Hey, guys! Sorry this took so long, but I've had a busy week. BUT, it's here now! :)

Well, Siri, it *might* be over. I mean, after all this, do you really think it's beyond me to end the story with him on death's door? ;) Yeah, well, I mainly put the stairs in because I thought they could use some comic relief. Sarah, actually, was very relieved, because she said it was a rather 'gray story' unless it had more comedy. I mean, heck, Pipin's not till much, much later! ;)Yes! And they're off to Rivendell! (let us hope that Dr. Elrond is on call tonight. ;)

47? Huh? What about 47? What's so interesting about 47, Shmallow, I don't get you. :P

Why, of course, Liliana, Aragorn could feel his legs!……in a um…few hours. ;) Yeah, I guess good ol' Binwen forgot to mention that the Light Stairs were sa-darn LONG! :D

No, Phantom Ranger Fay, your not dumb! I wouldn't expect you to pick up on that right away. Sorry about the cover. Maybe, if you'd like, I can e-mail it to you instead. :) And you are SO right……..angst is good! ;)

*hands Myfanwy a Legolas Kleenex box from Lina's shop* is it really a calmer story? Oh good, glad I could help. :) And of *course* I would do more cliffies! I mean, *glances down the post* errr….much, that is. :D

Well, um…None (sorry, but you didn't put down a name) I've actually previously explained this, but I can tell you, sense you obviously weren't here. It's true that Legolas could have gone to Mirkwood. It was certainly a lot closer, if nothing else! ;) But I think that:

1. Legolas wasn't *that* bad when it started, (at least, they didn't know that he was going to die from this) so Aragorn figured they'd have time to get to Elrond, sense he'd probably have a better idea of what was wrong.

2. "If he cannot," Aragorn responded confidently. "No one can. He has healed you before, Legolas, I do believe he can do it again." Aragorn obviously had a great deal of faith in Elrond, and like-as-not figured if anyone knew what was wrong, he would.

3. Who really wants to have Thranduil buzzing around being worried about his dieing son? I mean, they guy is rather fussy enough when his son's on his own two feet, let alone when he's sitting in death's parlor.

Anywayz, that's basically the long and short of it! (closer to the 'long' though…sorry 'bout that. ;)

Well, Rose, I'm glad to see that despite your death wish, you're still enjoying my story! Oh and…um sorry to say that this is the end of the not QUITE cliffies. ;)

*stares blankly a moment, then pats Kellen on the shoulder* I'm…sorry? Man, you are having a rough time. :( Yes yes, stupid elections, stupid headache, stupid arthritis, and stupid creeks with no paddles. *starts singing Randy Stonehill* It's a great big stupid world! ;) Anyhoo, Kellen, tell ya what. I'll help you out, and I promise not to throw the rule book at you ever again. *grins* besides, Myfanwy has it! ;)

Nice to see you, Ashley Welsh! I'm glad you've been enjoying this! I'm afraid that it's drawing to a close, but it's been nice to have so many people, you certainly included. God bless you too! :)

Legolas' sweetie…okay, you get more. :P

Hey, Silver-Kalan! No, this isn't the end…yet. Actually, this is the second to last chapter. :( *sigh* all things must come to end, right? :) Glad the explaination made sense to you! Personally, it confused me, but at least someone knew what he was talking about! ;)

Honest, Artemisa, I'm not trying to kill you!!…..I'm trying to kill Legolas. :P I'm glad you like it despite of the terrible cliffies, though. :)

All right, onto the cha--……..*stares, with an annoyed expression* Lina? This is NOT funny. C'mon, let go of Aragorn, and quit smacking Legolas around. C'mon, hand him over….Aragorn, not Legolas! Yes, I'm serious. No, I'm not going to hurt him!…much! No, I'm kidding. Yes. I promise. THANK you. *sigh*

Okay, onto the- 'kay, now give Legolas back. Yes, both of them! I KNOW he's your 'baby' but he's my plot device. Hand 'im over. I promise I'll give him back. In one piece. (or at least less than four) Huh? Nothing, I didn't say a thing. :P

OKAY, lets go to it, y'all! ;)

Chapter 11

Lost to Shadow

It had been hours. Hours that weren't quite hours, but were more like weeks. Or years. It had been long. Too long for Legolas' week body. The sun had risen high in the sky, and now beat down on the two companions as they continued their hard journey towards Rivendell, the Misty Mountains looming up in front of them.

