Foundling Child

Disclaimer: I do not own LOTR book/film characters. I am not making any money from this work of fanfiction.

Description: Gamling finds a child and raises her as his own.

Changes: Alatariel is no longer an elf, oany other changes and i will let you know at the beginning of the chapter
The character of Alatáriël is mine, as well as any other people/places that you do not recognise.

This is a rewrite of 'Titta Selde Vanwa'.


I ran as fast I could, which was not easy with my hands bound behind my back and the blindfold that they had wrapped around my eyes. I think I was four years old at the time, but I’m not certain if that was my actual age. I was not concerned with running into a tree or tripping over some obstacle. I could hear voices and I panicked, they were closer than I had thought. That was when I placed both feet into something that was wet and it started to pull me down. I started struggling, wriggling my body and trying to pull myself free. All I had wanted was to get away from them. I didn’t want to die.

“Stop struggling, you’ll just sink faster.” A male voice close to me said. Thinking it was one of them who had been my captors I panicked and struggled even harder.

“Stop. I’m going to get you out.” His voice was gentle. I could feel him putting something around me and tightening it, he pulled on the rope and slowly I came out. He took the blindfold off and cut the binding on my wrists. He had dirty blond hair and even though I knew he wasn’t one of them as soon as took his rope off me and turned to put it back in the pack on his horse I leaped to my feet and started running again.

“Hey!” He yelled after me. Now that my hands were not tied behind my back and I could see where I was going I could run faster than before and I was not going to stop for anything.

“Come Back!” His voice was gaining on me; I turned my head to glance behind me. Needless to say I didn’t see the small hole in the ground in front of me and I of course caught my foot in it and went crashing into the ground.

“What is it, Gamling?” Another male voice called.

“I found a child!” The first voice came from right above me. I looked back and saw him leap off his horse. He came towards me and I moved back away from him. He stopped where he was not far from me and crouched down.

“What is it?” He asked. Why was he asking me that? Didn’t he already know? I thought.

“You have no need to be afraid of me. I’m not going to hurt you.” I stared at him, that had been almost the same thing they had said when they first took me.

“Do you want some food?” He stood up and rummaged around his pack coming back a moment later and holding out a piece of food to me. I continued to stare at him for a long moment. Hunger overwhelmed any misgivings I might have had in him and I reached forward and snatched the food from his outstretched hand. He watched me as I ate it, making no move towards me.

“What’s your name?” He passed me a water bottle which I took huge gulps from. I didn’t reply to his question. I couldn’t have, even if I had wanted to.

“Gamling!” A voice called from close behind me. I jumped, the water bottle went in one direction; flying up in the air and came down on Gamling’s head, splashing it’s remaining contents in his face and I went another.

“Don’t do that, Hama!” The first hissed to his companion. He turned to look down at me behind him, clutching one of his arms and trying my best to appear invisible.

“It’s alright, he won’t hurt you either.” He put one hand on my shoulder. I looked at the second man who had finally decided to show himself, but didn’t come out from behind Gamling.

“Do you think they had her?” Hama asked.

“I think so. She does not seem to trust me.” Gamling responded.

“Who is she? Where does she come from?” Hama asked.

“I don’t know, she hasn’t told me yet.” Gamling replied.

“Where are you from!” Hama all but shouted at me. I jerked backwards as if he had slapped me, both hands clamped on Gamling’s arm. Somehow I knew that he could be trusted and that he wouldn’t let anything bad happen to me.

“What do you think you’re doing! Leave her alone.” Gamling snapped at him rising to his feet.

“How are we supposed to get her back there if we don’t know where she’s from?” Hama asked. Gamling looked down at me; I think it was in that moment that he decided just what it was he was going to do with me. Then he turned back to his companion.

“I’ll take care of her until then.” He told Hama.

“We can’t drag her all over Rohan with us, Gamling.”

“You won’t have to worry about her. I said I’ll look after her and I will.” Gamling stared the other man down until with a growl Hama turned back to his own horse. Gamling smiled down at me.

“Ignore my good friend Hama; he seems to be suffering from a terminal case of grouchiness.” Water dripped from his sodden hair but he didn’t seem to notice as he lifted me up on his horses back and climbed on behind me.

“Have you ever ridden a horse before?” He didn’t seem all that surprised when I once again didn’t reply. His horse followed Hama’s out of the woods. We rode across the plains. The gentle rise and fall of the horse beneath me lulled me into sleep. Night had fallen and he had stopped his horse near the outskirts of some kind of encampment. I jerked awake as he lifted me down; automatically I tried to move away from him and nearly fell off the other side of the horse, but he grabbed me and pulled me off.

