In the thick darkness of a wet foggy night, the eight travellers picked their way through the woods where every tree dripped on them and every shadow concealed a rock to trip over or a puddle to step in. Even the light of the torches they carried seemed subdued, muffled by the fog folding around them.

"Can anyone see where we’re going?" Boromir’s asked irritably, cursing as he tripped yet again on a rock he could have sworn wasn't there a second before.

"Ask the Elf," came the sour response from Gimli as the dwarf stomped along behind him.

"If you continue to make so much noise, every Orc in the area will hear you," Legolas responded from among the shadows.

"Hark at thistledown feet," Gimli snorted.

"It is not my fault if Elves are naturally graceful and dwarves are....."

"Yes?" Gimli growled.

"...not..." answered Legolas.

"Nice recovery," observed Boromir dryly.

"Elves are also tactful and diplomatic...." Legolas responded, leaving the ‘and dwarves are not’ unsaid.

"And bloody irritating," grumbled Gimli. "It wasn't you who found where we could shelter for the night."

"I offered a perfectly good tree."

"I'm a bloody dwarf not a bloody apple."

"True. Apples are useful," Legolas sighed.

Gimli spat something rude in Dwarvish and gathered himself up for a quick lunge at the Elf. Unlike Boromir and the Hobbits, his Dwarven eyes were adapted to underground dwelling and he could make out Legolas’ slim shadowy self off to his right. One quick lunge and he could knock the skinny creature’s knees out from under him with the haft of his axe and drop him in that nice, big puddle....

"Don’t even think it," Legolas snapped and flitted out of his reach, removing his faint bioluminescent signature at the same time.

"Spoilsport," Gimli snorted, suppressing an amused chuckle that the Elf had known exactly what he was thinking. Annoying the Elf had started out as a way to pass the time, but it had quickly becoming something of a challenge. Maybe he could introduce Elf Baiting as a sport when he got home...

"What’s going on back here?" Aragorn demanded, stalking back down the narrow track and around the huddle of Hobbits trudging wearily along ahead of them.

Boromir noted that he didn't trip over anything. "They’re bickering again," he said sourly.

"Merely a discussion between diametrically opposed cultural groups," Legolas said, this time from the left.

Left? Gimli shot a startled look in his direction, wondering if the Elf had added voice throwing to his other annoying little habits. No, it was worse. He really had managed to cross the track without the Dwarf seeing him.

"Look, could we hold the bickering down to a dull roar? There could be Orcs about," Aragorn scolded in exasperation.

"There are none. I would smell them...." Legolas said firmly, paused and murmured almost under his breath. "Of course, the fact there is a Dwarf present...."

"I heard that!" Gimli snarled, tightening his grip on his axe. "I may not be a dirt repelling Elf but I'm as clean as anyone else in this party...."

"True, I retract the comment as applying not only to Dwarves..." Legolas murmured with a distinct sniff. "Perhaps if you stand downwind of the Orcs....?"

Boromir growled and Aragorn laid a soothing hand on his shoulder. "You’re getting a bit bitchy there Leggy," he said dryly.

"Bitchy?" Legolas squawked in outrage.

"Leggy?!" Gimli echoed and smirked in satisfaction. "Oh, I like that, Leggy the high and mighty Elf...."

"I’ll get you for that, Aragorn," Legolas growled, shooting a glare from the Ranger to Gimli and back again.

"Then behave yourself, your royal highness. It isn’t far to the shelter the guard at the last village told Gimli about and Gandalf should be back soon. See if you can stop them killing each other, Boromir."

"Me? Why me?" Boromir groaned, but Aragorn was already flitting on ahead to check on the Hobbits. Sighing, he glanced from Gimli to Legolas as they settled down to walk on either side of him. Where was Gandalf when he needed him? he wondered. "Hey, do you know any songs?" he asked hopefully.

"Please, no!" Gimli made choking sounds. "Not Elven singing. That’s how they torture people you know...."

"We do not. We are known for our beautiful music," Legolas snapped indignantly.

"How about a nice marching song?" Boromir said desperately.

"Dwarves only know one song. Let me see now, how does it go? Oh yes...." Legolas’ smile flashed like a star in the darkness. "Gold, gold, gold, gold. Gold, gold, gold, gold.....!"

"We do not sing about gold!" Gimli rumbled.

"No? Oh I do apologise, I got the lyrics wrong...." Legolas crooned in his most princely apologetic tone, his eyes huge with a faintly shimmering luminescence. Boromir groaned, hearing the landslide coming. "It’s....rocks, rocks, rocks, rocks...."

The Dwarf’s roar of fury rumbled off the trees and echoed away into the woods, startling a warren of rabbits awake and setting a startled Barrow Wraith feeling in the opposite direction.

Aragorn’s bellow answered him, "Gimli! Leave the Elf alone!"

* * *

"What I want to know is, why Aragorn always assumes it’s me that started it?" Gimli grumbled as he stumped along beside Boromir. Legolas had flitted on ahead, his arguing with the Dwarf ceasing as he evidently grew uneasy about something.

"It saves time," Boromir answered blandly. Sneaking a surreptitious look round, he took a sniff at his arm and winkled his nose. The Elf could be right, they were all getting a little ripe. He hoped he wasn't blushing as he caught the Dwarf’s eye and grimaced at him.

"Aye, well...." Gimli mumbled. "I’ll no say I agree with him, but the Elf could possibly have a point...." He paused, his head coming up sharply as he heard voices coming from around the bend of the path ahead. "Well, well, is that Strider arguing with our Elf?" he murmured sarcastically as he stretched his stride.

Rounding the corner, they found themselves standing before an archway made from carved dark stone while beyond it gaped the darkness of a cave. Pillars flanked the entrance, carved with fanciful faces peering out from among the rock as if they were creatures that had been turned to stone. The Hobbits stood grouped in a half circle, gazing curiously at Aragorn and Legolas as they argued.

"Look, Legolas," Aragorn was saying as Gimli and Boromir caught up. "I know it’s a cave, but we’re all cold, tired and wet...."

"And hungry!" piped Pippin.

"And this cave is good, dry shelter...."

"But it’s a Dwarven cave," Legolas protested plaintively and the odd note in his voice made Aragorn lift his head in surprise.

"You have something against Dwarven caves?" Gimli demanded irritably as he stomped up to Strider’s side. The look Legolas gave him was so far from his normal cocky Elven self that Gimli was actually silenced for a moment.

"Bad things happen to Elves in Dwarven caves...." Legolas said miserably. "I've heard tales..."

"Fairy stories...." Aragorn snorted

"We don't mention faeries!" Legolas retorted.

"Told by Elves to frighten badly behaved little Elves," Aragorn continued. Legolas gave him a reproachful look as the Ranger softened his voice. "You can stay outside in the rain if you want. The rest of us will be sleeping inside where it’s warm."

"And while we’re doing it you might want to remember what the gate guard said; bad for your health up here, he said," Gimli smirked. "You’ll probably get carried off by the faeries."

Legolas gave him a look of utter loathing. "There are no such things!" he spat.

"Bad for your health?" Sam echoed in alarm however. "What’s that mean?"

"It means it’s bloody cold and damp up here," Boromir grumbled. "He wanted us to bribe him to let us into the village. Which some of us were too top lofty to do...." Legolas wasn't the only one who could give Aragorn a reproachful look.

The Ranger flung his hands up in the air. "You want to walk back to the village? Go!"

"I'm only pointing out that if the guard wanted to make trouble for us, this’d be a good place for an ambush by robbers."

"I don’t think we’ve got anything worth robbing us for, have we?" Pippin wondered, looking around him at the dark wet forest somewhat dubiously.

"Well, it doesn’t look so bad to me," Frodo commented, peering under the arch with Merry. "If we got a fire going it could be quite cosy."

"A homey little place," Merry agreed.

"Hobbit sized," Sam added, having followed Frodo. He shot a sly glance at Aragorn. "If we could have a bit of a fire it’d cheer us all up and we could all have a bite of a nice hot supper. We’ve got some sausages and those eggs Pippin swipe....er I mean found. And there’s a bit of bread left we could fry..."

Aragorn gave Pippin a disapproving look and the young Hobbit gazed back in wide eyed innocence. "I think the chicken lost them, Mr Strider," he chirped.

Sam looked over the Elf. Legolas had his arms folded and his back to them, the picture of offended cat like dignity. "I think I might even have a bit of bacon, Mr Legolas...."

Legolas twitched very slightly. It had startled them all to discover that the Mirkwood Elf had a weakness for some human foods; bacon was high on the list. So was cow milk for some reason that always made Legolas smirk and Aragorn go pale.

"I've got some mushrooms," Gimli added, chuckling when the Hobbits all looked at him in awe. "You have to know where to look, lads...."

"Assuming they’re not poisonous toadstools...." Legolas muttered.

"Depends what the toads eat," Gimli said blandly and smirked when the Elf shot him a startled look.

Aragorn sighed heavily and took a firm grip on Legolas’ arm. "We will sleep here," he said firmly.

"Aragorn, I...." Legolas started to protest again.

"You agreed to come up here...."

"Yes, but...."

Aragorn gave him a stern look and said something in Elvish. Legolas’ eyes darkened in outrage and shook himself free. "It’s the safest place we can find for the night. We need to rest even if you don’t. You can keep watch if you want. But first we get inside and dry off. Even Elves prefer to get out of the rain...."

"And there was I having my doubts," Gimli snorted sarcastically and stomped forward, marching under the archway with a proprietary air. "Come along, young hobbits. Dwarven this is indeed and that means there’ll be a hearth for your fire...."

Boromir grinned and followed, shooing Sam along ahead of him when he hung back, to give Legolas an anxious look. "Leave the Elf to Aragorn," he advised.

Aragorn waited until the others were inside and then turned patiently back to Legolas. "Well?"

"I am not afraid because it’s a cave," Legolas snapped. "It feels wrong....I sense something..."

"I don't sense anything," Aragorn said dubiously.

"You’re not....attuned. This is Dwarven...."

"Gimli doesn’t think it’s dangerous...."

"No..." Legolas murmured, sounding suddenly doubtful.

"I don’t think Gimli would lead you anywhere he thought was harmful," Aragorn said quietly. "And I think you know that. You don’t want him to think you don’t trust him, do you?"

Legolas sighed but let the Ranger take his arm and propel him under the arch. As they crossed the threshold, Aragorn felt the Elf flinch and then gasp, stumbling slightly.

