...
"I'll ask Leanna to draw me next" Pippin exclaimed carrying one of the woman's sketchbooks a blue one.
"Where did you get that, Pippin?" Merryn asked.
"I found it... Laying around..." muttered the little one.
"No you did not!" the other accused "Lady Leanna is very careful with her books it wasn't laying around" Merry tried to retrieve it but Pippin wouldn't yield.
They were both pulling until a scary sound was heard, with their struggle some of the pages had been torn from the sketchbook.
"You fool!"
"What's happening here?" Boromir stood in front of the halflings.
Leanna had thought of Aragorn as a knowledgeable and sane person, a man who's wisdom was beyond the years his face showed, that was of course until that very moment.
"Why don't you try and choose one?" He suggested taking back an elvish blade.
"I still can't believe you actually convinced Lord Elrond to allow me to get a sword, far less grant me entrance to the armory"
The young woman scanned the room, there where many swords there, but for someone who had never before wielded one they all seemed foreign and quite intimidating. The displays on the walls showed a large variety of weapons, longer or shorter swords, twin blades, bows, all of the stunningly beautiful and even more lethal.
"Fine" she sighed in defeat "I'll choose, even better I'll let the sword choose me or something like that"
There where many things about Leanna that made her seem strange to those who met her, she just knew some things with no explanation or any sort of experience. She could tell lies apart from truth and made choices based only on the way she felt towards something or someone and was oftenly right. In that spirit she closed her eyes and breathed in, soothing herself, then she opened them again and took in her surroundings not thinking about anything, just sensing, and there it was, a shorter blade, light and silvered with beautiful engravings on the blade and the hilt resembling vines and a crescent made of moonstone. Leanna took the sword, Aragorn only watched as once more that almost ethereal glow covered her skin while she remained ignorant to it. There was a change in the air, she had been right all along, none of the swords they had considered before was appropriate for her not one but this one. .
"This sword fits you, as if it was made for you, Lady Leanna"
"And perhaps such was the case" Gandalf's voice startled them.
"What do you mean?"
"That is no ordinary sword, young lady for only the proper owner can wield it"
Gandalf's hand was holding the white sketchbook, and then with a somehow kind expression returned it to her.
"Thank you" was all she could muster, receiving the book with her left.
That night Leanna returned to her chambers with a mixture of fear and anxiety, the sword now rested in an equally beautiful sheath white and silvered, the engravings of what she could only describe as an Ygdrassil with a crescent moon reigning over. The memory of what transpired earlier that day still tormenting her, so she seated on the bed wearing a clear blue dress, her legs crossed and the sheathed sword right in front of her. All it could be heard was yhe sound of paper pages turning as Arwen scanned through her drawings on the sketchbook the old man had returned to Leanna.
"Are you certain this all are dreams?" Leanna finally lifted her head to look at the princess finding a nostalgic expression on her eyes.
"I suppose so, I've never seen those images outside of my head"
"Even this one?"
Arwen turned the drawing towards her, it was an old sketch: there was a family, the father sitting on a fallen tree and the mother sitting on one of his legs steading herself with the hands on her husband's shoulders as one of his arms holded her lower back. In front of them were three kids, the elder boy was around eleven years old and one of his arms was over his brother who seemed around eight, next to them sitting between two adult wolves was a young girl no older than six years. Everytime she looked at that picture she felt sad for no reason yet she had never gathered the courage to get rid of the page.
"That's..."
"Leanna, there is such a nostalgic feeling about this image, as if it were a memory"
Arwen was right, the elven's perception of the world was far more deep and wide than that of any human. The woman felt an urgent need to escape, uncertainty was growing in her heart, she was anxious to say the least. A strange pressure was growing in the back of her mind, Leanna massaged her temples with her fingertips.
"Is there something wrong Leanna?"
"I'm not... I'm not sure Arwen" Leanna went off the bed "I'll go for a walk or something like that, I don't know"
"It is almost time for dinner"
"I don't feel like eating anything right now. Sorry"
She went for a night stroll, the path between trees and flowers was much safer than the streets of the city, and definitely smelled better. The night breeze and the presence of the moon did much to calm her heart.
"Good evening, my lady"
She turned around surprised, there was the man called Boromir, much more composed that during the council. His hands behind his back and a soft and polite expression on his face. Now that she was able to look at him without the pressure of a meeting with a bunch of not entirely human people she was able to notice how tall he was, and how his demeanor and complexion exposed him as a warrior. But even if he was not bad at all in the package sense, it still was full of bad temper.
"So I'm not a wench under this moonlight, Sir Boromir?"
"I apologise, my lady there is no excuse for my rudeness"
"How about a fresh start then?" she offered "My name is Leanna"
"Boromir, at your service fair lady" he then showed what was hiding behind his back, Leanna recognized the item immediately.
