A/N: This chapter didn't work out how I expected and I'm not 100% happy with the ending but I've kept you guys waiting long enough so here you go.

Disclaimer: I do not own Lord of the Rings...I own only my laptop. Even my music instrument and my laptop don't belong to me... That's how poor I am...

"Talking"
'Ammy's thoughts'
'Ammy Projecting whilst in dragon form'

Revision 30/03/12: Parts of this chapter have been edited but shouldn't effect the overall story!

Chapter Twelve

Flying

As Ammy watched the group began to discuss their next move. There seemed to be some contention as to which route they should take. Ammy personally didn't mind but hoped they came to a decision sometime soon. Whilst the growing pile of snow wasn't going to get in her way, it was beginning to pile up on her wing and she could feel the air getting colder as the day advanced.

"Let the Ring-bearer decide." Gandalf's voice boomed in the small enclosed space.

As everyone turned their attention to Frodo the poor Hobbit looked around nervously. Their faces had all turned to look at the poor Halfling. Each of them regarded him with expectant faces.

'Go with your instincts Frodo. Don't let the pressure of anyone else make your decision. I will follow you whatever you choose.' Ammy spoke softly and was pleased when only Frodo turned to look at her. It seemed as if she could speak directly, as if she were whispering in their ear, with one person if she concentrated on that lone person hearing her words.

Frodo swallowed apprehensively and then turned his gaze to Gandalf.

"We shall go through the mines. I cannot ask any of you to risk your lives on this mountain. The Gap of Rohan is no longer a safe option for us and I hope we may receive some aid or safety in the Mines of Moria."

Gandalf's expression was one of conflict and worry. His eyes closed and for a split second Ammy thought she saw a tear trickle down his face and disappear into his beard.

"So be it. We should turn back and make our way down the mountainside at once. There are a few mere hours of daylight available to us, so haste is of the essence."

Aragorn and Boromir once again picked up two Hobbits each and Gimli took up Bill's lead rein. Gandalf drew his cloak round him and pulled his hat down firmly on his head and nodded to Ammy.

Carefully Amaterasu unwound her tail from its place curved round the cliff edge. Cold air gushed into the almost oppressive heat that had built up in their small cavern formed by Ammy's body. Next the dragon slowly pulled her head out from under her wing and was wary of knocking any of the small humanoids; one glancing knock from her large head could break bones or send the males flying.

As Ammy's head drew fully out into the open snow buffeted over her scales and close to her eyes. She was greatly surprised when a transparent film flicked over her eyes. It appeared that she had a second transparent eyelid which protected the large orbs.

'Well that's new. Quite useful. I can imagine that when I'm flying the wind would dry out my eyes. Hmm, flying huh.'

The Fellowship had turned around and were starting to wade back throught the snow: Gimli and Bill leading, Aragorn, Frodo and Sam sticking close to the pony's flanks with Boromir carrying Merry and Pippin almost on top of the Ranger. Gandalf was walking with his head bowed against the weather's onslaught. The only members seemingly unaffected were Legolas who was walking on tope of the snow piles with graceless ease and Ammy who had tucked her behemoth wings back tightly against her frame. The snow and wind broke against her back and neck yet she did not feel even slightly cold.

The flakes of ice swirled in the eddies and currents of the wind's path and her dragon eyes could pick up the tiniest of details on an individual snowflake. The frozen water droplets were unique and tiny and sparkled coldly in front of Ammy's eyes.

Once the Fellowship was a safe distance away Amaterasu unearthed her long talons from the rock face where she had embedded them. Teetering slightly when she released her front talons, her wings instinctively opened to help her gain her balance once again.

'Similar to a bird. So, how to go about the flying? When birds teach their babies to fly the chicks just jump...So instead of jumping I could simply, let go...'

As she opened her wings further a large gust if wind caught her wings and pushed her from the cliff face, sending her soaring into the sky. The ear-splitting screech Ammy made as she soared upwards echoed round and pierced through the gale.

