So, for my wondrous excuse of the month. My internet died. Something about my brother unplugging an Ethernet cord and it erased our internet or something. So major ugh, But tis working now!

I have a story recommendation for you guys, I'm doing the BETA work on it, and it's by my friend Local Vagabond. It's called Reckoning. It should be a good read.

I also have a most fabulous quote that seems in order as…well…Godéad has been strangled/burnt/tortured/whatever fanciful methods of demise you guys can come up with. It comes via two of the wonderful, extremely talented "Write Sisters" Sarah and Hannah! "The everlasting conflict of Fanfic writing, you spend your time alternately beating up the heroes and saving the villains." And on that happy note, I leave you to your reading!

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Aragorn's hand trembled as he let his fifth lash fall upon his father's friend's back. He shook his head and raised his arm again, a frown on his face. It was only the sixth, how long could he continue this! He thanked the Valar a thousand times over that Glorfindel wasn't screaming, he knew he would not be able to continue if Glorfindel was crying out.

Aragorn drew in a shaky breath and brought his arm back up.

"Have strength Estel, I do not blame you," the whispered words from balrog-slayer were enough to make Aragorn's eyes fill with tears.

After all, he was beating the older elf, and Glorfindel was telling him to have strength? If the situation were not so serious Aragorn would have laughed.

He honestly would have.

As it was, he was trying to not turn the whip on Cairdor, or better yet, Godéad. But he would have settled for Cairdor.

He was at lash twenty-nine when Glorfindel whimpered. In that second Aragorn's heart nearly stopped. Valar don't do this, please, oh Elbereth save us! he begged to himself.

Glorfindel bit his lip to keep another whimper from coming out. He would never give the people the satisfaction of his screams. There was another reason he did this though, if he cried out too often, Aragorn would have to stop, no amount of threats would force him to continue. And then they would kill the Prince of Mirkwood, and Glorfindel would not be responsible for that.

The Balrog slayer closed his eyes as another lash, than another fell upon his back. His breathing was in short gasps, and his hair stuck to his face.

Aragorn's hand trembled as he raised the whip again, he could tell by Glorfindel's movements that he was in pain. A nasty little voice in his head spoke out, it's your fault, all your fault, you did it, you did it! The chant was endless. The ranger brought the whip up, and it fell from his hand. He automatically looked at the guard holding Legolas.

The man held a blade to the archer's throat.

"No!" Aragorn's voice tore through the silence that had taken over. "No! I just dropped the whip, let him go!" his eyes glinted black in the dark room.

"Now tell me ranger, why should I let him go?" Cairdor spoke from someplace to his left.

"Because I have not stopped, I have done nothing wrong, please, Cairdor. Legolas is innocent, punish me if you must," Aragorn would say whatever they wanted. He would not sit there and watch his friend die.

"You have provided a suitable argument, continue. Be assured, the elf will not die this day," he spoke with a smile, harsh though it was.

Twenty lashes later he was allowed to stop. The whip dropped from his hands as though it burned.

"Take the elf to the main prisoner room; they can all start living together. The cells are for trouble makers," Cairdor said brusquely, he watched with satisfaction as his men dragged the bloody elf from the room. He turned back to the ranger. "This took to long. You wasted nearly an hour with your slow strokes. Tell me boy, how many times did you drop the whip?"

"I dropped it seven times," Aragorn replied dully.

Cairdor grinned and moved towards Legolas, "exactly," he said with a smile. "Now, I can think of a lot of things I can do with the number seven, do you know it's a lucky number? Well, even if you didn't, it is," he paused, "lucky for me at least. I cannot say the same for your wonderful elven friend here," he finished with a big grin.

"Don't touch him," Aragorn said threatening, watching Cairdor walk over to the man who held Legolas.

"Ah, but I can, and I will. You know why I can ranger?" he paused, "because you know that if you touch me I will kill them all slowly, very, very slowly. And you do not wish to be the cause of that, now do you?"

Aragorn didn't answer, but kept his eyes locked on the man who moved closer to his friend.

