Hello everyone! Just a quick note for this chapter: each dialogue sentence that is actually being spoken in Sindarin is marked with an asterisk. After this chapter, all dialogue will be in Sindarin unless otherwise stated, until I indicate otherwise further along in the story. Enjoy!

Chapter 5:

I lay awake in my bed, the covers pulled up to my chin in an attempt to ward off the chilly night air. Rolling over onto my side, I let out a long sigh as I readjusted the blankets, tucking them under my shoulders. After a long struggle, I flopped my head back down onto the pillows and stared out my window. Despite that fact that it was closed, the room was not insulated and offered little protection from the damp air outside.

"Leave it to the elves not to consider the needs of us lesser beings," I muttered quietly into my pillow.

I had been trying to sleep since late the night before. I had stayed up much too late, enjoying being able to read some of the books that adorned the book shelf in my room. I had been so engrossed in one about the histories of the elves of Lothlórien that I hadn't noticed how quickly the hours had flown by. I hadn't really been tired when I had crawled into bed, but had decided that I had better get at least a little rest. Unfortunately, I hadn't been able to get a wink of sleep, and now as I stared outside, I noticed in dismay that the trees had begun to shimmer as the sun rose above the mountains.

Groaning, I rolled back over, facing away from the window as the light slowly began to filter through the glass. After several more minutes of squirming around beneath the blankets, I sat up and threw them away. Pulling myself out of bed, I hopped up and dashed towards the closet, where I quickly withdrew a warm cloak and wrapped myself in it over top of my night gown. With a huff, I trod over to the chair in the corner of my room and picked up the book, cracking it open to the page I had marked last night with a piece of hay. Pulling it from between the pages, I laughed despite my exhaustion, remembering how I had come back from the barn one day covered head to toe in the itchy stuff.

Hérion had managed to convince me to help out with bundling up the hay from the last cut of the fall. I had agreed out of pure curiosity. How the elves obtained the hay for their horses had never popped into my mind. As it turned out, it was a lot less interesting and a lot more work than I ever could have imagined. Though all of the cutting had been done days before, Hérion and a handful of other stable hands had banded together to collect and tie up the hay. By the end of the day, I had a lovely sunburn and hay in places I didn't know existed. Luckily, Raina had been able to find me a salve that helped with the sunburn, and I was able to lose the itchy feeling of the sweat and hay with a nice cool bath.

It had now been around three weeks since I had arrived in Lothlórien, and still I was trying to wrap my head around the fact that I was in Middle Earth. Despite the fact that I had been living in this world for nearly a whole month, I just couldn't come to believe the things that were happening to me. Everything was so real, every smell, every sound… But just being in such a magical place still had me feeling like all of it was a dream. A very, very vivid dream. I had felt the sun on my face, heard the wind in the trees. Hell, I had received a mouth full of dirt just the other day riding Faenelin. But I was still in disbelief.

A soft knock on my door brought me to realise that I hadn't read a single word since I had opened the book. Closing it again, I set it back down on the table and looked over to the door.

"Come in!" I called, smiling as Raina entered carrying a stack of blankets.

"I have brought with me some warmer blankets. The summer nights are leaving us, and lady Galadriel thought that you would be needing these," she said as she lifted up the bundle, peering over top of it at me, noticing that I was wrapped tightly in my cloak. "I'm terribly sorry if you have gotten cold."

"Do not worry, I was not too cold," I lied, shaking my head and smiling as I stood to accept the bundle of sheets. Raina looked relieved as she passed the blankets off to me.

"I will be back momentarily with your breakfast," she replied, hurrying out of the room.

"Actually, Raina, I was thinking that I would join everyone else for breakfast later this morning," I said quickly, catching her before she disappeared. Smiling, she nodded and turned away, closing the door behind her.

Turning my gaze back to the book beside me, I pursed my lips. I wasn't going to be able to read any more until I cleared my head. Pulling myself from the chair, I made my way over to the closet, which I opened and pulled out a lightweight tunic and a pair of breeches. Pulling them on, I quickly ran a brush through my hair and threw it up into a pony tail, tying it swiftly with a thin piece of leather I had acquired the other day from Raina. It had been hard to tie up at first, and she had had to help me, but now I was able to loop it around my hair and knot it securely. Taking a look at myself in the mirror, I stood for a minute, looking over my face. It had been difficult to come to terms that there was no such thing as concealer and foundation in Middle Earth, and I had quickly grown insecure about the dark circles under my eyes that I got when I was stressed out. Though I still missed the comforts of being able to cover them up, I had come to accept that they wouldn't be going anywhere anytime soon. Turning on my heel, I slipped on my boots at the door and headed out. I was going for a run.

