Lina set aside the tin plate and wiped her mouth on her tunic sleeve. She knew that it wasn't very lady like but out here being lady like could get you killed. Oh, she could be the perfect model of a lady when the time called for it but she wasn't in any position to bring it out. She probably wouldn't have proclaimed this to be her finest moment in her lifetime; she worried what her father might say if he ever got wind of this. Here she was, in the company of three men out in the wilderness and with no protection. Well she did have protection, the best she could possess: herself. Her brother taught her everything he knew about protecting one's self and a little more to boot. True, on some occasions she had fought dirty and sometimes in a sneaky style but whatever kept her alive was what she used. Some of the stories she could tell about her escapades would certainly make most people shake their head in amazement at the amount of trouble the young woman could get herself into. There was that one time at the tavern with the rooster…she shook her head with a smirk, no need to recall that incident. And here she was, planning on how she was going to get that piece of parchment from an elf to look at it and hopefully see the code. Oh, of course she tried right way first and asked him to see it but she had gotten the answer that she actually expected to get. 'You will not be able to decipher it' and he walked away. Well fine, if he wasn't going to willingly give it up then she would simply just 'borrow' it from him when he fell asleep. The only tricky part was that he was an elf; she knew very well how sensitive elves' senses were and knew that she would have to be extremely cautious.

            The day had gone by quickly with her looking to Aragorn's wounds and Glorfindel's shoulder. His collarbone was healing nicely and she had allowed him to keep it unbound just as long as he didn't use the arm. Legolas and Glorfindel worked on the parchment as often as they could and often worked with Aragorn whenever he awoke from his naps. His stomach had accepted a bland broth so he was getting nutrition and liquid now. It was now late in the evening and Aragorn was already asleep for the night, Glorfindel was in a deep healing sleep, and Legolas had just dozed off leaning against the dirt wall with the parchment in his hands. Lina was tired of waiting and standing ideally by while they worked and failed on the parchment, she wanted her turn at it. Slipping off her boots and socks to toss them aside with her coat, she silently stood and tip toed over towards Legolas. Her bare feet made absolutely no sound as she neared the elf while he leaned against the wall in sleep. She could see that Legolas' eyes were unfocused in elven sleep as she slowly breathed through her mouth. She wasn't one to brag but there were occasions that she was able to slip past elves and go undetected. It took all of her talents to do it but it did happen and she was damn proud of it. Nearing him, she centered herself and slowly reached out for the piece of parchment. His fingers were relaxed and it allowed her to carefully lift the parchment out of his fingers and pull it away. Knowing it was not the opportune time to get all giddy, she stood there silently to be sure that he didn't wake. Not seeing any difference, she slowly backed away and kept her eyes glued to his throat. If he was to wake up then that was the first point of reference for her to notice; the pulse under his jaw would change just a bit to indicate he was awake. The pulse stayed the same as she backed away and exited the small camp to slip into the dense woods.

            Slipping the parchment into a small pocket in her leggings, she pulled herself into a tree directly beside the camp to be nearby in case anything happened. Climbing onto a strong branch, she arranged herself comfortably and pulled out the parchment when she was sure that she wasn't going to fall out of the tree. Holding the parchment in the light of the moon, she quickly scanned it and started to make mental notes to herself.

            "'In a world as cold as stone, must I walk this path alone?' And these numbers…interesting," she murmured as her fingers of her free hand drifted over the numbers on the parchment.

            Her mind started to run through all the possibilities that the numbers could mean and came up with blanks. Snorting to herself, she pulled out an arrow and started to twirl it between her fingers. For the next several hours, she sat in the tree working on the parchment sheet until the sun slowly peeked over the horizon. By the time Legolas awoke, she was smiling faintly at the sunrise as he climbed into the tree to sit on a branch below her. Her right leg swung forward and back with her arms draped over her knee of her bent left leg as she gazed at the beautiful sight. Legolas looked up at her with a bit of amusement and waited in silence, for a while he also looked at the sunrise.

            "I must give you applause. I did not think it possible for a human to sneak up on me and take something from my very hands without waking me. You have accomplished the impossible," Legolas said as Lina smiled and continued to look at the sunrise.

            "Not impossible, it is improbable. And it is probably because you have only interacted with men. Women are much lighter footed than men but not nearly as light footed as elves. I was just extremely cautious because I knew how sensitive elves can be," she said and shrugged her shoulders.

            "May I have the parchment back?"

            Lina reached into her pocket and retracted the parchment to hand it to the elf.

            "I am starting to think that it is indecipherable. Perhaps Gandalf can-"

            "I did it."

            "I mean he is a wizard and…and…you deciphered it?"

            "That I did. It was actually easy once I found out which code they used; it was actually a really easy one, which was what had me stumped. I was expecting a very difficult code but it is very easy; I assume that the purpose was to ensure that no orcs could read it because they do not have the intelligence of the normal alphabet. Come along, I will tell all three of you at the same time instead of three times to three different people," she replied and started to climb down the tree.

