Alright, I knew I couldn't put off Boromir's death just by not posting another chapter. Well, here goes :3 Enjoy the extra long chapter!
Boromir:
"I see your mind. You will take the Ring to Sauron! You will betray us! You'll go to your death and the death of us all! Curse you! Curse you! And all the halflings!" Boromir yelled, and tripped over a root. He tumbled down the hill a ways and when he came to a stop, all the anger was gone from him, replaced by sorrow and shame.
"Frodo?… Frodo?… what have I done?… please… Frodo!" he cried desperately, wishing to set things right. He was a fool. The others were right, the Ring was evil. How had he not seen it?
"Frodo, I'm sorry! Frodo!" he cried, hoping the halfling had not gone too far. What if the halfling just kept running and got lost? This was all his fault! He pressed his head to his hand and sobbed.
Suddenly he heard a cry of fear from one of the halfling nearby, and drawing his sword, he rushed to save them. He would not let any harm come to the halflings! He found them surrounded by dozens of Uruk-hai. Instantly he dove into battle, slicing throats and stabbing hearts. He slashed one upwards across the chest. His blade continued from the momentum and bit deep into a Uruk-hai neck. He yanked his sword out and impaled one that tried to stab him from behind.
After slaying many Uruk-hai, Boromir found he had space. He saw that there were far too many Uruk-hai for him to take himself, and he was already tiring. He blew the Horn of Gondor three times and prayed to the Valar that his plea for help would be answered quickly.
He fought and fought, the hobbits throwing rocks and managing to stab a few Uruk-hai. The Uruk-hai seemed endless. His arms throbbed and his heart pounded erratically in his chest. He wheezed, trying to breathe, and spat out orc blood. He pulled out the Horn of Gondor once more and blew it thrice.
Please, he thought, I'm not ready to die! Please, someone, anyone, help!
It happened so fast he didn't even see it coming.
Time seemed to slow down as he whirled about to kill yet another Uruk-hai. His eyes locked on a tall Uruk-hai's eyes as the deadly arrow flew from the bow. He couldn't move. His muscles locked up, his body already exhausted. The arrow continued on its deadly course, straight for his heart. Each heartbeat sounded like the thundering of a drum in his head, and he refused to act scared. He would face his death like a true Captain of Gondor.
Just as quickly as it had happened, it was over. Boromir was thrown back, rolling down a hill. The woman that had dived in front of him screamed as she took the arrow meant for his heart. He shielded her delicate frame as they rolled over rocks and sticks, the arrow catching on a rock and splintering, causing her to lose even more blood.
They came to a stop and Boromir stood, shaking the exhaustion and dizziness from his mind as he lifted the limp maiden who was shivering and whimpering in his arms. He gasped. She was the most beautiful woman he had ever seen. Her beauty surpassed that of Lady Galadriel, yet it was a warm and kind beauty. Her golden hair lay splayed on her shoulders. Her eyes were green, with a ring of gold around each iris. How ironic... Her skin was smooth and unblemished. And in her left arm, half of an poisoned arrow was embedded in her flesh. She had taken the arrow meant for him. But why?
Lady Sapphire came running down the hill with her sword in hand, but she stopped when she saw him carrying the maiden.
"Have you seen Aragorn? I have not the skill to help this fair maiden."
"Who is that? This is bad...This is very, very bad!"
The maiden weakly lifted her uninjured arm, made a loose fist and rubbed her chest in a circle. Lady Sapphire gasped, "Lauren? What happened to you? You're all...gorgeous! Oh my Gods Lauren! There is an arrow in your arm! Why did you do that! Oh my gods...We have to get you to Aragorn!"
Boromir was confused. How did Lady Sapphire know this fair maiden? "You know this woman?" he asked.
"Yeah! She's like, my best friend! Oh my gods! Come on! Get back to the top of the hill! Aragorn should be there any second now!"
Aragorn was indeed there. He was pinned to a tree by a shield. The Orc attacking him threw his sword at Aragorn, but Aragorn slipped his head free of the trap at the last moment.
Boromir threw his knife and the orc that had fired at him and hit the maiden instead fell down dead. The hobbits were nowhere in sight, but he heard screaming from the distance.
"The little ones..." he whispered in horror. Then he remembered Frodo.
"Frodo! Where is Frodo?"
"I let Frodo go."
"Then you did what I could not. I tried to take the Ring from him."
Aragorn paused, "The Ring is beyond our reach now."
"Forgive me. I did not see it," Boromir said sadly.
"Yes we know, now can you please help her Aragorn! Geezum!"
