Mirkwood
The first two days weren't all that bad. Sure, the woods were dark and there was a strange atmosphere around them, quiet and stifled like there was cotton shoved in their ears but they could see each other, and they could see their feet. Their food and water was rationed and they made good time every day, having nothing else to do but walk single file on the cobbled path.
But then the third day crested and they couldn't tell if the sun had come up. The trees stayed the same gloomy dark, murky even, and Elya realized why the Greenwood had changed names. The fire they began only once, and they were surrounded and buffeted with massive blind moths that thumped heavily against their heads, fluttering in their ears and faces. Eventually Thorin bit out a rough order and the fire was extinguished, as was the company's hopes for a pleasant travel through the forest.
The eyes that stared at them that night were unnerving. Silent, glowing pairs of eyes that watched them whilst they slept. Elya thought that maybe the first fire had drawn them, and now those eyes were following them through the forest, waiting for them to let down their guard. The entire company grew moody and short, as they never really slept well with those eyes surrounding them.
A few days later, the wood became black, pitch black, as if it was pure night at all hours and sunlight was a mere myth. Elya stumbled and fell into whichever dwarf was stationed in front of her, her eyes began to hurt because she held them open so wide for so long, desperately searching for something to see, anything, even the glint of an eyeball. At one point she bumped into Bilbo, and after a whispered, tense conversations he learned that he too couldn't see a thing.
The dwarves didn't seem to get it though, not until she was sat down in the center of their group, and Bofur had apparently been waving her portion of the bread and cheese in her face.
"Elya? Love?" He said, a curious lilt to his voice. She turned and stared blankly at where his voice came from, the beat of silence following letting her know that her eyes were just off enough.
"Ye really can't see a thing, can ye?" He said, seeming surprised.
"No." Elya bit out somewhat shortly, irritated that none of them had been taking her seriously when she said she couldn't see anything.
"What, so you can't see how many fingers I'm holding up?" Kili asked from somewhere to her left.
Elya sighed. "Kili, I can't see you, I can't see my hand two inches in front of my face, I can't see anything. It's black." Another beat of silence and Bilbo spoke as well, sighing out his secret.
"I can't see anything either. It's like the trees are trying to block out any kind of light. How is it that you all can? Is it a dwarf thing?"
"Our eyes are suited to darkness, living in stone halls as we do, but to not see anything? It is dark, yes, but I can still see the shape of the dwarves nearby me." Balin said from somewhere.
"It's not natural, it's not." Bilbo nearly whimpered, "Hobbits have good eyesight. We're earth people, we like plants and trees and growing things, but this forest isn't growing! It refuses to let me see, like it's, like it's pulling a blindfold over my eyes."
"That's how I feel." Elya added, voice quiet and small in the face of having her thoughts spoken aloud by another. "It's like I'm forbidden to see the sickness here, I don't know if it's because of the forest or because of...something else."
They all fell into an awkward, unnerved silence, and Elya got the impression the dwarves were exchanging glances around their heads.
"Hmm." Thorin broke the silence, "So that is why you two stumble and fall so often, you cannot see the roots or stones to step over them."
"Yes, basically." Elya responded when it looked like Bilbo wasn't going to. There was the sound of someone getting up and moving somewhere, and then Thorin spoke again from a different spot than before.
"Kili, Fili, stay nearby the girl. Master Baggins, you will remain by either myself or Dwalin until you can see again. Beorn said the path lightens somewhere around the center of the forest, but we still have many days until we reach the enchanted river." There was a slight hobbitish noise, stifled and high pitched. Smirking slightly to herself, Elya wondered whether Thorin had moved to Bilbo's side to act as the hobbit's guide and protector. It was the sort of thing Thorin would do.
Elya nearly startled out of her skin when a large body sat heavily next to her, knees and shoulders and elbows knocking against hers. Another body sat opposite, and Elya thought silently that maybe the second was Fili, having only patted her shoulder with one hand. Iit was Kili on the other that sat so close they were nearly pressed from hip to shoulder.
"Brother dearest, what's wrong with your face?" Fili asked, amused. Elya could almost imagine the sly smile on his face, the one that creases his eyes and causes his beard to grin with the turn of his lips.
