Chapter 11: The Truth

I stared in disbelief at the group standing in front of me. All at once people were talking and introducing each other, but I just stood there with my mouth opening and closing like a fish.

"Maddy! They've come to help." Eowyn said, gripping my arm and leading me forward. She stopped me in front of Gandalf. I stood there, silent, and he watched me. His expression was unchanging.

"Hello." I said softly. He nodded his head and smiled.

"It's good to see you again, Faelwen."

I stared at him, transfixed and completely confused. But somehow it seemed familiar, and just right.

"I've been wanting to talk with you for a long time," he continued, "Might I talk with you alone for a moment?"

"Of course," I answered, following him out of the hall. We walked in silence down the large stone steps and started away from the Hall.

"Are you aware of whom you are?" He asked me once we were a good deal away from earshot.

"Not until you said my name—my real name, in the hall." I answered truthfully. He smiled.

"But that is barely an insignificant portion of your true identity." He said thoughtfully, "A name is only something that is given to a being to tell it apart easily from the beings around it. It's one thing that we all hope to keep our own. But we could do well-enough without names."

"We could, but sometimes even a name can tell you so much about a person." I answered. He eyed me as if considering what I had said.

"You're right." He answered, smiling, "But that is not why I brought you out here." I looked around and noticed that we had stopped not too far from the burial grounds.

"Why, then?" I asked.

"You are very special, Faelwen." He said, "And I have to admit that I never expected to see you here, or anywhere in Middle Earth for that matter."

"I came here by accident." I protested, quite confused by now.

"Well you had to come back sometime." He answered.

"What do you mean, 'come back'? I've never been here before—this place isn't supposed to be real." I said.

"Faelwen, you were a well-respected person here, but your knowledge turned you into a target for Sauron's forces. So Elrond and I sent you to that other world where we hoped that you'd be safe. But Sauron's many spies found you out and created a portal to send you back." When he finished I stood, considering what he had said. Then I imagined my English teacher in an orc suit with and axe and had to cough several times to cover up my laughter.

"Elrond had warned me of this," He continued, "but I hoped that you'd at least be safe until after the war of the ring."

"So the hole that I fell through was made by evil forces trying to get me back here?" I asked. He nodded.

"Then why didn't they kill me when I first arrived here?" I asked.

"They probably meant for you to be transported to Mordor, but something went wrong. For that, we have to be thankful." He paused and looked out over the landscape to the sunset.

"So I'm a—a queen here?" I asked uncertainly.

"No." He answered, "You're an elf, daughter of Galdriel." I considered my auburn hair and green eyes, then thought of the image of Galadriel.

"That's kind of hard to believe." I said. "I mean, elves have pointy ears and are graceful—I trip on practically everything insight."

"You were and elf." He answered. Darn, I thought. "But when we sent you to the other world, you entered through re-birth and became a human child. You will still have an unnaturally long life, but many powers you had before have been eliminated from what happened. I nodded.

"So this hole thing—this new world, is actually where I was born? I lived here. I belong here." The words tasted good on my lips, comforting me greatly.

"Yes." Gandalf answered.

"But what will I do now?" I asked, turning to face him.

"You will carry out your duty here, but I cannot tell you what will happen to you, for even my vision of the future is blurred. Fate must take control, now." He answered. We stood in silence before he finally spoke.

"Theodred will be buried tomorrow." He said. I looked up at him sadly and had to bite my lower lip to keep it from trembling.

"Yes, I suppose so." I said quietly, "but he shouldn't have died. I should've…I should've found him and saved him!" Tears formed quickly at the edges of my eyes.

"It wasn't mean to be." Gandalf said softly.

"I know it's silly to contradict what has already happened, but before he died I thought…never mind, it doesn't matter now." I said. He nodded.

"We should head back now." He said after about five minutes of silence. "The others will want an explanation."

"You're right." I said, turning and leading the way back into the Hall.

We did have quite a time explaining where we had been. And, of course, I had to be introduced to Legolas, Aragorn, and Gimili. They seemed nice, but I was fairly weary of the elf, he seemed a little too pompous for my liking. And then there was Théoden, who was really nice but quite tired, so he retired early to his quarters. I sat down next to Beinion at the dinner table.

"Maddy, I don't want to eat this!" He complained and spat the lump of meat onto his plate.

"Beinion, you have to." I said, "Come on, try to eat it."

"No, it's icky!" He said.

"But didn't you say you wanted to be like a tiger when you grow up?" I asked, a plot forming in my mind.

"Well, yeah…"

"Then you need to eat your food to become big and strong like a tiger."

"But…"

"You want to be like a tiger, right?"

He finally gave in and nodded.

"Then eat your food." I said finally.

"You're good with children." Aragorn said from across the table. I looked up at him.

"Quite a lot of experience…you know, babysitting and all that. Besides, children are such fun to be with anyway." I answered.

"They are," he agreed, and then added, "Are you a mother?"

"No!" I said hastily. "I have a little brother…and I've looked after Beinion and Hallath, but no, I'm not a mother myself."

"Oh, I'm sorry." He said apologetically, "but you are very good with children."

"Thank you." I answered. There was a long, droned-on awkward silence that followed his words, and I realized that the events of the day were finally wearing off on me. I stood up.

"I think I'll retire, now." I said. They nodded and I exited the room. Just as I rounded the corner, though, I lost my footing and tripped, falling into an awkward position. I twisted my foot out from under me and sat up, noting that I had tripped on the edge of a statue. I stood up and was about to walk down the hall when I noticed something strange. Where I had fallen there was a little step, but it led straight into the wall. I grabbed a lit torch from the wall and studied the area around it. Yup, it was a stair alright, but I doubted that it was there just for decoration.

"Maddy?" I turned to see a slightly angered Théoden standing behind. "What are you doing here?"

There was definitely something weird about that stair.

Author's Note; Hey readers! I'm sorry for the long wait, but I lacked inspiration for this for a long time. This probably isn't the best chapter I've ever written, but at least I updated. Anywho, thank for reading. If you guys have any advice about where I should take this story, please review and tell me because I want to continue this story, but I'm not sure how. Review and tell me what you think!