Title: The Distance Between Us
Author: NABELLETHEY (The Beffster)
Disclaimer: Unfortunately I do NOT own any of the characters in this story. You hear that? I don't own anything, except this idea which is the property of me and me only! But other than that I own nada...not even the computer I'm writing this on... :S
Summary: crossover with Buffy the vampire slayer and The Lord of The Rings at the end of season 3 in BTVS and just before the attack at Weathertop in LOTR.
WARNING: Angel is in this story and it will be B/A romance and angst. Any Legolas dissing is an accident it's just my personal feelings about him being a pansy coming to the fore.....if you find any unfair descriptions, actions etc. tell me and I'll correct 'em! I don't mean to offend anyone but spit happens! R and R please but no flames and stuff I'm a sensitive writer. (except to Legolas teehee!)
Chapter 2
"Buffy, are you alright?" Angel asked again when she did not respond. All she managed to do was nod her head, her mind still trying to make sense of it all.
"Angel is here..." she thought "Here being not where he was going...here being where I am, me being here as well as Angel...Angel being the one who dumped me in a sewer and was leaving me...I don't like Angel"
The man was struggling to pull himself up from the ground and Angel took the opportunity to relieve him of his sword in one sharp movement and reverse the weapon so that the blade hung mere inches from the man's face.
"Who are you?" the stranger murmured, dark eyes regarding the sword and then Angel as he moved cautiously to his feet.
"The name's Angel" Angel replied, his tone forcefully civil even as he kept his grip tight on the handle of the sword. The man stood before him had just attacked the love of his unlife, and that kind of behaviour just rubbed Angel up the wrong way.
"Who might you be?" He asked quietly, feeling the need to know the man's name before taking any further action against him.
"I am Strider, a ranger of these parts"
Buffy had finally regained some sense of self and stepped forward
"Uh-huh!?! So...um...what parts would they be?" she asked in what could almost be described as a polite voice. She kept her eyes on the newly named Strider, purposefully avoiding Angel's eyes.
"You do not know where you are, milady?" The ranger questioned, looking mildly puzzled.
"Listen, I am not in the mood for this" she shouted to anyone and everyone that was in a three mile radius of where she was standing.
"I have had a shitty day, I just had to fight the biggest fight of my life and I am certainly not in the emotional state to deal with being dumped in some kind of stupid medieval dimension! All I want to do is have a nice hot shower and sleep for the rest of the holidays..." then she started to shout to the sky,
"So if this some kind of joke, Anya, or some stupid idea to make my life any more of a living hell..." She stopped
"Buffy?" Angel asked carefully, more than a little taken aback by her outburst
"Sssh!" she warned "There's something out there"
"I don't sense anything" Angel said honestly.
A muffled voice was heard shouting from somewhere behind them,
"Put it out you fools! Put it out!"
Buffy froze as a piercing screech tore through the still night air, and before she could pin point its origin, a second shrieked in response, though from a different direction, and then a third. Buffy clenched her fists, her gut tightening with the unpleasant realisation that they could be surrounded. The mists around them suddenly felt choking, and the slayer longed for the cold light of the moon – and maybe the familiar sight of a few gravestones to put her in the right frame of mind...
"Nazgul!" Aragorn whispered at Buffy's side. The ranger turned away abruptly, and taking advantage of Angel's distraction, shot a hand out and disarmed the vampire with practiced ease. Angel growled, raising his arms to defend himself, but only to discover that the ranger had spun away and shifted into a battle stance, his head turning from side to side as he tried to gauge the location of his invisible enemies.
Angel shook his head, still at a loss. He should have sensed something coming, vampires did that. He forced himself to ignore his concerns and reaching under his long coat, drew out a sword of his own. If he was about to be thrown into another battle, he was going to be ready for it. He waited, sword lowered in a defensive pose and blinked in confusion as he saw four children running into the centre of the ruin. Each carried a small sword and three of them appeared to be protecting the fourth. Strider didn't seem confused at all be the presence of the youngsters in the potentially dangerous situation, and Angel watched, bemused, as the ranger sprinted towards them, barking terse orders and directing the four children to hold their weapons at the ready. He seemed to be their guardian, of sorts, although Angel was sure that there were child-labour laws that prohibited employing children to take part in sword fights...
Meanwhile, Buffy turned around, hunting for something to defend herself with. The best thing she could find at short notice was a heavy branch, and testing its weight in her hands, decided that the piece foliage would have to do. Swinging her new weapon experimentally, she got into her "you- messed-with-the-wrong-slayer" stance
"This day just keeps getting better and better" she grumbled to herself.