Kili shrugged, lying back onto his bedding, having moved it along with him. "Just making sure Elya couldn't see anything, of course."
Elya turned her head between them, even though she couldn't lay eyes on them. "What, what face was he making?"
Fili's shoulders shook in suppressed laughter, and he only rocked his shoulder into her. "Oh nothing you need worry about, sweet girl." The nickname has followed her since Beorn's, and Fili seemed to have taken it as a slight insult that the great skin-changer had used it before any of them had.
Elya harrumphed, but relaxed when Kili put his arm around her, touching lightly up and down her spine in a mesmerizing dance. He seemed to be writing something, but she couldn't read it, and the movement only made her sleepy.
After the second time she nearly fell over, head heavy on her knees, Kili sat slightly up to draw her back and down to lie beneath the blanket piles Fili and he had thrown about themselves. Elya sighed tiredly and settled in, thinking that if they could, Kili and Fili would sleep in a nest of blanket and pillow, much like they did to her room in Rivendell that one night they snuck in.
Kili smoothed the hair out of her face and turned on his side close enough that she could hear his breathing. He slipped his hand beneath her shoulders and it delved under her neck and into her hair. His questing fingers reached the small braid where the glowing bead rested, hidden in the formation Bifur had left her with. His hand jerked, as if he had forgotten it was there, but then he wrapped it around his fingers a few times and just...left his hand there, pillowing her neck.
Elya was comfy, and Kili's hand was as warm as ever. His touch was a comforting presence letting her know that he was there, the broad expanse of Fili's back against her arm equally comforting. Waking up was nearly stifling, as the heat of both dwarf bodies had warmed the blanket piles and Elya had been nearly crushed between them. Kili was half on top of her, his mouth pressed against the crown of her head.
But, as she fought herself free to take a breath of fresher (though not by much as the forest was nearly as stifling as the Durin brothers), Elya melted when both brothers curled into her spot, seeking her out and grasping sleepy fingers against her skirts. She knew she wasn't going back to sleep, so she stayed seated, hands gently running through brown and blonde hair. Once snores were growing less common, and the dwarves were shifting more to her ears, Elya crawled out and away and prevailed upon Ori to help her go relieve herself.
Although still finding it mildly embarrassing, the poor dwarf had stumbled upon her in her own bloody female mess, so he was a better option than say, Dwalin.
Dori protested only a little bit, but as none of them were going much further than behind a single tree, Ori stuttered to cut him off and locked arms with her.
"Thanks Ori." Elya whispered.
"Your welcome, Elya." He whispered back, sweet and mild mannered. She thought back to his explanation about his ribbons, and decided that Ori was one of her closest friends.
Walking in the darkness of Mirkwood was hell, but after three days of zero light, there was a change in direction and Elya could barely make out silhouettes. Bilbo breathed a sigh of relief, finally able to identify who each dwarf shape was.
And then they reached the river, and it bled silently through the trees like a mass of dark sludge, acting like no river Elya had seen yet on this journey. Thorin barked at Bofur not to touch it, and their company stood awkwardly on the edge staring into the blackness, unsure on how to cross.
"There's a boat!" Bilbo said, "I think it's just pulled up on the far side."
"How far would you say?" Thorin asked, squinting.
"Not twelve yards, I think."
"Closer than I would have thought, it looks like it could be thirty." Thorin mused, hand rubbing through his beard. "Fili, grab your grappling hooks and see if you can land it, we'll pull it across."
Fili took three tries to make it, the hollow thud of the metal on wood making them all hold their breath. His gentle pulls soon caught and Kili and Gloin joined him in pulling the boat off the far side and through the water.
Elya couldn't see it until it hit the bank, and then she was quickly ushered into it alongside Thorin and Bilbo.
The boat sat frighteningly low in the water, and Elya eyed the edge warily, sitting still and small in the center. Clambering out was nerve wracking, as every move of their bodies sent the boat warbling, threatening to tip. On the other side, safely, Elya looked back and was weirded out to find she couldn't see anyone, but she could hear them.
"Keep an eye on the trees." Thorin told her and Bilbo then, having secured the boat again for the others to pull across.
