Sucked Into Middle Earth...Just My Luck!

Chapter 12

I was dozing off on the horse, probably snoring quietly to be honest. I really needed the rest, we'd been giving chase for almost four days now and I was doing it with an almost fatal wound. My reprieve was short lived however as I was startled awake by Aragorn screaming "Aaaarrrgghhh!"

I lost my balance and started falling to the side when Boromir tried to stabilise me. Unfortunately he was to late and instead of bringing me back up I ended up just taking him down with me. I hissed in pain as my wound pressed against the grass before Boromir scrambled to help me up. Normally I'd be laughing but this hurt way too much.

"Are you alright?" He asked as I accepted his outstretched hand.

"Yeah...yeah I'll be fine. What's all the commotion?" I asked and looked to see Aragorn on his knees and forlorn looks on the others faces.

That's right... I looked to Gimli who was holding a small belt and he said sorrowfully, "we failed them".

I groaned as I was brought to my feet and then said to them, "I told you they were okay earlier. Didn't you hear me?"

"But the belt..." started Gimli and I shushed him.

"Aragorn open your eyes a bit wider, you can clearly see they escaped" I said gesturing with one of my hands.

He creased his brow and took another look. Immediately he started finding tracks and rope, etc. I just wandered towards the forest with Boromir following me, he didn't seem to want me out of his sight if he could help it, guess he must be worried I'll succumb to my injury. I'd been getting someone to apply antibacterial cream to the wound as much as possible and changed the dressings as often as we could allow without losing too much ground. In saying that though I'd begin to notice Boromir favouring his good shoulder more and more and the injured one was beginning to seep blood again. I had a feeling it was infected but when I'd asked Boromir what was up he said it was nothing to worry about so I dropped it. I watched him put a hand to his wound and wince slightly and that was the tipping point for me.

"Come here and sit down" I told him firmly.

He frowned in confusion and asked "why?"

"I'm gonna look at that shoulder of yours" I said definitively.

"It's fine, just a bit sore from travel" he reasoned but I sighed and patted the ground again.

He knew at this point I was going to force him to one way or another and sat down in front of me. He hadn't even wrapped the wound, the idiot! Had he even treated it at all? I scowled at him and he sighed in defeat as he was forced to remove the layers that covered his torso so I could have a better look. His skin was mostly smooth looking save the old battle scars here and there and he had a healthy layer of practical muscle. I tried not to focus on anything but his wound though as I didn't need to make things weird for us right now, it was already bad enough that we'd both had emotional breakdowns with each other and I wasn't comfortable with people seeing so many of my emotions.

"I've seen you wince and a wound this old shouldn't still be weeping fluid unless it's...well, it's infected. Yep, you're an idiot" I told him and materialised some benedine, gauze and antibiotics along with a cloth to wipe the gunk from around the damaged flesh.

"What are you doing?" He asked as he watched me struggle with the childproof lid.

"I'm gonna get rid of the infection so that we don't have to get rid of your arm. Seriously, I almost died saving you and if I hadn't pulled through you would have fallen to a dirty wound!" I chastised him and poured the benedine over the cut without warning.

Boromir hissed at the sudden sting and I put pressure on his shoulder with the cloth, wiping away the dirt and dry blood and pus from around the open flesh. As soon as it looked clean enough I wrapped the gauze over his shoulder, under the arm and back again over and over until I was sure there was enough to soak any leakage up and keep the area clean from the outside elements. I then instructed him to take an antibiotic with some water and said he'd have to have 3 a day for the next 5 days and see if it helped.