            Legolas stared blankly at her for a moment as she dropped to the forest floor. "Hunh?"

            "Come Master Elf, time is wasting," she called as she walked back towards camp.

            Legolas jumped down from the tree and landed silently on the ground and was walking after her in the next step. Lina was preparing a small breakfast for everyone when he approached and stood behind her. Glorfindel was gently waking Aragorn up and helped him sit up slightly to eat the broth Lina handed him. He made a face at the bland broth but ate it when Glorfindel glared at him with his own version of the Elrond look. Legolas crossed his arms across his chest and waited till Lina sat down and looked at the three of them.

            "I would hate to interrupt your breakfast but I have some important information that you might find interesting. I deciphered the parchment sheet; I know what it says."

            Aragorn choked on his broth before staring at Lina. Legolas handed her the parchment sheet as she unfolded it for everyone to see the sheet. All four of them crowded around the sheet as Lina pulled out another sheet from a pocket in her leggings. Her handwriting was illegible to anyone who wasn't use to her style of writing especially when she was rushed and excited.

            "The code is so simple that a child could do it if they had learned their numbers and letters of the alphabet. The organization is each letter of the alphabet has a corresponding number and the numbers are words or sentences. One is A, two is B and so on. Why the last line is not encrypted, I do not know. But it reads:

            "Travel you must to Annúminas."

            Aragorn flinched slightly when his small headache suddenly doubled in strength. His fingers gently pressed into his temples to ease the tension as everyone listened to Lina speak. The more she spoke the worse the head grew to be. Legolas and Glorfindel listened to Lina speak, not noticing Aragorn's growing distress.

            "Ancient seat of the Kings of Arnor. Find the wall with the symbol. Push and you shall find what you search for."

            Later, Aragorn wouldn't remember screaming in agony but apparently he did. The other three jumped in shock at the pain filled scream as Aragorn pressed his hands against his head. It felt like a white-hot poker was being shoved into his brain and scrambled whatever remained. He curled into fetal position as stars exploded in his vision and his head felt like it was about to explode. Behind his closed eyes, he saw the crumbled ruins of Sauros' lair at Annúminas. A large statue loomed in front of him and he saw a hand reach out and push up the statue's extended arm. To his left, a large section of a stonewall pulled in and slid to the side to reveal a dark pathway leading down into the ground. Torches were suddenly lit leading down to the earth, illuminated the stonewall and long stone hallways. He could barely hear Legolas and the others yelling at him just before a hand grabbed onto his bare arm.

            Legolas gasped as images and pain filled his brain and he was dropped into a place he didn't recognize. The stonewall was around him as he looked up at the large figure in front of him. His fingers dug into his scalp as the images were seared into his brain and he cried out in horror. The figure was a large dragon, larger than Sauros or any other dragon he has ever seen. The dragon was a midnight black with red streaks that upon a closer look revealed that they were scars that were colored bright red. Red streaks marred the black head and the red eyes glinted with malicious intent as he tipped forward to look closer at Legolas. Legolas whimpered as a deep voice echoed in his brain. 'No one can slay one under Sauron's reign. No one.'

            Glorfindel and Lina stepped back as Legolas grabbed Aragorn's arm and suddenly fell to the ground in pain beside his friend. Legolas suddenly whimpered as if in pain as a look of pure fear streaked across his face. Lina grabbed her bow and pressed it under Legolas' hand to try and pry it loose from Aragorn's arm. In her haste and struggles, the bowstring sliced into Legolas' palm before his hand finally came loose and he fell back from the other human. Glorfindel caught him and hissed slightly in pain when his collarbone protested to the sudden weight of the other elf. Legolas' breathing was shallow and uneven as Lina fell next to Aragorn and lifted his eyelids before quickly checking him over. Glorfindel did the same for the elf of Mirkwood and found him to only be unconscious and only wounded on his hand from Lina's bow. Picking up Legolas' hand, Glorfindel pressed the bottom on his tunic into his palm to staunch the blood from his palm.

            "How is Legolas?" Lina asked as she checked Aragorn's previous wounds to be sure that none reopened.

            "He is unconscious and his palm is bleeding badly but otherwise fine. What happened?" Glorfindel asked and moved Legolas so he could lie comfortably against the Rivendell elf.

            "The words must have triggered something in Aragorn. Has he had any odd problems before we met with you two?" she asked and Glorfindel nodded before telling her of the incident the first night.

            Lina nodded and moved over towards Legolas to check him before sighing. "It must be connected somehow. When Legolas touched Aragorn it seemed as if Legolas suddenly suffered from the same thing that affected Aragorn. It was if it was transferred through contact. Now what 'it' was or is, I do not know."

            Glorfindel muttered something under his breath and Lina leaned closer to pick up on it. "I am sorry; I do not have the ears of an elf. I did not hear what you muttered under your breath."

