Disclaimer: I own nothing.

Author's Note: From this point forward everything spoken is spoken in Sindarin unless otherwise stated.

Nan-Tathen

Nan-Tathen was one of the most beautiful places I had ever seen. Every kind of willow imaginable grew there and sparkling streams of laughing waters wound their way through the forest. All told it had taken us almost seven months to reach the willow meads, much longer then Lord Tuor had originally hoped for. How can one describe the shifting paths which mislead and befuddled? We had been attached many times and though we were at time hard pressed to escape we finally prevailed.

We entered the Willow-meads near day break and the air itself seemed to lighten as we walked beneath the trees. Laiqualassё walked next to me. He pointed to each of the different kinds of willows and told me their names in both Quenya and Sindarin. I noticed that Laiqualassё's step had become lighter and was more relaxed although he was still ever watchful and alert. I wondered if there was more to this new found ease then merely walking amongst beauty once more.

I still don't know how Lord Tuor led our company straight to the camp of the refugees who dwelt with in the forest, but half a day's march into the Willow meads we came to their encampment in a small vale at the joining of two streams. The refugees were from many different roots. Here Silvan, Sindar and Noldor elves from many different places in Beleriand had come together almost by chance. Most of the refugees were from Doriath but to the surprise to many among those from Gondolin there was a small group of ten refugees from the fallen city of Nargothrond, from which none were thought to have escaped the slaughter. Some among our company knew these elves and for them it was a bittersweet reunion. Our company began to set up their own shelters among those of the of the refugees. I did not know where to go for Lord Tuor, Idril and Laiqualassё all had gone to meet with those who had taken a role of leadership in the camp, leaving Ёarendil in my charge.

Ёarendil looked up at me with his serious bright blue eyes; I noticed that he would not have to look up at me much longer. "Perhaps, we can go to the stream. I am quite thirsty and my water skin is very dry." He always spoke to me in Quenya, I think as it was the first language he had known speaking it gave him some comfort. Ёarendil ever saw matters as they were and he did not possess any of the childish foolishness that was common among children in my time.

We went to one of the streams where the water ran pure and clean. After drinking our fill we sat together on the banks in silence watching the comings and goings of the camp. I was trying to make up and down of the situations we were in, trying to remember what was to come. Although I did not realize it at the time my memories had begun to fade. I attributed my difficulty in remembering everything I had once known dealing with Middle-Earth to the terrors I had witnessed and having not read the books in a long time.

Ёarendil came and sat on the rock next to the stream against which I was leaning. The stone was a large bolder of cool grey limestone and there was nothing special about it. "Eruanna," he said looking down from his perch at me. I looked up to meet his eyes; it would always bother me to a certain degree to see such ancient solemn eyes in a child's face. "I over heard Nanneth and Ada speaking of you, they say you are a child of the future, but Lord Gilmir says you are child of Melko."

"Well, my Ada's name was James and I am certain he was not Melko in disguise." I replied lightly, the child just on the cups of becoming a youth smiled at my rather inappropriate joke. "A child of the future…yes…I am that…far in the future Ёarendil." He slipped off the rock and sate beside me.

"What is your real name, Eruanna? Nanneth tried to say it but she had trouble pronouncing it."

"I was called Anne-Marie Buchanan," I said this in a soft voice. My name felt strange on my own tongue, seven months had passed since I had been called by that name.

"You miss them don't you? Your parents, your family and your home." It was not a question but a statement. This was how Ёarendil was even as a child. He was very perceptive and it was nearly impossible to keep something from the precocious elfling.

"Yes, I do. My time is very different from this one. You must know very different things to survive there. But I loved my family, my home and my friends." He put his arms around my shoulders and hugged me. He always seemed to know when I need a hug. As young as he was we had become good friends. He was intelligent and cared so much about those round him. I knew he would make a wonderful lord to his people one day.

"Did you have a lover in your time, Eruanna?" he asked. I pulled away form the elfling detaching his arms from around me.

"Why do you ask?" I asked guardedly, I was shocked that he would ask this at all, it was probably the last thing I would have expected.

"I wonder about things. I watch people Eruanna, I take note of how people look at each other, how they interact. Your have not known loves touch, of this I am almost sure." Ёarendil's blue eyes burnt into mine. "Neither has Laiqualassё." With that last statement he dropped the subject leaving me in confused thought.

