Disclaimer: I do NOT own Lord of the Rings!
A/N: thank you for the kind reviews and for the Follows and Favorites, you guys make me smile every time I get one.
feel free to drop a review to tell me how I'm doing so far -Thymara
After what had felt like hours of being of scolded like a young pup who had snuck into the kitchen and gobbled up all the dessert, they finally seemed to realize they weren't getting through to her, Sut said, "Since you clearly don't care for your own safety and wellbeing, think about the pack. How do you think this will affect them, having their princess, their future alpha, away for so long?" Anra ducked her head in shame, he was right; it wouldn't be good for her to be away from her pack this long. It just wasn't natural.
Jag joined in, "And what about Isla and Eron? They'll miss you terribly, you told them you'd only be gone for a bit, how do you think they'll react to this?" 'Oh, he did not just go there!' she thought, but he was right too, Eron was already mad at her for leaving in the first place.
"Have you even thought about your father? It's no secret that he's getting older, have you considered what this could do to his health?" Upon hearing this white hot guilt coursed through her. Of course she had thought of her father after she had said she'd go, but she never considered what it might do to him health wise, the worry couldn't be good for his heart.
But she had given her word to Frodo that she'd go and she'd protect him with her life if necessary, and she had meant it, she wasn't going to back out now. Her friends, her father, her pack they'd be fine without her for a while. But this, this quest, they needed all they could get, for if they failed it wouldn't matter if her friends or family needed her, 'cause they'd all be dead, 'cause Middle Earth would be destroyed.
She voiced this opinion to her guards and their response was Sut saying. "What about us?" Anra cocked her head to the side not quite understanding what he was getting at. "Your father would flay us alive, and then banish us if we let you go anywhere."
"He would not," Jag gave her a disbelieving look. "Just tell him that I forced you to let me go."
"No," Sut said firmly.
"Excuse me?" Anra said incredulously.
"I said no, you are not going. We will not allow it." Sut said his voice dangerously calm.
"I don't remember asking your permission," she snarled.
"You didn't need to because you are not going on this Fellowship," his voice was now positively oozing with authority.
Part of Anra wanted to whimper and turn belly up when she heard this tone, but she couldn't, wouldn't, so she squashed this part of herself like a little bug. Instead she pulled out her alpha instincts, power and put them to full use when she growled in her own deep authoritative tone, "I am going and there is nothing you can do about because you are leaving to go home tomorrow to bring this news to the pack."
She felt a little bit bad about ordering them to do something against their will, but there was another part of her that was deeply satisfied when she heard them whimper and lower their heads in submission. She knew they'd obey her order, they had to. As Eron would have said, she'd gone all alpha on them.
After that they'd left her room so she could sleep and they could pack. Though she felt bad about the order, she couldn't help but be amazed that they had listened to her. Never before had she order such high ranking wolves to do something successfully. This showed that she was growing and becoming more powerful this both excited her and scared her. She had to be careful though, she had heard stories of wolves that had become alphas before their pack needed a new one, and they were unable to stay in their own packs because a pack can only have one alpha.
With these worrisome thoughts haunting her mind she fell into a light fitful sleep.
The next morning Anra rose early to see her guards off, it was clear they were upset with her, but they could do nothing about it. They wished her luck and told her to be safe; they also warned her to be wary of the others and to trust nobody but herself. She thanked them and assured them that'd she be alright. And with that they left. She watched as the two figures vanished from her sight into the woods still in their human form, they would stay that way until they were past the elven borders.
Anra felt a ball of anxiety unravel in her chest once Jag and Sut were hidden from view; she was on her own now, no pack members for her to rely on now. She took a shaky breath and reminded herself that this was how it was going to be until the Fellowship was completed. She swallowed and turned around deciding it was time to find some breakfast.
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After Anra had eaten her breakfast she went for a walk in the gardens wanting to get away from the crowds of elves, and secretly hoping to run into a certain ranger. She didn't know why she liked him so much, he was just really nice, and he seemed to be the only one who didn't mistrusted her on the spot just for being a Nightstalker. Though to be fair she didn't really trust any of the others either. She wondered if her race would ever be accepted back into society.
Her mind wandered back to breakfast, she had been able to strike up a conversation with the dwarf, Gimli, over eggs, who also didn't get along well with the elves, but once he had realized what she was he had become nervous and clearly uncomfortable. The conversation soon after had become awkward and strained, then abruptly ended with him making up some excuse about having to meet with someone. Though she wasn't too upset, he had smelled kind of funny to her, like metal, ale, and rock.
