Disclaimer: The Lord of the Rings is property of Tolkien and there are many references throughout to Robert Jordan's Wheel of Time series. I only own what you do not recognize. The character Chinky is not meant to cause offence and is named after a real horse whose name has been shortened from a Fiat Cinquecento (Chinky – Chento).

Chapter 25: In your debt

Amy urged Chinky into a faster gallop. She had to find Aragorn. She knew in her heart he was not dead yet her mind did not want to accept it. Silent tears fell down her cheeks as she thought of the first time they met, when she had blacked out in the forest. He had been so understanding and kind, and the thought of him being lost to her forever bore a hole in her heart.

Scolding herself for being so silly, she hastily wiped away the tears and focused on getting back to the battle scene as fast as possible. Sensing a need for urgency Chinky lengthened her stride, her long legs carrying her over even more ground.

The Westfold flew past as Chinky bore Amy to the edge of the river by the battlefield.

'This is as close as I can get you. I'm sorry.' Chinky said, her shod hooves clattering on the stones beside the river.

'Don't worry, I need to follow it down stream anyway, I just needed a starting point. Have a quick rest and a drink, you need it. I am sorry I made you go so hard, but every second it vital!' Amy said splashing water onto the mares face.

'Thank you, do you believe him to still be alive?'

'Some time after the battle I thought I sensed him near; you know like when he used to try and sneak up on me and I could always sense his presence. I am positive I felt his presence then. The further away from the battle we got the fainter it felt, but as you have been bearing me here the feeling has grown. I do believe him to be alive, though I don't know what condition he will be in.'

'Then we must make haste! Every minute is vital. I am rested, do not fear.' Chinky said pawing the ground with her front hoof.

'Right let us go, down stream I think as the feeling is strongest there.'

Vaulting back up onto the large horse they started off again at a slow trot just at the edge of the river. As usual Chinky was making a point of kicking up more water than was necessary.

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The day was starting to pass to night as Chinky and Amy trotted on. They had come miles from the battle scene, and they hadn't seen hide or hair of him. Yet Amy was not about to give up hope anytime soon. She had sacrificed too much to give up on him now. Her mind went back to Legolas who was currently at the Hornburg preparing for war. She unconsciously smiled as she remembered his soft kisses and gentle moans. Too busy was she thinking about the elf that she did not hear the agonizing groaning coming from ahead.

'There is something round the next corner,' Chinky said.

'What? Oh yeah.' Amy said finally snapping out of her dream.

A huge smile hit her face as they turned the corner. Trying to suppress a yell of happiness she threw herself off Chinky and ran to the man lying on the sandy bank.

Brown hair was strewn across his face, his clothes were soaking wet and ripped, blood was seeping through from unseen cuts, yet he was still alive.

Amy grabbed her water-skin and filled it up quickly before running back to the man. Kneeling by his head she took off her cloak and folded it up. Gently she lifted his head and shoulders, and laid the green cloak underneath for a pillow.

Wiping wet, brown hair away from his face, she looked upon the person she had nearly lost forever.

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Amy knelt there for a while just staring at the man before her, the man she had so nearly lost. She had to remind herself he was not out of the woods yet, he needed her help desperately.

Looking at her surroundings she realized she could not heal him here, they needed to be somewhere safe, somewhere comfortable, somewhere where she could set up effective wards.

Gently dripping the cool water over his face she lifted up his head and took her cloak back. Climbing onto Chinky's back she moved herself backwards so she was sitting nearly on the horse's rump. Then she slowly weaved Air and picked up Aragorn and floated him over to her. Once she had him settled in front of her, she slid back forwards and held onto his waist tightly so that the unconscious man would not fall off.

'Chinky make for the small copse we saw a few miles back.' Amy said squeezing the mare's sides lightly.

'Ok, I can go at a smooth canter if you would like.'

'That would be perfect, thank you.' Amy said as she tightened her grip on Aragorn.

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Chinky bore them to the copse at a fast pace and still managed to keep her stride steady, which had to be counted as a miracle considering the rough ground they were going over.

Once under the safety of the trees Amy rode in a bit further before stopping the Mearas at the base of a large tree. Supporting Aragorn with Air she jumped off Chinky and knelt down. Aragorn would have to wait for a minute, she needed to set wards; there were orcs in this place that would kill them before they knew they were there.

