Disclaimer: I don't own Lord of the Rings. If you see any characters or any of that stuff that you don't recognize, it's mine. The rest belongs to Tolkien.

Chapter Five

Ali woke up the next morning to Pippin shaking her. Ali groaned and turned over onto her side.

"Ali, get up. It's dawn," Pippin said. "Gandalf told me to get you up."

"Oh, come on, five more minutes," Ali groaned. "I want to sleep."

Pippin sighed. "You leave me no other choice then." He signaled someone behind him, which happened to be Merry and threw a bucket of water on top of Ali.

Ali yelped and quickly stood up. "Alright, alright. I'm up, I'm up."

The two hobbits fell into fits of laughter. Gandalf and Aragorn, who were sitting at the nearby chuckled softly.

"What are you laughing at?" Ali growled.

"Absolutely nothing, Mistress Ali. Except for maybe that look of horror on you face. It was priceless," Aragorn said, still chuckling slightly.

Ali sighed and went and fetched her bag that held her clothes and took a fresh pair out.

"I'm going to change, if that's ok with you people," Ali stated. And with that she went and sought out the next brush she could change behind. The pure nerve of those two hobbits! But Ali couldn't help but smile in spite of herself.

Ali came back out from behind the bushes and headed back towards her sleeping area and put her wet clothes away.

"So when are we leaving?" Ali asked as she approached the fire and was handed her breakfast by Gimili. She thanked him and sat down.

"After breakfast," Gandalf answered.

"I see." Ali looked around her. Aragorn was taking care of his sword, Gimili was eating his breakfast, Frodo was talking to Sam about gardens, Legolas was standing watching everything and Merry and Pippin were throwing stones back and forth to each other. But what Ali noticed was that Boromir sat alone several feet away.

"Why is Boromir sitting way over yonder?" Ali asked.

"Probably because of you, Miss Ali," Gimili said in between bites. "He was quite upset after that fight you two had last night."

"Well, he deserved it," Ali commented.

"Ah, don't keep grudges against Boromir. He's a proud man from a proud country and doesn't mean any harm," Aragorn said.

"So you are saying I should go and apologize to him?" Ali asked.

"Yes. And anyways, you're the one who's here to keep the peace, no?" Aragorn pointed out.

Ali sighed. "Fine, I'll go talk to him if it will make you feel better."

"Of course, m'lady," Aragorn smiled.

Ali stood and walked over to where Boromir was sitting, staring out into the wilderness. She watched him quietly for a few minutes and then taking a deep breath, she walked over to him and sat down.

"What are looking at, Boromir?" Ali asked, attempting conversation.

"Absolutely nothing, Lady Ali," Boromir said.

"Well, that's REAL interesting. I would think looking at nothing would be quite boring, myself," Ali alleged.

"Indeed."

Ali looked at Boromir, but he didn't glance at her. He just kept staring ahead of him, looking at nothing.

"Look, Boromir, I'm sorry about the fight last night. I can be a really big hot-head sometimes, you could ask all my friends back home," Ali told Boromir, but instantly wished she didn't bring up the subject of her friends, the memory of them chocked her up and made her want to cry.

"Do you miss your friends from back home?" Boromir asked.

Ali looked up at him a little surprised. She wasn't expecting that to pop out of nowhere, but she mentally shook herself before answering.

"Yes, I miss my friends. We always had fun together. Did the craziest things, but it was fun," Ali stated.

"What kind of things?"

Ali looked at him. "Oh, well, I don't know. Skydiving, swimming, rock climbing, stuff like that."

Boromir looked at her for the first time during the whole conversation. "Tell me, what's skydiving?"

Ali shook her head. "Nothing for you to worry about. You wouldn't understand if I tried to tell you."

"You're probably right," Boromir said.

"So are we back on common ground again?" Ali said hopefully.

Boromir smiled and nodded. "I couldn't be mad at you for long, even if I don't know you all that well. We could be friends, if you like."

"Sure. I've got to have at least one friend among all you barbarians," Ali teased.

Boromir laughed and Ali felt better. One laugh from him meant a lot.

"Well, we best be heading back, we're going to be leaving soon, if you haven't known already," Ali said.

"Yes, I s'pose we have to," Boromir said. "Oh, and by the way, Ali-"

"What is it?" Ali asked.

"What race are you? A hobbit?"

Ali stifled a smile. "I suppose you could say that, I'm short enough. But I'm with the race of humans, if you really want to know."

"And one more thing, how old are you?" Boromir asked.

"I'm sixteen. I'll be seventeen in March."

Boromir nodded and Ali got up and headed back towards the campfire. She could hear Boromir following behind her. Soon afterwards, the Fellowship was off again. Ali knew it was going to be a long way.

