"You ready to go?"
Willow turned to look at Boromir. "Yes. I only have my brain to pack and I always keep it with me," she said, laughing. She joined the man and they stepped down the stairs two by two. The rest of the fellowship was already down, waiting for the blond man and the redhead to join them. At the last step, the witch stopped and turned around, looking back at the city, hoping to keep the memory of it forever engraved in her mind. "Goodbye," she whispered. She jumped down the last step and ran to join the rest of the crew already moving across the bridge.
For days they walked, stopping only for meals and to sleep a couple of hours per nights. The first few days were quite tiring, but after that, they all caughed up with the routine. They walked in rain, under the sun, in valleys, on hills, crossing river or desertic areas. Nothing stopped them.
Two weeks after being away from Rivendell, they were crossing the edge of a small forest. Willow was walking next to Gandalf, one that shared a similar power than her but in higher proportion. The wizard took a look at his companion for the moment. "Why did you come with us, Willow?" he asked.
"I had nowhere else to go and I wanted to help you... all of you."
"But surely you could have gone back home."
The redhead frowned. "No. I couldn't. I still can't. Not until the temp..." She suddenly stopped talking. She had been one step from saying it. One more word and he would have known, or maybe suspected, where or when she came from. Not wanting to repeat the same mistake again, Willow closed down on herself and slowed down a bit, changing partner. Legolas joined her in silence. He didn't bothered her like sometimes the others did. The Elf rarely spoke and she was rather glad to be next to someone that knew quite much more than her considering he might be a couple thousands years older.
Merry grabbed Frodo's arm and pulled him close. "You should tell Gandalf to stop talking to her for a couple of days. Everytime they are alone, they start talking and then poof! She closes on herself. The last time it happened, it took Pippin and me about two days to get her to speak again. We were exhausted."
Frodo chuckled. "Well, I hope you haven't losen touch because you're going to need it."
Merry sighed, then ran and jumped on Willow's back. The redhead squealed. "Merry, get down!" She let his legs fall from her arms and he jumped down then pulled her between Pippin and himself.
"I want to see a smile first," he said, doing his best I'm-serious look.
Willow laughed at the Hobbit. "Ok, I promess I won't brood anymore." Smiling, she put her hand in his much smaller one and they walked in companiable silence until Gandalf stopped the fellowship for the dinner.
Aragorn put himself in charge of the fire while Boromir went in search of dry wood. Sam was already preparing the food to be cooked. He was an Hobbit after all. Darkness slowly installed itself in the woods, clue that they would soon be too tired to think and would fall asleep.
Legolas looked deep into the forest, head cocked to the side as if he was listening to something nobody else could. "There's a river near by. I can hear it."
Gandalf gave him the gourds of the crew as well as a bucket. "Take as much as you can. Willow, go help him please." Following the orders of the one they considered the leader of the fellowship, the Elf and the witch made their way deep into the darkness of the woods in search of fresh water.
Following them with his eyes, Frodo smiled while eating a piece of mushroom. Merry saw him smiling and joined him while taking a look as to where Legolas and Willow had disappeared. "You saw it too," he stated.
The bearer of the ring nodded. "They keep glancing at each other even if I think it is unconsciously. They are attracked to the other and they don't even know it yet." He chuckled. "I can't wait to see the fireworks."
* * *
"Are you sure about where you are heading? I don't know about you, but I can't see a damn thing," the redhead said. She saw a hand extanded to her. She grabbed it and held it close as the Elf guided them.
"I've grown in trees. I spend all my time in the forest back home. My city is on the edge of Mirkwood."
They finally arrived in a small clear area. The moon shined down on them and Willow could finally see where she was walking. They made their way to the river and crouched down to take as much water as they could. Nobody could say when they'd have a chance to have fresh water again.
Willow sighed. "What I would give for a hot bath," she said, looking longily at the water.
"Well, forget about the hot part and the other you can have," a voice said from behind her.
Before she could answer, the redhead screamed as she was pushed in the river. She gasped as the cold water hit her body. She pushed her wet hair out of her forehead then turned toward the laughing figure on the edge of the river. "Oh, you're gonna get it, Legolas."
Without warning, she jumped up and grabbed his arms, pulling him with her in the cold water. She gigled as a soaked Elf surfaced. She pulled herself out of the water then climbed on her feet to help Legolas to step out of it too. Looking down at herself, completly wet from head to toes, she sighed. "We should better go back to the camp before they send a search party for us." They grabbed the gourds and headed back in the woods.
