I am so sorry it took me so long to update this. I hope you aren't diappointed with how the chapter turned out. I will try to update more in the foreseeable future, I just had trouble writing anything at all no matter how much I wanted and tried to.

I hope you are all well and stay healthy, keep your head up guys!


He looked over at the sleeping girl, or woman as it had turned out, once again. Her babbling about being dead and all of Middle Earth being in a book still didn't make much sense to him. Something about her was striking a nerve with him. She didn't seem that dangerous all together, but if life taught him one thing it was that most of the time there was more to things than met the eye. He didn't trust her. Her story was nine kinds of crazy and didn't make any sense. She could be a spy. Still someone innocent but corrupted by the evil that roamed the lands. Or something entirely different and an even greater danger since he couldn't figure out what she was.

Human she was without a doubt. Her clothes were another riddle. Sure they didn't seem out of place in this part of Middle Earth, still the material was some he never saw before. The fabric woven just too tight and the smell not natural at all. Maybe Lord Elrond would know what to make of this.

As if it hadn't been enough to have four Ringwraith hot on our trail and Gandalf is off to whoever knows where. His thoughts were interrupted by Frodo carefully approaching him. The other Hobbits had already given into sleep shortly after supper.

"Is it alright if I sit with you for a while?" He motioned for the Halfling to take a seat and pushed some of the firewood further into the flames.

"You seemed upset about what she said to you earlier. What was it?" It had bugged Frodo since he watched Strider grab the woman, they had found unconscious, by her neck with an angry face. She had sobbed and seemed a little freaked out.

"I try to figure out what about her story who and where from she is turns out to be actually true. Most of it doesn't make any sense. We will take her with us to Rivendell, maybe Lord Elrond is able to shed some light on it. I would appreciate it if you, Mr. Baggins, and your friends would keep your distance as far as possible. As long as I cannot trust her not to be a danger to you I will not allow her a chance to harm you. Keep the ring out of sight, she cannot know about it as long as we don't know who she really is." The Hobbit looked over at the sleeping woman.

"Do you think she is the enemy? She seems so harmless…" His eyes roamed over her now peaceful face framed by the dark blonde curls.

"Trust me Mr. Baggins, the enemy rarely shows itself in his true form. The worst evil lurks behind the mask of innocence. You should rest, we have a lot of ground to cover before we make it to Rivendell." The Halfling nodded and turned around once more.

"Thank you Strider. We wouldn't have made it out of Bree if it wasn't for you."


When I woke up I half expected to wake up in my own bed or at least in the hospital. Slowly I opened my eyes and almost sighed in annoyance and despair as in front of me the same grassy and foggy landscape unfolded that I had fallen asleep to. It was still only early dawn, the sun had just started to creep up behind the small grass covered hills.

The quiet clattering of items being moved made me lift my head. Strider was walking around the died down campfire and gathered the cooking items and everything else that could not be left behind. As far as I could see the Hobbits were still fast asleep.

With a light shiver I pushed the slightly damp blanket off of my body and tried to stand up. I looked around and saw a bush a few feet away which was good because I needed to empty my bladder. Before I had taken more than two steps I was harshly yanked back by my arm and collided with Striders' chest.

"And where do you think you are going?" His voice was a low and cautious growl as he eyed me suspicious.

"I need to pee if you don't mind…" I answered, flushing a deep red.

"Make it quick. As soon as I have gathered all our belongings I wake the Hobbits and we will be on our way." He let go of me and left without another word. I frowned, somehow I had hoped that maybe over night his mood would brighten up a little and he would be less aggressive towards me. Not that I couldn't understand why he was so cautious, still it annoyed me and hurt a little since I was the one all alone and with no clue on how to survive in such a environment.

I made quick business behind the bush and returned to the makeshift camp as soon as possible in order to not further test Striders' patience so early in the morning. I picked up the blanket and folded it. Not sure what to do I started gathering the dishes from yesterday and cleaned them in a shallow pond nearby.

