This story just keeps on rolling doesn't it? Its a good thing I have chapters in reserve as I haven't had time to write any more of this yet, what with a friendship going down the plughole and college taking up so much of my time...

Hope and love: You just love every chapter, don't ya? And I love you for loving it!

Riki: So glad I can alleviate your boredom once in a while!

Duvet: MWAH!!! You made my day, and considering I have a chemistry test today, that's great!

Iana POV

I was taken for a tour of Edoras, so I would hopefully get to know my way around… I was lost after ten minutes… One place I did remember though was the fighting grounds; mainly because there were lots of cool and lethal looking weapons hanging around. Once I stepped into the weapons room, I knew I was home…

Théodred and Éomer were looking at the racks of swords on the walls, though Théodred had already brought a sword out with him; he didn't make any move to attach it to his belt, as he already had one strapped there… What was going on? Father watched the guards practising outside in the courts whilst Éowyn and I were admiring the well-crafted spears that hung near the back of the room. Éowyn took a spear from the wall and held it with two hands, testing the balance and weight.

"No… not my type…" she sighed; I giggled and she looked at me, "What?" I shook my head.

"Nothing…" I tried to keep a straight face, "It's just, in the Other World, women used to say that about something different…" Éowyn looked interested.

"What?" I glanced at Théodred and Éomer to check they weren't listening.

"Men…" I whispered; Éowyn looked shocked, and I started laughing at her face. I found that I could enjoy laughing now, as the cut on the side of my face was healing quickly. Father had said that it probably would leave a scar, but we should be thankful that a gash was the only thing that had happened to me as I had transferred worlds. Éowyn put the spear back, found I was still laughing and joined in with me. Théodred and Éomer turned to look at us; I controlled my laughter and gave Éowyn a nudge. She stopped giggling, but a shadow of a smile still played on the edges of her mouth. Éomer was staring at me in amazement over Théodred's shoulder, as if he couldn't believe how well Éowyn and I were getting along already. Théodred held the long sword that he had brought out in his hands.

"Come and have a go," he laughed, "Let's see how well you do," I gave a short laugh, thinking he was joking. When he raised an eyebrow at me, the smile fell from my face, replaced by a look of sheer disbelief.

"W-who… m-me?" I stammered, wondering when Théodred could possibly have hit his head on something when I wasn't looking… I turned to look at Éowyn, who shrugged her shoulders, then to Éomer, who smiled and nodded. "You can't be serious…" Éowyn sighed and then started pushing me in the small of my back, towards the door to the practice grounds. I couldn't struggle; I was too confused. How did Théodred expect me – who, you have to remember, has been missing for almost 14 years - to be able to fight a fully-grown warrior within two days of returning home? I'm pretty sure he had concussion or something…

Éomer joined in the 'Send The New Girl To Her Death' walk/push with Éowyn… 'What is this?' I thought, frightened out of my wits, 'Conspire against the Princess? Oh… I'd forgotten about that bit… But never mind that… TREASON!' I wanted to scream for them to get off me, but then I remembered where I was; it wouldn't be very seemly for a Princess to scream in front of the guards…

I allowed myself to be pushed into a practice court with small bar fences separating it from the others, archery targets at the further end and obvious chips in the wooden fence from some particularly vicious practice duels. I gulped as Father appeared from a different court, where he had been observing some of his own guards. He probably expected me to be some sort of expert at sword fighting, when actually I'd never done it before! I didn't want to embarrass him in front of the guards that had now gathered; whether they actually wanted to see me fight, or whether they wanted a good laugh, I didn't know…

"Here you go," Théodred handed me the sword that he had brought with him; I took it without thinking, hopping lightly over the fence into the court. Automatically, it seemed, I pulled the sword out of the sheath and looked at the blade, as Théodred climbed the fence. It was feather light and must have been made of mithril, kept clean and polished. There were fine engravings running up the middle of the blade where it was flat; miniature horses galloping across the plains in a fair wind, their manes and tails flying behind them. I smiled; it was typical of a Rohirric sword to depict horses…

"I'll take that for you," Éowyn offered, holding her hand out for the sword's sheath. I smiled and passed it to her, taking note of the looks on the faces of the guards that were now clustered around the fence. Some wore looks of amusement, others had looks of expectation, and others didn't seem that bothered. I grimaced, before stabbing the sword into the ground as I pulled a bobble out of my pocket, and quickly tied my hair back in a high ponytail, taking care near the cut; I didn't want it blowing about in my way. Théodred smiled and beckoned me into the middle of the court; I took hold of the sword and walked forward. Without warning, Théodred leapt towards me and swung his sword down towards my head. Quick as a flash, my arms brought the sword up to meet his in a clash of ringing steel. I didn't know how it got there; it just… did… Théodred looked pleased.

