Hi everyone! First of all, thank you to all those who already follow/favorite my story, I am very happy to see that some people are enjoying it!
Thank you also to those who reviewed it, it is very motivational to hear what you guys actually think about the story and I hope it will continue to please you that way :)
You will once in a while find flash-backs in my chapters (such as this one), I will try not to put too many of them but they will be quite important for the story so sorry about that...
Enjoy and as always, I'd be more than happy to read what you thought of it!
Chapter III : Nightmare
Silence had settled for the night in the hidden valley. With the winter approaching, the birds had gone away and most of the animals living in the woods wouldn't be seen either until spring, leaving the valley noiseless during the night when the dwarves were asleep.
There weren't that many living in this valley ideally located in the heart of the blue mountains : only a little village at its entrance and a bit further up on the mountain, a big house.
Everything was quiet and still, Luna woke up and sat up so suddenly on her bed that she felt a bit dizzy for a few seconds. The young girl lit a candle on her bedside table then looked around the room. Nothing had moved yet she had a bad feeling that she couldn't explain.
Deciding it was certainly due to the nightmare she had just had, she stood up and poured herself some water from a pitcher then sat at her desk. Her eyes fell on the letter that she had opened earlier written by her friend Kili who also lived in the mountain, a few days' ride from the valley.
She absentmindedly smiled to herself while rereading it. It had been well over sixty years since she had last seen him and yet, he insisted on keeping sending her letters once in a while. He was never able to say much and the letters were very occasional because for safety reasons, messengers couldn't travel too often from one place to another, else it might reveal where her family was hiding but still it never failed to make her happy when he wrote to her.
She had never seen him again since that day when she had left his place where she had lived for a while to go and settle here with her family. At the time, they were only children and she often wondered what he might look like now.
In this letter, he was telling her how he had finally become taller than Fili, which was a goal he had set himself a very long time ago, and about other things that seemed more or less important to him. His letter ended with a short passage that had made her even happier when she had read it : he was writing that he had heard his uncle Thorin planning to go on a quest to try and reclaim Erebor, that he needed a company to follow him and that of course, the first dwarf he would call upon to help him was her own father, Laïn. In that idea, Thorin was most likely going to travel to the hidden valley soon enough to let his captain know about his plan and with his brother, they intended to accompany him -with or without his leave- because after all, they were his heirs, princes of Erebor and were now more than old enough to prove their value in a quest, especially a quest to reclaim their kingdom.
She had already heard words of Thorin getting ready to start such a quest. He and her father kept in touch as often as they could and indeed, Laïn had been the first one to get involved in his king's plan to reclaim the lonely mountain. She had been quite dubitative about whether that was a good idea or not, particularly because her father was now getting quite old and had never fully recovered from the battle of Moria that had taken a leg and an eye from him, but after all, a captain's duty was not to question the intentions of his king. Now that she understood that it meant she might get a chance to see her friends again tough, she was looking forward to hear more about it.
Maybe that if she hadn't been so busy rereading the letter, she would have looked out her window and noticed the dozens of shadows crawling in the night towards the house. But she didn't and it is only when a scream brutally pierced the silence that she jumped on her feet.
Lights were turned on in the house, others had been woken up and other screams quickly followed. Luna carefully looked outside from the window and finally saw them, all the shadows. Her blood froze.
Orcs.
They had found them at last!
She folded the letter and shoved it inside her pocket then grabbed a knife that she always kept with her and ran out of her room.
In the corridor, there was already a rush: many people lived with them in the house : guards mostly but also cooks, maids and even messengers. All had now been woken up and were running here and there in panic.
"Miss Luna, you can't stay here!" a maid suddenly exclaimed, taking her arm.
She knew her very well, she was more than a simple maid, she had been her nurse when she was a little girl.
"Where is my father? And my brother?" Luna asked.
"I haven't seen them but you have to go! If the orcs see you, they will kill you!"
"I need to find them."
"Miss Luna!"
"Stay with the guards, get out of here!" she shouted, already running in the opposite direction.
She ran down the flight of steps that lead from the first story of the house where her room was to the ground level.
In a room where occasional meetings amongst the notable dwarves of the valley were held, she found a first body, a young maid whose killer was still standing next to her.
