The Pirate (a legolas x oc story)

chapter 17: the aftermath

*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."