Katie Johanson shivered and burrowed her mouth and nose deeper into her scarf. A bitter wind was blowing in her face. It was January, and she had just moved back to school after her Christmas and New Year holiday a few days before. Now she was starting on her new classes for the second semester of her junior year.

It had been more than a year since her last journey to Middle-earth, and her life had changed quite a bit since then. Most of her friends didn't know what to make of her. In some ways, she was the same Katie she had always been—full of jokes and teasing sarcasm, always ready for some good, clean fun. But there was something hard-to-define about her. Her father had summed it up when she had gone to visit him over New Year's. She had gotten irritated with him over something silly and yelled at him, then surprised him ten minutes later by actually apologizing for it rather than just letting it slide like she normally would have done.

"You're turning into your grandmother," he had said jokingly, but she could tell he was impressed.

She grinned. "Thanks. I take that as a compliment," she answered.

But however heart-warming that episode had been, Katie was a bit frozen at the moment. She put her head down into the wind and walked on. She had just left her psychology class in the Science Center, and now had to walk the whole way across campus to her dorm. It wouldn't have bothered her on a nice day, but it was a frigid out, and it was nine-fifteen in the morning.

All she wanted at the moment was to get back to the dorm, curl up with a mug of hot chocolate, and do a little reading before her next class. One of the books her grandmother had given her for Christmas was in her backpack right at this moment, along with her notebook and her psychology textbook. She hitched the straps a little higher on her shoulders, and stepped off the sidewalk onto the crosswalk…

…And ran straight into a tree.

She sat on the ground for a moment, dazed. She thought at first she had run into a car, or maybe been hit by one, but the scene around her removed all such thoughts from her mind.

She was in a forest. A very deep, dark forest. She was on a path, but there were trees all about her, hemming her in on every side. She felt a sudden rush of claustrophobia. There was something stifling about this forest, some menace in it, beyond its incredible darkness. She felt almost like she couldn't breathe.

Katie fought down the panic and took a few deep breaths. Then she slowly rose to her feet and dusted herself off.

There was one good thing about the menacing stillness of the forest, she told herself. At least there was no longer any biting wind!

000

After a few hours of wandering, Katie would've gladly welcomed the biting wind back if it meant she was at Watson College, headed to her dorm and her cup of hot chocolate. She had walked down the road quite some way, but she didn't know which direction she was headed in. The light fell so seldom through the canopy that she could barely tell that it was daylight at all, much less figure out her trajectory from the position of the sun. Katie was growing very warm in her coat. She had unzipped it long before, and the hoodie beneath it, and stuffed her scarf and her gloves in her backpack.

There were terrible sticky spider webs on either side of the path, which gave her the shivers. She was not a fan of spiders. At least she could be thankful that, miraculously, none of the webs were stretched over the path. She had a bad feeling that if she got stuck in one, it would require at least a sharp knife to get her out again.

She had no idea where she was. This was certainly not the forest west of the Ford of Bruinen: that was sure. Or at least, it hadn't looked like this the last time she was there. But there was no knowing what time period she had come to.

One vague guess on her location did come to mind: Mirkwood. Legolas had told her that it was a thick, dark forest, and that giant spiders lived there, which his people killed without mercy. The very thought of giant spiders gave Katie the shivers, and she quickened her pace.

The silence in the forest was nearly overwhelming. It was as if her head had been wrapped in cotton. Every rustle of animals in the undergrowth sounded terribly loud, and set her heart beating so hard she could hear it in the stillness.

One particularly loud rustle startled her so much that she took to her heels and pounded down the path frantically, a rush of adrenaline lending her speed. But eventually she ran out of breath and had to stop, leaning over and panting. She clutched the stitch that had formed in her side.

Running till you fall over and scaring yourself to death isn't going to do you any good, she told herself sternly, and started walking again. You need to do something to distract yourself.

She prayed under her breath for quite some time, then began to hum. The humming, though quiet, sounded far too loud in the stillness of the forest, and she dropped her voice until she was whispering the words of the songs to herself, trying to concentrate on them and not on the terrifying darkness on either side of her.

