*I do not own any of the LOTR characters or the *song, "Sleep baby, sleep", just Leonie and my own character, Melanie. Enjoy and always review!

Chapter 2

"Come on, sis. Pick up the pace. I feel like we are going at a slug's pace." Complained Melanie as she and her sister hiked the next day with laden hiking backpacks. Her twin, Leonie, was lagging a few paces behind her, breathing heavily as she took a break by a nearby log. Shaking her head, the older sat down next to her. "I often have to remind myself that you're the least athletic of us both." She smirked while taking a sip of cold water before handing her canister to her sister who let out a very undignified snort.

"That's what you often like to tell yourself behind my back." Leo snapped irately. "I might the fairer one of the two but I still am just as good in body as you are."

"Sure you are." Melanie laughed before giving her sister a tight hug. "Now lets get going. I want to reach our old swimming spot before the sun starts to go down. It would be bad if we get there by nightfall and can't swim." Standing up, she held out her hand towards her older twin with an encouraging smile. "You can do it. I'll even be sure to keep pace so you don't tire out."

Laughing to herself, Leo allowed herself to be pulled along. They hiked almost four and half miles through different kinds of terrain within the forest before eventually coming to a large clear lake that was surrounded by tall evergreen trees, fresh air, and the soft sounds of nature.

As leg sore as they were feeling, the twins let out a loud happy whoop of joy upon seeing the old lake from their childhood. Melanie ran up and down the white shore like a little kid barefoot after taking off her hiking shoes. Her face was lit up like a Christmas tree while Leo busied herself with taking out a picnic basket she had brought with them that contained their lunch for the day. It had been a very long time since they had ever experienced such happiness in simple things after the nasty divorce of their parents three years ago. So it made her feel happy deep down to see her sister smile so radiantly as she felt.

Melanie eventually gave up her childish game and came over to help her sister set out the picnic. "Wow," She exclaimed while eyeing the stuffed ham and cheese sandwiches that they grandma had made fresh earlier that morning. "She didn't hold back this time." With the sandwiches, came lemon tea, potato chips and large, baked-fresh chocolate chip cookies, much to their utter delight when they found them carefully wrapped in plastic at the bottom of the basket. Melanie of course being the more athletic of the two as well as having the bigger stomach, fell upon eating her portions while her sister decided to take a swim first in the cool waters before hers.

"Are you sure you want to swim first and not at least replenish your strength first?" Melanie asked while taking a big bite out of her sandwich. Leo stuck her tongue out at her while in the mist of tying the back of her pink bikini top.

"I'm just going for a quick dip, sis." She replied before heading off towards the calm waters before them. Melanie shrugged and sat back to watch, much too busy with stuffing her stomach fast to bother even looking for her own bathing suit, which was probably sitting at the bottom of her own hiking backpack. She glanced up at the clear sky to find a few lingering dark clouds, but shrug a shoulder, not thinking about them too much while Leo swam perfectly in the water like a mermaid. She couldn't help but feel a stab of jealous within her about her twin's swimming skills as she swam like a frog, much to her utter horror when she began swimming lessons years ago with their father as a child. He often had laughed at their slight differences in doing particular things, but encouraged them to keep some activities the same together in others.

Melanie reflected upon their childhood growing up. Everything was pretty normal for as long as they could remember between them, their parents and the various parts of just growing up until four years ago, when their mom discovered that their dad had been cheating on her for a long time with his secretary during business trips. Then just like that, Leo and Mel were left on the sidelines, watching their parents fight back and forth as the years of pent up pain and betrayal played out like a reality drama show, day after day until the twins couldn't take it any longer, as it had started to effect them not only at home, but with their schoolwork as well. Leo was more close to their father then their mother, so it effected her more emotionally to watch him pack up all of his personal belongings one day upon coming home from school while their mother screamed at him. Melanie secretly thought to herself as the fights turned into legal ones in court, that her twin was often too plastic around their mother and other people, then verses being alone with her only and breaking into a total crying mess.

Funny, that she was the younger of the two and often had to try and being the more responsible of the two whenever her sister had these breakdowns. She was just as affected as Leo, but choosing to keep silent and calm while being the observer as the divorced dragged one year into the next. Three years of being pushed back and forth between their parents, the ugly rumors that spread around school, the sleepless nights of watching over her older twin when she would wake in the middle of the night to soft weeping and comfort her with just tight hugs and back rubs until she fell asleep.

All of this and more so, Melanie chose to take on the role as the protective sister until Leo found her inner strength to move on with life once again. This was why she insisted to mom for a whole year after they had gotten acceptance letters in the mail from separate universities, to allow them to visit grandma and grandpa for the summer until it was time to return home. Their mother didn't want to, but after asking grudgingly her ex-husband what his thoughts were, she had no other choice but to accept his positive opinion of allowing their daughters to go see them.

