-I don't own LOTR or any of it's characters. But Thelin, Elomier, and Arron and mine.-
~*~
Clip clop, clip clop.
The sound of Ada's hooves seemed to be echoing through the whole woods as the small group continued on, all silent, except for small groans and gasps from Frodo, who, Estel observed worriedly, was still aware of everything. Legolas still held him, gentle and caring, extremely careful not to jostle him to much, or touch the heavily bleeding wound.
After several agonizingly slow minutes, the group came upon a small clearing, completely devoid of any dead bodies. Legolas carrefully hurried to it, setting Frodo down on his stomach by the elm nearest him, Frodo moaning on contact with the soft earth.
Estel hurried and kneeled at his side, dropping his pack from his shoulders and opening it, searching through it. His hand came out grasping a large roll of white bandages, a bit dusty from non-use. Estel quickly took off all of Frodo's upper clothing, so he could have a better look at his small back. The cut seemed terrible, but when Estel whiped away the blood, he noticed it had not gone deep enough to need suturing, but still deep enough to need to be taken careful care of.
Estel stared at the bleeding wound uncertainly. He knew he was forgeting something. Ah, yes! I need to boil some athelas water. Estel started when he realized he had used all of his athelas supply a few weeks ago. He looked at Legolas and Thelin, and asked, "Thelin, do you know the plant Kingsfoil?" Thelin looked puzzled for a moment before shaking his head. Estel sighed. "Legolas?" Legolas nodded his head vigorously, eager to help out. "Alright, Legolas, I need you to find some for me. I have found that in certain parts of the shire it grows well, but only in small parts and they are very rare to come by. I believe I saw some a long while ago, over that way." He pointed at the other side of the clearing, through the dark trees.
Legolas stooped low to give the dark-haired hobbit a kiss on the forehead before picking up his bow and quiver and disappeared into the night.
Estel turned back to Frodo, and held the dark cloth of his cloak to his wound firmly, trying to stop the blood. He waited patiently for Legolas to return, but with each passing minute his patience started to fade.
~*~
Legolas walked through the dark, now noticing vaguely that the sun was rising slowly. He walked quickly, but silently, still wary of everything. He didn't want anything else happening.
After about a half an hour, he stumbled upon a very small patch of Kingsfoil, or Athelas. They were small plants with long pointed leaves and small white flowers at the top, not much to look at. Any passerby who was unexperienced in herb-lore would think nothing at all of them.
Though Legolas was not as experienced in herb-lore as Estel, he knew enough to know that these were athelas.
Legolas shifted to kis knees and pulled his long knife out of his boot and cut the stem of a small clump of the athelas, marveling at its beauty for a second before standing and heading back towards the clearing in which Estel would now be waiting rather impatiently.
He passed by every tree and bush as silent as a whisper of wind, the sun now barely reaching its warm fingers between the green leaves of the tree around him. He took less time to get to the clearing for her wasn't looking around the ground carefully for anything. And when he reached the clearing, he found a sight he didn't really want to see.
Estel was kneeling by the rapidly breathing Frodo, using his own cloak to try and stop the blood. He was pressing down hard on the cut, blood soaking the cloak and making it look almost black. Frodo lay on his stomach, head facing Legolas, eyes fully open, eyes shining with pain. His face was extremely pale, perspiration drenching his curls and plastering them to his forehead. When he saw Legolas walk through the trees surrounding the clearing, he smiled weakly.
Estel turned around, and, spotting Legolas, beckoned him over with an impatient wave of his hand. Legolas hurried over, the athelas in his hand. Legolas handed the athelas to him, kneeling next next to Frodo's head, with a sad weak smile and Frodo returned it with one of his own.
While Legolas had been gone, Estel had told Thelin start a fire and boil some water from a clear creek near-by. Thelin had done that, and now the water was boiling nicely. Estel began making the athelas water, while Legolas tried to comfort Frodo.
He sat by Frodo's side, shooshing him and brushing away his sweat-soaked curls. He frowned slightly when he found a slight fever, but didn't let Frodo see it. He gave Frodo a small smile and kept stroking his dark curls, and to his own surprise as well as Estel and Thelin's, Frodo's quick breaths started to slow down, and his pale face gained some color.
Estel grinned widely and started to soak the bandages in the athelas water, the scent of the water further calming Frodo and lightening everyone's heart. Estel whispere something to Legolas, and Legolas nodded and gently lifted Frodo to a sitting position, holding his back as straight as he could to try and not open the wound further or hurt Frodo even more.
Frodo grimaced and bit his lip to prevent himself from crying out, but could not stop a small whimper from escaping his lips when Estel started wrapping the bandages around Frodo's back and front, the athelas water giving him a bit of a sting.
Legolas tried to sooth him gently, shooshing him and stroking the curls on the back of his neck. All the while Estel was wrapping the wet bandages around Frodo, and when he was done he made sure the bandages were tight, but loose enough so that Frodo could beath easily.
He frowned when he noticed the sun was high in the sky. He turned to Thelin. "Thelin!" Thelin looked over at him from where he was tending the fire. "Can you go and kill a few rabbits, or perhaps get some berries?" Thelin nodded and got to his feet, stetching for a brief moment before grabbing his weapons and marching out of the clearing dutifully.
Legolas lay Frodo down carefully, covering him in blankets. Merry and Sara sat down at his side, while Legolas sat down by the fire and Estel sat down on Frodo's other side, keeping watch.
The sun was getting ready to set when Thelin returned holding only one dead rabbit in one hand, and a lot of purple berries in the other, wet from behing washed in a creek. Sara hurried over and took the rabbit from him, and started to make dinner. Thelin grinned sheepishly while Estel rolled his eyes and Legolas sighed.
Soon dinner was ready, thanks to Sara, and everybody was eating. Merry woke Frodo up and gave him a generous helping of the rabbit stu, along with some of the tasty berries. Frodo tried to refuse so much food, saying that he wasn't that hungry, but Estel told him that he needed the nutrition for a quick recovery. Frodo sighed and rested his back against a tree gently, Merry beside him. He ate as much as he could, but when he was done he had about a third of his food left. Merry insisted on eating more, but Frodo kept shaking his head and Merry finally gave up with a sigh.
Frodo lay down in his nest of blankets, closing his eyes and slowly drifting off to sleep with a contented sigh. Merry, with one last concerned glance, went to the other side of the clearing with his father and lay down at his side. They were asleep in minutes, exhuasted from all of the previous mishaps.
Estel and Thelin lay down nearby where the two hobbits were, and also fell asleep instantly. Legolas, not needing sleep like the others, sat down by the dying fire, keeping vigil.
~*~
TBC…
Alright guys, here's your chapter. Sorry about it taking so long to make it…
Anyways, I'm thinking of re-making my other story sometime when I'm better at fic-writing, and I know I'm going to make a LOT of sequals to this fic, 'cause I love pre-quest fics!
Anyway, hope you liked this chapter and please review, 'cause you know reviews will make me type faster! (and I like reviews anyways, so please review! ^^)
-lilpip