Darkness crept into the world. The fellowship slept silently and safely. The hobbits huddled together by the fire, they normally slept like that. Aragorn slept with his sword laid across his lap. Lómadia couldn't sleep. It wasn't the ground being uncomfortable that stopped her from sleeping, she was cold. After a few hours of staring up at the stars, she stood up and moved swiftly over to Legolas.

'Legolas,' she whispered, gently prodding him on the arm with her finger. 'Wake up.'

'Huh? Oh, is it time to go?' Legolas asked sleepily.

'No, you haven't been asleep for long. I'm cold, I was wondering…erm….could I sleep next to you? Up on Caradhras you kept me warm, I was wondering if you could do that now. Only, I cant sleep when I'm cold.'

'Of course. I'll do anything for you, Lómadia.' Legolas lifted up his blanket as Lómadia crawled under and settled down beside him.

'Diola lle, Legolas ' Legolas could tell she was cold, her teeth were chattering and she was shivering. Tenderly, Legolas pulled her towards him, holding her tightly and looking into her eyes. He saw a sadness there that he'd never seen before, her eyes always seemed to be bright and cheery, but not now, they were depressing and dull. His senses told him she was unhappy, maybe even upset about something.

'Lómadia?' He whispered softly. 'What's wrong? Why are you unhappy?'

'I miss him, Legolas.' A single tear ran down Lómadia's cheek. 'I miss my father. So long ago now he left me. But he's still in here.' She placed a hand over her heart. 'he may have forgotten me, but I haven't forgotten him. I never will. I love him Legolas, yet, at the same time, I hate him.'

Soothingly running his hand over Lómadia's cheek, Legolas whispered, 'Uuma dela, Lirimaer . Let your tears come. I'm here for you.'

With that Lómadia fell into Legolas' arms and wept. All the years of tears that she had been holding back, came rushing out. Onto Legolas' shoulder.

'Shh, Lirimaer.' As Legolas gently rubbed her back, he placed his lips to her forehead and kissed her lightly. After about 10 minutes, Lómadia calmed down considerably. She tried to push away from Legolas but he held her tight. 'Don't push away from me Lómadia. Lle anta kaim .' He whispered in his singing voice and beautiful language. 'You are with me, I'll keep you safe. I wont let you go.'

'Lle vesta? ~do you promise~' Lómadia asked sleepily.

'Vestamin ~promise~.' Within seconds, Lómadia was fast asleep in the comfort of Legolas' arms. In her hand, she held a tuft of his tunic tightly. He smiled to himself, closed his eyes, and joined her in a deep slumber.

* * * * *

Lómadia woke at the crack of dawn. She opened here eyes, just inches away from the tanned skin of Legolas' neck.

'He kept his promise.' She kissed his neck lightly. Her lips barely touching his skin. 'You're such a sweet elf.' She eased herself out of Legolas' arms. Trying hard not to wake him. Though she thought she was the only one awake, she realised that only Gimli and Legolas were still asleep. Turning her head round to look at the sleeping elf, she saw that he was now awake. His eyes watching her. Smiling, she helped him to his feet. ''Quel amrun, Legolas ~Good morning~. Diola lle, ten tella lómë ~thank-you, for last night~. It was really sweet of you.'

'Like I said before, Lómadia. Ni ieva sinome ten lle ~I will be here for you~.' Legolas soothed his hand across her forehead.

'I know.'

It was a very uneventful day, the company walked for miles before, in the afternoon, they reached the long grey walls of Moria.

'The entrance to Moria, we must wait for night. For the door mirrors only moonlight and starlight.' Gandalf informed the fellowship

'oh, fun' Lómadia whispered under her breath, sitting down.

'You're very impatient aren't you?' Slowly, Legolas laid his hand on her knee, sitting down beside her.

'Yes, when I feel like it.' From then on there was silence. Is seemed to take forever for night to fall. In that long wait, Lómadia slept in Legolas' arms, listening to the gentle, steady beat of his heart. The rise and fall of his chest while he breathed, lulled her into sleep.

When the moon finally came out, the door of Moria lit up to reveal the words "The doors of Moria, speak friend and enter."

'Lómadia, idril. Wake up.' Legolas gently than his thumb down her cheek, waking her.

'huh? Oh, Thank you, Legolas.' She smiled drowsily. 'your very comfortable to sleep on.'

Legolas smiled and laughed. 'I must be, you've been sleeping in my arms for a long time.'

'Amin hiraetha '

'There is no need to apologise. I don't mind, anyway you keep me warm.'

