She was alone. Hopelessly alone, and somewhat confused as to how she had gotten here. She had a vague recollection of going to sleep, of a deep noise that warbled like words from somewhere far away, and then nothing after that. Waking beneath a great tree, its roots coddling her and sheltering her from the night air, she had woken there and wondered why she wasn't terrified. Perhaps it was the dream she had woken from, where everything was white and warm and gentle.
Well, she was scared, but it wasn't the fear of knowing you're somewhere you shouldn't be. It was the scared of being alone after dark, in a forest where any manner of beings would feel the need to eat her. Though, the tree's roots were shaped well, caging her in but also making it difficult for anything to get at her. That was one thing, she was in a tree. A tree.
What was worse was that she couldn't remember.
What was her name? What were her family's name, where did she live? She couldn't remember where, beyond that it was very far from here, and she didn't remember how she got here of all places. She had been happy there. Or had she been?
The one thing that resonated in her soul, was that this was meant to be. She was supposed to be here.
However, being here in the dark in the heart of a tree in her admittedly thin, short, and altogether not warm clothing was not very nice at all. Rustling and insect noises in the dark made her flinch, twitching and curling up into the smallest ball she could. She hoped there wasn't any bugs in the dirt with her, and that dawn wasn't far off. That didn't seem likely, as she was watching the stars come out one by one above her.
She didn't want to sleep, either, feeling as though she'd slept a long time and didn't want to slip back into that darkness. The light of the stars was enough for her, and she watched them travel across the night sky through the gap between the roots.
It was cold, but not freezing, and it took only a few hours until she saw light. Not just any light, but firelight. It bobbed and moved in the darkness, accompanied by the comforting sound of cheerful voices.
She couldn't hear words, but she realized that the torch would pass by close to her spot. And she liked the sound of them, evil creatures wouldn't be telling dirty jokes and giggling like school children would they?
"E-excuse me." she rasped, horrified by the state of her voice. Dry, cracking, it sounded like she hadn't spoken in a very long time. "Excuse me!" She tried again, coughing.
"Wait, wait, shh," One of the voices paused, following by a smacking noise, like the back of a hand hitting someone's stomach. Both quieted, waiting.
Her nameless self licked her lips, "Excuse me, I could probably use some help?" She sounded thin and weak, and she wondered how long she had slept beneath this tree.
"Over here, Fili, it's a voice." One of them said, thumping noises of his boots telling her that he approached. He sounded youthful, but not childlike.
The torch came closer, and eventually they stumbled over where she was hidden in the roots, only her hand sticking out of the dirt and darkness letting them know she was there.
"A girl!" said the first to reach her, bending down. He had darker hair, but so far his face was in black. The torchlight following him and a man came with it. She could only see that he was blonde and with a mustache that had dangling braids. Something felt a little bit off.
"Hello." She tried to smile, squinting at the brightness of the fire so close.
"Now how did you get in there, miss?" the blonde one asked, a little bemused.
"Nevermind, we need to get her out!" the other one said, grinning a little and turning so the fire revealed his face. He was younger than the other, with long hair and barely a beard. "Kili, at your service!" He gave an awkward bow, already trying to find a way to pry the roots apart.
"And Fili, at your service!" the blonde said, bowing where he stood, smiling at her.
"I'm sorry I have no name to give you. I don't remember." She figured she might as well be polite. "And I don't know how I got here, I woke up beneath the tree."
"Woke up beneath the tree?" the blonde one, Fili, stuck the torch in the dirt and stepped into the divots of roots to help.
"Must have been one hell of a night, if you pardon my say so!" Kili huffed a bit of a laugh, tugging at roots to see which ones were loose enough she could have slipped through to get in there. He started to frown when he found none of them would budge.
"I couldn't tell you, I can't remember." She tried to slip back so they had room to work, distracted by her memory blanks. "I can't remember anything." She said more quietly, almost to herself.
"We'll get you out, Miss, no problem. There's nothing me and my brother here can't get done!" Fili got out his knife and, while Kili held the roots steady, started to saw and hack away at where they plunged into the dirt. Brothers that made sense.
She found she had the energy to smile, "Thank you. I would have been trapped here for who knows how long if you hadn't come along."
"How did you get here? Where do you live?" Kili asked, trying to see if she had any injuries.
"I...I don't know." She replied, at a loss.
"Well, how about, where's your family, are you alone?" Kili thought this was quite odd, a strange nameless girl discovered in the roots of a tree that she couldn't possibly have gotten into in the first place. One who had no memories it seemed, other than her name.
Fili would have thought something sinister was afoot, if not for her scrawniness and that she smelled clean, somehow, even after a night in the dirt.
"Here we go!" Fili said, holding the roots up and out of the way so she could crawl out, Kili giving a hand to help pull.
As soon as she was out, moving slowly as if her limbs were cramped, Fili and Kili stood her up and immediately coughed, blushing, shuffling on their feet.
