Aragorn: 8 years old

"I am telling you, he won't come!" Arwen pleaded to Elrond.

It was a Sunday night, so all the Elves had joined for their weekly feast. Everybody had left except Arwen and Elrond who eagerly waited for Aragorn's arrival. Arwen had watched Greakth walk in earlier.

He had a proud look on his face when inside he should have felt ashamed. She still couldn't believe what she had encountered that morning.

"We will wait five more minutes and then I will blow the alarm horn if he doesn't show up, okay?" Elrond said calmly still not believing a word that had come out of Arwen's mouth earlier that morning.

Arwen moaned in frustration and put her hands over her face. She knew what she had seen that morning. She had been walking through Rivendell and stopped when she had seen Aragorn and Greakth on the bridge together. Once she saw what Greakth had done, she had nearly screamed on sight! Arwen had been frozen with shock and fear.

"Ada... I'm scared," Arwen managed to whisper.

She hadn't touched a single bit of food that evening. Arwen felt sick all over and defiantly wasn't hungry. Just as Elrond was about to say something, the double doors behind Elrond's chair opened. Arwen practically jumped out of her seat at the sound of it opening.

Sure enough, it was Aragorn. It had taken him all day to climb the mountain back up to Rivendell due to his broken arm. He was late for dinner because he had washed himself clean and put on a new set of clothes.

He was trying to hide his pain as best he could. Pain lead him to feel too vulnerable and lead people to feel bad for him. Aragorn didn't like that feeling and didn't want people to feel bad for him. Therefore, he tried his best to cover up any emotion.

Aragorn walked into the room trying to act normal even though pain flowed through his body. He was so tired from the harsh day and didn't want anyone to touch or speak to him

Arwen flew from her chair and gave Aragorn the biggest hug ever. Half her body landed straight on Aragorn's broken arm.

"Oww!" he screamed a couple tears escaping his eyes, "Wow! Hi, Arwen," he said quickly trying to cover up his mistake of yelping.

"Where have you been?" Arwen shouted.

Before Aragorn could respond, Elrond spoke up,

"Arwen have a seat. Estel, come and join us please,"

Arwen let go and sat down in her chair. Aragorn tried walking normally to his seat. He had half limped just to get to the Hall. From the distressed look on Aragorn's face Elrond knew something was wrong.

"Is something the matter?" Elrond asked as he looked at his adopted sons face closely.

Aragorn seemed to be staring off into space, but snapped out of it when he heard Elrond's kind voice next to him.

"Just tired is all," Aragorn said and tried to smile.

All that showed on his face was a lopsided curve of his lips that probably gave off more evidence that something was terribly wrong. His voice had also been shaky and had a higher pitch than normal. Arwen was having trouble not taking her eyes off Aragorn.

"You must be hungry, go ahead and eat up," Elrond said and chewed his last bit of salad he had put in his mouth.

Aragorn's eyes were drooping and his head kept bobbing down and then back up. He reached out and took some vegetables and put them on the plate with his right hand. Aragorn took a small bite of pepper and nibbled on a carrot, but could not help but feel awfully sick inside. Even though he hadn't eaten all day, he didn't want to eat now.

Elrond eyed him suspiciously as Arwen tried not to stare too much. There was something noticeably wrong with Aragorn and both Elves could see it. Aragorn tried not looking to either one of them as he ate.

"Would you rather go to bed now?" Elrond asked directing the question to Aragorn.

Aragorn blankly looked at Elrond with a faraway look in his blue- gray eyes. He nodded slowly and set down the carrot he was munching on. Aragorn could feel tears welling up in his eyes so he stood fast trying to conceal his pain and troubles.

Too fast. His arm hit the table and he made a troubled face as he held in a scream.

"Thank you," he was able to peep and turning, he walked to the double doors.

On his way to the door, his right foot stumbled over his left foot and he tripped and fell onto the ground rather silently and fainted in the process. Arwen gasped as she had been watching him and Elrond turned around fast.

"Oh, my goodness!" Elrond gasped.

He rushed to Aragorn's side and flipped him to his back. Elrond immediately saw the long gash on his left hand and his eyes bulged with fear.

"Arwen, go to your room please," Elrond whispered.

Arwen ran outside crying as she headed to her room. Elrond lifted Aragorn's unmoving body gently and then told some other Elves to clean up the food on the table. Then he rushed to Aragorn's room. Once they got there safely, Elrond laid Aragorn on his bed and lay the covers over him.

Elrond walked to the window to see if Arwen had made it back to her room. She had and on the way back to Aragorn's bed Elrond spotted something rather frightening.

It was the old clothes that Aragorn had been wearing earlier that day. Elrond warily lifted the clothing and saw blood covering the whole left sleeve of the shirt. He lay it down and then quickly ran back to Aragorn's side.

He leaned over Aragorn's face and said some healing Elvish words,

"Lasto beth nin. Tolo dan na ngalad," (Hear my voice, come back to the light).

Then he gently placed his hand over Aragorn's pale face and slowly hovered his hand downwards. As if Elrond, had done magic, Aragorn's eye lids flickered open suddenly. Aragorn started to breathe fast and moved his head around some trying to figure out where he was now.

"It's all right," Elrond said calmly and lay a hand over Aragorn's forearm.

"What's happening?" Aragorn whispered.

"I'm not sure," Elrond said not sure what the boy meant, "Does anything hurt?"

Aragorn closed his eyes for a moment and then opened them saying,

"Everything. Mostly my arm, I think it's broken," he looked down to his left arm.

Arwen was telling the truth! Elrond scowled at himself. He couldn't believe it.

Elrond moved his hand up to Aragorn's elbow and shoulder area of his left arm. He tried lifting it to examine, but Aragorn yelped and tugged himself away.

"I'm sorry," Elrond said, "Tell me what happened,"

Aragorn thought back to that morning. He knew for sure he didn't want to bring up Greakth. He simply said,

"I fell,"

A/N: Keep the responses coming! I love them all! If you have any questions, feel free to ask :)