I DON'T OWN LOTR, CECELIA, OMRI, LUNATIA, OR ANY OTHER SHOW/STORY/MOVIE REFERENCES IN THIS STORY!

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Legolas; Where is Arginett?

Lilka; She left, and now Cecelia's more than a little depressed.

Cecelia; I don't know what happened!

EmpressArginett; Anyway, Enjoy!

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Last Chapter;

Arginett disappeared with a loud 'Crack!', leaving Lilka with a struggling baby dragon and a gaping Cecelia.

"Now you've done it, Cece. Now you won't see her for a while, and I'll have to take you to see her friends instead." Cecelia was still in shock. She didn't understand why Arginett had left so suddenly, and she was still wondering about this when Lilka packed up the camp and readied the horses for the rest of the trip. She shook herself out of her stupor when she felt Lilka's hand on her shoulder. "Where are we going?" Lilka's face was grim, "Arginett, you, and me were supposed to go and meet Omri and Lunatia today, but since you sent her off, we'll just have to continue our journey without her. Now here, take this thing. You might as well take good care of it, since it seems to have taken Arginett's place in our party." Cecelia felt a painful twinge in her chest each time Lilka reminded her, but she put on a brave face and, as they began their journey once more on the backs of their horses, asked Lilka to tell her about Arginett's friends.

"Well, Lunatia is a Child of Luna-"

"She's a werewolf?"

Lilka frowned, and Cecelia shut her mouth. "No; she's not a werewolf, she's a Child of Luna, not Lupa. She is a human who takes strength and power from the moon. Her sister is a child of Ra, the sun god. She is more of a night owl, and she has more power in the shadows. She's more of a sidekick, but she's loyal and kind and she'll do anything for those who need help. Omri, on the other hand, is a little bit of a loner, but she's just as loyal to her friends. She is a rare strain of elf. Her parents were two aspen trees, whose branches entwined and together bore a single acorn, which, when it hit the ground, split open to reveal Omri. It's her house that we're going to go meet them at. She has a bit of an obsession with trees, since she lives in one. Both Omri and Lunatia are great friends, who Arginett happened upon when she was on her first journey. They helped her and Aragorn, the great king, to win a few battles so far, and now we are all joining together to defeat Sauron once and for all." She said that last sentence with such conviction that Cecelia found herself nodding. When she realized that Lilka had started talking again she stopped nodding and looked towards the Valkyrie obediently.

"Since you're new to our little clan, I might as well fill you in on the way things work; basically, the amount of authority and leadership you can get away with is based on how powerful you are. Naturally, Arginett is the undisputed leader, but of course she doesn't agree, and keeps saying that she is just our professional instigator. Next is me; I've been training next to Arginett since I met her, and so I can hold my own ground in a fight with her for slightly longer than most. Then there's Omri, who is powerful in the arts of healing, tracking, and white magic. She's less of a fighter and more of a diplomatic warrior. After Omri is Lunatia, who is okay is mostly everything, but she excels in dagger combat. She is the one who keeps us in good spirits whenever we are all glum, and she is our professional morale support, as well as being the most reliable in a fight. Now that you've joined, you'll be the last; once you train a little more under Arginett, you'll get some more skills and abilities, but for now you just sit and watch, learning about battle and stuff. Got all that?" Cecelia nodded, and received a smile from Lilka. As silence reigned over their steady pace, Cecelia took some time to enjoy the scenery.

They were riding down a well-worn path, through grasslands that reached as far as the eye could see. There was hardly a cloud in the sky, and the sun was less harsh than you would expect in the middle of the summer. Every so often there would be a small pond or lake off the side of the road, some with houses- seemingly abandoned- alongside them. There was a picket fence that stopped and started, as if someone had started to set it up or take it down, but had abandoned the project halfway through. Cecelia thought back to one of the maps she had spotted as she had explored Arginett's house; there was a small area to the west of Gondor, which had been labeled, 'Here Be Dragons'. With a start, she recalled the small dragon that had driven her mentor to stomping off. Cecelia turned to Lilka, and asked where the small thing was. Lilka slowed down her horse and maneuvered it so that they were side by side, "Here; you should probably name it, so you can have something to call it." Cecelia nodded as she took the snoring bundle from her. "I think I'll name it… Betsy. Or maybe Arginett!" She added, as a joke, but she became serious when she saw the disapproving look on Lilka's face. "What? And while we're speaking about the dragon, why did Arginett throw such a hissy fit when it hit her?" Lilka paled, "Arginett, though she is virtually indestructible, had a… traumatic experience with dragons at quite a young age. She has, over time, developed a strong phobia of them. When you defended a dragon, one that had attacked her, no less, she probably needed to cool down, lest she feel the urge to hurt you. You are her first apprentice, and she has a strange protectiveness with children, probably because she has no need to protect her own." Cecelia gasped, 'Arginett has kids?' When Lilka nodded in agreement, she realized that she had spoken out loud. "Yes, and she's coming up behind us now." Cecelia gasped then she turned to find a miniature Arginett riding up behind them. When she reached the two travelers, she smiled, "Hello Lilka. And you must be Cecelia?" She asked, turning to Cece. The said teenager nodded, "And you're Arginett's daughter?" The young woman's smile faltered, "Yes. But my slightly psychotic mother doesn't seem to be with you at the moment. And I presume that this is the reason?" Cecelia followed the woman's eyes to find Betsy sitting on her horses head. She nodded sadly, "She left this morning. What's your name?" She caught the young lady off guard with her sudden question. "My name is Margeret," she turned to Lilka, "We'll be entering the forest soon, and then I'll lead you to Omri's tree." They traveled on in silence, although Cecelia was bursting with questions. She wanted to know what kind of mother Arginett was, as well as how many siblings Margeret had, but soon they were all shoved to the back of her mind when they entered a drastically different land-scape. There were trees everywhere, though spaced apart; it wasn't too dense of a forest, but the trees seemed to be mature and old. Cecelia looked around as she heard the sound of running water, and she saw that they were riding alongside a gently flowing river. Up ahead, there was a large, wide tree; bigger than any she had ever seen before. Although that wasn't saying much, since she hadn't been outside of Gondor in her whole life. The tree was around ten meters wide all around, and was the tallest tree in the area. There was a strange rune carved into the base, and Cecelia watched in wonder as Margeret walked up to it, placing her hand on the engraving.

