The fellowship had reached Parth Galen without further complications and settled down to rest, a fire to warm them up.
"We will cross the lake at nightfall. Hide the boats and continue on foot. We will approach Mordor from the North", Aragorn says, while they all settle down, gathering their belongings.
Gimli had just started another one of his rants, to disagree with what Aragorn had just said but Herminia tried to blend him out as she did not want to participate in yet another argument.
She looks around the little clearing they were sitting, when she sees Frodo, from the corner of her eye. marching into the woods, followed shortly by Boromir and when it is safe, she follows them, to make sure Frodo and the Ring are safe.
"None of us should wander alone", Boromir says, while picking up wood they could use for the fire.
"You, least of all. So much depends on you."
Frodo just stares at him and Herminia can feel that something is wrong with Frodo.
"Frodo?", Boromir asks, but Frodo just turns away.
"I know why you seek solitude. You suffer. Every day. I can see it. You sure you do not suffer needlessly?", Boromir says, closing in on Frodo, looking down on him, while the hobbit looks rather spaced out though Herminia could see the fear in his eyes.
"There are other paths we might take."
"I know what you would say. It would seem like wisdom but for the warning of my heart", Frodo interrupts Boromir, walking past him and further up into the woods.
"Warning? Against what? We are all afraid Frodo. But to let that fear drive us, to destroy that hope we have." He steps closer and they keep walking further up and Herminia is debating on whether or not to interrupt them and get them to come down as the woods are not safe.
"Don't you see the madness?"
"There is no other way, Boromir!"
"I ask only for the strength to defend my people."
Herminia knew that Boromir had not let go of the idea to keep the ring for himself, she just didn't think that he could be so selfish.
"Lend me the Ring", Boromir shouts, throwing the collected wood on the floor, reaching out his hand.
"No", Frodo insists and Herminia sees that it is now time to step in, but before she could react, Boromir had began shouting and chasing Frodo, throwing himself at him, demanding the ring and without another second, Frodo slips on the Ring and disappears, while Boromir continues to shout.
"Boromir!", she firmly says and runs over to him, picking him off the ground.
"Enough! Do you want the enemy to find us this easily that you would shout like this!"
"Frodo?", Boromir says in a weak voice.
"You drover him to do something that he should not have done. Now come on, we have to get back to the others."
"Frodo? What have I done?", he whispers, seeming to be completely out of himself.
"Boromir, listen to me!", Herminia shouts at him, shaking him by the shoulders, to get his mind clear.
"We have to go to the others. I have a very bad feeling about this. Do you understand?"
"Yes."
"Now let's go", she shouts and drags him with her, running down the hill, when she hears Merry and Pippin shout to their left and upon looking her heart stops beating for a second. They are asking the Orcs to follow them and then start running off.
"The hobbits, Boromir, come on", she says and changes her direction of running, noticing out of the corner of her eye, that Frodo is running the opposite way and she then understands what Merry and Pippin were doing.
As they get closer they can see that Merry and Pippin are cornered by the Orcs. Herminia grabs her Bow and Arrows in one swift movement and starts shooting the Orcs, followed by Boromir with his sword and soon they find themselves in the middle of the battle. Their attack gave the two half-lings enough time to draw their own swords and all four of them were fighting back the Orcs with strength. But more and more Orcs joined the fight and Boromir saw that they don't stand a chance, grabs his horn and blows it, grabs the hobbits and runs.
"Herminia, run!", he shouts and with firing one last arrow she follows them, but gets held back when attacked by an Orc from her right, once she fought it off, she turns around and an arrow soars past her into Boromirs chest. She stops in her tracks, turns around and continues to fight not ready to give up.
Too focused on her own battle she does not see more arrows being shot at Boromir who still tries to protect the half-lings. When she had fought of most of the Orcs in reach she turns around to help Boromir get the hobbits somewhere safe, but is met with a sight that has her stomach twist.