Elya didn't know how much help she would be, but she did as asked, watching the dark expanse where she knew sickly, black wooded trees rose tall and knotted. They crossed the river slowly, leaving Bombur until the very last. There was a white flash of movement across the river, and Elya cried out at the same time as several others.
A great white shining elk had leapt the entirety of the river, jumping directly over Bombur's head. Kili shot off an arrow, and the elk skittered out of their way, disappearing in an instant. Bombur however, was so startled that he stood and wavered in the boat, just barely on the bank. He fell with a great splash in the water, and it sucked him down and under the surface.
Both Bofur and Bifur let out great yells, jumping after him and just barely grabbing hold of him, dragging him out of the water with great heaves.
"Bombur!" Bofur shook him. "Bombur, wake up!"
But the large dwarf was asleep, completely passed out. Everyone stood for a moment, confused, before Thorin jerked forward.
"The river, it's enchanted! Get out of your wet clothes!"
The two did as instructed, stripping down to nothing in a flash. They paused for a second, waiting to see if they would fall into sleep like Bombur did, but after a few minutes of nothing more than a few itchy noses, they all relaxed.
The forest became their enemy after that. Elya thought maybe it had something to do with the elk they shot at, and for disturbing the river. Regardless, as much as the light brightened and Elya could now see the company, everyone's moods and minds worsened each day.
Bofur became silent. The normally cheerful dwarf turned somber and downcast, keeping nearby his cousin even as he grimaced and grunted in trying to carry him. Thorin and Dwalin grew irritable, the latter barking orders at the other dwarves, especially Nori, who replied with dark mutters.
Everyone was exhausted, especially those who took turns in carrying the sleeping Bombur. Their glowers and snarks grew worse and more vicious once it became clear they were nearly out of food.
"Is there no end to this miserable forest?!" Thorin growled when they stopped once, snarling at the tree boughs like a beast in a cage.
Elya collapsed next to Bombur, leaning on his side and sighing. "Come on, Bombur, what's with the smile? I suppose you're having a good dream?"
Of course there was no answer, but Elya was expecting something like a snore, a grunt, at least. Nothing.
She laid her head against his chest and watched the other dwarves rustle and snipe at one another, at one point a scuffle occurring between Dori and Nori, with Ori and Kili in between. Fili, she noticed, suddenly appeared between them all, blocking the way to his brother and stood with that same easy going, friendly grin. And yet, even he had a pinched look around his eyes.
"Whatever good dream it is, it can't be better than being here with us, can it?" She said quietly into his beard, curled up tight and wishing everyone would stop. "Then again," she watched Bifur attempt to attack a tree, rage and pain evident in his eyes before Bofur could calm him.
"He hasn't said a word for days." She confessed. "Bofur can't seem to smile. Thorin is a pillar of strength, but even he has limits and he can't make food appear from nowhere. I can't, I can't help at all either. I can't hunt, or gather food in a place like this." She buried her face deeper, dozing while the dwarves roved, exhausted and hungry, but unhappy and restless.
Eventually she must have fallen asleep right there leaning against Bombur's belly because the next thing she knew, she was being lifted. Strong arms and a scent of wood, steel, and the oils he used to fletch his arrows, Kili walked her over to where Fili was already slumped beneath their blankets.
"Have you eaten?" He asked her quietly, practically tucking her in.
Elya shook her head, "I can't feel hungry."
Kili sat, looking fairly helpless with his fingers tangled in her hair again. She reached up and took his hand, bringing it to her lips to kiss his beaten knuckles.
Roughhewn, wide, and with short bitten fingernails, Kili's hands were very dwarfish, and hers looked practically like a child next to him. Tears filled her eyes suddenly, and she hiccupped.
"Sorry." She squirmed so her back was to him, smothering herself to keep the rest down. "Just being emotional."
Kili sighed behind her, and lay down, pressing tight up behind her and digging his face in the place between her shoulder and chin. His arm went around her and his shoulder bunched, Elya felt cocooned and relaxed, tangling her ankles around one of his. Her tears still came, small sobs shuddering her body.
"It's this place." He muttered darkly, "This awful forest. It's twisting all of our minds."