My breath clung in the chilly air as I made my way quickly down the stairs. Though I had been meaning to start working more on the stairs, I couldn't bring myself to go at a faster pace than a walk, as the possibility of tripping and falling freaked me out way too much. I soon reached the bottom and pushed myself into a jog. Last week, I had decided that I needed to take advantage of the beautiful scenery and had persuaded myself into going for a jog around the city. It had proven too big of a task, as I had ended up walking most of the distance.

I hadn't made it very far, and my breath was already coming in gasps. Furrowing my brow, I pushed through the nagging pain that had started in my calves, thinking back to my high school gym classes. What was it? Breathe in through your nose, and out through your mouth? And I think it was every other step to take a breath? Oh, don't remember. Despite the lack of my scary, fat gym teacher telling me to "push through the pain", I did manage to drive on as my legs burned. It wasn't until my chest felt as if it would burst at any moment that I allowed myself to stop and have a breather.

"Man, I need to get myself a flask," I said to myself as I leaned up against a tree, gasping for breath and wishing that I had brought some water with me. As soon as my breathing had returned to normal and my legs had stopped feeling like jelly, I carried on along the trail.

By the time I had arrived back at the base of the stairs up to my flet, I felt like collapsing on the ground and having a nap right there in the grass. I had stopped to walk three more times, but had managed to run the rest of the way back after my last walk break. I was pretty proud of myself, although at the moment I felt more like vomiting than being happy. Sluggishly, I almost literally dragged myself up the stairs.

When I did finally reach my flet, I collapsed onto the bed, wiping my hair from my damp forehead. I stayed there like that for who knows how long, until I remembered that I needed to get to breakfast. Peeling myself off of the bed, I plodded to the bathroom and filled the tub, not bothering to warm any water. Stripping quickly, I sunk into the cold water, shivering at first, but eventually getting used to the temperature. I undid my pony tail before relaxing back onto the tub, closing my eyes with a heavy sigh. Luckily, I caught myself before I dozed off, and quickly reached for the bar of soap on the little stand beside me. I raised my leg and began to wash it up, scrubbing the sweat and grim from my skin, when suddenly I noticed something off. Hesitating for a second, I stared at my leg and shook my head before I reached out and wiped the soap away, revealing bare skin underneath. In my hand was a small handful of my leg hair. Grossed out and a little frightened as to why my leg hair was falling out, I continued to rub down my legs, horrified when the hair continued to wash off.

Am I sick? My brain jumped to the first logical explanation, and I panicked. What kinds of sicknesses cause hair loss? I wracked my brain but the only thing I was able to come up with was syphilis, which I highly doubted I had managed to contract, since the hair loss was the only symptom. Trembling, I quickly finished bathing before I climbed out of the tub. After I had dried myself off and dressed myself, I left my flet, not so eager anymore to be going down to eat.

Even though I had never attended a meal at the hall since I had arrived, I had quickly learned where it was located. Just a short walk down two flights of stairs and across the wide platform, I found the hall, which was already starting to empty out as it was already nearing midmorning. Hoping that I would come across someone I recognised, I crossed the hall and grabbed a plate, scanning the room as I waited in line to serve myself from the buffet at the front of the room.

It didn't take me long to spot Haldir. He quickly spotted me and raised his hand in a gesture of welcome. I returned the wave with a smile and quickly stacked some food on my plate before turning away towards where he was sitting with a small group of other male elves. I recognised only two others in the group. Rúmil and Orophin were seated beside Haldir, and as I approached, Rúmil smiled at me, clearly surprised to see me.

"Mae l'ovannen," I said cheerfully as I joined them at the table, pulling over a chair from an empty table.

"I believe 'mae g'ovannen' would be acceptable now. I think we are past the formalities," Haldir said with a chuckle. I smiled and nodded in understanding as I sat down beside him. Rúmil glanced passed his brother and eyes me curiously.

