Her Foresight | Aragorn Fanfiction

Chapter Nine: Balin's Tomb

They had been travelling for several hours in the almost overwhelming darkness. Adara's legs hurt as did the rest of her body but she was mainly focused on the huge head wound she had. The blood from her head wound had slowly stopped but now she was left with a major headache. Black spots that wasn't there because the mine was just dark appeared in her vision.

Not being able to stop the loud groan that escaped her mouth, she watched as the Fellowship minus Gandalf, who was a fair bit ahead of them, stopped to look back at her. She saw the looks on all their faces and couldn't help her little eye roll. "I'm fine," she told them. They just stared at her when she sighed loudly. "Fine. My head feels like shit and I'm having trouble seeing anything even with Gandalf's light but I'm not about to make us stop because of a little injury."

The group stared at her before sighing in exasperation. She watched as Merry and Pippin ran over to her and began to grab her stuff. Pippin grabbed her pack and put in on his back as his one was passed to Merry, who now held both his and Pippin's bags. "Merry, Pip, it's fine. I can carry my own bag," Adara moved to get her bag when her foot caught on an unseen dip in the rock surface. She went tumbling but was caught in a warm embrace.

Looking up, she saw a stern looking Aragorn. "You need to rest. Let us help you." She glared at him,  pouting in her mind at the Ranger then she sighed, resigned to her fate. Adara smiled and thanked her Hobbit friends for trying to help her. Adara tried to move out of Aragorn's arms but he only tightened his hold on her.

She looked at him confused. The Ranger let go of her before turning around until all she could see of him was his back. "We don't want you tripping over, do we?" Aragorn motioned to his back.

Adara rolled her eyes before moving around the Dunedain. "Aragorn, I'm not an invalid. Surely I can walk up some-" Her sentence was cut off because she almost tripped over a dip in the ground...again.

Adara smiled sheepishly at the Ranger before she silently climbed onto his back, her head resting on his right shoulder. "Comfortable?" She could only nod. Now that she was comfortable, she felt an overwhelming fatigue rake through her body.

"Thanks Aragorn." Her breath blew across his neck, making him shiver as she slowly drifted to sleep.

Images flashed across her mind as she slept. She saw Boromir with arrows in his chest. Gandalf falling to the Balrog. Merry and Pippin kidnapped by the Uruk-hai. Frodo having his finger bitten off by Gollum and Sam crying because Frodo told him to leave. Seas of blood. Screams of pain. Children crying. "You cannot save them all, Adara of the Other." She heard a sweet voice say in her head. Normally a voice so sweet would be comforting but all she felt was chills. "Suffering is apart of life."

She whimpered as she saw images of the Fellowship dead in front of her. "No!" She shouted. "No, no, no. Please. Don't let me go through this again."

Adara continued shouting and crying as death surrounded her. She felt hands grab onto her arms as she tried to wiggle free from whatever it was that held her down.

"Adara!"

"Adara!"

"Adara!"

She shot up, shoving whoever was above her away from her trembling body. Opening her eyes, she found the Fellowship around her, all of them giving her concerned looks. Her brown eyes connected with Aragorn's blue and with a tearful sob, she threw herself into the Rangers embrace. Her tears soaked his shirt as she sobbed on him. Too caught up in her crying, she didn't notice Aragorn telling the others to leave them. Aragorn's concern for her head injury immediately transferred to concern over why she was crying.

Once her cries quietened, she slowly pulled away from the man. He gave her a calculative look as if trying to figure out what was wrong when his eyes cleared and he looked at her in concern. "What is it? What did you see?" He muttered lowly to her, so low that she knew even Legolas would not be able to hear what he had said.