*third person pov*
The fellowship tumble out of the mines safely unto grey stone hard rocks of hills. All safely except for one.
Merry, Pippin and sam crumble to the floor and start sobbing hysterically. With Pippin lying on the floor and Merry comforting him. Both of them crying
Sam sits on a boulder and starts to sob, his hand on his head.
Boromir is holding gimli back. Gimli was trying to go back into the mines. Thinking he can still save gandalf.
Legolas looks around him, overwhelmed by his companion's grief and his own.
Maeral is sitting farther away from the fellowship, all of them only able to see the back of her head. So that none of them could see she was crying and struggling to breath through the sobbing and the pain in her shoulder.
She shouldn't have been badly affected by Gandalf's death, she's been seeing crewmate after crewmate after crewmate die these past 100 years, even before that she'd seen her mother and father die right in front of her.
She has been surrounded by death and lifeless bodies thousands of times before. Many of whom which she loved and cared for. Death was just an old friend waiting for her at every corner she goes to.
And yet gandalf's death was so sudden and painful. As if a part of her died as well with him.
Her hand was bloody from touching the wound on her shoulder. She could tell she was starting to get dizzy from the blood loss and that she probably shouldn't cry but oh god. The grief was too strong in her that she just couldn't mask her tears and had to let it all out. She was sobbing with her head on her arm, keeping her palm away from her face so that it wouldn't smudge to her face and alarm everyone of her injury.
Aragorn wipes his sword, glances towards the fellowship who was now sobbing and grieving over gandalf's death. He glances at Legolas and says "Legolas, get them up."
Boromir helps Gimli sit down and calm himself then says to Aragorn "Give them a moment for pity's sake!"
"By nightfall these hills will be swarmed by orcs! we must reach the woods of lothlorien." Aragorn argues
Boromir stays silent, unable to argue with that.
"Come Boromir, Legolas, Gimli, get them up. On your feet sam." he says to Sam and pull him up, patting his shoulder.
Legolas comes over to where Maeral was and sees that she's wiping something on her shirt and picking up her bag and is on her feet already, eyes all red and puffy.
"Hey" He says to her softly
"Hey" she replies back
"We have to get going-"
"To lothlorien, yeah yeah" she says, her voice low and shallow
He nods at her and maeral takes a step forward but winced at her pain and stopped, clutching her shoulder.
Legolas rushes forward, holding her hand and shoulder, stabilizing her. "your shoulder, it's hurting isn't it?"
She nodded, not bothering to ask him how he knew.
"how bad is it?" he asked and she took off one side of her jacket, showing the upper arm of her shirt, drenched in blood.
"you should've told us sooner" He says, frowning at her.
She smirked at him "and even if I did what could any of you possibly done? We were in a cave chased by goblins and a balrog. There was nothing you could've done."
He huffed and slinged her arm over his shoulder
"hey you really don't have to- I mean, my shoulder is hurt but I'm not limping and can walk perfectly fine. And also please don't tell this to anyone else, I don't want to alarm anyone of my injury. I'll just wait until we're at Lothlorien to heal the wound." She says, retracting her arm from him and Legolas stares at her for a minute. Thinking if he should help her or not.
He sighed and took her bag from her shoulder
"Fine, but I'm helping you carry your bag. If you wince or grimace again and look like you cannot walk i will be helping you ral" He says to her and she smiles.
"hag" she says to Legolas in elvish
"dickhead " he replies in elvish, unable to hide his smirk
"Legolas, Maeral let's go!" Aragorn shouts at them and they go towards him, off to lothlorien
*first person pov*
Aragorn scouts forward ahead of us, knowing that now Gandalf is gone he has to take on the mantle of the leader in the fellowship. Masking his own grief by trying to get distracted and take his mind off of what happened and leading us ahead.
I walk besides Boromir, kicking rocks at my feet "So, Boromir" I say to him causing him to perk up and focus on me.
"hmm?" he says
"do you like Alva? My crewmate that you couldn't stop staring at the other day?" I say and he widens his eyes and chokes and coughs. A lot.
I smirk at him, patting his back a lot of times, letting alllll of his cough out.
"so you do like her then?" I exclaim loudly causing him to shake his head aggressively
"No no!" He says and falls silent for a moment before continuing "I mean- it's not that she isn't beautiful! she's very beautiful, she also has a nice voice and great hair..." I raise an eyebrow at him, grinning so wide that i feel like my cheeks will pop off.
