I'm so sorry for the extreme delay! Good news, though, I got a new job and I can write in my down time! So expect more regular updates!
I apologize for not fleshing out more with the hobbits, but they've been a bit uncooperative, and a major reason why I haven't updated.
I decided to just gloss over them a bit so that I wasn't stuck anymore, but if you guys are really upset that I didn't put more with them, let me know, and I'll try to add a bit more in their introduction.

As always, thank you so much for your reviews! I'm having a fantastic time writing this story, and an even more fantastic time knowing that I'm not the only one enjoying it!
Keep'em coming! Huge motivator!
Constructive criticism is invited, ideas are invited, if there's something that you want to see that I didn't add, just shoot me a message or put it in a review and I'll consider adding it!
Same thing with questions or curiosities!
Enjoy~

Nightmares and terrors plagued the remainder of the night.
Fears swirled around my head at what might go wrong with the changes we were making, and that same honeyed, slimey voice from earlier voiced the majority of them.

After waking in a cold sweat for the fifth time in only a few hours, I decided to get up.

I felt stiff from having so little motion throughout the day, and thinking about what might go wrong made my chest feel tight, so I started slowly going through yoga poses in the middle of my room.
I kept my focus on my breathing, and whenever concerns tried to seep into my mind, I repeated the mantra 'No matter what happens, I can make this work.' in my head.

When I stopped, roughly a half hour later, I felt significantly better.
Lighting up one of my remaining candles, I opened up the chest at the foot of my bed and withdrew the map I'd 'borrowed' from the library, along with the scrap of parchment that I'd been copying it onto.

The next few hours were spent meticulously recreating lines and markings.
I carefully added in a few markings and landmarks that I could remember from maps I'd seen, before I was mysteriously transported to Middle Earth.
I made them dotted, lines separated slightly to indicate to myself that they were additions that might not actually be there.

I roughly marked major events with a four pointed star, changes that we had already put in motion got a five pointed star, and things that I intended to change on the way got a six pointed star.
I made sure to make them relatively small, so they blended in relatively well with the rest of the markings on the map.
That way, if someone else got their hands on the map, they might not notice the stars, and even if they did, they wouldn't know what the stars meant.

A glance up at the window showed that it was still dark out.

Elrond had said leaving today, but hadn't specified what time.
At least, he hadn't specified it to me.

I was a little bit disappointed that I still hadn't met Aragorn, and now even if I did meet him, it wouldn't be for very long before he left.

I hadn't met the hobbits either, but they weren't immediately going anywhere, and I was sure there would be plenty of time over the coming months to get to know them.

I checked the sky again, and was, again, disappointed to find it still dark.
Giving a frustrated sigh, I put my maps away carefully, making sure the ink on the copy was fully dry before I stowed it under some clothes in the chest.

For the rest of that night I tried to occupy myself, only to find that I struggled to focus, and nothing could keep my attention.

I tried reading, practicing my written Common, and even tried practicing both my vocal and written Sindarin.
As the night wore on, the struggle to focus grew more difficult, and as my focus failed, my exhaustion grew.

It was just as the sky was starting to lighten that my determination to stay up and go see the travelers off failed me, sleep finally claiming me again.

The terrors crept into my rest, as they always did, and I watched as Aragorn fell on the journey to Edoras, followed soon after by Glorfindel and Gandalf, ambushed by orcs that seemed to take no injuries, while a deep voice laughed, heralding our doom.

I awoke with a start to find the sun high in the sky, and spent the next few minutes trying desperately not to fall into a panic attack from the fears the nightmare induced.
When I was finally able to calm myself, I nearly fell back into a panic upon realizing that I'd fallen asleep unintentionally, and might have missed the departure of Aragorn, Gandalf, and Glorfindel.
I leapt up, racing to dress myself before quickly making my way out into the rest of the house to hunt down anyone who could tell me what time they were supposed to leave.

Arwen was the first person I found.
She was sitting on a bench just inside the garden, looking at a single flower that was held idly in her fingers.

She looked up when I stepped out of the hall, offering me a sweet smile.
"Alyssa, how lovely it is to see you again. Father has kept you hidden away for too long, you need more sunlight. Will you join me?"

As I walked across to her, I asked the question that was burning inside of me.
"Have they left yet, Arwen?"

Her eyes became a touch wistful, and she nodded.
"They left at dawn. I had thought to wake you, but Father insisted that your rest was more important."

A sigh escaped me as I sat next to her.
"I didn't get to wish them a safe journey..I didn't even get to meet Aragorn before I caused him to be sent off on a journey across the world…"

Arwen set the flower down next to her on the bench, turning us both slightly so that she could take my hair out of it's braid and comb through it with her fingers.
"You do not have to say that you wished them a safe journey for them to know, though I am sorry that you didn't get the chance to meet Aragorn. He was quite curious about you. You'll get to meet him when they return, of course. The weeks will pass much faster than you think."

