By mid-afternoon, I was beginning to wish we'd never seen that eagle, that we'd stayed by our snow-cave and that Aragorn or someone had thrown our packs down after us in some mad fit of Elvish optimism.

I was cold, hungry and foot-sore, and it was evident Legolas was struggling just as much as I was. The journey down the mountain was every bit as difficult as I'd anticipated and then more so. My earlier resolve to not be a burden on Legolas was proving a hard one to bear as well, for there was very little I could do to help him with his pain and I could not be trusted to scout ahead. I would not know what to look for in any event.

We walked side-by-side on the thin mountain path where it was possible; although, to call it a path was an exaggeration really. It was, at best, an animal track, if it was a thing at all. I slipped and stumbled frequently on the ice, steadied only by a strong Elven hand on my elbow to keep me on my cold numbed feet.

This is why the Big Folk wear shoes, I found myself thinking frequently. Because of places like this. But then again, Hobbits so rarely ventured away from the gentle rolling hills of the Shire and Big Folk, well, they went everywhere regardless of how dangerous it was. The more dangerous, the better it seemed. Hence they had more need for shoes. We never took the time to appreciate how calm and peaceful the Shire was. We had always taken it for granted, even as we imagined dragons, dwarves and far-off adventures...

Well now I was on an adventure of my very own, just like Bilbo, I'd been swept up in affairs much larger than myself. Only my own adventure, as I'd said back in Rivendell, was turning out very differently, and most definitely in a manner that I did not appreciate.

I'm not ashamed to admit that I wasn't giving the path my fullest attention; I was, after all, very cold, hungry and thirsty by this point, and it was hard enough to simply keep going. So it was no surprise to me when I slipped for what felt like the hundredth time that day.

What was surprising was that Legolas failed to steady me.

One moment I was stumbling along and then there was a moment, just a brief heartbeat in which the world seemed to pause, a breath in which instinctively I recognised something was wrong, and for a second I was back in that tree in Buckland, losing my precarious grip on the way back to safety.

The moment passed all too quickly and then I was flat on my back, slipping uncontrollably down the icy path, feeling that same terror and panic at my helpless descent, before I managed to dig my heels in and stop in an ungainly heap of flailing limbs.

"Frodo!" Legolas slid over to me as quickly and carefully as he could manage, kneeling beside me, his expression full of concern. "Goheno nin - a thousand apologies, Frodo. I was not paying attention, did not react quickly enough...are you hurt?"

"No, no. I'm fine," I hastened to reassure him. I was more stunned than hurt, really, and very embarrassed. I looked up and caught his gaze, trying to manage a smile. It was the first time I'd ever seen him really look anything other than cheerfully optimistic, with the exception of last night, of course. How different he was to the Elves I'd met before...those ancient eyes in young faces, so weary at heart despite their smiles...

"Perhaps we should rest here for a bit?" He suggested, his bright blue eyes still scanning my face, concerned, frightened even, for my well-being. I nodded slowly, my mind still trying to catch up with what was right in front of me, putting it all together.

And then it hit me, all at once: the cheerful demeanour; the slips between Elvish and Westron as if fluent but inexperienced; how he held himself apart from the group, but joined in if invited...

How very very young those bright blue eyes looked.

No, Legolas was not like the Elves I'd known; he was so much younger.

More inexperienced with the world beyond his Woodland Realm. Not a child, obviously, or else Lord Elrond would not have allowed him on this quest, or a tween, like Pippin was, but a young adult, more like Merry or Samwise than myself.

Suddenly, his presence in the Fellowship made far more sense. My cousins, Sam and I had often discussed the other members of the Fellowship before we had left Rivendell, wondering what they were like and their motivations for joining us. Boromir and Aragorn were heading South to Gondor and the war there, taking them on the same path as us and Gimli had joined out of comradeship - his father and Bilbo had been on the Quest for Erebor together, so in the months together in Rivendell, we had become friends. But Legolas...he had been the odd one out.

We'd been so surprised to hear Lord Elrond announce his name instead of Glorfindel's or his sons', we'd never even considered that the quiet Mirkwood Elf would have even volunteered to go, so we'd never really discussed him. But now Lord Elrond's reasons were becoming apparent to me: he'd chosen Legolas because he was so young, because he was not yet so old that he had become tired of Middle-Earth and its people, because he was still optimistic and light-hearted and not yet weighed down by years of war and suffering like so many of the older Elves.

