Hello, my friends! Thanks for all of your kind reviews! We are almost halfway to 300! That is just so crazy – thanks to all for making it happen! And thanks to those who favorited and followed!

So, as has been brought up by some reviewers… there is a new ship in town, folks. And its name is Ara-squared. Or Aras – whichever you all prefer. Aras would be easier… not confirming anything, of course, but just wanted to make the readers aware… Teehee

ALSO NOTICE: You may or may not have noticed that I have upped the rating on this story to M. I will not say exactly why, though if you recall, there was some worrying that I had for all of the violence in this story. Perhaps it could be for this reason. Or maybe there is a scene that I just finished writing that is not exactly T rated. Just because this chapter does not contain any such issues, I wanted to give new readers the incoming knowledge of what they can POTENTIALLY expect from this story. Thanks for being understanding, and if you are concerned, feel free to leave a review/PM. :)

Hope everyone had a better Valentine's than I did – I am currently SUPER sick haha. But if you live in America, I hope everyone has a great President's Day! I'm just stoked that I don't have to go to class and can rest up some more haha.

ONE LAST THING: THIS PICKS UP RIGHT WHERE THE OTHER LEFT OFF!

Disclaimer: I own nothing affiliated with Tolkien or Peter Jackson – just Arathell. (and others who are not included in this chapter)

Part Three – We Barely Make It

Slash (feat. Myles Kennedy and The Conspirators) - We Will Roam

"And still we roam
Now forevermore
Tread the night on steel and stone
And still we roam
Never asking more
Where we are will be our home
Our home"

She sighed and looked ahead. "The way is getting colder," she told him. "The Hobbits are slowing down, and we cannot afford to let them stop. Come along; we cannot be so far behind," she ordered, moving forward to stand beside Sam. He jumped at her presence and then went back to shivering. She cast a glance at his bare feet, thinking again of how much discomfort he had to be going through. "Sam?" she asked, silently probing him for his condition. His nose was turning at a steady rate from rosy pink to a pale white to blue, and his lips were even worse.

The snow had begun to fall at this point, making his hair even look cold with the white clinging to it. Apparently he wasn't even warm enough for his body to melt the snow that touched him. "I'm quite fine, Miss Thellie," he shivered aloud, hugging himself tightly. "I can handle it. You should worry more about Mr. Frodo; he looks absolutely dreadful."

Arathell looked at the Hobbit in question, and it was true that he looked awful. He looked to be fairing about the same amount as Merry and Pippin, and neither of them were in great condition. However before she could call out to any of them, Boromir came to swoop up Merry and Pippin into his arms, holding them close to feed them some of his own heat. And Aragorn moved just as quickly to smother Frodo properly, picking him up and hugging him tightly to his chest like a baby.

With that, she turned to look at Sam with as good of a smug expression as she could muster in the cold. "It seems that they have been attended to," she said, proud that the Men hadn't needed prompting to do such a task. "All who is left would be you."

She assumed that he blushed as he became a lesser shade of blue as he trudged on. "I'm slightly heavier than the three of them – perhaps the three of them combined, Thellie."

Arathell waved her hand away and knelt down in front of him. "I am an Elf, Master Gamgee," she said proudly. "We are of stronger make than Men. Climb on my back; I will carry you as long as I can bear you. And I can assure you that I do not tire easily." She could practically feel the Hobbit hesitating behind her and she sighed. "Samwise, if you do not climb onto my back within this very moment, I'm going to have to drag you the distance, and neither of us would be appreciative." She felt the heavy weight of Sam suddenly on her back and she couldn't deny that her knees shook a little when she clambered back to her feet. Once she stood, her feet sunk low into the snow, the weight of the Hobbit sinking her to the point where only her hips were able to be seen.