"Uhm, Miss, are you aware-" Fili started, awkward.
"You're naked." Kili whispered, stunned by her lack of clothes. He also shamefully couldn't draw his eyes away.
"Oh!" she said, surprised, as if she had forgotten. She wrapped her arms around herself, ankles crossing in self-consciousness. "This is how I woke up….and I'm not naked, I'm wearing my sleep clothes."
They weren't any kind of sleep clothes Kili had ever seen before. They were rather saucy in fact, properly scandalous for dwarf women standards. She looked like a human, though remarkably short, around the same height as himself. He noticed, awkwardly because he couldn't help but notice, that she was on the thinner side, pale as the moon, and covered in dirt. Her legs were long, with knobby knees, and, he noticed with a certain fixation he couldn't understand, nearly free of hair. Just a light dusting that was so light in color it barely even reflected the torchlight. Did all human women look like this?
"Aren't you cold?" Fili said, and then starting, unclasping his cloak and holding it out to her. "Here, wear this."
"Thank you." She said, accepting it and slipping it around her thin shoulders. In the movement, Fili noticed the strange markings on her forearm, something like a tattoo but he didn't think a young human woman her age would have tattoos.
"What's that, on your arm?" he asked, suspicious, because it looked like script.
"Hmm?" the nameless girl looked, surprised at the sight of the dark lines crossing her skin in a language she had never seen before. "That's….that's new." She frowned, something strange panging in the back of her mind. "Do you know what it says?"
Stretching out her arm, she was suddenly thankful for the cloak that hid her...nakedness. It was also very warm and smelled of campfire and pine.
Kili tilted his head and shifted to get a better read of it, the torch leaving its pace in the dirt to shine on her. It was unreadable to him, but it struck him as somewhat….dwarvish.
"Ancient dwarvish?" he said to his brother, perplexed. "Do you know you have ancient dwarvish runes on your arm?" He asked the girl, who rather looked like a stiff wind could knock her over underneath the weight of his brother's cloak.
She blinked back at him, as confused as he. "Are you dwarves?"
"Yes! Can't you tell?" Kili asked her, confused. He thought it was obvious. She merely shook her head.
"Well, anyways, we'd better get a move on. Otherwise we'll be later than the others!" Fili gestured to the little thing, beckoning her to come along.
"Oh, well," she started, walking on bare feet through the trees alongside him, "If you could maybe point me to the closest town, I think I could find a way to...to…" she was at a loss.
"To what? Have no memories there?" Kili said from behind her, "Come along with us, I think Mr. Balin will be with the others, he's very knowledgeable. He might know what your arm says. And the wizard, Gandalf! He should know for sure."
"I couldn't! You've already helped me so much, I can't ask for more." Although, the sound of going somewhere safe and cozy and warm, and with them, the first two people she'd met in this world since...since whatever happened, sounded nice. The two seemed trustworthy.
"Not at all, Miss. Digging you out of your hole was little more than common courtesy. I figure you'll need something much more than being born out of earth and tree to turn us away!" Fili jested from in front of her, leading the way with his torch.
She stumbled along behind, stubbing her toes on roots and rocks. She thought they were being very kind to her.
"Well, thank you sirs. Thank you very much." The relief was evident in her voice, and she turned to smile at Kili in gratitude, earning an earnest smile back.
The walk was amiable, now and then one of the brothers would say something to get them to laugh, or they'd hum some tune she couldn't recognize. It was uneventful walk, save for a few stumbles and hills to clamber over.
They were very understanding of her strange circumstances, leaving the obvious and most odd questions for another time and only asking questions to help discern where her memory failed and where it held strong. Anything about where she came from, what she did, and who she was seemed empty somehow, drained away save for broad understandings.
"What do we call you?" Fili was the one to ask.
"Uhm, I, I don't know. Nothing comes to mind that I've been called before." She felt pitiful.
"That's no good. How about we give you a name to use until you can remember your old one? Dwarves have multiple names after all." Kili suggested from behind.
"Marla?" Fili said, before immediately discarding it.
"Souna?"
"Bramli?"
"Glamli?"
"Elen?"
"Lena?"
Nearly overwhelmed, she stuttered negatives until Kili spoke up, almost hesitatingly.
"What about Elya?"
The name left a small silence between them all, because the moment it was spoken it seemed like she had never been called anything else.
"Elya." she whispered, letting the night breeze take it from her. "Elya."
"Nice name." Fili commented, and she got the impression that Kili was proud, but embarrassed. It didn't sound like the others they had thrown out, possibly dwarf names? She wondered where Kili had heard it, and why he said it so quietly, but she stayed silent, turning it over in her mind.
