Kingdom of the fallen

Waking dreams

The first time he woke, Aragorn was honestly surprised he was alive.

His throat felt as if it were torn out, aching and barely working, letting out air only in short laboured intervals. His head felt like it was circling round itself lazily.

He shouldn't be alive.

He knew he shouldn't.

Aragorn's eyelids ached from exhaustion yet he felt like he hadn't moved for days. He momentarily thought he was blind before catching a blurred glimpse of a miniature, dimly glowing window.

There was someone beside him and they pressed the edge of something cool, musty and damp against his lips. He opened without a thought, drinking deeply, almost choking on the seemingly spoiled liquid. A hand braced his back, pulling him up so he didn't drown on land.

Despite having to force himself, he didn't stop drinking until the container has been taken away.

The king wanted to open his eyes more, but they were too heavy. The hand eased him back down. Only a dream of a low, overused voice floating through his barely conscious mind.

"Well, he's no soft pink skin. See that?"

A few more surprised and amused voices joined the first.

Aragorn was out cold before he could form a semblance of a response.

~°•°~

The sun barely started cracking over the horizon when Dûsh and the rangers make their way towards Gondor, scouring the woods for any sign of their lost leader.

Despite his desire to find the dead man and be done with it, the captain couldn't help but be absolutely, completely, UTTERLY BORED.

There were no enemies to tear open, no peasants to scare the shrak out of, only the daunting task of babysitting the rangers as they played around with stones and sticks. At least he had his iron guard to knock around.

"WATCH YA STEP, YOU MAGGOT!"

The defender jumped back with a yelp, barely avoiding his captain's foot.

"Sorry, boss."

A scoff rang through the dark forest as the company moved on, rangers barely on the edge of Dûsh's vision. Mind you, that problem was fixed with a short jog just for the boredom to start setting in once more.

Another scoff fought it's way out.

"Have ya found anything yet, kid?"

Redd fell back against a tree, seemingly annoyed.

"No, it's like they vanished."

"Or ya aren't looking well enough! Do better!"

Dûsh barely managed to hold himself back from kicking everybody's faces in as he heard an annoyed sigh from the rangers' direction. That self-restraint didn't apply to all his actions, however.

"Ya better shut your trap! Ya've lost a shraking nazgûl and now ya gotta find him again!"

Some discontent grumbling was his response, but nothing much has happened for about the next few hours.

At midday, Dûsh begrudgingly allowed for a camp to be set up. LunCh iS iMPoRtaNt they said. He couldn't help but hate this inaction, this incapability to act swiftly.

The captain shot up, spat out an order to be left alone and disappeared behind the treeline. He didn't stop walking until he exited into a miniature clearing lying right on the edge of a cliff.