I've set a new record for myself; I slept until 12:05. I'll never hear the end of it because I used to brag about how I was such an early bird and be perfectly fine with only having 5 hours of sleep. I guess that's the price I pay for reading quizilla/fanfiction until 3:00 in the morning. Well, enough about my sleeping problems, let's get started.

Disclaimer: Too tired to think of a witty remark. I don't own any part of Lord of the Rings, whether it be the movies or the books.

Chapter 19 Recap:

She nodded. "Right," she said weakly. "You should go back to sleep Frodo, it's no short trip to Rohan."

"G'night," he said, and went back to camp.

Abigail, half-heartedly, returned to that tree to and focused on watch duty again.

'How long can I keep up this masquerade of my life?' she questioned herself.

She tried not to think about it, and just went back to scanning the forest.

I'll be doing a big leap here. I've decided not to spend too much time on the first part of the fellowship journey. Look at it this way; we can get to the juicy stuff faster.

Chapter 20:

As hoped, the Fellowship came around the bonding idea. Realization seemed to hit that they were together for a long time, and they needed to look out for each other.

Gimli had a newfound respect after seeing everyone's fighting skills, and everyone else found out what a talker he was. Gimli loved to brag for hours about the great culture of the dwarves and what beautiful gems they could mine. He was good for a laugh as well, though, so they could stand his boasting.

Gandalf, of course, had never spoken out much and he still didn't. But he also was never prejudice against anyone, and remained a friend to all.

Merry and Pippin could always brighten the mood, which was much appreciated. Frodo was honest and kind, but it was also plain to see he was very troubled and quiet at time. When he smiled, thought, it lit up the entire company. And dear old Sam was the honorary cook and always ready to scold Merry and Pippin for their antics. The one thing all four shared in common was their love of the Shire, which they would describe to the company many times.

Legolas was still the quiet elf, but they soon found what a marvelous storyteller he was. He told legend and myths with such detail, sometimes you could have sworn you were actually there. His love for elf lore in particular, reminded Abigail of Haldir a lot, which explained her desire to befriend him.

When the two were in private, they would talk about each other's home often, because she was the only one besides Aragorn really that understood elvish society. He confessed how he worried that his father, King Thranduil's, mind was wearing thin, and that the forest was becoming lonelier.

"I believe he will want to leave for the Grey Haven's soon," the prince said once," but I don't know if I will go with him or not."

"Why is that?" Abigail asked.

"I love my family and my people, but there are so many friends and places I value here as well," he explained. "This always will be my first homeland, and I fear if a leave I will always wonder what I am missing."

Abigail nodded in understanding. She had also noticed that the Lorien population had become smaller in the pat couple years. This talk with Legolas made her wonder if Haldir wanted to leave.

The one person, that surprised Abigail the most, was Boromir. After a while, his attitude seemed to change completely. He argued much less and took the liberty of doing things like teaching the hobbits how to fight. He was different towards Abigail as well. After that first night, she often took the watch shift that was right after Boromir's, so she could have those few minutes to talk with him. She never gave up on trying to get him to like her and it paid off. It seemed to take forever, but he eventually returned the kindness. Abigail couldn't help but think this wasn't all her doing, so she confronted him one night.

"Let's be honest, Boromir. You were the one man who truly despised me being here. Not that I am complaining, but what happened?"

He gave her a somewhat crooked smile.

"I suppose it's because you remind me of my brother."

This was not the answer she had expected. "Your brother?"

"Yes," he said simply. "Faramir is a silent fighter, like you. He won't scream or yell, just thinks about it and goes. He was also more intellectual, taking well to studies with studies of books and maps. I could never sit still during a lesson."

This was similar to Abigail, because she had secretly stolen a few books from Hadlir and put them in her pack, no doubt he would find some way to scold her later. Boromir had caught her reading a few times, thus he came to that connection.

"Anything else?" she said, regaining her thoughts and voice.

"He strives for approval of others, as well as appreciation. Mainly from our father."

That definitely sounded like her. "I thought your father thought highly of you."

"Yes, but only me," he replied solemnly. "I do not know what had blinded my father to Faramir, but if he does not realize it soon, their relationship will be forever ruined."

"Well, at least he had his big brother," she said hopefully.

"Yes, he will always have me," Boromir concluded thoughtfully.

