" Well common then! You need to learn how to fight with that thing if you think that you are really going to be using it!" I smiled as I picked up my sword and held it in front of me.
" I really do think that I should even have a sword, let alone should I be learning how to use one. I am really not a violent person!" Bilbo replied as he raised his sword with both hands.
" Well then what are you going to do if you are cornered by three Orcs, all the rest of us are battling, and you only have your sword but you don't know how to use it? Just start swinging and hoping that you hit someone?" I asked as I started to move closer to him taking aim and Bilbo swinging his sword at me. " I will take that as a yes." I sighed as I moved the hair out of my face once again and could feel the braids that I had not taken out yet hanging in my hair.
We took hours at a time just trying to get Bilbo to be able to fight, it seemed like a hopeless cause. The poor little Hobbit did not have a single hurtful born in his whole body as we sat in the middle of the woods both eating at some apples that we had picked on our way out here. The last time that we had fought he actually fought back pretty hard and we called it a draw and decided that it would be enough for the night. It had been a long night with me sleeping alone in my room, I could not get to sleep for the life of me. I felt like hell, I was sore and had too many cramps running through my body, my head was pounding, and I knew that there were bags under my eyes from not being able to get enough sleep.
Though on the outside I looked just as happy as I could be, on the inside I felt like I was dying all over again. All I wanted to do was curl up into a tight little ball and never come out of it. But I refused to do that because that would show defeat. I was going to make it to the end of this journey no matter what happened, no one was going to stop me from doing that. Not even the soon to be king of the land that I was fighting for. I had never been heartbroken before, but I knew that it physically hurt just as much as it did mentally. But as I looked over to Bilbo who knew all of the things that I was going through and I knew that he would be there for me no matter what happened, all I could do was smile at him and try to hide all of the pain that was on the inside.
Bilbo was really trying to do everything that he could to make me feel better. There was something on the inside of him that did not like seeing people in such pain and he wanted to be able to help it if he could. It really did make me happy being out and away from the rest of the group, no matter how much they tried to help me and be there for me they would still be there for Fili more, and just starting to finally be able to reconnect with nature. Bilbo was always telling me about the Shire, the place that he grew up and lived in, how beautiful it was there. I hoped that one day I would be able to make it back to the Shire with him.
" You know, before any of this happen, I mean way back when I was really a child, I did some of the most foolish things. . ." I said with a laugh as Bilbo took out his pipe and started to smoke from it. " I loved animals and nature so much that whenever I was not in school or with my brothers, I would be found out and about in the woods or around the water, where ever I could find life really. I mean there was something that I just loved about wildlife. So slowly I started to bring the animals home like me. It started out simple, ya know, toads and a lone rabbit here and there. Just some wild animals that my mum would shoo back into the wild when I was finally asleep. But then one night Mum came into my room to find that Benny was in there. . ." I started to laugh as Bilbo looked up at me.
" And who may I ask was Benny?" He said with a smile on his face, he knew that it was going to be a good story.
" Oh Benny, he was the first thing that I ever loved." I smiled as I remembered the last.
" Benny huh?" Kili said as he came from the trees. " Tall, pale, and handsome?"
" Small, multicolored, and very very cute. He was an injured raccoon that I found while playing in the woods one day. I brought him home with me and hid him in my room for a good two weeks. He stayed in my closet during the days and at night we played all around my room. Soon though he started to get better, he started to take all of my things and take them back into his little burrow in the closet! And them one day I walked into my closet and I found mine, my both of my brothers, and my mothers crown in the closet in a small little nest and Benny sitting right in the middle!" I laughed as I remembered. " Mother was so mad that she made me take out either Elrond or Elros with me at all times." I sighed as I looked up and into the woods around us. " It was never as fun with them around."
" Oh, I see." Kili said as he sat beside of us, I could not look at him, he and his brother had never looked much alike until now. I had to get up from where I was sitting and started to move around. It was the only thing that kept me from bursting my heart out once again.
" Do you want to get back to fighting?" Bilbo asked but before he could even pick up his sword I shook my head and just starred up at the sky.
" Is she still upset?" Kili whispered to Bilbo.
" She is just amazing at holding it back." Bilbo whispered back, I was so sick of acting like I could not hear every word that they were saying.
" What do you want to do, Ireth?" Kili asked as he stood up.
