Authors Note: OKAY!!! That is it!!!!! I have lost it!!!!! [growls] I will not mention names to be kind….but please! Please do not send me flames!!! Any kind of flame is a bad one!!! There is no such thing as a good flame….. I don not mind the "Please get someone else to read over your story before you post it." That is not a flame…..that is correctional criticism. I do not mind, "Your grammar is a little off, or your spelling needs checked." Those are nice to know.

But to rip my story that I wrote apart piece by piece making SURE you tell me I am wrong is what I call a flame. And by the way….I will explain a few things.

Even thought to call one a man seems to mean they are in their twenties….that is not what I meant. When I say man, I am referring to that he is a mortal…an edan. So I do have my rights to call him "The man". It means that he is mortal.

And secondly, if you read "Fading Light"…Estel is about ten…this is 7 to 8 years after……so technically Aragorn is close to being an adult. Or rather what is considered an adult.

And thirdly, Think about it……..you have this person you absolutely hate come and stay with you, then you have to take them with you somewhere and they do some sort of heroic act that ends up saving you or someone rather close to you. Would you still begrudge them. And another reason Legolas chose quickly was because I am mortal and I run out of creativity fairly easily so my spark goes out and I become impatient to post. So that explains also my lack of description. I am sorry my last chapter s have been rather short and vague.

And….to tie this note off…..I am as I have checked. A lot younger than most of you and still learning. So I have many years before this counts a s anything but fun and a pastime for my dreadfully boring life. So PLEASE do not attack me and kill my spirit just because I get anxious, tired, or loose my spark. I do not intend to write the way I do most of the time…….a lot of it is good a lot of it is not. Again I am but a mortal, as are we all. So I would like to keep posting on ff.net and I hope I will keep getting great reviews. And maybe less flames.

Thank you for your precious time and I hope that I have not scared anyone…..I do not intend to. I merely want people to know my feelings so that I do not have to give up writing. But anyway thank you and please enjoy! J

Chapter 5

As consciousness came back to Aragorn he felt a flare of pain exploded in his head. He opened his eyes and was frightened at what he saw.

Nothing, only inky blackness that could not be torn through. He whimpered as he felt his head jolt back onto a soft pad, yet it was firm and strong. He felt two arms fastened around him holding him carefully.

"Ada." he whispered wearily and then let out a cry as the arms tightened a little.

"I am sorry Estel." the voice whispered. "I am so sorry." Legolas felt tears streaming down his cheeks. He could not believe he had caused so much pain. The elf prince did not know what to do. He was still so far from home, and each time he moved it brought Estel pain.

Legolas did not know what to do, he continued on as his mind battled with him. Screaming at him so harshly he himself was beginning to get a headache. 'You could just kill him.' a slightly demented voice claimed. 'Put an end to his pain.'

"NO!" he growled. "I will not! He can not die!" it stunned the blonde elf that these words were coming from his mouth. The day before he HAD contemplated killing the man. Now he could not bare the thought.

'Set him down and leave him here. Then run back to the palace and get help.'

He stopped dead in his tracks, a smile coming across his pale and bloodied face. If he left the child here….he could run back at a faster speed.

'But what about the spiders?' Legolas looked about, he was frantic. What if a spider got him. He had no choice, he was only making it more painful for his new friend.

Carefully as he could Legolas laid Aragorn on the ground, even this movement made tears stream from the man's tightly shut eyes. But he made no sound.

"Estel? I am going to hide you here alright?" the elf choked as the new fears erupted. "I will be back for you…I promise."

The mortal spoke so quietly that Legolas had to bend down to hear him. "you won't leave me forever?"

Legolas shook his head. "Of course not! I will be back with help. I promise on the grave of my mother……I will be back soon!"

The elf gently laid his own cloak over Aragorn. He then stood up and looked, with his own cloak over the man, you could hardly tell that he was there. He stepped closer to the tree that loomed right over Estel. He put a hand over one spot on the tender bark of the birch and spoke a few soft words in Sindarin.

He then took out one knife and looked up at the tree mournfully….. "I am sorry." he whispered and carefully and neatly cut out a small 'X'.