Out of the mist, tall shadows appeared. Large, black cloaked figures climbed up the steep sides of the hill, their swords drawn ready to attack. The battle began.
The 'Nazgul' walked forward, they towered before Buffy like...well towers. Evil towers.
"Protect the little ones" Strider called to Angel. Assuming he was in charge, and good.
"Sure thing" Buffy called back to him, completely ignoring the fact that he had ignored her presence all together
Buffy moved in forward, standing between the tiny people and what could only be assumed as the leader of the Nazgul.
"Hey there" she said cheerily
The enemy made to sweep her aside but hesitated. Buffy took this chance to attack, knocking him back with her make-shift quarter staff which broke on impact. Buffy looked at the two ends of the branch and shrugged, tossing them aside.
"It wasn't that useful anyway" she reasoned.
Angel attacked, his sword gliding through the air, slashing at the cloaked figures but having little effect. He made his way to where Buffy was, joining her fight,
"Like old times." He mused.
Buffy had started to use her fists, punching at her enemy. But when they hit their mark, a sharp icy pain worked its way up her arms. She yelped in pain and backed off from the wraith, gathering her hands to her stomach. Angel increased his efforts and soon made up for her absence from the fight. He heard voices calling in fear and panic.
"Frodo?!?"
He thought that name was familiar.
"Mr. Frodo?"
"Strider, help!"
Buffy rubbed her hands together gingerly, breathing deeply and feeling the pain gradually subside. Flicking her hair out of her eyes, she turned around and tried to gather her wits. She needed fire. Fire was good. Nasty things didn't usually like fire. Unless they were some sort of fire demon which she sincerely hoped they weren't. She had an epiphany. She groped in her pockets for a lighter. She didn't smoke but she had bought it in case all else failed in her plan against the Mayor. She would have remained in the building and dropped the lighter if there was no other way. Luckily that didn't happen and luckily she still had the lighter with her.
She grabbed the nearest branch and ripped of the already torn sleeve of her top. She wound it round the top of the branch and held the lighter to it. It didn't take. She tried again and the flames soon claimed the material. She swung the flaming branch and aimed it at their shadowy attackers. The creatures shrieked and backed away. She smiled.
"You ain't so big now are ya?" she bated, her blood alive again with a need to fight.
After much swinging of the flaming branch and a large amount of acrobatics, she suddenly realised that her enemies had retreated.
"What are these things anyway?" she called to Strider who was busy fending off attacks from a particularly malevolent Nazgul of his own.
"They are not living, they are not dead" he replied between ducks, jumps and strikes of his sword.
"Sure, okay!" she tossed her branch from hand to hand restlessly, scowling as she noted that her shredded shirt knotted around the tip of wood was now no more than a smoking mess of ash, the flame dead. The slayer had little time to do anything about this however, as her attention was drawn to the lead Nazgul advancing on one of the four abnormally large-footed children, hooded head inclined towards his prey and black cloak rippling out behind him as he moved. The child on the floor looked terrified enough to have been cowering before the devil himself. Buffy groaned as she saw a small sword glinting at the child's side, forgotten in his panic. The slayer bounded forward, her gaze fixed on the child and her entire will bent towards getting to him before the Nazgul-create did. She put on a bust of speed, leaping over a fallen pillar of stone – she would reach him– her feet pounded the ground – almost there, she had to save him – almost there – and then –
He disappeared.
Buffy skidded to a halt, staring at the patch of air where the child had been instants before. The Nazgul was still advancing, sword raised, and Buffy didn't know what to do. Had she only imagined the child? It just wasn't possible to disappear, was it? The Nazgul's sword cut a whispering path through the air and connected with something in the air. Buffy felt herself go cold inside as she heard a harsh cry of pain, and then all at once the child had reappeared, clutching at his shoulder and cringing in agony.
Angel jerked around at the only too familiar sound of someone in pain, and seeing Buffy stood a slight distance off, her arms slack at her sides in the midst of the battle, decided that his help was needed. Vaulting up onto a column of rock, the vampire used his inhuman strength to propel him forward and send him barrelling into the side of the Nazgul closest to Buffy. Angel winced at the momentary flash of icy pain which flew up his side on impact, then brought up his sword and attacked the creature with a passion, taking full advantage of its loss of balance. In another moment Strider was beside him, brandishing a flaming torch at the Nazgul and managing to keep clear of Angel's sword at the same time. The vampire smiled grimly as the Nazgul shrieked and recoiled, although whether from his assault or Striders, Angel did not try to guess. Whatever the reason, in another moment the black creature had staggered back, howling at an earthly-high pitch before springing off the side of the ruined building.
