Welcome to The Fire Within.
I embarked upon this journey a while ago and with Oakenshield's Star now onboard as my Beta I am excited to invite you to join us. I found myself constantly listening to the song 'Heal' by Tom Odell when I began writing this story encase anyone likes a soundtrack to go along with their reading. So please relax, enjoy and if you feel so inclined drop a review when you're done.
Thank you, Taernith
Prologue
He was dead!
She stood at the lookout in the ruined city of Dale and felt her heart break, as the breath left her lungs. The signal fire that Kili had promised to arrange to keep burning for as long as the youngest of the line of Durin still drew breath was no more than a slightly smoldering pile of ashes.
He had sworn it to her as Dalin's men had escorted her from the infirmary in Erebor and out the gate sending her swiftly away and back to the world of men and for the first time in seven days, the fire was out.
He was dead!
How did she start breathing again? Every day for the last week had been an exercise in holding her breath until she saw the signal fire still burning. She stared at the side of the mountain, wiling the fire to light, willing a familiar figure to appear and relight the smoldering wood.
He was dead!
She gripped the side of the battlements, the roughly hewn rock digging into the palms of her hands as her knees weakened and she relied heavily on the wall to hold her up. What did she do now? Where did she go from here? How long could she stand here and will the fire to tell her a different truth? How long until the fact he was really dead sank into her very bones?
He was dead!
"Lady Tauriel."
Bard, Lord of Dale was swiftly moving up the stone stairs to the battlements on which she stood. He paused as she turned to him, his dark eyebrows folding in on themselves over dark eyes as he took in the expression on her face.
"My lady?"
"Do you need something from me, my lord?" Tauriel made her legs work and support her as she turned to the Lord of Dale. She was not ready to accept the truth staring her in the face, let alone share the bone crumbling grief that was radiating from her heart through her body.
"I have word from Erebor. Thorin, King Under the Mountain, has asked me to attend him at my earliest possible convenience. I leave for the mountain within the hour and would like to extend an invitation for you to join me as part of my escort. Thorin says you are welcome." Bard said and she felt suddenly nauseous.
The King was already sending allies in the light of his youngest nephew's demise and Bard not knowing what she already knew, was inviting her to have to stand stoic before a grieving King when her own heart was in tatters.
"I thank you for your offer, but I ride for Lothlórien as soon as I can procure provisions." Tauriel shook her head, not knowing that she had decided to flee the Lonely Mountain and its surrounding areas, until her destination had passed her lips. As it was her King that would not allow her return to Mirkwood, after she had chosen to remain in Erebor in the company of Thorin's kin and she wasn't sure when she would be welcome or be able to force her feet over Erebor's threshold knowing that he had been buried with his kin under rock and stone.
"I did not know you intended to leave Dale." The bowman looked more than a little taken aback by her sudden statement.
"There is nothing left for me here." She was decisive; her heart throbbed with the now spoken truth as she made a clipped bow to the new Lord of Dale. "Your kindness especially I shall never forget. If you have need for, send word and I shall do what I can to send aide to you. Give my deepest condolences to the King Under the Mountain."
"Swift and safe be your journey, my lady."
Still confused, Bard stood aside and let her pass, wondering within himself at the change less than twenty-four hours had brought about in the red haired she-elf and the strange message she had asked him to give to the dwarven King.