A/N: Oh how I hate being an adult. I'm building gardens and running a farm and fighting with impatient men trying to steal my paving stones. On top of half running a household and being in pain. Just shoot me, please. Or you know review and make my day. Or send chocolate and brandy and tea. *chuckles*

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Much Love

JR

P.s. P-atreon and Ko-fi update: Why aren't there tiers and goals yet on either? Mainly because I'm trying to get used to writing regularly on them. I don't want to promise my patrons something and not be able to deliver. So I'm working on building slowly and getting my routine down, then I will be doing some patron-only content like polls for story design and personalized thank-yous and inspiration videos or packages that contain some of the things that inspire each story and other various things. So hang in there with me, I'm still learning, and sign up to follow me so that when the tiers and goals go live you'd be the first to know. (Edit: There is a poll up on my P-atreon page now! You can help me choose my 2021 NaNoWriMo project!)

Pps. I've begun posting on Ao3 beginning with older stories. Any deleted "scenes" of the oldest stories will be posted there as well. What do I delete? Mainly anything that needs to be edited out to meet the rating rules on this site. But also little interesting snippets that just slowed down the pacing. Eventually, when I am caught up to present stories the snippets and deleted scenes will be posted first to patrons, then to Ao3. I will not be posting them here on this site. Apologies. But it has more "interesting" rules.

Chapter 1 Waking Up Part 2

Hours past and the shadows lengthened until the night's darkness began to creep across the the floor and fill the room. But unlike outside the walls of Rivendell, where the darkness could become menacing and filled with fear, here it was warm and comforting, gentle even. But the sleeping singer still didn't wake until the stars began to twinkle merrily in the sky.

Turning the medical journal sideways in her hands, Arwen wrinkled her straight nose in disgust. "I do not know if I should be disgusted or impressed by the ingenuity of this healer." She muttered looking at the diagram of a healer who had used two strong goose flight feathers to aid in the extraction of a swallow tail arrow.

Caelann herself was actually impressed. She had thought about reeds before she left last time but there was no real way to sterilize them because boiling would simply make them lose all strength, and if you had time to let them dry out again they would become too brittle to use. Glass was too precious in this world and there would be no way to carry them into a situation that you would likely run into the problem. And she hadn't had the opportunity to speak to the dwarven smiths about metal tubes. The elven ones had laughed at her, but she knew that if she presented the problem to the dwarven smiths and told them how the elves had reacted, they would see it as a matter of pride to one-up the elves. Sometimes it paid to play into egos.

But flight feathers? They could be stripped of all the feathery bits and the membrane within… and then boiled and dried… then packed carefully into the medical kits for the patrols or the medical tents for during wars… That might actually just work. She would have to remember that.

"Then packed." Again Arwen's nose wrinkled. "I will never look at baking the same again. Do you really use honey?" She asked.

Yawning as she blinked her eyes, Sherilynn mumbled the answer. "Not best for punctures. But yes." She sighed.

"Oh!" Arwen jumped up, laying the journal carelessly on the bedside table, making the unseen queen wince in sympathy for the carefully written account. "You are awake!"

"'Course I am." Lynn snarked with her typical invincible air as her eyes adjusted to the low light. "That light isn't overhead." She mumbled, noticing that the light was not only flickering but wasn't the normal blinding white of a hospital. "Where am I?"

"Imladris." Arwen kindly supplied, moving to her side. "The place is known in the common tongue as-"

"Rivendell."

"You know of it?" The elleth asked, siting on the edge of the bed. "Of course you do. You are a singer after all." Excitement lit up her eyes even as it made her talk faster than she normally would and she remembered herself with a blush, but the words would not be slowed. "Are you in pain? Does your head hurt? Do you remember your name?"

Not quite believing what her eyes were telling her, Sherilynn struggled to sit up as she answered in the order she was asked. "Minimal pain. Mainly my ankle. Head is a little fuzzy but nothing a glass of sweet tea or some moonshine wouldn't cure. And my name is Sherilynn."

Moonshine Arwen mouthed as she aided the woman in the bed to sit, sliding another pillow behind her, rolling the word around on her tongue because she had a feeling it meant something entirely different to this singer than it did to an elf. "What is moonshine to you?" She asked, giving up trying to find an explanation in common. "And this sweetened tea? There is a kettle on the fire in the other room if you would like some tea."

Chuckling, Sherilynn shook her head words of thanks tumbling off her lips. "Caelann still hasn't broken me to hot tea. Sweet tea is cold and made with sugar not honey. But thanks for the offer. And moonshine is a clear, very strong alcohol." She sighed, relaxing into the pillows. "Now if you don't mind answering a couple questions, I'd be grateful."

Settling back into her chair Arwen smiled, a befuddled smile but a genuine one. "Of course. If I know the answer that is."

Looking over the other woman, Lynn was thunderstruck for a moment by what she saw in the elf maid. Not her beauty, that was a given since she had Galadriel of all beings as a grandmother, but by her youth and innocence. Like all the darkness and horror that she knew existed in this female's lifetime had not tainted her, had not touched her. She had known people to show fortitude in the face of trial, Caelann was one, but this? Something was different. She seemed to be younger than the Arwen that Lynn knew from the movies.