"Do not touch me, filth!" Legolas said with a deadly tone in his voice.

Cairdor reached out a hand and wrapped it in Legolas' long hair. He smiled as he counted up, clearly measuring something, Aragorn shuddered he did not like where this was going. Not at all.

"Now, seven times you dropped it. So here is what I will do, seven inches off this pretty elf's hair, and let us see him hide behind it!"

"You would not…" Aragorn said helplessly.

Legolas' eyes flashed in fear, this man was not going to cut off his hair, the elven Prince began to struggle. The red-headed man leaned closer, whispering into his ear.

"I will kill him if you fight me," Cairdor hissed, his eyes holding no lie.

Legolas' head dropped to his chest, he would not let Aragorn die, no matter how painful it ended up being for himself.

Cairdor grinned, "now, I could let the ranger do it, but he would be too nice. So I'll be doing it!" he laughed harshly and Legolas knew his face was paling. He tired to move his hair away from the man, but Cairdor was having none of it, he yanked Legolas back by the handful of hair he still had.

The red-head pulled his blade up so that it was next to Legolas' chin. The Prince closed his eyes and turned away.

"And remember this, ranger, it is your entire fault," Cairdor said, he then took the dagger and ripped it through the elven prince's hair. Legolas grimaced as he felt like his hair was being ripped out, it actually was. As Cairdor jerked the knife through his hair Legolas closed his eyes, he didn't want to see his locks plummeting to the floor.

Aragorn received no such luxury. He stared, horror struck as Cairdor dragged his knife through Legolas' locks, transfixed as the golden pieces of hair floated to the ground.

"You've trimmed off seven inches! Leave him be!" Aragorn snapped.

"All right, I will. Take him to the main room I showed you earlier. Any strange activities and your other friends will pay, with their lives," Cairdor said with a smile. Aragorn nodded and moved towards Legolas. He gingerly helped his friend out of the man's iron grip. The two left the room.

"Legolas, I am so sorry," Aragorn said softly.

The elven Prince didn't answer.

"Legolas?"

The elf turned his head away. Aragorn stopped, hurt flooding his features.

"I have lost you then, and Glorfindel," Aragorn spun around and slammed his fist into the wall, his eyes clouding over in tears. "Legolas I-"

"It…is not your fault; I do not blame you, nor should he," Legolas said so softly Aragorn almost missed it.

The ranger moved closer to the elf and turned him to face him. Tear tracks marred the pale skin. Aragorn wiped them away, trying to decide between glaring and talking. He picked talking.

"Oh, mellon nin, it is only hair," Aragorn said as gently as possible.

"It is not only hair, Estel; it is my inheritance, from my mother, from my father, it is all I have," the prince said, almost angrily.

Aragorn rested his hands on the beings shoulder, occasionally using one or the other to wipe away the continuous tears.

"It is not only that, is it?" Aragorn said again, prying gently.

"I hate this feeling," Legolas said, then stopped.

"What feeling?" Aragorn prodded.

"This feeling of helplessness, this man…these men, could take your life, or Elladan's, or Glorfindel's, or that healers whose name I cannot remember, and I could do nothing about it. I hate this fear, I hate not knowing…and I hate that Elladan calls Godéad 'master' because he fears that box, I hate the hole! Estel, I hate it!" the prince looked so lost that Aragorn squeezed his shoulders more tightly. The prince leaned forward and put his forehead on Aragorn's shoulder.

"Legolas," Aragorn said softly.

"I cannot do this Estel, I cannot…" the elf said slowly.

"Yes you can, Legolas, you are so much braver than I am, you know that. You can survive this, we can survive this," Aragorn said soothingly.

"Can I?" the prince said softly, then grimaced, "forgive me, Estel! You must be going mad, let us go see how Glorfindel is!"

"Glad to have you back," Aragorn said, beginning to relax.

"Say it," the prince commanded.

"Say what?"

"Say what you are not saying, it is all right. I know that you know that I know that you want to say what you think I do not know, so say it."

"Legolas…what are you talking about?"

"I know you know what I mean!"