Everything was going in slow motion to Legolas. The sun spun around in circles, and the world beneath him went so fast as he rode, he began to feel as though he was not moving at all, but that the earth moved like a river beneath him.

"Legolas!" the elf quickly reigned in his horse at the urgent voice. This time he'd gotten closer to hitting a tree then ever.

"I am sorry." He whispered, as he felt Aragorn ride up beside.

"Do not be sorry." Aragorn murmured softly. "Legolas, let me take you. I would prefer to help you *before* you are on the ground with a broken neck."

"I told you, Estel, I do not-"

"Want to cause me any more trouble." Aragorn finished "I know. But I would rather have more trouble on my hands than have you dead in my arms." He whispered in a softer tone.

Legolas sighed. It was not only the trouble he would cause Aragorn, it was his own foolish pride. He'd already had to be taken care of by the human so many times. He wanted to keep on his own, two feet!

Then, he lifted his gaze to Aragorn, and as the ranger's soft, blue gaze touched Legolas'. He realized that despite how he felt about being an invalid all the time, he didn't mind being assisted by this human. Perhaps he would have felt differently had it been another human, even another elf. But not Aragorn. No, Aragorn was different, as he'd proven from the beginning. Aragorn was special.

"Please Legolas?" The young ranger in front of him begged softly "Let me help?"

The elf nodded wordlessly, and let go of Lint's reigns. Aragorn quickly attached the reigns to his saddle horn, and moved Horthor a little closer to Legolas.

Legolas stood in his stirrups and leaned over towards Aragorn. The human reached out to him, and grabbed him by the waist. Legolas grasped Aragorn's arms to steady himself, and moved his left foot carefully out of the stirrup, moving it slowly to the front of Horthor's saddle. In one, quick motion, he slipped his foot on the other side of the saddle, pulled his right foot out of the stirrup, let go of Aragorn's arms, and slid into the saddle.

Aragorn steadied him, and then let go of his waist. "You all right?"

"As all right as I shall get." came the rueful response.

Aragorn nodded, taking the pained reply as an answer. "Niro leem, Horthor." He called to the brilliant beast, and the horse took off through the wide landscape again.

**********

They'd ridden for hours, not speaking, barely thinking, just moving. Aragorn almost didn't notice when they reached the High Pass, and their crossing didn't stay in his mind long. It was too full of other things to pay much heed to their journey over the high mountains pass.

They rode on across the steep pathways, and as the sun began to set, Aragorn felt Legolas shivering in front of him. He didn't try to talk to him, he knew the elf was not doing at all well, and why.

True, the sheer comfort of hearing Aragorn speaking in elvish, the words that he'd spoken to Legolas when the elf had begun to slip away into darkness, they had been enough for the him to build shields around his mind. But shields or no, the Bengwiil was still killing Legolas' mind. They had to go faster.

They sped at a quicker pace through the treacherous mountains, but all of a sudden Aragorn felt Legolas lurch forwards, and it was then that he realized his heart was beating way too fast. He was shaking uncontrollably, and his breath was barely being gasped out.

"Hold…on." Aragorn whispered, his voice betraying fatigue he hadn't noticed there before. He had no breath to comfort Legolas, so he tried to just hold on to him.

Aragorn leaned forwards on Horthor, enabling him to go faster on the horse, and forcing Legolas, who sat in front of him, to lean over with him. Perhaps it would steady his breathing. Aragorn could only hope.

Legolas suddenly jerked this way and that, and began to mumble. "No…no please. I must know."

It was then that Aragorn further understood the events of that night when Legolas had first been injected with Bengwiil. Somewhere in the back of his deranged mind, he'd known that he had to know comfort to build a shield against this poison.

"Legolas." Aragorn breathed heavily. "Gwiil."

It was all he could manage. Legolas must have been slipping away into dreams of the world he'd been in just a day ago.

Legolas' eyes snapped open. "Estel?"

