A Note to You- My beta told me that last chapter was good, but also very weird because it was written right from the script and it was, so I'm going to try a bit harder to not write it from the script so much, you know what I mean? Okay, anyway. I don't own anything or making any profit from this, blah, blah, blah…and if you could just review, that'd be great, thanks…

Chapter 6

A First Time for Everything

"Everyone's so gloomy." Lee said a day later to a horse in the stables. "I wonder if I could cheer everyone up somehow. I mean, all they ever think about is the worst thing that could happen." She gently brushed the horse's neck. "They all need to look on the bright side of things, you know?"

"It's not as easy as it sounds." A voice came from behind her. It was Aragorn. He walked towards her and began brushing the horse in front of her. "You have to understand that things are looking very dark…so to speak." He paused, thinking. "Although Rohan has had their battle, Gondor's is still yet to come. And although Rohan was victorious, I fear that Gondor will not achieve the same."

"What would happen if Gondor were to fail?" Lee asked, almost not wanting to know.

"I would rather not even go there." Aragorn said lightly. "To look on the 'bright side' as you say." He grinned at her.

"So this is a horse?" Lee asked abruptly, wanting to talk about something else.

"You have never seen a horse?" Aragorn asked, obviously surprised.

"Nope."

"Well than we must teach you."

"Excuse me?" Lee looked nervous. "We?"

"Yes. Legolas and myself."

"Oh, you don't have to do that." She said quickly.

"Yes we do." Aragorn insisted. "What if we must go somewhere? You can't ride behind Legolas forever."

"That would be Gimli's job." Legolas suddenly appeared out of no where.

"It would seem that way, wouldn't it?" Lee replied, her tone suddenly icy. "Look, I really don't want to get on that horse. I haven't really had the, err- best experience with animals."

"Well, you needn't not worry." Legolas said sincerely. "I shall catch you if you fall."

Lee raised her eyes to meet his. His usually sharp blue orbs had softened. They were staring unblinkingly into her own as if trying to figure something out about her.

Aragorn's eyes darted back and forth between the two. He cleared his throat. "I'll go get Brego ready and saddled." He said and walked away.

Lee broke her gaze away from his. Her face lit up and she smiled. "I'll be right back." She said suddenly, making a dash for the stable door.

"You won't try to get out of your lesson?" Legolas asked suspiciously, grabbing her arm.

"Me?" Lee replied innocently.

"Yes, you." Legolas crossed his arms and once more began studying her. "I expect you outside the north gate in a half a hour." he said finally before leaving the stables.

"Yes, master." Lee said sarcastically, before also leaving, making her way to the dinning hall.

Meriadoc "Merry" Brandybuck could not help but feel sad. He had just said good-bye to his oldest and truest friend, not knowing whether he would ever see him again. He probably would, but with all this talk about Saruman attacking Minas Tirith, who knew what was going to happen?

If Pippin was here they would have been smoking the last of the Longbottom Leaf together, much to the dismay to everyone around them. And then suddenly Merry wasn't as hungry as he had been. He looked up to see that Lee was walking towards him.

He didn't understand why Gandalf and everyone else were so wary of her. It was almost like they were trying to find something bad about her. Just so they could deal with her in a way that seemed fit and then went on their way. But if you asked Merry, it sounded stupid.

"Hey Merry." She slid into the seat next to him.

"Hi." Merry replied, trying to sound more interested in the food in front of him than he really was.

"You okay?" Lee asked gently, trying to look him straight in the eye.

He shrugged. "I guess so. I mean, what can you do but wait for something to happen? And from my point of view, that's enough for someone to loose his appetite, even a Hobbit.

"Well, I think that you need to cheer up a bit, so if you'd fallow me please." She stood up and began walking away quickly.

"Where're we going?" Merry asked, jogging to keep up with her.

"The northern gate." Lee replied promptly.

"Why?" He asked.

"You're going to watch me learn to ride a horse."

"Alright." Merry managed, feeling more than a little confused.

"Don't worry." Lee grinned at him. "It'll be worth watching."

"Alright, so when you mount a horse, you stick one foot in this stirrup, and then swing your other leg over the horse and stick it in the stirrup on the other side."

"And who taught you to ride a horse?" Lee asked, crossing her arms and raising her eyebrows at Legolas.

"My father."

"Lee opened her mouth and then closed it. Now was not the time to make a smart-alec reply. As much as she hated to admit it, they were right. She needed learn how to ride this animal they called a horse. If only Jacen were here. She thought ruefully. He would love to learn about these animals, what with his wonderful connections with nature. She smiled sadly.

Legolas noticed this. He wondered what she was thinking about. Her home? Not wanting to ride the horse? The future? What was going to happen? What?

