Hopefully this chapter will tie up all of the loose ends I've left. (Well, most of them, anyway.) Enjoy!

Chapter 28:

He wrapped his arms around me, pressing kisses into my hair, my forehead, my cheeks.

He was real. He was alive. He was alright!

I pressed my lips to his, kissing him ecstatically and fervently.

Forget propriety! Legolas was alive, and he was here with me!

We broke away, but didn't let go of each other.

"Lle naa vanima." (You are beautiful.) he said, and put his lips to mine again.

Gimli cleared his throat, and we broke apart, blushing.

"You could at least speak words we could all understand." Gimli said wryly, teasing us.

Legolas wiped a tear from my face.

"Missed me?" he asked.

"How could I not?" I replied.

Once again, I was forced to comprehend way more than any one person could possibly fathom at once.

Legolas, Gimli, and Aragorn were safe, and they'd managed to summon some sort of "Army of the Dead", which was finishing clearing up the last of the Orcs.

"Why were you out here?" Legolas asked me, his face suddenly serious.

"I wanted to fight. I needed a way to vent my frustration." I said.

Legolas looked at the pile of dead Orcs around me, where he and Gimli had first found me in the battle and shook his head, grinning.

"A way to vent your frustration…well, it seemed to have worked."

Suddenly, I realized that I hadn't said hello to Gimli.

I dropped to my knees and gave him a hug.

"Sorry for forgetting to greet you properly." I said.

Gimli wrinkled his nose at me.

"Are you wearing a nightgown?" he asked.

"Um…yeah. Long story. Where's Aragorn?"

Someone tapped my shoulder behind me and I spun around to see him.

"Aragorn!" I threw my arms around him.

Our reunion was cut short, however, when the creepy green captain of the army of the dead came over, leading his men, demanding to be freed.

"I release you from your oath." Aragorn said, serenely, and the entire army vanished.

My day was getting more and more bizarre…

"Where's Boromir?" Aragorn asked. "He isn't---"

"Oh, no, he's fine. Well, his leg is broken, and he hasn't let me heal him yet, but he'll be fine."

"And Pippin and Gandalf?" Gimli asked.

"Oh. They're…somewhere. I just woke up, like, an hour ago, really. I'm not sure where they are."

We were once again interrupted by someone---this time Eomer. He was wailing and sobbing over someone, and I noticed Theoden's horse lying dead.

My heart sank.

"Not Theoden." I shook my head.

"No," Legolas said, his eyes wide. "Not Théoden. It's Eowyn."

"What? No, she's not here. She can't be here, she---"

I rushed over, and Eomer had her cradled in his arms, dead.

~Break~

We were waiting outside her door at the Houses of Healing; my own powers were ineffective at helping her, and I wasn't sure why. Something Aragorn called "The Black Breath", and it was killing her.

Aragorn was doing everything he could, but she might not live. Merry, too, had been found, and was on the verge of dying, and my powers weren't working on him, either.

Legolas held my hand as I waited, and finally, Aragorn walked out, his face grim.

"They will live." he said, looking exhausted.

"Can I see them?"

"No, Aedinil, they need only to rest at the moment. Where is Boromir? I figure if I must meet the Steward, he needs to come as well."

"Um, Denethor is dead." I said. "He died yesterday."

"How?"

"It's a very long story."

I told him everything, and he put a comforting hand on my shoulder.

"I'm sorry about your mother." he said, and I shrugged, feeling fresh tears come to my eyes. I swallowed, and pushed them back.

"It's fine. It's better this way. It's better if she's dead." I tried not to think about her taking care of me while I was unconscious. Maybe Boromir was right. Maybe it had been a dream.

Yes, it had to have been a nightmare. Nothing more.

Aragorn nodded solemnly, and Legolas tightened his grip on my hand. Aragorn left us to go find Boromir, and we were alone.

Legolas kissed me again.

"I'm never letting you out of my sight again." he said. "It was agony not knowing if you were safe or not."

"Same here." I replied. "It was torture. Amin mela lle, Legolas." (I love you.)

