Author's Notes: A few people have commented on my spelling ;-) so let me clear something up; I'm British! Which means that I have different ways of spelling words, e.g. The American word for gray would be spelt grey in England. The same goes for words like realized, which become realised with an 's' and color which I spell as colour. I hope this makes things clearer as to why my spelling is different. However, I noticed that there were a few minor typos, and so I've gone back and corrected them.

Also, I would like to thank NancyBrooke for pointing out about the language barrier confusion; all the 'modern' characters are speaking Westron, even though they don't realise it... Yet!

Time frame: Some years before the War of the Ring.

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Born Again

Chapter Two:

A Dream.

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Rúmil, still holding the young girl in his arms, moved to follow his brother to the safety of the talan. The other guards remained at their posts at Haldir's command whilst his older sibling carried the strange woman in his arms; her son trailing behind them. As they walked through the spectacular trees, Rúmil decided that he would like to learn a little more about the precious child within his arms—even though he knew little Westron and the minor detail he was still suspicious of their arrival in the fair woods of his people. But if the Lady had ordered his brother to bring the odd family to Caras Galadhon, then he surmised that they must bear no ill will towards the people of Lothlórien. After all, the Lady would never place her people in such grave danger.

"You name?" He finally asked.

The little girl looked confused at his question. He tried his approach differently and pointed to himself, "I Rúmil, you name?" He pointed to her nose and pressed it slightly with the pad of his index finger.

She giggled delightfully, "Dana," she said, pointing to herself, "Roo-meel," she then copied his previous actions and pressed his nose gently.

Rúmil chuckled and wiggled his nose against her finger, "Yes. I, Rúmil. You, Dah-na."

The blue-eyed girl rolled her eyes dramatically, "Not Dah-na, silly! It's Day-nah... Day-nah. Can't you speak English, Roo-meel?"

He frowned, "What English? Me know Westron, little bit. Not big like brother."

It was Dana's turn to frown. "What's a West-ron? We're speaking English now!"

Rúmil shook his head defensively, "No, we speak Westron."

"English," Dana huffed.

"Westron," the elf insisted.

"ENGLISH!"

Rúmil sighed, finally giving in to the child's arguments. She was clearly addle-brained like her mother and positively more stubborn than his oldest brother. He was certain that they were speaking Westron, not this English, as the girl kept insisting! Though, no matter how strange the child was, she was still incredibly interesting to him.

As they continued to walk, he spied a flower bed approaching. Leaning down, he swiped at the stems and offered the small bunch to the excited girl in his arms.

"So pretty!" She squealed, hugging the multi-coloured flowers to her chest. He smiled as she squirmed in his arms, but he did not dare to set her down. He was afraid that she would become lost in her wanderings and that he would have to answer to her raving mother should something happen to her. "Thank you," Dana said gratefully, planting a soft but sloppy wet kiss upon his cheek. Rúmil resisted the urge to grimace and wipe away the patch of wet saliva, though his heart warmed at the gratitude she had shown.

As a gentle breeze passed through the trunks of the majestic trees, he watched as the young girl's dark curls shivered against the wind. The warden came to the conclusion that all children, no matter what race, were equally beautiful; especially this little girl that had called him pretty. Rúmil was still stroking his ego at the little comment she had made from her mother's arms. He could not wait to tell his other brother Orophin, about that particular comment.

"Why are your ears weird Roo-meel? Is that why my momma fell? Was she scared?"

He was startled from his thoughts by the barrage of questions from the little girl; he smiled sadly, "I no understand. You ask brother Haldir," he pointed to his brother's back as he weaved gracefully amongst the tree-trunks of their home.

Dana shrugged and nodded, resigning herself to watching the beautiful scenery that passed by. Being five years of age, she found nothing to be too strange. After all, her imagination consisted of fairies and trolls, princes and princesses. So, she concluded that she and her family were going on an adventure... And little did she know that this adventure was very much real and that it would change her life quite drastically.