"Ammy!" Frodo cried as he strained to get to the edge and look for his friend however Aragorn kept him firmly restrained and the Hobbit was left to just call for the dragon.

The air currents lifted the dragon upwards and her mane fluttered wildly along her neck. The hair was thrown back and forth, a shimmering curtain of silver threads and at the end of each strand there was a tiny flame which burned and sparked with each new movement.
Coasting along the wind path it was only necessary to tilt her wings slightly and flick the tips in order to change direction. Ammy floated along in the air for a few minutes getting a feel for her new form and her newfound flying abilities.

As she turned her attention back to the Fellowship Ammy realised that they had barely moved. Their progress down the mountainside was considerably slower than on the way up. The hazardous weather was making movement in any direction, up or down, left or right extremely dangerous.

'If they continue at that speed they'll all freeze to death before they're even half way down.' She hovered above the males, her wings beating furiously to keep her in that position. The force of the air moved by her wings moved the snow out of the Fellowship's path but unfortunately the air force was also buffeting the men. The strength of the air was knocking them about quite viciously and Boromir was pushed quite precariously close to the edge.

'Oops! Sorry!' Ammy spoke to Boromir as Legolas pulled the Gondorian away from the edge. 'That's not working.' The dragon rose up higher and peered through the heavy snowstorm. The eyesight in her newest form was incredible she could see in panoramic view or for want of better terminology "zoom in" on certain objects. Ammy could see the slope which they had laboured up that morning and was shocked to see that there was a mini avalanche rolling down it.

'Maybe going back the way we came isn't the best option. We can't go forward, we can't go backward and we can't go around the mountain... We'll have to go off it! This might just work!'

Ammy hovered nearby her large form offering some meagre protection from the cold wind and as the Fellowship moved onto a wider rock ledge she closed her wings and dropped down over them. Her talons sunk into the rock beside the group and she twisted her neck and tucked her head under body to see the males.

'I have a plan. There's an avalanche on the slope you're about to walk onto. Climb on I think I can get us off this rockpile! Gandalf climb up and sit right were my neck meets my shoulders, Legolas can you climb to the top of my head and hold onto one of my horns?' As the two climbed up her foreleg Ammy continued instructing the others.
'Aragorn, Boromir you need to go to my front legs. Take the Hobbits with you. Once I release the rock you'll have a few seconds to leap into my...are they paws or hands? You get the idea?' Both men nodded and carrying their Hobbits moved to a leg each.

'Gimli, I know you will not be particularly happy anywhere so where you go is up to you. Where will it be?'

The Dwarf regarded the dragon with horror. Gimli gulped and then clambered on top of her head, wrapping his arms and legs around her horn. Legolas patted the Dwarf on his back and gave a reassuring smile. Ammy slowly retracted her head from under her belly and stretched her neck back out to its full length.

'Hold on up there.' Ammy thought. She released the cliff and as soon as her talons were clear of the stone scooped her paw into a cup-like shape. The men threw the Hobbits into the cradle as gently as possible and then clambered in.

Standing on only her back two feet, Amaterasu reared up keeping her wings tightly pressed against her body. There was a shout from Gimli as she reared up followed by furious Dwarf curses. If Ammy had, had the ability she believed her cheeks would have been blushing with the language and ferocity of the Gimli's cursing.

Bill had given up by this point. He was cold right through to his bones, his fur was matted and the packs on his back were all saturated making the load twice as heavy. To top it all off there was a giant lizard thing with wings and sharp pointy teeth and claws standing over him. It was all too much for the loyal pony and rather than bolting he stood in the snow resignedly waiting for the next ridiculous event.

He was not disappointed as Ammy spread her wings but angled them through the wind, the top edge cutting so that the air split above and below her wing and didn't force her off the mountain. As she lifted off from the ledge she grabbed the pony round his middle with her back claws. Her talons curved carefully under the pony's soft belly and locked into each other making sure he was safely grasped.

