Remember Me- Chapter One

Some, if not most, readers of The Goddess' Order are aware that much of the inspiration for me creating The Goddess' Order world is a Lord of the Ring fanfiction that I am currently writing. To be honest, I never planned on sharing any part of the fanfiction online. It is heavily inspired itself from a series of stories, The Mellon Chronicles, written by two people who go by "Siobhan" and "Cassia." The reason I never planned on sharing it is because the plan was for me to take everything that happened in their series and simply write from the perspective of a new character that I would add in. This character ended up being Ellothiel, a young human girl who had lost her memories. Elrond would take her in as his daughter, thus giving her front row seat access to all the events that would occur. In addition to many of the plot ideas and characters being Siobhan's and Cassia's, Ellothiel pretty much starts out as a Mary-Sue. I know many readers are not fond of the amnesia story line, and since I only ever intended to write the fanfiction for myself there are stark inaccuracies in the LotR lore featured in the writing, which I know bothers many fans of Tolkien's works. However, due to a lot of thinking time what with my laptop still being repaired, I decided I would go ahead and post the chapters I have finished. I am not trying to hijack Siobhan's and Cassia's work in any way, and hope this all comes off more as an example of how amazing I believe their work to be as it inspired me to create this fanfiction of my own. I am also hoping sharing the chapters will convince me to finally give them the editing they need, and to simply continue writing the fanfiction as I have pushed it to the side for some time now.

The title Remember Me is a working title, as I have yet to think of a better one for the story. Right now the chapters are sitting in a folder called Untitled 2, which I didn't think would be a catchy title for sharing it on the blog.

So, without further delay, here is the first chapter!

“Estel, I told you to be quiet.” an annoyed whisper came from a bush.

The doe in the glade stopped grazing and looked suspiciously towards the direction the noise had come from. After a moment of silence, she decided all was safe and lowered her head down to eat once more.

The three beings hiding behind the bushes held their breath as they watched this. Their hunting today had been going rather horribly, and this was their first decent chance of actually hitting a target. The one who had shushed Estel notched his bow and took aim. He held his breath and steadied his figure. All he had to do was release his fingers from the string and they would have something to take home for their efforts.

He eased the tension in his hand as he went to release the arrow, but the bad luck continued. A loud snap from the trees across the other side of the glade echoed in the air. The doe took off towards the safety of the woods in an instant. The arrow flew wild and ended up in the ground as its archer tried to hastily change its course halfway through the release. A swear came from the bushes, and the three hunters stood up and walked into the glade.

Elladan went and retrieved his arrow from the ground with a frown on his face.

“That was a beautiful shot El.” a teasing voice said.

Elladan turned towards his twin brother, Elrohir, and only frowned further. The two of them were the sons of the elf lord of Imladris, Elrond. Next to Elrohir was their human brother, Estel, whom Elrond had adopted after Estel’s parents had been killed by orcs.

“Shut up. If Estel hadn’t interrupted me the first time I would have gotten it.” Elladan argued moodily.

“I was simply correcting your form for a more accurate shot.” Estel defended with a smile on his face.

“What was wrong with my form?”

“Everything.” Estel explained simply, which caused Elrohir to laugh.

“Some nerve you have! Don’t forget who taught you how to shoot a bow in the first place!”

“Yes dear brother, don’t forget.” Elrohir joined in, speaking through his laughs. However, he was speaking towards his twin and not Estel, “I taught him. You just showed off.”

Elladan opened his mouth to argue again, but closed it and shook his head. He placed the arrow back in his quiver and started off towards the trees.

“And where are you going?” Elrohir asked as both he and Estel hurried after him.

“I’m going to find whatever made that noise and kill it.” Elladan explained.

“It was probably just a squirrel.” Estel noted.

“It’s still dead.” Elladan growled.

Elrohir and Estel looked at each other and then rolled their eyes. Whatever would they do without Elladan?

They had to run to catch up to his fast pace. The three of them entered the shade of the woods and looked about, but there was nothing to be found. There was no sign of whatever had made the noise, and there wasn’t a squirrel in sight. Yet just because they couldn’t see it didn’t mean it wasn’t there. Even without hearing as good as his brothers, Estel could still sense there was a presence nearby.

