Wayfaring Stranger

Chapter One

Something was wrong.

Someone was screaming, but she couldn't distinguish who over the ringing in her ears.

"Tati! Tati, you have to wake up! Tati!"

She tried to tell the voice that she didn't know who 'Tati' was, but her lips wouldn't open.

Her limp body was lifted up and rested against a form, a warm golden light erupting before her closed eyelids.

The voice was reduced to whispered pleas, a hand tightly grasping her own, rubbing circles into the back of it.

The sensations began to fade and she was surrounded with darkness, her toes hanging over the lip of a cliff that went down, down, down. She couldn't see the bottom, nothing but a shroud of impenetrable blackness, a swirling mass that seemed to suck in all of the light.

Two bright lights blinked into existence behind her, but she didn't turn, wrapping her arms around herself as she stared contemplatively at the mass.

"Young one, you must move away from the edge." The light that reminded her of the cold light of the stars rather than the warm light of the sun tried to grasp her shoulder to pull her back, but she shied away.

"Please, you must move away."

"Why?" Her voice was soft, refusing to turn away as she continued staring.

"Your brother is waiting for you."

A brother? She couldn't remember a brother so she remained silent.

"We won't be able to save your fëa from the darkness if you go any further."

"Why save me? I don't even know who you are."

Raising her head, she added a whisper to herself. "I don't even know if I'm worth being saved."

The golden light came closer and she involuntarily leaned into the safety and warmth that radiated from the hand that rested on her shoulder.

"Everyone is worth being saved in some way or another. We would rather cast ourselves into the fires than abandon those in need."

Curling an arm around her shoulder, the golden light gently led her away from the edge of the cliff. The darkness roiled, but the cold light held it back, cleaving it in two as it tried to reach out with tendrils of shadow to pull her back.

The barren landscape grew lighter the farther away they moved from the edge. She felt comforted by the light, it's presence a balm on her turbulent emotions.

It was soothing in a way that unlocked memories of a time long passed, of playing in the snow with a familiar boy as two faceless figures walked sedately behind them. It felt like nights bundled up in blankets with two comforting presences on either side of her and the boy, curled up in front of the fireplace as they cradled steaming cups of hot cocoa in their hands.

She stopped, twisting her hands together as her emotions bubbled over, a stinging in her nose and behind her eyes growing stronger as her breathing picked up. "I want to go home."