“And you believed him?” Aragorn asked. Accusation was heard in his voice, and in his mind he was cursing the elf who was fighting alone.
“What else I could do?” Gimli asked. “He told me that you needed me, saying that he would hold them.”
“You should have stayed with him,” Aragorn replied. “All you had to do was stay with him, nothing more.”
“But he fears for you, for you are mortal like me,” Gimli exclaimed.
“That is not giving him the right to fight alone; elves can die in battle too, Gimli,” Aragorn explained.
“Do you think he is alright?” Gimli asked.
“He should be, or I will kill him myself.” Aragorn grinned, and Gimli could see a ray of hope within Aragorn’s eyes.
“I will kill him, and then you try and heal him,” Gimli groaned.
“Let us hurry, before he is killed by the Uruks,” Aragorn said, and ran to where they left Legolas, following the whistling sound of arrows. When they got there, they could not see Legolas at first, as he was surrounded by Uruks.
Aragorn and Gimli began fighting when they heard Legolas’ battle cry, thinking that the elf was well.
They soon saw him when some of the Uruks fell dead next to them.
Aragorn noticed the blood on Legolas’ leg; his healer’s instinct told him that it was not what the elf thought. It was not a scratch, it was a very deep wound.
Some Uruks appeared behind the elf.
“LEGOLAS BEHIND YOU!” Aragorn shouted, and saw the Uruks attacking his friend.
Legolas turned his head when he heard the whistle of arrows. He felt how the pain in his leg increased; what he thought was only a scratch he now realised was much worse. The pain made him feel weak, and he tried to avoid the arrows.
Four arrows hit the Mirkwood elf, and he gave one last cry before he fell.
Aragorn and Gimli noticed the fallen elf.
“Legolas!” they shouted. Their Greenleaf had fallen; hope seemed to be gone, and they stared at the body of their friend.
“NO!!!” they yelled in despair, not accepting what had happened.
Aragorn and Gimli fought together, leaving a trail of dead Uruks behind them. Occasionally they looked at their friend with fear and hopelessness in their eyes.
It seemed to take a long time, but finally the Uruks were all gone. They checked the battlefield to see if there were more, but when they saw there were none, they rushed over to Legolas.
Blood was dripping from his wounds and his eyes were closed. Aragorn and Gimli were worried when they saw how bad it looked.
“We need to get the arrows out, Gimli,” Aragorn said. He put his hand on one of the arrows.
Then Aragorn took his hand away. Gimli watched as the man raised his head and sighed, and guessed that something else was on Aragorn’s mind.
“What is troubling you?” Gimli asked.
“We need to bury Boromir,” Aragorn replied, then continued as he noticed Gimli’s frown, making a vein bulge across his forehead: “And my healing supplies are on the boat I was in, master dwarf.”
“Oh…” Gimli mumbled, not realising.
“I need your help in carrying Boromir to the shore. We will put him in one of the boats and send it over the waterfall,” Aragorn said to Gimli.
“But…” Gimli looked at him, then at the elf, and asked: “But what about Legolas?”
Aragorn glanced at his friend, and sighed heavily. “Forgive me… I will be back to save you,” he whispered.
Turning back to Gimli, Aragorn said: “We need to be quick so that we can save Legolas.”
“Then what are we waiting for?” Gimli asked.
Aragorn and Gimli ran back to where Boromir was killed, and carried his body back to the boats. They lay Boromir in the boat, and watched it as it went over the waterfall.
Gimli saw Sam and Frodo on the other side of the river, walking away amongst the trees. “We failed, the Fellowship has broken,” he said.
“It may be broken, my friend, but we need to save Legolas,” Aragorn replied as he collected his healing supplies. They ran back to where Legolas was and Aragorn examined the elf, noticing how his face was twitching from pain.
There was an awful smell on the air; death and poisons, and the smell of blood. Dark blood.
“Aragorn, what is it?” Gimli asked nervously when he saw Aragorn move his hand to his nose.
“The smell of death, can you not smell it?” Aragorn asked him, shocked.
“I have smelt it before,” Gimli said coldly.
“I should have listened to you before,” Aragorn said, as he tried to save his best friend’s life…
“Yes, you should have,” Gimli grinned at him.
Aragorn gave Gimli a hard look, making the dwarf shut his mouth.
“Gimli, put the supplies bag and your axe on the ground, and do what I say if you really want to help to save Legolas’ life,” Aragorn said as softly as he could to the dwarf.
Gimli did what he was told, and knelt beside his friends and waited.
“We need to remove each of the arrows carefully from Legolas’ body…” Aragorn started to explain before he was cut off by the dwarf.
“Why? Is there no other way? Can we not pull them out all at once?”
“No! Gimli, it is dangerous, and he may die,” Aragorn said, trying to stay calm.
Blood was trickling from Legolas’ mouth, and both Aragorn and Gimli looked terrified.
The blood was black.
“Is it not going to hurt him?” Gimli asked.
“No Gimli, use these herbs to help sedate him,” Aragorn said as he gave them to the dwarf, wrapped up in some thin material. “Place them gently on his nose and mouth so that he breathes them in; I do not want him to wake up when I am trying to remove the arrows.”
Gimli looked at the herbs, and then looked at Legolas. He did what Aragorn asked, and then sat back on his heels and watched.
“He has been poisoned, Gimli,” Aragorn said when he noticed the color of the blood.
“Is he going to die?” Gimli asked, a tear slipping down his face.
End of Chapter 3.
R/R