Tasha crept up the opposite side of the hill from Will. She steadied herself with the Rohan lance she had snitched for her dirty deed as she came up behind Alley.

A snort from the brush behind Alley startled them both. Alley whirled as Tasha looked up and both gasped as they saw the Ringwraith step from the woods.

Tasha did the only thing she could think to do. She raised the lance and thrust it at the Wraith as hard as she could. Of course, the lance did nothing to the Wraith but anger it.

"The Baggins," he growled and spurred his horse towards Alley, sword lowered so as to behead her.

Tasha came to her senses and threw herself in front of the scared stiff Alley just as the Ringwraith would have killed her.

Tasha felt the cold metal enter her stomach and heard shouts from Will, Edmund, and Rebecca as they rushed at the Wraith with lit torches. The last thing she saw was Alley leaning over her, an unspoken gratitude in her watery eyes. A tear hit her cheek, then Tasha faded from existence.

£‰‡

Alley choked back the tears, rocking herself with her arms held tightly about her knees. Tasha's body lay broken and bruised beside her and the rest of the troupe was only then returning from their battle to drive the Wraith away.

Alley gulped and shook, and gulped again. She couldn't peel her eyes from the body, not even when Will held her close and tried to comfort her like she had him when Kadril had died.

Only when Rebecca gasped did Alley come to herself. She still shook slightly, but Will was constricting her so that she could scarcely breathe.

"What... What happened?" Rebecca asked shakily. Alley gently pushed away from Will to look where Tasha's body had been. In her fright her vision had blurred and she hadn't seen the body vanish into thin air. She saw that now, though, as her eyes roved for the carcass.

"She's the first to return home," Edmund said somberly.

An eerie silence fell over the group. The crowd below acted as nothing had happened while the four friends silently connected with their thoughts and feelings.

Will let go of Alley and lay back as he felt both relief and sadness flood him. He had lost a friend, but he had seen Tasha before she had reached Alley and felt relief at knowing they had lost the traitor.

Edmund felt little. He had hardly known Tasha, yet the loss of a life tends to bring tears to one's eyes.

Rebecca felt much the same as Will. She knew only Tasha could have wanted the Ring so badly, but she was grateful Alley had not been killed. Had it been Alley that died, the world would have gone to ruins, both Rebecca's and the real world.

Alley felt mostly confusion. She knew she would miss Tasha, but she had never been on the most wonderful terms with her. She felt relief that she had not been killed and anger at the thing she knew Tasha intended to do with the lance. With these and other feelings and even more, the feelings and callings from the Ring, she clammed up, froze, and went rigid where she sat.

The others had to carry her from the hill and only when she was immersed in the crowd did she waken, spent and tired, barely able to make it to the inn where they were to lodge for the night.

"It's too much," Alley admitted to Rebecca later that evening. "It's just too much."

Rebecca was slightly puzzled, for she had no idea the harshness of the Ring on the body as well as the mind, but she consoled Alley as best she could, saying it would all be better in the morning.

£‰‡

To some sense, the next morning was much better. The group's hearts still ached, but they found they were not so effected that they could not make it to Edoras. With the money they had pulled together somehow, they bought the two best steeds they could and as many supplies as possible. Edmund guessed their pocket money had changed when they came through time, the others couldn't have cared less.

They set out an hour after dawn, Alley riding with Will and Rebecca seated behind Edmund.

"Let's not stay in Edoras if we can help it," Alley said softly, her sixth sense warning her again.

"We should be out of it by nightfall," Edmund promised.

"Good," Alley whispered, wrapping her arms about Will and leaning on him as she fell asleep.

Will sighed heavily, wondering why it had been Alley who had been chosen to carry the Ring. It seemed unfair to put such a strong burden on such a small, delicate creature. But, he supposed, it was only because Alley was Frodo's descendant. He had made it, so surely Alley could too, Will prayed. Yet, when he thought about it, it seemed that even Frodo was bigger than Alley, in the sense that he was a true Hobbit, and Hobbits didn't like adventure and such things as the Ring. Alley had the temptations of mortal man working against her along with many other transgressions of her own.

Will sighed again and put a hand on Alley's, steering his horse with the other.

£‰‡

Alley woke up when the horses stopped. She felt much better now that she had slept, her slumber being undisturbed for once since the Ring had come into her possession.

"Lunch already?" she asked through a cloud of sleep that lay thinly over her thoughts.