As she was walking through the gardens she got the distinct feeling that someone was there with her. She took a deep breath in hopes of catching a scent, but even with her sensitive her nose she could only just barely pick up a scent over the heavy flowerily smell, it smelled like man.
"I don't appreciate being followed," Anra growled, she spun around just in time to see the red haired Gondorian, Boromir, stepping into her line of sight.
"Why are you coming with us?" he said cutting right to the chase. "There is no place for a woman on this quest."
She gave a small snarl, "I am more than meets the eye."
She felt sick as his eyes traveled up and down her body, lingering in some places longer than others. She fought the urge to cross her arms over her chest self-consciously. "What could you possibly mean by that?" he questioned as his eyes lazily made their way back up to her face.
Her dislike for the Gondorian increased, "You ever heard of a Nightstalker?"
At first he looked confused, and then as realization dawned on him his eyes widened in horror than disgust, "So then why are you here? To bring us out into the wild only to turn on us? To help us so that when we're done your species can claim that we owe you a favor? To deliver us into the hands of the enemy?"
Anra snarled in anger, "What the hell is wrong with you! Do you think we're savages? Why would we want the enemy to win? They're just exactly that, the enemy! And why would we want to claim a favor from you and your kind, what could you have that we would possibly want?"
Now Boromir looked uncomfortable, "I don't know, more territory?"
"Why would we want more territory? We have been perfectly happy where we are now and have been for many years! I volunteered for this quest because I want to help and you have no right to tell me otherwise!" she yelled, but still in affirm authoritative voice.
He swallowed uncertainly, she had a feeling that he was feeling her will being imposed on him, but didn't know it. He turned stiffly around and started to march away in anger, but not before he said, "You'd better watch your back, because no one else here will."
She let out an angry breath as she watched him stalk away from her, she needed to run. Now. With that she took off running down towards the forest that surrounded the city, once she reached it she shifted.
It felt great to be back in her other form, to be able to stretch her four legs and to run quickly through the trees and undergrowth. Her feet pounded rhythmically on the forest floor as she dodged around branches and splashed through streams. She followed several animal trails and scared a heard of deer just for the heck of it, not actually wanting to hunt since she was still pretty full from breakfast.
She must have ran for a couple hours because by the time she was walking back towards the elven city the sun hung high in the sky, already past its highest point. Once she was but a few yards from the edge of the forest she shifted back into her human form, shaking out her tired limbs. She felt a lot better after that, but she was still kind of angry from her encounter with Boromir. He was the perfect example of how Nightstalkers described humans: arrogant, self-righteous, smelly bastards who were stupid and closed minded. Though Anra knew that despite her former beliefs, not all human men were like this, Aragorn was proof of that.
'Speak of the devil', she thought, 'or I guess think of the devil that is.' He had just stepped into view from behind some trees. "Now who's spying," she teased
"I was most certainly not," he denied with a playful smile. He handed her a water skin that she drank from gratefully. She gave it back to him then lifted her thick curls up from her neck, she was hot.
"Thank you," she said in response to the water. She found that she was somewhat surprised that she had taken the water and drank it without even thinking to check to see if it was safe to drink. 'That was very sloppy of you,' she chastised herself. But she trusted him, even though she hardly knew him. Strange.
"You're staring," Anra informed Aragorn, feeling rather self-conscious under the scrutiny of his powerful gaze.
He apologized. "I have just never seen somebody shift before," he admitted, "I'm sorry if I made you uncomfortable."
She ducked her head bashfully, "It's fine." She glanced up at him from under her eyelashes.
Neither one of them said anything for several moments; she scuffed her boots against the ground awkwardly not sure how to break the silence. Finally she said, "Well I hope it didn't upset you." She winced slightly when she heard her tone, she hadn't meant to sound so bitter, but she kept thinking of Boromir and most of the elves prejudice against her and her kind.
Aragorn raised his eyebrows saying, "Not at all, I think it is quite interesting, amazing actually."
"Well you'd be one of the few who think so."
"Are they giving you a hard time here?" he questioned. 'Aww he sounds worried, how sweet,' she thought.
"Most of them just ignore me, only some of them actually have the guts to say anything," she thought of how quiet and uncomfortable Gimli had become after he had found out what she was.
"Give them time; most of them are afraid of you."
"Afraid of me?"
"They don't understand you or your powers; they don't know what to think of you just quite yet."
"Yeah maybe," she said doubtfully.
"They don't know what you are capable of; your kind has been a mystery for many years and now you are going on this quest that could either save or destroy us all, it scares them."
