It took over a week of traveling to reach Rivendell. Ruby was sad that they could only camp outside the beautiful city. But she knew that if they were to reveal themselves, they would be sent home. If only she knew what was happening in there! Was Frodo all right? What was going to happen there that was so important?

To keep themselves busy, she and Azaelia set about plotting an invasion of the city's food stores. They needed a supply of as much food as they could possibly carry. And Ruby was determined to find a small pack or something for Azaelia.

After a few days' hiding in the trees surrounding Rivendell, Ruby was getting restless. She could sense a change in the very energies of the place and, as Azaelia took a mid-afternoon nap, snuck out to take a look around. There was an oddly small number of Elves about the place. She wondered if they were assembled for some meeting of or something. Over the past days she'd seen many different peoples-men, dwarves and elves, alike...

"Well," Ruby thought, "Now's as good a time as any. Off to the store houses."

One thing about the days at Rivendell-those uneventful, lulling days-that proved helpful was all the time it gave both Ruby and Azaelia to wonder and explore. She knew now exactly where to go to get into the places with the very best food. There was one storage room with a window left almost always open, and in there was all sorts of delicious things. She had even found a small pack there, probably left by some small child called away from a game and then forgotten. Needless to say, she took it, and made great fun of telling Azaelia that she'd have to carry her own weight from then on.

Ruby carried both packs and loaded them with dried meats, fat loaves of bread, several water skins filled to brim, and a strange flat bread that had, only days before, given Azaelia the worst of stomach aches...she had noted at the time that it was wise not to eat six slabs at one time.

Ruby's excursion went entirely unnoticed and uninterrupted for a good while until, in the sunny, warm afternoon, the ground shook and the skies darkened all around her. She held very still until all was clear again, then bolted back to her camp, deciding that the packs were quite full enough.

Azaelia had made a point of taking frequent naps, for she would need the rest when she and Ruby would again take to following the other hobbits back home…but what if they weren't going home? Ruby said something about a feeling she had; that the journey had only just begun. Azaelia pondered this. After a few moments, she saw Ruby rushing toward her.

"Do you know what that sudden shake and darkness was about?" Ruby asked, a little breathless.

"No…but I could have sworn I heard Gandalf's voice. Maybe he'd know what it was…"

The two hobbits sat in the shade of the trees, expecting the day to finish out as boring as all the others, but to their surprise, at the end of the day, a procession of people with backpacks passed by. That Strider man, another man, an elf, a dwarf, and the four hobbits. Ruby shook Azaelia out of yet another nap and tossed her pack at her.

"Come on, we're movin'!"

"Already? Can't I have just five more minutes?" Azaelia turned back over and closed her eyes again, only to be shaken more violently.

"AZAELIA DANDERFLUFF, IF YOU DO NOT WAKE UP THIS INSTANT I WILL MAKE YOU HURT SO BAD-"

Azaelia's eyes shot open and she stood up, almost falling over from the still-present sleepiness.

Ruby hissed again at Azaelia to be quiet, pressing the pack into her arms. Just as the group of nine disappeared from sight and the party seeing them off returned to the city, Ruby and Azaelia followed.

Azaelia followed behind Ruby. As soon as they had moved away from Rivendell, all had become silent. Not a single bird chirped, not a squirrel twittered. Azaelia wasn't watching where she was going and tripped over something hard and wet. When she looked down, she saw an apple core.

"You know…" She mused, standing up, "Sometimes it's annoying seeing, and feeling, the benefits of charity…"

"Hey, take it as a proof that we haven't lost them yet." Ruby adjusted the straps of her pack and pushed the sleeves of her shirt up a little on her arms. Despite it being mid-October, it certainly was hot.

Azaelia pouted as they walked. "Ruby, just what are we doing out here following them? Why are we going as well? I don't quite remember. I miss the Shire. And my gardens, even though they're all trampled and destroyed…"

Ruby faltered. Why were they following them? All she knew was that she was very intent on it.

"Well…we were going to protect them from those riders...but we haven't seen them in weeks." Ruby understood and shared the feeling of missing the Shire. But all the same, she did like the feeling of purpose following this group of people brought to her. "You can go home, you know. I guess I'm still worried about Frodo and the others..."

Azaelia sighed and nodded. "I guess you're right…I'm worried, too…and I feel like there's still a long way to go before we'll be able to go home. Whatever Frodo and the others are doing, it's important…I want to help them if I get the chance…but I'm so weak, what could I do against the riders if we met them again?"

Ruby reached around her and into her pack. She pulled something out and tossed it to Azaelia. "Elvish steal. According to Bilbo, it's powerful stuff. I found them in Rivendell." She removed her own and strapped it around her waist. "And as for the length of the journey...in a strange, morbid sort of way…" Ruby paused, unsure of the proper way to word her feelings. "Zaelia...I've been wanting to visit the world outside the Shire for a long time, now. I'm...I'm looking forward to this. I don't want to go back home, not just yet."

"Oh Ruby, how I do miss the Shire…but I have nothing to go home to! No home, no gardens…nothing nice, anyway…I can still remember hearing Bilbo's songs and stories, and oh, how many times I would imagine myself to be on one of his quests with him!…saving the world…being a hero…it all sounded so wonderful…but now I'm here, and I'm too afraid…"

Ruby slowed her pace a little so she could walk by Azaelia's side. "Hey, hey, hey, no more tears, all right? Being afraid is fine, no one's asking you to be fearless..." She gave her friend's hand a squeeze.

Azaelia, head bowed, nodded. "Why does it have to be that for your whole life you imagine yourself fearless? It doesn't make sense sometimes."