            Glorfindel rolled his eyes before taking a deep breath and looking at her. "Everyone who has traveled with Legolas and Aragorn has noticed that the two tend to…attract trouble wherever they go. This is starting off like all their other adventures that I have heard about when they come back to Imladris. Legolas is usually dragging Aragorn back for healing or it is swapped with Aragorn dragging Legolas back for healing or they are dragging each other back or neither of them is walking and someone else is dragging them back through the gates. Lord Elrond, Estel's father, would become frantic because they would have contracted some rare disease that no one else has heard of and the plant to cure it is realms away. And then the story would be so far-fetched and unbelievable that it had to happen to them and it only happens to them because there would be no way that they could have imagined or dreamed it up," he went on and finally noticed Lina waving at him. "Yes?"

            "Lord Glorfindel…you are babbling," she smiled and tried not to laugh.

            Glorfindel thought through what he said and his shoulders dropped when he realized that he was babbling. He couldn't believe that he had babbled. Lord Glorfindel, Balrog slayer, brave and fearless warrior, mentor and trainer of the sons of Elrond, was babbling. Despite being close friends with Elrond, the elf lord would have been laughing hysterically at his advisor. He rubbed his face with his hands and sighed deeply. He knew he should have begged out of this assignment from his lord; he knew what was coming over the horizon. It was Estel, son of Elrond; it would be phenomenal if he went on a trip without becoming injured or deathly ill. Why would this trip be any different from those other ones? Just because Lord Glorfindel traveled with them wouldn't change their luck or bad luck, whichever way you wanted to look at it. He looked at Lina as she looked at him, worried. She probably thought that he was losing his mind and, before this trip was over, he would probably be agreeing with her.

            "Am I to assume that once Aragorn is well, we will travel to Annúminas?" Lina asked, interrupting Glorfindel's train of thought.

            "Probably, if I know Aragorn and Legolas. And I will be forced to escort them; rather do that than travel back to Imladris alone and tell Lord Elrond what happened," Glorfindel said dryly and gave a un-elf-like shriek of terror to himself.

            He would rather face another Balrog instead of face the lord of Rivendell and tell him that his sons and his friend had gone off on some wild adventure that would surely get themselves injured and possibly killed. Lord Elrond would unintentionally take his frustration and worry out on his poor advisor so Glorfindel was effectively stuck between a rock and hard place and both sides would probably get him at least ten bruises. If he went with Aragorn and Legolas then he was sure that he would be injured or beaten or shot with an arrow or cursed with some vague spell; if he went back to Imladris then he would get his bruises from running into walls to escape Elrond's wrath and 'looks' and attempting to stay out of the elf-lord's war path. Damned if he did, damned if he did not. Why couldn't his life be easy?

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MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!!!!! I hope everyone has a marvelous holiday and this is going out as a Christmas present to everyone. This chapter came out just about as quickly as the other did and I am pleased beyond comparison with this chapter and this story. Please review for me, it leaves little presents in my inbox that I love getting. This is a really short author's note, I know.

Deana- Oh wow, I will have to find the song and actually hear it. Astievia told me of the quote a few chapters ago and I slipped it right in there. I read the lyrics so now I have to hear the actual song.

Gwyn- You know I have a good friend at college named Gwyn, probably not the same spelling but every time I see your name I think of her. Hope this was enough Leggy angst to hold you over for now. I will have LOTS of Leggy angst later on in the story.

Dha-Gal- *blushing* Aw shucks, you do not mean that. I will ask my mother to get me some when she goes to the store again. I NEED MY SKITTLES!!!! Heehee, so anyway, thank you to one of my betanators! Very cute term. And be quiet about my addiction, I am looking into going into skittle rehab.

Star-Stallion- Oh yeah, I am at my writing height during the night time hours. I was talking to another one of my reviewers and she asked what I wanted for Christmas and I said Orlando Bloom with a big red bow under my tree. Yeah, my brain and fingers were loose when I wrote that. I plead the fifth.

Elvendancer- I have read the Harry Potter books but I just could not get into them that well. Yeah, they were a good read but that is about all. I can believe in elves and hobbits and such but I just can not imagine flying broomsticks and the like.

Bill the Pony2- Here is the real Christmas present. *holds out chapter* Enjoy!

Roccovende- *holds hand to face* Oh the horror of it all. Thank you very much for the compliments. I hope you enjoy this chapter as much as the others and that the story will surpass 'Unspoken Words'.

Astievia- Well whoever sang it, I loved it. Thank you very much for the compliment.

Shaz1- Well thank you very much. You are just making me blush unbearable now. It does kick ass, very much. And a Merry Christmas to you.

Lauren- I changed the Lorien comment; I blanked out and thought that Glorfindel was from Lorien for a moment. I do not know why but I did. Loved your comments about the chapter.