"Yes, who is she?" Aragorn asked, raising his eyebrow as Boromir gently lowered the fair maiden to the ground. She had finally passed out from the pain, which would make it easier to pull out the arrow. Boromir sighed. He was no healer, but he could tell she was too frail to survive the amount of poison now flowing in her bloodstream. He knew she would die without Elvish healing.
"That's Lauren," Sapphire said bluntly, looking furiously at the injured woman.
"I owe this fair maiden my life. She took the arrow meant for my heart," Boromir said, watching worriedly as Aragorn inspected and cleansed the still bleeding wound. Aragorn pushed the arrow all the way through, and the woman awoke with an earsplitting scream.
Aragorn attempted to calm her, "It will be over soon milady. Just don't watch. Here, bite on this."
He handed her one of Sapphire's leather vambraces, and Sapphire cried, "Hey! I don't want teeth marks in those!"
The woman flicked up her free hand and rolled her eyes, gritting her teeth on the vambrace as Aragorn sawed off the tip of the arrow and slid the thin stick back through the opening. She sighed as Aragorn used elvish salve on the wound and bound it as tightly as he could without hurting her.
"If she is strong, she will survive, though she may lose the ability to use that arm." Aragorn said solemnly, giving the woman a drink.
"She is but a mere woman! Many of my greatest men have fallen to foul orc arrows!"
"Ah, but this is no mere mortal. You should be honored, Son of Gondor, that an immortal elleth would risk her life to save you," Legolas said, stepping forward from behind Boromir. Boromir jumped slightly, that elf had always unnerved him.
"An elleth?" Boromir breathed, leaning down. He took off his glove and brushed her beautiful golden locks out of the way to reveal delicately pointed ears.
"Why? Why would she do it?" he whispered, feeling horrible guilt crashing down on his chest. He didn't deserve to live. Not after what he had done. He had tried to take the Ring from Frodo! Why would an elf, an immortal being, chose to take the arrow meant to end his pathetic mortal life?"
"Because she's an idiot," Sapphire said angrily. Boromir and the others had come to understand some of her strange terminology. Idiot was her approximation of fool. She had just called an elf maiden a fool.
"You would call an elf a fool?" Legolas asked, though he sounded slightly amused.
"Yes! This one is the most foolish fool of all fools. Well, other than Peter. He's worse than Peregrin Took! Don't tell him I said that, he'll never forgive me!"
"Peter? How is it that you know this elf? Does she hail from where you come from?" Legolas asked.
"You could say that," Sapphire said.
Sapphire:
"You could say that," I said. I couldn't believe where this was going. Boromir had lived! Lauren was now gravely injured and the story was completely messed up! What was I going to do?!
I had only one choice.
I had to tell them everything.
They were going to kill me.
I groaned, and said, "Let me start from the beginning. I'm not actually from below Southern Gondor."
"You aren't?" Boromir asked, surprised. I mentally face-palmed as Aragorn nodded and said, "Yes. Legolas told me that you claimed to be from another world."
Aragorn had known this entire time?!
"He did?" I asked rather stupidly then said, "Legolas!"
Legolas shrugged, attempting to act nonchalant.
"Not from this world?! What in Durin's name are you talking about?!" Gimli yelled.
"It's true. I'm from a place called Earth. No Middle. Just Earth," I said, "Where we come from, there are things that are so...far ahead of this time, that you would see it as magic."
At their confused faces, I hurriedly said, "But it's not. Not at all. In fact, there is no such thing as magic where I come from. Or elves. Or dwarves. No trolls. No Orcs, no Wargs, and certainly no wizards or Balrogs."
Everyone winced as I brought up the touchy topic.
"Must be a nice world...Are there spiders?" Legolas asked.
"Yes," I said slowly.
"How big?" he questioned. I finally got where he was going. He was wondering if our spiders were as big as the spiders in Mirkwood.
"Well, I think the biggest one ever found was the size of a large platter," I said slowly.
Legolas chuckled darkly at that, "Not very big then."
"What about hobbits?" Aragorn asked.
"No. No hobbits. No Dark Lords or Valar. Just men. Only men and animals." I said.
"Hmmm..."Gimli pondered aloud, "Very unusual. Legolas has a point however. It must be quite a peaceful world then."
I burst into incredulous laughter, "Are you serious? Since when have people ever gotten along?"
"More wise words were never spoken my lady," Boromir said with a dark laugh.
"Are the men of your world currently at war against one another?" Aragorn asked.
"You could say that," I said. "Heck, pretty much everyone and their mother is at war with everyone else. You couldn't find a world with more hate in it. The only thing I like about it is the cool technology, my family and friends, and the fact that women are equal to men."