"I've never imagined myself fearless... I've always see myself running away. That's why..." Ruby paused a moment, searching again for the right words. "That's why I won't run away from this. This is as much a test of my love for my friends as it is of my own courage."

Azaelia sighed, smiled, then laughed a little. "You've always been fearless! Remember when that badger got into my house and hid in my pantry? You were the one to chase it out-or, well, it chased you out-but either way, you got it out of my house."

Ruby stuck her tongue out at her. "YOU were the one that was screaming, 'Get it out! Get it out!' and BEGGING me to hit it with a stick."

Azaelia laughed again. "See? You were the fearless one. You got it out of my house while I stood on the table and watched you chase it out."

"No, remember? It chased ME out. Yelling and screaming."

Az laughed, big and happy, and right out loud. Ruby, remembering where they were, sh'shed her.

"Quiet, dummy, or they'll hear us!"

Azaelia turned silent again, but could not stifle her smile as she kept her eyes on the road.

The days past and they spent little time resting. Whatever mission this group of people had been given, they were determined to complete it.

One day Ruby decided to try a little spying. She crawled into the bushes and crept as quietly and carefully as she could toward the camp. There she heard some most interesting conversation. Terms like "the Ring," and "Sauron," caught her ears, "Fellowship," and many names. Five of the nine she already recognized; Merry, Pippin, Frodo, Sam, and Gandalf, who was a happy sight, indeed. With Gandalf in this fellowship she almost convinced herself she could go home. But along with them was Strider-Aragorn, as it seemed. Next came the elf, Legolas, and the dwarf, Ghimli, and then other man, whose name was Boromir. She also heard talk of another enemy, Sarumon, who seemed to have been quite dear to Gandalf at one time. Ruby's quick mind began to put the names and terms together and a tight knot of fear formed inside her. She had to clasp her hands over her mouth to keep them from hearing her.

"This is impossible..." She thought, "Impossible!" She wormed her way out of the bushes and quietly back to Azaelia, right on the verge of panic.

When she got there, she dropped to the ground, breathing in gasps so faint she could hardly breathe. "It cannot be..."

Azaelia was peering over an edge and watching Merry and Pippin learn the sword. She giggled a little and had to contain her laughter when the two hobbits tackled the big man. Then the other man, the one Ruby had said was named was Strider, came to help and they pulled his feet out from under him. Merry dropped an apple on the ground and it rolled to where Ruby had just dropped, panting. Azaelia's face turned to a frown.

"What happened, Ruby? What's the matter?"

Ruby grabbed her friend's arms with all her strength, although for two reasons; to try and press the importance of the situation upon her and to steady her own nerves.

"Zaelia, something very, very bad is happening. Very. Very. Bad." She glanced to where Merry and Pippin were now wrestling the two men. "Have you been paying attention to that sword instruction?"

"Yes, why?"

"BecauseI…I think we are really going to want to be able to fight, too." She gave Azaelia a very Significant look. "As well as we can."

Azaelia looked at Ruby quizzically. "Why would we need to learn that?"

"Zaelia..." Ruby said in a whisper, "We're going to...to Mordor!"

"You don't mean…but why are they going there!"

"I don't know why...but it has to do with Sauron. And the One Ring." Ruby paused, looking around, as if just speaking of this would bring Sauron himself upon them. "Frodo has it. Remember Bilbo's old ring…?" Azaelia's eyes widened and she clasped her hands to her mouth.

"Oh my…!"

"These people...they call themelves the Fellowship of the Ring. They're taking the ring to Mordor."

Azaelia was quiet for a long time, just sitting there with her hands over her mouth.

At that moment they heard what sounded like birds and the camp of the fellowship scattering, and…hiding?

"Ruby, I think we need to hide…hurry!"

Ruby looked around at the birds overhead. Something about them was so...wrong. What were birds like that doing out in the mountains? She dove under a large rock, pulling her pack down on top of her. Azaelia, likewise, hurried under a bush just as the birds flew over the fellowship's camp, then circled over the girls.

After a few moments, the birds passed and the two hobbits came hesitantly out of hiding. They heard the sounds of movement above them.

"And we're off. Grab your pack and keep your sword handy, Zaelia."

Azaelia nodded her head and grabbed her pack, belting her sword at her side. "I hope we'll be able to follow them all right, it looks like they want to go over those mountains."

Ruby said nothing, only pressed harder after the fellowship. Up into the mountains they went, pressing higher and higher and into the snow. Ruby and Azaelia were forced to put the fellowship about a half a days' travel ahead, as they had run out of cover. All there was...was snow.

On one afternoon in the snow, a voice was heard on the wind. Snow crashed down a ways up the mountain, then avalanched down toward them. Ruby grabbed Azaelia's hand and the two struggled to keep above it all. Another voice was heard, in some sort of response to the first. Ruby recognized it instantly as Gandalf's. They worked their way up the mountain side, wanting desperately to catch up with their fellowship. Their fellowship? Yes, theirs. At first it seemed odd to Ruby that she would call them that; claiming this group of hobbit, elf, dwarf and man as her own. But it seemed fitting, almost. Even right, in some odd sort of way.

Azaelia and Ruby watched as their fellowship broke free of a large bank of snow. After a few moments those started trudging back down them mountain. Ruby grabbed Azaelia and leapt into a loose pile of snow, burying themselves in its freezing depths.

Azaelia shivered as she heard the fellowship passing by. They were saying something about Moria, and mines. The two hobbits waited for a few minutes after the fellowship had left before climbing out of the snow.

"Dwarf tunnels." Ruby whispered, comprehension dawning. "They're going underground!" Her mind reeled with old ghost stories of drwarvin mines. Was this change in travel really such a wise decision? Or maybe a last resort…? Ruby didn't know. She just followed.