The Company treaded through the stone path, quiet and tense from the two most hard-headed members of their company. It was bad enough that they had to go through this enchanted forest and that their company wizard left them a few days ago, and some of them suspected that they were lost in the forest. They didn't need any tension between Helga and Thorin, too. Thorin, as expected, was at the front, clearing out leaves on the path with Bofur, while Helga was at the back, hands clenched hard on the straps of her satchel that her knuckles were turning white.
"Are you alright, Helga?" Fili asked, stopping his conversation with Alvor and turned back to look at her.
"I'm fine." She mumbled through gritted teeth, looking downband kicking a stone.
"If this is about uncle-"
"He is not your uncle, Amren." Helga said, glaring at Amren, who just shrugged.
"One way or another," Kili, who was beside Amren, said. "Thorin will be Ren's uncle, then you'd be my aunt. It would eventually end that way." The young dwarf prince shrugged, smiling beside the young dragon rider.
"Ha! It's just the forest that's giving you these delusions." Helga laughed bitterly, and smiled sadly. After their argument in Beorn's house, she admitted -to herself, of course, that she was quite guilty about their kisses. She felt guilty that she did it without thinking what it would mean for Thorin. But after her number of lovers and the number of times that her heart got broken, a kiss was nothing more to her than just pressing physical contact. During her journeys alone, she forgot the feeling of love from another person, for her past relations were either one night stands or nothing really serious. She looked up to see the back of the dwarven king, and sighed, looking down at her feet again.
Although to be fair, she didn't know that a kiss would be something so serious for dwarves.
'Valar, all this thinking makes my head hurt.' Helga thought, sighing and reaching for her water skin. She took a short swig before keeping it. But despite the water, the dull ache between her head worsened.
"How long have we been walking?" Helga asked weakly, and Kili and her youngest nephew, who grew silent, shrugged, their shoulders slumped.
"Whole noon, I guess?" Kili said, his voice less excited than usual, which was very odd. Helga sighed, and suddenly, a sharp pain shot through her head, making her groan in pain. She stopped by a nearby tree and leaned on it.
Helga.
Whose voice was that?
Helga, listen to me. We don't have much time-
A loud screech cut the voice in her head and she looked up to see the figure of something rather familiar. She let out a happy sigh and grinned, some sort of relief spreading through her chest.
"Dragon." She sighed, following the flying figure on the sky, until she felt a hand rest on her shoulder.
"Helga," The voice snapped her out from her delusion, and she was faced with the face of her eldest nephew, trying to keep his usual hard mask, but had a look of concern in his eyes... It didn't suit him. "We have to keep moving." He said, placing his arm around her waist as he made sure that she was walking straight, and didn't trip on anything. This went on for a while before the haze in Helga's mind cleared a little.
"I'm fine, Alvor," She told him, and he dropped his arm from her waist. But he didn't go ahead of her, as she expected. They walked in awkward silence, the both of them going through their heads on what to say to the other. "Alvor, I apologize for the other day." Was the first to say, and Alvor looked at Helga, guilt eating him up from the stomach.
"No, Hel-... Aunt Helga... I guess that I needed that. I was a bit rusty, anyways." He said, shrugging his shoulders and smiling at Helga, who smiled back. Maybe things weren't so bad after all.
She spoke too soon.
They passed by the enchanted river, and everything was going perfectly well. They found a way acroos it from their company hobbit, and were already making their way through the vines, until Bombur fell face first on the river. All of them groaned in annoyance. It just had to be the heaviest among them. Helga, Amren, and Alvor ended up being the ones to carry the sleeping dwarf, them being taller and -a bit- stronger than the dwarves. They've been going on like that for days, and things did not get any better when Bombur woke up, re-telling his dream about a feast just when they ran out of food.
The company stopped to rest for a while, and Helga, through her dulled senses, heard them arguing about a dwarven pouch, and Bilbo stating that they have been going around it circles. At this point, Helga didn't care about anything anymore, except for getting out of this wretched forest. For the past days, she had been seeing hallucinations. The only reason why she knew that they were hallucinations was because through the little bit of sanity that she still has, she knew that they were all dead. Her first hallucination, after the flying dragon incident, was her mother and father, walking beside her like a regular bickering couple. After that, was her cousin Hosue, who look like he's been burnt alive. It took a bit longer for him to disappear, because he's been putting her down the whole time, blaming her for his death and the downfall of her whole tribe. All she had to do was to shout at him to stop in a rather colorful way, in her language, and he disappeared. With a few odd looks from The Company, of course. The most recent one was her dragon, Bane, and she admitted that she cried when she saw him. He didn't do anything, but just walk alongside her, occasionally nudging her hand with his snout. He disappeared when she started crying, which didn't do anything to stop her crying, only making it worse.
