Victoria awoke several hours later, shivering from the cold and desperately needing to pee. She stood up and scanned the camp, there was little to no movement except for the steady rise and fall of the Fellowship's chests. No one appeared to be awake, but she still tiptoed past the sleeping bodies, further into the forest. Cold, sharp rocks pressed into the bottoms of her feet and she cursed herself for not slipping on her boots.
"Ow," she growled, muttering to herself as she walked. Finally, she reached a large clump of boulders and found one to hide behind. After she finished her business, she started to walk back to the camp when the sound of rushing water reached her ears.
'Is that a waterfall or something?' she thought, still half asleep. She looked over her shoulder up at the campsite, no one moving, no one awake. She definitely didn't want to receive another lecture from Legolas about wandering off in the middle of the night again, but her curiosity took over, 'I'll be back in a minute anyway.' She turned around and walked further downhill, keeping her eyes on her feet to make sure she didn't trip over anything like an idiot. The farther she walked, the louder the sound became, and soon enough Victoria spotted a small stream at the base of the hill.
'How the hell did I hear that from all the way up there?' she wondered, looking up behind her at the campsite. Despite her confusion, Victoria seized the opportunity of a fresh water supply and washed her hands and had a bit of a drink, since her throat was itching from the dry air. After her last gulp of water that was perishing yet satisfying, she rubbed her hands together which were now numb from the freezing temperatures, and decided that it was definitely time to return to her soft and inviting bedroll.
She began to walk back up the hill towards the group, but only made it halfway when a large hand reached out and grabbed her shoulder. Victoria sucked in a breath sharply, and swallowed a scream that would've surely followed. Now she was wide awake and scared out of her wits. She quickly looked up and the thing that grabbed her and came face to face with Boromir.
'Shit,' she thought, her heart sinking faster than lead. She wondered if it was too late to scream.
"You venture far from the camp," he stated roughly, a dagger glistened in his hand.
"Yeah, and I'm just going back to bed, k bye," she said as calmly and matter-of-fact-like as she could. She tried to twist away from Boromir grasp but it only made his grip stronger and harsher.
"What are you doing out here this late at night? Trying to slaughter us when no-one is watching?" He asked darkly; the silvery moonlight, shadowed his face and illuminated his eyes, giving them an eerie glow which was starting to creep Victoria out immensely.
"What?! No! I have told you a million times, I'm not a spy!" she tried unsuccessfully to keep the quiver from her voice.
"A spy would say that, and I have been told you are not of this world, this is a lie, and certainly something a spy would say." Boromir said, his eyes narrowing.
"Ok, so it's not the most believable truth, but it is the truth. I'm trying to help the Fellowship, please," she was almost begging him to believe her.
Boromir, still not believing her, took a step closer so they were mere centimetres away, and lifted the small knife in his right hand and pressed it firmly on her throat. Victoria's eyes widened with terror and her heart began to pound rapidly inside her chest.
"Please Boromir, please you have to believe me. We both want to defeat Sauron, and we both want peace in Middle Earth, there is no reason for this. Now for the last time, I am NOT a spy, I'm here to help the group. Whatever you think of me as, is wrong," she pleaded.
"If you are not a spy, then you are nothing more than a distraction that is slowing the group down and delaying this quest," he hissed.
Victoria's shock quickly turned to rage, "I will never slow this quest down, and I sure as hell won't be any distraction," she spat back. "I can't believe that the son of the Steward of Gondor could be such a dick!"
He pressed the knife against her angrily and Victoria felt a drop of blood trickle down her neck. Ok, maybe that wasn't the most diplomatic thing to say in that situation, but she didn't care, she was beyond caring. She kicked him straight in the crotch forcing him to stumble backwards in pain.
"Don't you ever touch me again," she hissed, so angry she was seeing red.
"Or what?" He regained his balance and took a step closer to her. "What would happen if I did?"
"I'll-." That was as far as she got before a figure appeared behind Boromir and yanked him backwards into the darkness.
She stood there petrified, hearing the unmistakable sound of fists hitting flesh. A movement from behind her broke her trance and she took off sprinting up the hill as if the flames of hell were licking at her feet. She didn't care about the rocks that cut into her soles, or the burning in her chest. All she cared about was getting back to the camp as quickly as possible. Getting away from Boromir.