The snow got progressively deeper to the point where her breasts and above were the only places not covered with snow, and even that was a loose term. She felt the cold starting to sink into her bones, and she was sure that Sam was able to tell that she was getting tired, but he knew better than to doubt her abilities. She told him she would carry him until she could no longer bear him anymore. If she had anything to say about when that would be, then she would be dead before she rested him back in the snow.

So she kept her eyes straight ahead to focus on the back of someone's head. She could not tell if it was Aragorn or Boromir from the angle, and the snow that was blustering against her face and in front of her eyes obscured even her vision. Legolas had taken lead of the Company, his feet still resting lightly on the snow, and she wasn't sure if she envied him or was thankful for her depth in the snow. The snow blocked her from the cold wind, but it also seeped into each and every one of her fine pores, making her slowly feel like she was drowning.

They continued on, pushing and groaning as the snow built and built against them. The wind was fouler than ever and her footing that was regularly so sure was slick and she worried for Sam more than she worried for herself. "Keep calm, mellon nin," she grunted to him when he squirmed. "Moving ceaselessly does not help our cause." He all but froze on her back, tightening every muscle around her thin neck and narrow shoulders. In fact, she was quite positive that his shoulders were broader than hers, making it all the more uncomfortable. "Now, do not act like a rock – it makes you heavier for me to carry. Hold on loosely and trust me a little please," she instructed, and his tight grip was slowly relinquished and she marched with a little more confidence, closer to the Men. She was unsure of where Gimli was, but she assumed that he was trailing close to Gandalf – the only real being he trusted on this venture out of any of them.

The path they trekked on was getting smaller, she noticed. She did not like it at all. She hugged the side of the mountain with everything in her, the wind trying to blow her in the other direction. Everything in her was freezing slowly and she watched with downright fear as lightning touched the top of the mountain. "Thellie?" Sam whispered in her ear, having seen it as well. She had never heard someone as brave as Sam sound that terrified. She could only imagine the expression on his face, and she clenched his legs to her form tighter, refusing to let him go.

"No, hush," she snapped back. "Focus on me, Sam. Tell me about the Shire."

"I feel quite tired actually and I feel like I have already told you everything," he mentioned.

"Do not go to sleep, Samwise Gamgee. You are not allowed to go to sleep. Do you understand me? Tell me everything again," she demanded harshly, only now having understood how detrimental this plan was to the Hobbits. She had no idea how the other three were doing, but they were much smaller than Sam in many regards, and if Sam felt as cold as he did, then she did not know how much hope was left for his fellow three companions.

"Why?"

She gnawed on her lip for a moment before deciding to be brutally honest. "You may not wake up."

Sam was quiet and she wondered if he had actually fallen asleep anyway, and just before she was about to shake him awake, he burst into tales. "I'm a gardener in the Shire, Miss Thellie…"

"There is a fell voice on the air," she heard Legolas distantly say, and she immediately hushed Sam's story, reminding him to stay awake. She listened carefully, closing her eyes for a moment to concentrate solely on the sounds around her. The wind was heavy in her ears, but beneath the hiss and moan of it, she heard a deeper, resonating sound that made her very soul shake. And it was a voice that she knew too well.

"Saruman," she whispered to herself.

"It's Saruman!" Gandalf yelled, completely enraged. He had already described to her the depths of the betrayal of Saruman, but it seemed that their own Istar still was pained to be reminded of them. She understood that well enough, she supposed. It was awful to go for one's entire life with the impression that your friends would always remain that way, only to be reminded that they could be just as cruel and heartless as the rest of the world. Gandalf had refused to believe that Saruman was capable of this treachery, and she knew that having to confront it on his own only made the betrayal worse in the end.

The mountain shook with fury and she watched as several large rocks tumbled free from their crevices, ready to land right on them. She grunted and pushed Sam into the wall of the mountain, trying to shield him with her body as best as she could.

When the rocks grazed past them, leaving all of them behind, she heard Aragorn yell to Gandalf, "He's trying to bring down the mountain! Gandalf, we must turn back!"

