Visitor

Sorry about the long wait for this chapter! I've not been in the spirits.

Disclaimer: Not mine, never will be.

Thanks to my reviewers! (Ithildiel-I appreciate the feedback, but all I can tell you is that you have to keep reading. There's stuff about Anna, that not even Anna knows and it won't be revealed until the end. French Pony-I didn't mean for it to be racist and I don't see how it is, I'm sorry.)

Notes: I'm planning to make this a short chapter. I'll try, but yeah. I'll try.

Chapter Nine

Conversations and Spies

"My feet hurt Anna." Pippin tugged on her arm and pouted.

"What do you wish me to do about it hobbit?" she glanced down and met his begging eyes. "I will not carry you if that's what you want."

"Can't I ride Umpra?" He looked up at the horse that walked slowly next to Anna. Anna looked over at Umpra as well and met his big eyes.

'If you let that little creature ride me, I'll buck him off.'

"Umpra!" He walked a little faster and Anna sighed. "He's being stubborn and won't let anyone ride him at the current moment." Pippin sighed sadly and hurried up to walk next to Merry.

"I still can't believe the horse talks back to you." Boromir commented lightly, eyes ahead on Frodo. Anna hated how much Boromir desired that ring, how it's evils had crept into his caring heart she had grown to know.

"Well he does." The Fellowship had left Rivendell a week ago and they were ready to camp for the night. They were almost at the foot of the Misty Mountains and it had so far been, a very amusing week. Aragorn had taken to watching Frodo and Sam, while Boromir tried to keep Pippin and Merry out of trouble, with Anna's help. She and Boromir had been teaching Merry and Pippin the basics of sword fighting at night. Legolas and Gimli weren't speaking that much to each other, unless it was a comment on the other's race. Gandalf kept the leadership role and did so without much of a comment.

They set the camp up and as Sam built a fire to start dinner, Merry and Pippin were ready to start their fighting lesson.

"We just stopped you two! Let us breath!" Boromir said firmly, but not in a mean way. They nodded and went off to help Sam as much as he'd let them. Anna shook her head at their energy as she took some of the packs off of Umpra.

"Do you miss him?" Anna turned to see Boromir's eyes meeting her own. She nodded.

"Yes, I think about him every night. Do you?"

"I do not think about him every night," she snorted and he laughed softly, "but I do miss him. I worry about how Father is treating him." She stopped and looked at the ground. "What is it Anna?"

"Why does your father dislike Faramir so much?"

"I do not know. He always has been harsh on Faramir." Anna nodded as Boromir went over to the fire and she grabbed a heavy bag, straining with it.

"Here let me help." Aragorn had appeared at her side and reached for the bag.

"No, no. I got it!" Anna hated people helping her when she knew she could do it by herself. Just because she was a woman didn't mean she couldn't do the same things a man could. She was a knight in training.

"Alright, alright." He backed away and she sighed.

"Sorry. I hate it when people try to help."

"Why?" That made Anna think. She didn't know, she was always use to people helping her, for no reason. Even when Jissy made her do errands, someone wanted to help her. Someone of higher status, either Diego or Octavian, Gawain, Manny, someone.

"I don't know. People have always wanted to help me, but I want to help. That's why I'm here."

"Your gods sent you to help?" Aragorn's voice had a light tone to it, saying he didn't understand or misunderstood.

"I tried in Fawe. I meant here, in Middle Earth. I'm supposed to help, that's my purpose." Aragorn looked at her for several seconds, a light filling his eyes with understandment.

"Everyone will need help. You will be welcomed." He patted her shoulder and returned to the fire as well. Anna dropped the bag and sat on it.

"Umpra?"

'Huh?'

"I-never mind." Umpra nodded in the way that a horse can and walked away to Bill. 'Can Bill and Umpra talk together?' Now that was the only thing on her mind. Can a magic horse talk to a normal horse? 'Dear Gods, my mind won't stay still!'

"Your mind is troubled Anna." She looked up into the clear blue eyes of an Elf.

"It won't sit still." Legolas raised a thin graceful eyebrow and smiled softly.

