Oh, hm, river.  She can make a little magic bridge over the river.  Except that might spook the...

Well they didn't spook at the illusions...

...Is it really necessary?  ...No, not really.

She just continues riding.

There aren't any bridges over the Bruinen.  There haven't been any bridges for generations of Men.

The Rangers and their horses have forded the Bruinen many times before today.

Well, yes, obviously, that's why she didn't bother magicking up a temporary bridge.

Meanwhile, Gandalf (on Asfaloth, borrowed from Glorfindel) is galloping out swiftly towards the place where something strange briefly appeared, something feeling unlike anything in all Arda.  And... he can't remember very well his life in Valinor before coming to Middle-Earth, but it feels sort of like the Straight Road by which ships go from Arda to Valinor, and also sort of the Doors of Night.

Which makes him very worried.  Especially when he still has no idea what the Nazgul might be up to after their defeat a couple days ago.

He draws rein when he sees two Rangers trotting toward him... Halbarad and Adrahil, he recognizes after a moment, with a strange girl-child in front of Halbarad?

"Good-morning!" he calls in Westron.  "Did you see anything strange near the Bruinen... perhaps a little over an hour ago?"

Halbarad is glad to see Gandalf a little earlier than he thought - especially if he's about to be leaving Rivendell?

"Why yes!  Or, we heard a thunderclap - but no storm - and then we saw this girl lying on the beach.  Her name is Alicia; she doesn't speak any languages we can recognize - and she can make magical lights and illusions."

Gandalf smiles.  The question is answered - and the traveler down this new Straight Road, whatever she might be, has been found by these two Rangers!

(She might prove to be a problem in these unsettled times, but Gandalf prefers to be an optimist.)

"Good-morning!" he says to Alicia in Westron.  Tapping himself, he adds, "I am Gandalf."  And then, when she doesn't recognize it, he repeats in a dozen more languages including Sindarin, Quenya, Valinorian, and (finally, reluctantly) the Black Speech.  In half the languages, he gives his name as "Mithrandir" since he more often goes by that name when speaking them.

"Mithrandir" is literal Sindarin, meaning "Grey Pilgrim"; not translation convention.

...What the hell was the name they gave for apparently-not-actually-called-Gandalf Gandalf?  ...Does she remember the elfy name?  Started with - O - Olorin??????????  She is not confident enough in that.

Mithrandir...maybe rings a bell, in that it gives her a bit of a squinty thinky look for a second.

She waves at him.

And then...

"I'm sorry, I can't understand you."

...Time to Play Charades Again?  She magics up a light, then waves-at-Gandalf-"Yes?"  (...If yes, she will proceed to show the portal thing, again.)

If she had actually said "Olorin," Gandalf would have been very surprised...

... but as it is, he frowns.  "I don't recognize that language either, which surprises me less than it would in any other time..."  He gives a thin cryptic smile and turns to Halbarad.  "Since the manner of her arrival makes it likely she is from far away.  You were taking her to Imladris?"

(He uses the Sindarin name for Rivendell, in the vague unlikely hope she might recognize that.)

Halbarad nods.

She recognizes it but she hardly recognizes it.

"Then I shall go with you --"

He stares at Alicia's light.

It doesn't feel like sorcery.  It feels... not quite in step with the Song of the world, but not out of tune either.  It feels like an echo of one principle, sort of like the echos of Eregion's constructions that can still sometimes be felt amid its ruins, or the echos of Morgoth's hostility that still waken sometimes in the Misty Mountains.  But this one girl is calling it up right now.

"Amazing," he says aloud.

She covers her face with her hands like she's embarrassed.  (Because she kind of is.  Why is Gandalf in awe of her!)  And then...  Well, she sets about doing the same illusion-sequence she did earlier to try and explain the portal accident, like she was planning to.

Gandalf holds up his hand to stop her a little ways into the illusion-sequence.

"One moment, and I think we can talk more easily...  I usually would not try to speak mind-to-mind with someone I have just met," he says, aloud for the sake of Halbarad and Adrahil.  "But usually, we would speak each other's language, or there would at least be less urgency to talk."

... Both to help her focus on him, and to ease the strain of osanwe to someone he knows next to nothing about, he holds out his hand to take Alicia's.

<Hello, and well-met I hope> he says into Alicia's mind through osanwe.

He's sending the words of Sindarin as well as the wordless thoughts.  It probably won't help anything - except names; he does want her to hear names as well as the concepts behind them - but words are the less-unusual form of osanwe; most Elves consider the wordless version to be inelegant.