He rubbed his chin against her slightly, and she felt both the point of his nose and the roughness of his stubble against her skin.
"Cry, Elya, cry right here. Just not when everyone's awake. Your cheer keeps us going you know. You and Bilbo's. Reminds us that we're dwarves and we should be able to handle being under a few stupid twigs." He smiled slightly at her laughing hiccup, and relaxed backwards, pulling her with him.
Elya turned, hands sliding up his chest to rest on his neck, scratching her nails through his beard. "Okay Kili. With you." She whispered, tears still falling but now soaking into his tunic.
His arms tightened on her, and they spent the night like that, quiet and solemn but with each other. Thorin woke after a handful of hours, and looked to see where his company lay. He frowned when he stumbled upon Kili and Elya wrapped up as they were. He felt the need to speak with Kili about what was appropriate or not, but then again, if they found comfort in this horrible place, who was he to argue?
"They're very sweet. Let them be, at least for a bit." Bilbo said, coming up to his elbow like a ghost. Only Thorin's impeccable self-control kept him from screeching like a dwarfling, and he silently cursed Hobbit quietness.
He grunted, and moved on, nudging Fili awake for his watch. The blonde grumbled, rubbed his eyes, but popped up. He found Kili and Elya as they lay, and a soft smile crossed his face, one Thorin had only ever seen directed at his little brother. Fili lifted the blankets around them both to cover Elya's shoulders, rubbing a soft palm over both hers and Kili's hair.
Bilbo was the only one to witness Thorin's soft smile.
Elya was happy to wake to Kili's tunic and chest pillowing her, and to hear that Bombur woke up that same morning.
"Bombur!" She said, smiling and wrapping her arms around him where he sat petulantly on the ground.
"Hello dearest." He hugged her back, "I only remember you as the dirty girl from Bag End, but I recognize those braids anywhere. Bifur got at you did he?"
Elya nodded, a little bashful. Bombur merely patted her hand and groaned, climbing to his feel.
"I was having a wonderful dream!" And he proceeded to tell her about the feast he had dreamt, even as they walked onwards.
After the third time her belly rumbled at the thought of the food he was describing, Elya groaned.
"Bombur, were we all there with you?" She asked.
He paused. "No, I don't remember all that much other than the spread."
Elya hummed, "I bet that was lonely then, imagine if we had all been there! It would have been Bilbo's pantry all over again!"
Bombur took a second to think about it. "I suppose it would be wouldn't it?" He heaved a great sigh, one hand on his belly. She wondered if he felt their hunger more keenly because he was so used to eating more food. He shook his head and carried on, eyes downcast. Elya felt for him, but knew any longer on his current topic and someone would have been harder on him to stop.
Behind them, Nori sent her a quick thumbs up for getting him to stop talking about such delicious food. Ahead, Thorin called a halt and seemed to be looking at something above the treetops.
That's also about when they lost the path. Nori stopped dead at a chasm, and they fanned out trying to find it again, someone asking "Are we lost?"
Thorin sent a glare to them all, daring them to say it again. It took one eyebrow raise from Balin however for him to succumb, and he sighed.
"If only I could see where the sun was coming from, I could tell which direction we're moving." he groused, sending his dark eyes up to the trees.
Elya giggled for some reason, finding the tickling of the webs against her skin to be utterly hilarious. Everything was woozy, and she wondered if there was some kind of drug being emitted from the trees.
Kili asked Ori something, but then was overtaken by Dori, who flew in flustered and concerned, the look in his eyes a little wild. Fili once again appeared to push him back a bit, never far from his brother's side. Then they all descended into absolute anarchy. Safely ensconced away from them all, Elya peered upwards with a frown. There was a weird noise buzzing somewhere, but it was too low to identify.
"Here now," Bofur said, a little dreamily. He picked something up off the ground, "There's dwarves from the blue mountains in here with us! This pouch is just like mine."
"That's because it is yours. We're going around in circles. Someone should climb up and see where we are!" Bilbo said, frustratingly trying to be heard above the din of bickering dwarves.
"Silence!" Thorin boomed, quieting them all in an instant. He whispered something to Dwalin, making the tall dwarf straightened and glance around, his armored hands grasping the staff of his axes.
