Rogue looked around helplessly to see how the others had taken to the news. Legolas and Boromir were staring at her wide eyed, and Gimli just looked plain shocked. Sam, Merry, and Pippin looked mortified, and words cannot express what concoction of emotions were on Frodo's face.
"How is this possible? She could not be the Dark Lords daughter." Aragorn said. He looked at her, trying to be calm and keeping a straight face, but saw Rogue's bowed head, and knew it was true. He was about to say something more, but couldn't draw any words from his head. Nobody stopped Rogue as she stumbled, and ran out. The guards made some sudden movements, but the Lady of the Wood motioned for them to let her go. No one spoke for a few minutes. The silence was awkward. The daughter of Sauron had been walking amongst them for a week or so now.
Rogue ran. She could think of nothing else to do. There was no possibility of staying, but no point in running any further. Once she had traveled far enough where they would not be able to catch her even if they wanted to, she slowed her pace down to a steady walk. Now what. She was alone, had nowhere to sleep, no food, no fire, and only a pack on her back. 'Wait,' She thought. 'I have food. A small amount, and can sleep on the ground...' but her thoughts trailed away from what was to become of her for the night. The only thing she could think about was how no one was going to trust her, ever. She would continue running like this for the rest of her life. Soon enough, everyone would know of her secret. She would be alone. But why, if it was so bad of a thing, did Elrond trust her? It was because he knew that she hated her father, if anything, more than the next person. She had more of a reason than most, as well. He had killed her mother, given her a life equal to slavery, and brought her into this world without love, without hope, and without any proper reason to live. She might as well just kill herself right now. But she didn't. She didn't fear death, but she didn't really fear anything except living the life that she was just about to begin. One where she would have to live in the shadows. She looked at the sky. It was getting dark, she had been walking for hours. The clouds on the west horizon were a bright, magnificent orange. One the east, the clouds gathered into dark purple stains. It was like the sky was bruised.
She settled down by the side of a river, and set up what of a camp she could manage. She stars were shining bright, and she saw no chance of rain for this night. Ripping off a piece of flammable dark material, she hopelessly tried with flint and steel to start a fire. Giving up, she went searching through her pack for something useful. Grumbling, she pulled out some matches, feeling angry she had wasted time and energy over something so easy. She started the fire, then realized that she would need more wood if she were to keep it for more than an hour. She piled on what wood she had, and went rummaging. All the while the simple fact that her future did not seem more bright than her way through the forest laid in her mind.
She slept reasonably that night. Better than she had expected, in the least. She sat up. The fire had died overnight. There was hardly any dew on the ground, and she guessed that most of it had soaked in to the hard, dirt ground. She started cleaning up her camp. There wasn't much to clean, so the only thing she really had to do was contact Elrond. She had left the bracelet in her other pack, which was with the Fellowship. She sighed. Looking around, for the first time she noticed Sheba wasn't there with her. That was strange. Thinking back, Sheba hadn't been there all night either. Sheba hadn't even followed her. This was very confusing. She had thought that Sheba would've followed her. She listened closely. There was something in the bushes that bordered the forest and the riverbed. Hopefully, she went to see what was in them. Maybe it was Sheba. A few steps, and something small, feathery, and definitely not Sheba came out at her.
It was a bird. A canary at first sight, but a closer look, and she couldn't tell if it was a canary or not. It flew up to her, which was extremely odd, for most birds would fly away. It hopped closer, until it seemed to be close enough for her to see it was a canary, and close enough for it to see Rogue. As soon as the bird realized this, it flew directly up to her, and fluttered in her face until Rogue had nerve enough to put her hand out to swap it away. The bird landed on her arm, and stretched out one of its little legs, showing her something attached to it. At first, Rogue thought it was asking for her to pull a thorn or something off its leg, but then noticed it was some sort of a message. She took the thing off it's leg, and it flew into a tree, and started cleaning itself. For awhile, Rogue watched it in the tree, but then realized she was holding a message, and started trying to figure out how to open it.
