[Lumiel]

After a seemingly intense haggling session for a horse to buy with Uien, Lumiel had little left to do. She had always carried all that she needed with her, and she had bought extra supplies earlier. So she decided to rest with company at the Inn until the man brought the horses out for her and Uien's inspection. She sat by the fire, a smile as warm as the hearth by which she sat and just as bright. Its light flecked off her hair in glints of gold among the earthen brown locks. Her eyes seemed to dance among all the faces joyful around her.

She ordered an ale and sipped at it, making small talk with a few of the folk. Never would she have thought herself to be socializing among such a group of peoples. Often she saw a loving, proud smile in her mind of Farin, her mentor and father.

She lowered her gaze for a moment, a slight smile tugging at the corners of her lips as she rubbed her finger around the top of her glass. Farin was a Ranger, but had been banished long ago, by Arathorn, Aragorn's father. She herself was a full-blooded elf, with noble parents.

Her family lived alone in a small yet beautiful sylvan home. For her early years, her parents were all that she knew. But they decided when she was still a child that they would leave for the Grey Havens. They arranged a meeting place with an elf from Rivendell, and set out on their forsaken journey.

They were only a few days away from their designated meeting place when they were ambushed by a small orc-host that stumbled upon them. Seeing three elves alone, they could not resist a battle. Her mother ran with her while her father tried to hold them back. As great a fighter as he was, his efforts were in vain and he died a hero among the foul orc cries. Her mother did not get very far before she was surrounded and herself killed brutally by Lumiel's side.

In an instant, her entire world had been shattered into a million unforgivable pieces. She was ashamed of her actions then, though she knew in her heart that she had been but a child, lonely and scared. She begged the orcs for mercy, and cried until there were no tears left and no voice left to mourn with. The orcs decided not to kill her, but to take her as their captive for their own amusement. For several months, she endured the company of the orcs. Her memories of her parents, her heritage, even her language, disappeared into a blur of a too distant past.

They were passing through what for them was unknowingly Farin's "prison" with a small group of about 15 orcs broken off from the main group. Farin had seen the orcs from a distance, and noticed young Lumiel among them, though it was difficult to separate her own dirty face from the rest. Farin came up with a plan, that by saving Lumiel, he could get back into the world.

So, in the dead of night, he snuck into their camp, killing the sentry silently. He crept to Lumiel and snatched her up, waking her up immediately. In the dark, he appeared to her as some evil shadow demon and she screamed in fear, waking the orcs up. Farin fought that night as few have, and slew every single orc before he took Lumiel away, leaving them to drown in their own filthy blood.

Farin took Lumiel to his home, which was more of a simple shelter, and healed her. He decided to raise her for his own revenge, regardless of its effects on her. Lumiel relearned of her heritage and her language, though she never recovered her memories of her parents entirely. She grew to love Farin as a father, though he forbade her to call him such. Farin, though he had originally intended to use her, came to love her as a daughter and taught her all he knew as a Ranger, hoping to give her a chance in the world.

Lumiel never left Farin's side, but the fate of mortals is not something which can be controlled, not even for love. Farin, though he had Numenorian blood in him, eventually grew old and grey, while Lumiel appeared only to have aged a few years closer to adulthood. In his final hours, he confessed to Lumiel his crime for which he had been banished, and why he had saved her. She knew that Farin did love her, despite his first intentions.

Farin gave Lumiel his sword, and entrusted her with the promise to both redeem his name to the leader of the Rangers, whoever it was at the time, and to find her own people and seek her own destiny. After far too lonley funeral, in which she had to bury the body, she set off to forfill her promise, with little notion of how to do it.

That had been only a few months ago, and now she found herself at the Green Dragon Inn, among men, hobbits, and even elves like herself. Still she felt that fear of people, and yet still she felt the loss of Farin. But she would persevere and forfill her promise, for she owed both Farina and herself that much.