Sam sat by Frodo's side looking at his face, hoping, and wishing that he would wake up at any moment. Though when he would close his eyes and re-open them, Frodo's eyes were still closed. It had been six days since Frodo had arrived in Rivendell, Sam could not help but wonder if Frodo was ever going to get well, but he did not allow himself to think about that.

He focused on the positive, Frodo is going to wake up, and Frodo will be okay. The sun was shining in through the window, though there was some brightness coming from the doorway, Sam turned his head to look at the doorway but found himself blinded by the bright light.

The light came closer to him, but he was not afraid, for some strange reason he felt more peaceful than he had in days since Frodo had been wounded. The light faded and he blinked a couple of times before noticing that someone was now sitting across from him. His eyes adjusted and he looked at the person sitting across from him and was surprised to see the maiden he had seen in Bag End seventeen years before!

"A-Are you..." Sam stuttered.
"Yes, I'm an elf Sam." She replied in her soft voice. He could not believe that she had been the first elf he had ever seen in his life and he didn't even know it! She wasn't as tall as Elrond, or Arwen, or any of the other elves in Rivendell; he assumed that she was from somewhere else.

"My mother was a hobbit, Sam." She replied reading his mind. Sam looked at her with a shocked look on her face. He did not know that Elves could read minds!
"Not all Elves can, I learned from a powerful elf." She looked at Frodo and took the cloth off his head and wrung another one from the silver bowl beside his bed. She placed the clean one on his head and held the other one in her hand as Sam continued to stare at him.

“Please don't tell the others about me unless it's Gandalf or Strider...I am not supposed to reveal myself to you hobbits, but I am not worried if Frodo sees me..." She stopped and thought about what she had just said. She was not worried if Frodo saw her? He had seen her before yes, but did not know that she had been an elf, but it didn't matter to her now as it had before?

She smoothed back Frodo's curly brown hair with her free hand and a smile crept onto her face, though she was not aware of it. Sam watched her in awe as she gently pampered Frodo. Though she did not know what was happening, Sam did know that she felt the same way he felt for Rosie.

"I won' mention you, promise." Sam smiled at her before he stood up and left the room to find Gandalf. Lothaelin stood up and took the cloth she had removed earlier back to her room where she washed it carefully thinking about what she had said earlier. She still did not know what it meant, or exactly what she felt; but she did know that she would follow Frodo to the ends of Middle-Earth.

She stood admiring the room she had not seen in seventeen years, the large bed against the wall with the wooden angel that had her arms outstretched. To the left was a large window that overlooked the rest of Rivendell and she could see the waterfall clearly, beside her bed there was a table that held a vase of red roses their scent wafting through the room.
On the left stood a long slender pole that held four candles that were now lit, although it was light outside and the sun was shining through the window.

Her bed was neatly made, white pillows and a white sheet were pulled over the mattress, and over that there was a fluffy soft yellow comforter. On her pillow the little wolf pup lay curled up in a ball. Elrond had told her that he had found him in her bag, barking the day Lothaelin had arrived. He did know how he had gotten into her bag, but he guessed it had been when EveningStar had left to find Glorifindel.

A knock was heard at the door and Lothaelin turned around to find Elrond standing in the doorway with his arms crossed at his chest. “It seems that Frodo has now awaken.” He told her. Lothaelin felt as though a heavy weight had been lifted off her back, a smile spread across her face and she leapt towards Elrond and embraced him in a hug.

He hugged her back and told her about the Council. “It is to decide what it to be done with the Ring, for it cannot stay in Rivendell. There are only a few possibilities left, but that is for the Men, Elves, Dwarves, Frodo, and Gandalf to decide. The other hobbits have not been informed of this Council, nor has Arwen. But I am pleased to tell you that Legolas will be arriving.”

"Oh! I have not seen him in ages! The last I saw of him was before I left with Bilbo to visit young Frodo, before his tweens!" Elrond nodded and smiled at her before he led her out of the room onto the balcony.
"I know that Gandalf did not want you to show yourself in front of the hobbits, but you may at the Council."
"I believe I will be at the Council, but I will not show myself...I do not feel that I should be revealed just yet." Elrond nodded in agreement.

