Two weeks into the journey, we reached a massive range of mountains. Freya had surprised every single one of them- excluding Boromir and I- when she shifted into a giant dragon with green and silver scales, and took off into the sky to scout the mountainside. So she had inherited Baldor's Skin Changing abilities and immortality. I wondered if Draco had.

I realized with a start they were all staring at me and I stiffened, then said, "Baldor's mother was a Skin Changer. What can I say? When dad was in his corporeal form he was apparently a lady's man. One of the many, many, many reasons I'd prefer he stay a damned fiery eye. Personally a large bucket of water would do him better."

A high pitched ringing in my head made me wince and Aragorn lifted an arm around my shoulders. Piss off, dad.

Legolas raised an eyebrow. "Your mother wasn't a Skin Changer or some other demon?"

I looked at him as if he had asked me if I was a pink and purple Oliphant. My mind wandered back to my time in Mirkwood, where Thranduil had questioned me about a Cassandra. My mother. I knew the connection already, piecing it together quickly. I had another half-brother. But I seriously doubt he'd appreciate me telling him. Or keeping it from him at that. Legolas Greenleaf was going to be difficult.

I finally decided what I wanted to say. "No. My mother left Mirkwood for Sauron. She was beautiful with blue eyes and long blonde hair. Stunning and not a monster at all. But she fell in love with one. And in turn, it killed her. She died when I was very young. I barely remember her."

Legolas narrowed his eyes at me suspiciously, but didn't question me further about it.

Freya appeared a few minutes later and landed in front of our group, folding her wings. Boromir approached her with a cloak and when she shifted back, wrapped the cloak around her securely.

She didn't seem all that embarrassed and just said, "The mountain path looks clear. Lots of snow to trod through, though. I could maybe carry a few people on my back."

"Take the hobbits. If there's snow it would be better they were out of the drifts." I say. The pain in my head vanished and I felt suspicious. That...wasn't normal.

Freya nodded and the hobbits looked a bit nervous. All except Pippin. He was grinning. Little rascal.

Freya shifted back into a dragon and lowered her head to the ground and the hobbits all climbed up onto her back, sitting between neck spikes.

I brought over blankets from my pack and wrapped them around the hobbits securely and tied the ends to neck spikes. "Hold on tight, ok guys? We'll see you at the base of the mountain."

"What if we fall?"

"Freya will catch you. There's no way you'll fall." I say and offer a reassuring smile.

Merry gasped dramatically. "Would you catch us, too?"

I chuckled. "I would try my best and do everything in my power to catch you." I then turned to go when Sam suddenly asked,

"Wait! Is your brother really a dragon, too?"

Freya and I both said at the same time, "Yes." We looked at each other and I shook my head. "Baldor is older than me by half a century. Freya and Draco are his children."

Sam sat with his eyes wide and mouth hanging open in the shape of an "O". "Where's their mother?"

I felt my face go pale and Freya said, "I don't know. They disappeared one day. Maybe she's with my father in Lothlorien." She sounded so hopeful. She didn't know Arielle was killed.

I looked to Frodo and noticed he looked a bit pale, staring at the neck spikes in front of him, little hands wrapped around it tightly. I reached up and rested my hand over his. "Don't worry. You'll be safe."

He nodded slowly, offering me a small but nervous smile. "I believe you, Imara."

I nodded and stepped away from them and looked over to see Freya with her head lowered to Boromir, his hands on the sides of her face, resting his head against hers once and whispered something to her. She merely blinked once, then pulled her head back and lifted her wings and said,

"The path leads down the mountain to an entrance to the Mines of Moria. Meet us there." Boromir handed the hobbits her knapsack and said,

"She'll need her clothes when she shifts back."

The hobbits' faces went tomato red and hung onto the bag as Freya took off, leaving us behind.

We stood together in a group of six silently, then I said, "They'll make it to the entrance well before we do. They'll wait for hours if not longer."

"Well, then we should start walking." Boromir says gruffly and pulls his pack onto his shoulders and sets off down the trail. He didn't seem to like that Freya wasn't at his side.

