Wild | Aragorn | On Hiatus

Chapter 30

Chapter 30

It all sounded so far away.

Her body felt far away.

But she could see all the orcs rush past as she looked up at the sky.

Very slowly she rolled over, groaning all the while as her muscles ached and screeched for her to stop. But she didn't. No. There was something to do, to protect before she might rest.

So, with no sense of where she was going whatsoever, she crawled forth, in the direction opposite to where she headed was originally - or at least that was what she hoped.

The adrenaline had worn off suddenly now and it felt like she was dying. Nínimiel knew she wasn't. Just as she knew everything felt worse than it was.

As she crawled, the feet around her thinned until she strained to look up and saw the archer stood before Boromir.

She couldn't even cry out as the large orc drew his bow to deliver a final shot.

So she shuffled along the leaf litter, halting in terror as a flash of dark green crossed her vision and crashed into the orc. But as she watched, relief swelled within her at the sight of Aragorn and she continued on towards Boromir, pulling herself along the ground as her body simply refused to cooperate with her fully, and right when she needed it to.

The elleth refused to stop and watch Aragorn, to be frozen by the fear of him dying or getting hurt so she focused on sitting up in front of Boromir.

His breath was laboured and his eyes were a little glazed over, but he smiled a little smile when he saw her and she saw a little of the tension in his shoulder leave. He was relieved to see her. Relieved she was safe. Perhaps he hadn't failed completely.

The elleth helped him up, just to move him so he could lean against a tree. Here, she knelt at his side, and could fully take the sight of him in. It caused her dulled senses to come hurtling back, and she was alert.

It was bad.

She wasn't sure how it was bad, but her eyes could see that it was not good.

"You're ok," he sighed, before gulping down air. "You're ok. I'm glad. I thought. I thought they'd. Take...Taken you."

Nínimiel tucked the hair that fallen in front of his face behind his ears, and began to examine the arrows, searching frantically for a way to heal him.

"Of course I-I'm ok. Why would they h-ha-have tak-"

Oh.

Oh no.

Dear Merry and Pippin.

No.

The elleth looked around, and they were nowhere to be found. She hadn't even heard it happen, nor had she seen it. How could she have missed that? She was there to protect them! And sh-

"It's not your fault."

She drew her eyes from the arrows to meet his. He had a pained smile. How was he smiling?