I Will Always Come Back

Chapter 3

I ran to Míreth's side as she fainted. She had lost too much blood. "Quickly! We need to rebind the wound!" I told them quickly, "and get her a stretcher for tomorrow's journeying!" The pleading in my voice made everybody quickly do as I said. My leg was throbbing, and I could hardly stand anymore. Running obviously isn't good for cut legs. We stopped for the night. Míreth still hadn't woken up. I wondered if she ever would. Don't be like that, I told myself, of course she will. But as I looked at her pale face, my mind insisted more and more that she might not.

As we stared into the firelight, we ate some Lembas bread and drank some water from our water skins. I opened the cloth that bound Míreth's arm, and looked at the cut. It was starting to get infected, and it was still bleeding. I poured some water on it to clean it, then rebound it. I wanted to punch myself for forgetting to pack anything for healing swounds, when the whole time I was worrying about getting hurt, or killed! Now, it seemed a much higher possibility that we wouldn't make it out of this alive.

I sat watching the fire for a moment, thinking about this trip. I shouldn't have brought the warriors. I should have brought more supplies. I should have chosen a safer route. I shouldn't have agreed to go. I was doubting myself, meanwhile, I knew I had no control over half of those things anyway. I just had to blame it on myself, or I would have felt lost and afraid. Tauriel saw my look of worry, and came to sit beside me. "It's not your fault," she told me. She had known me so long, she could tell what every expression on my face meant. This proved that point. "Míreth would have gotten hurt, no matter what your did. If you regret bringing us, then just know you couldn't have stopped us from going with you, anyway." She gave me a sympathetic look. "Anyway, how's your leg?" I had completely forgotten to tend to my wound. I was too worried about Míreth to be worried about myself. As Tauriel brought the subject up, a wave of pain washed over my leg.

"It's not any better, if that is what you mean," I said through gritted teeth. Tauriel undid my binds as I said this, and let out a gasp of horror. "What is it?"I demanded. I tried to look down, the pain in my leg stopped me.

"You were struck with a poisoned blade," Tauriel whispered, "That wound will not heal by time. It will take nothing short of magic." I took this moment to look at my leg, no matter how much it hurt. I cried out in pain and terror. The wound had a greenish tint to it. It was still bleeding profusely, and it was slightly black at the edges. I could tell how bad the infection was, just by the firelight. I would not have much longer to live unless the poison was somehow stopped. In fact, it did not even look as though I would get to the mountains without needing help from a wizard. Elven Magic would not help here.

I told Tauriel to get me some water to clean the wound, and she hastily obeyed. As she poured the water on the wound, I felt an excruciating pain shoot up my leg, and I cried out in agony. Tauriel gave me a look of regret, and then quickly rebound my leg. It felt a little better after she finished, but I knew it wouldn't last long. I decided I should go to bed. If anything would help me now, it would be rest. I thanked Tauriel for helping, and she told me I must go to sleep. I rolled over onto my side, closed my eyes, and fell asleep.

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I was woken gently by Arnos, who had kept watch for the night. He reported nothing out of the ordinary to me, except that Míreth had woken up in the night and that she had fallen back asleep after eating and getting a drink. That was good. I decided I would check on her, as I saw her wandering about in the camp. I moved to get up, but the. I was gently held down by Arnos. For a moment, I was confused, but then, I remembered my leg. I told Arnos I would be fine to stand up for a while.i slowly got up, clenching my jaw as pain shot up my injured leg. Arnos held me up as I swayed, for my leg wouldn't support my weight. As I walked to her, Míreth looked angry. "You should be sitting down!" she ordered, "You are too weak to be standing!"

I didn't care. I needed to see her. "I came to see how you are holding up," I said, "You gave us a scare." I redoubled my grip on Arnos' shoulder. I felt very faint.

Míreth looked worried. "Are you alright?" she asked, seeing me sway where I stood.

"Yes, I'm fine," I assured her, but as I swayed even more, I wasn't so sure. As I stood there, I felt even more light headed, and the next ting I knew, the voices were fading, my vision was going black, and I was falling, falling into oblivion.