"No!" the Wizard yelled back, looking furious at the thought. Gandalf climbed up and above the snow to stand beside Legolas, shouting back to the distant Wizard counter-curses of his own, though she was quite sure that they did not help against the stronger power of Saruman.

The battle of curses did not last long and with one fell strike of lightening, heaps of snow were falling, and just as she pushed herself and Sam into the mountain, snow covered them all completely. She yelped at the cold that ran down her already drenched shirt and squeezed tight to Sam to reassure herself that he was still there. She kicked her legs defiantly when she felt him and pushed her body out of the snow, making sure that Sam was there with her. "Sam!" she gasped when the cold air hit her lungs. "Tell me you can breathe!"

He coughed maniacally, small bits of what she presumed to be ice spat from his voice. "I'm alive," he muttered weakly. He was shivering more violently than ever, and she knew that she was just as cold as he was. She pushed herself forward, closer to the others until she came alongside Aragorn.

"He's cold," she shivered, pushing her body into Aragorn. He wasted no time in taking Sam from her and putting him close to Frodo who looked like the embodiment of Death. Aragorn surprised her further when he grabbed hold of her and rested his freezing fingers on her face, inspecting her. "I am alright," she breathed and allowed him to be pull her close, huddled with the Hobbits. The Hobbit mass was shaking so heavily and Arathell and Aragorn surrounded them hurriedly, trying to cover them all with what little heat they each had left.

Everyone else had erupted from the snow as well, complaining and moaning at the cold. She wished that she could hear Merry and Pippin, but they were as silent as the grave. "The others," she mentioned.

"Boromir is holding them," Aragorn told her. "He would know if one of them was…"

"Dead?" Frodo exclaimed, his voice hoarse.

"Hush," Arathell told him, looking at Gandalf and waiting for him to tell them what they needed to do. "We should not stay here," she said to Aragorn. "Sam is freezing, and the others can only be worse off."

He nodded his head weakly. "I cannot speak for Boromir, but I cannot go much further if this is what we are going to be faced with."

She smacked his arm hard, or as hard as she could with her numb hand, unsure if he could even feel it. "Do not say that. You are strong enough for this," she snapped.

"We must get off the mountain!" Boromir yelled, bringing the two of them back to the matter at hand. "Make for the Gap of Rohan, and take the West Road to my city!"

"The Gap of Rohan takes us too close to Isengard!" Aragorn disagreed and she nodded her head weakly, holding Sam and Frodo closer to her.

"If we cannot pass over the mountain, let us go under it," Gimli growled from wherever he resided. "Let us go through the Mines of Moria."

Gandalf deliberated for a moment, and she shivered, falling closer to Aragorn who wrapped an arm around her shoulders, rubbing her arm, though it didn't do much good. "Let the Ringbearer decide," he finally announced in a grave voice. She knew that the tunnels of Moria were no safer than the path that they were on now, but if Saruman persisted this way, there was no hope for any of them to get away from this path alive.

"Frodo," she sighed, hugging him and Sam into herself and Aragorn.

"We cannot stay here!" Boromir continued, impatient for an answer. "This will be the death of the Hobbits!" he barked sounding just as desperate for himself as he was for the Halflings.

"Frodo," Gandalf called, sounding dismal.

"We will go through the mines," Frodo announced, surprisingly clear for how cold he was.

"So be it," she heard Gandalf murmur and they slowly turned themselves around to walk back the way that they came. They kept the Hobbits moderately high enough through the snow, but it didn't seem to be helping them and it wasn't until the snow slowed to a stop did there seem to be any progress. The wind still howled furiously, but it was less biting without the snow being scraped across the whitened faces.

When the wind quieted, she felt like she was finally able to breathe again, and the others actually vomited.

Arathell rested herself weakly on the bed of snow, watching the others carefully lay out their bedrolls. It was still too cold, but Gandalf had given them a warming spell that dissolved some of the snow around them to keep the wet chill from getting into their covers.

