Sorry about not updating last week. Please see my author's note at the end. Hope you enjoy reading!
I stared at the tall man before me. "What do you mean waited?" I asked, confused by his meaning. Then a thought entered my head. No, could he be?...
"I was the bear, dwarfling." The man replied in his deep voice. "You waited for me."
I stared at the giant before me. I had heard stories of wild men of the north called skin changers that had settled around the Misty Mountains. The stories said that they could take another form than human, a form of certain animal. One of the animals were bears.
"You're a skin changer, aren't you." I said cautiously. It was not a question, it was an observation.
He nodded solemnly. "And you are on my property, I don't take kindly to strangers, especially dwarves."
I took an involuntary step backwards. "I did not know, I'm sorry. Wargs and orcs were chasing me as you can see." I explained.
"Yes, but why?" He asked, looking straight into my eyes.
I would have refused to tell him, saying it was my business alone but something stopped me. His penetrating eyes, boring into mine.
I squared my shoulders and returned his stare. "Because they are hunting me and my family. I am trying to warn them." I said, not giving much information away.
"You are the daughter of Thorin Oakenshield?" The skin changer asked.
I sighed, sometimes I got confused for my uncle's daughter, though we did not mind too much, he had been like a father to me and my brothers over the years.
"No, his sister-daughter." I replied, shaking my head.
"Ah, you look alike." He commented.
This caught my interest. "How do you know what he looks like? Have you seen him before?"
"Yes." The man said with a nod. "Oakenshield and his company of dwarves saught refuge in my house along with their wizard friend and a halfling. They left two days past."
Once again I had missed them by only a few days. I suspected that Gandalf had led them straight to this skin changer's house, while I traveled by unsuspectedly, evading my enemies, taking more time to arrive. It was great fortune that I did find the skin changer's home eventually.
I looked up from my thoughts suddenly. "May I ask your name?" I inquired.
"Beorn." He replied. "And what is yours, sister-daughter of Thorin Oakenshield?" He asked, looking at me closely.
I stood a little taller. "Valdis daughter of Vali son of Val and Dis daughter of Thrain." I replied proudly. "At your service." I added, bowing my head. Beorn sighed and mumbled something about annoying dwarves and their service, though I chose to ignore it.
"Valdis." Beorn mumbled, as if trying my name in his tongue. When he said my name aloud something sparked in my mind. Hearing my name aloud for the first time in months brought a smile to my face, gave me some sense of reassurance, though I did not know why.
"Your wound needs healing, you may stay at my cottage for a few days." Beorn said with an underlying tone of compassion in his voice. Just then I remembered the warg bite on my shoulder which I had forgotten up until that moment. I looked at my left upper arm and shoulder to see my tunic soaked with blood. The blasted warg's teeth had ripped my arm up well. I could not believe I hadn't noticed the pain before, the sharp flares in my shoulder or the burning pain all over my upper arm.
"Thank you sir." I said politely and nodded my head in gratitude. He led me forewards into the trees, after only a few short minutes of walking I saw a cottage in a green clearing. There were horses and sheep eating green grass in the fields around the cottage. Large grey dogs greeted us. I noted there were no fences in sight. Though I was a dwarf and felt most at home in stone walls, I could not help but love this secluded place in the woods. I gingerly placed my hand on my open wounds, hoping that would stop the jolting pain walking caused.
Beorn walked towards his house in silence, looking back every once and a while to make sure I was alright. He was such a strange man, his eyes and bearing was unlike any I had seen. The obvious wild instincts in him made me weary of triggering his anger.
"Come in dwarfling." Beorn said as he opened the large wooden door to his cottage. "Valdis." He amended, using my name. I smiled slightly in thanks and stepped in. Everything was made from wood, and from the wood intricate carvings decorated almost everything. I looked around in awe. A stone hearth with a fire in it was built into one side of the main room. I walked over and looked at the stone work. It was not a bad quality craftsmanship.
"Sit there and I will bring supplies." Beorn told me, indicating a large chair near the hearth. I sat down politely and set my heavy traveling pack on the floor. I had a basic healer kit in my bag, it had strips of cloth to wrap around wounds and dried herbs to help with different wounds and sicknesses. But as I had suspected, my travel through the river had ruined and dirtied all of my supplies. I sighed, saddened that my things had dried river water in them, some were still wet.