Once confident that no orcs could get anywhere within two hundred meters of them she opened her eyes and sat back onto her heels. The copse was now surrounded by a pale blue glow; the same glow that Legolas would see when he looked at Gimli, or later Aragorn. It was a sign that the warding worked. If you could see a blue glow around someone or something they were warded, though you could never tell if you were warded yourself.

Pulling piles of heather and grass together she made a makeshift bed by throwing her cloak over the pile. Gently moving Aragorn she lay him down on his back.

Taking a closer look at him she realized with horror that with the amount of power she used warding she wouldn't be able to heal him entirely. Scolding herself she went about trying to find out where his main wounds were.

He had a nasty gash on his shoulder, several on his arms and his left arm appeared to be broken. His right leg had been slashed at some point, and there was a deep laceration in his side. He was also covered in countless bruises and scratches but she was not going to waste her energy cleaning those.

Deciding on a plan of action Amy set to work. Making sure he was comfortable she lit a huge fire to keep him warm. She would use most of her energy in actually waking him and then she might just be able to heal the slash in his side, as that was the wound that would have killed him if she hadn't got to him in time.

Gritting her teeth she pulled his shirt away from his side and lifted it up onto his chest so she had a good access to the wound, placing a hand over it she felt the familiar tingle of being filled with her power. It coursed through her as she set about starting to heal it.

She gasped in shock at how much power it was taking, the poison had been imbedded deeply, the most she could do was relieve him of the poison before she passed out. Sighing she knew that would have to do. Slowly taking her hand away she gathered herself. After this she didn't know how long she would be out for, but she hoped that he would not be in too much pain when he woke.

Once again she placed her hand over the deep wound in his side and screwed up her eyes in concentration. She opened her eyes an inch and could see the black poison slowly seeping out and dripping down his side. The wound started to heal painfully slowly, but before it was even half done blackness took her.

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Aragorn opened his eyes and looked up, instantly shutting them again he tried to figure out where he was. The last thing he could remember clearly was killing the orc on the Warg moments before him and the Warg went off the cliff. Then his memory went foggy, he couldn't remember anything clearly from then on. Shaking his head he fought back a yell; he must have hit his head at some point.

He went back to trying to figure out where he was. He fought the fog in his head like it was an orc, using every piece of knowledge he had. Slowly the fog retreated and he was sure he could remember the sky going black and lightning streaking from the sky. Grinning despite himself he realized that must have been Amy.

After that he was almost positive he could remember nothing apart from blackness and water, until he woke up a second ago. "Where in the Valar am I?"

Instinctively he felt his side and noticed that his sword wasn't there, suppressing a yell of fury he tried to sit up. He couldn't see anything other than a faint blue glow surrounding him. 'It must be night.' He thought to himself.

Struggling he managed to sit up, biting back yells and tears of pain in the process. It was no good, he could see nothing around him, and he was in pain all over. He tensed as he heard something shuffle in the dark. What could he do? He didn't have his sword on him. He was defenceless. His sharpened hearing soon recognized the sound to be soft hooves. Something touched his chest and pushed him down.

Looking blindly into the night he was sure he could see two shadowy white stripes. He thought back a smile as another memory slowly materialized though the fog. Someone landing next to him, rolling him over and finally picking him up, someone that sounded funnily enough like Amy.

Just to assure himself he took a big breath in. A grin lit his face. He could smell Chinky; she had that defined smell of a horse mixed with a smell of Mallorn leaves that could only be Amy.

Sighing he tried to move his arm, biting back a groan of pain he moved it slightly and came across a body lying next to him. Amy. Finally feeling contented he lay back down slowly and fell asleep again.

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The next time Aragorn woke up it was still nightfall. Except this time he could see. A large burning red fire was in front of him, and sitting next to it was a small elf and a large horse. He couldn't help but look over the form of the short elf in front of him and smile. He could see why Legolas had fallen for her. Quickly shutting these thoughts off, he looked down in horror. What was he thinking? He was destined to be with Arwen! 'Yet you still found the Lady Éowyn attractive,' a small voice in the back of his head said. Quickly muting the voice he gave a slight start as he realized the elf in question was looking at him inquisitively.

"You're awake then?" Amy said standing up slightly. She was trying to decipher the look Aragorn had just had plastered on his face.

"Yes I am awake and alive thanks to you." He said once again struggling to sit up.

Smiling Amy wove flows of' Air behind him so he had a solid barrier of Air to lean on. Smiling gratefully Aragorn lent back.