It took barely an hour for them to reach the outer fences of a small town, Hobbiton, as Kili said. It was a quiet place, a sweet smelling place as every...hobbit hole was covered in greenery and a small river wound its way directly through it. Elya kept Fili's cloak tight around her chest, knowing instinctively that a barely dressed woman stumbling into a quaint place like this would be clear signs of trouble.
The brothers had had directions to the ...Bag End place they were going, and they found it with little trouble, the noise of several loud people from inside barreled out the window.
"See, only a little late, probably earlier than Thorin at any rate!" Fili crowed, opening the gate for her with a flourish.
Elya climbed the steps with a smile, taking in the sweetness of the garden outside. "Thorin?" she questioned, accepting Kili's hand to help her up the rest. Her poor bare feet had taken quite the beating, bloodied and sore they were.
"The most direction-less dwarf you will ever meet, but that's basically his only failing." Kili beamed at her.
They knocked on the door in tandem, painted a bright green with a small glowing symbol on it. Elya wondered if it was the mark of the owner of the house, but stood between the two brothers and tried to swallow her nerves and give the brightest face she could.
A small creature opened the door, a small, rather annoyed creature. He fumed, glowering in irritation at the sight on his doorstep.
"Fili and Kili-" "A-and Elya!" "-at your service!" Fili and Kili kept an arm around her back as they bowed, and she bowed along with them. The hood of Fili's cloak lifted and fell over her face, entirely too large for her head.
"You must be Mister Boggins!" Kili beamed at him.
Elya coughed, "Baggins."
"Baggins!" Kili copied almost immediately afterwards with just as much cheer.
"No! Nope, I have entirely too many dwarves already!" Mr. Baggins refused, shaking his head so hard his fluffy hair flew about his face. "You'll have to go somewhere else-" he tried to close the door, but a suddenly concerned Kili stuck his foot in the way.
"What, is it canceled?" he asked, frowning.
"Nobody told us." Fili muttered under his breath, craning his neck around the edge of the door to peer in. Rather rudely, in Elya's opinion but she said nothing. She was still getting over how small the hobbit was.
"Aha!" came a voice from within, with a bit of a brogue to it, "It's the lads! Fili! Kili! Come in, laddies, help us with the pantry!" He was another dwarf, like the brothers, and he wore a very comfy looking hat. He also had a most spectacular gravity-defying moustache.
"Bofur!" Kili cried, entering past the flustered hobbit and embracing the other.
Fili let her through before him, and Elya passed a commiserating smile to poor Mr. Baggins, who seemed entirely about to give up.
"Oh, and who's this?" Bofur asked, looking her up at down. He smiled at her, and she was pleased to find him a kindly looking man.
"Elya. These two came to my rescue this night." She stuck her hand out of the folds of Fili's cloak. Bofur raised his eyebrows but took her hand anyways, bowing over it to kiss the knuckles instead of shaking it like she was expecting. The action made her smile.
"Oh, yes, about that. Excuse me, Mr. Baggins, could I trouble you for a few extra clothes? Miss Elya here has found herself...uhm…" Fili asked for her, flushing and unable to come up with a suitable way to describe it.
"Sorry, yes," Elya turned away from Bofur to bow slightly to the hobbit, as this was his house, "I'm sorry to trouble you, Mr. Baggins, but I'm very close to naked. Could you spare some extra, old, or frayed clothes for me? I don't wish to offend."
Master Baggins, bless him, blushed from the roots of his hair down into his shirt. "Of course, Miss, this way, I'll take you to my mother's wardrobe. Take what you like."
Elya went to follow, but paused, casting a look at Fili and Kili. They waved her on, disarming themselves and leaving their weapons in a pile by the door.
Bofur nodded to her, "go on, lass, I'll save you a seat." and she was gone after the hobbit.
When she disappeared, Bofur turned on his heel slowly, giving the two dwarvish princes a look.
"What?" Kili protested, "We found her in the roots of a tree. She can't remember a single thing about herself and she was practically frozen and alone."
"Yes," Fili came to his rescue, "and, she has dwarvish runes tattooed on her arm. Said she had never seen them there before, but it's no dialect I can read."
"A strange wee naked girl found in the roots of a tree with dwarvish script tattooed onto her arm. You find her and bring her here where Thorin plans to discuss our... top secret…. journey." Bofur didn't say anything, but he did imply.
"It is weird, isn't it?" Kili muttered, wandering off and leaving Fili to deal with this. He felt slightly embarrassed, but for no reason he could pinpoint. Running into Dwalin, he quickly forgot about it.
Fili just gave Bofur a 'what-can-you-do' face, and followed his brother, entering the hubbub of dwarvish activity with great aplomb. Bofur shrugged and let things be. She seemed like a nice girl, unfortunately small and hairless, but he didn't sense anything wrong about her.
For her part, Elya was trying to not offend the little hobbit who was being so kind.
"Are you alright?" She asked, spying him pinching the bridge of his noise following a great loud bang from the hall.
