Sickness
By: Alilacia
Rating: PG-13
Feedback:
Spoilers: None that I can think of.
Disclaimer:
I do not own the Lord of the Rings, or anything to do with the film or books. That honour goes to Peter Jackson (et all) and J.R.R Tolkien. I have no permission what so ever to use these characters, will not receive any money for this, and am doing this for my own enjoyment. And to get away from doing my college assignments
Series:
Mortality
Lessons
Wandering
Learning Curve
Sickness
Summary:
News of a disease spreading from village to village reaches Imladris. Estel, his brothers and Legolas decide to help. But can a human with Númenorian blood survive when all other humans are fading?
Mae govannen!
This is the fifth instalment in The Lennath Series. According to the site I found on the internet 'Lennath' is apparently journey's in Sindarin. I apologise if it isn't, my elvish skills are not the best in the world.
So in English it is basically 'The Journey's Series'. I decided to call it The Journey's Series, because that is basically what all the stories are about: Legolas' and Aragorn's journey's though life, and the paths it takes them on.
This is the sixth chapter of Sickness, and I hope you all enjoy it.
First I am going to make it clear that this is a NON-SLASH, so you won't be finding any relationship between Legolas and Aragorn that is any closer than brothers. I'm sorry if you don't like that, but I'm not going to make it any different.
I've decided to take a leaf out of Cassia and Siobhan's book and put all the answers to the reviews before the story rather than after it as I have done in previous chapters. If anyone does not want to read them simply bypass all the bold print. And unless you want to read them, they are quite long. The story will start though when you skip past all the bold print :sweatdrops:
:grins: the bickering between the twins cracks me up as well. I had such fun writing that bit
Great. So between the two of us we have overly-happy wargs and lazy wargs. Is the screening process going downhill lately, 'coz all the wargs I see are nothing like the ferocious ones that helped pitch Aragorn off the cliff in TTT. :ponders:
I have not read the Silmarillion, or any of the other history/information books published regarding the Lord of the Rings. So I apologise if there are any mistakes in these stories. Feel free to let me know if there are. I am learning new things each day, and I owe quite a few people major thanks for some of that information.
This story isn't actually beta'd (in fact none of them have been so far) so there are probably quite a few mistakes in them.
Namárië nin mellyn
Alilacia
Sickness
Deft fingers started combing through the herbs, and Aragorn held some of them up to the light streaming in through the open window. The twins and Legolas were in another part of the building, tending to the most recent sick. It was rare that Aragorn saw them for more than five minutes as they all worked relentlessly to save these people. So many had lost their lives, and Aragorn promised to himself that he would not be loosing any more.
When they had set out from Imladris, all four of them had taken as many herbs as they could carry. Linden Flower, White Willow, and Aloe being the three they deemed most important. Odd assorted herbs were thrown in as well, and Aragorn prayed that they would work.
Luck it appeared, was on their side, and the people seemed to take very well to the herbs. Soon many of them were looking much better, and it looked as though the village would heal.
Aragorn didn't draw on the hope this gave, for in his mind he could not shake the memory that Ginyc had been doing well at first, and he had still lost his life.
The sight of Zerameth walking past the open door made Aragorn tense his fists, and he returned to what he was doing. It had taken a while for Aragorn to get Zerameth to open up, the news of her fiancées death had made her push away everybody; even Laesien could not bring her out of it. When Aragorn had finally gotten past the walls the news had raised around her mind, the ranger discovered Zerameth to be a very nice women. If a little too quickly to depress.
Introductions had been made soon after they had been shown into the rustic building, and Aragorn discovered that this disease had suddenly appeared one day, and had hit hard and fast.
The ranger looked up as Legolas walked into the room. The elf's eyes were saddened by the vast amounts of dead that had been building up since they arrived, and the human shook his head. He was only just dealing with it himself, so he did not know what he could say to his friend.
Hours drifted by as the pair worked in silence. Neither had been given a chance to speak as more ill were being brought in. Soon, they were going to run out of beds.
Legolas frowned as he saw Aragorn grip his head. Although Aragorn was sure that no-one was watching, Legolas had caught him gripping his head like that more than once in the past hour. He had noticed similar behaviour when Aragorn had been ill in Mirkwood. Although Aragorn had been deeply unconscious and burning with fever by that time, the elf had observed that Aragorn pressed his hand against his temples in much the same fashion as he was doing now.
And he was not the only one to notice. Elladan and Elrohir both had noticed the odd behaviour of their brother, and when they carried the next sick man in, both pulled Aragorn aside.
