The sonorous voice of Galadriel echoed from the walls of dark cavern. Shadows whirled in the corners of the stony chamber, when she stepped closer, lifting the azure glass in her hand.

"Do you wish to peer into my Mirror?"

I almost laughed. "No" I answered, not without some grim amusement in my voice. I didn`t want any more visions to haunt my dreams.

She looked at me oddly, raising her eyebrow slightly. She seemed distant and cool, lacking the brilliance and mirth which she usually radiated. She stood silently, looking at me dispassionately and I felt more and more uneasy.

Suddenly I heard the sound of quiet steps. They changed tone, trotting hollowly on the stone and a moment later Celeborn was standing on the top of the steps. He glanced in my direction shortly and then he descended the stairs quickly and leaned toward Galadriel, whispering something to her ear.

Galadriel turned to me, surveying me with her piercing gaze. "Tell me, why Celebrimbor deems you one responsible for latest deaths?" It was more an order than a question. Now Celeborn also bore his eyes in me, although his gaze wasn`t as demanding as his wife`s.

I froze under the weight of their gazes and I couldn`t as much as utter a word. Instinctively I tried to make up some parry, but nothing came to my mind.

"Rovalhen?"

Then I realized I was about to tell them the truth. I looked them in the eyes fearfully.

"Because... I killed a... werewolf?" I stammered, clenching my teeth.

Their faces had very peculiar look. Celeborn rose his eyebrows in disbelief.

"Surely you mean the wolf, which assaulted us, ay? The warg? But this does not explain ..." he denied, shaking his head.

"No, I mean a werewolf. The big - you know - long claws, eyes fiery with madness, fangs as long as daggers."

Galadriel threw Celeborn a questioning look, but he stared at me, frowning strongly.

"That is unfeasible. I have not seen it clearly, due to my wound, but that vile species died out an Age ago. You were in shock, bleeding and terrified, that was probably the case..."

"I was not in a shock!" I cried angrily, trying to break through their barrier of disbelief. "I thought I was going to die, that he would tear me apart and eat my innards, so I attacked him with my mind and I... m-managed to crush h-his soul." I finished, struggling over the last part.

They both gasped, shocked by my statement. Galadriel seemed even more transfixed than her husband, for she came to me quickly and caught my arm, looking intently in my eyes. She seemed looking for something in them. There was something about her gaze - anxiety and pity?- that made me shiver.

Then I felt as her hand clenched more tightly on my arm:

"Rovalhen, I need you to grant me access into your mind. I have no right to ask you this, but I have to, for your own good. It may be that we do not have much time left." Her voice quavered slightly. This convinced me more than all her words. I nodded.

She let go of me, straightened and closed her eyes. I was standing in the same spot, baffled. Should I too close my eyes and reach her mind with mine, as with Alcar?

Then I felt as if a soft cloth touched me. I looked around, but I saw nothing. Is this it? I closed my eyes and sent my thought to the place, where this immaterial cloth seemed to be. Suddenly I felt as if I had jumped to the other plane of viewing, or rather unviewing and I saw ... no, felt the light. It was golden and dazzling, as the sun in the noon, but it pulsed oddly. I felt a familiar touch of soft fabric – material of light? – and moments later I heard her voice.

~ Let me in."

All right, but how? I examined my mind in this new way of seeing. It appeared to be the same thing, but it had a different structure, its content guarded by a thick walls. In the same instant I realized in fright that I was outside of it. How is this even possible?! What will happen if I didn`t come back? Would I be forced to be a disembodied spirit?

But in a moment I realized that in fact nothing was wrong, that I can feel my mind and my body both and there was no reason to be terrified. I calmed down slowly and focused on the problem of how to let Galadriel into my mind.

I tried to lower those strange barriers around my mind, but they appeared to be inviolable. I tried picturing the door, though which she could came in, but I wasn`t able to create them. I tried to come out to her, however oddly that sounds, but I was simultaneously inside as outside. Finally I came to a halt, or rather hovered, confused.

I felt that a feeling of choking anxiety, flowing from Galadriel, was clouded by her amusement.

~ Have you never before taken part in osanwe?"

Osa-what? I could only deny.

~ Come, allow me to show you."

I went up to her and immediately bounced into something hard with the consistency of warm glass. Her barriers? I figured they protected her mind, but I have seen nothing, save for the golden glow – the symbol of her feä. I paused, waiting for her instructions.

