They returned the next morning to the scene of the fight, and pored over it even more carefully than they had before. Katie stood back with most of the soldiers, watching the two Elves and Aragorn examining the ground. They covered the immediate area, then began working their way outward for several yards.

Suddenly Legolas gave a cry. "This way!" he said, and set off into the undergrowth. The others followed him. After a few yards their pace picked up and they began to march southwest.

Katie prayed desperately that they would find Elladan alive at the end of this trail. The situation seemed hopeful. But after following Elladan's trail for an hour, signs of a large troop of Orcs crossed Elladan's path and began to follow it.

"Did they catch up with him?" one of the soldiers asked.

A long silence followed as the trackers hunted for signs of Elladan's passage.

"No," Aragorn finally answered, pointing. "Elladan was ahead of them." The search party set off again.

000

They followed Elladan's trail for a few hours. Their progress was often interrupted by sudden stops when the trackers would have to hunt for the next clue, sometimes for as much as ten minutes.

"He has just barely left us a trail," Legolas mused. "Perhaps he thought it too risky with the Orcs so close behind him."

"They seem to have gotten closer and closer," Aragorn said darkly. "They were quite near to him at this point. Ah, and see, he evaded them again," he added as the Orc trail veered away from Elladan's own. The relief was only temporary, as the Orcs seemed to have soon worked their way back onto Elladan's trail.

"Their malice gave them keen eyes," Elrohir said bitterly.

"Why didn't they just give up? He was only one foe," Katie pointed out.

"But he was Elladan, son of Elrond," Elrohir answered her. "We have been dangerous enemies of the Orcs for centuries, and they know it. To take down one or both of us would be very much to their advantage."

Katie didn't know how to answer that.

000

It was beginning to grow dark, and Katie began to wonder when they would pitch camp. They were traveling faster now, as Elladan's path became a little easier to follow.

"He had to move faster for fear that the Orcs would catch up with him," Legolas explained. "He did not have time to take as much care on concealing his trail. Unfortunately, that made it easier for them to track him. It seems they were gaining on him."

Katie could feel the tension among the men as he said this, and she suddenly knew what it meant. They would not stop to camp this night; now that the trail was easier to find, they would continue on through the darkness. They all feared now that they were too late, and that the Orcs had caught up with their prey.

She heard Aragorn murmur, "We are nearly to the edges of the ruins."

"Ruins?" Katie asked apprehensively. "What ruins?"

"Deadmens Dike," Elrohir answered quietly.

Katie felt all the blood drain from her face. She opened her mouth, but no sound came out.

Elrohir knew what she wanted to ask. "About two thousand years ago, the last realm of the Dúnedain of the North was destroyed by the armies of Angmar. Its capital was the city of Fornost. Since then, the city has lain in ruins, slowly decayed by the wind and rain and encroaching wilderness. Men now call it Deadmens Dike, and none go there but the Rangers of the North, like the rest of the Downs."

Katie nodded understanding. The ominous name had brought to her mind images she had successfully forgotten so recently. But she refused to dwell on them; she shook herself and turned her mind to other things.

000

The sun was down and the moon was bright in the dark summer sky by the time they reached Deadmens Dike, and they all halted at the sight.

Long, uneven mounds of earth, softened by sod and moss and grass, indicated where the outer walls of the city of Fornost had once stood against invasion. In the white moonlight they cast strange and eerie patterns of shadow on the ground.

"Come," Aragorn said, and urged his horse forward again.

They followed Elladan and the orcs' trail through a gap in the wall, where unnatural mounds declared where large stones had fallen from the fortifications.

Once inside the ruined city, the landscape was even stranger. Weird shapes of varying heights, blanketed in sod, stood about in every direction. Here and there trees had grown out at strange angles, and their rooms had split the very stones they stood in. What had once been streets were still visible: straight, level paths between the uneven hills of fallen buildings and raised foundations. It was oddly beautiful, but seeing it in the moonlight with the knowledge that there were orcs about, sent chills up Katie's spine. Every unusual shadow made her start, thinking she was seeing the form of an orc hiding among the mounds.

The search party followed Elladan and the orcs' trail down one street and another, pausing to find their way, or slowing to allow their horse to pick their way single-file through the litter of fallen stone.

They rode down one street and reached an intersection; they had the choice to turn left or right. Here the trackers easily followed Elladan's trail, and turned to the left. The rest of the search party followed them dutifully, but Katie halted her horse and stared up at the fallen wall straight before them.

Elrohir suddenly realized that Katie was not at the front of the line anymore, and turned in his saddle to look for her. She was sitting perfectly motionless, staring up at the ruined architecture while the single file of men picked their way through the rubble and rode past her.