It was very small, nothing that a canary couldn't hold on its scrawny legs. She found that it was a scroll, wrapped up in a protective casing. She pulled it out to reveal a thin piece of paper that one sentence in a different language. For the next hour she translated it, and found that it was quite clever to use this language, as after translating it, it turned out to be more than just a sentence. More like a paragraph. It was Elrond, asking why she wasn't answering him(through the bracelets), and if she knew why Gandalf wasn't answering him either. She took out a thinned piece of coal, and on the back side started writing back. She told him that her companions had found out, and Gandalf was gone. She couldn't write in that language, and could barely read it, so she had to shorten her sentences, and write very small, for she could hardly fit much. As she folded it up, the canary came back down from the tree, and waited patiently while she attached the message to it's leg. Watching it fly away, she wondered what would become of the news that she sent him.
She sat there quietly, for no more than a half hour, before she started hearing noises. She pressed her ear down to the ground, and heard a definite traveling of a large amount of something. It was far away, though, probably more than two hours travel. She wasn't to worried about it, she could simply climb a tree, and nothing would notice her. She was very good at climbing, she had discovered. Swinging from limb to limb, she climbed up higher on a tree she thought looked like a reasonable high one. It was on the edge to the river, so she could see if there was any traveling from the river. She squinted. Down the river there was a pair of boats, Elvish made apparently, and there were travelers in them. It looked like there were three or four at first, but when they got closer she saw it was the Fellowship.
At first she thought she should leave. But in the distance, the other direction, she could see the outline of something coming...
She decided to follow them, to make sure nothing happened. She knew now that whatever was coming was after them, but didn't want to be seen. She hoped they wouldn't catch her if she stayed hidden, she would just follow them as they went down river. Of course, soon enough, they came onto land. She still stayed far enough away for them to not have a chance to see her, unless they knew she was there. She did admit, they looked around quite a lot, especially Legolas, but showed no signs of catching sight of her.
She sat high, close to the top, of a tree nearby where everyone else was. She saw the movement of what looked like over sized goblins. She couldn't see under the tree's, and her ears told her more than her eyes did. She looked away, towards the river again. Turning back, disturbed by a noise that wasn't as far as the mysterious things in the woods, nor as close as the eight companions, she watched Frodo wander off by himself. This wasn't right. Frodo, the ring bearer, shouldn't go off by himself. She waited until he was far enough for her to follow him so he wouldn't be able to hear her. He went to a landmark that was somewhat familiar to him, but she couldn't quite remember the name. It was just before she got there that she realized that she, too, was being followed. Jumping up into the nearest tree, and waiting in the midst of its branches, she watched Boromir following Frodo.
She left, thinking that Frodo would be safe with one other with him. She soon found that the things she had heard before were making excellent pace, much better than she had first calculated, and were nearly there. Looking around calmly, she found another tree to climb(it had become a habit) and soon found one. Scampering up it, she took a quick look around, and saw a Lurtz leading a large group of two dozen or so. She knew this meant trouble as soon as she saw its face- with the white hand of Saruman. Leaping to the ground, and looking around to make sure no one was watching, she ran towards the group of invaders. Once they were in sight, she knelt down on one knee, and trying to stay out of sight, brought down three or four of them, up until they spotted her. She fended herself for a few minutes, until the Lurtz, which was the leader, called them to a different place, straight towards Frodo!
She saw Frodo running, not to far away, and the pack of wild, ugly monsters chasing him. Running as fast as she could through the thin, but difficult forest floor. Jumping over a root, she ran after Frodo, using her sword to block any arrows that flew past her, but needing to dodge most anyway. Frodo wasn't running fast enough, so she distracted them while he ran. She wondered if he had even seen her running behind him, but was quickly torn off the subject as an arrow came ripping past her. If she hadn't dodged it in time, it would have been a perfect death.
