One day after capture…
I woke up and sighed as the morning sun broke through the window of my room. A window that was locked with guards passing down below every so often, I might add, but the sun was nice none the less. The room they'd put me in was on the first floor, in-between other guest rooms, I assumed this was temporary lodging for most welcomed 'guests' like me.
It was nothing special, an average sized room with a cupboard, a shelf of books (written in elvish, wonderful!) a bed, a balcony I wasn't allowed to use and a bathroom, which thankfully, I was aloud to use. They'd been nice enough, bringing me plenty of food and water, running me a bath and bringing me fresh clothes while they cleaned my dirty ones. But they weren't welcoming nice. I hadn't had any questions yet, no one came to see if I'd crack, tell them everything yet. But why would I? it was the best living condition I'd had in days!
I stood from the bed, stretching and yawning as I walked to the long mirror for my usual check up on how I looked now compared to five days ago. Apart form my doe, sleepy eyes I looked fine! Better than I remember looking before I even left home all those months ago! As I pulled my dark black hair straight, where it sat just above my ribs I wondered how long it would take for me to finally start looking like the crazy, wild woman I was feeling myself turning into.
"Miss?" Said a soft voice from outside.
"Come in!" I chirped literally skipping to the door in the soft white dress they'd given me to sleep in.
"I brought you your food." It was the same girl who'd brought my food yesterday. She seemed to be the only one who wasn't actually treating my like a prisoner.
"Thank you." I smiled, eyeing the eggs, meat and toasted bread on the plate. She set it down and turned to leave. "Oh! Wait!" I called she gracefully spun around.
"The others, they're being treated well?" I asked, not sure I really wanted to answer. What if they were treating me well, only to be torturing the others near to death while I filled my face with food and slept in a good bed?
"Their lodging aren't quite as nice as yours, but they're being treated well." She confirmed. "We're not as cruel as you may think, we don't wish to hurt your friends, only to know why you're here, but we wouldn't go to barbaric lengths to gain that knowledge I assure you." She smiled. "Is there anything else, Malady?"
"Err, no. No!…Yes! You wouldn't happen to have any books…not written in elvish, would you?" I asked sheepishly.
"Of course, I'll bring some for you later." She nodded and left the room in one delicate move.
3 Days after capture…
So by now I was a little worried, but I knew someone would conjure up a plan, and we'd probably be out of here by tomorrow. That's if they could find me, that is. What if they gave up while they escaped, what if they've already gone but they had to leave me? Then I realised. Kili. I may sound big headed, but I know he'd never leave me, he'd never just go, not until he found me, even if that meant he got caught, he'd find me, like he said.
I took a little comfort in that as I sat, reading one of the books the girl, Relawyn, I learned her name was. She'd brought me a tall stack of books that I was already halfway through. It kept my thoughts distant and the time went quicker.
5 Days after capture...
I was really starting to worry now. The lack of freedom made the days feel so much longer, but 5 days was already too long for us to be here. It was ok for me, I was in a bloody guest room, but the others were in the dungeons, and although I hadn't seen them, I can't imagined they'd exactly be comfortable. But the waiting was killing me. Relawyn had asked a questions each day since the first, trying to coax an answer out of me, but I couldn't tell them. I'm already the weak link in the company, I don't want to make it even worse by being the one to spill all our plans, especially when I have it best here.
Relawyn stopped by as usual, dropping off food.
"Could I see my friends?" I asked in my sweetest voice, desperate to know they were ok. Although she'd reassured me they were fine I'd more than over heard the Elves guarding my door talking about how much 'the one with the ridiculous hair' squealed when they 'questioned him' what else would that mean?! Dori wouldn't 'squeal' at mere questions. But what if they were saying that, knowing I was listening and hoping to get me to cave in about the questions?
I'm going crazy.
"You can see your friends if you tell us your plans." She said again, like she had yesterday when I asked then.
10 Days after capture…
By this stage I'm quite sure I'm certifiably insane. I'd resorted to counting the leaves on the tree outside my window, or trying to find patterns in the wooden floor to keep my brain occupied. 10 days! That's the longest we'd been anywhere at one time, and the longest I'd been without seeing them. And the worst part was that I was forgetting their voices. Their dumb, stupid voices that said ridiculous things at completely the wrong times. But I so wanted to hear those voices now.
Had the elves captured Bilbo yet? And if not where was the little Hobbit, I can only hope he made it out of the forest if he did manage to avoid capture. There was no way he could save us from this. I'd checked, and I only had two guards outside my room at all times. How many guards would be working in the dungeons?