"Are you alright Estel?" Elladan asked softly in elvish.
"And don't tell us that you are fine." Elrohir frowned and cut Aragorn off as the human opened his mouth to speak. "We have all seen the way that your skin has paled, and you are fatigued." Elrohir continued with a close glance into Aragorn's eyes.
"I am fine Elrohir. You need not worry. I do not feel ill, and I agree that I am fatigued. But that is only because I have been working hard to help these people here." The three elves frowned, but nodded reluctantly. Although they feared for Aragorn, they had no choice but to accept his words. Perhaps Aragorn was right, and he had simply been working too hard.
"Alright Estel, but you must promise us that you will retire early tonight and not work throughout the night as you have been doing this past week." Elladan crossed his arms over his chest, his stubborn expression mirrored in Elrohir and Legolas' faces.
"We will not be taking no for an answer Estel." finished Legolas softly.
The human blinked the sleep out of his eyes, and stretched his muscles. At the bidding of his brothers and his friend, Aragorn had retired to bed early and had slept fitfully all through the night.
Aragorn felt refreshed, although a headache still lingered around his temples. Aragorn sighed and massaged them lightly. It did not feel that bad, and he did not see any need to inform his brothers or Legolas about it. Chances are that this was just his body's way of letting him know that it wasn't happy that he had pushed himself hard this past week.
The sun seemed unnaturally bright to his eyes, and the ranger winced as the light made the dull pounding in his head worse. The ache spread from his temples across his forehead, and Aragorn massaged his forehead briefly. His hands fell to his side just as there was a knock on the door.
Aragorn gripped the handle, and was just about to open it when a soft voice spoke from the other side.
"Estel, are you awake?"
Aragorn recognised the voice to be Legolas, and slowly pulled the door open.
Legolas tilted his head as the door slowly swung open. He frowned when he saw Aragorn standing there, and decided not to say anything. Aragorn looked a little too pale for his liking, and Legolas promised himself that he was going to keep a very close eye on him.
Aragorn frowned and pulled out some of the White Willow. While most results were seen in a day, most of the people here took around a week or more to heal. And it had been just over two weeks since they walked into this village.
Initially, Aragorn had been shocked at the amount of sick people there were. The ranger sighed and placed his pack onto the wooden table. For all the death he had witnessed in his life, it always seemed to be ten times worse when it was his own people. For Aragorn, seeing his own race dying around him was a bitter reminder of the shadow that mortality cast over him. Death was constantly watching, waiting for the right moment to strike.
Aragorn was snapped out of his morbid thoughts of a low moan from the bed across the room. Legolas had accompanied him to one of many rooms set aside for the sick that morning, before leaving to see who else might need help. Aragorn had noticed Legolas had been watching him very closely, and shook his head. Aside from a headache he was feeling fine. He didn't like that Legolas was watching him as though the elf expected him to keel over any second.
As Aragorn crossed the room, a feeling of momentary light headedness swam over him, and he stumbled slightly on his feet. His hands curled around the edge of the wooden table, and the human rested back against it until his vision cleared.
Aragorn shook his head quickly from side to side, and pushed himself away from the table. The ranger ignored the fact that he was feeling a little weaker than usual, and stepped up next to the moaning man on the bed. The flushed visage of the man worried Aragorn and he got to work.
The room was full, and many beds had been brought in from all over the town. And many people were lying on them.
The man that Aragorn was leaning over was pale, and his features were drawn. Odd spots of fever flushed his skin over his cheeks and neck, and his hands gripped the bed in a shaking grasp where they lay.
Another person was brought in as Aragorn dipped the rag in his hands into the bowl of warming water by his side, and rested it on the forehead gently.
Aragorn looked up to see Legolas laying the person on the bed, and shook his head. Things had only gotten worse if anything since they had arrived, and many people were dying around them.
Perspiration beaded along his brow as he worked, and Aragorn paused for a moment as a wave of dizziness passed over him. His hands gripped the side of the bed tightly, and he quickly got back one with his work, shaking off the dizziness so as not to worry his friend.
As Aragorn reached over to take the bowl of water, the world suddenly tilted into a frightening spin. His hands slipped, and the bowl of water fell to the ground with a clatter.
Legolas' head snapped up at the noise, and his eyes widened as he watched his friend sway dangerously in the air.
It took a matter of seconds for Legolas to cross the room, and he got there just as Aragorn's legs crumpled out from under him.
"Strider!" Legolas stared into his friends pale face with growing worry. "Elladan! Elrohir!"