"Well it's not our fault that we haven't been around, we're not exactly welcomed in many places," Anra huffed.
"Nightstalkers aren't exactly known for their hospitality either," he pointed out.
The she-wolf started to growl, then stopped, he kind of had a point, not that she'd admit it of course. Instead she flicked her hair behind her shoulders and abruptly stood up saying, "Do you know when we are leaving?"
"In a few days from now I believe. Have you met our other companions yet?"
"Just you, Gimli, and Boromir. Oh, and I had a brief conversation with the wizard."
"That's Gandalf," he supplied. "We will also be accompanied by Legolas, the prince of Mirkwood, and the hobbits: Frodo, Sam, Merry, and Pippin. Oh and also Sam's pony, Bill," Aragorn remembered.
She must have made a face at the mention of the pony because then he asked with laughter in his voice, "What do you have against Bill?"
"My kind and horses don't mix well, they don't trust us."
He chuckled, "Well can you blame them? They probably think you're going to eat them!"
She smiled, happy with the lighter conversation topic. She started to tell him a story about this one time a few years ago when her, Isla, and Eron had found a horse wandering around in the forest and they had attempted to catch and ride it. It was safe to say the horse did not like that idea nor would they be trying it again anytime soon. Still to this day whenever she saw a horse she became instantly sore. Not that she really saw that many horse…
Aragorn laughed at her animated expressions and gestures as the two of them walked back into the city. She finished up telling it when they were on the patio where the meeting had been held the previous day. "You should set sometime aside to meet the other members of the fellowship before we leave here," he recommended.
"I suppose I can do that," she said with a teasing smile, though she felt a little nervous about meeting them.
"Good, now have to go, I'll see you later," with that he strolled off in some other direction that she had yet to explored.
Once he was out of sight she sighed, not sure what to do with herself. She decided just to wander again, though not in the direction Aragorn had just gone. She didn't want him to think she was following him.
Anra chose a path at random and followed it. She rounded a corner and came out onto a stone balcony that over looked the waterfalls, the sound of excited laughing and cheery talking reached her sensitive ears, and the smell of what must have been lots of food tickled her nose. The ones making the all the noise turned and looked at her, it was the four hobbits.
"Hello!" called the smallest of the four cheerfully; she believed, if her memory served her correctly, that his name was Pippin.
"Hello," she said in reply warily, uncertain of how they would react to her.
"Can we help you, are you lost?" asked the one who looked a lot like Pippin, but was a bit taller.
"No, I'm just exploring a bit," she said with a smile, hoping not to scare them.
"You're coming with us on the Fellowship, aren't you?" questioned the slightly plumper hobbit.
"Yes, I am."
"I never caught your name," said Frodo.
"It's Anra," she stated simply.
"Are you the Nightstalker everyone has been talking about?" they questioned curiously.
"Yeah, I am a Nightstalker," she said with a proud tilt of her chin. Their eyes widened, though not in fear, but rather excitement. That made her happier then she'd like to admit.
"Wow," murmured one of them.
Then Frodo said, "I'm Frodo, this is Sam," he gestured towards the plump one, "this is Merry," towards the one that looked like Pippin but was taller, "and this is Pippin."
"It's very nice to meet you all," she said kindly.
"And you my Lady," replied Sam politely.
Anra laughed, "Please don't call me that, I hate formalities."
"Of course m—Anra," he blushed.
"Can we see you shift?" Pippin blurted out.
"Pippin!" hissed Merry, while whacking him on the back of his head.
"That is what it is called, shifting?" Frodo questioned curiously.
She smiled at their non-hostile interest, "Yes that is what it is called, and its fine, that's not offensive to ask or anything."
"That's good, I must apologize for my cousin, he does not think before he speaks," Merry said giving Pippin another look.
She laughed and said again, "It's fine, like I said it's not offensive to ask."
They all looked at her hopefully, clearly wanting to see her in her other form. 'Kind of a strange request, but at least they're not scared of me,' she thought. "Okay, I'll show you," Anra said, "just so long as you don't freak out once I've shifted."
"We won't," they chorused eagerly.
She took a deep breathe then she shifted.
She heard them gasp; she raised her head and looked up at them. They had taken a few steps back wide eyed. In this form her back came up to the tops of their curly haired heads.
"Wow," one of them whispered again.
She gave a small hello woof and wagged her tail in greeting. They stared at her in amazement, then one of them, Pippin, stepped forwarded with his hand stretched out.