"I was not aware that your mind sat at all."

"Oh no! It does, just not right now. It's...it's hard to explain. I just know that something is going to happen. I'm going to find out something." She sighed and looked away, to the rest of the Fellowship. Gimli was talking with Gandalf, Boromir had Pippin and Merry fighting against him, Aragorn sat to the side and Frodo cheered his cousins on as Sam cooked dinner.

"Join us Anna. Your mind will not "sit still" with you speaking to none but yourself." She smiled in spite of herself and stood following Legolas's graceful walk to the campsite and she plopped herself next to Frodo. He started speaking but was cut off by a shout from Pippin.

"Oh Pippin. Are you alright?" Boromir made to take the hobbit's hurt hand when Pippin and Merry launched themselves at the man, knocking him to the ground. Anna and Frodo laughed slightly as they also managed to take Aragorn out as well.

"Well, there's something I didn't expect." Frodo laughed harder at that and before he was able to reply, Anna heard something fluttering. She stood up, noticing that Legolas was already up. The others watched them faintly, fear and worry in their eyes.

"HIDE!" They each dove for a bush or rock to hide behind or under. Anna grabbed Pippin and ran towards a bush, throwing him under first then sliding behind him. He grabbed her sleeve and hid his face in the crock of her neck, eyes shut tightly. She rubbed his back, watching the sky through the branches as a large black cloud of crows flew overhead. After the last one passed, they crawled out.

"What was it?" Frodo's voice broke into her thoughts and she shrugged, not knowing at all.

"I don't know what they are. Some type of bird."

"They are crebain, spying out the land. It is not safe to cross." Aragorn said.

"We must cross only at night." Gandalf added. The others nodded and they settled back down, allowing their hearts to calm down. Sam finished dinner and handed it out to everyone. Silence filled the campsite that night as they thought about what the bird spies meant. 'I hate birds.' Anna thought.

'What were those?' Umpra's hoof poked into Anna's back before he nudged her with his nose. She patted his leg in reassurance.

"Some type of birds." She said. "Gandalf, if they were spies they saw Umpra and Bill." He nodded gravelly.

"Yes, we will have to be most careful with the two of them from now on." She nodded and when they finished dinner it was dark and they started walking again in the cool of the night.

"When we reach the mountains we will be able to rest at night again." Aragorn told them.

"When we will reach the mountains?" Sam asked, standing right behind Frodo.

"In a day. We will cross over the pass of Caradhras."

"There is another way." Gandalf said when the hobbit's faces fell drastically. Anna looked up at the mountain in the near distance. It loomed, blocking the moon and the stars out.

"I say let us go that way!" Pippin nodded quickly at Merry's suggestion.

"We will decide in a day or two." Aragorn urged them all forward, but Anna stayed in the back with Umpra. Boromir was in front of her and he kept glancing back at her.

"What troubles you?" He called to her.

"Um...well you see-I...I don't exactly...like heights." He laughed softly.

"Is that all?"

"It's not all! I can't even go to the highest tower in the castle. I hated going up to the citadel in Minas Tirith."

"You will conquer your fear Anna." He stopped and patted her shoulder before turning to watch over Merry and Pippin.

'Let's hope so.' They reached the bottom of the mountain after a long walk with more protests from Pippin) and stopped to camp. Gandalf and Aragorn immediately started talking about whether to go over or the other way. Going under, as she found out later.

"I think we should go under." She put into the conversation.

"Winter is fast closing on us. It will be perilous on the mountain." Gandalf added.

"It will be just as perilous going into Moria-"

"My cousin lives under the mountain. He will welcome us!" Gimli offered.

"I wish not to go under the mountain." Legolas said. "With hospitality or not."

"No do I!" The hobbits each voiced.

"We shall have a vote in the morning. Let us sleep on it until then." Gandalf finished the conversation and everyone drifted off to their bedrolls and fall asleep, the shadow of the mountain covering them.

YEAH! Short chapter! I'm going to try to do the rest of the chapters short because it makes writing a lot easier.

Next chapter: The pass of Caradhras and doors to Moria

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