Hello, I'm back with this story that I started writing many months ago... Life went a bit crazy, and now, I thought "why not share it?" :) It's not finished so I do not yet know how it's going to end, but I've got a few chapters written already ... Please read and review !
Genre: Romance/Angst/Drama
Rated: M (to be safe) – fluff, angst and character deaths (BOFA spoilers!)
Pairings: Thorin/OC, Dwalin/Dis
Summary: After the Battle of the Five Armies, Thorin's soul lingers like a ghost on the battlefield, slowly drowning in despair and regrets. But Fate is not done with him. He has still one lesson yet to be learned, a last battle he has to win. A battle against himself. BOFA SPOILERS! Inspired by Beauty and the Beast.
Disclaimer : Everything you recognize belongs either to the genius of Tolkien or to Peter Jackson.
Chapter 1: A ghost on the battlefield
[The plain laying at the footsteps of the Lonely Mountain, Middle-Earth]
The sun was finally setting on the bloody battlefield.
Mingled corpses were scattered everywhere, on every bit of land, grass or rock. Some were still twitching, others whining, calling for help, but most were only crying in pain.
Many lay still, mouths gaping, their eyes blank, their souls already gone from their wretched dead bodies.
The battle was won.
But at what cost?
The orcs and goblins had been defeated and driven back into their foul caves, to brood before they would launch another assault on men, dwarves and elves. It was a fight that would never be entirely won.
Evil needed to be defeated every day.
But for the moment, everything was still. Silence was growing on the plain like a plague, only interrupted by the cries of the wounded.
Thorin Oakenshield was dead.
That was something he was sure of.
His soul was floating above the corpses and over his own broken body.
The Exiled King was staring at two young dwarves that lay against each other on the hard ground.
Kili's head rested on Fili's chest, both their faces tainted with blood and dirt.
The brothers of Durin were still together, forever united, even in death.
At the sight, Thorin could feel his heart break into a thousand little pieces of glass, and he wished that each piece would pierce his body over and over, as a punishment for his foolishness.
He had been so selfish, so vain, so proud.
A good thing it was that he was already dead, otherwise Dis would have killed him.
He had failed to protect them, his nephews, his heirs, and launched them into battle, towards death, for the sake of his own ambition and greed.
He was nothing.
He was not fit to be called king, even not fit to be called a dwarf.
If you could die of shame, Thorin would have died a second time that day.
If he was not already dead, he would have killed himself in grief anyway.
The invisible tears of his ghostly figure were falling on his cheeks into nothingness. Thorin had not suspected that someone dead could suffer this much.
He wanted to die for good.
To go straight to Hell, where he belonged.
Were the Gods torturing him by making him watch the disaster and pain he had caused?
He turned his face towards the sky and begged Mahal to erase his soul forever from the world, so that he would no longer see how awful a dwarf he had become before his death.
But Mahal had other plans for the desperate King...
[Valinor]
In the meantime, in a beautiful chamber inside a mountain, a couple was contemplating the aftermath of the Battle of the Five Armies.
"Such a waste…" Yavanna was whispering, her eyes still fixed on the great mirror that showed the bloody battlefield. "All this Quest, all of nothing…" she added sadly.
"Serves him right…"Mahal was grumbling "Greedy, stupid dwarf! Wanted all the treasure for himself, did he? And now he lost everything!"
"Husband!" Yavanna interrupted, turning her soft eyes towards him "Do not speak so harshly of him. Thorin is a broken soul, who has known nothing but grief all his life."
"That I know" Mahal softened and came by his wife, sitting at her side on the stone bench and sighing loudly "But now he's dead and the line of Durin is broken."
"His cousin, Dain, will become King under the Mountain" stated Yavanna "Through him, the line of Durin will endure."
"Aye. But it won't be the same" he nodded angrily "It's not what I had planned… I know now that Thorin would not make a good king. A good leader, yes. A mighty warrior, yes. But the power that comes with a kingdom would have driven him mad, as the treasure almost did."
"What did you had planned, dear?" she asked gently, taking one of his large warm hands into hers.
Mahal stroked her hands thoughtfully, and stared for a moment at the huge mirror. When he finally spoke, his words were steady.
