Disclaimer: See chapter one.

Chapter XIII: Lothlórien.

After hours in darkness the piercing white daylight stung their eyes. They ran out of the cave and the hobbits fell to their knees, their bodies were to weary of battle and grief to continue.

She saw the others weep around her and she to sat down feeling all the bones in her body ached and her heart threatening to explode. She felt empty, like her soul had been wrenched out from her and had vanished into nothingness. Although her heart was heavy from the loss the others felt, for the loss of the great wizard, nothing weighed more then the loss of her best friend.

Aragon stared out towards the road they had to walk, scanning it for any danger. He briefly closed his eyes allowing him self a few seconds of grief as his mind replayed the last moments in his head.  The wizards last command floated to him and he turned swiftly around and said sternly.

"Legolas, Boromir get them on their feet"

"Allow them a moment of grief for pities sake" Boromir cried. Legolas walked without a word over to Sam and lifted him on his feet.

"By nightfall these hills will be swarming with orcs" Argon replied.

She to stumbled up and let a hand wipe the moister away from her eyes. But in the emptiness she felt, there was an emotion missing, the same one she had been missing when the spear hit Frodo. The feeling of death didnt fill her.

"-Come-!" The elf ordered in her tongue and then, wordlessly, grabbed her hand and led her over the rocks towards Aragon.

"Frodo!" Frodo turned around as he heard the ranger call his name and he stopped walking. He just wanted to walk, walk and never look back, walk and not think about the burden around his neck, which never before had seemed so heavy. His heart whispered that his thoughts were foolish, but his mind could not stop from telling him, that hadn't he chosen to go through Moria, Gandalf would still be with them. He hesitated for a moment, was it perhaps better that he went alone and not endangered the others. His heartbeat quickened and then he turned around and walked back. He didn't even know which way to go.

Aragon lead them with swift haste because he had no desire to linger so near the mountain when the orcs would come as soon as night crept over them. He had only one thought in his head, and that was to get to Lórien as quickly as possible, maybe there they could find some shelter some consoles…and maybe they could help him to decide which road would lead the Fellowship. Gandalf had not told him about his plans beside he wanted to go to Lórien.

Sam held his arms over his wound where an orc had struck him and he could feel it burn on his skin. He said nothing because he didnt want to hold the Company back. The others strolled one and their pace only seemed to quicken. Soon he and Frodo fell back and so did the elf maiden.

The elf stopped all the time, and turned her head to see if they were coming, and when the caught up with her, she waited allowing them to walk first and she to be the last one in the Fellowship. Their pace only slowed, as they grew even wearier. Frodo could feel his stomach growl for food, which they hadn't tasted since morning, so many countless hours ago.

Suddenly they heard somebody fall, and they quickly turned around only to see that she had stumbled, and her hand was resting on her feet. She quickly rose and tried to ignore the fire that shot up in ankle. She placed her foot on the ground and grimaced in pain.

Sam walked over to her and, strangely enough, she allowed him to touch her foot, he unwrapped the last bits of skin and straps from her shoe and studied her foot-sole. He gasped as he saw the bruises and scars on them.  She must have walked bare footed all through Moria.

"Frodo…do you still have some of those leaves Aragon told you to gather by the Watchtower?" Sam asked and Frodo nodded. He quickly took off his backpack and started to roam around in it, finally he took out a small pouch of dried leaves. Frodo cast a nervous glance on the road and saw that Gimli, and the others were out of sight.

He handed the leaves to Sam and Sam took out a water bottle and poured the leaves in the little bottle he had left. He quickly mixed the potion and then started to search around in his bag. He took out an old shirt and was about to tear it, when she stopped him.

"No….its an old shirt…..I dont think I need to be nicely dressed for where we are heading" he said, and although she didnt understand what he was saying, she smiled and watched as he thorn the shirt and then poured the brownish water on it and tied them around her feet.

Frodo stared nervously up and down the road waiting for either orcs or the others to arrive. When Sam was finished she gingerly rose on her feet. Her eyes smiled in gratitude.

"Diola lle aier"

She said and this time Frodo understood what she said, he had learned little elvish listening to the elves in Rivendell. But he also recognized the words from the Watchtower, when she had spoken to him after he had given her the apple. He pointed to him self and said slowly, as speaking to a child:

"Frodo" then he pointed to Sam and said. "Sam"

She repeated their names, tasting the words on her tongue, and then she finally pointed to her self and said. "Feavair". Her eyes glowed as she said the name and suddenly she seemed very old and full of power. It lasted for just a second, before she looked a little helplessly at them.

Sam and Frodo looked at each other with surprise and puzzlement, had she, during their journey, remembered her name?

"Mankoi naa lle sinome?" (  Why are you here?) Frodo stuttered unsure if she had understood him.