They'd started talking about 'The old white haired dwarf' how he was growing weaker and that they'd have to stop the 'questioning' soon if they wanted him alive. At that moment I almost burst through the door and told them everything, almost spilled the entire plan if I could free the others. How can they treat them like that? We'd done nothing wrong, and torturing them was inhumane! They had no right I decided, as I stomped round my room, but what could I do, weaponless I wouldn't be able to make it past the guards!
Now we're doomed.
2 Weeks after capture…
I'd started shouting.
Talking to myself came a long time ago, by the 6th day? But now I was shouting, about anything I felt like to anyone who heard, at one pointed I shouted to a squirrel in a tree 100 yards from my window, laughing hysterically when it nearly fell out of the tree. I shouted to the guards outside, how they're such morons, if they don't let us go they'd regret it. As if. But I had to do something to stop me from going insane, although I'm quite sure I'd overstepped that line when I decided I could speak to birds, and understand their language, 3 days ago.
I jumped up and down on my bed, 2 weeks in a room after spending months before hand travelling, walking over vast distances and being totally free was driving me mad. The small, confined space was making me feel like a caged animal. I tried shouting to the others but got no reply. Kili might actually have a god damn beard by the time I see them!
"Argh!" I growled in frustration, kicking the bed post as I did. I'd seriously been contemplating telling them about our journey. Was keeping it a secret really worth it? Especially if they were being tortured, as the guards kept talking about them, how one of the dwarves really didn't enjoy the whip so much.
"I hate elves!" I yelled at the top of my voice, not caring about what they thought of me anymore. If they were going to keep me locked in a room, then I was going to irritate them the entire time. Fair deal.
.
After a few more hours I calmed down and lay on my bed. There were exactly 83 oak floor boards in my room. I'd counted, calming myself down after counting the 18 steps from the bed to the bath. That's when I heard a noise. Now if I hadn't been locked in this room for the past 2 weeks, learning the usual sounds, it wouldn't have sounded odd but the rustling outside the doors to my balcony was completely new. I stared out, trying to find a source for the noise, but I couldn't see anything. Then as if some kind of magic was at force, the balcony door opened slowly, without a sound.
Instead of taking it as my chance to flee and find the others, I shuffled back to the far side of my bed as the door closed.
"Eska?" A voice whispered. No, it couldn't be….
All of a sudden, Bilbo appeared, magically stood in my room as if he hadn't been there before.
"Bilbo!" I almost shrieked. I was definitely going crazy.
"Shh!" He whispered, looking at the door.
"I can't believe it, I'm not going mad am I?! Oh gods, it's good to see you!"
He smiled, warmly but worriedly as his eyes were constantly flitting from me to the door. "I'll explain how I did that later, but we've got to go." He said, turning to the balcony door.
"What about the others?" I asked, shoving my shoes on and leaving everything else. I was currently wearing a sea blue dress. Elves seemed to like blue. And as much as I now hate Wood Elves, their clothes are beautiful.
"They're ready and waiting, coming on!" He said before checking outside the window, down below for any guards. "I'm going to…turn invisible now, but I'll hold your hand, ok?"
"Invisi-" I started before he completely disappeared from view. But as he said, he held my hand as we hurried outside, shutting the door silently behind us. This hobbit was turning into our saviour! And if we weren't climbing down a drain right now and running for freedom, I would hug him.
"Through here, keep silent." He whispered, it was peculiar talking to someone you couldn't see! He took my hand and led me down numerous corridors, empty courtyards. At one point we had to sneak round two elves, who were stood on a bridge in the middle of the town. They seemed to be so loved up they didn't notice me and an invisible hobbit stumble around behind them. We kept going until we reached a building that backed onto a large river.
"Wait here, just for a moment." Bilbo said, letting go of my hand, I watched as the door open slowly, creaking a little as I assumed Bilbo took a look around. "Come on, it's clear." I hurried in after the hobbit, he took my hand again and led me to a large open room, the back wall was missing and instead opened out the river, the floor slopped slightly. I instantly realised Bilbo's plan and wanted to run back to my prison room. A large amount of barrel's were piled up near the wall, ready to be rolled into the river. I assumed we were going to sit in the barrels and float down the river to escape.
"We're not going in those are we?" I asked Bilbo as he revealed himself finally. As he did numerous heads popped out the barrels. Each smiling, I couldn't help but smile back at the familiar faces, I'd missed them more than I imagined.
"Eska!" Fili shouted with a bright smile. Much to my surprise none of them looked wounded or in pain, Balin didn't look to be on death's door like the guards said. They'd been trying to trick me! The bastards!
Suddenly a familiar figure was climbing out of a barrel, he stood and hurried over while the others gave a collective groan behind him, but I didn't care as I stared up at his face, no marks, no wounds. Nothing but his beautiful face smiling down at me. We just stared at each other for the longest moment, I honestly felt like a starving person seeing food for the first time in weeks. He was so incredible, my memory of him did him no justice. His dark eyes, thick eyelashes, those lips that I just wanted to kiss every minute of the day. Everything looked better than I remembered, even if he has been stuck in a prison cell for 2 weeks, he looked tired but beautiful.