~ The barriers, guarding mind of every creature are known to create gaps. They may pose as a threat, if we do not notice them in time. There are like breaches then, through which unwanted factors can enter, from bad emotions to negatively disposed fear, increasing the impact they have on us. That is why closing those gaps regularly is such a vital action. They are not a threat then, and can even be used to our benefit, as a door through which our fear can pass out, if the number of gaps is enough, and through which you can let someone in, with your permission." Her glow paled, when she stepped behind her barriers and her voice became barely audible. "The stronger and more expansive mind, the more often those gaps open themselves and the more susceptible is it to intrusion."

~ Then... someone can take over our minds by force?" I asked with fear.

~ Nay" she replied with a slight amusement. "It is one of the unati."

Then her aura darkened. ~ But there are other ways for this."

Before I could ask for anything, she changed her position and her glow slowed to a heart beating in sleep.

~ Look, now I will let you behind my barriers through one of the sealed gaps. We shall be there only a moment, but I ask you to not go any further."

I wanted to nod, but I couldn`t, so I sent her mental confirmation. I was wondering how I could be both in my and her mind, and what the hell are unati and osanwe, but I decided not to ask. I had a feeling it was something I should have known.

When she summoned me, I joined her. She showed me how to find a breach in the barrier. It was an illusion of emptiness, but when I tried to go through, it turned out to be locked. Only when she opened the seal and invited me inside, could I slip inside her mind.

I was surrounded by gentel vibrations and quiet sounds. The soft blowing of the wind, joyful bubbling of water on the stones, swelling of sweet music, emerging and fainting beneath the other sounds – all created the atmosphere of tranquillity. For a moment I thought I heard the deeps sighs of the sea and its salty breath, but the impression was gone as quickly as it had come. Her mind was like a grove, woven from golden lustre. Each tree symbolized a different kind of experience, moving images hung from them like leaves, flowing and whispering at the edge of hearing, each in a different voice. Although I could not see their content, they all seemed more or less happy, and I wondered, where her bad experiences went. 'Somewhere deep under the surface, probably' I thought. 'Hidden from memory and sight.' In the distance shone the walls of the lofty buildings, but I didn`t dare to venture any further.

We left her mind and proceeded to my barriers. They were not far from each other, like a synapse of two neurons, severed only by a cleft. I smiled inwardly, remembering my veterinary studies. Those were cool times.

My smile faded, when I saw, how many unguarded gaps appeared on my barrier. I forgot about the fact that it indicates my expansive mind. How could I have not seen it earlier? No wonder I felt so confused lately. Galadriel hovered nearby in silence, although her feä paled noticeably on the edges.

It took me a good moment to seal all those holes in my defence, although after few wrong tries it went quite smoothly. There were several of them, but bearing in mind that I was on Arda only a few months – a big number. I realized, with an unpleasant feeling, that I have to use parts of my own memory as a seal. I chose those I saw as not so important, but I still felt emptiness, when they dissipated into nothingness.

When I was done with that labour, I did as Galadriel told me and I cracked one seal open, like a swing door. I invited her in.

The music that reached us wasn`t sweet ringing of nature. The echoes of Sabaton and Judas Priest, mixed with Enya, Malukah and some high pitched cries smashed against us like a wave against the cliff. I felt her immense astonishment. I quickly turned off that cacophony, leaving only high pitched cries, which turned to be shouts of the falcon. I dismissed them too after a moment, because they began to irritate me and the silence fell. Yep. And mom warned my about cleaning my place before I invite anybody there. I suddenly missed my phone with collections of songs on it, which lay buried somewhere near the glade, where I appeared in this world. The phone and all of my other belongings, including "The Silmarillion" copy about which I tried to forget. 'You can`t go out of town, remember?' I thought bitterly.

Luckily Galadriel refrained from comment, guided perhaps by norms of politeness. She looked, as if it came to her with difficulty, but I was relieved. I have no wish to explain to her how the music straight from Angband appeared in my head.

~ Now" she exclaimed, drawing my attention "revise your mind carefully. Does something seem misplaced?"

Visualization wasn`t my best side, so my mind resembled a tangled stands of loose thread, floating here and there in the emptiness. I was filled with panic at the thought that the elven lady might be able to see them. Quickly, I scattered the walls around us, forming something in shape of empty hall.

I myself plunged into the whirl of thoughts, searching... I did not know exactly what. Something out of place? Memories like memories – some better, others worse. A kaleidoscope of feelings, experience, beliefs, prejudices and complexes, most so hazy that they were nearly unrecognisable. A life. What can be out of place here?

