Hey! This is Minerakf! For all you romance fans, this is Love at First Sight, side-story to Sapphire's Strange Friends. I am writing with absolutely no romantic experience. Please forgive me if this sucks! D; But a word of warning: Any flames will be put under Bilbo Baggins' tea kettle.
Boromir:
The others dashed off and Boromir scooped up the sleeping elleth. It was strange...from what he knew, elves did not sleep. Perhaps it was only because she was unconscious? He looked upon her fair face and felt exhilaration sweep him off his feet. She truly was the most beautiful creature he had ever seen.
He started walking upriver and noticed a silver pack hanging from a tree. It was just like Lady Sapphire's magical pack! He pulled on what she had called a 'zipper' and opened the bag. There was nothing inside, but when he thought of lembas bread, a loaf appeared.
On the back of the bag, there was an L in the little white jewels that Sapphire had called 'rhinestones'.
He shouldered his pack and the little silver pack and started his way upriver, heading back to Lothlorien, where he would wait out the war. Anger filled him when he thought of how the others were going to lie about his death to his brother and father, causing them great sorrow and anguish. The elleth (Lauren wasn't it?) shifted in her sleep, sighing and pressing her face to his chest.
They carried on like this for over four hours. Boromir was growing very weary. His arms ached from carrying the maiden even though she was rather light. He pushed on, he would not give up. He had to save Lauren's life. He owed her that much after she had saved his pathetic life.
As the sun began to set he finally stopped to rest, laying the maiden on his own blanket and covering her with his fur-lined cloak for he was too hot to wear it any longer. He cleansed himself in the river, washing off the blood and dirt. He washed his clothes as best as he could and laid them out to dry in the wind, which had picked up that evening. Once they were relatively dry, he put them on and went to check on Lauren. She was still peacefully sleeping where he had left her. He lay down beside her on his other blanket and attempted to sleep, but he found he could do naught but gaze upon her peaceful smile as she dreamt. Soon, however, exhaustion won him over and his eyes closed of their own accord.
Lauren:
I woke up to see Boromir's face very close to my own. He only looked slightly different than in the movies. And the difference was a good one. He looked much stronger, his facial features more defined. He had a lot more muscle than in the movie as well. He looked like a warrior like Aragorn and Theoden.
In other words, he looked manly. Even while sleeping! Not fair! I always had a terrible case of bed-head from rolling around all night, and he looked like he had just lay down! He had no blanket, but I had a fur-lined cloak draped over me. I sat up and looked around. I didn't see any other members of the Fellowship. I guessed Sapphire had sent him to Lothlorien? Did she have to tell them everything because of me? I was a terrible friend! I sighed and looked at the bandage on my arm. It was stained brown. I peeled it back, and was relieved to find it already scabbing over. I wished Tyler was here, he would be able to tell me if it was healing properly. It looked a little blackish around the edges, and greenish in the middle, like it was getting infected. I certainly hoped it wasn't getting infected!
Boromir woke up and saw me messing with my bandages.
"Here, my lady, allow me," he said, digging in his pack and bringing out elvish salve and fresh white bandages.
I sat still while he gently washed the wound with water from the river and applied salve.
"I am no healer, but this looks very infected," Boromir said, inspecting my arm worriedly.
I shrugged and tried to take the bandages away from him. He frowned and spoke again, but this time I had to read his lips. My hearing aid had just died! They had been on all night, and now they needed more batteries, but my pack and twenty extra hearing aid batteries (thank you soooo much Tolkien!) were with the others.
Then I spotted it beside Boromir's pack. They must have left it where he could find it or something. I sighed in relief and tried to stand up. Immediately I felt woozy from lack of blood. I stumbled and Boromir's strong arms caught me. He said something that I couldn't hear and I could not read his lips because he was behind me. But I guessed he was telling me to be careful. I nodded, and pushing his hand away, grabbed my pack and carefully and slowly made my way down to the river. Boromir gave me privacy as I washed myself and my elvish garments. I then put on the pink fitted T-shirt and stretchy blue jeans I had arrived in. I changed the batteries in my hearing aids. I had 18 left now. Each one lasted about a week with heavy use, and they took one for each ear. So I had about ten weeks worth of hearing left, but I could stretch that to twenty, thirty weeks if I remembered to shut them off at night and when I didn't need them. When I came back, Boromir stared at me for a moment before saying, "So you come from Lady Sapphire's world?"
I simply nodded, not wanting him to hear my raspy voice.