Shaking herself, Lynn coughed and realized her throat was sore. "May I have some water first?"

Eyes widening almost in alarmed chagrin, Arwen leapt to her feet and went to pour a glass from the pitcher on the side table. "I am sorry. I should have asked if you needed a drink immediately."

Sherilynn smiled, taking the horn cup that was offered her with a small gesture of salute before she downed nearly the entire thing. "First, where is Caelann?"

Chewing her lips for a moment, Arwen looked to the corner Glorfindel had pointed to hours ago but she had no way of knowing if the queen was still there. Or even if Sherilynn would be able to see her if she was there. "I am not sure." She finally answered. "I know she is in the unseen realm but I cannot tell you where exactly she is as I cannot see her. Glorfindel said she was sitting on the bed when he left."

Chuckling at the name dropping, she had thought just dropping the Lord of the flipping Golden Flower's name was just a Caelann thing. Dunno why, she thought. He was just an elf that fought against a balrog and won after all. But apparently everyone just did the name dropping thing. Turning to look at the corner, she was just in time to see Caelann fade into view.

"Always listening," the Scot sighed, fatigue lining her gently rounded face, her cheekbones showing just a bit more than she remembered. "But staying visible in the unseen is taking quite a lot of energy." She chuckled. "I've been experimenting. The longest so far is five minutes. And I cannae go very far apparently. Donnae ken if I'm tied to ye or Imladris. I guess we'll both find out. Tell the lass I say thank ye for reading. I ken she's no interested in the healing arts."

"She's there." Lynn told Arwen. "She says thanks for reading, she knows it's not interesting for you."

The tiny smile she received was very telling. "Not particularly. But I imagine it's not very comfortable for her to only be seen by a few and not be able to talk at all to anyone but them. Not even my father and brothers could see her." The gaze turned speculative. "I wonder if my mavwen could see her?"

Lynn blinked at the unfamiliar term. "Um that's a new one. Care to try again for the person who hasn't spent a lifetime learning Sindarin?"

Brow furrowing, Arwen obliged. "Naneth nanethnin?"

"Grandmother?" Lynn guessed, at least naneth was familiar. "You mean the Lady Galadriel?"

"Yes." Arwen clapped in delight, bringing her hands up before her face, eyes dancing with glee. "It has been so long since I have needed to speak in common. I am afraid I am dreadfully out of practice."

Smiling quietly at the lady's happiness, Lynn turned her head as Caelann once more caught her attention. "T'is about a month before the dwarves arrive on their way to the Lonely Mountain." The Scot breathed, her eyes closing as she rubbed at them with her thumb and forefinger. "Elrond is writing Thranduil ta tell him of your arrival. And we donnae ken why ye are here as yet."

Looking down to her fingers twisting in the counterpane as she thought, Sherilynn bit her lip. Something she had never really discussed with Caelann was the reason she herself had been in Middle Earth, it just hadn't seemed important. Her own part in the story had been to get Caelann back to fighting fit, she hadn't ever thought she would be in Middle Earth herself. That hadn't been what the dreams seemed like they were telling her.

But now? Now she wasn't so sure. "Did you know right away why you were here last time you were here?"

Caelann nodded, her tired blue eyes closing sadly. "Told ye that I had dreams for months before I came. They had been training me for life here."

"Mine just showed me you." Sherilynn reminded quietly. It hadn't been the first time that they discussed the dreams though. "Your life here. Your life in Scotland. That you needed help."

"Aye." Pressing her fingertips together against her lips, the queen was still for a long moment. "Ye must ask the Valar I believe. And soon."

Watching the one-sided conversation silently, Arwen frowned. She had known the Queen had been from a land unknown to Arda, her mother had told her stories of her friend as a child. And it had stood to reason that this singer was from the same place. But she had assumed that being an emissary from the Valar meant that they would prepare her somewhat for whatever task they had set her.

Thinking for a time, she came to the same conclusion as the queen and voiced it. "They do not often answer, at least the elves. But I know they speak with the wizards at times. Perhaps you can ask Mithrandir when he next arrives. Because Ada is correct, with you here, he is sure to be here soon."

Sherilynn looked to Caelann to see what they made of the suggestion, but only got a frowning negative. "I'm afraid ye cannae wait. No this close to the battle of the five armies. Ye need ta ken if ye are ta go with the dwarves as I suspect, or north ta the rangers or south ta the Rohirrim, Gondor and its steward or Dol Amroth and young Prince Imrahil."

"What was your job last time you were here?" Sherilynn asked, thinking that maybe that would shed some light on things. In all of the fanfiction she had read, mainly out of morbid curiosity she insisted even in her own mind, the plot was always to either fall in love or save the world single-handed. Sometimes that involved gratuitous nudity and sex, but that seemed mainly to depend on if the author was attracted to whichever character they were writing about. So she had a type. She liked happy endings.

Thinking about that, she shook her head. The amount of people that thirsted after Aragorn was shocking. And she decided not to think about that in front of the female that he would eventually marry. It was just bad taste.