Satisfied he turned towards the path for home, and with a last deep breath he began to run with all speed he could muster out of his already weary body. He ran and the wind blew his pale golden hair, the moon flecked through the trees and as he ran by he looked only a leaf in the wind.

~~~

Legolas ran through the halls, they were richly decorated with tapestries, bookshelves filled to overflowing with old red, green, brown, and ivory white books. He could not believe how tired and drained he felt after the long run. But he was not thinking about that now.

He ran through the door into his father's room, unchecked and unknown. He ran in to see his father and advisors looking at a small map trying to figure out where some country was or something was located. But it mattered little to him at the moment.

"Father?!" he cried as he stopped in front of the desk. "I need help! Estel-"

"Legolas, my son….what are you doing here." he crossed over to his son, and gave him a hug. "My son you look as if a cave troll hit you." Thranduil observed the dirty mucky face of his only son. Maybe not quite that bad, but still he needed a bath.

"Not me father! Estel! A cave troll hit him, I need help to get him back!" the elf prince spoke so quickly he felt his mind spinning.

"A cave troll? But son those live in caves….hence the name." Thranduil stroked his son's golden head.

Legolas pulled away, "FATHER! I NEED HELP!!!! PLEASE!!!"

The elven king looked at Legolas a minute then nodded…."Go tell Galanion and Farenor….they will help."

The elven prince smiled and turned to leave. "Thank you!" he ran out the door and for the training rooms.

~~~

Aragorn cried out as he tried to move, his body was on fire. He whimpered and tried his hardest to be quiet as possible. But nothing worked, he could hardly stand it, just laying here helpless waiting for the prince to return. 'What if he never returns?'

The pain was beginning to take over Estel's mind. He began to mumble to himself and cry out every couple minutes.

His mind began to subdue to the pain, each moment another pain brought on less life and he slowly began to shut his eyes in attempt to sleep off the pain. With one last futile blink he fell powerless to the freezing night as the cloak fluttered away and snow began to fall.

~~~

The elven prince was getting rather annoyed with the weather these past days, it was getting to be particularly annoying. Considering that it was not supposed to snow quite yet, even though it was winter…the Mirkwood elves usually knew the time it snowed and it Never snowed now. 'Well curse my luck.'

'Of course it does today.' he mused as he walked on ahead of the group of seven warriors, not including himself. He was the eighth.

"Lord Legolas?" he turned around to see Frenodae looking at him with keen green eyes.

"Yes Frenodae?"

"How are we going to find the human when it is snowing. It might cover him."

"We will nin mellon, we must!" he answered back and turned his back to the troop and kept walking.

Galanion walked up beside Legolas, his eyes stern but in the depths Legolas could see the tiniest glint of mirth. "So you have started to trust the edan? To be going out in this weather to save him is not something you would do openly."

"Aye Galanion, he has shown me far more than needed to be seen to prove he is worthy of my trust. I just hope he has learned the strength of an elf while he was in Imladris."

The older blonde nodded and smiled. "I am sure he has my prince."

~~~

Legolas had long run ahead of the troop, he wanted to find the man before he was covered by the snow, it had started to come down even more profusely and all the elves had worried.

"Estel?" he called as he tried to find the right tree. He had no torch so he had to purely rely on his keen elven sight. He was sure he was in the right area, but he was not sure which tree it had been.

He looked on each birch and fir, ash and maple. He scowled as a rather large blanket of snow fell down upon him from a bow . He grumbled and looked up, he smiled wickedly and trailed the branch back to a young paper barked birch.

He looked at the trunk to see a perfect but barely seeable 'X' in the bark. He dropped to his knees and began to claw away at the snow beneath.

Even thought he was an elf, it burned at his flesh and his wrist guards did little as it he dug through the icy but oddly burning powder.

"Estel?" he whispered as he kept going, and as he finally got far enough, he saw a very pale hand. This made his worry rise as he pulled away at the biting snow.

"Galanion! I found him!!!!" he shouted as he uncovered all the freezing snow to see Aragorn's now extremely placid and pale form, it scared the elf for the man was almost blue at the lips and, his skin was barely tinged with any color, save possibly a light blue.

He carefully grabbed the man up in his arms and held him close, letting some of his own warmth flow out and build in Estel.

As he held the mortal, the troop of elves came through the snow barren trees, it fell upon them. But they paid it hardly any heed.

They let down the litter they had brought and Legolas put Aragorn on it. He then got out all the blankets they had brought and placed them over the man's shivering form.

