Note: I'm sorry it took so long for this chapter to come out! I just didn't have much inspiration over the past while, so I couldn't really think of what to happen next. But, I know now (you're reading this, aren't you?) so the story can commence!!!

story

A young man stood upright as an inspector walked by. "You, boy." He straightened out even more, if that was possible. "You look a bit young to be considering this job. How old are you? Ten?" He could feel his face redden as the men around him started to snicker. He cleared his throat, "No, sir. I am of the age of 18. I'm just really short. My Ma believes that I won't grow what so ever anymore."

He was soft-spoken. It sounded as if his voice hadn't matured, either. His cheeks were still baby-smooth and his shoulders still slim. The inspector smiled at him, "Alright, my boy. I believe you. Beorn, my sister-son, is having the same growing problems. What is your name?" "My name, sir, is Theom." He looked very proud, as if the name brought honor to him. The inspector smiled at him once more, before moving down the line. "Well, Sir Theom," he heard the man to his left mutter to him, "We'll see if your maturing misfortunes also affect your swordsmanship. Meet me at the pub at noon tomorrow."

Theom felt a bit nervous about it, but sent a quick nod. "Alright," he heard the inspector call out, "We will meet again on the day after tomorrow. Meet me here after sun-up." All of the young men relaxed visibly and audibly. Theom turned to the man beside him. The man was a giant, at least two and a half heads taller than Theom, and his arms were covered in small scars and scabs. He was grinning with malice, for he believed that he had found himself a new scapegoat.

Theom's expression remained blank, as he walked off to his mothers hut. Once he entered, he sighed in content. He grabbed at something under his shirt placed around his chest and pulled at it a bit until it came loose. A long, cloth bandage fell out from under his shirt, followed by a thicker and shorter one. Theom sighed in happiness as he stretched his chest out, showing the swell of two, small breasts. Her mother walked in with a smile, "Cunehina, if you don't put those bandages on again you'll be late for your training with Koerin!"

Cunehina smiled at her mother kindly, before redoing her cloth wrappings. She quickly trotted into the bedroom she shared with her mother and grabbed her prized Lunarian sword. She put it in it's scabbard, and went back into the main room. "I'll be back once done, Ma, and I promise not to be too late to lock the chickens in this time." Her mother smiled at her softly. Cunehina, or rather Theom now that her figure was hidden once more, kissed her mother's cheek softly before running over to her neighbor's house. Once there, she let herself in, and went to the back garden. Koerin was setting up some targets and Theom could spy a pair of bows and two quivers of arrows next to them on the porch. 'So,' she thought, 'I'm finally going to learn archery. Rei will sure be surprised when she sees me again.' He called her over. The archery started.

~*~

Two serious violet eyes peered down from a treetop into a clearing where a mother deer was grazing with her child. She quickly loaded one of her self-made arrows into her bow, and aimed as silent as possible. She found the right place and let her arrow fly. It hit the baby directly in the heart from the left side. But, to her surprise, another, cruder arrow, hit it from the opposite side in the same place.

The mother had already sprinted away in fear, so Narwende let herself drop from her branch. At the same time, from another tree, a man let himself drop. His dark hair was rather long and stringy, his sharp grey eyes wise, and his clothing indicating him as a ranger. "Ah, a ranger I see," Narwende said calmly, though she inwardly fumed for having to possibly share her catch with someone else now, "Why are you here?"

His blank facial expression didn't change, "I could very well ask you the same and yet some more. Why is it that you wear the clothes of a ranger? I haven't heard any news about a woman ranger in this parts of the forest." Narwende smiled coolly, "That, dear ranger, would be because my guardian is a ranger and these are the only kind of clothes he could provide for me as a child. I wear them now because… what can I say, they've grown on me."

The ranger allowed a small smile, "Ah, your guardian is a ranger. The only known ranger in these parts is Ramir, so I suppose he was your guardian?" At Narwende's silent nod, he continued, "Good then. Will you please lead me to him? I have things to speak with him about." Narwende scowled, "Apparently news didn't travel to you quick enough. Ramir died last year from a goblin attack. I managed to keep him alive long enough for him to tell me to take his place and for us to say farewell to each other."

The ranger looked slightly shocked, "Dead, you say? My. Well, I suppose then that you are the person I will have to talk to, but first- let us cook our bounty." Narwende wanted to scowl again, but instead frowned deeply. She honestly missed good old Ramir, but she couldn't change anything now. She pulled her arrow out of the deer and looked at it. What an idiot she was- she had grabbed the arrow Ramir had made her instead of one of her own. She gently pulled it to her breast in a hug. It was a beautiful arrow- made of a beautifully smooth wood and it held small, intricate, amazingly detailed carvings. It had been her 17th birthday present. She quickly wrapped it in some cloth before gently placing it within her quiver. She grabbed one end of the deer and led the ranger to her campsite.

~*~

Theom held her father's sword at ready. She had left Lune, her Lunarian sword, at home so as to prevent the other boy from stealing it, should he win. Looking at her surroundings, she could already see him coming. He mocked a bow before Theom, "Well, Theom lad, we shall fight now. But I think you should know the name of the man that will soon defeat you at this sword fight. I am Arden, at your services."