Bilbo, as he had introduced himself, just gave her a tight smile. "Just a surprise dinner party of dwarves who have pillaged my pantry and home, no, I'm fine." Ohh, that's probably as aggressive as the fellow got, she'd better let it lie.
"Okay, so in here I can change and wash a bit of this dirt off?" she queried about what looked like a possible bedroom.
"Oh, yes, here," he went to a large dresser drawers and dug out a wrapped bundle from the bottom. It was a deep blue, with green edges and a lovely cream shirt. A dress.
"This was my mother's," Bilbo said, handing it to her. Elya nearly dropped it.
"Oh goodness sir, I couldn't! It's your mother's. I would be happy with a, a, tunic or whatever else you have."
"No, no, it wouldn't be proper. This is for you, put it on. It would gather dust and moths anyways." Bilbo smiled at her, tired but so generous at the same time, and pointed out the wash basin.
Humming when the hobbit left, Elya felt the cloth of the dress and was pleased with its softness. Bilbo's mother had good taste too, as the dress hung well-tailored, though loose on her, and the colors were pleasing against her skin.
Taking a deep breath, Elya let it out slowly as she stood in front of the basin, looking down into the bowl and eyeing the way her brown hair fell, and the blue of her eyes. It was odd. She couldn't recognize herself. Was this what she always looked like? Small nose, full lips, thick eyebrows, and the evidence of freckles around her eyes?
She didn't know, but washing felt wonderful, even with the cold water. Another look at the writing on her arm, Elya frowned as she followed it with her finger. It was heavy, thick stocky lines, much like the shapes of the dwarves themselves. She couldn't tell what it said. Nor could she remember if she had it before, or if it just...showed up.
Sighing, she went about patting her hair down, running her fingers through and trying to freshen up. Her finger stuck on something round, and she winced. Finding it within the waves of her hair, Elya blinked at the small braid hidden at the back of her neck, with a small, beautiful bead at the end. It shone lovely with the light of a white gem, as though it has starlight captured within.
She stared at it in awe for a second, almost feeling the importance of it in her hand, but a knock on the door surprised her.
"Miss Elya?" it was Kili, "We have a great meal on the table, if you want some you should probably get a move on."
What a dear.
Elya smoothed the skirt of the dress, still barefoot though she could do nothing but be thankful she had time to wash the dirt and blood off them.
Opening the door, Elya beamed at Kili. He smiled back, eyes skittering around her dress in approval.
"You look better!" he said, before stumbling, "Well, not that you looked bad before, but you seemed cold and well, um, uncomfortable." He cut himself off when Elya let herself laugh at him.
"I feel better, thank you Mr. Kili. Could you tell me what this is? It looks important, sort of like the beads in Fili's beard." Elya reached up and pulled her hair aside to reveal the shining white bead, bending her neck aside to show him. This caused Kili to swallow rather hard, faced with the slim stretch of her pale neck, but when his eyes caught the light of the gem, he paused, frozen. He leaned in close, one hand coming up to hover around the bead.
"It's shining." He murmured, engrossed. He leaned in further and only caught himself in the act when Elya flushed and ducked her face away, keeping still so the stone remained in his vision. Kili cleared his throat, ducking his own head bashfully.
"It's beautiful, where did you get it?" he asked, the significance of the braid eluded him, as it had no discerning markers like iron would be for a battle trophy, or jade for great travels. The white bead also threw him, as it shone in his memory like the most beautiful stone. It never crossed his mind to take it from her, as it was as strange and out of place as the woman itself.
"I don't know, I think it came along with the markings." She shook her arm, frowning. Placing the braid back into the mass of her hair, Elya followed Kili to where he pulled out a seat for her, at a long table literally filled with dwarves.
They were loud, cheerful, and distracted by the food and drink before them. Bofur, Fili, and one on her left who she was told was called Bombur were the first to realize she had joined them, nodding to her and handing her an overfilled plate.
"Oh, thank you sirs." Elyan smiled, suddenly caught by how hungry she was.
"No need for sirs, or Misters, Miss Elya," Fili smiled at her, knocking her tankard with is own, "our names are fine."
"Then please, use mine as well." Elya accidentally caught eyes with a very young looking dwarf, one with a beard mostly on his neck than his face. He startled, then blushed, looking down onto his plate. What a cutie.
"Ori," Kili said to her quietly, his voice lost underneath the boisterousness of the rest. "The one next to him with the two braids is Dori his older brother, and the one skulking behind him is Nori, the middle brother."
"Ori, Dori, and Nori." She mimicked, trying to fix their names with the shapes of their hair and faces. Dori kept a close eye on Ori, and seemed to ignore Nori in the back who sat somewhat separated from the table, but still laughing and yelling along.
Her eye then caught on the next, a large intimidating dwarf whose forearms were larger than her thighs. "Dwalin," Kili provided, leaning in so she could hear him. She hid her investigating eyes behind her food.