"Well, Master Baggins, get climbing." Thorin raised his eyebrows expectantly. Bilbo paused, then grumbled, heading to a tree that had great roots that wrapped all the way up its trunk. Thorin shook his head, but did keep a close eye on how the hobbit scrambled up the side of the tree like a squirrel. Dwarves weren't meant for climbing trees.
The attack came while everyone was watching Bilbo or otherwise sitting around vulnerable and unprepared. Elya herself didn't see them coming until something speared into her side. It hurt for an instant, before the venom took hold and the stinger's removal felt like it was happening to someone else. She collapsed, hearing several of the dwarves start to swear, heard Dwalin give a war cry. They made a fuss, trying to fight the mass of spiders charging down at them.
The one which had pierced her was huge, entirely oversized, and larger than a cow. It crawled atop her prone form and clicked its pincers menacingly. She couldn't move, her vision swam, and she thought she heard Kili cry out her name, but it was lost in the clicking and a strange, sickly voice saying "Juicy! Juicy!"
And then blackness took over.
She floated, swimming in a sea of strange light, feeling utterly alone and as though her stomach floated unsettlingly beside her.
There were noises, but nothing she could understand, and it felt like invisible arms buffeted her all over. And then there was a hole cut in the white light, and Bofur's face came into view, calling to her. She swam towards the opening, glad to see him and hoping he could find some of that tea of Dori's that helps nausea.
Reality slammed into her like a hammer, sending her careening to the side to throw up the contents of her stomach, bile and foam. Bofur pet her hair, tugging the sticky white web away from her as best he could, his hands shaking with the same ill feeling she had.
"Come on, love," he was saying under the ringing of her ears, "no time to lay about."
Elya gurgled and retched again, frighteningly cold.
"Shh, shh," Bofur hushed, worried, "Oin, when you can find your feet again come look at the lass. She's worse off than the rest of us."
The healer darted forward, ear trumpet gone, but bag still on hand. He checked her forehead, then gently lifted the edge of her shirt.
Bofur swore at the sight of her wound, putting a hand to her eyes to stop her from looking at it.
"What, what is it?" Kili asked, scrambling from where he and Fili had been cut down, still peeling off the webbing. He wavered on his feet, almost drunkenly, before falling next to them and gaping at the new hole in Elya's stomach.
"She doesn't have the thickness of skin like we do, and the venom courses through her faster." Oin said, almost mumbling. He tipped a small vial into her mouth, and Elya had to stop herself from spitting it out. It was cold in the way mint was on the tongue, and spread from her throat throughout her body.
Kili lifted her head and sat her up so Oin could wrap bandages around her middle, Elya whined and tried to escape, still dizzily swimming in her mind.
"Shh, I got you, I got you." Kili whispered to her, and when it came time to stand and regroup he put her arm over his neck and stood with her leaning on him, taking her weight.
"Kili." Elya gasped, clutching his shoulder and her side, unable to figure out if her feet were touching the ground.
"Du Bekar!" Thorin shouted from somewhere, but Elya could only blearily see Kili grit his teeth and catch a sword someone threw to him. He glanced at her, hitching her up higher, and Elya drowned in the darkness of his eyes.
The spiders attacked, and the dwarves were scattered.
Kili managed to fend off two with his sword before one tripped him up, sending them both down. Elya fell, the sickness pulling all strength from her, and screamed when something caught her foot and dragged her back. She turned, kicking as best she could, aiming for the black cesspools that were the spider's eyes. She got a boot in one, and it squealed releasing her. She turned to her stomach and tried to crawl away, but it followed.
It stood above her, pincers about to crush her neck, stinger about to spear her again. Elya knew she would die with another hit like that, and clawed her way in the dirt to do something, something, even though she had seconds left.
Then the spider was knocked sideways, screeching, and she saw Kili's boots stand above her. He had no weapon and leaves in his hair, but his teeth were grimaced in rage and he had hold of two of the spider's legs. In a wrench so strong she was shocked he had it in him, Kili turned and twisted and pulled the spider's legs straight off.
It stumbled, screamed and fell, trying to flee. Kili stooped and caught Elya up in his arms, lifting her and trying to get her behind him. She panted in his ear, but cried out when she saw a spider gearing up behind him.