But then, when I passed the point around which swirled echoes of the awful day, when I broke my leg, I sensed something. At first it was like light turbulence in the air, something stirring on the edge of sensing, so vague I wouldn`t catch it , were I not looking for it. Curious, I turned that way. There was no feeling of space nor time in this state, but the more I walked the stronger it get. Firstly I classified that feeling as unpleasant. Then I realized it resembles a smell of decay and not only smell, the feeling of slimy, warm touch of rotten, whitish meat itself. I shivered with disgust, but I knew I found what I was looking for. I continued onward, pushing the escalating feeling of nausea away.

When I thought I could not bear it any longer I reached the spot. At the sight of what I found there, I felt faint and took a step back in abhorrence.

It resembled some horrible organ, blackened and rotten, throbbing irregularly like some sick, twisted heart. It has grown deep into the structure of my subconscious, with plunging voracious roots. From its interior tentacles were protruding, flaccid and undulating – they were twitching jerkily, as if in posthumous spasms. That being attracted toward its stray memories and on my eyes it caught one of them by looping around it a slippery limb, pulled it closer and devoured. Memory of sunny day I spent with my falcon flickered and extinguished, leaving only horrible hole. Then from being`s viscera emerged another, blackened and terrible, dripping with pain and blood. But it wasn`t the worst thing! The worst thing was that I considered it now as my own! I howled in helpless despair.

~ What is this?" I stammered, shaking. How could I not be aware of the presence of this creature! Nausea were getting stronger and stronger, so I backed yet another step. The abomination swallowed another memory. "No, stop!" I bellowed, wanting to smash it, but it didn`t allow me to approach. It fluttered only with its whitish patches of rot, as if in cruel cackling. It boiled inside me, my feä had to shine with reddish glow, when I lunched forward like an enraged bull, determined to throw this thing out of my mind. Tentacle swing in my direction and I dodged. The stench of decay swirled around me, making me suffocate. I wanted to back up, but I did not know where, everything was shrouded with choking fumes and then the horror overcame me, when I started to lose consciousness. Lose consciousness, in my own mind? In a panic I sped backwards and by sheer luck I fell out of poisonous cloud. The gas dissipated, and again I could see the whitish carcass, which began to suck another piece of my personality, like a bloody dementor!

~ Rovalhen" Galadriel appeared suddenly in front of me, in a fountain of golden sparks. The fumes seemed to have no effect on her. The creature rolled up its swollen flaps, which proved to be its lips, revealing the twisted spiral of a throat, bristling with thousands of pins-like teeth and hissed protractedly.

~ What is this!?" I exclaimed again, when I could already breathe ... think normally.

~ This is a result of your struggle with the werewolf," she said silently, and from her tone I learned she expected this. "Part of his memories, which have penetrated your unprotected mind and focused in this eyesore. Should it stay here any longer, he will consume your personality, making you a monster our race have never known."

Wonderful. At least she was honest.

~ How can I get rid of this...thing?" I spit out the last word in the direction of swollen bulk. It didn`t look bothered. A drop of some liquid dripped from his tentacle on a self-styled floor, evaporating with an angry hiss.

~ I can only guess, Rovalhen. I have heard of only one similar case and from that case I know what will happen to you if you do not destroy it" she said grimly.

~ Well, can you tell me about your guesses?" I asked her in not very polite tone.

Her feä wavered, but she didn`t look offended. ~ You have to let yourself be swallowed and then fight off the memories that it will try to impose you. I believeit is the only way."

Wonderful. Spectacularly. Valar, what a shit I have gotten myself into? And it was just a few months, for Eru`s sake!

I should probably be devastated, but frankly, I wanted to laugh sarcastically. Long life of an Elf! A good one!

I wanted to check on Alcar, talk to him, warn my companion that perhaps we are talking the last time ... but no, I would have to admit to myself then that I may not get out of this alive, and that I could not do.

~ What I am to do, then?" I asked quickly, before my mind could comprehend the whole situation and devoid me of last scraps of courage.

~ You need to provoke him to attack you mentally, at the deeper plain of your mind. Then you will see. Unfortunately, there is no way in which I could support you." Her brilliance focused in on itself, as if she was the one who is bracing herself for deadly clash. ~ Be strong, Rovalhen"

~ I will do my best" I replied, but there was little confidence in my voice. Deeper plain of mind, huh?

I stared at the abomination. It opened its eyeless jaws and gurgled throatily, clearly sneering at me. I felt anger firing my innards and I focused on it, fuelling it even more, so that it burned out all other emotions. 'Come on' I encouraged myself. 'how are you to survive in this world if you can`t take control over your own mind?`

With this oh-so-comforting thought in my head I fell on the intruder, suddenly spreading luminous wings and arranging my front streaks into talons. I cried in high-pitched voice, dodging tentacles and circling over creature`s jaws. If I understood correctly, that was only the higher plane of mental attack. I had to annoy him enough to assault me more deeply.

