Anna got out of the tub and dried herself off with the linen towel. She dried her hair, wrapped herself in the towel, and walked back out into the bedroom to try and find something to wear.
Opening the wardrobe, she found that she had no idea what would constitute "appropriate" attire for the evening. There were a few simpler dresses, and some more elaborately decorated ones. She decided on a forest green silk gown with simple silver embroidering at the elbows, and white elbow sleeves that flowed from the elbows.
She slipped on the dress, which, thankfully was fairly easy, except for laces in the back. Almost immediately after, there was a knock on the door, and she opened it to find Lauriel. Her timing was so perfect, Anna wondered for a moment if she had been waiting outside the door. Anna let her in, and as she turned around she heard Lauriel chuckle.
"What is it?" she asked, turning around. Lauriel approached her and gently turned her back around.
"You've laced your dress up wrong," she replied. Anna cursed to herself, embarrassed, but Lauriel was understanding. "Don't worry," she said. "Most women don't usually do this themselves anyway, it's far too difficult." Tell me about it, Anna thought. After Lauriel had finished lacing up Anna's dress, she turned her around again. "Now, let's do something with your hair, shall we?" Anna groaned.
"You can try," she joked.
After about ten minutes of forcefully combing through Anna's hair, Lauriel pulled some of it back into twists, and even placed a simple yet beautiful silver circlet on the crown of her head as a final touch. She also touched up her face with what Anna figured was what people used as makeup in Middle Earth.
"Finished," Lauriel said with a pleased look on her face. "Take a look." Anna turned and looked at herself in the mirror in astonishment.
She looked like a fairy tale character, so much so that she hardly recognized herself. Lauriel had managed to tame her curls into smooth, brown waves. She turned to Lauriel and thanked her. Lauriel smiled at Anna's apparent surprise, and Anna thanked her before she left.
She took one more look in the mirror and took a steadying breath before leaving the room.
Once out of the room, she realized she had no idea where she was going. She wandered around for a while, and the light outside was fading. She already felt like she had had the longest day, but she continued walking until she spotted a short, curly-haired man, even shorter than Gimli. He also seemed lost. Before she could say anything, he approached her, looking very nervous and fidgety, not too different from what she was feeling right then.
"Miss?" he called out to her. She stopped, and looked at the small man. He was very short with curly hair, big blue eyes, and most noticeable of all, he was barefoot, with massive, hairy feet. She also noticed a golden ring hanging on a chain around his neck, which led her to believe that she had actually come face to face with Frodo Baggins. She had never really considered herself a particularly big Lord of the Rings fan, however she actually felt what she could only describe as being star-struck.
She looked down at him, and he looked calm enough on the surface, but she could sense the turmoil going on inside him, not only from what she already knew of him, but from the look in his eyes that was all too familiar to her. Looking at her rather quizzically. "Could you point me in the direction of the feast? I'm afraid I've lost my way." She suddenly felt her heart soften for the poor little hobbit. She finally spoke.
"I'm sorry, I'm afraid I'm lost as well," she said with a small chuckle. "You must be Frodo."
He nodded. "Yes," he said. "Just about everyone here seems to know who I am, and I have only been here a fortnight." She had no idea what a fortnight was, but she skipped over it. She let out a laugh.
"Well then it seems we've found ourselves in quite a predicament." she said. She found she was learning to speak more like the people there and using less of her twenty-first century slang. "Come on," she said. "Let's see if we can find our way there." He nodded, and they walked together.
"You clearly know me already," he said. "What's your name? Are you here for the council tomorrow as well?" She nodded.
"Yes, I am actually, although I don't quite know why." Frodo nodded again. "I'm Anna, by the way," she added.
"It's nice to meet you Anna," he said. "Although you are not the only one who doesn't know the purpose of this council. Many of the others whom I've heard are attending do not know."
"It's about the ring, isn't it?" she said. Frodo looked up at her in surprise, and slight fear as well, his hand grasping the ring around his neck.
"Yes," he said. "It is."
She felt a wave of pity for him then, knowing that he now had to fear just about everyone he met. She put a comforting hand on his shoulder.
"Don't worry," she said. "You have nothing to fear from me." He looked at her in surprise again, this time without so much fear in his eyes. "I know plenty about corruption," she added softly.
They eventually began to follow a small crowd, and saw the group of elves enter a large room through a pair of large oak doors. They walked through the doors to a large crowd of people, some seated at long tables piled with food, some wandering the room. Thankfully for both of them, they went unnoticed, except for Gimli, Legolas, and Boromir, who noticed the two of them walk in. She was about to walk over to the three when Frodo let out a cry.
"Sam!" he said gleefully, greeting another hobbit who came to stand beside him. The two hugged, and Anna remembered Sam as well. In fact, she remembered that he had been one of the characters she had admired the most.
"It's great to see you up and about again Mr. Frodo," he said. Anna smiled at the hobbit's unusually informal term of endearment.
"And it's about time, too," someone else chimed in. She turned and saw two other hobbits come around behind her to greet Frodo. "He hasn't shut up about this whole matter the entire time we've been here," one of them said. He had curly red hair, and was slightly taller than the other.
"Frodo," the other one said. "You haven't introduced us to your friend here." He jerked his head in her direction. Frodo turned and looked at her and offered a cheeky smile.