"Put them in here. The blanket goes on the horse." Strider handed me a backpack and I packed away the cleaned dishes and cooking items. At least I was of use for something. Without thinking too much about it I started pulling apart the small fireplace, meaning I started throwing away some of the burnt stones and cover up as much of the ashes as possible.

"If you want to do it right take some of the bark off of that log over there and throw the ashes into the pond as well as the stones. Covering it with dirt won't do much good as long as there is so much remains of the fire." I flinched and nearly jumped out of my skin when Strider came up behind me. I nodded at what he said and threw away as much of the remaining ashes and burnt wood as possible.

"I will wake the Hobbits and then we are on our way. You stay next to me until I tell you otherwise. You don't talk until asked and you keep away from the Halflings. Feed those to the horse." He pushed some apples into my arms and turned away towards our four sleeping companions. He was still harsh when talking to me but at least he didn't scare the shit out of me anymore. That's at least some kind of improvement. Maybe I can convince him that I am not the enemy before we reach Rivendell.

It was not even an hour later that I started cursing inwardly everybody who ever wrote a fanfiction and made it seem like you could just jump right into things like this walk without having worked out ever before in your life.

Well, screw you too. No normal person just starts walking like they never did anything else in their life. We aren't on the way for even an hour and my feet are already killing me. How the fuck is Strider doing it? Even the Hobbits seem to keep up fine.

The only reason for me not falling behind the Halflings was that my legs were longer and I could just jump over the small basins of water we came across. I started wondering where exactly we were apart from somewhere on the planes of Arnor. I couldn't really ask Strider, he would either not answer at all or get even more suspicious. Still I was wondering how far we had to walk before reaching the Weathertop where I knew Frodo would get stabbed in the shoulder by the Witch-king of Angmar.

"Would you please keep up, lady Kayleigh. The road to Rivendell is already long enough without you lingering…" I flinched, I hadn't realized that I had been falling behind the rest of the group. Striders' harsh voice had pulled me from my thoughts and from the look in his eyes he was seconds away from coming over and dragging me along. I walked faster to get back to my place somewhere between the Hobbits and the ranger leading us. Behind me I could hear Merry and Pippin whispering something only to be hushed by Sam.

"So I was wondering how you ended up here all by yourself, my lady." I looked to my right when suddenly Pippin came up beside me and looked at me with curiosity. It was actually the first time one of them had talked to me.

"Master Took, I would appreciate it very much if you would not talk to our companion." Pippin made a face and fell back to his friends.

"Why doesn't he want us talking to her? She sure looks nice enough." He was whispering to Merry, but even over my heavy breathing I could still hear them talking.

"I don't know, Pip. Maybe she said something he didn't like. Or he thinks she could be dangerous."

"But she is a woman. Women aren't dangerous." Before Merry could respond to that Sam cut in.

"He must have his reasons to tell us not to talk to her. He already saved us from those black riders so maybe we should trust him to make the right call." The others agreed to that and for the next couple of hours there wasn't much talking at all except for Pippins' constant complains about the lack of food.

o-0-o

I was completely exhausted when we finally came to a stop to make camp for the night. My feet were almost numb and for the last hours I only kept walking because my legs were used to the motion. I couldn't really say how far we had walked but it had to be quiet some distance as we walked for hours straight only stopping once for a short break.

I couldn't do much except for falling to the ground and leaning back against a rock. To my surprise Strider made his way over to me without the usual scowl, that he seemed to always wear around me, on his face. Unconsciously I pulled my legs up against my chest as he crouched down in front of me.

"I would prefer it if you would sit closer to the fire. Even if there should not be many enemies in this part of Middle Earth, we will soon enter some parts where the shadows still lurk. And keep this close, I hope you don't need it any time soon." I was a little shocked as he pushed a dagger in my hand. For someone who didn't trust me this was something.

"Don't make me regret this." He got back to his feet and walked back to the fire where Sam was already preparing some food.