Aragorn did his best to lean around Legolas' shoulder to look at him. The elf glanced at his friend, and to Aragorn's horror, his eyes snapped shut. "No please! Estel…no."

Aragorn sat up straight again, and felt tears running involuntarily down his face. Looking over at Lint, he realized the great beast could not keep up with Horthor, without the luxury of moving freely. It appeared to slow Horthor as well, and so Aragorn loosed the reigns, and allowed Lint to run wherever. The horse did not give up on chasing Horthor, though, and seemed to understand his master was dieing.

With all the breath in him, Aragorn called the need for hurry to Horthor.

"Niro leem!" He gasped. The fact the Legolas had slipped into his nightmarish world, caused an overwhelming sense of discouragement to build up in his heart.

Doing his best to move with Horthor, and soften the rough galloping for Legolas. He could not die! He *could* not!

They traveled on and on. Aragorn desperately wished he could whisper some sort of comfort to Legolas, but it was either slow enough to comfort him, or ride on, hoping to use the speed to reach Rivendell. He counted hopefully on the latter.

The sun had set, and the stars began to dance around the sky, but Aragorn didn't have time to notice. The moon rose high in the sky, and shined mercifully on the path in front of Horthor's hooves, as if it guided the desperate human beneath it.

Aragorn's heart was pounding so hard, he could almost hear it over the hammering horse's hooves. It also felt as tough it had beaten itself into his throat rather than his chest, and breathing became quite painful.

Aragorn rode by unconscious memory only, knowing somehow he'd get to Rivendell. He had to.

All of a sudden, he realized that the mountain path he rode on now, was a road to Rivendell. He *knew* it was! And soon, he finally saw the Bruinen up ahead. Putting all he had left into the effort, he raced towards it, and began to follow it South-West, to where it would curve around and cross the House of Elrond.

Just as Legolas' body began to thrash in pain and fear, as Horthor began to tire beneath him, to the point that he may not keep running, as Aragorn felt as though he might lose either his mind or consciousness, he saw the torchlight that marked the front gate to the House of Elrond.

"Father!" He gasped to the closed doors. Pulling Horthor to a dead halt, and feeling the beast almost fall over at the sudden stop, he slipped off him, steadying Legolas on the way. "Father!" He called again, and this time the stone doors opened.

"Estel?" The elvan lord stepped out from one of the doors. The fact that he was in morning clothes, and that he, not one of his servants had answered the gate, and therefore must've been near it, not in bed, was a clear indication that it was indeed early morning now, rather than night.

"Estel! What are you doing here?!" He cried upon seeing his adopted son standing beside an almost dead horse. His dark gaze settled on Legolas, slumped over on the Horthor's back. Face pale, breath shallow, body limp.

"What happened." He demanded gravely.

"Bengwiil." Aragorn managed to gasp "Two…two doses."

Elrond, in all of Aragorn's time growing up with him, had never looked this horrified. Or if he had, Aragorn in his present state could not remember it. The elf looked as if he was going to say something, but thought better of it, and simply nodded. "Bring him in." He said bleakly.

Aragorn knew what Elrond had been planning to say. He could not heal this illness. The human put his thoughts away, and turned to Legolas, gently lifting him from the horse.

"Estel." Came a soft whisper. Aragorn looked down in surprise, for he had thought his friend to be unconscious. "Estel," Legolas repeated "Hantach, nin mellon. Maethach. Maethach…"

//thank you, my friend. You tried. You tried…//

Aragorn shook his head in grief. "Legolas." He choked. "I do not- want to lose you." tears ran down his cheeks as he felt Legolas slip off the edge of insomnia and into darkness. Whether of sleep or death Aragorn did not know.

The human looked up, pain streaking his blue vision. "Father." He pleaded of the elf in the doorway.

Elrond moved swiftly beside him, and touched Legolas' neck with his slender fingers. A moment passed, then the lord looked up. "He is alive. But you must be strong, Estel. I do not know if I can heal him."

"Please try." Begged the other softly.

"Here." Elrond leaned over and took Legolas from Aragorn, seeing at once the ranger had no strength to carry his friend. "Follow me."

