Chapter Two
Amidst the unspoken panic of her household, Lady Galadriel sat quietly in a woven chair and stared into space. She knew there was plenty of reason for fear. From what she had heard, the fellowship had broken. Although she had advised Frodo to leave, this was not the way in which she intended. Now Boromir of Gondor was dead, Gandalf the Grey had fallen back at Moria, Meriadoc Brandybuck and Peregrin Took were kidnapped by strange new orcs that the Lady had not factored into the equation, and so now, Aragorn son of Arathorn, Legolas son of the elven king of Mirkwood, and Gimli son of Glóin were trying to find the poor young hobbits, Samwise Gamgee and Frodo Baggins had gone on oblivious to these new terms of events.
A startled yelp shocked Galadriel back to her own present; a giant crevice appeared in the ceiling of her home.
The elves watched in shock as a figure the size of a hobbit fell though the crevice and it closed. They all crowded around, but parted as Lady Galadriel moved to see what this was.
A small girl was crouched in a protective stance, shivering violently and staring at the elves with wide eyes. She must have been about three foot six, or the like. She had beautiful features, the beauty of the elves, but no elven child had ever in Galadriel's memory had such fiery red hair; which hung gently in length with the bottom of her ribs. But no child of the red headed North men had such flawless, elven features. This child- yet when Galadriel looked, she saw no child. The girl was still indeed young enough to be called a girl, but too young to be called a child. She was about fifteen years old, a teenager, half mature by human standards. So she must be a hobbit. Or at least, Lady Galadriel believed this until she saw the tiny, elven shaped feet and took in the severe straightness of her hair, until the last four inches where it flowed into loose curls, not ringlets. No hobbit had had ever had hair that straight or long. This all flickered through her mind in a space of three seconds, but still the Lady sighed impatiently.
"Who are you, that falls from the sky into the sacred halls of Lothlórien!" An elf yelled angrily. Disgust had distorted the features of his face, but fear was what manipulated them.
The girl flinched and opened her mouth. The words that followed blew the elves away. They were as musical as Lady Galadriel's, but soprano, a high, clear sound, beautiful, but filled with fear. It had a slight Australian accent, barely noticeable, but there, and unfamiliar to the elves "I am Ello." She said quietly, her eyes flickering from face to face anxiously though never the Lady's, in something close to shock. "It is short for Ellora." She added.
"And what, may I ask, strange creature, are you; with the features of the elves and the size of the hobbits?"
It was Ello's turn to look confused. "Err...I'm human, what else!" she stated. "Now where am I really? Lórien; as if! That place doesn't exist- neither do hobbits or dwarves or…elves…" she trailed off at the incredulous looks on the faces of the surrounding elves. She looked at their flawless features, there pointed ears. Her hands flew up to her own ears, and she felt the pointed ears, saw the size of the elves, saw Galadriel for the first time, and then moaned softly.
"Dreaming, I'm dreaming, this isn't real! It's just a dream; I knew I shouldn't have watched The Lord of the Rings that late at night. Now I've gone and given myself stupid dreams!"
"Ellora, you are not dreaming. You-oh!" five elves rushed forward in alarm as the Lady's mouth formed a small circle. She waved them away. Then she smiled. This was too much for her discrete bodyguard Mokan. "My Lady…" he whimpered.
"Do not distress, Mokan," she turned back to Ello. "Welcome to Middle Earth, Ello. I am honoured to meet the fist leiveia here since Sauron first gave out the rings." The atmosphere seemed to be filled with murmuring, but no one spoke "I am sorry to have to be the one to tell you of the downfall of your kin. They were all wiped away by Sauron, who believed that they were a nuisance, pests; they were very powerful, very magical, but small, and handicapped by it. Sauron led men to believe his poison, and the young elves as they were called, were all but extinct. Elrond of Rivendell and I found what we believed was the last of your kind, a young male, Shinto, hiding. We were able to create a potion, to mean that if any of his descendants (however loosely descended they may be) found there soul mate then no matter what species their mate may be; any children they have together will be filled with the direct blood of the leiveia, and so could carry on the line. It would have meant any descendant of Shinto would have the ability to pass on the gene, but alas! Soon afterwards, Shinto vanished, and an only witness said he had found an invisible stairway, dangling from a tear in the sky. He had climbed it, and the tear vanished. No one believed the witness. Until today. I believe he climbed to wherever you came from. I believe you are his descendant."
"Look- I'm sorry, but that can't be right. I come from Earth, magic does not exist. I want to go home. If this is the Middle Earth as in Lord of the Rings, then how…. "Suddenly her eyes narrowed. "Is this a hidden camera show?" she growled. Galadriel and Mokan exchanged glances.
"What is a camera?" Mokan asked warily.
Unnerved, Ello drew a camera out of the large bag she carried and filmed a short clip. Then she shakily stood, and showed the clip to Galadriel and Mokan. Their eyes widened.
"They show then on bigger screens." Ello explained.
"Tell me more about this home of yours. Start with your age. Then tell me everything of importance about your world."
Ello took a deep breath. "Um...I turned fifteen years old one week ago. My world is fairly similar to yours. Except, magic is legend, men and animals, birds and plants are the only forms of life there, no elves, dwarves, hobbits…Your world is like our Middle Ages I suppose. Now in my world Men and Women are equal. We use electricity for everything, lights, transport… We have a small switch that heats a whole room, hunks of metal that can be driven, means of transport undreamed of here. Men have walked on the face of the moon, and most people have a TV, it's like a box that shows...plays. But; there are bad things to. Money is unevenly spread, and there is always a war somewhere. Many suffer in poverty and death due to the wars that tear countries apart. And they use guns and bombs, not bows and swords. Guns are like bows, but smaller, more compact. They shoot bullets, one can kill you instantly. Bombs can wipe out whole towns. And, our world is dying, trees are being cut down faster than anyone here can imagine, the population of the world is over six billion. The world is heating up. And in about 100 years everyone is probably going to die, if people don't do something, which they show no sign of doing… This is ridiculous!" Ello sighed.
Galadriel stood. "I want to know; a few times you mentioned the Lord of the Rings. What is it?"
"It is a movie, duh! Well, I know exactly what happened from Bilbo Baggins' 111th birthday. I even saw glimpses of Saruman's creation of the uruk-hai and…. his…. instructions….." she paused.
"It has been shown to me what I must do with you, though it pains me to have to put this on your shoulders, however you will be more easily missed than an elf, there are more disguises you may take, more situations you can wriggle out of and there are many things you can tell to what remains of the fellowship. You will find Frodo and Samwise, and tell them what you told me. Then you must seek out Legolas, Aragorn and Gimli and tell it to them too. Then you can do what you please." She clapped her hands twice and a small bag appeared in the hands of a younger elf. "Thank you Elva. Here are some supplies, a cloak like that which we gave to the fellowship and some other useful items. Here is a piece of clothing Frodo left behind, and this belonged to Aragorn. Where did they go?"
Without thinking, Ello sniffed the clothes, then the air, and leapt up to run out of the palace and down the road they took. Then she glanced back at Galadriel who was smiling, and holding up Ello's bag, in which she had stowed the elven bag, and covered the whole thing in a water proof seal. Ello jogged back in a fluid trot and took the bag gratefully, but then her face fell.
"But they took the river, didn't they? In boats…" she trailed off in amazement as Lady Galadriel laughed.
"Their scent shall not be lost to you. Now, go before your advice is to late too be heeded!"
Ello nodded nervously and sprinted at the speed of a very fast elf. Lady Galadriel stared after her as she dove gracefully into the river.
"Do you know what you are doing?" Mokan murmured.
"I hope so. I truly do."