Eli slipped in and out of consciousness, of dreams and of the waking world. She could feel the trotting of a horse beneath her, and the feel of arms gripped around her waist, but that was basically it. She could vaguely remember watching as Camille passed out on top of Blackwing, and then Gandalf looking down at her, as if expecting something to happen. That was when she passed out too.
But now the slow rocking motion of the horse had ceased, thus sending her back to reality, though she was still as sleepy as hell. She slowly blinked her eyes open, and realized that she was lying on a blanket with her pack under her head for a pillow. She was staring up at a dark night sky, some stars winking down at her from the inky blackness.
What the hell? She straightened up slowly, and in a voice that was raspy from sleeping, asked to no one in particular, "Where are we?"
"We are now camped near the banks of the River Isen," whispered a voice in her ear, and she knew it to be Aragorn's. "We are on our way now to Isengard."
Eli slowly quirked an eyebrow up as she turned to look at him. "Isengard? What are we going to do there?"
Aragorn smiled down at her. "King Theoden wishes to have a word with Saruman before he returns to Edoras."
"Oh." Eli leaned back on her arms, stretching out, and asked, "What happened? All I remember is Camille suddenly keeling over, and then Gandalf was watching me before I did the same thing."
Gandalf approached them then from where he had been talking with Theoden. He smiled at Eli when he saw her awake. "Ah, you have returned from the dream realm at last, Eli. I hope you are feeling better now."
Eli nodded. "A little weak in the limbs, but I'll be okay in a while." She looked around, searching Camille, but when she didn't find her, she asked, "Where's Camille?"
Gandalf chuckled. "She is still sleeping safe and sound in Legolas' arms. Though I do believe the Elf is quite…content to let her sleep on."
"Yeah, I bet he is," Eli said with a roll of her eyes.
"It is quite amazing, that love such as theirs should spring up during such violent and dark times as these," Gandalf said thoughtfully. "Indeed, the power of true love is superior to that of light when it comes to driving away the darkness. It is sufficient enough to even fend off the lure of the Ring, as in Boromir's case, but it was not strong enough in him to fend it off forever."
Eli narrowed her eyes at the Wizard. What is he talking about? Boromir never said anything about being in love with anybody. "Okay, you got me a little lost there."
Aragorn sounded rather surprised. "Do you mean to say that Camille has not told you yet?"
"Told me what?" Eli asked, now more than a little confused.
"That Boromir was in love with her," Aragorn replied quietly.
Eli felt her jaw drop, and eyes pop wide open. WHAT?!?!?!?!?! Boromir was in love with CAMILLE?!?!?! "W-wait a minute," she stammered. "You're telling me that all that time Boromir was with us, he harbored feelings for my best friend?!"
Aragorn nodded. "Yes, he did, and please, do not be angry about it."
"I'm not angry, just a little shocked." Eli paused, then admitted, "Okay, I'm VERY shocked. I mean, to think…BOROMIR of all people…as in stiff-as-a-pike-staff Boromir…" She shook her head. Breathe, Eli. Try to get your head around the entire thing, and then ask. After a moment she spoke again. "Since when did he have feelings for her?"
Gandalf shrugged. "I cannot be too sure, but perhaps…a month after the Council."
"Just about the same time they started to get along with one another," Eli muttered. Her mind flashed back to that particular day long, long ago…
~ ~ ~
Eli's eyebrow went right up when she heard about it. "Okay, kindly repeat that because I find it too hard to believe, especially since it came from your mouth."
Camille shrugged. "It's like I told you; Boromir ain't that bad."
"I thought you hated his guts. You told me just last week, and I quote, 'To hell with the fact that he's a member of the Fellowship! If I don't push that Gondorian over the falls of the Bruinen, it'll be too soon!' What made you change your mind?"
"I know, I know, but after chatting with him this afternoon, I realized he's a pretty good guy after all."
"And you're saying this WHY?"
"You know that commercial that says 'First impressions last'?" Camille asked. "Well, I don't think it applies to Boromir. I mean, sure, he was rude during the Council, but I think staying here in Rivendell's finally gotten it out of his system. Once you get around the fact that he's probably stiffer than a rusty hinge that hasn't been oiled in years, he's kind of cool, in his own way. He's pretty interesting, you know."
"No I WOULDN'T know," Eli replied.
Camille shook her head, and sighed dramatically to tease her. "And that's the tragedy about you, isn't it? You're always closeting yourself up. About time you went out there and met a few people, made a couple of new friends."
"I HAVE plenty of new friends, thank you very much."
"Aside from the ones you've made."
Eli rolled her eyes. It's going to take a LOT more than that for you to convince me Boromir's a good guy. Not after that aura I saw in him during the Council… "Whatever Camille!"
~ ~ ~
"I never really understood what she saw in him when she told me that they managed to get along," Eli said at last. "I mean, Camille's got a tendency to hold long and deep grudges for even the littlest of things, and I thought Boromir wasn't going to be any different." She shrugged. "Maybe Boromir managed to soften her up a bit?"
Aragorn nodded thoughtfully. "It would seem so."
"But what's this thing I hear about love being able to keep out the lure of the Ring?" Eli asked as she looked at Gandalf. "I don't exactly see what this has got to do with Camille, Boromir, and the fact that he loved her."
Gandalf smiled, and lit his pipe, taking a long breath out of it before replying. "Well, love is a very strong emotion, stronger than anything that a person can experience. It is the base emotion from which all others arise, like happiness, peace and contentment, and also negative ones as well, like anger, obsession and greed. But when love is pure, it can be used as a powerful force to block out all forms of evil.
"Each of the Eleven Walkers who set out from Rivendell had a form of love that in some way prevented them from completely succumbing to the Ring. Frodo had his innocence, which is also tied to love; Sam, Merry and Pippin and you and Camille had your friendship, which is a powerful kind of love; Aragorn had his devotion to Arwen; I had my love for Middle-Earth and all the Free Peoples; and Gimli had his love for freedom from oppression of the Dark Lord.
"But Legolas and Boromir were very different. Legolas' love for your dear friend was so pure and true that I feel he entertained the thought of gaining the Ring for himself only once: when he first saw it at the Council. But by then the seed of love had firmly taken root, and so the Ring could no longer sway his heart to its purposes.
"However, Boromir had not yet felt such a thing in his life. All he wanted was power to defeat the Dark Lord in Mordor, and when the Ring was presented at the Council, he saw it as his chance. The Ring perceived his desire, and used that to its advantage. When he finally realized that he had lost his heart to Camille, it was too late. The poison of the Ring had started to eat away at his mind and his soul, and not even the love he felt for her, strong though it might have been, was not sufficient during that last moment when he tried to take the Ring from Frodo."
Eli sighed. "Yeah, I guess you're right."
AUTHOR'S NOTES: Okay, another weak chapter. I just figured that Eli never exactly found out about Boromir's longing for Camille, so I decided to lay it out to her here. And I tossed in an explanation as to why most of the members of the Fellowship weren't lured by the Ring ^_^. That's just a personal theory, of course, and in relation to my story, particularly the one why Legolas wasn't tempted. If I were to base it on the book, I should think that Elves are pretty resistant to the lure of the Ring, so they can ignore it for a long, long while. Anyway, in the next chap, the company finally reaches Isengard. What will happen there? Read on!