A/N: Weeeeeeeell, I'm ba-ack………with another chapter. Good news is, SCHOOL'S OVER for a week!!! And so is my audition!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I'm so glad that they're over with so that I can finally update now ( ~*giggles excitedly*~ Neways, here we go. Let the adventure continue…………………………

Disclaimer: *sigh* Again, I don't own the characters and places belonging exclusively to Tolkien or Jackson's version of LoTR. Anybody or anything else belongs to me. Thank you *bows and walks away…….*



Panting hard and sweating, I kept running with my ears covered, surprising a few people by nearly knocking them over. I shoved the gigantic front door and stumbled upon the sunlight. I felt relieved when my face greeted the fresh air, but kept running still. I honestly didn't kow where I was heading but I knew one thing: get away from here, from Middle-Earth, form everything. I was very afraid. I was faintly aware of footsteps coming closer and a pair of hands grabbed me and whirled me around.

"Johanna! It's alright! Calm down!"

I kept my eyes shut tight and I shook my head, "Let me go! Let me GO!!!" I screamed and struggled put of whoever was holding me but the hands tightened harder.

"Look at me! Look at-"

When my head had decided to cooperate, it faced Aragorn's anxious and worried one.

I was breathing really hard, "Did you hear it?! Did you hear the voice!?"

"What voi- what are you talking about?" Aragorn was stupefied.

"The voice! IT kept calling me and……." I was cut off. Aragorn shook his head in exasperation.

"What voice? I heard nothing." He answered hastily.

I stared at him wide-eyed and gasping, "But….."

He turned his head and I looked over his shoulders. Legolas and Gandalf were standing behind him. They also looked worried. "Did you hear anything?" They shook their heads.

I angrily jerked myself out of Aragorn's grasp and took a few steps back, "Are you sure!?"

Gandalf took a step forward and held up his hands in front of him, "Now if you'll just calm down, let us talk."

"I'm not going crazy!" I shouted and fought back frightened tears. "There was someone, or…or SOMEthing in there that is….that was, calling my name over and over again! Why couldn't all of you hear it?!"

There was silence as I looked into their bewildered faces. They looked at each other questioningly and moved their mouths as if trying to say something. Feeling weak, I slumped down on my knees. I was still breathing hard but I felt the fear gradually go away. 'I don't get it…..'

A hand encircled my right arm and gently lifted me up. I heard a weary sigh. I turned my head and it came from Gandalf who also had shook his head. He and Aragorn appear to be discussing something quietly. I turned to Legolas, who had let go of my arm.

Forgetting that I was suppose to dislike him, I turned to him desperately, at least trying to find some kind of reassurance. "Did you………..?"

He shook his head sadly, "I heard nothing. If there was a voice, I would have heard it already."

I was about to say something but thought the better of it. If nobody else heard the voice, then I must be the only one who has heard it.

"I want to get out of here…." I whispered and shook my head. Confusion and anger had long replaced fear.

Some how, Legolas had picked up what I said. "I understand how you feel, Lady, but you can't leave this place now……"

He was being sympathetic, but I was still frustrated. I turned angrily and threw my hands up in the air, "Don't 'Lady' me! You DON'T know how I feel!!! You NEVER will!!! NOBODY will EVER will!!! I just want to go HOME! H-O-M-E. HOME!" We stared at each other for what seemed like hours. From the looks of it, I had hurt him, though his face was calm. I sighed and said softly, "I'm sorry…." I closed my eyes and shook my head. "It's not you. I just don't want to be here…."

He turned his head away, "It's alright, milady." He muttered in an almost inaudible voice then walked towards the other two men. I stood a few feet from them, feeling alone. I hated the feeling. I always have. I always will.

"She is afraid, Gandalf. I can feel it." My ears had picked up Legolas' soft voice.

"What do you think?" Gandalf asked.

"Do you think Sauron is behind this?" I vaguely heard Aragorn ask.

Gandalf looked thoughtful, "It is a possibility. I have a few questions to ask the girl but we shall discuss this later. Come. We must get back to Kaanteban and the rest."

I looked into space with a few thoughts of my own, 'Sauron? What does he want with me?' It didn't make any sense. The voice hadn't sound like a male, but more in between that echoes.

