Promise Me

Chapter Three

A cool breeze rustled through the leaves, kissed the night air to make sleeping comfortable.

If only he could sleep.

For Boromir, sleep was not something that ever came easily to him. Not since he was a child, really. But of late, it eluded him more than ever. Even in a place such as Lothlórien, he couldn't find peace.

While the silence of Rivendell unnerved him, he wasn't any more comfortable in Lothlórien, for he did not trust the lady Galadriel. Having heard too many stories as a child about the dangers of her magic to Men, he found it hard to put aside his suspicions about her. All in all, he'd rather just continue on their way to Mordor, and Mordor was honestly the last place any sane man wished to be.

But, the decision was not his. His responsibilities lie with the people of Gondor and keeping them safe and if that meant seeing the hobbits Merry and Pippin and Frodo and Samwise to Mount Doom, he would do so. He still wasn't entirely convinced destroying the Ring was the best course of action, but as he was outvoted, it hardly mattered.

In the end, all that mattered was returning home.

Without thinking, he reached into the neck of his tunic and gave a gentle tug on the silver chain that had remained around his neck since Gabby fastened it there.

"Your mind refusing to let you be?"

He looked up as Aragorn settled on the marble bench beside him, and nodded. "Something of that sort, yes. The little ones are still asleep, I hope?"

"They are. But what keeps you from doing the same?"

"I'm not comfortable here," Boromir murmured, still running his thumb along the silver bear. "And I won't be comfortable at all until this is all behind us."

"What do you hold?" Aragorn asked, gesturing to his own throat. "I've noticed you fuss with it a bit."

"This? It was a gift." Boromir tucked it back beneath his tunic. "A token, given to me to keep watch over me. Over us, I suppose, although she didn't know about the Fellowship being formed. She didn't know about any of this, and yet she felt I needed it, so perhaps she sensed something."

"She?" A narrow dark brow rose ever so slightly.

Boromir tried to ignore the pang in his gut as Gabby floated into his mind. He'd never missed anyone the way he missed her. "She, yes. An old friend and one I look forward to seeing again."

"We will go with the sun. We still have a bit of a road before us." Aragorn leaned his head back and looked upward. "You should try to sleep some. And worry not. These borders are well-protected. No orcs or goblins or cave trolls will disturb us."

Despite his growing sense of doom, Boromir managed a hint of a smile, although he felt no humor at all. They'd lost their guide, the gray wizard Gandalf, who'd fallen into shadow in the depths of Moria at the proverbial hands of a Balrog. Although he'd only know the man in passing, the sense of loss hung as heavily on his shoulders as it did on the shoulders of the hobbits, of Aragorn.

Aragorn. The heir of Isildur, who was the reason they were on this fool's quest to begin with. He'd been in possession of the Ring. Had stood at the edge of Mount Doom with Elrond, and despite the elf king's insistence he destroy the Ring, Isildur refused.

While he'd eyed Aragorn with some suspicion at first, and steadfastly refused to acknowledge him for what he truly was—heir to the throne of Gondor— Boromir had since come to respect him. He still strongly believed Gondor needed no king, but he did respect the Ranger and had also come to trust him to a certain degree. They were cut of the same cloth, both of Men, both ready to do what was asked of them in order to see the Ring destroyed and peace restored.