Still a bit wary I pulled myself up and scooted closer to the fire but made sure to settle down a few feet away from the hobbits.

o-0-o

The following days went by in almost a blur. For the most parts they were all the same, getting up with the sun, walking for hours straight, taking a short break if at all and then walking until almost sundown.

Whoever stated that after the first day you started adjusting to walking so much has never done it himself. The second day was worse than the first, my feet started hurting an hour or so after we were back on our way. The day after was even worse. I figured that it took me almost a week until my feet started hurting less instead of more.

The landscape didn't change much as well. An endless ocean of high green grass, bushes, small ponds and narrow hills. The only thing that changed was that the hills got slightly higher every day and turned into a more rocky surface.

At least Strider grew tired of telling Pippin to stoop talking to me, which made walking a bit more bearable as the Hobbit would be telling me stories about the Shire and his childhood and about Gandalf the wizard.

At night we would sometimes hear their screeching voices in the distance. They were far away but still on our trail which made Strider push us even harder.

"There will be no campfire tonight. The enemy is too close." Strider had interrupted the Hobbits' attempts to get the camp ready and stopped Sam from pilling up some firewood. I felt sick, I knew exactly what was going to happen tonight.

In the late afternoon we had finally reached the larger hills we had been seeing for a few days now. Coming closer to the largest hill Strider had explained to us that built on top once was the great watchtower of Amon Sûl, which had protected the realm of Arnor for centuries before its defeat by the Witch-king of Angmar.

We had set up camp in a carved in side of the hill, which provided some shelter from the harsh wind and the threatening storm.

"I will take a look around. Stay hidden and don't do anything stupid until my return." Strider had dropped down some daggers at our feet which could have been easily mistaken for swords in the hands of the Halflings. He gave me a last look which said to keep the four smaller man safe no matter what, Strider went off into the setting darkness.

As the time passed in silence I grew more and more tired. At some point I must have dozed off because I yanked my head up when some commotion to my left side suddenly startled me. I turned my head to see Frodo stomping out a fire while cursing his kindred for being so careless. I cringed when a sudden piecing scream disrupted the darkness and was answered by more unnatural screams.

"You idiots! Strider told us not to make a fire!" I hissed at the Hobbits who looked at me rather surprised.

"Don't just look at me like that. Get to your feet. We need to get to the top, we are not safe down here!" I ushered them to their feet, luckily they hadn't unpacked much so it took us only a couple of minutes to gather our belongings before I rushed my remaining companions along the small path towards the top of the hill.

I hope Strider gets back here sooner than later. I have no idea how to keep those four save… My mind was working at full speed. Even if my memories seemed a bit clouded I knew what was going to happen on the top of this hill. But what was I supposed to do? I couldn't just stand back and hope Strider would arrive in time to save Frodo like he was supposed to. On the other hand there was no knowing what would happen if I tried to alter the outcome of the events on the Weathertop.

"What now? Where is Strider?" I looked at Sam, in his eyes was the same worry that had gripped my heart.

"On his way back to us if we are lucky." Another scream travelled towards us, this time a lot closer.

"Stay close together. They are closing in on us…" With an encouraging smile I motioned towards the centre of the former watchtower, where we crouched down in the shadow of the broken fountain. I looked around for the first time, noticing that it was actually not that different from what they made of it in the movie.

"If they get here before Strider we are dead…" I glared at Merry which had him shut up immediately.

"We are NOT going to die up here. Even if I have no experience in fighting, I will do everything I can to keep you save." I somehow managed to keep my voice steady and fake confidence when in reality all I wanted to do was hide under some rock and wait until it was all over.

A scraping voice caught my attention. A second later it grew louder and seemed to come from everywhere around us. The shadows seemed to draw together until they formed black fabric. I got back to my feet as my heart felt like it was drenched in cold water. I knew what I was looking at, still I wasn't prepared for the reality of facing five Ringwraiths that were now closing in on us. They were moving like the shadows they seemed to consist of, the only sound the clattering of their armour and the rustling of the black cloth.