"What?!" Boromir yelped, and I reconsidered, "Though, most of the men are much less...courteous..."
"I suppose it's not a good place to live then?" Legolas asked.
"Yeah, pretty much. You would hate it. Where I live, it's constantly cold, and almost every time it rains it is snow."
"How can you live in such conditions?" Boromir asked.
"We have a fireplace and warm clothes. And a heater."
"A heater?" Legolas asked.
"Nevermind. If I tried to describe every aspect of my world it would take years! We need to rescue Merry and Pippin!"
"What about Frodo?!" Legolas cried.
"He's long gone by now. Sam's with him, he'll be alright," I reassured them, "One last thing. I think some of you have noticed...I know things are going to happen ahead of time."
"Indeed! I caught you leaving your things under bushes before we attempted to cross Caradhras!" Legolas cried.
"You what?!" Boromir asked, very confused by this exchange.
"You can tell the future lass?" Gimli asked, "Like Lady Galadriel?" I saw his face get a dreamy expression on it, and I remembered what Galadriel's gift to him had been. I almost giggled; that dwarf was a goofball!
I wondered how I should tell them. It was kind of hard to reword it. What was I supposed to do, walk up to them and say, "Oh yeah, by the way, your whole lives have been a lie. You're not real."
Heck, these guys were real. They were as real as you and me. They were as real as the crazy cat lady that lived next door. (I'm not joking. No seriously! I'm not I swear!)
"Well, where I come from there was a man named John Tolkien. He went by J.R.R. Tolkien. He wrote a story, a book about how some heroes defeated an evil dark lord. It went into great detail about their quest...their quest to destroy a Ring of Power. It was about you guys. I'm...I'm not even supposed to be here. I know what is going to happen to us every step of the way."
I let that sink in.
"You've read the entire story?" Legolas asked. Well...
Not the reaction I was expecting. Then Boromir spoke, "What nonsense is this?! I don't believe foolish tales Ranger."
"I'm not a Ranger! I'm a nobody okay?! But I can prove it to you, son of Denethor. Your brother, Faramir, well, your father doesn't like him. He's always been second in your father's eyes, but you love him, and he loves you. You hate that your father doesn't see Faramir for what he is: a man who is both intelligent and kind. Though you hate to admit it, you often turn to him for guidance."
Boromir gaped at me, opening and shutting his mouth like a fish. I probably should have stopped there, but I continued, "And you, Gimli, son of Gloin, well, I don't know much of your history, but your dad went on a journey to the Lonely Mountain with Thorin and the hobbit Bilbo Baggins to steal back your gold. And I can tell you that Thranduil, Legolas' father, was there on an elk, and that the dragon was slain by some archer dude from Laketown. It's kind of weird actually but, yeah. I don't know the Hobbit as well as I know the Lord of the Rings, so..."
"The Lord of the Rings?" Aragorn asked, alarmed.
"Yeah, that's the title of the group of three books about your journey. Actually, Tolkien wrote that Bilbo Baggins was writing the Hobbit, which Frodo will confirm, and then Frodo wrote the Lord of the Rings after the journey...and..."
OH SHOOT! I NEED TO SHUT MY MOUTH!
"After the journey? Frodo survives?!" Boromir cried.
"I'm not saying anything!" I yelped.
"But Sapphire, you have just given us hope!" Boromir said, grasping my shoulders, his eyes shining. Aragorn and Legolas smiled.
"So, do I survive?" Gimli grunted, "Because I would hate to have to come back and haunt you for eternity."
"Do not ask her to tell the future," Aragorn warned. He turned to me deadly serious, "Lady Sapphire, you know the outcome of the quest?"
"Yeah..." I said breathlessly, too relieved to speak. The secret was out. They hadn't reacted as badly as I thought they would. Then my thoughts darkened, "Well, at least I know what would have happened if we had not shown up!"
"We?" Aragorn questioned.
"Yeah, me and four of my friends..." My voice started to get shaky, "Us being here could mess up the story. Lady Galadriel was right when she said that the quest stands on the edge of a knife."
"Then I must ask you to swear that you will not tell anyone what is to happen," Aragorn said.
"I know, I know! But it's already too late!"
"Too late?" Boromir asked.
"The story has already been changed," I wailed.
"How has the story been changed? Surely we can right it?" Aragorn asked, looking worried.
"Not unless you want to kill..." my voice trailed off. This was so wrong!
"Kill who?" Boromir asked.
"You." I said quietly, turning my head away in shame.
Everyone stared at me, waiting for an explanation.
"You...You were supposed to die. That arrow was supposed to hit your shoulder. You were supposed to fall trying to protect the halflings. But you didn't," I said, looking Boromir in the eye.
