The Elven Gates [CONTINUING!!]

Chapter 28 - The Fellowship Is Broken (Or Is It?)

(media section is a good background for this chapter it's instrumental listen pls trust me)

I'm going to go out on a limb here and say that most people have probably never been in a situation where they've been staring down a corrupted copy of one of their friends, and been genuinely considering ending that person's life because it's either that or the fate of a mysterious fantasy realm falling way out of balance.

Tierra was one of my few trusted companions back in the Earthean Realms. To be seeing her like this- to even be in this situation- was both so absurd and so painful that I had to take a second and question what I was really doing here. If I fell into another existential crisis, so be it.

If this were a movie, this is the part where there'd be some sort of slow motion shot where it's basically a freeze-frame except my eyes are darting around and you can see some brooding conflict in them. There are voice overs, audio clips from emotional memory scenes the audience was already shown. I shut my eyes tightly and reopen them, unveiling a new determination and a channeled rage. The audience gasps- the hero is steeled.

It is what I had to do. Time felt sickeningly slow, every movement like pulling through a thick molasses only amplified by all the doubting thoughts that could fit in as it took place. I could feel the seconds dragging across my skin. My hand gripped Faith, and the other Fury. Maybe this was a chance to end it once and for all- Galadriel's spying, Losseiriel's unnatural transformation, forces trying to undo what I was trying so hard to have redone.

My grip tightened. My arms tensed in preparation for the backswing.

I lunged forward, blades singing as they cut the air.

She was gone.

In all honestly my initial thought was WHAT the BLEEP, which was scolded by the telepathic talking bird Mathilmen and censored for... reasons.

My backup initial thought consisted of a jumbled mess of Is this Galadriel's doing?  with some She knows I was ready to kill her... and the obvious Oh crap when I threw myself off balance with the empty swing.

I quickly rushed to a rock a few feet away where Boromir was. Fallen? Resting? Who knows.

"You were... going to.." Boromir quickly began coughing up blood. I didn't know what to do. I was worried to prop him up in case it led to the blood filling up his lungs, I was afraid to lie him on his side in case his heart pumped the blood straight out of his body anyway. He was going to bleed out and I couldn't do anything.

I grabbed at whatever living leaves I could find in my immediate proximity and began crushing them up and stuffing them over the places where I had foolishly ripped out the arrows. Stupid, I thought, stupid stupid. You're never supposed to rip out the arrows.

Pe-channas! [idiot], I whispered at myself between suppressing cries, dôl gîn lost [your head is empty].

I pressed harder on the wounds in an effort to keep them from bleeding excessively, but realized I was probably causing Boromir a great deal of pain more than he was already dealing with. There was blood pooling on the ground. I saw it and lost the strength to hold back my tears. I looked up to the forest canopy, looking for what- I don't know. Boromir was a good man. He didn't deserve to die. He didn't deserve to-

I was brought back to the archery grounds in Imladris. With Legolas and the targets and the bow and the deer. The deer that didn't deserve to die. Aragorn.

Aragorn would probably know what to do.

Mathilmen, I tried my hardest to focus my.. thoughts, or whatever this was, on her, Mathilmen I need your help.