When she woke, the young lady thought she was still in the ocean: her ears were dominated by a rhythmic rushing sound. But she was warm and dry. She looked and found she was in an airy room, with the early light of morning streaming in open windows. The air smelled of herbs and greenery, not salt. As her chest rose and fell, she realized that the sound was her own breathing in her ears. She listened and could hear, and feel, her heartbeat pushing blood through her body.
How long had it been since she had a body? It is impossible to tell. She could remember untold eons swimming through the cold darkness of space - bodiless and alone among the crumbling rocks, burning stars, and ethereal clouds of gas. Time, after all, is measured relative to a planet and a sun, and she had not been bound to either since she floated away, as an aimless spirit, from the first world she inhabited.
This body, though, felt entirely different from the one she remembered. She searched for the familiar pain thrumming in her left shoulder and radiating into her back and realized with relief that it wasn't there anymore. Where she once felt a weariness so heavy in her limbs that rising and going on with life would make her want to weep, she instead felt a lively, calm energy. She found her muscles were relaxed, her joints arranged comfortably in the soft bed and smooth sheets.
She tried to sit up and caught on her own hair, which was unfamiliarly long. The air was pleasant – she felt it cool against her skin, the humidity as intimate as a kiss. She found her eyesight was sharp and her hearing excellent. She could see every tiny leaf and symbol carved into the door lintel. The shadows of the leaves outside the window danced on the floor. Birds sung outside and some small animal chirped and scurried across tree bark. Compared with the vastness of the void, everything felt close, almost crowded. Her senses were intense after being bodiless for so long. She took in a long, gasping breath as she processed that she really was alive again – alive!
Before she had any time to decide whether this was a welcome change, a tall stranger with long dark hair and flowing robes entered the room. She saw his ears were pointed against his braided hair and intricate silver ornaments. She tried to form thoughts in language again, preparing for the need to communicate, but found it difficult. She recalled a beloved story from her youth in which there were people with pointed ears who lived forever.
The stranger spoke but she could not understand. He tried again twice, and each time the words sounded different, but they still meant nothing to her. She cleared her throat, trying to speak with only the memory of how to do it. "Where am I?" she asked, her voice wobbly "How did I get here?"
The stranger looked at her with an intense expression. Clearly, he could not comprehend her language any more than she could his. He moved to a small table near her bed and poured water from a pitcher into a silver cup and offered it to her. She reached out her hands to take it and fumbled to hold the object. He helped her bring it to her mouth and drink. When the water passed through her lips, she noticed for the first time that she was very thirsty and ravenous for food. She drank urgently and brought her fingers to her mouth and then her belly. The stranger continued to watch her curiously, but seemed to understand, and brought her a wafer of flat, gold bread, no larger than a pack of cards. She was overwhelmed by the demanding, greedy hunger in her body and thought that it couldn't possibly be enough. But she ate the bread and quickly found her hunger receding. Sleep began to fall over her again. She rested back against the bed. The stranger nodded, smiled, and left, and she floated gently into a deep and dreamless sleep.
Outside the door to the healing room, Elrond emerged to find Legolas standing restlessly.
You did well to bring her here, Legolas, he says, but there is something very strange about this elleth. Tell no one about this for now. I must take counsel before we decide what to do about her. Don't wait here any longer – it may be a long time yet before we understand what's happened here.
But she is alright? Legolas asked. Can I speak to her?
She is well, Legolas, do not worry. She has taken water and lembas and she is sleeping again. But no one can speak to her. I have never heard the tongue she speaks before and she understood nothing I said in Sindar, Quenya, or the common tongue of Western men. You've found quite a mystery on our empty shores today – it was a stroke of fate, I think, that set your heart to wandering this morning. I will have to speak with Mithrandir and Galadriel about her.
But you will tell me what you find? What you decide to do? Legolas pushed, not feeling ready to let go of the strange elleth, and the newness of her arrival.
Elrond thought a moment and nodded, then took Legolas by the arm and began to walk away from the room where the unknown elf rested peacefully. Come, he said it is time to break the fast. We will not know the answers to our questions today.