The Fourth Age dawned in peace. But peace is a seed easily withered. Long have the kingdoms of Men prospered beneath the rule of the King Elessar, and in the North, Gerithor, once a ranger and warrior of renown, now serves as Warden, keeping order in a land once scarred by war. Though he trains his children in the ways of leadership and arms, his own days of high adventure seem long behind him. But the East does not sleep. When a cloaked stranger brings word of a rising darkness beyond the lands of Mordor, old fears stir anew. A forgotten threat, older than the crowns of Men, begins to stir-and the burden of defiance falls not to the heroes of old, but to their sons and daughters. Now the Children of the North must rise, for the fate of Middle-earth once more hangs by a thread.

With Sauron's advance in the West temporarily halted, the Lastborn and his companions travel East over the Misty Mountains to aid the dwarves of Erebor. But more than just orcs and Easterlings await them there. One of Sauron's most powerful servants, a Black Numenorean sorceress known only as The Lady of the Dead Tree, seeks to stop the Ranger's passage... At all costs. Join Gerithor, Glorfindel, and many other valiant warriors of Middle Earth as they seek to defend all that is good from falling into eternal darkness.

Gerithor, a Dunedain ranger, has been a guardian of the West for many years, protecting it and keeping watch over the Shire. But when he receives word that his fellow Dunedain were attacked at Sarn Ford by Nine Riders, he hastens to Rivendell, where he receives a quest which will take him east of the Misty Mountains to defend the Free Peoples. In his new quest he will take up arms with characters old and new, including the Elven warrior Glorfindel and Gimli's father, Gloin, in a desperate bid to stand against Sauron as the Defenders of Middle Earth. Set twenty years after the events of the Lastborn, this is Gerithor's final epic adventure, and the fate of many rests on his shoulders. The new cover of this book is by @starsalight! She did a great job!

From the shadowed East he came, where mercy is forgotten and the sword is law. In the distant lands beyond the Sea of Rhûn, the Easterlings raise their sons not with songs, but with steel. Rukil, son of none and heir to nothing, was forged in battle and tempered by cruelty. From childhood he has known only strife, fighting in bloodstained arenas for the amusement of warlords and kings who delight in death. But the winds of the world are shifting. When Rukil crosses paths with one who sees more in him than a blade to be wielded, a long-slumbering purpose stirs in his heart. Drawn westward by fate and fire, he begins a journey that will test the very core of his being. In lands he has only heard of in whispers, he will find friendship, treachery, and a light he thought forever lost. It is a tale of war and of mercy, of ruin and of redemption. Set in the year 3017 of the Third Age, one year before Frodo Baggins sets forth from the Shire, this is the second volume in the Middle-earth Stories.

Before Frodo's journey began, the shadows had already returned... Sauron, the Dark Lord of Mordor, has risen once more-his power spreading far beyond the black land and into the wild North. There, the Witch-King of Angmar stirs old terrors, unleashing a forgotten enemy upon the remnants of Númenor's proudest line. The Dúnedain, last of the kings of men, stand on the brink of extinction. And only one stands in the way. Gerithor, a nineteen-year-old ranger burdened with a legacy he barely understands, must rise to meet a threat older and darker than he's ever known. As war looms and allies falter, his choices will echo across the age-and shape the world to come. Set two decades before The Fellowship of the Ring, this untold chapter of Middle-earth weaves into the vast tapestry of the War of the Ring. Come now, and hear the tale of Gerithor, Lastborn of the Dúnedain... **No copyright infringement intended** CURRENTLY EDITING (Highest rank: #11 in Ranger)