"You do not talk nearly as much as her," Boromir noted. I smiled and nodded, turning up my hearing aid while pretending to scratch my ear.
I tried to help him roll up the blankets but he wouldn't let me. He let me walk on my own for about an hour, but the very first time I tripped on a tree root, he caught me and made me rest and eat.
We walked for another hour after that in silence, so I figured it would be okay to turn off my hearing aid. I was starting to get really tired and my arm was throbbing. My head throbbed too, and my legs felt all wobbly. Suddenly I found myself on the ground, my head spinning, my cheek pressed against wet leaves.
Boromir was calling out something but I couldn't make it out because my vision was so blurred. I moaned, seeing double, and vaguely felt Boromir lifting me in his strong arms, and then I lost consciousness.
Boromir:
Lady Lauren had not spoken a single word since Boromir had met her. She was quiet and thoughtful, but not sad.
Suddenly she collapsed, her thin legs giving way beneath her. Boromir reacted too slowly, and her fragile head landed in the wet leaves. He rushed over and lifted her head, feeling for any rocks hidden by the leaves and any telltale bumps forming on her head. He found none, thankfully. However, her eyes were unfocused and dim, her brilliant, emerald green iris losing its luster.
"Lady Lauren! Lady Lauren! Speak to me! I will not let you die in my stead! Please!" he cried, shaking her gently. She groaned, and her eyes rolled back in her head, but Boromir still felt a pulse. He lifted her up and carried her the rest of that morning.
She awoke when they stopped moving and he had set her down.
"Are you hungry my lady?" he asked. She nodded weakly.
Boromir looked in the pack and found nothing but lembas bread. He scoffed, this bread would not help her regain her strength as well as some fresh meat. He wondered if she even ate meat.
"My lady, do you consume meat?" he asked. She nodded. Hmm...strange. Something told him she was not an elf from birth. She had been a human. He had noticed how she slept with her eyes closed, and she did not walk with all the grace of an elf, though he supposed that could be the poison weakening her.
"Good," Boromir said, lifting up a struggling Lauren and wrapping her arms around his neck. He scaled a tree and put her in one of its many branches. "I will be back with food and firewood. Stay here, do not wander, for rogue wargs are known to inhabit these lands,"
She nodded.
He went out and quickly found a lamed rabbit, which he shot with his bow. He did not stop to question why it was lamed as he skinned it on the spot with his hunting knife.
A low growl came from in front of him, and he froze. That sound was all too familiar. He had dealt with many wargs on the way to the Rivendell. This one sounded fairly large though.
He tensed his leg muscles, and heard a swoosh and a roar, and he rolled out of the way, drawing his sword.
But before he could locate his attacker, a smaller warg jumped on him and started tearing into his armor. His sword flew far out of his reach. He growled and threw the smaller warg off of him, for it was only an infant. The mother was most likely teaching it how to hunt before it left her.
The young warg leapt at him again but Boromir brought up his shield. The warg's claws scrabbled on the metal, but then the mother warg cuffed him so hard he saw stars. He dropped his shield and the baby left a claw mark on his neck.
That was when he saw two more full grown wargs nearby. A pack.
He dove for his sword, yelling at the top of his lungs, "Lady Lauren! RUN! Get out of here!"
He turned around and sliced off the head of the leaping baby warg. Black blood splattered his face and he spat out the foul tasting liquid. The mother roared and leapt upon him, but he drove his sword up through her belly. She fell to the side and he yanked his sword back out, only to be confronted by four regular sized wargs, and a giant scarred one with rippling black muscles. The Alpha.
He did what any human would do. He turned tail and ran, two more wargs joining the chase with howls of delight.
"RUN! LADY LAUREN RUN!" he yelled when he saw the elleth still sitting in the tree but on a lower branch. Her back was turned to him. She showed no signs of hearing him.
"ARE YOU MAD?! WHY ARE YOU JUST SITTING THERE!" he screamed, a warg snapped at the empty air behind him. He swung himself over a log and jumped into the lowest tree branch. He grabbed Lady Lauren and swung her over his back, scrambling up the tree as fast as he dared.
He set her down and she immediately asked "What's wrong?" He pointed at the wargs and yelled angrily, "ARE YOU BOTH DEAF AND BLIND WOMAN?! THOSE ARE WARGS!"
As the wargs scrabbled at the thick tree trunk, her eyes widened in horror and she fiddled with something in her ears. She looked hurt by what he said, and he immediately regretted yelling at her. But why had she not responded?
It hit him like a sack of potatoes.
She was deaf.
He was a fool.