"How does that affect the outcome of the quest?" Aragorn asked.
"I can't tell you that," I muttered, and Aragorn scowled. Boromir looked confused and sad, burying his head in his hands.
"You know, there is one other way," I said, my heart lightening at the thought.
"And what is that?" Legolas asked.
"If you're up to it..." I said, grinning mischievously.
"Tell us!" Boromir demanded.
"Well, how do you feel about busting your most prized possession?" I asked.
"Twas already broke when we fell." Boromir said sadly, displaying the cracked halves of his horn. "However, it can be mended."
"And what better way of doing that then sending it on the fast route to Gondor?" I said.
"What are you implying?" Boromir asked confusedly.
Two minutes later we were gathered near the waterfall.
"You intend to throw the Horn of Gondor over the Falls of Rauros for no reason?" Boromir asked.
"Hey! There's plenty of reason!"I protested, "Your brother has to think you're dead!"
Boromir blanched and murmured under his breath, "So that was why...I had returned from the dead."
"That would be a very cruel thing to do Lady Sapphire. " Aragorn said, and I shrugged, "Do you want to save Middle Earth or not?"
"Do it," Boromir said resolutely, and I grinned and tossed into the water, where it was quickly washed away and swept over the falls.
Five minutes later:
"Sit it out?!" Boromir thundered, "I will not sit around while my people fight for their lives!"
"Peace Boromir!" Legolas yelled over the top of the man's roaring.
"She has a point," Aragorn said. "This elleth does need elvish healing if she is to ever use her arm again. It would be regretful to leave behind a strong warrior, but if Sapphire is correct, your being seen would have terrible consequences."
Boromir looked between the group and Lauren. I noticed how his gaze lingered on Lauren for far too long, and I groaned. Boromir thought Lauren was hot. Okay, any man would think Lauren was hot given her current state, but Boromir looked so infatuated it was borderline embarrassing. I was glad Lauren was not awake, she would be fire engine red right about now.
"Very well," Boromir said. "I will do it, but only because of her. She saved my life, in return I shall save hers."
"Alright then team! Let's hunt some Orc!" I yelled.
"Yes!" Gimli yelled, and with that, we were off. I put my earplugs in my ears and jammed along to my favorite tunes as I ran. I might have been singing aloud at one point, I wasn't quite sure, but Legolas kept giving me funny looks. At least, whenever he was able to keep up with me. HAH! I was faster than Legolas! I grinned and ran even faster. Gimli was struggling to keep up with even Aragorn. I was starting to think it would be faster to pull Gimli in a wagon than for him to try to run himself.
"We dwarves are natural sprinters!" he wheezed, "I'm wasted on cross-country!"
"That was an exact quote you know!" I yelled back.
"What?" he wheezed.
"Forget it!"
Legolas:
The woman ran faster than him. He was astonished and impressed when she kept up the fast pace for almost an hour. When two hours passed, he was flabbergasted. Even HIS legs were getting sore by now!
"Come Gimli!" he called.
"Breathe! That's the key!" the dwarf gasped, and Legolas smirked inwardly. Dwarfs were terrible at long distances.
He had noticed that she had strange strings dangling from her ears and leading into her pocket. They were connected to small purple bulbs that she had shoved in her ears. She began humming very odd music as she ran, her pace changing slightly every time she started humming a different tune. Where was she getting all of these songs from? Were there words to the songs?
Apparently there were. He heard her breathing out of the words to one of the songs as she ran. She probably thought no one could hear her, but he could with his extremely sensitive hearing.
"It's time for me to take it..."
"I'm the boss right now..."
"Not gonna fake it..."
"Not when you go down..."
"Cause this is my game...
"And you better come to play,"
He cocked his head; this was the strangest song he'd ever heard. He wondered where she had learned it.
"I used to hold my freak back..."
"Now I'm letting go...
"I make my own choice..."
"Yeah I run this show..."
"So leave the lights on...
"No, you can't make me behave..."
He smiled inwardly, for it was the truth.
She got louder in her singing, and Aragorn could probably hear her now.
"So you say I'm complicated..."
Twas the truth...
"But you've had me underrated, rated, rated!"
What strange words to a song! Why was she repeating words?
"Oh, oh, oh! What's wrong with being, what's wrong with being, what's wrong with being confident?! Oh, oh, oh! What's wrong with being, what's wrong with being , what's wrong with being confident?!"
Nothing, he thought to himself, and he smiled.
PS: The first sign was "I'm sorry" the second was "Heh..."
Disclaimer: I do not own Confident by Demi Lovato.