Then there was the on person who remained a mystery to Abigail. After Hadlir's countless praises of him, Abigail was hopeful that she and Aragorn could become friend. The ranger stayed distant though, from her most of all. He usually talked to only Gandalf and Legolas, which hurt and confused her a little.

Then again, if she was carrying a heavy object, or having trouble with a strap, he was always there to help her. He was silent, but it seemed he was keeping an eye on her.

'Probably Haldir's doing,' she thought.

The 10 of them had been traveling for almost two weeks now, and were about halfway to the gap of Rohan. They had not been going at a grueling pace, but still stopped for afternoon rests from time to time.

Today they found a rocky hill in the plains beside the Misty Mountains. Boromir started a sword lesson with the hobbits on a lower part of the hill, while Frodo and Sam both worked on a snack.

Gimli, Legolas and Gandalf went to a high point and began to talk. Abigail went to join them.

"If anyone was to ask for my opinion, which I note they're not," Gimli started, "I'd say we were taking the long way round. Gandalf, we could pass through the Mines of Moria. My cousin Balin would give us a royal welcome."

"No Gimli, I would not take the roads through Moria unless I had no other choice," Gandalf quickly disagree.

Abigail felt the same way as Gandalf. While warm food and bedding sounded fairly nice, she would rather not be stuck in a plane with no moon, sun or stars. It also would be absolutely filthy in there.

She turned away from the conversation, and saw Aragorn sitting alone.

'Perfect time to catch up,' she thought.

She plopped down next to him, and started with a topic she knew he wouldn't ignore.

"So how are things with Arwen?"

He looked a tad dumbstruck, which didn't surprise her. She loved being random.

"How many people are going to ask me that on this quest?" he groaned.

She smirked. "Who else has asked you?"

"Legolas and Gandalf, but I suppose that was to be expected."

"Well, when you wear a sparkling, crystal necklace that was obviously made for a girl, eyebrows tend to raise."

He actually grinned at her.

"You ignored the question," she pointed out.

"You sound like Haldir."

"Thank you," she gave a mock head bow.

"Cheeky, aren't you?"

"You did it again,"

"Fine," he sighed. "It's a battle. Some days when I think of her, my heart feels lighter, but sometimes when I look at the necklace, I regret taking it. Then I just feel heavy."

"Do you love her?" she asked simply.

"Yes. She is kind, beautiful and she never judges me by my past."

'A great feeling that would be, to not be criticized by one's history,' she thought.

Aragorn watched her nod in understanding.

"But," he spoke cautiously. "I do not know if I'm in love with her anymore."

"There is such a fine line between loving and being in love, Aragorn. Both are wonderful feelings and you should not take either of them lightly," she replied.

He smiled again. "Are you encouraging me, then?"

'Damn he's gorgeous when he smiles,' she thought. 'Gah! No, don't think about that! Bad!'

She shook her head lightly. "You need to listen to yourself Aragorn, no one else can really help you. Advise you, maybe, but either way I am probably the last person you want to talk about love with."

"Ah, yes, Haldir said you were lacking expertise in that area."

She laughed. "It's partially his fault that I do. He won't let me near any boys if they're not my friends first, and he also needs to approve my friends."

"So does he watch over you because he knew your parents?"

"No, he never knew my parents," she said without thinking.

"I thought you said your parent's left you with their elvish friends?"

'I need to keep these lies straights, though I don't want to lie to begin with,' she thought quickly.

"Oh, well…um…my parent's friends already had lots of children to watch, and Haldir was such I good friends of theirs (the elves) they decided to hand me over to him. I didn't object, though."

She hoped he would buy it. He only looked at her weirdly, and thankfully said nothing.

'Why is she lying? What does she have to hide?' Aragorn thought.

'This is why I can't tell the truth. Even with stories that are suppose to make sense, they are suspicious. If I tell them the whole confusing story, they won't trust me.'

She looked at her comrades. 'If one person loses faith now, the entire company could fall apart again. I can't let that happen.' She sighed inwardly. 'So the lie goes on,' she thought sadly.

'Why do I hate it when she looks sad and helpless? Why do I feel the need to see her smile?" Aragorn asked himself.

They both were caught up in their thoughts; they didn't even notice that Abigail was starting to lean into Aragorn.

Laughter broke their thoughts, and they saw Merry and Pippin wrestle Boromir to the ground.

"What is that?" Sam asked suddenly.

"Nothing, it's just a whisp of cloud," Gimli scoffed.

