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Chapter 3: in my mind, in my head
･ﾟ: *･ﾟ* :･ﾟ:･ﾟ
A beam of sunlight pierces through the room and hits Adrienne right across her closed eyelids. She groans in response and rolls over, burrowing deeper under the covers. Bringing a hand up to scratch an itch on her face, she feels the cool metal of her rings and realizes she must have forgotten to take her jewelry off last night.
Last night…
She cracks open one eye, and when the sight before her is not the comforting familiarity of her bedroom, she sits up with a jolt. Unsettled by where she is, she takes in the wooden platformed room–a flet, Galadriel had called it– that apparently served as her bedroom. It only takes a second for the events of last night to rush back to her and she flops back down onto the bed in disbelief.
So that wasn't all a crazy, drug-induced dream after all. That is, unless she's still dreaming. But this doesn't feel like any sort of dream she's had–even including her drowning nightmare. It feels as real as any other day. Perhaps more real.
So maybe she's already been displaying severe signs of experiencing psychosis, and maybe schizophrenia runs in her family. Just because she seems to have been transported to a fantasy land filled with dwarves, elves, and magic rings, it doesn't mean she's lost her grip on reality, right?
Okay, who is she kidding, she's completely lost it. How else does any of this make sense? Time travel? Magic? Fantasy creatures? It all sounds like a bad YA novel.
The very idea of this being reality is too insane to not be a dream.
Or something else.
She knows what the most probable explanation is: schizophrenic psychosis. All the signs were there. She'd been trying to ignore them, but there'd been there nonetheless.
But then again, she's never heard of an experience quite like this. This is a whole other level. Hallucinations are not this detailed, nor do they last this long.
Maybe she has carbon monoxide poisoning like all those Reddit posts where someone hallucinating crazy shit was really just suffering from a CO2 leak and was not, in fact, due to paranormal activity. But again, this all seems too intricate to be caused by something like that.
Another chilling thought enters her mind next: maybe she's dead. This all started when she jumped into that damn fountain in the quad. In the process, she could have slipped, hit her head, and drowned. And then this is all just, what? The afterlife? Or her dying neurons creating some fantasy-dream-like thing.
She massages her temples. This is all so complicated and insane, she's giving herself a headache.
Taking a moment to collect herself, she performs a simple breathing exercise she'd learned in one of her classes. Breathe out for four seconds, breathe in for four seconds, hold it for another four, and then exhale.
When she finishes, she feels like she at least has a somewhat better outlook on the situation. If this is really her reality now, she needs to get her shit together and make the best of this bad situation.
And if she really is losing her mind, she should at least be grateful her hallucination is fantasy themed and not horror themed, and she might as well just go along with it. After all, last night had been batshit insane but it hadn't been sinister by any means.
Speaking of what happened last night, she has no idea how she managed to fall asleep afterward, considering the multitude of thoughts that had plagued her. She chalks it up to nothing less than the magical atmosphere of the place. It just feels calming, all things considered. It's the only explanation, what with everything she had going on in her mind. First of all, there was the fact that she felt like she'd practically just been kidnapped–to a whole different time period at that. Yeah, apparently time travel is possible. And secondly, there was everything that Galadriel had said to her.
She winces at the memory.
It hadn't exactly gone over well.
In her defense, she had just been informed that she had jumped time periods and that the fate of this one is hanging in the balance.
But still…she probably could've been a tad nicer. Especially since, as much as she hates to admit it, there's probably some truth to what Galadriel said. Some.
It was rather selfish of her to say she shouldn't care to help out on this quest just because she's sick of her own life. The lives of, well, however many there are in the world at this point in time are at stake and those of the future. She hadn't meant it, of course, it just came out in her anger. That doesn't prevent a cloud of shame from hanging over her, though.
But what Galadriel had said about her not knowing herself is wrong. She might feel like she doesn't have much of a purpose, but she does know who she is, and she refuses to listen to anyone that tells her otherwise. She's Adrienne motherfucking Woods, twenty-three years old, ESFP personality type. She likes Star Wars and music, and she has an incurable crush on Doja Cat.
She's not sure about a lot of things, but she is sure of herself.
"May I come in?" a soft feminine voice asks.