As she recalled her hallucinations, she didn't notice that the whole Company grew silent, for all of them were gone. She looked up, looking around to see where they had went. 'Maybe they have left me for good, as Thorin once threatened.' She thought bitterly. She sighed, and looked down again. However, something didn't feel right. She felt that certain tingling at the back of her neck whenever she felt that she wasn't alone. However, when she turned around, there was no one. But there was this one spot that nobody really bothered to look when they had that feeling, and Helga almost didn't want to look. She slowly looked up, only to let out a scream as she found herself face-to-face with a rather large face of a spider before she felt a sharp stab on her back.
Why is it so dark? Why couldn't I see anything
Helga... Listen to me just this once.
That voice. She heard it before, during the time she thought she saw a flying dragon.
Helga, you and your nephews have to stick with Thorin and his nephews.
Why? What's wrong?
You have to save them from the horrible fate that awaits them.
What fate? Thorin becoming a king? Is that so horrible?
Helga, you must save them. Protect them.
Who are you?
HELGA! AUNT HELGA! WAKE UP! WE NEED YOU!
Alvor?!
Helga woke up, her head aching. It was like those times that you wake up very late in the morning, and you're sweating and the weather is hot. Except this time, it was only the headache. She breathed in and out, shutting her eyes tightly.
"Five more minutes." She said groggily.
"We don't have five minutes! We're being overrun by spiders!" Alvor exclaimed, and Helga's eyes snapped open, with one word in her mind. Thorin. She shot up, along with her nephew, and immediately pulled out her sword and rushed to the fray of spiders and dwarves. Helga cringed and grimaced in disgust. She never really liked the long-legged insects. It didn't help that they were human-sized, either. She almost threw up when she beheaded her first spider, the thick, black substance that was their blood spraying on her and emitting a horrible smell.
She was distracted by all the hacking and slashing of spiders, that she didn't notice the elves starting to surround them. As she pulled her sword out of a spider, she felt a sword on the side of her neck.
"Drop your sword." The voice said, and Helga sighed. No, she wasn't going to submit to these pointy eared bastards. Not after the last time. And if ever she's going back to Thranduil's halls, she was not going down without a fight. She quickly leaned to her side, and lunged forward, rolling and getting back to her feet and facing at where her back was. She sighed and rolled her eyes and wasn't at all surprised to see who it was: the king's very own son.
"How is your father? Has he kept my parting gift with him?" She asked sarcastically, and the elven prince's eyes were suddenly filled with anger.
"Have you?" He asked in return, and smirked when he saw Helga's eyes flash in anger. "You will answer for your crimes against the king, dragon rider." The prince said, and Helga smirked.
"No, I will never go back there." She spat, and the elven prince smiled in triumph.
"Oh? Look around you, dragon rider," He said, and Helga looked around to see the Company and her nephews being held by at least one elf, a dagger to their necks. She sighed and looked into Thorin's commanding eyes. Put down your sword. Helga huffed in annoyance and dropped her weapon. They were all going to regret bringing her inside the Elvenking's halls, because one day, she would tear it down with her bare hands, pillar by pillar, and she didn't care if she died trying.
The band of elves and their prisoners neared the entrance of the Elvenking's Halls, and Helga had never felt such rage in her life. Her hands, that were tied behind her, and her hands were clenched hard that she started to draw blood from her palm.
"Helga." Thorin called out from beside her. It was the first time, after probably a week, that he talked to her. She looked at him and his eyes silently asking her if she was alright. She huffed and shook her head, keeping her eyes forward. At the moment, she cannot speak to anyone, for they might end up receiving all of the rage in her heart. When they entered, the Company was split up into two, with Thorin and Helga walking straight ahead, to the throne room, and with the Company being sent to the dungeons.
Thorin and Helga, who both turned sour as they neared the throne room, were already going through on what they will say to Thranduil once they arrive there. They came to a halt in front of a rather tall throne made of what looked like a collection of antlers, to Helga. When she set eyes upon the Elvenking, all the words that she thought of had disappeared, and all that was left was one word:
Murderer.
Hey guys!
So, I got my groove back on for this story, because I remembered how excited i was to write the meeting of Thranduil and Helga again... in the next chapter! Anyways, Helga and Thorin are now okay... ish, but they'll eventually get there! Anyways, regarding the strange voice in Helga's head, I guess you'll be making conclusions on how this story ends, but all I will say is that Thorin amd Helga will have a happy ending ;)
Anyways, I know it's a bit late, but I'd like to thank X Blue Eyed Demon X, Lady Arien of Rohan, Kelly, and KashinaKairi, Necroposter, triniquitita, Arianna Le Fey, PhantomismyLove, Fanfiction Universe, Ince, alliesmiley2, zs040610, Hannah, Bleeding Blue Kunoichi, LITTLE RED FOXX, SunSetsOfAnotherWorld, PrimusNobility, angel897, Phantominthemists, and LostarielTuigalen for the reviews! Also for those who followed and reviewed in the story.
If you, my dear readers have any question about the story, I'd be happy to answer :) Anyways, leave a review if ypu like! ;)
~Gabrielle