She was about to answer, when suddenly they heard the sound of heavy footsteps and Boromir appeared. When he saw them he sighed a heavy sigh in relief and said. "There you are, alas, we were worried. Aragon says he has found a place to rest and tend to your wounds, not far from here," Boromir said. When they heard the word rest, the hobbits smiled blissfully.

Boromir looked at the elf with Sam's shirt wrapped around her feet and then at the battered shoes that Frodo had tossed on the ground. "Is she hurt?" he asked and Frodo nodded. "Then, if you permit my lady, I shall carry you" Boromir said, and before she, or the others, had time to protest he lifted her up as if she should weight nothing. She flinched against his chest and struggled to get loose, but his grip around her was strong and firm.

Frodo grabbed her shoes, and his backpack.

Legolas jolted to his feet and was over by Boromirs side even before the others saw them coming. His face was clouded with concern and he held out his arms and said sternly to Boromir. "I shall carry her" Boromir shook his head and told the elf, that he had no problem carrying the lady, since she practically weighed nothing. Legolas looked like he wanted to protest, badly, but didn't say anything.

"I am sorry my friends, I should have remembered that hobbits feet are not as quick as our own….and you Sam, you have been hurt, you to Frodo!" Aragon cried full of concern when they sat down next to the others.

"We are not the ones in need of great healing" Frodo said and held up her shoes that were nothing but straps or leather. " I recon she has walked bare footed thought Moria, if not longer" he said and Aragon sighed deeply.

"She should have spoken, I have an extra pair my self!" Aragon said and shook his head sadly and then he looked her foot, which Sam had mended and smiled.

"But I see we are in no need of worry…. looks like we have a great healer among us" Sam blushed by the prays of the rangers words and looked quickly to the ground.

"I no may way around the garden…and may have picked up some things here and there" he muttered.

While Gimli and the two younger hobbits gathered wood for the fire and drew water, Aragon tended Sams wound.  It wasn't deep, but didn't look good. Aragon patted the chubby hobbit on his back and said that he was lucky; the wound was not poisoned, others had received worse payment for slaying their first orc.

Then he turned to Frodo, but Frodo quickly held up his hands and said. " I all right!"

"No!" Aragon said sternly. "By rights…you should be dead" He gently ripped open the old west and batten tunic of Frodo and then he gasped in awe and wonder before his laughter roamed through the silence.

"Look my friends…. this is a pretty hobbit skin!" He held up the ring mail that glittered, more then the purest silver, in the last rays of the sun.

"If it was know that hobbits carried such hides all the hunters in Middle-earth would ride to Shire" Boromir chuckled.

"And all the swords and arrows would be in vein.  It is a mithril-coat. Mithril!" Gimli cried out in wonder.

"I have never seen or heard of one so fair. Is it the coat Gandalf spoke of…then he undervalued it. But it was well you were given it!"

            When they had eaten and felt their strength return, they got ready to go on. This time there was no stopping Legolas who lifted her up in his arms before the others had managed to pack down their things. In the back of his mind, Aragon noticed that she did not flinch as the elven prince lifted her up, as she had done when he just barley touched her.

Mist rose around their feet and dusk settled upon them as they continued their walk. This time Aragon let Sam and Frodo decide the pace as he followed surely behind them then came Gimli followed by Merry and Pippin who blinked their eyes heavy in sleep. Then came Boromir looking over his shoulder every few step at Legolas who walked a few pace behind the others.

Legolas walked with her safely in her arms, as if he was carrying a precious glass doll, but to him she had far more value then anything breakable. At first she seemed recent to let him carry her and told him to put her down. But he refused and soon her head rested against his chest and to the sound of his steady heartbeat she fell a sleep.

Nature was silent as the only sound they heard were from the quiet rustling of the grass and leaves and the silent night moans from the stones and water. Frodo stopped now again and listened to the sound in the darkness, between all the night noises, there was another sound he heard….or thought he heard.

"What is it?" said the dwarf, and Frodo furrowed his eyebrow in thought. " I though I heard somebody move…and that I saw light, like eyes….but it could be just the ghosts from Moria" Gimli halted and let his eyes scan the forest.

" I have heard tales of a great elf-witch a sorceress that lives in these woods. But I hear nothing…I should, nothing get past Gimli son of Gloin. I have the eyes of an hawk and the ears of an fox" he said proudly.

Just then stepped the ghosts out from the bushes and they soon found them self faced with sharp arrows, spent on bows and elves glad in silver and green surrounded them. One of the elves stepped forward and said calmly.

" A dwarf breathed so hard, we could have shot him in the dark"

Please review.

I am well aware off that the elves of Mirkwood and Rivendell commonly uses the elven tounge Sindarin, but poor Frodo it is hard enough to learn one of the elven languages if not two. J