He was pissed, that was sure. It hissed, gurgled, swung with his tentacles, spreading around the poisonous mist, that made me change my position quickly, and droplets of venom, but nothing else. I was flying over it, dodging its tentacles and trying to dig my claws into the body, but to no avail. I began to lose hope in the success of this plan. What of provoking it if I will be too tired to give him adequate resistance?

I dove again and this time I managed to claw its bulk. Fountain of greenish fluid spurted on my wings, making it difficult for me to escape. I flew zigzag in horror between sweeping mass of tentacles, when a sudden mental blow of its bellowing smashed me hard, knocking me out of the flight. I felt as if wings has been torn from my back and I screamed in pain, failing, failing, failing into the endless abyss of my own mind. Then the actual attack came.

Wrrrrrrrr! The smell, the smell! Mad, delightful fragrance! To chase, hunt down, sink fangs! The land stretches under the paws, fire burns viscera. There! I jump, obstructing his path. Human whelp! From my throat a growl issues forward, he raises a single talon, dull and heavy. I laugh hoarsely, sticking out a red tongue. Come on, mongrel, you have only one chance!

The memory as clear as never before hit me with terrible force. I wanted to stand some resistance, but it was like resisting of a bird, kidnapped by a mountain stream. I fought with all my strength to keep my head above the surface.

Whisk, the sword cuts through the air. Now my turn! Leap, swing of clawed paw, talon lying in the grass. Clumsy whelp, trying to back away, his blue eyes full of terror and tears.

No, I have to fight it. I'm not him! It is not me!

It is not a river that pulls me, the sand, an hourglass full of sand, each grain burns like fire, piercing my body, biting like maggots. I am spinning without sight, feeling, memory...

I lunge forward, sinking my fangs into his side. Scream drills into my ears, I feel the vibrations of muscles howling with pain, being torn by my jaws. Monstrous joy rushes through my veins. Bone cracks, blood splashes, smacks the torn off meet. He falls, whites of his eyes flash, life is living them, when I clench his throat. Satiating prey. I devour it whole.

The wind, the wind from the wilderness tossed me down the rocky slope, as an avalanche of stones. I roll down, failing out of the overhang, smashing in the valley with crashing bones. Stones press against me with a clatter, burying me in oblivion, in unconsciousness.

I hung over cavernous chasm of ancient glacier impaled on an ice spike. Blood drips from my bare toes and down, on the band of poppies, growing on the icy shelf. Poppies lose their petals, they curl up into a soft fluff and fly away with the wind. Just like then, in the mountains...

A quiet glade, in the shadow of a giant poplar. The sun encircles its leaves with a golden light, and lies in a wavy sparkling on the surface of swift stream. I lie among the soft grass and fragrant flowers, chewing a sandwich with salmon and staring drowsily at my mother, who paints with colourful smudges the mountain landscape in the morning, her easel leaning against the trunk of the elder tree. Already the bluish slopes support the snow-white peaks, pine forest waves with dark green and the first trickles of a stream flow in a silvery streaks below.

Wrau! Darkness falls over the clearing, wolf jumps on a woman at an easel, with bristling fur and cutting fangs. The fountain of red splashes on the overturned image and the echo of her scream lingers.

Darkness? Starlings are flying in flocks, and the shadow of hundreds of wings obscures the sun for a moment, beating and squawking. Scream? Mom is screaming with exasperation when her brush splatters red blot, instead of covering the meadow in poppies` petals. She asks dad to take some water from the stream - we will boil the soup over the fire. Dad goes with the pot, ptugging on her dark hair in passing. We are all laughing, together, a happy family.

No! The stream turns into blackened tentacles that grab the man and hurl him against a rock. His skull smashes like a ripe plum, the wolf howling with delight, running with his hungry pack.

Tentacles? No, my dad slipped on a rock and fell into the stream, splashing water fountain. The pot flows away with a stream. Mom drops the brush, in a fit of laughter, and I get up as fast as I can and run in pursuit of the pot. I get him several meters away, where he stopped on a rock and I give it back to dad, grinning at him brazenly. He looks at me for a moment with a serious expression, then dips the pot into the water and pours its entire contents on my head. I scream in surprise, when the cold liquid freezes me, and I glare at him reproachfully, but moment after I start to flee when dad is chasing me with another pot full, roaring like a donkey. He catches my mom, who does not manage to move away in time. Mom looks like a floater now, dressed in thin rags of algae, and my father is standing over her with an empty bucket, chuckling.

