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Alanna lost track of the days for she kept herself occupied during her stay in Lothlorien. James seemed to be in better sprits but still had not told her what was troubling him. He tended however to want time to himself and Alanna respected this and spend a lot of her time with Haldir when he was not on duty. He had taken it upon himself to attempt to correct Alanna's rather poor pronunciation of the elvish language, something Legolas had been trying while the Fellowship traveled together. She was not really making much of an improvement but he was patient with her and said that if she kept practicing she might improve. Today however when she went looking for him he was not where she usually found him. She noticed another scout walking by and inquired on the subject.
"Someone, spotted intruders coming from the mountains. Haldir and some of the others were sent to look for them." He said before heading in the direction he was before. Alanna realizing the intruders must be the Fellowship quickly headed away from the city and through the forest hoping to intercept them.
After walking for quite some time all she had managed to do was almost get herself killed when she caught up with the scout party Haldir was in charge of. Of course once they realized who it was they all lowered their weapons.
"Lady Alanna, what are you doing out here so far from the city?" Asked Haldir.
"I heard they spotted people entering the woods and I thought it might be my party." She said.
"These intruders bring great evil into these woods and you are not even armed. Return to the city." Said Haldir looking at the way she was dressed. Today she was wearing an olive green dress and did not carry her bow and arrow or her sword with her, he noticed however she will still wearing Legolas's cloak and noticed there was hardly ever a time she was without it.
"No, I will be fine here." She said declining but her tone was respectful.
"You will make too much noise." Said one of the other elves in the party. Haldir noticed Alanna looked ready to speak her mind to the other elf so he quickly interjected. "Fine, you may come but only because continuing to stand here and argue is a waste of time."
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The Fellowship had reached the outskirts of the forest of Lothlorien and although this meant they were much safer there was still unrest amongst them. Gandalf had fallen and this event weight heavily on their minds. Aragon noticed Legolas was on edge the moment they had stepped into the forest, and he knew the reason for this.
"I do not doubt your hope that she is alive, however she might not have journeyed to Lothlorien. "
"I know this." Said Legolas understanding his friends concern.
"Stay close, young hobbits; they say a Sorceress lives in these woods. An elf-witch of terrible power. All who look upon her fall under her spell." Said Gimli as he looked around the forest with caution. Legolas looked around as well for he thought his elvin ears might have heard something coming from the forest.
"Well, here is one dwarf she will not ensnare so easily." Said Gimli with confidence. "I have the eyes of a hawk and the ears of a fox." He continued only to soon be met face to face with an arrow. The Fellowship was surrounded by a group of elves all with their weapons drawn. Legolas too had his bow pulled out but quickly realized there was no use they were greatly outnumbered.
It was then that he noticed something rather odd about the group surrounding them for one of its members was quite out of place; they were unarmed and not elfish at all. Dark green eyes meet with his blue ones and he felt his heart soar, for the person standing amongst the elves was unmistakably Alanna. It seemed however he was not the first to notice this nor the first to react. He watched as she stumbled slightly from the force of the two hobbits Merry and Pippin greeting her with a joyful hug. Haldir and the others had lowered their weapons to allow for such a reunion.
"Didn't I tell you she was alive Merry?" Said the hobbit to his friend.
"Oh yeah, there was no doubt in my mind." Said Merry with a smile.
"I am glad to hear it" She said with a smile as they let her go. She then proceed to greet each member of the Fellowship in a similar fashion, even though she had only been gone for a few days she had missed them all greatly even Boromir.
When she reached Aragon he whispered in her ear. "He has missed you greatly." Before letting go of her and stepping aside so that she may greet Legolas. He hugged her tightly as though he were afraid if he let go she would disappear and all this would have been but a dream. He pulled away slightly so that he could kiss her forehead and say with great sadness in his voice. "I thought I had lost you…"
"It's going to take a lot more than that to get rid of me." She said with a smile. Although she would have loved to continue to stand here and talk to him and tell him just how much he truly meant to her, they both seemed to understand that now was neither the time nor the place. Aragon had approached Haldir and asked him for help in protecting the Fellowship. Haldir however seemed hesitant to do so for Frodo carried the Ring with him. Haldir began to lead them through the forest and Alanna although she already knew the answer inquired about Gandalf. Everyone in the Fellowship seemed to once again be filled with grief though it was lessened by whole journey but they hardly spoke for they both seemed to understand that although they were together once again and it brought them great joy, the others were greatly saddened by the loss of Gandalf. They too were saddened and it made what could have been a wonderful reunion only bitter sweet.
