The Day Middle-earth Stood Still

By: Neko-chan

A/N: *pokes Teddy Grams* Hey, I just realized something when I went and reread the chappies. *sweatdrops* I didn't really exaggerate our personalities! I wonder what people would think when they realize that we really DO act like that! *evil grin* ;D

Disclaimer: I'm too lazy to write one now. See the previous chapters. -.-;;



Chapter Three

Bryanna continued to look at Gandalf, her "puppy-dog-eyes" on full force and her lower lip quivering slightly. Her gray eyes brightened, and the nine males thought that they saw the sparkle of tears. "But..." she began, her voice barely above a whisper.

Frodo, Pippin, Merry, and Sam were the first to cave in. "Aw, Gandalf," Frodo said, smiling softly at the cunning girl. "Why don't we stop by the Old Forest? It's not _that_ much of a detour. Besides, I bet the Ringwraiths wouldn't think to look for us in the Old Forest. The trees probably wouldn't even let them in!"

Gandalf sighed and stroked his beard thoughtfully. "I _guess_ we could travel to the Old Forest..." he began. At this, Bryanna crowed in triumph and jumped up, doing a quick Irish jig, then ran out of the Great Hall, her tears instantly forgotten.

The nine males, Sean, and the rest of the people in the Great Hall stared after her, blinking in amazement.

"Is she going to act like that all throughout the trip?" Aragorn asked. Sean could easily hear the terror in his voice--at least _he_ was realizing what Bryanna was...someone to be terrified of.

All was peaceful throughout Rivendell as Elrond and his guests finished their meal, each talking amiably to his or her neighbor. (Sean wasn't really talking. He was watching Gimli in awe and debating whether or not he should organize a New Age cult that worshiped Dwarves.) Suddenly, the peace was shattered by an unholy shriek. Sean whimpered in terror and started to edge towards the bottom of the table.

Just then, Bryanna came storming into the Great Hall once again, a silky green dress dragging forgotten behind her on the ground.

"What is this?!" she exclaimed and tossed the gown to the ground. That done, Bryanna started to edge away from it, keeping an eye on the dress as if it would bite.

"I believe that is a dress," Elrond commented softly, raising an eyebrow at the red-headed teenage girl.

Bryanna growled in frustration and pointed to the dress. "I _know_ what that is," she retorted, exasperated. "What I'm asking is _why_ it is in _my_ room."

For the first time, Arwen spoke up. "It is yours. The Elven women decided that you needed a dress for your journey. We picked it out because we thought that it would go wonderfully with your hair color." She smiled and gestured towards the dragged and dirty dress. "It's a glorious color. Don't you like it?"

Bryanna growled to herself and tugged on her waist-length braid, something she did when she was frustrated. "Hobbit-boy often wondered how she didn't tug out her hair by accident.) "I don't like dresses," the girl explained as calmly as she possibly could. She gestured to herself, using her clothes as an example. The girl still wore her school's uniform: baggy khaki Dickies pants, a green polo shirt, and a gray sweatshirt. Sean wore the same, only his pants weren't as baggy, his shirt was white, and he had somehow managed to keep his letterman's jacket throughout their escapades.

The Elven ladies fell silent, their shock radiating throughout the Hall. "You...you _don't_ like dresses?" one of the younger women ventured, disbelief apparent in her voice.

The red-headed girl shook her head. "Nope. I hate dresses--I despise them. So, if it's all the same to you, can I have a tunic, breeches, and boots?"



Four hours (and many, many arguments from the noble Elven ladies) later, the Ring Group set out. Bryanna refused to call it the Fellowship of the Ring, claiming that she wasn't a 'fellow' and therefore the adventurers couldn't be called a fellowship. Hence the new name. (Sean thought that it was stupid, but he wasn't going to say anything. He wasn't stupid and his survival instincts were fully functional.)