"Legolas?" Aragorn tightened his grip in alarm, holding him up.

"It’s n’nothing...." Legolas stammered, looking around him more in surprise than alarm. "Did you hear....? No, no, I must have imagined...."

"When did you last sleep?"

"I don’t need to sleep...."

"Sometimes you do," Aragorn said firmly.

"Are you two going to stand there blocking the gangway all night?" Boromir grumbled, looming up out of the darkness. There was a flicker behind him and a torch suddenly flamed to light, followed by the laughter and a spatter of applause from the Hobbits.

"Why? Did you get caught short?" Aragorn retorted.

"Funny. Sam needs water for tea." Boromir answered, lifting their collapsible leather bucket.

"You volunteered?" Aragorn asked in surprise.

"When that Hobbit looks at you like that, I’d defy Gandalf himself to defy him," Boromir snorted. "There was a stream a few minutes back. I won't be long. Might as well go while I'm still wet."

"I’ll...." Legolas began..

"Stay right here," Aragorn said sharply, propelling the Elf firmly inside with one hand in the small of his back. He exchanged a rueful look with the Gondor man.

"Twitchy, ain’t he," Boromir observed.

"Unusually so," Aragorn agreed. "Don’t be long."

Boromir nodded. "If you think you’re getting all the bacon you can forget it...."

* * *

Strolling back from the archway with an effort to look casual about his restless prowling, Legolas paused to look back at the darkness beyond the cave mouth. It was night outside, skeins of cloud wisping across a sky turned blue white by the rising moon. The persistent drizzle had finally stopped, letting the moon and her companion stars peek out. He would far rather be outside in the woods than sheltering under the heavy weight of ancient stone. But pride kept him inside now he was here.

A shadow shifted beside the doorway as Gimli ambled across it, inspecting the path and the woods beyond before he melted back into the darkness.

Legolas shuddered despite himself as he eyed the huge heavy wooden doors that stood back against the walls of the cave waiting to be slammed across the entrance at the slightest provocation. His cautious inspection of them had revealed none of the dread dark magics he had feared, only heavy iron nails that made him twitch slightly. Touching iron was one thing, having it rammed into your flesh to smoulder and poison the blood was quite another....

The whole cave had once been natural but the Dwarves had carved every inch of it, creating purposeless columns from the walls as if to hold up a roof that had stood firm since the mountains were young. Faces leered from every corner, peeping out from behind the rocks...

Still, he shivered with a sudden chill that surprised him and he was glad to return to the warmth and light of the fire; even if it did make his eyes hurt.

Crossing his long legs at the ankles, Legolas sank gracefully to the ground, seating himself cross legged beside Aragorn at the fireside. Pippin and Merry were scrubbing out their plates with sand, watched over by Sam who had done all the cooking. Frodo was curled up in a corner, wrapped in his cloak and sound asleep. Gimli was still on watch and Boromir was mopping up the last of the bacon grease from his plate with a fried bread crust.

"No....." said Aragorn. There was no outward sign to show that the aloof Elf was disturbed about anything, but the Ranger had known him too long to be fooled. Something was bothering him. Hence the restless prowling....

"But the rain’s stopped...." Legolas murmured.

"The answer’s still no."

"What’s the question?" Boromir wondered.

"He thinks we should move on."

Boromir snorted. "You might be able to keep going ‘til you drop, Legolas, but I could do with a rest and the Hobbits certainly can. Besides, isn’t Gandalf to meet us here?"

"Gandalf will find us wherever we are," Legolas pointed out hopefully.

"Still no," Aragorn said firmly.

Boromir snorted and unfolded his legs, pushing stiffly to his feet. This manoeuvre was watched with interest by the Elf. "You might be able to fold up like a flower, Elf, but I can’t. I'm not so supple," he chuckled as he made his way over to the Hobbits and an argument over who was to clean the cooking pots.

Aragorn however was watching Legolas closely and caught the faint flinch and squint as the light of the flames caught his eyes. In deference to his friend’s sensibilities, he switched to Elvish. "Do you have a headache?" he fretted.

Aragorn overrode the denial. "Do you have a headache? Answer me..."

Legolas sighed and inclined his head the tiniest of fraction. Aragorn swore and Boromir looked round at him in astonishment.

"Legolas, you look...." Aragorn shrugged helplessly, unable to explain what he half saw, half sensed about the Elf. "...tired...."

Legolas sighed again. "If it pleases you, I will....nap....."

Aragorn chuckled. "Elves and cats, no telling them apart...."

"Maybe you should put butter on his paws to keep him inside then," Gimli said gruffly, startling them both. "I think there’s an Orc patrol in the woods. Come and....oh never mind...." Legolas was off to the entrance like an arrow with Aragorn only a step behind. Boromir was close behind and stood with the Ranger, watching the Elf closely as he scanned the darkened woods.

"Anything?" Aragorn pressed after a few moments.

"I am not....certain...." Legolas said slowly and he sounded shaken.

"You’re not?" Gimli looked up at him in astonishment and then frowned. "You know, Elf, you’re starting to look a mite....peaked."

Legolas blinked down at him and then looked at Aragorn. "I hear something," he said carefully. "I should go and scout...."

"No," Aragorn caught his arm as he took a step forward, disturbed without knowing why. "Gimli, can we close these doors?"

"And shut ourselves in for the night? Aye...." Gimli answered, but he gave Legolas a doubtful look. "But the Elf won't be happy...."

"Better than eaten," Boromir commented. "I hear Orcs are partial to Elf flesh and barbecued Dwarf."

Gimli shrugged, unfazed. "We tend to be too tough for their delicate little fangs. Unlike a nice bit of crisp fried Elf..."

Legolas shuddered and took a wobbly step backwards. "I think I....I think....oh...." He trembled, hearing Aragorn’s voice suddenly come from far away...

"Legolas? What....Legolas!"

Aragorn lunged forward as the Elf suddenly crumpled in as neat a faint as Gimli had ever seen. Supporting him on the way down, Aragorn kept him from smacking his head on the bare rock of the cave floor and felt anxiously for a pulse.

"Well, I've never seen an Elf do that before!" Gimli exclaimed in astonishment. "What’s he done? Put himself in a trance?"

"Reverie," Boromir suggested. "That’s what Elves do instead of sleep I've heard tell. A sort of meditation...."

"Reverie, hmmh? Shouldn’t he have laid down first then?" Gimli mused. "Looks more like a faint to me..."

"That’s because it is a faint," Aragorn snapped curtly, his worry spilling over.

"Elves don’t do that!" Boromir protested.

"This one did," Aragorn snapped. "Don’t stand there gawping, Gimli, get the doors closed. Sam, Merry, Pippin! Come and help him. Boromir, help me carry Legolas...."

As the startled Hobbits hurried to help an equally surprised Gimli, Boromir crouched to help Aragorn lift the unconscious Elf between them. "Why do we have to carry him?" he commented dryly, grunting as he gathered up the Elf’s feet.

"You’d rather drag him? Stop complaining and put your back into it," Aragorn growled.

Boromir glared at him but obeyed, realising that it was worry making the Ranger bad tempered. "Yes, your Highness," he was unable to resist mocking however and felt avenged by the glare he got in answer.

* * *

There were times in Legolas’ life – which wasn't actually that long Elfwise, but seemed that way to him sometimes – when he knew waking up was a mistake. This was one of them.

Cracking open his eyes a tiny fraction, he gazed up into the darkness of what could only be a cave with a fire flickering off to his left. Gradually, his memories sorted themselves back into order as full consciousness crept in and he groaned in chagrin.

"Legolas?" Aragorn’s voice was soft and Legolas turned his head gingerly onto the soft fabric he was resting on to look at him. The Ranger stirred, leaning forward to meet his deep blue eyes. "How do you feel?"

"Strange," Legolas admitted reluctantly. "I did something hideously embarrassing, didn’t I?"

"You fainted."

"As I said I did something hideously embarrassing. Fainted! I have never done that...."

Legolas’ dizzy effort to sit up was firmly thwarted by Aragorn’s firm hand on his shoulder pressing him back down into the folds of his cloak.

"There’s no need to rush. We’re not going anywhere until Gandalf gets here and takes a look at you. Have you eaten anything strange?"

"Apart from Gimli’s cooking, I do not think so."

Aragorn shook his head, oddly reassured by the complaint. "Drunk anything you shouldn’t have?"

Legolas’ eyes widened in hurt. "No. I am almost sure I have not the over hang...."

"Hangover, Legolas, hangover," Aragorn chuckled.

"Oh, yes..." Legolas reached up to smooth back his hair then paused, startled to realise that his hair actually needed smoothing. It felt distinctly ruffled and his head hurt under the pressure of his fingertips...

"Legolas, you’re not listening to me..."

"I apologise. I was distracted."

"Yes....you’re not yourself.."

"I am someone else?"

Aragorn eyed him dubiously and leaned forward, pressing his own hand across the Elf’s forehead. With an indignant hiss, Legolas pulled sharply away, seizing his wrist in a grip that was almost painful. "Well, you don’t seem feverish," the Ranger said mildly, as he eased his squished hand free and managed not to wince. "You’d better get some rest."

"I don’t...."

"Yes, you do. Don’t argue," Aragorn smiled ruefully. "I do out rank you, Prince Legolas."

Legolas sniffed at that and turned over, burrowing down into his cloak with a muttered curse. Aragorn merely chuckled and settled down, folding his own worn cloak around him. He thought that Legolas would stay put and not go wandering off. The Elf tended to prowl at night when he grew bored with waiting for his companions to wake up and do something interesting. Tonight he would have the stoutly locked Dwarven doors to deal with if he did that and Aragorn doubted that he would get them open quietly without help....

* * *

Examining the doors, Legolas sniffed in disgust and tugged his cloak tighter around him. He could have opened them he thought, but not without a great deal of noise and that would have earned him a reproachful scold from Aragorn. Despite the fire, the cave seemed damp to him and he couldn’t settle for long. Sleep, ever a rare commodity for an Elf, eluded him and when he did doze, strange half seen dreams haunted him and woke him.

"Can’t sleep, Elf?" Gimli’s gruff question startled Legolas into a jump and he whipped around to face him, falling into an instinctive defensive stance before he realised it was the Dwarf.

Noting the way the Elf relaxed as he recognised him, Gimli wasn't sure whether to be pleased or annoyed.

