Chapter Two

Katarina woke to the sounds of people shuffling around, coins clinking softly in pockets, and metal pots clanging together.

She opened her eyes, wincing at the sudden brightness as she waited for them to adjust to the light before turning her head to see most of the Fellowship sitting around the fire passing around lembas, fried mushrooms, and leftover pork from dinner.

She sat up slowly and stretched with a yawn, hearing many pops from her back and shoulders. She grimaced at the stiffness from riding yesterday, deciding to look around a bit more to check things out before they had to move on again.

She nodded her head in approval, liking the way the geography of their camp hid them from passerby, turning her head and catching a dark haired Rangers' eye.

She smiled at him warmly, meeting his grey eyes with brown. "Good morrow, Aragorn."

Aragorn smiled cautiously when he saw her notice him and scooted a plate full of food out toward her. "Good morrow. I saved some food for you, Katarina. Hobbits like to eat quite a bit, especially in the morning. We will all need our full strength for the journey today; we push on toward the Mountains with as much speed as possible. There will be much climbing ahead and possibly other dangers involved as well."

"Thank you for your concern over my well-being, my lord. That is most kind of you." She gratefully accepted the plate and eagerly began eating, thinking about what she remembered from The Lord of the Rings novels.

So far all she remembered were names of characters and that Frodo had already volunteered to go to Mordor.

Not to mention that Legolas was a Prince in his woodland world.

All these thoughts were a welcome distraction from the thought of climbing anything, let alone mountains.

"Lady Katarina, how are you feeling today?" Legolas asked casually in his musical voice.

"I am feeling fine, Legolas, thank you." She answered pleasantly.

"Are you feeling particularly hungry?" He queried, raising a delicate blonde eyebrow.

She realized that she had been eating like a pig, the most disrespectful and rude thing to do in front of the Fellowship.

She dropped her fork in mortification. "I am so, terribly sorry. It's just, I have not had anything to eat since the night before you found me and even then, I didn't have much. I didn't want to bother you since we needed to move quickly."

"You should have told us! There's no reason for you to have gone so long without eating." Aragorn exclaimed, looking ashamed and concerned. Ashamed because he let his cautiousness interfere with helping her and concerned since she had gone so long without eating.

"It's alright, my lord. I'm eating now and I won't be any worse for wear." Katarina replied, trying to eat as quickly as she could without appearing rude.

Boromir scoffed indignantly. "You rude, undisciplined child."

"Excuse me? I am twenty-two years old. Even in your world that qualifies me as not being a child. I am very well disciplined, but when someone starves for an entire day they would naturally be very hungry and momentarily forget mannerisms." She snapped, tone biting.

"I don't know what nonsense you just spouted but in my world a lady does not behave in such a manner. Gulping down your food like some barbarian!" He shouted back.

"Who are you to call me a barbarian? You do not have any kindness in your heart, sir, so you are the barbarian!" She growled angrily.

"I never! You ungrateful parasite!"

"You overgrown ass!"

"THAT IS ENOUGH!" Gandalf commanded, giving both parties a fierce scowl. "Not another word from either of you! We will continue toward the mountains without any further disruptions on either of your parts. Boromir will ride up front with me and Katarina will ride with Aragorn."

She and Aragorn nodded in compliance. She turned back to face the campfire and focused on finishing her plate.

The Fellowship packed up after breakfast, quickly cleaning the area and Gandalf's riding assignments were followed.

Aragorn was mostly silent during the first two hours, each of the Fellowship turning to her every once in a while with a wary eye. This in turn gave Katarina time to enjoy the scenery.

Sometime during the ride she became cold and leaned forward a little more, trying to block the cold with the Rangers' body heat.

"Are you chilled, my lady?" Aragorn asked kindly, turning his head slightly so he could see her face.

"No, my lord. I was merely trying to look ahead to see how far we have travelled and how far there is yet to go before we reach our destination." She lied, not wanting to be a bother.

Aragorn raised a sceptical eyebrow, frowning at her for her dishonesty.

Katarina sighed, there was no use trying to lie to a Ranger.

"Yes, my lord. I have tried to hide it in hopes of it getting better but I guess it will not. May I borrow your cloak, any extras you may have will do just fine. I don't want you to get cold." She was genuinely surprised when Legolas gave her his cloak. "But my lord, will you not need this?"

"Nay, my lady. Elves do not experience degrees of warm and cold like mortals do, therefore I do not need the cloak. You may keep it as long as you wish."

"Thank you, my lord."

"You are welcome, my lady. It is my pleasure to ensure that you are as comfortable as possible on this trip."

They stopped for lunch after a few more hours.

Katarina sat with the Hobbits today; she found the way they viewed life so endearing. So innocent, so free, so cheerful it was contagious.

She wondered if all the Hobbits in the Shire were like that, for Frodo seemed to be depressed. She knew it was because of the Ring, and wanted so much to take all the pain away.

But she knew she could not and it made her sad. If only I could bring him back to Sicily with me and find someone stronger to take the Ring to Mordor, she thought wistfully.