Adrienne lifts her head to see a female elf with straight sandy blonde hair and dark green eyes standing in the doorway, a wooden tray in her hands. "Uh, hello."
The elleth smiles warmly, taking her greeting as permission to enter. She walks over to the bed. "I am Aurëill. Lady Galadriel tasked me with bringing you breakfast."
Adrienne raises an eyebrow as she sits up. Galadriel had sent someone to provide room service. "Is there any way I could speak to her myself? I have…well, I still have a lot of questions."
She smiles. "She expected as much. But I am afraid that won't be possible for the time being. Lady Galadriel is most busy and is not to be disturbed."
"Of course," Adrienne mutters, dragging a hand down her face. But even if she could ask, Galadriel probably wouldn't answer her questions directly. She seems to like being vague.
"I apologize. But I am sure there will be opportunities in the future."
She gives the girl a reassuring smile. "Not your fault. Anyway, show me what you brought 'cause I am starving, not gonna lie."
Aurëill laughs lightly as she brings the tray of food over and it sounds as melodic as windchimes. "I am glad to hear you have an appetite this morning. I feared you may refuse."
Adrienne offers her thanks before digging in. The arrangement consists of some fruit and what seems to be a pastry of sorts. She's not quite sure what it is, to be honest, but she's hungry and it tastes absolutely heavenly. As she swallows the last bite, she nods toward the fabric folded across Aurëill's arm. "What's that?"
"This is a dress for you to wear today. I was told you have no change of clothes, and that the ones you arrived in are not very appropriate."
She glances down at the clothes she's wearing from the party, feeling like she should be offended. "Not appropriate? But I like them. And they're the only ones I've got from back home."
"I can wash them and return them to you," the girl kindly offers. "But for now you must wear something else."
"I'm guessing whatever time period this is, it isn't proper for me to wear pants, huh?"
"Some female warriors wear leggings, but they are usually worn under long tunics. But for the most part, yes, it is considered improper here for women to wear trousers."
Adrienne chews on her bottom lip. She enjoys dressing up in a pretty dress as much as the next girl, but not all the time. She's much more comfortable in pants and doesn't like the thought of suddenly having to conform to old-fashioned standards because of gender roles. "Would it be asking too much for you to bring me a pair of those leggings and a tunic? I don't want to be pushy or anything, but I'd prefer to wear those instead."
To her relief, the elf smiles in response. "But of course, it is not a bother. I will go fetch them now and when I return I shall take you to become better acquainted with the rest of the fellowship."
The rest of the fellowship. It's so surreal to her that yesterday she was a soon-to-be-graduated-college student on her way to grad school and today she's suddenly (expected to be) a member of some fellowship formed to destroy an evil ring. It's a lot to take in, to say the least.
"Right, yeah," she says, left sitting there as Aurëill disappears.
Unsure of what to do with herself, she takes the time to properly observe her surroundings, noticing the simple yet expertly crafted structure. The room is rather humble, not having much decor, but it's beautiful nonetheless.
As she takes everything in, her eyes come to rest on her miniature backpack she'd discarded on the floor last night. Quickly retrieving it, she opens the top and dumps its contents on the bed, eager to lay her eyes on some contents from home and assure herself that it does exist. It's not much, but it's something: wallet, AirPods, a handful of tampons, some makeup, a pack of gum, and pepper spray.
She suddenly remembers her phone resting in her back pocket and quickly fishes it out. Unsurprisingly, it won't turn on, no doubt due to being submerged in water. She could ask if the elves have rice to put it in and attempt to revive it, but she decides against the idea. Without electricity–which this medieval-ish place clearly does not have–to keep it charged, it seems pretty pointless.
She sighs at the depressing thought of saying goodbye to the addicting device and gets up to move over to the nearby vanity. She then quickly runs a comb through her dark auburn hair before putting it back into a ponytail.
Once she's finished, Aurëill returns with the clothing–which, to Adrienne's great surprise, is rather comfortable. Nevertheless, when she puts her white sneakers on, she's grateful to be wearing something familiar.
The elf then begins to lead her down toward where the fellowship is gathered on the ground and Adrienne has to fight the urge not to physically reach out to the girl for support as they descend down the spiraling stairs. It might not be a big deal for Aurëill, who surely has to do this every day, but for Adrienne, it's rather anxiety-causing. She's also slightly nervous about what comes after the stairs-meeting with the fellowship. She hadn't met them all last night and the ones she did meet weren't exactly thrilled to meet her it seemed. Of course, the circumstances were quite…strange, to say the least.