Footsteps alerted me to the return of Beorn. I looked up to see him holding a small basket of things including cloths and grounded herbs in glass jars.
"You may use what you need to heal yourself. I will prepare lunch." The skin changer said and set the basket down on the ground. I said my thanks and got to work.
...
"Since you are taking refuge in my house I would ask what you are doing in these parts and why you are not with your uncle?" Beorn asked as we sat around his table eating lunch. His dogs were bringing us plates of food and I was amazed that they did not drop the plates or eat the food. Sheep also came with bowls on their woolen backs and helped set the table. It was a strange sight. I looked up at his inquiry and thought of how much to tell. I knew this quest had to stay secret so word did not get out to the enemy but I guessed it did not matter now.
I sighed and put down the glass I was holding and replied. "I was meant to stay home, to be safe. But I overheard orcs saying that an old enemy, Azog the Defiler, who was supposed to be dead, and he was sending out forces to kill my uncle. So I came to warn him, and I know he already knows is being hunted, but not the other plans of the orcs. They plan to conquer the Lonely Mountain as well, our ancient home of Erebor."
Beorn scanned my face, probably trying to tell if I was lying or not. I had nothing to fear as I had not lied. He hummed and leaned back in his chair.
"This aligns with the story Gandalf the Grey told me, and what your uncle said." He stated thoughtfully. I nodded and looked back down on my plate. Sadly he did not serve meat but I understood why if he himself was an animal and all his friends were animals.
"Is your arm a little better?" Beorn asked me, nodding to my wrapped shoulder. I involuntarily placed my hand gingerly on my upper arm as my attention came to it.
"A little, aye. Thank you for the healing supplies, my own has been drenched with river water." I replied, giving him a small smile of thanks.
"I have never seen a dwarven woman before." The skin changer said, ignoring our previous conversation as he switched subjects suddenly. I knew I would get this reaction when I embarked on this mission. It was unheard of that a dwarrowdam would be traveling in the open, much less alone.
"We are highly treasured and respected as very few dwarrowdams are born in comparison to the men. So we often like to stay with our own people and not venture out. It causes all dwarrow great grief when one of the women die. Besides, most of the dwarves in general like to stay among their own people." I explained.
Beorn hummed in his deep voice. Although it almost sounded like a growl, I knew it was not.
"And what of your people?" I asked, breaking the short silence between us. The skin changer looked at me with eyes of deep sorrow.
"I am the last one alive." He said blankly. I was silent, feeling some of the sorrow I would feel if I had been that last of my people to survive. We both said there quietly, thinking, until Beorn said he needed to leave. When I questioned him further about it he said that he needed to check the perimeter, and not to go outside at the pain of death. I gulped but assured him I would stay indoors for the night. He left and I heard the roar of a bear outside.
I decided I would leave in the late morning tomorrow, to keep up with my traveling kin. So I packed some provisions from Beorn's pantry and rearranged my things in my pack. When I finished sat next to the hearth, staring into the fire, thinking. As I thought, I idly re-braided my long dark hair. I smiled slightly, there had not been time to re-braid my hair in days since I had been on the run. Many times I had to untangle some knots in my hair from the lack of care. I was able to put in two small traditional braids on either side of my head with special beads in them saying I was of the line of Durin and unmarried. Having the opportunity to do these little things made me feel connected with my people, even though I was far from the regions I grew up in.
A large grey dog pattered up to me and sat itself down next to me. I smiled and started to stroked it's silver fur. It seemed to like that and curled up closer to me, leaning against my legs.
"Hello there." I whispered to the dog. "Raene, right?" I asked, trying to remember her name from when Beorn called her earlier.
Raene looked up and me for a few seconds, as if she was confirming that that was her name, then laid her head back down. I smiled to myself as I pet her and kept petting her as I watched the fire dance.
This chapter is on the shorter side, but I've been really busy for a while. I will have to wait to update until I get back into my groove and am able to write again. Hope you all understand, don't worry I will be continuing.
Thanks for reading, please review if you can. They motivate me to keep writing. ;) Thank you to those who have written reviews, especially TolkienGeek1 and pallysd'Artagnan!
Sincerely,
N.T.N.