Wounded

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Third person POV

"Where is he? Where is he? Where is he?", Gimli shouted, while running towards the caves, where the wounded soldiers were being treated.

"Whom are you searching?", Éomer called to him. He was following the dwarf around the castle, and hadn't gotten a single sensible word out of him.

"The elf of course, who else?!", the dwarf shouted back.

The third marshall of the Mark still didn't know whom Gimli meant. In his eyes, there were two elves he possibly could mean, Legolas or Haldir, and he didn't know by far which of them they were searching now. Legolas hadn't been anywhere in sight since the battle was over, and Haldir he hadn't even met yet, just heard stories about how great he was. 

Éomer had arrived in the early morning light with his men and the wizard, and they had attacked the enemy from both sides. Luckily, they could disperse them and all the orcs and wild men from Dunland fled through the valley. It had been just in time to save the fortress, because the moment he entered it after the fight, he smelt the exhaustion and dispair that hung in the air, and as he looked around, he hadn't seen victorious men, but men tired to their bones and many dead or badly wounded. 

"Ah, there!", Gimli muttered under his breath, then shouted: "Lady Éowyn!"

Because it was her who stood bent over a person lying on a bed of straw and wiping said person's forehead with a wet cloth. 

Éomer POV

I couldn't see the face of the person on the ground, but from his clothes and elegance I concluded that it was an elf. He wore a golden armour, but his chest had been bared and he wore only a simple shirt. His long golden-blonde hair lay spread out around him and made him look like he wore a crown of light. Then Éowyn stepped aside, because she had heard Gimli shout, and I got the view on his face. It was beautiful. Even though it was covered in blood and sweat I couldn't describe it as something else, just pure beauty. If this wasn't Haldir from Lórien I wouldn't know what to believe. 

"Master Gimli", my sister greeted the dwarf, and as she noticed me she flung her arms around me and greeted me in tears. "Éomer, oh I'm so glad you are here! I've worried so much, and every time a wounded soldier was carried to me I was afraid their face would be yours!"

I just hugged her back, but I couldn't quite concentrate on her, as my mind was with the elf behind her. 

"Who is this you are treating, Éowyn?", I asked her, pointing at the elf.

"Oh, I suppose you didn't meet when ... ", she interrupted herself and wiped away a tear that had escaped her eye. "I mean, this is Haldir from Lórien."

"And what happened to him?", I replied.

"Yeah, what happened, why is he laying there on the floor?", Gimli spoke up and he seemed quite annoyed.

"Has nobody told you, Gimli?", she asked the dwarf. "Aragorn brought him here, so I thought he had told you?"

"No, no one has told me anything, because Aragorn and Legolas are both gone, and I had to ask my way here!"

The dwarf was clearly upset, and it hurt my feelings to see him so outraged. 

"Just tell us what happened, won't you my dear sister?", I therefore said.

"Fine", she sighed. "He's been shot in the shoulder with an orc arrow, and the poison has spread widely in his body. When Aragorn first brought him here I thought he was dead already, and he may be." The tears started rolling down her cheeks again. "There is a slight pulse, but it's so faint that I don't know how long he will last. I don't know if I can save him!" She started to really cry now and I embraced her in my arms once more. 

In the meanwhile, Gimli had sat down on the spot and not said anything at all. I saw the shock in his eyes about the news he had just received, and I felt exactly the same. I just could hide it better.

"Can we help you with anything?", I asked my sister, and she nodded, while pulling herself together again. 

"Will you stay with him and look after him while I treat all the other wounded men around?", she asked, and as I nodded, she turned around and started sewing wounds and putting bandages on, which I could have never done because of all the blood there was. She really was a remarkable woman, and I was proud of her. 

"Come on, Gimli, let's do whatever we can to help him", I said to the dwarf, who finally snapped out of his shock and hummed in agreement. We sat down on either side of the wounded elf and watched him sleep. If it was a healing sleep or a deathly one we didn't know.

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