A/N: I'm sooo sorry that I haven't updated in so long, I hope you all can forgive me :)) I should be able to start updating again regularly so that's good. you know what's also good? REVIEWS! :D please do drop a review at the end so I know how I'm doing so far! thank you
The ten companions walked for a while without anyone saying a word, for what was there to be said? Finally after a while Merry and Pippin started talking with Sam, and Frodo with Gandalf, and then eventually Legolas with Aragorn. She was pretty happy with walking in silence when the Gondorian, Boromir, walked up to her, clearly with the intent of speaking. This confused her, he had made it quite clear the other day that he did not like her and she was pretty content with leaving it that way, so what would he have to say to her?
"So you actually came," this was a statement more than a question.
"Yes, yes I did. I made an oath and a plan on keeping it," she replied in a tight voice.
He gave her another sour look, "Fine I suppose we can tolerate you being here, but I heard you were playing with the little ones yesterday and that I can assure you will not be tolerated, you will not corrupt them!"
'Tolerate, corrupt, we! What the hell is he talking about?!' she thought angrily. "First of all," she snarled, "I do not need to ask your permission before I go or do anything! And second of all the hobbits are not children nor are they stupid, they can think for themselves and do what they want as well!"
"They just do not know of your kind's treachery yet."
"My kind's—my kind's treachery, what the hell are you talking about? What have the Nightstalkers ever done to your people?"
He opened and closed his mouth a couple of times as if he could not think of anything to say, then he just said, "Your kind is nothing but animals pretending to be human." Anra rubbed her temple, 'Why is he still talking?' "Animals, that's all you are, that's all you'll ever be!" he spat the last part.
She looked at him like he was crazy, then he opened his mouth as if to continue when Aragorn cut in saying in an angry voice, "That's enough!" Boromir cast Aragorn a disbelieving look as if to say, 'You're siding with that?' but said nothing more and stalked off.
"Are you okay?" he asked, his gentle grey eyes showing concern.
"Me yep I'm fine, just dandy, your time would be better spent worrying about Boromir, and the continuation of his good health. You know, accidents tend to happen on dangerous journeys like these, people can get hurt, eat even," her voice was fuming and she felt her canines slipping out. She had only been partly joking when she said the last part.
Aragorn rolled his eyes at this, "Saying stuff like that doesn't help you, especially when he's accusing you of being an animal."
The she-wolf gave a huff, "So what, are you agreeing with him?" She knew it was an unfair accusation, especially after he had just helped her shake Boromir, but she couldn't help it, she was frustrated and when she was frustrated she tended to take out her anger on those around her. She knew it was a bad habit and she was trying to break it, but how does that saying go? Old habits die hard.
"No, I'm not, I'm just saying that you shouldn't make it so easy for him," and with that he walked back over to Legolas and started talking with him again in Elvish. 'Great going Anra, you just made the only person who stood up for you against Boromir angry with you. Smooth, real smooth,' she thought in exasperation at herself.
The Fellowship walked for a while longer, Anra walked in silence wishing for the millionth time that that stupid pony wasn't in back with the hobbits. By the time they came to a stop for the night she was about ready to collapse from exhaustion, she wasn't use to walking this far in her human form. But of course they weren't done yet, they still had to set up camp, collect fire wood and make supper.
Truth be told it wasn't that bad, though by the time they were done she was beyond ready for sleep, so she set her bedroll down by the hobbits, shot Boromir one last dirty look and went to sleep. Though within about five minutes of her falling asleep she felt something starting to nudge at her, at first she just ignored it, but it just kept getting more and more insistent with each prod. Finally when she could not take it anymore she rolled over to face it and opened her tired green eyes, it was Pippin.
"Can I help you with something?" she growled.
Upon hearing her irritated tone he became nervous and wrung out his little hands before saying, "I heard you talking earlier and I was wondering… would you really do that?"
Anra looked at him in confusion not understanding what he meant, "Do what?"
"You know," he leaned forward a bit, "eat Boromir."
'Did he seriously just ask me that? He must have heard me talking with Aragorn earlier,' she realized. 'Man I've really got to stop threating to do that,' she berated herself. "I only eat people who wake me up in the middle of the night to ask dumb questions," she rumbled.
Pippin's eyes widened, "Night!" he yelped and rolled over to go back to sleep.
