Dallas slowly became aware of voices around her talking softly, two were women, one was male; and an extremely bright light.  She moaned and lifted a hand to shield her eyes.

“She is awakening,” one of the women said, silencing the other two.

“What’s going on,” Dallas asked still groggy.

“You were found last night in the waterfall, we were quiet worried when we could not waken you.”  Dallas blinked her eyes repeatedly, attempting to adjust to the light and make out her surroundings.

Finally her vision cleared and she could see the three figures along with her surroundings.  Startled she jumped back slightly.  Immediately her senses were on full alert.  “Where am I,” She demanded, looked from one fair person to the next.  Each one of them was pail in skin and hair.

“Do you not know?”  Dallas shook her head.  “My dear, you are in Serindrella.”

“Where?”  Dallas looked around confused and more then slightly agitated.  She was in some open air room surrounded by branches, with a large tree emerging from the center.

“Now that she is awake, should we take her before Her-ladyship,” the man asked to one of the women.

“We should have told Her when she was first found,” replayed the other ringing her hands and occasionally glancing at Dallas.

“We didn’t know if she was going to make it, and I didn’t want to trouble Her if she did not survive,” he replayed haughtily.

“Will you two just be quiet.  What is done is done, and cannot be undone.  We might as well take her now, the longer we wait the more displeased She will be, “ said the other woman authoritatively.  She did not look any different from the other two but something about her seemed older and wiser.

“Well she can not go dressed as we found her.  What shall she weir when we take her to see Her,” asked the first woman still seeming agitated.

Dallas had finally had enough of being talked about as if she was not there.  “Will someone please tell what is going on, and who the hell you are taking me to see?”  Dallas tried to make her voice sound as pissed off and authoritative as possible.

“Leave us,” ordered the woman who seemed to be in charge.  The two seemed to hesitate, but one glance from her and they quickly disappeared.  “I apologize for them, they are young and we do not get many outsiders here,” the woman said turning her attention back to Dallas who was now propping herself up on her elbows.  “My name is Ratella.”

“I’m Dallas.”

“Now that we are introduced and that is out of the way, would you care to put something more appropriate on to meet Her Ladyship?  That would be Lady Maladriel, the Lady of the Wood.”

Dallas glanced down and saw she was still only wearing her silk robe.  Quickly she accepted the clothing.  It was a floor length silver-gray velvet dress with red trim and lacing up the bodice with a red cord belt.  The dress felt like heaven and fit her perfectly except around her chest, there it was to small and Dallas worried she would fall out of it.  She also received a pair of silken soft leather slippers.

As she dressed, Dallas realized that she was not in an open-air room, but a platform high up in the trees.  The room she was lead to, if she could call it a room, was another platform in the trees made out of some form of silver/gray wood that seemed to almost glow.  Ratella explained about how Dallas was found to a tall thin woman dressed in shimmering white, who was facing away from them with her hands clasped behind her back.

“Thank you, that is enough,” the woman in white said raising her hand.  “I would like to speak to her alone.”

“Yes my Lady,” Ratella bobbed a curtsy and left the ‘room’.

“Where are you from,” the woman in white, whom Dallas guessed was Lady Maladriel, asked simply, her voice was soft and clear.

“I’m from the U.S.”

“Do you know how you came to be in Serindrella?”

“No.”

“Tell me what you know of your history, early history that is.”

Dallas was caught a little off guard by the question and also by the fact that Lady Maladriel had yet to turn and look at her.  “There isn’t much to tell,” Dallas began slowly.  “I was adopted when I was around ten years old.  The family was well off so I-”

“What about before you were adopted?”  Lady Maladriel interrupted.

“Before?”

“Yes before.  Ten years is a long time.”

“I have no memory of before I was adopted.  I tried to ask Mrs. James, that was the name of the woman who was my mother, but she said she did not know any more then I did and to stop asking her,” Dallas’s Voice grew softer.  “They died when I was nineteen, that was three years ago.

