Author's Note: Thank all of you who read the last chapter and this chapter is a bit of some action written for you! I realize that I need to push the pace of this fic a little and we'll soon enter somewhere which is likely to change Thorin forever...Have fun reading this chapter!
The road was long, and they had been groping in the darkness for long. The road seemed straight, but now that they had gone for a distance, they found that the road was always curving slightly towards the left.
Alaneth looked up, "we should be climbing up shortly." before long, they found the road widened into another platform and a staircases were on the left hand of the walls. These stairs were not in a better condition and in some places, they were even more narrow and broken. The morning had already come. As they climbed upwards, the darkness turned into a misty grey and soon they didn't have to use Alaneth's jewels to see their way.
"wait." Alaneth, who was now leading the team, stopped their track, "the King must have known something by now. We have now reached the far east side of the forest, so we must go swiftly once we got on the ground. You would have to follow me carefully." no one spoke. They could already see the top of the stairs and the Dwarves were all filled with an excitement of a possible fight.
But there was no fight. When they got on the solid ground again, they saw no sign of the coming guards and the forest was just as it always had been, silent as death. Alaneth looked back once more at the trees and shadows. For a moment, Thorin thought that he saw a longing and a guilt in her eyes. Something warm and regretful. "thank you for leading us out," Thorin said softly. He understood the bitterness of leaving home, and he didn't want that bitterness to be overwhelming for yet another person who had nothing personal against him, Elf or not. "we will go on our way. You don't have to go with us." Alaneth looked at him in the eye and she smiled warmly a little. She knew what he was saying, but then, soothing down her mixed emotion, she again tilted her head backwards in a proud manner and that smart light went back to the dark eyes. "Now I don't have a choice anymore. The King wouldn't forgive the traitor so easily." Thorin nodded and he went back to his people.
The sun was coming up and now Thorin could see the direction they were heading. They were going all the way southeast and after some very thin woods, they saw a narrow plain stretching before them. For some reason, they halted. "stop!" Alaneth said all of a sudden, and, being alert already, Thorin signed a halt and spinned around to face her. Alaneth was alert and there Thorin could even see fear. Something must have come up. "What is it?" "Something's coming. Orcs." her last word was no more than a breath, but the word was like a thunder striking right in the middle of the company and everyone took their positions. It was.
Seemingly out of nowhere, Orcs swarmed out and closed in around the company. "Oh, by God." Kili breathed when he saw the coming of the Orcs was continuing and soon, the plain was dotted with Orcs, every one of which had a horrible snarl on its face and held its awkward but enormous weapon. They were surrounded. "Hold your position!" Thorin roared in a sea of the snarling of the Orcs. The sound they uttered was harsh and sharp and whoever heard it could feel the course of the shudder running down his/her spin. Thorin had his eyes fixed on the first Orc that was coming with his ax waving in the air. So this was it. This would be his first kill after so long. This would be the first sign that he had been back his old self again. To be a warrior, he needed a hideous enemy. The Orcs stopped just around them. They were all baring their teeth, and their yellow, blue, brown eyes were shining under the sunlight. Dark purple venom dripped down from their mouths and some of them had their tongues out like snakes. For a moment, they halted, thirsty for the blood and slaughter. "Kili!" Thorin shouted. He wasn't going to wait until the battle started. Kili listened and, taking his best aim, loosened the string of his bow. The arrow whooshed and pierced the air and sank deep in the right eye of an Orc with a horrifying lump on his head. And so the battle started.
The Orcs were infuriated, and they swarmed upon the company and everywhere they set their feet the venom and their reek killed the grass and flowers. Leaving a track of death and blackness, they came upon the Dwarves.
It had been so long since Thorin had been in a real battle, but the moment he slashed at an Orc and felt the resistance of the pierced flesh, he knew he remembered all too well what it was like to kill, to unleash his fury in such a direct and straight way, to spill blood, to justify the violence that he couldn't show in the face of other people. The hatred for such hideous creatures was so vivid that it boiled his blood, but there was a dark pleasure he couldn't account for. The battle was back. Thorin as the warrior was back.
