I'm going to try and update as quickly as I can. Unfortunately I'm getting too many hours at work and I have to fix that, so until then it might take a few days in between each chapter. I apologize and I appreciate your patience. I also want to say that I'm disappointment that now that I said I wasn't going to be working on my John Bender fan fic that now people want to leave reviews and beg me to continue it. I don't have the inspiration to continue that story right now and I wish you would have left me reviews when I was working on it. I will get back to that story when I can. Anyways. Enjoy, and thank you for taking the time to read my work.
Chapter Three:
Anju woke up in a daze. Her head felt so fuzzy she swore she was dreaming. She laid in a hard bed covered in tattered blankets, and a small lantern sat on the beat-up floor next to her. She sat up to see where she was and instantly regretted it. Her head seared with white hot pain and she fell back into the bed with a scream.
A young woman with brunette hair and hazel eyes came rushing into the room. Her dress was worn and her hands a little callused, but otherwise she looked quite beautiful and healthy. She put a hand on Anju's forehead and pressed gently before sighing with relief.
"You shouldn't get up yet. You're still hurt."
"Who are you?" Anju asked, her voice raspy from lack of water.
"My name is Sigrid." She said kindly, "Are you hungry?"
"No." Anju shook her head weakly, "Tell me where I am, please."
"You're in Lake Town. And you should eat anyways. It'll help you heal." Sigrid nodded and stood.
"Don't trouble yourself, girl, I won't be staying." Anju waved her off.
"Da wants you to stay here until you're better. He said he pulled you from the river. Shouldn't you at least stay to thank him?" she asked.
"My, aren't you wise for your age?" Anju smirked faintly.
"Thank you. Now just rest while I make you some soup. Da should be back shortly." Sigrid beamed and left the room.
Anju sighed and let her head fall back onto the pillow as she tried to assess the situation. The last thing she remembered was falling from the waterfall. She remembered nothing of being pulled from the river or arriving in Lake Town or anything about whoever this "Da" person was. She put a hand on her head in frustration and noticed that someone had bandaged it up. Sigrid or Da, probably, but how was she injured? A low growl escaped her lips as she gave up. Her head hurt too much to think anyways.
She didn't want to stay in bed though. She was filled with the desire to flee. All she wanted was to go home, to be able to lay low in peace again. Why was that so hard? Lake Town was no place for her, nowhere was, and she didn't want to be trapped with anyone anymore. She was a wolf, and wolves ran like the wind blew, freely and where ever it wanted. Slowly, Anju got out of the bed.
Her head still throbbed, but not nearly as bad as when she had first awoken. She had to use the walls for support, her body weak from her long slumber, but eventually she was able to reach the door. She grasped for the handle and turned it as hard as she could. She wasn't ready for the door to open so quickly, however, and she fell to the floor with a thud. Sigrid gasped as she watched her fall and rushed over to her.
"What did I tell you? You're still too weak!" she chastised her before screaming, "DA!"
"What is it?"
Someone stomped into the room, and when Anju looked up she saw it was a man. He was tall, with black hair and tan skin, cloaked in a coat made of buck skin. His features were worn, but he couldn't have been more than thirty-five. Anju was taken aback by his handsomeness, and she blushed in embarrassment.
"You've a lot of fight in you, don't you?" the man chuckled as he bent down to pick her up."
He carried her into the bedroom and gently laid her back down, brushing her hair out of her eyes so she could see. Anju swooned at his warmth.
"Are you Da?" she asked quietly. He laughed.
"Da is what my children call me. My name is Bard."
Anju smiled. She liked that name.
"You are man?"
"Aye…why do you ask?" he gave her an odd look.
"I've not been around the race of man much, and not for a long time…" she confessed.
"You are not human?" he asked and she shook her head, "What are you then?"
Anju hesitated. Bard seemed like a good enough person, but she wasn't comfortable trusting him just yet. People did not take kindly of her race, and those who did only did so to try and take advantage of her power.
"I can't tell you, but I can assure you that I'm no threat." She said as kindly as she could.
"Can you tell me what you were doing in the river then?" he changed the subject and she let out a quiet "ha".
"It's a long story."
"I've nothing but time." He grinned at her, obviously curious.
So, she told him of Thranduil and how he had captured her to marry his son, and about the orcs and the spiders who had attacked her, driving her into the river.
"The last thing I remember was the waterfall."
"Aye, that's when I found you. You cracked your skull pretty good on a rock and blacked out on shore. I thought you were dead." He explained.
"That explains a lot…" she sighed.
"You were out for a few days, but it looks like it's healing nicely. I don't expect it to take much longer." He said as he examined the bandages on her head.
"I need to leave now." She groaned.
"You need to eat and drink and regain your strength. You can't go anywhere like this." He said.
"But Thranduil-"
"I won't let him find you. You'll be safe hiding out here while you recover. I promise." He smiled.
Anju looked into his greying hazel eyes, searching for anything that might be alarming, but all she found was warmth, empathy and kindness. It confused her.
"Why are you being so nice?" she asked.
"There are enough cruel people in this world." He sighed, "I don't need to be one of them."
Anju looked to him and blushed, her body filling with warmth.
Sigrid appeared a moment later with a bowl full of hot soup and handed it to Bard. It was then that Anju snapped out of her infatuated daze. Bard was nothing more than a generous man. She could not let her guard down in front of him. Bard blew the soup lightly and looked to her.
"Do you need help eating?"
"I think I'll manage." She laughed.
"Right." He smiled and handed her the bowl, "It's just vegetables and broth I'm afraid. We've no coin for meat…"
"This is more than enough, really. Please don't trouble yourself. You already saved my life" she smiled and placed a hand on his.
He smiled back at her, and when she noticed what she had done she quickly retracted her hand and blushed. What had gotten into her? Bard noticed this and she swore she saw a slight blush in his cheeks as well.
"I'm going to let you rest now, it's getting late." He stood up and walked to the door, "Please don't try to leave again. At least…until you're better."
"I'll try." She nodded, "Thank you, Bard."
He nodded back and closed the door gently, leaving her alone with her thoughts.
She absentmindedly stirred her soup as she stared off into space. She wasn't hungry at all, and once the warmth from Bard left the room she was overwhelmed with the urge to flee again. She fought it back. She couldn't throw away Bard's kindness but just running away. Sighing, she took a small sip of the soup and set it on the floor before she laid down and forced herself to sleep.
