The first night after she left Rivendell was the most difficult for her as she thought constantly of Legolas. When the moon rose that first evening, she stared up at it for a long time, holding his comb in her hands and knowing that he was out there somewhere under the same moon. She wondered if he were watching the moonrise and what he was thinking or if he understood the danger to himself yet.
She sighed heavily at his foolishness. He was so infuriatingly noble thinking that he had a responsibility to see it destroyed since the elves had made the initial Rings of Power. No matter how she tried to talk him out of that notion, he still stubbornly clung to it.
"If it hadn't been the rings, it would have been something else," she had told him, trying to make him see reason.
He just did not understand Sauron's hatred and bitterness towards the Firstborn. What excuse does evil need to vent its spleen on the innocent?
Of course, there was the slim chance that the plan would succeed and the Fellowship would be able to simply walk into Mordor and destroy the thing but she rather doubted it would be that simple.
No, Sauron would have every foul creature as his disposal out to retrieve it and would stop at nothing to get it back. Already the Nazgul roamed in search of the thing and she had a very bad feeling that this was only the beginning of the dark times for Middle Earth.
"Legs," she whispered to the moon and clutched his comb close to her. "Be safe, young one."
Farther south, Legolas stared out into the deepening night and wondered if Annowe had escaped Rivendell and what she was planning. He had known her too long and seen that look in her eye one too many times to doubt that she was planning something.
Hopefully, Elrond could talk her out of it but he did not put much troth in that option. No, part of her still harbored resentment at Elrond for not destroying The Ring during the Last Alliance of Elves and Men. He knew she would not be willing to sit idly by this time, especially at Elrond's request and that worried him more than he cared to admit.
He felt obligated to travel with The Ring and see it destroyed once and for all. He had hoped she would understand. She was the one who had poured out that terrible story to him of the Last Alliance between Elves and Men and made him realize the pain and horror that the rings had brought upon Middle Earth and he felt partly responsible.
The Elves, his own people, had made the rings using Sauron's corrupt knowledge and thus had corrupted their own rings. It nearly made his head ache to think about it.
Annowe had soothed him, reminding him that Sauron hated the Firstborn and would try to subjugate them at any cost. The Dark Lord had resented their beauty and their privilege, vowing to turn them from light into foul creatures of darkness in a horrible parody of their former selves. The rings were his first attempt at that terrible end.
Fortunately, the Eldar had immediately understood his nefarious aims once he put on the One Ring and had hidden their own rings from him. This had infuriated him even more, his wrath becoming blight upon the land.
"The One Ring to rule them all," Legolas thought to himself. For so long it had just been a myth, a bedtime story for young elflings.
He could still hear Annowe's voice saying, "It cannot be used to destroy him. It IS Sauron . . . when he made that Ring, he poured himself into it. He does not exist in physical form without it." Even now her words chilled him.
Then she had made him promise to never touch it and he had. But he had studied it from a distance. The Periannath wisely kept it hidden beneath his clothing but every now and then Legolas would catch a glimpse of it as Frodo leaned forward or turned in a certain direction. He had seen the others steal glances at it as well and hoped its corrupting influence could be thwarted until the foul thing could be destroyed.
All of that evil concentrated in that One Ring. He wondered how long Frodo could bear the weight of the thing. Slowly, he turned to watch the young Ring Bearer from the corner of his eye.
"It IS Sauron." He heard her voice saying. Destroy The Ring and you destroy Sauron. What if they failed? What if they were captured? What if one of the Fellowship claimed the Ring for himself and tried to use it? He shivered involuntarily and tried to banish the thought from his mind but it just kept creeping back in there, unbidden.
A/N: Please indulge my concentration on The Ring (and rings). The information comes from the LOTR book series as well as The Silmarillion and I wanted to include it, as I believe it helps to understand some of the character motivations.