The day when they finally departed from Rivendel, Leanna gave Arwen a gift, ten drawings of Aragorn, carefully scrolled and tied with a silken white lace. Leanna awaited chatting with the hobbits while goodbyes were being said. During the last days her swordsmanship trainings has passed without any other unexpected development than that of her ability. Now the weight of her sword was definitely comforting, the elvish clothes, boot and armor made her feel light and a bit embarrassed of using such fine clothing even though it was composed (...) Arwen had braided her hair that morning as well and bother friends felt sad of having to tell each other farewell. The bag on her back was also made by the elves although reinterpreting her backpack so it was easy for her to carry. So hours after when she knew Rivendel wouldn't be more than a point in the distance Leanna armed herself with every ounce of determination in her spirit and didn't looked back.

Legolas had explained her that they were headed South, along the foothills of the Misty Mountains. Most of the talking was being done by the Hobbits, especially Merry and Pippin fantasizing about smoking some weeds as they walked. Leanna had to stop herself from chuckling more than once.

Gandalf and Aragorn were ahead of the party. Legolas, Gimli and Leanna behind them, and the halflings walked behind with Bill the pony. Boromir walked behind the Hobbits to watch over them. She was quiet most of the time except for making some questions in a low tone to Legolas or Aragorn about the place they were. The dwarf would make a snarky remark everytime a chance came and she being a silly for jokes or bad sarcasm had to hold laughter, the dwarf reminded her too much of grumpy to actually take his words to heart.

The travel was exhausting but she was all too fascinated for the surroundings, even though she was a city girl not used at all to not having certain commodities or to walking and climbing that long. It was as if every day in those lands made her feel more alive, in fact if it weren't for having to hear the damn Ring's shananigans to the point where her head was hurting as hell she was feeling fine. The headaches were usually worse during the night, while the others slept her mind was continuously assaulted by nightmares and memories. She could feel a pair of small cruel eyes staring at her from her memories, a hand that reached to her, cold and pale.

"Sweet little humming bird come out, come out wherever you are, come out, come out so I can cut you down"

She opened her eyes and found herself in the middle of a battle field, there was no sound, soldiers passed right beside her, charging with swords, and there were some kind of monsters that reminded her of the orcs she had so many times drew at work. And the other appeared, people riding wolves as tall as horses, one of them stopped, and his rider turned towards her, a soft smile on his face even though she couldnt see his features.

"Sweet little humming bird, now you are truly mine!"

This time Leanna had truly awakened, and immediately sat, her breathing was hurried and shallow.

"Breathe slowly, my lady" Legolass voice was soothing and his hands rested on her shoulders, his thumbs drawing small circles through her clothes.

How long they spent in the same position Leanna didnt know, but eventually she was able to calm down.

"Papa Sven would scold me if he sees me like this" she muttered to herself relying on the half sweet memories of her tutor.

"It is not unusual for someone in your situation to feel uneasy about this travel"

"Well, yeah, thats a part of it" she suddenly realized they were still in the same position, his touch still on her "Im sorry I woke you up"

"I do not sleep my Lady, none of mi kind does, or at least not in the same way they do" she could almost feel a smile on his voice, and turned to see him.

Legolas nodded to the front, a few steps away Pippin was sleeping sprawled on his sleeping bag, and of course Gimlis snoring could perfectly be heard.

"Also it is time for my watch"

"It's okay if I stay with you?" she asked in a whisper "I won't fall asleep again for a while"

"If you wish" he agreed with a soft expression.

Every chance they had to train, Aragorn will practice with her and she seemed to continuously improve. Her stamina had increased a bit and was able to stand a fight without her hands trembling because of the weight. Even though the time for rest was scarce and quite short she managed to practice her drawing, made sketches of the Fellowship or the places they visited. That particular afternoon they were resting under a comfortable weather it was a beautiful clear day and the clash of swords was heard along with some interventions from the hobbits or from Aragorn himself.

"Maintain your balance" he reminded her as he pushed against her sword yet she didn't faltered "good" he recognized with a soft smile and Leanna was elated.

Aragorn had became a sort of brotherly figure and his eyes all too frequently seemed darkened by sorrow, she knew he missed Arwen and was sure that the longer the journey the deeper will become his sadness so she treasured whenever she earned one of his smiles.

The practice between them ended and next Boromir offered to train the halflings, and Aragorn this time was an observer offering pieces of advice here and there. Leanna went apart from the group, closer to were Legolas stood and prepare her self to make a sketch of the view. However her eyes diverted from the landscape to the lone elf standing on a rock, he was still as a statue, only his hair and cape tell otherwise while moving to the wind compass. His expression was calm, collected as always but his eyes told an absolutely different story one that spoke of someone seen far beyond, searching, eyes that have seen plenty and still glow with purpose, with conviction. She wasn't certain of when she started drawing him but just couldn't made herself stop. Leanna was so immersed in him that when his expression tightened to that of uncertainty and worry she straightened herself up and went to him.

"What is it?" she asked aloud following his gaze, there was something in the sky, a shadow like a bad Omen.

''It's nothing, just a wisp of cloud'' Gimli waved it off.

''It's moving fast, against the wind'' Boromir stated, now focusing on the sky as well.

"Those birds are giving me the creeps" Leanna brushed her arms trying to erase the goosebumps.

''Crebain from Dunland!'' Legolas shouted out

''Hide!'' Aragorn added an everyone ran as fast as possible.

Leanna felt someone pull her hand and was shoved between the bushes her body being pushed down by Boromir.

"Thank you" she mouthed under her breath once the danger had passed, he gave her a nod in response.