I scowled. "So you want to climb a mountain? I can get us to the peak."

"How're you gonna do that, lassie?" Gimli asks. "Yer not a dragon."

"No. But I have something else. It's called shadow travel. I can use the shadows to teleport, if you will. But only if there are shadows and just there, up on the mountain, there's an outcropping of rock that creates a shadow on the path. I can get us up there, but we'll have to walk the rest of the way to the others. It will cut the journey by almost half."

"How can you see a shadow way up there?" Boromir asks, raising an eyebrow.

"I can sense darkness. It's...part of my abilities. Darkness meaning literal shadows and evil. I can also do this." I held out my hands and black tendrils off pure darkness curled around my fingers. "It's part of what my father can do."

They seemed to hesitate, all except for Aragorn, who took my hand immediately. "I'm ready." He said.

I nodded, then held out my hand to the others. Boromir took it, then Gandalf moved to touch my shoulder, Legolas my other. I released Boromir's arm and grabbed Gimli's arm and Boromir grabbed onto my bicep.

I closed my eyes, and then we were in shadow.

It felt like water on rocks. We were weightless, shapeless, and soundless. Pure shadow, utter darkness. Nothing. When I found the patch of darkness I wanted, I aimed for it and the blast of cold wind hit us in the face as we surfaced.

I stumbled forward a step and Aragorn steadied me. I winced and held my head. "I'm fine. I haven't moved that many people in a long time." I said with a flinch.

"We could have walked." He says gently.

"And what? Left the hobbits and Freya alone in the mountains? Not happening." I said, scowling at him.

That feeling something bad would happen was nagging at me the whole way up.

"Thank you, Imara." Gandalf said. "Come. Let's meet them at the mountain pass."

He didn't seem too eager for it, and I wondered if he sensed it, too. Something was off.

We edged our way along the path, and the wind suddenly began to pick up faster now, and Aragorn moved to stand closer to me, and moved me closer to the mountain's rocky face when the wind got fiercer.

Then, a voice was heard over the wind and Legolas said, "There is a fell voice on the wind."

There was a deep rumbling above us and I cursed. "Saruman! Get back!" I shouted and they all fell back to hold onto the mountain's rocky face. I was pulled closer to Aragorn and I wrapped my arms around him. He wasn't falling either.

The tumbling got worse and an avalanche of snow suddenly came tumbling down towards us.

I had to do something.

I closed my eyes and concentrated. A bubble of air encompassed us, then was made stronger as Gandalf and I battled the snow as it tumbled off of our force field of air.

When it was over, I looked off into the distance and snarled a special curse for Saruman in Black Speech. He'd understand. He would die at my hand. Painfully, at that.

It felt like eons, but we found the hobbits and Freya in the small alcove she had found. She was dressed again and seemed a bit nervous, looking at the pool of water in the small clearing we now stood in.

The hobbits ran over to us with questions galore and Gandalf worked to answer them. I noticed Boromir went over to Freya and they merely pressed their foreheads together, smiling at one another and whispering. Freya smacked his shoulder playfully and he laughed.

Gandalf turned to studying the massive door built into the side of the mountain, the faint etches of elvish runes in an arc over the door.

I sat down on a rock a bit away from the others and eyed the small pond curiously. Frodo seemed to take an interest in it as well, and he was stalking towards the pond. His hand was reaching for the Ring around his neck.

I stiffened as I caught sight of something that moved in the water.

"Frodo." I said and he looked at me. I nodded towards his fist around the Ring. "What are you doing?"

Legolas turned to look at us, and Gandalf even tore his gaze away from the door's riddle to watch.

"I...I don't know. I felt called to the pond just now..." he whispered and looked back at the water.

I stood and they all stiffened. I tilted my head to the side. "You should ignore the Ring, Frodo. It's evil, after all." I stepped towards him. "Now, just back away from the pond..." I lifted my hands.

"What's it to you?" He snapped.

I wrinkled my nose. "There's evil in that pond. Stay away from it." I snarled and moved to stand between him and the water.

