Disclaimer: Yes, yes, don't own the book, realm, characters or anything of
the sort. Everyone wishes they did, including me. Disclaimers are the bane
of my existence. No one reads them anyway. Right, with that said, the next,
long awaited chapter is now up for your enjoyment! HUZZAH! (Run while you
can! My sanity wont hold much longer!!) Sorry that it took so long to get
this up!! School has begun to dissolve my mind as well as any amounts of
free time. SORRY! I'll make it up to you all...some how...at some
point...in the future. I need to breed some plot bunnies for the next few
chapters. Anyone know where I can get some Plot Bunnies? Plot Bunnies?
Anyone? Buller?
When we last left our hero's, Kat had been introduced to bone chillingly cold water and Boromir had helped her out of it! Horray! Okay, so I tried to make it sound exciting, sue me! (Don't, you'll only get a moldy, old, naked, wrinkly goldfish.) One more thing! Not everything is as it seems! Hehe! ^_^
Kat sat next to the fire, her clothes drying nicely, the warm food easing the chills. Everyone else was talking about one thing or another, and Kat listened as she munched on some of the bread Sam had given her. She liked Merry and Pippins stories best, for they usually got so excited while telling it that they felt compelled to jump from their seats and act it out. As the evening continued on some of the others took out their pipes and started relating tales of their home lands. The hobbits told of the Shire, of Hobbiton, and Buckland, Sam speaking wistfully of Rivendale, Frodo keeping to himself, puffing on his pipe as he listened. Legolas talked of Mirkwood and his fathers palace there, which did sound rather nice. Gimli spoke of his family's mine deep in some far off mountain. Aragorn wound tales of every place imaginable, from sea shores to the bottom of canyons and everywhere in between. Kat and the hobbits listened in awe. Aragorn told of the plains to the west and the desert sands that lay to the east. He spoke briefly of Gondor, but where Aragorn's description of that land stopped, Boromir's began.
Boromirs eye's shone as he spoke of his homeland. He told of the forests and the rivers, of plains of grass, and the mountains. Most of all he described Minis Tirith down to the most obscure detail. Of glittering spires and imposing battlements, of homely streets and grand festivals. The way he spoke of the city made Kat want to drop everything and go there immediately. But the light in Boromirs eye's began to fade when Frodo asked about guarding Gondor against Mordor.
"We do the best we can. Many men die everyday, but Gondor still stands. Although, I long for the day when the foes in Mordor cease to be a threat." Boromir said no more after that, and the everyone fell into a deep brooding silence. Merry and Pippin couldn't stand the silence for very long and were soon telling tales again. From the look on Sam and Frodos faces, many of these stories were being made up as the two hobbits went along. Merry was telling of how he once slew an orc, bare handed, all by himself, and Pippin was acting as the orc. No one believed them, but they humored Merry so he would go on with his outlandish fib. When Merry went to slay the orc, a.k.a Pippin, he accidentally hit it in the nose. The hobbit and 'orc' were fighting within minutes, rolling around the camp as everyone sat laughing. The two rolled far to close to the fire than was safe, and as a result, Pippins scarf caught fire, not allot, a small tiny lick of flame, but Merry quickly put it out by throwing some water from the river at him and then stood with his hands in his pockets, as if waiting for a reward. Pippin, soaking wet and dripping, was not about to give one. Merry, seeing Pippin glaring at him, took off running, Pippin following close behind. Everyone burst out laughing as soon as Merry and Pippins yelling faded into the distance.
"Some one will have to go find them, I'll wager." Sam said, nabbing another mushroom off the frying pan.
"I'm sure they can find there own way back." Aragorn commented, blowing a smoke ring into the air. Gimli had nodded off and was snoring beside him. Legolas nudged him discreetly, but Gimli took no heed. He simply snorted and went right on snoozing. Sam and Frodo chuckled good naturedly. Kat tried to stifle a yawn, but the yawn won in the end, although she did cover her mouth, hoping that no one had noticed. She'd had a thing about being tired in front of other people since she had fallen asleep on watch. Kat looked around to see if anyone had seen, and found Boromir grinning at her sweetly. Kat looked away quickly, there was something about his smile that always made her blush a bit. The yelling Merry and Pippin were rounding on the camp again, and Kat decided she had had enough excitement for one day. She got up with an exaggerated stretch, bid everyone good night, for it was almost midnight by the moon, and walked off in the direction of her room. Kat had barely made it around the corner when Merry and Pippin went flying past her, Merry running as if a demon were on his heels, and a mud covered Pippin chasing him, looking every part a horrible creature of some sort.