"Johanna. Johanna."

I had finally snapped out of my thinking state with Gandalf's voice. I looked up and met his sapphire blue eyes. They were very mesmerizing, belonging to a wizard.

"Gandalf, I'm really sorry. I…"

He held up a hand to cut me off, "We shall discuss this later. Right now we have to go back inside. I suggest you apologize to Kaanteban for your outburst." His voice was sympathetic yet grave.

I shamefully nodded.

"P-pl-please don't say anything." I pleaded.

Gandalf only sighed, Legolas looked like he wouldn't anyway and Aragorn nodded reassuringly.

I sighed as we walked to the banquet hall. Aragorn squeezed my shoulders encouragingly and I smiled at him worriedly. Legolas looked like he was deep in thought. As we entered the room, I felt the urge to run away again, this time from embarrassment, as all eyes were upon us, me in particular. I took a deep breath and stepped forward. I walked to where the Duke sat, still bewildered, and I kept a straight face, trying to avoid the shocked stares that I got from the others. I knelt before the duke with my face to the ground.

The duke cleared his throat, "Rise, lady." I obeyed.

"Raise your head so that I may look upon your face." I reluctantly did so. My face felt like it was going to explode from the welling heat.

"Look at me." He commanded. I gulped. My heart was racing. What would I see? Will he punish me? I had expected an enraged face, coming from an aristocrat who had been embarrassed by a ridiculous outburst from a nutcase guest. But what I saw instead was that of compassion and concern. I sighed in relief and it was as if a heavy burden has been lifted from my shoulders.

"Milady, are you alright?" His voice was calm and reassuring.

I started stuttering, -my apologies f-for m-m-my outb-b-urst, my l-lord." I took a start, surprised by my own formality.

The duke smiled and chuckled, to my surprise. "Do not fear. I will not harm you."

"Th-thank you." I whispered and bowed.

The piercing gray eyes seemed to bore through my mind, trying to read my thought. "My lady, what is the matter? What has frightened you so? Have we done anything?"

There was complete silence. I anxiously looked at the duke then turned to the fellowship. They also demanded an explanation by the looks of their faces. Boromir raised an eyebrow and smirked, which made me more nervous. I struggled to find words and I moved my dry mouth.

"No, no! It wasn't you at all! I-I, ah, I had a nightmare last night. It still haunts me. I'm s-sorry." I spat out to my surprise. It was sort of true. Everybody gave a sigh of relief. I silently thanked the Lord for putting words in my mouth.

"Will you please tell us about this nightmare, if you don't mind?" he asked with curiosity.

I shook my head to his dismay, "I'd rather not. It-it's personal."

I got uncertain looks from everyone. They let it go this time, reluctantly, and we were dismissed.

~*~*~*~*~*~

It had been a few hours since my strange episode. I had sat in a courtyard pondering about it. What on earth was wrong with me? Why couldn't anybody hear the voice like I did? Was it all in my head or was some sort of supernatural force behind this? How did this world operate anyway? I'm sure God knew what was going on, did he? If so, how could he allow this to happen? No. God couldn't have been behind this. That would be so absurd! Another thought out of nowhere had struck me. Could it be an angel? As impossible as it sounded, it could be a possibility. Every time I had tried to answer any of these questions and have come close to some sort of theory, explanation or answer, it always eluded me. My head ached. So many questions!

I shook my head to clear the thoughts. They can wait. My eyes caught my violin and I had sighed. How long had it been since I have last played? Three weeks? Roughly. I felt a sudden urge and I looked around the courtyard. There weren't that much people around. I picked up my case and searched for a secluded part and when I had found one at the edge of a bushy area, I took out my violin. I named it Heindrich, after my father. I rapidly fingered a scale just to check if my fingers had gotten stiff, which they had not, to my surprise. It was as if I had always practiced. I gently placed Heindrich on the ground and proceeded to rosin my bow. I then played all four strings to check the tuning, but I made sure I did it as pianissimo as possible and made the necessary tuning adjustments. Boy, did it feel good to play again, even to just tune it! How I had missed playing so. I proceeded to warm up and got carried away with a few rapid scales, arpeggios, broken dominant and diminished chords and double stopping exercises and was half way up a two-octave scale when I heard scuffling noise nearby. Startled and disappointed, I hastily put Heindrich back into his case just as a crutch-bearing Merry, with the aid of Pippin, appeared in the courtyard. I observed them as Merry was trying to ward of Pippin, trying to convince him that he could walk al by himself, though he still looked like he was in pain. I suddenly appeared out of the bushes and called to the two. They looked at me, smiled and waved and I waved back.

