It was a lovely October evening, and Katie was headed toward the playing fields.

Dana had a soccer match, and Katie had promised to come and see the end of it after she got off work. She had plenty of time, though, so she took the long way around.

Ever since four of her friends from Middle Earth had suddenly appeared in the middle of girl's dorm last spring, she had been more aware of her environment, and specifically, of the lack of nature in her environment. This had led her to explore areas she had not been in before, particularly the area around Watson College.

Because Watson had a big equestrian program, there was plenty of pasture for the horses, and the first time Katie had come out here for a walk, she had simply followed the fences. Since then she had explored the many winding paths that cut through the woods in that area, and had even gotten herself partially lost a few times (although she always managed to find her way out again in about half an hour).

She wasn't going through the woods today, though. She thought she would simply stick to the dirt road that wound its way past the barns and around the pastures, eventually ending at the soccer field.

It was a pretty nice day out, and she wore her usual clothes—a pair of sneakers, jeans, a cute t-shirt and her gray zip hoody, her brown, curly hair in a ponytail. The hoody was currently unzipped, and she had pushed the sleeves up above her elbows in the pleasant air.

Her stomach rumbled. Usually she and Megan, her roommate, ate dinner around this time. She shrugged and kept walking, observing the way her sneakers flashed beneath her on the dirt. Crunch, crunch, crunch…

…And then a sound that didn't belong, a sound that made Katie's head snap up. Bells.

She didn't even have time to stop in her tracks, but her next footfall made a different kind of crunch. Her foot slid out from beneath her, and in her sudden disorientation, she lost her balance and landed in an ungraceful heap on her backside.

…In something cold and wet.

Snow.

Katie stared about her, dazed. She was in some kind of forest, and from the way the light was coming through the trees, she assumed the sun must be going down. And there was snow on the ground, a few inches deep. She herself happened to be sitting in a pile of it.

With a grimace, she rubbed her bottom. She had managed to land right on top of some kind of object, a tree root or something, and it hurt.

Katie picked herself up and examined the dent she had made in the snow. In the bottom of it lay an object, and she picked it up. It was a small wooden pendant on a leather thong. Absently, Katie stuck it in her hoody pocket and looked around again.

She was next to some kind of road or path through the woods—she couldn't tell if it were dirt or not, as it was covered with snow, like everything else.

She had a feeling this was not new-fallen snow. She had been in a wood while it was snowing before, and it had a kind of atmosphere—an absolute stillness and silence while the snow fell. This didn't have the same feeling. And no snow clung to the branches of the trees, while the snow on the ground, judging from the bit she had sat down in, was very wet and clumpy, as if it had been there at least a day.

And another thing: it was usually just about freezing when snow fell. And judging from the feel of it, it was a good deal colder here.

Katie shivered and pulled the sleeves of her hoody down over her fingers. The gentle October breeze of Pennsylvania had been pleasantly cool; the breeze here was maddeningly frigid. She pulled her hair out of its ponytail and let it hang loose for extra insulation, pulling her hood up over her head and tightening it up with the drawstrings. Her legs stung with the cold as her wet pants rubbed against them, and she knew it wouldn't be long before her feet would be in the same condition as the snow seeped into her sneakers. She should start walking and find some shelter as quickly as possible.

But where was there shelter?

For that matter, where the heck was she?

She had automatically assumed she was back in Middle Earth, but what if she wasn't? What if she had ended up someplace completely different? What if she walked for miles and miles and finally froze to death?

She shook herself sternly. There was absolutely no reason to go off in a panic; it would only make things worse. This was a road. Logically, it must lead to somewhere. She would follow it toward the setting sun, so she at least knew that she would be traveling in a westward direction. She could almost hear Elrohir's voice in her head—"Ilúvatar never does anything without a purpose. You just have to trust him." She started walking.

000

It was two hours later, she was still trudging westward down the same road in the snow, and she was completely sick of trusting Ilúvatar, sick of the stupid, slick snow that made her slip and nearly fall several times, sick of the stupid, freezing cold breeze that kept nipping her face and burning her eyes, and sick of the dark. It was well past sunset now, and she found herself picking her way down the road by moonlight. She had never had very good vision in dim light, and she kept misplacing her feet, mistaking certain shadows for the texture of the snow, thinking she saw dips in the road where really there were none. She was weary, footsore, her feet were soaking wet along with her pants, and she was absolutely freezing. She was sure that if anyone came on her now, they would think she was an old hag—hunched over, the hood over her head, shivering and blinking her eyes to keep them clear around the cold breeze that blew into them. She was almost ready to cry with frustration and fatigue.