"He's the younger brother of Balin, the oldest dwarf here." Kili nodded over to the white bearded dwarf, sitting quietly near the end.
"You've met Bofur, his brothers are Bombur," The largest person she had ever seen, "and Bifur," a dwarf who had...an axe in his head?!
Kili snickered at her wide eyed look, filling his own mouth with food and talking through it. "He can only speak Khuzdul, the dwarf language, and in hand gestures now. Great fighter though."
Moving on, Kili waved a hand at a dwarf with a trumpet sticking out of his ear, which actually was being filled with ale by Dwalin, to the raucous laughter of the table. "That's Oin," Kili laughed heartily when Oin blew the ale out over the food, "He's deaf, and Gloin's older brother." Gloin was red headed and red bearded, still intent on eating his share.
"Then there's you and Fili, the two young ones." Elya confirmed. Just then the dwarves called for ale, and counted down. Kili held up his tankard and encouraged her to do the same, knocking them all together and then silence fell as every single dwarf started to drink until their tankards were empty.
Elya simply sipped, casting her eyes down the table where a man, a tall man compared to the dwarves, sat smoking on a pipe and glowering out from behind his eyebrows. He looked old, but the kind of old that disguised his true age.
"Gandalf," Kili nearly burped in her ear, as the rest of the table made their burps competition. "The Grey Wizard."
"A wizard." she said lowly, ducking away when his piercing eyes seemed drawn to her voice. It was intimidating, even though he was sitting on the other end of the table he seemed to take up a great deal of space. Bilbo flitted in and out behind him, still panicking slightly.
Kili threw a companionable around her shoulders, and she was shocked by how warm he was. Elya had thought the heat she felt was just the small room with so many within it, or the dress, or coming in from outside naked. But no, the press of Kili on her right and Bombur on her left, who was making room for Fili to join, told her that it was just the dwarves whose bodies ran hot.
"Come now dear brother, you're hogging the girl all to yourself." Fili grinned at her, shuffling onto their bench and pressing her close between them. The dinner seemed to be running down now, as only Bombur and a few others were still eating. The rest drank.
"And if I am?" Kili challenged, eyes twinkling. They were mischievous, these two, Elya thought, slightly worried.
"I'd say share, we are both her saviors I'll have you mind." Fili prodded her plate closer to her without a word, obviously suggesting she eat more. She had almost been far too distracted to eat, but took her crackers and cheese to make him happy.
"Her saviors now? Where did you find a lass like that in these parts?" Dwalin boomed, large and scary, eyeing her with no small amount of distrust.
"Aye," Fili raised his voice to capture more of the table's attention, "found her we did, grown into the heart of a tree. Had to cut her out of the roots, no way could she have gotten in, they were all thick and strong in the dirt."
Several voices called out rebuttals, shocked noises, and interest. In the confusion, Elya felt a sudden stillness coming from Gandalf's corner of the table and fought not to look his way.
Terrified of being the center of everyone's attention, Elya nearly disappeared beneath Kili's arm. Although slightly uncomfortable and embarrassed to have him hold her like this, he was still keeping her afloat amid so many voices, and gentle about it too. There was strength in his arm.
"Yes, yes," Kili interrupted, wanting in on the tale, "there's dwarvish written on her arm, and a beaded braid in her hair. And!" he tried to finish amid the questions and hollering, "no memory to speak of!"
"Can't remember anything?" Dwalin's distrust grew into suspicion, as did some of the other dwarves. Though, none of them looked particularly worried, she was barely as thick as their arms let alone a danger to them.
Suddenly worried she would be thrown out the door to scramble on her own, Elya straightened her back and interjected, "Nothing. Not even my name."
"But you said your name was Elya?" Bofur asked, head leaned on an arm in fascination with her story.
"Kili gave me that name." Elya flushed, aware of said dwarf's closeness and of his own flush of embarrassment, "I like it."
"You named her that?!" one of the dwarves barked out with a laugh, and they were all lost in the seeming hilarity of it all. Elya didn't get it, but from the uncomfortable shifting beside her, Kili apparently did.
"I would like to see the writing and the bead, if I can interject." came a deep voice, rolling and dark as the night. Gandalf sat in a cloud of pipe smoke, face lit up by the embers. He struck a mysterious figure, and as frightened as she was, she nodded.
"Then let's get this all cleaned up lads," said the oldest looking dwarf, with a perfectly sculpted white beard. Balin, if she remembered. "No need to leave such a mess to Master Baggins."
"Aye!" was the chorus, and the dwarves set about throwing things around and giving Bilbo a heart attack. Kili helped her free herself from the bench, and Elya felt him pat her back comfortingly before she was drawn to Gandalf's tall form in the hallway.
"Come this way, my dear, we don't want to get in the way of the dwarves' special brand of trouble making." he told her, gentle and gruff, like bark covered in moss.