“What do you think it is?” Estel whispered as softly as he possibly could.

The presence he felt was strange. It didn’t feel like an animal. Elrohir shrugged and then put his finger to his lips for silence. He pointed to a tree a little ways off.

Elladan nodded and started to creep swiftly towards the tree― quiet as silence itself. He grabbed another arrow and notched it. His fingers slid gently over the feathers as he prepared to draw at a second’s notice. Elrohir and Estel both held their breath and waited anxiously as Elladan approached the tree. Whatever was behind the thick trunk knew they were there, and it was only a matter of seconds before the chaos would be released.

Elladan took one step around the tree and felt the thing on the other side twitch with fear. It was certainly an odd creature. Elladan couldn’t quite tell what it was. Any normal animal would have tried to make a run for it by now, but this thing was just standing there as if it didn’t know what to do.

With one last deep breath, Elladan jumped to the other side and pulled the arrow back as far as he could. He aimed and started to release when his eyes grew wide as he saw exactly what was on the other side. Panicking, Elladan shoved his bow up so the arrow went wild into the air. It crashed through branches before falling pitifully back to the ground.

Meanwhile, the creature on the other side of the tree had leaped with fright when the elf suddenly appeared. She tried to get away, but only ended up tripping over her feet and falling backwards onto the grass. Too frozen to do anything else, she stared up at the tall being with a look of horror etched on her pale face.

“What on arda?!”

“A girl?!”

Estel and Elrohir cried over each other when the small child had fallen into their view. They dashed towards her while Elladan continued to look down with utter surprise and shock. His mouth was open slightly in awe, and all sensible thought seemed to have left him. He did nothing but stand there and lock eyes with the large, stunning green ones looking back at him.

Elrohir reached them first, which brought Elladan out of his stupor. Elrohir glanced at him quickly before kneeling down next to the girl. He judged the girl with wavy, golden locks to be no more than four years old― if she was even that. His eyes were also drawn to the thick bandage wrapped around her head with a dark red stain on one side. His healer instincts told him that her pale complexion wasn’t just due to fear, and that her thin frame wasn’t natural for a child so young. It didn’t take a genius to see that something was very wrong, but Elrohir pushed those thoughts to the side and smiled kindly towards the girl.

“Are you alright?” he asked softly as he held his hand out towards her.

Expectedly, she shifted away from him. All three brothers could tell she wanted to run, but lacked the strength to even stand up.

“My name is Elrohir, and these are my brothers Elladan and Estel. What’s your name?” Elrohir changed the topic.

He continued to offer his hand to her. She eyed it hesitantly, but didn’t move away this time. She didn’t answer again either, but shook her head.

“Okay, well we live in Imladris. Where do you live? Is it around here?” Elrohir kept going. The girl continued her silence. Elrohir wanted to sigh. This wasn’t a very useful conversation.

A hand was placed on Elrohir’s shoulder, and he turned to see Estel kneeling down taking something out of his pack. He unwrapped a small bundle, which turned out to be half of his fruit from their lunch. Estel offered it to the girl. She stared at it for a moment before snatching it out of his hand and munching on it hungrily. The juice dripped down her chin and onto her dress, but she didn’t mind at all. The fruit was gone in a matter of seconds. She looked back at Estel expectantly. Estel hesitated. That was all he had with him. He glanced at each of his brothers, but they both shook their heads. The girl frowned.

“I’ll tell you what. Come with us, and we’ll get you more to eat along with some nice, fresh clothes. Is that alright?” Elrohir tried a new tactic.

The girl seemed willing to go at that idea, but her eyes shifted back towards Elladan who had watched the scene in silence. He recognized the fear on her face. He lowered his eyes as a symbol of tameness. Elrohir placed a gentle hand on her arm. She flinched, but made no other movements.

“Don’t worry. None of us will hurt you. We’re only going to help. Would you like some assistance getting up?” Elrohir kept an encouraging smile as he spoke.

