what's up guys I was on vacation in DC and didn't write the whole time so here's a chapter

Day broke and a cool light filtered over the land surrounding our camp. The fire had gone out sometime before dawn, smoke still rose from a more stubborn remaining ember. By the time I rolled over on my bedroll to turn my back to the landscape, Aragorn was already awake, and packing up whatever things he had set down around the camp. Boromir was groaning in his sleep. He wouldn't make it much longer without proper medicine. For as good a scavenging healer as Aragorn was, if this festered, Boromir's fate was beyond our control. I could hear coals rattling around in the fire pit, Gimli the obvious culprit. The morning felt empty without the hobbits rambling on about breakfast the minute they woke. Even with the birds beginning their morning song, the air felt uncomfortably quiet. 

Everything was calm. I took the chance to relax in the sense of security held in the fresh dawn light for what felt like the first time in forever. Leaning back on my elbows on my bedroll, I looked up to catch a flock of birds quietly soaring through the brightening sky. I sighed. It wasn't working, something was wrong.

"Aragorn," I called out to him across the fire pit. He looked up from what he was doing and looked around before making his way to where I was now sitting, arms propped up on my knees and hands fiddling with the journal I forgot I had been keeping.

"You sense it too." It was more of an observation than a question. He looked around again as if seeking to spot something he had heard.

"Probably an overwhelming sense of evil, I bet." Gimli popped up behind Aragorn and looked between us disapprovingly, "Secret meetings without the dwarf, I see how it is."

I shook my head and looked off to the West- the direction I knew Mordor was in. "Overwhelming sense of evil might not be far off from the truth. It feels like all the forces of the world are moving at once. Everything is shifting."

"The air is too still, the ground too quiet," Aragorn straightened up to get a better look at Boromir, who was now having some sort of fit in his sleep. He began to make his way to him. "We need to get moving."

I packed up the setup I had been sleeping on and began rolling the rest of our things into a pack. Aragorn ran off to the creek to get water. Boromir had a fever. If there was anything I knew about sickness and not-modern medicine, it was that fevers were bad. Very bad. Gimli was burying what remained of last night's fire when I realized part of what was missing.

"Hey, where's Legolas?" I turned to him from where I was awkwardly squatting on the ground.

"I thought you'd be the one to know."

"You can't just- you can't just answer with that every time I ask you where someone is." I was standing up to look around for him when two figures crashed through the trees.

"Found the mysterious missing man," Aragorn said, holding up one of Legolas's arms, "Cleaner than before, thankfully." 

"My word, boy. How long does it take you to bathe?" Gimli followed this with a weird chortle and continued kicking dirt onto the burnt logs.

"No offense, but it was about time. You needed it." Legolas shot his hand out with a finger angrily pointing at me and opened his mouth to say something, but in the process he dropped his shirt and scrambled to pick it up.

Aragorn somehow found this incredibly amusing and clapped his shoulder. Legolas clutched his clothes to his body for dear life. Gimli lost it.

"Do tell us, Rhoe, when was the last time you bathed?" Legolas raised a questioning eyebrow and I could practically hear the 'ooooh burnnn'. Unfortunately, there was no way I could take him seriously when he was standing naked in the middle of a field desperately trying to hold onto his clothes with wet hair matted awkwardly to his head.

"I- uh, well-" I couldn't remember, I knew enough to know it was a problem. "I don't know?"

"We can tell." Aragorn and Gimli nodded in agreement. I glared the best that I could.

"Go put your clothes on."

Legolas stalked back to the woods, muttering under his breath. [I am a very serious writer you guys] Aragorn rushed to Boromir with a wet cloth in hand. I knelt opposite him and examined Boromir's pained face. He was still dead asleep, he had been the minute he sat down when we made camp last night. I realized he probably hadn't eaten in days. 

"Do you think he'll make it to Rohan?" Aragorn was dabbing Boromir's forehead with the cloth. He looked up at me with an expression riddled with doubt. I didn't want to see it, I looked back at Boromir.

"We'll see," he replied, "I guess all we can do now is wait."

Aragorn decided to wake Boromir and sent Gimli and I to scout ahead. The terrain was mostly grassy fields, with hills here and there and large rocks scattered across the landscape. We stood at the top of a hill to survey what lay ahead of us.

"We could head for Edoras," I said, "But it will be far and I'm not sure how much time we have left."

"This is assuming the hobbits have found themselves alive and out of danger? What about them?"

