Shge stepped from the cave near the Morro strip with a sigh of relief. Laurelen looked back at the slowly turning shift apprehensively. Shifting was always dangerous, and she was relieved that the place she had landed lkook ed familiar. When she began moving away from the cave, shivering a bit in the cold wind, the strange, hum of a shift bringing another person through alerted her. She whirled in time to see a tallish blonde girl roll out, landing expertly on her feet. "TA-DA!" she said throwing her arms out and grinning. Behind the shift sealed tight with an odd twang. Laurelen was not pleased. "What do you think you are doing here?" she shouted, " You could have killed yourself! I told you not to follow me, and now look, here you are, as usual. WHY CAN'T you LISTEN for once??" By this time the girls smile had faded, but Laurelen was not finished " you may be as old as I am but you are no where near as wise." Still ranting the shorter girl turned and stormed down the beach. Marisen followed her, grinning a little. Had Laurelen actually thought she would miss out on such and adventure? Honestly, she should know better! The two were fresh out of Middle Earth. When the world-shifts had been discovered, there had been a gradual leak of accidental discoveries, and a few of the ones that had stumbled across the blue, circular portals had been pulled in and spit out on this beach. All of the disappearance s had led to the Elves and Gnomes making the first temporary pact in thousands of years, so that they could retrieve the lost ones and bring them back home. It was Laurelen's elected job to do this, as she looked thee most human -like, and the men themselves claimed not to have had any disappearances of late. (Many of the elves claimed that this meant that they were cowardly in not helping. For once, the Dwarves agreed.) [Hey all you hard-core- Middle-Earth-fans. This is just an idea of mine. Sorry about the inconsistency with Tolkein's Works, of which mine hold no comparison. Please don't give up yet.] Marisen followed behind her frined who was now ignoring her. For all of the other trips Mari had been left at Rivendell, and she had been SO BORED. All they ever di was hold councils and sing. Oh the singing was all well and good, but since the LAST WAR against Sauron had finally been finshed, and all of the hobbits had gone, Elrond seemed to live in the past. He still tended to say "DOOOOOM" a few times st any mention of a problem, be it a shortage of cheese or a mosquito bite. It unnerved you after a while, plus the fact that he was always asking you if he thought he was balding. What were you supposed to say " No, your hair is just running away from tyour eye brows??" He was,aa fter all, Master Elrond. So, when Mrisen guessed that Laurelen was going off again ( Laurelen had long ago leanred not to tell her before she left to prevent following), Marisen had taken to sleeping in the woods. She had already heard all about the shifts and so was not entirely surprised to see her friend heading for the one of the locations. So here they were! "Where are we going?" mari asked, trotting to keep up with the still stewing elf. Mari herself was somewhat of a halfling, and could not quite name a race for herself. She had been raised by Elrond. Laurelen gave up on being mad, though she would have liked to chew mari out. "We are headed for a town called Templeton, somehow a merchants daughter endd up there. A runaway I think. There are a few like us who keep an eye out, two hobbits and another elf. And a few men, who agreed to help, but the decent ones are rare. One in particular is very helpful. Her name is Kate." "We don't even get any horses to ride there? My legs hurt." " No, Mari, and we've a way to walk. About thirty miles, I think. "THIRTY????" Mari groaned and would have thrown herself on the grass by the road right then, had she thought Laurelen would care. "Yes, thirty" Laurelen allowed herself a little smile at Mari's complaints. But after a half-hour more of them, she was not smiling any longer.