Disclaimer: I don't own LOTR.

The Truth Returned

She jumped when a huge, powerful blue light came from the top of the building. It made a deafening noise as she covered her ears. Then the pain shot through her shoulder. She heard Frodo cry out as she understood that now she could feel what he was feeling. There was a Ringwraith nearby.

She fell to her knees, already weary from the pain. As she held her breath, a giant creature emerged. It had a wingspan that looked like it was one fourth the width of that castle. It let out a piercing shriek and she covered her ears as her blood ran cold. Huddled up against a rock, she looked up. It was a wraith, and he had this new death-helmet on. She winced in pain as the gray creature continued to shriek.

The door opened, and her eyes widened as she forgot about all of the pain. An army of Orcs and Uruk Hai poured out of those doors, marching along the bridge towards her. She looked up above her and could see no sign of the three. Good, they were still unnoticed.

"LAURA!" a voice cried as she was violently shaken to consciousness. Her eyes fluttered open as the pain in her shoulder disappeared and the shriek faded from her ears.

Legolas was the one who had been shaking her. She pushed his hands away. "What?" she asked rudely. "I'm fine."

"Laura, I've not seen you in three days and I come in here to find you unconscious on the floor! You are never to leave my sight again, do you understand!?" Legolas bellowed.

Completely taken aback by this outburst, Laura swallowed hard. "Okay," she said timidly. She'd obviously done something to upset him. And though she'd always been a rebel and felt like everyone was too overprotective, it crushed her when Legolas became concerned like this. But what had she done? Lord Aragorn had known her whereabouts, and so had Eowyn.

Legolas left the room saying something in Elvish. She got to her feet, still puzzled as Eowyn flew to her side. "Are you all right, my lady?"

"Yes, I'm fine."

"But the vision from Sauron..."

"Don't worry, I don't think it was Sauron," she assured Eowyn, meeting her gaze. "It was rather beneficial. The Witchking of Angmar is moving out with his army. But Frodo is alive."

Slowly, Eowyn's worried look turned into a smile. "Your friend is alive? Oh, that is wonderful news!" she exclaimed.

Laura grinned. In an instant, she'd forgotten about all the pain. Frodo was alive! And so was Sam! What a relief. She had to tell Aragorn.

"ARAGORN!" she shouted, causing more than a few heads to turn in her direction. Aragorn came running.

"Frodo's alive!" she rejoiced. In that instant, Aragorn shed his weary appearance and suddenly looked young and handsome again. The smile that rarely showed itself could be seen all across his face.

"That is indeed the best news we have had yet," he said truthfully.

"I know. But wait, there's more. The armies have left with the Witchking."

He looked at her seriously. "It is well that we know this. I will consult Theoden and see what I can do."

"I know, but you gotta take your celebrations where you can get them, you know? By the way, what's up with Legolas?" she asked.

Aragorn sighed. "He was only looking out for you."

"I know, but he totally flipped out on me. I mean TOTALLY."

He put a hand on her shoulder. "Perhaps he just showed more emotion than he would have cared to."

"What? Oh, let me handle this," she said understandingly, though in reality she had no understanding of the situation at all. She wanted to leave Aragorn in peace for awhile, with the knowledge the Frodo was ALIVE.

Legolas showing more emotion than...when had he ever shown emotion? Then she smiled to herself. He was actually one of the warmest, most emotional people she knew. He was just extremely mature about his emotions, that was all. He didn't throw temper tantrums like she did or run away to cool off. He just sort of was really balanced with all of his emotions. She decided that was enough reason for an Elf to flip out once in awhile.

"Legolas, are you here?" she asked, exiting the castle. She went down the steps and walked through the village. It was really strange that he would be out here, but she found him. He was in the stables, feeding Epona and the other horses.

"Hey Legolas, is everything all right?" she asked, entering. He looked up at her, then began brushing with a fixed concentration. He was really bad at hiding things, and she chuckled to herself. "Come on, you can tell me."

"I must apologize for my behavior. It was not proper of me," he said quickly, the words practically spilling out of his mouth. But something was definitely wrong.

"Hey, hey. I don't care if you act 'proper' or not," she said, making the quotes with her fingers. "Is something bothering you? Because this is really starting to concern me."

But Legolas' face turned beet red when he tried to look at her. He was...really embarrassed about something. Frowning, she looked down to see if her pants were unzipped or something like that. "Did you see me naked?" she asked, in all seriousness.

"N-no," he said, confused.

She raised and eyebrow. "Would you like to?"

"Laura-"

"Dude, I'm so kidding!" she said, laughing. "Anyway, that vision wasn't bad. Frodo and Sam are still alive!"

His eyes brightened. "Does Lord Aragorn know of this? It would bring him great relief, as it has brought me."

"Yeah, I told him. But isn't that great? I was so happy to see Frodo again!"

"What do you mean, you saw him?"

"I saw what he's doing right now, or at least I think it's right now. I'm pretty sure it's the present. Well, maybe it's the future. Getting back to the point, he was at this strange looking castle, and they were about to climb these stairs. Only they were more like lines cut into a canyon wall..."