Disclaimer: I do NOT own "Lord of the Rings" or any of its characters. I wish I did, but I'm sure all of you are happy with just the way it is.

Chapter 3: Foreign Places

The midday sun streamed in through the curtains, brightening up the white and quiet healing house. The healers bustled around, tending to their wounded patients who were either awake and complaining about being cooped up in the room, or asleep and dreaming of more peaceful times. One patient in particular began to awake.

Pain was clearly evident on her face as a moan escaped her lips. Her peaceful slumber and dreams abandoned her as she was thrown back into the harsh world of reality. A healer, who had realized that her patient had awoken, rushed over to the young lady. Grabbing a small, white rag, she placed it into a clay bowl filled with water before placing it on to the lady's head where sweat had begun to appear. The lady shivered at the touch.

"Ai! Goheno nin. Manen mathach? Hiril nin?" the only response was another groan. "Hiril nin? Aniral maded? Aniral sogad?" When the lady didn't respond verbally again, the healer sighed. She was about to walk away when her patient suddenly snapped open her eyes. The healer stared down into the lady's dark blue eyes and was shocked to see fear and confusion.

"Where am I? Who are you? Why am I here?" Samantha managed to choke out, though her voice sounded rough and raspy. The healer shook her head, signaling that she didn't understand her.

"Heniach nin? Pedich edhellen?" Samantha stared up at the strange woman in fear.

"Go away! Get away from me!" she screamed and went to curl herself up in a ball. However, the sudden movement of her body made her scream in pain from the wounds she just noticed were there. The healer quickly made Samantha lay back into the position she was in before and was relieved to find that none of her wounds had reopened. Crystal tears began to roll down Samantha's cheeks; both from the pain and the fact that she didn't know where she was or how she had gotten there.

The healer reached over and brushed some of the stray black hairs that had fallen across the lady's face. Samantha flinched. Frowning, the healer walked away for a second before returning with a glass of water.

"Sogad," she said as she handed the glass over to Samantha. Samantha shook her head, not trusting this person she had never met before. The healer sighed yet again, but instead of giving up, she helped the lady sit up. Pain washed over Samantha's face as she slowly sat up with the help of the healer. The healer pushed the glass into her hands and helped her bring it to her lips. Samantha reluctantly sipped from the glass at first only to realize it was water. She then hurriedly gulped the rest down and when she looked back at the other woman, she smiled slightly. She gently laid back down into a lying position where she fell into another deep slumber.

When Samantha finally woke back up, she was surprised to see the healer along with another man standing right in front of her bed. The man had long black hair that was braided in various places. He was tall and robes of a deep blue covered his body. She was shocked to see a man wearing such clothes but she reminded herself that this wasn't her home and that people probably dressed differently here. Nonetheless, she found it a bit strange.

Samantha listened to their conversation, though she had no clue whatsoever as to what they were saying. The language did sound rather pleasing to her ears, however, and she enjoyed listening to it. When she got uncomfortable from lying the way she was, she tried to switch positions to get on to her side only to fail while making a loud moaning sound. The healer and the man turned to notice she was awake.

"Mae govannen, hiril nin. Pedich edhellen?" the man spoke and again Samantha didn't understand what he was saying. She frowned up at him.

"Who are you? What do you want?" Samantha asked them quietly. The man suddenly reached out to touch her, but Samantha pulled back. The dark haired man reached up and pushed some of his hair away. Samantha nearly screamed when she saw a pointed ear. 'There's no way this is happening! Pointed ears? What do they think they are? Elves or something? Elves don't exist!' Samantha thought frantically to herself. The healer also pushed some of her hair away to reveal a pointed ear. Samantha was shocked.

"Edhel," said the man. Samantha shook her head. "Edhel," he repeated. Samantha shook her head again. Sighing, the man reached out and quickly pushed some of her own hair behind her ear. Samantha swatted his hand away hastily only to feel a pointed tip on her own ear in the process. This time Samantha did scream. The other two people had to cover their ears from her screech.

"Hiril nin! Hiril nin, sedho!" Samantha quieted as tears once again began to fall down her face. She covered her face with her hands as sobs racked her body. Two hands pried her own hands away from her face and Samantha found herself staring up into the light grey eyes of the man. He stood back up and peered down at her.

"Elrond," he said, pointing to himself. Then he pointed over to the healer. "Sidhiel." He repeated these actions several times before Samantha finally got what he was doing.

"Samantha," she told him. Elrond gave her a kind and warming smile.

"Samantha, o man dor tuliel lin?" Samantha didn't answer. "Elrond, Imladris. Sidhiel, Imladris." Then he pointed out the window where she could see beautiful green trees and waterfalls. Samantha became slightly distracted for a moment. "Imladris." She turned back to the man. She knew what they were asking.

"Samantha, Manhattan," she responded. The two of them glanced at each other before frowning. Elrond then said something to Sidhiel and she nodded. Elrond turned back to her.

"No ce ammaer ab lu thent," he said before bowing and walking away.

"Goodbye," Samantha choked out. Sidhiel smiled at her.

Two days later, Sidhiel had taken off the bindings that were across Samantha's chest. Samantha almost passed out when she saw the two bullet holes that were on her body. Both were scabby and had dry blood all around them. Dark stitches held the skin together but Samantha could already tell that they would leave two horrible scars. Sidhiel had even showed her the two silver bullets that she had taken out of her and all Samantha could do was nod. Sidhiel had been obviously confused about what kind of weapon would do that to a person but because of the language difference, Samantha could not explain anything to her.

