Alissa later found out that Elrond had been delayed with his own need for the library by several elves mentioning missing items. Gandalf had since 'found' them and peace continued for the rest of the afternoon.

Alissa was not stupid, after Gandalfs rather obvious machinations and guilt-inducing interrogation of her person, it was clear that the magic-user had been genuinely concerned that he had not been given word of the people of Yors survival and it was not necessarily been directed towards her. The aura about his person as well as his familiarity with her language told her that she should be wary of him, but not to the extent that she had been. She looked forward to learning more about his strangeness on their journey.

The fellowship of the Ring had decided to gather at the dawn of the new day.

Alissa had made sure to dress for movement but had her cloak rolled up tightly around new boots and socks for warmth should the need arise. She had packed with future starvation and injury in mind at Tyro and Gin's insistence and her small bag of dust was attached to her hip alongside her two newly sharpened blades. She had also been given a set of handsome throwing knives which she placed at various hidden points on her body, taking care that they wouldn't stab her when she moved.

She had been the first one there as she had struggled to sleep with the anticipation of what was to come, so was now awkwardly waiting for the rest of the company to arrive. The first one had been Aragorn who merely inclined his head to her before he settled against the gates of Imladeris to wait.

The Hobbits, as she had learned they were called, had arrived next, all chattering and laughing away as carefree as could be. It turned out that these hobbits were fully grown, not children as she had originally thought. Her mistake had embarrassed her and she hoped that they hadn't taken offense. As they hadn't spoken to her about it, she assumed they hadn't.

Her thoughts turned to her father. She had sent away Tyro and Gin shortly after the council to report back to him. They had not been pleased by her orders for them to go but had promised her that they would get to her father as fast as they could so he could begin making preparations for the dark times ahead.

Her father would not be pleased about her decision either and she worried for his health. He did not need to be worrying about her on top of everything else he had to do. But hopefully, she said to herself, he would also be proud of her even if it didn't bring him joy.

She was bought out of her thoughts by a hand on her shoulder and she couldn't help but tense slightly, but it was only Gandalf the Longbeard, signaling to her that they were about to leave.

She took up a position close to the front, away from the cluster of elves so that their cacophony of scents wouldn't burn her nostrils for any longer than absolutely necessary.

Before long, Elrond had blessed the fellowship and they set off. Soon, the perfectly manicured forest gave way to its wilder cousins and Alissa felt she could breathe for the first time in days. She watched their surroundings with a predator focus, making sure that the small Hobbits stayed within her field of vision, and made little effort to make small talk with the rest of the fellowship.

She knew she should at least try but she found that a small tension headache was forming at the base of her temples and she did not want to aggravate it further. Her Westron was proving a challenge. Sure she could understand everything that was spoken to her but only when she truly focused. Forming a response was the hardest, for she knew what she wanted to say but not how to say it.

She was just running through the tenses for the word 'walk' when Legolas fell into step beside her and she had to fight with herself not to cringe at his smell. He had likely smothered himself in the elvish soap that morning and she had no choice but to breathe it in.

"It's a beautiful day for walking" he began with a small smile. She fought the urge to laugh. Really? The elf wanted to talk about the weather? She just nodded at him but when she said nothing the elf continued "Forgive me my Lady but it seems that I failed to properly introduce myself even after we spent yesterday preparing together too. My name is Legolas."

"I am called Alissa" she smiled thinly; her nose began to ache in time with her head.

His eyes grew concerned "Are you well?"

"Yes" she said. What she wanted to say was 'no I am not alright and would you please move away because you smell really bad?' that would've been extremely rude.

The elf's eyes narrowed slightly, why she did not know. "Very well then, I shall leave you to your thoughts" he said and he fell back to walk beside Aragorn who was currently leading the group.

Hmm, must've had something up his nose maybe, she thought wryly to herself grateful that only thing she could smell now was the orchestra that was the various smells of the forest: lichen, dew slipping off a sliver of grass and the roughness of old tree bark.

However, before she could get used to her own company, Gandalf the Grey, a wizard she had learned earlier, came to talk to her as well but instead of speaking in Westron, as she had expected, no, dreaded, he spoke to her in her own tongue. It was a relief to hear it, like a healing balm rubbed over a stiff joint.

"Lady Alissa, forgive me but I have been unable to speak to you until now. I take it that Elrond has given you adequate supplies despite your appearance?"

"He was most generous." Alissa confirmed with a smile. "And these," She said gesturing to her clothes that were very different from the rest of the fellowship, "Have more pockets than you might think."

Gandalf chuckled, "Of course."

They fell into a comfortable silence until they made camp later that evening.

"So who are you then?" one of the Hobbits bounded up to her once they sat themselves down at various points around the small fire. Alissa let out a surprised growl and bared her teeth somewhat when the creature stuck his finger in her face an waggled it slightly. "I've heard you speaking earlier but no one else knew who you were."

"Pippin!" Another hobbit, exasperated with his fellows antics, tried to haul him back down so he was out of Alissa's face.

Alissa closed her eyes and counted in her mind, when she felt she had sufficiently calmed she opened them. "No it's alright… I appreciate his bluntness. I do not know who most of you are either."