I flicked a dry tongue over even drier lips in some desperate attempt at moisture. I should have seen it before now...It was so difficult to think clearly, my head was beginning to ache with thirst.

"Frodo?" Legolas was frowning at me again, his tone prompting. Evidently, he'd been speaking and I had missed it. I felt a blush climb up into my face.

"My apologies, Legolas, my attention had wandered. What were you saying?"

"Never mind, it was unimportant." Those bright eyes were boring into mine again.

"What is troubling you?"

I almost lied, almost told him that it was nothing, but those were not the words that came out. "I am...very thirsty, Legolas. It is hard to concentrate on much else."

"Ah..." Legolas cast his gaze around the mountain slope with an unreadable expression on his face. He frowned momentarily and then gave me a smile. Did he ever not have a reason to smile?

"I have an idea. Put your hands together, Master Frodo." He cupped his hands in demonstration, giving me an encouraging nod to do the same.

Perplexed, I did as I was asked. What was Legolas hoping to achieve? Was he going to perform some sort of Elvish magic? I watched him carefully, looking, perhaps a little foolishly, for some kind of hint of magical talent, of that strange glow I had seen around Glorfindel and Lord Elrond. Instead, I received a handful of snow. I could only stare at him in amazed bewilderment. Surely he knew that you could not just drink snow? Boromir had drilled that into us all often enough; it was too cold, it would lower the temperature of our bodies too drastically.

Legolas only smiled in response to my look and cupped his hands over mine, and finally closed his eyes. His hands were not smooth, I noted absently, feeling the burr of many calluses against my hands. And then, slowly, I became aware of Legolas' hands becoming hotter and hotter, rapidly melting the snow between us, until I was left with nothing but clear water.

Legolas released my hands, opening his eyes. He looked almost exhausted again, and it showed in both his face and tone. "Drink, Frodo. Quickly, before you lose it."

I hastily lifted my hands to my mouth and gulped the water down. It was cool, but not freezing, with a gritty, unpleasant taste. But at least it was water and I was immensely grateful for it.

"Do you feel better?" Legolas asked, studying me with a curious intensity.

"Yes." I smiled gratefully at him. "Thank you, Legolas. That was...amazing, thank you."

A small smile broke out over his tired face. "I'm glad I could help. Even if it was only a small thing."

"A small thing?" I repeated incredulously. "I could not have done that. I didn't even know you could do that."

"Truly?" Legolas seemed genuinely surprised. "How strange. All Elves could do this thing."

"Is it magic?" I asked curiously. Everyone knew Elves had magical powers, but I'd never seen an Elf actually do anything magical. Gandalf did magic all the time, his antics at the last shared birthday party that Bilbo and I had thrown some seventeen years before shown clearly in my memory: the lifelike dragon fireworks, the smoke ship, the sparkler butterflies for the little ones...

Legolas frowned in puzzlement, head cocked slightly to one side. "Magic? I do not know this word." He shook his head. "This is...the influence of will, of thought, and communication with the world outside of myself."

"Sounds like magic to me," I responded honestly. "Like what Gandalf does."

Legolas gave a thoughtful hum. "Perhaps it is similar, I had not thought of it like that. But Mithrandir has talents beyond those of Elves, that is why he is a Wizard and we are not." He flashed a brilliant grin at me, and I laughed, though I was quite uncertain of what the joke was.

But our laughter did not last long; the wind set up another fierce gust and I shivered badly, and much to my surprise, so did Legolas.

"I didn't know you could even feel the cold." I said, noting his shivers worriedly. I'd never seen him shiver before, not even during the snowstorms or in the snow-cave, and he did not wear a cloak as the rest of us did. But then, it was quickly becoming apparent there were many things about Elves I did not know.

"I feel it." He rubbed at his eyes. "Perhaps not as much as you or the others seem to, but I feel it. It is worse now than it was above; before, it was a little unpleasant, but distant, something I could easily ignore. But now, these wounds sap my strength and I feel colder than I did. It is...strange to be so cold."