"They were taken by Uruks, were they not?" Gimli nodded as if it made sense. "They are probably heading to Isengard. Edoras is halfway there, we might even run into them."

"I hope we don't," Gimli grumbled, "Or actually, I hope we do- but I hope we meet them with at least some advantage."

I leaned back and put my hands on my hips, looking out across the landscape to find the easiest path to carry Boromir along. I thought of asking Mathilmen to help us- to fly overhead and find the Uruks, find the hobbits, find a safe path through the seemingly endless fields- but I was bluntly reminded that I had used my last favor, that now I was the one in debt. As much as I wanted to regret my choice, Boromir could have died then and there and I wouldn't even have had a chance to be in this situation. I squinted against the sun and decided we should turn back. 

The hike back to camp was unsettlingly casual. We were in no immediate danger, if there were any enemies nearby I would have sensed them, and yet I couldn't shake this feeling that something was fatally off. I unsheathed my dagger nonetheless, kicking at pebbles on the ground as I passed by them. Better safe than sorry seemed like a good motto to live by.

When we returned, Boromir was propped up on a pile of everyone's packs and weakly jabbing at spots on a map that Aragorn was holding in front of him. They seemed to be arguing over a route. That probably meant they planned on consulting Gimli and I, which probably meant I should consider thinking up an overview of our situation. Legolas was the first to notice our arrival, since he wasn't so deeply engaged in the debate.

"Back so soon," he called out and stood up, "in all honesty I thought you would've died by now."

"Uh huh," I checked his arm with my elbow as I passed him.

"You know, with your failing senses and all." He smirked. I hated him.

A jab at me smelling terrible, thanks Mister I-bathe-in-creeks King of Hygiene. "You took the time to put your clothes on, more than I expected of you."

"South, East, or Southeast- what would be your choice? Hypothetically of course." I turned to Aragorn who was now standing up from where he had been kneeling by Boromir. He held the map out for me to read. I knew the territories, but that wasn't the problem. 

I took the map in my hands looked from it to Aragorn. He rolled his eyes and nodded towards Boromir before looking off exasperatedly into the distance with his back to him. We wanted to get to some sort of civilization- preferably with a healer- with minimal Uruk encounters, that much was obvious. The problem was that the largest city within Boromir-living distance was Edoras, which wasn't near at all. Not only that, but going there meant heading southeast- heading closer to Isengard.

"There's an obviously stomped-out path heading directly east- those Uruk Hai from the forest, probably. Heading to Edoras is our best bet, but let us head south before we head sideways. The closer we get to Osgiliath the closer we are to running into danger." I looked to Boromir, who was cringing in obvious pain just from shifting his legs. "Running into danger means Boromir probably dying before he needs to."

"Before I need to? You know I can hear you, right?"

"You know what I meant."

"I disagree. We should head straight for Edoras. Less distance will give the healers more time to... heal." Aragorn had a point. Making a beeline for civilization would get Boromir help faster, but we were more likely to run into something. I couldn't tell if it was worth it.

"It's up to you to decide," I turned to where Boromir was sprawled on the ground, "I mean, you too. You're the one dying."

"Just how far is Edoras, exactly?" I knelt down by Boromir and stuck the map out to answer his question.

"If we're where I think we are," I circled my finger around a spot of forest near the falls marked Rauros, "then it's about the same distance from us as we are from Lorien. Possibly closer." Boromir groaned.

"We took boats from Lorien! And even that took days to get us to the falls." Legolas seemed to be next in line to express his annoyance.

I looked up at Aragorn who was strapping his sword to his back. Gimli adjusted his boots and I took this as the signal that we were about to leave. I rolled up the map and motioned for Legolas to help me lift Boromir. We linked arms under his back and lifted his torso slowly, there was a lot of groaning. 

"You could at least try to help."

"I can't stand," Boromir replied, "that's why you're lifting me."

I thought about saying something along the lines of 'well I can't stand your attitude' but decided it was uncalled for.

"Aragorn?" I called to him and hefted Boromir's slipping arm back onto my shoulder, "The plan is just to carry him?"

"Considering two of this party are elves, who happen to be strong and endurant by nature, I think we will be able to manage." I almost dropped the half of Boromir that I was holding.

"The plan is just for Legolas and I  to carry him?"

"Don't act so surprised," Legolas piped up, "You knew this was coming."

I wished we had a horse right about now. To carry Boromir and to run over everyone else.

A/N: this is super short sorry, more coming later tho I promise