“Very well. I need to speak with Gandalf.” Elrond walked to the end of her room and exited out of the door. Lothaelin looked at the little pup asleep on her bed and smiled happily. Frodo was now awake, and Legolas would be coming to the Council! There was nothing that could spoil this day.

Lothaelin waited by the archway of Rivendell, hoping that Legolas would arrive soon. Night had now fallen and Boromir had already arrived, Legolas, and the Dwarves were now left. She paced back and forth waiting anxiously for his arrival. Once, she heard the hooves of a horse drawing near, but it had only been Arwen returning from the Bruinen.

Finally, after what seemed like ages, Legolas rode in with some other Elves from Mirkwood. Lothaelin's heart raced as soon as she saw Legolas amongst the Elves. A smile spread across her face as she ran towards Legolas after he had dismounted his horse.
He looked around Rivendell before noticing the Elven maiden running towards him. For a moment he did not know who it was until she had spoken.

"Legolas! I have missed you." She ran into his arms and embraced him in a hug.
He hugged her back smiling brightly as well.
"I have not seen you in a while, tell me of what has happened." He told her, leading his horse into Rivendell with the other Elves.
Lothaelin led them across the bridge where the horses were allowed to roam freely. She led the other Elves to their rooms, showing them the Hall of Fire.

Legolas waited for Lothaelin in the Hall of Fire, she came to him quickly for she was in a rush to hear everything that had happened since she had last seen him.
"I do not know where to start, so many things have happened since you left. Haldir asked me to deliver you a message." Legolas told her. Lothaelin waited patiently as Legolas told her Haldir's message.
"He says to tell you that he hopes you will return to Lórien soon, and elen sila lumen omintilmo."

Lothaelin blushed.
"A star shall shine upon our meeting." She repeated to herself quietly. Haldir had been flattering her since the day they first met in the Golden Wood. They both had been very young, for that was over two and a half thousand years! Though Lothaelin and Haldir had become close throughout the years whilst they grew up in Lórien, he remained no more than her confidant.

"I do wish to go back to Lórien for I miss everyone there terribly." Lothaelin looked past Legolas into the crackling fire.
"You have been gone for over seventeen years without a word to anyone why you have not returned. The Elves in Mirkwood wondered when you would be returning for they love your songs."
Lothaelin remembered the song she had made up for the Mirkwood Elves when she had visited twenty years before. She had seen so many new things in the Mirkwood forest that she had made up a song about the forest and the Elves.

"Why have we been summoned to Rivendell?" Legolas suddenly asked. His blue eyes staring right into her bright green eyes.
"I wish to tell you, but I am forbidden. Everyone at the Council shall find out tomorrow at the same time. There are hobbits among us!" She added excitedly.

"Yes, one passed me just a moment ago before you came. He was a polite little one, Bilbo's nephew I assume?"
"Frodo son of Drogo. Mithrandir had me watch over him for seventeen years, though I did not know that it would be so long!
For he said he was going to Minas Tirith, but when he returned he left again and did not tell me that my duty as his watcher had ended." Lothaelin looked around the room as if she were looking for any of the hobbits lurking about.

"What is it?" Legolas asked, watching her facial expression as she spoke of Frodo.
"I do not know what you are speaking of..." Lothaelin looked at Legolas with confusion. There was nothing...
"There is something different about the way you speak of this Frodo. I have seen you speak highly of Haldir, but never like you speak of this Frodo.”

Lothaelin looked down at her hands folded in her lap. She did not know what was going on, she had admired Frodo from the day she first met him as he chased Sam around Hobbiton. She had admired him from afar years later, but was there something different about her admiration?

Legolas smiled, he reached out one of his hands to tilt her head up at him so that she was looking into his eyes.
"This young hobbit has grown on you." He noted.
"Yes, perhaps that's it." Lothaelin knew that she had not fallen in love. For falling in love was the one thing that she feared more than anything in Middle-Earth, losing someone that she loved dearly like her father had lost her mother.