The two went swiftly into the house, and Elrond turned into the nearest bedroom, laying Legolas on the bed. Quickly, he pulled back the collar of the elf's tunic, and inspected the wound on his neck. Aragorn flinched as he did so, remembering how he'd caused the wound by not responding the axe-bearing dwarf immediately.

Then Elrond's fingers moved to a jagged piece of iron pointing out of the wound. "It is a poisoned barb." He looked up at Aragorn. "We must remove it or we cannot draw the poison out."

Aragorn could have hit himself. So it had been the poisoned barb that caused the wound in Legolas' neck. His body's healing skills had taken care of the slight axe-wound. And then in the tunnel he had thrashed and groaned…well, of course! Aragorn had touched the very spot where this deadly poison was doing it's work.

"Estel!" Aragorn tore himself away from the regretful memory to look at his father again. "Go. Fetch me athelas, a basin of water and some damp cloths. We must slow the poison. Quickly my son!"

Aragorn nodded, and took off down the hall, knowing exactly where to go to find the needed supplies.

When he returned to the bedroom, he found Elrond standing over Legolas, his hand on the young elf's forehead. "Gwiil, Legolas. I'm Elrond. Lasto beth nin, tolo dan na galad."

//peace legolas. I am Elrond. Hear my voice, come back to the light."

Aragorn was silent as his father did his best to call Legolas out of shadow. The lord looked up at Aragorn and nodded. Aragorn returned the gesture, and crushed the Athelas, sprinkling it into the water. The sudden aroma calmed his body, but not his restless heart and mind. He only wished he could breath it in deeply enough to reach those secluded places.

He approached the bed, setting the basin of Athelas water down on the bed, and handing the rag to Elrond. His father then dipped the damp rag into the basin, and lifted it above the wound on Legolas' neck. He looked up sternly at Aragorn. "He is not going to like this at all. You must calm him."

Aragorn nodded, but a look of confusion came over him. "How?"

Elrond shook his head and sighed. "Any way you can."

Aragorn sat on the other side of the bed beside Legolas. "Ea na gwiiil, Legolas. Uuyech er."

//be at peace, legolas. You are not alone.//

Elvish was the only thing Aragorn could think of to comfort his friend, and he held to it tightly.

Elrond placed the warm cloth on Legolas' wound, and the room erupted. Legolas jerked and moaned, and murmurs of nonsense soon became shouts. "No!" He cried, shaking all over. "I know do not live comfort! Take it from the dead places, I cannot follow." His voice trailed off in agony.

Aragorn shook, but tried again to comfort him. "Eam layaa mellon, Legolas."

//I am your friend, legolas.//

Elrond dipped the cloth again, and then touched Legolas with it. Again, the prince writhed and moaned, trembling all over.

Aragorn repeated some Elvish, but this time it was interrupted by a loud bang as the hall door was flung open. A pitter-patter of feet came down the hall, and then the sons of Elrond appeared in the door.

"Father!" Elladan gasped. "We were hunting, and saw horses coming down the-"

"Estel!" Elrohir interrupted, looking down at his disheveled and distraught younger brother.

Then the twin gazes swept to the bed. "What-" Elladan began solemnly, but Elrond answered with a simple word.

"Bengwiil."

The two looked dumb-founded a moment, but Elrond soon broke the spell that this word had apparently cast. "I need your help."

"Of course father." Ellandan responded softly.

"I need you to hold Legolas down. Aragorn? Keep on talking to him."

"All right." Aragorn responded hoarsely.

The twins moved on either side of the bed, and leaned over Legolas as well. Elrond nodded to them, and Aragorn began speaking in grey tongue again.

Elrond dipped the cloth once again, and placed it on Legolas' wound. But this time, he gripped the barb between his fingers, and through the cloth, pulling on it gently. Gentle though it was, Legolas' body protested violently. He thrashed, and writhed, and once again started shouting non-sense.

Elrohir reached down, and pressed Legolas' shoulders down to the bed, while Elladan moved around and grabbed his ankles.

Aragorn tried desperately to keep talking, but he suddenly couldn't remember any elvish. His frantic mind roved about and finally lighted on something.

"A Elbereth Gilthoniel, silivren penna míriel" He didn't have enough breath to sing the words, and indeed his mind was too troubled to remember the tune, but he spoke the song softly to his friend, letting his own memories give the words feeling.