"Well done," he conceded, backing off, "Now try and block this…" He came running at me, his sword brought back under. As soon as he got closer to me, he swung the sword out and up towards my chin. Again, my arms took over; they swung the sword down, trapping Théodred's sword between it and the ground. Théodred almost fell forward before he realised. I raised my eyebrows in amazement as I tried to pull the sword out of the ground, but it was stuck fast. Théodred, having recovered himself, grinned and ran at me again, sword raised. My mouth dropped open; was he meant to attack me when I was disarmed?

I forgot about thinking as I realised that Théodred was almost on top of me. Instead, my body took over again, making me drop to the floor as he flew over me, rolling and standing up behind him. I shook myself to get rid of the dust, pushing bits of hair out of my face that had escaped from my bobble.

"Well done Iana!" Éowyn called from the fence. As I turned to smile at her to thank her for the compliment, I noticed the amazed looks on the guard's faces, Father and Éomer's. I gave my sword a hefty yank and pulled it out of the ground. Suddenly, I got a niggling feeling at the back of my neck, as if something was coming… My ears picked up the sound of someone running towards me. Then it clicked. At the last possible moment, I crouched, jumped and performed a back flip, my sword catching Théodred's forehead, creating a hairline cut along the edge of his scalp. I landed behind him as he slid to a stop, staring at me over his shoulder.

"How the hell…?" Théodred muttered, turning around, lifting a hand to feel the cut on his forehead; it wasn't even bleeding it was that fine. I smiled apologetically.

"I've always had an innate sense of when something's going to happen," I told him, and then moved into the guard position. "I also have quite good hearing," Théodred grinned again and moved until he was directly in front of me, also with his sword in 'guard', then swung at me. I dodged and hit him on his leg with the flat of my blade. He gave a yelp of surprise and looked at me; I giggled and beckoned for him to carry on. He grimaced and began performing complicated moves with his sword, which I dodged and parried.

"But how did you jump like that?" he asked breathlessly, jumping back from a swing of my sword, "I've seen Elves do something remotely similar, but even they can't do that!" I slid underneath one of his attacks and poked my sword at his side, just touching the skin.

"Gymnastics," I told him, doing a side flip as he ran at me again, "I'm not the best though," Théodred slid to a stop and stared at me, unable to believe it.

"You're kidding me, right?" he asked, holding his sword loosely in shock; I shook my head.

"No, I wasn't; my best friend Silver was," I explained, switching the sword into my left hand, wondering how good I would be, "She was best at gymnastics, I was behind her," Then I lunged forward swiftly and twisted my sword around Théodred's as he held it limply, sending it flying into the ground near the fence; I saw Father smile.

"I'm not surprised…" he called over, "It must have been a skill that remained with you into the Other World," I scratched my head and walked back to the fence, an unspoken agreement between me and Théodred showing that the fight was over. Théodred yanked his sword out of the ground with some difficulty; I passed mine to Éowyn, who slid it back into the scabbard and kept hold of it. I rolled my shoulder; my muscles were unused to such exercise, and even though the sword was made of mithril, it was still hard to sword fight when your head doesn't know how to do it but your body does!

"So why couldn't I fight like this in the Other World?" I asked Father; he looked thoughtful for a moment, and then shrugged his shoulders.

"That's something to ask Stormcrow when he arrives here, which should be quite soon…" he sighed; I smiled, rubbing the healing cut on my face, and then remembered that Silver had been pushed off the bridge with me. I went cold, almost as if a bucket of water had been poured over me; where was she? What if something terrible had happened to her? What if she hadn't been found yet? I frowned, and then made my mind up.

"Yeah… I'll ask him…"

Silver POV

He was there, leaning on the fence at the edge of the practise fields. He looked lost in thought and didn't even notice us come over. It was only when Pippin poked him in the side that he jumped and turned to face us. He seemed quite surprised to see me there.

"You don't mind if we join you, do you Aragorn?" I asked politely. He stared at me for a second, and then answered.

"Of course not, Lady Silver."

I frowned at him.