The girl’s walls broke a little. She nodded. She lifted her arms up, and Elrohir easily picked her up and held her against him. In his warm hold, the girl was comforted and she snuggled against his chest. Elrohir held onto her a little tighter. She was no longer looking at his face, so he frowned and furrowed his brows a little. The child had appeared very thin, but when he picked her up the lack of weight absolutely disturbed him. It was if there was nothing to her― like she was hollow inside.

The three brothers looked at each other before starting the way back towards Imladris. It was silent among them for they knew not what to say. Hundreds of questions were going through their minds, but it wasn’t the time to try and get them answered. The tiny child who had quickly fallen asleep in Elrohir’s arms was injured, starved, and probably very far from home. They hoped their father would know what to do, yet there wasn’t a lot of worry about that. Elrond always knew what to do.

“Ah, you three are back! I hope you were able to catch a lot, although it seems you are returning empty handed.”

Elrohir, Elladan, and Estel were greeted by the head house staff member and one of Elrond’s closest friends, Celboril. They had barely made it halfway through the grounds when he rushed up to meet them. He had been the one who had sent them hunting. For days on end he had been complaining about how the stores were low due to their desire to laze about instead of getting food. The brothers had pointed out that there were plenty of others capable of hunting, but it had been useless in the end.

“Not empty handed, no.” Elladan pointed out.

Celboril gave him a confused stare. Elladan moved to the side to reveal Elrohir carrying the girl, who was still sleeping soundly. Celboril blinked a couple times.

“Oh my, is that…”

“A human girl.” Estel finished his sentence. “We found her in the woods above the falls.”

“She’s injured, and needs to be seen to immediately.” Elrohir said.

“Of course! Of course. Your father is in his study. I will go get him.” Celboril offered.

“Thank you. We will take her to my room.” Elrohir said.

Celboril nodded and took off. His robes billowed behind him as he rushed towards Elrond’s study.

The brothers continued their trip to Elrohir’s room. While Elrohir tenderly placed the girl on top of the sheets and took off her shoes, Elladan poked the embers in the fireplace to get a fire going again. The cooler weather of autumn did not bother the elves, but he knew humans were much more susceptible to the cold and changes in weather. With as thin as the girl was, she had to be freezing. Estel had just finished placing a blanket over her when Elrond entered the room with Celboril peeking in through the doorway curiously. They had both wasted no time.

Without a word, Elrond crossed the room and sat down on the side of the bed. He softly brushed the girl’s fair hair away from her face. The girl stirred, but did not wake.

“What do you know?” he whispered to his sons.

“Absolutely nothing.” Elrohir started.

“She wouldn’t say a word to us.” Elladan finished.

“She’s completely malnourished and probably very dehydrated too. Her weight is too light for it to be healthy. I’m sure that head injury is nasty as well.” Elrohir explained his quick diagnosis.

Elrond listened and nodded while studying the girl’s face carefully. He took her tiny hand out from under the blanket, held her wrist, and felt that the pulse was abnormally faint. The look on concern on his face deepened. The girl had been in trouble and had been found just in time. Another day or two by herself and she would have been gone. Questions flooded his mind like they had his sons’, but they once more had to be set aside. The girl needed care.

“Celboril. Go prepare a plate of food, but nothing heavy. We don’t want to overburden her system too quickly. Also, a pitcher of water.” Elrond instructed.

“Right away, my lord.” Celboril bowed and left to fulfill the order.

“Estel, go and get my bag from the medicine pantry.”

“Right.” Estel said, and he left too.

Elrond tucked the girl’s hand back under the blanket and smoothed her hair once more. She had such a mature face for one so young. No doubt given a few years she would be a beauty. It made him wonder how a child like her ended up like she had. From the quality of her clothes she had come from a family that had money. Had she been kidnapped? Lost?

Her condition showed months of poor care. Her injury was another curiosity. How had she gotten it? It looked old. Was it the result of an accident, or had she been mistreated? Elrond couldn’t tell. No matter how much he wanted to get answers, he had to wait until he cared for the girl and made sure she was in a stable condition.

“Where do you think she’s from?” Elrohir asked.

He was leaning against the bedpost. Elladan had sat down in a nearby chair folding his arms and biting his lip.

