Hello again!

This is a replacement for the very, very short part I wrote about when Jane was shot by the poison arrow in the battle of the Pelennor Fields/ Minus Tirith.

.1.1.

"Jane!"

Jane whipped around at the sound of her name. At that instant, she was pushed backwards from the impact of the arrow that had imbedded itself in the front of her shoulder, and then the wave of blinding, red hot pain. She cried out, clutching at her right shoulder. The arrow had hit her between the tiniest space in her armour. It was almost an impossible shot.

At that moment, an orc came charging at her. Her right arm useless, she was going to have to use her weaker left arm to try to fend him off. Her adrenaline started pumping, briefly pushing the pain out of her mind. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw a flight of stairs just behind her. Taking a deep breath, she turned and ran up the stairs, feeling the added weight of her armor in her legs. Foolishly, the Orc followed her. This was good; it gave her the advantage of being above him.

At the top of the stairs she turned. He was still following her up. At that moment, she spotted a body lying nearby with a spear sticking out of his stomach.

"Excellent," she muttered, an idea springing into her mind. She sheathed her sword and pulled the spear out of the body with her left arm("sorry", she muttered to the corpse). She put the spear behind her back and waited for him, her heart pounding in her ears.

When he reached the top of the stairs, he looked her over and grinned evilly. Jane grimaced back. Then, she withdrew the spear from behind her back and used all of her body weight to drive it into his chest, sending him toppling back down the steep stairs.

She watched him fall with a deep satisfaction, and breathed a sigh of relief. Then she looked around. Currently, the room she was in was empty except for a few bodies. With that in mind, she suddenly realized an arrow was still sticking into her shoulder, and the overwhelming pain returned as the adrenaline faded away, leaving her weak and shaking.

"Oh, fuck..." she whispered, trying to assess the severity of the situation. Clearly, this wasn't good. It probably punctured a major artery, and if she tried to take it out, she'd bleed to death. Besides that, the pain from the wound was the worst she'd ever experienced. It was like a fire had settled under her skin, burning everything around the wound.

But with an arrow in her shoulder, her right arm was basically useless. She moved her right arm slightly, as if to unsheathe her sword, and her shoulder screamed in protest. She cried out, clutching her shoulder uselessly. It was clear that if she was attacked by more than one enemy, she'd be done for.

"I might as well try to take it out. I either get attacked and killed with it in, or bleed to death with it out..." She muttered to herself. With a deep breath, she closed her fingers around the black arrow, and pulled only slightly. The pain that simple motion caused sent a wave of dizziness over her, almost cause her to pass out. Disoriented by the pain, she practically fell to the floor.

"Oh...shit...ah..." She swore, clutching at her shoulder. This was bad. She wiped at the tears that were falling from her eyes.

"What the fuck am I going to do now?" She whispered desperately, "I can't even call out for help, in case the enemy hear me instead". Then she gasped as the weirdest feeling came over her; a shadow passed over her eyes, clouding her vision only briefly.

"What the...?" she muttered, blinking furiously. She bit her tongue as the pain in her shoulder intensified. It felt like the fire was spreading down her arm now.

"What the hell's going on?" She whispered, gripping onto her rapidly numbing right arm. She got suddenly very tired and dizzy. Fear clutched at her heart.

Then she realized what was going on. "Oh God. The arrow is poisoned, and I'm going to die." She swore as she felt the poison's heat spread up her shoulder and across her torso, getting closer to her heart with every beat.

The shadow came over her again, darker this time. And she knew that she was going to die because the poison was spreading into her heart. She could feel the burning in her veins. Weakness came over her, and she fell sideways onto the floor, feeling the cold stone against her cheek.

But just before she lost consciousness, she did the only thing she could think of; she had to get that arrow out. With difficulty, she reached across her body with her left hand and used all the strength she had left to yank the poisoned arrow of her shoulder. For an instant, she knew white pain, and then nothing.

.1.

( I did try, but I really don't feel like writing how Pippin arrives immediately after Jane passes out (he was the one who called her name at the beginning, and watched her go up the stairs) - and manages to get Gandalf back to her in time to save her life. Because even though Pippin is an awesome character, I'm just not feeling like writing it.)