Will smiled, glad to see her coming to. "Yep," he replied, reaching up to help her down.

Alley waved him away and slid off the rump of the horse, going to stroke its mane and face before joining the others for the meal.

"Sleep well, Alley? We thought you were dead," Rebecca snapped, a bit of a worried tone hanging on her words.

Alley didn't blame her for being angry. Rebecca was much like Sam, she realized.

"I took the chance to clear my head," Alley replied lightly. Rebecca snorted and handed her something odd looking. She simply stared at it.

"Aren't you hungry?" Rebecca asked.

"I wasn't sure whether to eat it or wear it as a hat," Alley smarted back, looking at the flat thing in curiosity before taking a bite. It was bit dry and bland, but it wasn't bad otherwise.

"We're not far from Helm's Deep," Edmund said thoughtfully. He chewed on the bread-like thing he held, then shook his head. "No, we're past Helm's Deep. Edoras should be just over that rise." He pointed to a hill just ahead of them.

"I thought we would reach it this evening," Rebecca quipped.

"We traveled faster than I thought we would," Edmund said off-handedly. An admiring, yet hateful look passed between the two.

Will smiled and Alley scrunched her nose as they both suppressed a laugh.

"What are you grinning about?" Rebecca said to Alley. "You're the one who digs Captain Obvious."

"I-" Alley cut off, glaring at Rebecca even as she turned the color of a ripe tomato.

Rebecca grinned and started in a chant of "Alley and Will sittin' in a tree..."

"Enough," Will said, his voice soft and threatening.

All three of them were surprized by this until they saw the ardent scarlet his face had turned. Then they broke into peals of laughter.

"It's not funny," Will insisted, but it was hard for him to keep a straight face.

When they had gotten over their bout of laughter they climbed aboard the horses, Alley refusing Will's help more adamantly this time, and set out to the Southeast and to Edoras.

£‰‡

"So, we should be halfway through Anórien," Alley observed, studying something in her hand.

"How would you know that?" Rebecca asked, knowing Alley had little knowledge of Middle-Earth.

"Lucky guess," Alley shrugged.

"Really? Then why are you reading a map?" Edmund retorted as he came up behind her, still on his horse.

"You've had a map this whole time?" Rebecca yelled.

"It's the small one from the books, didn't come in handy until we reached Edoras," Alley explained.

"Oh, all right then." Rebecca sat down and tended the fire.

"Sometimes I wonder if you're not bipolar," Alley commented as she sat down across from Will. There had been an uneasy tension between the two of them that day. They had been silent all through Edoras and Alley had even walked some of the way after they had reached the Great West Road.

Rebecca laughed at the comment.

Edmund let out a yelp and they turned to see him fall ungracefully from the back of the large of horse. Thankfully it was tame, or else Edmund would have been in trouble. Alley snickered as she freed his boot from the stirrup.

"Like this next time," she instructed, hopping atop the horse and pulling both feet from the stirrups before swinging her leg over the horse's neck and sliding off.

"I'll try to remember that," Edmund grumped.

"You just don't like being showed up by a girl," Will said, his voice dull, as if his thoughts were elsewhere.

Rebecca broke into a bout of laughter and Alley put an arm around Edmund's shoulders.

"Don't feel bad. I've been around horses since I was nine."

"So have I," Edmund growled so lowly Alley could barely hear him. She shrugged and went to stuffing more of that flat bread with warm meat and then dealt out each a share.

"When will we reach Mordor?" Alley asked, fighting the calls of the Ring even as she mentioned its birthplace.

"Tomorrow we should camp at Minas Tirith," Edmund stated.

"And to reach Mount Doom?"

"At this pace, two days, I'd think."

"Good," Alley sighed. She swallowed the last of her bread and grabbed her blanket, wrapping it tightly about her as she drifted off to sleep in the light of the campfire.

£‰‡

They traveled quickly the next day and by the time they stopped for lunch they were well on their way to Mordor.

Alley and Will still kept to themselves, but at least Alley had stayed on the horse.

Rebecca wondered about the sudden change, but she shrugged it off.

Edmund didn't fall getting off his horse this time, taking Alley's advice, and even made lunch for the somber group. Alley suspected the thought of entering Mordor was what caused the silence and grave looks on all their faces. Even the horses seemed to be effected. They were constantly flicking their ears and jumped at the slightest sound.

Lunch passed uneventfully and rather quietly. The troupe remounted and headed out, going slower to let the horses rest some before they entered Mordor.

