Tauriel mustered all her strength to lift the tree branch off her leg. She grunted and strained, but eventually she freed herself. She inspected the damage. She had a long gash with dried blood crusted on the edges. Thankfully it appeared to have stopped bleeding. She needed to wash it and treat it.

But that wasn't all. There was an odd bump on her shin that exploded in pain whenever she touched it. She guessed the bone was probably broken.

First things first. She dragged herself to the stream so she could wash her wound. She fought against the overwhelming pain and tried to be mindful of her broken bone, but it still took her a good ten minutes to reach the stream. She cupped her hands, scooped up some water, and began to rinse her leg. It stung a little, but she had to get it clean.

When she was done, she leaned back against a tree next to the stream. Her face brightened when she realized it was a balsam fir. She could use the resin as a glue to hold the edges of her gash together and prevent infection. She cut away her leggings with one of her twin daggers and went to work.

A strange puffing noise made her look up. A white parachute with something long and black tied to it was dropping down to where she was sitting. She caught it and inspected it. The black thing was some kind of cast. There was a note attached. It read: "Put this on and try not to use your leg for a few days."

The cast must have come from a sponsor. Tauriel looked up into the sky. "Thank you," she said, and strapped it on. Looks like she would be here for a while.

Éponine opened her eyes. The sound of mockingjays singing had woken her up. Enjolras had woken up at the same time as her. He seemed a bit surprised to be staring into his district partner's eyes. Éponine giggled. "Good morning."

"Good morning," Enjolras repeated. "What's the agenda for today?"

"I feel like we'd have a better chance if we made an alliance," Éponine said. "We should try to find another character or two." She counted the ones who remained on her fingers. "Let's see, there's our fellow Victors—-"

"Victors?" Enjolras raised an eyebrow in confusion.

"Pierre and Esmeralda," Éponine clarified. "Get it? 'Cause we were all created by the same author?"

Enjolras shook his head, but he was smiling. "The two from Narnia."

Éponine looked sad at the mention of the sibling pair. "It's such a tragedy that they were reaped together. Only one of them can come out alive. I keep thinking what if Gavroche had been reaped with me?"

Enjolras knew it was time to get Éponine back on track before she sank into a pit of despondency. "Clove and Cato? They'd be pretty powerful allies."

"Uh-uh." Éponine shook her head so hard her auburn hair whipped around. "That girl would have a knife in our backs before long. How about Elsa? Ice powers or no, she can be frosty! She must not be aware that killing your district partner is taboo!"

"I know," Enjolras agreed, "but apparently Hans tried to kill her and take the throne in their story, so I guess the feeling is mutual."

The morning air suddenly rang out with the clash of metal on metal and a woman screaming, "Boromir!"

Enjolras and Éponine locked eyes. Eowyn was under attack. She was a shieldmaiden of Rohan, and she had Boromir on her side, but still they thought she would appreciate their help. Besides, they had guns.

"The rifle's too big to maneuver easily," Enjolras said. "Let's leave it here and take the handgun."

Éponine carefully hid the rifle under a blanket and armed herself with a knife and a net. Enjolras took the handgun and they started in the direction of Eowyn's scream.

They emerged into a small clearing and found Eowyn and Boromir engaged in a swordfight with Cato. Boromir was trying to take the brunt of Cato's attacks, but Cato was a very even match for Boromir, and he needed Eowyn to cover the gaps Cato opened up in Boromir's defense.

In the next several seconds, lots of things happened at once. A knife flew through the air, targeted at Eowyn's head. Luckily, Eowyn saw it coming and deflected it with her sword. Éponine ran forward and threw her net at Cato. Just before it landed, Cato thrust his sword into Boromir's side, which had been left unprotected when Eowyn blocked Clove's knife.

Boromir's hand flew to cover his wound and staunch the flow of blood. Cato fell on the ground, flailing under the net. Eowyn rushed to Boromir's side. She urged Enjolras, "In the red backpack there's bandages and healing plants I gathered. Bring it to me, quick!"

Meanwhile, Cato managed to cut himself free from the net and make his escape. If anyone noticed, they ignored him in favor of helping Boromir.

Eowyn treated his wound as best she could, but it was obvious he was losing too much blood. His face was growing paler and a red stain was soaking through his bandages. He grabbed Eowyn's hand. "Tell Faramir I'm sorry."

Eowyn hadn't shed a single tear up until that point, but at Boromir's acknowledgement that he knew he was dying, she began to cry. "I tried to prevent this from happening again. I didn't want you to die a second time."

"I'll just go back to Middle-Earth," Boromir assured her. "You still have a chance to win. Don't throw that chance away." He touched her cheek. "Enjolras and Éponine came to help us. They must want to make an alliance. They need you to help them make a good team." He took a shuddering breath. "At least Faramir can't kill me now for failing to protect you!" Then he addressed Enjolras and Éponine. "Do for Eowyn what I couldn't do for her." Then he breathed his last, and a cannon fired.

Enjolras stood up. "We must honor our fallen comrade. There must be some way we can 'send him off,' so to speak."

"We can have a funeral," Eowyn suggested. "In his story, his companions sent his body down the river in a boat. It even survived going over a waterfall!"

"I'll make a raft with branches and strips of this net!" Éponine volunteered. "We can carry Boromir's body to the river close to the waterfall and send him over!"

She quickly pieced together a raft, and then laid out Boromir's body on it. They then carried it like a bier to the river.

"Wait!" Eowyn cried before they released it into the water. She bent over Boromir and kissed his forehead. Straightening up and brushing a tear from her eyes, she proclaimed, "Now I'm ready." Enjolras let go of the raft and let it drift toward the center of the river. Éponine took her flat right hand with her fingers spread out and rubbed it in an upward motion against her chest. When Enjolras saw what she was doing, he repeated the action.

"What are you doing?" Eowyn asked.

"It's a gesture of love," Éponine explained.

Eowyn gave a bittersweet smile and copied her allies' sign. Then, right as the raft went over the falls, all three of them performed the sign for the cameras. "Goodbye, Boromir," Eowyn said. "Be at peace, son of Gondor."

A/N: The title of this chapter is the first chapter of The Two Towers.

Game notes

Day 4: A Gamemaker-generated earthquake kills Fezzik and injures Tauriel's leg.

Day 5: Cato kills Boromir. Éponine and Enjolras come upon the aftermath; they and Eowyn send him over the waterfall on a raft. Éponine gives the camera LSF for 'I love you.'

Also, this story is officially over the 10k mark! Yay! I've never had the dedication to do a story this long before and I feel super accomplished!