Elya could only nod, following him and listening to the dwarves start singing and playing music in the background. "Put that back! No, that's my grandmother's best china!" Poor Bilbo was running from one dwarf to another, attempting to rescue his dishes.
"-that's what Bilbo Baggins hates!" the dwarves sang happily, and then Elya's attention was captured by Gandalf making her sit in a small chair by the fire in the parlor.
"So, Miss Elya." he started, sitting before her and seeming to try to make himself as less-big as possible. He obviously had experience with small creatures. "Were the two princelings right? You were drawn from the roots of a tree?"
'Princelings?' she thought, but answered despite her confusion, "Yes. I woke up a few hours ago, beneath the cages of a tree's roots. It's only luck that Kili and Fili were to walk by me, or I would be there still."
"Luck…" Gandalf copied, watching her with his wise eyes, "Perhaps." He held out his hands, and she realized he wanted to see her arm.
The script looked dark and alien in the firelight, and she was surprised it didn't feel heavy.
"There are few tongues of man, dwarf, elf, or beast that I do not know. And yet, this refuses to be read." Gandalf hummed, turning her arm gently. "It may not yet be time, or it may not by my eyes to read it, but it does resemble dwarvish, if only the most ancient of its written languages."
"You cannot read it?" She asked, disappointed despite herself. There was a sudden cease of dish noise in the kitchen, now only laughter rang out. She turned her head and pulled the beaded braid out from beneath it, just short enough to hide in the mass of messy hair she called hers. "And this?" It shone in her palm, sparkling. Gandalf's eyebrows rose at the sight, but he didn't reach to touch it or anything like Kili did.
Humming again, Gandalf suddenly leaned closer, looking deep into her eyes as if he was attempting to read words on the back of her head. "No memory indeed. Do not attempt to scratch at that wall between you and the past, at least not until I have you somewhere where your safety can be well kept." The color of his eyes seemed bleached out, piercing and powerful.
That unnerved her, "W-what? What do you mean?" But she knew what he meant. The strange white pulsing empty space that existed where she knew once there was a lifetime of memory, where it seemed drained and empty, like something was pulled away with gentle yet firm hands. Would she be harmed if she tried too hard to press on it?
"You will be my companion along with this company," he offered her instead, smiling to put her at ease. "You will be in no more danger than if you were to remain here in the Shire. I will take you to Imladris, and there we will find out your truth for you, and quite possibly for our dwarves as well."
"I would suggest, my dear," he spoke lowly, "that you keep that jewel in your hair hidden. There's no telling who may see it, and even then, what they may do." The look in his eyes was serious and unreadable, and while she didn't understand a thing she nodded.
"Gandalf?" came a voice from the door, Bilbo stood there, about to ask something. He eyed the way Gandalf sat, bending over her to see as close as he could into her soul. But before they could, a loud, solid knock came from the door.
Gandalf leaned back in his chair, voice unreadable as he said, "He is here."
'He' turned out to be the most regal looking dwarf she had seen yet. He stepped in like he owned the whole house, and Elya could tell that riled the hobbit up the wrong way. Gandalf introduced him, as "Thorin Oakenshield."
"I lost my way, twice." Thorin said as she came up, and he handed off his cloak to her without even looking. A little offended to be treated like a housemaid, Elya decided to let it rest as the large dwarf started in on poor Bilbo, calling him a grocer rather than a burglar. Now, Elya had next to no knowledge of hobbits or dwarves or whatever reason they all seemed to congregate in a hobbit hole, but she knew that that was just rude.
Bilbo thought so too. He huffed and sputtered and probably would have said something passive aggressive if Gandalf had not interrupted.
Then, the dwarves filed away to feed Thorin and talk, and Elya was left with a dwarf's cloak in her hands and more questions than answers.
Sighing, she went and hung up the cloak and fussily tried to straighten the rows of weapons and cloaks and travel bags in Bilbo's front hall. Mostly, she didn't want to go back to the table, not if Thorin would look at her the same way he looked at Bilbo.
Fili seemed to have anticipated her though, and he caught her just as she was thinking of reorganizing Bilbo's doilies.
"Doing alright?" he asked, his eyes softer here alone rather than under the eyes of his fellow dwarves. He also seemed to anticipate what she was feeling, and that was overwhelmed, alone, and pathetic.
Elya only shrugged, eyes skittering back to where the company sat in Bilbo's hallway, where Thorin sat with so much presence she felt like a bug.
"He's a little intimidating, but he won't hurt you. If we show him your arm, he'll be interested."
"Do you say that because you're curious to know what it says?" She tried to tease him, eyes dropping to the arm in question. She couldn't read it either, and she wondered if anyone else felt like they didn't belong in their own body. Was this her? What was her name? Who is she and why, why is she here?
His grin revealed a sheepish 'yes,' and Fili patted her shoulder, his hand just as warm and rough as his brother's. "Gandalf said nothing?"
