In My Time of Pain
I know where I am. I know my hands are bound and I am ... going to suffer even more than I already have. I'd like to think that somehow, this place, this is not where I am. If I squeeze my eyes tight enough, I can think about something else.
I close my eyes and pretend that my neck does not hurt without it. I pretend that I am not naked and bruised. I pretend that nothing bad has happened and I'm back in Hobbiton, at Bag End. I never took the ring.
It's 3:30 and time for Afternoon Tea but I don't feel like it. I've been asleep all day, curled up in my bed. My throat aches from singing too much at the pub and I hope it's not something else. I can smell the fresh baked bread and strawberry jam just out of the pantry. I can smell cheese and chocolate cookies, but none of that makes me want to leave the bed.
"Frodo!" Samwise calls from the kitchen...
Ah, Sam. I've been so cruel to him.
There's another scent, a strange scent. The smell of perfume and my nose twitches from it. No, I don't want to wake up yet.
"Mr Frodo, time for tea and you haven't even had first breakfast yet! Besides, we have a visitor." Samwise poked his head in goggle at me huddled under the covers, he has such expressions. I secretly marvel at them.
"Who is it?" I snap irritably. I'm not in the mood for visitors.
"It's a Lady, Frodo. An Elvin Lady, she came to see Mr Bilbo, but he's gone out for a while."
He had to be kidding me. Elvin ladies don't come to Hobbiton and certainly not to visit an insignificant hobbit like myself. "Shut up Sam, I know you're pulling my leg." My words were somewhat harsher than I really intended, my head hurt and my throat was sore. I wanted to apologize but instead I burrowed further into my blankets and tried to go back to sleep.
"I'm not funnin'!" Sam protested. I peeked out to see his cheeks were red and full, he always did have more than his share. I sometimes wished I had his appetite.
I sighed in frustration and pushed off the covers. He was going to badger me all day long if I didn't get up. When I emerged from the bed, Sam's mouth dropped. "What? What is it..."
"Mr Frodo..."
"What!" I grabbed the mirror by my bedside table to see what the fuss was all about and nearly dropped it. "Ughhh..." I groaned. My face was splotchy, red and covered in little spots that looked like bites. I must have... eaten something I was allergic to? It couldn't be, I was very careful last night. I -. I shot to my feet and instantly regretted it.
Back on the bed for me as my knees gave out.
"Mr Frodo..." Sam rushed to my bedside to try and steady me. "Why didn't you say you were sick?"
"I'm not sick!" I retorted miserably.
A lady's kind voice floated in from the doorway. She was beautiful and tall, with hair so red I gasped. I'd never heard of an elf with red hair. She was so slim and pretty. I was hallucinating, I had to be. She took my breath away and I think... I did the most unmanly thing in the world, and fainted.
. . .
"Easy..." a pretty voice cooed above me. I remember opening my eyes again sometime later and feeling her fingers on my forehead. She was gently squeezing a rag and dabbing it against my skin. "You're overheated."
I focused on her voice now as I did then. It was a remedy in itself, that beautiful voice. "Who are you?" I shivered. There was something haunted in her eyes. They were filled with the pain of the past. I wondered what she had gone through.
"I am Tauriel."