"Why are you up?" Legolas demanded.

"Keeping watch."

"From behind solid wood?"

Gimli snorted at the sarcastic response. "No, from the look out. You don't think Dwarves would build a place like this and leave no escape route, do you?"

"That would not be logical."

Gimli hesitated, but Legolas seemed to be agreeing with him so he let it pass. "I only came down because I heard someone moving around...." he said instead, raising an eyebrow at the Elf as he picked up the increase in his body temperature. The Elf was blushing?

"I tripped over Sam’s cooking pot...."

"You tripped...." Gimli choked down a laugh at the Elf’s offended look.

"This place of yours does not agree with me. I shall be glad to leave," Legolas told him abruptly. "It is not happy that I am here."

Gimli frowned, folding his arms across his broad chest. "Feel that, do you?"

"Do you not?"

The Dwarf rubbed his bristling red beard thoughtfully. "Well, now, seems to me that there’s a mite of an atmosphere here. Maybe that’s what’s upsetting you."

"I am not upset."

Gimli cocked his head to one side to eye the Elf huddled in his cloak and hid his smile in his beard. He had already noted that Legolas was uncomfortable about being underground, although he hadn’t particularly noticed that caves bothered him before. Still the Elf was looking so bewildered beneath his bravado that Gimli almost felt a twinge of sympathy for him. "Why don't you come up to the lookout with me?" he suggested blandly. "A bit of fresh air will put you at ease. This way, Elf."

Legolas opened his mouth to argue, but the offer suddenly struck him as tempting and he followed cautiously, uncertain whether or not the Dwarf might plan to trick him.

Gimli however led him to the back of the cave where, behind one of the columns carved from the solid rock, a narrow stairway spiralled upwards. Following the bobbing torch Gimli retrieved from a crack in the rock, Legolas tracked the Dwarf through the shadows until they emerged into a small rough cave that was open to the night air.

Legolas flitted past Gimli to the edge of the rock and breathed deep of the cool night air, inhaling the scent of green growing things and his much loved woodland. From here he could see the trees stretched out before him against the backdrop of a black sky sprinkled with a million sparkling stars.

"Feel better?" Gimli said dryly as he settled himself on his rock. Long use by other Dwarven lookouts had worn it into a comfortable hollow to sit in.

"Yes. Thank you," Legolas murmured and he was too grateful for the fresh air for his response to sound anything but genuine. He took a few more deep breaths until he finally felt calm enough to turn and look at Gimli. "Do you know of this place?" he asked as he sat down, settling against the smooth rock at his back.

"I've heard tell of it," Gimli admitted.

"Why the faces?" Legolas asked curiously.

"Faces?"

"In the rocks. They’re carved everywhere...."

"Ah, those," Gimli was surprised that the Elf had noticed them. He didn't think anyone else had. "Well, lad, do you want to hear a story?"

Legolas quirked an eyebrow at the ‘lad’, but he nodded as he inspected a stray wisp of blond hair. "Dwarf tales tend to be long..." he murmured however.

"Not as long as Elven epics," Gimli shot back. "I’ll edit it. It’s said that long ago Dwarves settled here, seeking a new home where they could live after being driven out of their home territories."

Legolas sniffed but held his tongue, squinting closer at the strand of hair wound around a slim finger. It looked...crumpled...

"Instead the Orcs found and besieged them...."

Legolas’ head came up sharply at that, his eyes suddenly huge and dark. "Orcs?" he echoed. "I thought I heard...."

"You heard something?" Gimli looked sharply towards the cave entrance and reached for his axe.

"Not now. Before...."

"Aye?" Gimli prompted when he hesitated.

"I...never mind. Go on with your tale...."

Gimli scowled at him, wondering if the Elf was taunting him. "It is said that the Dwarves asked for help from the Elves but they refused them, saying that the Dwarves had among them an evil power."

"Did they?" Legolas asked, watching him carefully.

It was tempting to lie but Gimli sighed. They were companions now, a part of the fellowship. He wouldn't have lied to Aragorn. The Elf deserved the same trust. "Aye, they did. A power at least, whether it was evil or not I cannot say. Aquira the witch she was called. She had one of the Rings and she used its powers to save her People. She it was that turned the Orcs into stone and captured them in the walls of this place. It’s said that some nights you can still hear them screaming...."

"That is a horrible story," Legolas exclaimed, shivering. "And the Dwarves stayed here?"

"No, they couldn’t stand the witch much more than they could the Orcs. The ones that survived the massacre upped and left. According to the tale, Aquira stayed here and went mad...."

"It sounds as if she started out that way."

Gimli shrugged. "Or her Ring turned her mind. Who knows? But that’s the story of the faces in the walls."

"There are no faces in these walls." Legolas said with certainty as he looked around him carefully.

"No," Gimli agreed, watching the Elf fold his cloak around him and settle down, turning his face towards the stars and the woods beyond the stone walls. Maybe now he would sleep....

* * *

Frodo shifted restlessly in his sleep, unable to rest for long now that the sounds of movement and conversation from the others had stopped. As ever he could feel the weight of the One Ring pressing heavily against his ribs and he turned over, shifting it until it lay on the ground next to him at the length of its chain. Sometimes he wondered whether it was chained to him or him to it...

It glowed golden now, catching the gleam from the embers of the banked fire. Beautiful yet poisonous...

Closing his eyes, the Hobbit shut out the sight. He didn't want to see the words shining out at him from the Ring ever again...

The grate of stone of stone disturbed him from a doze a few minutes later and he opened bleary eyes, mentally fumbling his way awake.

The touch of cold stone clamping down heavily on his shoulder made him yell in shock and twist, struggling to tear free from the burly stone arm that had emerged from the wall behind him. The fingers dug in, attempting to drag him close. Before his terrified eyes, the stone seemed to ripple as a face swam up from within it, the heavy brows and revolting features of an Orc emerging....

Aragorn bellowed in rage as he exploded from his cloak, wielding his sword vengefully. It clanged off the stone arm, striking sparks. The stone face moaned, fangs snapping as it relentlessly tugged at Frodo,

Dropping his sword, Aragorn resorted to brute force, prying at the stony fingers.

Across the cave, Boromir plucked Pippin away from blindly groping hands, tossing him back towards the fire and then lunging to help Merry free Sam from the grip on his ankle. All around the walls a forest of hands and arms and legs emerged from the stone, swimming up from within the depths and grasping futilely at the air...

Legolas flashed into the cave and sprang to help Aragorn, his Elvish strength added to the Ranger’s helping him tear the stone hand’s grip free of Frodo’s shoulder. Gimli had gone to help the others, his powerful axe shearing through the hand that held Sam and leaving a blindly waving stump behind. The hand grasping Sam’s ankle crumbled to dust as Boromir scooped the Hobbit up and carried him away from the walls.

Following Aragorn as he carried Frodo to the fire, Legolas yelped as a bone crushing grip seized on his ankle. He went down as the hand tripped him, other arms bursting up from the floor to grab at his arms and legs....

Shoving Frodo at Boromir, Aragorn bounded back to help his friend and found Gimli beside him. Furiously twisting, Legolas had succeeded in getting one arm free when a burly arm shot up out of the rock beside his head and clamped down, locking tight across his throat and cutting off the Elf’s breathing.

"Aragorn! There’s too many of them!" Boromir yelled, kicking at a hand questing after Frodo. The Ringbearer had gone to Sam’s side and was propping him up with his good shoulder under his arm.

"The lookout’ll be safe," Gimli panted, concentrating on hacking stone rather than Elf.

"Get the Hobbits upstairs to the lookout!" Aragorn urged Boromir as he struggled to keep the stone arm from choking Legolas. The Elf’s eyes were wide and more than a little wild as he fought against the hands pulling him down. Aragorn could feel the stone seeming to melt under his knees, sucking him down into the floor.

"I’ll not leave you...."Boromir protested, chopping at the hands sprouting around his feet.

"Boromir! Not now! Get Frodo away...."

Boromir swore but obeyed, bundling the Hobbits towards the stairway and swinging around him savagely to keep the limbs at bay. Once moving, the Hobbits had less trouble than Boromir, their small size and speed enabling to dodge where he was tripped and clawed. Merry and Pippin instinctively protected Sam and Frodo, nipping around them and managing to divert the hands into clutching at them as the stone sensed their light footsteps....

"Gimli...." Aragorn began.

"They don't bother me. You go, I’ll save the bloody Elf...." Gimli didn't seem to be having any trouble with melting floors as he chopped at the stone arms, breaking them off where he could. Legolas glared at him and Gimli grinned. "Aye, twist your tail to be grateful to a Dwarf won’t it..."

Legolas gurgled in sudden panic, jerking his head to one side as an Orc face appeared beside his head. It strained to pull free of the floor, diamond fangs glinting as they snapped, seeking Elven blood....

The Dwarf put a foot on a stony elbow and bent it back, snapping it off and tossing it aside where it turned to dust that melted back into the floor.

Fangs snapped and Legolas hissed as a quick jerk saved his throat from being punctured by a bare fraction. Gimli planted a booted foot on its stony forehead to force it back.

"Ach! That does it!" Gimli bellowed and he grabbed Aragorn’s sword, swinging it up and stabbing it point down between the stony globes of the Orc’s eyes.

"That’s no good...." Aragorn protested. "You can’t....!"

"Watch me!" Gimli growled as he braced the sword and swung up his axe, smacking the haft down on the hilt with all the power of his brawny arms. The sword went in like a knife into butter, grating through solid rock. The face froze in mid snap then fractured, cracking like old pottery....

Yanking the sword free with a twist, Gimli drove it into the arm choking the Elf and slammed his axe down again, chiselling deep into the rock. The arm snapped off and Legolas sucked in a great whoop of air. As Gimli turned to the next gripping arm, setting up a rhythm of swing and chop, swing and chop....

Legolas twisted abruptly and kicked, wrenching his ankle out of the last grip. Aragorn pushed his hands under his shoulders, heaving at him until the suction of the melting rock was broken and the Elf came free with the sound of grating stone. Legolas rolled, pulling his legs free as a wave of stone seemed to surge up to flow over him. He rolled, lunging unsteadily to his feet as Aragorn dodged a hand groping at his foot.

"This way!" Gimli barked and headed for the stairway to the lookout.

Grabbing Legolas, Aragorn manhandled him after the Dwarf, bundling him briskly through the forest of hands clawing silently at them through the darkness.

