Disclaimer: I own nothing.

Lailitha

I have little memory from the time we reached the cave where we were to await the rear guard and the beginning of the march onwards to the havens at Avernien. It was due to sheer lack of attention on part. I have been so focused on helping get the others to safety and caring for the much shaken Lailitha, that I gave little to no thought for my own well being.

The arrow wound on my shoulder was quite shallow and little muscular damage had been done. After the initial few minutes it had bled little. Thus, it never crossed my mind to get any attention for it other then having it bandaged. I had simply berated my own weakness as the pain intensified during the march to the cave. I focused on helping those around me and ignored my own pain.

Of what occurred after entering the large cavernous shelter is only a foggy memory. I remember the pain most clearly but little else. My head was pounding and a burning pain lanced sharply through my sword arm whenever I made any attempt to move it. I have a blurry recollection of sitting on a dirt floor with my back against the stone wall of the cave. Lailitha was looking at me with scared eyes so filled already with pain. Mirwen was speaking to me making enquiries; I have no recollection of the actual questions.

I soon lost my tenuous grip on reality, falling into an unconscious delirium. For an indiscernible length of time that may have been a moment but could also have been a life age. I floated in a voiced where little of the world reached me in that dark oblivion. On a rare occasion I could here voices but who they belonged to and what they said I was not able to discern.

The one constant in that void was pain. I was not able to feel its origin; all I knew was that I hurt terribly. I had no memories of my life past or present in that blackness. I was neither Anne-Marie nor Eruanna-Mernaselde; I simply existed floating with only pain as company.

When I began to wake, the first sign was the slowly diminishing of the pain. When I was finally able to open my eyes, the pain was only a dull ache in my shoulder. I could not remember how I had come to be hurt or where I was. My last clear memory was of leaving Nan-Tathen. I felt incredibly thirsty and was sure that I would die of dehydration if I did not get something to drink soon.

I let out a frustrated moan as I tried to bring my world into focus and form the words that my mind wished to speak. Suddenly, I felt someone press a water skin to my lips and murmuring soft words of comfort to me. They laid a gentle hand on my brow smoothing my knotted hair from my face as they patiently dribbled a small amount of water into my mouth, allowing me time to swallow. Once I felt my thirst ebb away I turned my face away frustrated that words still evaded me.

As I was no longer thirsty I felt a great weariness fall upon my mind. My body was begging for sleep however, I had no wish to fall into another oblivion. I did not wish to loose my state of semi-awareness and loose a grasp on my surroundings once again. I wish to know how I had come to be there and where I was. The hand that had been smoothing my hair caressed my cheek gently and I felt the person kiss my forehead.

I let my semi seeing eyes flutter closed as I heard a soft song of well being and peaceful rest drift over me and echo in my mind. A song sung in a deep mellow beautiful voice that seemed to sooth my soul and left me feeling content. My mind calmed and I fell asleep with the thought that I should know this voice.

When I awoke again it was to full clear consciousness. I knew where I was and how I had come to be there. I remembered how I had sustained the injury to my shoulder, but I did not understand why I had fallen unconscious. The wound had not bee sever and it had not had enough time to fester so I was at a loss as to the cause of my infirmity.

I looked to the side of my bed to find the small form of Lailitha curled up next to the palate on which I was laying. Her head was resting on the edge of the grey blanket that had been tucked carefully around me. Her silver hair was spread on the blanket and falling around her small shoulders. I tried to sit only to find that the effort made me feel ill and weak. I opted to lie there. I reached out with my hand to brush Lailitha's hair from her face. My heart was troubled for the pain the beautiful child was suffering.

I must have woken her when I moved because before my hand reached her head she lifted it up and looked at me with her solemn blue eyes. Even in the darkness of the cave it was obvious that she had lost the carefree joy for life that had been so apparent when I had first seen her. It broke my heart to see it.

It was another half week before I felt well enough to really move around the cave. I was weak and at first I needed the help of Mirwen to stand and walk as far from the cave as the privy pits. Mirwen explained to me that the arrow that had struck me had been poisoned, and even two weeks later my body was still fighting the poison of the orcs. Mirwen explained further that many of the weapons had been tainted with poison and many of the wounded had succumbed to the same poison, not to their wounds. Although my wound had been minor to the point of being nearly superficial, I had reacted strongly to the deadly poison. Mirwen confided that they had feared that they would loose me altogether.

Lailitha spent much of her time with me and I found it incredibly endearing how she acted in that time as my nursemaid. She made it her business to make sure that I ate and had water and that I slept well. One day when I had just begun to move around I sent the elleth off to play with Earendil and his friends while I went to talk to Lady Idril.

