The way to Gondor (Aragorn and Legolas fanfic)

Where is he?

Aragorn POV

Not the morning light woke me up, but the noise of busy people, that talked with hushed voices to not disturb the rest of the inhabitants of the cave. While rubbing the sleep out of my eyes, I made myself an overview over what was going on. Both Éowyn and Gimli were awake, and they constantly hurried back and forth with what seemed to be wet cloths in their hands. Somewhere on the ground was apparently a patient they were treating, but I couldn't understand why Gimli would help with it. I mean, I didn't want to blame Gimli, but he wasn't the very compassionate kind of person.

"May I be a help with something, my dear lady?", I asked Éowyn, as she came in my direction. She seemed stressed and worried.

"Er... well, I need some clean cloths and herbs that I don't have here... and maybe some hot wine, too, yes actually, wine would be good, it's good for wounds...", she trailed off. It seemed as she was actually talking to herself, rather than to me.

"What has happened?", I asked. "Is someone hurt?"

She looked up at me with tearful eyes.

"Yes", she whispered. "It's my brother. He got sick during the night. A fever, a terrible one."

This was bad. I understood why Éowyn was so upset. Her brother was very dear to her, and loosing him would mean the end of all things to her. And Éomer was a strong man, who hardly got sick, so him having a bad fever was really something to worry about. However, I knew I couldn't get more information from the woman right now, because she obviously had been up the whole night, was exhausted and worried. Therefore I followed her to her brother, who was lying on a bed on the floor, Gimli putting a new damp cloth on his forehead. 

"Gimli, what has happened to him?", I asked the dwarf. He'd need to give me some answers.

"I don't know, Aragorn", he sighed. "It was Legolas who found him, and I couldn't get a sensible word out of him. But Éomer's really sick, he's been having fever dreams the whole night. Said something about "the elf" and "he's waken up" and "he'll hate me" and stuff like that. Couldn't understand a thing."

I got the sense, that Gimli was pretty worried too, but he didn't want to show it, so I just put my hand on his shoulder to comfort him. 

"May I speak to Legolas? Maybe he will tell me what happened", I said.

"You know, laddie, I've not seen him since he alarmed us about Éomer. I don't know where he is", Gimli answered. But his answer gave me goosebumps. Legolas wouldn't disappear in such a situation, especially when a friend of his was terribly ill. He'd be the first to dab this person's forehead, and the last to go asleep, while he knew his friend needed him. Why wasn't he here now? Did he know something about Éomer that we didn't? Where was he? 

"I'll search for him", I told Gimli and set off through the cave towards the exit, accelerating my pace with each step. In the end I was almost running. Where could he possibly have gone? Where would I go?

I searched the big halls of the king, the storerooms with food and weapons, the deep caverns where the liquids were kept, the wall, the towers, even the caves where prisoners could be held. But he was nowhere.

With each minute that passed I got more nervous. What had happened to Legolas? Where was he? My stomach told me that something bad had happened, and not knowing what or where made it even more unbearable. In the end I informed the guards and they helped me search. But by lunchtime, we still hadn't found him.

Legolas POV

Drip. Drip. Dribble. Drip. 

Cold. Cold. Colder. Cold.

Clean. Clean. Cleaner. Clean.

Dirty.

Filthy.

Disgusting.

And again.

Drip. Drip. Drip...