This I Promise You ~ (A Legolas Love Story) *Completed*

Chapter One

AUTHOR'S NOTE: As promised, there is Medlinya's photo :D woot!

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~Chapter One~

The Ringwraiths of the One Ring

Startled and impressed, Medlinya watched the man in the corner of her eye. The mysterious man had mind blocked her mind powers. She knew it could be one of two reasons. Firstly, he could be impaired by the alcohol. Sometimes if a person had drank too much the thoughts and memories become jumbled up into a mesh of unattainable information. Or secondly, the man had been around elves before and knew how to protect his thoughts from them.

'Are you Strider by any chance, stranger?' Medlinya asked.

The man took a puff from his pipe slowly. 'Yes, that is what they call me. Who asks?' The man asked cautiously.

'A friend of Gandalf the Grey. He sent us here to find you.'

'Who is us?' Strider asked his serious blue eyes staring at Medlinya.

'My friend beside me is Gwiliweth. We are elves who have came out of our sanctuary to you. Be grateful of Gandalf, ranger.' Medlinya responded avoiding her name.

'You still haven't said your name, stranger elf.' Strider pointed out cunningly.

'Why should I give you my name when Strider isn't yours?'

His chuckle echoed in her mind. 'Well met, my lady.' Stider replied with flattery. Medlinya could sense that he was grinning ear to ear.

'When do you think the hobbits will arrive?' she asked softly.

'When night falls.' he answered. 'They won't be traveling on the roads.'

Medlinya nodded slowly. She had a complete understanding about why they wouldn't and shivered slightly.

'What is your real name, Strider?'

Silence followed after her question. After a minute or so of silence, she began watching the door for the hobbits.

'Aragorn. That's my name.' His voice answered, slightly startling her from her watch. Aragorn. The name seemed familiar to her, but she wasn't going to press any more buttons on the ranger.

'Medlinya. That's mine.' The elf responded.

'Medlinya? Have I heard that name before?' Strider uttered mostly to himself.

The elf swallowed her trembling fear. Just when she was going to respond, the door of the Prancing Pony slammed open. Her eyes caught the slight of four hobbits soaked to the bone under their cloaks, they seemed wild eyed as if they had seen a ghost, their breaths were jagged and their movement seemed rather irregular.

Her eyes studied each hobbit. Two of the hobbits seem as if they brothers of each other same shade of golden brown curly hair and almost same shade of eyes. The only indicator that they weren't exactly brothers was the shape of their face and nose. One of them was a tad smaller than the other in height with a small oval shaped face. While the other seemed to have more of a inverted triangular shaped face. The other two hobbits were easy to pick out. One was a plump blonde haired hobbit with kind brown eyes who watched after the dark haired hobbit beside him. When Medlinya's eyes stopped on the dark haired one, her heart dropped. The darkness of the object he carried was immensely powerful. She was not surprised when she saw men across the room get affected by the Ring.

Her eyes found Gwiliweth's silver ones. 'That dark haired hobbit. Gandalf wants us to watch over him.'

Gwiliweth's face etched with bewilderment. To fasten her understanding, Medlinya opened her knowledge of what she knew so far expect Strider's real name to the red head and poured the information into her friend's mind like water nourishing the soil. A few seconds later, Gwiliweth's face turned to horror. 'Sauron has returned?! That Ring is here in this room?! Brought here by a hobbit?!'