will to be found in this valley is that which you bring yourself."

"You think the Elves will give our quest their blessing? They will try to stop us."

"Of course they will. But we have questions that need to be answered. More questions than you know," he said, looking toward Annelise as he finished speaking. She shifted uncomfortably under her father's gaze as he realised that wizard had directed his last words to his daughter.

"Annelise?" Thorin said quietly, knowing that his daughter was hiding something from him.

Before she could answer however, Gandalf continued speaking, capturing the Dwarf Prince's attention once more.

"If we are to be successful, this will need to be handled with tact. And respect. And no small degree of charm. Which is why you will leave the talking to me."

With this, Gandalf turned and began leading the group on the path down the mountain and onto a bridge that went over one of the many waterfalls leading out of the valley. Annelise looked down at the water and admired how clear it was. Almost like liquid crystal. In parts that were being hit by the sun that was beginning its journey down, the water turned into flowing gold.

It was a sight she wanted to commit to memory but her eyes could not seem to decide where to look. Annelise noticed that Bilbo, who was walking in front of her, seemed to be having the same problem.

"It's gorgeous, isn't it?" she asked him, her voice filled with awe for her surroundings.

"More than I could have ever imagined."

Annelise looked ahead and realised that Gandalf was leading them to what seemed to be a platform for them to be received at.

She suddenly grew nervous at the prospect that she would be meeting people who knew who she really was and could tell her about her past.

As if sensing her sudden fear, Bilbo reached over and grabbed her hand, squeezing it tightly with his smaller one as they continued walking. He did not let go until they came to a stop in the middle of the platform. She and Bilbo stood looking around them, soaking in the beauty of the home they had entered and the trees and statues surrounding them.

The valley and home were slowly turning golden in the setting sun. Bilbo looked over at Annelise and saw that her eyes were closed against the light but she had a contented smile on her face. As he studied her closer, he noticed the sun was bringing out bits of red and gold that he had never noticed in her hair before. He was suddenly struck with a strange thought. 'She is home.'

Bilbo's thought were soon interrupted when a voice began speaking.

"Mithrandir," said the voice. Bilbo and the rest of the group turned to see an elf descending from a flight of stairs in front of them.

"Ah Lindir," the wizard said, greeting the elf.

After that they began speaking in Elvish and Bilbo could not follow anything they said.

Thorin looked to Annelise knowing she could understand at least a little of what was being said. She nodded her head reassuring him that all was well.

"I must speak with Lord Elrond," the wizard continued.

"My Lord Elrond is not here."

"Not here? Where is he?"

Before Lindir could answer, a horn sounded through the valley, the same horn that they had heard when the Orcs were attacked. Annelise saw Lindir shift his eyes behind Gandalf and knew that he had answered the wizard's question. Gandalf nodded slightly before slowly turning in the direction that they had just come from.

Annelise moved closer to Bilbo as a group of Elves on horseback began riding across the narrow bridge they had just crossed. Her father yelled out to the dwarves and Fili pushed Annelise and Bilbo into the middle of the cluster they formed as the Elves began circling around them.

Annelise was a little nervous until the Elves stopped circling and one the Elves broke from the circle and approached the wizard.

"Gandalf!"

"Lord Elrond!" the wizard responded and Annelise realised that this Elf was their host. Gandalf continued speaking in Elvish to the Lord, extending his hand out in greeting.

The Elven Lord responded before dismounting from his horse and moving to hug the wizard.

"Strange for Orcs to come so close to our borders," he continued lifting a sword that Annelise knew belonged to one of the Orcs that was slain before handing it off to Lindir, who looked at it in disgust.

"Ah. That may have been us," Gandalf said gesturing to the Company. Thorin moved out of their cluster toward the Elven Lord, followed by most of the others.

Annelise stayed back not wanting to draw any attention to herself yet, though she knew that would be impossible once the Elf looked closer at the Company. Already some of the other Elves that were still on horseback had glanced over at her, obviously wondering what a girl was doing in the company of so many dwarves.