“It’s okay.” He said. I rubbed my eyes with balled up fists as he set me on my feet.

“Have you decided whether you want me to talk to me or not?” I stared up at him silently. He sighed loudly.

“That’s what I figured.” I reached up and put my hand in his; he looked down at our hands and after a moment curled his long fingers around my smaller ones. He led me over to the fire, around which sat other men, most of them in armour or chain mail. He handed me a bowl of food and sat down with one for himself. I sat close by his side, eating silently.

“I didn’t know you were a father, Gamling. I didn’t even know you were married.” One of the men said.

“I’m not.” Gamling said.

“Then where is she from?” The man asked.

“I found her. I don’t know where she’s from. Is Dregna here?” Gamling asked.

“Yes, he’s around somewhere. He’ll be over soon enough for his food.” The man told him. I put the bowl down near me and leaned into Gamling’s side, closing my eyes and going back to sleep.

“That’s why she won’t talk to you.” A male voice woke me up and I bit the fingers that were inside my mouth. The man yelped in surprise.

“Stop biting him, he’s only trying to help.” Gamling said. After a few moments I let his fingers go and the man pulled his hand free and massaged his sore fingers.

“I’m sorry, Dregna, I wasn’t expecting her to do that.”

“It’s alright, judging by what they already did to her tongue I’m not surprised she reacted that way. Have her rinse her mouth out with this morning and night to prevent it from becoming infected.” He handed Gamling a jar of something.

“Do you want me to examine the rest of her?”

“It might be better if we wait until she’s asleep again. Unless you want her to take a few more bites out of you.” Gamling said. Dregna rose to his feet and moved away. Gamling sat down next to me and started mixing some of whatever was in the jar with some water in a beaker. He handed it to me.

“Rinse your mouth out with this.” He told me. I took the cup and sipped some of the liquid into my mouth and spat it into the dirt at my feet. I made a face as I did so; it burned my mouth where my tongue had once been and started gagging. Obviously thinking I was choking he slapped me on the back right where they had burned me at the base of my neck. I could feel him pulling the neck of the ragged shift I wore back to see why I had tensed. I heard him sigh softly and I looked up at him, the look in his eyes was sad and I didn’t understand why. How was I to know that he actually cared about me? But I didn’t. He put his arm around me and hugged me to his side, a part of me wanted to push him away, but the part of me that wanted to be comforted, to be accepted won out and I leaned into the hug.

(Nine years later)

I reigned in and looked to him for instruction as I climbed down of my horse. When he had finished giving orders to the other Rohirrim he turned his attention to me.

“There is a river nearby. Can you bring some of the horses down to drink?” He asked. I nodded as I grasped Borges reins and those of Seri; his horse and three other horses and led them down to the river. As they drank and I washed my face and hands in the gently flowing water I could not help but think back over the last number of years.

After he had found me I would have expected him to leave me with a Rohan family as soon as he reached some settlement. Yet whenever anyone asked as to who I was he told them that I was his daughter and he treated me as just that. For the first number of months I had been unable to communicate with anyone other than to nod or shake my head at a question. Over the years he had taught me how to read and now I was able to communicate by writing whatever it was that I wanted to say on a pad of paper that was kept in a pouch around my neck. Of course he had also questioned me as to who I was and where I came from, but I told him nothing. I cannot remember whether I ever lived with a human family before I had been taken by the Orcs. I didn’t have to tell him, he knew from the nightmares I had that it was a past that I did not need to remember. When we had first arrived in Edoras after he found me he had decided to settle there for a while, probably only until I was old enough to care for myself. Less than six months later he went back to commanding troops in the field and he brought me with him. He probably figured it would be easier to keep an eye on me that way than waking up every morning and having to go outside of Edoras in search of me. He was right, Edoras had been big enough, but it still felt like a prison to me, out here on the plains I didn’t wander as much as when we had lived in Edoras.

I felt Borges nudge my shoulder, an indication that he was finished drinking and that as such the other horses should be urged to finish up as well. Amongst horses Borges could be called a bully, but he was also strangely gentle. Two traits that do not usually exist in one creature, even if they are a horse. I took the reigns of the other horses and moved up the side of the riverbank. I felt something hit my chest; more like a gentle slap and I looked down. That was it, that was all I remembered.