They were only a mile or so from Minas Tirith when their luck changed from good to bad. Alley and Will were beginning to pick up a conversation when it happened.

"Well, if you have to be stuck in Middle-Earth, at least it's a nice day," Will said softly, grasping for a subject to talk about.

"Yeah... At least," Alley sighed. She felt the burden of the Ring stronger now, and it bugged her. She wrapped her arms around Will to keep from reaching for the Ring for the tenth time in as many minutes.

"So... You're not mad at me anymore?"

"Hm... Oh, I never was mad at you," Alley replied, drawn from her thoughts.

"Really? Then why-"

Will's question was cut short by a raspy scream. Alley was the first to recognize it. She grabbed the reins from Will and hauled back, effectively stopping the horse. Edmund reigned in his horse and the four listened intently.

"Wraiths-"

They could only understand the one word.

"Gollum? Smeagol!" Alley cried.

It was then that Gollum topped the rise to their left. He was howling and running and rolling down the hill.

"Wraiths! Wraiths on wings!"

"Fell beast!" Rebecca and Alley screamed. They looked at each other in horror, then both took the reins of their horse and whipped them into a gallop, heading for the walls of Minas Tirith that loomed ahead.

Alley looked back in time to see the huge, winged creature descend on Gollum and lift him with his mighty talons. A quick dip of the Fell beast's head and Gollum was gone.

In that moment the beast ducked, the rider, cloaked in black, let out a screech that Alley knew had to have been heard in her own time. She turned her attention back to the walls that now loomed overhead. She gazed to the top of them, then she felt her grip loosen and she felt dizziness overcome her. She fought the cry of the Ring but let Will take the reins from her, leaning on him with all her weight and praying he could keep her on as she passed into something like a dream. She was completely conscious, but still everything was grey and swimming. She felt as if she were underwater.

Then, as suddenly as she felt sick, the feeling disappeared. Alley pulled back from Will, succeeding in giving herself a head rush, and looked about for the Fell beast and his distasteful rider, but the Wraith was nowhere to be seen.

£‰‡

Alley sighed heavily, toying with a feather that had wormed its way out of her pillow. She was laying on a soft bed in the room of an inn. She knew she wouldn't be there long, though. Last night was the only night she could allow these people to be troubled. It was amazing to her they had rebuilt what they had so fast. Minas Tirith had been all but destroyed once because of the Ring, and she wasn't going to let it hang around long enough for another band of Orcs to demolish the beautiful city.

Alley slowly stood, looking down at the dress she had managed to find the money to buy. The King had wished to meet with the leader of the band of ruffians that had invaded the city, and she daren't show up in blue jeans and a T-shirt. She knew she had to tell Aragorn about the Ring, but she wasn't sure she was ready to tell anyone in this world.

Alley prepared herself to be laughed at, but bravely went forward when the messenger came to retrieve their leader for council. The messenger seemed surprized to be escorting a woman, but she assured him she was the leader and he said nothing more.

"Your Highness," Alley breathed, bowing low as she approached the throne of King Aragorn. When she looked up, she realized just how much Rebecca looked like her ancestor.

"You're the leader of those louts? What is your name?" Aragorn asked, his voice deep and slightly daunting.

Alley swallowed hard, but her voice still shook slightly when she spoke.

"I am Alamira. I come from a country, one could say, out of this time," she explained hastily.

"Why have you come to Gondor?" the king asked.

"We are on our way home. We stopped in Minas Tirith because we were attacked outside the gates. We did not mean to bring any trouble to you."

"Attacked? What was the creature that attacked you?" Aragorn seemed genuinely puzzled.

"A... A Fell beast, sire," Alley stammered. She swallowed again and looked up at the king. He was smiling. Then he let out a laugh.

"A Fell beast, you say? Child, you must have been dreaming. No Fell beast has been seen since the Ri-"

Aragorn cut off sharply as he saw what Alley had in her outstretched palm. The golden circle brought back memories, some good, others evil.

"Sire, we are questing to Mordor. Then we hope we can return home," Alley said, not a waver in her voice. She closed her hand and put the Ring back in the pocket of her dress.

"We only wish you to let us pass. I could not stand to stay and let the Ring harm you or your people once again."

"You may leave. May your journey be safe, and may you succeed where others failed," Aragorn said, voice just above a whisper.

Alley bowed again, then quickly turned and left the king's presence. Behind her, Aragorn knelt in front of his throne and prayed for the traveling strangers.