Anra drifted in and out of consciousness for the next few days, not much making sense to her. First, she felt strong yet gentle arms carrying her and everything smelled of Aragorn, she could feel a throbbing pain in her head and side, but nestled against his chest she felt safe. The next time she was lying on a bedroll in cool grass surrounded by sleeping hobbits while hearing what sounded like Aragorn arguing with someone about being allowed to go somewhere, and everything that time smelled like elves. Then she was being carried again, it smelled and felt like Aragorn, but she could not be for sure because all of her senses were dulled from what seemed to be having something pulled over her head. The last time this happened she felt like she was lying on a soft bed and her wounds felt a lot better. She heard a strange woman's voice drifting in her mind telling her she was safe and it was time to wake up. Anra didn't like the voice that much, though it was nice, it was airy and rather creepy with an extremely foreign feel to it.
When she finally opened her eyes she saw that she was indeed on a soft white bed underneath a fluffy white blanket. She was also naked, this was a little worrisome to her, but when she felt the wound on her side she felt it was almost healed and the bump on her head was receding she calmed a bit. She sat up and looked around the room she was in, it was an understatement to say she was happy when she saw a tub full of warm water waiting for her in the corner.
Once she had bathed she looked around for her clothes, she could founded them clean and mended, along with her knives shinning and sharpened. She dressed and braided her hair back while eating a plate of fruit she had found by her bed. She didn't believe she had ever been that hungry before in her life.
After inspecting her image in a mirror she walked over to the door set on finding the rest of her friends. She felt a lot better now that she was clean and full with her wounds almost healed, but everything smelled like elves and she had no idea where she was headed. It appeared that they were in a forest of some sorts, but there was no sign of any animals or undergrowth anywhere, only one tall silver tree after another. Soon she was hopelessly lost; she didn't even know how to get back to the room she had just come from.
'What is it with elves and making everything in their homes look the same?' she thought back to when she had been getting lost in Rivendell, it seemed like years ago.
Anra sighed, she felt like she had been walking for hours, though it had probably only been thirty minutes, but her legs were weak from not being used for so long. At last she heard what sounded like Merry and Pippin talking, she breathed a sigh of relief and followed the sound of their voices to their sources.
The she-wolf stopped walking for a bit and just stood there watching the rest of the Fellowship without their knowing. They all looked healthy enough, but their faces were sad and worried. Then Pippin turned around from where he was standing next to Gimli and saw her.
"Anra!" he cried in excitement, then he ran up to her and gave her tight hug that she happily returned.
Upon hearing the hobbit's exclamation the others turned around and saw her, smiles of relief broke out on everyone's faces, including Boromir. "It's good to see you awake again Lass," Gimli said breaking the silence, with a huge grin. "And clean for once too!" humor was clear in his voice.
Anra opened her mouth with a witty remark at the ready when she was literally knocked off her feet by being hit by three more small bodies at once. "Uuff," she groaned under the weight of the four hobbits, while she could easily carry them in her wolf form, when she was in her human form and not exactly at her strongest either, it was a whole other story.
She could hear her other companions laughing at her struggles, until one of them said in a gentle tone, "Alright gentlemen, let her up, we don't want to hurt her again." Anra was surprised to hear it was Boromir speaking and not Aragorn whom she thought it would have been.
"Sorry," Merry said bashfully, "it's just the elves would not allow us to see you when you were hurt."
Anra narrowed her eyes suspiciously upon hearing this, her inbreed distrust of elves kicking in, "They didn't?"
As if able to sense her shift in mood Aragorn quickly stepped in saying, "I'm sure they just didn't want to hinder your healing process by allowing you to be jumped all over." He gave the hobbits a stern look at the last part. Now they all ducked their head bashfully at his light yet serious chastise. Anra had a feeling she was looking at the Fellowship's new leader.
Upon thinking this she felt a surge of grief for the tenth member of their company who didn't make it out of the mines. She wondered if he had been able to defeat the Balrog before—before—, she couldn't complete the thought. Anra felt tears pricking at her eyes as she thought of the old wizard whom she had thought of as a friend, she was finding it extremely hard to accept the fact that he was not coming back.
She blinked hastily, trying to stop the tears from escaping, but when that didn't work she swiftly swiped them away with an annoyed hand. She didn't want to cry in front of them, even if they were her friends; she didn't want them to think her weak. Because that's what tears are, aren't they, weakness? She mumbled an incomprehensible excuse then she quickly fled off in a random direction, wanting to be anywhere but there at the moment.
Anra eventually stumbled to a stop in front of a beautiful silver pond; she slid down to the ground and leaned against a wide tree. She stuffed the sleeve of her tunic in her mouth in an attempt to stifle her noisy sobs. She was unaware of another's presence until he sat down next to her silently and wrapped her in his arms. She leaned into Aragorn's embrace, setting her head down on his chest like she had before they had gone up the mountain.