But more than any of that, she feels awkward not only joining their group so late but doing so shortly after their friend died. Yikes.
They come to the space on the ground where the fellowship has set up camp.
The men all look up, immediately ceasing their chatter. Adrienne awkwardly offers a small wave in greeting, but they only continue to stare at her like they're not quite sure how to act around her.
"I will take my leave of you now, but I shall see you later," Aurëill says, nodding politely to Adrienne and the others before heading back up amongst the tree platforms, leaving her alone with the eight guys.
Great.
She looks over at them and gives that awkward, meme-worthy white people smile. Fake it till you make it is a phrase Adrienne is more than familiar with, especially these past few years. In fact, that quote is her way of life, but everything about this new situation of hers is on a whole other level.
She looks around and her eyes quickly find some new faces. The two she first lands on appear to be more of those–what were they called again? Hobbits! That's right. They're both already staring back, eyes wide with curiosity–one of them much more so than the other.
"I don't think I met you two last night," she says, taking a step forward and offering a small smile. "I'm Adrienne."
The older-looking of the two speaks first, politely responding, "It's nice to meet you, Lady Adrienne. I'm Merry Brandybuck and this is–"
"Did you really rise out of the water in Lady Galadriel's mirror?" the younger one asks in awe and fascination. "From the future?"
"Don't ask her that!" Merry scolds while Aragorn sighs and shakes his head.
"What?" he asks innocently. "Like you weren't interested…"
Merry's face flushes slightly. "Well, yes, but that was a rather impolite way for you to ask."
Adrienne waves her hands in an enough already gesture. "Hey, hey, it's fine. It was kind of blunt, but I'm not offended. Really."
"You're not?"
She laughs lightly. "Why would I be? My–er, arrival does sound pretty outrageous. I'd be curious, too."
The younger one elbows Merry smugly. "See?"
He shakes his head before looking back over at Adrienne. "As I was trying to say, this is my younger cousin, Pippin. But I guess I don't really have to bother telling you he's younger."
She chuckles again. "Well, in any case, it's nice to meet you too. And to answer your question, Pippin, yes; I came from the future. Supposedly. But either way, it's practically an entirely different world than this one anyway. And yes, I did get here by climbing through Galadriel's dog dish mirror-thing." Pippin's eyes grow wide and he opens his mouth to surely ask a question about the matter. "Don't ask me to explain how, 'cause I don't understand it either. I'm having a hard time wrapping my head around this whole thing as it is."
"That's the most fantastic thing I've ever heard! You must tell me everything about your home. For starters, what kind of food do you eat there? Is it much different from ours? Or–"
"Calm down, Pip," Merry admonishes. "We've only just met her, for goodness sake!"
Adrienne shakes her head and smiles fondly at the two hobbits, grateful for the humorous distraction their antics are already providing her in this overwhelming time.
Sensing someone's gaze on her, she turns to see the remaining unfamiliar face–a man who kind of looks like Aragorn but in a different font. Jerking her chin up in greeting, she asks, "What's your name?"
He eyes her warily, but he forces a small smile to stretch across his lips out of politeness as he bows slightly. "Boromir, steward of Gondor. It's a pleasure meeting your acquaintance."
"To be honest with you, I'm not exactly sure what a steward is, or Gondor for that matter, but it sounds dope," she nods coolly in approval.
A bemused expression crosses his face at her words, but he refrains from speaking on it.
"So why weren't you guys there with the rest of them last night when I uh, came through the mirror," she asks the three new men she just met, still struggling to find a word for what happened the night before.
Something akin to irritation flashes across Boromir's face for an instant. "I was wondering the same thing," he mutters but Pippin's enthusiastic response drowns it out.
"Lady Galadriel didn't have need of our presence, I suppose, but by the Valar, I wish I was there!"
"Yes," Merry agrees. "It must have been quite a sight."
"If by that you mean me looking like a confused and annoyed wet cat, then yes," she says with a laugh.
"Did you sleep well?" a rather calm voice asks, and Adrienne turns towards its source–Aragorn. He gives off good vibes, she decides.
