June, 1966- Dublin
As Angelica lay prone, her mind was restless. The forceful sleep had unlocked dreams from her past to come alive in her mind.
S.A. 3441 Dagorlad
Pain lanced across her side and crimson blood soaked into her tunic. The dark man stepped forward his sword raised again for another blow. A fatal blow. Fear grew in her fëa as he approached. Darkness seeped from him and made her feel like all joy and light had fled from the world. She could no longer feel her kin's fëar or the hum of nature, she felt a darkness so great that it was like an empty void penetrating her fëa.
As he struck down a second time and she could barely roll out of the way of his death blow before it bit into her. She could faintly hear a man scream her name over the ringing in her ears. She staggered to her feet, grabbed a discarded blade and faced the man again, fighting the fear that permeated her fëa.
"Valar, help me," She pleaded as she lunged toward the man, both blade fiercely deflecting blows in one last burst of energy. She was tired, her side was dripping blood unhindered and the darkness and void was eating away at her fëa.
Again, she felt a burst of energy, a calming light envelop her as her attack strengthened. The Valar had provided her one last blessing. She lunged at him again and struck his leg, just below the hip. Pain lanced up her arm yet again as her blade burnt with a strange magic. The dark figure yelled in pain and swatted her body away with the back of his hand. She hit the ground mere meters away. Her ears rang and her vision blurred. She blinked slowly, trying to clear her vision. Her blade lay far from her reach. She was defenseless again with her blades gone and arrows spent.
Battle went on around her, the dark figured man had retreated away from the battle. She saw the blonde-haired elf fighting many orcs close by, he looked like he was fighting to reach her.
She closed her eyes and took another breath. She was so tired. Her fëa felt like it had been ripped from her body, her hroä. She could no longer feel her kin's presence. She was dying, she knew it. She was fading from the darkness of her attacker and from the deep wound on her side.
"Elaeanyl!" She heard someone yell in sorrow. She opened her eyes again and saw the man kneeling next to her. He put his hands on her side, and pain seared up her nerves. She moaned and tried to squirm out of his touch.
"Nell, be still. Please let me help you," he said as he pushed on her side again.
Tears prickled at her eyes as she looked up at the man again. His face was filled with sorrow and tears leaked freely from his eyes.
He put one hand below her neck and the other below her knees and gently lifted her body into his arms. He rose and swiftly started to run. He kept her tight to his body and she barely felt anything as he ran. The jolting pains she should have felt when he jostled her in his arms were gone. She didn't feel anything except for cold and heaviness.
"Hold on, Nell! We're almost to the healers, I won't lose another sister to this darkness!" He spat. She remembered now. He was her brother, Glorfindel.
She grabbed her tunic in her fist as he set her down on a cloak that was covering the hard, bumpy ground. "Glorfindel, I'm sorry," She whispered.
"No! No, Elaeanyl… You're my only family left. Don't, please, don't leave me alone," He pleaded with her. He used the cuff of his tunic to wipe away the tears that fell from his eyes, leaving tracks through the grime and blood on his face.
She breathed heavily, "I can't. I'm fading, I can't… not longer…"
Her breaths were labored and forming words were hard.
"Fight it, please," He begged, her hands now in his. He had given up hope on staunching the blood flowing from her side. It now oozed slowly down her side and into the cloak beneath her body.
She smiled tiredly, rested her hand on his own, and closed her eyes. Her blurring vision darkened into nothingness.
She woke twice more over the next day, they had won the battle and Sauron was defeated, the ring was no longer on his finger. Glorfindel never left her side, staying with her, holding her hand, and telling her stories of the outcome of the battle, but also of his time in Valinor and within the halls of Mandos. She couldn't find the energy to speak, so she just listened and squeezed his hands to tell him she was still there.
Her wounds no longer pained her. Her body was numb, her fëa was numb. She could only feel dulled connections with her kinsmen. Glorfindel's fëa soothed hers a much as it could, but she could feel herself fading into the darkness that ripped her fëa apart.
"Brother, I'm sorry. I love you," she whispered and closed her eyes. She never awoke and she breathed her last before the stars became bright in the night sky.
