The next morning, I crawled out of bed and looked at myself in the mirror. I was still dressed in yesterday's clothes, and I had a cut along my right cheekbone from a tree-branch or something. I sighed.
"Great." I changed my clothes and then went to the healing part of Rivendell.
All three of the Hobbits were there, who had made it safely with Aragorn. They were all clustered around a bed which I assumed was Frodo's. So he was alive. Good.
I turned and caught a female elf staring at me. I pointed to my cheek and she steered me away for attention.
I sat in the edge of a bed as two elves saw to my cheek. "So you made it in one piece." Aragorn sauntered in with his brother-like smirk.
I chuckled. "You did too. Of course, I took the Riders off of your tail."
His smirk disappeared as he realized that was the truth. "Yes, uh, thank you."
That took an effort on his part.
"You're welcome." I answered with a careful smile because my cheek still hurt. I stood up and felt my cheek. Darn, I had stitches.
Whenever I smiled, it seemed to hurt in so many ways. I felt a strange tug on my body to lie down and cry but instead I stood up and walked swiftly out of the room with Aragorn beside me.
"We are having a council meeting the day after tomorrow, at dawn." He said hastily.
"Uh-huh. I'll be there." I walked faster and went to the stable and rode out on Firefoot for my daily training.
Despite my mission's success, I could never risk staying still again.