There was an oddly knowing tinge to her voice, but her fingers soothing through my hair quickly distracted me from my curiosity.

We stayed like that for another few moments before my stomach growled.
It brought a laughing smile from her, though her words were mildly scolding.

"You didn't eat this morning, did you?"

At the shake of my head, she gave an exasperated sigh, quickly weaving my hair back into it's long braid.
"Go to the kitchens, you silly girl. I've some matters to discuss with my father, or I would accompany you. Will I see you in the Hall of Fire tonight? Music might help to lift your spirits."

My first inclination was to refuse.
There was so much to prepare, did I really have time for music?

Then I caught the faintly hopeful expression she held, and the refusal I'd been considering faded.
She looked hopeful on the forefront, but underneath, she looked sad.
Aragorn had left again, and while I was sure it was something she was used to, it never became easy to say goodbye to loved ones, knowing that they might not come back.
I was acutely aware of that fact now that I would never be able to say goodbye to my loved ones.
I tried to stifle a sigh, offering a small shrug.
"I don't know. Maybe?"

The hopeful expression blossomed the slightest bit, and she hugged me gently before pushing me up.
"Wonderful. I hope I see you this evening, then. Now go eat."

The walk to the kitchen was uneventful, and left far too much time for my mind to create dark possibilities for what might go wrong with our changes.
They could be captured or killed on the way to get Boromir.
Denethor could be completely crazy and try to kill Glorfindel, potentially causing a war between men and elves.

Aragorn and Boromir could kill one another on the travel back.
Gandalf could kill both of them, out of sheer frustration at their squabbling.

The dark turn to my thoughts was momentarily derailed when, as I turned the corner to enter the kitchen, I was met by the four curious stares of Frodo, Sam, Merry, and Pippin, as well as a kindly smile from Bilbo.

In that moment, I felt warm. I felt oddly at peace in a way that hadn't happened in my entire time at Rivendell. They were all laughing and chatting happily.
Apparently the cure to dark thoughts was five happy hobbits.

Bilbo was the first to speak, voice warm and excited.
"Alyssa, my dear girl! Come and meet my nephew and his friends! Lads, this is Alyssa, the girl I was telling you about. Alyssa, this is my nephew, Frodo!"

Bilbo rose, moving to gather some more food.

"I'll get you a plate, dear, you look famished. Well go on, lads, introduce yourselves."

One by one, they stepped forward to introduce themselves.
Frodo was by far the shortest of the bunch, standing a little bit shorter than Bilbo.
His hair was a warm mahogany brown, coiling around his slightly pointed ears and framing his strikingly blue eyes. He introduced himself with a puzzled, but overall pleasant smile.

Sam stood an inch or so taller than Frodo, just shy of being even in height with Bilbo.
His hair was a bit lighter, more of a dusty blonde, but it retained the same bouncy curls as all of the other Hobbits, framing light hazelnut colored eyes.
His skin was tanned a shade darker than the rest of the hobbits, revealing his job of gardening.
When he introduced himself, his expression was a touch apprehensive, though he still managed a warm enough smile.

Pippin was a bundle of exuberance, cheerful smiles, all topped off by a crown of dark gold curls, and curious blue eyes. He introduced both himself and Merry before running off into an excited retelling of their journey to Rivendell.

Merry remained silent throughout the introductions, watching me with scrutinizing blue eyes.
His hair was a lighter shade of gold, cut an inch or so shorter than the rest of them, and though his face kept a mild and pleasant look, his keen eyes observed, lighting on the small amount of skin that showed and inspecting what he could of the scars, seeing the slightly defensive curve of my shoulders, the downward tilt of my head, and the glisten of tears gathering in my eyes at the sight of them all.

I held back a shiver at his scrutiny, and allowed myself to be guided to the table by Bilbo and coaxed into a conversation about their trip to Rivendell, avoiding Merry's eyes the entire time.

Frodo, Sam, Merry and Pippin chattered to one another happily throughout the meal, asking question upon question to Bilbo, and allowing themselves to be guided into conversation with me with a few gentle nudges from Bilbo.

Pippin drove the conversation the most, bouncing from awe at Rivendell, to excitement over their trip, and back.
"Did you see all the elves, Sam?"
"I did, Pip! It's amazing here!"

"Have you been on many adventures, Miss Alyssa?"
"I wouldn't really call them adventures.."

"What would you call them?"
"..A series of unfortunate events.."

