Author's Note: Aha! Bet you thought you'd never see ME again, did you? Well, I haven't had a chance to update. Really! I've had exams every other week. Accelerated courses mean lots and lots of studying and little free time.

Anyway, I've finally made those corrections to the other chapters (although I'm not sure how long it will be before they show up), and hopefully someday in the near future, I'll get a beta. Until then, I'll have to be a bit more careful about spelling/grammar.

I guess everyone misses Edith, right? Well, she's back. Thanks for reading, and hopefully, I'll have another update Thursday.

Disclaimer: Still Tolkien's. Still borrowing. Still hasn't changed.

Part II, Chapter 6: A City of Mist and Shadow

It had been two days since Edith met Sedry, and as they trudged down the road, both were beginning to lose hope. They were pursuing a man and girl that may not be on the road any longer, or even be who they were searching for. Edith sighed wearily, knowing that she may have even left Melody behind, hurt and unconscious behind a tree. Dying beside a rock…

"Have faith, Edith."

"What?"

Sedry, only a few steps a head of her, smiled back at her sympathetically.

"I said, 'Have faith'. Even if after three days we do not find what you are looking for, I do know of a way to find your granddaughter."

Edith stopped walking. Her arms were sore from having to hold them together, but she wasn't about to part her wrists after that statement.

"You…know how to find my Melody? Well, for goodness sakes! Why not do it and be done with this walking?" She didn't mean to sound so impatient but it had been two days. She didn't know of anyone else her age who'd walk this many miles, especially if it were unnecessary.

"It's not something I do often, or even something I want to do." Sedry had stopped walking, but he was facing away from her, looking down the endless dirty path. "I am a simple man, a peddler and though I have on occasion come across my fair share of strange customers..."

At first he didn't seem as if he were going to continue, so Edith asked, "Do you know of someone who could help me?"

"Perhaps." Sedry said quietly, "But I'd rather see if we can find the travelers ourselves." He looked haplessly at the confused old woman. "I fear, the price for such a request may be steep, even for such a noble search."

Edith wanted to ask more, but Sedry turned away and started walking again.

"Come mother! The sun will be setting soon. Let us see if we can delay the inevitable a little while longer."

Edith didn't follow immediately. Buffy meowed demandingly up at her.

"Oh, tired of walking, are we?"

The dirty tabby cat replied by laying down at Edith's feet and looking up at her.

Edith picked the animal up and laid it over her shoulder.

"You're lucky that Melody loves you so much," Edith grumbled. She headed after Sedry, down the path and towards the lowering sun.

- - - - - -

"Hellooooo!"

Melody listened to her voice boom and echo off the rock walls around her. Gandalf brought his staff down over Melody's head. Not hard enough to cause her serious harm, but hard enough to snap Melody back to reality. These were the mines of Moria. They weren't out wake the ugly creatures that she knew were hidden through out the mines.

Rubbing her head where the blow had landed, Melody briefly wished that Gandalf had stayed dead. At least she had Bana. She'd convinced the Fellowship to let her take the horse into the mines, even though Sam protested, claiming it was unfair that the much larger Bana could stay while poor little Bill had to go. Few minutes of empty promises and snuggling later, she had at least got the hobbit to stop crying.

Truth be told, Melody wasn't exactly thrilled about it being days before they'd see any kind of sunlight, she was certain they'd come out okay, though. It was only a lot rocks and darkness. What was the worse that could happen?

Pippin kicked a rock down a well. And the worse happened. Melody was almost pinned to a wall by arrows and nearly crushed by a giant cave troll. To make matters worse, she'd lost her horse, Bana. After watching the cave troll use Bana as a projectile, she realized that the mines really weren't a place for ponies…or horses. Poor, poor Bana.

She had been rescued by Gimli from a pair of eager goblins, but she'd really wished it had been Aragorn or Legolas. Still, she was alive, and soon, they'd be out of the mines.

Soon, it would be all over and she'd be with Orlando. So…why did she have the strangest feeling that she was about something?

- - - - - -

The stars glimmered high above them as Edith and Sedry settled themselves on opposite sides of the small fire.