"Can I touch you?" he asked. Anra bobbed her head up and down, hoping he'd get the message. He took that as a yes and stroked her fur, "You're really soft," he murmured. She gently nosed at him affectionately. He laughed when she sniffed in his hair around his ears, "That tickles!"
The other three hobbits approached her timidly, but soon overcame their nerves as they pet her and she sniffed them. Anra nudged at them playfully and they continued to laugh. As they played around the she-wolf committed their scents to memory, so that she'd be able to track them if they ever got split up on their journey to Mount Doom.
"Can you understand us when you're like this?" Frodo inquired.
The Nightstalker nodded her head in affirmation, then gave a small yip to make sure she got the message across.
"What's going on out here?" they heard a gruff voice call. Before Anra could shift back into her human form the wizard, Gandalf the Grey came out onto the balcony. "Oh!" he exclaimed when he saw Anra in her wolf form.
She quickly shifted not sure how those other than the hobbits would react to her being in her other form. He must have seen the worry on her face before she was able to mask it, because he said, "You know it's quite all right for you to be in your other form here."
"Others, I feel, may disagree with that statement," Anra answered stiffly.
"Would you let that stop you?" he had one bushy eyebrow raised.
A slight smile pulled at the corner of her mouth, "Not if I truly wanted to."
The old wizard gave her a smile, "As I have said before, I am glad you decided to come, I believe we can learn very much from each other."
She nodded in agreement, and then Gandalf said, "I was just coming out to make sure you all know that we are going to leave the day after tomorrow."
After the grey wizard had left, the she-wolf and the hobbits spent the rest of the afternoon and evening together eating dinner when it was time. She was surprised by the amount of food the small creatures could eat and still be hungry, she had always thought that Nightstalkers ate a lot, but the being that came between a hobbit and its food was either one of the bravest things ever or just incredible stupid.
She really enjoyed spending her time with the four of them, they were great. They didn't judge her for what she was, but who she was instead. They had peppered her with questions about her and her life in the pack. They had exchanged stories of childhood pranks and their punishments. They thought it was funny when they found out that they were all older than her, (Anra being only twenty years of age).
She was glad that they had all volunteered to join the Fellowship, though she was also worried, she didn't want to see any of them hurt and with journeys like these someone always got hurt, often more than one someone.
After they had all said goodnight she headed back the way she had come, not actually sure how else to get back to her chambers without retracing her footsteps. When she reached the patio where Aragorn had split earlier in the day, she couldn't contain her curiosity of where he had went. So she did the only logical thing there was to do, she walked down the path that he had taken following his scent down it.
'Okay, so maybe it's not the only logical thing to do, but it certainly is the easiest at the moment,' the princess thought.
She trotted down the winding path, wondering if maybe she should shift while doing this, it would be easier to follow his scent that way, but her white fur would practically glow in this darkness. And she would rather not be seen and questioned about what she was doing. Gosh, that would be awkward, 'Yeah, don't mind me, I'm just following the future king of Gondor's scent to see where he likes to hang, 'cause I'm too chicken to just straight out ask him.' She shook her head thinking sarcastically, 'Yeah, that'd go over well.'
Aragorn's scent was stale, so he must have either left a different way, or he was still there, wherever there is. The scent lead her to another one of the cities beautiful gardens where his was joined by another one. This scent was definitely an elf's, and definitely female. The two scents were extremely concentrated here, which meant that the two of them had lingered here together for quite a while.
Anra felt a strange twist in her stomach, that was in no way at all pleasant. 'Am I jealous?' she thought worriedly. 'No,' quickly dismissing the thought, 'I can't be jealous, I have no reason to be so. To be jealous she'd have to have something I want, and she doesn't. She doesn't.'
Though Anra couldn't help but feel happy that their scents went in different directions, instead of the same. Making a swift decision she followed the female elf's scent down its path towards the buildings. She wanted to know who it was he had been meeting with. 'Not because I'm jealous, because I'm not, I am just curious. That's all.'
The trail continued on ways to the buildings up until the last moment that it swerved away towards another balcony. "How many balconies does this place have?" she grumbled quietly under her breath. She pushed her reddish brown curls behind her shoulder then stepped silently out onto the balcony.
A beautiful elf woman was standing there staring out into the night with her back to Anra. She was tall and thin, with long dark hair, a stunning dress and ivory white skin. She must have made some noise because the elf woman turned around and looked at her with surprised eyes, "Hello," she said. Her voice was thick, it sounded like she may have been crying, but Anra couldn't tell for sure because her complexion was still clear. Of that Anra knew she was jealous, whenever she cried, (which wasn't very often), her skin would become all blotchy and her eyes and nose would turn red.