"I really don't believe in your method of teaching Legolas, but I'll go along with it."

And with that she stuck her foot in the stirrup and attempted to swing her foot over Brego, but only succeeded in pushing him away.

"Woah, a little help here."

Aragorn murmured some soothing words to the jumpy horse and steadied him as Lee got her foot out of the stirrup. He nodded to Legolas. "Try again."

"Okay, here we go."

And this time, Lee managed to get herself upright in the saddle.

"Alright. So we use the reigns-" Legolas handed them to her. "To go left and right. To slow down and stop, pull on them and then to go, dig your heels gently into his side."

"That's all there is to it?"

"Basically."

"That makes me feel good." Lee said.

"I am glad." Legolas replied, not aware what sarcasm even was.

"Okay…here we go." Lee dug her heels into the horse's sides just a little too hard, and the horse was off.

"Ahhh! Woah! Down! Stop! Heel!"

"Uh-oh." Legolas looked over at where Merry was sitting on a rock nearby, and then at Aragorn.

Lee dug her heels into the horse again by accident, and that just made Brego go faster. And then, to make matters worse Lee fell over the side of the horse, with one foot still stuck in the stirrup, so now she was being dragged along the ground by one foot. And this caused Legolas to run after the horse and Aragorn try to cut him (the horse not Legolas) off at one point.

Now to Merry, (who wasn't about to run after the horse also, his legs were too short anyway) the whole situation was quite funny. There was a horse, pulling a woman, who was fallowed by an Elf, who was running (very gracefully, with his hair still in perfect condition, mind you) after the two. And then there was a man, who was trying to cut the horse off so he could stop him. And all of this caused Merry to fall off the rock.

"Not…funny!!!" Lee yelled as she went by. "Help…me…I'm going to kill you Legolas!

Eventually the horse, like all animals do, got tired and slowed to a halt. Legolas and Aragorn had finally managed to catch up, and untangle Lee's foot. She stood up and brushed herself off and then said very calmly,

"Well, shall we try again?"

Legolas stared at her, Aragorn grinned, and Merry just looked like he was going to start laughing again.

It took them until the sun began to set to get her to be able to ride the horse well enough so that she wouldn't permanently injure herself if she needed to ride a horse alone.

Aragorn and Merry had gone to the evening meal already, but Legolas had offered to help put Brego back in the stables. And Lee had decided to go with him, much to Aragorn's surprise. He had gotten the impression that he never wanted to go near a horse ever again.

"You succeeded in cheering Merry up." Legolas said casually.

"Good." She smiled briefly and then frowned. "You're angry at me, aren't you?"

He turned to face her. "It was dangerous, what you were doing."

Lee turned away from him. "What do you mean?" she said innocently.

"Anyone could have seen that you fell off that horse on purpose." Legolas crossed his arms. "And although you cheered Merry up, you could have injured your leg. I don't really think that it balances out."

"But I didn't."

But you could've." He countered. "And then your leg would have been broken and the rest of your body could have been damaged worse."

"But I didn't." she repeated, finally turning around to face him. "I took a chance, and it turned out alright."

Legolas studied her for a moment. Her emerald green eyes staring defiantly into his own blue ones. They way she was staring at him with that a look that told him she wasn't going to give in easily, not now, not ever. It didn't say, "I'm right and you're wrong, so you can deal," it just said that there was no point in arguing with her.

"Sometimes," Lee continued more softly. "You have to take a chance and hope it'll turn out alright."

And Legolas could understand that. When they had been in the Pass of Caradhras, the Fellowship, (mainly Frodo) had been forced to make a decision about how they would continue their journey. He took a chance and they had paid for it. Though eventually it all seemed to have balanced out. Gandalf the Grey had been replaced by Gandalf the White, although they were basically the same person. Merry and Pippin hadn't dies at the hands of the Uruk-Hai, but had helped with the downfall of Isenguard. But Boromir had died trying to save Merry and Pippin. And he had succeeded. But paid for it with his life. Legolas remembered watching Boromir die. It was not something he had ever wanted to see again. But he had, during the battle of Helms Deep. Countless men, and Elves, (even boys) had died that night. It had taken Legolas a little while to figure out that the death of so many innocent people was part of what drove him to help see the end Sauron's hold on Middle-Earth.

"Hello? Legolas? Are you there?" Lee waved her hand in front of his face. "Am I going to have a two-person conversation with myself?"

"What?" Legolas' head snapped up.

"Nothing." Lee rolled her eyes. "Come on Blondie, let's get to dinner, I'm starved."

You see that little button down there. Go push it! It takes, what? Two, maybe three minutes Come on! Make my day! I have not had a good one with all of this homework! And if you don't, don't worry, I will find out.

Private Lizzie