<I am Mithrandir, or Gandalf.  I felt the magic of your extremely strange arrival, and came to see what had happened, only to find you had already met these Rangers.>

...Wergh that feels strange.  Oh well.  Telepathy kind of is just by its nature.  If she had to guess it's a Spirit thing?  Except she's not in her native/adopted cosmology at present...

Now that she's done gesturing for him to wait just a second while she processes all this, she needs to figure out how to do it back - damn it, where's Lila, Lila would be good at this, she's not -

<Sorry, I - had to figure out what I was doing,> she attempts to send back, <I'm not actually any good at the relevant branch of magic where I'm from.  Or perhaps just not practiced, this doesn't seem like it's giving me overmuch trouble as of yet even if it is the strangest feeling I daresay I've ever felt, I'm not supposed to be - well, the relevant metaphysics - who actually even knows if they still apply here - anyway - Hi!  ...Would you, perchance, happen to also be named Olorin?  I think I know that - and while I could tell you exactly why I think I know that, it's a horribly strange tale that I hardly wish to make your problem when you likely have many other things - but I'm not sure that I know that, and it is bugging me.>

Gandalf leans back as Alicia figuratively slams her fëa and a torrent of her thoughts toward him.  It feels almost as if she might know him better than he knows her?  Or she feels great urgency?

<That - I can hear you, but you should speak more tightly>, he answers after a moment to clear his head.  <Osanwe sends what you give it to send; it feels like you are trying to open up your entire spirit.>

<Yes, I am Olorin.  Or, perhaps better, I was him.  But I would ask where you learned that - I would have thought hardly anyone would recognize me by that name?>

<Unfortunately, I have no practical experience with this and I'm pretty sure I'm doing it wrong!  I am not good at shamanic practices in general and this feels very much like one of those - I can't do the - it's all meditative openness and I do not do either of those things well at all.>  A brief, imagined scene - a powerful wizard talking to her apprentice about the different perceptions various magical traditions can have about something as simple as drinking water - flutters into the gap as a follow-up.

(She's not exactly slamming her entire fëa into him anymore, but neither does she seem to be quite capable of not throwing more of herself than might be strictly necessary into communicating things.)

<The answer to where and how I learned that is going to sound utterly insane, but that's just been my life for the past several months, so I guess you asked ->

<Someone in another universe - not even the one I'm visiting from, that's a whole 'nother kettle of fish - published a bunch of novels that they purported were mostly translated from the Westron, first the reclamation of - oh, bloody hell, what was the name of it, the mountain, with the thirteen dwarves and one hobbit whose name was translated dammit Tolkien, and the Arkenstone and Smaug - and then the story of the destruction of the One Ring.  Then a bunch of worldbuilding notes came out posthumously including a bunch of information on the local cosmology and, like, a variety of things that by the time of the published novels were ancient history, stories of past Ages, the creation...uh, well, not exactly a myth if it's true - as well as...like, at least three languages?  Or rather dialects, I suppose, since I can only speak to Sindarin - which definitely got coverage across the aeons, though I barely know a single word of it.  I don't know if anything else came out, and I know we never got Westron.  ...I only read the first book - or, the revised first book, because the original novel was intended to be a lot more self-contained, and it was...lighter -> - a flash of the riddle scene makes it across, complete with fragments of movie!imagery, and the knowledge that the first version presented the ring having been a gift, if she recalls correctly - <- but they were very popular - adapted into - well, I guess I can just say 'blockbuster movies' and you will kind of get it, but if that's not how this works, just...imagine something like the inverse of a Palantir and not telepathic that could show you a play from across half the continent and you're not far off, there's storage and recording involved but it's not really material - and I picked up a bunch of random bits and pieces from the bits I haven't read, because it was both a huge cultural monolith and also inspiration for a lot of people to remix the original works.>  The ghost of a fanfic that manages to land a redemption arc on the reincarnated soul of Sauron of all people gently brushes past, beneath the surface.  <The name you were first given was one of those things.  Also that you have the Ring of Fire, I believe?  ...I sha'n't let any of that about, though, I don't think.  None of my business.>  This, with a complex associative web of right-to-identify tangled up beneath.  <...When am I, anyway?  I'm more specced for making big gribbly things regret the mistake of giving a wizard time to prepare, than sneaking across fucking Mordor, or - well, I do recall there being a damn big distraction of some sort while the hobbits are sneaking the Ring to Mount Doom - but if we have the One Ring to deal with, I suppose it wouldn't be a horrible idea to try spatial displacement somewhere unpleasant first - or disenchanting, or - hm, I don't rightly know how to make strong acids but I do know some of the formulas ->  (Here, the image of Gimli hitting the One Ring with an axe lies beneath, and the impression of Alicia thinking, now that she is encountering the question herself, that that was not trying quite hard enough.  She wonders if she could make enough fire.)