Shouts and swears were flying from all sides, and then swooping in like an avenging angel, a tall red haired woman, an elf, sent arrows and knives into the brains of two of the spiders cornering them.
Kili jerked, turning to follow the knife that went sailing by them, finding the spider trying to sneak up behind them.
The elf warrior landed on a spider and proceeded to gut it, each movement precise and vicious.
"Here, throw me a knife!" Kili yelled to her, eyes on a spider that angrily hissed and bunched itself to charge. "A knife, something!"
"If you think I'm giving you a weapon, dwarf, you must be insane." The woman bit out, voice clear and bright even as she murdered several arachnids. She finished with them, the forest falling silent as the other elves ran off the spiders attacking their friends.
Elya breathed as deeply through her nose as she could, clinging to Kili's shoulders and watching wide eyed as the elf maiden straightened and cleaned her weapons, facing them with raised eyebrows. Kili grumbled, but he did have a tilt to his lips. Even ill, Elya knew that the elf had impressed him and felt utterly in awe of her herself.
But then, a bubble of nausea rose up into her throat and she clasped a hand over her mouth, turning and collapsing to puke out nothing but spit and bile. Kili held her hair, clasping her to him gently, and she could feel him tense when the elf approached.
"She is ill?" she asked.
"Spider sting," he replied, voice tight.
Elven voices called, and the female elf knelt as Elya's side. Kili's hands clenched, then released, as the elf only had slight worry and confusion in her eyes.
"She is not a dwarf?"
"No."
Elya snorted at his reticence, spitting out excess saliva. "Kili, she just saved our lives."
"I guess." Kili didn't sound entirely thankful for it though. The elf didn't take it personally, and only gestured for Kili to get Elya standing.
"We will get her medical attention. Our healers are more than proficient with the venom of these spiders." She stood and waited for them. When she had a hold of herself, Elya pinched Kili's arm where it rested on her hip.
He twitched. "Thank you." He ducked his head in a slight bow, and glanced up at the elf. She looked surprised, as much as an elf's poker face could.
"Tauriel." a male voice called, and a cold blue eyed blonde elf walked forward, waving them on. "Bring them forward."
Elya and Kili joined the other dwarves milling about and being relieved of their weapons. Fili, amused and slightly smug, was challenging an elf with his eyes to find all the knives he had hidden around his body. Elya sent the elf some luck, as she herself had been poked and prodded by his knives every time the dwarf had hugged her.
Elya nearly fell, stumbling over a root, before Kili caught her. The blonde elf, Legolas, as Tauriel called him, eyed her with his piercing blue eyes, taking in her lack of beard, her wound, and the way her eyes refused to focus.
"This female, is a dwarf spawn?" he asked. Elya thought he wasn't quite looking to insult, well, he probably didn't mind if he did insult her, but he was honestly curious. And he seemed to think of dwarves as lesser than, as he looked to Tauriel to explain rather than asking them directly. Kili bristled, but a severe glance from Thorin subdued him.
"She is injured from the spider's sting," Tauriel said, "I will vouch for her to the healers."
Legolas huffed lightly, and then whirled, sending out orders for them all to move. The dwarves weren't prodded so to speak, but the march of the elves kept them stumbling to catch up. Elya was still hanging of Kili's arm, and needed help clambering over the fallen logs and stones that the elves simply leapt onto and over.
On one pass, she realized that she couldn't see the small auburn headed hobbit, and felt a flash of fear for Bilbo, left alone in this dark forest.
The gate to the elven kingdom sat above a raging river, and yet entered into a ridge side. Curious, Elya never thought that elves would live in a mountain. It was airy however, and the wooden structures within the great halls of Thranduil's kingdom whirled and rose up like trees themselves, beautifully crafted. As they approached the King's throne Elya was distracted by the effect of the great antlered tree that clawed its way from the center. Within it sat Thranduil, the most graceful and cold beauty Elya had ever seen, but she stumbled when she caught sight of something utterly incongruent with the elven theme.
His eyebrows were dark, bushy caterpillars on a face that was otherwise fair and smooth.
