Thanks to chandramukhi and Chicky Poo for being my only reviewers! No what kind of ice cream did you want? Anyways, here is the next chapter.

Escape

"Aragorn," Tári whispered. "Psst. Are you awake?"

"I am now, thanks to you," grumbled Aragorn.

"Sorry. I was just wondering. Is it likely that somebody will find the marble? Who will come looking for us? Will anybody come looking for us?" asked Tári, near panic.

"Hey, calm down. Yes, somebody will come looking for us. Probably Legolas and whoever he finds to accompany him. Though I cannot say if they will find the marble. Many Uruks might hae stepped on it, burying it into the mud, making it impossible to see," said Aragorn, careful to keep his voice down, in case the Uruk who was driving them was to hear.

"Tell me about your home life," said Tári suddenly, trying to take her mind off their predicament.

"Okay," said Aragorn. "I live in Imladris with my wife, Arwen Undomiel. She is pregnant and will soon, hopefully I'll be home by then, have the baby. We are close friends with many of the elves, and once the child is not longer a baby, and Arwen is fit to travel, we will take up our places as the royal family of Gondor," Aragorn smiled, thinking of his wife and soon-to-be child. "Oh, and I'm in charge of protecting the sword that you lost," Aragorn added bitterly. "What about you?"

"Oh, my life is nothing important really," said Tári. "I was born and raised in Lothlorien, but I grew tired of it. I want to be an adventurer. Like you. A ranger. My mother never agreed with these 'idiotic thoughts' as she called them, and after I ran away for the fourth time, she left over the seas. My father was angry about this, and called on the trees to watch over me whenever I left. No matter what I said to them, I could not convince them that I was fine by myself. Daddy always was angry at me for trying. He was killed when Uruks rampaged through the area and stole much of our things. Not just ours, but all of Lorien's."

"It sounds like you always wanted more in your life," said Aragorn.

"Yes, I wanted to discover new lands and go over the seas, but return again to tell everybody what it was like . . ."

"Some things are meant to be kept secret," said Aragorn wisely.

"How would you know? You are the perfect person. You know everything that I've always wanted to find out, by myself. With you sitting here, all I have to do is ask you."

Aragorn chuckled. "You think I am the perfect person? You think that I know everything? I don't. I can tell you that right now. What about 'why?' Nobody, not even the wisest, knows the answer to why."

Tári huffed and turned away from Aragorn, not wanting him to see the tears that stung in her eyes, wanting to be set free. He didn't know what it was like to be her. His life was perfect, with a wife and a baby . . and a sense of adventure. She had nothing. No man to take care of her, no place that felt like home, she didn't belong anywhere.

Aragorn glanced at Tári and smiled. She was feeling sorry for herself. He had seen little elves do it when they hadn't gotten their way. All of a sudden he grabbed Tári's arm and said "Jump!"

Unfortunately, Tári was too busy feeling sorry for herself to listen and got pulled off the cart into the bushes and trees.

"What are you doing?" hissed Tári. "You are mad. You're going to get us both caught, again."

"Hush," said Aragorn. "Follow me." They stalked through the trees for what felt like hours, when if reality it was only about twenty minutes. Aragorn led them to a clearing. "Can you run fast, Mistress Elf?" he asked.

"Yes," sulked Tári.

"Good," nodded Aragorn. "When I say three, follow me, running. I know these lands, and I think I can lead us back to familiar territory. Okay . . . three."

Aragorn took off running, Tári following close behind, and while the land seemed more familiar, and Aragorn knew they were heading in the right direction, he felt as if something was terribly, terribly wrong.

After half an hour of full out running, Aragorn called a halt. They stood in another clearing, similar to the last, but the trees of this clearing were oak, not ash. "Tári, talk to the trees. See if you can get them to tell us where we are."

"Okay, Your Highness," mocked Tári. Tári placed her hand, palm face down, on a tree trunk. She sang a tune to the tree.

Oh tree, I wish not bother you
It must be such a bore
But I need help from you today
I don't know where we are

The tree replied,

Lil' elf I give you not advice
But something you should know
A fight was here the other day
Uruks all around
Big swords crashed and shouts sounded
A girl brought to the ground
Something stolen something taken
But nothing there was found

"Aragorn!" shouted Tári, forgetting her earlier fight with him, "this is our clearing. The one we were taken from."

"Good," said Aragorn, "Then they took us not far at all." Aragorn paused. "Hide!"

A horse thundered into the clearing, along with two other men.

"Leoglas!" said Aragorn, coming out of his hiding spot and motioning to Tari to do the same, "Well met."

Okey dokey. Chapter nine is complete. Please review!