Gandalf and Aragorn sat together talking about the following days plans, but Aragorn's eyes never strayed far from where Rainia and Legolas stood talking. He tried hard to conceal his surprise when she grabbed his chin so that he could see into her eyes, he hadn't even flinched. Aragorn couldn't make out what they were saying, they were too far away for even a rangers ears to hear.

"You don't trust her, do you?" Gandalf's words were soft, almost sounding hurt. His eyes showed no emotion, it was a strange combination to see and hear. Aragorn knew exactly who he was talking about, though he was ashamed to admit it in front of one of her friend's.

"Its something about her, I don't know what, but I just feel I cannot trust her."

"Don't let Elrond's foolish words cloud your mind, think for yourself Aragorn, do not let others do it for you."

"Its not that Gandalf, its just a feeling, I can't explain it, but something in my heart tells me not to trust her."

"Is it because she tried to kill Lady Arwen? Is that what is clouding your judgement?" Aragorn paused, and thought about this. The day of the council he had been infuriated to find out that someone had tried to kill Arwen, let alone someone who tired to come to the council of Lord Elrond. She seemed so comfortable talking with Gandalf and Legolas, only the two guards with Legolas seemed to mind her presence. He thought back to the words he had said, to her reaction, to how he felt. She had looked so helpless then, as if she had suddenly given up on life. As if she had her final straw with the world. He almost felt sympathy for the poor elven girl, at least until Lord Elrond reveled it was Arwen whom she had tried to kill. He sat and pondered this question for a long time, Gandalf just took to smoking his pipe for awhile, grinning to himself.

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

Legolas's eyes fell trained on something in the distance. His mouth fell open as he called, "Gandalf! Look to the east!" Gandalf's gaze fell to where Legolas motioned

"Its nothing, Legolas, just a puff of cloud!" Boromir shouted, not giving it another thought.

"But it's moving to fast to be clouds, and against the wind!" Aragorn thought out loud, "everyone hide! We cannot be seen!" He shouted, cleaning up remnants of their camp. Legolas whirled around and grabbed Rainia, much to her protest, and hid them underneath a bush. He pulled the slim branches over their heads, to keep them from view. They didn't dare breath, they didn't dare move. The scouts of Mordor where above them, and if they were reported as getting close to Mordor, then they would fail on their quest. This time failure was not an option.

The creatures only passed them for barely a second, but that second seemed like forever to the small fellowship. As soon as they had passed over head and where a little ways away from them, the fellowship came out of hiding. Rainia glared at Legolas,

"What the hell was that about!" She shouted at him, still furious for his sudden action of grabbing and protecting her. "I can take care of myself know!"

"Sorry, I didn't think you'd be this angry, I mean I didn't mean you any harm by it." Rainia sighed, she knew he was right, it was just something unexpected. She didn't like being treated like she was just a silly woman who needed a man's protection. She could take care of herself, she had been doing that for as long as she could remember. She hated standing on the sidelines, just watching. She would rather be in the game, or in this case, the battle.

The day drew on, although it wasn't eventless. Since the south gate was being watched, they decided to take the mountain pass. Rainia remembered being some what cold, which was somewhat unusual for an elf. Usually they could handle temperature extremes, but maybe this was too extreme. She found no trouble walking on the snow, her weight seemed nonexistent as she gilded over the snow without leaving even a trace of a footprint in the knee-deep snow. The others weren't faring as well as the elves though. They had become freezing, with ice starting to from on their wind burnt faces. After awhile the snow became too deep for the hobbits to cross, and they had to be carried. Aragorn took Frodo, Boromir Merry, Legolas Sam, and Rainia Pippin, Gandalf now lead the group, too stubborn to go back. As they reached a turn in the bend Rainia could hear a strong voice ringing in her ears. They were speaking some sort of strange language that she didn't understand, but as she hear this voice the wind picked up and the mountain seemed to be destroying itself. Apparently Legolas heard the voice,

"Its Saruman! He's trying to bring down the mountain!" He shouted above the wind, his voice barely heard by the last straggling members.

"We must turn back!" Aragorn shouted

"No, we cannot turn back," Gandalf was as stubborn as ever, he leaped to the ledge of the mountain and called out another strange tongued spell. It didn't work. The last thing Rainia could remember was seeing piles of snow crash down on her, then her mind went blank again.

