Brace yourself, guys...this one's a little intense, not to mention long!

Also, I'm going to change the title of this story to Tomorrow Never Knows, after the song by The Beatles. So expect that change soon...but I'll keep this up here just so everyone knows!

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"But I thought we already knew that he'd told Sauron where the Ring is," I interjected, nearly sprinting up the stairs in order to stay on Legolas and Aragorn's heels. Aragorn stopped immediately after that comment, causing me to run into him and hit my jaw squarely on his spine and fall down a stair. I rubbed my jaw, displeased.

"Laina, you have no idea how specific Gollum has been with Sauron," Aragorn breathed huskily, stating this as if he had just allowed that knowledge to sink in. "He told him exactly where it is and exactly who has it…" Aragorn's voice trailed off and even from behind I could tell he was momentarily lost in thought. Legolas had stopped too, looking at his friend with the most concerned, knitted-eyebrow-look he could muster. Legolas looked away quickly as Aragorn's eyes seemed to refocus, and Legolas took to staring uneasily at his feet and swallowing hard. Aragorn took a deep breath before jerking his head up the stairs and beginning to run again. I had almost not noticed that the two of them were now many steps in front of me and I took off after them, nipping at their heels.

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"What are we to do, Aragorn?" Thranduil asked, bewilderment etched into his aging features. Though Thranduil was an Elf, this did not stop his once flawless skin from wrinkling, though minimally, over the thousands of years. And now this. I had a feeling that with the wheels grinding as they had begun to, we would all age before our time. And maybe, I thought, our time would now be far too short.

"I must bring this news to Rivendell," Aragorn answered after a while, pacing with both hands entwined on the back of his head as if he were lying down on a stone pillow.

"And what of us?" Legolas asked, not pacing like the rest of us had taken to in small labyrinths around Thranduil's study, but standing near a wall, legs straight, head straight, arms straight as if he were being called to attention and inspected for his posture. Come to think of it, I had never seen Legolas pace before, and I supposed his way of coping was different than mine (and Aragorn's and Thranduil's, apparently). I was stuck in a perpetual maze of one foot in front of the other, hands holding one another behind my back and head turning constantly to look at everyone's solemn expressions. I noticed a few times that Legolas' eyes were following me about the room, but every time I tried to look back into his eyes, he moved them hurriedly. I wondered briefly what he was doing before remembering again the very grim issue at hand.

"I will send word," Aragorn replied, sighing as he had taken to doing, over and over in the past few minutes.

"And we are to simply wait for your word?" I interrupted both the conversation and my pacing to stop and stare pleadingly at Thranduil, but Thranduil only caught my eye for a moment before letting his gaze return to the path he was walking.

"What else can we do?" Thranduil wondered aloud. I was still stopped in the middle of the room, watching Thranduil pace. I noticed for the first time how much Legolas resembled him; they were the same height and had the same color hair, though Thranduil's brown eyes were a bit darker than Legolas', and Thranduil was a bit more robust than Legolas. They had the same bone structure and the same expressions. Other than the very few minute differences, they could have been twins, though Thranduil's recent aging signs betrayed that.

"We have no other choice," Legolas agreed, eyeing Aragorn uncertainly before allowing his eyes to rest on me once again. I could feel them on me but I must admit I was rather enjoying the feeling, so instead of glancing back at him I kept my eyes on Thranduil.

"Then go, Aragorn, and keep a watchful eye and ear on your journey," Thranduil concluded as he stopped pacing. Aragorn stopped too, having received his orders and, bowing in front of Thranduil, left the room. I took another short look at Thranduil before hurrying out after Aragorn.

"Aragorn!" I called, seeing him in the foyer. I hurried down the winding, carpeted staircase and fell into his arms. "Please be careful," I begged, tears welling in my eyes. "And send word as soon as you can."

"I will," Aragorn replied, kissing my forehead before standing me up on my own and rubbing my arm. "I hope the next time we meet, it will be under better circumstances," he said before letting his hand drop to mine, squeezing it, and taking one last look at me before turning and hastening to the stables.

"Farewell," I said after him, though I knew he could not hear it. My heart longed for him to remain in Mirkwood, but my head knew that the fate of Middle-earth was a bit more important than my own selfish love of that human.