And so they there were, sitting on the shores of their favorite childhood lake on a warm summer's day while the birds were out chirping and other small animals were going about their daily activities as the twins enjoyed themselves. After an hour of waiting for her meal to digest fully, Melanie slipped into the cool waters in her own one-piece swimsuit while her sister swam ashore for a break and food. The cool water felt like satin upon her skin as she took her time to swim about the lake, turning in small circles in the water as she swam deep before coming up for air. She looked towards shore where she saw Leo standing with a hand to her forehead. She appeared to be wearing a frown that went with a look of concern as she shouted something at Melanie but she couldn't catch since she was still slightly submerged in the water. The older twin pointed a finger upwards at the sky, calling frantically for her to get out.

Melanie glanced upwards, confused which turned swiftly into alarm as she found that the few lingering dark clouds she had seen earlier was growing rapidly. Swimming swiftly, she barley made it to shore as a sudden gust of wind kicked up from out of nowhere, almost knocking her off her feet. Leo was already grabbing their things and throwing her a towel as rain started to pour like a fully open facet.

"What the hell?" Melanie had to scream over the loud wind and rain. "A downpour of rain during the summer? I've never seen anything like this since we've been visiting our grandparents all these years!."

"I know! I was thinking the same thing when I saw the clouds getting darker." Shouted the other. As if on cue, the sky was almost pitch black as more rain poured upon the girls. "We have to take shelter in that old cave by the trees until the storm clears. Its not safe if we try to hike back home in this downpour." Leo added as she began leading her sister by hand towards a grove of trees a few yards away from the lake shore.

"What about a fire? I don't think we will find any dry wood to help keep us warm."

"There should still be some from several years ago that we can still use in there."

"Well, lead on then. The sooner we can get into our other clothes, the better then."

Leo nodded. She dragged her sister close to her to avoid the wind knocking them down as they fought to get to the cave she had mentioned. It was hidden behind several bushes which helped to keeps some of the wind and rain from going inside as they crawled inside their their soaked things. Both were shivering and cold to the bone. Melanie dragged out their regular clothes while Leo worked on gathering up wood from the back of the cave and starting a fire in a old pit that they used to dig constantly as kids. Once they got that going, they laid out all their clothes out to dry near the bright burning fire while they searched to see if anything else had been damaged.

Surprisingly, most of their hiking gear and first aid kits were not damaged since it had been good for their grandfather to think ahead of time of buying them waterproof backpacks. The only thing that was wet, outside of their clothes, was the picnic basket and rope. Leo told Melani that it was good that they had only been outside in that horrible weather for less then five minutes or else who knows if they would have been swept away with the wind. Melanie scolded her to not say such things as she toweled off with her now dry beach towel before tossing it at her twin.

"At least you thought of this place while it poured." Melanie laughed while slipping into a dry t-shirt with a cotton sweater and blue jeans. She checked her shoes and found those not yet dry, but slipped into her socks before settling down by the fire to warm her cold hands. Leo did the same before joining beside her with a wool blanket which she used to cover them both.

"You don't regret coming this summer, do you?" She asked softly after staring into the dancing flames while the rain continued to pour outside and the wind howling like a wolf at high speeds.

"Why would I even think of such a thing?"

Leo shrug a shoulder, settling her chin upon Melanie's shoulder. "I don't know. Things are so different back home with only mom around. Dad doesn't even call anymore, much less even send a card once in a while to let us know that he still exists at least." She couldn't' help but cry a little on that last part of her sentence before Melanie pulled her into a tight hug.

"Hey," She chided her older twin. "What happened between mom and dad is sad, but sometimes you have to try and move on with your life, even if it hurts a lot inside. I think this summer has done us more good then bad since we got to see grandma and grandpa. Yeah, we've been very lazy but hell, at least we have some nice and quite around here without all of the shouting and screaming." She grinned widely. Leo lightly punched her with a laugh before sighing.

"I think you're right." She agreed. "I sometimes wonder if it would have been better if you were born first and not I."

Melanie rolled her eyes. "Yeah right. If that had happened, where would you think we would be if our roles were reversed?"

"Not at thought I'd like to even think about at the moment with all this wind and rain going on." Leo replied while checking on their shoes. "I think they are dry now." She said, tossing Melanie's into her lap. "I hope this storm clears soon. I'd like to head back home as soon as possible and take a hot bath." As she said that, a loud thunderclap caused both to jump in fear as more sounded outside. Melanie quickly donned on her shoes and hurried towards the entrance to take a peek outside. The sky was still very much dark with heavy rain pouring everywhere. The lake even looked like was almost going to overflow as the once calm waters were now moving choppily across the surface in small waves.

