Chapter Four-Influenza
The stench that filled the small hut was terrible, especially to the elf's keen senses. He knew that smell. He wished he could forget the smell.
Aragorn started forward, "I must try to help them," he murmured.
Legolas' eyes widened in panic, "No! You cannot afford to risk further illness. I fear they are beyond our aid."
"I have to try, I owe it to them. What if one still lives? Surely the whole family can't be dead! I can't just leave them!"
"Then please," Legolas pleaded, "Let me! I'm much less likely to contract anything than you." But the young Ranger paid him no heed, for he had seen the form of a young hobbit child collapsed on the floor.
He ran to her side and lifted the babe into his arms. She was cold and stiff. Setting his jaw, Aragorn laid the hobbit child on the empty bed and covered her body with a sheet.
"You should not have done that my friend." Legolas said quietly.
The Ranger shook his head, "She was just a child, and I could do nothing to help her."
"Be comforted, she is reunited with her parents." Aragorn followed the elf's gaze into the joining room and shuddered.
At last, he managed, "We should bury them."
Legolas could see the pain in his new friend's eyes, but forced himself to say, "If we do, we will have to wait for the rain to stop, and that may be days. You are weary and already becoming ill. I think that it would be best to return to Rivendell."
"It is raining like crazy out there, even I, stubborn as I am know better than to go traipsing through the rain when I am half sick."
"I know little of influenza, Aragorn, but I fear for your life. I do not want to choose illness, but I fear that if you become ill with influenza because we stayed here to wait out the rain, I will not be able to get you to your father in time. I can only hope that the rain will not make you more ill, my friend."
Moved by his new friend's words, Aragorn finally agreed that returning to Rivendell would be best. At the worried look on the elf's face, Aragorn assured him, "I shall be dry enough."
Legolas was not convinced, "You are already ill, though returning is our best course of action, the rain could make your illness go to your lungs. And if you have influenza…"
Aragorn chuckled, wanting to laugh but holding back a cough before conceding, "A moment ago it was you who was persuading me. You were right to begin with, and if we had turned back earlier like you suggested, we would not have this problem. We can only hope for the rain to let up, because you and I both know that if I remain here I will most definitely become ill."
Legolas didn't voice his thoughts, but in his mind he knew that there was little chance now that the ranger could avoid contracting the deadly illness. At last he sighed and said, "I can see no alternative."
Aragorn merely nodded. Even before they stepped out of the door, he could feel the cold, wet rain. This would not be a pleasant journey.
Despite the fact Aragorn had promised to try to stay dry, his clothes were soaked though and his teeth had long since begun to chatter. He knew that the elf was watching his every move and did his best to appear strong and act as though the rain didn't bother him.
The elf was indeed watching him. The rain made him uncomfortable and weighed him down, but nothing more. They had been walking for hours now and every few minutes the young man would cough. Now the random coughs turned to coughing fits, and Legolas became greatly concerned. He knew that the man was indeed becoming very ill and prayed that they would make it to Rivendell in time. A sick mortal need to be warm and dry, not dripping wet, and the elf-prince was quite frustrated at his helplessness, and Aragorn even more so.
Legolas began to feel a shadow growing around them, as well as approaching danger. He groaned inwardly. Of course, everything was going to get worse.