"You should continue to walk in front with the lookouts, Legolas," instructed Aragorn when the three hunters had a chance to meet as privately as they could at the encampment on the way to Helm's Deep. "The road goes more dangerous as we get closer to the fortress. They'll need your sharp elven eyes."

"I'll do it," Legolas promised. "Although I don't think that they trust me all that much. Will you keep an eye on Gimli and make sure he stays on Arod's back?"

"That fall was deliberate!" said Gimli defensively. "I was trying to cheer up the Lady Eowyn. She always looks so unhappy."

Aragorn smiled at him, half-teasingly and half-kindly. "You'll be happy to know," he told the dwarf, "that she seemed cheery enough when she came by with her stew a little while ago."

Legolas frowned. "Aragorn," he said cautiously. "You didn't eat the stew, did you?"

"She was standing right there watching me," said Aragorn. "I couldn't not eat it. I wish I didn't have to, though; that stuff was just awful. Why?"

"I overheard some of the men a little while ago," replied Legolas, trying to think of a way he could put this delicately. "One of them warned the others that Lady Eowyn was cooking. They started discussing the last time one of them ate her stew, when -"

Aragorn's eyes grew wide. "I have to go," he gasped, dashing behind a nearby rock.

"Lad?" Gimli called after him. He turned to Legolas, who was staring at the rock with concern in his eyes. "What happened when they ate..." His voice trailed off as an unpleasant odor drifted over and realization hit him. "Ooohh."

Grimacing, Legolas asked, "Gimli, would you hand me his pack? There should be some herbs in there that'll help him."

"Is there anything in there that will get rid of that smell?" asked Gimli, giving him the pack.

Legolas gave him a Look and rifled through the pack. When he found the herbs he was looking for, he walked over to the rock that the ranger was behind. "Aragorn?" he called.

The answering voice was one of someone who was straining to sound fine. "Yes?"

He handed the herbs around the side of the boulder. "These should help," he said sympathetically.

"Thanks," said Aragorn gratefully, taking the packet from him. He paused for a moment and then laughed.

"What's so funny?" asked Legolas, confused.

"I was just thinking about when we were younger," explained Aragorn. "I would have died of embarrassment if I ever knew you'd be so close at hand while I was having, um, an overactive bowel movement."

Died. The word brought to Legolas a now-familiar unease. "Don't joke about that!" he cried, trying desperately to keep some levity in his voice.

"I smell bad," groaned Aragorn. "I feel worse. And you still love me?"

"I still love you," Legolas assured him, laughing warmly. "Bad smell and overactive bowel movements and all."

#################

The next day's march was going as smoothly as it could be. Legolas kept his word to walk with the lookouts and Aragorn kept his eye on Gimli and the feisty Arod. 'At least he won't fall showing off for Lady Eowyn today,' he thought, amused. The lady in question was walking next to the ranger, leading a horse.

"Where is she now?" Eowyn asked suddenly. Aragorn looked at her questioningly and she nodded to the greenleaf gem that held his cloak around his neck. "The woman who gave you that jewel."

"It was not a woman who gave me this," said Aragorn fondly and proudly. "And he is currently walking at the front with the lookouts."

"The elf?" she asked, unable to hide her surprise. "Are you two...involved?"

"We've been involved for about 66 years now," Aragorn informed her. "But I've loved him for even longer, since I was ten."

Eowyn looked like she had a million more questions, but a shout and startled cries put an end to her inquiry. Aragorn sped ahead, passing by the entire line until he came to a field where the lookouts were. Legolas was there, slitting the throat of an orc while the carcass of a warg laid nearby. "A scout!" the elf shouted to him, kicking the orcs body away in disgust.

Aragorn raced back to the king. "Wargs!" he yelled. "We're under attack."

Frightened cries filled the air, but Theoden remained calm. "All riders to the front," he ordered before turning to Eowyn. She was about to mount her horse. "Lead the people on."

Eowyn looked perturbed. "I can fight!" she protested.

"No!" cried Theoden, sounding scared for the first time. "Please do this for me."

She gave no answer, but turned to those who were going on and ordered them to the lower road. Aragorn stared at her disappointed face as he rode off. It was a shame; he was sure they would need all the fighters that they could get.

Legolas still stood in the field when the riders came, shooting at the oncoming wargs. Sensing that Arod was at hand, he grabbed the reins and flipped onto the horse's back with ease. "Good to see you still on board!" he said with feigned cheerfulness to Gimli as the opposing sides clashed.

"I happen to be a rider," protested Gimli. "I can stay - argh!"