Bryanna was behind Legolas, clad in her breeches, tunic, and boots. She had managed to 'convince' the Elven ladies into letting her wear the clothes she wanted to wear by saying that if she didn't get the clothes that she wanted, then she wouldn't be leaving Rivendell. Hearing this, Elrond interceded and gave her a pair of his _own_ clothing. (Sean thought that Elrond must have been pretty desperate to get them out of Rivendell if he had given the girl his own clothes.) As she walked, her many weapons clanked against each other, sounding like a suit of armor. Watching his friend, Sean wondered how Bryanna could even walk with all of her weapons.

All in all, Bryanna had talked the warrior Elves into giving her a crossbow, a longbow, many many arrows, about twenty daggers (several of them were hidden somewhere in her braid), a kodachi-like sword, a broadsword, two battle axes, a halbred, a glaive, a staff, several bags of ninja throwing stars, and two katana-like swords strapped across her back in a cross draw. Sean thought that she looked like a walking arsenal----even _more_ dangerous than usual. How Bryanna had talked the Elves out of all of those weapons and where she kept all of them, Sean had no clue...and he was afraid to ask.

He, however, had taken a very simple approach. Sean had chosen a nodachi, which was a _very_ large version of a katana. (He had decided to call it "The Ridiculously Sized, Impossibly Sharp Nodachi of Smiting." AKA the Masamune. Bryanna just called it Bob.) At that moment, he had it casually slung over his shoulder. And, just as Bry had 'borrowed' Elven clothing, Gimli had given Sean some of his extra clothing. It also included a helmet, but it wouldn't fit Hobbit-boy--when he tried it on, it slipped down and fell over his eyes. The Dragon Lady had found this extremely amusing and still broke into fits of snickering (snickering, mind you; _not_ giggling) for no apparent reason. Sean wondered how many times she had been dropped on her head as a child.

"I heard that!" Bryanna yelled, shooting Sean her 'Dragon Glare' over her shoulder. "And for your information, it was only 1,253,956,821,415,003 times."

Hobbit-boy blinked, then shrugged. "That explains it," he said dryly.

"So?" Bryanna said defensively. "It's not as if it affected anything, anyways."

Boromir heard this and started snorting, Sean joining in with him. And, once again, Bryanna's shoes flew. The tall man growled to himself and rubbed the knot forming on the back of his head. "I don't know _why_ we have to take those two," he said, grumbling to himself. "I mean, they're going to be worthless in a fight! And a woman--a _woman_ is tagging along with us!"

Bryanna turned around once again and gave Boromir a 'I'm-holier-than-thou-and-you-know-that-but-don't-want-to-admit-to-it-because-you're-insecure-and-I-could-easily-kick-your-ass-but-I'm-not-in-the-mood-to-do-so' look. After that, Boromir didn't talk for a _very_ long time...

Bryanna continued to walk behind Legolas and Sean began to suspect why. He was scared to ask...but he _had_ to ask. So... "Bryanna?" he began warily.

"Hmmm?" she replied, looking over her shoulder at her best guy friend. Her eyes were glazed over and there was a contented smile on her lips.

"Never mind," Sean quickly said. She gave him another dreamy smile and returned to her Legolas-Bum-Watching. Sean just shook his head----Bry was Bry and nothing could change her. But that didn't stop him from feeling very sorry for the blonde Elf. "So," he began, slanting a glance at Gimli, who was walking beside him, "if there would ever be a cult about you, Gimli, what would you want the focus to be on? Your overall coolness or your prowess in battle?"

Gimli blinked. "Coolness? What do you mean? I am not cold." He paused for a minute and grinned: "Do you really think that there will someday be a religion about my prowess in battle?"

Sean nodded rapidly. "Oh, I'm _positive_ that there will someday be a religion about you! Someday _soon_, I bet." Gimli grinned at that. Continuing, Sean asked, "You wouldn't mind if I just walk next to you and stare at you in awe, do you?"

And the rest of the day went on like this...

* * *

Later on that night, the Ring Group were encamped five miles away from the Old Forest. Normally, the journey would have taken much longer, but Bryanna had kept on singing Disney songs (especially The Lion King and Simba's Pride) and so the ten other males were desperate for her to shut up.