"Omri, we've arrived." A voice that was calming and yet menacing at the same time emanated from the tree, biding them welcome. The entire front of the tree swung open, to reveal a small living area, containing two women who seemed to be in their early twenties. As they tied up their horses outside and entered the cozy dwelling, Cecelia tried to discern who Omri was, and who Lunatia was. She decided that since she had heard that Lunatia was a child of Luna, that the one that stayed in the darkened part of the room and "hello'ed" in a dark yet cheerful voice was her. That meant Omri was that tall, serious looking woman who smiled thinly at her when she was caught staring around the house. As they sat down to make introductions, a loud pounding came echoing through the tree.

"Omri! OMRI! The horde is attacking the nearest village! The villagers need help!" Cecelia blanched as Omri, Lilka, and Lunatia shot from their seats, grabbed their weapons, and opened the door, revealing a small, grotesque man. As Cece realized that there was a person who existed who was smaller than her, she listened to the conversation happening between the 4 adults.

"I thought that they were aware that that village is under the protection of the rangers?" Omri said to the man, who grimaced, "They do, but someone said that the Ranger Girl had disappeared, and now they think that you will be too weak to fight them." Lunatia snorted, "We were fighting well enough without Arginett, but as soon as she makes her reputation, theres not respect." The man shot her a look, "This is serious, Lady Lunatia; they plan to decimate the village." Lilka smiled, "Well then I guess we'll have to fight them without our leader, now won't we?"

Omri PoV

The kid was visibly paling as she realized that we were going to fight an entire army. She obviously hadn't even seen Arginett fight, if she thought that people who fought next to her would be that incompetent. But our chances would undoubtedly have been better with our leader, no matter how good we were without her .I'm sure that the orc population in the world was dropping, thanks to how pissed off Arginett would have to be to leave her new apprentice alone. If only she was here, she would make short work of the horde that threatened the village. But she had left, and we now had to protect it. I got the still-frozen Cecelia onto her horse, got onto Xara, and directed the group as fast as I could towards the village.

Once we got there, we found that the orcs were having some fun before they destroyed the villagers. They were in a large group, standing outside the village boundaries, laughing at the horrified screams and shouts coming from inside the village. We rode in front of the laughing horde and Lunatia, Lilka, and I jumped off of our horses to face them.

"You dare to attack a village that is under the protection of the Rangers?" Lilka's voice was cold and demanding. The orc general stopped laughing, and turned to our temporary leader.

"The rangers abandoned these people, and now they are free game. You have no say in this matter, Valkyrie." He sneered at her. Big mistake. You never, ever sneer at Lilka. There are horrendous consequences. For the moment, she just glared at him, making him uncomfortable. Some of the more superstitious people think that Valkyries can choose who dies and loses in a battle. That's not specifically true, as they can only guide dead soldiers to the real of the spirits, but it usually gives us an edge in battle. However, this time they were determined to win, and I could practically hear Cecelia shaking.

Normal PoV

Cece gripped her small dagger tightly as the horde shouted out their bone-shilling battle cry. She proudly stood her ground as the orcs came charging down the ill. Just as she was about to leap forwards and thrust her dagger into the nearest enemy, a blur of black and brown hurtled past her, slamming into the enemy army with the force of an olyphant. As the front line of the horde died instantly, the rest charged towards the perpetrator in rage. Meanwhile, Omri and Lunatia started to herd the villagers away from their homes, taking them in the forest, away from the battle. Lilka ran to help their mysterious savior, quickly downing a few orcs in a short amount of time. Cecelia noticed this all from the corner of her eye, as her attention was purely focused on the blurred figure. It was darting back and forth across the fields, completely destroying the army. She just stood, utterly go-smacked, as –together with the help of the blur- the ranger's team defeated the orc horde. As she marveled, Cecelia suddenly realized that the battle had ended, with the rangers as the victors. She ran up to the blur, waiting to thank them and ask who they were, when it turned to her, and suddenly came into focus.

"Arginett! You're back!" Arginett ignored her, "Lunatia, are all of the villagers safe?" Cecelia whirled around to see that the two rangers had returned with the villagers, but turned back when Arginett spoke again. "Margeret, do you have any idea how those orcs knew I wasn't here?" Cecelia frowned; she had just realized that Margeret had disappeared when the strange man had warned them. Her face brightened when the realization hit her; Margeret had gone to fetch Arginett to help them.

"No. I only received the news today. It's something to think over." Arginett nodded, "But not right now,"

Arginett looked at Cecelia, "Right now we need Lunatia to teach Cecelia more with close-range dagger fighting while the rest of us make plans and such. Agreed?" everyone nodded. She smiled, "Well, now that I'm back, I can tell you what I learned while away; the rangers have been invited to the Council of Elrond." Everyone but Cecelia gasped.

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Arginett: I'm home! Sort of!

Lilka: Oh, joy.

Arginett: Don't sass me, woman.

Aragorn: Review please!

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