Instead of bringing them into the main city, the party journeyed to one of the many scout towers in the trees so that they may rest and discuses what they were going to do about the ring. Night had fallen rather quickly and it was now that Haldir had decided to address the group.
"Welcome, Legolas Son of Thranduil." Said Haldir in elvish.
"Our Fellowship stands in your debt, Haldir of Lorien and I especially for you have guarded that which is dear to my heart." Replied Legolas also in elvish. Haldir seemed to nod in understanding before turning his attention to Aragon.
"Aragon of Dunedain, you are known to us." Said Haldir still in elvish. However the fact that the conversation was all in a language that Gimli did not understand made him rather angry, Alanna seemed to noticed this and said before Gimli spoke. "Perhaps we could switch to common? Haldir, you know my elvish is not very good."
"We were just exchanging greeting, Lady Alanna you should have know this." Said Haldir looking at her with suspicion, he knew the knowledge of elfvsh she had would have allowed her to realize this.
"Yes, but others were being excluded from the conversation when they have every right to be included in the discussion." She said careful not to say whom in case it embarrassed Gimli. Haldir however seemed to know who she was talking about and said. "We have not had dealings with the dwarfs since the dark days."
Gimli however seemed to have something to say about that in return and said some rather choice words in dwarfish that caused Aragon to scold him for it. Haldir however did not seemed phased by it and instead turned his attention to Frodo. "You bring great evil here. You will go no further." He then went to join the rest of the scout party on the other side of the platform. Alanna and Legolas seemed to both have the idea that they were going to go and talk with Haldir to convince him otherwise but Aragon put out an arm to stop them both.
"I will handle it." He said understanding their intentions. "Take this time to steal a moment for yourselves."
Legolas and Alanna took this advice and decided to go off the platform and onto the ground floor so that they could talk and greet each other properly. After helping her down from the platform Legolas said nothing to her but instead just stared at her intensely.
"What?" she said with a smile.
"I just keep thinking I will wake and this will be only just a dream." He said still looking at her, she reached for his hand and brought it to her cheek and he caressed her face and felt the warmth of her skin on his fingertips.
"It is not a dream, but is nice enough to be one. I have missed you terribly. I realized we hardly had any time to talk after I told you I loved you."
"Unfortunately I do not think time will ever be on our side, Alanna." He said with a sigh taking his hand away from her face.
"Then we shall just have to make the most of that which we have." She said taking a step closer to him and looking up at him. She had half a mind to kiss him but knew that it might seem to forward for this world; after all they had made no real promises to one another, just said they loved one another.
"What is on your mind?" He said noticing she seemed to be thinking about something.
"I was just thinking about how different certain customs in your culture are in comparison to mine."
"How, so? I realize you know much about my culture yet I know little to nothing about yours."
"I suppose the best way to phrase it is that in my culture when two people are in love they are allowed to show much more affection for one another than they are here."
"I see, well I suppose when it is just the two of us it might be more acceptable to do such things." He said thinking about her words for a moment before answering. Alanna let out a laugh at the answer and said with a smirk. "Yes, I suppose it would be." He noticed sometime during the conversation she had gotten even closer to him to the point where their faces were a mere inches apart. He wondered when this had happened and was slightly concerned at just how much of an effect she seemed to have on him. Their lips met for a brief moment but it was enough to make Alanna's knees go weak and the world around her seemed to fade away, the only think that matter right now was this moment. She was surprised that such a chaste kiss had such an effect on her but the moment was short lived for they were interrupted but someone clearing their throat.
The couple looked up to see Aragon standing there raising a questioning eye brow more at Legolas than at Alanna. Legolas in fact looked rather guilty about the matter.
