Legolas walks through the battlefield and spots Gimli, smoking his pipe. He stops, stroking his bow. "Final count, 42". "42? That's not bad for a pointy-eared Elvish princeling. I myself am sitting pretty on 43" Gimli said with mock admiration.
Legolas face drops. Suddenly, he fires an arrow at the Uruk-hai that Gimli sits upon between his legs. "43" says Legolas. "He was already dead" said Gimli confident. "He was twitching" Legolas tried. "He was twitching because he's got my axe buried in his nervous system". And demonstrates by moving the axe in the Uruk's head. The hands and feet twitch as he does.
Aragorn, Gandalf and Éomer join Legolas and Gimli. They talk about the fight and what to do with Saruman.
They see Aerin driving away on her horse from them back towards Helm's deep. "Aerin!" shouts Legolas, glad to see she's okay. Aerin looks up and tries not to show the pain. "I'm going to the cave to see if the women and children are okay," Aerin lies to them hoping they believe here and let her be. They nodded hesitantly but before anybody can say anything more Aerin rides off.
"She's lying" Gandalf tells the rest. Everyone looks at Gandalf for explanation but Aragorn interrupts, for Gandalf can say anything. "She may want to be alone, she saw Haldir die before her eyes, they where close." Legolas and Gimli looked shocked at Aragorn, before this they did not know. "No, that's not it" said Gandalf. "let's go find her" continued Gandalf and mounted Shadowfax. The rest followed him into Helm's Deep.
They looked first at the stables, but there was no Elleth to find just her horse. They entered the keep and towards the cave for she said she would go there. From there they walked back to the keep towards the main hall. Éowyn saw Aragorn and walked quickly to him. "Lord Aragorn, you are all right," said Éowyn relieved. Her brother Éomer came to stand next to her as did Legolas, Gimli and Gandalf. "Did you find her?" asked Éomer. "no" indicated Legolas he was very worried about Aerin. "who are you looking for?" asked Éowyn curiously. "Aerin, did you see her?" ask Legolas hopeful. "I saw Aerin walk into one of the bedrooms some time ago, she was a bit withdrawn in herself so I wanted to give her some time and let her be. Is something wrong with her?" ended Éowyn worried.
"We don't know, but we're going to check on her and find out," said Gandalf, and they walked together into the hall with bedrooms. Legolas used his elven hearing to hear which room Aerin could be in.
~~~>>>~~~<<<~~~>>>~~~<<<~~~>>>~~~
Aerin arrives at the stables and slides down Àlfadís. Every move she makes hurts her more and grunt in pain. The stable servant looks at her with concern. Aerin grinds her teeth and smiles at him as if nothing is wrong. She walks into the keep that it is very busy with wounded soldiers and women and children looking for their father, husband or son. Aerin is looking for a way to go to a bedroom so she can have some rest. She enters the bedroom hallway and walks to the most distant bedroom and steps inside.
When Aerin is in the room and closes the door she leans against the door in relief and the tears come. Grief for the loss of Haldir and the pain of her wound. Aerin removed her chest armor slowly and dropped it to the floor. She is shocked when she sees her tunic full of her blood. Aerin walks over to the mirror and pulls up her tunic, her wound now visible to her.
She gasped when she sees the wound. Black lines extend from the wound all over her side, she now knows the blade or the orc that stabbed her was poisoned. Aerin sighs deeply and thinks about what to do next when the door is suddenly thrown open, she turns around quick her hands in the air in a fighting position in fright, but throttles a little in pain.
