"We cannot leave Boromir here," Legolas realized as I pulled away from him. "We must bury him."
"We cannot bury him," Estel argued. "The orcs would catch his sent.
"Well we cannot burn him either," Gimli argued back. "They'll see the smoke as well as notice his stench."
"Why not send him to the sea?" I asked now that I had calmed down.
"But we are nowhere near it, Lass," Gimli retorted as though I had completely lost my mind.
"This river leads to the sea," I explained as I looked out towards it. "We can send him in one of the boats and the river will carry him there."
"She makes sense, Aragorn," Legolas agreed. "It is our best option."
"Aye," Estel agreed as he went towards he boats. Collectively, we emptied one on the boats and laid Boromir within it. Gently, Estel removed the three arrows from his chest, broke them, and tossed them into the wooded area behind us. Legolas and Estel pushed to boat into the water while Gimli and I watched from the shore.
"Goodbye, Son of Gondor," I whispered my fair well sadly as I watched the boat be carried away over the rapids.
"Do not worry, Lass," Gimli answered my whispers as he laid a hand gently on my arm. "He has gone to a better place." I nodded my agreement as Legolas and Estel returned to the shore and joined us.
A sudden thought had now made itself known in my mind. "Have any of you seen the Hobbits?" I asked quite fearful of the answer.
Estel sighed as he recalled what he had been told and had seen, "I let Frodo go. By now he is probably on the eastern shore headed towards Mordor and Mount Doom. I have no doubt that Sam has decided to follow him. The two are inseparable."
"Then we must hurry if we want to catch up to them," Legolas called as he started towards the boats. He stopped when he saw that Estel did now share his eagerness. "You mean not to follow them?"
"Aye, I do not," Estel answered.
"Then that is it," Gimli snorted quite annoyed and angered. "The fellowship has failed."
"Wait, Aragorn," I turned to him as he sat upon a rock. He looked confused and lost as he stared out to the horizon. "You did not answer my full question. What of Merry and Pippin?"
"I wished I would not have to tell you Lúthien," Estel sighed as he stood and walked over to me placing a hand upon my shoulder. "Merry and Pippin were captured and taken by orcs."
I stood shocked for a moment as the truth sank in. My two friends, taken from me when I had left them defenseless. "This is my fault," I loathed. "If I had gone with them, then I could have been able to protect them."
"Or you could have been killed as Boromir was," Estel said as he lightly attempted to hug away me doubt. He turned his head and whispered so only I could hear, "This is not your fault, Raina." As he pulled away I nodded and stood back humbled.
Estel then turned to the other two. They came closer to him and he clasped a hand on both of their shoulders. "This fellowship has not and shall not fail," he claimed, "as long as we stay true to each other. We will not abandon Merry and Pippin to torture and death."
"And even if you believe you can I cannot," I called as I joined the men by the river. "For I swore to protect the young Hobbit's life with my own as they made the same promise to me. With or without your help I will rescue Merry and Pippin."
Legolas released himself from Estel's grip and walked over to me. He clasped my shoulder similar to the way Estel had just clasped his. "I will never leave a companion to death, Lúthien."
"Nor will I," Gimli called a new ambition in his voice.
"So it is settled," I nodded and we all turned to Estel whom we all elected our new leader.
"Let's hunt some orc," Estel smirked and then began to order us. "Leave what can be spared behind. We shall need to move quickly if we are to catch up to these orcs."
We moved swiftly grabbing what we needed. We took only lambas bread as food and grabbed our weapons. I took personal responsibility for carrying Merry and Pippin's belongings for I did not have the heart to leave them behind.
"That will only add extra weight," Legolas commented as I put the Hobbit's things in my bag. "You should leave them behind."
"I should but I will not," I answered as I shouldered my bag. The Hobbit's belongings were small and did not add much weight and I told Legolas as such.
"You may care a little too much, Lúthien," Legolas smirked lightly as we walked towards the center of our newly destroyed camp.
"I do not see anything wrong with that," I said as I began to run in the direction the orcs had taken Merry and Pippin. I did not turn back to see if the others were following me. My only thoughts we're only focused on catching up to the young Hobbits and I ignored all other senses. I ran for what seemed like hours before I felt my speed begin to decrease. It was only then that I sensed someone close to my side and coming closer.
"Lúthien," Legolas called out to me as I ran. "We stopped a while back to rest. Come, you should rest too."
As I slowed down I saw how far we had actually gone. At my speed, I had made it away from the river and the trees. We were coming to a rolling plain covered in large piles of rocks. I called out to Legolas in response. "You may stop to rest, but I owe it to Merry and Pippin to find them as soon as possible." As I called this, I lost my focus on the land ahead. Unaware of its way in my path, I stumbled over a rock and fell. My ankle sent an arrow of pain through my leg as I collected myself from the ground and tried to stand. Before the pain could cause me to fall once more, Legolas caught me.
"Lúthien, are you alright?" he asked. His voice held a concerned tone as he gently lowered me to the ground.
"I have injured my ankle," I sighed as I rubbed it to work out the pain.
"You see," he half scolded as he two went and rubbed my ankle. I held back a wince of pain as he touched it. "You are just as exhausted as the rest of us. Do you not realize you have run for almost two days without rest? You need to rest. You will be no good to your Hobbits if you do not have the strength to fight off their captors." I nodded my agreement as he gently helped me to my feet. I found it impossible to walk on my ankle as pain shot up from it with each step. Legolas finally decided to carry me instead of having us hobble along in the almost dark of the approaching night. As he began to walk in quick strides, I was lulled by his movements and my own exhaustion that was finally able to overtake me now that I had stopped my running. As hard as I tried, I could not keep my eyes from closing and drifted to sleep in his arms.