" Trust me when I say that you do not want to know what I truly want to do." I spat as I spun around as Kili tried to meet me face to face.
" No, I want to know, what is it that you want to do on this beautiful day. The others are all well rested and soon we will be moving on from this place. This may be the last day that we have to just do whatever it is we want! There must be something that you want to do, please tell me it!" Kili nearly begged as he kept turning, trying to meet me face to face.
" I really would not do that if I were you!" Bilbo said as he stood up from his place and took another bite from his apple.
" You really want to know what I want to do?" I hissed as I kept spinning around and around, this was starting to feel like a game.
" Yes! Did I not just ask that of you?" Kili asked as finally he took me shoulders and made me face him.
" I want to kill something! I want to beat something to the ground until it cannot move anymore! I want to run away and never come back from this place but then again I want to stay here just to prove to you pricks that I can make it here with you and that not all Elf's are down right evil. I want to scream at each and every one of you until you all understand that I am not just an Elf, I'm also a Dwarf just like the rest of you! I sorry that I'm not perfect and I cannot be 100% of just one thing, I have been battling with that all my damn life! I can't change who I am and I will not just because everyone seems to think that I would not be fit to become a queen of your people, since I guess that they are not my people! What I want to do is. . .is. . ." I could feel my lips forming the word, but I refused to let it come out. No. I would never say it again. What I wanted, needed, was Fili, but he did not love me, did not need me, did not respect me, and did not want me.
" Fight me." Kili whispered as he took his hands off my shoulders and backed up a bit.
" What?" I questioned as I looked at him as if he was crazed.
" Fight me." He said as he raised his arms up, the smile that he always seemed to have on his face as missing now.
" No!" I said as I started to walk away from the Dwarf.
" You need to get all of your emotions out, you will be a danger to us all on this journey in the state that you are in. If you want to prove yourself then you have to be in control of your emotions. You need to get them all out and I am just the person to take them out on. Common, hold nothing back and I will to the same with you. Right here, right now." He said as he threw his knife into the tree near where with had been sitting, I took my sword out of it's case and dug it into the ground.
" You're serious about this, aren't you?" I questioned with a thin smiling forming on my face.
" As serious as a Dwarf can get." He said with a thin line of a smile coming to his.
" This should be good." Bilbo said as he took a few steps back to make sure that he would be protected.
" I'm not going to hold back on your just because you are a girl though." Kili said with a smile as I got into a fighting stance.
" Really? Because I am not going to go easy on you just because you are a Dwarf!" I teased as he looked truly hurt.
" See? This is all of the stuff that you needed to get out!" Kili said with a smile as got done into his stance as well. " I think that we are-"
So he looked over to Bilbo I instantly went onto the attack mode and sprung for him, tackling him to the ground and pushing my upper arm over his shoulders to keep him pinned down. I knew that this would not last long as the young Dwarf would have had much more fighting practice than I would. Soon he spun us around so that I was on bottom and that he was on top, his knee pressing into my ribs and with a smile I looked up at him as he asked if I wanted to give up now and rocked my hips back, brought my legs around his body and kicked him off of me as I jumped to my feet. Kili was in shock as his body was up against another tree that was nearby, I smiled as I looked over at Bilbo
" I am still just as bendy as ever!" I smiled as I raised my arms as if I had already won.
" Rule number one to learn from Dwarfs, never turn your back on the enemy." Kili said from behind as he tried to punch me in the head.
Instead I grabbed him by his first, jumped as high as I could in the air and wrapped my legs around his shoulders and sent him to the ground. I pulled from the arm to the shoulder, wrapping his head between my legs and squeezing it tightly. Either he would give up because he was losing air or because he felt like his arm was going to fall off. It would have been either that or he would have had a dislocated shoulder or he would have passed out, either way that would make me the winner either way, but I would have explain to the group why Kili was knocked out cold or his arm was hanging from his shoulder. But I smiled as I could feel him tapping on my legs and allowed him to get a breath of air as I stood from the ground with a smile slowly coming to my face.
" Rule number one to learn from an Elf, always know your enemy's next move before he does." I smiled as I waved him Kili to run after me once again.
