Chapter 1

In the dark future of Arda

When I was lucky enough to be allowed out of the basement for anything but serving them I spent what time I could to read books and even peak at the tv. As I started to though every time the story changed into something familiar. Names I had heard before, but could not recall where. When I read a story of Rome it changed into that of some place called Numenor, Of the king's men, Eredis, and the Valar. Yes, Valar.. why was that so familiar? I did not know, but for all I was I wanted to know. Any time I asked my mom and dad or those who said they were, I looked nothing like them. They were fat, drunk, hateful. Their faces were old and looked only for death by their actions… Servants of Morgoth without doubt… what? Morgoth? Who was that… I did not know, yet it felt as I should. Like a memory locked away far in the back of my mind. Still, I was tall slender, with dark long hair, grey eyes, and pointy ears they forced me to hide. Never had I seen any with ears like mine and those that saw called me all kinds of names.

The next time I read a book the story changed from Britannia to Rohan. And Gondor? A song I heard again in my ears. Ney not Gondor… but that of Gondolin… a tear came down my cheek and I knew not why. But it did Gondolin, why is that name so familiar to me? Over the years the song had played in my ears and I had heard of so many places all over yet it always ended with me getting slapped, beaten, or hurt for mentioning them to anyone I could speak to. For they were not kind. They never were kind to me.

Again Mom and Dad were drunk and high. Again I had said something to infuriate and spilled their drink and it had landed me in the dark cold basement of the rundown house we lived in. Again my different looks had infuriated them. No fair skin, my pointy ears, my grey eyes. Clearly, I was not their blood daughter as I did not resemble them. It was just a way of pulling a government check for them to live on. Money meant to help them care for me. My back, legs, arms, torso, and head all hurt when they lashed out at me. All they cared about at that moment was me getting them more to drink and when I tumbled over and spilled some of it they lost it. The punches never stopped or what they hit me with this time. It could be anything within reach. Blood came from my head and mouth. I could not take it anymore I had to get away. I moved over to the window that was high on the basement wall but just at ground level outside. Thankfully there was a table beneath it and I managed to pull myself onto it and out the window.

The night air was cold as struggled to get up and move away from the house. There were no lights that I could see, but wherever I got to would be better than staying here. I looked around and there was a tree line not too far from the driveway, if they noticed I was gone I would at least have some cover there. I could not move fast, but I kept a steady pace at it. I could not stop thinking about what if someone who knew them found me and took me back. But it was worth the risk, or maybe? It could not get much worse. I was tired of the games. The beatings, the cuts I received daily. The way I had been hiding them from my teachers was to protect them. But I did not believe their lies anymore. I did not need them. They did not care about me at all.

As the tree line got close I slowed down, trying to hear if anyone had followed me. But no there was no sound. Just the noises of the night and the dim light of the stars. I kept on moving carefully, trying to stay on guard, but it was hard. The pain all over dulled my senses and made me make mistakes as sitting down for a moment to take a rest in between the trees. A place that seemed safe at the time.

The few moments I wanted to rest turned into hours as I opened my eyes it was near dawn. I could see the tree line still as I was not as far into the woods as I believed and I got up to move when the sound of footsteps came towards me at speed. Moving at all at this point was a nightmare. My body was stiff from the cold along with the wounds made it a pathetic attempt to get away. My fears were soon confirmed.

"Tsk tsk tsk. So you believed you were allowed to leave the nice cozy basement huh?" His voice was angry. Clearly displeased I tried to run. I knew what was to come and turned towards him.

"Ohh my ohh my. Do you dare look at me now? You stupid ungrateful pointy-eared little bitch!" He screamed at me and kicked me hard yet again in my stomach… I could do little but scream and groan…

But did not answer him. Whatever I said would be wrong and my general fear from years of abuse had made me numb to even try. He would do whatever he was going to anyway and the so-called woman living with him would just watch if she was sober enough to stay awake. When I didn't answer him he moved closer. A bat in his hand. His breathing was unstable out of anger. I put my arms around myself to try and protect anything important as there was no doubt in my mind that bat would be used.