"Hey Merry! Try walking over here! Give your leg some work-out." I called out cheerfully and beckoned both of them with my arms.

Merry looked at me reluctantly, but proceeded to hobble slowly, wincing with every step. Pippin was literally glued by his side, his hands twitching and occasionally shooting out as if to catch him in case he falls. Pippin needed to relax a bit.

"Hey Pippin, let Merry do this by himself. It'll be good for him." Reluctantly, Pippin took two steps away from Merry, but was still close just in case. Merry and I locked eyes as I willed and encouraged him with every painful step, accompanied by grunts. 'Come on, come on. That's it. You can do this.'

When he sighed loudly and shook his head, indicating that he was giving up, I pushed him some more. "Come on Merry, just five more steps. You're doing wonderfully."

"I can't!" He rasped out. "Too painful!"

"I think he's had enough." Pippin called out, "He's been walking for a while."

But I wasn't about to give up. I persisted with encouragement, "Alright, just two more steps. One for me and one for Pippin."

"Can you not see that he is tired already?" Pippin protested irritably.

Merry seemed to give this a thought and after a great big loud sigh, he mustered all his strength and took a step forward. "One for Pippin!" He called out with a small cry. "And one for Johanna!" He took the last step, stumbled forward with a louder cry and was caught by Pippin. He looked up at me with twinkling eyes and I approached him beaming.

"I did it!" he gasped out. "That's enough for today."

"Good job Merry! I've never seen such determination. Your leg will get better the more you walk. Just take it slow though. Keep it up." I squeezed his shoulder.

We helped Merry towards one of the stone benches and we sat, talking.

"What really happened this morning?" Pippin suddenly asked curiously.

My cheerful mood changed. I looked away.

"I heard a voice." I confessed after a long moment of silence.

Both hobbits' eyes were now glued on me now.

"What did it say?" Merry asked curiously.

"It called my name." I uttered.

"What else did it say?"

"It called me guardian. It's all very strange!"

"That was it?"

I nodded.

"Guardian? I wonder what that's s'ppose to mean." Pippin rubbed his chin in thought.

Merry looked thoughtful. He nudged Pippin and dragged him to the far side of the bench. "Excuse us." He said apologetically.

I nodded, "Oh, absolutely."

I turned away from them and was pretending to stare at the bushes. But I couldn't help hearing things like, "the ring's power", "Sauron", "gone mad", "The enemy knows about her?", "Is she safe with us?", and such.

I was slightly frustrated and annoyed. What was going on? I was itching for answers and I wanted them now!

The last ting I had heard was Pippin excusing himself to get "second breakfast" and asking Merry to "behave himself", which Merry had retorted back with "Me? You should say that to yourself!" With that, Pippin disappeared from sight.

"Well, there he goes! Off to fill his stomach" Merry smiled. "Tell me more about yourself."

"Myself…" I started, "Well, I've told you about my family already and where I'm from. What else would you like to know?"

He looked thoughtful, "I've been meaning to ask. How old are you?"

"Me? I am 25." I answered casually.

This seemed to surprise him. "Twenty-five? Tis a child!"

I was confused. I laughed lightly, "A child? No, no. I am already an adult."

"You mean you have become of age?" he asked with a curious twinkle in his grayish blue eyes.

It took me a while before I had realized that things must be a lot different here.

"In my world," I began to explain, "People become 'of age', according to you, when they reach eighteen. How is it here?"

"We Hobbits become of age at thirty-three, though I am not sure about other races. We Hobbits only know about ourselves."

"Thirty-three? Whoa!" That was a bit of a shocker for me. "How old are you?"

"I am- what was that?" He was interrupted by something. We fell silent and we then heard whispering.

We looked at and nodded to each other. I helped Merry with his crutches and we slowly but silently made our way towards the whispers. I felt strange, like I had forgotten something. We managed to hide behind a patch of bushes and peered out to see two figures talking to each other.