A bloodied, breathless Boromir was waiting for them on the bottom step, the Hobbits clustered safely in the stairwell behind them. He retreated as they came up, grabbing Legolas’ arm and pushing the Elf upwards after the Hobbits, leaving Aragorn and Gimli to bring up the rear.

Staggering wearily out into the lookout cave, they sank to the floor one by one as they realised the stone floor was staying quiet around them, neither hands or faces emerging to attack.

"Can they follow us up here?" Merry asked warily as he went to peer down the darkened well of the stairs.

"No. ‘Tis down there they were cursed," Gimli said gloomily, casting a look over at Frodo. The Hobbit was gingerly feeling his abused shoulder as he knelt beside Sam. "It’ll be what out young friend here carried that woke them. By morning they’ll be quiet again and we can leave..."

"They were seeking the ring?" Legolas asked softly as he rubbed his bruised arms.

"Aye. They leave me alone because I'm a Dwarf..." Gimli paused, looking up at Aragorn as the Ranger loomed over him.

"My sword...." Aragorn said dryly.

"Oh aye, a fine weapon. But you’ll need to hone it...." Gimli said cheerfully as he handed the sword back to him and gave his own axe an affectionate pat. "You should get yourself a decent axe. Now that’s what I call a proper weapon...."

"Terrible way to treat my sword," Aragorn complained, inspecting it gloomily.

"Terrible way to treat an axe," Gimli retorted, breathing hard.

"Terrible way to treat an Elf...." Legolas muttered and gave them both a hurt glare of offended dignity when they burst out laughing...

* * *

The following morning Gimli was the first down the stairs to inspect the lower cavern. Legolas followed him down, stepping as lightly as an uneasy fawn.

They had spent an uneasy night in the lookout cave. Gradually the grating, clawing sounds of stony fingers scrabbling at the rock had fallen silent and Aragorn had ordered them all to rest, , each of them taking it in turns to watch the stairs.

At the Dwarf’s signal, Legolas now stopped on the bottom step, watching as Gimli prowled across the floor, prodding with his axe at the odd rocky ripple that had appeared in what had been a smooth stone floor.

"It looks like frozen water...." Legolas observed softly.

"Aye, like the rocks melted then froze again," Gimli agreed, murmuring under his breath, "I remember the stone gardens of home....."

"Gardens?" Legolas stepped cautiously onto the floor and paused, waiting to see if anything grabbed at him.

Gimli grimaced, scolding himself for having forgotten the Elf’s sharp hearing. "Aye, gardens. We use rocks and sand to make it look like a dry sea, we rake the sand to make it look like waves and currents around islands. Much like this...."

"That sounds...."

Gimli tensed, waiting to be insulted.

"....restful," Legolas continued thoughtfully. "Such would be a good place to meditate. Do you meditate, Gimli?"

"Can’t say as I do."

"It is very good for controlling one’s temper," Legolas murmured.

"Are you suggesting I'm bad tempered?" Gimli rumbled.

The Elf patted his shoulder very gently. "You have a fierce temper," he said, continuing as Gimli started to growl. "And I am grateful that you put it to such good use against the....creatures last night."

Gimli blinked, his jaw dropping as the Elf wafted past him towards the doors.

"Help me open these, will you? The others will want to get outside...."

"Not as much as you, I’d bet," Gimli grumbled but he stomped over to help the Elf swing open the doors.

The great door rumbled and complained as the two of them dragged the first one open. As Gimli stepped back to go to the other one, a shadow fell across him and he made a hasty grab for his axe.

"Good morning, Gimli," said Gandalf, beaming down at him as he appeared in the gap between the doors. "The rain’s let up at last. Any chance of breakfast? Everyone all right? Good, good....Ah, Legolas, good morning to you too, young elf. And....." Gandalf paused, taking in the Elf’s appearance. "Whatever happened to you, lad? You look.....mussed...."

Gimli frowned, looking at the Elf in exasperation. Legolas never looked so much as ruffled. He obviously had a magic spell tucked away somewhere to clean and press his clothes....

Except if it was a spell, it was no longer functioning. Used to the somewhat scruffy appearance of the travellers and not really given to taking much notice of the way any of them really looked, he hadn’t paid much attention to Legolas. Now that Gandalf had mentioned it however, he realised that the magician was actually being polite. Legolas looked terrible, more like he had been on a three day bender and then dragged through the traditional hedge backwards rather than if he had merely slept in a cave.

"I am fine. There is no need to concern yourself."

"We were attacked by Orcs last night..." Gimli said hastily, wanting to distract Gandalf without quite knowing why.

"Orcs? I saw no signs...."

"Stone Orcs, created by a curse...." Gimli explained as Legolas slipped past them, disappearing into the soft grey light of morning towards the woods.

"Curse?" Gandalf’s eyes narrowed and he looked sharply around him, taking in the stone columns. Gimli could tell he could see the faces in the stone. "Aquira...." he hissed.

"Oh, you’ve heard of her, have you?" Gimli said in a desperate attempt to be jovial.

"Oh, Gimli, what have you done?" Gandalf moaned.

"Me? Why me? All I did was get directions to somewhere to shelter for the night. What’s it got to do with me?"

"You knew about the curse?"

"Yes, well, aye....But that was long ago and aimed at the Orcs...."

"And Elves!"

"It was?" Gimli winced.

"Aquira loathed and detested the Elves long before they refused to fight the Orcs for her. This is not good, not good at all."

"What isn’t?" Aragorn had come down to greet the magician on hearing his voice. Frodo had followed him, eager to see his old friend. Where he went, Sam followed, Merry and Pippin followed him and a muttering Boromir brought up the rear rather than be left out.

"The curse that was put on this place. You’d better tell me the whole story before I go and find Legolas...."

* * *

Frowning to himself as he finished off his fried bread Gimli watched the even sweep, sweep, sweep of the whetstone as Aragorn sharpened his sword back to razor sharpness. The Ranger certainly took good care of his weapon. Gimli wouldn't have liked to use his chisel trick with some warrior’s swords. On the other side of the clearing, Boromir was mending the pony’s lead rein for Sam, watched with interest with an ever chatty Pippin.

"Legolas!" Gandalf’s bellow echoed from the woods where he had gone in search of the Sindaren. Aragorn’s head came up a second before Legolas shot out of the trees like an arrow from his own bow. He stopped for one split second, scanning the clearing with hawk sharp eyes before zeroing in on Gimli.

"No, Legolas. Gimli, come here...." Aragorn bounded forward to intercept the Elf as he took off. Legolas went around him as if he was no more than a pebble in a stream.

"Uh oh...." Gimli barely had time to dodge and roll off the rock he was sitting on before Legolas reached him. But the Elf was too quick for him. Before the Dwarf could get behind Aragorn for protection Legolas was on him. To Gimli’s horrified astonishment he felt himself lifted off his feet to Legolas’ eye level. His gaze was as fierce as any homicidal predator that Gimli had ever seen; psychopathic even....

It was a very uncomfortable feeling to have about someone he had started to think of as not only a friend but as no personal threat at all....

And me without me axe....he thought, sincerely wishing he hadn’t put the weapon down while he ate his breakfast.

"Put the Dwarf down," Legolas," Aragorn commanded as he belatedly reached them.

"No....." Legolas half purred, half snarled.

"Excellent idea. I don’t want to have to hurt him..." Gimli growled then winced as Legolas’ fingers clenched tighter, catching skin though his clothing.

Gandalf panted into the clearing, leaning heavily on his staff. "Nippy creatures, Elves," he wheezed. "Legolas, put him down. I told you he doesn’t know...."

"No...." Legolas repeated, half closing his eyes in dreamy pleasure.

The way the Elf was watching him, reminded Gimli of a cat with a mouse.

"Fine. You’ve caught him. Now what are you going to do with him?" Aragorn asked sarcastically.

"Skin him....." Legolas purred, his eyes blazing wide again.

"Is that his idea of a joke?" Boromir asked dryly.

"Nooo...." Aragorn said slowly, eyeing the Elf dubiously. "I think he actually means that...."

"I could kick him where it hurts," Gimli suggested.

"He’d snap your neck in reflex," Aragorn warned.

"Oh yeah?"

"Oh yes....I caught it, I can kill it...." Legolas whispered to him softly, adding sharp enough to make Gimli jump, "Snap...."

The Hobbits who had drawn close enough to watch anxiously also jumped in unison. Their movement deflected Legolas a tiny fraction and he looked at them, reading the anguish in Frodo’s large eyes and Sam’s worried expression.

Boromir exchanged a look with Aragorn, absently hefting the rock he had picked up.

"Don’t even think it," Legolas snapped at him and without any warning at all, dropped Gimli. The Dwarf hit the ground with a graceless thud and an outraged glare up at the slender Elf. Legolas turned his back on him and stalked away, bristling with fury with every step.

"I could be wrong, but he seems to be upset about something," Pippin commented.

Merry groaned and hit him, scowling at him in exasperation.

"I’d better go and talk to him," Aragorn sighed as Boromir helped Gimli back to his feet.

"Leave him alone for a few minutes at least to calm down," Gandalf said quietly. "I hope you all realise how lucky you all are."

"Lucky?!" Gimli echoed sarcastically as he rubbed his chest.

"Yes, he could have killed you all last night when the curse hit him. If he had been anything other than a Royal Mirkwood Elf he’d have slaughtered you all while you slept."

"Hummph!" snorted Gimli.

"Aquira’s curse was two fold, Master Dwarf," Gandalf snapped at him however. "She turned the Orcs to stone and she cursed any Elf that entered under that archway with madness. The curse has been weakened by time otherwise even Legolas’ Mirkwood origins wouldn't help him to defeat it. Even unconsciously...."

"Why not kill any Elf that entered?" Merry argued. "Wouldn't that have been easier?"

Gandalf smiled sadly. "Because she was twisted in her mind, Merry. Madness and entropy are feared by any Elf....."

"By any sane person," murmured Sam, gazing sadly after the Elf.

"Can we do anything?" Boromir asked.

"Yes, how do we help?" Pippin pressed.

"By keeping him calm and humouring him. He is likely to behave a little oddly...."

"He’s an Elf. He’s always odd...." Gimli muttered, hurrying on when they all gave him a disapproving look. "That’s all very well, but I think Boromir meant how can we break the curse for him?"

