"Dwalin!" Bilbo shouted, "No! Put her down!"
Dwalin had retrieved Bilbo from his hiding place, and the two of them had come around the opposite side of the Dwarves' rendezvous building. When Dwalin spotted an Elf, his first instinct was to fight.
Kili turned to see Dwalin drop Rhavaniel. She crumpled to the ground.
Kili rushed to her side and shoved Dwalin away. "What did you do?!"
"Knocked her head against the wall! What was I supposed to do? She went for her sword! I'd have run her through if Bilbo hadn't been screaming at me."
"She helped us!" Kili dropped to the ground to hold Rhavaniel, "She's been fighting for us all day and she was wounded! How could you not see that? Óin, help her. Rhavi! Rhavi! Wake up!"
Rhavaniel's eyelids fluttered. She inhaled deeply and awoke with a start. She saw herself surrounded by strangers, with Dwalin towering over her. She shrunk back and Kili grabbed her and held her in his arms.
Óin reached out gently, "Oh, little Elf, be still. Let us look at you."
Rhavaniel shrunk back further into Kili, "No!"
Kili tried to reassure her, "Rhavi, this is Óin. I told you about him. He will take care of you."
Kili turned to Óin, "It is her foot - the arrow was poison. I have an Elf medicinal pack, but the miruvor is already gone! She used all of the best supplies on me."
Óin looked at the supplies taken from the Elf watchtower. "I'm not sure what these are. I can drain the wound and apply a poultice. That will help as well as anything else at this stage. Do we have any of the poisoned arrows?"
Rhavaniel decided that if Kili trusted Óin, she could trust him. "The one that hit me is on the roof. The Orc who shot it is dead over there." and she pointed to a nearby corpse. "There is another very good archer nearby, also with poison arrows."
"Not anymore." Dwalin said, and patted a long gray ear tucked into his belt.
Rhavaniel turned her head and vomited. The poison had made her queasy, but the sight of the ear sent her over the edge.
"Excuse me." she whispered. Kili handed her more water.
Nori retrieved the quiver of poisoned arrows from the dead Orc and brought it to Óin .
Óin looked and sniffed, "Nightshade, ergot, metopium." He looked at Rhavaniel's foot. The telltale black spider web of Orc poison was there, but small. "Either you received a very small dose, or you are fighting it well."
Rhavaniel showed him a tool in the Elf box, "We use this for draining poisonous bites. Will it help?"
Óin nodded in recognition, "Oh, I have used similar. This will do nicely. May hurt a bit, but it will help immensely."
Thorin took an account of the Dwarves. All were there except Fili, who was hastily returning. Fili pushed through the crowded circle of Dwarves, to find Kili and Thorin, and the mysterious wounded companion.
Fili was taken aback. "That is Kili's friend?" he asked. He had expected a wayward Dwarf from the Iron Hills, or perhaps some adventurous young man from Lake-Town, but certainly not an Elf. A girl Elf, no less.
Thorin was focused on more urgent matters, "What news, Fili?"
Fili did not take his eyes off his brother as Kili watched Óin treat the girl, "A score of Elves are assembled at the southern side of Dale. They have finished off the Orcs, but have not entered the City. They... "
Rhavaniel cut Fili off, "Did they hurt my Warg? He is black with a white chest and burn scars on this neck."
Fili felt his world become even stranger, "I...I do not know."
"He was not with those Orcs, not really." Rhavaniel explained, "He must have fallen in with them very recently for protection. He was all alone."
Kili spoke comfortingly to her, "I am sure he got away. Nothing can kill that brute. Do not worry."
Thorin grew testy, "About the Elves, Fili."
"Right. They seem to be a scouting party, only a dozen and lightly supplied. Their horses are tired. They are milling about. I think they expected to beat everyone here and now do not know what to do with themselves."
Nori shook his head, "We sprung all but two of our traps on the Orcs, not that an Elf would fall for one. No Elf would walk down an alley in this City, not when they can dance on rooftops and keep high ground. "
Thorin sighed, "Then we run." He approached his nephew, " Óin, Kili, hurry. We have to go."
"Yes, Uncle." and Kili began to pick up Rhavaniel.
