Chapter 32:

Thorin took me into our room and tossed me in, locking the door behind him and didn't turn to face me, but his shoulders were shaking a bit. "Thorin?" I asked and he shot his hand up to quiet me, which I did, this was not like him at all. "What is going on in my kingdom?" his words were clipped and short, showing his anger that he was trying to hold back. "Please let me explain-" "Silence! I am speaking!" he shouted, turning around and glaring at me. "But-" "I said shut up!" he marched over and stood before me, looking very much like a powerful king.

"Dain has informed me of yet another rumor about my wife. This time it includes the man that you were seen outside with. You were attacked, tied to him and attempted to be kidnapped. Luckily a guard saw this and came to get me in time. Yet I saw you protecting him from Dwalin. Is this true that he wasn't kidnapping you? Are you in league with this man in hoping to take over this kingdom?" I wanted to scream and tell him it was all a mistake, but knew it would do no good, he believed dwarves over me. "Answer me!" I jumped and quickly replied, "He meant me no harm!"

"So you know him…in the way that Dain has told me?" I knew he meant the kiss thing, but it wasn't true. I mean I liked Rumi back home, he made me feel different, but I cared too much for Thorin, Rumi could never mean that to me. "Thorin, I must ask that you listen to everything I say before saying anything. Can you do this for me?" he nodded and I took a deep breath, trying to get my story all in order. "The man that is here is an old childhood friend of mine. I haven't seen him since before I was dropped off at Bag End with Bilbo. I wanted him to come save me from that life that I was living. To be honest, I had feelings for him, he was the guy I always thought I would end up marrying."

Thorin's fists were balled and his eyes looked like they would burst into flames, but I rushed on, trying to calm him. "Then I crashed into you. We left on our journey and I honestly never thought of him again. I was too caught up in everything we were going through…then you and I began to connect and Rumi was lost to me. Thorin, I didn't even know it was him that came here until he was out of his armor and pulling me into a dark room." "So he did attack you!" "Listen to me!" I shouted back, feeling so frustrated at having to explain this to him instead of him just believing me.

"This was an old game we played as children, sneaking around and kidnapping each other. However, I wasn't able to do anything before he kissed me-" "He has touched you in an impropriate way?! He kissed my wife!" he began to stomp away, but I grabbed his arm to stop him. He whipped around and his palm smacked me across the face. I fell back against the bed and held my face. He realized what he did and quickly came toward me, holding his hands out. "Elisa, I'm sorry, I didn't mean to." "Don't touch me!" I screamed and he stopped, his hand right in front of me.

We stared at each other for a moment before I sighed and pushed his hand away. "You agreed to listen. Do you see what happened because you could not listen!" I said and he sat down beside me, but we didn't touch at all. "Alright, I am sorry I didn't listen, I will now. I just got angry at the thought of you with another man." I understood this anger, but he should have just let me explain everything first. "Yes, he kissed me. I did not kiss him nor did I kiss him back. Before I could shove him off or anything, Dain opened the door and just assumed what he wanted, not giving me any chance to explain."

I waited for another outburst, but he placed his hand over mine and nodded to me. "Please, continue and I will listen." I smiled, feeling a lot better because he was actually letting me tell it how it was, not jumping to the end or getting all macho. "I tried to get away from Rumi, but fell and that's when Fili found me. Then he gave me to you and we got into our argument, I went outside to get some fresh air. And Rumi found me out there, he wanted to play another game like old times." "And your dress?" I looked down and saw the ripped dress, shrugging slightly.

"He didn't give me a chance to do anything before he cut it. We used rope to link ourselves so we weren't separated. That's because of the…thing that happened to me…" I trailed off, not wanting to talking about that. "Anyways, he used the torn dress instead, then we would just run around, dodging the guards that tried to make me do all these boring duties and tasks. He helped me get over my fears of the forest, the dark…and men." "But not dwarves?" "No, I became scared of all men, I guess I just made all males into a scary thing, but he helped me see that not all people were like that."