She felt her fëa separate from her hroä. A bright, yet soothing light filled her mind. Gone was the despair and darkness that smothered her before. The cries of the injured and grieving was gone and replaced by beautiful singing from the halls of Mandos as she was welcomed into the arms of the Valar.
"Welcome, Elaeanyl, daughter of Glorfwelin. You have fought a brave death, and like your brother before you, we are offering you a chance to return to Arda and fight Sauron's evil once more," a warm voice welcomed her.
"Sauron was defeated, just two days ago in Dagorlad," She replied confused.
"Yet, his ring, his power survives. He will return in time unless the ring is destroyed," The voice explained.
"Then, I will choose to return to Arda and help my brother and my kinfolk rid it of his power," She said.
"You shall return when the time is close. We cannot return you like we did your brother. You will be born ages after your time, train in the healing arts, and return when your training is complete. You will be reborn to mortals, distant descendants of the Númenóreans. This world consists only of mortal men and women, there are no elves, dwarves, orcs, or even hobbits in this land. You will have no memories of this life until you are ready."
Elaeanyl was confused. It was daunting. She was going to a completely foreign land. She had lived her entire life surrounded by elves and living amongst mortals was hard. They died so quickly and so easily, and they lacked the connection with nature that the elves had. It was a difficult life to live with mortals.
She nodded, daunted by the task of living as the only elf in a world full of mortals. She also didn't like the idea of losing her memories, but that was just how the Valar's will worked. Glorfindel had no memories of his life in Valinor or Arda before he started having dreams around the time his majority.
"I understand the will of the Valar well. I will follow in my brother's steps and accept your generous offer," She said.
"Good, get yourself a few fortnight's rest. Visit some of your family here before you must return. Last I knew of, they were staying in the hall, not far from here," The voice said.
She smiled, she hadn't seen her family since the fall of Gondolin. Glorfindel talked about his life with them here many times since he was reborn. She walked the halls, marvelling in its beauty and in the people inhabiting it. She saw many old face from Gondolin and the War of the Last Alliance. Finally, she saw them, her parents and siblings.
Her naneth's silvery-white hair shined in the light and her adar, so much like Glorfindel, smiled down upon one of her sisters.
Of their family, Glorfindel and her were the only ones to have golden hair in their family, the rest had their naneth's silvery blonde locks, or their adar's raven. Elaeanyl saw her siblings, all four of them, her three brothers and her older sister. They looked so happy and healthy. Her ada and nana had parished before the fall of Gondolin, but her brothers all died in the attack. Her sister had faded before she could sail not shortly after the fall of Gondolin from the grief of losing so many loved ones.
Elaeanyl took a deep breath and walked toward them, "Naneth, Adar, mae govannen!"
Her parents looked toward her before breaking into a run.
"Elaeanyl! Sellath nin, glassen!" Her Adar said as he took her in his arms.
She felt their fëar welcoming each other. It was a wonderful feeling as she felt his presence in the first time in many centuries. He tucked her head into his chest and she could hear the smooth heartbeat beneath the fabric.
Her mother joined their hug, "Penneth, le aodollen."
She laughed, "I suppose I am." She pulled back from her parents and grabbed one of their hands in her own. She looked down sadly and took a calming breath.
"Adar, Nana,like Glorfindel I shall reside here for only a brief rest, then I must go back to Arda to fight Sauron's evil." She explained to her parents. They nodded, saddened by this news of being separated from yet another one of their children. They understood it was a necessary evil.
She was led inside by her parents, "Rest child. You look tired. We shall talk with your siblings," They said as they led her into a bed chamber that was almost an exact replica of her one in Gondolin.
They left the room and she crawled into the bed and fell into a quiet sleep, exhausted with the events of current.
She woke, feeling drowsy and her head pounded. She sat up only to realize that she wasn't in her dream anymore, or in her own bed. She wasn't even in her own room for that matter. She looked to her side and saw Mr. Jackson, asleep, in a chair next to her bed.
Surprised she scattered out of the bed quickly and took the metal figurine from the bedside table for a weapon. Mr. Jackson quickly awoke and soothed, "Don't be alarmed Angelica. I heard your struggle with Ian last night and put an end to it. You were in no shape to be brought to your room alone, so I brought you here."