"You need to get up, Arathell," Legolas chimed, pulling her to her feet without a thought. "And you need to change into warmer clothes."

"I am not changing in front of everyone, Legolas," she sighed. "And my clothes are all as dry as they are ever going to be without walking through fire. I will live just fine without your help."

"Why must you be so stubborn when people try to give you help?"

"Because I can take care of myself," she retorted. "Now, if you will please excuse me, there is still some meat left from our moose that I was planning to cook for the others. They have not eaten in a while, and they need to warm up. A fire would do them good."

"The Crebain may be able to see it," he reminded. "The snow will not be a good camouflage for a fire."

"The Crebain are not brave enough to come so close to the mountain – regardless of what Saruman promises them. They are ultimately free spirits and can choose to do as they please."

"They are evil."

"They are selfish. They will not put themselves in danger if they do not have to. The reward does not outweigh the risk in this case. And even if it did, our reward of warmth for the Hobbits does outweigh the risk of them telling Saruman that we are retreating." She looked back at the passage they came from. "It is still storming there, meaning that Saruman still has his eye focused on it. He does not yet know that we have left. They need to be warmed and if Saruman finds out, then he finds out. There is not much that that Wizard can do to us whilst we are in Moria anyways."

Legolas conceded the point and walked with her back to their makeshift camp. Gandalf helped her with the fire and when she withdrew the small tendrils of food that she had saved from the previous night, there were hoarse cries of joy, specifically from the Hobbits. She warmed the meat hurriedly before giving the four of them shreds. "I wish that moose was bigger," she commented when the last of it was gone. Legolas, Gimli, Gandalf, and she would survive well enough with the little food they had had the night previous, but she knew that the Men were hungry.

"I saved some as well," Aragorn mentioned, taking his own strips out to warm them. Hesitantly, he gave one to Boromir who took it without a word of thanks and rapidly shoved it into him, coughing at the heat that attacked his throat. She frowned at the sight but was happy nonetheless that the two of them had had the chance to eat.

"We make for Hollin again before noon today," Gandalf instructed, breathing into his pipe. "From there, we turn to Moria. It is early enough as it is, and we make to leave at first daylight. You should rest while you can. You will not have many opportunities to sleep on this journey from now on. Our steps are being watched and we must take rest where we can."

"How much sleep are we allowed?" Merry coughed, though he did look substantially better after his small meal. Sitting by the fire, he looked as if he had regained some of his rosiness around his cheeks again.

"The sun rises in four hours," Legolas told him, and like a spell had been placed upon them, three Hobbits crawled instantly into little balls and closed their eyes. Their snoring could be heard only a minute later and she smiled at the sound before she noticed that Sam had been the only one to not go to sleep.

He was giving her a worried look, staring at his companions with a fear in him she could easily identify. "Sam," she called to him, drawing his gaze away from his friends. "They are warm. They will wake. As will you. You need your rest. I promise that I will not let anything happen to you. Go to sleep. You have been tired for hours."

He still didn't look quite certain, but he lied back anyway and in five minutes, he was snoring louder than the rest of them.

With the others still awake, Gimli grumbled quickly that he was not going to be a part of the watch that evening, as he was just as tired at the Halflings were. She nodded at him, as did the others and he went to sleep quickly, his snores mixing with the Hobbits to make a dry, croaky tune that left them chuckling slightly.

They all turned their gaze to Gandalf who was already in the process of nodding off and did not speak. When it was just the four of them, she sighed. "I can take the first watch. I will stay awake for one hour and no longer," she informed them.

"No, Arathell, I'll take the first watch," Boromir disagreed. "Sleep. I will wake you in an hour." Despite hating being told what to do, she couldn't find it within her to fight him and rested herself down on the bedroll with a groan as her bones sunk into the little padding there was. The world went black within moments.

There it is! I hope you all like it! Check out the music as always!

And we are getting closer and closer to some heavy romance here! So exciting!