Sadly, it looked like they were going to be here for a good while. "Hey sis, do we have any food still we can eat in the mean time if we get hungry?" She asked, turning back around. Leo checked their supplies before giving her the thumbs up. "What do we have?"

"Half full canister of water in both of ours, several granola bars, two bags of unopened trail mix," Leo replied as she went through the bags. "Oh, and a box of chocolates?" She raised an eyebrow as it came into view from Melanie's. "Since when were you going to tell me about them?"

"Like never." Melanie replied coming back over. "I'm still full from lunch so I won't be very hungry until a few hours from now." She said, glancing down at her campus watch. "Its only three in the afternoon and its still pouring outside." She complained with a childish pout. "Why this day of all days?"

"Maybe mother nature doesn't like your complaining, so she just keep pouring the jug." Leo yawned. She flinched as lightning and thunder sounded again outside. "Then when I think about it again, I'd rather not have all of those loud noises happening outside." She added.

Melanie snorted in agreement as another sounded, this time much closer towards the entrance of the cave. "I don't like the sound of that. It's too close." She tried to crawl towards the entrance but Leo tightly grasped her fingers around her wrist like with a vise-grip that belied her own strength. Melanie flinched at the pain but didn't bother to move forward as she resigned herself to staying with her sister then rather risk having her wrist crushed from the painful pressure. "Hey, its going to be alright. Its just a thunder storm."

"I don't like loud noises." Leo complained with tears in her eyes. She covered her ears with both hands and began rocking back and forth as the thunder continued to blast outside. "Make it stop, Mel!" She cried. "Please!"

"Leo, calm the fuck down!" Melanie told her severely. She didn't want to allow herself to panic as it would only fuel her twin's upon sensing hers. She tightly wrapped herself around her sister with her arms while bringing the heavy wool blanket around them both. She kissed her sister upon the cheek while humming an old lullaby that their mother used to sing to them as children whenever they got scared of things such as nightmares and lightning/ thunderstorms.

*"Sleep, baby, sleep
Your father tends the sheep
Your mother shakes the dreamland tree
And from it fall sweet dreams for thee
Sleep, baby, sleep
Sleep, baby, sleep

Sleep, baby, sleep
Our cottage vale is deep
The little lamb is on the green
With snowy fleece so soft and clean
Sleep, baby, sleep
Sleep, baby, sleep"

Melanie kept singing that song over and over again until her throat ran dry and she felt the relaxation of her sister's body against hers as she fell into a deep slumber. Once she was sure Leo was fast asleep, she slowly slipped her onto the ground and wrapped the blanket around her snug. Man, she hated when Leo was reduced to bits like this, but heaven couldn't help itself when she fell into hysterics. Melanie shook her own water canister to check the water amount before taking several sips. She let out a sigh as the cool water soothed her parched throat. The rain seemed to have lessened outside but the winds were still high by the looks of the way the bushes were swinging wildly at the entrance of the cave. She shivered from the cold draft of winds that blew into the cave. She hurried towards the warm fire and Leo before two things suddenly happened at once out of nowhere.

First, there was a low rocking motion of the ground beneath them like a low tremor of a earthquake, which made no sense because they were in the deep south where there was only rain, snow, and tornatos. And second, she swore she saw a array of colors that slowly rose from the ground itself around Leo like wisps of of smoke. She cried out in alarm, jumping forward as her instinct to protect her older twin sister kicked into gear. Just as she managed to reach her, there was a terrible loud sound of something striking the roof of the cave and of dirt and rocks falling around her as she fell upon Leo, shielding her from the falling debris with her own body.

Despite all of this, Leo appeared to be in a deep sleep and did not awaken to the wild commotion taking place around her. Melanie buried her face next to her sister as a stab of cold wind shot into the cave and hit her like a train, sending them both flying towards the back of the cave. Leo fell upon the ground, slightly hitting her head on a small rock while Melanie fell down hard upon her right side, severely knocking the breath out of her and sending her head into a spin of every direction as she stared hazily at the color wisps that continued to rise from the ground around them. They clung to her and her sister with like hands, pulling this way and that as the room began to spin out of control.

Melanie blindly reached for her sister as a shot of pain ran through her battered body until she felt her arm in her hands. Gripping tightly with determination to protect the only one she cared for the most at the moment, she dragged herself beside her until they were together, side by side. Her vision was blacking out from the edges as she stared at the wisps that dance around her open hand. Another gust of wind, another thunderous clap of lighting struck once more before the whole cave seemed to shake under the unnatural sheer force of freak nature before she blacked out and knew no more from that moment.