"Did you notice that there seem to be orcs lurking about lately?" a man whispered in a raspy voice that sounded like he'd been smoking all his life.

"Them strange! I would have sworn that I have seen some two days ago while hunting with my friends!" a younger man with a smooth voice answered back.

"Faugh! Those foul creatures! I though Laerta was safe from these monsters!" the man spat out in disgust.

"Apparently, nobody knows why they have come to this parts of the wood."

Merry and I exchanged uneasy glances. There was a long moment of silence.

The young man continued. "Oh! I almost forgot. I have overheard some men talking at midnight. One of them seemed to be talking quite frantically that I had a hard time making out words. He looked all a fright, I tell you. The poor chap claimed that he had gone out with his lass on some romantic picnic when a small group of orcs ambushed them. The lass was able to escape but the lad……." There was a pause "The lad claimed that the orcs were demanding if he had seen a group of nine walkers venture through these parts of the forest. 'By Eru!' replied the frightened lad, 'I have not!' The orcs, being the beasts they were, went on to beating and cutting him and the likes despite the lad's pleas and protests that he had not seen a group of nine! Curse them!" With this, he spat on the ground.

"Hmm…..looks like them orcs have sent forth a bounty on these people." The old man concluded. My heart began to race wildly.

"If they were looking in these parts, could it be possible that they have hidden somewhere near?" the young man asked frantically.

The old man looked thoughtful, "Or maybe in this city. Yesterday, we seemed to have some visitors. Eight or nine of them, I think."

"There was also a lady among them." The young man continued, "Speaking of which, I remember that the victim had also spoke of a lady."

"What did he say?"

"It was difficult to say, but it was something like, 'Then they asked me, 'have you seen a black elf lady? White skin? Gold hair? Very beautiful?' The lad of course denied it and he was beaten up some more."

I closed my eyes and heaved a heavy sigh. I felt sick. Anger suddenly welled up within me and I honestly wanted to avenge this man. An innocent man had been beaten on the account of the Fellowship, which he knows nothing about! But there was nothing I could have done. We listened some more.

"Then the orcs told him, 'If you see hobbits, elf, men, dwarf and beautiful elf lady, report it or else burn city to nothing! If you find them, Sauron reward you very greatly!' The man was left for dead but by some miracle he survived and gave this account to his group of friends last night!"

"If they are in this city, we must find them and turn them over." The old man said in a calm tone, but his face probably shown rage.

Merry grabbed my arm and looked at me in horror, "They can't!"

I covered his mouth and listened on, our hearts pounding in our chests loudly.

"Laerta used to be a safe city, or so we thought. Kaanteban should never have allowed those outsiders in our peaceful city in the first place! Now we suffer on their account?! This is an outrage!!!"

There was one thing on our minds: we had to warn the others and get out of here instantly. Amidst the paralyzing fear, I remembered why I had the strange feeling. My violin was missing! Before I could stop myself, I had let out a loud gasp.

"What was that?!" The men who had been talking stopped and looked around wildly. We shrank deeper behind the bush. Merry glared at me and I winced as I mouthed an apology.

"We must get out of here and warn the others quick!" With that, they left.

We laid still for what seemed like hours, terrified stiff of moving. When we thought it was safe to do so, Merry and I got up but still crouched behind the bushes.

"We have to warn the others and the Duke!" I spoke with resolve and determination. "We have to do it soon."

"Did you hear that? The orcs have a bounty on us!" Merry hissed angrily.

"So long as we are here, nobody is safe. Come!" I hauled Merry to his feet, but remembered that he was injured when he gave a cry.

"Sorry." I helped him with his crutches and nearly forgot my violin! I looked around and there it was, hidden in the bushes. How stupid! Being careless with my instrument was almost as bad as anger and lying. I hefted the straps onto my shoulders when Pippin came charging merrily towards us.

"Hullo y'all! Pleasant day?" He called out to us.

"Come on!" I pulled Pippins hand and dragged him. I half carried Merry by the waist.

Pippin began to protest, "Whoa! Where? What?"

"Later!" Merry and I snapped as we rapidly headed to the Duke's estate……………….