"Again, I am sorry that I have so little for you to eat," Sedry said as he blew gently on his spoonful of stew, "I usually only pack enough for myself. I have not quite gotten use to company."

Sedry smiled amiably at Edith, who waved away his apology.

"I've already told you that I don't mind. If anything, I'm thankful that you are kind enough to share what you have. In fact, I remember when I was a little girl, what you consider to be 'a little' was actually a whole meal."

"Is it so desperate where you come from?"

"Desperate? No, not now. I was speaking of when I was a girl."

Edith hoped he wouldn't press her anymore. She wasn't quite sure how'd she explain the Depression, World War II, and food rations to someone who probably never even heard of her country. He let it go with a nod.

Buffy eyed the two of them. She then sauntered up to peddler and meowed gently.

"No, Buffy!" Edith warned, "You've already eaten. Twice."

Sedry chuckled, but then gingerly picked a small piece of meat out of his stew and placed it on the ground for the cat to eat.

The tabby devoured the small morsel within a matter of seconds and then stretched herself out at the man's side. She knew she'd gotten all that she was going to out of the two of them.

Edith was about to comment on the change in Buffy's eating habits when she was interrupted by singing.

It sounded like a woman's voice, but the sound was both distant and unearthly, like something out of a graveyard church or an creepy old house in the woods. A quick glance at Sedry told Edith that he was hearing the sound, too.

While the voice grew no closer, Edith noticed something coming out of the woods. It was a low white mist, and as it eased around the trunks of the trees, it seemed to her that the trees were becoming completely black.

When the mist approached them, the nervous pair stood in unison. Buffy was backing away slowly, her hairs standing on end. There was nothing natural about this mist.

As the mist overtook their small camp, Edith moved close to Sedry. The fire died, snuffed out by the strange fog that surrounded them. It was up to Edith's waist now, and it was freezing cold.

"What…What is this?"

"Devilry!" Sedry declared in a low hiss. "Stay close!"

She did not know what was going to come out of those woods or even if Sedry would be able to protect her from it. All she knew was that she was thankful to not be alone.

Buffy arched her back and hissed at something that the others could not see. Not at first.

Edith strained her eyes at a large blackness moving towards them from behind the trees. It seemed to swallow the bushes and trees as it neared them.

"Sedry…is that?"

Edith looked above the tree tops and noticed in horror that the black shadow was rising above them. Rising and taking form. What was once an abstract cloud was becoming solid. Edith noted that every tree it touched disappeared. They didn't crumble or crack, they simply vanished as if it had never been. She also noted that the changing shadow wasn't slowing down.

Sedry took her by the hand and ran.

He said something to her, but because her wrists were apart, she didn't understand. Still, his urgent manner told her that it was probably that they shouldn't stay.

It seemed this madness could not be contained by the woods.

"Oh my God," Edith breathed. The sky was changing. The stars were moving, literally whirling by above them, and then, there was sunlight. Sedry had stopped running. He too was paralyzed by this. The sun rose and moved rapidly across the sky, which darkened and the stars were visible once more, and once more they darted across the sky.

The closest thing Edith could compare it with was fast forwarding a movie. But this was real. Very real. Sedry tugged on Edith's arm and she turned to look behind them.

The singing faded to a whisper, and the shadow had stopped moving and growing. It was now…a city.

A city had formed in the woods, and when the sky stopped it's crazed dance, it was nightfall again.

The moonlight, did little to illuminate the shadowy sight before them.

"I know this place…."

"Sedry?"

He shook his head.

"It's happening again….Just as she said it would."

Edith wrung her hands. He wasn't making any sense.

"Sedry, what are you talking about?"

"My name is not Sedry." He looked beyond the startled woman, toward the shadowy city behind her. "I should at least be that honest with you, seeing as we are about to die."

Author's End Note:

I hate to stop there, but I have to. There's studying to be done. Thanks for continuing to read this story. If you are utterly confused I promise everything will become clear in the next two chapters. Again, beta readers are needed and any comments and criticisms are welcome!