*"Has Haldir been teaching you Sindarin?" He asked hesitantly, afraid that I wouldn't be able to understand his question. I grinned and nodded enthusiastically. Rúmil's face lit up as he noticed that I could now speak with him.

*"I'm far from fluent," I replied with a laugh, hoping that I had at least worded the sentence correctly. I had been practicing hard with Haldir every day since my first lesson, and took pride in being able to converse with Raina now. I was still self-conscious about speaking Sindarin in public though, because I had a tendency to say my words in the wrong order. My pronunciation left a lot to be desired, but I was slowly getting there. Slowly.

*"I would like to apologize for the way I handled the situation when we found you," another voice drew my attention away from my breakfast and I looked up to meet Orophin's gaze. Smiling shyly, I shook my head.

*"No need to apologize, I know that must have been quite strange." I said, wondering just how many of the elves sitting at the table now had been present to witness my strange antics.

The rest of the meal went by uneventfully, although I couldn't keep my mind off of the strange events from earlier on in the bathtub. As I finished up my eggs, I had run through every possible health problem that I could think of, and eliminated every single one of them. The hair loss was the only thing I was experiencing, it wasn't even like I had been feeling particularly tired lately, aside from during and after my runs. As I swallowed the last bite of my breakfast, I grabbed all of my dishes and stood up to leave.

"See you later?" I asked Haldir as I pushed my chair back in, balancing my plate and glass in my other hand. Haldir smiled and nodded, and in his eye I thought I caught a glimpse of concern. Hoping that he hadn't noticed my troubled silence, I grinned reassuringly before turning away from the table. I dropped my dishes off on the way out, and started to make my way back towards my flet.

Climbing the stairs took longer than usual since my legs were sore from my run. I silently vowed to myself to never take a cold bath after a workout ever again, and trudged up the stairs.

When I finally passed through the door into my flet, I let out a huge sigh. It wasn't even midday yet and it felt as though I had been up for days. Flopping down onto my bed, I kicked off my boots and stared up at the ceiling, wondering if there was anything that I should be doing. When I decided that there was nothing that needed to be taken care of until Haldir showed up for my Sindarin lessons later, I closed my eyes and wished that I had the luxury of the heating pad that I had used for sore muscles back home.

"Christa?"

I jumped at the sound of my name, accompanied by a firm knock on my door. Blinking hard, I instinctively turned to look for the time but quickly remembered where I was and why I couldn't see my digital clock. The knocking came again and I quickly rolled over and stared at the door, wishing that whoever it was would give up and leave me to my nap.

"Christa, are you in there?"

"Oh crap!" I snapped awake as I recognised the voice on the other side of the door as Haldir's. "Come in!" I called as I quickly sat up and started to fix my hair, which had become disheveled from my tossing and turning during my nap.

"What in the name of Eru where you doing?" Haldir questioned me as the door swung open and he entered, his head tilting off to the side when he noticed my puffy eyes and messy hair.

"Uh, I had a nap," I laughed, slightly embarrassed that I had been caught napping in the middle of the day. Haldir chuckled as well, clearly amused as he watched me smooth down my hair. After a moment, he made his way over to the chair in the corner of the room and sat down, picking up the book that I had left on the table beside him.

"Are you reading this?" he asked me, picking up the book and looking intently at the cover. I nodded as he glanced back over at me, before sitting down across from him at the foot of my bed. "And you are understanding it?" At that question I laughed.

"Yes, for the most part. Like I've told you before, reading is easier for me than speaking. When I see the words in front of me, I have no problems, unless of course I don't know the word. But speaking, I have trouble remembering the right words, I have to think hard." As I finished explaining, Haldir nodded and set the book back down on the table, careful not to displace my makeshift bookmark.

"Very well, we will work on speaking today," he smiled. "From now on, you must do your best to speak to me in Sindarin. No more Westron," he smirked, fully expecting the groan that escaped from my mouth.

"Haldir, did you know that everyone has been calling me 'Tawariell'?" I asked as I walked down the steps next to him. He turned to me, one eyebrow lifted slightly. We had finished with the lesson a little earlier than normal, and had decided to go for a walk.