''Spies of Saruman'' Gandalf hissed as they stepped out. ''The passage South is being watched. We must take the pass of Caradhras.''

Something about that name made her feel anxious, and a bit nostalgic. The sound of a warm laughter made her turn sideways, and for a moment she wasn't aware of her surroundings almost as if falling into an absolute darkness.

"Is everything well?" Asked Boromir.

"Uh? Yeah I'm ok" he seemed puzzled "I'm fine"

"You speak with quite a different dialect sometimes" he said.

"Oh that is..." she fumbled with words, only Aragorn, Legolas and Gandalf knew about her circumstances but it didn't seemed as something she could go telling around.

"Lady Leanna are you ok?" Legolas questioned stepping close to them "Your hand is bleeding"

She looked at her right hand, there was a small branch buried deep enough to draw some blood, between the adrenaline of hiding and that strange spacing out she hadn't felt the pain.

"Oh" she looked at the offending piece of wood and then around, everyone had almost finished packing up "can you hold this, please?" Legolas received the drawing book from her other hand and so she went for her back pack, pulled out a small bag and a clean linen cloth, hold to them carefully with the wounded hand an took the back pack on one of her shoulders.

"What are you doing?" Legolas reached her as they reagrouped.

"What happened?" Aragorn turned to them.

"Minor cut, working on it, let's keep moving" she answered.

Legolas put the book in his own bag and they all resumed path, he still watched as she took out the piece of wood, applied salt an bandaged the hand, all along without complaining or stopping.

As they climbed the Misty Mountains, the road became a treacherous path along the cliff face. It was getting colder, Leanna was walking close to Boromir trying really hard to hide the uneasy feeling that brought knowing that he distrusted her.

Suddenly Frodo fell, and dropped the Ring she coul had swore the cursed thing almost jumped of the little one's neck. She instinctively picked it up keeping the others from doing so and hissed when the headache increased and her hand almost burned but still managed to give it back to it's carrier. Even so she stumbled a little when they continued walking and felt Boromir hand on her lower back helping her to regain balance.

"Thank you" she said sounding apologetic.

"I could say the same, my lady" he muttered almost ashamed, so lowly that she couldn't hear him.

Aragorn's questioning gaze was upon her immediately but turned to a stern one towards Boromir when he noticed the Man's hand on her back. She just smiled and dismissed them.

As they walked further, snow began to fall. To Leanna's surprise the road wasn't as hard for her as she had expected on the begining, her boots left shallow marks hardly a bit more profound than Legolas's when the snow was thigh-deep for the Men of the Fellowship, and Gandalf too. Back in her world her adoptive father would train her in self defense and take her to camp on the woods or hiking on some weekends yet this level of physical resilience was all new. The cold itself was more annoying specially when the cold air stocked directly on her skin.

Boromir and Aragorn were helping the halflingsl and Legolas had to keep an eye on Gimli without him knowing. The snow was at some point too high for him yet the dwarf was stubbornly trying to clear out the snow before him.

''Gimli" Leanna called stalling close to the dwarf "is everything alright?"

''Of course I'm alright! A little bit of snow cannot beat me!''

''But this isn't a little bit of snow maese Gimli" she said and put a hand on the dwarf's shoulder "could you please consider riding?" She said in the most soft caring voice she could and he hesitated for a bit, but then obliged.

"Fine" he huffed and she smiled.

Days and days through the snow. Camping below any remotely big rock they could find. Cold and wetness, Leanna took an habit of sleeping close to the hobbits and watch for them, or humm a tune loud enough for them to hear. The sound seemed to calm Frodo's sleep to some extent, and when she drifted to sleep two young male voices will cheerfully laugh and she could almost feel herself hugged in a warm an furry embrace, and so every morning she would wake up with almost frozen tears on her face and more than once she noticed Legolas's curious and concerned gaze upon her.

It had happened all too quickly, snow and rocks were falling upon them, they went as close as they could to the mountain wall. Leanna felt the strong pressure and soon everything went black.

"Hey, cub, wake up" she heard a familiar voice "snow is no place to sleep"

"Come on little cub if you surrender to laziness we will eat your rations, including the dried berries"

To this she opened her eyes and realized se had been buried alive. She couldn't move not breathe, her lungs were screaming in pain if she didn't do something she was going to die. So she struggled against the weight pushing herself back and up, and then a hand grabbed hers on the snow and pulled up. The fee cold air on her lungs felt painful in a wonderfull way and she held to her saviour with a strong embrace.

"Thank you" she pecked her saviours cheek half aware that was no other than Legolas and then stood looking for the others, apparently she had been the last. She hurried for the half frozen hobbits and gathered them around her in a hug the best she could they were getting kind of blue.

''We must get off the mountain!'' Boromir shouted. ''Make for the Gap of Rohan and take the west road to my city!''

''The Gap of Rohan takes us too close to Isengard!'' argued Aragorn.

''We cannot pass over the mountain, let us go under it!'' Gimli finally said. ''Let us go through the mines of Moria!''

"Let the Ring bearer decide!" Said Gandalf.

''We cannot stay here!'' Boromir urged. ''This will be the death of the hobbits!''

"It's fine Frodo, whatever you choose" Leanna said reassuringly.

''Frodo?'' asked Gandalf once again.

''We will go through the mines'' Frodo said finally, she could feel the tremor in his voice.

''So be it'' responded the wizard.

So... Happy Holidays!I hope you enjoyed the chapter, and the story so far. Thanks for the favorites and follows those really encourage me to go on with this story. Writing in English is very challenging for me and I'm still searching for a beta so any major or minor misfits you see, please let me know. Thank you so much for reading ;)