'Ready? Here we go. Geronimo!' Fully opening her wings Ammy caught the next gust of wind which threw her and her precious cargo into the sky. They flew higher and higher and were soon far away from the deadly mountain.

'Which direction would be most advantageous Gandalf? I don't know how long I can carry you all and night is getting closer so if we're not careful we could end up plummeting from the sky with a very horrible landing.' Ammy thought as she hovered. Her wings weren't moving as furiously as before as there were more air currents and less resistance than by the rocky face.

Ammy could almost feel Gimli's relief when they had stopped moving. The dwarf in question was still hugging tightly to her horn and his eyes were tightly shut and his lips pressed in a thin line.
As Gandalf shouted above the whistling wind for Ammy to go right, she wheeled in that direction and began to power through the air with long broad strokes of her wings. The direction of the wind was against her and Ammy found it difficult to keep flying at a steady pace.

For Legolas, Gimli and Gandalf the cold-biting wind was harshly buffeting them and they had little shelter from it. Gandalf had the sense of mind to bury his hands in Ammy's mane. The tiny silver flames that danced along each strand of hair did not burn his skin but ghosted over his flesh and sent warmth into his very core.
Gimli and Legolas were unable to immerse their hands in the mane because they would lose their tentative grip on the smooth horns. Luckily the hair by the horns was quite long and thick and as the wind whipped it around Legolas and Gimli kept getting brushed by tiny flames which raced over their skin and gave them comforting bursts of heat.

The two men with the Hobbits were protected from the onslaught of the weather and spent the journey discussing battle tactics (rather Boromir told an eager Merry and sleepy Pippin of his exploits) and Elf-lore (Aragorn related the tale of the arrival of the Valar to weary Frodo and hungry Sam). They were kept quite warm in their cocoons because Ammy's scales were warm to the touch and little wind was seeping in through her claws.

The most unfortunate of all the group was Bill. Despite Ammy's claws wrapped around him and the scales of her feet touching his sides and legs most of his body was exposed to the elements. The pony gave a huge 'huff' through his nose and hung his head down. If he was going to be flown through the air he may as well have a nap.

About an hour later the Fellowship was clear of the mountain and were nearing some snow-covered level ground that slowly returned back to dirt and rocks, the occasional dejected shrub dotted the mainly flat plain.

Ammy was panting as her wings flapped slowly. Her head and neck, which had been stretched out against the wind in order to remain more stream-lined now sagged limply and every now and again Legolas had to encourage her to keep her head up. The entire flight had been spent forcing her way through gale-force winds and she hadn't been able to glide at all.

"Lady Ama! The sun is going down! We need to land now!" Legolas shouted as her head began to dip once again. She wearily raised her head and looked towards the descending sun. There was 5 minutes if she was lucky.

'Bollocks. Gonna have to do this the quick way.' Ammy thought to herself.

'Hold on. Going down.' She closed her wings and immediately went into a nose dive.

"AHHHHH! What the hell are you doing Lassie?!" Gimli roared, tears whipping from his eyes due to the increasing speed of the wind.

The ground was rushing up towards them and just as Gandalf and Legolas were about to tell her to pull up Ammy snapped her wings out a few metres above the ground. She glided along just above the ground, dropped Bill down on top of a slight rise and he was immensely relieved to be on solid ground once more.

The dragon released her front talons and dumped Boromir, Aragorn and the Hobbits quite unceremoniously in a deep snow drift. After she had deposited her cargo Ammy's strength gave out, her wings went limp and folded back into her body.
As she fell Legolas grabbed Gimli, slid down Ammy's neck to grab Gandalf and then threw them all off. They landed safely on their feet but were sent flying when Ammy's body crashed into the ground a few metres away from them, sending a small quake through the earth.

"Ammy!" Frodo hurtled past the elf, wizard and dwarf as if they didn't even exist but before he was even next to the furred tail tip, sparkling lights engulfed her body, similar to the little flames that danced along her mane, and she shrank back into her human form.