"I was coming to that." Gandalf rubbed one hand across his forehead and took a firmer grip on his staff. "There is a way, but it will delay us...." His eyes fell on Frodo who straightened up instinctively. "I could take him...."

"Legolas needs us," the Hobbit said firmly. "If we refuse to help, then we are doing as the Ring wants. And we should all stay together...."

"Well said," Aragorn said quietly. "Gandalf?"

"There’s a spring that is said to have the power to break curses. We must take him there."

"Does he know?"

"I explained it to him. But he was a little focused on revenge...." Gandalf gave Gimli an embarrassed glance.

"Then I’d better go stop him being noble and going off on his own," Aragorn said briskly.

"No," Gimli interrupted grimly. "I’d better be the one to do that. I owe him an apology...."

A strangled scream from Legolas broke the awkward silence that fell after the Dwarf’s words. Aragorn was the first to move, streaking across the clearing to where Legolas was standing under a tree and staring at something in his hand.

"What is it? Are you all right?" the Ranger exclaimed in alarm as he reached the Elf.

Legolas looked up at him mournfully, plaintively holding up handful of matted golden hair. "I have split ends...."

* * *

"Here....." Aragorn helped Legolas back to his feet for the third time, brushing him off as the Elf straightened his grubby tunic. As the morning went on, Legolas seemed to have lost all coordination, becoming as clumsy and unsteady in the forest as any untrained town dweller.

"The tree attacked me," Legolas said miserably, dabbing at a cut on his cheek where a vicious branch had barely missed taking out his eye. "This has never happened to me before...."

"I think you’re...."

"Distraught?" Legolas suggested with a hint of sarcasm.

"I was going to say imagining things...."

"Oh that helps," Gimli muttered as he came back to check on them in time to hear the comment.

"I don’t think he’s imagining it," Sam put in, offering Legolas a handful of leaf balm to soothe the cut. "I’m pretty sure that root moved to trip him...."

They all eyed the root looping up out of the earth suspiciously, but it remained woodenly unmoved.

Legolas sighed heavily and reluctantly dropped the herbs Sam had handed him. "Thank you, Sam. But I think the way things are going, any herbs will take my skin off if I used them...." He looked up at the leaves whispering maliciously overhead and sighed. "I don't think the forest recognises me any more. It senses the curse...."

"Don’t think about it," Pippin suggested.

"You never think about anything," Merry muttered and got glared at by his friend.

"Why don’t we catch up with the others?" Aragorn said hastily, shooing the Hobbits along ahead of him.

Gimli stood stoically beside Legolas, studying the Elf silently. "You know, I think this curse is affecting all of us in one way or another; except maybe me," he said conversationally as Legolas finally started to move again.

"You mean I'm affecting everyone."

"No, I meant what I said. It seems like there was an overspill from the curse that’s making everyone bad tempered...."

"Ah...." Legolas murmured, ducking hastily as a whippy branch suddenly slipped loose and swung at him. Gimli caught it and firmly held it back until the Elf was past. "Thank you," Legolas said through gritted teeth.

"Least I could do," Gimli answered, stomping along beside the silently withdrawn and obviously irritable Elf. "Legolas?"

"What?" Legolas snapped.

"I wouldn't say this to any other Elf, but, if it makes you feel better, go ahead and insult me. You were almost getting good at it...."

* * *

"Yes, but don’t you think he’s a bit....spoilt?"

Aragorn turned his head slightly to look at Boromir in astonishment. "Spoilt?" he echoed.

"Well, Elves are always a bit prissy, don’t you think?"

Aragorn opened his mouth to hotly deny that then paused. Having been raised by Elves, he held less superstitious beliefs about them than some and they held little awe for him. They might give the appearance of ethereal beings subsisting on light and nectar, but he knew that they were as real and capable of making mistakes as anyone else. True, some of them were pain in the proverbial, thoroughly convinced they were members of a superior species – any number of Lothlorien Elves sprang to mind – but Legolas had never been one of them, even though as the Prince of Mirkwood and heir to throne, he had more right than many. The Sindarin was frequently the despair of King Thranduil with his total lack of interest in behaving like a proper Prince of the realm.

"Legolas isn’t," the Ranger said in the end.

"Oh, I don’t know. He does tend to waft...."

"He doesn’t do it on purpose. It’s the way he is. You can’t ask an Elf to be clumsy..."

"They’d probably do it gracefully if you did...." Boromir, who frequently felt large and clumsy alongside the slender Elf and the quicksilver Hobbits, muttered.

There was a loud splash from behind them and a sudden explosion of Elvish.

"Then again," chuckled the Gondar man.

Aragorn winced and, ignoring the grin on Boromir’s face, turned to look back down the track. "What’s going on back there? Is everyone all right?"

"Legolas fell in a puddle...." called back Gimli.

"A big puddle...." added Merry cautiously.

"A big, wet muddy puddle...." Pippin chirped brightly.

"Ah! Leave him, Legolas!" Gandalf said sharply. "It isn’t his fault...."

"This path is booby trapped!" Legolas wailed in distress.

Aragorn sighed and slumped. Boromir patted him understandingly on the shoulder.

"You’d know better than I, are there are any other Elves around here? Maybe they can help?" he suggested.

"Oh, I wish there were. But Gandalf’s suggestion is probably the best chance we have."

"What if the spring doesn’t break the curse?"

"I don’t know," Aragorn admitted wearily. "Gandalf’s worried."

"So are you," Boromir said softly. "Tell me, this curse is making him miserable, but is that so terrible? He’ll get used to being....scruffy in time. That may be useful. Right now, he stands out as an Elf. If the Orcs were to think him human...."

"He may not look like himself, but he still smells like an Elf to an Orc," Aragorn answered grimly. "For now, he resists the curse, but gradually it will get stronger as he gets tired. The madness will increase until he cannot control it. What then? I promised Thranduil and his mother that I’d guard him."

"You promised....? When? Did I miss this?"

Aragorn smiled faintly. "Elves rarely have children. When they do they dote on them and give them far greater freedom than we give our children. Legolas should by rights be in Mirkwood being trained as a Prince, instead he roams as wide as any Ranger. Thranduil lets him because he is still young, but if anything happened to him...." The Ranger grimaced. "I’d never be able to face his mother...."

Boromir gazed at him in fascination. "What? She’s an ogre?"

"She is as fair as Legolas. A bright beautiful star indeed. But she’s an absolute terror with any kind of weapon...." Aragon grinned despite himself. "Now, there’s an Elf you could never call prissy...." He broke off at the sudden grin crossing Boromir’s face and turned to look at what he had seen.

Legolas came toiling up the path, stalking in as dignified a manner as he could while dripping with equal parts mud and water. The others were following at a wary distance, reluctant to be in range the next time he tripped.

"Mud packs?" Boromir said mildly.

Legolas came to a halt and gave him a look of utter loathing.

"Good for the complexion I hear," the Gondor man continued with a wicked smile. "And you are starting to look a little....wrinkled...."

Legolas snarled and took two short legged stiff steps towards him before he brought himself to a sharp halt and looked up at Aragorn as the Ranger stepped between them.

Boromir chuckled and held up both hands. "No, no, I’m sorry, Legolas. I apologise for being cruel. But to see an Elf so...bedraggled...."

"Yes, very funny," Legolas growled. "Fortunately, I only look like this because of a curse, what’s your excuse?"

Boromir’s jaw dropped and his eyes hardened as he started to scowl.

"I think Legolas wins that one on points," murmured Merry to Pippin.

Aragorn groaned and gave Gandalf a piteous look. The wizard shook his head and leaned on his staff.

"I think it’s time we all took a bit of a rest," he suggested. "It’s still a long way to the spring and we’re all tired."

"And none of us got much sleep last night," Aragorn agreed, eager to placate both the Elf and the Gondor man. "Why don’t we make camp here?"

Legolas darted a quick look round. "Here? Not in a cave?"

"No caves," Aragorn promised soothingly.

"Good," Legolas nodded briskly at that and moved away. "I hear water," he added, glancing back at them expectantly.

"Lead the way," Aragorn said easily and then gave Gimli the nod to follow the Elf as he disappeared into the bushes rather than let him completely out of their sight.

* * *

Night slid in across the land, oozing through the forest like black honey. The travellers had camped and rested for the early part of the afternoon, then moved on until dark, stopping when Boromir located a suitably concealed and defendable site for the night.

Aragorn had allowed them to risk a small fire as much to boost their spirits as to cook something hot to eat and drink. They were all tired and in low spirits, but Legolas was worryingly depressed and had slunk off on his own into the darkness, having refused to eat anything and muttering about hacking off his by now badly tangled hair.

"Don’t you think we should leave him alone?" Boromir asked quietly, accompanying the Ranger when Aragorn finally decided he was worried enough about the Elf to and go and look for him.

"Why?"

"I don’t know. Maybe he wants to...sulk?"

"Sulk?" Aragorn echoed peevishly.

"Meditate then or whatever. He didn't look to be in the mood for company."

"No, that’s what bothers me. Gimli’s gone off as well."

"They won’t hurt each other. For all the snarling they do, they’re not exactly enemies any more."

"I know, I know and I wouldn't worry under normal circumstances. But these aren’t normal circumstances. Then we’d know where they both are from the screaming and insults. Right now, it’s too quiet...."

"I know what you mean..." Boromir fell silent, the two of them picking their way silently through the trees. "Aragorn?"

"Hmmh?" Aragorn answered absently, his attention drawn by a faint glow through the trees ahead. It had the misty soft quality of Elvish light.

"You obviously know Legolas a lot better than I do, do you think....That is....Is it likely that he’d....uh....."

"You sound like Pippin," Aragorn said irritably. "Say what you mean."

Boromir glared at him. "All right then, I will. Is Legolas likely to off himself if he gets depressed enough?"

Aragorn gaped. "That’s a bit....bald...." he said weakly.

"Yes, but is he? And are you going to object if I go yanking the knife out of his hand if he does something stupid like turn on us?"

"Don't be daft," the Ranger snorted. "Elves don't do that sort of thing!"

"You’re the one saying he could lose control."

Aragorn met his eyes with a flash of anger, instead of the mockery he expected he saw only the grim determination to do the right thing and a great deal of sorrow. For all his hard shell, he realised, Boromir did care. He was probably so used to losing friends in battle, that he had hardened himself against getting involved with anyone else he might lose. "No," he said softly. "I won’t stop you. And I do not think he will harm himself deliberately, not unless he thinks he is a danger to us. He must not be allowed to think that. Agreed?"

