Sorry, sorry a million times! I've been really REALLY busy. Forgive me, and thanks for your patience!

BROUHAHA

Aragorn coughed as his head was roughly pulled out of the river. Mithfalas watched, helpless as his friend was tortured for answers he would not give.

"How's it feel, Mithfalas? Watching this, and doing nothing about it?"

"Just wait, Mar. The Valar will teach you your place."

Mar smiled. "Yes, of course. Will that be before or after you die?" He nodded towards the man holding Aragorn underwater. "Tie him and leave him. If he won't answer, we have no need of him."

Aragorn was hardly aware of the ropes securing him to a tree. "You do need me!" He fought his own disorientation to say those four little words.

"Do I?" Mar said, casually turning towards the human. "Why's that?"

"The Lady! From that town! Don't think I haven't figured it all out!" The angrier he got, the easier it was for Aragorn to regain his senses.

"Well, how nice for you. Did you figure out, though, that she doesn't want you at all? She only wants your friend."

Shit. Aragorn hadn't counted on that. He felt something wet slip around his neck, pulling him from his thoughts. Mithfalas must have known what it was, because his eyes went wide.

"Mar, don't do this!"

The man ignored Mithfalas, smiling into Aragorn's confused face. "Since you refuse to talk to us, we have no need for you. You should have answered our questions; you might have lived another day. What you feel around your neck is a thick piece of wet leather. Do you know what leather does as it dries?"

Aragorn's mouth fell open, but no words came out.

"That's right. It shrinks."

BRUHAHA

Nifren sighed, helping Legolas limp along. "How long do ye think it will take until ye can move fully again?"

"I don't know. I don't make a habit of getting paralyzed. You're human, you tell me."

"What's that supposed to mean?"

Legolas shook his head and changed the subject. "Look, Strider and my brother are in trouble, and we need to help them."

"Personally, I don't think we can take on all those men. Ye can hardly move as it is, and there ain't no one followin' us. How fast do ye think ye can move being chases? Eh?"

"You don't have to be rude about all of this. At least help me think of something. I know what they want, and they'll kill Strider."

Nifren let go of Legolas' arm, making the elf stumble without the support. "Strider and I had this whole situation under control until ye and yer damnable brother came into town. Ye two have only made things worse."

"But there WAS a situation before we came, so do not tell me that you are blaming us for this. Damn it, help me for Strider's sake, if nothing else."

Nifren sat on a nearby tree-trunk, a faint noise coming from his throat.

"And don't growl at me, you stubborn, pig-headed human."

"Such manners coming from a prince of the eternal race."

Legolas rolled his eyes. Given the situation, manners were the last thing on his mind. He sank to the ground, holding his head in his hands. "Why do you hate elves so much?"

"Yer not trustworthy."

"One of us hurt you."

"Oh, don't pretend ye know so much about me."

"And you decided that whoever that one elf was represented the entire race." Legolas sighed. "Like I did."

Nifren laughed. "Ye don't like elves either?"

Despite himself, Legolas smiled. "No, it's men I don't care for."

"And yet yer friends with Strider?"

"Strider is the exception. Nor is he completely human."

"I will never understand yer race."

"Nor I yours."

There was a short silence, before Nifren chuckled. "We just agreed on something."

"Do you suppose now that we can agree on a way to help Strider and my brother?"

Nifren smiled. "I don't know if we're ready for that yet."

Legolas laughed lightly. "Yes, you may be right."

BROUHAHA

Aragorn tried to breathe slowly, tried not to panic. The leather was so incredibly tight that he had lost all awareness of his surroundings. He tried leaning his head back to open better access to his airways, but it only helped marginally. He knew it wouldn't help for long, either.

BROUHAHA

Nifren woke with a start when he heard his elfin companion gasp. "What? What's wrong with ye?"

Legolas didn't answer him. He didn't even seem to have heard him. The elf was clutching his throat, gasping for breath.

Nifren ran to the elf, pulling the long, slender fingers away from his neck. Was he sleeping? He shook Legolas gently. After a second, the elf's eyes shifted, and he coughed. "What happened?"

