A/N ...Sorry. :3 I just lost motivation for this chapter entirely about halfway through, that's why it took so long... *crawls into corner and hides*

Just to clarify, this fanfiction is book verse. Random fact of the day #736. XD

Chaptah tim!

...

The entire camp was in uproar. Somehow Boromir had slipped away in the night, but nobody knew when, how or why.

Aaria was freaking out, whispering to herself so no one could hear her; that they wouldn't be able to mend what they had done by coming here, that he had to die but they couldn't do it anymore…

Cheese frowned and sat next to her. Looking around to make sure nobody was eavesdropping, she whispered; "Look, this is completely insane. I've said it before. But we have to keep moving. We have to get help, maybe from Gandalf or someone. We'll meet him in a few days in Fangorn, you know this. But we can't sit here feeling sorry for ourselves. We must push on."

And with that she stood and held out a hand to Aaria, which she took, after brushing a tear from her cheek.

"You're right. We have to keep moving."

Cheese looked up to see Aragorn speaking with Legolas and Gimli, paying almost no attention to the women. He was frowning, but then this wasn't unusual these days.

"He must have slipped away when he was on watch."

"How do you know?" Cheese piped up suddenly. Aragorn looked up at her sharply.

"Because it's what I would've do-"

"What? What is it?" Cheese asked, confused. He was staring at her. Actually, he was staring at both her and Aaria. She turned and looked at her friend.

"Aaria, what are they stari-" Cheese realised what they were so amazed at, for she saw Aaria had changed, seemingly overnight. Aaria was suddenly much taller than her, and her curly mass of hair had started to straighten. But that wasn't all. Because behind a tangled, chocolate-brown lock was a pointed ear.

"You- you've changed race. Aaria, you're an elf!"

The elf looked down at herself through her thick glasses, then up again at Cheese. "B- but you're a dwarf!"

Cheese instantly brought a hand to her chin, and sure enough, the wisp of tell-tale stubble had started growing there.

"WHAT?! I can't grow a beard, I'm a woman!"

And then she pretty much lost it and started yanking at the tiny hairs, but to no avail. The ginger 5 o'clock shadow was there to stay.

"I don't mean to interrupt your discoveries, as we are about as dumbfounded as you are, but we must push on!"

The look Cheese gave Aragorn next gave new meaning to the phrase 'if looks could kill'. Aaria put a hand on her shoulder.

"Come on, we should do as he says."

Sighing, Cheese nodded.

And so, the once six and now five set off North-West in search of the orc pack.

...

Five or so hours later, after running up a small hill, they caught sight of the black streak that was Fangorn Forest in the distance, and since this was the only change they had seen in the landscape for two and a half days, they now picked up speed, hopeful.

There was no sound but the constant huffing of the travelers as they sprinted through the long, slightly yellowed grass. But all the while Aaria continued to think to herself; I hope we haven't messed up the story too much, If we've caused even the slightest delay, we could have completely wrecked the storyline… But soon we'll meet the riders of Rohan, and then see the pile of burnt orc carcasses. Hey, then we'll meet Gandalf! Maybe he can help us. Yes, that's what we'll do!

Her thoughts were interrupted when she saw a thin line of smoke rising from the horizon.

"Th- there!" She panted.

Aragorn looked up and frowned (again) but said nothing.

Aaria had a history of daydreaming. As she ran with the others, she found her mind was leaving her body and flying through the landscape. Her gaze drifted drowsily, looking at everything, but seeing nothing.

The grass stretched everywhere, endless yellow-green stems bursting through the ground. They were infinite, sort of like the human race from her world. They would grow everywhere and thrive in almost every location, but everyone had different thoughts and opinions.

Every one of them thought they were the most important blade of grass in the field, yet not one of them was right.

This thought scared her, so her mind drifted further towards the horizon.

Beyond the uplands of Rohan stood the black trees of Fangorn forest, and with them, the Ents. How she longed to walk among them, converse with the shepherds of the forest of things ancient and beautiful. She would stride beside them and see the trees, the grass, the waters. And she would stay there, content with the wilderness.

Startled, she shook herself. She had always loved nature, yes, but this was going too far. It was the elf in her talking, and no matter how comforting it was, she feared it. She couldn't go setting up shop in Fangorn, for she and Cheese had to find a way to get back home!

With that last, defiant thought, she stared angrily beyond the forest to Methedras, the last of the misty mountains.

But something caught her eye, far away, near the forest. It would have been a dark, swift-moving blur to men, but to her it was the small figures of horsemen, many horsemen.

Because without knowing, her bright green mortal eyes were slowly developing into those of elves.

It was pitch black. The night enveloped the three hobbits, lying bound on their fronts. A tree branch hung just over their heads, so close, Selena felt she could touch it. All was peaceful (or as peaceful as you can get when you've been kidnapped by orcs), the firelight flickering a few metres away from them. The orcs had cut down a few of the trees previously to build it, and stumps littered the bare, trodden earth.

The uruk-hai stood in a huddle around the fire, crouching in the odd, bent manner that all orcs stand in.

Surrounding them, around the small hill the orcs were camping at were the Rohirrim. Selena had read of this particular battle many times, and her muscles were tense with worry.

Occasionally a rider would stray close to the orc camp, and they would stare at the orcs, a shadowy form just beyond reach of the eye.

Selena was torn away from her thoughts when she felt a large, knobbly and very hairy hand pawing at her back. She would have slapped it away in other circumstances, but since her hands were bound, she compensated by turning around to face the perpetrator.

But this didn't help, as she was suddenly dragged toward the being. In the dark, she was dimly aware of Merry and Pippin also being dragged along the ground.

With a slight gasp, she realised it was Grishnakh.

"Well, my little ones!" -said Grishnakh in a soft whisper- "Enjoying your nice rest? Or not?" He continued to speak, but Selena wasn't really listening, as she closely watched his long, hairy arm begin to grope Pippin.

"I don't think you will find it that way," -he whispered- "it isn't easy to find."

They kept talking, but Selena had stopped listening entirely.

'This is nuts. This is nuts. This is nuts. This is nuts.' She repeated in her head. 'I'm actually being groped by Grishnakh. This is nuts. This is nuts. This is nuts.'

"Untie our legs" Selena heard Merry say. She was hearing them, but she was not listening.

"Curse you, you filthy little vermin! Untie your legs? I'll untie every string in your bodies. Do you think I can't search you to the bones? Search you! I'll cut you both to quivering shreds. I don't need the help of your legs to get you away and have you all to myself!"

And then Grishnakh picked up the three hobbits, his hands over their mouths, and silently crept to the edge of the forest, and stalked along it, heading toward the river. Selena had shaken herself out of her near vegetative state and was gazing with wide eyes around her. None of the orcs saw Grishnakh as he headed down the slope, paused, searching blindly in the darkness for any riders, and started forward again.

It was at that moment that the shadowy form of a rider burst into vision directly in front of him.

...

A/N Yeah, Grishnakh! Never liked that guy. Gonna make him die a gruesome, twisted death in which he gets his insides ripped out in a bloodied mess. Yep... (Not really. Just that little sadistic voice inside of my head being annoying. Ignore her.)

Hope you liked that bit with Cheese, hehe. (I just had to make her grow a beard, just had to. Don't question me. XD)

I will make sure that the next chapter (hold on, it might be a boring one, I'll check-) Ehh, not that boring. (I hope.) Shouldn't take as long as this one did.

Anyways, thanks for reading, I'll see you in another two weeks! XD