"Welcome, Thorin, son of Thrain," Lord Elrond said, moving away from Gandalf toward the dwarf.

"I do not believe we have met."

"You have your grandfather's bearing. I knew Thror when he ruled under the mountain."

"Indeed? He made no mention of you," Thorin replied, and Annelise couldn't stop from rolling her eyes at her father's rudeness toward their host.

In response to Thorin's rather rude words, the Elf began speaking in Elvish once more. If Annelise had not been able to understand his words the little she could, she would have thought he was insulting her father.

"What is he saying? Does he offer us insult?" Gloin said, jumping to the conclusion Annelise expected them to come to.

"No, Master Gloin, he's offering you food," Gandalf said with exasperation.

The dwarves turned to council amongst themselves, as Annelise felt eyes on her. She turned to see Lord Elrond looking directly at her.

"And who might you be, my lady?"

Her father cut in before she could respond, "This would be my daughter, Annelise." He quickly moved to stand in front of her.

At her name, Annelise watched Lord Elrond's eyes shift down to her necklace that she had forgotten to tuck back under her scarf.

His eyes widened and he turned to look at Gandalf with confusion. "It can't be," he said quietly, turning to look back at the girl in front of him.

Gandalf sighed loudly before reaching out to Annelise, motioning for her to come forward. By then all eyes were on her as she reached and grabbed ahold of the wizard's hand as he pulled her forward.

Once she was closer, Lord Elrond reached out and touched her necklace, as if he didn't believe it was really there.

"How did you come by this jewel?" he asked. Annelise looked into his eyes and saw such sadness in them that she could not bear to look for very long.

She shifted her eyes to the ground before saying, "I was found with it."

Lord Elrond gasped and withdrew his hand as if he had been burnt. He continued to look at Annelise and she watched as the sadness in his eyes slowly gave way to a quiet anger.

"Gandalf. You told me she was dead."

He didn't shout. He didn't raise his voice, but Annelise found the forced calm of his voice to be more terrifying than if he had been yelling at her.

"I know, my friend. I did not want to, but I did as the Lady Galadriel wished of me."

Annelise realised then, what Gandalf had to fear coming to this place. Whatever had happened in her past, Gandalf had to make everyone who ever knew her believe that she was dead.

"For Durin's sake, will someone explain to me what is going on and why it involves my daughter?" Thorin said, finally fed up with listening to them talk.

Lord Elrond quickly looked at Lindir. "Lead the others of the company to where they will be lodging for the duration of their stay. I will take Gandalf, Thorin and Annelise to my study where we will work to get this mess sorted out."

With those words, he motioned to the three he had mentioned and began leading them away from the Company.

He led them to a large study that Annelise couldn't stop herself from looking around at, in awe of all the books and scrolls that filled it.

Lord Elrond smiled down at her in amusement before motioning for her to take a seat in one of the chairs that were near a large desk. He chose to stand by an opening that looked like it led out to a balcony, as Thorin moved to stand beside Annelise's chair. She noticed that Gandalf had decided to stand back near one of the many shelves of books on the opposite side of the room.

"Gandalf, what really happened?" Lord Elrond asked, finally breaking the silence that had settled over the four. Annelise looked toward him and saw how defeated he looked as he gazed over his home.

"I believe it might be best to start from the beginning as Annelise does not know anything before she came to live with Thorin."

At these words Lord Elrond nodded, moving to sit at his desk across from Annelise setting his head in his right hand as he leaned against the armrest.

Gandalf turned and began telling Annelise the story of her parents, Evelyn and Thorondil. He told her of the death of Arathorn, that caused his wife and child and her parents to leave their people, the Dunedain, and travel to Rivendell. He told her of the child Estel and her birth. She learned that the necklace she held so dear had been a parting gift from the Elf Lord that was currently sitting across from her.

When Gandalf spoke of her time with King Thranduil and his son Legolas, Annelise saw her father tense up. She knew of his anger toward the Elvenking and knew that the news of their closeness to his daughter, and that they grieved for her even now, disturbed him.