"Hobbits!" she muttered under her breath. She too rolled back over to go to sleep, but not before she saw Aragorn grinning at her over the fire with traces of laughter in his eyes, he had obviously heard the conversation.
The next morning they were up a little bit before dawn clearing up the area they had used for camp, and by dawn they were on their way. After a couple hours of walking in solitude Merry and Pippin walked up to her and started talking. She was glad for the company and their silly conversations, Pippin didn't seem to have any hard feelings about her scaring him the night before, in fact he actually found it quite comical.
She enjoyed listening to them talk about the Shire and they enjoyed hearing all about her life in her pack. Though all three of theirs' favorite topic was speaking about the different pranks they have pulled over the years. Anra thought the one were the two of them had stolen one of Gandalf's great big fireworks and set it off in side of a tent was hilarious. And the two hobbits were very interested in her one where she, Isla, and Eron had hooked buckets of mud above all of the doorways back home, so that whenever somebody opened a new door it would be dumped on their head.
Anra had been describing to them in detail how to properly attach the bucket to the doorway so that it would fall at the right moment when Gimli walked over to them and inquired about what they were talking so animatedly about.
"Anra was just telling us how to conduct a brilliant prank," Pippin blabbed, eyes lit with excitement.
"Pippin!" Merry and Anra hissed at the same time.
"Was she now," Gimli said, his hand stroking his long red beard.
"Umm," Merry said, trying to think of a way to undo the possible damage his cousin had just done.
"And you didn't think to include me? Dwarfs are particularly good pranksters," he proclaimed in a proud deep voice.
Merry and Anra exchanged amused looks, and then she said, "Well I suppose I can tell you too, as long as you swear to guard this knowledge from all who would do things to prevent it or other fun things from happening."
He laughed, and then agreed the humor clear in his voice. Anra proceeded to start over again with how to set the prank up properly.
Gimli walked with them for the rest of the day, and she decided that she did like him. She was happy that he no longer seemed to hold it against her that she was a Nightstalker, it gave her hope.
Days began to blend into each other, little distinguishing one from another, the Fellowship had set a swift pace that allowed for little conversation. They rarely stopped during the day, usually eating well they walked.
Weeks passed in this manner, until one day they decided to stop during the afternoon to rest and eat something. Gandalf, Gimli, and Legolas were discussing which way they'd take next, Boromir was teaching Merry and Pippin how to fight with Aragorn calling out pointers, while Frodo and Sam watched them and cooked. Anra was just coming back from taking a walk around the woods in her other form to give her wolf a stretch; she didn't like to be cooped up for so long.
Boromir looked up when she joined them in the clearing and questioned, "Where have you been?"
"I was taking a walk."
He narrowed his eyes, "We're on this break to stop walking for a bit."
She gave a slight growl, 'Why does he have to question every little thing I do?' She said out loud, "I needed to stretch my other form," she hoped that would get him off her back.
Unfortunately her wishes never did seem to come true, "Why haven't we seen this "other form" that you speak of yet?"
"Are you for real?" she asked looking at him like he was insane.
"You know, you probably haven't shown us because you're nothing but a scrawny flea-bitten pup!"
This time she really did snarl with her canines slipping out into view, "Scrawny flea-bitten pup?" she asked her voice dangerous.
At this point the rest of the Fellowship was listening in, looking worried. "Boromir," Aragorn warned.
But he didn't listen, "Come on prove me wrong, if you can," he challenged. Legolas and Gimli were watching with guarded curiosity, neither of them had seen her shift yet either.
'Scrawny flea-bitten pup? I am an alpha! I'll show him!' she thought. She shifted. Her sided were heaving in anger, her ears were pressed flat against her
head, her head was low and her tail stuck straight out behind her. Her hackles and the fur along her back were raised and her lips were drawn back showing her fangs in an impressive snarl that would give her father a run for his money.
Boromir raised his sword up in defense, unsure if she was going to spring or not, she heard the one of the hobbits whimper slightly. They had seen her shift before, but she had always been gentle and friendly with them, nothing like right now, right now she looked like a demon.
She could smell the Gondorian's fear of her; she could see his racing pulse fluttering in his throat. She could do it, right now she could kill him, it would be so easy. All she'd have to do jump on him and tear out his throat, he wouldn't even have a chance to raise his sword against her. But no, she would not, she had promised Frodo that she'd help him on this quest, and killing Boromir would unfortunately not help at the moment.
