Two Weeks later
Niamh tried to blink back her tears as she readied the plastic baby for her parenting class, wondering why she had ever agreed to teach the class in the first place. Suddenly the phone rang. "Hello." "Hi, is this Niamh McMillan?" "Yes." "This is the Montclair adoption agency. We've found a baby for you." "I'll be right there." Feeling rather apprehensive Niamh put down the phone and grabbed her purse, heading for the office.
An hour and several phone calls later Niamh and Ernie stood in front of the agency. An attendant showed the couple into a room full of babies. Picking up a baby wrapped in a pink blanket she laid it gently in Niamh's arms. "We found her at Bloomer Park by the pavilion," the worker began as Niamh looked down at the baby. 'She was so cute,' she thought looking at the little girl's blue eyes and blond hair suddenly giving a start as she saw the baby's pointed ears. "She's perfectly healthy," continued the attendant, having seen Niamh's start, "except for that one birth defect. Do you want her?" A quick glance at Ernie showed Niamh her answer. "Of course!"
As they sat in the office filling out paperwork the attendant came in carrying a little dress and blanket. "She was wearing the dress and the blanket was found with her," the attendant said in response to Ernie's questioning look. Taking the two items, Niamh gasped in astonishment. The dress, a light purple in color, was made of the finest cloth that she had ever seen. And the blander......wow! It was a work of art in itself. The name Aredhel was crosstitched in white across the light green fabric surrounded by embroidered golden and white flowers. Somehow, looking at that blanket, made with such loving care, Niamh could hardly believe that the child's family had abandoned her. "There, now all she needs is a name." Said the matron, shuffling through the paperwork. "Are you sure that her parents aren't looking for her?" asked Ernie, voicing Niamh's own question. "Yes," replied the matron, "we found her about two weeks ago and no one's come to claim her. We checked with the police station to make sure."
"We should name her Aredhel,"Niamh began with a tentative look at Ernie. Since it's on that blanket it's probably her name. We could call her Ari for short." Unwilling to upset his wife, Ernie agreed.
Back in Lothlorien
Galadriel was absolutely at her wits end as to what to do next. She had contacted everyone she could think of in her search for Aredhel: Elrond, Gandalf, Thranduil...but it was useless, none had seen so much as a glimpse of Aredhel of Saruman. Even Nenya revealed no trace of Aredhel's whereabouts. Hearing footsteps behind her Galadriel turned and saw Celeborn, the weariness on his face matching her own. "Any luck?" "No," she replied with a sigh.
Thinking he heard footsteps behind him Saruman cringed further back into the corner of the abandoned barn. Perhaps tonight these people would keep out of the town square lone enough for him to perform the spell on the standing stones. No, this mission wasn't going well, not at all. Luckily, when he had materialized the town square had been empty, for the only time in the last two weeks. It was when Saruman had started to ask after bombs and machine guns that the trip had gone wrong. The residents of the small town had looked at him as if he was crazy. It was only when he explained that he was a wizard from another world who needed them to help him fight a war that they had started to chase him with lighted torches. Shivering Saruman curled deeper into his corner. He had barely managed to escape with his life. He had managed to catch at least, the name of this place before they started chasing him. Salem....Salem, Massachussetts.