"Agreed," Boromir said solemnly and spat on his hand, offering it to Aragorn.

Aragorn clasped his fingers and shook on it. "This way," he said then and led the way towards the flickering glow worm light ahead of them.

There was a tiny clearing ahead of them, the murmur of a spring tumbling from the cliff face covering the faint sounds of their approach.

"There are many such places in the woods," Legolas was saying quietly, his voice sad. "Places where Elves once came for the sheer joy of exploring. They are forgotten now. Elves stay in their own lands. Men think them places of magic and mystery, some think they have power...."

"Some of them do," Gimli answered steadily. "The spring Gandalf takes us to does."

"I wish I was so certain of that."

"We can all trust Gandalf. He’s an irascible old goat, but I’d sooner have him at my back than some namby-pamby Elf.....Hrrumph, present company excepted, that is."

"Ah, so you do not consider me a namby-pamby Elf?" Legolas responded and his voice had lightened a fraction with amusement.

Gimli snorted. "Nah, stuck up and too prissy for your own good at times, but I’ll not deny you’re handy with a bow...."

"Prissy?" Boromir murmured sweetly in Aragorn’s ear.

"Oh shut up," the Ranger shot back as he gingerly pushed aside a branch to peer into the clearing and see what the Elf and Dwarf were up to.

Legolas was sitting cross legged on the ground, drawing ancient Elvish symbols in the dirt with a twig. He had the soft unconscious glow of an Elf responding to a leyline site. Gimli was standing behind him, intent on combing out the tangles in the Elf’s starlight hair and braiding it into a plait.

"There now elf, you’re starting to look pretty again..."

"Elves do not look pretty," Legolas sniffed.

"I think they’re bonding," Aragorn said softly, relaxing a fraction. Leylines might well be able to help ease the effects of the curse if Legolas could draw on their power for a while.

"Can’t be. I don't see any bruises," Boromir snorted as he peered over the Ranger’s shoulder.

"Oh shut up...." Aragorn snapped back. He felt Gimli’s eyes on him and froze, waiting for the sarcastic comment. Instead, the Dwarf rolled his eyes at him and jerked his head, indicating that they should withdraw. After a second, the Ranger nodded and backed up, smirking slightly as Boromir cursed as he stepped squarely on his booted toes. Boromir grabbed him by the shoulder, growling at him...

"Speaking of bonding...."

* * *

"Where were you?" Merry asked, looking up at Pippin as the younger Hobbit slipped back into the clearing a few minutes later.

"I followed Strider and Boromir," Pippin chirped as he dropped onto his blanket beside his friend. "They were bonding...."

"Bonding?!" Gandalf nearly choked on his pipe at Pippin’s meaningful tone.

"Yes, why?" Pippin gazed at him innocently.

"I uh, that is...." Gandalf stared back at him, the ancient wizard for once at a loss.

"I don’t think he means bonding bonding," Merry said helpfully, aware of his ears starting to heat up.

"Well, they were watching Legolas and Gimli and they said they were bonding. Then Aragorn and Boromir started rolling around in the grass...."

Gandalf made a strangled sound and gave up on his pipe. "That is most certainly the last thing we need!" he exclaimed. "Aragorn! Boromir! Get back here this instant!"

The Hobbits all winced at his volume.

"Uh, Gandalf, Strider said there were Orcs around...." Frodo said anxiously.

The wizard waved a hand at him. "Don’t worry about them. They won’t hear me unless I want them to...." Before he could yell again however a dishevelled Aragorn closely followed by Boromir rushed into the clearing.

"What is it? Orcs?" Strider demanded.

Gandalf studied him, taking in the red mark on his cheek and the fact that Boromir’s nose was bleeding. "Ah," he said sarcastically. "That kind of bonding...."

"Huh?" Aragorn gave him a blank look.

"Pippin said you were bonding," Merry said lightly, smirking.

"Huh?" Aragorn gave him a blank look as well, then shot a puzzled look of query at Gandalf. The amusement on the wizard’s face gave him his answer and the Ranger started to blush furiously as he caught on.

Boromir however burst out laughing and ruffled the Hobbit’s curly hair. "I have better taste than that!" he chuckled. "Bonding indeed."

Pippin gazed up at him in confusion but was interrupted by the arrival of Legolas and Gimli. He nudged Merry in the ribs. "What’s bonding mean then?" he hissed.

Merry smirked. "Why don't you ask Aragorn?" Pippin frowned and made a mental note to do as his friend suggested the first chance he got.

"Leggy here said he heard you yelling, Gandalf," the Dwarf was explaining.

"As well as Aragorn and Boromir...." Legolas murmured, studying the two humans with obvious interest.

"That’s because...." Pippin began.

"Why were you rolling around in the grass with Boromir?" Legolas sidled up to Aragorn and purred innocently at him. Aragorn went red and glared at him, realising the sharp eared Elf had heard everything.

"That will do," Gandalf said sternly and added cautiously, "You look....better Legolas...."

Legolas put a self conscious hand to his hair, now bound firmly into a plait rather than loose in a dandelion explosion of golden fluff. "Gimli did it...."

"Elf mane and pony’s tail are pretty much the same when it comes to a bit of plaiting," Gimli commented cheerfully. "Now sit yourself down and have some of that soup Sam made us. That’ll soon make you feel better...."

* * *

Standing on the river bank, Aragorn lifted one hand to shade his eyes against the sun as he gazed towards the far bank. Several feet below the water gurgled past cheerfully, swirling and eddying in a deep pool before surging off gleefully again.

"Too deep for the Hobbits to cross," Boromir observed dubiously as he stood beside him.

"Legolas says there’s a ford further up," Aragorn answered.

"Maybe we should push him in...." Boromir muttered under his breath.

"What?" The Ranger eyed him suspiciously.

"What’s my excuse indeed? He deserves to be pushed in. Curse is one thing, but even so...." Boromir grumbled, holding a grudge.

Aragorn hesitated, torn between scolding him and agreeing with him. Legolas had made a couple of pointed remarks about when he had last been in contact with any soap. "It’s not as if we’re within reach of a bath...."

"Pointy ears needs a good soaking. Might cheer him up a bit...."

Sitting on a rock while he pried a stone out of his boot, Gimli caught the way Legolas stiffened and turned his head towards the two men on the river bank. An alertness came over the Elf that Gimli hadn’t seen since before they entered Aquira’s cave and he started to move, flitting across the rough ground like a fresh breeze. Catching his intention, Gimli opened his mouth to cry a warning then shrugged and closed it again. He had heard Boromir’s comment as well as the Elf had. And since Aragorn hadn’t disagreed with him...

At the last second Aragorn felt the presence of the Elf behind him, but by then it was far too late. Legolas slapped them both in the small of the back, catapulting them both of the bank and into the deep water with a display of Elven strength that sent them well clear of any handholds on the bank.

"Pointy ears? Push me in will you? Don’t forget to scrub behind your ears! You could grow potatoes back there!" Legolas growled, bristling with outrage as he stood over them on the bank and watched them flounder and gasp in the cold water. "Humans! Hah!"

Turning on his heel, he stalked off along the bank, head held high and plait bobbing with every stride. He didn’t quite break an ankle when he tripped on a tree root and determinedly kept going, deliberately not limping.

Stamping his foot firmly into his boot, Gimli got up and ambled over to peer down at the two men in the water.

"Gimli! Throw us a rope or something! This water’s bloody freezing!" Boromir bellowed.

"Now, I don’t think I can do that," Gimli said solemnly. "Gandalf said we weren’t to upset the Elf and I think pulling you out would upset him."

"It’ll bloody upset me if you don’t!" Boromir roared.

The Dwarf shrugged. "I do believe I see a bunch of soapwort down there," he said complacently. "You should be able to get up a good lather with that...."

"You little....!" Boromir began and Aragorn slapped a hasty hand over his mouth.

"Enjoy your bath, it’s richly deserved..." Gimli growled and stomped off, following the Elf up river.

"You flaming idiot!!" Aragorn snarled at Boromir as the Gondor man shoved him off. "Now see what you’ve done! Do you have to antagonise everyone?!"

"Ah shut up!" Boromir snapped and shoved him.

"Don’t push me!" Outraged, Aragorn shoved back. It had been a very long time since anyone had failed to show him respect and he wasn’t used to it.

"Well, don’t push me!" Boromir pushed him back.

"You started it!" Aragorn grabbed him and the next thing either knew they were underwater and grappling furiously.

Gazing down at the churning bubbles, Gandalf sighed heavily, watching as first one man then the other surfaced.

"What are they doing?" Frodo asked in bewilderment, stopping beside the wizard as the others trotted on up river.

"Establishing alpha male," Gandalf answered.

"What?"

"Who’s top man."

"You are. Besides Legolas and Gimli don't seem to care who leads..."

Gandalf glanced at him and chuckled, resting his arm across the Hobbit’s shoulders. "There can be only one leader between men. Better if they decide who that is now than later. It’s a human machismo thing."

Frodo frowned, baffled by the explanation. "Shouldn’t we pull them out?"

"I rather think they can do that on their own. If they bother to look round, they’ll see there’s a bit of a beach not far up."

"You know everything, don’t you?" Frodo said, awed.

Gandalf smiled at him sadly. "No, Frodo, not everything. Not nearly enough in fact...."

* * *

An hour later Aragorn and Boromir sat shivering on the beach beside the small fire Sam had made. They were both wrapped in blankets while their clothes, propped on a motley collection of twigs and branches, dried over the fire. Gandalf was talking to them sternly which might well explain while both men looked miserable. Gimli had taken Frodo, Merry, and Pippin foraging.

"....because Boromir, I will turn you both into toads. That’s why...." Gandalf’s exasperated voice floated across the clearing,

Legolas smiled faintly. He was perched on a rock by the river side, alternately giving the humans disgusted glances and watching the river itself. He had already produced a handful of fish by the simple expedient of shooting them and hauling them in on a line attached to his arrow.

"Are you sure that isn’t cheating?" Sam asked as he sat on the sand beside him, watching intently.

"I might miss," Legolas said mildly. He was fond of Sam. The Hobbit’s firm insistence that he was only a gardener appealed to him. Sam had a quiet, deep soul that was like a balm to the troubled Elf.

"And pigs might fly, Mister Legolas."