"I'm sorry!! It's not my fault you fell in the mud!! You were chasing me! Not me chasing you!" Merry yelled as he ran past, nearly knocking Kat over.
"Sorry Kat! No time to chat!" Pippin called over his shoulder as he passed her. As he rounded the corner, he lost his footing and crashed into the brushes with a girlish scream. Kat stared for a moment, then fell over laughing as Pippin emerged from the bush, leaves sticking to the mud everywhere. He looked like a bush that had uprooted itself and went clambering off down the path. Kat took a few deep breaths and got up again, walking down the path, chuckling every once and awhile. She was barely halfway to her room when hurried footsteps rang out behind her. Kat stopped, and turned around on the path, half expecting Merry and Pippin to come tearing out of the underbrush. She would have laughed at the thought, except no one was behind her. *Hmmm, I must be imagining things.* Kat thought as she started down the path once more. Then the footsteps started again, closer this time. Kat whirled around, hoping to catch whoever was following her this time, but no one was there. *Okay, I must be really tired, that or I'm losing my mind.* she thought, either one being equally possible. As Kat turned back around, something leapt out of the bushes in front of her.
"Boo!" something shouted as Kat fell over with a startled yell. (A/N: Geez, maybe I should give her some balance...since she doesn't have any...). Kat was about to flee back to the others when familiar laughter assaulted her ears. She knew that laugh. Kat looked up at who was laughing at her. It was none other than Boromir. "Got you!" he said, laughing again.
"Oh, not cool! You're going to get it now!" Kat said, vaulting from the ground at Boromir. She should have learned from that afternoon that running headlong at someone didn't accomplish much. Boromir caught her easily in his arms, Kat struggling to break free, which only made Boromir laugh harder.
"Its not funny!!!" Kat said desperately, still trying to get out of his hold on her.
"Oh yes it is." Boromir replied, his mirth subsiding a bit, smiling at her. Kat was blushing again. *That damn smile of his!!* she thought, giving up, maybe relaxing would be better than struggling anyway. Kat tried it, and only then did she notice how tight his hold on her was, how warm she felt in his grasp, and how close Boromir's grinning face was to hers. Boromir apparently noticed this too, and abruptly let go of her. So the relaxing had worked, but Kat wondered why she felt so oddly disappointed when Boromir released her from his grasp.
"I'm sorry I scared you." He said, stepping a short distance away from her. Kat smoothed her shirt nonchalantly.
"I wasn't scared. You merely...startled me. That's all." Kat replied, she wouldn't have anyone thinking she was scared of someone jumping out of the bushes on the side of a path in the middle of the night, especially not the person who had leapt out of the bushes in the first place.
"You weren't were you? Then why did you shriek like a girl?" Boromir asked as they started walking again, smiling ever so slightly.
"I wasn't, and I definitely did not shriek. You must be confusing me with Pippin, he shrieks, I don't." she stated.
"Oh no, I'm not confusing the two at all! You shrieked! You just don't want to admit it." Said he with a chuckle. Kat glared at him, which only made Boromir start laughing all over again. Kat gave up and punched his arm, but only lightly.
"Ow!" Boromir cried in mock pain, still grinning like a fool. Kat laughed and patted his arm.
"Sorry." Said she with a chortle. They looked at each other and burst out laughing. "So why were you following me anyway?" Kat asked, looking down the path, they were about ¾ of the way to her room.
"Oh!" Boromir exclaimed, "You forgot this when you left. I came to give them to you." He explained, holding out the sword Aragorn had thrown at her earlier.
"I didn't even realize that I'd left it, not really used to carrying a sword around. Thanks." Said Kat awkwardly, taking the sword from him.
"Get used to it, that sword will most likely save your life, if not someone else's." replied Boromir cryptically. Kat nodded slowly, looking at him with an odd expression, like a light had dawned on her.
"What is it?" he asked, looking around to see what was making Kat act so odd.
"Huh? Oh! Nothing, nothing at all." She said, looking away quickly. Her doorway loomed ahead. A stick snapped in the trees as she passed. Kat spun around quickly, she'd had enough surprises for one night. She thought she heard someone muttering something. "Did you hear that?" she asked, peering into the darkness.
"Hear what?" Boromir asked, confused, he hadn't heard anything but their footsteps on the path, then again, he hadn't been listening for anything in particular. Kat was acting very odd in his opinion.
"Nothing." Kat said, and started to turn away when she heard giggling. "Wait!" she said, grasping Boromir's arm suddenly as he began to turn away. The giggling abruptly stopped. "I swore I heard something!" Kat said, listening hard, hand still on Boromir's arm.
"Kat? Are you all right? I didn't mean to scare you this badly. Maybe I should stay with you for a bit." Boromir suggested, looking at her with concern.