"Well, if it isn't Laïn's daughter in person…", the orc said.
She thought that the common speech never sounded good in an orc's mouth.
"Get out of here."
"Else what?"
He charged her and she barely had time to step aside to avoid his attack. Thankfully, she had taken that knife with her from her room and it was small enough so that the orc hadn't noticed she was carrying it. Thinking she was weaponless, he didn't expect her to return his attack and didn't get the chance to react on time when she spun around and drove her blade straight into his chest.
He died cursing her in black speech.
She then kneeled next to the body of the young maid just in case she was still alive but it was useless. Hearing more and more heavy footsteps coming in her direction and the screams of the dwarves mixing with the curses of the orcs, she hurriedly left the room and went back to finding her family.
Now, most of the dwarves who could fight were bravely trying to push the invaders back and protect the others while they were trying to get out of the house.
"Father! Lunkin!" she was calling after her father and brother.
"Luna!" she heard at last.
Spinning around, she finally saw them, swords in hand, running towards her. Just like everyone else, they had been surprised while they were sleeping and were simply wearing their night clothes.
"You two must get out of here!" Laïn ordered them.
"I am not leaving you, father" Lunkin replied.
"Nor am I"
"You don't understand, the Orcs are here to kill you! You need to go, now, else they will find you!"
"We are from the line of the captains, father" Luna said, "we don't run away from a fight."
Despite the situation, Laïn looked at his two last children with proud in his remaining eye.
"Get down!" he suddenly shouted.
As Luna and Lunkin automatically dropped to the ground, he blocked the blade of an enemy that was aimed at their necks.
"No one threatens my children!" he exclaimed before killing him."No one!"
As they both got back to their feet, he put a hand on their shoulders.
"Very well. You need to get everyone safely out of this house. Is that understood?"
"But you…"
"I will just check upstairs that no one is left behind then I'll join you. You need to save those people."
As Lunkin started shouting to everyone to follow him, Luna still looked hesitant.
"Father…"
"Luna, I will join you. I promise."
She nodded and picked an abandoned sword on the floor to help her brother while Laïn disappeared upstairs.
"Follow us, all of you!" she shouted.
As she made her way towards the nearest exit, killing any enemy who stood in front of her and followed by all those who were still alive, she saw Lunkin looking at the stairs their father had climbed moments ago with hesitation.
"Lunkin!"
"Lead them out, I'll be right back!" he exclaimed and before she had the time to stop him, he ran upstairs as well.
"Follow me!" she shouted again.
As they were coming closer to the exit, she found less and less orcs in the way and at her greatest surprise, the way out wasn't blocked and in a few minutes, they were all outside the house.
It would have been too easy…It's only once they had exited the house that they realised it had been set on fire and that the flames had begun to spread on the roof.
Behind them, the house was on fire and in front of them, the orcs had completely circled the house. It had all been a trap. There was no way to escape now.
Luna shot a murderous glance at an orc in the circle in front of her that was giving her an evil smile then looked at all the dwarves that could not fight and that she had lead out of the house who were now desperately looking around them for a way to get out of that nightmare.
"All those who can fight, with me!" she found herself shouting.
All the guards and those who had found a weapon during their fled formed a circle as well around those who wouldn't be able to defend themselves.
"Hold your ground!" she shouted as the orcs were giving the assault.
They were outnumbered and no matter how bravely the dwarves fought, the enemies quickly broke their line and the screams of those who were defenceless rang in Luna's ears as she was trying to push her assaillants back.
She suddenly lost her grip on her sword when an orc managed to hit her arm and a hiss of pain escaped her. The mortal blow she was about to receive then was blocked by one of the few dwarves that remained and he killed the orc before turning to her.
"Go and find your father and brother", the guard told her.
"It's hopeless" she said, looking at the battle and the bodies around her.
"As long as there is a captain, hope remains" He nodded at her. "Go now!"
She bit her lip.
"I can't leave you…"
"It's too late for us, miss Luna", he said with a sad smile. "But it is not for you."
She tried to say something but an orc stood in front of them at that moment and she avoided one of his blows, rolled on the ground to pick up her sword and after one last look towards the guard who was fighting the orc, ran back inside the house that was now being completely devoured by the flames.