"Forgive me for my reaction… Pippin, I am not comfortable around such strangers and find myself reacting to the littlest things, although you shouldn't stick fingers in peoples faces, especially when they have teeth."

"We all have teeth." said Pippin, showing his with a small cheeky grin.

"Mine are bigger." Alissa said with a mouthful of fangs that caused Pippins grin to disappear and a chuckle to fall from her own. She tucked her teeth back behind her lips and settled down more comfortably on the ground, crossing her hips.

"So you are hobbits?" She asked them after they fell into silence for awhile, the only sound being the shink of a whetstone sliding down a blade and the small crackle of flame.

The conversation became one of exchange. Pippin and Sam had the most to offer about food, songs and the hobbits apparent love of growing things. Merry chimed in here and there but Frodo said little outside of a shy smile of some of the things the others said.

Alissa shared what she thought relevant about her people as well. Glossing over the fall of Yor and how she had grown up surrounded by trees and the wild.

She gestured about her person. "This is the first time that I have left my home, I know not the place we are, nor do I know the way to the place I am going. I am not used to being at odds with my surroundings."

"We've never gone further than the borders of the Shire either!"

"Every step I take is the farthest away from home I've ever been." Sam said with awe in his voice, "But I'm mighty impressed with what I've seen so far, even if folks are being mighty strange, if thats ok for me to say."

"I find you equally strange." Alissa said, agreeing, "Are all hobbits as tiny as you four?"

"OI!"

"Then I assume you are short for your kind then? I am sorry if I offended you."

"That's alright, I was about to ask if everyone of your kind had ears as flat as yours."

Their queer humor was endearing and inclusive.

"I'm a dwarf lass," The other height challenged member of their fellowship said when he bought himself over to their part of the camp. "Often you'll find us in the mountains, probably a bit too far away from those grumpy trees you were talking about. Gimli, son of Gloin by the way."

"Your hair is a lovely shade." She said, eyeing the bright red of his beard and hair, she'd never seen anything like it on any of her people. "Like a sunset."

The dwarf blushed red and said little else that evening.

Over the next few days, Alissa began to notice that Westron flowed a little easier off her tongue. She did find however that Westron was limited in several ways. She still inserted a few words of her own that were more often than not, cuss words, into the everyday speech to truly emphasise her opinion or feeling on the matter.

She spoke to the Hobbits mostly, finding their queer humor endearing but her focus was almost always on their surroundings.

Pippin, of course, was the one she had found to be the greatest distraction. He wanted to know everything about everything about her people, her home and past. At first she had been suspicious of this curiosity but soon found herself discussing, as best as both of them could with the language difficulties, everything he wanted to know.

"Really?! There's a plant that can do that? Hey Merry did you know that there's a plant that likes to gnaw on you!"

It was on a particular scorching day when Alissa first heard in the distance a great tramping of many footsteps pounding into the burnt soil. She had just been handed a bowl of stew (made from some rabbits Aragorn had found earlier that day) when she had frozen to listen. Her stew sloped over the rims of the bowl but she ignored the heat trailing over her hands.

Sam waved a hand in front of her face "Miss Alissa are you alright?" but she didn't answer, so focused on the sound. She placed the bowl gently to her side before she rose. Her movement and blank gaze startled the other members of the fellowship.

She came back to herself with a start when Legolas placed a hand on her shoulder. She didn't hiss, only glanced at him until the appendage was removed.

"What is it Alissa? Are you unwell?" asked the elf.

"I am fine," she said but she silenced him with a gesture of her hand in order to listen again before she said. "I hear something with many feet Legolas."

It wasn't long after she spoke that she caught the eyes of Gandalf who nodded at the question in hers. She turned her focus inward, searching for the familiar shape of the cat within her and, by mentally grasping it by the paw she tugged it out of herself to be visible to the world.

The effects began almost immediately. Her skin began to bubble and the pelt of the cheetah began to froth under its surface. Her nose pushed inward and she felt the fur poking its way through her pores. Her spine curved till she landed on all fours, her teeth elongating, a tail sprouted and she felt her clothes falling off her body, one by one until they lay in a pool about her frame.

Though the process seemed lengthy to her, it only took a few seconds for everyone else, who stood slack jawed around her. She let out a sharp growl and they all jolted back into the motions of erasing the evidence of her camp. Legolas, she noted, gathered up the material on the ground and folded it away into her satchel, which was tied on Bill the pony.

The sound was a lot clearer to her now and it was a lot closer than she originally estimated. She bounded over to Frodo and, grasping his sleeve lightly in her teeth, tugged him over to stand with Gandalf and Aragorn, who had already begun to lead the way away.

Alissa, now that the fellowship had begun to disappear, focused again on the sound and began to pad her way over to it. She distinctly heard Pippin vehemently arguing with Gimli the dwarf, who had him by the scruff of the neck that they couldn't leave her behind. He was kicking and squealing up a storm until it became muffled as someone had the brains to gag him. She let out a throaty chuckle and headed closer to the sound.

She could hear voices now and growling. Repetitive stamping of feet as if marching in formation, the occasional roar that echoed across the forest.