Anra was aware of him stroking her hair and whispering soothing things to her in elvish. She knew she must look a mess; her eyes would be bloodshot with a red nose and a blotchy face, so she hastily wiped her eyes once more and tried to stop sobbing.
But Aragorn pulled her had away from her face and placed his finger gently under her chin forcing her to look at him. "You know it is okay for you to cry? We will not judge you for doing so, we all did so," his voice was soft and understanding. He continued to hold her chin until her eyes reluctantly met his. It was strange, instead of feeling angry and challenged by his gaze like she normally would from looking into someone's eyes, (which is normal for any wolf), she relax and felt safe.
After several more moments she ducked her head, but not in submission, she just simply felt no need to hold his gaze any longer. Aragorn breathed softly then tightened his arms around Anra and pulled her the rest of the way into his lap, resting his chin on the top of her head.
The two of them stayed like that for a while longer, both lost in thought about their fallen friend, until Anra eventually drifted off to the world sleep. Sensing that his companion had fallen asleep Aragorn stood up lifting her with him, careful not to jostle her awake. He walked back to where the Fellowship was staying and set her down on her bedroll, caringly tucking her in and giving her a soft kiss on her forehead before heading to his own bedroll for the night.
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Not much happened for the next couple days, everyone in the Fellowship was happy for the brief reprieve they were getting from their journey. Anra and Aragorn did not really talk about what had passed between the two of them beside the pond, nor did she really talk to Boromir at all, he had been acting a little strangely towards her since she had woken up, he had not insulted her once. Truth be told, it was freaking her out a little so she had resorted to avoiding him. Of Legolas and Gimli, she hadn't seen that much of them either; they always seemed to be wondering the great forests of Lothlorien together. She found it rather comical that the two of them had become such close friends over the past couple days, but it also made her happy.
Anra had spent the majority of her time with the four hobbits, whether raiding the kitchens or telling stories to each other, she was glad for their company. They enjoyed hearing all the old Nightstalker tales she had to tell and she like hearing about Frodo's uncle, Bilbo's adventures. She also helped the hobbits practice with their sword fighting, while she wasn't the best with a sword, she was fast and skilled with her daggers.
The fellowship was rarely together as a whole, save for when they slept and ate supper, when they were all together it was too easy to sense the missing presence of Gandalf. The whole subject of the great wizard seemed to be a taboo of some sort; nobody ever spoke of him as if there was some unsaid agreement not to. Part of Anra wanted to scream at the rest of the company for not ever speaking of him, but she knew if she did not only would she be a hypocrite but she would be pointlessly reopening wounds that at the moment were still rather raw.
She sighed and looked around at her companions; they were at one of those sad quite suppers she had been speaking of, all were there but Aragorn at the moment. Her eyes drifted over to Frodo, she had been watching him worriedly all day. The previous night she had awoken in the middle of night and noticed the dark haired hobbit stumbling back into their sleeping area with a fearful look on his face. She had questioned him about it in the morning when they had a moment alone, but he insisted he was fine. So, not wanting to badger the troubled hobbit anymore, she had simply resorted to keeping a watchful eye on him.
Anra was roused from her thoughts when Aragorn joined them with two announcements. One, they would be departing from the elvish territory the day after tomorrow, this brought the she-wolf great relief, she felt like they had been lingering for far too long. And two, the next night, the night before they were leaving, there was to be a celebration held in the Fellowships honor, this Anra dreaded.
It appeared that she was not the only one that was not happy about this, Boromir also protested. Aragorn just gave the two of them a stern look and told them that their attendance was required; it would be extremely rude to not accept the Lord and Lady's invitation after they had shown them so much hospitality.
Though Anra knew he was right it didn't stop her from being bitter about it. A celebration during times like these?! What were these crazy elves thinking? 'Maybe they want to just lighten everyone's spirits?' her reasonable voice suggested sounding a lot like Isla, but she made a sour face that this thought.
She knew that her main objection to these festivities stemmed from her distress and embarrassment. 'Or maybe it would be better put as my distress came from my embarrassment,' she supposed. Nightstalkers almost never had these sorts of celebrations, sure they'd have feast for when a new litter of pups arrived safely into the world, or if there was a wedding among pack mates, but they were rarely formal events. She didn't even know how to properly dance! Sure there would be dancing at the feasts, but those were wild and silly dances that she figured no elf would be caught dead doing. And this was not to mention what she would be expected to wear and what she would wear, because there was a difference. She knew that all the females at this party would be dressed in beautiful gowns with their hair done up in magnificent styles, but she would not be one of them. She had no fancy ball gown with her; in fact she didn't have any sort of dress with her period. And why would she? Anra certainly had not been thinking about looking pretty when she packed for this quest, no her mind had been much more preoccupied by deciding what weapons to take.
'Valar,' she moaned silently to herself, 'this is going to be so embarrassing!'
