The way to Gondor (Aragorn and Legolas fanfic)

Arrival in Lórien

Legolas POV

And the next second, he collapsed. 

I fell to my knees beside him, lifting his hand up from the ground. My worries lightened a bit as he still had a quite steady pulse, but whatever I did, he wouldn't wake up. I cried his name, I stroked his face, I held his hand, I laid his head in my lap, but he wouldn't wake up.

After having given Merry and Pippins instructions on which herbs they needed to find in the forest, I tried to stop the blood, that was still leaking out from Aragorn's side. As I did so, with the help of Sam, a single tear fell from my eyes. How could he have been wounded so badly, when usually he wouldn't even get any scratches? These were just some wolves from the mountains, not a very challenging enemy. How had they been able to hurt him?

Soon enough, the hobbits came back, their hands full of rare plants to heal wounds. Apparently, Merry was quite an expert in plants, especially the ones you could smoke, and right now I was glad he did, because maybe it would save Aragorn. With shaky hands, I mashed the herbs and treated the wound with them. More tears fell now, me not being able to stop them. Gimli came up behind me and put his hand on my shoulder to comfort me. 

The wound was treated the best I could. My hands needed something to do however, because if not, I would become overwhelmed by my fear for Aragorn. Without even noticing, I fiddled with his hair, making small plaits all over his head. I was so used to doing this to my own hair, that it gave me some comfort. 

"You did all you can", Gimli suddenly said. "He'll soon wake up, don't you worry laddie!"

"How can you know?! He is badly wounded, and unconscious!", I yelled at him. The next second I regretted my outburst. The dwarf was obviously just trying to comfort me. "Please forgive me", I whispered. Boromir approached us now too.

"Legolas, we need him to get healed properly. Where should we go?", he asked, sounding worried too. "I have never been in these lands before, are there allies somewhere we can reach?"

I thought for a moment. We were on the eastern side of the Misty Mountains, shouldn't the elves from Lothlórien live in this region? If we could find them, we would be safe.

"Elves. Lothlórien", was all I could say. The tears blurred my vision, and I couldn't formulate a whole sentence. 

"Then we should go now. We have all eaten and we did rest before the attack, it would be most unwise to stay here any longer", Boromir continued. I just nodded, but didn't show any sign of actually moving. 

"Let me give you a hand."

Feeling like in a dream, I lifted Aragorn up from the ground with Boromir, and we each draped one arm of his over our shoulders, to carry him. The hobbits and Gimli silently followed us, as we made our way into the forest. Soon, the sun would send its first morning light and day would come. If we didn't get any help by the end of it, there would be little hope for Aragorn to survive.

---

After long hours of half walking, half dragging Aragorn along, we had almost given up. Gimli was walking a bit ahead with the hobbits, lifting the mood with some dwarf jokes. I didn't feel like it, and Boromir spoke little. 

"I have the eyes of a hawk and the ears of a fox", I heard the dwarf say. "Oh"

An arrow was pointed to my head. Gimli had apparently not used his hawk eyes and fox ears, because three arrows were pointed at him. The hobbits looked around in shock, arrows everywhere. We were encircled by Lothlórien elves. 

"I na-cin? Mana cared hin(Who are you and what are you doing here)?", a big blonde elf asked. 

"Im Legolas o Taur e-ndaedelos. Govannas vin gwennen le, Haldir o Lórien. (I'm Legolas of Mirkwood forest. Our fellowship is under your protection)", I answered, recognising the elf from one of my visits to Lórien long ago with my father. 

Haldir stared at me for a brief second, then recognisation hit him and he exclaimed:

"Mae govannen, Legolas Thranduilion! Aphad-en.(Welcome, Legolas, son of Thranduil! Follow me.)"

He turned around in a swift movement, in which all the elves lowered their bows, and started retreating into the forest. Still dizzy with fear for Aragorn I stumbled along, the rest of the fellowship following. One of the elves wanted to help me and Boromir to carry Aragorn, but I refused and gave him an angry look. So for the rest of the way they ignored me.