That day, Pippin stuck beside her, because he said she looked like she needed to talk to somebody where she could look eye-to-eye. Ali was grateful that Pippin was willing to do that.

"So are there a lot of short people around where you live, Ali?" Pippin asked.

"A few. But most of the people that I know are five foot five or taller. But there's enough people who are shorter," Ali told Pippin.

"Are there different races of people where you live?" Sam asked, who was also in the conversation.

"Nah, just us humans. Quit boring really, unlike here, you have all these different races of people," Ali said.

"I don't think it's boring," Frodo said, who was listening in on the conversation.

"Don't mind Mr. Frodo, he's always interested in the learning business," Sam said to Ali.

"And by the looks of things, you are interested in the learning business, also, Sam," Ali exclaimed, smiling.

Sam blushed. "Yes, a little, Miss Ali. But it's just mostly the stories. I love stories."

"But don't we all, though?" Ali stated.

The hobbits nodded and murmured in agreement. Legolas turned to look at them from over his shoulder.

"It looks like you've got those hobbits charmed to your will, Lady Ali." Legolas seemed amused.

Ali smiled and nodded. "It would seem like that, wouldn't it, Prince Legolas."

"Please, you should call me Legolas. I hate the 'prince' in front of my name. I get enough of that at home."

"And you should call me Ali and not put the 'lady' in front of my name," Ali shot back.

"Alright, then, it's settled. We don't put no ladies, sirs, princes, or the like in front of our names when talking to each other and we'll both be happy," Legolas exclaimed.

"Agreed."

Legolas gave a nod and turned his attention back up front. Ali glanced over and caught Pippin smiling at her. She smiled back at him and Pippin ducked his, blushing slightly. Ali just rolled her eyes and continued walking foreword.

Later that day they reached a spot littered with huge boulders and brush. Gandalf decided they would rest here. Ali dumped her stuff with a sigh of relief. She was glad to be relieved of the burden of carrying her stuff, for a while at least.

Gandalf went off and sat on a boulder, smoking his pipe thoughtfully while Gimili paced around. Legolas went to his watchful stance. Boromir was teaching Merry and Pippin how to swordfight with Aragorn watching while Sam and Frodo were cooking food and eating. Ali suddenly remembered seeing this scene in the movie. Didn't some birds come swooping down in a few minutes? Ali strained to remember. Dear Lord, she should have paid more attention to the movie more. It would've helped things right now. Ali sighed. Well, she couldn't change anything about it now. She would have to base her decisions on her instincts.

Ali wandered to where Pippin and Merry were practicing with Boromir and decided to watch them.

"2, 3, 4, 5. Good, very good." Ali heard Boromir say.

"Move your feet!" Aragorn called out.

"That's good, Pippin," Merry complimented the younger hobbit.

"Thanks," Pippin stated.

Then it was Merry's turn. He was doing really well. Better than Ali could herself. She can't even hold the sword right, for that matter.

Boromir turned to Ali. "Would you like to try? You do need to learn how to fight using the sword or the bow."

Ali shook her head. "Not just yet. You work with the hobbits first. I'm sure they'll become great swordsmen someday. Me, I'm just along for the ride as it seems."

Merry and Pippin's faces turned red in embarrassment at Ali's compliment, Pippin's in particular. Ali wondered why he was always blushing and acting strange around her. He couldn't possibly like her, could he? Ali just shrugged it off. It was probably nothing.

"What is that?" Ali heard Sam ask.

"Nothing, it's a wisp of cloud," Gimili replied.

Ali turned around to see what they were looking at. It did look like a wisp of cloud. Was this the birds that were supposed to come and spy on the Fellowship?

"It's not a wisp of cloud," Ali spoke up.

"Then what is it, if it isn't a wisp of cloud?" Gimili asked.

"Crebain from Dunland!" Legolas called out.

"Hide!" Aragorn shouted and then everything became a frenzy to get out of sight from the black birds that were flying towards them.

A/n: Hi, people. Finally got a long chapter out. I know this is an extremely cheesy story but I kinda got it at the spur of the moment and started writing it without a thought. Heh.

Nithke- Thanks for the review. I'm on the tall end of the spectrum myself, but I figured nobody writes about the short peeps out there that much. Heh. Glad you liked the story and thanks again.

Rachel Evans- Thanks for the review and I'm glad you like the story.

.- Sorry? I guess I can't make everybody happy. I don't know what a Mary- Sue is but if this one is, then I'm sorry, I don't know how to correct stuff if I don't know what it is. But thanks for the review anyways.

Tae the Dreamer-Thanks for the review! Yeah, it could use a bit of work, couldn't it, now that you mention it. I just wrote it at the spur of the moment, as I said. Laugh out loud. I've written better. Ah, well can't be perfect all the time, no? But anyways, thanks for the review all the same.