We sat in silence once again ach of us wrapped in our own thoughts. A slight breeze rose in the east blowing through the branches of willows. I pulled the cloak Idril had given me further around my shoulders. It was late winter and I had no more clothes then those on my back. My jeans were worn over a pair of leggings that Laiqualassё had give me. I had to roll the leggings up at the ankles as I was a good deal shorter then my teacher. I worry my blue sweater and jacket both of which were worn and stiff with dirt and sweat my sweater was frying at the hems. My hiking boots which I had fortunately been wearing the day I left my own time were in better shape then any article of clothing that I had. They were designed for hard use and had stood up well to the long walking. However, they were now laced with thin leather thongs rather then nylon laces.

I knew I looked a mess but I had no other cloths to were. My mind wandered to Ёarendil's comments about lovers. What nine year old child spoke like that? I shook my head and chocked it up to his elven blood. I couldn't help but find it disconcerting. What did I fell for Laiqualassё, I questioned myself. My first though was that he was my teacher, my friend and my guide in this time. He kept me safe through all the perils we had passed in the last half year. Then I saw those bright grey eyes looking down into my won and I shivered. I pushed such thoughts far from my mind.

I had been so deep in through I had not noticed the elleth approaching us until Ёarendil rose to his feet. She was not tall for an elleth and had dark hair bound into a single braid. I had never seen her among the elves of our company although her appearance reminded me of someone. I assumed that she was one of the Sindar as she had dark hair where the Silvan elves were blond.

"Mea Govannen," I said. She smiled a quiet smile in greeting.

"I am Mirwen of Nargothrond," she said in Sindarin Her voice was one of the most beautiful I had ever heard. I was a little shocked for of just over a hundred elves the one to approach us would be one of the few who had excaped the bloody slaughter at Nargothrond. "I come at the bidding of Lord Tuor and Lady Idril. They ask that heir son Ёarendil join them. They are in the dinning shelter," Mirwen indicated the only permanent looking structure in the camp.

"Thank you, Lady Mirwen," said Ёarendil. "I must no keep Nanneth and Adar waiting." With this he flitted away running towards the indicated building.

Mirwen did not leave however. "It was said that a mortal woman had come among the refugees of Gondolin, the Lothlim, as the call themselves now. One of the lords among them speaks ever against you, saying that you are a threat and a spy. Yet you have the faith and support of Lady Idril and Lord Tuor as well as many others among the company. I see no threat in you. Come, you will be staying with me," Mirwen led me through the camp to a shelter on the far side.

"Thank you for you generosity, my Lady," I said.

"There is no need for you to call me my Lady, my name is Mirwen and it needs o embellishment." Mirwen's words echoed very closely those of Laiqualassё months before. "I do not know your name," she said as we entered the make shift shelter.

"I am called Eruanna," I said.

"You said you are called that, but is it not your name?" Mirwen asked with a curious tilt of her head.

"Nay, it is a translation of my name from my own language to Quenya," I replied.

Mirwen nodded her head. "I suppose you would like to bath. I have an extra tunic and a pair of leggings that should fit you. I am so short, its is almost a relief to find one who is shorter then I, and yet is not a child." We both laughed, indeed though Mirwen was shorter then any elf I had met she was still a good three inches taller then my five foot six frame.

"Yes, a bath would be lovely. I can not seem to remember what it is to be clean," I replied. Mirwen nodded sadly undoubtedly remembering her own road to Nan-Tathen, pain flickered across her fair face clouding her bright eyes.

"Come we are not far from the hot spring where the woman bath and do our washing." Picking up a bundle of cloth from the ground she handed me the promised tunic and leggings. Then fetching a second bundle she led me away form the camp. We approached a pool that was surrounded by a screen of weeping willows. I noticed that many of the elleth from the company of Lothlim were already there cleaning both their bodies and clothes. When Mirwen handed me a cake of lavender scented soap I held it as though it were one of the Silmarils.

It took almost an hour to wash all the grim from my body and to clean my now hip length brown hair. I felt my hear and wished fro a bottle of good zero-frizz conditioner or at least a container of lanolin cream. I knew getting the months of accumulated tangles and snarls out of my curly hair was going to be a next to impossible task, and I was lamenting the fact that I would probably have to get some one to cut it for me.