Angelica remembered it now. She remembered it all, not only the mishap with Ian last night, but also the dreams and her past life in Arda. She wept. She wasn't harmed last night, other than emotionally, but she wept out of confusion, but also relief to have answers to her body's strange growth.
"Do not worry, Ian has been arrested and the hotel will be evicting him. You will never have to see him again," Mr. Jackson tried to calm the crying woman. This just made her cry harder.
"Angelica," Mr. Jackson leaned forward and handed the girl a handkerchief to wipe the tears from her eyes. "You are safe."
The girl shook her head. "It was the dreams."
"Dreams?" Mr. Jackson muttered.
"Oh, Valar," she said accepted the fabric.
Mr. Jackson looked overwhelmed over the crying elleth in his bedroom. It was clear now. She knew who the Valar were. She had dreamt of her old life. This is how it had happened before. He debated whether he should tell her or not.
"Angelica," He started, "I know what you are. I am one too, well part of one. Your father was my cousin. We are part of a group called the Dunedain. Your Uncle Timothy sent me to protect you when you moved away. I lost you for a few years, but found you not soon after you moved here. I can help you."
He looked at him like he was psychotic. He did look like her uncle. They had similar eyes and their nose was the same. He sighed and pulled an old photograph from his wallet. Three men dressed in military uniforms smiled back at her. One was obviously her uncle and the other was her father. The third man looked like a slightly younger version of Mr. Jackson.
"If my uncle really sent you to me, tell me, what was his greatest fear? Any friend, family," she corrected, "would have known."
"Your uncle was highly afraid of geese," Mr. Jackson said.
Angelica looked at him with an open mouth. It was true, Uncle Timothy hated geese, feared them greatly for some unexplained reason.
"But, if my uncle is alive he would be an old man. He has to be nearly eighty. If you're his cousin, you must be too," Angelica said, confused. The man sitting in the chair couldn't have been older than forty.
"You aren't the only one who aged slowly. The dunedain are distant descendents of the elves and men. We age slowly, live to be two or three times older than normal mortals," he explained.
So her mother wasn't one of them. "Why wasn't I told this before? Why didn't my uncle explain to anyone? Why did my uncle disappear?"
"We noticed that you were different from a young age. You aged even slower than we did. You looked nothing like any of our family, or your mother's family. We decided that we would wait until you were of age to see what would happen. During that time, your uncle had to flee as members of his community realized he wasn't aging after a few decades."
Angelica stared up at the man. Her cousin? This was crazy. This entire thing was crazy.
"Has anything strange happened?"
She remembered her dreams of her life in Arda, "I remember everything about who I was before this. About what I was," She said.
"And?" He asked.
"My father wasn't my real father."
"What do you mean?" Mr. Jackson raised an eyebrow.
"My name is Elaeanyl. I am the sister of Glorfindel. I was born in the First Age in Gondolin. I died during the Battle of the Last Alliance. The Valar thought it imperative that I return to Arda to fight Sauron again. They sent me here to study healing arts to help in the upcoming war. I remembered this all last night. I've been having dreams of my past life for many years now, but it was all explained to me last night," She explained.
"So it was as we thought. A child, an elfling, released from the halls of Mandos. Reborn to my cousin and his wife," Mr. Jackson said, "The details about our past is vastly unknown, but we do know of Sauron and the battles to strip him of his power and save Arda."
"I am willing to write down the history of Arda and the elves for you when I have time, if you wish," She offered, saddened by the loss of the dunedain's history.
"We would like that," He said. "Well, it is getting late in the morning, should I walk you back to your rooms?"
"Yes, please. I should also call the desk and tell them of my resignation. I will be moving back to England to study medicine before I find a way back to my time."
"Your uncle is living in Exeter. If there is a program there. Plus, I am sure he would love to see you again. He has missed you dearly. I can give you his phone number if you wish."
She had dearly missed her uncle. She hadn't seen him or talked to him in many years. He had disappeared and was presumed dead many years ago.
"I would enjoy that, Mr. Jackson," She said as she followed him out of the door of his rooms.