And so there Bryanna sat, dressed in an oversized shirt (a castoff from her Father) and an oversized pair of plaid boxers. This is what she usually slept in and had taken her Pjs from her backpack that had magically appeared at that moment.

"Where did that come from?" Sean asked suspiciously, reaching forward to poke at her school backpack.

Bryanna swatted at his hand. "No touchies!" she scolded. "And it's been here, with me, all of this time."

Sean stared at the backpack for another minute. "No, it hasn't," he finally remarked.

"Has so. You just haven't been paying attention."

"I _have_ been paying attention, and that backpack _wasn't_ here."

"Was."

"Not."

"Was."

"Not."

"Was."

"Not."

"Not."

"Was," Sean said. All too late, he realized his mistake.

"Ha HA!" Bryanna laughed, doing a little dance around her friend. "I tricked you! My younger _sisters_ always fall for that trick!" Her grin slowly turned evil. "I guess that it means that my backpack _has_ always been here."

Sean didn't reply to this, just stared at the backpack and muttered something about how everything freaky in life was "A girl thing." Hobbit-boy sighed and stared down at his outfit. It was cool looking and all, but he bet it wasn't very comfortable to sleep in. "Hey, Bry..." he began. "Do you have any more Pjs?"

Bryanna's smile seemed to turn even more evil and she rooted around in her backpack. After several minutes of searching, she came up triumphant. "I found some Pjs for ya Sean!" she caroled. Hobbit-boy eagerly went forward, only to be presented with...a _very_ skimpy nightie.

What did Sean do? Why, what every other teenage boy would do.

Hobbit-boy screamed and quickly backed away, making his fingers into a cross. "You can't be _serious_! There is NO WAY I'm wearing that!"

Bryanna shrugged and tossed the nighie into the backpack. "If you say so, Seannykins-chan," she replied cordially. That said, she continued her search for a pair of Pjs for Sean. "How about this one?" she asked, bringing up an even _skimpier_ nightgown. Sean's reply to _this_ particular choice was to faint.

Gandalf, Boromir, Aragorn, Frodo, Pippin, Merry, Sam, Gimli, and Legolas watched the two interact with amusement that bordered on terror. How could two innocent looking 'teenagers' terrify nine older, scarier, tougher, and more intelligent males? No answer came to them in the cold, dark night...



The red-headed girl watched the other prepare for bed, huddled in her own sleeping roll. As happy as she had been earlier, she was _not_ happy now. She was cold. And the fire was dying down. And she was cold. There were things moving in the bushes just beyond the where the fire's light ended. And did she mention that she was cold? If there was one thing that the girl hated even more than....*shudder*...needles, it was cold. And she was cold!!!

Bryanna huddled deeper in her blankets and looked over at Sean, who was still passed out. If she had known that Sean would have fainted from just an _itsy teeny tiny_ joke, she wouldn't have done it. Okay. Well, she still would have done it, but still! He gave a little snort and rolled closer to Gimli, nearly crushing the smaller Dwarf.

The teenager snickered and continued her examination of the campsite. And discovered that Legolas was the only one still up besides herself. A plan slowly began to form in her mind... "Leggie-chan..." she began softly, giving the Elf an even MORE 'puppier-dog-eyed' look than she had at Rivendell.

Wary, Legolas asked, "Yes? What is it, Bryanna?"

Shivering, Bryanna pulled her blankets tighter around her body. She didn't have to pretend about the being cold part! "I'm cold," she continued, just as softly. "And I'm also scared. Please...can I sleep with you tonight?" As she said the last part, she tried to look as innocent as she possibly could. And Legolas fell for it.

The Elf gave her a suspicious look and scooted over, making room for her. Grinning to herself in triumph, Bryanna crawled over the various bodies and made her way to his side. 'Heh heh heh... One small step for fangirls; one giant leap for Legolas fangirl-kind,' she thought to herself.

And so Bryanna fell asleep, propped up against Legolas, just hoping to any god that would listen that she wouldn't drool on him in her sleep. She never did find out if she _did_ drool on him or not...