The Last Rites for Souls on Fire

A sound drew Faelwen's attention, the winding of a crossbow. She turned, see the Uruk before a kneeling Boromir. Faelwen tried to move quickly, finding that all energy had left her body. She threw herself at the beast as it loomed over the Man, knocking both it and herself down. The arrow that it fired wedged itself in a tree, just above Boromir's head. The Uruk caught itself before Faelwen, quickly finding it's feet. As she struggled to pick herself up, a heavy boot collided with her ribs, causing her to loose the little breath she'd been able to find since hitting the tree. She tried again to pull herself to hands and knees, the boot made contact again, this time accompanied by the sound of a winding crossbow. She reached for one of her discarded swords, grasping the hilt.

She could hear Boromir's heavy and ragged breathing; her own gasped and gulped breaths; and footsteps, lightweight and running toward them. She curled herself around as fast as she could, aiming for the Uruk's leg. Her blow landed, cutting deeply into the monsters calf, though it was barely fazed. It kicked her again as she tried to scramble to her feet. She looked up, straight down the shaft of the arrow that very soon, could be embedded in her skull. She shut her eyes, attempting to listen for the rushing footsteps. The pounding of blood in her ears blocked out every other noise.

She opened her eyes again, a blur of dull green and brown plowed into the Uruk'hai. She looked over, to see Aragorn fighting the monstrous creation. She clawed her way up, holding her side tightly as she stumbled over to Boromir. He looked up at her, sadness in his eyes. Faelwen said nothing as she helped him to lay flat across the ground. She knew Aragorn could handle the Uruk'hai, especially now that it was without it's crossbow. She sat, her weapons discarded and lungs aching, with a hand on Boromir's face, muttering softly in a vain attempt to ease his pain.

Aragorn soon stumbled over, a small rivulet of blood dripping from is nose. Faelwen looked him the eyes, conveying and sharing their grief. She stood up, moving away from the Gondorian to be replaced by Aragorn. As she backed away, gulping down her air, she pressed her hand to her ribs, hissing slightly at the pain. She picked up her short swords putting them away, able to hear the whispered conversation between the two Men.
"Frodo. Where is Frodo?" Boromir asked hurriedly, his voice turning raspy as he faded away.
"I let Frodo go," Argorn said, looking Boromir in the eye.
"Then you did what I could not," He paused, drawing in a long, ragged breath, "The world of men will fall, and all will come to darkness, my city to ruin."

Faelwen looked over as two more sets of rushing footsteps came to a sudden halt. Legolas and Gimli both saw the scene; Faelwen gasping for breath and clutching her ribs, Aragorn, with a bloodied nose, leaning over a pale and stiff Boromir. Realization, followed quickly by sorrow dawned on their two, very different, faces.
Aragorn spoke with vehement conviction, "I do not know what strength is in my blood, but I swear to you I will not let the White City fall, nor our people fail."
Boromir smiled, reaching for his sword to clutch it over his chest, "Our people, our people. I would have would have followed you, my brother...my captain...my king."
Slowly he faded away. Faelwen turned away from the body, turning to see two other companions with their heads bowed. She walked away, struggling to breathe as she did so, back to where they were going to make camp.
Before leaving she heard Aragorn whisper, "Be at peace, Son of Gondor."

The three men looked between each other as Aragorn picked up Boromir's body, "Legolas, his sword."
The Elf glumly picked up the sword and followed Aragorn and Gimli back to the river bank. He knew Faelwen was hurt, she hadn't been breathing properly. But there was no way she'd let him help her after everything in Lorien.
He almost walked into Gimli as the three came to a sudden stop. He peered around Aragorn, seeing what was definitely Faelwen's bare back. Aragorn and Gimli muttered a sorry before turning to a boat that faced away from her and laying Boromir in it. Legolas, however, couldn't help but notice all the scars that marred her cream-coloured skin. And completely obvious was the enormous bruise, from purple to yellow to green and back again, lining the side of her ribs she'd been holding.

She held a long bandage in her hands but couldn't wrap it around herself, having to over-stretch her damaged rib-cage to complete the task. Legolas walked over to her, knowing it was inappropriate, knowing that Aragorn and Gimli could see him, and cleared his throat.
"Faelwen, hand me the bandage. I-I can do it for you," He stuttered slightly.
"Can you really, Pin Cuan?" She asked, her mocking diminished by her lack of breath.
"Better than you can, at the moment," He smirked, quickly letting it drop, blushing instead, "Just don't turn around."
Faelwen passed the bandage back, allowing him to loop his arms around her in order to wrap the bandage down her torso. Aragorn would have smirked at them, were he not in the throes of grief for his kinsman. Gimli too, would have made a comment, but glancing at his deceased friend, holding his sword, shield by his feet, in the boat, he decided against it. Once Legolas removed his arms, Faelwen quickly replaced her undergarments and undershirt before turning to thank the blushing Elf.
"Hannon le, Legolas," She rubbed her ribs sourly, able to breath a little better now that there was pressure on them, "Im'vi lin athrado." (Thank you Legolas, [loosely] I owe you)
Legolas nodded his head in return, looking over the water, seeing Frodo and Sam on the other side of the river. Faelwen looked at their other two companions, neither quite smiling. She walked over to the funeral boat, biting two of fingertips. She looked down at her friends body, slowly touching her bloody fingers to his forehead. She moved her hand slowly, leaving her blood in an intricate yet simple pattern.
"Senn si, hen. Be at peace with everything that once was and is to be," Her voice came out low and soft. (Rest now, child.)

She moved away, allowing the men to push the boat into the Anduin. Legolas didn't watch with the others as the boat headed downstream. Instead he hurried over to one of the other boats.
"Quickly, Sam and Frodo have made it to the other side!" He rushed, doing his best to ignore the days events.
Nobody spoke, nor helped him. He looked up at Aragorn, "You mean not to follow them?"
Gimli groaned out, "Then it has been folly. The Fellowship has failed."
Faelwen spoke from the other side of the camp, replacing her clothes, "Of course it hasn't. We remain faithful to each other and to the cause."
Aragorn smiled, patting Gimli and Legolas on the back, "Right. We'll not leave Merry and Pippin to torture and despair."
They looked over to Faelwen, strapping on her daggers onto her thigh. She looked back at Aragorn, a smirk appeared across her fine face.
She hung her short swords at her waist and her bow over her shoulder, picking up her long sword as Aragorn spoke, smirking back, "Let's hunt some Orc."