“Did you love them?”  Dallas was beginning to wonder where these questions were going.  She also noticed that her voice seemed slightly strained with the last question.

“Of course I miss them, they are the ones who raised me.”

“I did not ask if you missed them, I asked it you loved them.”  Lady Maladriel repeated.

“I didn’t really know them that well, I always had nannies and such.  I was fond of them, but I can’t honestly say that I loved them.”  Once she said that she saw Lady Maladriel’s tense body relax.

“It might be more comfortable if we sit,” Lady Maladriel turned around slowly and motioned to two seats that Dallas had not paid attention to earlier.  Dallas was stuck in awe of her beauty, it was the kind of beauty seen in a sunrise or sunset, powerful but peaceful.  They locked gazes for a long moment, it seemed as if Lady Maladriel were looking into her soul.  Finally Dallas could not stand her gaze any more and looked down.  “Please, sit.”

Dallas took the chair nearest and sat and watched as Lady Maladriel seemingly floated across the floor the glide into her chair.  “Dallas, what I am about to tell you is going to be hard to understand, but please listen to it all before you make any decisions,” she paused and Dallas could almost see that Lady Maladriel was recalling something from the far past, something dark and sad.  “First off you need to understand that time moves much different here then it does where you are from.  For every year you experience in “the U.S.” we experience many more.  A little over 300 years ago, my daughter, Daladriel, was a mere child.  She was out playing with another child when they were attacked.  My daughter was taken and I was informed that two very dark and powerful ones were responsible and that they had laid an enchantment on her.  She would be sent to lived the remainder of her childhood elsewhere and at an appointed time if she had broken all ties and attachments here, she would stay there.  But if she recognized that it was not home, she would be allowed to return.”

“I don’t understand how this has anything to do with me.”

“I am getting there, if you would just listen much will be made clear.  For years I had sent word out to all ends of this land seeking any news of her and a few people offered their services to look for her.  I had all but given up hope until a few months ago my daughter’s betrothed came to me claiming he had seen her.  At first I would not believe him, then, last night I awoke with the knowledge that she was here, my daughter had been returned and the enchantment had been broken.”

Dallas looked at her still confused.  “Dallas,” Lady Maladriel reached a long slender hand out an laid it on Dallas’s.  “You are her, you are Daladriel, my daughter.”

Dallas just looked at her as if she were crazy.  “You’re joking, right?”  She slowly stood on shaky legs and backed away, the look and Lady Maladriel’s face said she wasn’t joking.  “Listen, I don’t know who you are, hell, I don’t even know where I am, but you want me to believe that I was kidnapped as a child and left in some other world?  I’m sorry lady, I don’t know what you’re on, but this just can’t be true.”

“Please,” Lady Maladriel’s voice was soft and pleading, “Don’t reject this.  There is something in you that knows this is your home, or else you wouldn’t have been able to come back.”

“I don’t mean to be rude, but I need to go,” Dallas continued to back away.

“Then please take some time, but would you join me for supper tonight?”

“Yes, I will,” with that Dallas fled down the spiral stairs that wrapped around the large tree that supported the platform.  She fled past the people that seemed to just be milling around the base of the great tree.  She kept running until she hadn’t seen anyone for a while, and then stopped.  She leaned against a tree to catch her breath.

Could it be possible, could this really be my home? But I don’t’ believe in magic and all that stuff.  Dallas was confused as to what to believe.  Once she had regained her breath she began to look around her.  She realized that she was on the same path from her dreams.  Curious she began to retrace her steps, in no time she found herself standing across the stream from the spot where she had witness the little girl taken.  Slowly she picked her way across the stream, hopping from stone to stone.  Lost in thought she sat down in the exact spot where the girl had been sitting, she ran the tips of her fingers over the surface of the water and just watched the ripples.  A strand of hair fell in her face, she tucked it behind her ear and froze; carefully she traced the shape and realized that it was no longer the way it used to be.  Leaning over she peered into the crystal clear water; her refection stared back at her, confirming what she had guessed, her ears were now pointed!

