Disclaimer: I do NOT own Lord of the Rings. I also do NOT own Sailor Moon.

story

Cunehina looked up at her 'mother'. She was weeping silently, pulling at her hair with shaky fists. Cunehina lowered her head and allowed her tears to slowly flow down her cheeks, her neck, and finally soak into her tunic. Sniffing loudly, she tryed to keep herself from crying. Eomyn moved to hug her, but was rejected with a small cry. Cunehina looked back to the kindly woman who had been looking over her for the past seven years. She had indeed started to think of her as a mother.

But she felt the same type of love for her as she did for Queen Serenity- a distant love. She had been born to Ikuko, so she was her rightful mother and Usagi would never think otherwise. But she wasn't Usagi anymore. She was now Cunehina, the overly short orphan taken in by a infertile, kindly Rohan woman.

Her cheeks started to flush, and her tears started coming harder- Eomyn was her mother now, there was no changing it. With a few shakey breaths, Cunehina ran into Eomyn's tear-covered arms. They held eachother throughout the whole night, tears never ceasing. A tragedy had befallen this household. Theom, Eomyn's husband, had died within the night meaning- they now had no source of meat and no way by which to protect themselves.

Cunehina stared at her hands darkly- where ever she went, whenever she appeared, death would always be a mere step behind her. 'All I bring is death.' The young girl thought, and with that, gave Eomyn a strong squeeze.

***

Narwende croutched as low as possible, looking out for the familiar dark figure. She kneeled upon the ground and brushed her fingers around the imprint on the soil. It was heavy and the soil was still matted down heavily, showing that he must have went down this path mere minutes ago. Picking up her discarded bow, she went back into a semi-crouching position and started to sprint off to where the tracks were leading her. She saw the prints start to make a left bend.

Hesitant to follow, she skimmed ahead in the path. 'Aha!' The tracks made another right bend after a few yards, and indeed- more print were visable straight ahead, seeming to appear out of no where. She could feel that she was close. Moving back into a fully standing position, she went off in a mad dash. Soon, she reached a small but wide gorge. Looking around, she noticed that the prints lead to the left.

'So,' she smirked, 'he plans on making his way around the gorge?' She squinted her eyes, and a dark figure dashing through the woods on a small land bridge a few feet to the left. Bingo. She looked up and spied a low hanging branch. She back up a few yards and started a mental countdown- 'Five, four, three, two, one!' She put her bow on her back and took off running in one fluid motion. Using the now-powerful muscles in her leg, she jumped into the air and used the branches to swing back and forth. He was coming closer and closer, until she finally gave a hard swing and went flying over the gorge- and onto Ramir, her guardian and the man she had been tracking down.

"Yes, I see that you have managed to track me quickly and efficiently, little flame." The greying man said to her with a smile. He tossed her onto his broad shoulders, and they made their way back to their camp. "Now," Ramir said, "time to work on your archery skills." Narwende smiled and removed the sheath of her sword and the pack on her side. She reached behind her and pulled forth her plain looking bow.

Narwende looked at it with dazed eyes. This small thing was nothing compared to the bow she recalled having in the Silver Millenium. It was made of a tree indigenous to Mars- the Riermor tree. It's wood was rather stiff, yet bendable to an extent. It was perfect for bows and arrows, which was actually the main weapon of the Martian army. It was a dark red-orange, and very smooth to the touch. Her bow had actually been a long bow and had been covered in intricate designs. It also held an inscription in Old Martian, a very ancient and seldom known language.

May the princess always prevail over those that challenge her might. Long live the princess of Mars, beautiful and deadly. That's what it said on the handle of the bow- that she had named Quickfire- as well as on the specially made arrows that, once effectively hitting her foe, returned to her quiver by magic. Literally. She sighed wistfully, and pulled out one of her crude, self-made arrows. Looking at the rickety arrow, she blanched.

Ramir smiled at his young ranger-apprentice. "Flawless arrows come from practise, so don't look down on yourself." The girl nodded and quickly readied an arrow. Narwende, or formerly Rei, had grown in a different way then she had in Japan. Her hair was still a dark ebony, and her eyes still an arrogant violet, but she looked rather different then 'Rei'. Her eyes were no longer slanted, instead almond shaped, and her skin, while still dark, had an olive tone to it. She was growing taller too.

