CH. 14 Hot & Cold

Frodo was confined to bed for several days after that. Luckily he had Sam by him most of the time, Merry and Pippin also dropped by quite often, whenever they didn't get lost that is.

Just before the time that Lord Elrond made his daily rounds; Frodo was resting peacefully on his bed. He had sent Sam away to get some rest, and had told Merry and Pippin to make sure he didn't some back until after lunch. He didn't do it because he wanted Sam to be gone, but because he knew that Sam had always wanted to see Elves, and now was his chance. He was currently contemplating how Hiryuu was doing; he was very worried about his new friend that had saved his life. Gandalf had come in yesterday evening muttering about something that he didn't catch, and told him she was doing well, and expected to wake up any day now.

Suddenly, he was awakened from his musings when a felt a weight jump onto his bed. He looked down and saw a cat at the foot of his bed, but this one was a little different from the ones he was used to seeing. For one, it had long fur; all the other cats' he'd seen were shorthair. Instead of being yellow or green eyed, it had a cool blue gaze, it was also a greyish-blue in colour, but only on it's face, paws, and the tip of it's furry tail, the rest was a paler grey-white.

"Hello there." He said to the cat. The cat just blinked at him sleepily, before slowly slinking up to him and curling up beside his legs, it then began to purr. Loudly.

Frodo cautiously brought his hand forward and pet the cat gently. This made the cat purr even more loudly, if that was possible.

"It seems you have company, Frodo Baggins." Said someone. Frodo looked up to see Strider leaning against the doorframe to his room, casually eating an apple.

"Yes, he just appeared though. Do you know his name? It is a he, right?" Asked Frodo, still petting the purring cat.

"Yes. It is a he, and his name is Gris-fou. He belongs to Hiryuu. I suspect she might be waking up soon though. Would you care to return her cat to her?" Asked the Ranger between bites of his apple.

Frodo blinked, a little shocked at seeing Strider wearing something beside the Ranger clothing he had seen him wearing for the past few weeks. Instead of dirt incrusted wool coat garments, he was wearing –clean- and well cut velvet. Frodo raised an eyebrow. Eyeing the now spick-and-span Ranger.

Strider just shrugged the look off.

"So, would you like to see Hiryuu?" Prompted Strider once again.

Frodo nodded and slowly climbed out of the gigantic (at least to him, really, how could Elrond NOT have any Hobbit-sized beds?) bed. He had gotten Elronds bill of full health yesterday and was free to wonder around, as long as he didn't push himself. As soon as he was off, he turned and picked up the heavy looking cat in his arms and was a little surprised at how little it weighed. 'Must be the fur.' Thought Frodo. He looked up to Strider, silently asking for directions.

The Ranger nodded his head and left the room, with the Hobbit following calmly behind him, purring cat in hand.

Frodo was led down a large maze of hallways and even a few secret passages, finally he was led down what Frodo presumed to be the privet wing of Rivendell, where personal guests and visiting dignitaries and such slept.

Strider led Frodo up a hallway with many different coloured doors; he was about to ask why this was when Strider stopped in front of a blue coloured door and knocked on it.

"Who is it?" Said a muffled voice.

Strider opened the door a bit and stuck his head in.

"It's me and Frodo."

"Come in, then. Hurry up before all the heat escapes!" Said the muffled voice of which Frodo presumed to be Hiryuu.

Strider opened up the door wider and stepped in, hesitantly followed by Frodo, who was still holding the cat.

As soon as he entered the dark and rather warm room, the cat in his arms began struggling to get free. Frodo let the fluffy cat down and it immediately ran to the large four-poster bed in the room, jumped onto it and preceded to wiggle its way into the large pile of blankets in the middle of the bed.

The room was quite dark, the only light being a fire burning fiercely in the fireplace. As soon as his eyes had adjusted to the dim light he saw the curtains were drawn across along the wall farthest from him. Frodo presumed that the wall must be mostly made out of windows. Probably very glass.

Frodo ignored Strider as he walked up to the bed and sat on one of the two chairs on either side, instead choosing to look around the dark room. He was surprised at how dark it was, while the rest of Rivendell, well, the parts he had seen at least, were all painted in earthly and pale colours, the predominate colour in this room were blue and black, with the only bright colours in the room coming from a small pot of some type of pink flower Frodo had never seen before.

A loud cough finally brought his attention to the bed and the occupants of the chairs surrounding. Sitting on the either side of the bed were two dark haired twin elves. They both had long, dark brown hair that reached just below their slender shoulders, with one small braid tied on either side of their forehead. They were both dressed in very fine robes.

Finally one of them, the one the right side of the bed, spoke up.

