Disclaimer: it ain't mine, I'm just borrowing it. Don't bother suing, all I've got is my Next Gen DVDs. No Elves or Rangers were harmed in the writing of this Fanfiction. I put them back how I found them…honest! As all ways a huge big thank you and hug for my beta reader. Thanks, I love you lots.

Ambush - Remembering

He remembered running, bursting through the trees. Then there was no more land…trying to step back…something hitting him hard. Falling through the air, the water, he lands, like striking rock. The breath forced from his body, sinking deep. Struggling, clawing towards the light, towards the air, gasping for breath. Fighting the current, the cold, the noise of the rushing water. The din getting louder, water hitting rocks, a waterfall.

He remembered desperately striving against the current, trying to reach the bank. He knew this place, he must not go over the falls. Then tumbling unstoppably over the crest of the cascade, the world turned around, not knowing which way was up, no breath, struggling, panicking, bursting into sunshine and air. Gulping a lungful, the water calm now, drifting, staring at the sky, too weary to fight further. Hitting the shallows, stumbling up the gravel, falling again, the stones cutting his face. So cold but the sun, the sun was warming. His mind drifted, drifted towards sleep, if he slept he would die, but still he sought it. A voice, a woman, insistent, demanding, pulling him onto his back, sun on his face now. The voice again, then being dragged, no, trying to stand, stumbling, the ground, the very earth seeming to sway. Hands supporting, helping, voices talking. Why couldn't he understand? Walking, stumbling, up a hill, hard, he wanted to rest. Cooler now, a cave, allowed to sit, hands guiding him to lie down, a bed, bracken with a blanket. He lay. All the time the voice, serene, soothing, questioning. A cup, a cup at his lips, tea, willow tea, warm, calming. He was aware of her, he knew her but could not name her, Cutting, she was cutting away his tunic, removing the clinging fabric. A blanket, rough against his naked skin, warming him. More tea, soothing, he drifted towards sleep. Pain in his stomach, eyes open in the semi darkness…the woman. It was Celebrían. No it couldn't be, she had left. Left years ago. But now she had returned?

He spoke to her but she didn't recognise him. Tears, he remembered crying before her. She had returned but didn't know him. She talked in her strange tongue. She wiped his face.

The pain! Never has there been such pain! Never has he known such agony as this! He curls around it, gasping, crying out. There is nothing, there is pain, there is only pain. It claws at his stomach, it drags him down, down, down…to a timeless place where only the pain exists.

He remembers a cool hand on his brow; peaceful, soothing. Celebrían…he wants to reach for her but if he moves...

He remembers, and all he remembers is pain.