Even as he spoke "o menel aglar elenath! Na-chaered palan-díriel" with every word, he really whispered "I do not want to lose you, my dear friend." and the soft plea soaked into the sleeping elf's mind. Soothed it. Calmed it. If only momentarily, there was peace.

Then, Elrond finally pulled the barb free. This time, Legolas did not shout incoherent pleas, but let out a high, animal-like howl. An opaque black liquid spilled freely from the opened wound, and Elrond soaked it up as best he could with another cloth. The Bengwiil poison was leaving Legolas' body. Aragorn continued to sooth his thrashing friend, but new hope seemed to shine in the room.

The black poison continued to spill, and then crimson blood ran from the cut. Elrond's face went pale.

"Father?" Aragorn's voice was apprehensive. "What is it?"

"That cannot be all the poison. Not with two doses of Bengwiil." Elrond looked up at Elladan and Elrohir who were shocked when their father mentioned two doses of the deadly poison.

The lord obviously didn't want to look his youngest son in the eye, and this worried Aragorn greatly. Finally, his father locked gazes with him. "The poison is too far. It has completely infected his mind. If I try to draw it out, he might die anyway, or if he lives, he will not be the same."

Aragorn's heart sank through the floor. Legolas couldn't die. He couldn't! The human did not do well at hiding his tears, though he tried. He didn't like to cry in front of his family. Especially his brothers, but he couldn't help it. He pushed the tears away, and tried to soothe his hurting heart.

"I am sorry my son." Elrond said softly.

"No." Aragorn looked up, a calm light in his eyes. "We must try. Please father. I shall never forgive myself if I let him die."

"It is not your fault, Estel." Elladan reproved gently from the end of the bed. "You could not have helped any of this."

"But perhaps I can now." Aragorn pleaded. "Father, please."

Elrond finally nodded reluctantly. As much as he wanted to save the life of Legolas, and his son's heart, he did not want to raise false hopes in Aragorn. But he would try and save both of them if he could.

The elf dipped two cloths in athales this time. He looked up sternly, looking at the twins. "You will need to hold him tight. Very tight" the two nodded, and Aragorn swallowed hard. Scooting forward on the bed more, he gripped Legolas' hands in his own, and held them tightly, whispering a tuneless song again.

Elrond placed one cloth against the cut, and another against Legolas' forehead. Then, his lips began to move in a silent mantra, and he closed his eyes tight.

Sure enough, Legolas began to groan and thrash about. But as Elrond got farther into the chant, Legolas slowly became wilder. He jerked and cried, trying to break free of Elladan and Elrohir's grip on him. The twins merely tried to hold him still while Aragorn bravely persevered through another song, and tried desperately to think of another.

More poison seeped out of the cut, but this liquid was almost not liquid. It seemed so coagulated and the stench of it almost drowned out the lovely odor of athales.

Aragorn felt Legolas' body tense completely, and his hands shook and felt clammy to his rough fingers. His fair face was pale, and his lips began to turn light azure. His brain was losing oxygen.

Aragorn desperately wanted to ask how he was doing, and if he was going to survive, but Elrond was so deep in concentration he didn't say a word. He instead turned his gaze to Elrohir in front of him. His brother tried to look reassuring, but he knew as well as everyone else in that room, that it did not look good.

Legolas gasped for breath, and his body shook uncontrollably, causing the twins to get a firmer hold on him. Aragorn suddenly realized that he'd been saying the same three lines to Lennathon over and over. But his restless mind refused to remember the rest.

Elrond was drawing more and more of Legolas' blood out of his tired body, trying desperately to get at the poison. Suddenly, his eyes snapped open, and a great sigh left his body, as though he'd been holding it in for the past hour. He looked up at Aragorn's anxious stare, and slowly nodded. "It is gone." He pulled the cloth by Legolas' cut away, and it dripped with the evil poison.

He rewetted the other cloth, and put it over Legolas' pale forehead again. "I have done all I can, Aragorn." Elrond told him softly. "Let us just pray that he wakes up. But-" He hesitated a moment "I cannot pretend this is very serious. I do not have high hopes of him awakening. In fact-" Elrond sighed, and turned away a moment. "Aragorn, I do not think he will awaken."