"ANSWER ME" He screamed so the birds around us flew away. But I still said nothing and then he started to beat me yet another time. The first swing took me off guard as it came out of nowhere and hit the arm that I held to protect my stomach and lower areas. The next few came in quick succession and I hit the ground hard. Whatever strength I had was used to protect myself as the bat hit again and again. The pain was extreme, and my body broke bit by bit. Barely able to keep my eyes open I saw the sky again for the last time as I believed at that moment. For even as the strikes had stopped I knew I would not see the basement again. Never before had he been this angry or struck me so many times and I was right. The next thing I saw was a revolver in his hand and he sat down over me. Putting it to my head and cocking the hammer. All I could do was to close my eyes as I did not want him to be the last thing I saw.

"This is your OWN FAULT. You should have stayed in the damn basement doing as we told you. God damn freak with those fucking pointed ears." Never before had my hearing been so clear as the metal movements in the revolver cried to me and the next I heard was a song. Silver in the voice it was and I opened my eyes again.

The trees had changed. They were beautiful as they towered over me. Slowly I tried to raise my head to look around. But the pain was extreme. I had truly been broken as I saw the shape of a woman seeing me, stopping. I tried to move away from her. But she was all too quick and dropped down by me. Her silky hands rubbed over my forehead and she was speaking to me in a silver tongue I did not understand, but faintly remembered in a way I could not describe. Her face was of an angel. Her hair was like gold and silver mixed together.

Yet again I tried to pull away even if she was not threatening. She was still not somebody I knew or knew what to expect from her. My flight responses took over and as she saw that she pulled away and turned her head. Screaming in the silver tongue she had been speaking and singing in earlier, I could hear feet moving toward us and in just a moment I was surrounded by others like her.

As there was no escape I mustered my last energy at that moment and let out a cough with blood coming out of my mouth. "Please don't hurt me please." They all looked at each other in shock and the woman that had found me looked at me and spoke again in the silver tongue. Of that day I remember no more.

"Lindir? Are you here?"Celebrian shouted as she put the young elf to sleep. Her injuries were extreme and how could that happen, in Imladris?

"Yes my lady,"said the voice of Lindir as he tried to come through the group of elves mustered around his lord's lady.

"In the name of the Valar" Was all he could say seeing the elf on the ground, her body destroyed by who knows what and in such strange clothes.

"Lindir" Celebrian said firmly. "Get my husband to the healing ward. I and the elves here will get her there. Now hurry off" She said in a very commanding voice. Her gaze back down on the elleth in front of her. All the bones in her arms and legs seemed broken from when she had tried to move away from her, the blood from her mouth was a bad sign, but they would find a way to bring her to her husband. "GO" Celebrian cried as Lindir froze for a moment.

"Yes, my lady" He could say nothing else in his shock and ran off to find Lord Elrond. Where could he be? In his office? Ney. Lindir set off again. Main hall maybe? Ney it is again not there either. Hall of fire then. He looked over at the few elves resting there and asked them if they had seen Lord Elrond and none had. Again hurrying off he could think of no other place than the kitchen. The elven lord was fond of his treats and sweets between meals after all.

"MY LORD" Lindir let out in relief as he saw Elrond taking a bite out of some of the baker's cakes.

"Lindir? What is the meaning of this? There is no need to shout my hearing is very much fine." Elrond said as he had been stopped before he could take a bite out of the delicious cake in his hand.

"I am sorry, my lord. But Lady Celebrian needs you urgently." Elrond got up after putting down the piece of cake and came with him.

"Is Celebrian injured?" Lindir shook his head to this and led Elrond to the healing ward with all speed. Still in shock at what he has seen.

"No my lord, I cannot explain it, but my lady found someone in her yard today" Elrond raised his brow and looked at his house steward as they hurried down the hall up the stairs and past the sleeping quarters and into the healing ward.

He could not but feel relief seeing his wife safe and happy. But what he saw next would shake him for the rest of his life. An elven elleth was on the treatment table. Bloody, cuts everywhere, and both arms seemed to be broken as well as both legs in several places. Breathing heavily like every breath was a horrible chore and of extreme pain.