She leapt up into the trees to prowl across the branches.

And not a moment too soon for the beast with many feet soon drew to a halt only a short way aways from the site the fellowship had just vacated and began shouting orders in a guttural language she couldn't understand.

She peered at them from her vantage point and slowly stuck her head out. Her nose stung from the smell of unwashed, sticky bodies and her eyes grew wide at the many something's that were running around.

She knew what they were. Orcs were prominent in the limited amount of books she had read but their descriptions had done nothing to do the repulsive creatures justice. Not one of them had mentioned just how malformed they were, how big gashes in their faces and bodies were held together with giant metal clips or how the air seemed to thicken and the trees seemed to slump as the true evil of these creatures invaded their environment.

Alissa had to fight back the growl that bubbled up her throat when the creature's crude weapons started to hack up the older trees, their grabby hands grasping great clumps of grass and ripping it away from the soil as the Orcs started setting up their own camp. The trees groaned lowly and deeply as they fell. A sad, defeated sound.

Some were sniffing around the perimeter of their camp and muttered something in their own tongues to one another. Alissa would bet her existence that they had picked up the fresh scent of the fellowship trail but to her surprise did nothing more than stare in the direction they had gone.

Her attention was diverted to the base of her tree, as several Orcs were gathered under it and pointing at her. One, strangely, began to speak in Westron.

"I has a greats way with zee animals, there ain't no need to go deeper into zee forest when we has one right here!" it began a clawing motions at her and gave her what she was sure he thought was a kind smile. As it was, it looked more like toothed fish. "Here's a kitty kitty kitty, sweet kitty kitty" it said in a syrupy tone.

Genuinely wondering where the orc had ever found success with that … technique, she merely stood and flicked her ears and tail at him before she leapt off into another tree, out of their sight. She heard its fellows loud and grating laughter at her reaction, but it didn't stop the more intelligent of the lot grabbing a bow to look for her.

She had seen enough. Especially now that the threat of injury was now greater. She easily evaded the orcs and waited until they had retreated back to their camp before she leapt down onto the soil to hunt for the fellowship.

Once she'd picked up the trail, which wasn't too hard to find, she began to run after them.

She dodged trees, leapt over gnarled roots with an ease born to those who live in such environments until what remained of them had faded away to reveal craggy stone. The grit stabbed tiny pricks into the pads of her paws and she sniffed the air. They sure had moved a lot faster than she had ever seen them before, covered more ground than they otherwise would've done and all with the help of some lumbering Orcs.

How interesting.

However it didn't take her long to track them, and that worried her. Especially when she noticed the wizards' pointy hat bobbing just beneath the rise she was standing on.

She gave a short growl in greeting and they all stopped to allow her to catch up. Boromir leant down to her eye level. "So Alissa, was it your imagination or was there actually a threat."

She bobbed her head.

He looked confused and so clarified. "No it was your imagination or yes there was a threat."

She bobbed her head again and unsheathed on claw to begin writing in the dirt but gave up when she couldn't get her tenses to agree and just drew in the dirt instead.

She drew a tent like shape with a grotesque creature underneath it, she wrote many underneath its image. Granted she wasn't such a great drawer but she thought they got the gist from their shocked expressions.

But it was only when Boromir slowly reached up to cover his eyes, Aragorn coughed uncomfortably and Pippin voiced, "So that what a woman looks like" to only be shushed by the others that her eyebrow raised.

She glanced at drawing. It wasn't that bad was it? Hmmm… maybe she was a better artist than she thought, though Pippin's comment confused her.

She stood from her crouch and padded over to Gandalf who cringed slightly when she came close. Her eyebrow rose to rival her hairline.

Gandalf gave a little cough and made to speak, but words failed him and his voice died in his throat.

Alissa turned to face the rest of the fellowship and placed her hand on her hips. "What is biting you all? If you can't handle a drawing, then how are we going to walk to the fire mountain?"

It was only then she realized that her thoughts had formed words and not the growls she was expecting. She glanced down at her body and looked back at the men who were still cringing behind their hands.

Before she'd left she had been told by her father some of the ways of outsiders as he remembered them and the number one rule was that women were to remain clothed at all times.

As shifters, it wasn't unusual to walk around naked at times, especially if one had been startled into shifting quickly and shredding their clothes accidently. As a result, Shifters often wore clothes that tied on in loose knots that would unravel when they took on a new form and barely covered what Westron's would call their modesty.

Whatever that meant.

She strode quickly over to Bill the pony, who shied slightly away from her as he registered her predator scent, but calmed when she stroked a hand briefly down his nose. She reached into her bag and quickly tied on her own clothes and swept her cloak about her shoulders. Once suitably clothed, she retied her blades and bag of dust to her hip before turning towards the fellowship, hiding away the set of throwing knives as she did so.

"I am sorry, I did not realize I had changed." She said, more for something to say rather than meaning her apology. The others in her party refused to comment so she left them to it.

Seeing as the Orcs had stopped and the idiots she was traveling with were not going to be able to pull themselves together anytime soon, she might as well catch a little sleep.