The days mixed together in a cloud of exhaustion as the Fellowship marched on with little rest. Victoria got to know everyone better; everyone except Boromir was friendly and talked with her. He was nice enough to everyone else- just not her. Even Legolas talked to her; although conversations with the elf only consisted of her asking a question and him answering, but it was an obvious improvement.
Merry and Pippin continued to bombard her with questions, making her explain every little thing from microwaves to mechanical pencils. Frodo and Sam spoke to her rarely, but mostly stuck together, preferring to speak amongst themselves. On the ninth day after starting their journey, they had just finished crossing a slow moving river, when the two hobbits asked her yet another question.
"So what do you do for fun?" Pippin asked.
"Well, I like to draw, read, go shopping, or watch television."
"What's television?" Merry piped up.
"It's like a moving picture that tells a story. There are many movies and television shows in my world, all with different stories to tell." she explained.
"How do you make them?" Merry asked enthusiastically.
"Um…ok, first you have to take the idea of a story, then choose the way you want to make it. You can use a camera, which is sort of like a visual recorder, or animation. After that, you can put in sounds and voices, and then you can share the movie on a television." Victoria answered, trying to put the subject into it's simplest form.
"Wait, what's ain-ee-may-shun?" Pippin asked.
Now she was stuck. 'How do you explain computer generated images to a hobbit from another world, who has never even heard of electricity?' Victoria thought about the question for a full two minutes. When she spoke again she had sat down, notebook in hand. The Fellowship had stopped for dinner and while Sam and Frodo prepared the stew, Victoria called Pippin and Merry over to her spot on the grass.
In her notebook, she had drawn one stick figure per page, each with a slightly different position. She flipped the pages with her thumb, making it look like the figure was moving. Merry and Pippin's faces lit up as if they were children who had just found a boatload of candy.
"And that's basically animation, you can draw whatever you want and make it 'come alive' in the movie." Victoria said, "That's what I do!"
Merry's expression turned from amazed to confused "Do for what?"
"For work; I have a job as an animator." she explained.
At this point the rest of the Fellowship had sat down next to the hobbits, and was listening to their conversation. Aragorn passed Victoria up a bowl of beef stew, and she was very thankful for it. A full day of non-stop trekking can really work up an appetite.
"You work?!" Aragorn said, astounded.
"Yeah, just like everyone else in my world." she replied.
"Do you mean to tell us that women in your world, have jobs?!" Legolas added, looking quite surprised.
"Yes, what's wrong with that?"
"It's improper." Legolas stated firmly.
Victoria was taken aback at this comment, 'How annoying can this elf get?' she felt like pouring the boiling hot stew she was holding, over his oh-so-perfect platinum hair. On the other hand, she didn't want to waste Sam's cooking, so she resorted to verbal attack instead.
"So it's improper for me to be on this quest with you guys, working?" she snapped, "No, it's not improper for a woman to work, if anything it's a good thing!"
Legolas cast his eyes down and continued to eat. Victoria did the same. There was an awkward few minutes of silence before Pippin finished his mouthful of food, and spoke up again.
"So what do you do with the money?" the hobbit asked.
"I pay bills," she stated simply, starting to get fed up.
"What are bills?" Merry spoke up.
Victoria explained them as simply as possible, feeling as if she was talking to two unruly children.
"Most of my money goes towards tuition and rent- Tuition is what you pay to have somebody teach you, and rent is what you pay to live in a house," she added as Pippin opened his mouth.
"Do you live on your own?" Pippin something.
"No, I have a flat-mate, John."
The look of shock on Legolas' face was almost comical. "You live with a man?! Are you married?"
Victoria laughed out loud, startling him. "Of course not! John is my best friend!" The scandalised look was still on his face, so she continued. "It's not like we share a room or anything, he has one bedroom, I have the other."
Legolas looked somewhat relieved. "Your world is very different to ours," he said quietly.
"You can say that again, Greenleaf…" she muttered.
Merry and Pippin overheard Legolas' nickname, and spent the whole morning, until they stopped for lunch, questioning him about it. Victoria walked behind them grinning as she watched the elf's patience ware away rapidly. He shot her a poisonous look, making her smile even broader.
"So if one calls you Legolas Greenleaf, they are really saying Greenleaf, Greenleaf," Pippin realised in fascination.
Legolas closed his eyes in frustration, and Victoria could almost hear him gritting his teeth.
"Or Legolas, Legolas," Merry pointed out.
Both hobbits appeared to get a kick out of that, and Victoria had to cover her mouth to keep a laugh from emerging. Legolas look precariously close to losing his calm.
'I guess even elves have a limit to how much they can tolerate,' Victoria thought with a chuckle, as she walked over to the two hobbits.
"I believe I heard Boromir mention something about more fighting lessons." she lied.
Merry and Pippin hurried off quickly to find the man, arguing over who would go first. Legolas took a deep breath and slowly let it out.
"Thanks," he grumbled, then walked over to find Gandalf.
Victoria had to fight to contain another laugh. 'He always manages to look handsome and composed, even when he's annoyed,' she realised as she walked over to help Sam with lunch. Today, it was sausages, bacon and potatoes, Sam's favorite. The hobbit looked up at her as she approached and smiled shyly. They sat down together quietly as the sausages and bacon sizzled in the pan.
"There is one thing I do not understand," Sam said softly.
Victoria looked over at him curiously; he wasn't one for asking questions. "What's that?"
Sam frowned, taking a minute to find the nerve to ask, as if he was regretting what he had said. "Well, aren't people looking for you?" he blurted out finally. "I mean, don't you think people will wonder where you are?"
