Of Futures Past (Legolas)

4

When morning came, Alana felt even more unwell than she had before she had fallen asleep, but she did her best not to let it show in her expressions and body language. Despite her efforts, the sheen of sweat and dark shadows under her eyes were enough indication to the others that she was struggling.

Throughout the day, she managed to keep up with them, but by evening she had fallen behind and waved the others ahead of her. Aragorn reluctantly did as she told, only because she promised she would not die and he trusted her gift of foresight.

Pressing more athelas into the wound, Alana tried to use magic to pull the darkness away from her heart, but it had a much smaller effect than she'd hoped for. 

She ate wearily, then settled down for the evening near the road, as she no longer had to worry about the Dark Riders.

She slept restlessly, waking up to find that she had difficulties moving, but forced herself, with shaking muscles, to stand and drag herself down the main road, stumbling from side to side so her path was more of a zigzag than a line.

The rest of the day continued as such, and the next as well, and she soon realized that, though her visions had said she would survive, she was a fool to trust in them in this weak time and would need help to reach Imladris.

Once she was sure she was in friendly territory, due to the remaining strength of her foresight, she sent up flares of light repeatedly as she stumbled along the road.

Within a couple hours, the thundering of hooves was heard behind her and a company of elves pulled up next to her. The elf closest to her dismounted from his horse.

"Lady Alana. Are you unwell?" The elf was blond and much taller than she, but that was the case for most elves, and despite his familiar voice, she could not place who he was due to her blurry vision, not matter how hard she squinted her eyes.

"Well, good afternoon. I, unfortunately, was stabbed by a Morgul blade a few days ago and sent my party ahead of me out of necessity, however, I am now finding that I may have acted slightly too sacrificially beyond what was necessary. Who, may I ask, are you?" Alana said, slurring her words slightly and swaying on her feet.

"I am Legolas." The elf said, his eyes clouded with worry as he put a steadying arm around the elleth.

Alana scowled. "That smug prince of Mirkwood? Just my luck." Alana paused. "I suppose I should be polite, my lord, since I am in need of help to get to Imladris, but childish grudges are difficult to let go of."

At that, Legolas chuckled, though his eyes held the same intense worry for Alana as his grip tightened. "There is no need to strain yourself, my lady. Focus only on staying conscious." Legolas easily picked her up and placed her on his horse in front of them. Though Alana scowled at the ellon who she disliked so strongly, she was too weak to argue and fell against his chest as they rode onwards. 

As her adrenaline ran out, Alana's body began shaking violently and she clenched the fabric of Legolas's tunic, trying to control her breathing. Somehow maintaining perfect control of his horse, Legolas held the reins with only one arm and the other wrapped around Alana, holding her more securely. 

"Lady Alana, how came you by such a wound?" Legolas wondered, staring at the woman worriedly.

"I was delivering something important to Imladris. It is not safe to say, but Gandalf had other duties to tend to, and I was weakened in the midst of a fight with the Nazgul." Somehow, she had gotten a sudden burst of energy when Legolas had started holding her so tightly. Perhaps it was the security, and the minimized bouncing on the horse. "Aragorn will be upset with me, since I forced him to move ahead, but it was necessary, in the long run. As many other sacrifices are..." With that, Alana's coherency became lost. She did not respond to anything Legolas said, speaking only strange things. "Gandalf... fire and shadow... Grandmother must help him... He will die... Boromir... I can prevent it... Frodo... Don't leave Sam behind... Legolas..." 

Though Legolas was quite shocked to hear his name, he was much more worried about the rest of her strange mumblings and more importantly, her deathly pallor and the shaking that had nearly stopped in favour of an undead stillness.

Paralyzed with fear, Legolas urged his horse faster, pulling ahead of the other Mirkwood elves, and pushed his horse to remain at full speed until they reached Imladris, where he jumped off his horse and carried her inside.

Stopping the first elf he saw in the hallway, he asked her where Lord Elrond was and she led him, carrying Alana, to a healing room before fetching Lord Elrond.

"So Alana has finally arrived." Elrond commented gravely. "Aragorn told me of what happened to her. Silly girl, still so rash no matter how much she's grown up."

"Will she be alright?" Legolas asked worriedly, watching Elrond's expert removal of the Morgul blade. 

"Do not worry, Legolas Thranduilion. Alana is strong and once properly rested, will be right as rain." Elrond replied, still focusing on healing the weak girl, though the pain seemed to have dissipated from her expression. "Feel free to wait outside, it will not change her recovery."

"I'm alright here, if I do not bother you, Lord Elrond." Legolas said firmly, his gaze not wavering from Alana.

"Very well." With that, Elrond completed the healing in silence as Legolas watched, relievedly noticing the colour returning to her cheeks and less laboured breathing. A few hours later, though it felt like an age, Elrond claimed to be finished and left the room to check on other matters.

Some time later, Aragorn came bursting into the room, guilt written upon his face.

"Hannon le, Legolas. I should not have let her convince me to leave her behind." Aragorn said regretfully.

"Do not worry, my friend. She is as stubborn as a mule, we both know that well." Legolas said, chuckling a little.

Aragorn quirked a smile. "Does she still hold a grudge?"

Legolas nodded, the subtle disappointment on his face evident to his friend. "She was quite upset that I was the one to notice her flare."

Aragorn smiled sympathetically. "She has grown wiser since you last saw her, perhaps she will stop being angry with you."

Legolas nodded. "Perhaps."

The two sat in silence as they waited for Alana to wake up, for her face was much brighter and her lips had fallen into a soft smile.