Disclaimer: Once again, sadly enough I don't own Rumil, Orophin or Haldir. The immortal J.R.R.Tolkien has them stuffed into a vault in a secret location. I just have cheap facsimiles.

Thanks to everyone who reviewed. It was encouraging and insightful. Many fuzzies to you.

Yes, I stole some Elvish lines out of the movie. Cheap, I know. I plead ignorance of the language and lack of imagination.

The Door

A soft scuffling noise below, then silence.

Danali jolted awake, her mind swirling in shades of blue, her entire upper body lifting off the floor, effortless with terror. Sweat beaded on her forehead, her neck, her chest. She whipped her head to the left, then the right, struggling to discern her surroundings. Her sleep-laden eyes pierced through the gloom, making out hints of fluid electricity materializing into dim swirls, then vanishing again. She eventually recognized that she was in a room, flanked by circular walls, it's roof a great starwheel rotating ponderously above her. She reached out to touch it, but it eluded her fingertips, rippling as if formed from satin thread. She stared at it a few seconds more, puzzled, then turned her head sideways upon hearing another rustle beside her.

There was a door on the left, a wooden door painted with strange dreamswirls of silver and starlight, glimmering with an otherworldly sheen, an unnatural attraction. She frowned in confusion, her insides twisting with fear, her throat constricting as if she was falling into nothing. Her chest heaved, rising heavily with each breath, a sharp pain coursing through her lungs as she inhaled. She stared, transfixed, at the odd portal before her, a mixture of dread and longing feuding in her mind. She panicked as the breath was stolen from her lungs, the air drawn out in a gossamer ribbon, the atmosphere shimmering with purple intent.

It comes.

Danali squeezed her eyes shut, the blackness whirling about behind her eyelids. Her hands curled into fists, and she suppressed a cry as a sudden volt of pain lanced through her right palm. Her dark eyes flew open, and she perceived an emptiness creeping up to her back, the dreaded foe she would never be able to evade, the purple spark bearing uncontrollable shudders that many times before had thrown her to the ground and rendered her helpless even as they caused her soul to shriek and crumple.

You do not belong here.

She screamed, the raw sound mingling with echoes and returning to mock her. The purple fire reared up before her, it's cold heat radiating her darkest fears and spreading over her quaking body. It grew until it blocked Danali's view of the door, obstructing her passage of escape, grew until it filled her soul with hollow nothingness and took control of her senses.

I am a good soldier, a worthy, loyal soldier.

Her heart howled and withered as her teeth came together hard, gnashing her spirit to pieces as the terrifying convulsions began racking her body. An icy strand tightened about her throat, forbidding her to draw breath.

Please.

The tremors came quicker now, her arms and legs twitching violently, her head jerking side to side. Frothy blood spilled from her mouth as her teeth sliced the insides of her cheeks, and only the whites of her eyes showed as her hands frantically clamped across her neck, straining to tear away the invisible vise locked on her throat. A scream welled from the depths of her being, only to escape as a throttled gurgle.

Please.

The purple flame gathered itself into a smoldering orb and flew from Danali as she was hurled back through a blazing tunnel into horrible waking reality. Breath surged into her lungs and tears streamed freely down her cheeks, dripping off her chin, running into her agape mouth and diluting the bitter taste of blood as she sobbed hysterically. Someone was firmly clutching her shoulders and speaking to her, the words twirling and eluding her until they finally registered in her tortured mind. Elvish. Someone- a man- was speaking to her in Elvish, a note of fear and relief in his voice when he saw she was alright.

" Lady. hear my voice."

Lasto beth nin.

" Come back to the light."

Tolo dan na ngalad.

" Lady."

Danali collapsed in the elf's embrace and surrendered to the overwhelming exhaustion that claimed her consciousness yet again. She dreamed no more, her mind simply wandering the void of warm oblivion.



Rumil struggled to regain control of his pounding heart, his mouth dry with fear, his brow laced with sweat. He gently eased the senseless girl back down on her blanket, her face peaceful and serene, now no longer wrenched into a grimace of fear and terror. He smoothed her short hair back, brushing aside stray wisps from her damp features and running his eyes over her limp form to assure himself that she was, for the time being, alright. He sat back on his heels and mustered all his strength of being to keep from sobbing uncontrollably, his evergreen eyes flooding with tears threatening to spill over. He took another shuddering breath, then another, and reached for a cloth to clean the girl's face, trying to put aside all he had just witnessed.

All he remembered was awakening and finding himself alone, save a young woman laying a few feet away from him, writhing and gasping for air, her limbs twitching and her eyes rolled back into her head, foamy blood spattering her lips. He at first had recoiled in horror, then had gathered his wits and leapt to the convulsing girl's side, gripping her shoulders and preventing her head from striking the hard wooden slats of the flet. It had been all he could do besides murmur a desperate plea to her deaf ears, his gaze locked on her unseeing eyes. Within a few moments, it had ended, leaving Rumil with a thousand questions and a nerve-wracked composure.

Where were his brothers?

Rumil calmed himself somewhat and exhaled slowly, turning his face skywards and drinking in the glistening pale- golden sunthreads that penetrated the canopies of the mallorn treetops, exulting in their replenishing energies. Clarity sprang into Rumil's consciousness unannounced, sweeping away the panic and fear that had gripped his heart only a short while ago. He turned and gathered the girl's blood-stained blanket, twisted from her wild thrashings, and replaced it with his own, pulling it gently to her shoulders. He paused and regarded the girl's sleeping features, peaceful, serene, betraying no hint of the terrible throes she had succumbed to earlier. He shook his head regretfully as he prepared his bow and quiver, then fastened his cloak about his throat with a small silver clasp. He lifted up his arms and stretched, looked east, stretched again. He grasped a slender branch and glanced back at his unlikely companion one last time.

Still puzzling over these odd circumstances that had been thrust so suddenly upon him, Rumil climbed to a higher branch of the tree and awaited his comrades impatiently.

Overhead, the burning visage of the sun gazed on indifferently as it continued it's trek across the azure canopy of the sky.