This new revelation shocked her to her very core.  Lost in thought, she rested her chin in her hand and tried to focus her thoughts so she could understand what was happening to her.  She was pulled from her thoughts when she heard someone moving on the other side of the stream.

Her head shot up, but she didn’t see anyone.  Standing up, she looked around.  She knew she had heard something, idly she wondered if it was safe to be there alone.  This was the place where she supposedly had been kidnapped from.

“Who…who’s there?”  Dallas asked, her voice unsteady.

“You should be here,” a voice said sternly from behind her.  Quickly she turned around to face the direction of the voice.  In turning her foot slipped on a slick stone and she began to fall towards the water.  She waited for the inevitable splash and the hard contact with the rocks, but it never came, she looked up and found herself in the arms of the man from her dreams.

Both stood absolutely silent just looking at one another.  Finally he spoke his voice low, “I’m sorry I didn’t mean to startle you,” realizing that he was still holding her in his arms, he set her back on her feet.

Dallas couldn’t believe it, this was the man that had plagued her dreams.  The realization that he wasn’t a figment of her imagination made her head spin; so that when he set her back on her feet she had to hold onto his shoulders to keep from falling.

Feeling the woman’s body begin to sway unsteadily, Calieath put his hands on her waist to steady her.  “Are you alright?”

Dallas moved one hand to her head and closed her eyes, “I will be in a minute, I’m just a little dizzy.”

Concerned, Calieath helped the woman to sit down on the stone she had been sitting on earlier.  He couldn’t help but stare at her; this was the woman he had seen a few months ago.  The first moment he saw her, he had know it was Daladriel, there was just something about her, maybe it was the green color of her eyes, or the tone of her voice.  He could never forget that voice, for the past three hundred years it had echoed his name through his memories, the same way she had called to him for help the day she had been taken.  As if on its own will his hand came up and he ran the tips of his fingers down her cheek.

The sensation of his fingers touching her face made Dallas’s eyes snap open and her head jerk back, but once she looked at him, she was again lost in the crystal blue of his eyes.

“Daladriel?”  He looked at her as if he was afraid she would disappear again, and in truth he was.  Ever since she had apprised the first time, there had been times that he had felt her presence, but no matter how quick he would turn, he never saw her again, until now.  “How?”

“I don’t know,” Dallas answered her voice abrupt.

“Does Maladriel know?”

“Yes, I just came from there,” Dallas finally looked away from the enchanting eyes and looked off into the trees.

“You don’t remember any of this do you?”  Dallas nodded still not looking at him.  “What do you know?”

“I know yesterday I was in Ireland, I fainted, then today I woke up here.  Then I’m told that I’m not who I thought I was.  I had a normal life now...now I don’t know what I have,” Dallas’s answer was bitter and abrupt again.  That was her normal defense against men who got too close, she made herself seem as hard and unfriendly as possible until they went away.  Few men ever got past their first encounter with her and came back still trying to talk to her, it was better that way, safer.  “I’m just confused,” she finally admitted when she saw that he wasn’t going to go anywhere.

Calieath watched as Dallas attempted to put up a false face and act cold.  He had seen a glimpse of something in her eyes before she had caught herself and began to build her wall of safety around herself.  She even went as far as to move herself out of his reach.  This was nothing like the Daladriel he had knows as a child, always bluntly obvious about her feeling and what she was thinking.  He wondered what could have happened to her to change her so drastically.  “Maybe I can help,” Calieath offered when he found his voice.  “What is it that confuses you?  What do you want to know?”

Dallas looked at him warily, why was he offering to hold her?  “Everything, anything, starting with how I got here,” she finally replied.

“Well, I can not answer on how you got here, but I will tell you what I know,” Calieath then went into an account of their childhood together.  When Calieath got to the part of when she was taken, Dallas saw his eyes cloud with self loathing on his inability to stop it.  “Ever since that day, I have been in Maladriel’s service.  I swore that I would stop at nothing to make sure that what happened to you would never happen again.  I have hunted Orcs and Goblins steadily since then.”