There had been more than a few about Glorfindel, Thranduil, and Legolas now that she thought about it. Quite a few about Thorin and Kili too. Probably a good idea not to think about that in front of the wife of one of them and the mother of another…

"To mitigate the disaster." Caelann answered. "I could no stop the war. But I could lessen the disaster of it. Especially for the woodland elves. They were very nearly wiped out but, between the medical advances I brought and the military and tactics training I had, the death toll went down from ninety percent of the woodland army to seventy. And from seventy on average among the other armies to nearing fifty."

Sherilynn whistled. Twenty percent was nothing to sneeze at she knew. Caelann must not have slept in those seven years of war. "What about after the war? You were here for a while. Long enough to have Legolas at any rate."

"The woodland realm was starving by the time the war was over." Caelann sighed, her shoulders slumping at the thought of those lean years after the war when she had watched elves waste away to skin and bones. Having to send families and children away simply because they had no food in the wood. Between that and the spiders and orcs that attacked? They had lost vast swaths of the population before they were able to recover their footing. "The other realms still had supplies and enough of a population to rebuild. But the wood? There was almost nothing left. Thranduil was stuck between leaving and giving up his kingdom or rebuilding. He considered retreating to the west. But Greenwood is such an important front with Dol Guldor and Baradur to the south and Smaug to the east that he decided to stay and make sure it didn't fall."

"I need to look at a map." Lyn sighed, with all of the names flying over her head and no context to it her mind was fairly spinning. "Would it really have been so bad? Isn't Lothlorien and Fangorn between Mordor and the west?"

"So bad?" Arwen asked, her eyes narrowing. She had only heard half the conversation but it sounded surprisingly like the conversations her brothers had about fortifications and strongholds. And while she may not know much about the healing arts, she had developed a certain fascination with maps. She knew not only where all of the maps were in this cottage, and it was an extensive collection with all of Caelann's travels, but also she listened to all of her brothers dark conversations with Glorfindel and their ada about the last war. Strongholds, fortifications, tactics, she may never speak about them to the ellons, as all males whether they be human or elf or dwarf had their delicate egos and would not take kindly to a female who knew just as much about the subject of war, her grandmother being the exception, but she knew them. "You speak of Mirkwood?"

"Caelann said please call her home Greenwood. She knows it is full of darkness now but it is still her home. And it wasn't always dark and won't be forever if she and Thranduil have anything to say about it."

Blushing, having forgotten that the queen loved the woods, she had spent so much time traveling that even Arwen's own mother had gone with her at one point after all. "Apologies majesty."

Sherilynn waved off the apology. "No offense is taken where none is intended she said. And yes we were talking about Greenwood, the last war, and what happened immediately after. I was hoping that maybe her experience would help me figure out what I'm supposed to be doing here. But I may have to ask the Valar myself, she said."

Turning her gaze inward, Arwen frowned. Her elegant brow knit together as her brain ticked over possibilities. She wasn't her father's daughter for nothing, although she didn't often use that side of herself. "Talking to the Valar is easier said than done."

Sherilynn shorted a laugh and then held up her hand and waved away the question that was on the tip of Arwen's tongue. She guessed some saying really were universal. "Go on please."

"You could always wait for Mithrandir." She went on slowly only to trail away when the reclining woman before her shook her head, staring in the direction that the other singer apparently was. "I take it that the queen says no?"

"It's more like she says I can't wait," Lynn replied, rubbing her temples. "And she's doing it without actually being visible. Which is going to become exceedingly annoying." She winced and began rubbing her arm on the side where Caelann "sat". Could one get pinched by someone that wasn't really there but was in the Unseen Realm? She wasn't a ghost, through they did exist in this world she thought remembering the Dead Men of Dunharrow, but she wasn't quite corporeal. Another thing to ask the Valar.

"Any other way I can talk to them?"

Moving to the bed, Arwen tucked her feet under her, covering them with her long dress so as not to offend the Singer. "You could always go to the, I believe the common term is chapel? It is a holy place that each city has at least one of, where one may go and attempt to get answers from the Valar. They do not often answer though." She admitted, worrying her bottom lip. "Those of us that go, mainly do so to pray and collect our thoughts."

Turning to the place that Caelann had been sitting, but was now empty of all but her voice, Sherilynn smiled. But it wasn't a pleasant, happy smile. It reminded Arwen of her father's smiles when he very much wanted smack her two brothers heads together for something they've done. It was quite odd to see someone who wasn't in awe of the queen. She was a bit of a legend. "She says the sooner the better. And I still don't understand how Mirkwood, sorry Greenwood, was that important."

Yet again there seemed to be a one-sided argument that seemed to be going with the queen. Odd. Arwen wasn't quite sure what that said about the queen. Did she surround herself with people who didn't agree the first time she said something on purpose, to present different ideas and force her to be better? Or was it that she liked arguing?

The one was admirable. The other was not quite so. But the argument ended with the singer before her rolling her eyes. "Yes I know we have more important things than old battle strategies to discuss. And will you stop calling me Non-Yank! Lazy! Who are you calling lazy!"