They left Lothlorien the next day. Everyone received an Elven cloak, along with a gift (if you've read the book, you know what they get). The gift that Lavender was given was a dress. It was pale lavender in color, with long sleeves. Lavender was disgusted, but didn't let it show. She wished that she had a book of matches to rid herself of the dress in a more efficient way, but unfortunately, she didn't. She settled for stuffing it deep into her backpack among her other clothes. Pineapple soon tired of riding in the backpack, so Lavender let her out to wander as she pleased. As soon as she was free, Pineapple made a beeline for Aragorn and once again sunk her teeth into his ankle. He screamed and began jumping up and down, while Lavender did her best to suppress her laughter. When Pineapple finally decided to let go, Lavender retrieved another rag and re-bandaged his ankle. Once they were moving again, Lavender tugged at Legolas's sleeve. "Pineapple's hungry," she said. "What do gophers eat?" Legolas asked. Lavender shrugged and said, "I dunno, but this one eats meat. Can you get something for her to eat?" "Like what?" Legolas asked. "I don't think she cares. Probably something small, like a mouse or something." "Good gracious, Lavender! I can't shoot a MOUSE!" "Why not?" "It's too small!" "Well, I don't care! Shoot something else, then!" Legolas shot a rabbit, and Pineapple ate it hungrily. She then allowed herself to be settled back into Lavender's backpack. "Thank goodness," Aragorn muttered. "That thing would've attacked my ankles again."

They were in canoes, rowing down a wide river. They approached two huge stone statues. Lavender thought that they were a bit frightening. She moved a bit closer to Merry, who was sitting behind her in the canoe, as they passed the statues. Lavender, who Aragorn would not allow to have a paddle, watched as the statues got smaller and smaller as they got farther away. She sighed and turned back around. She was very bored. She looked over the edge of the canoe and watched as little fish darted around beneath the surface of the water. She dipped her fingers in the water, sighed again, and rested her chin in her hands. Hours later, they finally went to shore. Lavender jumped out of the canoe immediately. She quickly helped them unload the canoes, then asked, "Anyone up for football?" "Football?" Pippin asked. "How do you play?" "It's easy," she said. "I'll teach you, but we need more than two players." "I'll play," Merry put in. "Me too," Legolas added. Lavender explained the game to them, and soon they had a pretty good game going. Well, pretty good for each team having only two players. Merry and Lavender vs. Pippin and Legolas. There was just one small problem. They didn't have a football. Instead, they used a large rock they found, which Lavender claimed was about the right size. Surprisingly, none of the players were hurt by the rock being thrown around. Unsurprisingly, someone else was hurt. That someone happened to be Sam. He watched the game for a while, mostly because he wanted to see Lavender get hurt. Unfortunately, he failed to move when the "football" came in his direction, and it landed directly on his foot. "Hold still!" Lavender yelled at Sam, rushing over to help. "Sit down and hold still!" Sam sat down, clenching his teeth from the pain in his foot. Lavender examined his foot. "I don't think it's broken," she said. "Can I trust you not to kick me?" He nodded. She touched his foot lightly and asked if it hurt. He shook his head no. "Can you wiggle your toes?" she asked him. "Oh, that's fun!" Pippin cried excitedly, wiggling his own toes. Lavender rolled her eyes and turned back to Sam. He wiggled his toes, but winced with the pain. "Yep," Lavender said. "It's not broken, but you'll have a heck of a bruise there. We don't have any ice, do we? No, I didn't think so. Probably the best thing to do, then, is to go and stick your foot in the river. That'll probably be cold enough. It'll keep the swelling down. And don't walk on that foot for a while. Let me look at it before you decide to put any weight on it. Pippin, you help Sam. I'll tell Aragorn what happened."

Aragorn was quite upset when he heard about what had happened. "That means we can't go anywhere until Sam can walk again!" he raved. "Thanks, Lavender. You've put us back another day at least!" "Hey!" Merry cried. "It's not Lavender's fault! Pippin threw the rock!" Pippin looked horrified. "Legolas didn't catch the rock! That's why it hit Sam!" "What!" Legolas yelled. "I was behind you when you threw it!" "Quit it!" Lavender shouted. "It's not anybody's fault! It was an accident." Aragorn groaned, but he knew there was nothing he could do. "So we're stuck here until Sam can walk again?" he moaned. "If he's not walking on his foot by tomorrow, you can throw me in the river," Lavender promised. Aragorn brightened considerably.