"I really have to stop doing that." She said to no one in particular, cursing herself for pondering about unimportant things in the face of danger. She drew her sword, just as the creatures surrounded her. She could not remember the names of these creatures, they had not been around all that much when she was growing up. She saw Aragorn coming up behind them, along with Legolas and knew that they could hold them off. Leaving before being spotted, she ran in the direction Frodo was going. She saw him by the river, looking like the end of the world had already come.
She knew of the powers that ring he carried possessed. She guessed that Boromir or Aragorn had tried to take the ring, and now he was leaving. If someone had tried to take it, she knew that it would only be best for him to leave, and immediately. Suddenly she found herself searching her neck for a whistle that hung there with a leather strap. Finding it, She blew it, though heard no noise. This was to call Sheba. Looking around, Rogue saw no signs of her feline friend, but knew she had to go to Frodo soon, for he was just about to leave.
"Frodo!" She yelled, bursting through the trees, just in time to stop him from getting in the boat. "Wait!" He just stood there looking at her with no fear, but not knowing what to do.
"Rogue." Was all he could muster.
"I know you have to leave, and you have to go now," She said hurriedly "But where do you plan to go?" He looked at her, dumbfounded.
"Mordor. Where else?" He replied quickly, but now looking back onto the obvious, found it quite hard to believe. She looked at the ground, not knowing what to do. He couldn't go by himself, that would ensure not only his death, but the doom of Middle Earth. Sheba appeared behind her, in the shape of her usual tiger, and she had an idea.
"Take Sheba." Rogue said looking at him to see if he would accept. He nodded, so she turned around and started muttering instructions to Sheba in a strange form of Elvish. In the distance, they heard an ear-shattering horn blow. Boromir was in trouble. Turning back to Frodo, she gave him a worried look. Leaning forward, she kissed him on the cheek, wishing him good luck. By the time he came to his senses, she was already bolting in the direction of the horn, and past the border of the forest. He stood there for a few moments, utterly shocked. His deep thoughts were shattered, as Sam's voice called through the air.
"How is this possible? She could not be the Dark Lords daughter." Aragorn said. He looked at her, trying to be calm and keeping a straight face, but saw Rogue's bowed head, and knew it was true. He was about to say something more, but couldn't draw any words from his head. Nobody stopped Rogue as she stumbled, and ran out. The guards made some sudden movements, but the Lady of the Wood motioned for them to let her go. No one spoke for a few minutes. The silence was awkward. The daughter of Sauron had been walking amongst them for a week or so now.
Rogue ran. She could think of nothing else to do. There was no possibility of staying, but no point in running any further. Once she had traveled far enough where they would not be able to catch her even if they wanted to, she slowed her pace down to a steady walk. Now what. She was alone, had nowhere to sleep, no food, no fire, and only a pack on her back. 'Wait,' She thought. 'I have food. A small amount, and can sleep on the ground...' but her thoughts trailed away from what was to become of her for the night. The only thing she could think about was how no one was going to trust her, ever. She would continue running like this for the rest of her life. Soon enough, everyone would know of her secret. She would be alone. But why, if it was so bad of a thing, did Elrond trust her? It was because he knew that she hated her father, if anything, more than the next person. She had more of a reason than most, as well. He had killed her mother, given her a life equal to slavery, and brought her into this world without love, without hope, and without any proper reason to live. She might as well just kill herself right now. But she didn't. She didn't fear death, but she didn't really fear anything except living the life that she was just about to begin. One where she would have to live in the shadows. She looked at the sky. It was getting dark, she had been walking for hours. The clouds on the west horizon were a bright, magnificent orange. One the east, the clouds gathered into dark purple stains. It was like the sky was bruised.
