Why hello again! Welcome to the not-so-long-awaited sequel to Identities. Thanks to those who reviewed that story, and I hope you continue to read. Anyway, this is set a year later, and introduces one or two new characters, maybe more, haven't decided yet.

Full summary: It has been a year since the War of the Ring, and Mordor is beginning to haunt Rana's thoughts, as are thoughts of her family, which may have one more member than she'd originally thought. The search is on with new beginnings, adventures, and challenges for our heroes. Will Rana find her family? Will Malinaduial and Caranduin ever be entirely comfortable with their new relationship? Read to find out.

A New Beginning

Prologue

A golden-haired elven woman hurried through a land of ash, shadow, making sure that a smaller blond elven girl was keeping up. She was grateful that the orcs weren't around at the moment, it would make their escape easier. It had been simple enough get out of Barad-dur, as Sauron hd not been paying attention to her or her small, blond-haired daughter that was now travelling with her at the time.

But only one of her twin daughters would escape with her. Lithil would be left behind. Sauron had been too close to Lithil; he was always too close to Lithil for her to get close to her other daughter. Lithil, her black-haired daughter. Lithil, whom Sauron had taken a liking to, who he watched constantly, who he had begun to call Morwen, and was almost always training to be like him: an evil killer. She prayed that even without her to watch over her and guide her, Lithil would turn out all right.

But she knew that Merilineth would be fine. If they could get out. But getting out appeared to be simple at that moment. It was made easier by the fact that Sauron was easily getting to Lithil, resulting in him practically ignoring herself and Merilineth, which was most certainly a good thing.

Merilineth. Her blond daughter, kind and gentle, untainteed by Sauron. He had tried to get to both of them, but had given up on Merilineth when she showed no interest or promise in the skills he wanted her to learn. Unlike Lithil, who had shown nothing but unchangeable curiosity and promise in fighting.

Unfortunately, Merilineth might need to learn fighting as well as healing, the skill she showed most prmise in. As much as she hate to think of it, her poor, gentle daughter might need to learn to fight whether she wanted to or not.

"Naneth, where are we going?" Merilineth asked her. There was a small trace of confusion in her voice, as well as plenty of fear.

"Anywhere but here, sell vell. Somewhere safe," she replied. "I promise you."

"But where?" Merilineth asked again. "Lothlorien?"

"I don't know, Merilineth, let's just get away from here first," she answered.

In her heart, Ithiloth knew that she and her daughter could never go back to Lothlorien, or any other well known elven homeland again. Sauron may look for them there. They would have to go somewhere hidden, far from Sauron and his lies. But Sarnril might still be there...

Her fifteen year-old blond daughter looked at her in concern. "Nana?"

"I'm fine, sell vell," she replied.

"I think we're lost, nana, which way leads out?" Merilineth asked, fear in her voice.

"I'm not sure, sell vell, but we must keep going. We'll get out of hear eventually, I'm certain of it," Ithileth promise, holding her daughter close. "I promise."

"Naneth, I want out of here!" a young, blond, elleth of about fiteen whimpered in fear. "I hate this place."

"Don't worry, we'll get out, I promise. but we have to head back, towards the gate. I will not risk Cirith Ungol, not with you with me," replied another blond elleth who looked somewhat similar to the younger, childish one.

"I knew it, we are lost!" the younger one cried out in horror.

"No, we aren't lost, at least, not that lost. We don't need to go out through the Black Gate or Cirith Ungol. although I will admit that climbing out will be difficult." The older blond elleth looked very concerned.

"Climbing? Here?" The younger elf seemed horrified by the thought.

The older elf froze at a rather frightening sound. "Orcs. Come, sell vell, we must go, now."

The younger elleth nodded as they began to flee. The older one stopped for a moment and looked back, farewell, Lithil. Gi melin," she murmured before turning back to join her daughter...

Rana awoke from the dream in shock. Who had that woman been, and who was her daughter? Why did they seem familiar? And what had they been doing in Mordor?

She rolled over and slipped out of bed. She stood and headed to the balcony. It was still night. She looked up at the stars and moon. She tried to remember her mother. She barely could. Had that elleth in her dream been her mother? It was the only explanation she could think of. And if that were the case, did that mean she had a sister?

For the past year, she had lived in Minas Tirith in peace. For the past year, there had been almost no sign of orcs. Sauron was defeated. Sauron was gone, dead, never to return.

Anwyn and Boromir were soon to be married, and as for Eowyn and Faramir, it was the same. Caranduin and Malinaduial were still getting used to their feelings for each other.

And as for herself and Legolas...

They wanted to marry, but they had to find her parents first for a proper ceremony. Other than that, things were fine.

She sighed as her dream returned. If it had been her mother, what had happened next? had the orcs caught her and the other blond elleth that may or may not have been her sister? Or had they escaped? And if they had escaped, where had they gone?

She had to know. She was tempted to leave immediately, but knew she couldn't. What about Legolas and Malinaduial, and her other friends as well?

But at the same time, the more time she spent there, the less chance she had of finding her family. If it wasn't too late already. She hope it wasn't too late.

She felt torn in half. Half of her wanted to stay, while half of her wanted to leave. And somewhere, some part of her regretted everything. There were times that she felt she was wrong, and that Sauron had left some mark on her that she didn't know about. And this was one of those times.

She'd thought her inner struggles had ended when she'd chosen the Fellowship and Legolas, chosen to be who she wanted to be.

But they hadn't. She'd been discovering that bit by bit recently. She was still fighting mentally. It seemed that she ha spent a little too much time in Mordor, and Sauron had affected her more than she'd thought. She wished that the bit of her that was still Morwen would die and go away. But it wouldn't.

She closed her eyes and tried to recall her mother. Only the dream appeared clearly, other memories were faded snatches. She was hardly surprised; she'd rarely seen her mother after she'd turned seven, and Ithiloth had vanished when she was fifteen. Then when she was twenty-seven, there had been the battle that had cost Sauron his physical form.

But everything was fine now. There was peace at last. Almost eerything wsa perfect to her. when she found her parents, everything would be truly perfect to her.