Oneshot, for the anniversary of Boromir's death.
While by the Anduin, Aragorn wakes to the sound of Boromir screaming.
It was Aragorn's first night without sentry for so long. Legolas and Gimli had taken pity on him, insisting that even an heir of Gondor needed sleep like any other Man. Aragorn had reluctantly accepted his full night of slumber, and laid his bedroll a bit away from the hobbits. Aragorn expected a peaceful night of dreamless sleep. He had most certainly not expected to be woken by a scream.
"Aragorn! Aragorn!" the voice yelled. They sounded like a man in great pain. Aragorn's eyes flew open, and scanned the sleeping Fellowship for the screamer. To his surprise, the screaming was coming from Boromir. The son of Denethor looked as if he was being tortured. His face was pale. "Aragorn, help! I beg you!"
The heir of Isildur supposed that he must wake Boromir up, before anyone else was woken by his screaming. He stood on sleep-shaky legs and walked over to the sleeping Gondorian. "Boromir, awake," he said quietly. When Boromir kept screaming, Aragorn shook his shoulder and said, "I am right here!" in a bit of a frustrated tone.
Boromir's eyes snapped open, and he reached for a shield he did not have. "Aragorn?" he asked, sounding truly clueless that he had been yelling. "Why are you not asleep?"
"You were screaming, Boromir. It woke me up," Aragorn told him. "I did not want the rest of our Company to lose sleep, so I woke you."
Boromir's face had gone pale. "I apologize," he said. "I was having a nightmare." Aragorn could not help but feeling a bit surprised at that. He would expect a hobbit to have a nightmare whilst journeying, not a battle-hardened Steward-son. "I was being shot with arrows," Boromir continued, "until they almost looked like feathers, and I a bird. I kept calling your name, because somehow I knew you were close enough to help me. But you did not.
"Everything was going dark, and I felt like I was drowning in my own blood. But all I could think was that I needed to get somewhere. I needed to go apologize to someone- someone that I had hurt. But I did not have time to do such. Everything kept getting so dark, until I was almost blind. All I could-"
Aragorn heard a rustling noise and saw Frodo sitting up with a groggy expression on his face. "Is there anything wrong, Strider?" the Ringbearer asked.
"No, Frodo," Aragorn said kindly. "Get your rest." The hobbit nodded sleepily and slumped down again.
"All I could hear was the voices of snarling beasts," Boromir continued in a quieter tone, "and I heard your voice. You were moving far away from me, and I cried out your name. I ached in all my body, and the arrows shifted under my skin whenever I moved. You did not move closer. You woke me up, then, so I know naught more."
Aragorn sat down beside Boromir, a frown on his face. He knew that Boromir came to Rivendell because of a dream he had. It was likely that the son of Denethor's dreams were predictions of what was to come. But Aragorn did not know what to make of the arrows, the blood, and his appearance in the dream.
The Ranger heard footsteps lightly treading on the fallen leaves and looked up to find Legolas looking down on him and Boromir with a concerned look on his face. "I heard screams," said the Elf. "It sounded like a Man, so I ran here from my sentry post. Was it either of you?"
After a brief pause, Boromir raised his head and said, "It was I. I apologize, Legolas, I did not mean to disrupt you at sentry."
Legolas raised an eyebrow. "And pray tell, why were you screaming?"
Boromir paused again, a shamed pause. Aragorn felt the need to answer for his companion, and said, "It was naught but a restless nightmare. He did not intend to call out."
"I see," said Legolas, but his brow was a bit furrowed in confusion. "Are you well, Boromir?"
"Yes," the Gondorian said stiffly, pulling the blanket that was tangled at his legs up to his shoulders.
"But there is a reason for your shouting, is there not?" asked Legolas knowingly.
Boromir kept silent and glared at the lumps of his boots under the blanket that was over him. Aragorn had almost asked Legolas's question himself. He was also wondering what had brought on such a dream.
The quiet music of the wind in the trees was louder than the three non-slumbering members of the Fellowship. If Boromir knew what had brought on his nightmare, he did not answer. Aragorn began to gain an idea of why Boromir had had such a dream.
Boromir finally muttered something that was clearly a lie: "I am merely... homesick." He scowled slightly and slumped against the tree behind him, a clear end to the conversation.
But Aragorn had guessed the reason, and bit back a reply to Boromir's words: Would a homesick person really spend all their time staring at the chain around the neck of the Ringbearer?