Strider did not pause to watch it go, but hurried instead to the side of one of the little ones who was cowering against a pillar whimpering softly. Angel left the ranger to take care of any injury which the child might had sustained, and directed his attention towards the remaining Nazgul. Moving first to Strider and plucking the flaming torch from the man's hand, Angel made quick work of darting in between the Nazgul, stabbing the fire at their cloaked chests and watching in satisfaction as they flew off screaming and writhing as they were engulfed in flame. Not a pretty way to got, but Angel had serious reservations as to whether or not the creatures were alive to begin with...
Buffy was at Strider's shoulder, her expression drawn but controlled as she tried to get near enough to the wounded child to asses the severity of his injury. However, other children had gathered around now, and try as she might, the slayer could not convince them to get out of the way and let her help. Buffy was about to give into her frustration and forcibly move the youngsters aside when her mouth suddenly dropped open as she studied the children closely for the first time. They weren't children at all, but just very short men – midgets or dwarfs or something like that. She was incredibly freaked out.
"What – what –?" Shocked, Buffy struggled to speak, but Strider cut her off.
"He has been stabbed by a Morgul blade" The ranger announced gravely, and Buffy noticed that he was examining a black sword in his hands, his lips pressed into a grim line. The sword must have been the one that the child had been stabbed with, but even as Buffy tried to get a closer look, it disintegrated in Strider's hands.
"We need to get him to Rivendell, only the power of the elves can save him"
"Elves. Right." Buffy could feel a headache coming on. "Just who are you?" One of the...very small men demanded.
"They are friends." Strider said distractedly, having about as much success as Buffy had had trying to manoeuvre his way towards the little man who had been wounded.
"With enemies like those guys, you need as many friends as you can get." Angel stated dryly, moving over to stand by Buffy, the torch he still carried casting dancing light over the surreal scene. Strider ignored him purposefully, gently but firmly removing the small men from his path until he could kneel easily over the injured one.
"Can you please just tell us where we are?" Buffy asked wearily. One of the small men – the same one who had spoken before, piped up to answer her again.
"You're on Weathertop, milady." He said brightly.
"Really getting weirded out with the whole 'milady' thing." Buffy muttered. Angel glanced at her consolingly, but it seemed that the slayer was purposefully ignoring him as well, because she took several steps away from him and shifted closer to Strider.
"Look, do plan on going to a...a village of whatever?" Buffy asked. The ranger whipped sweat from his forehead and regarded her briefly.
"We must take Frodo to Rivendell."
"Rivendell." Buffy repeated. "With the...elves, right? Fine, we're coming with you."
"We are?" Angel cleared his throat and tried to catch the young woman's eye without success.
"We appear to be in need of another warrior." Strider conceded shortly, and Buffy nodded, not noticing that the ranger spoke directly to Angel.
"Well then let's just go." One of the small men muttered, his face creased with anxiety and his good-natured brown eyes fixed upon his prone companion.
"I don't fancy waiting around for them Black Riders to return."
"Very well then." Strider grunted, sliding his arms carefully beneath the wounded little-man and lifting him easily. "To Rivendell."
"Goody" Buffy sighed.
She was going to be travelling with her ex-boyfriend, some weird dwarf-like creatures, one of whom was injured, and a grumpy man who barely said anything with more than one syllable.
They packed up quickly and set off into the night. Strider carrying Frodo, the other shorties close by. She hung back, realising something.
"Buffy we have to move, there's nowhere else for us to go" Angel reminded her
"What about you?" she asked, with more feeling in her voice than she would have liked. She was trying to be concerned ex-girlfriend, but lent more towards extremely freaked out soul mate worried almost to death for her vampiric lover. Oh God, this was not going to be easy
"What about me?" he asked, stepping closer to her.
She backed away.
"Dawn, remember? The sun will be coming up soon. And I for one don't want to explain to them how a man can suddenly burst into flames." She said the last bit to hurt him, deliberately not saying "I for one don't want the love of my life bursting into flames."
Angel picked up on this and was wounded, but ignored it when he realised that she was right.
"We'll deal with that when we come to it, but right now we have to follow them, we have no other choice."
Buffy nodded and resigned herself to a long walk and some very awkward situations.