Orcs were throwing themselves at him like crazy and his hand was starting to get sore from the pressure he put on the hilt. He knew he was almost covered in blood or the dark, sizzling, thick liquid, but he couldn't stop, not with what had been burning in his chest died down a little. Thorin turned his sharp glances everywhere to see how the others were doing. Kili was running out of his arrows and he, seemed to be aware of that, was starting to fight rather than shoot. Gandalf wasn't letting any of this filth getting close to him, and his power swept every enemy to their feet and some abandoned their weapons, rushing away from the light and some horrible sound which was elusive to the ears of the company. "Alaneth!" Thorin shouted, and Alaneth, turning sharply, sank her long blade in the neck of an Orc who was strong, but was trying to sneak up upon her. They stared into each other's eyes for a while and Thorin saw in there the excitement, tension and a sense of strange freedom. The Man warrior, Emroy, was not as bad as Thorin thought he would be in the battlefield. Thorin almost gave him recognition for his skill in the blade. Yes, Emroy was using the Dwarvish blade and it proved the deadly weapon that it was in his hand. His moves were swift and agile, sending every stroke with certainty and enough strength. He fought in a different way. The way belonging to Men.
Thorin would have missed the sound coming from the forest if a particularly fierce Orc he was fighting hadn't lost his attention and looked to the direction of the sound. With one clean slash, the Orc's head fell to the ground, but after the thumping of the blood in his eyes died down, Thorin heard that sound with got the Orc distracted too. His head whipped to Alaneth, who got the best hearing ability in the company. Alaneth's face turned pale, "the King!" she shouted as the first Elvish arrow pierced the heart of the Orc beside her. One moment later, thousands of arrows flew out of the dark forest and every one of them landed with an Orc down. Some were stopped with two hearts pierced. "No!" Thorin growled. The Orcs were only for the starters. Now they had to deal with their born-hostile enemies.
Thorin knew the one in the front. He was moving with special skill and his air set him and all the other Elf archers apart. In his hand was that long bow and the silver vines were shining dimly in the red sun. His face was grim and his blow was sure. The Elves were definitely uniting their force for this. Thorin couldn't for a moment count how many Elves there were, but he was confused that the proud King should send so many people on this. Thorin thought that either they were too important for the King(and the importance he failed to see) or the King was too proud to let any of his captives slip away. Either way, he wasn't as smart as Thorin would give him credit for.
The Orcs were fleeing from the Elvish arrows and blades, but very few of them made it to the brink of the darker forest before Elves came back upon them. Very few indeed escaped into the darker forest, but then, after some horrifying screaming, nothing. None escaped that day. But now the Elves were turning upon the Dwarves. "Lady Alaneth!" the leader of the Elvish company shouted at Alaneth and he leaped cross the bodies of the Orcs to come to her. It was the captain who took Thorin and his company as their prisoners for the first time. It was Terion. Alaneth drew back and she raised her bow in defence. "Don't! I won't go back with you!" she was more exalted than she had been in the fighting, and for the first time, Thorin thought he saw the tears in her eyes. It seemed that this Elf who just saved their lives was more scary than Orcs for Alaneth. "Please, Lady Alaneth, the King awaits and he will give you his pardon. You shall be what you used to be and the King's love will not be diminished!" Terion stopped some paces away and his eyes softened. "No!" Alaneth said, her voice quivering with what emotion Thorin couldn't understand. "I will never go back now that I've gone so far. Terion, let me go if you still consider me as your friend. Let me escape from that cage!" "Lady Alaneth, the King..." Terion didn't finish it before Alaneth came upon him. She raised her bow and slashed it at Terion. Terion was the captain of the guards and however swift and smart Alaneth was, he could have taken her down.
The Elves and Dwarves started their fighting. Thorin didn't set his mind on the real killing. Neither parties wanted to kill the other. Terion winded his arm around the shoulders of Alaneth and used the other hand to grasp her wrist to stop her bow. He secured her back against him. "Lady Alaneth, the King has given the orders for me to take you and them back. Please, Lady Alaneth, come home with us!" his voice was breathy, but that pleading tone made the tears rolling down her cheeks. "I can't go back, Terion." she said, suppressing her overwhelming weariness and using the one free hand she had, she drew out a slender blade from the strap of her thigh and sank it deeply in Terion's thigh. With a miserable moan Terion sank to the ground, with that blade still in his thigh. Alaneth broke free and with a painful look, she jumped away from him. "Tell them to stop. Tell them to let us go!" it suddenly grew silent and the Elves were looking on their captain with shock, Alaneth with confusion and hurt.