Aragorn was watching her from beside Gandalf across the fire, concern etched into his grey eyes. Legolas sat beside them and diverted the Rangers' attention for a while.

Katarina thought they were discussing the Fellowships' next move, rationing off food and all that other serious talk. So she decided to hum to herself while watching the Hobbits argue over their portions of food and drink.

"My lady, where is the Italy you spoke of earlier?" Pippin asked quietly, dragging her from her thoughts.

"Italy is a little country of my world, caught between two bigger countries that don't get along with us very well. We have several different languages which accounts for most of the arguments. Our songs can be heard through the hills, whispering to the people the things they need to hear. Our music can be heard on the wind, calling to those who are not in the city limits. We dance in the streets, everyone is welcome and we are surrounded by food and drinks. Children laugh and babies coo with their little voices while the adults drink and dance like wild flowers. The only time we ever feel truly free is on those days." She said as her eyes received an unfocused look, viewing sights from far away—a completely different world.

"That sounds lovely, my lady. What kind of songs do your people sing?"

"All kinds of songs, my dearest Merry, for we love to sing and write. We believe it allows us to share our love for our people—for our country—with our people."

"Will you sing us a song from your world?" Sam asked curiously.

"Yes, yes, will you?" Merry urged, hopefully.

"Please! Please, Katarina." Pippin pleaded, eyes bright.

"La danza alberi al vento, il cielo si canta ai bambini. Tutte le persone gioire. Tutte le persone gioire. Le madri vanno le vostre figlie, i padri andare ai vostri figli. Le creature della Terra sono collegati tra loro da un cerchio d'amore. Tutto il mondo gioite. Tutto il mondo gioite. Fidati di te stesso con creazioni nature '. Rientrano nella chiamata della musica come cantiamo. Segui il tuo cuore e troverai un mondo senza sofferenza. Tutto il mondo gioite. Tutto il mondo gioite."

Katarina sighed, her soul lighter than I had been since she arrived in Middle Earth.

"That was beautiful. What did you say?" Pippin asked, awed.

"It was a song about all the creatures of the world uniting into one harmony and rejoicing in the peace they found. It is my favourite song from home." She explained with a soft smile on her face.

"It was a beautiful song. Can you teach it to me?" Sam asked, excitement dancing in his eyes.

"Yes, dear Sam. I would enjoy teaching you the song on our journey. But for now we should begin packing, we have a long way to ride today." Katarina said while gathering the Hobbits' plates.

She was on the way to the water source to wash the dishes when she noticed that Legolas, Aragorn and Gandalf were looking at her with interest. She blushed and continued cleaning up, hoping the Ranger would not bring up the event during the upcoming ride.

The rest of the day was mostly uneventful due to the maintained riding assignments set by Gandalf and Katarina trying to teach Sam the song she sang to the Hobbits during lunch.

The Wizard appeared to be distracted by something, which in turn worried Aragorn, which really worried Legolas.

By the time the Fellowship settled down for the night, the tension was so palpable you could cut it with a knife. She decided to sing a few other songs from her home which eased much of the tension, but aggravated a certain Gondorian to no end.

Aragorn once again gave Katarina his bedroll but she put up a much harder fight this time, she refused to take his bedroll from him a second night.

"My Lady, I would not have you sleep on the ground. It is unspeakable of me to do so. I absolutely will not!" Aragorn stated stubbornly, offended that she would think that he would allow her to sleep on the cold hard ground.

"Aragorn, I have slept on the ground before and I can certainly do it again when it is necessary. It may not exactly be necessary at the moment but it is unfair of me to ask you to give up your bedroll twice." Katarina shot back defiantly.

The arguing escalated until they were breathing hard from frustration, glaring at each other in hopes the other would crumble. She finally relented when Legolas offered his bedroll instead, and they all (except Legolas, who had the watch that night) settled down into a deep sleep.

translations

La danza alberi al vento, il cielo si canta ai bambini. Tutte le persone gioire. Tutte le persone gioire. Le madri vanno le vostre figlie, i padri andare ai vostri figli. Le creature della Terra sono collegati tra loro da un cerchio d'amore. Tutto il mondo gioite. Tutto il mondo gioite. Fidati di te stesso con creazioni nature '. Rientrano nella chiamata della musica come cantiamo. Segui il tuo cuore e troverai un mondo senza sofferenza. Tutto il mondo gioite. Tutto il mondo gioite.-The trees dance in the wind, the sky is singing to the children. All the people rejoice. All the people rejoice. Mothers go to your daughters, fathers go to your children. Creatures of the Earth are connected together by a circle of love. All the world rejoice. All the world rejoice. Trust yourself with Natures' creations. Fall into the call of the music as we sing. Follow your heart and you will find a world without suffering. All the world rejoice. All the world rejoice.

A/N: I apologize if my translations are incorrect, I got them from Google Translate. If anyone who speaks Italian wants to do the correct translation and send it to me, you may. I would like to say a thank you to my beta PhoenixNimbus.292 for putting up with my near constant bombardment of docx documents to proof read.