~~~>>>~~~<<<~~~>>>~~~<<<~~~>>>~~~
Aragorn, Legolas, Gimli, Gandalf, Éomer and Éowyn run into the room, but stop when they see Aerin and breathe a sigh of relief. "what are you doing here?" asks Aerin with gritting teeth so as not to show that she is in pain. "Aerin?" Legolas begins worried and takes a step in her direction. His gaze then falls on the mirror behind her and sees in her reflection her bloody tunic, he looks back at her pale face. "You're hurt!" Legolas shouts more concerned and runs now over to her. "Stop!" Aerin shouts to the stormed group. Legolas stops, but wide-eyed Aerin. "It's just a small wound, nothing I can't heal, so you can go" Aerin tells them a little frustrated, but they can all see she's lying. "You lying Aerin!, I partially raised you, I know when you lie" says Gandalf sternly and walks over to her. "It's nothing, I can handle myself, just go!" tries Aerin again, she is beginning to feel dizzy from the poison. "If it's nothing, show it to us" Said Aragorn in a stern voice. Aerin looked at him in shock, she sighs and felt mixed emotions, angry because they do not listen to her, sad because she didn't want to worry them, and pain. Tears form in her eyes, but she doesn't want to let them fall, she slowly pulls her tunic up with trembling hands.
The group gasped at the sight of the wound. "You don't call that anything!!" Legolas shouts angrily. "how long have you had this?" Aragorn asks concerned. Aerin hesitates for a moment to say it, knowing they will be angry more that she didn't say anything. "During the fight with the wargs". "WHAT!!, That's three days ago Aerin, you could have been dead!!" says Aragorn in disbelief. "We where on the brink of war, what should I have done? The only way to heal this is with elf magic and Athelas, which was in my bag somewhere in this building, and you and all the other elves were needed in the fight. I wasn't going to ask you to leave your post for me. They needed you more, I'm still here am I not!! "Aerin poked now angrily to him.
After saying this, Aerin felt herself getting more and more dizzy, black spots came in her field of vision, Aerin swayed a bit and Legolas grabbed her immediately so she wouldn't fall. "Put her on the bed," Aragorn orders with haste. Legolas put his arm under her knees and one behind her back and lifted Aerin in his arms. He put her on the bed and Aragorn immediately pulled up Aerin's tunic again to see the wound. "I need Athelas, hot water and cloths" ordered Aragorn. Éowyn and Éomer immediately went to work getting things done. "Why must you be so stubborn, Aerin" murmured Aragorn as he inspected the wound further. The only response he got from Aerin was a grunting noise. "Will the lass be oke?" ask Gimli worried. "yes, she will be oke if we can clean the wound and let her rest" responded Aragorn. "Good, good, then I can kill her when she is better" said Gimli with a growl.
Some time later, Éomer and Éowyn returned with the Athelas, hot water and cloths and Aragorn went straight to work on the now unconscious Aerin.
~~~>>>~~~<<<~~~>>>~~~<<<~~~>>>~~~
"It's been two days now, when will she wake up?" Legolas asked Aragorn impatiently, who was again busy with Aerin cleaning the wound and chant a elvish healing chant. "It won't be long, Legolas, have patience" Aragorn replied, the wound was getting better each day. On the bed Aerin started to stir a little, Aragorn and Legolas their attention immediately darted to her. "Aerin?" called Aragorn and Legolas at the same time. "mmmh" came from Aerin. She tried to open her eyes but closed them immediately because of the bright light shining through the window. After getting used to the light, Aerin looked around and saw Aragorn and Legolas "hi guys". Aragorn and Legolas looked at each other and raised their eyebrows. "Hi guys?" they said at the same time, looking back at her again. Aerin just chuckled in response.
Aerin tried to sit up, but flinched when she felt her side. "how long have I been out?" she asked the two men. "two days" indicated Aragorn. "sorry I didn't say anything, but I thought I could do it myself and I didn't want to worry you all because of what was going on at the time" Aerin said feeling guilty. "We are glad that you are back, but we will talk about it, when you are completely health" said Aragorn with a serious look.
YOU ARE READING
The Lord of the Rings: Aerin's Story
FanfictionAerin is a elleth mostly living in Rivendell. She was taken in by Lord Elrond when she was a small child because of the death of her parents on behalf of Gandalf who had found her. Aerin doesn't know where she's from, she knows she's not from River...