“Most likely from one of the nearby human towns. I’ll send messengers down to them to announce we have the child and to see if we can find her family or anyone who knows her.” Elrond decided.

“Are you sure we should give her back?” Elladan spoke up, his voice bitter.

“Why do you say that?” Elrohir questioned.

“It’s apparent whoever she belongs to was not taking good care of her. The densest person on Middle Earth would be able to tell she is on the verge of starvation. She wasn’t even able to stand back up by herself once we found her, and who knows what could have happened to her had we not. Why should we give her back if this is how she’s treated?”

“You have a point.” Elrohir agreed, now a bit deeper in thought.

“A point, but that may not be the case.” Elrond disagreed, “It could be that she was taken away from her family by force before escaping, being lost, or being abandoned by whoever took her.”

“I suppose.” Elladan said reluctantly.

There was something pulling inside of him that told him this girl hadn’t been kidnapped. For some reason, he could only think that she had been mistreated by her family or whoever was supposed to care for her. There was no basis to why he felt like he did, he just did. Elladan knew it was no use to argue against what his father was saying though, so he kept his mouth shut.

“Is it possible she was traveling with her caretakers, and they met some unfortunate end in the woods?” Elrohir proposed after a moment of silence.

“Possible, yes.” Elrond nodded.

“We can go explore around a little after she wakes up.” Elladan suggested. Elrohir signaled his agreement.

“Hopefully when she wakes up, we’ll be able to get some answers.” Elrond spoke quietly.

The longer he looked at the fair face of the mysterious child the deeper the ache in his heart grew. For one so young to have to suffer so was a tragic thing. He could only imagine how long she had been in the forest. She had probably cried herself to sleep each night, scared of the creatures of the dark and the uncertainties the next day would bring. She would have never been able to ignore the pain of emptiness in her stomach, but would have had no idea how to fill it.

Elrond had known this child for mere minutes, but he wanted to protect her. Whatever chance brought her to his house didn’t interest him as much as what circumstances lay in her future. Whatever that future brought, he was going to make sure she did not leave until he knew she would be leaving with a brighter path in front of her.

Elrond noticed as the girl’s eyes started to flutter open. He had tried to be as gentle as he could when he took the bandage off her head so as not to wake her, but apparently his efforts hadn’t worked. By the time he lifted her head to take the dirty wrappings off, she was awake if not a bit groggy. His sons had told him of her amazing green eyes, but what he had imagined was nothing like what he saw. Like bright emeralds they shone at him, and those emeralds were eyeing him suspiciously.

Then they swept around the room, and she spotted Elrohir standing nearby. He was the only one Elrond had given permission to remain since he had connected with her the most. Elrond didn’t want to frighten her with having too many people around. However, the girl’s gaze quickly switched from Elrohir to the plate of food right next to him that Celboril had brought anyway. Her hand shot out from under the blanket in an attempt to take it. Elrond smiled slightly. He took her hand in his, and placed it down on the bed. She pouted at him. He chuckled.

“I’m sorry. You can have the food, but I need to clean and rebind your injury first.” Elrond explained. The girl continued to pout, but nodded her head in understanding.

Elrond helped the girl sit up before motioning at Elrohir. Elrohir wrung out a rag that had been soaking in a basin of warm water. He handed it to his father. Holding the girl’s face still with one hand, Elrond wiped away the blood and slight bit of dirt that clung to the wound. Elrond had expected it to be deep by the amount of blood on the thick wrappings, but it looked as if it was almost healed. Apparently, someone just hadn’t seen it fit to ever change the bandages. Relieved, Elrond dabbed a bit of medicine on the cut.

The girl tried to squirm away as the medicine stung, but Elrond kept her steady. She eventually realized it was no use and stopped moving. When he was done with her injury, Elrond used the rag to clean the dirt off the rest of her face. She was definitely going to need a bath, or two, later. Elrond rebound her head with clean bandages, and then took the plate of food. The child once again reached for it, but Elrond shook his head. Instead of giving her the whole thing, he broke off a piece of buttered bread and handed it to her.

“You need to eat it slowly.” he said. He didn’t want her to choke if she tried to wolf down the food.