Lómadia laughed. 'It's supposed to be you keeping me warm.' She look into his eyes, he stared back at her. Gradually, the scenery around them faded, everything turned to black. It was only her and Legolas in the world, all memory of her father and home faded from her mind, all she could think about was Legolas. Caught in that moment, all she wanted to do was fall into his arms. There was definitely something between them, like a magnet pulling their souls together. They both took a step towards each other. Slowly, there heads moved towards each other. Their lips were only centimetres away from the others. But the moment when their lips would touch never came. Suddenly, a sharp pain spread through Legolas' forehead, he winched and backed away from Lómadia.

Shocked, he shout a confused look at Lómadia, who returned a heartbreaking look. She turned away as the door to Moria creaked open. Following the company inside, she sensed Legolas' uncertainty and closed her eyes, fighting back the tears that collected up inside her.

'soon my two elf friends,' Gimli said joyfully, 'You will enjoy the festivities of the dwarves. roast food and malt bear. This is the home of my cousin Balin, and they cal it a mine. A MINE.'

'this is no mine.' Boromir whispered, looking around him 'It is a tomb.' As the moonlight filled the dark hall, they realised that it was covered in skeletons. Rotten and decayed.

'Goblins.' Legolas declared, looking at the arrows spread around the place. Everyone drew out there weapons.

'Get out!' shouted Boromir. But he was too late, with a loud groan, the doors closed. Leaving the companions in total darkness.

'We now have but one choice, we must face the long dark of Moria.' Gandalf announced, lighting the end of his staff. They set off along the hall their footsteps echoing in the deep. It was a four day journey to the other side. For three days the fellowship moved on with ease and unnoticed. Lómadia managed to avoid Legolas. She knew he would ask questions about why what happened outside the mines did. Of course, she knew the answers to the questions he would ask, but it was a long story.

On the fourth day of being in the mines, the company came to a break in the path. There were three passages to choose from. Though Gandalf had no memory of that place. So they rested. Lómadia let Legolas drag her away from the others. She kept silent and didn't even look at him.

'Why do you have this affect on me, Lómadia?' Legolas asked, staring at the back of her head, she wouldn't sit facing him.

'I don't know what your talking about.'

'yes you do. I'm falling for you Lómadia. Outside the mines, everything was perfect. Until I felt a sharp pain in my forehead. Why would that happen?'

'There's so much you don't know about me, Legolas. You feel pain in your forehead when you sense evil. Elve's around me get that a lot.'

'but why? I hadn't felt that before around you.' Legolas knelt down next to Lómadia. 'You're not part of the evil world. I know you're not otherwise I'd sense that you are. Tell me. I don't understand.'

'Do you hate me, Legolas?'

'What? Of course not! How could I? I really like you!' Legolas said urgently and shocked.

'Well, believe me, if I told you, then you will hate me.'

'I won't. I promise. Don't you trust me?'

Lómadia looked at Legolas for the first time in three days. 'I trust you. I think I believe you. Please don't interrupt me, it will just make things harder.' Legolas nodded and sat back, listening intently to Lómadia. 'Outside, before we entered the mines. Everything was perfect, until some unwanted soul connected with mine. I cant stop it from happening.

'Years ago, my father left me. He travelled to the tower of Barad-Dúr. He joined the dark side and he wanted me to too. I refused and stayed in Esgaroth, ever since my father has tried to hunt me down, talk to me. You felt that pain because my father was trying to connect with me. The blood in my veins that's part of my father became active and affected you. That's it, now you know and you hate me.'

'No. Why should I hate you? So your father crossed to the dark side that's why he was banned from Mirkwood. You didn't cross, you refused. That's all I'm bothered about. Now I understand you.' Lómadia turned her back to him again. Legolas snaked his arms around her waist and laid his chin on her shoulder. 'Why didn't you tell me this before?'

'Because I was scared.' Lómadia whispered, looking at the hands in her lap.

'You were scared of me? What I might say or do?'

'I was scared of loosing your friendship. All my life I've had trouble keeping friends. You are very special to me, Legolas.' Lómadia's cheeks slowly turned red while she said this in a low voice.

'And you are very special to me. You will never loose my friendship, Vestamin ~I promise~.' Legolas gently turned Lómadia's head round to face him.

'Why are you so nice to me?' He answered Lómadia's question by placing his lips against hers and kissing her gently. His lips moved against hers, deepening the kiss.

'Because, I like you, very much. I've fallen for you Lómadia.' Legolas muttered on her lips. As he moved in for another kiss, Lómadia stopped him by placing her hand over his mouth.