In Japan, she had been about 4' 11" at age 13. But here, she was already at 5' 3" and she had a feeling that she was to grow even taller still. Her hair was back in a long 3 plaited braid, and she was already… 'filling in' her clothes. Time seemed to pass by quickly, as Ramir finally told her that their practise was over- seeing that her mind was on something else.

"Ah, yes, before I forget," Ramir said with a smile, "Lumeohtar came to me last night while you slept and gave me a present for you. I think you'll really like it." Narwende looked very excited and started bouncing in her seat. Ramir smiled, and pulled something dark colored from behind him. It was her bow! It was Quickfire!

He reached behind him once more, and brought forward a dark brown leather quiver with 10 arrows in it that matched Quickfire. Ramir smiled at the girl he had come to think of as a daughter, "But I'm afraid that you aren't allowed to use it until you improve you bow and arrow making and your aim. Narwende just smiled, cradling the beautiful longbow to her chest.

***

Eomyn looked sadly to her daughter, "Are you sure you want to do this?" Cunehina stared at her reflection, fingering the messy, golden mane that was her hair. It reached mid-back and was the only thing keeping many people from mistaking her as a boy. Yes, a boy. She had a very flat, curveless body. She had barely started filling in, and her hips were very slim. But that was all the better, because she would be able to pass off as a boy really easily.

She was noticing the differences in her new body, just as Narwende was. She was 13 and she was only 4' 6" tall. She was around the height of a dwarf, maybe even a hobbit. Her hair was still golden blonde, and it fell in messy curls that came from not being able to immediately dry her hair after washing it. Her skin was a pale ivory and her eyes were a deep sky blue. Her hands were calloused from 5 years of farm work, as were her feet from being constantly bare-footed. She grasped the scissors in her shakey hands and desperately wanted to close her eyes. She started cutting, using all of her will to keep her eyes open, and sheared her hair up until her cheekbones.

She bound back what little breasts she had, and put some thick cloth around her middle to hide was little of a figure she had as well. She put on her usual tunic and pulled on her pants, taking care to make sure that they hung low enough for her to be able to pass as a guy. She smudged her face with some coal, making the full pinkness of her lips and her long, blonde eye lashes be hidden.

Pulling one some streachy, mid-shin length boots, she grabbed her father's old sword and started off for her neighbor's house. He was the only person who knew who she was here, other than her mother and her late father, and he had promised to teach her how to defend herself and her mother as well as how to hunt. He was a proud looking man with very long, tangly grey hair and a love for children. His name was Koerin, and he was to teach her.

She knocked on his door, struggling to hold her father's old sword, and grinned when she saw his face. He gave her a look, "How can I help you, young man?" She laughed outloud, "But it is I, Cunehina!" He smiled at her with surprise in his eyes, then pulled her in to start training her, "You're disguise is very good, but we must change your name. When in public, only answer to Theom." Cunehina nodded, finding her father's name to be a good choice.

Going out back, he took a serious look at her sword. "I'm afraid that sword's going to be too heavy for you. Here, you can have this sword." He walked inside quickly and came back out carrying a sword sized for someone maybe a foot or two taller than her. It was long, silver, and held inscriptions in a foreign language. The handle was made of dark blue marble, and very cool to the touch. Cunehina recognized this sword- it was the sword she had used to commit suicide in the Silver Millenium.

The writing on it had no actually translation, for it's words were something that existed in only the Lunarian language. She held it and was surprised at it's light weight. Koerin smiled at her look of awe, "It's name is Flash. It's really light weight, but it is quite deadly as well. You'll have to be careful not to hurt yourself with it." Cunehina smiled softly, and nervously began her training.

/story

Yo. So, that was the second chapter, what do you guys think? If you want to vote for couples, go ahead, but I already know what I want for pairings. I guess I'll tell you. Usa/Pippin, and Rei/Legolas. Weird, I know. Probably not what you guys want, I know that too. But please keep an open mind about this.

loon

P.S. To all my reviewers- I appreciate the fact that you reviewed, and I hope you don't stop reading because of the couplings that will come up later. To Firenze. Yes, I do plan on having the 'lurve' happen slowly, because if not, it will become boring really fast. Besides, I'm not all that good with the love department (in real life and in fanfiction writing). By the way, can someone help me come up with a title?