Author Notes: Hello again! I asked for reviews and I got them. Woo! Thank you all.

Crecy: I know! Me too, I'm appalling at archery.

Reggie Tuesday: Flipping 'eck, thank you so much. Three reviews? Wow.

Ruby the Troll: Thank you very much for your review, I'm glad you like my writing style; most people think I go on too much. In answer to your Mary Sue comments – I was very aware it was going into Marysuedom. Even though I tried to keep it as far away as possible, the beginning was always going to be kind of cliché. After all, it was either 'girl gets dropped into ME' or use some random OC from Gondor or Rohan which I didn't want because then there'd be even less chance she would have coped with the Fellowship. I promise she is never gonna fall in love with Legolas; my friend would kill me as she has dibs on him.

Now that I've done the cliché parts of my story, I welcome the readers to my weird twisted mind. You want original, you got it, although as my English teacher will tell you – whenever I write originally, some mythology has got to be in there somewhere. My author's notes will return to their usual shortness next chapter. So, enjoy!

Chapter 7: Crebain and Rapid

The Fellowship had been travelling for a long time now, and still nothing overly unusual had happened. It was coming up to lunch as, for the first time in a while, Raven recognised a landmark; an outcrop of sandy coloured rocks. The Fellowship soon was making a beeline for it and it was not long until they were getting settled for a short rest. "Err…Raven? How do we get down?" It was Pippin. Thanks to her boots, Raven had thought it a better idea to let the Hobbits, in pairs, ride Spider; it would make the travelling easier on them. It had taken a lot of persuading to convince them that they should ride though, and not a woman – Hobbits definitely were a race with very good manners.

With the help of Boromir, Merry and Pippin were soon on the ground and stuffing their faces. Raven settled herself next to Aragorn and got ready for the show. Sure enough, Boromir was soon teaching the two pair of overly energetic Hobbits how to swordfight. Aragorn seemed to be finding it hilarious, but was still encouraging them: "Move your feet!"

The show went on for a while, until Boromir accidentally nicked Pippin's hand, "Ow!"

"Sorry!"

In retaliation, Pippin kicked Boromir in the shin, and then Merry joined in, "Get him!"

The three of them were soon in a mock battle on the ground. It was very funny to watch, especially when the two Hobbits managed to flip the Heir of Gondor onto his back when he tried to break it up.

The atmosphere was then ripped apart with a knife wielded by Sam, "What is that?"

"Nothing, it's just a whiff of cloud." Gimli, ever the wise.

"It's moving fast…against the wind." Raven tensed, ready to move.

"Crebain from Dunland!"

With various cries, the Fellowship hid in a matter of seconds. The screeching of throats more raw than a corpse filled the sky as the black winged creatures sailed overhead. As it faded, Raven prepared to dislodge herself from the rock under which she had found cover, when a horrible, inhuman cry filled her hearing. At first, she thought it to be a Nazgûl, then, as she listened more closely, the cry turned to a laughter that made her blood curdle. Another cry joined it, Aragorn's, "Back, creature, or I will have your head!"

The laughter rose, and Raven heard the beating of wings accompanied with a howl of terror. Raven had had enough. Scrambling out from her place of hiding, she stood to see a horrendous creature, with metallic wings and bronze talons carrying Frodo up into the sky. Grabbing his own bow, Aragorn called to the other two archers of the company, "Legolas, Raven, bring her down!"

Three arrows flew into the sky. The first two missed as the creature dodged them in a blur, but the third veered off with the creature which responded with a thunderous cry. It dropped Frodo and caught the arrow before it could come into contact; at its touch, the arrow crumbled to dust.

The creature turned sharply in the air to face the Fellowship. It had the general look of a woman, but the clawed feet and ink-black feathered wings stopped any cases of mistaken identity. She focused her attention a Raven and then the Watcher child was lost. The sounds around her dimmed as she became encompassed by the creature's violet eyes, then, dropping her bow, Raven turned tail and ran. She didn't get very far as the creature was even faster than her; she was brought down in a midst of rock and feathers. Some reason came to her as she lashed out with her knife, gashing the creature's arm, but the attack would not relent. Suddenly, with a pounding of hooves, the creature was off her; Spider had kicked it off. In the second it was dazed, Boromir cut off its head in one clean motion. Detachedly, Raven watched the head roll.

What seemed like an age passed, and then she was pulled to her feet, by Gandalf, "Are you hurt?"

"I'll be fine," Her voice sounded strange and she refused to meet his eyes, "I don't think the talons were poisoned."

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It took a while for everyone to recover. Out of all of them, Aragorn had sustained the most injuries trying to protect Frodo. Frodo and Raven weren't perfect either, but luckily, Frodo hadn't been dropped from too great a height and the talons had turned out not to be poisoned.

For the past half hour, Raven had been staring at it. She knew what it was now, the Eye had told her. It was one of the three sisters; the Harpies. This one had been the weakest, but the fastest and had been named Rapid until its death. Its kind had given themselves in service to Saruman and Sauron, and they were an enemy of the Watchers. After informing Gandalf as to what it was, Raven went in search of Frodo. "Are you alright?"

Frodo turned and studied her for a second before answering, "Are you?"

Smiling weakly she replied, "Me? I'm fine, just enjoying being a burden."

"You're not a burden Raven, you helped to try and save me."

"Yeah, and I missed. I then ran away from it."

"All of you missed, even Legolas and he's an elf."

Raven looked out over the plains from which they had just come, "Maybe."

Frodo was about to reply, when, "Frodo! I want to take one more look at your head before we go on to Caradhras."

Sighing, Frodo went off to see Doctor Gandalf, leaving Raven to ponder alone. A soft breath at her side informed her that Spider had joined her, "Hey. Thanks for earlier."

Spider nuzzled her ear telling her she was welcome. "You know," began Raven, "I'm beginning to think they were right. I mean, that was just one enemy, what I am gonna be like when I get to Moria, or meet those white hand orc things by the river? I'll freeze up and die, or worse, I'll get someone else killed. Mum was wrong. This isn't meant for me. It's probably that guy like Falcon who's supposed to do this."

Spider shook her head, obviously not agreeing, seeing where this was going. "I think I'm better off back in Rivendell. Gandalf was right, the Fellowship should be nine, not ten." Raven rose to her feet, mind made up. Spider was clearly annoyed, but compliant as Raven mounted.

"Raven, what are you doing? We're not leaving just yet."

Damn. Frodo was back. She had hoped to get out unnoticed. "I'm leaving Frodo. I'm going back. Good luck with the Quest."

"What! But you promised you'd protect me! You can't leave now. I can't do this alone."

"You're not alone; you have Sam and the Fellowship. Don't even let it cross your mind to follow me, though I doubt they'd let you. Bye Frodo."

Spider leapt into a gallop and the pair tore back across the plains from where they had travelled only a while ago. As the wind whistled in her ears, Raven caught Frodo's cry to Aragorn, and hoped that if she ever saw him again, he'd understand. So that was it.

Nine there were set out from Rivendell, yet one returned.

To Be Continued…

(Mwah ha ha! Bet you didn't see that one coming!)