Stay Awake.
Fili led Ella towards the camp. She could hear their laughter. Ella froze.
"Ella, what's wrong?" Fili asked.
"I can't," Ella said. "After the argument…"
"Don't worry about Thorin. I won't let him harm you." Fili pulled her toward the camp again.
"ELLA!" Everybody yelled lifting their bowls of pipes.
"Ella!" George ran towards his sister and game her a big hug. "I was so worried." George slapped her in the arm. "Don't you ever do that again, missy!" he said in a fatherly tone.
Ella smiled a little.
"Ella have you been crying?" George looked concerned. "What did you do?!" He looked at Fili.
"George, don't worry." Ella took George's hand. "I just miss home that's all."
Ella took a seat on one of the logs and Fili walked toward his brother and placed himself next to Kili. "Saved you some supper." George gave her the bowl with food.
XxX
After Ella was done, she felt a hole lot better. Ella and George sat around the campfire. George was tired and leaned against his sister.
"I miss mum." He said suddenly, Ella placed her arm around him.
"I know." She said comforting "Me too."
"I want to go home." She kissed his head.
"Why? I thought you like being here?" Ella asked him
"I do, but…"
"Hey, hey… It's ok." She pulled George on her lap. "We'll find a way back home, I promise." She rocked him back and forth. "You have been very strong and brave. Maybe even more then me." Ella gave her little brother a look. "I'll be stronger, ok?"
George nodded. "I'm sorry that you had to miss you date because of me." George said after a couple of minutes.
Ella grinned. "Don't worry about that. I'm just glad to be here with you." She pulled him closer. "Try and go to sleep." Her hand slowly went through his hair. "It's gonna be a long day tomorrow." And slowly George fell asleep.
XxX
Bilbo had laid down George's bedroll near the campfire.
"Thanks Bilbo." Ella put George in his bed and kissed his cheek. "Goodnight, Baby Boy."
She moved to her backpack ready to make up her own bed. She bent down and to a step closer. Ella stepped on her hair and tripped over. Fili and Kili were rolling in laughter.
"That's not funny!" she snapped.
"Oh, but it is!" Kili laughed.
Ella sat up and pulled the grass and twiggs out of her hair. "Why did it have to be so long?" She mumbled to herself.
"Come here!" Fili and Kili laughed. She struggled towards them, dropping herself between the two brothers. They removed the grass and twigs from her hair. After getting everything out they started braiding her hair.
"What are you guys doing?!" She said looking at the two.
"What does it look like?" Kili said with a smirk on his face but eyes serious. Fili sat crossed eyes a little, his tongue sticking out of his mouth just a little. "Braiding your hair." Kili said.
"I thought braiding each others hair was like a sacred thing." Ella answered.
"Don't be ridiculous, Ella." Fili said joking, still trying to concentrate.
"You really don't know much about dwarves do you?" Kili said. Ella shook her head.
"Hold still!" Fili said pulling her hair. "Now I have to start all over."
Ella giggled. For a moment she forgot everything. The car crash, her parents, the fight with Thorin. She looked a Bilbo who gave Myrtle an apple, Bombur snoring so hard that the moths around him couldn't get away and she could see Ori writing something in his journal. The other dwarves had fallen asleep or were resting.
Suddenly a screaming sound came from across the fields. Ella moved closer to Fili. George had awoken to the sound and had run to his sister for protection.
"What was that?" Bilbo asked.
"Orcs." Kili answered.
"Orcs?" Bilbo asked again.
"Oh no, please don't let that be true." Ella said moving closer to Fili, pulling George to her as he came running. Thorin had awoken to and was now sitting straight up.
"Throat cutters," Fili answered. "There will be dozens of them out there. The Low Lands are crawling with them."
Ella moved herself and George closer to Kili. She stared at Fili. He said it like it was something normal. She had seen Orcs in the movies and she grew a bit scared. Not for herself but for her little brother.
"They strike in the wee small hours when everybody is a sleep. Quick and quiet no screams."
Ella moved away again.
"Just lots of blood."
George looked at his sister; she could see that it scared him. She heard Kili and Fili laugh. Ella got angry, She wanted to scream at them for scaring her and her brother but before she could say anything Thorin stood up.
"You think that's funny?" He looked at his nephews. "You think a night raid by Orcs is a joke?"
"We didn't mean anything by it." Kili said looking at the ground.
"No you didn't," he said. "You know nothing of the world!" He walked toward the edge of the hill.
Balin was standing next to them. "Don't mind him laddie." He said. "Thorin has more cause them most, to hate Orcs."
Fili and Ella's face turned to Thorin.
"After the Dragon took the Lonely Mountain. King Thror tried to reclaim the ancient dwarf Kingdom of Moria. But out enemy had gotten there first." George pulled his knees up against his chest, carefully listing to the story. Ella could just imagine how the dwarves were fighting. She had always had a fantasy how things would have looked. "Moria had been taken by legions of Orcs, led by the most vile of all their race, Azog the Defiler. The giant had sworn to wipe out the line of Durin. He began, by beheading the king." Ella could see it all happening in her mind. "Thrain, Thorin's father, was driven mad by grief. He went missing, taken prisoner or killed, we did not know." Ella looked Thorin.
