Disclaimer: I own nothing.
Author's Note: Any time someone is speaking this is in actually spoken in pure Quenya. This will be the case until other wise indicated. I tried having everything spoken in elvish in italics but it ended up being a horrendous amount of text written in italics. If another language is used it will be indicated.
Trust
For the next three weeks we traveled, we were all on foot and living basically on the elven bread, water and what game those with bows managed to bring down as we marched. There was no time for hunting or gathering what food stuffs that nature could provide us with. The cordial I had been given on that first day was saved for emergencies.
Onward we marched southward around the mountains, those who seemed to be guarding were ever watchful to our surrounding. I and my companions lived in fear. The feeling of it was often palpable in the air around us. The Noldo that surrounded me still tended to ignore me with the exception of Tuor, Idril and of course Laiqualassë, who was never far from my side. He seemed to be responsible for the organization of the guards and often Lord Tuor would take council with him. I was grateful for his presence even though I knew he was there because I was not trusted. He was a constant in this life, one thing that I knew would always be there, through all the inconsistency that had become my life in that time.
Aside from Lord Tuor, Idril and Ëarendil, I knew little of the other elves in our company. Although I had not counted I guessed at the time there were well over five hundred elves in our company but short of a thousand. There were many more ellon then there were elleth or elflings. This I later learnt was because many of the elleth had been hidden away when Gondolin had been attacked and had not ventured from their hiding places, thus did not know of the exodus that was taking place.
No one of the company spoke much, yet in every eye the pain and sorrow over the loss of the fairest of Noldo cities ever built upon Middle-Earth was apparent. Lord Tuor led our host with the grim determination of one who saw little light at the end of his path. Had it not been for his love for Idril and Ëarendil I'm sure he would have done some rash, like marching on Angband itself, with nothing but his sword in hand.
In those first weeks my instruction in Quenya continued. In his need to ensure I was not a threat Tuor had instructed Laiqualassë to teach me Quenya as he was also my guard. Laiqualassë¸ was my sole teacher though both Idril and Lord Tuor would take a moment to teach me a word or two if I was near them when they had time. The language was much more difficult to learn than French had been. Half the problems I was having stemmed from two things. This language was nothing like any of the three languages I already knew and also the form of Quenya I had previously studied years before had been later-exilic Quenya, in other words the language that the Quenya these elves spoke would become in some six thousand years. In six thousand years a language changes quite a bit even when those who speak it are immortals. It helped that I was immersed in the tongue, nothing speeds learning like necessity. All those around me spoke no other language in my hearing. This occupied most of my time and kept my mind from the horrors I had witnessed and my own gnawing insecurity about where I was, and why I wasn't at home.
After another three weeks on the road I noticed that my clothes were loose and baggy. The shirt that Idril had given to me now fit perfectly where it had originally been too small, however it was filthy. You can only get something so clean when washing it in a stream with out any soap. My jeans were not much better. They were frayed around the bottoms and there was a hole in the left knee from where I had fallen one day as we marched. I knew I must look like quite the state. My hair was a tangled mess as I had only my fingers to comb it, my hair was long and fairly curly had my figures were not sufficient to keep it under control, often I felt jealous of the elves straight hair for I could only imagine what it would take to get the rats nest out of my own brown locks.
One night I was sitting looking up at the stars marveling how similar they were to the ones at home, there was something missing from the sky however, and no matter how hard I tried I just couldn't place what it was. I sighed and looked around me. Laiqualassë¸ was not far away talking to one of the elleth. He was never far from me, ever watchful of all that moved but he still stayed near his charge. The others were gathered around the fires some speaking in quite voices others just sitting staring into the flames. There were some hurts that time in this world could heal; I wondered how many of these good beings would even have the opportunity to take ship. I shuddered to think of how many would reach Aman through the halls of Mandos.
"Eruanna," I heard someone say, interrupting the flow of my thoughts.
Everyone here used the elvish form of my name and almost invariably they left off the Mernaseldë, with the exception of Laiqualassë. Whenever I did something that caused Laiqualassë to become irritated, mostly it occurred when I allowed my mind to wander from where he wished my attention to lie he would use my full name. This is the only way that my teacher ever expressed his displeasure, never did he raises his voice nor did he speak or act violent manner, he would simply spoke my full name in a tone that would ensnared my attention.
When I looked up and I saw Lord Tuor crouched before me. "Perhaps, now that you know our language you can tell me from whence you came and how it is that you were in Gondolin on the day of its fall." He's voice was gentle and southing yet it held a quality tone that broke no refusal.