She settled down by the side of a river, and set up what of a camp she could manage. She stars were shining bright, and she saw no chance of rain for this night. Ripping off a piece of flammable dark material, she hopelessly tried with flint and steel to start a fire. Giving up, she went searching through her pack for something useful. Grumbling, she pulled out some matches, feeling angry she had wasted time and energy over something so easy. She started the fire, then realized that she would need more wood if she were to keep it for more than an hour. She piled on what wood she had, and went rummaging. All the while the simple fact that her future did not seem more bright than her way through the forest laid in her mind.
She slept reasonably that night. Better than she had expected, in the least. She sat up. The fire had died overnight. There was hardly any dew on the ground, and she guessed that most of it had soaked in to the hard, dirt ground. She started cleaning up her camp. There wasn't much to clean, so the only thing she really had to do was contact Elrond. She had left the bracelet in her other pack, which was with the Fellowship. She sighed. Looking around, for the first time she noticed Sheba wasn't there with her. That was strange. Thinking back, Sheba hadn't been there all night either. Sheba hadn't even followed her. This was very confusing. She had thought that Sheba would've followed her. She listened closely. There was something in the bushes that bordered the forest and the riverbed. Hopefully, she went to see what was in them. Maybe it was Sheba. A few steps, and something small, feathery, and definitely not Sheba came out at her.
It was a bird. A canary at first sight, but a closer look, and she couldn't tell if it was a canary or not. It flew up to her, which was extremely odd, for most birds would fly away. It hopped closer, until it seemed to be close enough for her to see it was a canary, and close enough for it to see Rogue. As soon as the bird realized this, it flew directly up to her, and fluttered in her face until Rogue had nerve enough to put her hand out to swap it away. The bird landed on her arm, and stretched out one of its little legs, showing her something attached to it. At first, Rogue thought it was asking for her to pull a thorn or something off its leg, but then noticed it was some sort of a message. She took the thing off it's leg, and it flew into a tree, and started cleaning itself. For awhile, Rogue watched it in the tree, but then realized she was holding a message, and started trying to figure out how to open it.
It was very small, nothing that a canary couldn't hold on its scrawny legs. She found that it was a scroll, wrapped up in a protective casing. She pulled it out to reveal a thin piece of paper that one sentence in a different language. For the next hour she translated it, and found that it was quite clever to use this language, as after translating it, it turned out to be more than just a sentence. More like a paragraph. It was Elrond, asking why she wasn't answering him(through the bracelets), and if she knew why Gandalf wasn't answering him either. She took out a thinned piece of coal, and on the back side started writing back. She told him that her companions had found out, and Gandalf was gone. She couldn't write in that language, and could barely read it, so she had to shorten her sentences, and write very small, for she could hardly fit much. As she folded it up, the canary came back down from the tree, and waited patiently while she attached the message to it's leg. Watching it fly away, she wondered what would become of the news that she sent him.
She sat there quietly, for no more than a half hour, before she started hearing noises. She pressed her ear down to the ground, and heard a definite traveling of a large amount of something. It was far away, though, probably more than two hours travel. She wasn't to worried about it, she could simply climb a tree, and nothing would notice her. She was very good at climbing, she had discovered. Swinging from limb to limb, she climbed up higher on a tree she thought looked like a reasonable high one. It was on the edge to the river, so she could see if there was any traveling from the river. She squinted. Down the river there was a pair of boats, Elvish made apparently, and there were travelers in them. It looked like there were three or four at first, but when they got closer she saw it was the Fellowship.
At first she thought she should leave. But in the distance, the other direction, she could see the outline of something coming...
She decided to follow them, to make sure nothing happened. She knew now that whatever was coming was after them, but didn't want to be seen. She hoped they wouldn't catch her if she stayed hidden, she would just follow them as they went down river. Of course, soon enough, they came onto land. She still stayed far enough away for them to not have a chance to see her, unless they knew she was there. She did admit, they looked around quite a lot, especially Legolas, but showed no signs of catching sight of her.