As I walked through the cave I noticed how few ellon there were, this was shocking as the majority of the Lothlim had been made up of ellon. Tears pricked at my eyes as I though of just how many we had lost during our retreat from Nan-Tathen. Neither Tuor nor Laiqualasse were in the cave and I had seen neither since we had left Nan-Tathen. Mirwen had told me her brother had come through the battle uninjured and were often away from the cave with the other guards and scouts, it was Lady Idril who truly was the day to day leader of the refugees in the cave now.

At this point I was feeling pretty much recovered, aside from the occasional dizzy spell and nausea. I had even done some sparing with Mirwen and Earendil working on my left arm work, as my right shoulder wasn't yet fully healed. It seemed that the poison also interfered with the healing of the wound that it entered through.

I found Idril sitting by the cave mouth mending a tunic and speaking to one of the Sindarin elleth. She looked up as she heard me approaching, as the only mortal, save Tuor, in the group it was impossible for me to sneak up on any of the light footed elves. "Eruanna, it is good to see you on your feet," she said greeting me with a strained smile.

"Thank you, my Lady," I replied. When I felt that I was not interrupting anything important I spoke again. "I came to ask about Lailitha," I said. "I know that neither Curoneth nor Ionvain survived the battle, and that she is left alone. I would like to know what her fate will be."

Idril looked strained, none of her beauty had diminished but the tragedy was seen easily in her eyes. "I do not know, she will be cared for and perhaps someone will take her it but nothing is certain."

"Lady Idril, I would like to take responsibility for her." It was something that I had been thinking about for some time, as I lay invalid. "I know that I won't live long after she comes to age and that it will cause her pain in the future but at least she will have some certainty now," I wasn't sure how Lady Idril would take my request but was rewarded with a beautiful smile from the elven princess.

"It is a generous offer Eruanna, one that I know Curoneth would appreciate. I see no fault in this. So from this day forth Lailitha of the Laiquendi will be foster daughter of the Maiden Eruanna." Lady Idril looked down again at the fabric in her lap and sighed. In a whisper that I could barely hear I heard her say: "What fools were we in leaving the blessed realm."

"Thank you, Lady Idril," I murmured softly before turning and taking my leave.

I spent the rest of the day walking by the side of the river Sirion thinking over the events that had come to pass. I thought to the future and realized that I had fully accepted my fate to live and stay in this time. Although the homesickness was still there with this acceptance of the sharp edge was removed and I felt I could truly live. Now with Lailitha I had something to live for, someone to love. I knew that it was only fair to allow the little elleth the choice to accept more or not for in truth I would die and she would have to deal with that. How did one approach such a subject with one so young? I did not know but I knew that I must.

I head laughter behind me and turned to see Lailitha and Earendil as well as some of the other elfling running towards me. It was healing to see that they could still laugh and smile, that all the pain and sorrow hadn't killed their joy completely. They ran to where I stood.

"Eruanna," said Lailitha looking up at me.

"Yes Lailitha," I replied taking in the gaggle of elflings.

"Mirwen said that we should find you if we wanted to do some sparing. She said that she was too busy to practice with us and that you were good enough to teach us some stuff. She also said that we could have fun watch Earendil chase you around." At Lailitha's last comment some of the Sindarin elflings giggled.

Smiling, I agreed to help them although it was truly Earendil taking his natural place as leader who gave most of the instruction. By the end of the session I sat with my back against a stone watching, completely exhausted. Earendil had enjoyed chasing me around before having me flat on my back with the tip of his stick at my throat. I noticed that Lailitha was a rather tentative fighter who like her mother, was too gentle to really give her all on the fear of hurting one of the others.

We all walked back to the cave as the sun began to sink towards the horizon knowing that soon the evening meal would be prepared and if we wished ours to be hot we had to be at the cave. Lailitha stayed with me as I made my way to my pallet. She had lost the smile that had earlier graced her lips and the sad lonely look that I had been seeing often in the past two weeks had replaced it.

"Lailitha," I said getting the elflings attention. "I spoke with Lady Idril today and we decided that if you want it I will take care of you. You will stay with me and I'll make sure you are okay. I don't want you to think that I'm in anyway trying to replace your mother but I know I don't want to be alone and I doubt that you do." I took a deep breath as she looked at me curiously. "You have to decide that this is what you want Lailitha, because I am mortal and one day I will die. You have to decided that you are okay with that."

Lailitha moved beside me and put her arms around my neck. "I think its fine Eruanna. Nana and Ada liked you and they trusted you and I don't want to ever be left alone."

Author's Note: I sit here with a sigh writing this little note, it is twenty minutes to midnight and I'm waiting for my pizza because I'm starving and I don't feel like cooking. I must extended a massive thanks to Last Temptation of Homer and Yuhi who read through these chapters for canonical and grammatical errors respectively. They both got back to me so quickly this time that I was shocked. Next I must thank all of you who have reviewed this story, love those reviews keep them coming.

I apologies for the wait and admit that the next chapter is still in very rough form. Please be pacient the real world seems to be snatching my attention more and more often.

Best Regards

Elariel