* * *
"Gandalf, normally I wouldn't worry too much, but they've been gone for almost an hour," Boromir said, worried about two of his new friends. When they had a moment of peace, he and the redhead he had learned to appreciate had sparred. He had given her good tips in sword fighting. The slight woman had even surprised him a couple of times with her elvish agility, her men's strenght and the numerous hand to hand combat tips she knew, thanks to Buffy.
The wizard frowned. "I know, I'm beginning to worry too." Just as he said that, two laughing figures stepped out of the darkness, still completly soacked. They froze when they saw the look Gandalf gave them. "And where have you been?"
Willow coughed then let the gourds fall down. "Everyone who wants water, it is here and it's pretty good." She let herself fall down near the fire with a sigh and eagerly ate the food on her plate.
As the night was firmly established around them, the cold made an appearance. Willow and Legolas greatfully took the two spare blankets Gandalf gave them. They kept them for cases like this.
Later, the entire fellowship fell asleep, cuddled together to fight the coldness of the night. In the morning, Willow woke up to find herself cuddled in Boromir's chest. She groaned and rolled on herself to get off of his protective arms and his warmth. The fire had been build up again and Legolas was sitting in front of it. She sat next to him and they waited for the others to wake up. In all that time, they didn't exchanged a word about the night before.
Not long after the waking up hour, everyone was ready to go back on the road. They took off again in the woods. At noon, the forest was already far behind them. They stopped for a few hours on a rocky structure and Gandalf took that opportunity to gave them details about the way they were going to take.
Merry and Pippin were practicing sword fighting with Boromir while Aragorn watched, smoking. Willow laughed as the two hobbits jumped on the bigger man, yelling "For the shire!"
The redhead took their place. "How about a real workout Boromir. I feel quite refreshned today and I thought why not? I could give you a couple of other tricks in hand to hand combat." She chuckled darkly, giving her best impersonation of evil Willow.
Aragorn laughed and the others were wondering what was happening. The small atroupment looked in awe as the slip of a girl stepped into a fighting stance. They stopped breathing as Boromir landed a punch and she dodged it easily, stepping to her left. She knocked off his right leg as he swung it to her side. Balancing her height on her left foot, she did a spin kick, catching him on the shoulder and propulsing him a few feet away. She crouched down when he swung his arm at her and she kicked his legs just hard enough to make him fall. He knocked her and he stood up. Not letting him have the advantage on her, she did that flip back Buffy had shown her in training session.
Boromir glared at her. "Where did you learn to fight like that?"
She shrugged. "A friend showed me," she said, keeping to herself that the friend in question was also a girl. [Thank God for my best friend being a slayer.]
Standing on a rock, Legolas left the sight of Willow kicking Boromir's ass to look at the sky. Not a mile away, a black cloud was advancing rapidly toward them and the wind blew his hair in his face. Boromir's attention was caught by the Elf staying as still as a statue. "What is that?"
Gimli shrugged. "It's only a cloud."
But the man wouldn't have it. "A little cloud that advance fast and against the wind."
The perfect sight of Elves helped Legolas to distinguish what was approaching them. "Birds! Spies of Saruman looking for us! Hide!" He jumped down the stone and grabbed Willow's hand as she just kept looking at the black birds. They ran to the nearest bush and hide under it, waiting for the spies to pass.
When they were definitly out of eyesight, the fellowship got out of their hiding places and took all they needed for the rest of the quest. Gandalf was angry, his initial path to Mordor being under high surveillance. "We can't go that way now. We're are going to take Caradhras pass." He pointed the white mountains behind him and the fellowship groaned.
Willow took the blanket Gandalf had given her the night before and wrapped it around her shoulders, ready to fight against the cold. She was not sure what they were up against. She had never been mountain climbing before and had never put a single foot into snow, having grown in Sunnydale, right in south California.
For three days, they walked to the mountains, keeping eyes on the sky for any appearance of the spies coming from Fangorn, but none of them could be seen. On the fourth day, light snow covered the ground. The first sign that they had started the road through Caradhras pass was there.
When snow started to be in bigger quantity, Willow started cursing winter. Sure, her boots ended at the knees, but they had not been made to walk deep in snow. She advanced slowly behind Gimli, thankfull that he and the wizard had already made the path clearer. She watched, amazed, as Legolas made his way slowly behind them, not having any difficulties or incommodations in winter's white frozen rain. Elves were so light that they could litterally walk *on* snow.