Legolas smiled at him. "You do not have to call me Mister, Sam," he said gently.

Sam gave him a shy smile. "There’s another one there, under that rock...."

"I see him." Legolas studied the shining ripples where the sun shone back off the fast flowing river and then fired. A few seconds later and Sam had another fish to clean for supper.

"I don't see how you can hit them what with all that shining and the ripples..."

"Refraction."

"What’s that? Magic?"

"It is what you call the light shining off the water surface and distorting what lies below. You do not aim at where you see the fish, but where the fish is...."

"Oh...." said Sam who was really none the wiser but terribly impressed by this new Elven talent. "I wasn't sure Elves ate like proper er like Hobbits, you know, when we first met..." he added.

"We don’t eat as much as humans," Legolas said dryly, casting a haughty look over at Aragorn. The Ranger gave him a dirty look in response.

"Or like a Hobbit," Sam agreed with a chuckle. "You don’t eat enough by my way of thinking. Thin as a stick you should be."

"I don’t think I have ever seen a skinny Elf..." Legolas mused.

"Take a look in the river!" Boromir bellowed, then yelped as Gandalf clipped him briskly round the ear. The wizard then lowered his voice and a worried look crossed the men’s faces.

Legolas looked away, knowing what Gandalf was saying. He could feel the curse’s effects like a poisonous pulse beneath his skin. Already his spirit felt...thinner somehow.

"Legolas!" Sam gasped and grabbed sharply at the Elf’s tunic. "Look there...."

Legolas followed the urgent stab of the Hobbit’s pointing finger and responded without thinking, whipping up his bow, notching a bodkin arrow and firing in one smooth movement.

The arrow plucked the goblin out of the tree as it hit it between the eyes, sending it tumbling lifelessly into the fast surging waters of the river as it slithered from the branch it had perched on to watch them...

Aragorn and Boromir were both on their feet, swords in hands as they scanned their surroundings. "Still call him prissy?" Aragorn hissed at the Gondor man. "Could you have made that shot?"

"Oh shut up and let me get my breeches on before we’re attacked by Orcs!"

Aragorn snorted. "A man should be ready and able to fight at any time," he observed pedantically.

"Not with my vital parts hanging about to be hacked off, I ain’t!" Boromir snapped.

"Not much of a target from what I can see," Aragorn retorted.

Boromir glared at him. "That water was bloody cold....And you’re not exactly bursting the seams yourself...."

"Stop it both of you!" Gandalf interrupted impatiently. "This bickering is what I was talking about! It’s the curse, you fools! Pull yourself together....Legolas! Find the others..."

"Indeed," murmured Legolas as he trotted past, obedient to the wizard’s command. "And do get dressed. From what I can see neither of you have anything to boast about compared to any Elf...."

"Oh aye? And how would you know? Which Elf have you been comparing sizes with?" Aragorn groaned and clamped one hand firmly over Boromir’s mouth.

"Live dangerously, why don’t you?" the Ranger hissed.

"Get dressed before a squirrel mistakes your vital parts for nuts. Very small nuts...," Legolas responded without missing a beat, stepped very carefully over a tree root and disappeared into the forest.

Aragorn and Boromir both glared at him as he disappeared from view. "You know, sometimes...." the Ranger growled.

"Yes?" Boromir said dryly.

Aragorn shot a glance at him and despite himself, laughed. "Gandalf’s right. We are bloody fools, bickering like boys at show and tell!"

"Finally...." Gandalf muttered as he strolled down to the water’s edge to join Sam. The Hobbit was anxiously watching the trees across the river as Legolas had told him too, watching for goblin scouts. A practical man, Gandalf patted Sam on the shoulder and started to gather up the forgotten fish. Orcs or not, they still had to eat....

* * *

That branch had hurt, Legolas thought sadly, rubbing his forehead as he picked his way gingerly through the trees into the relative safety of a clearing. A bit lower and it would have had his eye out instead of nearly concussing him.

"Heh, heh, heh, I told you I could smell Elf meat....."

Relative of course was always a, well, relative definition.

Legolas froze, a flash of horror pouring through him as he realised he hadn’t sensed the presence of the Orcs so close, concentrating as he had been on finding Gimli and the Hobbits. He had trotted into the clearing in all innocence, missing the Orcs half concealed among the trees and boulders.

There were three of them, huge hulking brutes with little on their minds except eat and kill. Tattered armour hung around them, forever filthy; their weapons dirty but probably razor sharp. Orcs cared little for appearance, but never neglected a chance to inflict pain.

Normally, Legolas wouldn't have worried about such paltry odds. If the Orcs wanted to kill themselves by fighting him, that was their problem. But with the curse....

On the other hand, he had never in his life cut and run. And he could not, would not risk the lives of his companions. Gimli was good, but if the Orcs caught the scent of the Ring...

"Are you sure it’s an Elf?" the slightly smaller Orc asked. Smaller meant slightly under seven foot instead of the eight footer models flanking it.

"It don’t look like an Elf," said the Orc on the right. He - Legolas assumed it was a he, he wasn't quite sure - was the tallest and had something ghastly hanging from around his neck that looked suspiciously like a severed hand.

"But it smells like an Elf...." the third Orc commented. It had what looked like a bone through its huge nose.

Legolas told them in Elvish where to go and what to do when they got there. The trouble was he always felt that Elvish was a bit too lyrical a language to really swear properly in. It always sounded pretty whatever you said. Human was good, Dwarvish even better – not that he would ever tell Gimli that.

"What did it say?" asked the small Orc.

"No idea. But it sounds like an Elf."

"Kill it or capture it?"

"What’s the point in capturing it?"

"We can torture it for dinner. Tastes better."

"And they does scream nice when you use a red hot iron knife on ‘em..."

"You’re out numbered you know," Legolas told them, irritated by being discussed as if he wasn't there. Next they'd be wondering what recipe to use.... It was almost as bad as the way Gandalf and Aragorn kept whispering behind his back. It wasn’t as if he couldn’t hear them...

Legolas blue eyes widened in surprise as his temper flared white hot as a spill of senseless fury surged through him...

"Huh?" said the small Orc.

"I don’t see no army, do you?" cackled the tallest Orc.

Legolas sighed. It had never really been much of an option that they would give up and go away. Orcs were far too stupid to do that....

"We should kill it and eat it now," said Bonenose. "Otherwise we’ll have to share it with the goblin...."

"Where is the goblin anyway?" grunted Hand.

"About three miles way, assuming he hasn’t sunk yet," commented Legolas and reached for his bow. "Who’s first?"

The three Orcs stared at him, then without another word rushed him, filled with unreasoning rage. The small Orc died first, its head split open by an arrow through the eye. But the other two were too close and were on him before he could draw again. One grabbed the arrow from his hand, wresting it from him while the other tore the bow from his hands.

Legolas let it go and drew his silver swords with the Mithrail edges. The tallest Orc screamed as the blade bisected him from shoulder to hip, his gurgling cry at being opened to the backbone cut off by the second sword slicing his head from his shoulders.

The remaining Orc was more cunning, flinging himself on the Elf and crushing him to the ground with a howl of rage. Huge fangs sought to close on his throat and it died with a sword bursting through its chest and up through its neck.

Grunting and swearing, Legolas rolled it off and tottered shakily to his feet. Orcs were not supposed to get that close to him in a fight....He was sure that was in the rules. They smelt bad enough at a distance, up close....

The ugly cackling sound bewildered him at first and he looked round slowly, uncertain what could make such a foul sound....

And speaking of smells...

He looked round and up...

And up...

And up....

Into the face of the biggest, ugliest Orc he had ever seen....

And it was laughing at him...

Legolas saw red....

"Dirtiest Elf me ever seen..." It giggled madly as it reached for him with one massive, clawed paw.

It was also quite possibly the most stupid....

Legolas sliced the hand off at the wrist and while the Orc was staring in disbelief at the remains of its arm, he darted forward and disembowelled it, then took off its head with a single swing as the huge creature jerked forward at having its body carved open to the backbone....

Sickened by the stench of blood and worse and panting for breath, Legolas looked round wildly, hearing the sound of breathing....

"That’ll teach him to laugh at our Elf...." Boromir chuckled and the note of proprietary pride in his voice made Legolas blink and focus vaguely on him. He was fully dressed and had his sword and shield held at the ready as he scanned the clearing. He looked vaguely disappointed at having nothing to fight.

"Very funny. Legolas? It’s us..." Aragorn called softly, wary of approaching until he was sure they had been recognised..

After a second, Legolas blinked again and relaxed, feeling a violent shiver go through him as he looked around him at the carnage. He looked up at Aragorn as the Ranger lightly touched his shoulder and gave the Elf a concerned look.

"Are you all right?"

"I'm usually much....neater...." Legolas said faintly, doing his level best not to inhale the smell of blood and gore that surrounded him.

"You were outnumbered," Boromir consoled him. "Here’s your bow...."

Legolas sheathed his swords and took it, cuddling the weapon possessively close. "I should have left one alive so we could find out if there are others...." he mourned, fighting the fine trembling that ran though him.

"Four Orcs and a goblin make up a scouting party. I think we’re safe. Let’s get back to the others...." Aragorn soothed.

"The Hobbits and Gimli?"

"Safe. Gimli spotted Orc tracks and brought them back. The sooner we’re away from here though the better...."

* * *

"I think Legolas is feverish or something...." Aragorn said worriedly to Gandalf that night in the shelter of the cave they had found. He had found the wizard on the ledge outside watching evening settle softly over the landscape below. "He’s glowing...."

The wizard frowned. "Was he wounded? Or clawed? Orcs aren’t known for their cleanliness." People had been killed by a mere nick from an Orc sword.

"Bruised but not so much as a scratch. I made him let me look."

"Then it’s the curse."

"Isn’t there anything we can do?" Aragorn pressed.

"What would you normally do for a fever?"

"There are herbs. I have some dried. Fresh would be better."

"Can you find them before dark?"

Aragorn smiled faintly. "I can look."

"You do that. I shall go and talk to our Elf...."

Gandalf watched Aragorn nod and move off down the slope, then eased his creaking bones and got to his feet to pad back inside. He found Legolas curled up in a nest of blankets near the cave mouth, gazing out at the soft peach sky of late evening. The Elf had unplaited his hair and it had exploded into a sort of fluffy golden puff of static that made him look like an excited sunflower. He had clearly given up attempting to subdue it and was picking dispiritedly at the knots clumped in his comb.