"Father!" she shouted.
She quickly had to stop shouting and put her sleeve against her mouth to not breathe the smoke.
She managed to go upstairs and fell to the ground when her feet got caught into something. Standing back up, she noticed it was the body of her nurse.
"No…Father! Lunkin!"
She coughed again but kept on walking.
Finally, she found them in a little library. They were both lying on the ground, in a puddle of blood.
"No!"
She ran towards them and kneeled next to Lunkin who was the closest. He was alive but a single look at his wounds was enough to tell that he wouldn't be for long.
"Luna…what the hell are you doing…here?" he muttered.
"Looking for you…"
"Go away little sister…"
"Not without you."
She was doing her best to contain her tears. It didn't even matter anymore that the house was on fire.
Lunkin raised a hand to cup her face.
"Yes…this time, without me. You still have…a chance…"
That was too much for her and the tears finally ran down her face.
"Go…" he whispered.
His hand fell back to his side. He was dead.
"No!" she shouted.
"Luna…?"
Her head snapped to where her father was lying. He was still alive!
"Father!"
She rushed towards him. He was very badly hurt too but she tried not to look at his wounds. She had to get him out of here, he at least could survive.
"Come father, we need to get out!"
She tried to pull him up on his feet but it was useless.
"Please…"
"Lunkin…?"
She shook her head, tears still running down her cheeks.
"Then you…you are now the captain of Erebor…", he whispered.
"No! Don't say such things, you will live!"
"Luna…"
She fell on her knees, giving up on trying to pull him up and sobbed.
"Father please…I…I can't do this…not alone…"
"Of course you can, my daughter. You have been trained for this and I am convinced…that you…you will be a great captain. Luna, look at me."
She turned her eyes to meet his.
"You need to go and find the king. He…and his heirs…are yours to protect now…"
"Father…"
"Take my sword"
She shakily took it.
"It is yours now…"
"But…"
"Luna. Do it for me"
She was biting her lip so hard that blood ran down her chin. If she was about to say something, her father never got the chance to hear it for at that moment, a terrible crack was heard and the house, completely ravaged by the fire, collapsed on itself.
Luna woke up so brusquely that Kili next to her woke up as well, all his senses in alert. It was the middle of the night now and everyone was asleep besides Bofur who was on watch a bit farther by the fireplace.
"What is it? What happened?" he asked, worry filling his voice.
She was breathing precipitately, trying to chase the images of her dreams away from her mind.
"Nothing" she gasped, "it was just a nightmare…I'm sorry."
"Do you…want to talk about it?" he asked with a yawn.
She shook her head.
"No, it's alright. I'm sorry I woke you up, go back to sleep."
He shrugged her shoulder and made a move to lie back when then saw that she was getting up and gently caught her wrist.
"Luna…"
He felt that she was shaking.
"Did you see the orcs again?"
He remembered very well how every night after she had woken up a few months ago after they found her, she had had those terrible nightmares where she was seeing the orcs that had killed her family. As the weeks had passed, they had become less and less frequent but sill some nights he could tell they hadn't entirely left her.
"Yes" Of course, this time she had seen far more than only the orcs, she had been through the whole night in her dream which had never happened so far.
The screeches of the orcs they had heard earlier were probably the cause of that.
She gently freed herself from his grip and gave him the most convincing smile she could.
"I'm okay Kili, I just need to take a few steps" she whispered.
He nodded and watched her walk away towards the fire with a mix of concern and sadness in his eyes.
"You don't sleep lass?" Bofur asked when she came to sit next to him.
She shook her head.
"No, but you can go if you want, I'll hold the watch."
He raised an eyebrow but gave her a soft smile.
"We'll hold it together then."
As silence settled back between them, Luna put her hand inside her coat and she took out a piece of parchment that was in a very poor state. It looked as if it had been half-burnt then frozen and here and there, some traces of blood had left dark marks but strangely, the writing was still readable. It barely mattered anyway, she had read Kili's words over and over again so many times that she knew it by heart now.
The ring on her finger, her father's sword and this torn letter were all she had left from her past life now.