"Yeah, actually," she answers, surprised at how odd it was considering the fact she had just portaled to another world, on top of her regular sleeping issues. She struggles to sleep properly as it is, but even with everything that had happened, she'd slept wonderfully.
At her thoughtful tone, the ranger explains, "The forest of Lothlórien is under the magical influence and protection of Lady Galadriel and her Nenya ring."
"Damn, I just might move here then, if this is how I'm gonna sleep all the time" she jokes.
Her joke falls flat as he answers solemnly, "The magic of the elves is fading while Sauron's power only grows stronger each day, there might not be a forest for you to live in even if you were granted the privilege."
She winces. Well, shit. "Sorry."
"It matters not, I know this is all very new to you."
"Yeah, that's an understatement," she says lightly.
"Lady Adrienne," Pippin calls for her attention again. "Tell us more about how you got here. I'm very curious about it all."
"Oh, uh, there's not too much to tell. I went for a late night stroll around my school's campus 'cause I wasn't in a good headspace and I made a wish in the water fountain, jumped in, and came out on the other side–here."
"What did you wish for?"
A lot of things.
Everything.
"Well, I couldn't really decide," she explains. "There were too many things, so I just wished for a whole new life."
"Sounds like your wish came true," Merry offers.
"Yeah. I guess you could say that."
"So why do you have metal in your ears?" Pippin asks, already moving on to the next subject.
"What?" She blinks, bringing her hand up to one of her ears. Her fingers skim over her piercings: triple lobe piercings, one helix, and an industrial bar. "Oh, you mean my earrings. They're just like, for decoration. They're really popular when I'm from."
If she didn't have the fellowship's attention before, she sure does now. They all stare at her, expressions ranging from curiosity to affrontment.
"Didn't that hurt?"
"I mean, yeah. A little. But it's totally worth it 'cause it looks cool as fuck."
"You pierce your own flesh with metal?" Gimli asks. "For decoration? It sounds rather primitive."
"Hey, don't talk to me about being primitive when you guys don't even have flushing toilets."
"What are flushing toilets?"
"Let's just say we have a much more sanitary and efficient way of relieving ourselves, if you know what I mean."
No one responds, however, and Adrienne quickly grows uncomfortable in the awkward silence. She hates awkward silence. "So…anyway, it sounds like we're all gonna be spending a lot of time together, huh?" she comments just for the sake of filling in the silence.
"So you have decided to join us then?" Aragorn asks, sounding slightly surprised.
She gives a tight smile. "Let's just say I've decided to…entertain the idea."
The sound of scoffing causes her to turn around and find the source. It came from Boromir. She merely raises her eyebrows in response, waiting for him to go on with whatever it is he clearly wants to say.
"With all due respect, milady, we do not need someone to 'entertain' the idea of joining us on our quest. This is not the sort of thing you 'entertain' and the fact that you think so only demonstrates that you are unfit for the task."
She frowns. "I think that's a bit unfair of you to say. Like Aragorn just said, this is all so new to me. As in, everything is new to me right now. The world I came from is absolutely nothing like this one."
Elves aren't real.
Dwarves aren't real.
Magic isn't real.
"Exactly. I believe you are far too inexperienced for this quest."
"She will learn," Aragorn says calmly, taking the pipe out of his mouth.
"That is yet to be seen."
Gimli clears his throat and finally speaks up. "I certainly see your point; I don't much care for the girl myself-"
"Um, I'm standing right here."
"-but Lady Galadriel has faith in this here lass, and anyone right by her is right by me. If you can't trust the girl, you can surely trust the Lady of Light."
"Can I?" he asks, earning shocked gasps from Frodo and Sam. "As far as I'm concerned, we can't trust anyone, especially some strange girl that came out of nowhere–even if Lady Galadriel says we can."
"You dare to question the Lady of the Galadhrim?" Legolas, who's been watching silently this whole time, asks, his voice dangerously low. "While we are here, taking refuge under her protection?"
"I do not know what to think, but at least I'm not being overly trusting in times such as these."
"We know who we can trust, laddie," Gimli says gruffly. "That's completely different."
Boromir visibly sets his jaw and looks like he's about to bite back a reply when Aragorn steps forward. "Take a walk, my friend. The last thing we need right now is for emotions to cause rifts in our group."