Elya sighed, following his prodding towards the company, where most had cracked open pipes or a last ale while they waited for Thorin to eat his fill. "No, he couldn't read it either. He says I have to come along with him for the journey to find someone who can."
"Ahh, so we will be travel companions!" Fili grinned, shoving Bifur aside to slip them by into the darkened room.
"Seems like." Elya sighed, thanking Bofur quietly as he pulled out part of the seat for her to slip onto, across from Kili this time. Fili continued on to join his brother, and eventually she came to realize that Thorin was staring at her.
She turned and looked at his beard, unable to meet his eyes.
"The girl?" he asked gruffly, pushing away his cleaned plate.
"Found by your nephew's beneath a tree. Her arm bears an unreadable tattoo in ancient dwarvish, and she holds no memories of her past."
Thorin snorted, trading a look with Dwalin that Elya knew wasn't in her favor. "And you believed her?" he sent down the table to his...his nephews? Well, she could see the resemblance, in Kili's coloring and very much in Fili's bearing.
"We do, Uncle." Kili nodded, glancing at her, while Fili refused to drop his eyes from Thorin's. Elya was impressed by the older brother's poise, especially in the face of his Uncle's disapproval.
"As do I, and she will be my travel companion rather than yours, so you need not expend your worry." Gandalf seemed to put a close to it, moving on and distracting Thorin with what looked like a map. Elya nearly melted with relief now that those hard eyes had left her, and she lightly blew out her cheeks, catching eyes with Kili and trying not to laugh at his commiserating look.
Then, Gandalf produced from his robes a key, handing it over with great gravity to Thorin, who took it like it was worth more than the sun.
"If there's a Key, there has to be a door." Kili said, kicking someone in the knee when there was a quiet snort their end of the table. Apparently the map was unreadable, much like her arm, and if the twinkling of Gandalf's eyes meant anything, he had an idea for why that was.
"A door." Thorin whispered, awed.
After that there was much talk of a journey, a treasure hoard, and a dragon. A Dragon! She may not have her memories all that well, but she knew that dragons were probably not cuddly, kind creatures. Bilbo had much the same idea.
"I have never stolen anything in my life, let alone from a dragon!" He was puffing like he'd run a marathon.
And then there was talk of shares, and Bilbo was handed his burglar contract. "Evisceration? Incineration?!" it didn't take too long for him to find the worst of his job responsibilities, and the dwarves around them weren't going to make it easy for him.
"Think furnace with wings!" Bofur glibly continued, acting as though it was not turning the hobbit white with fear. "One quick puff and woosh! You're nothing but a pile of ash!" Bilbo straightened and she hoped he had finally found the spine she didn't have, but he turned to them, said "No." and fell back onto his carpet in a dead faint.
"Oh, that's helpful, Bofur." Gandalf muttered, putting a hand to his head.
There was a moment of silence, before Balin sighed. "Well, that's that."
"Come on, help me get him into his armchair." Bofur snickered, standing and attempting to get a hold of the hobbit.
Elya followed, brushing past Thorin without thinking. "Oh, gentle, be gentle. He's had a rough day."
"What's a rough day for a burglar?" Nori snorted, holding Bilbo's feet.
Elya rolled her eyes, "The kind of day where thirteen dwarves, a wizard, and a lost girl show up on his doorstep without notice and he's told he's supposed to steal from a fire breathing dragon, while feeding them all, I might add." The quiet dwarf just snickered. What Elya didn't notice was Balin turning around in shock, wanting to ask her what exactly she meant, but he was called over by Dwalin to pour over the map a bit more. Elya rushed to get a cup and scrounged for some tea for the poor hobbit.
When he got sat down in his comfy fireside seat, Bilbo came to with a bit off yelp. He sat unhappily, as the dwarfs left, most of them laughing at him.
He did thank her when she handed him the tea she had managed to find in one of his cupboards, and she sat to give him some company, as the dwarves seemed to be busy...wrestling. Or something.
"It'll be alright Bilbo. It's all a shock, and I don't think anyone would blame you if you didn't want to come." Elya patted Bilbo's knee.
He just gave her a weak, forced smile, and she left him to Gandalf. Taking the moment in the hall, as the dwarves seemed busy elsewhere, though just as loud as ever, Elya looked again at the tattoo on her arm.
What did she remember? White. Loud noises. A kind of dull softness to everything, and the sense of distance, of time passing.
Perhaps she had been born with the tattoo, and even then, what did that mean?
There was a scuff and she's surprised when Thorin, the King under the Mountain, reaches forward and takes her arm with a firm but gentle hand. He looks at the writing, and for a moment she thinks he knows what it says, but when he looks up at her he's asking for an explanation.
"Woke up with it." She replies to his unasked question. "I truly don't know anything about it." He weighed her, eyes dark and unbelieving.
