In the morning, they kept their slow pace and Anna had no reaction to it. It seemed she was bust suppressing the part of her that had slipped out the night before. To Aragorn and many others of the Fellowship, her outburst was proof of hidden trickery. Merry and Pippin were afraid at it, not knowing what they would do if one came aimed at them. Gimli remained confused about her; he was sure she was a kind of nuisance but that of a child with much warmness toward her family. She was not overly dangerous when you looked at what they were really up against. Now he was unsure if he underestimated her.

They came to the Argonath statues. He pride in Aragorn?s voice quieted the others as they floated past the monuments. Not far after, they stopped, just before the Rauros Falls. Legolas climbed out of the boat and focused his eyes into the trees. Aragorn came beside him and Legolas spoke. 'A shadow and a threat have been growing in my mind. We are not safe here.'

'We are safe here. Orcs prowl the eastern shore,' Aragorn replied.

'Mordor orcs,' Anna added, looking across the river.

'It is not the eastern shore that worries me,' Legolas finished.

With Gimli's help, Aragorn mapped out the course they would take after their rest. The others had taken a seat on the ground or going about some other business. After awhile, Merry noticed Frodo?s disappearance and Sam woke with a start.

Anna made eye contact with Pippin. 'Let's go find him,' she said. Pippin nodded and he ran into the trees with Merry behind him, calling Frodo's name. Anna went in another direction, taking to the trees at the first foothold.

The hobbits voices carried to the ears of the orcs. They heard and they tracked the sound. When the orcs met swords with Aragorn, Legolas, Gimli and Boromir, Anna had not noticed at first. She was above the mess and far from the combatants. Finally, she heard a clang and somehow knew this was no cautionary drawing of their weapons. She raced to the sounds, supplementing each slip of the foot with a branch in the hand. She found Aragorn surrounded by orcs with on reaching him before he had readied his sword. Anna unshielded a dagger, holding it in her hand while praying for it to hit its mark and nothing else. When Aragorn turned to attack it, he found a dagger pierced in the nap of its neck, paralyzing it from the world he was terrorizing.

Aragorn looked up. Anna was above him, giving him a nod before heading odd in opposite directions again, heedless to the consequences it had given them before.

Anna went on, sometimes climbing down to collect her daggers. It was by some desperate hope that most of the knives found their targets. Aragorn and Legolas had skill and had no need of the luck and stealth that Anna relied on.

Aragorn's sword was light enough for him to use in one hand to pierce the weak spots in the orcs? armor while his other hands hit and threw the orcs or knocked them out against the stone.

Legolas did not waste any of his arrows. He would push it through one throat, set it and then let it fly into another orc. None of his arrows missed its mark.

The horn of Gondor sounded. The swords of Legolas came out and Gimli's ax hacked at knees and torsos but no heightened resilience could speed them to Boromir any faster.

By some bond of kinship, Aragorn came to aid first, throwing himself at the Uruk-hai about to put his last arrow through Brormir's skull. Aragorn struggled with the orc, even using Anna's knife through the calf that he had plucked from another dead orc.

Anna came at what seemed to be the end of the fight. The orc had his arm cut off and a sword through his stomach yet he still was arrogant, undaunted by the fatal wounds. He could not be killed.

Anna put her hand to her hip but there were no more daggers there, nor sword or any other metal to pierce the skin. She had just resolved her mind and set herself to jump when Aragorn whipped his sword out of the orc filth and sliced Anduril across the orc's neck. Anna rested on the trunk of the tree, not wanting to come down just yet.

Aragorn came to Boromir. It was too late. Boromir's life source seeped from his wounds and all that came from his lips were whispers of vain attempts. 'I will not let the white city fall.' A last promise to ease the pain of a dying warrior with a failed purpose.

Anna sat on the floor of the bank, knees pulled into her chest, arms wrapped around them, feet overlapping the other. Her mouth was hidden within her arm, only her eyes showing emotion as she watched the deathbed of Boromir drift past. Why had she left a world of nothing to be plunged into things that were destined to be taken away from her?

'Hurry! Frodo and Sam have already reached the eastern shore,' Legolas said as Aragorn just looked after them. 'You mean not to follow then.'

Where was she to go? Chase after Frodo and Sam and become an unwanted follower? That was how she started with this group. Go after Merry and Pippin, coming closer and closer to her master's home? Or stay with Aragorn, Legolas and Gimli, stout warriors with heart of caution who probably still did not trust her. Why couldn't someone just tell her what to do? She was far away from where she had met these strangers and now close tot Mordor and Isengard. She could go back to her master bit she would need something to prove herself?

'We will not leave our friends subject to torture and death,' Aragorn assured. 'Anna! We may yet need your help.'

Anna took it as a command and popped up. She put her hand on her chest and then offered it to Aragorn.

'I am at your service, Aragorn,' she said.

'Good. Leave all that can be spared behind. We travel light.' Aragorn looked to the others. 'Let's hunt some orc.'

They all bounded away, Aragorn leading the way to the trail leading to the hobbits. Anna's smile shined, any shadow still lurking in the corners of her mind being burned away . . . for now.