"Estel!"
Elladan stopped in the door as Elrohir cried out, and couldn't move at the sight of his youngest brother lying there on the ground. His face was flushed, and sweat beaded along his brow. Elladan feared he knew what was wrong, and desperately hoped he was wrong.
"Elladan!" Elrohir's voice snapped him out of his stupor, and the elf blinked. "Don't just stand there, help Estel!"
Elladan quickly knelt down next to his brother, and gently lifted up the human's eyelids. He knew that Elrohir's words were born of worry for Estel, and knew better than to be hurt by them. Elrond had said much the same sometimes, when Estel had been hurt before.
Elladan felt his heart sink as he saw that Estel's pupils were extremely dilated in the light. Beside him, both Elrohir and Legolas hung their heads, because they knew what it meant. They had been fools to think that Estel would somehow be immune...
Legolas stood from his position next to his friend. He was not going to let Estel die, and he knew that the twins would not either. Despite the fact that they came here to help the people of the village, Legolas was willing to use each and every one of these herbs if it meant that they could save Estel.
His keen eyes picked out the Aloe and the White Willow, and he handed them to Elladan. Elladan nodded, and asked if someone could get some water. Elrohir nodded, and went to get some water. While Elladan was starting to crush the herbs, Legolas leant down and started talking softly into Aragorn's ear.
His words were light, and Legolas did not know if Aragorn could hear him. The softly spoken elven words could not be refused, and they gently penetrated the rangers groggy mind. Through the haze of his illness, the words created a window, allowing the human to return to the world around them. His senses started to return to him, and he wished he could move, or even speak, so he could assure his brothers and his friend that he was alright.
The human blinked, and Elladan smiled down at him warmly. "Do not worry Estel, you will be fine." The elder twin smiled gently as Legolas gently let his hand rest on Aragorn's cheek, drawing the rangers attention away. The elf rested his finger on Aragorn's lips as he tried to speak.
"Just rest Aragorn. You will be better before you know it my friend." Legolas glanced up as Elladan started to add the herbs to the water that Elrohir had just returned with. "Just hang on Estel."
Elladan shook the mug one more time, and glanced down at his brother. It had not been easy to get Estel to take any kind of medicine as a child, so Elladan did not see how he was going to get him to do it now.
Elladan opened his mouth, and was just about to ask Estel if he would take the water, when a loud, frantic voice echoed from outside.
"Master Elladan, Master Elrohir, Master Legolas, Strider, come quickly!" the elves recognised the voice to be that of Miran, one of the few remaining healthy humans in this village. "A lot of people in one of the houses have just fallen ill!"
Elladan sighed and handed the mug to Legolas, pushing the elven prince down as he tried to rise. "Listen to me Legolas. Estel has not liked to take medicine since he was a child. Try to make him take it. Elrohir and I must see if we can help these people."
Legolas frowned but took the mug. "Why don't you stay here with Estel? You are his brothers."
Elladan sighed, and Elrohir spoke for him. "It is not that we do not wish to stay here with Estel. But we did promise to help these people. Estel will always come first for us, but he would not want us to leave these people to die while we tended to him. Please Legolas, help Estel."
Legolas nodded, and glanced down at the ranger whose eyes had slipped shut. Legolas did not know who much of that Aragorn had heard. Elrohir and Elladan looked relieved, and nodded their thanks. Legolas gripped the mug in his hands, and wondered just how he was going to convince Estel to take this if his brothers could not.
Aragorn opened his eyes slowly as he felt a hand start to shake his shoulders. His vision cleared enough for him to see Legolas leaning over him with concern shining in his blue eyes.
"How do you feel Estel?" asked Legolas softly.
Aragorn frowned as he thought about this. "I feel alright."
Legolas laughed softly and shook his head. If there was something he knew about Aragorn, it was that he always downplayed his injuries. Elladan and Elrohir had informed him of this before they had set out, and Legolas had not thought them to be lying. The elf had already found out just how stubborn Aragorn was.
"Are you thirsty?"
Aragorn nodded slightly, and watched as Legolas stepped up from his side. Legolas walked over to the wooden table, and pretended to pull a mug from just in front of him. The elf turned back to the ranger, and knelt down next to him again.
"Drink this."