"Yes, my Lord," I replied. All the company called him Lord for he was the fëa-mate of their princess. I couldn't help but think of him as Lord, for who in my time could have embodied such honour, courage and chivalry? These were virtues of lost importance in my time; Importance had instead been placed on wealth and who you were connected to. Power was given, not to those who could best employ it for the better of all, but to those who had the largest bank account balance with not a single thought to whether the power would corrupt. Yet Lord Tuor had earned every ounce of the power he had, through his actions and his courage.
"I come from somewhere far from here, both through time and space. By the reckoning of my people perhaps, twelve thousand years and many thousands of miles lie between here and where I awoke in my bed the mourning before Lord Glorfindel pulled me from behind that pillar in Gondolin." When I finished I looked up at the fair man that knelt next to me.
Lord Tuor looked at me aghast. "You are form the future then?" he asked.
"Yes, I believe so. It is the only explanation of my situation that makes any sense what so ever. My name is Anne-Marie, which is as you know in Quenya, Eruanna-Mernaseldë. My family and Clan name is Buchanan, amongst my people a clan is something like a house but yet is very different. I am an academic, studying political science and linguistics, that is the workings of laws and governments as well as languages not just how to speak them but how they are formed and the histories behind their development. There are no words in any language you would recognize to explain my world to you. You must believe me, my Lord, for I know this tale is wholly unbelievable." I took a breath. It was true. How can one explain a world where machines are built things that soar like birds out of metal, and war was fought with explosions and roars not the crash of metal against metal and the hiss of the arrow leaving the string?
"I was walking home from my university; a university is the place one goes to study under the lore masters of my time. The snows had melted enough that could reach the summit of a cliff that over looked a lake just off the university grounds. It is my favorite spot because from there you can see the entire lake and a good portion of the forest as well.
"I stood at the summit of the cliff and was enjoying the feeling of the cool spring wind blowing in my face. I closed my eyes and envisioned that I was standing on the rampart of a great keep; watching my Laird ride in, a Laird is was a lord of my father's people is called. Then the wind changed, not in direction or intensity but in quality. I heard a woman scream and I opened my eyes. I found myself in the nightmare that was Gondolin that day. The rest you know." I finished and let out a deep breath, looking into Lord Tuor's eyes, I saw incredulity in them.
"Ask me not of the future for here and now it the time of crucial decision. I would not have my foreknowledge affect any decision made. I dare not for even the slightest change could effect what may come. There will be pain and anguish to come of this I have no doubt. However, I tell you now that there is hope. Those who dwell in the west will forgive ere the age ends. That is all I can say. I ask you, Lord, to do what you believe you must to protect those you love." I looked into Lord Tuor's eyes and awaited my doom, in my last sentence I had told him to kill me if he believed that it would the correct course of action.
"I do not believe that anyone could make up such an absurd tale. Thus, I must accept it. I believe that you mean us no harm, Eruanna. You may continue traveling with us, if that is your wish," said Lord Tuor.
"I thank you, my Lord," I replied. "I will continue to travel with you for I know not where else to go. This is not my time and I have no home, or family to return to. I hope one day I will be able to return to whence I came, where I belong and continue the life I left. For now I wish only to exist and not to affect what I know must happen for all to be well." I smiled at him; it seemed to ease him a bit. It was hard to smile. After all that I had witnessed and experienced it was amazing that a smile could help ease the grief at all. I wondered if I could ever truly know joy again, if I would ever be able to laugh again as though I did not have a care in the world.
"I will take my leave then," said Lord Tuor. He rose walked back to the fire at which Idril sat with little Ëarendil in her lap, her long golden hair cascade around her shoulders and Ëarendil seemed to be braiding a piece of it from her temples. I watched as Lord Tuor approached the fire, Ëarendil, leaving his braid, reached his arms up to his father and Lord Tuor picked him up swinging him around in a circle. Ëarendil let out a shriek of childish laughter. I smiled once again, when so much had been lost, so much had been destroyed some thing never changed, the joy of a child in his father's arms is one of them.
Lord Tuor accepted my explanation much easier then Lord Gilmir did. The pompous elf continued to say that I was not to be trusted. Gilmir and I would be fated to never see eye to eye. He tried with all his might to turn the others in our group against me; however I had the protection of Lord Tuor and Lady Idril who were much respected by their people, and Lord Tuor they had taken to their hearts as both their guide and chieftain as he had been proclaimed as such by Turgon himself. Many knew of Gilmir's prejudice against mortals and thought naught of the words he spoke, but once something is thought it can't be taken back. I lived many years with the shadow of Gilmir's muttering haunting me.