Boromir has several arrows sticking in his body, he is just about holding up, his sword weak in his hand and he is down on his knees. Merry and Pippin are nowhere to be seen. Boromir looks at her with sorrow. Herminia wants to go to him and heal him, but finds herself approached by another wave of Orcs. She fights with anger now, careless of what is happening around her. An Orc strikes her with his blade across her stomach, which increases her anger, and rising her magical powers. She can feel it bubbling inside her. With growing frustration and more Orcs attacking her she tries her hardest to keep them off Boromir long enough to get a chance to heal him. When it seems Herminia is reaching her breaking point, she cries a shout of frustration and releases all the energy that had built up in her body and a wave of heat shoots from her body. Feeling weak she falls to her knees, breathing heavily, her surroundings blurry and a ringing in her ear. She closes her eyes, not caring if Orcs will attack her, takes a deep breath an opens them again.
"Could have warned us, that witch", some one grumbles, most likely Gimli.
The woods around her seemed to be calm and in a circle, with her being the center, there are Orcs lying dead on the floor, light smoke coming from their dead bodies. Looking down on herself she can tell, that apart from the gash on her stomach she is fine. Realisation dawns on her that she had released a wave of magic, that must have wiped out the Orcs and then she remember Boromir, who was a few feet behind her, she wipes around and sees Aragorn kneeling next to him, closing Boromirs eyes and chest unmoving.
"No", she whispers, which draws the attention to her.
"Herminia", Aragorn starts, but she is not willing to listen to him.
"Open your eyes, you fool", she shouts at Boromirs body, pushing Aragorn aside, trying to channel her magic, towards Boromir.
"You have no right to just pass away!"
"Herminia!"
"I haven't had the time to tell you how selfish you were. I had to tell you off. Wake up, so I can tell you what idiot you are", she shouts at him, tears streaming down her face.
"You brave, stupid, reckless idiot of a man", she shouts, still trying to heal him, but he is not to be saved.
"My Lady", Legolas whispers, grabs her arms and drags her off the ground and a few feet away.
"Let me go! I have to save him", she cries, trying to get out of his grasp.
"He faded. There is nothing you can do for him", he tells her
"Ani lerya", Herminia screeches, wiggling in his arms.
"My quenya is not as good as my Sindarin, but I will let you go, if you breathe and find peace", Legolas replies and Herminia continues to get out of his arms, for a little while, until she gives up, going limp against his body, crying against his shoulder.
"Agoreg vae", he whispers in her ear, while holding her firm against him, to not let her fall to the ground.
"I did not. I let him die. I should have done something sooner", she whispers back, ashamed with herself and helpless that she could not save him.
"you can not save everyone, Herminia", he says, pushing her away from him a little, looking into her eyes.
"This is war, it takes a toll." Herminia then realises how weak and stupid she is for standing around crying when they had just fought a battle against a little Orcs army.
"Goheno nin, Legolas."
"Nothing to apologise for, My Lady", he smiles weakly at her and lets go of her, watching her to make sure she is able to stand on her own.
She takes a deep breath and turns around to face Gimli and Aragorn.
"I must apologise for my behaviour."
"You are hurt, Herminia", Gimli says and points at her stomach.
"Nothing to worry about, my friend", she smiles at him, with a weak smile.
"Have you seen Merry or Pippin?", she asks Aragorn.
"Boromirs last words were that the Orcs took them. They probably thought one of them was Frodo", he explains.
"Where is Frodo?", Legolas asks, looking at his three companions.
"He left", Herminia tells them, remembering seeing him run the other direction.
"What?"
"Frodos fate is no longer in our hands. He and Sam will continue their way to Mordor. Frodo is scared of what the Ring might do to us."
"Then it has all been in vain. The fellowship has failed", Gimli says.
"Not if we hold true to each other", Aragorn says, looking all three in the eyes.
"He is right. We will not abandon Merry and Pippin to torment and death", Herminia speaks.
"Let us go and kill some Orc then", Gimli says, all ready to go, that makes Herminia smile.
"Patience, Master Gimli. Let us go get out belongings, whatever we can take, also give me time to heal your wounds."
They do as Herminia suggest and after she heals Aragorn and Legolas, she heals herself and the fellowship heads on to find Merry and Pippin and free them from the grasps of the Orcs.