After cleaning my body I got my cloths from where I had left them on a rock next to the pool. My jeans were beyond repair. There were many holes in them and the stitching one the seams were coming loose. I sighed; they had been my favorite jeans back in my own time. My sweater had suffered better than I had thought. I had worn a borrowed chemise as it had been summer in Beleriand when Gondolin had fallen yet it had been early spring in my own time when I had left, thus my clothing had been much to warm for the weather. I noticed that the material of my sweater was wearing thing in places, I decided I would pat the sweater with patches made from my jeans. The leggings were in good shape although they too had a hole where I had caught my leg on a thorn bush one day many weeks before. That too I decided I to patch, this time I would use material that I would remove when I hemmed the too long leggings. Idril's cloak although dirty was in good shape and I marveled once again at how such a light material could be so warm. My spring jacket was still in working order as well. Most of the screen printing had come off the back and one of the snaps was broken but the zipper still worked well. As I washed my jacket I was glad I had talked my mother into buying it for me as it was worth every cent of what she called the outrageous price we had paid for it. My sox, alas, were beyond redemption as was my underwear; I thanked what ever deity was watching over me that my bra was still serviceable.

Once my clothes were cleaned satisfactorily I got out of the warm pool and quickly wrapped myself in the flannel sheet Mirwen had give to me for use a s towel. I don't believe I have ever gotten dressed so quickly, as I did then with the cold air prickling at my skin. Mirwen's clothes were a little tight across the chest and hip and were too long in the arms and legs, as well as the bottom of the tunic that ended half-way down my shins instead of at my knees. It felt so good however to wearing clean clothes again, and thus I didn't care any longer how they fit.

Once I was dressed Mirwen, who had been doing her washing came over to me. "Let me do something about your hair, Eruanna." Said Mirwen, she picked up a brush of stiff bristles and began to work at my hair. In twenty minuets she had worded out the tangles and had braided it back into one thick braid. I was so glad that I would not have to cut my hair, the only thing about myself that I had ever found beautiful. "We should return to the camp, I help with the food preparation most and we have a much bigger group to feed now." Mirwen began to walk back to the camp after picking up her laundry.

"I would like to help as well." I said. "I am not a very good cook but I can watch pots and cut up food stuff," I offered.

"Thank you, Eruanna, help is always needed and readily accepted." We hung are newly cleaned clothing on a line that was strung between two willows near the fire closest to Mirwen's shelter, where they could dry. Then Mirwen led to me where meals were prepared. The collection of cook fires and work tables were wet near the dinning shelter and the entire area was a flurry with activity. Before our arrival most of the refugees had eaten inside the dinning shelter but now there were much too many. I was given the task of cutting up a root vegetable that looked similar to carrots in size and shape but was a brown as tree roots.

I soon learnt that there had been before out arrival about a hundred refugees in the camp, mostly Sindar but some from other elven settlements as well. Though the majority of the refugees were Sindar there were also some Laiquendi and Noldorin elves among them. Our group had been six hundred strong and that was putting a strain on what food there was to be had. Luckily, some of the guards who were in the forest around the camp had brought in a number of deer thus we were making venison stew.

After finishing with the roots I was set stirring a pot of vegetable stew. The Laiquendi did not eat meat and as we had a group of green elves in the camp a meatless version of what ever was being cook was always provided for them.

About an hour after our arrival elves began to filter in to collect there share of the stew. The large dinning shelter had been converted to a house of healing for the injured among the Lothlim. I learnt this when I was given a ladle and two buckets of stew and told to bring them to those within the shelter. For the next two hours I brought stew to the injured and those who were tending them. By the time that all those in the large shelter were fed I was quite hungry myself. I returned to the preparation area with my empty buckets. Mirwen handed me a wooden bowl of soup and told me to return with her to her shelter. She held two bowls of soup herself.

We reached the fire not far from Mirwen's shelter where we had hung our laundry. A dark haired ellon sat with his back to us on a log looking into the flickering flames. Mirwen approached him quietly. She placed a gentle hand on his shoulder and he looked up at her. His hair fell in such a way that I could not see his face. However, I felt that I should know him. I stood back as the two conversed in soft voices, that my human ears could not hear the words they spoke, Mirwen gave him the bold of stew and bowed his head in obvious thanks.

Then the elf rose to his feet and turned to face me. At that moment I felt like a complete idiot. Laiqualassё looked at me with laughing eyes. "Why, little one, do you not recognize your own teacher?" he asked. Thank you, Laiqualassё, I thought. Fro making me fell even more like an idiot then I already do. I thought this in English which I only did consciously when I was feeling emotionally stressed.

