The way to Gondor (Aragorn and Legolas fanfic)

Forgotten malady

Legolas POV

Suddenly I felt the chilliness of the night. This experience was new to me. Elves usually don't feel temperature, just when it's really cold or burning hot. But sometimes, when we fall ill, our senses grow more human. I wondered why I was ill. Because I must be ill, when I felt cold and it wasn't -40 degrees. I felt my arms. They seemed ok. My legs? Fine too. My stomach, maybe I had eaten something poisonous. No, it was feeling well too. And it wasn't my head, because it didn't hurt and I didn't feel dizzy. So what was it? Could it be...? No, it wouldn't appear so early, would it? I discarded my thought. 

I had left the garden in a haste, and was now heading to the room, that had been provided for me. It was not big, but enough for me, as I felt lonely in big rooms anyway. Nevertheless, I still felt lonely now. I mean, she was beautiful, and she was strong-minded, I could see that. But there wasn't more to her than that, was there? What could he possibly see in her, that made him behave like that?

At first, I didn't intend to follow him. Aragorn had just left the table, where we had talked with Gimli and Gandalf, and said, that he wanted to take a stroll outside. And I knew he really wanted to, it wasn't that. Yet, it had seemed to me an invitation of a last moment alone with him, before we were headed to war. Obviously, it wasn't what he had had in mind, because his object of desire was someone completely different. As Éowyn had seen me watching them, I hurried to get away, because I wouldn't want to be caught spying. I'm not the jealous type. Honestly.

My room was empty and cold. I threw myself on the bed and covered me with the blanket, but not even that helped to chase the coldness away. It felt like my inside had turned to ice, and nothing I did would unfreeze it again. What kind of illness could that be? I had heard about something called ring lhîw (cold disease). Some of my kin had died of it many years ago, when there were more spiders in the Woodland Realm, and their diseases had spread on the elves. One first got cold fingers and toes, then the legs and arms started to freeze from the inside and out and you couldn't move. Finally, the head froze, and you fell into a coma. You weren't dead, but couldn't be woken up either. Just with an antidote, made out of sage, the poison could be removed. I didn't feel quite like that, but tomorrow I would search some sage and see if it helped. 

Aragorn POV

Éowyn was a kind and brave lady, but she had almost given up. I hoped, that I could help her see through her darkness, at least until after the war. If there was an after. I didn't want to think about it just yet.

My head had felt strange the whole day, and I was feeling kind of dizzy by the time I reached my room. My plan had been to search for Legolas and see how he was doing, but I figured, I should rather rest a bit instead. I opened my door, and felt my legs give in. Suddenly I was on my knees, panting hard. There was no air, why was there no air in this room? My throat became tighter with each second that went by, and my head was spinning so badly, that I couldn't see straight anymore. 

A bed, where was the bed? Finally I found the edge of it and dragged myself up. The second my head hit the pillow, vision started to go black, and my heart beat sped up enormously. I couldn't feel my limbs anymore, my head hurt so badly I wanted to throw up, and it felt like no air reached my lungs. The last thing I remembered, was the urge to follow my leader into his big black castle and fulfill the tasks he gave me. Bring ... to me. ... his head ... kill ...

Gandalf POV

A devastating roaring shoke me up from my dreams. My first thought was, that the wargs had reached Meduseld. But then I remembered, they had fallen under controll of the enemy. Their task was not to feast on farmers and horses in the east. They had better things to do, more cruel things. But then, what was it? The cry had sounded unhuman, but not like an animal either. A dreadful thought came to my mind. I needed to find the source of the sound. It would be dangerous to let a creature, that made such noise, go loose in the city.

Guards had of course also heard the roaring and came sprinting from every direction. They were heading towards a closed door. And now I heard why. From inside the room a great ruckus was heard. It sounded like stools were thrown to the ground and tables were overturned. 

"He's still in there, should we open the door?", I heard one of the men say to another. And then it hit me. It was Aragorn's room. And I knew exactly what was happening. But how could it? How did it happen? When? And were there still werewolves in Middle-earth?