"It's moving fast…against the wind," Boromir observed.

"Crebain from Dunland!" Legolas warned the group.

Aragorn jumped to his feet. "Hide everything! Take cover, quickly!" Aragorn yelled.

Everyone began to cover packs and put out fires. But Abigail just stared at the birds, in some sort of trance.

A girl sat high in the tree at night, just staring at the moon. Her attention changes at the sound of flapping wings. Moments later, a mass of these creatures dove at her, making the little girl fall out of the tree. As she fell she fainted, but Abigail watched as that girls' body began to slow down, and it disappeared just before she hit the ground. The birds started to disappear as they were blown by the winds. As if they had only been an illusion of smoke.

Abigail focused back into reality as Aragorn yelled,

"Abigail!" and pulled her down on the rocks ledge with him.

They both waited as the Crebain flew overhead. Aragorn's breathing was fast and worried. She felt his chest rise and fall quickly against her back. Abigail was breathing slowly and cautiously. Aragorn's arm was around her waist, to keep her from rolling away, and he felt how he stomach was barely moving with her breaths.

The noise of the wings had stopped, but no one moved yet.

The two reflected for just a moment on how well their bodies fit together, before crawling out.

Abigail couldn't decide if what she just experienced was a dream or a vision. A dream consisted of metaphorical images. They were pictures of what she was feeling at the time or some kind of warning to her. Visions were, of course, allowing her to see actual events as they happened or something in the past. She came to these definitions; because it was obvious she had strange, frightening dreams. But she also had that one vision showing her the hobbits.

'This could be a vision, because it was definitely Crebain who attacked that girl,' Abigail thought. 'But I don't get how she vanished, or what that girl has to do with me. I also have only had visions or dreams while I'm sleeping. But to have a vision while you are awake…doesn't that mean they are memories?'

Her head hurt from all this thinking. 'Do I get other's memories now. Or…or could they be my own? That girl was young, maybe younger then 12 (the age when I lost my memory). I don't know I didn't see her face. No, that couldn't be me…it just couldn't.'

She shook her head, determined to believe that the vision, or whatever, had nothing to do with her.

Again, she was snapped back into reality by Aragorn's yelling.

"What is the matter, why didn't you move? They could have seen you!" he scolded. He was half angry and half worried about what was wrong with her, the rest of the group noticed.

"I-I'm sorry. I don't know what happened," she hung her head. She was ashamed that she might of put the group in jeopardy.

Gandalf interrupted. "It does not matter anymore. This just means that the passage south is being watched. It seems we are to close to Isengard." Gandalf looked towards the mountains.

"We must now take the Pass of Caradhas."

'How wonderful,' Abby thought. 'I haven't seen snow for 7 years, and now I get to walk waist deep in it.'

"I hope everyone brought a hat," she said sarcastically, earning her a mixture of glares, chuckles, and rolling eyes. You can probably guess who did what.

Gee, I wonder how Crebain got in Montana? And now all you can stop bugging me about the romance issue. This should be some proof that I still want Aragorn to be a love interest. I haven't changed my mind.

Thanks to Reviewers:

Narnian Sprite: Furry-footed Frodo, that's cute! I always thought it was kind of gross how hobbits went barefoot everywhere, though (especially when Frodo goes to the marshes).

Chaos Queen2.0: Again, I'm excited to hear from a new reviewer. I truly am sorry for all the typos. As I said earlier, I wanted to use this break to fix all of them, but I've only done about 5 chapters total. Sorry again, but I hope you keep reading!

midnight-flurry: Yeah, ditto to you what I said to Chaos Queen about the typos. I am delighted that you are still reading though, so thanks for putting up with it.

ArwenEvenstar83: You have a point about the mind speaking. What I thought might be far fetched it the fact that she can talk back and forth with Nazgûl. But, I'm okay with it and seems you are to. Thanks!

To all my readers:

I know you all hate typos, and I'm sorry that I haven't fixed them as fast as I meant to. I do hope you can live with them for now, and it doesn't stop you from reading. I swear one of these days I'm just going to lock myself in my room, and I won't be let out until they are fixed. Until then, please enjoy the parts of the chapter that don't have typos, and feel free to keep yelling at me. I really don't mind and I kind of deserve it. It keeps my mind in shape and it helps me remember what you guys want.

20 chapters done, and so many left to go!

-MysticNight9