Poor Thorin.
"We were leaderless. Defeat and death, were upon us. That is when, I saw him. A young dwarf prince, facing down, the pale Orc. He stood alone, against this terrible foul. His armor rent, wielding nothing but an oaken branch as a shield." George's eyes grew in excitement. "Azog the Defiler learned that day, that the line of Durin would not be so easily broken." Ella could imagine what had happened to the pale Orc. "Our forces rallied and drove the Orcs back."
She could see Thorin leading an army against the Orcs. She felt bad for yelling at him. He had been through so much.
"Our enemy had been defeated." Balin's face grew sad. "But there was no feast, nor song that night." Balin continued, "For our dead, were beyond the count of grief. We few had survived. And I thought to myself, there is one who I could follow," Balin looked at the leader. "There is one, who I could call king." Everybody was standing on there feet, looking at the king with respect. Even Ella and George.
"The pale Orc?' Bilbo asked still sitting on the ground. "What happened to him?" Thorin stepped closer and looked at the hobbit. "He slunk back into the hole whens he came." Ella could hear anger in his voice. "That filth died of his wounds long ago." And with that Thorin walked away.
"Thorin," Ella shouted softly "Hold on!" Ella looked at Kili. "Put him to bed, will ya?" And quickly she ran after the king.
XxX
Thorin was sitting on a rock, looking up at the moon and stars.
"Thorin." Ella said quietly.
"What do you want?" he asked her, looking straight ahead.
Ella took a deep breath. "I wanted to say, I'm sorry." Ella moved closer. "It was wrong of me to yell at you." She stopped and looked at the ground. She was pulling the bottom of her tunic with her fingers. Bad habit. Thorin looked at her.
"It's just," Ella bit her bottom lip and looked up at the king meeting his eyes. "I don't like being yelled at or being ordered around. But I see now that you have a lot on your mind, with the dragon and everything." She looked back at the ground. "It's just something I'll need to get used to, I guess."
"I see you have a lot on you mind as well." Thorin said. Ella didn't expect to hear anything from him.
"I don't want to go to sleep" Ella heard George yell.
"You have to!" Kili yelled back.
"I think I should be heading back before George does something to Kili."
A small smile crossed on Thorin lips. "Very well." He said and Ella gave him a little nod before turning around and heading back to camp.
XxX
"What the…?" Ella's eyes were wide. George was running around shirtless as Kili chased him down missing one boot.
"Ella," Fili said from beside her. His feet and his hands were roped like a calf in a rodeo. "Help!"
The others were just laughing as they saw how Kili and Fili were trying to put George to bed.
Guess living in Tennessee for the last three years were handy after all.
Ella just laughed with the others. "Come here, you!" she said to George catching him. Kili had run out of air and fell beside his brother, who was still struggling to get loose.
"Kili, my dear little brother," Fili said with his sweetest voice, looking up. "Would you mind cutting me loose?" He said with his teeth pushed together.
Kili let out a laugh and cut his brother loose. Ella looked at them for a second.
"Time for bed." She said to George still in her arms.
"No please don't make me go to bed!" George said. "I don't want the Orcs to come and get me!"
Ella realized that George wasn't joking. "Where did you get that idea from?"
"Kili said that-"
Ella shot Kili an angry look. "Kili is an idiot!" She turned George around so that she could look him in the eyes. "The Orcs won't come for you." Ella looked at Kili again. "But if Kili isn't careful, one might come after him!" Ella looked at her little brother again.
"Please don't make me go to bed."
"Alright then," Ella let out a small sigh sat down on George's bedroll, beside the campfire, she had George between her legs. George leaned back.
Ella remembered a lullaby her mother used to sing to her when she couldn't sleep. Let's see if I can remember the words. Ella started;
"Stay awake, don't rest your head,
Don't lie down upon you bed,
While the moon drifts in the skies,
Stay awake, don't close you eyes."
Ella felt George falling asleep against her.
"Though the world is fast asleep,
Though your pillow's soft and deep,
You're not sleepy, as you seem,
Stay awake don't nod and dream."
"Stay awake, don't nod and dream."
George had fallen asleep, but so had the dwarves. Ella smiled when she looked around. Fili was laying on his stomach where George had bound him, roped scattered around him. Kili was lying with his shoulders over his brothers back, drooling a little over Fili's jacket. Oin and Gloin had fallen asleep against a tree. Ori, Nori and Dori were lying over and around a big rock. Bifor and Bofur were sharing a log and Bombur wasn't laying far behind on the grass. Balin and Dwalin were sharing a tree as well. Bilbo was laying next to the fire and she was pretty sure that she heard Thorin snore a couple of yards back.
Ella looked at Gandalf he was still up smoking his pipe. He gave her a little smile and a nod. Ella looked back at her little brother and softly lay him down in his bed. She place herself beside him and pulled a blanket just over his chin.
"Goodnight, Baby Boy." She said and kissed his head before falling asleep.
Thanks to Cmusiclover92 for the Lullaby suggestion :3
Hope you enjoyed.
More to come, so keep checking the updates ;3