Ammy groaned as she sat up completely naked in the cold snow. Her hair had come undone from the braid Legolas had put it in and luckily the white/silver strands were covering everything of importance. She could hear footsteps compacting the soft snow as the moved towards her and as Frodo came into sight in the fading light, miniature versions of her dragon wings snapped around to cover her unclothed frame.

"Guess that's the first of my new attributes to carry over." She mumbled. "Frodo could you get my clothes from the pack on Bill please?"
Frodo grinned and scampered over to Bill. Boromir was standing by the pony and unhooked the pack handing it down to Frodo.

"Thanks Boromir." The Hobbit brought the pack over to Ammy. She retracted one wing and held out her hand. Frodo noticed that her hand was trembling and that she almost dropped the bag when he handed it over to her.

"Are you alright Ammy? You're shaking?" He asked concernedly but was met with no reply as the woman was intent on dressing herself.

Ammy's wings provided great cover for her to get changed behind, she had noticed that all the males had averted their attention once they realised she wasn't covered. Quickly pulling on the trousers she came across a slight snag when trying to put her shirt on. The oversized shirt was large but her wings would tear it easily and it didn't seem as if she could fold them against her back.

Luckily there were some thick, long white strips of fabric in the pack, probably to be used as bandages. Ammy unravelled a couple of the fabric strips and then wrapped them round her chest and stomach. Whilst this covered the majority of her skin she had to leave her shoulders and arms exposed but it seemed like a reasonable compromise.

"Thank you Frodo. We should probably carry on shouldn't we? We've lost an entire day going up and down that blasted rock!" Ammy smiled tiredly at the Hobbit. The sun had completely set and she should not have been able to see the Hobbit however she could make out all his features. The moon was covered by a thick cloud bank yet she could see the tiniest of details from the dimple in his cheek, to the blue of his eyes and the few copper curls in his dark hair.

"Lady Ama, you still have wings, and your hair... it's on fire!" Legolas spoke awe-struck as he mysteriously appeared behind them out of the darkness.

"It is? I don't smell burning!"Ammy twisted and turned trying to see her flaming hair. Finally after a minute's pointless struggling she grabbed a chunk of her hair and pulled the entire length over her shoulder. Legolas was right. Her hair was covered in flames but it wasn't burning, rather it was as if tiny flame droplets were pouring down the mass of her hair. A shimmering waterfall of silver flames on white strands that just fizzled out at the end. They continually fell so she was giving of a constant light, explaining how she could see everyone and vice versa.

'At least I don't look like a flashing neon sign or like I'm trying to do Morse Code...'She thought as she looked sceptically at the descending flames.

"Well that's unexpected." Merry commented dryly as he walked over to stand by the trio. The rest of the Fellowship followed by a nervous Bill who was flustered by the flames (natural instincts and all that).

"I was told that certain...attributes and features would carry over from my other forms. Whatever I am before I turn human will send some physical aspects along with the change, hence the wings and flaming hair."

"Your dragon form is impressive Ammy! You were bigger than Master Frodo's house! And he has one of the largest Hobbit holes in the Shire!" Sam's face was full of delight. He hadn't expected half the craziness that had occurred when he and Master Frodo set out from the Shire. If Ammy's dragon was the largest thing they met on their journey then Sam would be relieved. The world outside the Shire was so big and Ammy even bigger and more fantastical, but there couldn't be many things bigger than her, could there?

"Whilst this is fascinating and incredibly intriguing we should move on." Gandalf had straightened out his cloak and hat. The ride on Ammy's back had greatly dishevelled him and the wizard had spent a few minutes taming his wind-blown beard.
"We are about an hour's walk from the entrance to the mines and I do not wish to be out in the open for too long."

The various members of the group gathered themselves up and collected their packs from Bill and began to follow Gandalf. He led them off the snowy ground back to dirt and earth and one could almost feel the relief at the lack of snow. Pippin thought that he had seen enough snow to last him a lifetime, he did after all end up buried in it and had swallowed quite a lot of the ice-cold water...