"What? Yes, yes, I'm fine. There's no need for you to stay." Kat said, staring into the woods for a few more seconds before she turned on her heel abruptly, determining it must have been the wind. She took a few step's forward, forgot about the tree root that stuck out of the ground a few feet away from her door, and tripped over it. She braced herself for the fall that never came. Kat opened her shut eyes as she felt strong hands righting her again. Confused, Kat spun around without getting her balance, and fell into Boromir's arms for the second time that evening. Kat gazed at his face for what seemed like minutes but was actually a few seconds, unsuccessfully resisting the urge to push a wisp of hair out of it. She reached out and tucked the strand absently behind his ear before she realized what she doing. Then realization hit Kat like a bag of M & M's.
"Um...right! I'll see you tomorrow then!" Kat said, slipping out of his grasp quickly and retreating to her room. She had lifter the curtain out of the doorway when a Boromir grasped her hand. Kat turned and watched, befuddled, as he lifted her hand to his lips and kissed the knuckles lightly, sweetly.
"Good night." He said, then dropping her hand and beating his own hasty retreat when he realized what he had just done. *What the hell just happened?* Kat asked her now frazzled brain, watching Boromir walk away. Apparently she wasn't the only one who was asking that question. "Merry? What just 'append?" Pippin asked from there hiding spot in the trees as they watched Kat stand for a second and then go inside, and Boromir meander down the path. Pippin had finally caught up with Merry, and now they both looked like walking and talking bushes.
"He kissed her." Merry said simply, even though he was rather confused himself.
"That didn't look like a kiss to me." Pippin replied.
"Men are odd about these things, Pip. They have all sorts of rules about what to do when you love a girl and such." Merry replied matter of factly.
"Is one of the rules not being allowed to kiss 'er?" Pippin persisted. Hobbits are a lot more observant than they look!
"I don't think so." Merry said, mulling the matter over in his mind.
"Then why didn't 'e just kiss 'er instead of 'er hand?" Pippin exclaimed, utterly confused. He'd never understand Men. (A/N: HAHA!!! NEVER THOUGHT YOU'D HERE A GUY SAY THAT?! DID YOU! ^_^ Don't worry, I still love Pippin/ Billy Boyd, have no fear.)
"I don't know! But lets go find out!" Merry said, and the two bush disguised hobbits trundled off down the path in pursuit of the one Man that could tell them what exactly had just happened. What they didn't know was that he wasn't exactly sure himself.
TO BE CONTINUED!!!
REVIEW!! Please? I'm sorry it took so long!! I really am!! *sad, pathetic, 'please forgive the author' face*
When we last left our hero's, Kat had been introduced to bone chillingly cold water and Boromir had helped her out of it! Horray! Okay, so I tried to make it sound exciting, sue me! (Don't, you'll only get a moldy, old, naked, wrinkly goldfish.) One more thing! Not everything is as it seems! Hehe! ^_^
Kat sat next to the fire, her clothes drying nicely, the warm food easing the chills. Everyone else was talking about one thing or another, and Kat listened as she munched on some of the bread Sam had given her. She liked Merry and Pippins stories best, for they usually got so excited while telling it that they felt compelled to jump from their seats and act it out. As the evening continued on some of the others took out their pipes and started relating tales of their home lands. The hobbits told of the Shire, of Hobbiton, and Buckland, Sam speaking wistfully of Rivendale, Frodo keeping to himself, puffing on his pipe as he listened. Legolas talked of Mirkwood and his fathers palace there, which did sound rather nice. Gimli spoke of his family's mine deep in some far off mountain. Aragorn wound tales of every place imaginable, from sea shores to the bottom of canyons and everywhere in between. Kat and the hobbits listened in awe. Aragorn told of the plains to the west and the desert sands that lay to the east. He spoke briefly of Gondor, but where Aragorn's description of that land stopped, Boromir's began.
Boromirs eye's shone as he spoke of his homeland. He told of the forests and the rivers, of plains of grass, and the mountains. Most of all he described Minis Tirith down to the most obscure detail. Of glittering spires and imposing battlements, of homely streets and grand festivals. The way he spoke of the city made Kat want to drop everything and go there immediately. But the light in Boromirs eye's began to fade when Frodo asked about guarding Gondor against Mordor.