Realising what he just said he looks at me with wide eyes and struggles to form a sentence "uh, b-but um, it-it's nothing like you think it is!" His cheeks were red and I still couldn't stop grinning at him "I just...admire her that's all" he says softly, looking at his feet
"Hey don't be ashamed! I wouldn't be mad if you like her" I say to him, looking forward as he snaps his gaze to me with his mouth wide
"close your mouth boromir." he snaps his mouth shut. "I have no problems with you liking her, as long as you don't treat her like crap and actually respect her as a person. Got it?" He nods aggressively and smiled "i don't know if she likes you or not, you have only met her once after all so that will be up for you to discover yourself. Remember to get to know her first before establishing if you actually like her or not, don't just base your feelings on her appearance. Alright?" I tell him with a serious look on my face.
Now alva isn't the type of person to cry after a breakup, instead she would break things. I do not need her to break my stuff out of the result of a broken heart. She would also discuss with us how she plans to murder the person but we would sometimes refuse because her plans sometimes would clash with our plans and she would just roll her eyes at us and say we're cowards then disappear for a couple hours later. God knows whatever she's done in those few hours.
Boromir nods and smiles gratefully at me "I don't really know if I like her or not" he says
"I haven't really established that yet. So forgive me if i decide to not engage with her at all" he says to me and I nod at him
"that's good, we do not need you to establish your feelings on a silly little appearance so yes, you should think about it wisely." I say to him and he smiles but i dont smile back.
"I mean it Boromir, think about it wisely." i say to him and walk away, leaving him alone there thinking if I was joking or not.
Truthfully, I only left Boromir alone because my shoulder was stinging with pain the more I talk and moved. I would have loved to talk with him more but my shoulder was in too much pain for me to continue the conversation.
I was clutching my shoulder in pain and hissing as I mumble to myself about how much better I would be right now if only astrid was with me right now.
gimli saw me rushing away from Boromir and saw that I was clutching my shoulder and rushed to my side immediately.
"Is your shoulder getting worse?" Gimli grumbles to me
I shake my head "no no I'll be fine" I say to him, clutching my shoulder
"no you are not. We must tell the others of your injury maeral" He says to me, standing right in front of me and causing me to stop.
I sigh and push him to my side, walking forward and ignoring him
He looks at me, flabbergasted and mad that I simply just pushed him aside like that.
He rushes to my side again and before he could open his mouth i say to him "I'll just wait till we're at lothlorien Gimli. We're so close to it. In only a few hours we'll arrive there and the elves of lothlorien can help me clean my wound."
Gimli scoffs and rolls his eyes "That is if the elves would be so kind to help us" he grumbles
"They will Gimli, we elves may be egoistic and selfish sometimes but we aren't monsters. I'm confident they will help us." I say looking forward, unsure myself.
*third person pov*
Legolas looks at Maeral, worried why she's rushing away from everyone. He looks at Gimli and Gimli is also looking at Maeral worriedly and Gimli rushes to Maeral's side.
He looks at them the whole time, noticing that she was clutching her shoulder all through out they talk.
He was walking and staring at them when suddenly Aragorn appears at his side asking him "Why are you staring at Maeral and Gimli Legolas?" He snaps his attention away from them, seeing what Aragorn was trying to imply at
"I- uh, I was just curious that's all" he says, struggling to find a good excuse why when he could've just told Aragorn of maeral's injury but the fact completely escapes his mind
Aragorn smirks at him and says "of course" They both fall silent, Aragorn looks at Legolas and says "has Maeral talked to you? Ever since she talked to you at the door of Moria about....I don't know, anything?"
legolas thinks back, remembering Maeral's injury on her shoulder and how she told him to not tell anyone at all. He looks back at Maeral and sees that she's still talking to Gimli, laughing and already removing her hand from her shoulder and looking like a person who isn't in the slightest hurt.
"How does she do that? Hiding her injury so convincing like that" he thought to himself and turned to aragorn
"No, when I called her at the hillside she said little words to me. Her eyes were puffy and red, from the sobbing I can assume" Legolas says
Aragorn looks at Maeral then sighs "gandalf's death shook everyone, it would worry me more if she just kept those feelings trapped in her heart."
A/n: andddd thats the end of the chapter yall I hope you liked it and vote if you think it was good!!