Aragorn allowed himself to be gently lifted from his place on the ground, and started to lean towards the rim of the mug. As his mouth neared the rim, his nose started to smell something familiar. Aragorn frowned and weakly raised his hands to push the mug away. Legolas was not expecting it, and so Aragorn easily pushed the mug a little ways away from his mouth. Legolas frowned and switched the mug into his left hand. With his right he easily grabbed the rangers wrists, and gently pressed them down onto his chest. "I am not going to take no for an answer Estel. You are ill, and I will not see you die before your time." The elf pressed the mug closer and leaned in, his words falling to a whisper. "If you persist in being stubborn human, I will have to take extreme methods to get you to drink this." Despite his weakened state, Aragorn felt a little amused by this, and raised his eyebrow. "Shall I knock you out, and make your headache worse? or shall I take you out to the rest of the people? I'm sure that one of them would love to try and make you drink it, if not find it amusing to see a ranger subdued so easily."
Aragorn frowned at the whispered elven words, and looked Legolas in the eyes. The ranger could see that Legolas was deadly serious, and if there was one thing that Aragorn had learnt about his friend, it was that Legolas did not lie. Legolas had every intention of going through with his threat if he didn't comply.
With the weary sigh, the ranger nodded. Legolas felt relief run through him, and he let go of Aragorn's wrist. Using his free hand the elf cradled Aragorn's head in his grip. As the rim of the mug came to rest against the human's lips, Aragorn's hand came up to grip at Legolas' arm, before slowly slackening as the drugs took hold, and his eyes slipped shut.
Legolas felt Aragorn go limp in his grip, and panic spread through him for a moment. His fingers pressed down on Aragorn's neck and he breathed a sigh of relief as a pulse beat sluggishly under his fingers. Legolas placed the mug back up onto the table and shook his head. He had not noticed Elladan putting any sleeping herbs in that drink.
The elf easily lifted Aragorn into his grip, and carried him over to one of the spare beds. Legolas brushed a stray piece of hair out of the rangers eyes, and pulled a chair over to the bed. Unless it was an emergency, there was no way that he was leaving Aragorn alone.
Elladan walked back down the hallway. As he neared the room where Estel and Legolas were, he ran a hand down his face. Miran hadn't been joking when he said that a lot of people had fallen ill. It had taken many hours, but they were stabilized now. Zerameth had been among them, and Laesien looked to be getting worse with each passing minute.
The elder twin sighed, and turned into the open doorway. A smile pressed at his lips as he saw Legolas' slumped form. The Mirkwood prince had fallen asleep, and was slumped over the arm of the chair. Elladan was loath to wake him, and so he gently lifted the chair and placed it in the corner. Aside from Legolas shifting his position, the elf showed no sign of waking.
"I'm glad that that's over." Elrohir said as he walked in the room. Elladan glared at him, and told him to be quiet. Elrohir looked to the corner and saw that Legolas was still asleep in the chair. A sheepish expression crossed his face, and he nodded. Treading on light feet, the youngest twin stepped up next to his brother. "How is Estel doing?"
"I know not. I have only just arrived. But the colour of his face is not so pale as before. It appears as though he is improving." Elrohir breathed out a sigh of relief, and glanced at his brother.
"Thank Elbereth. Estel is too young to die yet."
"Despite Estel's best efforts you mean." Elladan shook his head, and let his hand rest on Estel's forehead. He withdrew his hand with a quiet sigh. "We can only hope that Estel's westernesse lineage will help him fight this illness."
Legolas started to stir as hushed voices seeped into the haze sleep had created over his mind. The elf recognised them to be Elladan and Elrohir and allowed the glazed look to disappear from his eyes.
The elven prince stretched his sore muscles, cramped from sleeping in a awkward position for a few hours, and noticed that he had been moved away from the bed. Legolas did not know how much time had passed as he could not remember when he had fallen asleep.
Legolas quietly stood from the chair, and moved to stand next to the twins. Elrohir noticed him first, and laid a hand on his shoulder. Elladan was checking Aragorn over again, and it lightened Legolas' heart to see that Strider was looking better. Not out of the woods yet, but definitely looking better.
"Aragorn drifted to sleep shortly after he drank the herb-infused water." Legolas said softly as Elladan straightened. "I did not notice you put any sleeping herbs in the liquid." Elladan turned to look at Legolas, an almost amused expression on his face.
"So you got him to drink it then. Someday you are going to have to tell me just how you did that Legolas." Elladan looked back down to his youngest brother. "I used the herb that goes in all of our sleeping draughts. It is known in the common tongue as Linden Flower. There are many varieties of the flower, but the one that grows near Imladris is pale yellow in colour. It had bright green leaves and grow near the Bruinen. It is a natural sedative. A very powerful one at that. The wood from the Linden trees are also used to carve some of the carvings you've probably seen around Imladris."