"They didn't hurt you?" I asked, still a little shocked that they hadn't been hurt.
"It seems they lied to all of us, I'd been told your arm was nearly broken." He frowned, his eyes flashing down to my arms just to check. "Come on." He took my hand, holding it tightly. Shivers ran up my arm and I almost sighed at the return of the familiar feeling.
We hurried over to the barrels and he turned, simply seeing his face made my heart thump. I only counted two spare barrels as Bilbo helped the others with their barrel lids.
"You get in that bottom barrel and I'll shut you in." He smiled, releasing my hand. I wanted to grab it again, being in a closed barrel, floating down a river sounded worse than swimming.
"Ok." I forced myself, climbing into the barrel between Bifur and Balin, shaking as I did.
"Are you alright?" He asked, pausing with the lid for a moment.
"Fine, fine, go, get in your barrel." I smiled, realising I'd probably never utter that sentence again in my life. He smiled back before he shut the lid on the barrel and my heart started beating wildly.
I'm going to die. I told myself as someone shouted and the barrels started rolling slowly towards the river. I felt sick at the thought of what was to come just as I heard the first barrel drop into the water. Then another, then a few more, then more. Then mine. I pressed my lips together to stop myself from screaming as I heard the water splash around me, already dripping my my barrel. I'm going to sink! I'm going to sink and drown! I screamed in my head as I was knocked about in the large barrel. I heard the others drop into the water as we floated. I can imagine it to be quite a nice feeling, bobbing around in a barrel, that was if you weren't deathly afraid of the river!
The water flowed lazily for a long time, my barrel didn't fill too much but the water coming in the top of the barrel had soaked me quite well. We were jostled, bumped and thumped against each other as we floated down the river. I tried to imagine the trees and plants around us as we went, trying my hardest to forget about the sickening sound of the water, lapping against the barrel every now and then. But that proved trick, especially when the water speed picked up and my barrel was soon spinning in the water, twisting and turning as we were pushed down the mainstream of the river quite quickly now. I fought the urge to vomit as my barrel spun. But suddenly it stopped, I felt the barrel stop moving and I swear I'd hit the shore. Not wanting to reveal myself yet I sat and listened, it sounded as though the others had stopped to washing up on the shore around me.
"You can get out the barrel's now!" Bilbo shouted, sounding exhausted. As soon as he said it I started desperately shoving the lid off of my barrel, punching at it until it popped off and crawled out. Sprawling on to the grassy bank. It seemed that was the general idea as the others all climbed out and did the exact same thing.
"Everyone here?" Thorin sighed tiredly. The answers were a collective sound of grumbly grunts as we lay lazily on the bank, no one had the energy to use actual words it seems.
"Back to 15." Fili sighed as we all lay around, I could hear the smile on his voice.
"Master Bilbo, I think we are each a little more than indebted to you now." Bofur said. We each agreed, putting more effort into our thanks, I even pulled my self up to go and hug him.
"See, I told you, you could do it."
"And how right you were." He smiled before flopping back onto the ground. I did the same next to him, rolling onto my back and gazing up at the stars, well aware of Kili laying next to me, staring at me as I tried to ignore his eyes. Afraid I'd jump on him and never let go if I looked.
We were free again! For how much longer I don't know, but after 2 weeks just laying here in the cool evening weather, watching the stars was the best.
"They must send the barrels somewhere, there's probably a town nearby, we'll follow it in the morning." Thorin said sleepily, it sounded like a few of them were already drifting off already.
"Remind me to buy you another dress when we next find a town." Kili said quietly beside me. I looked over and blushed as I watched his eyes roam over my body, something I'd never seen him do before. Where I was soaking the fabric clung to my body. An odd sensation tickled the pit of my stomach as I watched his dark eyes, suddenly a little more intense as he looked at my legs. I followed his eyes and realised my dress had ridden up, showing far more thigh than a woman should ever show in public. I quickly yanked the dress down so I was fully covered again. He just smiled and moved closer I turned onto my stomach and rest my head against his chest. Sighing contently as I listened to his heart beat thump steadily.
"Remind me to never go near elves ever again." His chest vibrated as he laughed.
"Definitely." He mumbled, kissing my hair and falling asleep.
I'm not fully happy with this chapter, it was kind of a rush, cause I really want to get the next one done! But basically, now that Kili and Eska are back on track, Kili's young mind is going to wander to naughtier things ;) So expect a few more Kili POV's soon!
I hope you like it though!
Thanks for reading!