I grabbed Pippin by his arm and pulled him back with me, the other Hobbits already backing away from the fountain and towards the still intact wall to our right. I pulled out the dagger Strider had given me, even if it wouldn't do me any good against our enemies. Come on Strider…

With a thud I landed on the hard floor as Pippin and I were shoved apart by two Wraiths. Sam and Merry tried to shield Frodo but were evenly pushed to the side. Frodo just let go of his blade and stumbled backwards. I had to do something. Hurriedly I got back to my feet, picking up a rock and throwing it at the Wraith closest to the Hobbit.

"Get away from him!" When there was no reaction I decided I had no other option as the five shadows closed in on Frodo. I threw myself at the one in the middle, distracting him for a second before he gripped me by the throat and threw me a few feet into the next tree disrupting the stone. I gasped as the air left my lungs upon the impact. I watched in horror as Frodo got stabbed right in front of me. I had done nothing to prevent this from happening.

Out of nowhere finally Strider came running towards the Wraiths, carrying a torch in one hand and his sword in the other. He drove the five enemies away from the screaming Hobbit.

I was so fixated on Strider fighting I didn't notice the shadow closing in on me until it was too late.

"Kayleigh… We know what you are…" The voice was a hoarse whisper that resonated loud in my head. I looked up at the Wraith towering over me and I knew instantly that it was the same who had stabbed Frodo, the Witch-king. He was reaching out for me and without thinking I lashed out with the dagger at his arm. He let out a loud screech when the blade ripped through the fabric. I screamed in agony as another blade of his pierced my forearm. I let go of my blade, my muscles had no strength to hold on to it anymore. His hand was on my throat again, lifting me of the ground and bringing me to a level with the black hole hiding his face. I grasped his arm and tried to get free while struggling for every breath.

With another pained screech I fell back down to the floor. The black fabric in front of me suddenly on fire. Distantly I could hear Sam calling out to Strider that Frodo was hurt. I tried to get back to my feet while I was coughing from the tight grip on my throat seconds before. A throbbing pain in my arm reminded me of the blade still piercing my flesh. I wanted to pull it out but the second I touched the handle of the blade the pain shot through me like an electric shock.

A loud scream escaped my throat and I fell back to my knees, gripping my arm tight against my stomach. It got worse every second and it felt like fire running through my veins.

"Strider! She has a blade in her arm!" I hadn't realized Pippin had run over to me. My vision started to blur and it took everything out of me not to black out. I assumed the shadow rushing to my side was Strider, I wasn't able to focus enough to see clearly.

"A Morgul-blade. Just like Frodo… This will hurt a lot. Help me to hold her down." His voice was muted and through all the pain shooting through my arm and the rest of my body I felt a sudden pressure to my body as I was rolled onto my back. I screamed at the top of my lungs when the blade was ripped out of my arm. I was pulled from the ground and into the warmth of a strong body.

I drifted in and out of consciousness only vaguely registering that Strider carried me as my companions retreated from the watchtower. The next time I came to I was sitting on the ground next to Frodo who looked awfully pale. I felt sick and assumed I didn't look any better. The pain was almost unbearable.

A sudden warm presence caught my attention. Striding towards us was a figure enveloped in light and warmth. I blinked and noticed that there were two such figures approaching us. One seemed very familiar and my clouded mind came to the conclusion this had to be Arwen. The second figure was unfamiliar. Evenly tall and beautiful, but with long almost white hair and male. This is wrong… Arwen is supposed to be alone…

Strider and Arwen were talking and tending to Frodo, I tried to understand what they were saying but my senses started to fail me. A light touch to my face demanded my attention and I looked up into the males' face.

"Don't fear the dark no more, child. We are here to help…" My vision clouded and before I knew what was happening I was out cold again falling into his arms.