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Amelia groaned and shifted as she slowly began to gain her senses. Her head was pounding but other than that small ailment, she felt well; even if she was feeling slightly groggy. She deduced that she must have been dreaming... Dreaming about her husband and—elves? Frowning with her eyes still shut, she snorted indelicately and rolled onto her side. Elves indeed! The idea was preposterous, maddening and if she were honest, slightly psychotic. Elves weren't supposed to be tall and beautiful, they were meant to be short little helpers to a mystical fat man with a white beard—a man that ate too many mince pies and drank far too much sherry, in her opinion. She hardly considered Santa Claus an ideal role model.

And yet, her frown deepened into a scowl at the solidity of the bed beneath her. She did not remember her mattress being so hard and uncomfortable... Sighing with frustration, she wrenched her eyes open and found herself staring at a canopy of golden leaves and rich brown branches.

Something was not right.

Sitting up slowly from her position on the wooded floor, Amelia looked around at her surroundings and found her pulse quickening at the sight. She was somewhere on a platform, next to a wonderfully beautiful tree. It seemed the the platform was being held up by the branches of the tree, but she was certain that such a feat could not be possible. She noted that the sun had set and a few jewelled stars peaked out through the gaps of the leaves... It was almost as if she could touch the stars! Her mouth ran dry as her eyes settled upon the lithe form of a man sitting against the trunk of the tree, watching her through the dark night as though his eyes could pierce through the ebony blanket with ease. She barely remembered his name—Haldir? She wasn't sure, but if it was then she was quite certain that she had not been dreaming the previous events of the day.

Her children!

In her hasty attempt to observe the situation, she had forgotten about her children.

Scrambling to her feet, Amelia backed away from the 'elf' and gasped as he rose to his feet, slowly advancing towards her.

In the pale moonlight, she scould barely make out the stoic features of his beautiful face and the grim determination within his cold blue eyes. She had thought that those eyes had resembled her husband's. But she had been wrong. There had been a warmth in her husband's eyes that was not present within this man's... Elf's. Panic began to settle in her nerves; she had been doing pretty well until now. She had to find her children. She had to find them and run from this place—find anyone that could help them from these delusional people that ran around in National Parks wielding weapons all the while thinking that they were elves!

Amelia took another step backwards, and cried out as the elf leapt forward gracefully and roughly pulled her towards him.

Her eyes focused on his pointed ears; it was all the incentive she needed to start screaming.

The cold, furious look in his eyes startled her, but did no deter her from her screaming. The elf named Haldir snarled at her in another language before clamping his hand down upon her open mouth.

"Silence," he hissed.

She struggled against his abnormally strong grip, wincing as he held her in a rather painful manner. The dark-haired woman tried to rein in her fear and anger at being man-handled so carelessly. She whimpered beneath the smooth palm of his hand as he kept it pressed to her mouth. "Silence," he ordered again, "Your bemoaning will alert every orc around the Northern fences of Lothlórien to our presence!... Now, Look!" He pointed downwards.

Amelia's eyes widened as he held her near the edge of the platform. If she had taken another step back, she would have gone over the edge and fallen down into the endless dark abyss that glared up at her from beneath the sturdy platform. She bit back a gasp, realising that had Haldir not stepped in, she would have fallen to her death.

Stilling within his grasp, Haldir eyed her warily, "Will you cease your screaming? The shadow grows in the East and I will not have you endangering my wardens with your maddening behaviour."

She didn't understand his words, but she was clearly abashed by his stern reprimand. She felt like a child being berated in such a way. But what was she endangering? She didn't understand anything..! Choking back a sob at her captivity, Amelia nodded meekly at his words, if only to be free of his painful grip. Tears formed in the corner of her eyes as she rubbed her wrists, watching as Haldir stepped away before drawing her away from the edge of the platform.

He looked at her sore wrists and frowned slightly, "It is not my intention to harm you, my lady. But you need to be calm, lest you alert our presence to the orcs outside our borders."

Now he was being chivalrous?

Amelia shook her head, her dark tresses lashing out against the soothing wind; she must still be dreaming. Yes, that's what it was. A dream. And nothing could harm her in a dream... Could it?

Despite herself, she asked the question that had been niggling at the back of her mind since she first opened her eyes; "Where are my children?"