"Aragorn, there's no need to call me 'Lady Silver', I'm just plain Silver to you and the Hobbits," I told him a little sharply; I didn't want him treat me any differently. I hoped I hadn't offended him by the tone of my voice; I let out a relieved sigh as he smiled.

"I am honoured to call you Silver," he said, with a hint of amusement in his voice. I just smiled at him and stood beside him, leaning on the fence to watch the Elves in the field. He turned to watch with me, and the Hobbits sat on the grass at our feet, talking softly to one another as if they knew something we didn't. I kept catching them glancing up at Aragorn and me as we stood together.

"The Hobbits are acting strangely," I commented to Aragorn quietly.

"I know what you mean. They're watching us again, by the way," he muttered back, barely even moving his lips. This time I turned around fully to see Sam watching us; he looked quite startled at me noticing him.

"Is Aragorn's hair sticking up? Have my leggings split or something, Sam?"

"No, why?" he asked, surprised.

"Why are you lot staring at us then?" I asked; they all hesitated. "Aragorn, will you check I look okay?"
I turned for him, as he looked me up and down. My skin tingled, as if I could feel his eyes on me, almost as if he were touching me somehow. I stopped when I was facing him and met those wondrous grey eyes of his; they looked so deep and kind.

"No, you look perfectly fine," he told me, keeping his eyes on mine. A wonderful little thrill went up my spine and I shivered slightly. The Hobbits sniggered a little and I blushed. If they had noticed my sudden lack of composure… Aragorn definitely had, but I thought I should say something.

"As do you, Aragorn," I replied softly and it pleased me for some reason to see some colour appear in his cheeks too. The Hobbits sniggered again; Aragorn frowned at them.

"And what, may I ask, is so funny?" he muttered; The Hobbits stood up and grinned at us.

"Oh, nothing… You'll see it in your own time," Frodo said mysteriously and they all went off together.

"Strange things, Hobbits," Aragorn commented as we watched them walk off together.

"Yeah; they hunt in packs," I mumbled and Aragorn laughed. We turned back to watch the Elves again. They were practicing hand-to-hand combat and I itched to join in. Iana and I had taken self-defence classes; kickboxing and judo. I longed to try out these techniques on the Elves, to see how they would react. I sighed; my brothers had taken us kickboxing every Saturday, and I had practised with them. Aragorn glanced at me when I sighed, concern in those eyes of his.

"Missing the Other World?" he asked quietly; I sighed again and gave him a weak smile.

"A little… It was a horrible world to live in… but it did have its good points, my brothers for one," I told him, equally as quiet. He put a hand on my arm and I looked down at it; I could feel its warmth even through the tunic I wore.

"Every world has its good and bad points," he told me. I couldn't help it; I just put my hand on top of his and squeezed it slightly. He seemed a little surprised at this, but squeezed back.

"You must be this world's best point," I told him, smiling slightly. He smiled back, blushing again.

"And that world must have lost its best point when it lost you," he whispered; it was my turn to blush. A loud cough startled us and we quickly moved our hands, even though we weren't doing anything wrong. It was Glorfindel, walking over to us; he was quite near us and I wouldn't have been surprised if he had heard all that was said with his Elven ears, which were better than mine at the moment. This thought made me blush more, even though Aragorn had only been offering me comfort. He stopped next to us and looked a little angry and flustered, which was strange for an Elf. He kept glaring at Aragorn, and the human couldn't meet the Elf's eyes. I had to break this uneasy silence, or I would scream.

"Good morning Glorfindel; have you been practising?" I asked cheerfully. He turned his gaze to me, but didn't seem as angry. There was a short silence, as though he was deciding what kind of mood to be in. I let out a relieved sigh when he smiled and turned into normal Glorfindel again.

"Yes, Silver; I've just been teaching some of the younger Elves," he replied. "I came over to see if Aragorn would like to join us."

His voice hardened as he said Aragorn's name and Aragorn frowned at him.

"No thank you, Glorfindel," Aragorn replied, his voice just as hard. I gulped; the bad atmosphere had returned.

"Can I have a go?" I suddenly piped up; both man and Elf forgot their situation and stared at me.

"What!" they asked at the same time.

"Can I have a go?" I repeated; I couldn't back out of it now.

"It is not the sport for a woman, Silver," Glorfindel told me. I grinned, remembering the lessons with Iana.

"Try me…"

Oooooo... I get the feeling Silver's going to like annoying Glorfindel and Aragorn; could be the basis for a love triangle-gets throttled by Silver or not...

Hugs to all!

Iana XxX