Chapter 6: Concerning Hobbits
Frodo's point of view*
Frodo felt, well, off, ever since the feast. He also had increasingly painful headaches. Sam, Merry, and Pippin had admitted the same thing had been happening to them. Frodo remembered how Sam just said 'we probably caught what Aragorn had', and Frodo sure hoped it was just as simple as that. But for some reason, he didn't really believe it was a simple as a headache. Maybe Legolas knew more then he was letting on.
Frodo sat up in his bed, trying his best to ignore his pounding headache. Of course! Legolas must know more than he told them!
Frodo quickly got dressed and headed towards Legolas's room. Then he stopped.
"I'll have breakfast, then I'll do it." Frodo muttered to himself, then headed to get breakfast.
He sat down next to Sam, Merry, and Pippin, setting his tray of food down in front of him.
"Any of you feeling better?" Frodo asked. All of them shook their heads gently. "Me too." Frodo said in response to their nods. He started to eat his breakfast in a hasty fashion.
"Why are you eating so fast, Mr. Frodo?" Sam asked and Frodo stopped eating to explain.
"I'm going to ask Legolas if he knows more about what happened to Aragorn, because I'm pretty sure we have the same thing as Aragorn." Frodo explained.
Sam nodded, "I'd go with you, but I'd like to have a proper breakfast. No hurrying. We did enough of that on our journey." Merry and Pippin nodded, agreeing.
"We'll check in on Aragorn after we eat." Merry said.
"Yeah." Pippin agreed, not even really focusing on the conversation. Frodo turned back to eating his food as swiftly as possible. In about ten more minutes he was finished eating, which in all was a seventeen minute long breakfast and was quite short by hobbit standards. He rushed off to Legolas's room, eager to ask questions and be able to cure his annoying, as well as painful, headache.
He wandered around for a few minutes, doubting his ability to find Legolas's room, before finding himself asking some elves for directions. They pointed him towards Legolas's room and Frodo managed to find his way after a few more minutes. He came up to what he was told should be the door to Legolas's room.
He paused for a second, not wanting to accidentally have knocked on the wrong door, before deciding to knock despite his worries.
Legolas's point of view*
Legolas opened his eyes slowly, blinking alway sleep. He sat up slightly, and looked out the window. He gasped. The sun was already rising in the sky! He never slept that late!
Another knock sounded from his door and he realized that was what he had woken up to. He stood up and straightened his clothes as best as he could, fixed up his hair and made sure his ear damaged was covered. His ear looked a little bit irritated, but he assumed it was normal especially after having it's top half ripped off so violently. After a few more minutes of making himself presentable, he unlocked the door and opened it. He smiled when he saw who it was.
"Frodo, Mellon-nin, what has brought you here?" Legolas asked, curious as to why Frodo would go through all the trouble of finding him just to speak with him.
"Well..." Frodo looked up at him hesitantly, "I'm pretty sure Sam, Merry, Pippin, and I caught what Aragorn had and you seemed to know what was wrong with Aragorn so, well, is there anything we can do to ease our headaches?" Legolas pondered the words for a minute, and stood there for a second before fully registering what Frodo had said. He made sure to look as if he was contemplating his memories, but he really wasn't. He fought the urge to slam the door in Frodo's face, lock the door and never come out again. He felt his hand unconsciously twitch towards the door nob but he drew it back to his side. He really felt that he should shut the door... but Frodo might get suspicious- no, he would definitely get suspicious.
Did Frodo say that he and the other hobbits had "caught what Aragorn had"? Legolas fought back a shudder as he processed the thought, then furrowed his brows in confusion. Wait. It took MONTHS for Aragorn to get really bad headaches! Legolas searched his memories, now noting the strange behavior that was probably from the illness that Aragorn had shown, that before Aragorn's big- Legolas shuddered- outburst, he hadn't quite understood. The Illness couldn't possibly have affected them so quickly.
