Over a month and a half later, he stood watching as the great gate that barred the way into Thranduil's stronghold opened silently on its giant hinges. A handful of elves emerged, watching Gollum warily with hands on their knife hilts. "Is this the creature Mithrandir requested we take custody of until he arrives?"
"Yes. Be careful, he's got quite a nasty streak in him." Aragorn could have danced for joy as the elves came and took Gollum away from him; could have, that is, if he had not been so utterly exhausted. Having to avoid all risk of Sauron's detection, including giving Dol Guldur a very wide berth, had made the journey nearly three times longer than it could have been. He'd had to cut across the River Anduin, then over Limlight, Nimrodel, and Silverlode, up the borders of Lothlórien and the Gladden Fields to the Carrock, then through the entire width of Northern Mirkwood to the Elves' Stronghold. The journey would not have been particularly leisurely under any circumstances, but being forced to keep a wary eye on Gollum all 300 leagues of it while foraging enough food for both of them at the same time was hard on even him.
He followed the elves across the bridge, not at all looking forward to being back in their caves. A wave of nausea made him pause and squeeze his eyes shut as he crossed the threshold. Perhaps I wasn't as ready for this as I thought. It might be best to just have someone tell Thranduil I'm here and wait outside. As though the elf king had heard his thoughts, the huge doors slammed shut with a terrific bang. Never mind. I guess I get to tell him myself.
The huge throne room was exactly as he remembered it from his last 'visit' to Thranduil's fortress. Thranduil himself looked almost exactly the same, right down to the bored expression on his angular features. Legolas stood just behind and to the right of the throne, looking even more bored than his father. The elf prince visibly brightened, however, when Aragorn entered the room behind Gollum and the guards. Thranduil did not. He appeared rather anxious. The guards approached the throne and made their bows; Aragorn hung back a little with his arms crossed and inclined his head the slightest bit in the elf king's general direction. Thranduil's lips tightened, but he did not comment on the Ranger's lack of propriety. Legolas bit his lip, silent laughter making his eyes sparkle and his shoulders twitch.
Thranduil turned to the guards. "This is the creature, Gollum?"
"Yes, my lord."
"Has a message been sent to Mithrandir?"
"Not yet, my lord."
"I sent one, and I passed through Lórien on my way here, so I'm sure messengers have already been sent from there as well."
Thranduil turned in surprise at Aragorn's soft voice. "But how could you possibly have sent a message when you were alone?"
"A hawk agreed to fly to Rivendell for me. One of my cousins is in the area, and he will relay the message to Gandalf."
"A hawk?" Thranduil looked puzzled for a moment, then understanding dawned in his face. "Of course. I had forgotten that your people can also converse with beasts."
"Animals," the Ranger muttered. Thranduil ignored him.
During the discussion, Legolas had been slowly edging away from his father's side. Now, as the king's attention returned to the guards, he hopped over to talk to Aragorn. Thranduil was extremely thorough in his interrogation, and after ten minutes of high-speed whispering in his own tongue, the elf prince had manged to share all of the interesting news he had to tell, and got the Ranger to tersely answer a few questions. He also took note of the fatigue in his friend's silver eyes, the dark circles under them, and realized with some alarm that the Ranger was even thinner than usual.
Despite the cool of the room, Aragorn was beginning to feel rather feverish. His head ached, and as Thranduil finished instructing the guards on how to care for "Mithrandir's new friend", his usually perfect vision began swimming. Closing his eyes as his earlier nausea returned, he tried with all his might to pull himself out of the blackness that threatened to envelop him.
Legolas turned to ask his father what sort of lodging was to be arranged for their other guest, then spun back around in shock as the Ranger collapsed in a dead faint on the stone floor.
The chamber was plunged into chaos.
The elf guards all stood gaping for a moment, and then crowded around the unconscious man loudly inquiring of each other, their king, and their prince what could have possibly have affected Aragorn so suddenly. Thranduil leapt out of his chair and shoved through his jabbering subjects to kneel on the opposite side of the prone man from Legolas. The prince was busy examining Aragorn for injuries that had either caused the fall or been caused by it; finding nothing but a new scar on the Ranger's hand that looked suspiciously like teeth marks, he began loosening Aragorn's clothing as his father got back on his feet and started barking at the other elves to "cease their jabbering" and "get a room made ready" and "get some water in here immediately!"
"One of the normal rooms, my lord?" one of them asked, as his fellows groaned and rolled their eyes.
"Yes, Maelar, one of the normal rooms," Thranduil replied slowly, as though speaking to a child. "Where else would we possibly put him?"
The normal rooms?! Comprehension hit Legolas as though he'd been struck in the face. Of course! In the caves! That's it! "No, my lord! That's just the problem." Thranduil looked rather affronted at being gainsaid, but Legolas ignored his expression, certain that his conclusion was right. "When Aragorn was last here, he told me that being underground tended to make him rather ill. If he was already worn out when he got here, then perhaps it wouldn't have taken very long." Thranduil continued to stare at him as though the elf king had absolutely no notion of where this information was supposed to lead him. "He needs to be outside, my lord," Legolas urged.
"Well, I suppose that could be it..." Thranduil hesitated over whether or not to take his son's harebrained idea seriously, when suddenly the large dog kept by the guards at the gate came bounding into the room (1). Her keepers were right on her heels, but she refused to be hampered in her mission. She galloped over to where Aragorn still lay on the floor and, whining pitifully, proceeded to lick his face and hands, before grasping his shirt collar in her teeth and attempting to drag him towards the door.
As the now rather large crowd of guards in the room gathered around and attempted to pull the dog away, Thranduil looked resignedly at his son. "All right, you may take him outside. But I want a healer and a guard with him at all times. He is your responsibility now, and Elrond will have my head if we let him die."
(1)--The guard dog was introduced in "A Meeting of Heirs". She licked Aragorn's hand the first time he was in Thranduil's caves and got a bit claustrophobic.