A floater jumps at the man, spreading out claws. She cuts through his chest like warm butter, crushes his bones and snatches out red, desperately beating heart. The blood, that could not be pumped out in time gushes from her fangs when she bites into a warm muscle. The man falls to the ground silently, his empty eyes stare into the void, uncomprehending.

N-no...Now it is my dad who is backing up, raising his hands imploringly, with an expression of horror on his face when his wife walks menacingly towards him, lifting the bucket of a blood-red paint. Dad mumbles an apology, and mum stops suddenly, as if in surprise. She stands still for a moment, then sneezes mightily, and the whole red paint leaves bucket and lands with a majestic splash on the dad`s torso. My roar of laughter is suddenly silenced by glares, thrown to me by both parents.

The wolf growls in his throat with a low, startling growl, disrupting the rhythm of my heart that moves rapidly, urging oxygen and adrenaline to run faster. His fiery eyes blaze with a passionate hatred, a desire for revenge, and the terrible hunger that makes him bare his long, whitish fangs. Overgrown claws scratch the soil furiously, when he strides in a half-creep, skirting me, as it was by the caves. His coat fell away in places, exposing festering flesh.

~ Enough" his growl turns into this one short word heavy with mad fury. „This territory is now mine, I will feast and plunder on its might. You shall be flattened and trampled like the vermin you are! Fawn to me, thou pitiful worm and I will release you to the land of my master. Dare to defy me and I shall devour your soul till nothing is left but shapeless scraps!"

~ Your master is long gone, poor hound" I am calmer now, my heart slows, and I approach him cautiously. „Your hate is pointless, your fight is fruitless. What use would you have of my body, beyond the ever tightening grip of sorrow and madness?"

~ These were your death words, two-legged vermin!" he yips and jumps on me in one, springy leap.I do not back away, the space itself moves, throwing him into the void, where he crashes heavily. He scrambles up back to his feet and howls lingeringly, raising an elongated head in my direction and jumps again, only to be bounced off the invisible walls. He stops on the invisible barrier and hangs in the air in the tangle of paws and fur. He tosses desperately, but the walls keep him jammed in the narrow gap of transparent matter. Bloodshot eyes hurl thunderbolts, he snaps his jaws in hatred, but to no avail. In the end, he stops motionless in this twisted position, piercing me with his bloodthirsty glare.

I walk over to him, panting. I look deep into his eyes, slowly drawling words. ~ This is my domain. You have no rights to it, mongrel of Morgoth. Your spirit shall now leave this place and you never again dare to tresspass on something that does not belong to you. I release you now, and you leave my mind, or I swear that you will miss the whips of your master."

Then I bite him hard in the ear, go back two steps and I release the trap. The wolf falls on his mouth and gets up slowly, staggering on his paws. The heat shines in his eyes, he bends his legs, lay his ears down and starts to bare his fangs. I growl at him deep in my throat, baring my own teeth and bristling my fur. The wolf lowers his lip, sets up his ears and looks at me quizzically, like a dog.

~ Leave..."

The animals shakes his head, as if driving the flies away, then he turns around and trots quietly in the distance. He turns again, as if sniffing the air, then strides farther in the same direction. His silhouette blurs, black fur melts into the shadow, and the whole being dissolves into nothingness, as if it never existed. It is followed by a feeling of relief, emptiness and... regret. I close my eyes.

I open them.

I tumbled to the ground, as if some matter that was holding me was now released. My head was whirling, I stretched my hand to the side, looking for support. I touched a rough surface and leaned on it, getting up slowly. My head was strangely weightless.

When the world stopped to spin and my eyes adjusted to the strong, azure light, I saw Galadriel and Celeborn.

'Well, it`s their cave' I thought rather silly.

Celeborn looked from me to Galadriel, shaking his head. "You were gone for many hours..." voice died in his throat when he saw the Galadriel`s face.

She was standing bolt upright, her light eyes widened in utter disbelief. She looked at me like she was seeing me for the first time. Her brows were high up and she looked like she may stay that way. She was clearly in a deep shock, but did she really think my success that impossible?

"Galadriel, what has happened?" Celeborn asked her, touching her arm gently. "Did everything go all right?"

She looked at him with her eyes still full of shock. Then, to my horror, she whispered:

"She is a human."

Oh no.

"What?" grimaced Celeborn.

"She is… was a human" she repeated in such tone as if she could not believe her own words. "And she is not from Arda."

I`m dead right now.

Celeborn looked at me as if asking whether his wife has gone crazy. I opened my mouth to say something, but all the wise words somehow escaped my mind.

"Surprise?" I blurted out at last, shrugging with a crooked smile.