Chapter 11
Disclaimer: I do not in ANY way own The Hobbit or any of its characters, the only things I own are my own characters and any plot that may be different to the movie/book. Any characters you recognise from real life have no affiliation to this story. Any relation is purely coincidental.
To the first guest: Thank you for reviewing! And yes I know the story at this point is going completely haywire and off track but I've actually written out a full plan and different ending so... yeah ^.^
ZabuzasGirl: Ahh yes my long term reviewer 3 Thanks again for reading my story
Tessastarchild: I know you do not understand and it is quite confusing if you were expecting this story to follow the exact plotline. Like I said to the guest above, this story is going to start becoming very AU as of now.
Annabel: Thank you for reviewing and I'm so glad this is your first fanfic! Yes I know Gandalf follows the dwarves to the edge of the forest but I just wanted a more dramatic ending and reaction to Mirabelle and the like.
Candy Von Schweetz: Oh my gosh. It's been so long that you've changed your name! Haha I like it :D Yes I thank you for your idea and yes you should wonder what Allison is doing... because she will become pretty bad very soon heheheheh
To the other three guests: I thank you so much for reading and for reviewing.
Last Time:
The dwarf prince had watched her walk away from him before he truly felt the regret of his actions weigh down on him. "What have I done?"
His heart was heavy as he walked toward the rest of the company. Thorin glared at his nephew before turning to address the others.
"We will leave at once, Gandalf and Mirabelle will not be accompanying us, we will leave before the female notices we have gone. Prepare yourselves, men."
Beorn walked out of the house with Gandalf, smiling down to Thorin. "I bid you a safe journey, my friend, and may you be successful in your quest."
Thorin nodded at the huge shifter before turning his back and heading into the forest.
"And remember, Thorin, do NOT stray from the path!" Gandalf's voice echoed after the company as the wizard watched the dwarves and Bilbo leave. He turned to Beorn and raised an eyebrow.
"You will make sure she goes, won't you? I must take my leave now, but remember, Mirabelle must follow the dwarves!" Gandalf swung onto the horse that Beorn had lent him and the wizard was off. Beorn sighed and shook his head. It would not be long before Mirabelle and Elijah were on their way.
Out of the corner of his eye, Beorn saw Allison slink away with a pack on her back. His eyes narrowed slightly before he looked down at Elijah, who had crept up to him.
"That girl will be of nuisance, will she not?"
"Aye." Elijah nodded.
"I cannot believe they left me! I cannot believe it. And what is worse, Elijah, is that Beorn and Gandalf let them." Mirabelle huffed as she stomped along the ground. The dirt was beginning to dampen under her feet as the two of them neared the forest.
"Defender. You must calm yourself. Look. The tiger raised a paw to point in front of them. Ahead lies Mirkwood. In these forests dwells danger beyond your comprehension. Do not take the wizard's words lightly."
Mirabelle scoffed. "You are just ignoring my complaints. You know what? I do not care anymore. Kili can go get himself killed."
Elijah turned to face the hobbit.
"Do not give me that look." Mirabelle snapped. Her patience and restraint was on the brink of collapsing. Seeing Kili and Allison together had caused unrecognizable feelings to arise within the girl.
"You must raise your awareness now, Defender. We are entering the forest. Take the wizard's words to heart and do not stray from the path."
Elijah picked up his pace, forcing Mirabelle to do the same.
"Will you tell me more about the Defenders and their duty?"
The tiger breathed out a long breath before nodding his head. "I guess it would be a good way to pass the time and keep the both of us awake and aware."
Mirabelle smiled and stroked Elijah's fur. "Start from the beginning. I would also like to hear about your life."
"Oh little hobbit. How I would love to share with you the tales of my homeland, of Gondor. In all my years of travelling I have yet to see a civilisation of Man as magnificent as Gondor.
"However, I fear I do not recall much from before I was cursed. I will instead tell you the stories of the three most famous Defenders." The tiger sucked in a breath before he began his story.
"Thorin! Remind me once again why we did not allow Mirabelle and her tiger to accompany us? The elves would have been easy to overcome." Dwalin banged against the giant metal bars of his cell.
The dwarves were in a sad predicament and it unnerved Fili quite a bit. In the forest, it had first been Bombur to succumb to the illusions, although the others were not far behind.
