~~ Rosie smiled to me as we walked through Mirkwood; her eyes barely strayed from me! "Are you alright, Rosie?" I asked and she smiled.

"Never better, Myrtle! Why do you ask?" She asked, both her glowing eyes and lips smiling to me.

"You...you've just been acting...strange lately. Not yourself...you're sure you're fine?" I asked, Rosie laughed; but, like in Rivendell, the laugh was not her own. My heart flew to my throat, what if the person I'm walking with and talking with...wasn't my best friend? This question raised many others, the most important one being, well, if this person isn't Rosie, who in Gandalf's name is it?

"Myrtle" Rosie, or whomever that person was, said. "I am perfectly fine; everything's in order, nothing is faulty. I'm perfect" Rosie paused. "...Are you feeling alright?" She asked; I laughed.

"Of course! I'm hungry...very hungry...but, other than that I'm in good shape" I explained with a smile.

"You're hungry? Ah! Let me go get you something!" Rosie said, moving towards a tree with low hanging apples.

"No!" I screamed, grasping Rosie's wrist and yanking her back; she fell on her bum beside me. "Anyone who strays from the path may become lost forever, my great-grandfather told me so, Rosie. It's alright, I can eat later" I assured her, although, I knew that soon I wouldn't be able to handle not having food anymore; I am a hobbit! A strange, unlikely hobbit, but a hobbit nonetheless!

~~ Mirkwood was beautiful, though the trees were crooked and twisted and, at many times blocked out the sunlight; they were still beautiful. And when the sun did spy through holes where the leaves separated, it created golden rays of light which I showered in! Rosie only stood back with her hip to one side and a smile painted upon her ruby lips; her eyes laughed and her hair danced about her as the wind tickled the leaves, causing them to cackle and rustle against one another.

For a long while Rosie and I encountered nothing but a baby fox and two, coal black ravens. As I said before, for a while. When noon morphed to dusk is when all the scary stuff began to rub its eyes and come out. As we walked along the path, squinting to see the small space where two parallel lines of rocks ran, Rosie stuck out her arm and stopped me. "Wha-"

"Don't move" she said quietly, her eyes shone out like beacons now, searching the forest with incredible speed.

"What is it?" I asked in a whisper, unable to see much.

"Wargs, ten of them, a pack." She whispered in reply; the thing that pumps blood through my body mostly froze over. Wargs! My great-grandfather and my grandfather have told me of those! They're large, smelly, nasty wolves, but, they're twice the size of normal wolves and can run faster and have pointer teeth!

They were created and bred by Orcs under rule of Saruman; the most infamous of wargs is the great, white warg which was ridden by Azog, the Pale Orc, who was killed by Thorin Oakenshield on his quest to reclaim the Lonely Mountain.

Any who, the wargs, apparently, were quite near by the way Rosie acted. She pushed me behind her protectively and the moment she did so, a low, menacing growl rang in my ears. I remained silent and attempted, in vain, to keep my breathing quiet, however when a giant warg is sitting before you, it's just a little hard to not be absolutely terrified. "Myrtle, get down to the ground and curl up in a ball, hide your face and stay like that until I tell you otherwise, okay?" Rosie ordered.

"But-"

"Just, do it" she growled, and so, I got down to the dirt as slowly as I could, tucking my head close to my chest and laying my arms protectively over my head; curling into a ball. Moments later there was a great commotion, but, Rosie kept yelling to me to stay curled up. I followed her instructions until my neck muscle couldn't take it anymore, I allowed my head to move up, just a little bit and what I found will haunt me until the day I lay in my grave. Dead wargs lay scattered all about us, some with intestines hanging out and some with crushed skulls, some their bottom jaw was completely ripped out and forced into their stomachs. I, undeniably, became queasy; however, I looked up from the wargs to see something marvelously horrifying.

A dragon!

A tall, muscular dragon with shiny, red scales that glittered ruby in the moonlight. The dragon's eyes burnt a hellish yellow and it's teeth were as sharp as...well... the sharpest thing you can think of! The dragon's jaws snapped the wargs in half and the dragon spread its wings out beside it, fully revealing to the wargs how big and truly terrifying it was. But, the dragon never flapped its wings nor roared or breathed fire, all things of which are characteristic with a dragon. It only ripped the wargs apart, and, when it was done, its eyes closed and it morphed, slowly, back into Rosie!

My mouth dropped, but, I hid my face again, not wanting an altercation with a dragon!

My mind reeled, I was right, this thing...whatever it was...it wasn't Rosie. I heard the thing's footsteps come closer and in these moments I decided to not, in any way, allow it to know I knew its secret. The thing posing as Rosie sighed and stopped before me. "It's alright now, we're safe" it said, I hesitantly peeked out to see the thing in Rosie's body standing before me, its hand was extended to me, as a gesture to help me up. I slowly took its hand and stood, apparently I was staring strangely at it and it tilted its head to one side.

"What's wrong?" It asked, turning and looking to all of the dead wargs. "Oh, yeah, well...at least we're safe" said it, it turned back and smiled to me, taking my hand in its own and leading me away from the scene. I didn't say a word to it for hours, finally, when we stopped and made camp, it looked to me with concern; I thought it fake, but, as I stared into its glowing eyes, I found it genuine. It took up my hand and sighed.

"I'm sorry you had to see that, it was nauseating, I know. Warg bodies are never fun to stare at, especially when they're covered in blood and reek of putrefaction." It paused and pushed hair out of my face; what was this thing's goal? What did it want with me? It, obviously, didn't want to kill me, had it wanted to it would have killed me long ago.

I am never one to wonder aloud, however, for some reason I blurted out a question. "What do you want from me?" I asked quietly, staring at the small fire it had built in a mere few seconds whilst my back was turned.

"Excuse me?" It asked, leaning forwards, quite close to me; I moved away and bit my tongue.

"Nothing, it's...nothing; I'm just..." I trailed off, it wrapped its arms around me and placed my head on its chest, rocking me back and forth. I paused and felt something well up in my chest, it was warm and quite comparable to courage; suddenly, I pushed away from this thing and got to my feet, staring down at it.

"Myrtle, what's-"

"No, no! Shhh! I don't know you! I don't know you at all!" I screamed; the thing stood and attempted to calm me, which only enraged me more. "No! I will not be calm!" I yelled, pausing and breathing heavily; I bit my lip and shook my head. "You're not Rosie".

"Oh, come now, Myrtle-"

"You're not! You're a bloody dragon...thing!" I cried, the thing relaxed and realization passed over its face. I sighed and rubbed my face, my head was spinning, I hadn't yelled at someone that hard in ages! "Who are you?" I asked quietly.

"I can't really-"

"Who are you!?" I demanded, the thing held its hands out before it, a gesture that suggested for me to calm or either they were surrendering.

"Myrtle" it began. "Myrtle, I am whoever you want me to be; I am Rosie, I am a plant, I am anything" it said, with a soft smile.

"You're a...a shape shifter" said I, it nodded and sat down; I, slowly, followed suit. I sighed and rubbed my eyes, they burnt from lack of sleep. "What's your most natural form?" I asked and it sighed.

"I was born as a human and that is my preferred form, however, my father prefers the dragon form." It replied.

"Why...why did you come with me? Why did you pose as Rosie? Why..." said I, trailing off, it hushed me and wrapped it's arms around my shoulders.

"Sleep now, questions later. Don't worry, I won't hurt you, I could never hurt you." It said, laying me down, and, in this moment I realized how drowsy I really was; I yawned and closed my eyes, almost instantly falling into a deep, deep sleep.