A pang of guilt stabbed at me. This was all my fault. If Legolas hadn't tried to save me, if I had only been able to grab the rope, if I hadn't made him waste more of his strength on creating water for me...

"Why did you try so hard to protect me?" I asked him. "If you hadn't, you wouldn't be so hurt."

"I swore to protect you." He gave me a very serious look. "And a promise should never be taken lightly, Frodo Baggins, all Elves know this. A broken promise can have terrible consequences. That fall would have killed you. I knew that, and I knew it would not kill me. Hurt me, yes, but not as badly as you."

"I don't understand."

"Elves...are not like mortals, Frodo. We are stronger, physically." He made a fist and then shook his head, a frustrated expression on his face. "But not just like this. Our bodies are tougher, more... resilient. Yes, that is the word. Resilient." He looked oddly pleased with himself for a moment and then returned his explanation. "What hurts you does not hurt us as much. It takes much to harm an Elf, far more than it would take to hurt a mortal."

I nodded thoughtfully. That made sense, but it still seemed a bit of a stretch.

"What if you hadn't sworn to protect me? Legolas...if it had been Gimli that had fallen, would you have rescued him too?"

The Elf laughed.

"Rescued? I would hardly call this a rescue, Master Baggins. But to answer your question, I would have tried with him too; perhaps, I would not have thrown him upon my back, but I would have done something. To stand by and do nothing...knowing that I could do something..." Legolas shuddered, giving me a haunted stare.

"T'would be little more than murder."

The shadow that lurked behind those suddenly bleak eyes warned me to not push the topic further, that I was pushing the Elf to the limits of what he would discuss with me. For all we were part of the same Fellowship, we were, as I'd already noticed, still largely strangers, and Legolas was a very private person.

Somehow, I doubted that even his closest friends did not know all of his stories, and whatever story was behind his reaction to my questions was not one that I had yet earned access to.

An awkward silence stretched between us for a moment before I managed to gather my confidence to clumsily change the topic.

"Legolas? How much longer do you think it will take us to get off the mountain?"

Legolas started slightly, obviously having lapsed deep into thought and hadn't been expecting me to speak again. When he did speak, his voice started faintly. "Not too much longer I would think." He looked around us, studying the landscape. "Yes, not too much further to go. See the snow?"

He directed my attention to the patch where he had scooped the snow from before. Only a light dusting remained and I could see hints of bare rock and the sparse tufts of grass that lay beneath.

I grinned, delighted. "Do you think we could make it down by nightfall tonight?"

The Elf nodded. "It is a possibility. Are you feeling better now? It will be easier from this point on, but still not easy." He warned me.

I got to my feet, eagerness drowning out how tired and hungry I was. I just wanted off this mountain, I wanted a fire and hot food, I wanted to see Sam and my cousins again, and apologise for worrying them all so much. I dusted the snow off my trousers and looked expectantly at Legolas.

He laughed. "I will take that as a yes then. Hobbits truly are an amazing folk." he commented, unknowingly echoing Gandalf's words to me in Bag-End, many months ago. "I never cease to wonder why you doubt your own abilities, when you are capable of finding the strength to continue so readily." He heaved himself to his feet, wincing a little. "It is quite Elvish of you."

"I...thank you?" I stuttered, flushing with the compliment. Legolas only grinned knowingly at me in response.

We set off again down the path, and I charged ahead a bit, finding the way so much easier now that the snow was thinner. Legolas, in his most enviable fashion, walked lightly over the snow, leaving little trace of his passage behind him. Time seemed to pass much quicker now, and before I knew it, the sun was beginning to set and the earth was beginning to level out beneath my feet.

I turned to Legolas, waiting impatiently for him to catch up. But the Elf had paused, his head cocked again to one side, his expression one of intense concentration.

"What-?"

Legolas held up a hand, silencing me, his blue gaze oddly blank as he listened. The world seemed to fall away as I strained my ears to hear what he had heard.

And then I heard it. Howling.

Wolves.

Sorry this chapter is very dialogue heavy, everyone, but the action will start back up again soon!

Many thanks to everyone who has reviewed, favourited or even just kept up with this story so far; you're all awesome.

See you all again on Monday!