'We cant do this, Legolas. We cant be more then just friends.'

'What? Why?' He was confused, all he wanted was to be with Lómadia, but she didn't want to be with him, well, that's what he thought anyway.

'The presence of my father in my blood will drive us apart. As soon as he finds out that I'm helping you to destroy the Ring. He will never stop trying to contact me. He will always be searching for me. If he finds me he will either kill me or force me to join him.' Legolas cursed at this and took his arms away from Lómadia's waist.

'I'll keep you safe, Lómadia. I don't care what I have to do. He will not find, he won't kill you or force you join him. I will not let him!' Legolas raised his voice while saying this. 'We can make it work.'

'You have to understand, Legolas. It's not that simple. Sauron see's all. He's not just searching for the Ring. All his thought goes to the Ring but all the time he is also searching for me.' Lómadia stood and walked back to the rest of the fellowship, leaving Legolas to ponder on what she had just said. Though she wanted to be with him, she knew it wouldn't work.

Shortly after, Legolas returned to the fellowship, where he sat down and slept, like the others were doing. Only Gandalf, Lómadia and Frodo were still awake. Gandalf sat smoking his pipe, Frodo sat on Lómadia's knee, keeping warm. His eyes wandered into the depths of the mines, though he didn't have elvish vision, he spotted movement.

'Gandalf, there's something down there.' Frodo whispered, wrapping his arms round Lómadia's neck.

'It's Gollum. He's been following us for three days.' Gandalf informed them.

'Gollum? It's a pity Bilbo didn't kill him when he had the chance.'

'Pity?' Gandalf repeated, looking at Frodo. 'Frodo, some that live deserve death, others that die deserve life. Can you give that to them? Gollum love's and hates the Ring, just like he loves and hates himself. He wants the Ring back.'

Frodo snuggled into Lómadia. She held him tight, making him feel safe. Even in the hardest of times, Lómadia was there to comfort him. 'I wish the Ring had never come to me. I wish none of this had happened.'

'so do all who live to see such times,' Gandalf said wisely. 'but that is not for us to decide, all you have to do, is decide what to do with the time that is given to you.'

After the conversation ended, Gandalf dropped off to sleep leaving Frodo and Lómadia alone

'I'm scared Lómadia.' Frodo whispered, hugging her more tightly.

'so am I. I want you to remember Frodo, that where ever you go, whatever you do, I'll always be with you. In here,' She tapped the side of his head gently ' and in here.' Laying her hand gently over his heart. After a few moments of silence Frodo said,

'Legolas is very fond of you. I was talking to him yesterday. He told me that he was hurting inside, because you were ignoring him. We've all felt the tension between you two. I know he would never hurt you.'

'I know.' Lómadia put her fingers to her lips, remember the feel of Legolas' soft, tender lips on hers. 'I will never deliberately hurt him. He is very special to me.' She looked over at Legolas sleeping with his bow by his side. She felt her heart skip a beat while she watched his chest rise and fall slowly. 'go to sleep Frodo, you need your strength for tomorrow.' With that, Frodo closed his eyes and fell asleep in Lómadia's arms.

* * * * *

The next morning, or what they guessed was morning, they could never tell, seeing as they were in the mines. The fellowship were ready and rearing to go. Well, not quite rearing. In fact, they were all dreading the journey ahead. When Legolas first woke up, he had looked straight at Lómadia. He saw Frodo, sleeping peacefully in her lap.

'looks like your elf friend has the hots for someone else.' Gimli had said to him, though he chose to ignore him. For many minutes, her watched as Frodo woke up and joined the others for breakfast. When Lómadia woke up, she yawned widely.

'You found someone else to keep you warm last night then?' Legolas asked, Kneeling down beside her.

'Are you jealous?' Lómadia asked wryly.

'Either way I answer will probably get me in trouble.' Legolas turned away from her, not wanting to show that he was jealous.

'You are!' She giggled as he turned his back to her 'Oh, come here you.' She wrapped her arms around his waist, resting her head on his shoulder. 'No one could replace you. Frodo was upset. He needed someone to hold him.' Legolas shivered slightly as he felt Lómadia's chest rub against his back. 'I've been thinking about what you said last night. I should never have pulled away, I'm sorry.' Lowering her voice so only Legolas could hear her, she sighed. 'I want you.' Legolas whipped his head round and stared at her, a timid smile on her face.

'I thought you said it wouldn't work?'