Theom said nothing and merely readied his sword. Arden gave a malicious grin before pulling forth his own sword. In the blink of an eye, Arden had already started charging towards Theom. He brought his sword up quickly, blocking the attack, and retaliated with a swing to Arden's side. Arden barely managed to block it and held Theom's sword there in place. Arden suddenly gave an overhead swing, which Theom quickly dodged. The force of his swing sent Arden in a small tumble forewards, but he quickly recovered. Soon they were trading blows, both matching in skill.

They fought for mere minutes before they both started receiving small cuts. Their bodies were covered in sweat and their eyes starting to blur from the heat. Finally, having enough of this play, Theom gave a hard swing to Arden's head. Arden's friends, who were all gathered around them in a circle, gasped in fear- for it seemed his head was about to be cleaved off. Theom, having long ago gained mastery of Lune, and then Mage, her father's sword, managed to stop the sword before it drew any blood.

The blade touched Arden's neck lightly, and Theom spoke in between pants, "I am clearly on the good end here. We have drawn enough blood without death coming from it, so I believe that we should now stop. I am not in the mood to kill any one innocent on this day. Let us save our strength for the test fighting on the morrow. We will see then who makes it into Theoden King's guard. I hope to see you there."

Arden looked at the blurry figure of Theom. Theom slowly drew his sword back and into it's scabbard. Arden did the same with his sword and looked surprised when Theom's petite hand was in his vision. "Come, Arden you big brute, allow little Theom to help you up," he vaguely heard the boy say. With a grin, he allowed the surprisingly strong boy to help him up. Looking down at the sweaty Theom Arden smiled, "Well, little Theom. I believe that this calls for some brew from the pub. Come, it shall be on my wallet." Theom merely laughed and followed the giant into the dark, cool pub.

~*~

"Well," Narwende spoke to the ranger, "might I at least know you're name? I am Narwende." The ranger smiled at her, "Well, flame maiden, now that I am aware of your name, you may be the same of mine. I am Aragorn, but my ranger name is Strider." Narwende nodded her greeting, before preparing the young deer. She felt that her princess would be ashamed of her killing this young deer, but it was better this way. The mother could always produce more offspring, after all, and the baby wouldn't survive a day without its mother. She started roasting the parts they would eat on this night and prepared the rest for being smoked and turned into jerky later.

She started roasting her own meat, leaving the ranger to do the same for his own. "So," she said calmly, emotionlessly, "what do you wish to tell me?" The ranger, who was turning the stick he had pierced his meat on, stretched a small bit before beginning, "There is a shadow growing in the east. It is not a shadow of clouds, mountains, or trees, it is a shadow of darkness and evil that will come soon. I just came to tell the ranger here to stay on alert, but apparently you'll have to do so."

Narwende shook her head stubbornly, "I'm afraid not, Strider. I have a duty that calls greater than that of a substitute-ranger. I am in search of someone I have always held dear to me, and I must find her. There shall be a new ranger coming to these woods in but a day. He shall protect this forest, and I shall go on my quest. If the shadow becomes a threat to me and she who I search, I shall gladly fight by your side. But, right now, I have more important business."

Strider nodded and pulled the meat to his body. It was done by him, so Narwende started to tear off bits of her meat to eat. Strider swallowed a bite of meat, "Alright. I shall stay in your company, if you allow so, until this new ranger comes." Narwende smiled at him, and prepared her sleeping roll. She started to smoke the soon to be jerky and drifted off into a dose.

The next morning she awoke and packed away half of her jerky. She turned to Strider, who was still fast asleep. After all, it was still partially dark out. She climbed up into a near by tree and pulled down quite a few apples. She peered into a large hollow in the upper trunk and pulled out some of her things. Dropping to the ground silently, she started packing things. She put her jerky into a large sack with straps that she had retrieved from the hollow. She packed in half of the apples and her rolled-up sleeping roll.

She quickly checked on Strider, and secretly put the arrow from Ramir into her subspace pocket. She pulled at her empty flask, and sneakily took Strider's near-empty flask and went off to the river. She quickly filled them up and went back to the campsite. She placed the flask next to Strider's sleeping form and put hers around her waist after taking a small sip from it.

By the time he had finally awoken, she had cooked some of the smoked meat for breakfast and held some of it on a large green leaf. She handed him an identical leaf with the rest of the meat on it and an apple. They ate in silence. Once done, Narwende placed her leaf into the fire with some more branches. "The smoke," she informed Strider, "is how the new ranger is to find me."

They waited until around noon in the small clearing, when the new ranger finally showed up. His face was stubbly and his hair and eyes brown. After a quick talk, Narwende bowed to him, before walking off. Strider told him farewell and started to trot off. He soon came to a small river where Narwende took a quick drink and filled up two of her other flasks. They ended up walking together for the rest of the day. They didn't part from each other's company until Strider bid her farewell in a town called Bree.

/story

So? How did you guys like it? I hope you guys won't mind, but I changed my mind on one thing. I'm going to end up pairing Usa with Merry instead of Pippin, but Rei will stay with Legolas. I'm glad all of you like the story so far!!! I already had a story in mind for when I'm done with this, so look for that once this story is over. I don't have a title yet, but it's another SM/LOTR crossovers. If you want, you guys can go ahead and choose the main character for that story. ^.^ So, please review!

P.S. I really recommend that story by FeliciaAngel about Ami. It's really good and really well written!!! Yeah, okay, I'm done.