May it Be | THE LORD OF THE RINGS 🖋

.PROLOGUE. The Lady of Light

Every part of me screamed 'run home', yet without noticing what I was doing, I was in fact doing the opposite and walking directly towards the anomaly that was this out-of-place tree.

As I drew nearer, smaller details of the tree were becoming visible, including that the tree seemed to be missing a great chunk of itself straight through the middle, in the shape of an archway. You could see straight through the opening and out through the other side, yet instead of seeing more of the open field, it looked dark and shadowed but illuminated as if by the light of the moon.

The archway was large enough for a person to stand comfortably within it and led into a small corridor leading straight through the centre of the tree.

Willing myself forward, I stopped halfway through and gazed at the other side from a safe distance. The illuminated light, I discovered, was not actually coming from the outside but rather it came from within the tree itself.

It didn't look real...it shouldn't have been real. How could it?

There was a barrier made of what looked to be a liquid-like substance. It went from the top of the archway down to the ground, rippling like water and was shimmering like starlight. Staring in amazement, I placed my hand on it to find that it was not solid and felt warm to the touch. The substance was transparent and as I watched closely I could see that the part of the field that laid beyond the tree looked very much the same as the other half of the field in which I had come from.

Daring not to walk through whatever the strange tree had within in, I turned to go back from whence I came only to be stopped by something on my hand.

To my horror, there was a hand sticking out of the water barrier and it had caught hold of my wrist. The hand was elegant and clearly feminine, with slender fingers and perfectly sculpted nails.

Before I could even begin to fight off whoever, or whatever, had grabbed me, I was being pulled into the water with incredible strength, causing me to scream as I fell into a bright white light.

*

When I opened my eyes I was blinded by light, a white iridescent light. Adjusting to my surroundings I found that I was no longer under the large tree, in the middle of that strange field, nor was I lying on the dirty surface of the forest floor. Instead, I was spread out of luxurious bed with white silk sheets laying over me.

The bed was located in a spacious room decorated in beautifully ornate carved furniture which had been painted white. The bed itself looked as if it was made out of trees as the branches stuck out from the floor going all the way to the ceiling creating the bed structure.

I had never seen anything like it and knew that I probably would never see anything even close to matching it's beauty ever again.

Placing my bare feet on the cold ground, I threw away the silk sheets and walked towards a nearby mirror which hung on the wall, west of the bed. In its reflection stood a woman I did not recognize. My uncontrollable black hair should have been a mess of curls from sleep but instead, it laid sleek and tidy, the ends reaching the base of my back, and hung in soft waves. My torn cloth dress was no more and in its place was a light silk nightdress that shined like pure silver. My fair skin was clear, my cheeks were rosy, my eyelashes thick and dark and my golden eyes were bright.

Placing my hands on my face I was amazed to find that the mirror wasn't an illusion and my skin felt silky smooth and soft. Turning my head to look at the left side of my face I gasped as where there should have been a rather nasty gash from a fallen branch in the woods, there was now only a very thin pink line which was barely visible.