Frozen, Ruth Ann soaked in what Lilith had said and savored it in her mind for a moment. Immediately after, she thrusted around and gently questioned, "You followed them?" with her eyes only meeting Lilith's for a split second, but soon trailing off onto other objects around the room, "May you show me?"

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Lilith stared at Ruth Ann in silence. She didn't want to tell her anything, at the beginning. She wanted to keep the secret about the fact that she followed them, because that gave her some sort of advantage on Ruth Ann. But she wanted to know more about it, and Ruth Ann was the only person that could tell her more.
"What do you want me to show you?" she asked "You want to follow me through the Shire so I can show you which path they took?" she added with doubt in her voice.

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(I am back, and, by the way, I love your sig set Rev! )

"Yes," Ruth Ann responded with her finger pointed directly at Lilith and her head and eyes facing and looking straight at her, "The goal is to be able to follow him, and to make sure nothing happens."

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(welcome back smeag!! and thanks for the next 6 weeks they're doing the lord of the rings on italian tv, so my obsession is back )

Lilith nodded, making her eyes roam in the house.
"I'll show you" she finally said "but I've only followed them until the borders of the Shire. They've gone further, and I don't know where." she added.

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(How are they managing to do that for the next 6 weeks???)

Ruth Ann nodded silently and waved Lilith on. "Do not worry about outside of the Shire. I can follow them from there. As you should have been able to tell, I am not exactly from here."

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(they divide every movie in 2 parts, so we actually get 6 parts I forced my best friend to watch the first part with me yesterday XD)

"yes" Lilith said, walking towards Bag End door. "I'm going to need something to take with me. If you want, we can meet here in a few minutes" she added.
What are you doing Lilith? she silently asked herself Going out at this time with that Ruth Ann? Didn't you want to keep the secret? Lilith would have dealt with her thoughts later.
"See you here then" she said, walking out of the house.

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Ruth Ann watched Lilith leave the house in shock. Her mind culd not compute the matters of Lilith's apparent ease. She could understand if the halfling was such as her stepparents or the Sackville-Bagginses, but it was Frodo, and Ruth Ann only paced back and forth in the front entrance with her mind traveling a million times faster than her feet in haste of them needing to leave at that moment, no sooner, no later.

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Lilith walked fast towards her house and, once there, took the few things she carried with herself when she followed Frodo and Sam. She didn't really want to show Ruth Ann the way, but she was the only possibility she had to know more about Frodo and maybe meeting him again.
"I'm ready" she said a few minutes later, walking again in Bag End. Ruth Ann was walking back and forth in the entrance. "We can go"

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"Then let's go," Ruth Ann piped up, trying to show a hint of joy in her voice, but only demonstrating more haste.

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(meh you're too fast writing )

Lilith nodded and started walking, following the path at the beginning, then walking through the camps where Frodo and Sam passed. Lilith kept silent during the trip, and Ruth Ann did not try to talk.

(I think we can jump to the part where they reach the borders of the Shire, if that's ok with you smeag)

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(He He, and that works for me.)

Ruth Ann scurried along through the Shire, noticing how much faster she walked than Lilith. Arriving at the edge of the Shire, Ruth Ann sighed a breath of relief and, turning to Lilith, silently asked if she was moving forward.

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"That's where I stopped" Lilith said, standing on the edge of what appered to her eyes as an impossible border to pass. She raised her eyes and stared at Ruth Ann.
"Do you have an idea of where they've gone, from here? Because if you do, if you're going on, I'm coming with you" she said, trying to appear resolute, even if her voice trembled on the last words.

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"Where we have gone?" Ruth Ann pondered the question for a moment and then brought to light for both of them, "I have no idea."

She stopped for a moment to see the bewilderment in Lilith's eyes and stood confused at why Lilith appeared in such wonder and ignorance. "Um..." Ruth Ann continued, "I don't really need to know where he is going. Do you understand that? I can track him inside of the forest. From not being outside of the Shire very often, he does not know how to hide his trail."

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"Like..."Lilith was surprised "Like you're hunting him?" she asked. "What are you, some sort of...of hunter? Well, it doesn't matter now, as long as you can follow him..."
She sat on the ground, taking her breath after the long walk. "Well you can search in the mean time" she said.

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Ruth Ann was insulted at the thought of hunting down Frodo, and she was not afraid to show it. Crossing her arms and staring right into Lilith's eyes practically with having daggers coming out, Ruth Ann would not have been surprised of Lilith decided to turn back. In fact, Ruth Ann may have preferred it. It was obvious Lilith never went outside of the Shire, especially from her sitting down at one of the crucial moments of the trip, and Ruth Ann, in haste, did not want anyone to slow her down.

"You do understand that if I head out to find him, you probably would not be able to follow?"

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(ahah I love how this is coming out )

Lilith slowly stood up in front of Ruth Ann. She was obviously annoyed by her following her, and all she wanted was probably Lilith going back to the Shire.
"Now listen to me" Lilith said "Since I met you, what was it, Bilbo's party? Well, since I met you, my whole life changed. At the beginning I was only scared, but now...oh now. Frodo has gone. And Bilbo has gone as well. And I don't pretend that you understand what does that mean to me, because you know nothing about me, about my life and about all I've been through. But you won't make me turn away and go back home now. So, you don't like me, I don't care. Just do what you have to do to find him and I'll follow in silence. And maybe I won't be able to follow you, but at least I'll be in peace with myself" she concluded, drying the tears on her face with the palm of her hand.

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