"I am sorry for not healing you fully but it took too much of my strength to ward this area. I am afraid after taking the poison out of the wound in your side I passed out, and didn't awake until a few minutes ago. Though I am glad to see you awake, it will be easier for me to treat your wounds this way." Amy said sitting next to him and handing him a water skin.

"I think I awoke a little before you to start, as I looked up there was blackness around me. I felt someone push me down and then I felt you next to me. I am afraid I might have fallen asleep again after that."

"I think you may find that it was Chinky that pushed you down again; the wound in your side was still very bad, as it is now. I will heal it along with the others in a second."

"But firstly you will tell me what happened after I fell. I remember lightning raining from the sky and that could only have been you." Aragorn said taking a big swig of water.

"I am afraid I do not know what happened, though I fear Haldir does. I am fearful that Sauron knows of my powers and tried to control me. He could only do that because I let my guard down as I was angry over the Kings decision to leave the dead." Amy hung her head in shame as she said this.

"Do not fear. I trust that everyone else made it through the battle." Aragorn said slowly raising his uninjured arm to her hair. He slowly started stroking her hair in order to sooth her. Amy sighed and leaned against the touch, enjoying the feeling of his hands running through her silky hair.

Coming to her senses, Amy moved away and took the Air barrier down, which made Aragorn crash to the ground with a 'thump.'

Aragorn winced in pain but said nothing nonetheless. He was too busy puzzling over the feeling in his heart when he had been stroking her hair.

"Aragorn I need access to your wounds. As most of them are on your chest, do you mind if you take your top off? The only other major one is on your leg; I think I'll do that one first." Amy slowly got onto her knees and crawled over to his leg and started rolling up his breaches being careful not to knock the open wound. Looking at it she smiled; it wasn't as bad as it looked. Slowly numbing the area with flows of Spirit she cleaned the area with water. She didn't want to use too much power, as she still hadn't recovered from earlier properly. Once it was clean she used a tiny bit of power to knit the skin back together, she would let his ranger healing do the rest.

Not taking her hands off his leg she bent his knee to check that it was still working. "Does that feel better?" She asked.

"Yes that feels much better thank you. Though that one doesn't hurt as much as my arm!" Aragorn bit his tongue not to say that it was probably the feel of her hands that stopped it from hurting. He did not have a clue where these feelings were coming from and they were starting to worry him!

Slowly, almost reluctantly, Amy moved her hands away from his tanned leg and she started to unbutton his shirt. Trying to focus on the task at hand and not the tanned chest was taking all the will power she had. Finally she had undone all the buttons and lifted his shoulders slightly so she could slip it off.

When they were in Rivendell she had seen both him and Legolas without shirts on when they mucked about in the river. She had not thought twice about it then, but they had both changed so much since then. Of course most of the time she had been looking at Legolas' completely flawless skin, but that wasn't the point, as now she couldn't take her eyes off the tanned chest in front of her.

Aragorn's shoulders had broadened from many years of working with his sword; the colour of his skin had darkened as well to a rich golden brown. A dark whorl of hair snaked its way from his chest to beneath his belt. Running her hands over the gash in his side she healed it.

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Aragorn lay on his back with one arm above his head. He hated it when there was nothing he could do; yet he knew this was one of those situations. He was at her command and there was nothing he could do about it. Yet a small part of him did not really mind, and unlike normal he decided not to make a fuss.

He noted with interest her longer than necessary glances at his chest and tried to stop himself grinning. Once again he scolded himself. He really shouldn't be thinking these things about a girl who was in love with his best friend.

He was shaken out of her reverie when she moved his arm. Nothing he could do could stop it. He yelled out as an excruciating pain lanced up his left arm.

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Amy nodded her head to herself, like she thought, his left arm was broken. Placing her hands over the break she healed it before flopping down on the grass next to him in exhaustion.

Opening her eyes - which she couldn't remember shutting - she looked straight into Aragorn's silver ones.

"Thank you Little Warrior for healing me. Without you I would be dead. I owe you my life." Aragorn said leaning over her.

After she had flopped down next to him, he had propped himself up on his newly healed elbow and looked straight at the young elf.

"It was no problem. I couldn't let you die!" Amy said blushing.

Grinning Aragorn pulled a bit of her hair back behind her ear and stroked her cheek. Leaning down closer to her he whispered, "I am forever in your debt."

Slowly he leant down closer and captured her lips in a soft but passionate kiss.