Lavender tended to Sam for the rest of the day. She hated to admit it, but she was starting to like the hobbit. He was grateful that she was healing his foot, and realized that maybe Lavender wasn't as horrible as he had thought previously. He didn't boss her around, and was actually pleasant to her. Merry, of course, was by Lavender's side the whole time. "Here, keep your foot up," Lavender said, making him sit down and rest his foot on a rock. She handed Merry a rag, with instructions to get it wet in the river. While Merry was doing that, Lavender looked at Sam's foot. "Yeah, there's a bruise all right." She sighed. "You're lucky it's not broken." Merry returned with the rag. Lavender tested it to make sure it was cold enough, and then carefully wrapped it around his foot, explaining that the coldness makes the swelling go down. Legolas and Gimli watched this scene from the woods. "Well, what do you know?" Legolas exclaimed. "Sam and Lavender are getting along." "Lavender has much knowledge in healing," Gimli commented. "My mom was a nurse!" Lavender yelled, startling them. Legolas and Gimli had thought that none of them had noticed their presence. They walked away. "Didn't I tell you that Lavender would be useful to us?" Gimli asked. "I was right! She's a healer. I knew she'd come in handy." "Don't talk about Lavender like she's an object," Legolas grouched. "But yes, she is a skilled healer. I believe you were right."

Lavender, too, was right. Sam was up and walking by the next day. He could not walk very fast, but he could walk. Aragorn, though happy that they could get moving again, was a bit disappointed that he didn't get to throw Lavender into the river. "It wouldn't have done any good," Lavender explained calmly. "I'm an excellent swimmer." "Where's Frodo?" Merry asked. "Where's Boromir?" Pippin added. They looked around for them, but didn't see them anywhere. "We'll split up," Aragorn suggested. "Legolas, you and Gimli search that way, I'll go this way. Merry and Pippin, you search over there. Sam, cover the area in that direction." "Where do I go?" Lavender asked. "Stay here," Aragorn said, irritated. "Why?!" "The Uruk-hai are coming! You'll get hurt." "You said that last time and I didn't!" "You can't come!" "What if someone gets hurt? I don't know of any other healers in this area." He couldn't come up with an argument against this, so he let Lavender go with Merry and Pippin. They went out in search of Boromir and Frodo, Pineapple emitting a little squeak of fright every once in a while. They heard the Uruk-hai coming closer and hid behind a bush. It was then that they saw Frodo hiding behind a nearby tree. "Frodo! Hide here, quick!" Pippin called. Frodo shook his head no. Lavender looked at Merry in confusion. "What's he doing?" Pippin asked. "He's leaving," Merry realized. The three hobbits jumped out of their hiding place and started to run over to Frodo, but stopped when they heard the Uruk-hai. "Go, Frodo," Merry whispered. He then began jumping up and down and waving his arms and yelling. The Uruk-hai saw him and changed direction. Lavender and Pippin soon caught on to what he was doing. They began yelling as well, and when they saw that the Uruk-hai were coming after them, they ran the other way, drawing them away from Frodo. "It's working!" Pippin yelled. "I know it's working! Run!" Merry shouted back. Lavender screamed and stopped running, seeing Uruk-hai approaching them from the other direction. They were trapped! Boromir appeared at that moment out of nowhere, striking down Uruks, defending the hobbits. Lavender saw out of the corner of her eye an exceptionally large Uruk, with a bow. He drew back the bowstring. Lavender gasped when she realized he was going to kill Boromir! Just as the Uruk let the arrow fly, Lavender threw herself at Boromir and knocked him to the ground. The arrow missed them by inches. "Thank you, Lavender," Boromir gasped. Lavender was about to reply when she felt someone, or rather something, lift her up. Completely ignoring Boromir, the Uruk-hai grabbed the three hobbits and carried them away.