Looking back, Legolas saw that the rough riding and fighting had dislodged the dwarf from Arod's back. He was now on the ground, face-to-face with a warg that looked ready to chomp down on his head. Riding around, the elf let loose an arrow, killing the beast.

Gimli gave him an annoyed look. "That one counts as mine," he huffed.

###############

The battle raged on. Aragorn killed as many orcs and wargs that his energy would allow, determined to keep his promise to Mithrandir, before one of the wolves of Isengard roughly knocked him off of Hasufel's back. He rose to his feet and considered himself lucky; not many people got up after a warg attacked. His eyes narrowed as he spotted another warg rider and he sprang in attack.

The orc, however, wasn't going to give up without a fight. It managed to stay in its saddle, despite Aragorn's best efforts to pull him off. The ranger lost his balance and fell, only staying on the warg's side because his hand was stuck in the saddle. The orc, seeing his predicament, grabbed him by the throat and pulled him up for a head-butt. Through the pain and daze, one furious thought came into Aragorn's mind: that filthy creature was touching the greenleaf gem! He growled and used his free hand and last remaining strength to heave the orc from the beast's back. He was going to make it taste steel for that!

Unfortunately, his hand was still stuck in the saddle. Struggling to free it, he looked up and saw a cliff looming ahead. The crazed warg was heading straight for it! Images and names flashed through Aragorn's mind as they went over the cliff. As everything went black, his last thoughts were of his lover.

Up top, the battle was over and Rohan was victorious. Watching the remaining orcs and wargs scatter and flee, Legolas realized that someone was missing. "Aragorn?" he called, searching the grounds.

Gimli glanced around; no Aragorn in sight. "Aragorn?" he chimed in, following Legolas as he followed a faint trail left near the cliff's edge. The elf stooped down, examining the ground, when he heard the hideous sound of laughter.

An orc, obviously dying, was choking out laughter. Gimli pulled out his axe. "Tell me what happened and I will ease your suffering," he growled.

"He's...dead," the orc choked out, happily enduring its own pain if it meant that it could inflict suffering on anyone it could. "Took a little tumble off the cliff."

Disbelieving fury filled Legolas. He grabbed the orc by the armor and pulled him up until they were almost nose-to-nose. "You lie," he hissed.

The abominable creature just continued laughing until it choked to death on its own blood. As Legolas let go of the corpse, he noticed a green glint in its hand. 'That can't be what I'm thinking it is,' he thought desperately. But it was; it was the greenleaf gem he'd given Aragorn all those years ago. Removing it from the orc's grasp, he stumbled quickly to the cliff's edge.

A worried Gimli followed. "Laddie," he urged gently. "We should stand back a little way."

"Aragorn fell," said Legolas numbly. "He wouldn't have stood for some orc taking this from him." He looked at the gem in one hand and touched the ring around his neck with the other. "I wouldn't let an orc take this ring from me. He gave it to me," he continued, his voice getting more and more hysterical. "I don't want that orc to take his ring from me! Don't let it take him away from me!"

Gimli grabbed his hand and tried to move him away from the edge, but Legolas wouldn't budge. "I won't let anyone take the ring away," he promised. "And no one can ever take him away from you as long as you still love him. Please, let's get away from this ledge."

"Gather all of the wounded and get them on horses. Leave the dead." The king's order sounded harsh to Legolas' ears. He looked up in horror at Theoden as he made his way over to the elf's side. The king placed his hand on Legolas' shoulder and both remembered their brief conversation at Theodred's burial mound. "Come," he said gently before walking away.

"We have to go," urged Gimli, fighting off his own sobs in order to comfort his friend. "We promised Gandalf that we'd stay with them no matter what."

'Mithrandir,' thought Legolas as he allowed Gimli to lead him away from the cliff and coax him onto Arod. Aragorn had fallen just like Mithrandir had, and Mithrandir came back. But Aragorn wasn't a wizard; he was a man, like Boromir. Men die and the light in their eyes goes out. The light that had always been in Aragorn's eyes was gone...

The thought of Aragorn's cold, lifeless eyes caused Legolas to finally break. He crumbled and it was only Gimli's quick reflexes that stopped him from falling off the horse. He clutched the greenleaf gem as he sobbed. Aragorn had promised never to be parted from it as long as he lived. 'But Aragorn no longer lives,' he thought miserably. A powerful grief that he didn't even know was possible to feel filled every part of his body as Helm's Deep loomed closer.

To be continued...

A/N: There's been some question about how old Aragorn is in this story. Since I'm mainly following the movie timeline, he's 87 years old.