'I don't care. Like you said, we could make it work. We'll just have to wait and see what happens.' Lómadia gave Legolas a quick kiss on his lips.

'Oh, it's that way.' Gandalf announced, walking towards the left passage.

'You've remembered?' Lómadia smiled widely and let go of Legolas.

'No the air doesn't smell so foul down here.'

The fellowship set off down a dark, gloomy passage. The two elves walked at the back slightly apart from the others.

'I want you too.' Legolas whispered as he slipped his hand into hers, and kissed her lightly on her neck.

At the end of the passage, the company came to an immense hall. It was absolutely massive, with large pillars holding up the roof, which couldn't be seen.

'Behold, the great realm of the dwarf city of Dwarrowdelf.'

All members of the company looked around in awe as they walked along slowly. Taking in the sight around her, Lómadia gasped and let go of Legolas' hand. She looked up into the darkness of the hall. 'It's incredible.' She whispered.

'Gimli!' Suddenly, Gandalf called to the dwarf, who was running towards a smaller room. The others followed him into the room where there lay a large stone tomb. Onto the tomb, shone sunlight from a shaft above. Gimli knelt by the tomb, his head bowed.

'Here lies Balin, son of Fundin.' Gandalf read from the tomb. 'He is dead then.' Handing his staff to Pippin, he picked up a very old book and read passage from it.

Lómadia opened her mouth to say something to Aragorn, but Legolas got there first.

'We cannot linger here.'

'Were you going to say something, Lómadia?' Aragorn asked, nodding at Legolas.

'Erm….Legolas got there first.' She answered, smiling at both Aragorn and Legolas.

A few minutes later, they had managed to drag Gimli from his cousins tomb, now they walked along another hall. Not aware of any danger they walked at a natural pace. However, when they reached the middle of the hall, there was movement all around them. In an instant, both Legolas and Lómadia had their bows out ready. Within moments, the 10 companions were surrounded by foul looking orcs. Nasty beast with green skin and orange eyes. Weapons ready, the members stood back to back, though they knew they would never over come these orcs, there were thousands of them. They were still ready to fight.

Suddenly there came a loud drumming from deep in the Mines. The Orc's looked around at each other, then ran away, as quickly as they had come.

'It's a Balrog' Lómadia declared. 'we must not linger!'

'Run!' screamed Gandalf. Everyone set off running down the hall, very fast. They came to the end of the hall and set off down a long set of stairs. Lómadia felt herself being pulled down the stairs by Legolas who held her hand tightly. Orcs in the distance were shooting arrows at them, which slowed them down slightly. But they made it to the bottom in one piece, where Gandalf simply said, to the bridge of Khazad Dum. All ran straight towards the bridge and across it, except for Legolas, Lómadia and Gandalf.

'I cant Legolas. It's too high!' Lómadia protested, pulling on Legolas' arm.

'You have to! The Balrog will be here any minute. Please Lómadia. Don't look down, I'm here, hold my hand. I won't let you fall I promise!.' Legolas shouted to Lómadia above the noise of the approaching Balrog.

'Alright. I trust you Legolas.' Lómadia was determined not to look down as they stepped onto the bridge. She clutched Legolas' hand tightly and forced her eyes forward.

'It's okay, Lómadia. You made it.' Legolas whispered in her ear, his arms wrapped firmly around her waist.

The Balrog appeared across the bridge, huge and black with fiery breath and in it's hand it held a long whip. The perfect demon for the underground. Only Gandalf still stood on the bridge, half way across, facing the Balrog. 'go back to the shadow. You cannot Pass!' he screamed as the Balrog brought down the whip and cracked it against the walls. The Orc's in the deep were still shooting at them.

'They're a very bad at aiming.' Legolas said to Lómadia as they randomly shot arrows at the Orc's

'Nothing ever pleases you does it?'

'You do.' He ducked as an arrow just missed his head.

'that was a good aim!' Lómadia chuckled.

'It was a one off.' He ducked again, just after shooting an arrow of his own. 'Or maybe not!.' Lómadia laughed at Legolas while shooting into the distance. For next few minutes, they concentrated entirely on shooting the orcs. Lómadia enjoyed shooting, she always had, she didn't care about the fact that she was killing living things. She was concentrating so hard, that she didn't see the arrow that was flying straight towards her.

The impact of the hit stunned her. A pain shot from the side, all the way through he body, making her flinch. She looked down and saw a dirty great arrow sticking out from her side, just below her elbow. She giggled as her vision blurred, she feel to her knees. The last thing she saw was her hand, covered in black blood, before she feel, into a deep darkness.