A sudden sound pierced the air and made Katie stop in her tracks and look up. It was a wolf's howl—a long, drawn-out sound that sounded half terrifying and half beautiful. Katie had never heard one before, at least not one that wasn't recorded. It was one thing to hear it on the background of a piece of New Age music; it was something else entirely to hear it for yourself in the middle of a still, snow-covered forest.

For a moment, she felt her heart lift in excitement at the new experience. Then her eyes widened. She remembered something Legolas had told her about the wolves in Middle Earth. Some of them were intelligent—they called them "wargs". And they were evil. They ate people, just like Little Red Riding Hood come true.

Another howl sounded, and Katie jumped, her eyes suddenly wide in something close to fear. She turned toward the noise—

And there was another. She jumped and peered around, trying to still her breathing. That had sounded closer—

And another howl sounded, a little too close for comfort.

Katie's legs didn't wait for her brain to confirm the order. They simply ran.

For a minute or two she flew over the snow as if she had wings, as if her feet didn't even touch the ground. Soon, though, her little rush of adrenaline began to take its toll on her, and she began breathing hard, slipping and stumbling in the snow.

Finally, she stopped running, crowing for breath. She could no longer hear the wolves, and she hoped that meant they had moved in a different direction and not that they were now stalking her.

Katie wasn't just shivering now, she was shaking with the remains of her fear and with fatigue. She moved over to a tree beside the road and sank down into the snow, pulling her knees up to her chest and resting her head on them, trying to catch her breath. Logically, she knew it was a stupid thing to do, that she would now be colder and wetter than ever, and it would take her even longer to get to civilization, but at the moment, she felt she could do nothing else. She was freezing, she was exhausted, and she just wanted to cry or sleep.

She was only there for ten minutes, when she was roused by a sound she didn't at first recognize. It was a crunching, like someone walking in the snow, but the rhythm was wrong—two people in the snow perhaps.

Or maybe one wolf.

She shrank into herself at the thought. She couldn't run; the wolf would see her! But if she stayed here and it smelled her…

But then she heard another sound, halfway between a jingle and click—metal on metal. And then a snort.

It was a horse!

And where there was a horse, there was sure to be a rider. Who would it be? Katie didn't know where she was, or even what world she was in! Would the rider be friendly? She shuddered to imagine the alternative.

The horse and rider were drawing up opposite her. Very, very slowly, barely daring to breath, she turned her head and looked up in the moonlight at the rider, so high above her on his white horse. His face was shadowed by the hood of the cape he wore. He seemed to have been following her tracks in the snow, and was now startled to see his quarry sitting in the snow. He pulled the horse up and pulled off his hood.

Squinting at his face in the maze of shadow and moonlight, Katie tried desperately to make out his features.

"Katie?" he said incredulously, and Katie suddenly knew him.

"Glawar?"

TBC

AN: Slightly shorter than my usual chapters, but definitely the best place to break in between. I've been wanting to write this chapter ever since the idea came to me, probably a month ago, but I've been a good girl and made myself finish the first sequel before I started on the second. :)

Ravens Destiny: Wow, what in the first paragraph tipped you off that it was the end? The high school auditorium is exactly where my studio performs. :) Eesh, I've done some crazy stuff on stage, but nothing that was actually embarrassing or painful. Of course, the first year my teacher put on a real ballet, during the second performance, one of the soloists fell and broke her arm on stage…

Erusuithiel: Well, more than a trilogy if I can manage it! I'm thinking at least four in the series, and most probably more. I don't know why Chapter 12 won't come up for you; can anybody help her out? Yep, a hoover is a vacuum cleaner. I have no idea what the Elvish meant, but I'll take it as a compliment. :)

Hermione Heart: Thank you! I'm awfully proud of being able to actually finish a couple… If you look at the rest of my stories, you'll see I have a bit of a problem with that!

EresseElrondiel: Congratulations!

Coollilyflower: As you see!

theycallmemary: No, I think I'm pretty much finished with the save-a-life routine, and now I must come up with something different!

Thank you also to Laer4572, RenegadeKitsune, Fk306, and werewolflemming. I heart you all!

Please review!