Lastly she learned of her parents death on the road from Mirkwood to Rohan to see her mother's kin.

Gandalf had to stop in his narrative to allow Annelise a moment to process the information and grief that her parents were gone. They had finally gotten to the part of the story that all the occupants in the room had been waiting for.

"After I had buried your parents and the Elven guards, I decided that I would bring you back to Rivendell or even raise you as my own, though I knew that that would not be necessary," Gandalf continued. "As I mounted my horse with Annelise still asleep against my chest, the Lady Galadriel began speaking to me. She told me that Annelise needed to be taken to Minas Tirith, to be left in the care of Thorin Oakenshield, with no knowledge of who she was or who I was. I argued with the Lady, telling her that I could not just leave her and allow everyone who loved her to think her dead. But she told me that it was Annelise's destiny to be the child of Thorin Oakenshield. Only the Lady's promise that I would see Annelise again allowed me to go through with what I had to do."

Gandalf then turned to Lord Elrond before continuing, "Giving her up was one of the hardest things I've even done, but it was nothing compared to delivering the news of her and her family's deaths. I traveled first to Rohan, to King Thengel to tell him the news of his sister and her family's death. I watched him grieve for her and for the niece that he never got to meet. I then traveled to Mirkwood and watched the light leave the Elvenking and the Prince's eyes at the news of the small child's death. They still grieve for her to this very day. I then had to return to Imladris and watch the grief consume Gilraen to an early grave, leaving her five year old son alone. I am sorry, my friend, for the grief that this deception has caused you, but know that it grieved me just as greatly."

With these words, Thorin seemed to have had enough and he stormed out of the study without a word. Annelise would have gone after him but she was too stunned to move.

"Why did you never tell me?" Annelise whispered quietly to Gandalf. "This entire time you've known everything about my past and you never said anything."

Gandalf came and knelt down near the girl, seeing her beginning to curl in on herself. "I knew that it was not the time for you to know."

Lord Elrond stood suddenly and moved gracefully over to Annelise's side. "Would you do me the honour of taking a walk with me, little one? There is something I would like you to see."

Annelise looked into the eyes of the elf Lord cautiously before nodded slightly, standing from her chair. Lord Elrond offered her his elbow as he began leading her out of his office.

"There are two places I would like to show you on our walk. The first is just down this hallway."

Annelise allowed Lord Elrond to direct her down the hallways of his home as she looked around at the many paintings and tapestries that adorned the walls. Soon they stopped before a door, and Lord Elrond motioned for her to open it.

She was greeted with the sight of a room that she did not know she remembered until she laid her eyes on it.

"My room..."

Annelise quickly moved over to the side of the bed that was in the middle of the room, to the table that was next to it. She sat on the side of the bed and looked at the things that lay on top of the table. She carefully reached out, picking a crystal figurine of a rose surrounded by flames. Although she could have only been one at the time, Annelise felt the memory of Gandalf making the trinket for her resurface in her head. She looked back into that memory and saw the small boy that could only be Estel.

"We left everything as it was. I could not bring myself to give this room to someone else. It is yours for your stay and for as long as you want it to be," Lord Elrond said, coming to sit next to her on her bed.

She looked up from the sculpture before saying, "Thank you, Uncle."

Elrond felt his eyes misting with tears upon hearing the name he never thought he'd hear again from the sweet little girl that had taken over the hearts of all Elves in Imladris.

"It is my pleasure, little flame," Elrond said looking down at the young woman. "Come," he said suddenly. "We have one more place to go and then I'm sure you would like to have dinner and relax for the night."

Annelise hooked her hand back in Lord Elrond's arm and allowed him to lead her out of her room.

He shut the door behind them before leading them out an open doorway that led into a beautiful garden.

"Where are we going now?"

Lord Elrond looked down into her eyes for a moment sadly before answering her question.

"To your parents' graves."