Tbc v soon
Author: NABELLETHEY (The Beffster)
Disclaimer: Unfortunately I do NOT own any of the characters in this story. You hear that? I don't own anything, except this idea which is the property of me and me only! But other than that I own nada...not even the computer I'm writing this on... :S
Summary: crossover with Buffy the vampire slayer and The Lord of The Rings at the end of season 3 in BTVS and just before the attack at Weathertop in LOTR.
WARNING: Angel is in this story and it will be B/A romance and angst. Any Legolas dissing is an accident it's just my personal feelings about him being a pansy coming to the fore.....if you find any unfair descriptions, actions etc. tell me and I'll correct 'em! I don't mean to offend anyone but spit happens! R and R please but no flames and stuff I'm a sensitive writer. (except to Legolas teehee!)
Chapter 2
"Buffy, are you alright?" Angel asked again when she did not respond. All she managed to do was nod her head, her mind still trying to make sense of it all.
"Angel is here..." she thought "Here being not where he was going...here being where I am, me being here as well as Angel...Angel being the one who dumped me in a sewer and was leaving me...I don't like Angel"
The man was struggling to pull himself up from the ground and Angel took the opportunity to relieve him of his sword in one sharp movement and reverse the weapon so that the blade hung mere inches from the man's face.
"Who are you?" the stranger murmured, dark eyes regarding the sword and then Angel as he moved cautiously to his feet.
"The name's Angel" Angel replied, his tone forcefully civil even as he kept his grip tight on the handle of the sword. The man stood before him had just attacked the love of his unlife, and that kind of behaviour just rubbed Angel up the wrong way.
"Who might you be?" He asked quietly, feeling the need to know the man's name before taking any further action against him.
"I am Strider, a ranger of these parts"
Buffy had finally regained some sense of self and stepped forward
"Uh-huh!?! So...um...what parts would they be?" she asked in what could almost be described as a polite voice. She kept her eyes on the newly named Strider, purposefully avoiding Angel's eyes.
"You do not know where you are, milady?" The ranger questioned, looking mildly puzzled.
"Listen, I am not in the mood for this" she shouted to anyone and everyone that was in a three mile radius of where she was standing.
"I have had a shitty day, I just had to fight the biggest fight of my life and I am certainly not in the emotional state to deal with being dumped in some kind of stupid medieval dimension! All I want to do is have a nice hot shower and sleep for the rest of the holidays..." then she started to shout to the sky,
"So if this some kind of joke, Anya, or some stupid idea to make my life any more of a living hell..." She stopped
"Buffy?" Angel asked carefully, more than a little taken aback by her outburst
"Sssh!" she warned "There's something out there"
"I don't sense anything" Angel said honestly.
A muffled voice was heard shouting from somewhere behind them,
"Put it out you fools! Put it out!"
Buffy froze as a piercing screech tore through the still night air, and before she could pin point its origin, a second shrieked in response, though from a different direction, and then a third. Buffy clenched her fists, her gut tightening with the unpleasant realisation that they could be surrounded. The mists around them suddenly felt choking, and the slayer longed for the cold light of the moon – and maybe the familiar sight of a few gravestones to put her in the right frame of mind...
"Nazgul!" Aragorn whispered at Buffy's side. The ranger turned away abruptly, and taking advantage of Angel's distraction, shot a hand out and disarmed the vampire with practiced ease. Angel growled, raising his arms to defend himself, but only to discover that the ranger had spun away and shifted into a battle stance, his head turning from side to side as he tried to gauge the location of his invisible enemies.
Angel shook his head, still at a loss. He should have sensed something coming, vampires did that. He forced himself to ignore his concerns and reaching under his long coat, drew out a sword of his own. If he was about to be thrown into another battle, he was going to be ready for it. He waited, sword lowered in a defensive pose and blinked in confusion as he saw four children running into the centre of the ruin. Each carried a small sword and three of them appeared to be protecting the fourth. Strider didn't seem confused at all be the presence of the youngsters in the potentially dangerous situation, and Angel watched, bemused, as the ranger sprinted towards them, barking terse orders and directing the four children to hold their weapons at the ready. He seemed to be their guardian, of sorts, although Angel was sure that there were child-labour laws that prohibited employing children to take part in sword fights...
Meanwhile, Buffy turned around, hunting for something to defend herself with. The best thing she could find at short notice was a heavy branch, and testing its weight in her hands, decided that the piece foliage would have to do. Swinging her new weapon experimentally, she got into her "you- messed-with-the-wrong-slayer" stance
"This day just keeps getting better and better" she grumbled to herself.