I wondered what lay between Mirwen and Laiqualassё. Obviously they had met before today. Could they have been promised while in Arvernien before Turgon had gone to Gondolin and Finrod Felagund to Nargothrond? Had they been separated by their loyalties to different liege lords? For some reason the though of Laiqualassё being promised hit me in the stomach like a fist. Making me feel ill, I tried to ignore this feeling.

"I see you have met my sister, little one," said Laiqualassё. It all made sense, the similarities in disposition, the faint similarities in appearance, Laiqualassё's lighter step as we had entered Nan-Tathen.

"You knew she was here, ever before we arrived at the camp, did you not?" I asked.

"Yes, she is my twin and there is a strong connection between us," replied Laiqualassё. "I know not hat she had survived until stepping underneath the eaves of the willows."

I couldn't help but smile, albeit a strained smile. There seemed to be so much love between these two siblings, who had been separated for so long. For all I felt happiness for them I could not help but feel a longing in my heart for my own brother. Padriage, he was named. It was the Gaelic form of the name Peter. Having grown up in the country where neighbors lived a good distance away and going to see friend involved getting parents to drive you we had become best friends almost out of necessity. We told each other everything; we cried on each other shoulders, laughed together and love each other very much. I had not known at the time if I would ever again see my brother.

"Excuse me, "said before slipping into Mirwen's shelter. I sat on the fern mattress that Mirwen had earlier indicated was my bed. I placed my bowl of soup on the ground. I saw on the mattress with my face in my hands and wept. I had not let myself truly cry for my family before then. I suppose that in my heart of hearts I still wished to believe that I would wake to find this was some absurd dream.

Tears flowed soaking the cuffs of the tunic and dripping onto my leggings, leaving darker splotches on the material. I don't know how long I cried but tears still poured when I felt someone pull me into their lab clasping me to their chest. For all that I had not recognized him earlier I knew it was Laiqualassё. I wrapped my arms around his shoulders crying into his chest as he rubbing my back and murmuring softly in Quenya. Finally, I quieted but I clung to him still. I didn't want to face the world yet, it was too harsh.

"Why do you weep, little one?" he asked speaking softly in Quenya, even though we had spoken only Sindarin for the last month to each other in order for me to practice the language.

"I will never see them again. I will die here and they will never know what became of me. They will think I have been murdered and my body never found or that I ran away , like a coward unable to face the real world." I looked up at him and bit my lip as felt more tears well in my eyes.

"Cry, little one, let it all out," he held me close as I wept again soaking his tunic with my tears. "There is not shame in showing grief. I doubt very much that you family believes you are a coward. There is no cowardice in you, Eruanna…Anne-Marie," she said my real name carefully taking care with each sound. I smiled weakly at his attempt, I stopped crying and pulled away form his so that I could see his face, such a beautiful face.

He reached up and touched my cheek whipping away my tears. "Never think that you are a coward, Eruanna-Mernasaldё. Never let other make you feel that you are."

I hugged him tightly and he held me close. "Thank you, my teacher. Thank you Mellon-nin."

"It is nothing, Eruanna. Come Mirwen frets. She feels it is she who has driven you to tears," said Laiqualassё releasing his hold around my waist. Standing he helped me to my feet. Bending he retrieved my bowl. "It is no longer warm but you must eat." He put the bowl in my hands and led me back to the fire.

Several other elves had gathered there, but Mirwen sat alone. Her bowl now lay empty on the ground and she was staring with a glazed looked at nothing in particular. I placed my hand on Laiqualassё's arm, telling him I wished to speak to his sister alone for a time.

"Mirwen," I said quietly approaching the elleth. She looked up at me there was confusion and hurt in her grey eyes. "Mirwen, I am sorry you had to witness that. Your reunion with your brother threw into stark relieve the loss of my own family. Please do not feel you have done anything wrong. "I said next to her putting my hand on her arm.

She smiled at me; it was a kind smile, a smile between friends. "Eruanna, can I call you a friend."

"Yes, of course. Truly Mirwen, you aren't the only one who needs a friend at the moment." Mirwen hugged me and we both laughed. Laiqualassё saw this as a sign that he could join us. He sat on the other side of Mirwen smiling quietly.

"Eat your soup Eruanna, you need your strength," he said picking up his own bowl and spoon.

Author's Note: This has been changed from its original version because of a lack of consistency with canon that was pointed out to me by my beta. I am working on the next chapter however, I can't make any promises.