"I wanted Fili to be King." he sighed "Fili would have made a fine king, strong, caring… protective. A fine king indeed. But I guess even us Gods don't always get what we want in the end…"
"That future is gone, indeed" she said, following her husband's gaze to stare again at the fallen warriors.
"I just wanted a different ending for such a great line" Mahal added.
"I know, dear. I know" she nodded sadly. "Dwarves are your children. You wanted them to be happy, and successful, after so much suffering during their exile."
"They didn't deserve to die. It's so unfair!" Mahal said, his voice rising suddenly "My race is already failing. There are so few dwarf-women, and now to see so many of my children slain! Men are growing stronger, elves are slowly leaving Middle-Earth, and dwarves are fading …" he finished, his tone now mingled with grief.
"Is there anything we can do?" she asked, wanting nothing more than to comfort him.
Yavanna had followed with her husband this Company of brave dwarves, one hobbit and a wizard that set out to slay a dragon and reclaim their homeland. She had admired their eagerness, their gentle souls, their companionship.
It was truly heartbreaking to see their Quest end this way. The young and the old, the whole family dying together.
"I don't know…" he answered in a hushed voice.
The couple stayed pressed against each other for a long time, just staring sadly at the mirror. The dead and the wounded were so many, they thought, as the mirror scanned the wide battlefield.
Yavanna turned back to face her husband, but he had closed his eyes, in anger or pain, she did not know.
Probably both.
When she faced the mirror again, she noticed something odd. A pale, ghostly form seemed to be floating above the plain, going from one corpse to another.
"What's this?" she said, getting up to take a closer look.
Upon hearing her exclamation, Mahal opened his eyes and immediately joined her.
"Can you see it?" she asked, her eyes wide.
"Aye … It looks like a ghost…" he said frowning, and he touched the mirror at the spot where the form lay. The mirror immediately zoomed.
"It's Thorin!" exclaimed Yavanna.
"It cannot be…" Mahal gasped. "He looks like a ghost, but he should not be. He should be gone with his nephews to the Higher Halls by now…"
The two gods were completely baffled.
"Oh my… he looks so desperate…" she said in a pained voice "Look, he's crying!"
"Thorin Oakenshield is crying…" whispered Mahal, amazed.
"Of course, he's crying!" she told him defensively "I always told you he had caring heart, and that deserved a happier life! He startled back by her sudden outburst "But what I meant was: he's supposed to be dead. Look, his body lies there broken" he pointed at another spot in the mirror.
"Then, why does his soul linger?" she asked.
"I don't know, but I know someone who does" he answered firmly, reaching for her hand "Come, we are going to see Eru."
And they left the chamber in a hurry.
[Valinor – an hour later]
Mahal and his wife were on their way back to their chambers, both puzzled.
In fact, the God of dwarves was more furious than puzzled.
"Calm down, dear" she said as she struggled to keep up with his fast pace.
"He's dead, but he's not dead"! yelled Mahal "What's kind of an answer is that! I swear he's becoming more elvish by the minute with his cryptic ways!"
"I think what he meant to say, is that Thorin may come back to life" stated Yavanna calmly.
"But how?" he exclaimed, tired of all the mystery.
"I'm thinking of something…" she answered, her face thoughtful and smiling at last "I always thought Thorin deserved some happiness."
"You mean like a second chance?" he asked, intrigued, lowering his pace.
"Aye, but we'll seize this opportunity to teach him a lesson about greed, and about what truly matters in this world."
"I like your way of thinking, dear" he smirked, putting an arm around her waist.
He stopped walking and pressed her against him.
"We'll offer him a second chance to live a second life, only if he's smart enough to make the right choices." she added smiling widely now.
"Like a trial period?"
"Exactly!" she said triumphantly "Leave it all to me, dear. Eru let us decide of his fate, and decide we shall…" she added smugly.
"You shall, you mean" he corrected, smiling at his wife.
"Me, you… does it really matter?" she said, reaching up to bury her small hands in his mane, and kissing his lips with a smug grin.
"No, that's true. It doesn't matter" he answered feebly, already aroused by the feeling of her lips against his skin.
There was no point in trying to think clearly when she was doing that anyway…
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