"What did I say about Westron?"

I blushed and lowered my gaze, pouting slightly. "It's hard to remember!" Haldir laughed.

*"And yes, I knew this. Did you only just notice?"

*"Yeah, the other week, when I was out at the market, I heard an elleth call me by that name. I wasn't sure at first if she was talking about me, but Hérion told me at the stables that they had been calling me that."

*"And do you mind?"

I shrugged my shoulders, not really sure. I hadn't really thought about it much lately. I had been far too busy spending time at the stables with Faenelin and practicing my Sindarin to spend time brooding over what the rest of the elves thought of me.

*"I suppose not, however I wish that my real name was less… Foreign." I chuckled slightly. No matter how used I was getting to living amongst the elves, my name still made me feel like an outsider. Haldir glanced at me as we reached the bottom of the stairs and started to walk across the grass.

*"What does your name mean?" He questioned, curiously. I pursed my lips, trying to remember exactly what my mom had told me when I had asked the same question several years ago.

*"It means 'follower of Christ', which I suppose would mean something like 'follower of Eru'," I replied. I had always wished for a more interesting meaning for my name. "Though it originates from a word in a very old language called Greek, which meant something like 'chosen one', and I always thought that that was too, uh, dramatic so I just stuck with the more modern definition," I added after thinking about it for another moment, laughing.

"Eruaphadriel," Haldir turned to me after a moment. I looked at him, puzzled before he explained. "That's what your name would be in Sindarin."

"Oh," I said, digesting this new information. "That's too long, I think I'll stick with Christa," I said with a chuckle, slightly disappointed that I didn't like my elvish name. Haldir smiled and nodded in understanding.

*"Do your people put much consideration into the naming of their children?" Haldir asked as we strolled through the woods. All around us the leaves had turned a brilliant shade of gold, shimmering in the sun. I had learned through Raina that I had arrived at the beginning of autumn and that the leaves had only just started to turn day before I had arrived. Though they had been beautiful since I had first laid eyes on them, they were now beyond anything I could have imagined and seemed to be made of real gold, reflecting the sunlight like sequins.

*"Most parents spend many months trying to choose a name, but I don't know how many of them spend their time actually looking into the meanings of those names. Some do, some don't, and it depends. I don't think my parents really bothered to, they just liked the name," I grinned and Haldir nodded.

"The elves tend to put more consideration into the meaning of a name than the name itself," he said with a sideways glance at me. I met his gaze and he looked back towards the path ahead of him. I hoped for a moment that I was going to get the meaning of his name out of him, but he did not continue. I could have asked, but I felt that if he had wanted me to know, he would have told me himself.

We had now reached a more central part of the city, and as we made our way along the gravel path, a couple of young elves popped out from behind the trees and raced in front of us, giggling and squealing as they enjoyed their own little game. They were gone as quickly as they had appeared, running down the path before us and disappearing back into the golden trees. Once they were gone, I let out a laugh, wishing for a moment that I was able to be so young and carefree again. We soon emerged into a clearing that I had not yet explored. The space was treeless, a near perfect circle where the grass grew lush and long. A couple of small buildings dotted the meadow, and benches were placed here and there, surrounded by beautiful gardens of bright flowers. I noticed that the area seemed to be a popular spot, and many families were present, sitting in the grass watching the younger elves play. One of the fathers, I noticed, was dressed in a grey cloak, and as he stood to leave, a young elf ran over to his side and hugged him tightly. The elf ruffled the young boy's hair before sending him back out to play with his friends. At this scene, a thought popped into my head.

"Haldir, you've been in the city for quite a while. Will you be heading back to the borders soon?"

"Aye. I've been meaning to let you know. I will be taking a patrol out for three weeks," he stopped as he watched my face fall. I couldn't help but be sad that he would be gone for so long. After all, he was one of my only friends in the whole world. "You will be just fine," he added with a laugh as he watched me work a smile onto my face. He was right, it wasn't like anything that bad could happen to me here, unless I really went looking for trouble.

So, kind of an abrupt ending, but I couldn't think of another way to end this chapter haha… Hope that you all enjoyed reading this chapter, remember to please leave a review and let me know what you thought! A huge thank you to everyone who had read and reviewed so far, I love you all!

-Eru