"As you are not part of my company I have no need of you." Thorin started, and she winced slightly at his bluntness, though she couldn't really be surprised. "However, as you have been present for several top secret discussions, not by my wish might I add," he sent a dark glare over to where Gandalf sat talking with Bilbo, "I cannot in good conscience let you wander with such information. Keep yourself out of the way of my men and my mission, stick by Gandalf and listen to his every word. None of mine will be responsible if you should come to harm in this venture."
Elya swallowed, feeling slightly sick and all of a sudden aware of how large and strong he was. Strong enough to break her. "Am I at risk then…" Elya nearly stuttered, "From you, or your company?" She worried he may react strongly to this, and tensed in preparation. Amnesiac though she was, she was not naive.
A muscle flexed in his jaw, and he released her arm. She folded it back to herself, keeping it tight up under her breasts. He tilted his head slightly in apology.
"Not from us, Miss. Forgive me if I gave you that impression. Dwarves are many things, but cruel towards women, we are most definitely not." Thorin backed a respectful step and then turned, drawing Dwalin along with him towards the fireplace. The Dwarves seemed to be congregating, and now feeling abysmally out of place, Elya stayed awkwardly in the hall sitting on a mud covered box.
Thorin could be frightening, and honestly she had never entertained the idea of being hurt or treated badly by his men. The dwarves were all kind to her, Kili and Fili and Bofur especially, and none seemed the type to harm frail girls. But the reality of her situation was sinking in.
She was lost, with no memories, no items or goods with her, no experience in keeping herself safe, and utterly, utterly dependent on the kindness and generosity of those within this small home. She didn't even have shoes, and she doubted Bilbo had any, what with his feet looking so sturdy.
How utterly overwhelming. She sat for a long time, hands covering her face and breathing as slowly as she could to rid herself of the panic welling in her gut.
Elya thought she may have been hearing something, a deep rumble of the earth - perhaps an earthquake? - before she realized it was the dwarves humming in the room next to her. It resonated deep in her bones, and the white space in her mind gave a gentle, warm pulse. It felt like everything slowed down so she could hear them better, her heart beat falling to normal pace and her ears blocking out anything else.
"Far over, the Misty Mountains cold,
To dungeons deep, and Caverns old"
It was the dwarf exile-king, Thorin, singing so low and sadly that she felt grief constrict her heart. He had such meaning to him, such weight of years and experience, and his voice, smooth and low, reflected it.
"We must away, ere break of day,
To reach our long forgotten gold."
From the shadows flickering in from the fire, Elya surmised that the thirteen dwarves were settled, and still, and a great need welled within her to see them. She stood, silent as the grave, and approached the doorway. Sticking to the shadows, Elya pressed herself to the arch of it, eyes drinking in the gravity of the song, and of the reverence of the dwarves. Some stood, paying their respects.
"The pines were roaring, on the height
The winds were moaning in the night"
That was Bofur, sitting with his back to her. Around him, his kin stood. Bombur stared into the fire. Bifur crossed to the window. Elya's eyes were drawn to Dwalin, who stood with his arms crossed, solemn and unmovable in the low light.
"The fire was red, it flaming spread,
The trees like torches, blazed with light"
Something about it rung within her, deep inside. Even as they seemed to end, slipping into quiet, their voices hung in the air. The deepness of their voices, the hurt, the grief in the older ones eyes, and the quiet sadness in the younger ones. Fili stood as well, near his brother and his uncle, watching the fire with a look of resignation. Elya wondered if he was old enough to remember Erebor, or if he felt the pain of his family and his race.
Still as she was by the door, in the darkness of the hall, Kili seemed to seek her out, eyes piercing through the shadows to find her. Swallowing, Elya wondered at herself, and at him. He was attractive yes, but that wasn't it. He was the one to name her in this world. The first voice she heard.
How did she wake just as the right time to catch him and his brother coming her way?
"Get some sleep. We wake at dawn." Thorin decreed, and the dwarves spread out rolls and blankets out on the ground.
A hand touched her shoulder, and Elya jumped. It was Gandalf, standing tall and hunched over her, too tall for the home.
"You were provided the guest room, my dear, second door on the right." He waved her down the hall, "Have a good sleep, and appreciate the bed as long as you can. You won't see another for half a month." His eyes twinkled at her, and she decided she liked him, regardless of his mystery and confusing way of speaking. On her way she passed Bilbo's room, where he sat curled up and distracted, staring into the candlelight and looking as awestruck as she felt.
The room was small, well furnished, and quiet. She undressed, folding Bilbo's mother's clothes as best she could and crawled into bed naked as she was born.
In the dark, she touched at the jewel in her hair, turning to see it in the corner of her eye. It was dim, in the night, but still shone enough that she wondered what it could possibly be made of. With a sigh, and a yawn, despite only being awake a few short hours, Elya fell asleep to the sounds of the Shire.