The Company were led away to a place they could eat and sleep. Most were just relieved to be away from the prying eyes for awhile.

All around them light glittered I the trees and the elves sang, sad and slow. 'A lament to Gandalf.' Legolas explained, listening with a smile on his face and pain in his heart.

'What are they saying? Merry asked.

'I cannot say. For me, the grief is still too near,' Legolas said as Anna put a comforting hand on his shoulder and looked to him questioningly.

'There should be a verse about his fireworks,' Sam said, getting up and creating one on his own. All paid attention though the Dwarf had to be woken. Sometimes sleep numbs the pain felt in the waking world.

Sam sat back down, muttering how it had not done them justice. Legolas and Anna's eyes met and then they left, as if speaking an entire conversation and going elsewhere to finish it. Aragorn would later go over to where Boromir sat and talk of the strength of Men.

The two elves of the company climbed higher into the trees. The hobbits might like the security of the ground but elves had a love of being high. They came to a ledge in the heights of a tree where a bench looked out over the edge, down and up into a system of branches and lights. Legolas sat on the bench looked, much like a prince of Mirkwood, while Anna sat on the floor, more comfortable with the way she had sat for years now. She leaned her back against Legolas's legs while he just looked curiously down at her. She had taken a leaf out of her little backpack and was crushing it while she hiked up her skirt. She had not escaped Moria without scratches from stone and arrow. Legolas looked away in modesty as she rubbed the leaf on her knee. She had definitely been away from social contact for some time since no maiden would act the way she behaved. Legolas smiled to himself, thinking if only his father could see him now.

'So, is song the only way elves grieve?' Anna asked totally unabashed.

'No,' Legolas responded, looking through the elven kingdom. 'We heal by doing what we enjoy to do.'

'Well, I enjoy talking.' Legolas just smiled; he had noticed this fact long ago. 'I miss Gandalf.' She was so frank it took Legolas by surprise, but it surprised him in other ways as well.

'You knew Gandalf for less time than any of us. He was neither your guide nor a friend to you.'

'You forget. He was the one that allowed me to follow. A little earth child separate from everything.' She paused. 'He was not so bad for a wizard.'

'What makes you say that?'

Anna hugged her knees, finished with the leaf. 'Wizards have too much power for their own good. They either abuse it or do not use it for what they should.'

'You should be wary telling wizards what they should use their spells toward.'

'I know,' she whispered sullenly. She tried reeling her mind back to the present as she sat still. 'That Lady, she spoke-' She shook her head as if deciding not to say her thought out loud.

'Spoke inside your head.' Anna looked up. 'I heard it, too.'

'What did she tell you?'

'She did not tell but offered. She gave me a choice, to leave with her to the Grey Havens before the war ended, forsaking Frodo, or continuing the quest and maybe never see my home again.' Legolas grew quiet and Anna couldn't imagine being stuck with a decision like that. If that choice lay on her, she would certainly split. 'What did she give you?'

'A home.' She knew she could not end it with that. He had given her so much more. 'At first I was angry. I wanted to go back to the Downs with my family but I knew that was impossible. Then she told me I could have a home among the elves.'

'They would be happy to have you,' Legolas replied.

She nodded. 'I would never be lonely again, but if I went on with you, there is a good chance I would soon be by myself in a strange land with death surrounding me once again.'

'Why would you stay with us?' Legolas asked, knowing there had to be some good along with that choice.

'For many reasons,' she answered cryptically. 'I do not want my master to win, though I do trust you all I still want to follow.' She spoke haltingly. 'I do not want to sit and do nothing anymore. I want to redeem myself.' This was a radical change though only she would know this. Long ago, she believed people were corrupted and were prone to fight about things that just tore them from the real issue. Now things were changing, and she was changing with them. She was now seeing people with the same blind eyes she had when she was young and naive to the fact that people could hurt each other. Or maybe she convinced herself of this when really she had been blinder when she gave up.

'And what would you do if you stayed with the elves,' Legolas asked.

'Find out from where I came. I know Tom Bombadil did not have any elvish daughters to spare.' Legolas smiled. 'My parents must have been going west to the Grey Havens when they abandoned me.' Legolas just nodded his head. He leaned his head back thinking of the choices given by Galadriel and of the character out of a childhood story sitting at his feet, while Anna did the same.