"My heart tells me we'll hear from him after a while, but it may be ill news." The voice startled me and I grabbed my chest in surprise before turning to meet him. I could barely see him in the dark of the castle, and it was so late that the lanterns had long since been put out. I sighed as his silhouette moved toward me.

"I don't want to deal with this, Legolas," I admitted, allowing him to put his strong, archer's arms around me and pull me close.

"None of us do, Laina, but of course we must do what we can to keep the Dark Lord from finding that Ring." I knew that much, but why did this have to happen during my lifetime? Couldn't I have already sailed west with the rest of my family, to Aman, before this cycle of events began? Yet I had elected not to go with them. I wanted to curse Ilúvatar for allowing this to happen, but I had not the strength to raise my voice. "Let's go," Legolas whispered after a while. I raised a sleepy eyebrow at him before allowing him to grab my wrist and direct me to his room.

"I have my own room, Greenleaf," I insisted, yawning.

"I'm only saving you the sprint to my room when you get nightmares," Legolas replied, a cheeky edge to his voice, motioning to his bed. Nightmares?

"Nightmares?" I allowed my thoughts to form words.

"Like you used to," Legolas explained, turning his back to me and stretching before slowly lifting his shirt over his head. A chill ran down my spine as I watched the way the moonlight kissed the soft skin on his arched back. I turned away quickly when his body language told me he would turn around.

"What do you mean?" I asked, avoiding his half-naked body and instead crawling into his bed and pulling the covers up to my neck, staring at the ceiling.

"You don't remember?" Legolas asked, pulling at the knot in his hair and allowing it to fall, unbraided, down his shoulders. Not that I was watching. By my silence, he correctly assumed that I had no recollection whatsoever of nightmares, so he continued. "Laina, you used to sneak into my room almost every night because you had nightmares about creatures you described as Orcs but taller and able to move about in sunlight," Legolas mused. "As if that were possible." A chuckle escaped his lips and I furrowed my brow, feeling him climbing into bed next to me.

"Why don't I remember that?" I asked, turning to face him and noticing his head was not on his pillow because I was hogging the majority of it. He smiled at me as I moved the pillow, allowing him some room. He tossed and turned a bit to get comfortable, and finally landed with one arm on the pillow, supporting his head, which was turned toward me.

"You always suppressed those dreams," Legolas recollected suddenly, looking at my hair rather than into my eyes. "The next morning you would wake up wondering why you were lying on my floor," he remembered, smiling at the thought.

"That I remember," I agreed, also allowing my lips to curve into a smile. "I always figured you and Malian thought it would be funny to have me sleeping on the floor, and you had both taken to removing me from my bed while I was asleep and laying me down," I explained. Legolas chuckled again, shaking his head.

"I never told you why because you had always been so afraid of those dreams, so I kept them to myself—but Laina, you would burst into my room at around the same hour every few nights in a row, sobbing and telling me of these awful creatures that your mind had invented." He rolled his eyes at the memory, his smile still betraying his voice.

"That's unbelievable how those things are just erased from my memory," I considered. Legolas nodded, finally allowing his honey browns to meet my eyes just before my eyelids closed and I drifted…

...Aragorn looked on the slain, and he said: 'Here lie many that are not folk of Mordor. Some are from the North, from the Misty Mountains, if I know anything of Orcs and their kinds. And here are others strange to me. Their gear is not after the manner of Orcs at all!'

There were four goblin-soldiers of greater stature, swart, slant-eyed, with thick legs and large heads. They were armed with short broad-bladed swords, not with the curved scimitars usual with Orcs; and they had bows of yew, in length and shape like the bows of Men. Upon their shields they bore a strange device: a small white hand in the centre of a black field; on the front of their iron helms was set an S-rune, wrought of some white metal.

'I have not seen these tokens before,' said Aragorn. 'What do they mean?'

'S is for Sauron,' said (a Dwarf). 'That is easy to read.'

'Nay!' said Legolas. 'Sauron does not use the Elf-runes.'

'Neither does he use his right name, nor permit it to be spelt or spoken,' said Aragorn. 'And he does not use white. The Orcs in the service of Barad-dûr use the sign of the Red Eye.'