Elrohir pulled up. "Katie?" he said, breaking the quiet. Katie turned and looked at him.

"We have to go to the right," she said clearly.

The other trackers pulled up and turned to stare at her and Elrohir. After a moment, Elrohir rode back to her, and looked up at the wall she had been scrutinizing. It was merely a twisted and stunted tree, growing up between a crack in some of the ancient stonework, its roots curling about the stone and grasping it like coils of rope, or snakes. There was nothing significant about it; there were many like trees in this ruin.

"What do you mean?" he asked.

"We have to turn right and follow this road," Katie repeated, gesturing the direction opposite that which the trackers had chosen.

"But Elladan's trail leads to the left," Elrohir told her.

"And we have to go right. Or, I do. No one has to come with me."

"Leave you alone in this ruin with orcs about? That would be madness!" Aragorn exclaimed.

"Katie, we have to go on and find Elladan," Legolas remonstrated.

Katie shook her head. "I'm going this way."

"Elrohir?" Aragorn said.

Elrohir scrutinized Katie's face for a long moment in the moonlight. "I will go with her," he said at last. "She is always sent here for strange purposes, and has never steered us wrong before." He turned to Aragorn. "Go on and turn right if you will."

"No," Aragorn said at last, "I trust her as well. Lead on, Katie."

Katie nodded and turned her horse. The search party fell in behind her.

Her heart was racing. Had she made the wrong choice? Just because she had had some strange dream, with a tree like that one, she was leading the entire search party away from Elladan's trail. Maybe the tree hadn't even been the same; perhaps she had confabulated the images, seeing something a little similar and filling in the gap in her fuzzy memory of the dream. And was it only a dream, after all, and meant nothing?

No. The presence of goodness in the dream had been unmistakable and unforgettable. She had made the right decision based upon reason, and now she must stick to it, no matter what doubts her emotions might throw up.

And what when she reached the end of the road? Where would she go then?

That doesn't matter at this instant, she thought. I need only what I am given at each moment. My daily bread.

And what of the orcs?

"Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil," she murmured under her breath. She didn't know whether Elrohir, riding closest to her, had heard or not.

They had not been on the ancient road long, when Legolas raised his head and said, "I hear orcs!"

Katie pulled back as the search party urged their horses into a gallop and thundered off after Legolas in the direction of the noise. She followed them more cautiously, her heart pounding in her ears.

At the end of the road, they met a clearing. By the time Katie had reached it, the rest of the party was already hard in battle with the orcs—dodging arrows, firing back, and slashing with their long swords. Katie stayed back in the shadows as well as she could, remembering her promise to Elladan. She didn't regret it in the least, and wondered if she could have fought the orcs right now even if she wanted to. The shrieks of orcs, screams of horses, and shouts of men filled her ears, as she watched, mesmerized by the carnage. Images of dead bodies in a field rose unbidden in her mind, and she felt her breathing seize up, feared she would drown in the rising tide…

But a startling sight met her eyes, and shocked her out of panic. Among the horsemen was a figure on foot, slashing at the orcs with a long elven knife. His right arm was in a filthy and slipshod sling and his hair had come down from its usual neat arrangement, but she knew him:

Elladan.

TBC

AN: EVERYBODY MUST GO SEE NARNIA IN THEATERS. NOW. THIS IS AN ORDER. :) I saw it last night, and it was flipping fantastic! (And, for you fans out there, there was also a preview for Pirates of the Caribbean two!)

Darkened Dreams: smiles enigmatically

Lady Dragon, Jammchra: Could you tell me which parts were incomplete thoughts or hard to follow? I want to make sure my writing has clarity. Thanks for the reminder about elven tracking skills; I used it in this chapter. Elladan purposefully doesn't leave many marks for fear the orcs will pick up on his trail more easily. One of these days I'll probably think about trying to get something published, but I'm really busy with college at the moment. My original plan was indeed to be a novelist and get a "real" job on the side at a publishing company. But now I've dropped that plan in favor of becoming a high school English teacher. I would still like to publish something, but I don't want to make it a career. Why did I change my mind? Well, it's a long story. :) I've also discovered that while I love a good poem and am pretty darned good at analyzing them, I suck at writing them. So short stories and novels for me! Thanks for all of your advice!

Alenor Peredhel: I agree; I enjoyed writing that last scene the best. Lots of times when I'm writing, I just invent good scenes, and then I have to slog through all the narrative that sets the scenes up. Which means I have a few really well-written and clearly described scenes, and then all the stuff in between is somewhat lacking in clarity and excitement. :)

Big thanks to everybody who reviewed!

Please review while I go study for my last final!