Later that day, Elrond had her moved to another room where she could have more privacy. Samantha had finally been given the chance to walk again. However, as soon as she set her feet upon the floor and took her first step, she was no longer sure if she wanted to walk for at least another couple of days. So, someone had to carry her to her new room and lay her down on the bed. Even though she didn't even know the person or speak his language, she was eternally grateful for his assistance.

The next morning, she was able to take a bath on her own, without the help of the healer unlike the first couple of days. Her body was amazingly sore and the hot bath only helped a little. She had been very careful not to agitate her wounds while washing her body but even with her precautions, a tiny trickle of blood had escaped. When Samantha emerged from her bath, all wet and clean, she was immediately sentenced to another three days of rest in her bedroom, but now she was at least allowed to sit up and walk around the room.

Finally, after being stuck in a bed or bedroom for a week, Elrond gave her a small check-up and allowed her to be able to explore Imladris. She no longer had to be stuck inside the stuffy room. Of course, it did take Elrond about ten minutes to somehow get this message across to her, but nonetheless she was very pleased.

Samantha immediately took a hot bath and when she was done, Sidhiel was waiting for her with a purple dress lying out on the bed. Samantha's eyes widened at the thought of wearing a dress and Sidhiel watched with some amusement at the sight of her frowning and glaring at the dress. She managed to realize that Samantha did not like dresses, for she knew the lady had been found in a strange material that somewhat resembled leggings.

"Hannon le," Samantha told Sidhiel, though the elvish words felt strange to use and sounded weird to her own ears. Sidhiel's lips twitched in amusement as Samantha pronounced the words wrong but nonetheless she gave her credit for picking the words up and knowing when to use them correctly.

"Glassen," Sidhiel replied. Samantha frowned in concentration as she tried to remember what it meant. She finally figured out that it must have meant something along the lines of "You're welcome", but she did not know for sure.

Sidhiel led Samantha out of the room, but went slowly enough so Samantha did not strain herself too much. Samantha followed the healer down many halls and she carefully studied the beautiful designs that were woven into the walls. Samantha could never have imagined a structure built so beautifully and more and more this adventure of hers seemed to be a dream.

Sidhiel entered a large room closely followed by Samantha. The latter stopped short when she realized it was a dining room and several other elves were seated at the table, peering at her with odd expressions on their faces. She blushed and turned to leave, but Sidhiel quickly grasped her arm and pulled her down towards the other end of the table. She pulled out a chair for her, which Samantha reluctantly sat down on to, before sitting down on Samantha's left.

"Samantha, le hannon a tholel," Elrond said warmly. Samantha nodded and smiled nervously.

"Um, uh, suilaid," she stumbled over her words, managing to slightly mispronounce them slightly. Elrond laughed merrily from where he was sitting, which was several seats down from her. Samantha blushed, knowing her pronunciation was wrong and stared down at the table cloth. A sudden hand popped down in front of her, along with a plate full of food, and scared at the sudden appearance of the hand, Samantha jumped up. The plate of food was knocked out of the servant's hand and with a crash, it fell to the floor. Samantha stared at the servant's face and noted that he seemed just as shocked as she was.

"I'm so sorry. Please forgive me. I didn't mean to. I'm-" Samantha stopped short when she remembered he didn't know what she was saying. The servant bent down and began to clean up the mess and Samantha quickly followed. A hand pulled her back up and she watched as Sidhiel spoke to the man calmly. Sidhiel turned to her once the mess was cleaned up and placed a hand on hr shoulder which pushed her back down into her seat.

Samantha's face burned with complete and utter embarrassment as she fixed her gaze on to the table cloth once again. Conversations started back up as if nothing had happened but Samantha got the feeling that everyone was talking about the new guest who didn't know their language and had already managed to make a fool of herself. She tried not to cry but a few tears leaked out of her eyes. Samantha hastily wiped them away before quickly looking to see if anyone had noticed.

Samantha was horrified when she noticed that a dark haired elf, who was all the way down the table by Elrond, was staring at her. She quickly looked away but out of curiosity, she glanced back down at him. He was still looking at her. His grey eyes were surveying her steadily but when he met her eyes again, he gave her a small smile. Samantha smiled slightly back before tuning to Sidhiel. The elven lady was talking with the person across from her and didn't even seem to notice Samantha.

Samantha sighed and with a start, she noticed another plate was down on the table in front of her. Slowly, she began eating the foreign food. It was great, but when breakfast was over, she left without Sidhiel and made her way back to her room. Imladris was surely beautiful, she had decided after hours of looking out her bedroom window, but right now all she wanted was to go back home.

Thank you all for reading this chapter! I hope you aren't confused or any reason, but if you are, please tell me why. I also know it's probably a little boring right now, but right now I'm just trying to build up to everything that will happen. Thanks for sticking with me, though. Um, I would like to thank all of my reviewers:

katie-Thanks for your review! I know, only after you mentioned it did I realize there were a few spelling errors. I'll try to fix them in the future.

BrokenShells- Thanks for all your help. I'll try and make sure I edit it better next time. How could you help me, though? Would I like e-mail it to you? I'm confused.

MillaMagia- Thanks for your review! I hope you liked this chapter.

scotchleaf- I'm glad you liked it! I hope you like this chapter as well.

strawberryskittlekisses- I like your name! Strawberry skittles are my favorite! Ok, that was a little off track. Anyways, thanks for your review! I know it was a little sad, but it will get better, I promise. As you already know, this is going to be an ElladanOC, not a Legolas one for once. I like those kind of stories sometimes, but right now I need a definite change.

JesuslUver- Thanks for your review! I'm glad you like it so far. The twins are mine, though. You can take Legolas. Anyways, remember our discussion on spelling words wrong? Well, you spelt 'sweet' wrong.

Once again, I do not tolerate flames but I will accept constructive criticism. Review please!