As he did I smiled as I looked around and jumped above me to one of the branches that was close enough for me to hop from one to the other and before he even knew what happened I dropped beside of him and punched him right in the stomach, making him fall to the ground. Though it did hurt me to know that I had hurt one of my friends, it also felt so good to be able to get all of the pent up emotions that I had finally out. Though I could see that Kili was in such pain, I gave him out my hand and smiled when he took it and then he did something that I had not been expecting for more than a split second. He used all of his strength that he had and sent me to the ground beside of him and straddled me from above. With a smile on his face he started to tickle me! I was in such a state of shock that all I could do was wiggle around and smack him!
" Stop it! I swear to you I will kill you for this! Kili! Get off of me!" I yelled as he kept tickling me and my laughter.
" I really do not think that you are in the position to be threatening anyone anymore Dear. Really what I think that you should be doing is sitting back and taking all of this in. This is what you need you know?" Kili teased me as he kept moving his fingers around my waist and I kept hitting him as hard as I could.
" Kili! Please! Kili!" I screamed in between laughing fits. " Get the hell off of me right now!
" What the hell is going on here?" A voice called from behind as Kili got thrown off of my body and thrown back. " And you! How dare you think that it was alright to just sit back and watch that!" Fili hissed as he moved towards Bilbo. I instantly took up my bow and arrows from close beside me and raised it to Fili, afraid for me friends like, but Kili almost instantly made me lower it.
" Brother, we were just fighting, playing really." Kili said as he got to his feet and moved to his brother. " I was tickling her. Nothing more than that." He smiled at his brother as Fili looked over at me and I could feel my heart breaking once again.
" Is this so?" Fili asked as he looked over to me and shot out his hand to help me up. I scowled at him and found my own way up, placing my bow and arrow around my body and placing my sword back to where in belonged in it's case.
" Why the hell do you care again all of a sudden? Common Bilbo, I think that we should get back to the house before someone calls a search party after us. Since we are two people that cannot be trusted alone." I hissed as my friend came to my side and we started to walk away from the two brothers.
Something new washed over me in that moment that I did not understand and did not know if I even wanted to understand. I was so infuriated with him, I wanted do barely to just walk back to them and kick him right where it would hurt, to watch him fall to the ground, and scream at him until my face turned blue and I could not scream anymore. But instead I follow Bilbo, who was now leading the two of us, back to our little hut in the middle of nowhere to find that almost everyone was in the kitchen area smiling and having a good time. Everyone that is, besides Thorin, Gandalf, Balin, and Dwalin who, if I knew, were most likely talking about the way that they were going to be leaving soon. But there was a place for the two of us at the table and like always we felt so welcomed with them.
" Would you like a drink, Miss Ireth?" Beorn asked from his place in the kitchen, it was his night to cook for the rest of us.
" Please, the biggest one that you have and please keep them coming." I smiled as the rest of the group instantly starred at me.
" Ireth? Drinking? I thought that I would never see the day!" Bofur said with a smile as Beorn brought me the biggest glass that he had.
" Are you even old enough to drink Lassie?" Gloin said with a smile as he nudged my arm with his.
" Oh trust me, I have been drinking for a pretty long time. You do not deny a drink at the Inn when you are not paying for it." I said with a smile as I took a chug from my glass and allowed the cool liquid to go down my throat.
" You think that you would be able to beat the record then?" Dori asked with a smile coming to his face.
" Record? What record?" Bilbo asked as I kept drinking.
" Drinking record of course." Dori replied as he looked over at me.
" How many?" I said as I slammed my glass down on the table it was already empty.
" Fifteen." Fili said as he came into the hut. " It's my record, no one has been able to beat it."
" Give me another drink!" I yelled as I gave my glass to Beorn.
" Do you think that we are going to see a drunk Elf?" Ori asked to Nori.
" I'm betting on Ireth." Bifur said.
" An Elf being able to out-drink a Dwarf? No way, I'll take that bet!" Dori replied as they both placed down some coins onto the table.
" Count me in, my bets on Ireth." Kili said as he slammed his money down on the table and came and stood behind me. " Sorry Brother."
" My bets on Fili." Dwalin said as he came around the corner and slammed down his coins onto the table with such force it shook the table.
" I do not believe that any of you have seen how much an Elf can drink. Especially not our Ireth. My bets on her." Gandalf said as he placed his on the table as well. Soon enough everyone had placed their bets between myself and Fili. Everyone besides Bilbo, who did not bet.
" Well. . . let the games begin!" I said with a smile as I started to chug down my second glass.