On the next morning, the two men had snow at waist level. They each had two Hobbits in their arms, Bill the poney trailed behind them. Gandalf was tiring from making the path. Willow was positivly frozen and the chilling wind didn't seemed to stop. Blizzard was making it hard for them to see, even for Legolas' superior sight. But his ears weren't incommodated.
Passing besides the fellowship stucked in deep snow, he made his way to the edge of the mountain, hearing something from far away. Aragorn frowned when he saw the red haired girl cocking her head to the side, trying to listen to something throught the wind. He was quite surprised to see Legolas do the exact same thing then proclaim to hear a sinister voice. "It's Saruman!" Gandalf yelled.
For the first time, the fellowship noticed the black clouds over their heads. Small bits of rocks fell down the edge above them. "He's trying to provoke an avalanche!" Aragorn yelled back.
Suddenly, lightening struck down the edge and a large piece of solidified snow started to slide down. Legolas ran to Gandalf standing right underneath the avalanche and pulled him back so he rested back to the mountain as the avalanche swallowed them all.
A blond head surfaced and the Elf looked around. Boromir got out from under with still Merry and Pippin in his arms. Aragorn got out, Frodo clutching his arm. As soon as he was out of his hole, he fell down on his knees and dug out Sam. Gandalf and Gimli were visible form under the snow and the two men had no trouble getting them up on two feet.
Merry looked around, nervously searching for a familiar face. When he didn't saw her, he froze. "Where's Willow?"
The Elf swung his head around at the sound of the Hobbit's voice. Quickly looking around, he found what he was looking for. A piece of red hair struck out of the snow like a flairing signal. In a moment, she was safely tucked in his arms. "She's breathing," he announced. "But her lips are turning blue. She needs to be warmed up now." He took his own blanket from around his shoulder, wrapping it around the slight woman in his arms, then stood up.
"We have to go back! Lets take Rohan's road and make a slight detour to my city," Boromir said.
"No," Aragorn replied. "We would be too near from Isengard."
"If we can't go over the mountain, then lets go underneath it," Gimli proposed, knowing well that Gandalf was not going to be alright with this solution.
The wizard knew he had no choice. He would lose one member of the fellowship if he didn't go back, but he also feared what the Dwarves had awaken in the Moria. "Let the ringbearer chose. Frodo?"
The Hobbit didn't have to think about it twice. "We'll take the mine."
Gandalf reluctanly agreed. "Then so be it."
Willow turned to look at Boromir. "Yes. I only have my brain to pack and I always keep it with me," she said, laughing. She joined the man and they stepped down the stairs two by two. The rest of the fellowship was already down, waiting for the blond man and the redhead to join them. At the last step, the witch stopped and turned around, looking back at the city, hoping to keep the memory of it forever engraved in her mind. "Goodbye," she whispered. She jumped down the last step and ran to join the rest of the crew already moving across the bridge.
For days they walked, stopping only for meals and to sleep a couple of hours per nights. The first few days were quite tiring, but after that, they all caughed up with the routine. They walked in rain, under the sun, in valleys, on hills, crossing river or desertic areas. Nothing stopped them.
Two weeks after being away from Rivendell, they were crossing the edge of a small forest. Willow was walking next to Gandalf, one that shared a similar power than her but in higher proportion. The wizard took a look at his companion for the moment. "Why did you come with us, Willow?" he asked.
"I had nowhere else to go and I wanted to help you... all of you."
"But surely you could have gone back home."
The redhead frowned. "No. I couldn't. I still can't. Not until the temp..." She suddenly stopped talking. She had been one step from saying it. One more word and he would have known, or maybe suspected, where or when she came from. Not wanting to repeat the same mistake again, Willow closed down on herself and slowed down a bit, changing partner. Legolas joined her in silence. He didn't bothered her like sometimes the others did. The Elf rarely spoke and she was rather glad to be next to someone that knew quite much more than her considering he might be a couple thousands years older.
Merry grabbed Frodo's arm and pulled him close. "You should tell Gandalf to stop talking to her for a couple of days. Everytime they are alone, they start talking and then poof! She closes on herself. The last time it happened, it took Pippin and me about two days to get her to speak again. We were exhausted."
Frodo chuckled. "Well, I hope you haven't losen touch because you're going to need it."
Merry sighed, then ran and jumped on Willow's back. The redhead squealed. "Merry, get down!" She let his legs fall from her arms and he jumped down then pulled her between Pippin and himself.
"I want to see a smile first," he said, doing his best I'm-serious look.
Willow laughed at the Hobbit. "Ok, I promess I won't brood anymore." Smiling, she put her hand in his much smaller one and they walked in companiable silence until Gandalf stopped the fellowship for the dinner.
