A cool hand caressed her cheek. She noticed she did not feel so cold anymore, rather warm, too warm even, and the cool hand on her face felt very good. She tried to say something, but her lips did not do what they were supposed to do. She wanted to open her eyes, but they would not open either.
"I think she is out of the woods." She did not know that deep voice.
"Let us hope you are right, Tweggi." She did not know this soft voice, either, nor did she know anyone by the name of Tweggi. Where was she? Again she tried to say something, but not the slightest sound was to be heard.
"See? There! I guess she is waking up!" The first voice, sounding louder and excited this time.
"Hiril, can you hear me?" The friendly, soft voice again. An elf, obviously. Plinnlim smiled, or at least she thought she smiled, but maybe this did not work, either, and then she tried to nod. An outburst of crowing followed. At least the nodding seemed to have worked somehow.
When finally she managed to open her eyes a few minutes later, at first she saw nothing but white mist. Then her eyesight became clearer, and she looked into two beaming faces. One was a dwarf, obviously beaming with happiness that she had come back to life. The second face, framed by blond hair, belonged to an elf who looked at her with worried eyes. He asked for her name and where she came from, but before she could answer the dwarf shoved him aside and put a water bottle to her lips. The liquid that she drank hastily tasted very bitter and Plinnlim thought that it might be a healing potion - before she fell into a deep sleep again, much deeper than elven sleep usually was.
Next time she awoke it was night, stars were shining, but there they were again, the elf, the dwarf and even two more dwarves. She learnt that she was at the camp Vindurhal, and that two of the dwarves, Tweggi and Lini, had found her when gathering firewood. They had believed her frozen to death, but still brought her body back to the camp. They had saved her life. She had been unconscious for two days, and even hîr Nogmeldir, the elf, started to worry for her life, although at first he had been quite sure an elf - and only an elf - could live through such an ordeal.
"I am sorry" he said, when he finally calmed down, wiping the tears out of his beard, still giggling, "I never thought I would ever meet an elf that was younger than me." Then the others laughed, too, including Plinnlim. None of them could stop laughing for quite some time - and suddenly Plinnlim felt as if she had gotten rid of a huge weight that had been pressing onto her heart.
