Blue-grey eyes quickly scan the tiny bedroom. An infectious smile quickly spreads. A squeal of delight sounds.

Alice is finally getting to move into her new apartment, which she's sharing with a student who goes to the local college. Although the two don't have very much in common, it's apparent to anyone paying attention that they are becoming close friends.

However, as each day passes, Alice remembers more and more the words of Lady Galadriel. They haunt her in her dreams, repeating over and over like the echoing screams of a dying man. Daily she wonders when the time will come when she won't see the younger girl she's boarding with again. It makes her latch on and yet distance herself at the same time, in a dread-filled, confusing spiral of emotion.

Few reminders are left to tell her that what happened in Arda was real. The satchel that she had brought from New Orleans was on her when she was transported back, so all of the things inside it came back as well. She almost cried when she had returned to the Moulin Rouge and found Boromir's penny whistle and Legolas' violin still inside. Ringil, of course, came back with her as well, being the biggest reminder since she could still hear it singing when she pulled it from its sheath. Her Elvish eyesight and hearing from the time spent with Fingolfin were also retained, and Alice sometimes distantly wondered if they would fade with time. The few clothes she had owned while in Middle Earth were back in the room she was staying in in Minas Tirith, so those were the only things she was missing… aside from the inhabitants of that distant land that she had fallen so deeply in love with. Remembering them always and without fail causes a tear to fall from her eye.

The oddest part of it all was that when she returned, the only thing that was physically the same was the scar forming on her back. Now completely healed, the swelling is gone, though the stretch marks it had caused were still there, looking like strange veins spreading from the thin scar in the middle, and she hopes they will go away in time. Lord Elrond, upon seeing her the day he arrived in the White City, had commented about how she had aged considerably in the eight months they had been separated. When she had investigated herself the night she had returned, she realized that physically, she had reverted back to her age of 23, whereas she had turned 24 in Middle Earth. Her hair, having never been cut in that distant land, was suddenly short again. There were other, little things that she had noticed were gone as well, but her hair was the most obvious sign of her de-aging.

Shaking those thoughts off, her smile returns as she runs, jumps, and lands on the cheap bed. The ancient springs inside creak loudly and painfully underneath her sudden weight, and Margaret, her new roommate, chuckles from the doorway.

"Having fun?" The purple-headed girl asks, and Alice laughs.

"Yeah. Doesn't this place look fabulous?" Margaret, or 'Meg' as she likes to be called, glances about before nodding once.

"I'm going to run down to the store to buy some food. Want anything specific?" Alice almost asks for mead, but remembers her place.

"Just a lot of water. That stuff comes in handy when you don't have very much money." Meg nods again, and quietly leaves the apartment.

As soon as Alice's Elvish ears hear the lock on the door clicking shut, she stands and goes to investigate her new armoire. It isn't new in the sense of being purchased new, but is simply new to her. She bought it at a flea market for only ten dollars, but the ancient wood seems, to her, to be worth much more than that.

She opens the grand brown doors that seem to stretch from the ceiling to the floor. The hinges creak loudly, startling her for a moment. Regaining her composure, she opens them a little further, and then steps inside. She recalls always wanting to try this, and with an eagerness that borders on giddy, she shuts the doors with her inside them.

There's a moment where it's dark, and the world is still. For just a second, Alice can almost hear the breath of Gimli as he walks next to her in the Mines of Moria. She can almost see Gandalf's glowing staff, and feel Legolas' soft hand touching her own.

The second of peace that that feeling offers her breaks. She can feel a cold wind suddenly nipping at her back. She spins around, and wipes the tears falling down her cheeks off. She hadn't realized that that moment would be a side effect of entering the armoire; else she might have tried it sooner.

She attempts to see around her clothes, but cannot for the thickness of them, and so pushes them aside to make her way through. "There's nothing back here. Where is this wind coming from?" She pushes aside her large fur coats that she keeps in the back for the winter (they came with the closet). Suddenly, her foot snags on the end of a particularly long one, and she falls, face-first, into…"Snow?"

She stands quickly, and glances about. Sure enough, laid out before her like a 3D painting, is a vast landscape in the midst of a silver-white winter.