Ok people, we're almost done with the story here, only one more chapter...wow, thats sounds sad, maybe I'll have to write a sequel or something...maybe. Well I have to leave for the larp in about fifteen min. so I'll quick get the last capter up and leave. This chapter contains a poem I wrote especially for this story, I hope you like it. My one brother (I have 3 brothers, Scott, next room over, is six years older than me and he is the youngest of the boys) is next door with his friends discussing music that they want to play n their band. Last part I heard was something about incorporating a triangle solo and announcing dinner in the middle of the song...I have no clue! I heard the words Taking Back Sunday and Frank Sinatra and I got scared! So back to the story now as they put on Sum41. This is nearly the end, I'll post the last chapter before I leave. I don't own LotR so don't be cray and ask if I do. Enjoy the story folks and wish me luck tonight, I'm gonna need all the luck I can get. Question, how does one stuff an inflatted air mattress in a 150 ford truck that is already loaded down with huge rubber maid containers filled with larp gear? Cause let me tell you, that queen sized mattress was fun trying to squeeze in, I just hope I can see out the back when I am driving!

What is Lost?

Eriathwen stopped Darwain and looked around at her surroundings. She swore she knew them from somewhere. She didn't know the paths in Mirkwood, so she had just let the horse wander, probably not the best thing to do, and now she was lost.

Deep in thought, that had to be it. She had to have been deep in thought to have been that unawares of what she was doing. She was just about to yell at herself for being so foolish when she heard water running. She decided at once to go towards the sound of the water, only hoping that it would be what she thought it was; the one place she knew how, somewhat, to get to in Mirkwood.

She let out a sigh of relief as she came upon the waterfall in the clearing. The path that they had used was not too far on the other side of the lake. I can take that path until I get to a main road, and then take my leave of this place. But first, perhaps I should say goodbye. She looked at the water; mesmerized by its never changing pattern of flowing water, the roaring almost deafening when one stopped and listened to it.

How did I get here? It was the horse; he did it, on purpose! "You know something, don't you?" She slid from the horse and tied him carefully to a slender, yet sturdy tree off to the side of the lesser used path and patted him in the neck. "Thanks to you, I know where I am, so why do I still feel so lost? What is this confusing feeling that is enveloping me thicker and deeper the longer I stay?"

Her hand slid off his neck as she crept towards the waterfall, its cliffs having a drawing effect on her. She stared up at the tall cliff, sighing with frustration as she hoisted her bag up higher on her shoulder and began to ascend the almost routine path up the top.

She let put another sigh as she plunked herself down at the top of the cliff face, not far from were the water dropped down. Words from earlier that week played through her head as she watched the water disappear, only to be replaced with more, an endless supply of it flowing forth from a source unknown to her.

Perhaps she was entranced by it, or perhaps she was preoccupied. A closer look at the blank expression in her eyes would reveal that it was in fact the latter as words and thoughts spilled and tumbled in a merciless manner inside her brain. And so she sat, staring at the water.

'Searching…unknown…' Still she stared at the water. 'Searching, all my life… …I don't…I don't know what I want in this life…" "Legolas would laugh if he saw me now." Legolas laughing at her in the kitchen, suddenly flashed into her memory as she remembered herself, an excess amount of weight in her shirt as she jumped around. The image changed. She saw him catching her that day in the archery fields. But then it changed again; an arrow, flying from nowhere, waking up in a room, a cage…a prison. I just don't know.

"I don't know…" It might have been due to the fact that she had stared so fixatedly for such a long time, or perhaps there was an excess of pollen or other plant matter in the air that started bothering her eyes, or perhaps it was something much deeper than the depths of the sea. Whatever it was, Eriathwen was almost struck dumb as she felt something wet slide down her cheek. She looked up; not a cloud in the sky. The river water couldn't have reached her, could it?

She reached a hand up to her cheek and drew it away, a drop of water on her finger tips. Not rain water, not river water, but what was it?

Oh my child,

You have gone astray

You did not let

Fate have its way

Dear young one,

You are so lost

And now your skies,

They all are gray.

Was this your wish?

Alone at all costs?

Oh my child,

Please do not grieve

This is your path,

In which you weave

You now have reached,

The end of your rope

Oh if only you had,

Chosen to believe

And now my child,

Where is your hope?

Oh my child,

Where now will you go?

If only you had,

Let your heart show

But now destined,

Forever to roam

This is true love,

Did not you know?

Just listen to your heart,

It will lead you home.

(The Path of Fate, by Mallory Eroh)

It was then that she realized that this was no drop of water. There, upon her fingertips, was a tear. She gazed at it in wonder, a tear, and she finally understood what had made her this tear, her first ever. She closed her eyes and folded her hand into a fist. No, I can't go back, I can't. She stood and fumbled with her bag, almost dropping it into the stream. She then saw, as the contents partially spilled upon the rocks what it had been that had made her bag so heavy.