"How can the world be so beautiful and so filled with such evil,, Gandalf?" he said softly as Gandalf came up. He stirred as if to get up and Gandalf waved him back, then eased himself stiffly to the ground beside him.

"All things must balance," Gandalf sighed, reflecting that the last thing they needed was a depressed Elf. Frodo was moody enough already. "Aragorn tells me he thinks you’re feverish."

"Am I? I do not think I would know...." Legolas admitted doubtfully. "It is not something Elves know much about..." He paused, tugging at his blanket. "Feverish means hot, does it not? I feel only so cold...."

"Hmmh." Gandalf leaned forward a bit and placed a hand on the Elf’s forehead. "You don't feel feverish. But you’d better drink the potion Aragorn whips up for you."

"Why?" Legolas wrinkled his nose in disgust. "They always taste so bad. I never know why he gives them to me...."

"It makes him feel like he’s doing something to help you."

"Oh, one of those potions," Legolas sighed. "Maybe I should go..."

"Go where?" Gandalf asked with a well hidden burst of alarm.

"To the spring. I can feel my control slipping away. If I should hurt someone...."

"You won’t," Gandalf assured him complacently.

"But if...."

"I am a wizard. I will not allow it," Gandalf reminded him in his most pompous voice then continued in a wheedling tone, "And that also goes for you leaving. How long do you think it’d take Aragorn to track you down? You know he won’t leave you behind."

Legolas gave him a long look, then turned away with a sigh and poked at his hair. He sniffed as it crackled. "I should cut all this off," he said gloomily.

"We will reach the spring tomorrow. After you bathe and the curse is lifted, you will feel much better," Gandalf assured him kindly.

Legolas tensed without answering however, gazing into the gathering darkness. It was only Aragorn climbing back up the slope, clutching an armful of herbs. He smiled at Legolas as he reached the cave mouth, managing not to look questioningly at the wizard.

"Here, lad, I found you some Elfmint," Aragorn said, offering the Elf a handful of spiky leafed stems with a sweet minty honey scent. Legolas took them with an appreciative smile and popped a leaf into his mouth in delight.

Gandalf patted his shoulder. "You keep watch and I’ll help Aragorn mix his potion," he said, winking at the Elf. "Maybe I can pop something in it to make it taste better...."

* * *

Aragorn stirred, suppressing the urge to groan as he was roused. Sound sleep when he was warm and dry was a rarity these days and he was reluctant to be disturbed. The soft scuff of a boot heel had waken him and he rolled over in his blankets, lifting his head to peer around him. Everyone seemed to be where they should be. The Hobbits were asleep, curled up close together like puppies as if unity would protect them. Gimli was snoring over in his corner, Gandalf was lying on his back and snoring a counter point to the Dwarf. Boromir was to be on watch. That left....

Aragorn had to concentrate to look for him, pushing past the instinctive Elven camouflage

"Legolas?!" Aragorn sat up with a jerk and looked round wildly, spotting the slender shape of the Elf flickering like a pale flame in the darkness of the cave before he stumbled over a rock and disappeared through the entrance. Aragorn swore and bounded to his feet, racing after him

Legolas was out on the slope, wandering vaguely towards the view and the two hundred foot straight down drop off the cliff edge.

"Legolas! Come back here!" The Ranger hurtled after him, flinging himself across the distance with every bit of speed and strength he had.

One, two....

Legolas actually had one foot in mid air when Aragorn dived at him and grabbed him by the hem of his cloak, bodily yanking him backwards. The Elf landed solidly on the Ranger’s stomach and the air went out of him with a painful whoosh. A second later he would have got a viciously aimed elbow in the face if he hadn’t managed to grab the Elf’s upper arm in time.

"Stop it, Legolas! It’s me.....!" Aragorn panted, struggling to control the Elf as he fought for his freedom. "Arghhh!" He didn’t quite manage to dodge the knee between the legs and doubled up in pain, releasing the outraged Sindarin.

Legolas rolled off him, moonlight flashing off his sword blades as he drew....

Gimli bellowed as he slammed into the Elf’s knees in a low dirty tackle that bowled Legolas off his feet to go tumbling over and over down the rocky slope they had climbed up earlier. Boromir went bounding after them, appearing from his perch on the rocks above the cave.

Aragorn yanked himself to feet by grim determination and staggered after them, fighting the urge to clutch himself in agony. Dropping to his knees, he grabbed a flailing arm and between the three of them they managed to spread-eagle the raging Elf on the ground.

"Now what?" Boromir panted, dodging the Elf’s attempt to kick him in the teeth and pinning his feet to the ground again. He had already caught a fist in the eye and was in none too good a mood about it.

"I'm not...." Aragorn wheezed then shook his head.

"Never mind," Boromir snorted, exchanging a look with the Dwarf. Gimli’s voice blended with his as they both bellowed Gandalf’s name.

Legolas subsided, watching them with eyes that glittered unnaturally bright with moonlight.

"Ah, that’s better...." Gimli breathed in relief.

"Don’t....let go...." Aragorn gasped. "He can....be...tricky...."

Legolas snarled at him in Dwarvish and convulsed, wrenching one foot free with a twist of his body that threw them all off and sent Aragorn sprawling as his toe tip connected with his ear. He twisted around, launching himself after his swords and skidding to a halt as he saw Gandalf.

Elf and wizard stared at each other for a second, then Legolas leapt towards his weapons and Gandalf lifted his staff saying one quiet word that was filled with a lifetime of weariness.

Legolas dropped like a stone and lay quiet....

Gandalf eased stiffly down beside him, shoved aside a tangle of tangled blond hair and checked his pulse, then looked irritably towards the dishevelled warriors. "One Elf and you can’t subdue him quietly on your own?" he asked sarcastically.

"Not without...hurting him...." Aragorn said grimly, struggling to his feet and not quite able to straighten out of a half crouch. A strained whimper nearly escaped him before he ruthlessly bit down on it. His voice might have squeaked a bit as he continued, "....tempting though it was....this isn’t...his fault...."

Gandalf raised an eyebrow and turned back to examining the Elf. Under his hands the Elf’s aura flickered faintly, woven through with threads of darkness like a choking cobweb folding around him.

"I see someone taught him to fight dirty," Boromir observed dryly as he studied Aragorn’s hunched posture.

"Nah, don’t...look...at me....he learned...that on his own," Aragorn growled breathlessly, gingerly holding himself with one hand in the hope it’d make the pain ease.

"I shouldn’t rub it you know, it’ll make it hurt worse," Boromir said blandly.

"You think I don’t know that?"

"Gimli?" Gandalf said quietly, wondering why the Dwarf was staring at the Elf with a strange expression on his face. "Are you hurt?"

"Me? No....I didn't know the lad knew such words of my language...." Gimli muttered then shrugged. "No matter. What did you do to him?"

"A sleep spell. Normally it would bounce off him, but the curse makes him susceptible to all kinds of magic." Gandalf cast a worried look at Aragorn. "What was he doing before he attacked you?"

"Attempting to take a walk off the ledge," the Ranger answered grimly.

"I didn’t know Elves can levitate," Gimli snorted.

"They can’t. I don’t know what he thought he was doing...."

"He wasn’t thinking," Gandalf said quietly. "The curse was answering to Sauron’s call. The fact there was a cliff in the way is neither here nor there. Help me get him back inside...."

"Er...." Aragorn really didn't think he wanted to carry anything right then.

Boromir snorted. "Never mind, man. Gimli, give me a hand....." Stooping, Boromir swung the limp Elf over his broad shoulders with a grunt. "You know, carrying this Elf around is starting to be a habit...."

* * *

"Gimli, why are you watching me?" Legolas asked the next morning as they followed the path through the forest.

"Am I?"

"Yes...." Legolas slid a look at him and stubbed his toes on a rock. Sighing heavily, he flailed a bit until he caught his balance and then walked on.

Gimli grunted. They had all been on tenterhooks last night, apart from the Hobbits who had slept through the whole thing and Legolas who, returned to his blankets, had curled up like a squirrel in its dray and slept soundly until woken by Boromir starting breakfast. The Elf obviously didn't remember a thing if his wide expression of bewilderment at Aragorn’s hunched posture and Boromir’s black eye had been anything to go by.

"You, Boromir, Aragorn and Gandalf, you’re all watching me like hawks."

"Ah...."

Folding his arms, Legolas came to a halt and stood firmly in front of the Dwarf on the path, blocking his way forward. "Tell me...."

"Well now," Gimli looked round shiftily, then looked up at the Elf’s face. All the bruises and the dirt conspired to make Legolas look urchin-like and very young; far, far, younger than the Elf probably was. "It might be that you nearly walked off the cliff last night...."

"I did?"

"And kicked Aragorn where it hurts...."

"I did?!"

"And nearly punched Boromir’s lights out...."

"I did?"

"And....you don’t remember any of this, do you?"

"No..." Legolas said plaintively. "You wouldn't make it up, would you Gimli? To scare me...?"

Gimli opened his mouth on an indignant retort and then softened at the desperate look in the Elf’s blue eyes. "No, lad," he said kindly. "Now, don't you go fretting. There was no harm done...."

"Apart from Aragorn walking funny. I wondered why...."

Gimli choked off a laugh at that.

"I’m surprised you didn't disarm me," Legolas said sadly.

"I’ll be honest, I suggested it. But Gandalf said it’d upset you and Aragorn said, what was it now? Oh yes, ‘No, it’d make the damn Elf bloody homicidal’...."

Legolas smiled miserably. "Aragorn knows me well." He tugged irritably at a strand of hair poking him in one eye that had now turned a deep copper instead of his usual blazing golden blond. Gimli had managed to force it back into a plait with the help of a leather tie to restrain it, but it was already starting to fight its way loose again. "Perhaps you should have let me take my walk...."

"And listen to Aragorn bemoaning your loss every step of the way?" Gimli thumped him briskly on one arm. "We need you, Elf. No chickening out now. What’s a bit of dirt?"

"I look like a walking midden," Legolas said unhappily.

"Nah....Boromir and Aragorn look worse. But don’t tell them I said that."

"Thank you, I think...." Legolas muttered. He lifted his head, hearing Aragorn hail them from up ahead, he started walking again. After a few second however, he paused and looked down at the Dwarf, his eyes glittering strangely.

"Er, yes?" Gimli looked up at him uncertainly.

"What did