Disclaimer: See chapter 1

Review Responses:

Slayer3: You keep me supplied with ice cream, and I'll write you a book.

Karone Evertree: That's okay. I know what life can be like. I tend to forget that not everybody can be a bored housewife who doesn't sleep, and spends most nights immersed in her favorite hobby. You know what's wild I have seen so many readers complain because no one updates fast enough, and I sit here and complain because my favorite reviewers don't review fast enough. Isn't that ironic?

manveri mirkiel:

Chapter 2: I promise I was not complaining, I just missed you. As I've said before your awesome reviews make this so much more fun to do.

Chapter 3: Aragorn is 87 years old at the time of Lotr. Being a descendent of Númenor, gives him long life. As a matter of fact he lives 210 years. I'm like your friend laiqualaurelote, a stickler for detail. I can't help myself.

Don't worry about Atavus, we all go through things in our lives that change us, but the strong always make it back to what they were meant to be.

Shoot I gave the tissue to Slayer two chapters ago. Let me see if I can find you some more.

Chapter 4: Oh my god. I can't believe this, you are my twin. The whole reason why I became interested in Lotr, was because of the friendship angle between Legolas and Aragorn. I kept thinking to myself, when I was younger, high school age, my friends and I would have died for each other. We were always there for each other. We fought for each other. We cried with each other. We were inseparable. Now there is not one of those friends that I even keep in contact with, and I have never met friends like that since. We all just drifted apart, and I miss that kind of friendship so much. So I wanted to create a friendship that no matter how many ups and downs there are, the friendship would always shine through in the end.

I'm sorry I made Legolas such a pain, but you have to realize something. Estel left to go be Thoringil for a few decades, and Atavus just up and disappeared. He felt deserted by his two best friends. It's not easy being the one left behind, and since Estel told him he was going but Atavus just slipped off in the night, well that decided which one he'd be mad at.

I meant chapter 4 and 5. If 4 got to you, 5 is gonna have you screaming. But guess what I have also got 6 for you, which I promise you will love. Yes I am going to post both chapters at once. I've been on a writing spree, and I have a feeling if I post just 5 I'm gonna have people out for my blood.

Oh and yes I remember, when it's time for Ugluk to go it's your job. That's still working through my head for now. I cannot figure why you hate my pet orc so much, but to each his own.

Larien: Since Atavus is sort of an elf she has a pretty good memory. Plus for her it's more than just like a doctor and a patient. She's got the faces of those she healed burned into her mind, just the same as the ones she couldn't save.

Author's Note: Sorry this chapter is so short, but I felt it needed to stand alone. As I told manveri I have both 5 and 6 ready to post, and to keep my pretty little neck in one piece I'll post them both now. So 6 will be up right after this.

Mourning

Aragorn watched Atavus walk from the halls of Meduseld, heading towards the burial mounds. She was dressed in black. It was early morning. So early that no one else was stirring yet. He had not slept. There was much to think about. One thing that kept returning to the forefront of his mind was the look he had seen in her eyes the night before. Her eyes seemed deader than they had been when he had first met her in Ithilien.

He followed her to the tomb they had buried the King's son in the day before. She was kneeling beside the tomb holding one of the simbelmynë flowers. She stared at the flower in her hand. He could see that her hands were trembling. He wondered if he should leave her to grieve on her own. But he could not leave her like that.

He kneeled besides her taking her hand in his own. "Talk to me Atavus." He said stroking her palm.

"It is funny that a white flower grows on these tombs. In the past sixty-two years I have spent more time in the color black than any other. The dead wear a gown of beautiful white flowers, when the living are draped in black."

"Were you close to Théodred?" He asked when he began to silently compare her to Gandalf and his riddles.

"I was training him to be a healer. He wanted to be both skilled with the sword, and with healing hands. That is rare in a King. He would have made a good one." She said, not telling her friend that she had watched the boy grow into a man, and she had felt a motherly instinct to the man that was still but a boy in her mind. Just another loved one who was here today, but gone tomorrow.

"I'm sorry Atavus." He paused for a moment staring into her eyes. "You can't continue on this way mellon-nin. Something is eating you from the inside out. It will destroy you soon."

She pulled her hand away from him. "Estel please don't. There is so much that you don't understand. I can't do this anymore."

"What can't you do anymore?" He asked confused.

"Be your friend. Have friends at all. It's too hard. I don't want it anymore. I don't want to care anymore." She stood meaning to turn and walk away.

He grasped her hand swinging her around. "You are blinded by your grief. That is not how you really feel." He said grasping on anything that would take the cold icy look from her eyes.

"Isn't it? You and Legolas have both seen it Aragorn. It has been coming on for many years now, not just recently. I don't care for you or Legolas anymore. I don't care for anyone anymore." She pulled from his grasp and ran towards the hall, leaving him bewildered behind her.

When Legolas found him later he had not come to terms with her words yet, and had not yet left the burial mounds. "Théoden looks for you." The elf said sitting on the ground next to him. He looked over and was surprised to see his friend's eyes were red as if he had been fighting back tears. "What is wrong, mellon-nin?"

"There are so many things that I should be worried about right now, but the only things in my mind are the hateful words of a friend." Aragorn answered. He could see the confused look in his friend's face. "Atavus was here earlier."

A frown crossed the elf's face. "What did she say?"

"She has no need for friends anymore. She wants none. She wants no one to care for her, and she wants to care for no one else." Aragorn answered.

Legolas was stunned. "What are we going to do about it?"

"Nothing. She meant it. Her heart is gone Legolas. It is dead. She has become what she hated the most after all. She does not look like an orc, but she is one inside." Aragorn said looking down.

"How did we let this happen Estel?" Legolas asked, placing a comforting hand on his friend's shoulder.

"I don't know if we could have stopped it or not, but I somehow feel like I let her down." Aragorn answered as the grief of a dead friendship threatened to take him.

Author's Note: Okay now I am going to go hide Atavus, so my reviewers don't try to hurt her. Sorry guys. I know she's not herself.