"Will you tell us a story, Bilbo?"
"Of course, my boy! Let me tell you of my travel here, from the Shire! I left just after my birthday party..."

"How long have you been here, Miss Alyssa?"
"A few months? It's a little bit difficult for me to keep track of time here.."

"Do we get to go on adventures?"
"..That's something you each have to decide for yourself.."

"When are we going home?"
"...Why don't you try to enjoy your time here before you look to what the future holds?"

Often times he bounced on to the next topic before we could get hugely into the first one, so I was quite fortunately able to give a lot of one or two word responses, all the while contemplating how I was going to ask them to go on the quest without scaring them so bad they ran for the hills.

I only managed to eat a quarter of the plate Bilbo had prepared for me, and when I pushed my plate away, he gave me a mild look of concern.
"Surely you can manage a bit more than that, dear? You're skin and bones. At least take an apple with you?"

My smile was a touch forced, and by the looks I received, the lie that came out wasn't very convincing.
"I should have told you, I actually ate a little while ago. I was just coming to grab something to take with me to the training yard."

He didn't look very convinced, but he didn't push, handing me the offered apple, along with a small, hastily filled basket of various fruits.
He handed the basket to Frodo, giving him a pointed look.
"Why don't you lads accompany her? You can see a bit of Rivendell."

Frodo hastily stood, taking the basket, and clearly seeing the suggestion for the order it was.
"Of course, Uncle Bilbo. We'll see you later?"

"Yes yes, we can talk more at dinner, dear boy."

Of course, where Frodo went, the others followed, so when he stepped over to me with an expectant smile, Sam, Merry, and Pippin all hopped up to join him.

The walk to the training grounds went far slower than normal, as I found myself bowing to their curious wims very easily.
I couldn't help it, though.
They were just so adorably excited, and seeing them like that made it easier to forget that eventually they would all be travel-worn and weary.
We paused to explore the gardens, detoured to look in the Hall of Fire, and generally spent the day wandering through Rivendell.

It didn't take very long for them to pull bits and pieces of information out of me about my unfortunate introduction into Middle Earth.
I steered clear of the worst of it though, avoiding and giving vague responses to their innocent curiosity about my scars.

In proper Hobbit way, though, they shared about three times as much information about themselves in exchange.
The conversation flowed with surprising ease, and throughout it all they offered small bits of fruit, while, of course, eating some themselves.
They did it so casually that I didn't notice I was eating until I was halfway through a slice of pear, and the basket was almost empty.

When we finally made it to the training grounds, they were quick to join in with my training.
Though, theirs had a distinctly more playful note to it.

They were all flailing swords and outrageous battle cries, interspersed with me correcting their stance or how they held their swords.
I had a hard time discouraging it, until eventually I was being chased by four laughing hobbits with wooden practice swords.

From that moment on, it was a normal sight to see me with a duckling trail of hobbits, and despite that my nightmares grew ever worse, when I was with the four hobbits, I didn't feel quite as tired, or quite as anxious.
The gnawing thought of how I was going to tell them of the coming quest would not leave me, though, and I found myself both reaching towards them for the light and warmth they provided, while simultaneously pulling away for fear of becoming too attached.

I allowed myself two days of fun and exploring with them, and then I started nudging them to learn things that would help them on the trip they did not yet know they were going to take.
I quickly enlisted the help of any elves who happened to be in the training grounds whenever we were there, to ensure that the four hobbits were learning proper fighting and defense forms.

Maeben was a huge help once he figured out that I was trying to train them.
He started including them in our lessons, working with us all in swordplay, teaching them of the plants that could and couldn't be used, and instructing us all on how to properly ride and care for mounts and their equipment.
They struggled with the horses, their size being so different, still, they seemed to enjoy it.
I didn't miss the mumbling between them, though, that they didn't understand why I was pushing them so hard when we were in such a peaceful place.

Oddly enough, it was Merry, with his watchful eyes, that I got along with the best.
He seemed to see that I wasn't just doing it for nothing, that there was a very real, though mostly hidden desperation behind my drive to have them learn.
He quickly became a helpful ally in getting the other three hobbits to cooperating with the training.
He found ways to make it seem more like a game than training.
He helped to motivate the others, often squirreling away snacks and treats to give everyone during the time we spent resting, helping to keep their spirits up.

He never failed to bring extra food for meals, and was the one who instigated the game of trying to get me to eat without realizing it.

Despite that they were now training with me part of the time, we only spent an hour or two together each day.
They grew tired and bored of it far sooner than I did, not having the knowledge of how much it would be needed.

It didn't help that I started pushing myself harder after the two days of relaxation and exploration with them.
This was not the time for play.

The whole world was at stake.