“All this because the loss of a playmate?”  Dallas asked confused.

“You were more then a mere playmate.  You were my friend and my promised.  If I could not protect you as a child how could I protect you later on in life?”

“You’re promised?  What is that?”

“We were promised to each other when you were born.  You were the one I was supposed to marry.”

That silenced anymore of Dallas’s questions.  Just what she needed, another man talking about marriage.  Calieath noticed her tense at the idea of marriage and wondered at what would cause this kind of reaction.

“You seem to know everything about me, how about you tell me about yourself,” Dallas quickly directed the conversation to a safer topic.

Calieath sensed that Daladriel needed a change of subject, “I am from the Forrest of Painthea, my father is the King there.  I’ve spent most of my life traveling around doing my part in the war against the Orcs.”

Calieath began to tell her little bits and pieces of himself and his past, of his carious adventures.  “That’s pretty much all that is worth hearing, Daladriel.  How about you, what became of you life after that day?”

At first Dallas didn’t want to say anything, but he had told her about his life, so she could tell him a few things about herself.  “Well there are a few years missing that I don’t remember, but I was adopted by a fairly wealthy family,” she began to relate to him a brief outline of what life had been like for her until she got to the point of Michael.  “I nearly got married, but it didn’t work out.  Finally I ended up in Ireland and got a job at a pub.  That’s pretty much my story,” Dallas ended quickly.  She had purposefully left out her dreams of him and other things.

“This is the first time you have been here?”  Calieath asked surprised.

“Yes,” Dallas paused then had a slightly confused look on her face.  “No,” she shook her head.  “I don’t know.”  Frustrated she stood ad walked a little ways away.  “It wasn’t a dream because it was too real, I was here, but I wasn’t.”  Nervously she began to worry her lip.  “I say myself get taken that day, as if I was watching it happen to someone else.”

“Is that all?”  Calieath prompted.

“No, I saw you, but somehow you saw me too, but when you tried to touch me, I woke up.  They were just dreams,” Dallas quickly retreated from the vulnerable spot she had talked herself into.

“Dreams can be a very powerful thing,” Calieath tired to take a step toward her but she only retreated farther away.  “It wasn’t just a dream.  I few months ago I was standing in this very spot and you appeared to me.  I often come here when I am feeling lost or in need of guidance.  That day was I in a particularly desperate mood.  When you told me it was not my fault, it was like I had been sent an angel, and I was given back the fire I had been lacking for so long.  Since then, whenever that fire seemed to wane, it was almost as if I could feel your presence.”

For a long moment Dallas stood looking at him skeptically, trying to convince herself that he was making it up, that somehow Maladriel had looked into her soul and mind and had given him this information, and she was using it to convince her that this was her home, where she belonged.  Only, she couldn’t convince herself that this was any form of deceit on his part; his eyes were too clear, unclouded by deceit.

Seeing Dallas’s inward turmoil through her eyes Calieath thought it would be better to give her some form of distraction.  “Have you seen much of Serindrella since you have returned?  There is much more that is beautiful to see.”

Grateful for the change in focus Dallas gladly accepted.  Calieath took her to all the well-known placed in Serindrella, but he also lead her to little-known, out of the way places.  He pointed out certain plants and herbs that grew wild and told her of their different healing powers.  Also he told of historical events that had taken place in some of the more well known spots.  He was in the midst of a rather long story of a battle when Dallas looked up and saw that the light was beginning to grow dim.

“What time is it?”  Dallas interrupted.

Calieath looked up into the sky, “It is about an hour until sunset, why?”

“I told Lady Maladriel I would join her for supper, and to be truthful, I don’t know when that is.”  Dallas bit her lip and looked around her realizing that she didn’t really know where she was or how to get back to the village.

“Supper is at sunset,” seeing her look around herself in a worried manner, “I can take you back now if you would wish.”

“I would like to, yes.”  It only took a few minutes for Calieath to lead her back to the village.