"So, you must be Frodo. My name is Elladan. My younger twin over there is Elrohir, and under the pile of blankets on the bed is Hiryuu."

Frodo just stared at the elf, a little uncertain on how to behave around elves.

"Why don't you sit down? You're still recovering from the attack. If father comes in, which he's bound to do at some point, and sees that we've kept you on your feet, he'll skin us all alive!" Came the muffled voice of Hiryuu from somewhere beneath mounds of blankets.

Frodo sat down on one of the chairs, but found that he couldn't see the pile of blankets on the bed "Sit on the bed, that way I can see you."

Frodo complied and awkwardly climbed onto the bed. He looked at the pair of grey eyes that flashed in the pile of dark blankets.

"So, how are you?" He asked hesitantly.

"Other than feeling slightly choked from being pampered so much, and a little cold, I'm fine." Came the muffled reply.

"Why are you cold? It's so hot in here!" Exclaimed Frodo, sweat pouring from all the stifling heat.

Hiryuu was about to respond when the door opened again and in strode the Lord of Rivendell, tray full of medical supplies in hand.

When he saw that Hiryuu's room was occupied with people other than his patient, he raised a well-defined Elvin eyebrow.

"Hello Father." Said Elrohir as the elf walked father into the room.

"Good day, Elrohir. Making sure our young patient stays put, are you?" Said Elrond as he put the tray down on the small table beside the bed. Frodo saw that they tray held several long rolls of bandages and two different types of some kind of ointment.

"You could say that. Well, we'll leave you to your work now. Come on Frodo, we'll walk you back to your room." Said Elladan, and before he knew it, Frodo was halfway down the hall.

Finally alone, Hiryuu reluctantly removed herself from the snug pile of blankets, for all her complaints of being cold, she wore very little clothing, only a loose tank top and a worn pair of pants. It was probably because of the many tight wraps that covered her left leg and both of her arms. Gris-fou jumped onto the pile and watched the elf work on his wounded mistress.

Without a word being spoken, Elrond began to gently remove the ones on her right arm. The top layers were a dull white, but the closer to the skin, the bloodier the bandage became. Elrond had a little trouble removing the last layer, as the blood had dried, thus causing it to stick to the skin. Hiryuu hissed in pain as he removed the last part, but otherwise made no other sound.

Elrond put the bloody things on the tray and picked up one of the two ointments and began applying the cold medicine to the gash on her arm, all the while ignoring the sound of Hiryuu's chattering teeth.

This was a medicine that Rei had given him several years prior it was a special medicine from Hiryuu's home and would work only on her. It was poisonous to every other race. An unfortunate side effect was that it collected all the heat in her body. Even in her human form, Hiryuu was still much warmer than the average person.

Once he was done, he began on the other arm, but this time using the other ointment, this one was mixed with athelas. Hiryuu let the calming odour relax her exhausted body, by the time Elrond had finished tending all the wounds, she was fast asleep.

Elrond smiled at the sight of the sleeping girl and tucked her in, his hand rubbing her forehead soothingly. Before he left, he gave the cat, which had jumped onto Hiryuu's chest when his bed of blankets had been removed, a pet as well, then left the room quietly.

When Elrond had left his youngest child's room, he sighed. Tomorrow there was to be a council that would probably end up determining the fate of Middle-Earth. He was not at all looking forward to it.

Authors Note;

SFT; Gah! I'm so sorry for not updating in such a long time, but I was waiting for my 35th review. Then, when I FINALLY got that review, my computer breaks and I spent over a month without it. So, yeah, but now, I'm back!

I would like to thank the following reviews; they were the ones that gave me the conviction to write it, so you should probably thank them too! I would also like to give a personal thanks to kerricarri, for reviewing all those chapters, thanks!

Lightmare852, kerricarri, Athena191, BloodyPenhand, Boz4PM (please read a bit below), PrincessofRain, I luv DRAGONS, Hippielover459.

Once again, I thank you.

Boz4PM;

I know that Dragons in the original LOTR were evil, which was why I wrote that she came from a different dimension (Breath of Fire 3, to be specific, it's an old PS1 game, but it has a cool story). This is fanfiction; it's NOT supposed to be like the real story, that would be considered plagiarism, which is illegal. If you don't like my story, then don't read it. Thank you for complimenting my grammar though. I take great pride in being one of the many that actually takes the time to make the story LOOK good, instead of only sounding good. As for The Silmarillion…I tried to read the book, but got lost two chapters in, WAY to many names beginning with the same frickin letter! As for the elves not liking dragons, well, that gave me a headache for several days trying to find a way around it. I have found a good reason, but I shall not reveal it yet.