Chapter 2

"For the last time, Carlos, it's impossible!" the girl cried exasperatedly. Her long, black hair had fallen out of its loose ponytail during the argument, and her narrowed almond-shaped eyes clearly showed her contempt of Carlos's theory. In the moonlight, she looked almost eerie, like a dark goddess of ancient times, the pale light making her skin look white and her hair the deepest of ebony.

"You're the math whiz here," the boy pointed out. "According to statistics, nothing is impossible." He again uploaded his palm pilot, hooked it to the cell phone cable, and tried to connect to the Internet. Both were out in the gardens of the Silent Street, at the very top of Minas Tirith, under the ink black night sky. The stars shone lazily around the waxing gibbous moon, but nothing gave more light than the angry fires of Orodruin in the distance, cursing the gods with its rumblings and groans.

Other than that, their surroundings were pitch black, the only lights coming faintly from guard towers. The outpost at Osgiliath was a mere shadow near the sparkling river Anduin, which reflected the moonlight. It clattered noisily, as if defying the silence at Minas Tirith and allying with the deafening din of machinery in Mordor. The Pelennor Fields were silent and eerie.

"This has nothing to do with stats," Desi said. "It's logic. To use the Internet, you have to have satellites, a modem, and other computers to link to! Who cares if it's night?!" Carlos had said that satellite signals worked better at night. "There are no signals for you to receive, and what if we get caught?!" The Silent Street was a much-revered place in Gondor because it held the White Tree, the symbol of the King. However, it was now withered and dead, as the king had not returned to the throne in over an age.

"Don't worry," the boy grinned over the glowing screen of his palm pilot. His spirits were high again, because his brain was ticking. "If we do, we just pretend to be a young couple star-gazing on their honeymoon."

Desi rolled her eyes and crossed her arms, pacing with the little room that the wires trailing form the back of the palm pilot to the cell phone gave her. She was holding the cell phone, moving the antenna, trying to get a signal. "This is war, Carlos. No one gets married and goes on a honeymoon in times of war. Besides, everyone knows the Silent Street is off limits to everyone except Guards of the Citadel and the Steward."

Suddenly, the boy gripped the edges of the palm pilot with shaking hands, the pen dangling uselessly from the sides, looking like a doomed bungee jumper. The intake of his breath was sharp and quick so that Desi could distinctly hear the hiss of air that moved through his teeth.

"What is it?" the girl immediately asked, moving a hand to his shoulder to look over at the screen of the palm pilot. When she finally looked, she was understood. "You suck, Carlos," she stuck her tongue out at her best friend.

He laughed and beckoned for her to walk out with him farther on the Silent Street so that they were directly beneath the fountain, where the White Tree was. "A hundred and seventy IQ, and all you can do to insult me is to stick your tongue out?" he teased. She sniffed and pretended to raise her nose in the air.

That time, like always, the Internet had not worked and a white screened showed with the huge words, "Page cannot be displayed," flashing at the top. Desi was beginning to be sick of this ruse, and decided to call it quits for the night. "Look, Carlos," she told her friend. "Face it, okay? We are in Middle-Earth. I don't know what time it is, but we're in the midst of the War of the Ring. There are no satellites and there is definitely no Internet or phone signal. We are at an age when people still think that the catapult is a new invention!"

Her friend looked up with an annoyed look on his face. Her teasing and nay-saying usually did not get to him, as he knew that she was merely joking and that doubting him usually pushed him forward. However, now, when he was anxious for some connection to his own world, her doubting did not help, as deep down in his heart, he knew she was right.

"All I'm saying is that if we got here, there must be some way that others have been here too," he said through gritted teeth. "Just give me a chance, will you?" Desi backed off, drawing the cloak around her shoulders closer and still holding the cell phone. The night air had begun to get colder as the moon rose, and to mix in, the two had had to dress as common citizens. Carlos had traded his summer wear with a man who had found his clothing strange and appealing. He was now wearing the other man's dark green tunic, a brown belt, brown hose, and soft, velvet black boots that fit his feet perfectly.

Desi eyed the tunic that came to mid-thigh and wanted to make some snide remark about the hose, which was more like tights, but really could not. She found that Carlos had been working out lately (for Clara, of course, she thought hastily) and that his swimmer legs did not actually look bad in the leggings. She was very glad that the tunic was not shorter, as she had seen on others.

Despite Carlos's luck, Desi had not found any men or women that liked her clothes (she did not know why, as she had on her favorite T-shirt and the capris had been very flattering of her figure) and would trade. Instead, she settled with "borrowing" a stray cloak that she found on a barstool in one of the many inns that they had discovered. It must have been belonged to a short but burly man, as it was the perfect length for her but she felt as if she was swimming in it.

Now that the sun had set, she was very glad for it, as it was warm but light. Carlos still would not speak to her, so she turned her back, changing the cell phone from her left hand to her right, and looked up at the stars. She found that she barely recognized any of the constellations, but the Milky Way galaxy was still firmly in place, dragging out in that beautiful streak across the sky. She found the stars comforting, though she could not name them now, and felt more at home among them than with the rest of Minas Tirith.

Another sharp intake of breath from Carlos caught her attention, but before she got herself too excited, she remembered the time before. "Oh please, Carlos," she rolled her eyes. "'Fool me once, shame on you; fool me twice, shame one me,' remember?" She turned back to gazing at the stars and wrapped the cloak even tighter around herself as an icy blast cut across her face.

"No," her best friend's voice was urgent. "I swear it, Desi. This is not even funny. I'm online."

"Yahoo or Google?" she asked sarcastically and did not bother to shift her gaze.

"Desi, I'm being serious," Carlos confirmed. "I'm seriously online. Why do you think anyone would install satellites here? And how?!"

The girl only rolled her eyes. Her arms were still crossed, and she had forgotten she was gripping the cell phone. "I don't know. Maybe people in Middle-Earth feel the need to connect to each other," she shrugged. "You know, they need to find information too. How do you think Gandalf knows so much about the Ring? He must have hacked into Sauron's personal computer. And anyway, there's always 'Ask Bilbo Baggins.'"

The boy made an exasperated sound and shoved the palm pilot in front of her face. At first, she could not believe her eyes. Then, she gasped and nearly dropped the cell phone. "But… Carlos…" she said weakly, finally believing him. "You couldn't have… this is the government's files. How did you--?"

"Hacked in, of course."

"You actually hacked into the government's top secret files in five minutes?!"

Carlos looked sheepish. "Well, you know. I mean, the shields weren't that hard to get through. I mean, the main question is why there's Internet and government files to hack into in Middle-Earth anyway!"

Desi suddenly laughed and took the palm pilot away from him. "You misunderstand me," she smiled coyly. "I meant that it actually took you five whole minutes to get into the government's top secret files?! That's gotta be your all-time slowest record."

Carlos face turned red. "Just… just click on the second to last file, alright?!" He was trying not to show his anger, but Desi laughed again, and gave his shoulder a quick squeeze.

The look on her face when she saw it, however, was more than enough compensation for his anger. "But… what?! This can't be!" She then made a serious of inarticulate sounds and suddenly, laughed hysterically. "The government sending probes and satellites back in time," she gibbered to herself. "Oh… that's great! Just great!!!"