"Silence." Thorin stepped forward, pressing his head against the bars. "Have you forgotten our hobbit is still out there. We sit. We wait. He will come for us."
As much as Fili saw Bilbo as a great friend, the dwarf prince could not picture him saving the company.
The dwarves continued to banter and argue and despair. The day was fading and Durin's day approached fast. Fili noticed throughout this time, his brother had not spoken up.
"Kili?" He asked softly. The prince heard a grunt from the cell next to him before something clattered to the ground.
"What do ye want, Fili?" The dwarf's tone was harsh and Fili grimaced. Kili had always been the sort to regret his mistakes far too late and then wallow in self misery.
"This is not the time to cry over your problems, brother. We must figure out a plan of escape."
"Escape?" Kili scoffed. "The best place we'd escape to here is to our dreams. We have no hope of getting out."
And with that, the two brothers lapsed into silence. Fili shifted from his sitting position and laid down.
"Fili?" Kili's voice called out a while later. Fili grunted in response.
"Did you see her face? When we left? Before she walked away from me, I swear I saw her cry." Kili murmured.
"Of course she was crying, you fool. All of last night the poor lass was crying her heart out. I lay with her beneath the moon but even the night light would not soother her heart. How many times must you drop her, tear her heart to shreds, ignore her pleas, before you are satisfied?
"If it were not for my love for you, I would have killed ye and taken her for myself already." Fili's tone was not joking. He was seriously contemplating what he would have done to Kili had they not been family.
"Brother, surely you are not serious."
"Aye, but I am. You have hurt the lass far too many times. She deserves better than ya."
The words were harsh, Fili knew that. But he could not help but resent his brother slightly for bruising the hobbit's heart so. He was getting slightly sick of cleaning up the younger prince's mistakes.
"One day, your actions will cause her so much pain she will no longer have a spot for you. You will be cast out and she will not be able to let you in. And that is what makes you both vulnerable." With these words, Fili lay down and turned on his side. He was determined to ignore any more of his brother's words.
"You do not know how much my heart burns for the lass, brother." Kili whispered before retreating back to the shadows of his cell.
"The dragon had told me that he would leave a few members of my clan alive, so that we could continue our bloodline. Then he would take it upon himself to slay that generation, leaving a few members that time round too.
"In my time, there were two he left. One of which was my cousin, Finnigan.
"I was months after my encounter with the dragon before I returned to Gondor. By that time, the beast had gotten around to doing what he had promised me. I was met not with open arms but with sharp looks of betrayal and distrust. Even my family, who had always opened their doors to me, locked me out.
"Finnigan was the only one who would look me in the eye. I took to relying on him for food and shelter. But it was not my place to stay, for he had already MarKed upon someone.
"When a Defender MarKes someone, they are swearing an oath to aid and protect this person in whatever he or she had to do. Usually a Defender will MarK on a person who is on a quest.
"Finnigan had MarKed upon a man by the name of Jerrah. Jerrah was journeying to Rivendell to receive a package, after which he had to head to Bree. The package, as it turned out, was not actually a package but rather a woman.
"As you can imagine, travelling with a woman, the two men both fell for her. She could not choose. She would not choose. It was because of their love for her, that the three of them were slain." Elijah shook his head quickly. Mirabelle petted his fur reassuringly. She could feel it in his aura. He was trying to stop the bad memories from resurfacing.
"Elijah..."
The tiger cut her off, "I do not know the details of their death. I was not present at the time. In fact, I was in Laketown when this happened. Do not ask me how I found myself in that town. I will not be able to answer you.
"Finnigan and his companions were only three days away from Bree when they were ambushed. It turned out; the girl was precious to some bad people. In that battle, Finnigan was torn between the one he loved and the one he had sworn to protect. He could not save them both, so he sacrificed them all.
"That was the downfall of Finnigan, the first example to all Defenders. Do not fall in love once you have MarKed."
Fili listened as his brother poured his soul out to the elf maiden. It made his anger boil. Who did Kili think he was, to fall for another while Mirabelle was absent?
Fili crushed the stone in his grasp.
"Fili." Dwalin was in the cell opposite him to the right. The older dwarf had noticed the prince's anger.