The whole place was silent except for the laboring breath of Terion and his hissing of plain, but he steadied himself and looked into Alaneth's eyes."Let them go." it was a whisper, but the Elves didn't need shouting. Alaneth didn't say a thing. Her world was spinning and a bitter block was stuck in her throat that she thought she could faint in any moment. She turned to go, unable to look at the bleeding Terion. "Alaneth..."He mumbled at last. Alaneth stopped dead. She wanted to turn back, because now she would be facing her friend Terion instead of just the captain of the guards. She could hear the pain, but mostly pleading in his voice as if he was begging her to turn around. She wanted to turn around. She wanted to run to him to tell him how sorry she was and how much she hated herself for what she had done to him, for she knew that he was calling her Alaneth instead of "Lady Alaneth". Lady Alaneth was gone. But to be the Alaneth she had dreamed of, she couldn't be the Alaneth for him right now. She didn't say a word. She fled to the Dwarvish company which was now retreating to the other side of the plain.
Alaneth was gone.
They rested for the night and all were tending their wounds from the fighting. All, but Alaneth, was still themselves. Emroy had been trying to talk to Alaneth in vain, and Thorin could see that she changed. The bravery and smartness in her eyes were dull and she only kept up her façade with a face of seriousness and haughtiness. Thorin could see how she was falling apart on the inside, but he wasn't sure why. He was lied to when Alaneth didn't tell him she was a Lady. He thought he should be angry for this dishonesty, but he wasn't. She had her reasons and whoever she was, she led them out and didn't abandon them when her people came.
The Dwarves started a fire and they were boiling water for to clean the wounds. Thorin walked around seeing them doing the medical work, refusing to be treated until the last of his men were clear. And that was when he saw Alaneth, in the coldest corner of the camp, sitting upon the root of a tree, hugging herself. She was staring aimlessly and her face was expressionless. Thorin walked over. On the inside, he was sighing. He wasn't at all mistaken when he thought Alaneth had only been a girl. Now he would have to comfort her out of the duty of her leader, if she would ever subject her pride to be led. "You didn't take the battle so well." He said softly and took a seat beside her.
Alaneth was momentarily surprised at his deep voice, but she soon recovered and resumed her void face. "I took up well."
"You didn't tell me that you were the Lady of the woods."that earned a cold, hard glare from Alaneth.
"No, I didn't, for I failed to see why that would make any difference. I didn't abandon you. I turned against my people. I wounded my friend for my promise to you!" she snapped and Thorin saw the tears returning to her eyes.
"and I'm grateful. Trust me, I understand the hardship of turning away from your people." Thorin said, the scene of the bodies he left behind in the snow peak of the Blue Mountains flashed in front of his eyes. "I take it that you are the daughter of Lomenil?"
Alaneth sighed. "Yes, I am his only daughter, the sole heir of our Kingdom." she remained silent for a while and looked at Thorin. She didn't know whether she should tell him about her fate, but the depth of Thorin drew her in and she felt that this man was somehow stronger than she was to bear the pain. "my father wants me to stay and be The Lady. Only I wouldn't. I delighted in the forest when I was young, but that is no more. This forest, these trees, these endless stairs are suffocating me. I was caged, but I still wanted to LIVE. I want my own life, and my father and my people were stealing them away from me. I was neither a good Princess nor a fair lady." she broke into a smile with her tears flowing, "I don't want the jewels in my hair and I don't want to hold up the graces of a queen. I wanted to go to the end of all lands, if only to prove that I lived for myself. My father wanted me to be selfless for my people, but all I have ever become is more and more selfish. So when you came, I came up with this idea. I will never, I can never go back there. The Elves won't die, but my life will wane as the years drew on. I'll fade into a shadow and be burnt out by the forest. And I can't, be like that." Thorin was deep in thought. He only heard a child in a panic, screaming out of shadow and diminished self-value. He heard not stubbornness; he heard fear.
"You are not a queen," Thorin said quietly, standing up, giving Alaneth one last smile, "because if you are, you will not feel bound by your people. You should live your own life. Ruling is not only a matter of blood; it is that one day, when you leave your people, you wished you had been bound by them." Thorin couldn't go on. He walked away, not sure if he understood what he just told the confused Princess, not sure if he was the one to tell her how to be a Queen.
So, how do you like this little interaction between Alaneth and Thorin? I think they can really connect in a sense that they have the similar position, but they are so different in other ways, and they both need to learn to become better. So, Thorin's company moves forward...How do you like the story so far? I would LOVE to hear some of your thoughts! Please review!