Chapter Ten.

They moved at a great pace for more than half the day since they emerged from the mines. Merry noticed that Solaris was pulling up the rear as usual but now it seemed that she was further back from the rest. He told Pippin to alert Aragorn about her.

“Aragorn, can we rest for a bit and let Solaris catch up with us?” asked Pippin, as he ran to stay by his side.

“No, we keep moving. If she can’t keep up…then she should have remained in Rivendell,” snapped Aragorn, as he started to speed his pace up.

Pippin stood there as Legolas walked past him. Pippin grabbed Legolas’s arm and told him where Solaris was and that something has to be wrong with her. Legolas glanced behind Pippin to see Merry pulling a stumbling elf towards the group and then the elf collapsed right onto Merry who cried out for help as he kept her from falling all the way down. It was then and there did Legolas’ sharp eyes perceived what the cause of Solaris’s stumbling. “Aragorn, we must stop now! We have a wounded member!”

Aragorn stopped and turned to see the others rushing back towards Solaris who was being held up by Merry. Legolas got to her side quickly and got her fully on her side with her head on Merry’s lap. Legolas saw the arrow in her back as he removed her quiver and bow from her back to give the weapons to Boromir who looked on concerned. Legolas worked on getting her outer shirt removed and lifting part of her silvery tunic up and over the arrow as he had cut it to where he could work on removing the arrow.

“I thought elves couldn’t get hurt?” Boromir asked gently.

Solaris snapped, “When you try to keep a fellow Ranger’s back from getting an arrow…you will get hurt.”

“Solaris, did you take that arrow to protect Aragorn?” asked Gimli, looking at her as Aragorn strode up to the group.

“Yes, even if he hates me. I could not allow him to get injured when there was something I could do about it.” stated Solaris, as she looked at Gimli and then to Aragorn, whose stern gaze turned to shock as he heard what she had done for him.

Aragorn spoke, “Let’s get the arrow removed now so her body can start to heal itself. Boromir and I will hold her down while you pull the arrow out, Legolas.”

Boromir and he placed their hands down on Solaris’s body as Legolas took hold of the arrow at where it entered Solaris’ body and with a nod from Aragorn yanked the arrow. Solaris only gritted her teeth as the arrow was pulled from her body. The wound healed quickly as Aragorn laid his hand on her forehead, and then felt her cheeks and then her neck which was revealed to him.

The look on his face told the whole story – Solaris was ill. He removed his cloak and wrapped it around her as he fashioned it into an adult sized sling. Solaris was placed within it and he wrapped it around his body. He stood up and Solaris was lifted off the ground and was wrapped in his arms in his own cloak. “Boromir, carry her weapons. We move on now.”

The next one is coming.

Please let me know what you think?