Thorin snapped, "Leave her. "
"What? No!" Kili protested.
Thorin was quickly losing patience with his distracted group, "Elves are about to attack us! We are not going to slow ourselves down with one of their wounded. Besides, they will be desperate to get her back. How did she become separated from the rest of the Guard?"
Kili tried to explain, "She is not in the Guard. She has been with me since the day I crawled out of that ravine above Laketown. I think her guardians are only now realizing she is not at school - no one is looking for her."
"School?" Thorin took a long, intense look at Rhavaniel. "How old is this girl?"
They replied in unison - Rhavaniel said , "Ninety-six." while Kili spoke, "Forty-eight."
Kili shot Rhavaniel a scolding look, "She is forty-eight, very nearly a grown Elf."
Thorin grabbed Kili by the coat and pulled him aside. "I cannot imagine what you were thinking dragging an Elf child across three Kingdoms!" he hissed.
Kili protested, "I didn't...We were running for our lives the entire time. I tried to send her back to her people the first chance I had. You do not understand. There are other Orcs out there - the ones we hear stories about. They only want to take you alive. We've seen it, we've seen what they do."
Thorin took Kili's face in his hands. "I am so sorry we lost you. I regret that you must have suffered. But Kili, Glóin has a daughter that age. If she had been alone with a male Elf, even a male Dwarf, for that long in the wilderness, Glóin would expect nothing less than that boy's head on a pike. As his Prince, I would tell him he was entitled to it. Do you understand me? Elves will think she was kidnapped. They assume the worst of us, always. This is very serious."
Kili turned pale. He had not thought far enough ahead to imagine how Dwarves would look upon any female not chaperoned by a family member. Elves were certainly more liberal with respect to girls, but what if her family also thought she had shamed them, or punished her for helping him? What if they mistakenly assumed she had helped all of the Dwarves escape the Keep? They could imprison her, or worse. They had been too young and naive to think about these things.
Kili swallowed hard, "What would Glóin do to his daughter?"
"I do not know - that would be a family matter." Thorin was frustrated that Kili was missing the point, "My concern is for you and the honor of our family."
Rhavaniel could not make out the words, but she knew Kili and his Uncle were having a tense conversation.
"Perhaps you could talk to these Elves, and agree to make no hostile gestures for the day?" Rhavaniel called to them.
Thorin was clearly irritated at the interruption, but Kili saw the value in it.
"Uncle, let us at least talk to the Elves."
Thorin dismissed the idea, "They will overrun us."
"Use a white arrow.' Rhavaniel explained, "They will know it came from an Elf and honor it. The ribbons are in my quiver."
Óin was finishing a tight wrapping on her foot.
Kili stood his ground in front of Thorin, "Do we need time more than the Elves do? Because we can buy it cheap."
Fili interjected, "They are outside the City. We should keep it that way with no bloodshed for as long as we can. We are all exhausted, Uncle."
Thorin grudgingly agreed. "Let them know we would talk."
Kili scooped a handful of ribbons from Rhavaniel. "The white one is for a truce, to discuss terms. You can tie knots in it, one for each hour to wait before the talk." They turned to Thorin, and he held up three fingers. "If followed by a yellow ribbon, they are asking if they can bring peace-tied weapons. There are Orcs nearby, so that is probably a good idea. Actually, you should send the yellow arrow before they do. They will take it as proof you know this code - proof an Elf trusted you enough to teach it."
"Good." Kili told her, "Fili and I will go. Óin, will you stay with her?"
Óin nodded, "Of course."
"So will I." promised Bilbo.
Once Fili and Kili left, Óin turned his attention back to Rhavaniel, "Let's look at the rest of you." He noticed the older wounds on her left hand and arm, and her recently bruised and scraped face. "No need to stitch anything. Your eyes look fine."
Rhavaniel gestured, "The back of my head..."
"Yes, let's see Dwalin's handiwork. Barely bleeding, no stitches required. You are getting soft in your old age, Dwalin."
Dwalin grunted in reply.
Óin looked at her carefully, "A few words of advice, child. You should speak to a Prince only when spoken to. And you should certainly never lie to him. Do you understand?"
Rhavaniel nodded in silent understanding.