"Hello, sorry I didn't realize anyone was out here," she lied. "I can go," she started to turn around.
"Wait, no, it's fine, you can stay," the elf sounded almost like she hoped Anra would. 'She must not know who I am,' she thought dryly.
"Okay, I'm Anra," she wondered if now she'd be asked to leave, or maybe the elf would be polite and make up an excuse to leave instead.
The elf's eyes widened again, "The Nightstalker?"
Anra raised her chin, "Yes."
"My name is Arwen," she responded after a moment. Now it was Anra's eyes' turn to widen, she was talking to the elves' princess. 'She is certainly pretty enough for the role.'
"Is there something wrong that I can help you with?" Anra offered politely.
"No, it's okay," she answered. Then she said, "Actually can I ask you something?"
Anra looked at Arwen in surprise, but the said, "Yes of course you can."
"You're a princess, right?" Anra nodded in affirmation, "but your father allowed you to go on this quest, even though it is dangerous?"
Now Anra hesitated, "Well, he doesn't actually know about the quest, when he sent me here we thought it was just for a meeting of sorts."
"But you are going, even if it is against his wishes?"
"Yes," she answered simply, knowing it was the truth.
"Do you think he would be okay with you going on it if he knew about it?"
Once more Anra hesitated before answering, "Yes, once he thought about what it is for and what it means, then yes, he would not stop me."
"Even though you are a woman?"
This question ticked Anra off a bit, 'Valar, the other races are sexist,' she thought in annoyance. "Where I come from it does not matter if you are male or female, we share equal roles in life. We do the same jobs, we can have the same ranks, I'm to be the next alpha even though I am a woman."
"I'm sorry, I meant no offence," the elf princess jumped in quickly. "I guess things are just done differently around here. So your father is not very protective of you?"
Anra shrugged, "I don't get special treatment if that is what you mean. Back home I do the same things as everyone else, I still patrol and hunt and train like any other Nightstalker would. And I don't have guards, the only reason I did when I came here was because it was a long journey. I am treated just like any other Nightstalker is."
Arwen was listening to her with amazement written on her face, "Things are indeed very different there."
"You sound wistful," she observed in a gentle voice.
"I sometimes wonder what my life would be like if I had more freedom to do what I want, but I love and respect my father and his wishes," the last part of her speech sounded forced and strained.
Anra raised an eyebrow, "You really don't want to do whatever you were just told to do, do you?"
She laughed, "Is it that obvious?" brushing another tear away, Anra shrugged. "Aren't you going to ask what it is?" she questioned.
"It's none of my business unless you want to tell me, so no I'm not going to ask."
"You're different, very frank, I like that, it's refreshing," she said with a water smile.
The she-wolf found herself unable to do anything but smile back at the other princess; she liked Arwen even though she was a smelly elf who may or may not have something going on with a certain ranger for whom she had absolutely no feelings for whatsoever.
"You see Middle Earth is dying and the elves are fading with it, so my father wants to send me away to the Grey Haven so that I will be safe," she explained.
"I don't see what is wrong with that," said Anra, while wondering why Arwen was sharing this with her, didn't she know that their kinds didn't get along?
"But I don't want to go, the man that I care about is here, as is the only home I have ever known, is it really that unreasonable for me too not want to?" as she said this her hand went to the base of her neck and touched a beautiful diamond necklace she was wearing.
Anra wavered a little before answering, carefully choosing each word she used. "It's not unreasonable to not want to go, but it is to not go period. If you are going to die from simply staying here so what if what you care about is here, you're just going to die anyways," she winced at her harsh choice of words. "And about the man you care about, did you even talk to him yet?" she had a sinking feeling about who that man was.
Arwen bit her lip looking even more upset, "I did talk to him…"
When the elf did not elaborate on want he had said to her Anra plowed on, "Also think about your loved ones, don't you think they would be happier knowing you are safe and out of harm's way then worrying about your wellbeing, especially when they should be focused on the war at hand? Another thing, if that man you speak of truly and purely cares for you hisvoice shall beg for you to stay while his eyes plea for you to go, but if he loves you, truly loves you, his voice shall beg for you to go while his eyes plea for you stay."
Anra waited for her to respond, but she remained silent as a winter's night. She suppressed a yawn, feeling tired and realizing how late it was getting said, "Well just think about what I said and what you truly want as well, in the end no one but you can make the decision." With that she bade the other woman a goodnight and walk off to start the search for her chambers so she could get some shut eye.