"Amin mela lle, Aedinil."

He held me close to him, and I laid my head on his chest. I swear, I could have stayed like that forever.

~Break~

So, when Zaida died, Levi, Dad, and Matthew were freed from her spells. Apparently she'd been keeping Dad and Matthew up in Denethor's tower, along with a palantir.

That's why Denethor went so crazy, we realized. A palantir!

The first night they were normal again, we had a celebration in the palace, to commemorate the Battle of Pellennor Fields.

It was nice for everyone to be together again. Except for Faramir, Merry, and Eowyn, that is. They were still in the Houses of Healing.

I took a walk in the gardens with Dad and Matthew, glad that Legolas was having a heated conversation with Gimli about their whole contest to see who could kill the most Orcs, and that Levi was chatting up one of the serving maids.

It was sort of nice to have Dad and Matthew all to myself for a while.

"Okay, so you two have to make a decision." I said, distractedly pulling the petals out of a daisy. "You can stay here, or go back."

I really wished we'd all stay! It was ridiculous that we should be separated now, by anything.

"I'm not leaving." Matthew said. "This place is awesome."

"And you, Dad?"

"How could I leave you both here?" he asked with a smile, and I hugged him ecstatically. "Besides, I wanna walk you down the aisle when you marry that elf of yours. I wanna see my grandchildren."

"How is it possible that everything I could possibly want is coming true?" I gushed, trying not to be too optimistic. We'd won Pellennor Fields, but we still hadn't defeated Sauron. All of that depended on Frodo now.

"Why aren't my ears tipped like yours?" Matthew asked me, grabbing one of my ears and examining it.

"You're a halfsie, Mattie." I said. "Now that you're in Middle Earth, your ears are sorta pointed."

"I don't want 'sorta pointed.' I want freakishly pointed." he complained.

I rolled my eyes and reclaimed my ear.

"Freakish?"

"You know what I mean. I wanna look cool."

He glanced over at Dad.

"Not that human ears aren't cool." he amended.

Dad smiled wearily at him. Now that he was in Middle Earth, Matthew had reached a whole new level of 'obnoxious dweeb'.

"Can Legolas teach me how to fight with twin blades?"

"I don't know."

"Could Legolas teach me how to make my hair all cool and elf-looking?"

"I don't know."

"Ooh! Maybe I could use a sword instead! Like, I could be like, King Arthur or something. Or maybe archery. That's cool. Or---"

"Or, you could stop chattering before you give me an brain embolism!" I said, and Dad grinned.

"What?" I asked him.

"It's nice to see that things are sort of normal again."

Matthew hugged Dad.

"I'm so glad you married a dimension-jumping elleth."

Dad and I winced.

Levi walked up, holding a mug of ale, beaming like an idiot.

"I think I might put in a summer home here."

"Levi, are you gonna go back to earth when all this is over? Or are you gonna---"

"I'm gonna play this sucker by ears, Blissy."

"You're drunk." I rolled my eyes.

"Drunk I'm not, Adelaide." he slurred, leaning onto a rose arbor for support.

"It's Aedinil." Someone corrected him.

It was Legolas.

He came over and grabbed my hand.

"Gandalf needs us." he said.

"I'll be right back, okay guys?" I told my family.

Legolas and I made our way through some rather raucous party-goers. When was the last time these soldiers had had mead?

They were drinking like fish!

"Why does your brother look at me like I have two heads?" Legolas asked me.

"You're kinda his hero. One of his heroes, anyway. You and the rest of the Fellowship are right up there with Spiderman and Captain Kirk in his eyes."

"Wait, there's a spider, who's also a man? That's eerie." Legolas said with a shudder.

"It's a long story." I said with a grin.

We opened the doors to the throne room, where the rest of the Fellowship, sans Merry, Frodo, and Sam, were all waiting on us, along with Eomer.

"What's going on?" I asked, beginning to feel sick to my stomach. Something was wrong.

"Aragorn had an idea." Gandalf said. "We're going to vote on it."

I nodded, wondering what Aragorn had concocted that had made all these guys look so grave.

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