Ammy slowly rose to her feet. Her legs were trembling and she could barely feel her toes, although she didn't think she was cold, her hair was producing enough heat to keep her entire body warm. Rather, she felt stretched and thin, tired and exhausted like a horse that has spent the entire day working in the fields without a break. Just standing was a chore and Ammy could feel her head throbbing and her balance swaying.

Frodo let out a yelp as the small woman suddenly tumbled towards him. Luckily Legolas caught her before she actually landed on the Hobbit.

"Oops. Think I'm tired." Ammy mumbled and let out a yawn. "I did just fly through a storm with ten passengers." Her voice drifted off as she fought to keep her eyes open.

"One of you will have to carry her for a while whilst she regains her energy and strength. We cannot stop, we have been delayed too much already today." Gandalf called back and pointed at Aragorn, Boromir and Legolas. Boromir walked back to where the elf, woman and Hobbit were standing and held out his arms.

"I can carry her for a bit. If I get tired Aragorn can take her. You need your hands free to shoot." Frodo let out a small squeak at this suggestion and Legolas sensed Frodo's distrust of the Gondorian. They both recollected the last time Boromir had, had hold of Ammy albeit in rabbit form and they knew that the experience had made Amaterasu wary of Boromir.

"It's fine Boromir. I can carry her on my back. She has enough strength to hold on round my neck and I am not was weary as you. You and Aragorn did carry the Hobbits through the blizzard and up the mountain and I did little then. Frodo can carry my quiver and bow. If we are attacked I shall place Lady Ama somewhere safe and Frodo and the other Hobbits can guard her." Legolas smiled innocently and Boromir and the Gondorian shrugged and walked off.

"Hold on to her for a second Frodo." Legolas sat the oblivious Ammy down in the snow and Frodo stood behind her, keeping her upright. The elf unhooked both quiver and bow and handed them to Frodo. He then crouched down in front of Ammy with his back towards her. Frodo held onto the bow and quiver in his left hand and looped Ammy's arms over Legolas' shoulders with his right.

Once her arms were over the elf's shoulders he hooked his arms under her knees and stood up. Ammy registered what was happening and instinctively wrapped her arms around Legolas' neck and her legs round his torso. The odd looking female looked rather like a baby monkey, with wings, clinging to its mother.

"Fly my pretties, Fly!" Ammy giggled as she clung on gently. Her head rested on the back of the elf's shoulder and she soon drifted into a light sleep.

Frodo was left to carry the bow and arrows and he also ended up bundling Ammy's hair up as it was trailing down her back, wrapping itself around Legolas' legs and looking like an accident waiting to happen.

This was not exactly what the Hobbit had envisioned doing on his quest to Mount Doom; the concept of carrying a wood elf's bow and arrows and a mass of white hair that was on fire had never crossed his mind. The fire droplets weren't burning his skin or clothes but Frodo made sure to keep the bow and feather-tipped arrows far from the hair. It would be just his luck for Ammy's hair to destroy Legolas' bow and he was pretty sure the wood would burn him and the Halfling had no desire for more injuries...

A/N: Hope that was worth waiting for. I apologise for the comparative shortness to the previous chapter but there didn't seem to be a good point to stop. I don't know when my next update will be as I'm getting ready to go to Uni. Really exciting but scary too!

As usual please Read and Review, I've been overwhelmed by the response from soo many of you! Never in my wildest dreams did I expect my drabble to be so well received and every review I get inspires me to continue. We are now on 30,000+ words, 163 Reviews, 105 Favs and 149 Follows! (Faints in shock) Please continue as it is very exciting to log into my emails and see a list of 30 reviews!

Ryua

P.S. If anyone would like to/has drawn anything for this fanfic I would be over the moon to see it! Maybe someone could do a drawing for the cover? No pressure, it is merely that my artistic skills extend to cake decoration not drawing so if anyone has done anything I would love to see it! PM me if you have or post a link in a review!