Thank you for reading and reviewing, and for all the favs and follows!
(And the music themes for this chapter are: Marc Streitenfeld's Fate Has Smiled Upon Us and Lindsey Stirling's arrangement of River Flows in You.)
pronker: None that I know of, but my Tolkien library isn't as complete as I'd like it to be (yet) - maybe there's something about the Blue Mountains' name mentioned in The History of Middle-earth?
- 36 -
The day was waking bright and promising, and Run thought that she could walk up into the mountains, even if she were to find no herbs there. So she took some bread and cheese, and wrapped a woollen shawl around her shoulders against the still cold wind, and left her house. And walking up the path among the trees, she smiled at the thought that maybe instead of herbs she would find the dwarven king, so she turned to walk past the dwarven halls.
And indeed she did find him there. Thorin was sitting on a patch of grass, dressed in a simple tunic she had never seen before, and simple breeches, and leather boots instead of customary armoured ones.
"Forge day?" she asked upon approaching him, seeing that his hair was bound with a single iron clasp, and his beard plaited into a single braid, all for comfort.
"Rest day," answered Thorin. "Quite amusing, actually," he said after a moment. "It's been so long since I last had that much time to myself that I don't know what to with it."
Run glanced over the rocky peaks, where the snow had began melting, as spring came warm and early that year, and single patches of colour were already beginning to appear where grass and flowers were sprouting.
"Have you eaten some breakfast, Majesty?" she asked, and Thorin looked up at her, eyebrows raised in suspicion.
"Yes, but I can't see how it's relevant to..."
She reached out. "Come on, Majesty," she beckoned, interrupting him, and when he still continued glaring, she grasped his hand and he finally got up. "We'll go up into the mountains."
Thorin kept staring at her. "You are most certainly out of your mind," he said eventually and smiled. "Very well. Lead on."
And up they went, up the winding path until it disappeared altogether, and then climbed up the rocks, with Thorin guiding her steps and hinting where to go. They could not go off very far or for very long, but Run thought there was something that made her heart soar about being able just to wander the mountains without need for words, about feeling the cool wind in her hair, about the way the corners of Thorin's lips kept curling upwards slightly. There was something touching, piercing the heart in the way little everyday joys sometimes do when one acknowledges them, about the way they settled on the ground, at ease with each other, comfortable with silence, about the way he looked at her when she stood up and spread her arms wide to embrace the wind.
Run glanced down at Thorin leaning against the stone. "Come on," she said.
"What now?" The words were crude, but the tone was amused.
Her hand swept a wide arch in the air. "See."
Grunting under his breath, Thorin got up and walked closed to the edge. Beneath them spread a most magnificent view. The rocky slopes, covered in grass and trees, all fresh green, and the valley dotted with flowers, and the white ribbon of the river Lhûn, gleaming in the midday sun like a vein of mithril, and the clear blue sky more splendid than any sapphires, and the forest down below was buzzing with life and echoing with birdsong, and further down still there were the rooftops of the little town.
"Beautiful, isn't it?" she asked, smiling happily, admiring the view.
"Yes," said Thorin evenly. "Very." With another step forward, he stood right beside her.
Slowly, Run gently reached out and touched his hand. She did not say they were making memories, as they had ceased using that phrase some time ago, having simply no need for putting it into words.
Thorin's fingers closed around her palm. His skin was rough and scarred from work, his hands not hands of a king at all, but her skin was not smooth either, from work and too much washing hands which came with the healer's trade, and from tending to her little garden, and in that fashion their hands fit together.
. . .
It was, altogether, a good day. They stayed in that place for a while, sitting on the grass and barely talking, but simply enjoying the fresh air and the splendid view, and Thorin laughed at Run when she picked up a flower and tucked it into her hair. Then they got up and walked again, with no purpose, and they found a little stream leading up to a small mere and then a well, and drank the cold water, and Run marvelled at the taste, while Thorin just smiled and said that in the underground halls they had similar wells, and she said that in that case she envied them the water.
It was early afternoon when they returned to the entrance to the underground passage, and Thorin invited Run for dinner, saying Fíli and Kíli would be delighted to see her, and so would be Dís.
"And I guess it would be unwise to offend a dwarven king with a refusal," Run remarked.
"So would I think." He did not answer her smile with his, but the corners of his lips twitched upwards a little, in a non-smile-yet that she liked so much. "And the said king would be very glad if you accepted his invitation," he said plainly.
"Then I accept the invitation in the spirit it was given," she replied.
He did not offer her his arm, but they walked side by side, always at a proper distance. And as they entered the hall where the royal family dined, and where Dís and the boys were already sitting down to eat, and Balin and Dwalin with them, all smiled at seeing Run.
"Look whom I found in the mountains," said Thorin, uncharacteristically lightly for him, and his nephews laughed happily, and Dís smiled.
Run shrugged. "Well, Master Balin had once said the paths are safe."
"Now, lass, that's an old joke if I ever heard one," Balin said, but kindly.
"And a good joke it is," boomed Dwalin, patting his brother on the back, and the boys laughed again.
But Dís looked at her brother, who was talking of his day quietly to Fíli, and then at Run, who was laughing at Balin's old mistake, and their eyes met, but in the end she said nothing. But then Run glanced up from her plate and noticed how Dís looked at Thorin, and how Thorin openly returned his sister's gaze, and then Dís looked at her again, but again said nothing. But in the princess' eyes Run saw sympathy, and she guessed that Dís guessed, and Dís saw understanding in her eyes, and yet again said nothing, and for that silence Run briefly bowed her head in gratitude.