I'm so sorry about the length of time it took me to update!!!!! But now the next chapter's up!!! Yay!!!!!!!

Lol, I'm a little hyper, too much turkey this weekend, so anyway...

Enjoy, relax, eats some stuffing, and let your fingers do the talking as you review ;) See you all soon!

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Chapter 8

"What are we to do about her?" Boromir whispered that evening. The hobbits all sat over by the fire, telling stories to one another while the others stood further away, pondering over her fate. They had made it halfway up the Caradhas, and had stopped for the night. Moths danced around the flames, merrily ignoring the child-like hobbits.

Aragorn sighed and shook his head. "I do not think it would be wise to leave her again. She is still weak, though her pride prevents her from it." He looked over at the group and watched as the firelight danced over her happy face. Pippin was animatedly telling a story to the group while Merry added in corrections. She let out a giggle watching their story before softly wincing.

Gandalf sighed. "She still seems too fragile to leave our group. Although there is still the chance of her illness returning, she is safer with us."

"But this was to only be a fellowship of nine! We cannot have another join our group now!" Boromir countered. "Nine walkers to match the nine Nazgul, and what is proposed would be to break the will of the council." He stared at the others with indignance. "Did she not try to see Elrond before we left to see if she could join us? Did he not deny her that?"

Aragorn shook his head. "But he obviously did not anticipate that she would become ill again! If we were to leave her, she may not even survive! Do you think Elrond would have preferred that?"

"Alright, calm down everyone," Legolas cut in, putting up his hands between Aragorn and Boromir's heated glares. "It seems to me that until she is better, or we are more sure of her strength, that she should stay with us. This way, we do not gain another walker, and we also know how she is feeling."

Gandalf nodded. "I agree."

"So do I," voiced Gimli.

Boromir sighed and held up his hands. "Fine. But I wash my hands of her. I think she may be endangering our mission, and by keeping her close, our peril grows nearer."

"If we do not help her, her peril is now," Aragorn said.

Lorelai shivered in the crisp autumn-like evening. The further they trekked up the mountains, the colder it got. She was happy to have it cool her fiery forehead, but its chill bit into her bones like teething frost.

Sam nudged her. "Cheer up Miss Lorelai," he whispered. "It's too good a story to look so glum."

She sighed softly and shrugged her shoulders under the heavy cloak wrapped around her. "It's cold tonight and I fear they are deciding my fate." She nodded in a gesture to the others, huddled around one another and speaking in furtively low voices.

Sam's brow crinkled a little at that, and he shook his head. "Never mind that, no matter what happens, we won't leave you. We all care 'bout you too much, and as much as some of them may hate to admit it, they do too. No one'll be wishin' to see you go Miss Lorelai."

She smiled a little, and held back the tears that beckoned to spill down her cheeks. "Thank you Sam. I don't think I deserve that, but thank you."

"Didn't deserve that? But..." he started, confused before he noticed she was no longer listening to him, but listening to Pippin's story unfold.

"...And so Merry had feathers stuck to him the entire day!" Pippin gasped before bending over to support the belly laughs racking his body. Frodo was bent over where he sat on the ground, clutching his stomach as he silently shook.

"It wasn't THAT funny Pip." Merry rolled his eyes as his face blushed furiously.

"Oh, but it was," he snickered, taking a few quick breaths before the giggles overtook him again.

"I never heard that one before!" Frodo laughed. "I thought all of your adventures were public knowledge!"

"Well this one wasn't because I expressly told Pippin NOT TO TELL ANYONE," Merry growled, glaring at Pippin.

"Well, there was that, and the fact that you hid in your house all day until your mum came home to scrub you clean!" he yelped, as he and Frodo burst into new peels of laughter.

Sam chuckled and Lorelai snorted with laughter. She sighed good-naturedly before pushing herself up.

"Well, I'm tired, so goodnight everyone," she yawned.

"Goodnight," everyone called. Boromir never looked up and only mumbled his response, she noticed, and felt her stomach burn with anger.

She lay down opposite to the hobbits, and lay down on her stomach, staring into the fire. She watched the flames leap and dance in the night sky and grow orange around the tips, before their ends subsided back into the body of fire. Her eyes met Frodo's through the crackling blaze, and she smiled before laying her head on the ground to let the glowing embers soothe her weary eyes and mind into sleep.

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Sleepily, her eyes rolled open. The sky was still black as ink and the stars appeared as tiny pricks of light in the velvet sky. The fire had dwindled down, its flames lower and more akin to the embers.

The little cocoon she had made herself out of her blanket was warm and she nuzzled her chin deeper into it slightly. Rolling her eyes lazily down, she saw Frodo slept beside her, huddled in a ball.

His dark curly hair stuck out in all directions from under his cloak and half of his face could be seen. His eyelids were like marble in their pale smooth perfection, and she could imagine the bright blue held behind them. His nose slightly twitched in his sleep as a stray lock of hair fell to touch it. She felt the urge to reach her hand out and tuck it back, draw her hand over his soft hair, and feel the warmth from his skin, and down his neck, where...

She felt her hand stir, as though through will of its own, to grasp at his neck and undo the chain that encircled it, to take the Ring and run, run back to Mordor, the only place that would truly have her, where He would take her as His own for being loyal and good... where she might feel wanted.

Her hand slightly rustled the cover, and Legolas' head spun. "Lorelai?" he whispered quietly, as not to wake the others.

She froze, and slowly moved her hand back to her side. "I just had a dream," she mumbled, "just an ordinary dream..."

"Alright then. Goodnight," he responded.

She murmured softly before drifting back to sleep, her eyes still trained on the glint of gold that was always just out of reach.