Author's note:

Hey, just wanted to thank everyone who reviewed my fics in the past 3 years! Umm...I'm interested to see who my "target audience" was, so if youhave reviewed before...I was wondering if you could either sendan email or paste another review with your "review name" (if you can remember), what age you were in 2003 and which country and/or state you are from. I would really appreciate it. Thanks heaps again!

Also, special thanks to Tom who attempted to fix my grammar, and to Ri, Emma and Jenni (ZenZen) who read my ramblings and convincingly pretended to like it. :D Oh yes and thanks guys for putting up with my constant "Oooh leggy is soooo hot"; "Aragorn sucks"; "Aragorn is old, eww"; "Viggo, blurgh"; "Legolas is the best"; "Leggy looks so hot with his bow and arrow"; "Orlando is sooo hot"; "Orlando looks so hot with his bow and arrow"; and... "Mark Read sucks".

Good times, good times, hahaha.

Shelly

CHAPTER 11:

Gandalf's fire died away, leaving only strays of ash flying around. The bodies of the wolves seemed to have vanished, blood and all. 'Servants of Mordor, they were, and not a pack of hungry wolves,' he said.

I sat with my back straight, stunned at what just happened and that I had participated in dissecting a wolf – something which I found nearly as exciting as the dissection of a toad back in Grade 9. I wearily turned towards where the still body of Aragorn lay. Gandalf was bent over him, poking him with his staff, with Boromir and Gimli looking on. Legolas was speaking to the hobbits were emerging from their hiding places.

Legolas met my eyes and strode towards me, anxiously. 'Are you hurt?' he asked, scanning my body.

'Miraculously, no, except for a few cuts,' I answered, looking down anyway to see if a limb had been ripped off without my noticing. Legolas looked relieved and helped me up.

'Is he okay?'

'He's alive, I know that,' he answered, shortly.

We approached the group huddled around Aragorn. I stared down at the unmoving figure of Aragorn. His eyes were closed and he looked pale and clammy. He was covered in blood, but whether it was his or a wolf's, I couldn't be sure. His clothes were slashed to ribbons.

Gandalf glanced up at me and said, 'we need an elf's healing powers. Would you mind…?'

Heal? I raised an eyebrow at Legolas.

'Gandalf, Lady Arwen has just being through a terrible encounter with a wolf, she's exhausted and not thinking in the right mind, and certainly, it's not advisable she tries to use her powers,' Legolas stepped in. 'However, I may be able to assist…'

Gandalf nodded and Legolas set to work on Aragorn. It wasn't until the sun was high up in the sky when Aragorn regained consciousness. He looked past Legolas and at me.

For a moment, it felt like dejavu, when I had regained consciousness and had yelled, 'Lee! You idiot!' Only difference was, Aragorn gave me a weak smile and whispered, 'Sweet Arwen.'

It made me think of what Arwen was doing right at this moment as me. Perhaps wolves were mauling Mark Read, I thought evilly.

Aragorn fell back into a deep sleep and Legolas took the opportunity to shred what remained of Aragorn's clothes and deftly tied them around his wounds. He then wrapped Aragorn in blankets.

'What do you presume Aragorn wears when he awakes?' asked Boromir. 'He only brought one set of change.'

'Leaves?' Legolas shrugged.

Towards the evening, Aragorn's breathing became more even and the gauntness was leaving his exhausted face; it was obvious Legolas' healing worked.

'He looks much better, doesn't he, Lady Arwen?' commented Frodo, sitting beside me under the trees.

'Yes, he does,' I said, smiling.

'And I feel much better, thank you, Frodo!' Aragorn had opened his eyes. I politely kissed him on his cheek.

'You changed your dress,' he said, glancing at the green dress I was now wearing.

'Yes, the other one was ripped from the wolf's claw.'

'You're not injured, are you?'

'No, I'm fine. How are you feeling?'

'Still in pain, but no doubt Legolas meant for that.' He said it like he was simply stating the sky was blue. He sat up and the blankets fell away from him. 'My clothes, what happened to them?' he exclaimed.

At that point the fellowship realised he was awake and came to his side.

'Legolas made bandages of what was left of it,' Boromir half-announced.

Legolas gave me a cheeky grin, which Aragorn noticed. 'You could have sewn it together!' he retorted at Legolas. 'We have plenty of spare cloths for bandages! What am I going to wear? Leaves?'

'Hmm, I suggested that too.'

Aragorn threw him a dirty look.

'Well, although it'd be a perfect way to kill orcs, we can't have the king running naked to Mordor, so you will have to borrow a spare from one of us. Trouble is, Boromir, Gandalf and I have already used our spares and you certainly can't fit into the hobbits' or Gimli's.'

'What are you saying, Legolas?'

Legolas turned to me, grinning widely. 'Say, Arwen, you still have that pretty red dress, yes?'

Merry and Pippin cracked up.

Aragorn gave Legolas a look of pure venom.

So it was, a rather solemn fellowship that headed into the treacherous Mines of Moria, expressionless faces on all… except on Aragorn's, for obvious reasons.

It ended up that the dress was a near-perfect fit.

To make Aragorn feel better, Merry optimistically said that the deep red brought out his natural highlights.