Aragorn nodded, and held even tighter to his friend's hands. "I understand." He whispered.

Elrond nodded, and turned from the room. "I will leave you alone."

The twins nodded as well, and started to follow their father. Elladan turned before leaving. "Estel, are you going to be all right?"

"Yes, thank you." the other murmured.

His brother merely nodded again, and followed Elrond and Elrohir out.

Aragorn sat a long moment. So was this his goodbye to Legolas? Was this the end? He had to wake up. He *must* wake up. Aragorn's eyes swept over Legolas' pale features. His white face, blue lips…was he ever coming back?

**********

Elrond turned in the hall to the twins. "Go get your brother a blanket, and make him some tea. I have a feeling he is tired and will need rest. Of body and heart."

"Yes father." Elladan nodded. "I believe you are right."

"Father?" Elrohir stood beside the lord, and looked hesitant. "Is- is Legolas Greenleaf really going to die?"

Elrond sighed. "Who can know? But I am afraid my son-" He shook his head slowly. "Yes, I am afraid that he will die. Unless some miracle presents itself."

Elladan sighed and looked away. "Dear Estel."

"Indeed." Elrond responded softly. "Why don't you and your brother see to his tea?"

"Yes father." Elrohir sighed shakily, and the two took off down the hall.

Elrohir stood a moment in front of the bedroom door, and then noticed something. His keen elvan ears picked up a soft sound coming from within the room. Quietly, he opened the door to the bedroom, and walked a step or two in. The sight almost rent his heart in two.

His son, Estel, was sitting alone, and crying his heart out. The human turned towards the opened door, and saw Elrond.

"Oh father." He whispered shakily, but he didn't need another word. Elrond moved swiftly beside him, and sat on the bed.

"Tell me what is wrong." He murmured, though he already knew. He touched Aragorn's cheek softly, brushing it with his knuckles.

"L-Legolas. I can- cannot feel his h-hear-heartbeat…oh father, I do not want to lose h-him!"

Erlond, wanting desperately to mend the boy's broken heart, reached forward, and held his son in his arms. "Sh…ea na gwiil, Estel. Nin hiiin."

//sh…be at peace, estel. My child.//

Aragorn sank into the words, letting the stress of the day, of the evening, the fear, the pain, all of it run freely in the form of bitter tears.

Elrond felt the shoulder of his robes become damp, but did not care. He held his no-longer-young son, like a child in his arms, letting him have his cry. He also felt hot tears roll down his own cheeks, touching his son's head. Unable to hold back the grief at seeing his son's world torn in two, the elvan lord allowed himself to cry with the boy.

Aragorn felt strange, acting like a child with his father again, but it was a good feeling to be held. To hear those soft words he'd repeated over and over to Legolas be spoken gently to him. His heart relaxed, his body slackened, his mind went blissfully blank.

**********

Elladan and Elrohir moved into the dark bedroom, one carrying a tray of food and tea, and the other a blanket. They found their father, sitting on the edge of the bed, holding Estel in his arms. Elrond looked up, and smiled, and the twins were surprised to see tears glistening his eyes as he did so.

'Your brother is asleep." he told them, lifting Estel's limp form off his lap, and into his arms. The three elves went down the hall, and into another bedroom. Laying the sleeping human softly on the bed, they covered him with the blanket.

"Maer fuin, nin tithen Estel." Elrond whispered softly, kissing Aragorn gently on the forehead.

//good night, my little estel.//

They left the room and stood a moment in the hall.

"Legolas will be dead by morning." Elladan sighed despondently, looking out the dark window.

"I fear you are right, my son." Elrond nodded.

"Whatever will we tell Estel?" Elrohir lamented.

Elrond shook his head. "I wish I knew."

*********

Darkness…deep darkness of forever sleep. It was taking him. Far, far away. But somewhere deep in the shadows a voice called. Far away, even farther than the shadows intended destination for him, a voice came. Like a gentle breeze scattering worry to the four winds, a voice from the past called him.

"Friendship does not waver at a wind…"

Well guys, onto the final chapter! :)