After a few minutes of running she couldn't move any further, her throat had constricted, denying oxygen passage into her lungs. This always happened when she did any form of exercise 'fucking asthma,' she thought to herself as she leant against a large tree, panting and gasping for air.
Once she had calmed down slightly, she started to run again until the campsite was just within sight behind the sea of tall, dark trees trunks. In the back of her mind she wondered who had stopped Boromir, but all thoughts flew from her head as she tripped over and uneven patch of ground and landed flat on her face. She groaned with pain and slowly stood up and brushed the leaves and twigs off herself when strong hands reached from behind and grabbed her arms, causing her to jump. Victoria opened her mouth to scream, and was silenced as a large hand clamped over her mouth.
She went crazy, kicking and screaming; struggling with everything she had, trying to free herself. All she could think about was getting stabbed by Boromir who was going to kill her the first chance he got; and this was it. She bit down on the hand as hard as she could.
"Ouch!" cried a voice, but it wasn't in Boromir's harsh tone, it was a soft and hypnotising. Legolas.
"I'm not going to hurt you, so stop fighting me." His voice calmed her more than anything else would. He removed his hand from her mouth and slowly lowered it to his side, then looked down to see Victoria distraught and shaking.
"Are you hurt?" He asked.
She shook her head, not trusting herself to speak. She pulled a section of hair forward over her shoulder to cover the cut mark on her neck, not wanting Legolas to freak out over a tiny scratch.
Legolas' eyebrows drew together into a frown as he noticed the small action and soon found the cut mark oozing with blood and immediately pushed her hair back to expose the wound.
He silently took her arm and started walking back to the camp, "What were you doing so far away from the group?"
Victoria rolled her eyes at his angry tone, she knew he'd bring that up.
"The reason I was so far from the camp was because I didn't want you to listen to me going to the bathroom with your super elf ears," she blurted out.
Legolas narrowed his eyes, not amused. "You should be glad I heard something or Boromir would have killed you."
She turned serious, realising he was right. "Yeah ok… Sorry." she whispered, feeling like a jerk. "And um… thanks... for that thing you did, the um, punching stuff, that was, uh…good."
His lips twitched into a smile before he turned his head away; they continued uphill towards the campsite in silence among the dark forest.
Legolas led her to her bedroll and told her to sit, "wait here," he whispered. He walked over to Bill who was sitting down and sleeping, and removed a piece of cloth and a small jar of healing ointment from a leather pack.
He knelt beside her, studying to cut on her neck. Softly, he dabbed the wound with the cloth, cleaning away the dirt. He then gently tilted her head upwards and brushed her hair back before applying pressure to the cut to stop further bleeding.
Victoria shivered once again as Boromir's words echoed in her head. 'You are nothing more than a distraction.' She shivered again, this time from the cold. She wondered if she was a distraction to the others. She had to ask.
"Legolas…" He looked up and Victoria felt her mouth go dry. "Do… do you think I distract the others?"
"Distract how?"
"You know," Victoria muttered, feeling a blush rise to her cheeks. "Do you think the others are distracted… by me being a girl and stuff?"
"Why?" His eyes suddenly narrowed, "Did Boromir say something?"
She let out a small sigh, "he just said that I was nothing more than a distraction and I'm slowing the quest down."
Legolas looked away. "I don't think all the men are distracted," he said slowly.
"Wait, you think some of them are?"
He gave her a wry look. "I think It's safe to say that Merry and Pippin are."
She smiled despite her nervousness. "Now that I think about it, there isn't much of a list. I can definitely rule out the hobbits and Gimli." She giggled. "And I don't think Gandalf will be a problem."
He smiled and continued as he took the the jar and dipped his finger into the balm and carefully spread it over the cut. "Boromir is the only person besides Aragorn and-." He cut himself off and looked away quickly.
Victoria felt her eyes widen. 'Aragorn?! No, he can't like me, can't he? He likes Arwen, doesn't he? Oh my good Gallifrey, that would mess up the entire plot!' She wondered frantically.
"Wait, you think Aragorn likes me?" She whispered incredulously.
Legolas wouldn't look at her. "I do not know. I think you should rest."
'That's it?! An 'I don't know'…what good will that do?'
She opened her mouth to ask him but he cut her off.
"Goodnight." It was more of an order than a comment.
"G'night," she whispered before she lay down, pulled her cloak over herself, rolled over onto her side and drifted into a dreamless sleep.