"Please, call me George. My real name is George Baker," he said he brought her to her own rooms. "Do what needs to be done. I will be on the first morning boat back to England, you are welcome to join me."
"Thank you, George. For everything. I cannot even fathom what would have happened if you were not there last night. I shall see you in the morning."
January, 1967- Exeter
She had been studying medicine at the local hospital for the past six months by working as a nurse's assistant. She had gotten a hold of many textbooks and studied them every night. She often worked overtime in accident and emergency or the surgery floors, getting as much exposure to the injuries most similar to those she would see in war.
Her uncle had welcomed her with open arms, he looked no older than thirty-five. His appearance still showed youth, but his eyes showed age and wisdom. He was thrilled to read of the history of the First and Second ages that she was writing up for him and the other dunedain.
Her time in modern earth was running short. She could feel the pull upon her fëa, like a distant longing for home. It was nothing like the fading she had experienced in her death, but a feeling of great warmth and joy whenever she recollects her past life.
She had discussed her plans of returning to Arda with her uncle many times before. She knew that it was the will of the Valar and that, even if she wanted to, she couldn't stay.
Each day she gained more knowledge and she had realized that home didn't have modern medications, so she started to learn historical ways of treating diseases with plants and minerals instead of formulated medications. She collected a few medications over the weeks, but they would have to be spent wisely and only in times of dire need.
She had a large bag packed away in her room, full of medications and medical supplies, but also a few of her personal things, like photos of her family, the telegram about her father's death, and a few other family heirlooms.
Her uncle had insisted on taking her to a tailor to get time appropriate clothing made in case she returned exactly as she left this world. Her dresses and trousers now wouldn't be fit for fighting orcs and easterlings, and they wouldn't protect her from the weather much either. The tailor looked at her oddly when he was presented with a list of items she needed and the fabrics she required. Her uncle explained she was going to be part of a period accurate film, which reduced some of his suspicion.
She had a few pairs of thick leggings made and long-sleeved tunics, along with a hooded cloak and pair of soft leather boots. They all were of muted tones, greens, browns, and greys. They were more like the clothes of the wood elves, apart from the Golden flower embroidered into the tunic's edges and on the cloak pin. The clothes were practical and functional.
Her uncle requested that she give him until her birthday before she left, giving her just under half a year to prepare for her return. Her studies had been going well, she felt confident that she could heal wounds and she could treat bad injuries well enough until someone else could take over.
She was prepared to go home.
June, 1967 -Exeter
"Uncle Timothy, it's time I leave. I have felt the pull become much stronger in the past few weeks. I need to go help my brother and the other elves," She explained at breakfast that morning. It was a week past her birthday, and she had already packed all of her supplies and said goodbye to her coworkers.
"Are you sure it's time to go?" Her uncle asked, afraid to lose his closest relative he had left in his life.
Her fëa ached for him. She understood the loss of her loved ones all too well, "I can feel that it is my time to leave. We shall meet again, uncle."
"Promise me that you'll remember all of us here and stay as safe as possible," her uncle muttered as he pulled her into a tight hug.
"I will. I promise you that," She said, tears falling slowly down her cheeks. She pulled away from her uncle, grabbed her bag of supplies and let her fëa overcome her. She shone brightly, a golden light that warmed her and surrounded her. She felt herself getting tired as the light got brighter and closer. She could hear her uncle's voice fading as he wished her good luck. She could hear wind overtaking her senses, and the closed her eyes, "Valar, protect me," She prayed as the wind grew stronger and the light burnt brighter.
She felt the wind stop and the light implode as she hit something hard and cold. She looked around, tiredly, and saw mountains, tall and imposing. She couldn't smell the reek of diesel on the air. She couldn't hear the hum of electricity. She didn't see the tall, modern buildings or paved roads anymore. She saw home. She smiled, pulled on her cloak, and closed her eyes again. She fell into an exhausted sleep, the power of the Valar humming in her fëa, as her body overcame the shock of travelling back to her home.
I'm working on fixing the formatting errors for chapters 2-6. I don't know what happened when I copied the chapters over to this platform, but it taking forever to update.