"My love, who is this? What has happened to her? When did this happen?"That was all Elrond could say.

Celebrian stopped singing in the elleth's ear but kept brushing her hair.

"I found her in my garden, my love. I was looking over the roses and I turned away for a bare moment and then she lay there on the ground in this state." In her own voice, it was disbelief, yet still, she had tried to comfort the now sleeping elleth with a song into her dreams. "She was awake for mere moments before I decided to put her to sleep. My love. She begged us not to hurt her anymore." Celebrian said with a tear in her eyes.

He could not believe his wife's tale, but he could not think of that now. He had to work on the elleth or she would die from the looks of it. He started by examining her body as they cut the clothes off strange as they were, never had he seen elven clothes like this. There were so many scars, all had healed poorly and seemed to have not been treated at all. Both her arms were indeed broken, and so were her collar bones, her ribs, all of them. Many of her fingers. Her nose. She had clearly been through a lot and with the amount of blood on her clothes she had clearly bled a lot. He could not believe her injuries and knew she would have to be kept asleep as much as possible for her bones to heal and for her to not be in horrific pain.

He, Celebrian, and the other healers took turns working on her wounds. After over a day's time, they were done for now. But she was not even close to being out of danger, if she would live he knew not. But he hoped the Valar for it.

"She arrived out of nowhere?" Elrond asked his wife as they finally had time to sit down and eat as the elleth had been treated and were resting for now. The other healers had been sent to rest as well, but Elrond and Celebrian had chosen not to leave her.

"She did" Celebrian responded "I turned away for a mere moment and there she was. As I approached her she tried to move away from me, so scared and hurt." Celebrian said with great sadness in her voice.

"Her clothes are strange, she's not from the valley or any other place I can think of being dressed like that,"Elrond said in his ever-analyzing way.

"she may not be from here," Celebrian said "She did not understand me as I spoke to her in Sindarin. But she has the light in her of the eldar and her looks and form are clearly Elven" Elrond nodded and looked over to the sleeping Elleth. "She is clearly of our people, but I do not dare to look into her mind in such a state as she is in. We will have to wait until she has started to heal properly and we can wake her."

To his words, Celebrian could only nod. The fear the elleth had in her eyes as she moved to her disturbed her deeply. Even in her state, she wanted to move away from her and the words she spoke, It had only fear in her voice.

"I think she tried to speak to me in the common tongue," Celebrian said finally as Elrond looked at her.

"What did she try to say my love?" he asked her and grabbed her hands.

"Please don't hurt me, please" Celebrian translated as well as she could. But the dialect the girl had spoken was so very off. "But it was so very off the dialects of men, but I only know the most common of them, maybe you could understand her better, my love" Elrond pulled her in as he needed to, holding his wife hearing what the elleth had said. His heart was bleeding for her and what she had lived through. "We will see when she awakes… if she awakes." He said as he corrected himself. For she had a long road ahead if she would live in the first place.

They both spent time with the elleth, even if she was asleep over the following days and weeks. Not much else could they do but wait and see. Elrond had his other duties to look after, but Celebrian had not yet had any children and her tasks were put on hold, she had made it perfectly clear to Elrond that she would not leave her side except for some rest and food. She would need someone to be there when she woke up and that was to be her.

"My lady," Arondor said with a comforting voice on Calabrian's fourth week of watching over the elleth. She looked up at him tired and smiled. "Yes?"The healer hesitated before he spoke "I think my lady should be wise and get some fresh air, food, and rest. You have barely left her side and it is admirable" He cut himself off and looked at her. "yes?"Said Celebrian more forcefully as she knew what he was about to say, but she would have none of such talk. She would make it! she has to. "She might not live for all our efforts. The fact she has not awakened" Celebrian just raised her hand for him to Stop speaking.

"You all and my husband have told me the same tale of how she might not live and if that happens it will happen. I will not leave her here alone until that happens. Bring me food if you like. But I am staying here. So does my husband know" The healer bowed to her and moved off, if nothing else he would get her food and something to read. It was admirable what she was doing, he just hoped her heart would not be broken if the elleth died.