Victoria studied the mountains in the distance. She didn't want to admit it, not even to herself, but felt compelled to tell him the truth. "I doubt it. I don't think anyone realises I'm gone."
She felt tears prick in the corner of her eyes, and hurried to continue. "The only people that will care that I'm gone are my coworkers, John, and my Dad."
She let out a small laugh. "I'm probably out of a job by now, and John probably thinks I went to see my brother. As for my dad, I know he isn't looking for me."
"I'm sure he misses you." Sam said soothingly.
Victoria shook her head. "He's depressed," she whispered. "After my Mom died of a mental breakdown, he's never been the same. He's actually getting worse, which is why I have to look after my brother sometimes."
"What about your brother, he misses you right?" the young hobbit asked.
"He can't, he's severely autistic. He doesn't have empathy or normal communication skills, it's a miracle I can get him to talk some days." Victoria replied quietly, as her heart sank to the floor.
"I'm sorry to hear that Lady Victoria," Sam whispered sympathetically.
"It's fine… Anyway, enough about me, what about you Mr Samwise Gamgee? I've always dreamed about visiting the Shire, what is it like?" She said happily, changing the subject.
Sam smiled broadly, "Well my lady, it's a lovely place to live. Vast fields filled with crops of every kind, carrots, lettuce, tomatoes, potatoes, wheat… The houses are comfortable and quite spacious, as they are built inside of a hill… And there is a little pub called the Green Dragon down in the town square where they serve the best ale and smoking weed west of Bree. But the best part of living in the Shire is the autumn festivals, where Gandalf the wandering wizard comes every year to display his fireworks!"
At this point Victoria was peering off into the distance again, letting Sam's words burble in the background. Her gaze moved to Legolas who had leapt onto a boulder and appeared to be studying a small black cloud. That cloud seemed very familiar, and it was moving very fast.
"Oh my god!" She cried out, jumping to her feet quickly. She had forgotten all about the birds.
"Quick! Hide!" she yelled at the men, grabbing her backpack off the ground and attempting to smother the fire.
The entire group turned and stared at her.
"The birds! Spies of Saruman," she cried in frustration. 'Why aren't they doing anything?' she wondered frantically.
"The birds!" she tried again, "Oh what the hell are they called?!"
"Crebain from Dunland!" Legolas cried out from his perch on the boulder.
Suddenly, everyone around her sprang into action. "Hide!" Aragorn shouted.
"Oh, now they hide," Victoria muttered to herself.
She was searching for a place to hide when someone grabbed her and roughly pulled her under a bush. Her head collided with the corner of a rock as Legolas shoved her to the ground. Victoria lay silent beside him as she watched the birds fly over, screeching and squawking. Legolas spun his head back around and looked at her sharply, his lips curled down into a frown and his eyes narrowing.
"You knew about the birds?" Spoken in a deadly whisper, anger and doubt clouded his once light eyes. He jumped up and pulled her out from underneath the bushes before she had a chance to reply.
"Did you know?" He asked again, not even bothering to help her up as she sat there in the dirt.
Victoria nodded, not trusting herself to speak.
"If you knew, why did you not warn us sooner?" Legolas demanded, glaring down at her.
"I forgot," she whispered, feeling like a child who had just been scolded.
"Be sure it doesn't happen again." Legolas snapped, and then abruptly walked away.
Victoria buried her face in her hands, angry with herself for forgetting such an important event. 'That's the whole reason I'm here,' she thought. 'I'm supposed to make this trip easier, not adding to the problems.'
She took a deep breath and glanced around at the Fellowship. The hobbits were eating again, chatting as if nothing happened. Gandalf, Aragorn, Legolas and Gimli stood together talking quietly. She saw the men glance up at the mountain behind them and knew they were talking about the Pass of Caradahas. Victoria stood up and walked away from the group, hoping to have a few minutes alone, possibly to finish the drawing of Pippin and Merry she was working on. She rounded a cluster of rocks and collided directly with Boromir.
"S-sorry," she apologised quickly, moving away from the man. Any attempt in escape was lost as he grabbed her arms tightly.
"Why didn't you tell us sooner about the birds?" he growled.
"I-I forgot," she stammered, petrified by the hateful look in his eye.
"You are a spy!" he continued, this time almost shouting.
"No, I'm not." she assured him.
"If I find out that you are," his expression turning even angrier, "I will not hesitate to slit your throat."
Victoria let out a little whimper of fear, knowing deep down that he was serious.
"Release her, Boromir," came a wonderfully familiar voice from behind.
She turned and breathed a huge sigh of relief as she saw Legolas standing there. Victoria would never thought she'd be so gal to see the elf.
"Can you not see that she is a spy Legolas?" Boromir asked.
"Spy or not, she is my responsibility. Now release her." Legolas replied calmly.
Boromir grudgingly let her arm go and she walked back over to Legolas, and for once was glad he had been forced to protect her.
"You speak with your heart, not your head Prince," Boromir snapped.
Victoria saw the elf's expression stiffen. "She is not your responsibility," he repeated evenly before Boromir stomped off.
Once he was out of sight, Legolas turned towards her, looking her up and down for injuries.
"Are you hurt?" he asked softly, reaching up and lightly brushing the small cut on her forehead.
"No," she whispered, flinching away from his touch.
"It's not a deep cut," he assured her, leaning in closer to inspect it.
"I said I'm fine," she snapped, he head beginning to throb with pain. "Sorry…" she muttered, seeing the concerned look on his face. "We'd better get back to the group."
Legolas just gave her a curt nod and both were silent as they walked back.
"Let us hope the Pass of Caradahas is an easy one," Gandalf said as they set out towards the mountains.
Victoria sighed, knowing it would be.