"Legolas, is you say 'know' one more time I will…"

"I know, I know," the prince broke in with an impish grin.

Aragorn glared at him, "miblo orch," he muttered, shaking hair out of his eyes.

Legolas raised his eyebrow, "excuse me, I didn't quite catch that," the prince said regally.

"You have thoroughly confused me," Aragorn admitted with a smile.

"Ah, but mellon nin, you are so easy to confuse," the prince said with a grin.

They arrived at the indicated room, it was large, its ceiling was low, but floor area was massive. Legolas stopped at the entrance.

It was not a room.

It was a cave.

Aragorn rested a hand on the prince's shoulder and smiled at him, "you can do this."

Legolas nodded and together they entered the room, almost immediately Aragorn was fidgeting. His eyes were downcast and his face was losing color. Legolas led him through the mass of elves, spotting the familiar healer bent over the familiar Balrog-slayer.

"Lamaeneth," Aragorn said, nodding to the healer. "Is there anything I can do?"

"Stay out of my way Estel," she responded instantly, then smiled at him, "in fact, you can keep Elladan out of my way. How does that sound?" the dark haired healer pointed to the brown haired son of Elrond, who was currently trying to get nearer to Glorfindel.

"Of course," Aragorn went over and knocked his brother to the ground, and promptly sat on him. "So, how is he?"

"Unconscious for now, a blessing really, he is difficult. Worse than you and Elrohir combined," she nodded in Elladan's direction, "your brother is turning blue."

Aragorn shot up off the older twin, apologizing to him and then sitting down on the floor. Someone had picked this area on purpose; their 'home' in this part of the cave was inside a small niche, large enough for seven or eight full grown people and a child.

"You are the only female here," Aragorn said, musing.

"I am the only female who happened to be out with the patrol at the time," she responded with a wry grin. Aragorn nodded, that made sense, one of the few women in Imladris who could basically defend herself she usually went out with the patrols.

"I am sorry, I will tell Ada if you wish not to join patrols any longer," he said quietly.

Lamaeneth laughed quietly. "Coming from the most stubborn of humans, that was a rather…unintelligent statement!" she said quietly as she tied of a long strip of fabric around Glorfindel's body, judging by the fact that her skirts were several inches shorter Aragorn could guess the 'bandage's' origin.

"And he can sleep now, we should leave him be," Lamaeneth said as she stood up and wiped her hands on her shortened skirts.

Caireth came around, her eyes dark, and in this light she looked youthful and pretty. Aragorn didn't even smile in acknowledgment as she threw down a pack of food. Inside was enough dried meat for each to have two. Legolas outright refused to eat it, Elladan nibbled cautiously. The healer rolled her eyes and turned away from it, but none of them would allow Aragorn to not eat.

"You are human, you need more food, we are elves, we cannot die from starvation! ¤" Elladan said, all but force feeding Aragorn. The human ate it slowly, glaring at the present (conscious) elves.

"There, are you happy now?"

"Very," Legolas answered promptly.

The all leaned up against the wall, the healer closest to Glorfindel.

"He should wake up tonight," she said idly. Not really minding whether or not anyone heard or cared about her statement. They sat in silence for a while.

"Legolas?" Aragorn asked quietly, his eyes wide in the darkness. He was watching his friend intently, no one had really seen the elven prince, he had been mostly in the shadows. No one had seen his hair.

"Yes, mellon nin?" the elf asked quietly.

"No-" the human began. He didn't finish however.

Aragorn slumped forward, making connection with the floor via audible thud.

"ESTEL!"

So, what do you all think of my wonderful ending? No? You don't like it? I can't see why not…) Anyways, it's nice to have an internet. So you know, I'm around.

Reviews fuel the writing process…you know the drill! grins Let's get to 100! Please? I'd feel REALLY special is I got 100 reviews. And the specialer (is that a word) I feel…the more I update!

Mellon nin- my friend

Miblo orch- go kiss an orch. (I usually use Dreamingfifi's dictionary, but this one is CoE…so it can go either way!)