"It is usually only used by elves or some rangers, because the plant is regarded with a lot of superstition by the race of men." Elrohir continued, "and the tree is mentioned in some of the long forgotten legends."
"I hope that the herb will keep Estel out for a while," Elladan muttered, brushing Aragorn's dark locks out of his face, "this herb has been used on Estel before, and there is every chance that his body could develop an immunity to it."
Legolas reached for the water bowl by his side. He hadn't wanted to leave Estel's side, but the vast number of sick could not be ignored.
A shaking hand gripped his and pulled him out of his thoughts. Firian was looking up at him with fever glazed eyes. Although this was the man that had spoken badly to them before when they had first entered the town, Legolas could not bring himself to deny anyone aid. Even if he had taken an automatic dislike to the man from the moment he had seen him.
"Sssh," Legolas soothed, gently pulling his hand out of the human's damp grip, "you will be fine."
It was really worrying to the elf that Firian had been improving just like everyone else. But after the fourth day, the fever had suddenly spiked, sending the man into a fit of delirium that no-one could snap him out of. Hallucinations seemed to hit all of the sick, and Legolas feared for Aragorn. Being sick was bad enough, but to see things that were not really there...
A low tortured moan echoed down the corridor. The elf dimly heard Elladan shouting to Elrohir to hold the person down. Legolas felt tears pricking at the corners of his eyes. Aragorn had become very dear to him in the short time that he had known him. Legolas never wanted to see Estel fighting at invisible foes, and calling out in terror like he had heard some of the men here do.
Legolas sighed and was just about to turn his attention to the man lying on the bed next to him, when a scream reached Legolas' ears. And it tore at Legolas' heart.
"Estel!"
"Stay down Estel!"
Legolas was already out of the door, the twins' panicked shouted echoing in his ears.
Wizened hands smoothed out crinkled pages, and pulled the book closer.
The heavy tome was gently looked through, and Elrond's brow creased in confusion and worry. Ever since his sons and Legolas had left Rivendell, something had been tugging at his mind. The elven lord had been working in the library, looking for something, anything, that might get rid of this feeling in his mind.
What was most disconcerting to the elven lord was that he was sure he had heard of the symptoms somewhere before. But, despite how many times the elven lord tried to remember where, the answer never came to him.
That had been earlier in the day when the sun was high in the sky, and now it was starting to darken, making way for the night.
Fatigued grey eyes scrolled over neat elvish text, and Elrond sighed as he reached the end of the last page. He gently placed the worn book to the side, and picked out a lighter one.
He turned over the front cover and started to read.
Most of the pages in here were blank, but lots of the ones in the beginning were covered in westron cursive print. It appeared to be a journal, and Elrond was about to close it and start looking through another one when something caught his gaze.
There was a single paragraph with a vague description of the disease the man had been infected with. Thankfully the writer went into much more detail in the next paragraph, and Elrond recognised the scene described by the author.
The words spoke of a sudden illness that took out many of the villagers. The person writing this appeared to be some sort of healer, and had noted that this disease was passed by unknown things on the air. Although they did not know what these things were, the writer said that the symptoms presented themselves within three to four days, and signs were seen immediately. The disease immediately got worse from there, and as time went by so did the severity of the symptoms. It appeared as though they had chosen rightly to treat the disease with Aloe and White Willow.
Elrond's heart sank as he read the next entry.
These times have been dark, and there doesn't seem to be any hope left.
All manner of herbs have been tried. Aloe ... Willow have been tried, and these were the most successful. However, it was noted that these herbs only fight the disease short term, to ensure the stopping of the illness required herbs which we do not have.
Using White Willow and Aloe only will alleviate the symptoms for a while, and then they come back worse than before. I have asked some of the few remaining healers to travel out and find something that can be used to help few that are still alive.
Without further aid, an infected individual only has two days roughly to live.
January 25th
There are very few of us left now.
But a faint glimmer of hope has been found.
One of the healers came back with a number of herbs that we have not tried yet. One of them actually worked, and the people we administered it to appear to be improving. All we know about the herb other than its healing properties is that it is called Cat's Claw.
The entry was left off here, and there was nothing else after this. Nothing to say if the herb had actually worked. Despite himself, Elrond was encouraged by the words. There was a cure for this disease.
The half-elf looked out of the window, and his gaze fell in the direction of Ettenmóras. Deep in his heart, Elrond hoped that his sons and Legolas would be able to figure out all of this before it was too late.
TBC…