"Should I take this to mean the two of you are betrothed?"
"Uh…not but it's common for people in my land to do this with people they love even before they are married or soon to be." Said Alanna with a shrug trying to play it off as nothing.
"Be that as it may, you were just lucky it was I who went to fetch you. I think others may have gotten the wrong idea." Said Aragon looking at the couple. "I came to tell you that we are heading into the city. Alanna can you go up and ask Haldir if we will be taking the path to the east?"
"Sure…" Said Alanna looking between the two friends, judging by Aragon's tone she got the feeling he was about to scold Legolas for their actions. As she walked back she almost couldn't help but laugh at the situation, it was such a small kiss something anyone back on Earth could do in front of thousands of people and no one would bat an eye and now she too was almost feeling guilty about it. She was beginning to notice just how much she had gone native.
Once Alanna left Aragon looked over to his friend a raised an eyebrow again staring at him pointedly.
"I have told you before of the effect she has on me. She makes me forget all sense of reason" He said as though trying to explain his actions.
Aragon just shook his head and said "Be that as it may, you do intend to ask her for her hand."
"Of course I do, I just wanted to wait for the right time."
"Your mother would be very pleased." Said Aragon with a smile.
"My mother would be pleased with anyone who makes me happy, my father on the other hand will probably disown me or think me mad."
"Yes, marring a mortal and friend with a dwarf. He will wonder where he went wrong in raising you." Said Aragon with a laugh.
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The Fellowship met with Galadriel and Celeborn when they first arrived in the city and they were given a spot to make camp for the night so they could rest. Throughout the trees you could hear a mournful song rising. Alanna had returned back to her room rather than say with the Fellowship for she hoped to catch James, luckily for her he was in the room across from her so she entered to talk with him.
"The Fellowship has returned."
"So I hear. And Gandalf has fallen into shadow." Said James sadness etched in his tone.
"Yes, you were close to him." Said Alanna with concern.
"I was. " He said with a sigh. "You know when I first started all this I thought it would be this great adventure and it would be all fun and games, but it is so real. Almost more so than back at home, I have felt greater fear, joy, and grief here than I ever had in my whole life."
"James, something is troubling you I can tell, and I have respected you enough not to ask but now I must know, what is it?"
He let out a sigh and looked hesitant to speak but still did "Galadriel basically told me that if I did not stay you would die. Don't worry you will be fine and it will all work out in the end for you. I did not tell you because I did not want you to worry." Said James, although this statement was true he left out important facts that really made it more of a lie. "Be since I'm here, all is well right?" He said with a smile.
"I suppose so. I am sorry I have made you have to stay when you did not want to." Said Alanna thinking this must be the reason why he was angry with her earlier.
"I would much rather stay here than have your blood on my hands, trust me." He said in a serious tone.
"Well, since you're stuck here would you at least like to meet the Fellowship?"
"Sure, why not. Then I can tease the elf right?"
"Actually can you wait until tomorrow? I kissed him today and Aragon saw and I think I got him in trouble because we shouldn't be showing so much affection towards one another if we are not betrothed or married." She said looking guilty once again and James noticed she was blushing slightly.
"Alanna, you minx!" He said rather loudly with a teasing smirk.
"It was hardly anything and be quiet will you people can hear you." She said blushing further.
"Okay, I just worry about you. I mean make yourself an honest woman instead of just whoring yourself around." Said James still teasing her.
"I'm not making any promised but I will see what I can do." She said just going alone with it. "Now come on let's go." She said leading him down the stairs. She was just happy he had finally told her what was bothering him and that because of it he seemed in better sprits, even if it was at her own expense. In fact today had been a rather wonderful day marred by the news of Gandalf's fall. She was however still overjoyed that she and Legolas were reunited once more, she also however realized that it would not be very often they would have time together for just them.
The Fellowship's purpose was to help Frodo bring the ring to Mordor and to help aid Middle Earth in the fight for the free lands, between all of this where does one have time to pursue other things. She was beginning to realize just how much more everyone would have to face before peace would be found again. It was a long road ahead of them.
So there you have it another chapter. Please don't forget to review and let me know what you think.