Chapter 7
Rogue heaved her pack up on to the horse and gave a weary sigh. Between dreams of home and restless nightmares she hadn't gotten a lot of sleep and was now suffering for it. Not only that, she now had to traipse who knows where and for who knows how long to through a ring in to a volcano. It was days like these that she really missed Kurt's enthusiasm and humour no matter how many times she complained about it. She really did miss the big goof ball.
After double checking all of her weapons were secure, she lead the horse to the gates and went to wait with Gandalf and the hobbits. Rogue gave a silent thanks to Wolverine for the survival lessons and quickly went over what she had learnt. All those hours out in the cold freezing her butt off actually paid off. She swore under her breath as she realised she now owed Evan ten dollars.
Rogue was knocked out of her thoughts as a hand came down to rest on her shoulders. She quickly spun around to try and grab their wrist but just missed as Legolas had the presence of mind to jump back. Rogue bit her cheek as she remembered watching him laugh as she threw Aragorn. He looked breathtaking when he was so carefree. She could feel a blush rise up on her cheeks as she looked away in embarrassment and dropped her eyes to the ground.
"S-sorry. You surprised me."
"No, I'm sorry. I saw what happened when Aragorn surprised you so I have no excuse. Please forgive me?" Legolas gave her an apologetic look.
"Don't worry about it," she murmured awkwardly. "When are we leaving?"
"As soon as Boromir arrives. It seems he was running behind this morning. I believe some certain hobbits may have had something to do with that. Apparently his clothes went missing from the bath house."
Rogue had to bite down on the inside of her cheek to stop herself from bursting out in laughter. The hobbits and their pranks kept everyone in good spirits but they did tend to go a bit overboard. She could just imagine Boromir running around in a towel cursing and trying to get his clothes back. She bit down harder as she watched Boromir and the rest of the fellowship walk towards the gate. It finally got to the point where she couldn't even look anymore and had to turn away. Rogue took a deep breath and stole a glance at the Elf standing next to her. It looked as though he was having a tough time containing his laughter too.
Rogue was just about to turn and walk away when she saw Legolas move out of the corner of her eye as though he was going to reach up and touch her but he hesitated.
"Ah don't bite ya know."
"I know but I don't want to surprise you and land flat on my back," he grinned. "I look forward to travelling with you Miss Rogue. It seems it will be a quite interesting journey."
"Um...exactly how far is it to Mordor?"
"It's many leagues from here so we will be travelling for weeks. We will need to keep a slower pace for the hobbits."Legolas gave her a serene smile before turning and striking up a conversation with Gandalf.
Rogue frowned as thought of the distance and the time they had. At any point she could be suddenly pulled back in to her world and she might not be able to come back. She wasn't entirely sure it would be a bad thing but she would hate to leave them if they really needed her. An extra person could make all the difference in a fight and she didn't think she could live with not knowing what happened to everyone if she left in the middle of a battle. In the short time she had met everyone they had made her feel welcome and no one had mentioned her mutant power or tried to kill her because of it. Instead they had welcomed her with open arms and opened their home to her. No one feared her and cringed away from her in the corridors like the others at the institute did. But no matter how nice everyone was, it still wasn't home.
Rogue sighed and shook off the dark thoughts. Starting off a long journey with depressing thoughts of home wasn't the best way to start. The Xavier Institute would always be home and the X-men would always be her family.
Boromir made an impatient noise as he arrived and started hurrying everyone to get moving as they had a lot of ground to cover before night fell so they needed to get moving.