So she lowered her lips and hackles and stood up to her full height instead, it seemed like the rest of the Fellowship let out a collective sigh of relief when she did this. Maybe Boromir would think twice before taunting her now, and with a huff she went over and laid down next to where Frodo was to watch Merry and Pippin work on their fighting skills.
Once she had lain down everyone went back to what they were doing, though every once in a while the others would sneak a glance at the massive she-wolf. Frodo was stroking her fur, it felt nice, so she closed her eyes a bit and listen to Frodo and Sam talk.
The other two hobbits were doing pretty well, until Boromir hit one of them in the wrist with his sword. Anra leapt to her feet when she heard his cry of pain, but they didn't need her to defend them. They had kicked him rather hard in the shin, and then yanked him off his feet onto the ground where they proceeded to tickle him. Aragorn walked over to them saying, "Alright gentlemen, that enough-" but before he could finish hey had pulled his feet out from under him as well.
"What is that?" asked one of the other hobbits gesturing to something dark in the sky that was approaching them.
"Oh nothing, just a wisp of clouds," Gimli dismissed.
"It's moving against the wind," Boromir observed worriedly, having finally stood up.
Anra also stood up and was gazing intently at the dark blotch now, 'That's not clouds' she thought, 'that's—'
"Crebain from Dunland!" Legolas cried cutting into her thoughts.
"Hide!" Aragorn ordered.
The white she-wolf didn't need to be told twice; she grabbed two of the nearest packs in her mouth and dove underneath some nearby brush. She heard the screeches of many birds as they flew by right over where the Fellowship had been resting mere moments ago. They left in their wake a stench of darkness, sulfur and death. Not a very nice combination.
When everyone came out of their hiding places Gandalf said, "The Gap of Rohan is being watched. We will have to take the Northern Passage." Everyone turned and looked up at the large snow covered mountains he was talking about.
She shifted and shouldered the bags she was holding, falling into step with the others as they marched towards their next trial, all previous feelings of playfulness gone.
That night they stopped at the foot of the first mountain, deciding to wait to tackle those the next day after a good night's rest. They huddled around the camp fire in a tense silence, everyone dreading what the next day would bring. They were all pressed against each other in hopes of beating the cold wind and snow that was coming off of the mountain, Anra found herself squeezed between Pippin and Aragorn.
The poor little hobbit was shivering so hard she could hear his teeth chattering; she reached her arm around behind him and wrapped him in a tight embrace, trying to share body heat and her cloak. It must have helped a little because his teeth stopped chattering and he wasn't shaking as bad as he had been before.
Aragorn was the exact opposite, he was still as a statue and warmth seemed to radiate off of him. She didn't want to intrude, but he was so warm she could not stop herself from leaning back against him. Once she was leaning against him he start to shift around restlessly, she started to pull away feeling pretty bad. 'Don't take it personally,' she told herself, 'he probably just doesn't want things to get awkward, besides you probably smell.'
But before she could pull all the way away, she felt his hand reach out and wrap itself around her shoulders pulling her back up against his chest this time instead of his side. She realized that he hadn't been trying to move away from her, but he had been just turning so she would be more comfortable, which she was. She then felt bad for immediately assuming that he had been trying to get away when he was just being even nicer.
Her head rested on his chest right above his heart, the steady rhythm of its beat soothed her, as did his warmth and scent. She found the last part of those thoughts kind of strange, they had been outside walking and running for days without bathing, she should be by all means repulsed by his smell, but she wasn't. Strange.
Everybody else smelled gross, like sweat and grease. Well except Legolas but he didn't count of two reasons: one he was an elf and elves already smelled bad to her, and two, well he's an elf, and elves just don't get all sweaty and greasy for some odd totally unfair reason. But with Aragorn, it was different, she could still smell the sweat, it just didn't smell bad. Very strange indeed.
All thoughts of smells aside she was rather comfortable resting up against him like this, she felt safer than she had since she left her pack behind in the Fangorn and she was enjoying it. Just as his calm regular breaths were starting to lull her to sleep she felt one of his hands gently start playing with one of her many wild curls. It was a nice sensation to fall asleep to.