Wow, thanks to everyone for the kind responses to The River. It was fun to write, and I find I enjoy re-reading it as well. I'm glad that others enjoyed it as much as I did. To respond to a handful of queries: I am working on another LOTR story, but I probably won't start posting chapters until it's well along. Once the last story was done, it took a long time for another idea to really put down roots in my mind, and even more time passed before I felt ready to do more than flesh out an outline. It seems that it's easier to work on a story once it's rolling; getting all the groundwork laid takes some effort!