"What?" Fili snapped out. He had not meant to be angry but he couldn't help it. His brother was a fool.
"Calm your fury, Fili. The sun has set, it is time for you to get your rest. Something tells me that tomorrow will be the day of our escape." Dwalin stated.
"Hush!" Thorin thundered from across the cell room. "Do you want that elf to hear our plans?"
"Oh you do not need to fear that." Fili growled out, "for she is too taken to your younger nephew to notice." With these words, Fili reluctantly rolled over to the shadows and forced himself to sleep.
"Oh my." Dwalin muttered softly.
Mirabelle slashed at the spider leg before her. The blade she had been carrying was fast becoming soaked in spider blood.
The hobbit ducked as another leg came flying toward her. She shifted her body weight onto her back leg before flinging herself into the air. She pierces the spider in the middle of its eyes and dragged the sword downward.
Elijah swiped and clawed at the spider in front of him, effortlessly butchering it.
Mirabelle manoeuvred out of the way as three hairy legs came crashing down. She sliced her blade in a circular motion around her.
As one of the creatures towered over her, Mirabelle felt a burning sensation on her forehead. "Finally." She said.
With a renewed rush of energy, the hobbit stabbed the blade into the spider's underside, pushing it in right to the hilt. She placed both her feet next to it, hanging upside down, before pushing of and pulling the sword out of the dead spider.
"Hurry now, Defender. Follow me." Elijah ripped the spider's face off before bounding away. Mirabelle gasped for air. She stood up and followed the tiger without sheathing her blade.
"Hurry Defender. We must make haste." Elijah nudged the hobbit onto his back before taking off. The two of them rose up above the treetops.
Mirabelle felt her mark burn again and rubbed it gently with her finger. The adrenaline from earlier had worn off and the hobbit was falling into a daze.
"Elijah? I think... I think I know the way."
She gently nudged the tiger's head to the left before urging him to pick up speed. They were soaring through the air a little while later.
"Remind me why we did not do this before?"
"Because there are dangers in the air far worse than the spiders on the forest ground."
Mirabelle raised an eyebrow before remembering the tiger could not see her face. "And we are safe now because...?"
"We are not safe."
"All right then. Well are you at least going to finish your tale of the Defenders?"
The tiger's head shook slowly from one side to the other. His wings flapped once again before Mirabelle felt them descend.
"We are here?"
"It depends on what you mean by here. We have arrived at the Elven palace of Thranduil, the king of the Mirkwood Elves. You must remember these elves are far more ferocious than those at Rivendell. They will not greet you with kind words."
The shadows moved around Gandalf as he walked across the stone bridge. He had left the company with a heavy heart but Galadriel had called to him.
Gandalf paused. He stood in the centre of several tall and looming stone blocks. He could hear voices whispering up ahead.
"The tiger is with her..." One of the voices murmured. There was a gliding sound and a sharp whistle of material. Someone was being held against the wall.
"The Defender has MarKed?"
"I do not think so, Master. She has only fallen in love with the dwarf."
Gandalf sucked in a breath. He restrained his anger and listened for a while longer.
"Follow the company. Trick the dwarf prince if you must. Whatever you do, get me that Stone."
The voices faded and Gandalf continued his walk. "Were they referring to the Arkenstone? Why would they need the Arkenstone?"
"Do you think he heard us, Master?" A girl whispered as she crouched on the tall stone block. She had been watching the wizard for a while.
"Yes he did. It matters not what he makes of it. We have implanted into his head the idea of the Stone. He does not know about the Stone of Ruins so he will not seek it. That is your duty, my dear. Do not let me down."
The girl shivered in delight as her Master breathed next to her ear. "I will do as you say, Master. You shall have your stone. Middle Earth will lie in ruins!"
Oh. My. Gosh. Is it really Crimson? Back from the dead? I know... I'm so sorry.
Um... I don't know what to say to have you all forgive me. L I apologise for my absence and I understand if you no longer wish to follow or read this story.
I cannot make promises about this story and whether or not it will ever be finished. But I have written the plan out and the last few chapters so right now I just have to fill in the gaps.
Thank you all for reading and reviewing and I think you all deserve a cookie.
Cheers and apologies,
Crimson xx