"I don't know. Ye tell me. Having dreams?" The question was in a mocking tone.

Legolas shook his head. "Strider's in trouble. We need to find him."

"Oh really? What tipped ye off?"

Rubbing his throat, Legolas scowled. "If you're going to be like this all night, you can just stay here. I'll go find him."

"Ye won't! First of all, he's my friend too, secondly, ye can't take on all of those men by yerself. We've already seen that. Thirdly, yer still poisoned, fourthly-"

"Are you done, or shall we delay more? And I'm not still poisoned. Least ways, I can walk just fine." Legolas smiled at the man, then began walking away.

"Where are ye going? Do ye even know where he is?"

"No, but I have a better chance of finding him this way than by sitting here doing nothing."

"If I ever see another of yer race after this is all over, I'll just kill myself."

Pushing a branch back, Legolas sighed. "We're not all bad, you know."

"And neither is my race. So what happened to ye?"

Legolas didn't say anything for a few minutes. Nifren nodded to himself. "Okay, maybe ye'll tell me sometime later."

BROUHAHA

Mithfalas was hungry. Of all the things he should have been thinking about, all he could concentrate on was his hunger. He was in a cage. He was assured death as soon as they reached their destination. A slow and painful one at that. Aragorn was probably dead by now. His brother was in danger and probably still sick.

But he was hungry. And there was food, just out of his reach outside the cage. Mar had watched him for a while, sick amusement on his face. All Mithfalas had done was stare at the food, never making a reach for it.

Now that Mar and the rest of the camp had fallen asleep, he was straining to reach the bread. In vain. He sighed, falling against the bars. "Ai, Valar, if you will not feed me, at least do not let Legolas be stupid enough to come after us."

BROUHAHA

To my lovely reviewers!

Das Blume: Yeah, and this one's even shorter. Lol, no, a small review for you in a big thing! I'm proud of you! Oh hey, look, it's you again! Yes, QuickEditing SUCKS! It's causing me so many problems. Lol, "When someone lures you into a trap, for example. . ." I laughed! Yeah, I think I'll throw some of that in there. Thanks! Brouhaha was a random thought, since I was running out of ideas. It wouldn't even register for me! ") Does look rather odd, lol.

Deana: Sorry for the delay! ::Adding another dash to the Poor Legolas column::

Jazi: Lol, so, how ya feelin? Daemir is SO my kind of elf! LMAO! "Miffy, why are you such an idiot?" Ah, I was laughing at that. Lol, yeah, Miffy wasn't too thrilled with BROUHAHA. Legolas just found it incredible funny and couldn't stop giggling. Of course, he was all drugged, too. It means a lot of commotion (sometimes anger) mostly uncontrollable noise. A commotion. Hubbub. Lol. And I have no idea where it came from. I think I heard Gandalf muttering it, :-D Lol, enjoy the other ff world! We won't let the elves read it, at least!

Coolio02: Ooh, 2 poor Legolas'!! All right! LOl, sorry for the delay! 1 poor Mithfalas. . . (I'm keeping track of 'em, you know!) And yeah, he's an idiot. He's kind of fearless now, since he's escaped so many times. Plus, he wasn't counting on Aragorn to disobey him, so that made it harder. He's used to being a hero alone, lol.

Wildfire: Dude, is odd bad? Still, they have an injured person, and three of them can't fight off 60 humans. Orcs, sure, no sweat, but did we ever see them fight off so many humans in the movie? I'm trying to make this a bit realistic, too, because in reality, there's no way they would have been able to do it successfully. Hope the next few chapters are better. . .

Lainfaer: Sorry for the delay! I was cracking up at your explanation of "Don't kill Fal." :-D

F h c: The reactions to Brouhaha are hilarious! It means a lot of commotion (sometimes anger) mostly uncontrollable noise. A commotion. Hubbub. Lol. And I have no idea where it came from. Okay, so aside from the formatting issues, what was confusing?