However, the girl was too hungry and too young to care about things like that. The piece of bread was gone so fast Elrond had to wonder if she had eaten it or made it vanish into thin air. Elrond handed her more, and the food vanished in much the same way. This went on for a couple minutes as the meal slowly dwindled in-between sips of water. When the food and water were almost gone, Elrond decided it was alright to try and ask some questions.

“Child, my name is Elrond and this is my house. You have already met my son, Elrohir,” he motioned towards the younger twin. Elrohir moved a little closer and smiled.

“But I don’t know what to call you,” Elrond continued, “Can you tell me your name?”

The girl froze as he asked her this. The food she had been going to put in her mouth remained clutched in her hands instead. She looked down at the sheets with a sad and confused expression on her face. Elrond could tell she was finally going to say something, and patiently waited out the long minute it took for her to find her voice.

“No.” she spoke. Her word was quiet and wavered a bit, but already he could sense her voice flowed with the soft roll of sweetness.

“Why is that?” Elrond prodded gently.

The girl was quiet again before she answered.

“I dunno.”

“You do not know?”

“What it is…”

The realization of what he was being told took a second to sink in. She didn’t even know her own name? Had her injury been that intense as to take something so important away from her? If she didn’t even know what she was called, what else didn’t she know? Elrond and Elrohir glanced at each other with the same disconcerted expression.

“Do you know where you came from? Who your family is?” Elrond asked desperately.

“No.” the girl repeated, shaking her head and looking like she wanted to cry.

“What do you remember?” Elrohir chimed in. He sat down on the side of the bed next to his father, and placed his hand over her tiny ones still clenching onto that bit of food. The girl hesitantly glanced up at him before her eyes darted about in thought.

“Trees. I was under them. It was dark and there were scary noises. I didn’t move. When it got light, I walked around a lot. Then it was dark again.”

“How many times did it get dark?”

“Three.” the girl said after thinking some more, “I was walking around again when you jumped out at me.”

“You jumped out at her?” Elrond asked.

“Ah, no. That was Elladan. He thought she was an animal. He was trying to hunt her.” Elrohir explained sheepishly, avoiding the fact that his brother had very nearly sent an arrow through her chest. He turned back to the girl, “That was one of my brothers I introduced to you earlier who jumped at you. He and I are twins, so we look a lot alike.”

“Oh.”

“Is you waking up in the woods truly the first thing you can remember? Is there nothing else before that?” Elrond prodded once more, wanting to make sure they knew everything they could no matter what it was. Any small scrap of information could help.

“Yes, no wait!” the girl said suddenly.

Elrond and Elrohir looked at her expectantly.

“I am three and a half!” the girl announced proudly holding up three fingers on both hands. Elrond lowered his head with a small sigh, but smiled and chuckled nonetheless. He wanted any small scrap of information, and he got it.

“March 4^th is my birthday!”

“March 4^th?”

“Uh-huh!”

Maybe knowing her birthday did help a little. It certainly would be useful in narrowing down the possibilities when asking the citizens of the human towns about the girl. Elrond placed the plate with what was left of the food on her lap and stood up. Elrohir followed his lead.

“Go ahead and finish. I’ll send in someone shortly to help wash you up and get into cleaner clothes.” Elrond said.

The girl didn’t seem to really care as she was too busy finishing up the food. Elrond led Elrohir out of the room. It wasn’t much of a surprise when they found Elladan and Estel waiting right outside. Before any questions could be asked, Elrond gave instructions.

“Unfortunately, the child has lost her memory. We have almost nothing to go off of. I want you to find Mora, and ask him to get a group together to search the towns. Give them the description of the child’s appearance, and let them know you’re looking for information for a missing child with a March 4^th birthday. After that, I want the three of you to search the woods in case her possible traveling companions did indeed meet some wrong end or to check if there’s anyone suspicious hanging around.”

The three brothers nodded before leaping to do what they were told. Hunting animals had left their minds. Now all they wanted to do was hunt out information about the girl. A raging curiosity burned in all their chests― the kind that would hardly be satisfied until they got an answer as to just who their mystery child might be.