After she had done this for some time, Katie reached a landmark of sorts. There was a large stone on the right edge of the path, and on the left, a tree that stretched many branches out across her way. She paused for a moment, looking at them, then moved to proceed.

The sound which stopped her made her blood run cold with terror. It was the low howl of a wolf, but it didn't sound like any wolf she had ever heard before. There was something unmistakable in the tone which told her beyond any doubt that this was not a normal wolf. It must be a warg.

The rustling of movement far off in the trees made Katie's mind up for her. With a strength born of desperation, she hauled herself up into the lowest branches of the tree, and began to climb.

Her heavy winter coat impeded her movements a great deal, and her backpack did so even more, but she was too frightened to care. In a short time, she was high up in the tree, and really felt she could go no farther. Her hands were shaking with fear, and she only hoped she wouldn't lose her grip.

A though came to her mind which made her heart jump. Wargs would certainly be able to track her by her scent. They would know she was in the tree, and if they couldn't reach her, they would simply wait on the ground below for her to become exhausted and slip, or faint from hunger and thirst and fall from the tree. She clenched her eyes shut and hugged the branches she held for all she was worth, praying desperately.

In a few short minutes, she could see movement below her. The undergrowth on the right-hand side of the path rustled and moved, and then a black shape slipped out onto the path. Katie's grip tightened spasmodically on the branches. It was a hideous creature, like enough to a wolf to be called by that name, but hunchbacked and horrible. She shut her eyes so she wouldn't have to see it.

Further rustling told her that more had followed it onto the path. Katie tried to breathe as quietly as she possibly could, and not move an inch. The rustling continued for a time, and then disappeared into the distance. Well, at least one of them was gone, then, and none of them were howling and trying to jump up the tree or anything, which was a bit of a relief.

Finally, she took a chance and looked down. The path was empty, with not a warg in sight. It seemed they did not like the path, perhaps for the same reason the spiders avoided it, and had crossed it swiftly, barely pausing to investigate the smell of a human.

Katie remained in the tree for an hour, waiting to see if they would come back, or if they were lurking by the path, just waiting for her to come down. Eventually she decided that if she didn't climb down soon, she was going to end up like a sloth and die clinging to a branch.

She slowly stretched her legs down to the branches below her and began the descent. Her limbs were stiff from clinging so tightly to the tree for so long, and she had a good deal more trouble going down than she had had going up. Her coat and backpack caught on twigs, and she had to stop several times and struggle to free herself.

With slow progress Katie was finally nearing the ground, and considering stopping on one of the wider limbs to shed her coat and backpack and drop them to the ground, when her foot slipped off a branch. She grabbed at empty air. Her fall was too fast for her even to cry out, and it was a miracle she didn't strike any limbs on her way down. There was a jolt and a sickening snap as she hit the ground, and everything went black.

TBC

AN: Ahh, nothin' like starting off the new sequel with a good cliffie!

Laer4572: Oh? And what kind of rabid fangirl might you be, matie? I can't keep track of all my lotr-character fanciers.

IwishChan: Well, now I've told you, so now you know! Come now, what would Katie and Legolas be without arguing?

Princess Siara: The mighty reviewing power! Thanks for the help, darlin'. New POVs on their way!

Ravens Destiny: Yes, quite a bit like Narnia, now that you mention it… Asplody? That sounds dangerous. Maybe you should have that looked at. :)

Darkened Dreams: —shoves elves forward— Come on, guys, you're making her cry! Give her the hug already! —elves hug D.D.— There. Much better. And congrats on passing your driver's test! I failed mine the first time I took it…

theycallmemary: Well, it is a mystery. Where would be the fun if you had known right off it was Lossefalme? I was at pains to make everybody think it was Sadron… Oh man, a list of Aragorn's names? That'll take like, a page! I just read the passage today where Faramir proclaims him to the people of Gondor, and it's like, huge. All other questions will be answered by the unfolding of the plot. :)

Thanks also to RenegadeKitsune and Fk306! You guys all rock!

Please review! You will make a poor, befuddled fanfic writer very happy.