"We do the best we can. Many men die everyday, but Gondor still stands. Although, I long for the day when the foes in Mordor cease to be a threat." Boromir said no more after that, and the everyone fell into a deep brooding silence. Merry and Pippin couldn't stand the silence for very long and were soon telling tales again. From the look on Sam and Frodos faces, many of these stories were being made up as the two hobbits went along. Merry was telling of how he once slew an orc, bare handed, all by himself, and Pippin was acting as the orc. No one believed them, but they humored Merry so he would go on with his outlandish fib. When Merry went to slay the orc, a.k.a Pippin, he accidentally hit it in the nose. The hobbit and 'orc' were fighting within minutes, rolling around the camp as everyone sat laughing. The two rolled far to close to the fire than was safe, and as a result, Pippins scarf caught fire, not allot, a small tiny lick of flame, but Merry quickly put it out by throwing some water from the river at him and then stood with his hands in his pockets, as if waiting for a reward. Pippin, soaking wet and dripping, was not about to give one. Merry, seeing Pippin glaring at him, took off running, Pippin following close behind. Everyone burst out laughing as soon as Merry and Pippins yelling faded into the distance.
"Some one will have to go find them, I'll wager." Sam said, nabbing another mushroom off the frying pan.
"I'm sure they can find there own way back." Aragorn commented, blowing a smoke ring into the air. Gimli had nodded off and was snoring beside him. Legolas nudged him discreetly, but Gimli took no heed. He simply snorted and went right on snoozing. Sam and Frodo chuckled good naturedly. Kat tried to stifle a yawn, but the yawn won in the end, although she did cover her mouth, hoping that no one had noticed. She'd had a thing about being tired in front of other people since she had fallen asleep on watch. Kat looked around to see if anyone had seen, and found Boromir grinning at her sweetly. Kat looked away quickly, there was something about his smile that always made her blush a bit. The yelling Merry and Pippin were rounding on the camp again, and Kat decided she had had enough excitement for one day. She got up with an exaggerated stretch, bid everyone good night, for it was almost midnight by the moon, and walked off in the direction of her room. Kat had barely made it around the corner when Merry and Pippin went flying past her, Merry running as if a demon were on his heels, and a mud covered Pippin chasing him, looking every part a horrible creature of some sort.
"I'm sorry!! It's not my fault you fell in the mud!! You were chasing me! Not me chasing you!" Merry yelled as he ran past, nearly knocking Kat over.
"Sorry Kat! No time to chat!" Pippin called over his shoulder as he passed her. As he rounded the corner, he lost his footing and crashed into the brushes with a girlish scream. Kat stared for a moment, then fell over laughing as Pippin emerged from the bush, leaves sticking to the mud everywhere. He looked like a bush that had uprooted itself and went clambering off down the path. Kat took a few deep breaths and got up again, walking down the path, chuckling every once and awhile. She was barely halfway to her room when hurried footsteps rang out behind her. Kat stopped, and turned around on the path, half expecting Merry and Pippin to come tearing out of the underbrush. She would have laughed at the thought, except no one was behind her. *Hmmm, I must be imagining things.* Kat thought as she started down the path once more. Then the footsteps started again, closer this time. Kat whirled around, hoping to catch whoever was following her this time, but no one was there. *Okay, I must be really tired, that or I'm losing my mind.* she thought, either one being equally possible. As Kat turned back around, something leapt out of the bushes in front of her.
"Boo!" something shouted as Kat fell over with a startled yell. (A/N: Geez, maybe I should give her some balance...since she doesn't have any...). Kat was about to flee back to the others when familiar laughter assaulted her ears. She knew that laugh. Kat looked up at who was laughing at her. It was none other than Boromir. "Got you!" he said, laughing again.
"Oh, not cool! You're going to get it now!" Kat said, vaulting from the ground at Boromir. She should have learned from that afternoon that running headlong at someone didn't accomplish much. Boromir caught her easily in his arms, Kat struggling to break free, which only made Boromir laugh harder.
"Its not funny!!!" Kat said desperately, still trying to get out of his hold on her.
"Oh yes it is." Boromir replied, his mirth subsiding a bit, smiling at her. Kat was blushing again. *That damn smile of his!!* she thought, giving up, maybe relaxing would be better than struggling anyway. Kat tried it, and only then did she notice how tight his hold on her was, how warm she felt in his grasp, and how close Boromir's grinning face was to hers. Boromir apparently noticed this too, and abruptly let go of her. So the relaxing had worked, but Kat wondered why she felt so oddly disappointed when Boromir released her from his grasp.
"I'm sorry I scared you." He said, stepping a short distance away from her. Kat smoothed her shirt nonchalantly.
"I wasn't scared. You merely...startled me. That's all." Kat replied, she wouldn't have anyone thinking she was scared of someone jumping out of the bushes on the side of a path in the middle of the night, especially not the person who had leapt out of the bushes in the first place.
