Lishmi rode hard. But Dea-gil had a bad limp and gradually slowed down. The orcs were closing in fast. Up ahead there was a small wood.

Sanctuary.

Just before she entered the wood she saw an orc hiding in a tree, just above her head. Too late. SMACK!

* * * * * * * * * *

I wish I could take you in side Lishmi's head. The swirling blackness, the terror, the flames, the eyes. Luckily she didn't remember any of it. Or know why.

Why?

* * * * * * ** *

Lishmi woke up in her room in Rivendel. The sunlight beamed through her window and the wind whistled through the curtains. She felt like she was covered in concrete. There were no cuts or bruises on her, but her whole body was aching. She slowly drifted back to sleep.

The next time she woke up the pain had subsided a little but was still there. As her blurred vision came back she saw someone sitting in the corner of the room. She sat up and rubbed her eyes.

"Ga - Gandalf?" she croaked. Lishmi was relieved to find her voice working, just.

Gandalf stood up and came and sat down on the chair right next to her bed. "The one and only," he said.

"Why are you here?" Lishmi asked forgetting the state that she was in. Gandalf was only seen once in a blue moon.

Gandalf looked her up and down. "How do you feel?"

"Err. I-.I'm just aching. What happened?"

"I don't really know myself. Can you remember any thing?"

Lishmi thought this was a rather stupid question. Why would she ask him what happened, if she could remember? "No."

"I'll tell you every thing I know. You left here 'looking' for something. Am I right?"

"Huh? I - suppose so." Lishmi answered uncertainly.

"Well, it looks like you found it."

"But, I don't even know what I was looking for!"

"Hush! And let me finish! When you 'left', Arwen knew something was wrong. And the fact that Elladan and Elrohir didn'r know what was going on, further proved her point. On the search for you Elond met up with me, and when he told me what happened, I knew exactly where you were. I had seen something was going on at Isenguard. On the way there, we found Haldir and his troops heading there too. They had been sent by the lady Gladriel. The short of it is, we found you just in time and here you are now."

Lishmi didn't know what to say. She felt like she had been shot by an arrow. To have the lady Gladriel send out her troops just for her is amazing.

"The other half of the story is about you. When you were born, your mother died. And your father was killed in a battle. The battle that your father died in was the battle of the ring. Sauron was defeated. Some say he dies, others say he lives on, in the ring. But I think he lives on, in you. You were being born, just as the ring was cut from his finger. Someone wants to put a spell on you, so when Sauron returns, he will take his 'life energy' from you, and most likely, yours as well, making him even more powerfull than before."

It took Lishmi a while to understand this. Gandalf just sat there, staring into space.

Elrond walked in and he and Gandalf talked. But all that could be heard in Lishmi's ears was 'blah, blah, blah'. Elrond looked kindly into her eyes. Why couldn't he have told her? He'd have made it sound much less threatening.

Lishmi took the cup Elrond handed her with shaky hands. She drank the foul mixture and fell straight to sleep.

TBC..