She sat high, close to the top, of a tree nearby where everyone else was. She saw the movement of what looked like over sized goblins. She couldn't see under the tree's, and her ears told her more than her eyes did. She looked away, towards the river again. Turning back, disturbed by a noise that wasn't as far as the mysterious things in the woods, nor as close as the eight companions, she watched Frodo wander off by himself. This wasn't right. Frodo, the ring bearer, shouldn't go off by himself. She waited until he was far enough for her to follow him so he wouldn't be able to hear her. He went to a landmark that was somewhat familiar to him, but she couldn't quite remember the name. It was just before she got there that she realized that she, too, was being followed. Jumping up into the nearest tree, and waiting in the midst of its branches, she watched Boromir following Frodo.
She left, thinking that Frodo would be safe with one other with him. She soon found that the things she had heard before were making excellent pace, much better than she had first calculated, and were nearly there. Looking around calmly, she found another tree to climb(it had become a habit) and soon found one. Scampering up it, she took a quick look around, and saw a Lurtz leading a large group of two dozen or so. She knew this meant trouble as soon as she saw its face- with the white hand of Saruman. Leaping to the ground, and looking around to make sure no one was watching, she ran towards the group of invaders. Once they were in sight, she knelt down on one knee, and trying to stay out of sight, brought down three or four of them, up until they spotted her. She fended herself for a few minutes, until the Lurtz, which was the leader, called them to a different place, straight towards Frodo!
She saw Frodo running, not to far away, and the pack of wild, ugly monsters chasing him. Running as fast as she could through the thin, but difficult forest floor. Jumping over a root, she ran after Frodo, using her sword to block any arrows that flew past her, but needing to dodge most anyway. Frodo wasn't running fast enough, so she distracted them while he ran. She wondered if he had even seen her running behind him, but was quickly torn off the subject as an arrow came ripping past her. If she hadn't dodged it in time, it would have been a perfect death.
"I really have to stop doing that." She said to no one in particular, cursing herself for pondering about unimportant things in the face of danger. She drew her sword, just as the creatures surrounded her. She could not remember the names of these creatures, they had not been around all that much when she was growing up. She saw Aragorn coming up behind them, along with Legolas and knew that they could hold them off. Leaving before being spotted, she ran in the direction Frodo was going. She saw him by the river, looking like the end of the world had already come.
She knew of the powers that ring he carried possessed. She guessed that Boromir or Aragorn had tried to take the ring, and now he was leaving. If someone had tried to take it, she knew that it would only be best for him to leave, and immediately. Suddenly she found herself searching her neck for a whistle that hung there with a leather strap. Finding it, She blew it, though heard no noise. This was to call Sheba. Looking around, Rogue saw no signs of her feline friend, but knew she had to go to Frodo soon, for he was just about to leave.
"Frodo!" She yelled, bursting through the trees, just in time to stop him from getting in the boat. "Wait!" He just stood there looking at her with no fear, but not knowing what to do.
"Rogue." Was all he could muster.
"I know you have to leave, and you have to go now," She said hurriedly "But where do you plan to go?" He looked at her, dumbfounded.
"Mordor. Where else?" He replied quickly, but now looking back onto the obvious, found it quite hard to believe. She looked at the ground, not knowing what to do. He couldn't go by himself, that would ensure not only his death, but the doom of Middle Earth. Sheba appeared behind her, in the shape of her usual tiger, and she had an idea.
"Take Sheba." Rogue said looking at him to see if he would accept. He nodded, so she turned around and started muttering instructions to Sheba in a strange form of Elvish. In the distance, they heard an ear-shattering horn blow. Boromir was in trouble. Turning back to Frodo, she gave him a worried look. Leaning forward, she kissed him on the cheek, wishing him good luck. By the time he came to his senses, she was already bolting in the direction of the horn, and past the border of the forest. He stood there for a few moments, utterly shocked. His deep thoughts were shattered, as Sam's voice called through the air.