All of this I heard in my dreams, and I saw a pack of overgrown Orcs, their black skin sweating under the sun, their long hair flowing out from under helmets baring the S-rune in white. Their teeth were rotten and crooked, their mouths spat black liquid, and their growls were much more commanding than the noises of normal Orcs.

"NO!" I screamed, sitting up immediately and searching the room for any sign of them. My eyes darted around uncontrollably, unable to depict anything in the room. Suddenly I felt an arm reach up and touch my back, and I screamed again and jumped out of the bed, reaching down to my ankle to retrieve a knife that was not there. I had never worn a knife on my ankle, so the move surprised even me.

"Laina!" Legolas' voice cried fearfully. "Are you okay?" I was breathing hysterically but at the sound of Legolas' voice my heart slowed a bit and my breathing became less erratic. I forced myself to swallow, wetting my throat enough so I could talk.

"I…I saw them…" I began, but Legolas held up a hand to stop me.

"I know what you saw," Legolas began, but I cut him off.

"You do not know what I saw, Legolas! For Varda's sake, you have no idea…" I was still hysterical. I began pacing around the room for the second time that night. "Legolas, these were real creatures…I could see them…I saw you, and…and…and Aragorn…and…and some Dwarf…" I must have sounded crazy, but the words were escaping my mouth and I could not stop them, no matter how incoherent I seemed. Legolas was staring at me, disorientated.

"Laina," he said again, trying to sound soothing, but I would not have it.

"I saw it Legolas, damn it," I insisted, pacing faster. "They're real, and listen…don't forget this, in case I do…they had a rune on their helms…" I was babbling, I realized, but I had to tell him in case I forgot. He had to know.

"A rune, Laina? Come now, Orcs don't use—"

"I know they don't, do you think I'm stupid?" I nearly screamed at him. He jerked his head back as if I had slapped him, and I wanted to despite the alluring nature of his half-naked body under those sheets and the very lovingly concerned face he had put on. I suddenly wished with all my might that he could feel the fear that I was feeling, and then he would understand that what I had seen was real.

"Legolas," I began again, rather scolding this time, "just listen…please." I stopped pacing and walked back to the bed, sitting down as close to Legolas as I could and placing one of my hands on his chest, directly over his heart. The pained expression in my face was soon mirrored onto his, and his heart sped up. I had no idea what I was doing, but I knew I had to try to make him understand. His breath became slightly abnormal, and I pressed harder, closing my eyes and envisioning what I had seen.

"I know it sounds crazy," I whispered, "but you have to believe…just close your eyes…S-runes in white on their helms, and white hands on their shields...and they are not normal Orcs…they're not from Mordor," I continued to whisper, willing the visions to Legolas with my entire soul. I was pressing so hard on his chest it was a wonder he did not fall over from the weight, but he was sitting straight up in his bed, and I could feel that his eyes were closed and he was concentrating, his breathing coming faster and his heart beating wildly.

I thought I had felt eternity when I had woken up next to him that morning, but the moment that followed was longer than eternity and it seemed to stretch into the realm of unconsciousness and consciousness at the same time, something alive yet dead and slow yet fast and simple yet complex. The duality of the everlasting moment was surprising, yet comfortable. My breath caught in my throat, and I noticed I was holding it longer than possible under normal circumstances. The room began to spin around us, and with my hand on Legolas' heart, we became one, spinning faster and faster around the vision of the Great Orcs and the journey ahead. I opened my eyes to see a blinding light bend around us, picking us up and taking us into another world, a future. Legolas had stopped breathing too, and his eyes popped open to watch us spinning, held together by the light.

My entire body tensed as the motion began to make me sick, and it took every fiber in my body that I could muster to remove my hand from Legolas' chest. The light immediately faded and the world stopped moving, and we were left slouched on the bed, breathing so hard that we both became light-headed, and with the sight of Legolas withering onto his back, I let my eyelids close and unconsciousness took over.

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A/N: All of the italicized words are not original; in fact, they are Tolkien's and they can be found in The Two Towers, Chapter I: The Departure of Boromir. And, the reason for this "'S is for Sauron,' said (a Dwarf). 'That is easy to read.'" is that the original work says "said Gimli," but I did not want to introduce a character whose name Laina could not possibly have known. So, he is merely "a Dwarf" in her dream, since no one calls him "Gimli" in this exerpt.