Were they hereditary? Considering Legolas had similar dark brows and the light hair, Elya mused that they must be. Dark, thick brown eyebrows, and pale silver light hair, so incongruent with each other. Her eyes slipped lower, and she forgot to be embarrassed, wondering if elves even had pubic hair.
Coughing with the strange dry feeling in her mouth, Elya didn't realize she had caught the Elven King's attention. Her eyes were stuck on his eyebrows, still wondering.
"And this is a...human girl?" Thranduil raised one of his...thick, bushy brown eyebrows, "Or perhaps a particularly ugly dwarrowdam?" Elya knew he was insulting her, but she remained fixated, hardly hearing his words. The dwarves behind her milled and muttered darkly, offended on her behalf.
Thorin grunted, "The Lady's part of my company."
Elya would have been pleased, but she swayed instead, still ill from the spider's fang.
She didn't realize Thranduil had asked her something until his eyes were drilling into her. "Uhm," she licked her lips, "I apologize, could you repeat that?"
A dwarf gave a covered snicker, and though nothing changed in the King's face, she knew he was annoyed. He was remarkably tall, one long line of limb and joint. His beautiful hair fell soft and light, and probably weighed nothing. Unlike her own hair, which had been mussed and ruined by the Spider's webs and the days trekking through the forest without any dwarf being able to spend the time fixing it.
Her eyes wandered up to Thranduil's brows again, and the weird rushing of her blood distracted her enough that she missed his question...again.
Flushing with what blood she had left, Elya squeaked, "I'm sorry?"
The dwarves didn't even try to hide their snickering this time. Elya felt like the rudest person on the planet. And indeed, rude to the one king who held their fates in his hands. Thranduil looked upwards in exasperation, patience run out. He ordered his men to take the dwarves to the dungeons, leaving Thorin to speak with.
Elya's arm was gently taken by Tauriel, the red haired elf from earlier. She helped the weak girl away from the room, conceivably towards the closest healer. The dwarves made a bit of a ruckus, but calmed when they were told she would join them later, after the spider venom was seeped from her.
"You should not have aggravated the King as you did." Tauriel started an awkward conversation.
Elya wanted to laugh. "It was not my intent, trust me. The only thing I could hear was the blood in my ears, and I was...distracted by a thought."
"What thought could distract you so thoroughly?" At least it seemed like the elf was believing her.
"Ah." Elya coughed a little, tongue feeling thick and cheeks warm with embarrassment. "Promise me you won't tell him?"
It was an odd request, but Elya took the elf's graceful nod as agreement. Of course, if it were anything dire, Elya was sure Tauriel would actually tell the king, but it was mostly just...embarrassing.
"I was wondering why his eyebrows are a different color than his hair." Tauriel was silent. Though her face didn't change, Elya could feel her incredulousness.
"Yes," Elya sighed, accepting her help in sitting down on a medical bed, "His dark brown eyebrows, bushy, and his long silky golden silver hair." Elya cleared her throat, avoiding looking Tauriel in the eye. "I was distracted about...if that meant he...dyed his hair or just had different hair on his head from his body and well…"
Elya glanced up, and was treated to the sight of an elf, creature of grace and beauty as they were, trying vainly not to laugh. Tauriel was only holding on by a thread.
"Is that so?" her voice was controlled, Elya had to give her that.
"Have you never noticed? It was all I could think about."
"I can honestly say it never crossed my mind." Her mouth trembled, wanting to smile. Elya let out a giggle, then sobered because it sounded a bit too hysterical.
Elya put a hand to her injury, hissing at the light touch. She felt woozy, and seconds from passing out.
"Sleep, young one." Tauriel said, removing herself from her side. A brown haired healer elf wearing the lightest of blues handed her a goblet. At this point she would have eaten or drank anything, so Elya downed it with little thought.
"Look after my dwarves please." Elya asked Tauriel, drowsily, "Especially Kili. He'll be frustrated."
She wasn't awake long enough to hear Tauriel's answer, but Elya thought the she elf was one of the nicer elves she's met. Seemed tougher than Arwen, but of course, Elya had never seen Arwen in battle. If the elf was something like two thousand years old, of course she would know how to fight, what else did you do with so much time?
And then sleep took her.