They set off at the first signs of daylight, being forced to buy a pony from the dreadful Bill Ferny once finding out that the horses in the stables had fled. Her favourite part about the exchange was when Sam threw an apple in his face as they left.
"Where are you taking us?" Frodo asked as they pushed themselves through a forest.
"Into the wild," he replied just as vaguely as Athena had done the night before, one of his hands holding onto Bill's reins and leading him along with them—Bill the pony, if that wasn't already clear.
─────────
They continued to meander their way through the towering forest, their eyes peeled for any signs of a threat on their journey. Bill had returned to the back to walk alongside Sam who he had taken a particular liking to. The trees had begun to grow thicker the further they ventured into the forest, blocking out the rays of the sun and causing a gentle darkness to overcome them.
"How do we know this Strider and Shadow are friends of Gandalf?" Merry asked in a whisper, but he wasn't as quiet as he thought he was being.
"I think a servant of the enemy would look fairer and feel fouler," Frodo attempted to reassure.
"They're foul enough."
Aragorn and Athena both shared a look of annoyance and discouragement at the comment of Merry, but otherwise remained silent at the jab he sent their way.
"If you remember me telling you, Athena apparently also knows my uncle. Regardless, we have no choice but to trust them."
"But where are they leading us?" Sam then asked from where he walked behind them.
"To Rivendell, Master Gamgee. To the house of Elrond," Aragorn responded to his quiet question.
At knowing they could hear them the Hobbits looked up with matching expressions of shock, Athena turning to raise an eyebrow at Merry from over her shoulder. He avoided eye contact with a look of guilt crossing over his face, she decided to put him out of his misery and return to facing the front of where they were walking again.
"Did you hear that Bill? Rivendell! We're going to see the Elves," Sam spoke excitedly to his pony, being filled with awe at the promise of seeing the Elves that he loved so much.
─────────
The two Rangers stood ahead of the group, looking at the surroundings in front of them before turning back to the Hobbits when figuring that it was safe for them to continue that way. Her eyebrows rose in shock when she saw that they had begun to settle on the snow-caked grass, beginning to make a pit for a fire and pulling out pots and pans from the sacks they carried on their backs.
"Gentlemen," Aragorn called with bewilderment in his tone, the Hobbits pausing their actions to look up at him, "we do not stop until nightfall."
"What about breakfast?" Pippin asked him.
"We've already had it."
"We've had one, yes. What about second breakfast?"
"You're going to have to do without second breakfast and many other things until we get to our destination," she responded before they turned their backs on the hungry Hobbits and continued to walk forwards.
When they were out of sight of the Hobbits Aragorn pulled an apple from the pack on his back before throwing it backwards and to Merry, who deftly caught it in his hands, pulling another out of his bag and throwing it to where Pippin was, except it barrelled against his head instead of into his hands.
"Just wait until they try and stop for Elevenses," she muttered to herself while Aragorn handed her two apples which she in turn handed to Sam and Frodo once they had caught up to them—she didn't want to end up accidentally hitting one of them in the head.
─────────
Her boots had completely filled from the water of the swamp, her pants clinging to her legs as they waded through the dirt-ridden waters. She couldn't count the amount of times she had been bitten by insects since first stepping into the swampland.
"What do they eat when they can't get Hobbit?" Merry asked while he waved his hand to keep the bugs away from him.
"I don't think you want the answer to that," Athena called to him from where she was behind them.
Everyone had thankfully managed to do an admirable job at keeping themselves upright despite the mud underneath them that forced their legs to work even harder with every step they took. Unfortunately, their luck ran out when Pippin found himself stumbling in the water before falling forwards into it, his head being plunged underneath the cold and dirty water.
"Come on," she muttered as she bent down and slid her arms underneath his, hauling him back up onto his feet and inwardly gagging at the stench of the bog that now coated him.
He thanked her before continuing on with her watching in case he were to fall again. Thankfully, he didn't and they decided to rest at a dried out area of the swamp when the sun set and the moon peeked out of the clouds above them. It had become too dark for them to see where they were placing their feet and was beginning to make the trek more dangerous than it needed to be.
Aragorn had left in search of some food that he would be able to cook for them to eat but Athena stayed with the Hobbits to ensure that they would still be safe in case anything found them.
"So you knew Bilbo apparently," Merry piped up from where he sat in the circle.
Athena sat a few feet away from them and used a barren bush to lean her back against. "I still do," she responded, glancing over at them.
"I remember him saying you used to sing a lot," Pippin stated, "can you sing us something?"
"I'm afraid not," she responded as she turned her head to look back out at the soggy wasteland around them, not noticing the panicked look that Merry sent his way.
"He said that you and the Dwarves would always be singing a tune together, or thinking about singing one. But then he mentioned that you stopped singing after the quest,"
"Pippin, shut up," Merry said through gritted teeth at him, but his request was ignored.
"Apparently you'd always say that you had forgotten the lyrics when he asked, but he disagrees and he told us 'I do not think she had the heart to do so'," he finished, his voice becoming quieter towards the end.
"Did he now?"
"You must excuse him Miss Shadow, he means no harm by his words!" Sam hurried to cut in, fearing for his friend that had refused to stop talking.
"There is nothing for me to excuse. And please, call me Athena," she responded, turning to face them with a gentle smile that settled the fear in the Hobbits.
Pippin opened his mouth to say something else but shut it again when they spotted Aragorn striding towards them, a deer slung over his back that he had managed to take down and bring to them in order for them to eat. He set it down in the grass and she pushed herself to stand up and aid him in preparing the meat for cooking, asking Sam to start the fire for it.
They cooked and ate the meat before falling asleep underneath the gaze of the full moon, the two Rangers keeping watch beside the dying embers of the campfire.
Athena held her cloak tightly to herself to keep her warm from the chill night air, resting against a tree with her legs outstretched towards Aragorn who sat in front of her, her eyes fixated on the blackened twigs that lay within a circle of stones.
"Tinúviel elvanui, elleth alfirin ethelhael," the youngest of the siblings began to sing softly to himself, his voice barely above a whisper. "O hon ring finnil fuinui, a renc gelebrin thiliol."
The singing was abruptly cut off when Frodo woke from his slumber and startled the two that had been lost in the song, both of them relaxing when they realised it was only the Hobbit. "Who is she? This woman you sing of?"
"'Tis the Lady of Lúthien. The Elf maiden who gave her love to Beren, a mortal," he explained.
"What happened to her?"
"She died," he responded, his voice filled with remorse before he turned to Frodo, "get some sleep, Frodo."
The Hobbit obliged, settling back underneath his blanket and closing his eyes to try and attempt to sleep again but nobody could blame him for struggling to do so with the harsh conditions that they were dwelling in, especially seeing as he and the other Hobbits weren't used to sleeping outdoors with only thin blankets to cover them.
"Not all tales end in tragedy," Athena whispered as she looked over at her brother.
"All those with Elves and mortals do," he replied without missing a beat.
She knew the personal ties that he had to the song and she wished desperately that she could do anything to ease his pain, but there was nothing that she could do to lighten the burden that lay in his heart. Instead she decided to lean the back of her head against the tree and close her eyes, drifting off to sleep until Aragorn decided to wake her for her shift at keeping watch over the Hobbits. But he did not wake her that night, instead he shrugged the cloak from his shoulders and draped it over her sleeping and shivering form.