A new chapter, just cause I'm soooooo happy to be back at school. Sigh. Spring break is just too damned short, in my opinion. At least mine wasn't as hectic as Nea's, though she still managed to find a computer to e-mail me her revisions (thanks, girl!).

A Monkey's Harp: Well, I've been toying with the story for a long, looong time before Nea finally harassed me into actually working on it. She is right—writing is a great form of stress relief, though my muse seems to go on hiatus every time I could really use her. Anyway, I was trying to think up a name for my character that was strong yet not a common human name, and Nenya sounded elven to me… so I used it. Later—before Nea even saw the beginning framework for the story—I found out about Galadriel's ring (like I said, a loooong time has passed since I fist got this story idea stuck in my head). It really bugged me for a while, and I tried to come up with a different name, but I never could find one that seemed right for her. Then I figured, what the heck, many won't even know about the name, and those that do will know it's the ring of adamant—which is fitting for my character, in my mind.

Everyone else, thanks for your reviews… and I'll try to remember to fix that error. Thanks!

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Oh, she was lost. Lost, lost, lost, lost, lost… and did she mention lost?

Oleydya had been keeping up with the others rather well for a while, considering, but her hood fell back, and since it was a present from her father's kin—a cloak of the Galadhrim—she wanted it to cover her head in hopes it would hide her from the spiders and orcs. When she reached up to settle it back in place, though, it fell too far forward, covering her eyes for an instant.

An instant too long.

She had spit out the dirt that was in her mouth before she realized she had tripped over a root. She got to her feet and shook herself off, before the entire truth hit her. She was now so far behind the others she had no idea where they were. She looked ahead and began running, faster and faster in the hopes she would catch them up, but she never caught sight of them. She didn't see the stupid bird, either. Follow Argile. Sure. She would, if she could find the blasted thing.

So, she was lost. Very lost, she knew, as the cries of wolves shivered on the air around her. It was stuffy in these woods, so stuffy. She felt she almost couldn't breathe.

She remembered sheepishly after a moment that she was running, so she slowed to an easy walk, deciding running aimlessly wasn't doing her any good, anyway. She continued to walk as she caught her breath, unwilling to stay in one place as the wolves seemed to come closer, always feeling just out of sight.

Soon she was unable to walk anymore, so she looked around for a safe place, but could see no more than a few feet ahead of her. The trees scared her more than the wolves did, because they were dark and probably held spiders. So she swallowed, sat down at the base of the tree, and drew her cape about her, wishing so many things she was almost dizzy with it.

She wished her mother hadn't insisted her father move to Mirkwood when they married. Then she would have been born in the Golden Wood instead of Mirkwood, and then spiders wouldn't be a problem. Nor would light. She wished they lived near the palace, if they had to have lived in Mirkwood. Then her parents wouldn't have been killed by the spiders. Her friends wouldn't have been dragged off, either by spiders or by families who weren't going to risk their lives to remain on these shores. She wished she wasn't so young, because if she were older she was sure she wouldn't be so scared of spiders, the trees and the wolves. The guys weren't. Well, maybe Miranol was, but he was probably pretending so she would feel better about being so scared she was shaking. He was sweet.

But most of all, she wished she hadn't tried to fix her hood and fallen, wished she hadn't gotten lost. Despite the blurs she could see circling closer, their howls reaching to a moon she couldn't see, she didn't wish she hadn't come. She wanted to be a part of something that would do as much good as this task would if they were successful. And Nenya accepted her desire to destroy the spiders, even if anyone else would have called her a foolish little child of an elf.

Nenya was different. She didn't see Oleydya that way, and had already accepted her as a companion. Suddenly Oleydya smiled through her fears. That was why she was along. Another female elf to help even things out, someone who wouldn't expect there were things Nenya could not do because she was a female. Someone who could be taught not to hide in corners in the male dominated world.

The shapes pressed closer, and the tone of their cries changed, seemed to grow more frightening for a long moment.

Oleydya shivered and pulled her knees closer to her chest, wrapping her cloak even tighter about her, wishing she could just disappear in a flash of light and reappear wherever the group was. Or even where Argile was.

She could make out their forms now, wolves that seemed impossibly large, though she knew they were much smaller than wargs. Just a plain old ordinary wolf pack… which was drawing ever closer to her. Suddenly she heard one at her shoulder, and did her best not to scream or move suddenly. Turning her head very slowly she saw… fangs. What seemed like an unending expanse of teeth, and a nose which wrinkled slightly as the wolf smelled her hair. She began scooting away, but heard one swallow there, the noise deafening as her heart paused in stark terror. Turning her head much more quickly than she knew made sense, she found another one was there indeed, and she swallowed a scream.

The one that had approached first laid down now, curling next to her as if he were a lap dog. The one on her other side did the same, and a third approached to lay over her feet. She was engulfed by warmth and confusion. Why weren't they attacking her? Were they saving her for later, or something?

After a while, she shifted slightly, stretching her legs out. The one on her feet had gotten up when she stirred, and waited for her to stop moving before laying down again, laying his forepaws and head on her legs as two more wolves came up and laid down, their thick fur coats keeping her warm as they surrounded and partially covered her.

She was amazed, confused, and exhausted. She was fighting to stay awake when she suddenly blinked to see Nenya crouched beside her, lifting her carefully… and no sign of wolves anywhere. "Nenya?"

"Rest, Leyda. You're safe with me," the elf promised, shifting her before Oleydya slipped into dreams, her last thought being to wonder if the wolves had been real or a dream. Absently she realized they had stopped singing.