Legolas stiffened. Unless it progressed differently depending if it was a Man, Hobbit, Dwarf, or Elf. But elves couldn't possibly get sick. Legolas refused to believe he could go crazy as Aragorn did, or as the hobbits might. He just couldn't!
Frodo's point of view*
Frodo stared up at Legolas expectantly after he had asked his question. He looked up at the Elf's face, and it seemed as if he were in deep thought. Frodo wondered why a simple remedy to an illness would take so much thought.
Frodo's eyes caught Legolas's had twitch in a jerking motion towards the door handle, then fall back to his side. He raised his eye brows and scanned the Elf's face for any sign as to why he had done that, but alas. It was doing him no good searching Legolas's face for his emotions seemed to be carefully masked.
But for what reason it was masked, Frodo couldn't determine, but he knew that the un-elf like twitch of Legolas's hand was something he should be concerned about.
"Legolas?" Frodo tried, but Legolas did nothing but stare into the distance. Out, over Frodo's head, looking at something that, or so it seemed, only he could see or found interesting. Frodo tried finding the seemingly invisible thing Legolas found so interesting, but to no avail. Nothing could be found. Frodo went back to staring at Legolas expectantly, now and again checking to see if he could see the thing Legolas was staring at.
Legolas's brow furrowed in what Frodo thought to be confusion, but he thought nothing of it. It was probably something to do with the thing that only Legolas could see.
Suddenly, as if something had greatly disturbed him, Legolas shuddered, then stiffened. Frodo's concern increased. He had never seen the elf look so utterly disturbed or distracted by something before. Frodo followed Legolas's gaze again as he saw Legolas's eyes widen slightly in terror, then turn icy cold as if denying whatever he had thought.
Frodo turned back to Legolas, "Legolas, are you alright? Is something wrong, should I get Lord Elrond?" Frodo was completely appalled at Legolas's behavior, but also quite curious. If he hadn't been so astonished he might have questioned Legolas further than a simple 'Are you alright?'.
"Yes, yes, I'm fine, just got lost in thought. The best thing for you to do is stay in your rooms and lock the door to assure no one comes in. It's highly contagious, even elves can get it, but for them it's harder to get." Legolas explained, his voice slightly wavering at first.
"Okay, I'm sorry if I've given you it! Oh dear, I'll have to make sure Merry, Pippin, and Sam don't go spreading it! I'd better hurry. Well, see you later. Check on Aragorn for me!" As Frodo turned around her swore he saw a flash of fear in Legolas's eyes at the mention of Aragorn, but he ignored it. He had to make sure he and his friends didn't go infecting all of Rivendell.
He quickly found his way back to his friends who where eating breakfast still.
"Legolas said that we have to stay locked up in our rooms until we get better and that even elves can get our illness." Frodo whispered to his friends. "I don't think we should check on Aragorn either. We don't want to disturb him if the illness in bad enough to effect elves. I've asked Legolas to check on him instead." Merry nodded.
"Okay, we'll go straight to bed after breakfast, right Pip?"
"Yup." Pippin replied through a mouthful of mushrooms. "Right after we eat all the mushrooms in Rivendell."
"No, Pip, after breakfast." Merry said, eyeing the mushrooms on Pippin's plate since he had finished his own.
"But all the mushrooms in Rivendell are my breakfast." Pippin said innocently, swallowing his mouthful of mushrooms. Merry hesitated before nodding in agreement.
"Sounds like a plan. We'll eat all the mushrooms in Rivendell then go back to our rooms." Merry smiles mischievously and Pippin nodded enthusiastically. Sam rolled his eyes fondly.
"I'll be going right on down to my rooms, Mister Frodo. I wouldn't want to get anyone sick, especially everyone in Rivendell since they've been so welcoming." Sam stood up, then walked away. Frodo quickly turned and followed him, agreeing with him all the way. He definitely didn't want to get others sick that had been so kind to him. He just really hopped Merry and Pippin stuck to their words and ate their breakfast then went to their rooms.