CHAPTER 7
When they had put out the fire and hidden all traces of it Aragorn returned to carry Frodo.
"I am your charger for the rest of the day, if you will have me."
Feeling a little recovered from the rest and the tea, Frodo smiled. The ranger picked him up, cradling him against his chest with an arm around his shoulders and the other beneath his knees. Aside from a little pain at being moved, Frodo found the position comfortable and rested his head gratefully against the man's shoulder. He noticed Boromir take up his pack and Legolas carrying Aragorn's.
They moved at a steady pace and at first Frodo felt well enough but as time wore on his fever began to reassert itself and he found it difficult to concentrate on what was going on around him. It was strange that he seemed to swing from feeling very groggy and sleepy one minute to feeling hyper alert and aware of every slight sound the next. In addition there were terrifying bouts of vertigo that made him gasp and cling to Aragorn, begging him to stand still until they passed.
They stopped for a cold meal although Frodo was in one of his groggy phases and it took Sam quite a while to get him to finish a cup of water. Not daring to build a fire they could give him little else for it would be sheer folly to try and get him to digest solid food. Aragorn satisfied himself that the dressings on his patient's leg did not need changing yet then ordered them to break camp and resume their march for the trees.
Legolas was in the lead and Aragorn, with Frodo, brought up the rear. Gimli dropped back to walk with him, as the ranger would be hard pressed to protect them with the hobbit in his arms. Conversation had died with the gathering dark but at length Gimli spoke.
"Not a sound but the wind," he said. "There are no goblins near, or my ears are made of wood. It is to be hoped that the orcs will be content with driving us from Moria. And maybe that was all there purpose, and they had nothing else to do with us – with the Ring."
Aragorn did not answer but Frodo was uneasy. His ears were overly sensitive at the moment and he thought he heard the same quick patter of feet that he had caught in Moria. He shifted to peek over Aragorn's shoulder. For a moment he thought he saw two gleams of light, like luminous eyes and then they turned aside and were gone. Aragorn turned to look behind him when he felt Frodo move.
"What is it, Frodo?"
"I don't know," replied the hobbit. "I thought I heard feet, and saw a light – like eyes."
Gimli halted and stooped to the ground. "I hear nothing but the night-speech of plant and stone," he said.
Aragorn stood, peering into the gathering gloom for a moment longer, worried that hallucinations may be a new symptom of Frodo's illness. "I see nothing, Frodo." He glanced back over his shoulder. "Come Gimli. The others are already out of sight." With that he turned and strode off at a pace that forced the dwarf into a trot to keep up.
With the fall of night a chill breeze arose and Frodo was glad of the shelter of Boromir's cloak. He felt a little guilty that the steward had nothing to protect him from the night air but the man seemed wrapped in his thoughts instead and unaware of the cold. As the road entered the shadow of the trees they discovered the reason for his unease and it took all of Aragorn's powers of persuasion to get him to enter the wood.
Whilst Frodo and the other hobbits were willing to trust Aragorn's judgement on the matter, they could not help but be disturbed by Boromir's comments about the perilous nature of the realm they were about to enter, and the dire warnings of his people about the Lady of the Wood, who reigned there. Gimli, too, seemed to suffer a reawakening of his old dislike of all things elven. Aragorn and Legolas, however, seemed to draw renewed strength from the very air and the elf almost danced with delight, as he touched the silken bark of the trees and skipped lightly through the cold, swift flowing streams.
Frodo, for his part, was glad that he was carried through the icy waters for he could hear his friends complain that it was turning their toes blue. As they came within the shadow of the first trees the song that he thought had deserted him returned, clearer and stronger than before. "Aragorn. Do you hear it?"
The Ranger glanced down at his charge. "Do you hear the footsteps again, Frodo?"
The hobbit shook his head. "No, no. The singing. Don't you hear the singing?"
Aragorn's face grew worried. "I hear no singing, unless it is the melody of the stream and the wind in the leaves." His healer's eyes searched Frodo, noting the pink spots of colour on the cheeks of his otherwise pale face and the perspiration sticking the curls of his fringe to his forehead. "We will stop and rest for a little while, I think."
Over a cold supper, eaten by a stream that Legolas named as Nimrodel, the elf sang of the ancient history of the place. The Wood Elf's song swept through Frodo, blending in perfect harmony with the melody already lilting in his mind, pushing away the pain and discomfort but as night drew on Frodo began to feel very weary.
He had elected to sit up, although he was starting to regret his stubbornness. His chest was hurting and his leg was beginning to throb again. In addition the nausea and dizziness was getting worse as he grew more tired and his head was aching. Sam came to sit next to his master, placing an arm around his waist and drawing Frodo to lean against his shoulder, a little worried when his friend did not resist. Sam's action was not missed by the keen eyed Ranger and he brought his pack with him as he settled down before the two hobbits.
"I will just check on that leg, Frodo." He brought out his box and a small bag of linen pieces. As he worked, smearing on some salve and redressing the leg, he enquired further. "Does your side hurt?"
"A little," came the quiet reply.
Aragorn suspected that if Frodo had his arm half amputated from his body he would say it only hurt "a little". The ranger continued bandaging. "And your stomach? You have not eaten."
"I am still a little queasy and dizzy and the headache is back."
That Frodo was willing to admit so much told Aragorn that the hobbit was, in fact, in more that a little discomfort. Sam reached across and placed a finger on the knot as Aragorn finished tying off the bandage on Frodo's leg. The Ranger rearranged bottles and tins and finally produced a small earthenware bottle. He read the label and then poured a little into Frodo's cup.
"Drink this. It will ease the headache and the other pains." Frodo swallowed the liquid without protest, surprised at its pleasant taste.
The rest of the fellowship was listening to a conversation between Gimli and Legolas. Aragorn was pleased to note that, for once, it had not deteriorated into bickering. The elf's quiet voice sounded almost a part of the whisper of the leaves around them.
"……they were called the Galadhrim, the Tree-people. Deep in their forest the trees are very great. The people of the woods did not delve in the ground like Dwarves, nor build strong places of stone before the Shadow came."
"And even in these latter days dwelling in the trees might be thought safer than sitting on the ground," said Gimli. He looked across the stream to the road that led back to Dimrill Dale, and then up into the roof of dark boughs above.
"Your words bring good counsel, Gimli," said Aragorn, replacing the contents of his pack. "We cannot build a house, but tonight we will do as the Galadhrim and seek refuge in the tree-tops, if we can. We have sat here beside the road already longer than was wise."
It was Boromir, once more, who carried Frodo as they moved deeper into the woods. Already, the drought Aragorn had given the Hobbit was beginning to take effect. Too late he recognised the taste. Elrond had dosed him with it several times during their stay in Rivendell, usually when Frodo had tried to do too much too soon. It was a strong sedative and Frodo knew that fighting it was useless. He closed his eyes and trusted himself to the care of his companions again as he was drawn down into a deep sleep, rocked gently in a song of silver boughed trees and wrapped about in drifts of golden leaves.