"Oh I thought I had lost it, thank you" she took it with a sense of relief, the sketches there were all of this new world and of the people she had met there.
"I'm not the one who found it, one of the little ones did"
"Pippin or Merry?"
The man in front of her chuckled leaving her agape.
"I'm sorry but. Are you certain that you are the same Sir Boromir I met hours ago?"
"If I am to be honest, my Lady, you inspire curiosity in me"
"Not the first time I've heard that one" she declared nonchalantly "I'll try and answer your questions as we walk"
He nodded and offered his arm as a courtesy, spending even that little time in Rivendel had made her more aware of this formalities so she accepted the offer and they kept on walking.
"What do you want to know?"
"Where are you from?"
"Afar, I'm far away from my home and have little to no hope of return" she said, it wasn't entirely a lie.
"How did you come to stay here, between the elves?" he asked then once he was certain that she would not elaborate further.
"I was taken from my home, but managed to escape and wandered of into the forest, Legolas found me and brought me to Lord Elrond, they took care of me and have lend me their hospitality since." Again it wasn't a complete lie.
"Then you are not entirely aware of our current predicament, yet you stood for Aragorn"
"I'll stand for who speaks with reason, sir Boromir, It's true that I am an outsider and there are many things I don't know of this land, but I have a mind of my own and will speak it whenever I see it fit" in that point the woman had departed herself from the man "Now if you excuse me, sir"
Next morning she was no longer wearing a dress but black tousers and a white long shirt, elven boots and Arwen had tied her hair in a beautiful braid. Aragorn, faithful to the previous day promise was expecting her right after breakfast for the first day of her swordsmanship training. What she didn't expected was to find not only Aragorn but also Legolas waiting for her. Leanna breathed in, she had skipped breakfast unable to swallow even a bite of fruit. The weight on her hip from the sword was at the same time foreign and soothing.
"Good morning, Leanna"
"Greetings Lady Leanna"
"Aragorn, Legolas" she answered trying not to sound as anxious as she felt.
"You seem tired" the ranger observed.
"I'm fine, let's just please start"
The swords clashed with a metallic note, Leanna turned to the side avoiding Aragorn's blade, she lowered her waist and pushed up her own blade leaving it a breath away from the ranger's throat. Legolas observed astonished, when the practice started it was obvious Leanna had never hold a sword before but now she had been able to stand against Aragorn. The focus on the woman's expression was that of an experienced fighter, even her consciousness seemed a bit off.
The swords were clashing again, and this time she had fell to the ground and quickly evaded Aragorn's stockade with her own sword, yet when she tried to get back on her feet Aragorn managed to make her loose her sword and put his own blade close to her neck.
"Leanna?" the ranger asked, Legolas saw a silver mist swirl around her.
Aragorn sheathed his sword and kneeled in front of her, both his hands on her shoulders. Legolas approached them just when she looked up to the ranger, eyes bright because of tears but lost in a memory.
"Morrigan bless us, I can see you again brother" she blinked then and finally seemed back to her senses "Aragorn, what is it? How?"
Leanna stared at her hands, dumbfounded, an instant later she had fallen to the ground, crouched over herself and screaming in pain while holding her head.
Legolas didn't know when he moved but he scooped her to his arms and took her into the nursing hall, at some point Arwen joined them and also Gandalf, he refused to let go of her as she was now grabbing his tunic as had done the day he found her. It wasn't until Gandalf laid a hand over her forehead and used old magic that she went into a peaceful slumber.
"What is happening to her, Gandalf? She seems afar even now" the elven Prince asked.
" She is far more than we can see and at the same time barely a breath of who once was"
"Her sadness is so strong, so deep that I've been able to feel it as my own at times" Arwen spoke in a soft gentle voice and showed a drawing, Legolas observed it and the strong nostalgic feeling made his heart turn in his chest.
"Those faces I haven't seen in such a long time" said the old wizard.
"What do you mean?" Aragorn spoke for the first time in a while.
"Over three thousand years ago I believe. This was not in her drawings when she came"
"It's from two days ago" Arwen said "Leanna is barely twenty four years old how could she know them? Why would she feel so deeply for them?"
"Because she knew them, because they were her family" Aragorn muttered as he approached Arwen.
Legolas had let the woman sleep on a bed and went back to them, taking the drawing from Arwen's hands when she offered it. He could see it too, the little girl was a younger reflection of Leanna, and there was a familiar resemblance with the mother and father.
"How can it be?" Muttered the ranger.
"She might seem young but her soul is not"
"Is this the reason why she must come with us? If she is really a soul of old we shall not take her anywhere close to the Black Gates" Legolas voice was filled with concern.
"She must come" was all the answer they got from the old wizard.