Aragorn's quaking did not subside, it slowed but did not all together quit. Legolas sucked back the tears that seemed to come up.

"Come on!" he looked up to see Galanion pointing in the direction of the palace. "It is more than five hours journey, and I would really think that it would be a very unwelcoming sight to Lord Elrond for the first thing for him to see when he arrives is his son motionless." The blonde general smiled sadly at Legolas and then turned around, his elven cloak swirling in the wind and snow.

"Galanion?"

The elf turned back giving the prince a soft look.

"Legolas, I want you to stay by his side, incase he awakens."

"Yes sir." The elf prince dropped back more so he would be right in Aragorn's vision if he awoke. He smiled as he looked at the bruised face of the young man.

Legolas looked at Aragorn all his strength zapped from his weary body. But he walked on. His eyes always on Estel's limp, and thankfully unconscious form. The elf prince was not sure if he could stand anymore of the young man's pain filled tears. He had never been hit by a cave troll hammer, or a cave troll. He had scarcely had to deal with them before. There were not many in Mirkwood, the forests were to dense for a normal troll, but a cave troll belonged in a cave. Not in these woods.

The elf's mind wandered a moment thinking on these subjects before his attention was drawn back by a small and very soft whimpering moan.

He looked down into slightly open eyes, their pained silver depths shining in the moonlight that splayed through the trees.

Aragorn smiled softly as the pain subsided. It did not hurt as often at the moment, unless he moved.

Legolas gulped back the distress in his voice and grinned. He would have to tell Estel sometime, should he tell him about it now. Should he tell the young man about his hatred for men while he was still treading so close to The Halls of Mandos. And news like that might well be the death of the mortal.

" Feeling better?" a sly grin came over the elf's pale face. He knew very well that the edan was not feeling better or at least not totally better.

"OH yes….m-much." the man shivered slightly but Legolas's did not miss the smirk that momentarily played on the face of the broken human.

Putting the pain behind him, Aragorn watched Legolas a moment before a frown was on his face and he spoke his displeasure. "Y-you're la-te." he coughed gently and sucked in to keep his heightened emotions at bay.

The elven prince raised an eyebrow and for a split second looked so much like lord Elrond that if he had been in better condition, it would have sent him fleeing for the hills. The elven prince tried to keep the smile from his face. "You look terrible." a wicked grin and a glint in his eyes told Aragorn that the next thing he was going to say could not be good. "So pale. You know Lingwen might have something to bring out the color in your cheeks."

"N-no." the man shook his head slowly, his mind reeling the thought. "No way am I letting your girlfriend play dress up with me."

"What?!" Legolas cried angrily, how did Aragorn know about Lingwen. "How do you know?"

The young man shivered and then spoke the deep smile on his face replaced by a scowl as one of the elves that had become weary tripped. "Well…..you kept looking at her, and I woke halfway while you two were talking in my room…."

The young elf felt a pop inside his stomach as this was mentioned. He smiled falsely, but deep inside he wondered about how much Aragorn had overheard. Had he heard Legolas's threat to men. Had he heard his shouts and hisses. Had he heard the curse that Legolas had spoken against men.

The elf watched as the man slowly subdued as his body began to warn him of the overacting he was doing.

"Rest Estel." he whispered lightly and put a soft hand on the child's head. "We will arrive home in a few hours and then you can be properly healed."

"No drugging."

He smiled and nodded and with that the exhausted boy fell into a deep sleep, his worn and frozen body melting in the warmth of the elven quilts on top of him.

TBC~

Authors Note: Ok forget me trying to predict how many chapters I am putting up……forget it. There will be like one or two more of that I am pretty sure. Maybe one.

Anyway um I am sorry for exploding in the first part. I was just having a bad day…that's all. See the film me and my friend are working' on is really stressing me and the last thing I need when I get home is a flame. But I am better now. And trying to fulfill all your wishes. But again, I am no elf. So please forgive my less than perfect story. My WAY less than perfect story. : But anyway, hope you liked this chapter, and oh, Aragorn is safe from death. But there are other problems. [wicked grin] Like the fact that I love to torture the mortal. [cackles] But that is besides the point, all I am saying is….more pain coming soon and be warned all you ranger lovers, he is not 'going' anywhere away from Mirkwood any time soon. [hint hint] But anyway thanks for all the reviews. J PLEASE REVIEW!!!!!