DISCLAIMER:
I do not own, or have anything to do with Lord of the Rings and the story's related characters. The characters Taryn, Nefiáthiel, and Nefára belong to me, everyone else is property of J.R.R. Tolkien.
TRANSLATIONS / DEFINITIONS:
talan- sort of like a loft used by the Elves in Lothlórien to build their homes upon. Also called a flet.
melamin-my love
Far away voices. Male voices. Followed by a deep woman's voice. Despite how deep it sounded to her ears, it didn't grate upon them, instead it flowed over her senses like molasses...a sweet sound, and soothing to her thoughts. The voice made Taryn envision a ravishing beauty.
Those far away voices soon drew nearer, and Taryn heard words. Not English words, but something...different. Never in her eighteen years had she heard such a tongue, and she had taken courses in many different languages: French, German, and Spanish she could speak fluently, but the others...they were nothing like this. She could only describe this language as beautiful.
Taryn tried to open her eyes, and a groan escaped her thin lips as the sunlight made the sensitive orbs feel as if they were being scalded. The beautiful, melodious voices stopped immediately, and Taryn could sense every gaze in the room turn to her. Suddenly the woman's voice began anew. The language was the same as before, still unknown to Taryn, but there was a hint of familiarity to it. Taryn smiled at the sound of such a magical and romantic language...the way it flowed so effortlessly from the woman's tongue, whoever she was.
Taryn kept asking herself why she couldn't have learned this language.
The voice paused for an answer, and upon receiving none, spoke in a tongue Taryn could understand. English.
"Do you understand me, Child?"
Taryn managed a weak nod, but still kept her eyes closed. The woman gave an order in the strange tongue, and immediatey the room darkened. "Open your eyes now, it is safe. No harm will come to you here."
Taryn could hear the smile in her voice, and then did as requested. When she opened her eyes, they took in a sight she was not prepared to see.
The woman was an Elf. She was not; however, just any Elf. She was Galadriel, the Lady of Lothlórien. Taryn took in the sight of the crisp, white Elven garb and knew she had to be dreaming.
"You are not dreaming, Taryn." Galadriel's smile widened as Taryn sat up slowly in the bed and glanced around the quarters she was in.
"This is a...healer's flet..." Taryn whispered to herself, taking in all of the room's surroundings.
"Indeed." The Lady of the Wood nodded and ushered the healers away. "They had thought you would not respond to their treatments, and indeed they hardly seemed to work on you. You are a very stubborn girl, Taryn."
"How do you know my...name?" Taryn regretted the question the moment it left her mouth, but Galadriel simply laughed.
"I think you know, Child." Taryn nodded as Galadriel's face turned serious. "You are not of this realm are you? I can sense a difference in you...that is not in my other Elves."
Taryn began to shake her head, but stopped and looked at Galadriel strangely. "OTHER Elves?"
"You are an Elf, are you not?" Galadriel raised a perfectly sculpted eyebrow in question.
"Me? An Elf? No...no, I'm not. I'm no Elf," Taryn was taken aback by the Lady's question. "Why?"
Galadriel pushed the straight golden hair back from the girl's face and ran a finger along the ridge of her right ear. "This is why." Her finger came to rest upon the tip of Taryn's ear. The girl's hand flew up to touch her ear as Galadriel removed her hand and eighteen-year-old fingers met with a pointed tip.
"No. No, this can't be...I...I'm a human..."
Galadriel looked at the girl as if she had lost her mind. "Well, you may have thought as much before, Bearer, but you must think so no longer."
"Bearer?" Taryn whispered to herself, and Galadriel nodded.
"Yes...Bearer. Did you hit your head, Child? Where did you come from?"
"Cleveland, Ohio..," Galadriel looked at the girl nervously before her gaze fluttered down to the blood red amulet around Taryn's neck. The amulet was swirling jovially and emitting a soft aqua glow, despite the color of the stone.
"Oh..." The Lady of the Wood took the amulet dangling about Taryn's neck in one hand and gazed into it long and hard. Taryn felt a wave of anxiousness come over her as the Elven Queen stared into the gemstone that hung so close to the tender skin of her neck. Suddenly, Galadriel opened her eyes with a start. "A vision has come to me, in which you were a human, barely a girl, who had come into contact with an element of great power. This..," Galadriel took the chain from around Taryn's neck and laid the amulet into the girl's hand. "...is how you have come to be here, and this is also a Necklace of Power."
"A Necklace of Power? I've never heard..." Taryn began, and Galadriel held up a hand to silence her.
"It has been lost for some time now. The fact that you have found it is...a miracle. There was another who was supposed to receive it, although he knows nothing of it. He will be inexplicably drawn to it, now that it is within the forests of Lothlórien. In fact...he was the one who found you." Galadriel searched the girl's eyes, and met with only confusion and fear.
"Because of the Necklace?" Taryn inquired, her green eyes latching onto the bright blue depths of the Lady of the Wood.
"Presumably so," She replied. "And if that is the case, then he will be drawn to you again and again."
Taryn sighed. Who was this mystery Elf?
Galadriel took in her expression and instantly knew what she was thinking. "Would you like to meet him? He awaits your recovery...He wanted to speak with you before, but I bade him wait until you were healed." Galadriel smiled brightly and stood, holding her hand out to aid Taryn's wobbly legs.
"I would love to." Taryn grinned as she took Galadriel's hand, and stood before the door to the outside of the talan the healer's home stood on. Galadriel pulled the door open, and the bright sunlight reflecting off of the glistening tree leaves hit Taryn right in her eyes. She winced at the shot of sunlight invading her eyes until they had adjusted to the sudden stream of bright light. Once her eyes were adjusted, a breathtaking sight met her eyes, albeit that it was not the Elf she had expected. Taryn tried to bow to the Elf before her, but found it increasingly hard to do so, thanks to the immobility that still held partial control over her body.
"Lord Celeborn, melamin, meet Lady Taryn. She will stay in the Realm of Lothlórien until she is fully mended." Galadriel spoke softly, her husband beaming down at the girl.
"Welcome to Lothlórien, Lady Taryn. You are most welcome here." Celeborn spoke gracefully, his white tunic and robes matching the garb of the Lady of the Wood herself, and his silver hair glinting in the sunlight breaking through the treetops of Caras Galadhon to make him seem infinitely more majestic than he looked already. "I do believe there is a Marchwarden who is yearning to meet you...such an enchanting young Elf, you are."
Taryn shivered. "A...Marchwarden? Meet me?"
Galadriel laid a hand on her shoulder. "Yes. Come, we shall lead you to him." Taryn shook with nervousness. She was in Lothlórien, which had quickly become her favorite place by far in Middle Earth over the course of her six years of obsession with J.R.R. Tolkien's fictional world.
Lord Celeborn extended his arm to the girl, and Taryn allowed herself to be led through the trees by the Lord himself. As they walked, she took in every bit of the beauty of the forest she could, quickly realizing that the 'fictional' world she had fallen so deeply in love with was no longer fictional. It was as real as the pointed ears she now bore...which both made her extremely happy, and frightened her to her very core...
Go to story...
Prologue - 1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5 - 6 - 7 - 8
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