The tense set of the man's, or elf's shoulders relaxed slightly at her quietly spoken question. He nodded once in approval before motioning to another tree twelve feet away, "Your son is in the opposite talan and your daughter..." He trailed off and gestured towards the slight opening at the trunk of the tree. It was wide enough for a person to slip onto the platform from beneath... Like a fireman's pole, with the tree acting as a pole.

She waited with bated breath until she saw a silver head peek out from the opening. Sighing with relief, Amelia bit her lip as another of Haldir's men, who looked quite a bit like Haldir, approached her with her daughter in his arms. She wriggled free of his grasp as she was set down on the platform, before running towards her outstretched arms and barreling into her stomach.

Amelia smiled with relief and joy as she hugged her daughter tightly. Now, if only they would bring her son here... Then she could think of an escape plan. It was good to learn that her daughter was safe and well for the time being.

"Ow Momma, you're squishing me!"

She loosened her grasp and knelt to meet her daughter at eye-level, "Are you all right? You're not hurt, are you?"

Dana blinked owlishly and shook her head, "Nuh-uh. But lookie!" She presented Amelia with a bunch of flowers before pointing to the wreath of flowers on her head, "And here too!"

Amelia bit back her chuckle, "That's very pretty."

"Roo-meel made it for me, he can't speak much English, but I'm going to teach him!" She bounced excitedly on the spot; her daughter never seemed to run out of energy. "Aren't they boo-tiful?"

At her pronunciation, Amelia could not stop the laughter that bubbled forth. Gently, a tear rolled down her cheek as she nodded in agreement, "Yes, they're boo-tiful," she said, mimicking her daughter's way with words.

Dana grinned but grew somber at her mother's tears, "Why are you sad Momma? You don't like my flowers?"

"Oh no, honey," she gasped, pulling her youngest child in for another hug, "Momma's just happy."

"So... They're happy tears?"

"Yes, they're happy tears—" Her words lodged within her throat as the sound of a throat being cleared alerted her to the two men that stood silently, watching their reunion. Amelia glared at Haldir, assuming that he was the one in charge of the lunatics that roamed the woods with dangerous weapons. As much as she wanted to believe that she was dreaming, she did not think she was. Her dreams were usually more hazy. Everything around her felt so real, so vibrant and full of life that she couldn't possibly be in a dream. If she managed to find her way out of this situation, Amelia knew that she was going to have to report these strange people to the police.

Holding her daughter close to her side, she turned to face the delusional men who thought they were elves. And so what if they had pointed ears..? They could easily be false. After all, the movie industry was doing wondrous things with latex in the recent years.

"I want my son," she started adamantly, glaring at Haldir, "And then, I want you to let us leave. Do you understand what I'm saying?"

Haldir tilted his head in acknowledgment, "Your son will be brought to you, but I cannot allow you to leave. I was ordered by the Lady to bring you to Caras Galadhon."

Amelia sighed in frustration at the unknown place. She was certain that no such place existed in San Francisco, "Let us go!" She clenched her teeth, holding back a furious snarl as she tried to quell the fear that blossomed within her heart.

The so-called elf held his stance, he opened his mouth to speak but was cut off by her daughter's voice.

"But Momma, I wanna stay for a while! The elves have been so nice, and they're all really pretty."

"Elves are not real, Dana," she snapped unintentionally.

"Then why are they standing in front of us?" Dana asked innocently.

Amelia was stumped. "They're not really elves," she reasoned, "Elves aren't supposed to be like this and..." She trailed off, knowing that she was grasping at invisible straws. They aren't supposed to be so breath-takingly beautiful, she thought to herself. She knew that something was not quite right about the men she had encountered in forest. They were perfection personified, the kind that made her want to weep... She had never met a man with such intense beauty, nor had she seen anything of their like on television. But somehow, she did not think that television could do them justice.

At present, Amelia did not know what to believe.

She slumped down to the wooded floor and barely noticed that her daughter had crawled into her lap. With a detached perception of the activity around her, she watched as Haldir spoke with Dana's caretaker before the strange man disappeared through the opening of the platform, beside the tree-trunk.

There just had to be a safe way for her to escape with her children! Hell would freeze over a thousand times before she let these psychotic men harm them.

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