A/N Hey everyone. Sorry that it's been a while since I updated. I'll be updating more regularly now, but for today, I've given you some insight into Anna's character and a little snippet of her ability to manipulate events. Please REVIEW! It makes my writing fingers write faster!

I ran to my room, stumbling down the hallway and flinging myself through the door. I slammed it behind me, melting to the floor in a puddle of black fabric. I rested my forehead on the heavy wooden door, and knelt there for a few moments, breathing heavily to force back my tears.

I was so...so…so stupid.

What had I been thinking? God, I was going to wake up and leave this dream behind and Matt would know, I was sure that he would know what I had done. It had been so long since I was honest with anyone, and I would never do it again if it caused this sort of emotional strain.

My mom would have known what to do. She always knew what to do in any situation. But then, maybe the world had been simpler before. Before our lives were just overrun with chaos and uncertainty, and we were changed forever.

I was running down the stairs as fast as my little legs could carry me. But I wasn't fast enough. I could hear Matt's thundering footsteps behind me as he pursued me. I hadn't meant to break his toy car. I just wanted to see if it was faster than Barbie's hot pink car, so I pushed them down the upstairs hallway. There was no way for me to stop his from veering to the right and crashing down the steps. We'd both looked over the railing and observed the damage, before I took off at a run.

"I'm sorry, Matty!" I shrieked.

"Saying sorry won't fix my racer!" He yelled.

I was three steps away from the bottom, certain that once I got to the living room I would be able to squeeze behind the couch and out of my older brother's reach. Matt, at almost 11 years oof, was much too big to fit into my hiding spots.

Hands grabbed me around the middle and lifted me into the air. I squealed, before I looked into a pair of warm brown eyes that mirrored my own.

"What's going on?" My mother asked.

Mi mama was the mirror image of me, with long dark curls and tan skin. She still spoke with a Spanish accent, but her English had never seemed to be anything but perfect.

"She broke my racer!" Matt yelled, as he skidded to a stop at the bottom of the stairs.

"Is that true, Anna?" She was still holding me, and when I burst into tears, I just buried my snotty nose in the crook of her neck.

"I'm sorry!" I sniffled. "I didn't mean to!"

Matt seemed to growl behind me.

"Will you buy him a new racer?"

I nodded frantically. "He can have my piggy bank."

My mother looked at Matt, he stared back for a moment, before nodding and stomping back up the stairs.

I hugged her tightly, and she squeezed me back.

"Te amo, mija. Now, be careful with your brother's things, yes?"

I mumbled a yes. "Te amo tambien, mama."

I sobbed as I remembered what my mother used to be like. She could surely make sense of all this madness.

And Legolas...I had barely told him anything, and yet I felt like I had bared my soul. I hadn't even had the courage to turn and see his face, I had just run away.

Maybe Matt was right. I was a coward, and soon, all of my new friends would come to realize it too.

And so I wept. I wept for what felt like hours; my tears staining the fabric of my dress. I tasted the salt on my lips but could not muster the energy to move from the door and search for a drink. Finally, as the halls began to quiet down for the evening, a knock sounded at my door.

I wiped my hand across my face, "What is it?"

"My lady?" An unfamiliar female voice whispered. "There are visitors in the Great Hall."

I pulled myself to my feet. "Visitors?"

"Yes, my lady. Two children." These must be the children from the village that had been attacked by…what were those people called? I couldn't remember. Wildlings, maybe?

I gripped the fabric of my skirt in my fist. "Just let me get changed and I'll be right along."

"Yes, my lady." I listened until her footsteps faded down the hallway. Then I marched towards my bed and opened the small oak trunk that was set at the foot of it. Someone had leaned my bow and quiver against it, and the both fell aside as I swung open the heavy lid of the chest. It fell against the foot of my bed with a dull thud.

My clothes had been carefully folded and positioned in the chest. I had run for miles in them, but they were still in good condition.

I slipped my boots off of my feet, and then pulled the dress off my shoulders and let it drop onto the floor.

Whoever had placed my clothes in the chest had also been kind enough to offer some underpants, which appeared to be just small boxer shorts made from a potato sack. I pulled them on nonetheless.

My trousers quickly follower, coming to rest just below my navel. They were far too tight to be considered ladylike clothing, but I did not care. At the moment, I cared very little about what other people thought. My green shirt went on next, and I quickly laced my brown leather bodice over top of it. I probably looked like I was attending a renaissance fair. My hair I decided to leave in the braided crown, and I slung my quiver and bow over my shoulder. As a last thought, I grabbed Legolas's dagger and tucked it into my quiver. He didn't need to know that I was carrying it, but it would be rude of me to leave it here.

I was still pulling my boots on when I entered the hall.

My companions were seated at the same table as earlier, with several plates of food in front of them and somber expressions. Eowyn was crouched next to a disheveled looking girl and a slightly older boy.

As I stepped into view, no one spared more than a glance in my direction. Except for a very particular pair of blue eyes, that I could feel tracing my every step. I nodded to Gandalf and gave a slightly more respectful bob of the head to Theoden.

I slid quietly into the seat next to Gimli, carefully avoiding the elf that was leaning only a short distance away.

"This is but a taste of the terror that Saruman will unleash." Gandalf was saying.

I tuned out. I knew exactly how this conversation would go and I didn't feel the need to get my hopes up that Theoden would ride out and fight. I grabbed Gimli's bowl of soup and pulled it in my direction.

"What do you think…"

"Hush, little dwarf. The king is speaking and I am starving." I tore apart a crusty piece of bread and dipped it in the bowl. It tasted like soggy sand, but it was food.

"They will be 300 leagues from here by now." Theoden exclaimed.

I shot him a look. "What's the point of being the best riders if you don't have a rider fast enough to reach them?"

The king stopped in front of me. "A man on a horse cannot fly. Eomer cannot help us."

I snorted. My mood seemed to be leaking out into my words. "All due respect, your Majesty, but you live in a world with dark lords, walking trees and fire daemons. If you can't find a horse that can fly, your skills are severely lacking." One of my eyebrows rose ever so slightly.

"I will not bring further death to my people." Theoden ignored me and turned back to Gandalf. "I will not risk open war."

"Open war is upon you, whether you would risk it or not." Aragorn stated.

"Word."

Heads turned in my direction. Aragorn shot me a questioning look. "It means 'I agree with what you have said'," I offered. He nodded.

"When last I looked, Theoden, and not Aragorn was king of Rohan."

That was it. Somehow, despite knowing how this entire conversation would play out, my frustration boiled over. I stood to my feet, still grasping the last piece of brown bread in my fist.

"What are you doing?" The king asked.

"I'm going to pack. I think that it is rather obvious what you are about to do." I walked around the table until I was only a few feet in front of Legolas, facing the king.

"What, Anna," He said my name like it was an insult, "do you find so obvious about my actions."

Spoilers. This would definitely count as a spoiler. But it was inevitable, and I was far too angry and all too aware of the figure standing right behind me.

"You'll find, my king, that your actions are very predictable. Now, it's a long journey to Helm's Deep and I need to find a suitable cloak. Good day." I bowed quickly and left.

I paused for a moment once I reached the hallway. I needed to calm down. I'd never been in a situation where my frustration could be exposed. It had always been necessary to calm myself before Matt saw me. But now I was free, and in a world where I knew everything that was going to happen before anyone else.

It seemed that I was more in control than I thought.