Casting one last stiff look at the fellowship, his eyes lingering on Adrienne just a fraction of a second longer than the rest, he gives a stiff nod of his head and turns on his heel.
A tense silence follows his departure.
So that was awkward.
Adrienne looks around uncomfortably. "I haven't even been here twenty-four hours and it seems like my presence is causing issues already."
"Pay him no heed, for this quest weighs heavily on us all and it manifests itself in many ways. I believe your joining us strikes a particular nerve of his," Aragorn comments, and Adrienne wants him to elaborate but he says nothing more on the subject. "Some exercise will get our minds off it; I think it's time we start your training."
She raises her eyebrows. They're really just jumping into this thing, huh?
"What sort of training?"
"Weaponry, of course. I am not sure what the world is like where you're from, but here it is vital that you are able to defend yourself, especially in these dark times. Especially if you are to join us on our quest."
"So how dangerous is this quest gonna be, exactly?" she asks nervously. From how he had said it, defending herself sounds like it's going to be a daily thing, which doesn't exactly sound appealing to her.
"How familiar are you with a blade?" he asks, ignoring her question and gesturing to the sword sheathed at his hip.
"Well, I don't know what your standards are, but I think I'm pretty decent. It's actually a flex of mine."
"Oh?"
"I'm a sapphic woman, I have to be at least a little bit obsessed with swords," she says with a laugh.
"A what?"
"Uh, never mind. Let's start these lessons, shall we?"
.。.*・ .。.*・ .。.*・ .。.*・
Metal clangs sharply as Adrienne blocks the blow of Aragorn's sword with the two she was given. Smirking at her accomplishment, she twists out of the lock and goes to stand in a position that says 'bring it,' despite her panting from the workout they've put up for the past few hours.
Disregarding her readiness to continue, he sheaths his sword. "I must ask, how did you come to be familiar with a blade? You clearly know what fighting style suits you," he comments, gesturing to the double blades she bears.
Exhaling, she lowers the swords. "It's kind of a funny story, actually. Growing up with no siblings, the neighbor boys sort of substituted as brothers, and we were all obsessed with Star Wars. So we would have lightsaber duels all the time, first starting with sticks we found, and eventually, we saved up for some of those legit FX lightsabers."
At his perplexed expression, she waves him off. "They're like swords. Except they glow and they don't actually hurt anybody."
"Whatever is their purpose, then?"
"Just for fun," she shrugs, not bothering to explain to him that in the movies they do hurt people, because he doesn't even know what a movie is and then they would be here all day. "Anyway, Ahsoka Tano is my favorite character and she uses two lightsabers, so that's why I adopted the same thing. We got really into it and the duels we had were pretty intense. But the boys moved away and I was upset about it, so my mom signed me up for some weapon-based martial arts classes where it was taken seriously and I learned actual techniques and skills. And I've kept it up as a hobby ever since."
"I see." He nods slowly, clearly not understanding the context of her words but still getting the gist of what she's saying. She took lessons on using sword-like weapons and gained more experience than what the average person of her time has. That's all he needs to know.
"Get some rest, we shall continue your lessons tomorrow morning after breakfast, as we shall do every day until we leave."
"Every day? Isn't that a bit extensive?"
"Not at all. We have much work to do if we are to have you decently trained by the time we depart from Lothlórien."
She sputters, offended. "Decently trained? Not to toot my own horn or anything, but I think my performance today was pretty impressive. Most people are blown away I have any experience with swordsmanship, let alone several years."
"It certainly is very helpful that you have the basic background that you do, but it is not nearly adequate for where we need you to be."
Basic–
"Hey, dude, I think you're forgetting I was holding my own against you today, so–"
"Let's just say I was taking it easy on you."
She stops in her tracks, aghast, while he continues walking ahead. A blush rises to her cheeks and her mouth hangs open, her ego wounded. Once she's able to recover her voice, she calls after him with the lame response, "You're just jealous!"
The humored smirk on Aragorn's face isn't visible to her as he lightly shakes his head.
A/N: pls forgive me for using the 'Boromir causes tension' thing, ik its overdone. Also, to make future fight scenes more realistic I figured id give her *some* experience yk? instead of having her be able to pick it up super fast from scratch or whatever