"But the guards and Dwalin attacked him and I just tried to explain it, but you know what happened." I finished and sighed, ready to hear Thorin yell and go off to kill Rumi. Yet Thorin still held my hand and was watching me with those blue eyes that I loved. "You feel strongly toward this man?" I nodded, but then shook my head. "I am not sure. I used to like him a lot. But now everything is different." "How do you mean?" I turned and faced Thorin. "I love you. You make me feel so amazing, I never want to be apart from you. Thorin, married you because I am in love with you and want to make you happy. Rumi is part of my past, you are my Present, my future."

He went to say something, but I shook my head and pressed our foreheads together, whispering, "I am glad you at least gave me the chance to explain it all. It gives me such a good feeling that you will not just believe one side of a story, you find all the facts." he chuckled and I blinked at him. "I must admit that I was blinded by anger at first, Dain saying such things about you, made me want to tell everyone to go to hell and run away with you…then I saw you with him, he was holding you against him and I just wanted to rip him apart. Yet you were protecting him and I was confused by that, making me second guess everything. I began to think maybe you weren't happy with me, perhaps you wanted something else."

I threw myself into his arm and we fell back onto the bed. "I love you so much!" I laughed and kissed him hard, he ran his fingers through my hair and held me close. We broke apart and sat up, knowing we had to leave to go see about Rumi. "He is a friend of mine, please do not judge him so harshly." I asked as we walked down the halls. Thorin nodded slightly, but his face was hard to read. We found Rumi bloody on the floor, with Dwalin, Balin, Dori, Fili, and Bofur standing around the room. I rushed forward, leaving Thorin behind and fell to my knees beside Rumi.

"What happened?" I asked anyone and Rumi groaned before sitting up and rubbing his cheek, which was already swelling up. "Aww…well I-" he began, but looked at me and stopped mid-sentence. "You bastard!" he shouted and tried to get at Thorin, but the others stopped him as I scrambled to my feet to get between the two of them. "Rumi, what's wrong?" "How dare you lay a finger on her! You are supposed to protect the woman you love, not abuse her!" I realized my cheek was probably swollen and red, but I was trying to calm everything down to care.

"Rumi, it's alright, just calm down." "I will not! You shouldn't be with someone who is willing to harm you. That isn't good for you." he said, looking down at me with sad eyes. "She is not yours to treat as you see fit." Thorin's calm voice came and I glanced over at him, he wasn't angry or happy, just plain. "She's not your prize, she is a human being and she doesn't deserve to ever be in any harm's way." "Thorin, did you really hit her?" Balin asked, lifting my face to the light to see. He shook his head and stood beside me. "Are you alright?" "It was all a misunderstanding, Thorin did not mean to hit me, I pulled at his arm and he just tried to get away. It was my fault."

I explained, but that seemed to make Rumi worse, "I'm going to kill you! She still defends you after that, how did you get her to turn it on herself, make her think it's her fault! You make me sick!" I punched Rumi's chest, making him flinch and stop yelling. "That's enough!" "Hell no!" Rumi said and began to struggle against the others again, trying to get to Thorin. This is getting us nowhere, I took a breath and lit myself on fire, making everyone jump back from me and separate.

"I said Enough!" I shouted and everyone had their eyes glued to me, I probably looked powerful and dangerous. "Elisa, calm down." Thorin said and came over to me, but Rumi just stared at me like I sprouted ten heads. "Rumi, let me explain everything. I know this is very strange to you." "Y-you're on fire Elisa." he said and I nodded, holding my hand out. "I can control it, do not fear me. I am part wizard and can use magic. I learned this about myself as I was on my journey." I turned to Thorin, who smiled at me, but I shook my head. "Thorin, would you allow me and Rumi to have a few moments alone. We must speak and then you may do with him whatever."

The others began to refuse, but Thorin held up his hand and nodded to me, before ushering everyone out. I was happy that Thorin was trusting me and believing that I wasn't going to allow anything to happen. I shook myself and the flames disappeared and I faced Rumi, who still looked very scared and hurt. "Are you alright? I mean, they didn't hurt you did they?" he chuckled and sat in a chair, wincing a bit. "Yeah, but only cause I was trying to escape to make sure you were alright. Hey why did you let him hit you?" "I told you, it was all a mistake, I really did grab him and he was only trying to get his arm away from me. He didn't know he was going to hit me." Rumi took my hands in his and stared deep into my eyes. "But Elisa…that's worse because he can abuse you and make you think he didn't mean it. Leave him, run away with me."