Aragorn put himself in charge of the fire while Boromir went in search of dry wood. Sam was already preparing the food to be cooked. He was an Hobbit after all. Darkness slowly installed itself in the woods, clue that they would soon be too tired to think and would fall asleep.
Legolas looked deep into the forest, head cocked to the side as if he was listening to something nobody else could. "There's a river near by. I can hear it."
Gandalf gave him the gourds of the crew as well as a bucket. "Take as much as you can. Willow, go help him please." Following the orders of the one they considered the leader of the fellowship, the Elf and the witch made their way deep into the darkness of the woods in search of fresh water.
Following them with his eyes, Frodo smiled while eating a piece of mushroom. Merry saw him smiling and joined him while taking a look as to where Legolas and Willow had disappeared. "You saw it too," he stated.
The bearer of the ring nodded. "They keep glancing at each other even if I think it is unconsciously. They are attracked to the other and they don't even know it yet." He chuckled. "I can't wait to see the fireworks."
* * *
"Are you sure about where you are heading? I don't know about you, but I can't see a damn thing," the redhead said. She saw a hand extanded to her. She grabbed it and held it close as the Elf guided them.
"I've grown in trees. I spend all my time in the forest back home. My city is on the edge of Mirkwood."
They finally arrived in a small clear area. The moon shined down on them and Willow could finally see where she was walking. They made their way to the river and crouched down to take as much water as they could. Nobody could say when they'd have a chance to have fresh water again.
Willow sighed. "What I would give for a hot bath," she said, looking longily at the water.
"Well, forget about the hot part and the other you can have," a voice said from behind her.
Before she could answer, the redhead screamed as she was pushed in the river. She gasped as the cold water hit her body. She pushed her wet hair out of her forehead then turned toward the laughing figure on the edge of the river. "Oh, you're gonna get it, Legolas."
Without warning, she jumped up and grabbed his arms, pulling him with her in the cold water. She gigled as a soaked Elf surfaced. She pulled herself out of the water then climbed on her feet to help Legolas to step out of it too. Looking down at herself, completly wet from head to toes, she sighed. "We should better go back to the camp before they send a search party for us." They grabbed the gourds and headed back in the woods.
* * *
"Gandalf, normally I wouldn't worry too much, but they've been gone for almost an hour," Boromir said, worried about two of his new friends. When they had a moment of peace, he and the redhead he had learned to appreciate had sparred. He had given her good tips in sword fighting. The slight woman had even surprised him a couple of times with her elvish agility, her men's strenght and the numerous hand to hand combat tips she knew, thanks to Buffy.
The wizard frowned. "I know, I'm beginning to worry too." Just as he said that, two laughing figures stepped out of the darkness, still completly soacked. They froze when they saw the look Gandalf gave them. "And where have you been?"
Willow coughed then let the gourds fall down. "Everyone who wants water, it is here and it's pretty good." She let herself fall down near the fire with a sigh and eagerly ate the food on her plate.
As the night was firmly established around them, the cold made an appearance. Willow and Legolas greatfully took the two spare blankets Gandalf gave them. They kept them for cases like this.
Later, the entire fellowship fell asleep, cuddled together to fight the coldness of the night. In the morning, Willow woke up to find herself cuddled in Boromir's chest. She groaned and rolled on herself to get off of his protective arms and his warmth. The fire had been build up again and Legolas was sitting in front of it. She sat next to him and they waited for the others to wake up. In all that time, they didn't exchanged a word about the night before.
Not long after the waking up hour, everyone was ready to go back on the road. They took off again in the woods. At noon, the forest was already far behind them. They stopped for a few hours on a rocky structure and Gandalf took that opportunity to gave them details about the way they were going to take.
Merry and Pippin were practicing sword fighting with Boromir while Aragorn watched, smoking. Willow laughed as the two hobbits jumped on the bigger man, yelling "For the shire!"
The redhead took their place. "How about a real workout Boromir. I feel quite refreshned today and I thought why not? I could give you a couple of other tricks in hand to hand combat." She chuckled darkly, giving her best impersonation of evil Willow.
Aragorn laughed and the others were wondering what was happening. The small atroupment looked in awe as the slip of a girl stepped into a fighting stance. They stopped breathing as Boromir landed a punch and she dodged it easily, stepping to her left. She knocked off his right leg as he swung it to her side. Balancing her height on her left foot, she did a spin kick, catching him on the shoulder and propulsing him a few feet away. She crouched down when he swung his arm at her and she kicked his legs just hard enough to make him fall. He knocked her and he stood up. Not letting him have the advantage on her, she did that flip back Buffy had shown her in training session.
