AN: Thanks to everyone who has reviewed so far!

Disclaimer: See previous chapters

"English talking"
'thinking'
~Galadriel mind-speaking~
*Elvish talking*

Verdi woke as she fell, but wasn't able to rescue herself in time. Luckily, elves have fast reflexes and Haldir caught her before she hit the floor.

"Thanks," Verdi mumbled as she straightened up; Haldir gave her an unidentifiable look and went back to his spot by the door. Verdi felt awkward, she had no clue what she was supposed to do in this strange place, a place that apparently wasn't even close to home. 'Ha, right, and I'm the Queen of England. Maybe I'll just casually walk out of here and head back the way we came, eventually I should reach the city, right?'

~Child, you cannot go home, I am sorry.~ Verdi almost jumped, that strange, airy voice was still in her head! 'Why me? Maybe this is just a dream, maybe I'll pinch myself and I'll wake up. That's what they always do in the stories.' She pinched her arm, hard.

"Ow!" All the elves looked at her, startled. Then they started talking in their weird language again. 'Guess this is real, or as real as possible. Why can't these people speak in English? My goodness, don't they know it's rude to talk about someone behind their back? I know they're talking about me, they keep glancing over here.' At that thought, Galadriel once more turned her head towards Verdi, looking her up and down.

~Come here, child.~ Galadriel beckoned Verdi over with her hand, and Verdi instinctively obeyed. For some reason she felt she could trust this mysterious woman, or elf, as she called herself. Galadriel put her hand on Verdi's forehead.

~Close your eyes.~ Verdi closed her eyes and her mind was thrown into a swirling sea of blue and green. Her mind's eye saw funny characters dance around the ever-twisting spiral, and she heard voices talking all at once. They weren't loud, but they were clear in a jumbled sort of way. Then a yellow light appeared at the center of the swirl, and it grew larger and larger as Verdi heard Galadriel murmur incomprehensibly in her ear. Slowly the yellow pushed out all other color and Verdi felt as if she was looking at the sun. The glare hurt, but she could not look away; she was entranced by the sounds as well as the yellow plane. Suddenly it all went black and Verdi heard the voice still speaking in her ear, but she could understand the words. She opened her eyes and looked into Galadriel's blue ones, perplexed.

"What did you do to me?" She whispered, her face pale and her eyes flying around the room of their own will, searching for exits.

*Do not fear, I only taught you our language. Now you will be able to understand us, and we will be able to understand you.* Galadriel's voice was soothing, but it didn't calm Verdi's nerves.

"What do you mean, you taught me your language! You can't just make someone fluent in a foreign language like that," she snapped her fingers, glared at Galadriel, and snapped her fingers again, just for good measure. "Did you ask me if I wanted to learn the language? No! Did you ask if I wanted you to talk in my head? No! You stupid grown-ups think you can do anything you want, that we are just stupid teenagers going through a phase! You mess with our heads, and do idiotic things like pretend you live in some strange world called Middle-Earth! I just want to go home, don't you understand that? I just want to go home." Verdi dropped to the floor as she said that, whispering the last word. She put her arms around her legs, trying not to cry. She was quite overwhelmed by the entire situation. Sure, she always dreamed of going somewhere far away, didn't everybody? But as much as her heart wished it was true, her mind argued that she was just being naïve.

Galadriel looked at Verdi, pity on her face. *Why don't you leave us,* she said to the other elves, who simply nodded and made their way out, except for Haldir.

*Are you sure this is wise, milady?* He asked hesitantly, *We know nothing about her, and she wears strange clothing and carries strange objects.* He motioned to the backpack and violin sitting next to Verdi, who was trying to ignore them but was fascinated by the fact that she could now understand them. Oddly, that made her feel a bit better.

*I will be fine, but please send someone up with some hot tea and a bite to eat, she's starved.* Galadriel looked accusingly at him.

*I fed her this morning,* Haldir defended himself.

*She is a young, growing girl; she needs to eat.* Galadriel said firmly and motioned for him to leave. Haldir sighed and left, shaking his head.

Galadriel sat down beside Verdi and put her arms around the confused girl. Verdi stiffened at first, then relaxed into the embrace. She didn't know what to think, but her heart and body, as well as her mind, seemed resigned to accept that fact that she was not going home anytime soon. She took a few deep breaths and sat up straight, looking around the room, assessing her situation.

"Well," she began, but Galadriel shook her head.

*Speak Elvish.*

"How?"

*Just think you're speaking Elvish and you will.* Verdi rose an eyebrow, but did as directed. Surprisingly, or not, it worked.

*I guess I have to accept this all as being the new reality, it's not like I have any choice anyway. It all seems totally bizarre and impossible to me, but it's not like I've never wished something like this would happen. So I'll just go along with it and see what happens.* Verdi wasn't sure if that made sense at all, but Galadriel nodded, so apparently it did.

*Good,* the elf-lady stood up and put her hand out to help Verdi up. They went over to a little wooden table in one of the corners that Verdi hadn't noticed and sat down.

*What are you going to do with me?* Verdi asked, a little timidly. Now that she was here, she didn't want to be stuck in a room all day, but she didn't know what these elves did.

*I don't know.* Galadriel admitted, *We've never had anyone come here that didn't know anything about elves, or Middle Earth, in general. Most humans go to Rivendell if they go into any of the Elven realms, but,* she held up a finger as Verdi started to speak, *we have plenty of room here, and there is always plenty to be done. What did you do at home?*

Verdi thought about her life in Illinois, it was nothing special, just the ordinary life of a high schooler, but she wasn't sure how it would seem to Galadriel. *Well, five days of the week I went to school for most of the day, then I'd either go home or go to practice. On Saturday and Sunday, I would usually do homework, help clean the house, hang out with friends, practice my violin, or whatever. In the summer I don't have school, so I usually just wander around, swim or bike or whatever with my friends.*

*I do not know what to make of that, for that is not like the life of any human child I have known. But your world is much different from ours, I can see.* At that moment there was a knock on the door and an elf came in with food and drink. She put it on the table with a nod to Galadriel, who said *thank you,* and left.

*What skills do you have?* Galadriel was obviously trying to find something in common with their two worlds.

*Um, I'm pretty good at math,* Verdi started, but the elf looked at her blankly. *You know, adding, subtracting, that stuff,* Galadriel nodded, but still seemed a bit confused, Verdi decided she better skip the whole school thing. *Um, I play the violin, I'm not spectacular or anything, but I enjoy it. I'm in the orchestra at school and my friends and I have a quartet.* That seemed to go over pretty well, so Verdi pressed on. *I like to cook, but nothing fancy. Mac-N-Cheese all the way! I like animals, I have a dog named Michel and two cats, Fred and George. They're orange.* Verdi giggled, but the Lady of Light didn't get it. *Um, I like to be outside, I can climb trees and I have my own little garden.* She neglected to mention that it consisted solely of tomato plants, which could survive anything. *So, yeah...*

*I do not understand everything you have said, but that is no matter; it will be a time before we give you a regular task that suits your capabilities. You must learn your way around first, in any case.* She stood up, *Eat the food, I will be right back.* With that the Lothlorien Lady floated away and Verdi was left in the less-glowing than before room. She looked at the food, sighed, and began to pick her way through the strange nourishment in front of her.

AN: I decided that Verdi learning Elvish the hard way would not be fun to write (especially since I know about three elvish words) and it could become quite confusing. So, anyway, hope y'all liked this chapter.