"How rude of me," he joked. "This is Anna, she just arrived here today. Anna, this is Sam, Merry, and Pippin," he said, gesturing to each of them respectively.
"Really?" Pippin asked eagerly. "Did you arrive with the elf from Mirkwood, or the man from Gondor? Their arrival was all anyone was talking about for a while - I suppose it's quite exciting for the elves to have the big folk around. And for us too," he added. "We don't see many of you in the Shire." Anna laughed at the hobbit's playful energy.
"I suppose you could say that," she said, responding to his first question. She didn't feel like relaying her story to everyone she met.
She looked up from the hobbits to see Boromir walking towards her.
"Well, we should be off," Merry said. "There's plenty of food here, and I won't hear the end of it until Pippin here has tried everything," he said, earning a look from Pippin. Frodo let out a chuckle.
"It was nice meeting you all," she said with a small smile.
"You as well, Anna," Frodo said, before dashing off after Merry and Pippin who had already eagerly begun to make their way to a table stacked with food. She smiled again, quickly becoming quite fond of the hobbit.
"I see you're fitting in nicely," Boromir said as he approached her with a small smile on his face. "At least with the halflings." She looked confused for a moment, before realizing he meant the hobbits. She nodded.
"Yes, they are rather cute, almost like children," she replied. He laughed at that.
"Would you care to join me for dinner?" he asked. She suddenly realized she was starving. He held out his arm, and as hesitant as she was, he seemed nice enough to have dinner with. She smiled shyly and took him arm, walking towards a table. She went to sit down, but Boromir pulled her chair out for her, sitting in the adjacent seat. They ate and made polite small talk for a while, before Legolas sat down across from her, along with a black-haired man with a scruffy face who looked rather uncomfortable.
"Hello," Legolas said. "It is good to see you are well again," he said casually. "Please forgive me, but I'm afraid I've forgotten your name," he said, chuckling nervously.
"Anna," she said. "Don't worry, I hardly know anyone here."
"Anna, this is A-" he was about to finish before earning a look from the man. "Strider," he finished. Anna gave him a suspicious look, but he continued. "He is a ranger from the North, and he has travelled a long way to be here." Anna gave the ranger a polite smile.
"It's nice to meet you Strider, I'm Anna." She looked to her right. "This is Boromir," she said, suddenly feeling as though it was out of line for her to introduce him. She looked over again, however to find him smiling at the ranger.
"Boromir of Gondor?" Strider asked,
"Yes," Boromir replied. "It is an honor to have you here." Anna looked at him in surprise. She figured the more esteemed people here would not be so humble in front of someone who was clearly not of a very high status.
The four of them were lost in conversation for a while before Anna excused herself. She realized that it was the first time in a while she actually felt happy. She was surrounded by people who, although she hardly knew them, somehow made her feel at home in a strange and intimidating place. Maybe it was the fact that she hadn't had this much interaction in a long time.
Before long, however, she excused herself, standing up and leaving the room. She didn't know her way around, but Rivendell was beautiful, even at night. After wandering for a while, she found a balcony with a beautiful view of the stars. She walked out and took a deep breath of the cool, crisp autumn air. She leaned against the railing and looked up at the stars, overwhelmed by a feeling of calm. She close her eyes, however, and the memory came flooding back.
"Where were you?" he asked in a rather harsh tone. She was surprised by this.
"I just went out for a drink with Rachel," she said.
"It's 11:00," he said, beginning to raise his voice. "Besides, you know how I feel about her." Anna was taken aback by his suddenly menacing tone. He had been acting worse for the past few days.
"What is wrong with you?" she said, raising her voice as well. "Am I not allowed to go out with my friend?" she demanded. He moved towards her slowly.
"What's wrong with me?" he repeated, becoming more and more angry. "What's wrong with ME?"
"Andrew-" she began, becoming more scared now than angry as he moved closer to her.
"You've been acting out for so long, and I've been putting up with it-" she started to back away, but he kept moving forward. "But that ends now. I don't want you going anywhere without my permission, and you had better answer that phone every time I call. Every time! DO YOU UNDERSTAND?" He was screaming now, and tears were beginning to stream down Anna's face.
"You can't control me!" she yelled back at him, all the while becoming more scared. Then it happened in an instant.
His hand moved so fast she didn't have time to react. His hand struck her face and, in shock, her hand moved to where he had stuck her. As she drew her hand away, she saw blood. She looked up at him, tears in her eyes, and he struck her again, this time with his fist. He continued for what seeme like hours, but what she knew was only minutes. He walked away then, leaving her lying on the floor. She didn't get up.
The next morning, she woke up, still on the floor. Before Andrew woke up, she picked herself up off the floor and left. She got in her car and drove to Rachel's in tears once again. A few hours later, he called her. He told her how sorry he was, that it wasn't like him, he didn't know what had come over him, that it would never happen again. Rachel didn't buy it, but Anna made the mistake of going back.
It took another two months before she finally left him for good. And she had been alone ever since.
A/N: Yes, I know that the feast didn't actually take place until the Fellowship had been formed, and it was the night before they left, but I placed it here instead. Sorry this took a little longer, but exams have started, and this chapter is a little longer, although this is about the length I'll be aiming for in future chapters. Again, please read and review!