Out of the mist, tall shadows appeared. Large, black cloaked figures climbed up the steep sides of the hill, their swords drawn ready to attack. The battle began.
The 'Nazgul' walked forward, they towered before Buffy like...well towers. Evil towers.
"Protect the little ones" Strider called to Angel. Assuming he was in charge, and good.
"Sure thing" Buffy called back to him, completely ignoring the fact that he had ignored her presence all together
Buffy moved in forward, standing between the tiny people and what could only be assumed as the leader of the Nazgul.
"Hey there" she said cheerily
The enemy made to sweep her aside but hesitated. Buffy took this chance to attack, knocking him back with her make-shift quarter staff which broke on impact. Buffy looked at the two ends of the branch and shrugged, tossing them aside.
"It wasn't that useful anyway" she reasoned.
Angel attacked, his sword gliding through the air, slashing at the cloaked figures but having little effect. He made his way to where Buffy was, joining her fight,
"Like old times." He mused.
Buffy had started to use her fists, punching at her enemy. But when they hit their mark, a sharp icy pain worked its way up her arms. She yelped in pain and backed off from the wraith, gathering her hands to her stomach. Angel increased his efforts and soon made up for her absence from the fight. He heard voices calling in fear and panic.
"Frodo?!?"
He thought that name was familiar.
"Mr. Frodo?"
"Strider, help!"
Buffy rubbed her hands together gingerly, breathing deeply and feeling the pain gradually subside. Flicking her hair out of her eyes, she turned around and tried to gather her wits. She needed fire. Fire was good. Nasty things didn't usually like fire. Unless they were some sort of fire demon which she sincerely hoped they weren't. She had an epiphany. She groped in her pockets for a lighter. She didn't smoke but she had bought it in case all else failed in her plan against the Mayor. She would have remained in the building and dropped the lighter if there was no other way. Luckily that didn't happen and luckily she still had the lighter with her.
She grabbed the nearest branch and ripped of the already torn sleeve of her top. She wound it round the top of the branch and held the lighter to it. It didn't take. She tried again and the flames soon claimed the material. She swung the flaming branch and aimed it at their shadowy attackers. The creatures shrieked and backed away. She smiled.
"You ain't so big now are ya?" she bated, her blood alive again with a need to fight.
After much swinging of the flaming branch and a large amount of acrobatics, she suddenly realised that her enemies had retreated.
"What are these things anyway?" she called to Strider who was busy fending off attacks from a particularly malevolent Nazgul of his own.
"They are not living, they are not dead" he replied between ducks, jumps and strikes of his sword.
"Sure, okay!" she tossed her branch from hand to hand restlessly, scowling as she noted that her shredded shirt knotted around the tip of wood was now no more than a smoking mess of ash, the flame dead. The slayer had little time to do anything about this however, as her attention was drawn to the lead Nazgul advancing on one of the four abnormally large-footed children, hooded head inclined towards his prey and black cloak rippling out behind him as he moved. The child on the floor looked terrified enough to have been cowering before the devil himself. Buffy groaned as she saw a small sword glinting at the child's side, forgotten in his panic. The slayer bounded forward, her gaze fixed on the child and her entire will bent towards getting to him before the Nazgul-create did. She put on a bust of speed, leaping over a fallen pillar of stone – she would reach him– her feet pounded the ground – almost there, she had to save him – almost there – and then –
He disappeared.
Buffy skidded to a halt, staring at the patch of air where the child had been instants before. The Nazgul was still advancing, sword raised, and Buffy didn't know what to do. Had she only imagined the child? It just wasn't possible to disappear, was it? The Nazgul's sword cut a whispering path through the air and connected with something in the air. Buffy felt herself go cold inside as she heard a harsh cry of pain, and then all at once the child had reappeared, clutching at his shoulder and cringing in agony.
Angel jerked around at the only too familiar sound of someone in pain, and seeing Buffy stood a slight distance off, her arms slack at her sides in the midst of the battle, decided that his help was needed. Vaulting up onto a column of rock, the vampire used his inhuman strength to propel him forward and send him barrelling into the side of the Nazgul closest to Buffy. Angel winced at the momentary flash of icy pain which flew up his side on impact, then brought up his sword and attacked the creature with a passion, taking full advantage of its loss of balance. In another moment Strider was beside him, brandishing a flaming torch at the Nazgul and managing to keep clear of Angel's sword at the same time. The vampire smiled grimly as the Nazgul shrieked and recoiled, although whether from his assault or Striders, Angel did not try to guess. Whatever the reason, in another moment the black creature had staggered back, howling at an earthly-high pitch before springing off the side of the ruined building.