"I'd listen to her. I sensed something off when we got here. That water isn't right." Freya said from where she stood in Boromir's arms.

Frodo didn't seem to hear her. I knew why. The Ring had a louder voice. "Frodo." I said. "Let go of the Ring. It's trying to control you and then drown you. Stay away from the water."

"How would you know?" He snapped suddenly.

I raised an eyebrow. "Because, Frodo, there's a reason I can sense the Ring wherever it is. It gets its power from me."

Silence. I sighed heavily. "Sauron modeled it after my powers. As soon as I was born, he took some of my blood to make it, thus enchanting it not only to him, but me. Whatever that blasphemous hunk of metal is whispering to you, I can hear it. Don't listen to it. It only ever whispers bullshit to get you mad."

"You just want me to obey you so you can take it. That's all you've ever wanted." Frodo said. "Your front of acting the part of the concerned individual is fake and I know it is. The Ring told me your little secret. You were planning to kill us from the beginning! And take the Ring for yourself and flee!"

Suddenly, eight pairs of eyes were leveled on me with distrust. The only ones who didn't look at me in that way, were Freya and Aragorn. I wasn't entirely surprised.

"Is this true, Imara?" Legolas asks.

"Can't you all see what's happening? The Ring is poisoning you all! Twisting your emotions! Don't listen to Sauron. Listen to me." I said exasperatedly.

Gimli tightened his hold on his axe, Boromir's hand moved to his sword, and Legolas gripped his bow tighter.

"Friends. Imara has done nothing but ensure our safety." Aragorn said carefully and came to stand between us.

I glared at them and snarled, "Gandalf your little door- it's simple. Speak friend and enter. I am your friend. Mellon."

A rumbling sounded from the door, and the carvings of a tree ringed with stars followed blue, as did the stars, and the doors began to scrape open.

There was enough time to get their attention off of me and onto the door for Frodo to pick up a rock and throw it at my head. I gasped, crying out in pain, and fell back into the water.

My vision went dark as my head went under, and I knew no more.

******

I woke up and turned on my side and coughed up water. My whole body shook. I was barely aware of hands on my shoulders, rubbing my back. A blanket was brought up around my shoulders.

I squeezed my eyes shut, opening and closing them tightly to clear my vision. When it did finally clear, I made out Aragorn in front of me. His eyebrows were furrowed in concern and his hands held my face gently.

"Ugh...did that damn hobbit throw a rock at me?" I snarled, groaning a bit and holding my head.

Freya, Aragorn, Merry, and Pippin sat with me, and a distance away sat everyone else around a fire. We were in a cave.

"Yes. The Ring took hold of their minds. They're not too proud of themselves at the moment. As they should be." Freya said with a huff of annoyance.

Aragorn helped me sit up and I gripped his arm with one hand, holding my head with the other. "We're...in the cave?"

"Yes. There was this giant monster in the pond, and it crashed into the ceiling and made a rock slide and now we're trapped." Pippin said with wide eyes.

"Idiots." I said and leaned into Aragorn a bit more. He merely moved to slide an arm around my waist and pulled me to him, gently kissing my head.

"Here. Let me help." Freya said and slid closer to me and rested her hands on my head and closed her eyes. Her hands grew warm, and then the pain vanished. I breathed a sigh of relief.

"Thank you, Freya."

She smiled. "You're welcome."

I blinked and rubbed at my eyes and looked at Aragorn. He was watching me carefully. I frowned. "What?"

"Do you remember anything? Before you went under?" He asks.

"Yes." I say and nod once.

He takes my hand and I hold onto his in both of my hands. He lets out a slow breath, then asks, "Was any of it true?"

I looked away from him. "Yes-except for the part about killing you all." I whispered. His hand squeezed mine tightly and I continued, "I was planning to steal the Ring. So Sauron could never rise. And I was going to take it far, far away. I was going to plan to betray you from the minute I signed on. But...now...I'm not so sure I'll be sticking with that plan."

"And why's that?" Merry asks and he and Pippin looked slightly scared.

"I...well, someone once told me I don't need to be the villain. And I'm starting to believe that, too."