𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐇𝐨𝐛𝐛𝐢𝐭 𝐢𝐧 𝐑𝐞𝐚𝐥 𝐋𝐢𝐟𝐞 𝐨𝐧𝐞𝐬𝐡𝐨𝐭𝐬

Safe | Legolas

She was in pain, on a wooden boat with her eyes closed, showing the pain she felt inside through her face, her frown, her gnashing of teeth. She held an oar in her hand that rested on her body, on top of her chest, on her legs. She was shivering, she was cold. Her hands, her feet... They were numb, she stopped feeling them a long time ago.

"Fili, I can't take it anymore... I think I have a fever, and the wound won't stop bleeding," Y/N said, pressing the wound on her abdomen, caused by a branch after having fallen ill in the forest when they fled from a band of criminals.

"Hold on, you have to hold on, we haven't even covered half the river yet," Fili said, looking at her with some fear as he continued to row.

"It hurts..." she answered, coughing up blood. "And it's very cold..."

She covered herself with an old, rough, frayed, dirty, and soggy blanket. It wasn't much, but that was more than nothing.

Fili kept paddling and paddling relentlessly, trying not to get caught by these criminals. He had to get to safety as soon as possible. He listened to the moans of his friend, watching her cough up blood, and that made him worry more.

They gradually advanced along the river, ceasing to hear the screams of those who were pursuing them. Fili was relieved at times, but he couldn't allow himself to rest, not with Y/N like that. He continued rowing until, without noticing the rock in front of them, because it was submerged, they collided with it, and that caused the boat to capsize and, with it, its crew fell into the water.

"Y/N!" Fili yelled. The woman screamed and thrashed in the water, trying to swim through the rapids, her blood beginning to stain the river water, leaving a red trail behind the lass.

Y/N clung to the fallen trunk of an old, flaking tree full of moss, resting her head on it and closing her eyes as she gasped for breath. She saw that Fili reached the other side and rested on the opposite bank.

"Y/N, hold on!" Fili yelled. "I'll look for help right away, stay there!"

Y/N nodded and closed her eyes again, she could barely move due to her pain. She coughed again, spitting blood again harder than she had before, gasping for air.

*****

A slender, lithe figure ran gracefully between the trunks of the trees. He knew every corner of that forest and placed his feet in the best places to advance through the place without clumsiness. Legolas had left his home that morning to be able to enter the forest and walk around it. He was touring the place with speed and dexterity when, suddenly, he heard a female voice screaming to the right of him, in the river. He didn't hesitate to go there to find out who she was, and when he saw her, he was slowly and carefully approaching while he watched her, seeing that she rested her head on an old log.

He obviously wouldn't leave her there in the middle of the stream when that tree was about to break, so he reached out his arm to help her out of there.

"Here, take my hand," Legolas said, offering her his hand. The woman quickly recovered from the shock caused by the fine-looking man, and she took his hand.

"Thanks, I don't know what I would have done if you hadn't arrived on time, I was trapped," said Y/N, shivering from the cold.

"What have you done to end those ways?"

"I was escaping from some criminals who were firing their shotguns at Fili and me," she explained, trying to take a deep breath to relax. "Fili! Where is Fili?"

"Who is he?" Legolas asked.

"He's my friend, I was escaping with him down the river in a boat, but we hit a rock and he went the other way to get help," she explained. "I have to find him."