I awoke not long after falling asleep with a fearful cry as the events of yesterday replayed in my dreams, and had to struggle over onto my side to retch all the food and water I'd had into a nearby bush.

I couldn't believe I'd done that.

I'd literally killed a person. Two people.

I'd actually enjoyed feeling him twitch as I twisted the knife. I felt filthy.

I rinsed my mouth out with some of the water, though it did little for the taste of vomit.

My breathing picked up, and I trembled as my emotions threatened to drown me.

I was just as bad as them.

For the first time in Middle earth, I was unable to hold back tears from falling, and I gave in, crying wretched sobs of pain, regret, and exhaustion.

Then something touched my shoulder.

My head shot up, tear tracks running down my face, eyes wide and fearful, instinctively shying away.

The same something nudged against the side of my face, and I realized it was blowing warm air on my cheek soothingly, and making little huffing sounds. Blinking back the tears, I realized that the horse I'd ridden yesterday had pulled to the end of his rope and was now trying to nudge my face with his muzzle. I choked out a laugh and stood up shakily, petting it's nose.

"I'm sorry, you've been wonderful. Thank you so much for helping me."

It made the same huffing sound again and nudged it's head on my shoulder as if to comfort me. I readily accepted, circling my arms around it's neck and trying not to start crying again.

I distracted myself by talking to the horse more.

"You were so wonderful. You need a name. Something strong and noble."

I looked down to check the gender of the horse, "Male, then. Howabout...Arthur? There was a knight Arthur Pendragon in some stories from where I come from, he was a very noble person."

The horse huffed again and shook its head a bit. If I had been more coherent, I would have realized that this was not exactly normal behavior for horses. A mixture of exhaustion, pain from all my injuries, older and newer, and the shaky mindset from the nightmares kept me from noticing, though.

"Not Arthur then. He was kind of a jerk sometimes in the tv series Merlin. Howabout Cicero? A..greek, I think, philosopher person?"

Another head shake.

"Howabout Valen? I think there was some roman guy named Valentinus, he was well known for something, I think. Didn't really read up much on him, though."

That seemed to gain the approval of the horse.

"Valen it is. Thank you for helping me, Valen."

By this point, the other horse was pulling at his reins where they were tied, trying to join the snuggle fest. I managed another weak laugh and moved over to untie him as well.

"And what shall I call you, fine…" I checked again, "sir. Howabout Aran? I have..well...had..a friend that always liked the name Arron. He would probably wish he was he with me. Would have loved to meet Boromir."

The horse seemed quite content with the name, not so picky as Valen was.

The reminder of my best friend left me choking back tears again.

I looked at the horses, trying to direct my thoughts away from people I would probably never see again.

Now that I wasn't so stressed, I was able to actually inspect them. They were both a dark brown color, though Valen was darker, almost black in the little amount of light. They were also quite large.

I wasn't a terribly tall person, so most horses seemed large, but these two seemed larger than normal horses.

"You are both very handsome, thank you for your help." I told them both, bowing slightly despite the twinge of pain in my chest. I carefully re-tied them to the tree, and laid down, in a different spot this time, further away from where I had vomited so none of us would have to smell it.

I managed to get another few hours of sleep before the sun started to rise, and I had to get up to continue on.

I was feeling in much better spirits, though that didn't help the hurts and sores.

The next few days went much the same as the last one had, stopping around midday to eat the little I could handle, drinking the water slowly over the days. The horses seemed a bit more willing to attempt drinking a few times, once we'd been away from the river for a couple days, and I eventually managed to fill up one of the discarded boots partially with water.

It didn't help much, and I had significantly less water, but I felt better having tried to help them, since they'd been so helpful to me.

Three days after I escaped from the thugs, leaving them dead, I was plagued with cramps and bleeding again.

This time I was not unhappy about it, choosing to walk instead of ride, so as not to bloody the horses.

I didn't bother taking the pants I'd stolen off, though, they were a dirty brown color, blood would show up a little bit, but would mostly fade once it dried.

Five days later the bleeding mercifully stopped.

I was a mess, but despite the growing pain of pretty much every part of my body, I was feeling pretty good about my chances. I had food, I had water, though I wasn't sure how much longer either of those would last at the rate I was going through them.

Around late evening on the sixty-fourth day of my journey, I met another river, and the horses got a real drink. I could only remember one river being up this far on the map. The bruinen river. That was the river the black riders got swooshed away in when Frodo and Arwen were running in the movie. If I was correct about that, that could mean I was really close.

Or really far, if I was wrong.

I decided to be optimistic, and started following the river upstream.

When I hadn't found anything at all to indicate that I was anywhere near Rivendell, and it was nearing sunset, I started to lose some of my optimism.

Determined not to give up hope, I continued on, singing quietly to myself, one of my favorite songs from the movies that always made me feel more hopeful.

"May it be an evening star

Shines down upon you

May it be when darkness falls

Your heart will be true

You walk a lonely road

Oh, how far you are from home

Morniл utъliл (Darkness has come)

Believe and you will find your way

Morniл alantiл (Darkness has fallen)

A promise lives within you now"

It did make me feel better. It sounded scratchy and rough, but the familiarity of the words was comforting. Taking in the necessary breath for singing hurt, though, and I was left gasping in short, unsteady breaths as I tried to push back the pain.

What I didn't realize, was that the horses were not the only creatures listening to me. A short ways away in some trees, there was a patrol of elves.

The words alone were cause for interest, but when I sang the phrases in Quenya, they started to observe me, wondering who this scruffy wandering human was who spoke Quenya, and wondering why I was so near to Rivendell.

"May it be the shadows call

Will fly away

May it be your journey on

To light the day

When the night is overcome

You may rise to find the sun

Morniл utъliл (Darkness has come)

Believe and you will find your way

Morniл alantiл (Darkness has fallen)

A promise lives within you now

A promise lives within you now"

I managed not to cause myself too much difficulty breathing or add too much extra pain with the second verse, but was rewarded by almost falling from Valen when a silky, melodic voice spoke off to the side of where I was walking.

"That was a lovely song. Might I enquire as to where you learned it?"

Both horses slowed as I clung desperately to Valen's mane. They're heads turned to look at him, as did mine, quite frantically looking over to where the voice originated. There before me, stood a real, live, actual, solid, not fake, not made up, elf.

I couldn't breathe.