Strider did not pause to watch it go, but hurried instead to the side of one of the little ones who was cowering against a pillar whimpering softly. Angel left the ranger to take care of any injury which the child might had sustained, and directed his attention towards the remaining Nazgul. Moving first to Strider and plucking the flaming torch from the man's hand, Angel made quick work of darting in between the Nazgul, stabbing the fire at their cloaked chests and watching in satisfaction as they flew off screaming and writhing as they were engulfed in flame. Not a pretty way to got, but Angel had serious reservations as to whether or not the creatures were alive to begin with...
Buffy was at Strider's shoulder, her expression drawn but controlled as she tried to get near enough to the wounded child to asses the severity of his injury. However, other children had gathered around now, and try as she might, the slayer could not convince them to get out of the way and let her help. Buffy was about to give into her frustration and forcibly move the youngsters aside when her mouth suddenly dropped open as she studied the children closely for the first time. They weren't children at all, but just very short men – midgets or dwarfs or something like that. She was incredibly freaked out.
"What – what –?" Shocked, Buffy struggled to speak, but Strider cut her off.
"He has been stabbed by a Morgul blade" The ranger announced gravely, and Buffy noticed that he was examining a black sword in his hands, his lips pressed into a grim line. The sword must have been the one that the child had been stabbed with, but even as Buffy tried to get a closer look, it disintegrated in Strider's hands.
"We need to get him to Rivendell, only the power of the elves can save him"
"Elves. Right." Buffy could feel a headache coming on. "Just who are you?" One of the...very small men demanded.
"They are friends." Strider said distractedly, having about as much success as Buffy had had trying to manoeuvre his way towards the little man who had been wounded.
"With enemies like those guys, you need as many friends as you can get." Angel stated dryly, moving over to stand by Buffy, the torch he still carried casting dancing light over the surreal scene. Strider ignored him purposefully, gently but firmly removing the small men from his path until he could kneel easily over the injured one.
"Can you please just tell us where we are?" Buffy asked wearily. One of the small men – the same one who had spoken before, piped up to answer her again.
"You're on Weathertop, milady." He said brightly.
"Really getting weirded out with the whole 'milady' thing." Buffy muttered. Angel glanced at her consolingly, but it seemed that the slayer was purposefully ignoring him as well, because she took several steps away from him and shifted closer to Strider.
"Look, do plan on going to a...a village of whatever?" Buffy asked. The ranger whipped sweat from his forehead and regarded her briefly.
"We must take Frodo to Rivendell."
"Rivendell." Buffy repeated. "With the...elves, right? Fine, we're coming with you."
"We are?" Angel cleared his throat and tried to catch the young woman's eye without success.
"We appear to be in need of another warrior." Strider conceded shortly, and Buffy nodded, not noticing that the ranger spoke directly to Angel.
"Well then let's just go." One of the small men muttered, his face creased with anxiety and his good-natured brown eyes fixed upon his prone companion.
"I don't fancy waiting around for them Black Riders to return."
"Very well then." Strider grunted, sliding his arms carefully beneath the wounded little-man and lifting him easily. "To Rivendell."
"Goody" Buffy sighed.
She was going to be travelling with her ex-boyfriend, some weird dwarf-like creatures, one of whom was injured, and a grumpy man who barely said anything with more than one syllable.
They packed up quickly and set off into the night. Strider carrying Frodo, the other shorties close by. She hung back, realising something.
"Buffy we have to move, there's nowhere else for us to go" Angel reminded her
"What about you?" she asked, with more feeling in her voice than she would have liked. She was trying to be concerned ex-girlfriend, but lent more towards extremely freaked out soul mate worried almost to death for her vampiric lover. Oh God, this was not going to be easy
"What about me?" he asked, stepping closer to her.
She backed away.
"Dawn, remember? The sun will be coming up soon. And I for one don't want to explain to them how a man can suddenly burst into flames." She said the last bit to hurt him, deliberately not saying "I for one don't want the love of my life bursting into flames."
Angel picked up on this and was wounded, but ignored it when he realised that she was right.
"We'll deal with that when we come to it, but right now we have to follow them, we have no other choice."
Buffy nodded and resigned herself to a long walk and some very awkward situations.
Tbc v soon