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

Her mind was spinning, the last thing she could remember was the snow crashing on top of her head, and her side somehow cracking. Her wound hadn't healed as well as she thought it had. She awoke in a strange place, it was much like Rivendale with its complex designs craved into beautiful pieces of wood, but somehow it was different. This place was dead in the middle of a forest, Rivendale was next to a river, with a small forest around it.

"I see you have awaken," a soft voice came from the doorway, she whirled around to see Legolas standing there smiling.

"Where am I?" Her question must have sounded stupid, it was obviously some type of elvish settlement, but she could not place it.

"We are in Lothlorien, you were knocked out by some rocks that fell on you. So we carried you here, so that you could get some medical attention."

"Where is Gandalf?" Rainia looked around her, it was unlike Gandalf not to be sitting next to an injured friend, she assumed he must be out somewhere maybe with one of the hobbits. Legolas looked down,

"He fell at the Bridge of Khazad-dum." He looked at her, his smile had vanished and she knew in his heart he was crying, but he wouldn't show it, not here, not now. Rainia was in a state of utter disbelief, her one true friend was gone. Her breathing became more rapid, her eyes didn't blink. She could feel tears swelling up in her eyes, she didn't even try to hide them. Her world seemed a lot darker then, her last light had gone out.

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

It was an unwelcome feeling inside of her heart, for once in her life she felt helpless. Gandalf had always defended her, protected her, he had shown her the way of the light. He was the reason that she had changed her ways, without him she didn't feel like she could go on that same road. She could feel her old instincts coming over her, her eyes becoming wider, more in tune with the world around her. Her ears began to sort out certain words, only hearing the words that were important to her. She laid her head back down, her eyes squeezed shut. She begged herself not to give in, to remember what Gandalf had taught her. He had seemed so confident in the fact that she could change, it was not too late. But what if he was wrong. What if she couldn't change.

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

It was a time of sorrow for all of the Fellowship, but they could not rest long. Just as long as it took Rainia to heal, then they would leave, it was the only thing they could do. The waiting was the hardest part, sometimes it looked as thought they would be ready to leave within a day or so, others looked as though she would never recover. She had a bad wound on her side, apparently it had been there all along, the rocks had only made it worse. Her head contained large gashes, her shoulders suffered the worst of all. They guessed that she had protected the young hobbit, Pippin, by hunching her shoulders forward, cause the rocks to hit that instead. Her arms were full of cuts, some large, some small, others looked like craters, each one was unique in its own way. She had suffered a lot of blood loss, even with the elvish medicine, hopes of her surviving where weak. The Fellowship had tried its best to bandage up her cuts, but it didn't stop the bleeding all together. It had taken them several days to get to Lothlorien, it was a miracle that she had survived that. The days the Fellowship could wait where slowly dwindling away, as the already short amount of time they were given to do the quest in became even shorter. It looked as though they were going to lose yet another member.

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

Legolas sat next to the sleeping Rainia, her wild hazel colored hair made a halo around her head. She seemed to be fighting something inside of her, as if she was fighting herself. Her eyes were squeezed tightly together, and there was something about her, something had changed. Not the bright array of bandages that now covered her, but something about her presence. But Legolas couldn't place it. He looked closely at her face, it was lined with small cuts around her lower face and eyes, and then larger gashes in the forehead. They had finally gotten an answer to their question on if she was trustworthy or not, and for once in his life, Aragorn was wrong.

"Legolas" a warm voice said from behind him

"Lady Galadriel, how nice to see you." His voice was damp, he was still shaken from seeing Gandalf die like he did. He died protecting the Fellowship, he died for the hobbits, he died for the men, he died for the elves, it didn't matter. He died to save Middle Earth, now Legolas felt as though he owed it to him to complete the mission, it would feel wrong otherwise.

"Your not the only one who feels pain, you should not feel so alone."

"I know, it's a strange feeling though," he paused and looked up into her ice cold eyes, the eyes that could pierce even the darkest of souls, "being alone that is." Lady Galadriel smiled slyly, and looked down at Rainia,

"She has felt it all of her life, and feels it even more now." Legolas looked down at her, his confused mouth stuttering for words. "She has lost the only person who ever was her true friend. The one person who helped the lost child died, and she wasn't there to help him. Its taking a toll on her heart, right now it is clouded with self-doubt. But she is not as alone as she thinks she is." She looked at Legolas, "you are here for her."