Title: What Was Right

Author: Eärillë

Rating: PG

Warnings: First Draft, (very mild) Gaur

Summary:
Choosing what is right and what is easy is a good-sized horror for anyone who encounters it. And anyway, what is the meaning of “betrayal,” actually? Everyone interprets it differently, after all; and Halbarad is just one of them.

Genres: Character Study, Ficlet, Hurt/Comfort

Place and Timeline: Eriador, Late Third Age

Characters: Aragorn, Halbarad

Words (in MS Word): 285

Point of View: Third Person Limited, Past Tense

Challenge: Day 9: Nargothrond:
Write a story or poem or create artwork where the characters have to decide between loyalty or betrayal.

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“Aragorn – please? You are coughing up blood! I do not know much of healing, you know that. We need to go to Imladris.” – It was perhaps the hundredth time Halbarad begged of his cousin, friend and chieftain. But Aragorn was as stubborn as the bed of cold, cold rocks he was lying on, and that did not help matters any. They had been arguing since evening had started, and now it was rather late at night already. (More precisely, Halbarad did the talking and Aragorn did the glaring or head-shaking – when he still could.) The side of Aragorn’s head was swelling at a worrying rate, despite the blood that continuously seeped from under his matted fringes, and he had begun to drift in and out of consciousness.

“Damn that rock – Aragorn! You must keep awake.” – Because Aragorn had just closed his eyes again, and his face was completely white now save the places where blood had caked over. – “Gah. Sorry, cousin, but I am not going to lose you like this.” – Because his previous pleas had fallen on deaf ears, given how Aragorn was really closing eyes now, not opening them again.

As ignorant as he was about advanced healing, Halbarad did know how to treat casualties during rescue and evacuation. And he was thankful for that now, as he fled towards the Elf-haven, who had been Aragorn’s sanctuary until three years beforehand, with his precious burden. As much as he valued Aragorn’s order, he valued his life more. He refused to live kinless, and the line of Kings must not be broken. King Arvedui’s stupidity, choosing what was easy instead of what was right when departing the Bay of Forochel, must not be repeated.