"You weren't were you? Then why did you shriek like a girl?" Boromir asked as they started walking again, smiling ever so slightly.
"I wasn't, and I definitely did not shriek. You must be confusing me with Pippin, he shrieks, I don't." she stated.
"Oh no, I'm not confusing the two at all! You shrieked! You just don't want to admit it." Said he with a chuckle. Kat glared at him, which only made Boromir start laughing all over again. Kat gave up and punched his arm, but only lightly.
"Ow!" Boromir cried in mock pain, still grinning like a fool. Kat laughed and patted his arm.
"Sorry." Said she with a chortle. They looked at each other and burst out laughing. "So why were you following me anyway?" Kat asked, looking down the path, they were about ¾ of the way to her room.
"Oh!" Boromir exclaimed, "You forgot this when you left. I came to give them to you." He explained, holding out the sword Aragorn had thrown at her earlier.
"I didn't even realize that I'd left it, not really used to carrying a sword around. Thanks." Said Kat awkwardly, taking the sword from him.
"Get used to it, that sword will most likely save your life, if not someone else's." replied Boromir cryptically. Kat nodded slowly, looking at him with an odd expression, like a light had dawned on her.
"What is it?" he asked, looking around to see what was making Kat act so odd.
"Huh? Oh! Nothing, nothing at all." She said, looking away quickly. Her doorway loomed ahead. A stick snapped in the trees as she passed. Kat spun around quickly, she'd had enough surprises for one night. She thought she heard someone muttering something. "Did you hear that?" she asked, peering into the darkness.
"Hear what?" Boromir asked, confused, he hadn't heard anything but their footsteps on the path, then again, he hadn't been listening for anything in particular. Kat was acting very odd in his opinion.
"Nothing." Kat said, and started to turn away when she heard giggling. "Wait!" she said, grasping Boromir's arm suddenly as he began to turn away. The giggling abruptly stopped. "I swore I heard something!" Kat said, listening hard, hand still on Boromir's arm.
"Kat? Are you all right? I didn't mean to scare you this badly. Maybe I should stay with you for a bit." Boromir suggested, looking at her with concern.
"What? Yes, yes, I'm fine. There's no need for you to stay." Kat said, staring into the woods for a few more seconds before she turned on her heel abruptly, determining it must have been the wind. She took a few step's forward, forgot about the tree root that stuck out of the ground a few feet away from her door, and tripped over it. She braced herself for the fall that never came. Kat opened her shut eyes as she felt strong hands righting her again. Confused, Kat spun around without getting her balance, and fell into Boromir's arms for the second time that evening. Kat gazed at his face for what seemed like minutes but was actually a few seconds, unsuccessfully resisting the urge to push a wisp of hair out of it. She reached out and tucked the strand absently behind his ear before she realized what she doing. Then realization hit Kat like a bag of M & M's.
"Um...right! I'll see you tomorrow then!" Kat said, slipping out of his grasp quickly and retreating to her room. She had lifter the curtain out of the doorway when a Boromir grasped her hand. Kat turned and watched, befuddled, as he lifted her hand to his lips and kissed the knuckles lightly, sweetly.
"Good night." He said, then dropping her hand and beating his own hasty retreat when he realized what he had just done. *What the hell just happened?* Kat asked her now frazzled brain, watching Boromir walk away. Apparently she wasn't the only one who was asking that question. "Merry? What just 'append?" Pippin asked from there hiding spot in the trees as they watched Kat stand for a second and then go inside, and Boromir meander down the path. Pippin had finally caught up with Merry, and now they both looked like walking and talking bushes.
"He kissed her." Merry said simply, even though he was rather confused himself.
"That didn't look like a kiss to me." Pippin replied.
"Men are odd about these things, Pip. They have all sorts of rules about what to do when you love a girl and such." Merry replied matter of factly.
"Is one of the rules not being allowed to kiss 'er?" Pippin persisted. Hobbits are a lot more observant than they look!
"I don't think so." Merry said, mulling the matter over in his mind.
"Then why didn't 'e just kiss 'er instead of 'er hand?" Pippin exclaimed, utterly confused. He'd never understand Men. (A/N: HAHA!!! NEVER THOUGHT YOU'D HERE A GUY SAY THAT?! DID YOU! ^_^ Don't worry, I still love Pippin/ Billy Boyd, have no fear.)
"I don't know! But lets go find out!" Merry said, and the two bush disguised hobbits trundled off down the path in pursuit of the one Man that could tell them what exactly had just happened. What they didn't know was that he wasn't exactly sure himself.
TO BE CONTINUED!!!
REVIEW!! Please? I'm sorry it took so long!! I really am!! *sad, pathetic, 'please forgive the author' face*