<-- Sorry about all the rambling on, I just - well, my brain is like this all the time and I will admit that I'm not exactly happy to be here since as best I know this world is a series of nested tragedies until Dagor fucking Dagorath, pardon my language, but that's going to be a whole project.>

Gandalf is feeling less overwhelmed now that she's backed off somewhat in her osanwe.

<The quest for Erebor, the Lonely Mountain...>

And then both his eyebrows curl up when she mentions the destruction of the One Ring, and again when she mentions his having the Ring of Fire.

<Amazing.  This is why only a fool would say he has seen everything.>  (He intentionally lets through the osanwe a brief flash of his recent conversation with Saruman, fallen into folly and claiming no chances might avail them against Sauron.)  <However this writer might have gotten the book he translated - it appears so far to be accurate.  And quite valuable now, I am sure.  Though I do thank you for your discretion in sharing what you know - both with me and with others.>

<If it means anything to you, this is the twenty-third of October by the Hobbits' calendar, 1418 of the Shire Reckoning or 3018 of the Third Age.  Frodo Baggins arrived at Rivendell three days ago, and is still abed sorely ill.  If you know of the Ringwraiths - they were defeated for the moment when he and his companions crossed the Fords on their way here, but we are still uncertain what has become of them.>

<Damn, I'm a bit late for that.  I had hoped to be of use warning you that he had gone...  Saruman is definitely - not up to anything good, I think he goes down fighting?  Have you run into the balrog -- no, surely not yet -- I don't know when all the things happen in relation to eachother except that this, what is about to happen in Rivendell, itself, is a big one.>

<...As for the Ringwraiths, I know a woman and a hobbit both contribute to the death of the Witch-King of Angmar?  But nothing...  Actionable, of that.  It might have already happened.>

<Unfortunately, this is about the extent of my knowledge.  I could probably try to bolster Frodo a bit, in non-metaknowledge matters...>

<Alas; that was not to be.  No, I fell into his trap, and much was hurt.  And, I have not encountered a balrog... nor have I heard of one in a full Age...>  He falls silent for a moment, considering where one might be.

<A woman and a hobbit?  To fulfill Glorfindel's prophecy in both interpretations; ha!> He lets out one chuckle.  <No, that has not happened yet, unfortunately.  The Witch-King was at the Fords three days ago, and Frodo hurt him, but no woman was present.  Perhaps next time...>

He peers at her.  She looks like a child, but... ah, her spirit does not look childish at all.  <... you, perhaps, can be there to help.  And in the meantime, any help with Frodo will be appreciated.  Do you perchance know whether he survives?  Or how?>

<He makes it to Mount Doom, beneath Sauron's notice all the while; the Ring is destroyed there, and he returns to the Shire - a bit worse for wear -> - A character analysis meta of Frodo rebuking Gollum/Smeagol with the Ring's power, "if you touch it you shall be cast into the fire", and that being exactly what meant that he couldn't let go even if the Ring was still destroyed because of the fight over it - <- but alive, with the help of a loyal companion in - that name's translated again, blast, but there's another hobbit that's with him -  ...Okay, so the Mines of Moria are yet to come...>  An open question of what the transition of 'Gandalf the Grey' to 'Gandalf the White' even means, because that's also something that happens there unless she blows the balrog up somehow - <And then there's an army of orcs?>  The fortress shots; she's seen that fight enough in gifsets and whatnot to recall it -  <I don't know if the hobbits were there or if they'd split off and this was the distraction - Minas Tirith?  Was that the name?  No, Helm's Deep?  Are those the same thing?  Oh and getting past fucking Ungoliant, for the hobbits, though... that one is much reduced from her height, I have to presume ->

<So Frodo does live!> He visibly relaxes.

And if Frodo falls far enough to invoke the Ring's power... he's going to ponder that more himself.  Perhaps it means nothing except that he had some flaw the Ring could exploit.  Perhaps more; perhaps something that could be averted.

<Ah... there is a Balrog in Moria?  Yes, that would explain some things... disturbingly.  And Ungoliont still alive?  And the Hobbits get past her?  That would be a marvel in itself, though one we can hopefully spare them.>

<... Minas Tirith, I was expecting a battle at already.  And another place...> He frowns.  <I can imagine a number of other places a battle might be...  Perhaps Osgiliath or Pelargir, in the same assault on Minas Tirith?  The Lonely Mountain or Lorien, in a separate attack?  Or if on Rohan - which might bode either well or ill, depending on how my warning about Saruman was received...>

He pauses in thought.

("Helm's Deep" is translation-convention unfortunately.)