A/N: I know! The chapters are getting a lot longer! The third one (I'm working on it...) is about six pages on Microsoft Word! Meh...just read!

Disclaimer: Same as always...don't own, gets no profit...


Chapter 2: The Last Homely House of the Elves

From the moment Arinya dipped her face in the cool, but inviting water she knew all was right.The view beneath the water was crystal clear allowing her to see each and every intricate little carving on the basin.

She giggled, sending a small stream of bubbles right up against her face, which only made her laugh like crazy even more. This was fun, and fun was something she hadn't experienced in a long, long time.

Suddenly, a lurching sensation iron-gripped her stomach, and her face was shoved right against the bottom of the mirror…

But she felt and saw nothing at all.

Her strangled, fright-wrought voice finally pierced the new environment. 'What the hell…?"

It was black, darker than any black she had ever seen before. Darker than the midnights back at home, darker than the blackest dreams she had ever dreamed.

Arinya reached out a tentative hand, and tried to touch something, anything, to cement her to reality.

But all she felt was the nothingness of her surroundings…..and the quick, unsteady rhythm of her heart.

It vaguely occurred to her that she was falling, but that did not register amidst stronger, more overpowering feelings until a speck of light, so tiny it was almost imperceptible against the blackness appeared in her vision.

And she was falling towards it.

Her body strained against the slow, snail-pace speed at which she was falling, but the darkness seemed to reach out a hand and calm her nerves.

Well…..She stopped moving, and let the pace continue as it was.

Slowly, the pace of her dropping into the nothing she was in increased, and the light grew larger and larger, filling her with a sense of rushing giddiness.

Larger and larger and larger…obscuring her whole line of vision…almost…

'AAARGH!'

A glaring sun blinded her as the fall continued, now through open air, the pace reaching breakneck speeds.

And for the first time on her drop, Arinya felt fear.

Here she was, just twenty years old, dropping a few stories, going to break her neck, going to die…

In water?

She caught a glimpse of the crystalline surface of the river before it raced up and met her shrieking face, submerged her in its cool embrace with a mighty crash.

For the second time that day, Arinya Handelson's very uncalm visage was fully underwater in an alien environment.

Though this time, her whole body had followed it in as well.

Her body was slammed against the riverbed, crushing every last ounce of air out of her, heightening her terrified state.

Air! Every part of her body screamed, 'AIR!' and she found all of her limbs floundering wildly to propel herself to the surface, towards the life-giving necessity that was so tantalizingly out of her reach…..

As soon as her face broke the rippling surface of the river, Arinya took the freshest, sweetest gasp of air she had ever taken in her life, then just floated in the middle of the river in her sodden clothes, trying to catch whatever breath she took before the not-so invigorating plunge.

After all (including her heartbeat) had calmed down, she glanced around, and saw and felt pairs of eyes solely fixed on her.

Many pairs, in fact.

Nine wicked, one pure, and one very, very eerily toeing the line, in fact.

As soon as her own eyes landed on the nine pairs of wicked ones, she felt a cold ice freeze her body, paralyzing everything, except fear.

And then the nine pairs of wicked eyes on the nine horses began to splash through the river, all the way to the middle, all the way to her.

The voice of the pure eyes screamed out a warning, to her or the nearing riders unclear, but one thing was: Arinya stayed stock-still, as though unaffected by the events swirling around her.

But in a second, all of that rushed away in a white wall of roaring water.

Through blearing eyes, she could see the riders and the horses and their flailing hooves being swept away alongside her in the crashing, ripping, unrelenting waves. Bubbles swirled all around her, instantly wiping away the luxury of sight, but her mind was strangely clear, clear enough even to churn out a last thought amidst the buffeting water.

I've left everything I could have had…a hard life, but a life indeed…for this…heh….

That was before all the light left her eyes, and the roar of her surroundings enveloped her in a shadowy midnight of darkness.


Gandalf watched the small ups and downs of the sleeping form under his penetrating, yet kind gaze.

Elrond had said that she would wake today…..and he and his foresight had never been wrong yet. Nonetheless, he exhaled slowly in a sigh. Even though patience was a virtue he had long since mastered, waiting still held a certain amount of control over his nerves.

And this kind of waiting pained him; watching the unfortuante souls struggle on the verge of life and the threshold of death always stabbed relentlessly at his heart.

His eyes panned the benign hospital, completely devoid of sound except for the slow breaths of he, the girl, and poor Frodo.

I am sorry, Frodo, Gandalf thought, his head bowing, to put you through so much pain…

'Unghhhhh…'

Gandalf sharply righted his head, only to stare down again at the twitching, quivering body. Perhaps Elrond was right after all.

But a second after the thought had passed, the girl's eyes had fluttered open, and were now, as he had done moments ago, scanned the room.

'Wh-where am I? And who…..oh I am sorry, sir, forgive my rudeness,' she said, blushing slightly.

Gandalf smiled lightly at her, and gave his reply as kindly as he could. No doubt the house of Elrond was far away from where she normally lived. 'Do not apologize, child. This is the Last Homely House of the Elves, the house of Elrond, and I am Gandalf.'

If he had been expecting surprise, or even a gasp, it was not how Arinya reacted.

Her face instantly turned sheet-white, her eyes bulged, and various shades of shock and amazement (with a tinge of fright) passed across her eyes.

But like all humans did, she did not express, but speak.

'Oh. My. God.'

Arinya could only blink, and blink, and blink, and stare up at the old man in front of her disbelievingly.

No WAY…no WAY on EARTH can I be…here…, she thought, trying her hardest to rearrange her very-confused head, with various crazy thoughts zooming around like out-of-control budgies.

'Are you all right?' Gandalf asked, peering at her with an intensity that pierced even through her hazy mind, and made her slightly uncomfortable.

'Y-ye-es, I th-think s-so,' Arinya stuttered out, stumbling painfully over every syllable. God, I can sound like an idiot anywhere!

'Good,' he said, rising. 'I'll send up a servant with some food, and we can talk later.'

Arinya watched as he crossed the infirmary, strode through the door, and left her all alone to deal with her little…

No, big, she amended, BIG….

…problem. A jumble of unfinshed thoughts that sounded much like, 'HowdidIgehereamIgoingbackwasthatGandalfHOLYJESUSCHRIST,' flew across her mind's eye, making her squeeze her eyes tightly shut to avoid the cacophony of sound going off like a cherry bomb.

Slowly, ever so painfully slowly, it subsided, leaving behind but a small train of words. Maybe it's not a problem.

Arinya stared up at the intricate ceiling, pondering her last thought. Maybe it wasn't a problem after all. Maybe it was the escape she had wanted all her life. And she was alive; she had survived that terrible, roaring water.

And as soon as it finished, a slow grin, almost like the one beside the mallorn trees a memory ago, spread across her face. Yep, this was the solution to her problem back at home.

This is my home now, she thought, sitting straighter. I hope.

And the only answer to that lay in Gandalf (and Elrond), whose steps had started to pad towards the doorway once again.


A/N: Well, review! Oh yeah, I'll be changing the title, summary, and my name after I post the third chapter, so don't be surprised!