Boromir glared at her. "Where did you learn to fight like that?"
She shrugged. "A friend showed me," she said, keeping to herself that the friend in question was also a girl. [Thank God for my best friend being a slayer.]
Standing on a rock, Legolas left the sight of Willow kicking Boromir's ass to look at the sky. Not a mile away, a black cloud was advancing rapidly toward them and the wind blew his hair in his face. Boromir's attention was caught by the Elf staying as still as a statue. "What is that?"
Gimli shrugged. "It's only a cloud."
But the man wouldn't have it. "A little cloud that advance fast and against the wind."
The perfect sight of Elves helped Legolas to distinguish what was approaching them. "Birds! Spies of Saruman looking for us! Hide!" He jumped down the stone and grabbed Willow's hand as she just kept looking at the black birds. They ran to the nearest bush and hide under it, waiting for the spies to pass.
When they were definitly out of eyesight, the fellowship got out of their hiding places and took all they needed for the rest of the quest. Gandalf was angry, his initial path to Mordor being under high surveillance. "We can't go that way now. We're are going to take Caradhras pass." He pointed the white mountains behind him and the fellowship groaned.
Willow took the blanket Gandalf had given her the night before and wrapped it around her shoulders, ready to fight against the cold. She was not sure what they were up against. She had never been mountain climbing before and had never put a single foot into snow, having grown in Sunnydale, right in south California.
For three days, they walked to the mountains, keeping eyes on the sky for any appearance of the spies coming from Fangorn, but none of them could be seen. On the fourth day, light snow covered the ground. The first sign that they had started the road through Caradhras pass was there.
When snow started to be in bigger quantity, Willow started cursing winter. Sure, her boots ended at the knees, but they had not been made to walk deep in snow. She advanced slowly behind Gimli, thankfull that he and the wizard had already made the path clearer. She watched, amazed, as Legolas made his way slowly behind them, not having any difficulties or incommodations in winter's white frozen rain. Elves were so light that they could litterally walk *on* snow.
On the next morning, the two men had snow at waist level. They each had two Hobbits in their arms, Bill the poney trailed behind them. Gandalf was tiring from making the path. Willow was positivly frozen and the chilling wind didn't seemed to stop. Blizzard was making it hard for them to see, even for Legolas' superior sight. But his ears weren't incommodated.
Passing besides the fellowship stucked in deep snow, he made his way to the edge of the mountain, hearing something from far away. Aragorn frowned when he saw the red haired girl cocking her head to the side, trying to listen to something throught the wind. He was quite surprised to see Legolas do the exact same thing then proclaim to hear a sinister voice. "It's Saruman!" Gandalf yelled.
For the first time, the fellowship noticed the black clouds over their heads. Small bits of rocks fell down the edge above them. "He's trying to provoke an avalanche!" Aragorn yelled back.
Suddenly, lightening struck down the edge and a large piece of solidified snow started to slide down. Legolas ran to Gandalf standing right underneath the avalanche and pulled him back so he rested back to the mountain as the avalanche swallowed them all.
A blond head surfaced and the Elf looked around. Boromir got out from under with still Merry and Pippin in his arms. Aragorn got out, Frodo clutching his arm. As soon as he was out of his hole, he fell down on his knees and dug out Sam. Gandalf and Gimli were visible form under the snow and the two men had no trouble getting them up on two feet.
Merry looked around, nervously searching for a familiar face. When he didn't saw her, he froze. "Where's Willow?"
The Elf swung his head around at the sound of the Hobbit's voice. Quickly looking around, he found what he was looking for. A piece of red hair struck out of the snow like a flairing signal. In a moment, she was safely tucked in his arms. "She's breathing," he announced. "But her lips are turning blue. She needs to be warmed up now." He took his own blanket from around his shoulder, wrapping it around the slight woman in his arms, then stood up.
"We have to go back! Lets take Rohan's road and make a slight detour to my city," Boromir said.
"No," Aragorn replied. "We would be too near from Isengard."
"If we can't go over the mountain, then lets go underneath it," Gimli proposed, knowing well that Gandalf was not going to be alright with this solution.
The wizard knew he had no choice. He would lose one member of the fellowship if he didn't go back, but he also feared what the Dwarves had awaken in the Moria. "Let the ringbearer chose. Frodo?"
The Hobbit didn't have to think about it twice. "We'll take the mine."
Gandalf reluctanly agreed. "Then so be it."