Billana wakes feeling more refreshed than she has in days, even with her night being split by the middle watch. She is warm and comfortable, her head pillowed on a firm chest and an arm about her waist. It is the feeling of fingers in her hair that has woken her, she can tell by the snores that much of the rest of the camp is alseep, and she twists her head so that she can look at Fili, who stills when he feels her move. He is looking at her with a kind of wonder on his face, as though he cannot quite believe that she is real. Maybe he can't.
It's early enough that the light has barely managed to cut through the thick tree cover, which means it's probably later than they would have left had they been outside the forest. There is no point in breaking camp when they can hardly see the hand in front of their face, they have learnt, and so they wait. Billana takes the opportunity to enjoy being held. She has spent most of her life longing to be touched like this, a gentle embrace or some small display of affection without the expectation of anything more. She smiles up at Fili, who grins back at her and it is the first true and unshadowed smile that she has seen on him since they entered Mirkwood. She leans up to kiss him, and he seems almost as surprised by that as he does to see that she is still sleeping beside him. He returns it, however, with enthusiasm and she idly muses that she could happily forget the quest and everything that goes with it and just spend the rest of her life here, like this, with Kili's arms around her and Fili's lips on hers. She would happily do it all the other way too, she thinks, she isn't particular about it.
"Where's mine?" Kili grumbles from behind her and she feels Fili smirk against her lips.
Billana pokes him in the ribs when he releases her, giggling when he retaliates and it is a moment of levity that she knows won't last. As soon as they all part and begin their day walking it will be time for the dark thoughts and hallucinations to creep in once more. Still, she twists enough to give Kili the kiss he requested and hears Balin clearing his throat meaningfully a moment later. She sighs.
"Good morning, Balin," she mutters.
"Get lost on the way back to your bed, lass?" He asks her pointedly.
"Yes," she replies. "It was pitch black and I was tired."
Which is true enough, but Balin shakes his head all the same. He does not, however, rebuke her as she had expected. He just ambles away muttering to himself and she realises that Mirkwood still has as much of a grip on him and the others as it did the day before. Even Fili's eyes look a little darker than they had a moment before and she slips her hand into his quickly, wishing that there was something she could do to prevent the curse on the forest from getting into his mind once more. He relaxes a little, the tension only noticeable because she is touching him and she promises silently that no matter what orders Thorin gives them today, Fili will be at her side with Kili, then she slips over to her belongings and packs them away quickly, strapping her short sword and the Miruvor to her hip before pausing.
Even though she has slipped into the habit of carrying the flask of elven cordial at her hip daily she hasn't dared to use it aside from that one sip under the Misty Mountains. She had almost forgotten that it was anything more than another small water flask and she internally berates herself as she considers it. She has no idea at all if it will help make the others a little more lucid, or if they will even drink it for that matter given the obvious origins of the stuff. She slings her pack on and wanders back over to Fili and Kili.
"What's that, Kitten?" Fili asks her, already watching Thorin warily.
"Miruvor," she replies, "the twins gave it to me in Rivendell for emergencies. It's some sort of healing elixir, I think. I thought it might help, but it's not the biggest flask and I don't want to waste it if it doesn't.
"You want to test it on Fili," Kili concludes softly and she nods.
"It might help," she offers Fili the flask. He looks at it warily before accepting. "Just a sip, though," she adds when he lifts it to his lips.
For a moment nothing happens and she worries that maybe the Miruvor won't help after all. Then his face changes, his eyes seem to light up again and he drags her in so that he can kiss her breathless as Kili plucks the flask from his hands.
"There isn't much here," he comments quietly once the pair have parted. "Even if we only gave them all a sip we would be lucky to get two or three days from it."
"We can't keep it to ourselves," she insists.
"We may have to," Kili replies. "If we start giving this to everyone and run out before we leave, we'll end up as we are right now anyway, but it will be that much more difficult to get everyone going in the right direction."
"He's right," Fili agrees. "The affects of this cursed place are still there, they just aren't as clear. I can actually think for the first time in days, but I don't think it's going to last until we make camp tonight. I dread to think what they might conclude if we start giving them this and then run out after only a few days. I don't want to even consider what they might try and do because of it."
"What about Thorin?" Kili asks. "We should give him some at least."
"That might be best," Fili agrees. "But let me." Billana nods, watching Fili approach his uncle and begin talking to him quietly.
"I can't believe I didn't think of this before," she grumbles.
"It wouldn't have done any good," Kili shakes his head. "We just would have run out that much sooner." He watches his brother carefully as he gives Thorin the cordial. "I don't want him walking at the back today," he mutters, "I want to see how long this stuff lasts."
"I agree," she breathes, "but not quite for the same reasons." Kili shrugs at her and they wait to see what Thorin will decide now that his mind is a little bit clearer.
Sure enough, as soon as they are ready to begin walking once more Thorin orders Fili to the rear.
"No," she says before he can step away from her. She's trembling at the thought of being so adamant that Thorin's order be ignored, but she cannot help but think that she should have argued with this decision sooner, regardless of the reasons. "He walks with me and Kili."
"What makes you believe you have any say in the decisions I make for this Company?" Thorin sneers.
"By all means," she gestures to him, "lead the way, if Fili is not to be at the front with us, I will walk at the back with him. Kili can't exactly lead, he's too busy looking for food to supplement our supplies." In fact, if they do not find the way out in the next couple of days they will have nothing left at all.
"They need to be able to see how long this lasts," Fili points out, gesturing to the Miruvor that Billana has hooked back onto her belt. "They can't do that if I'm at the back."
Though Thorin's gaze is noticeably clearer than it had been, the Miruvor has obviously had less of an effect on him than they had hoped it would. Of the two, however, Fili is normally more forthcoming and so she would expect him to mention any changes that Thorin would neglect to bother with. They wait almost anxiously and Billana half expects Thorin to refuse the change anyway. Perhaps she could have disagreed with him differently, but she hadn't been certain they had the time for it. She still isn't sure of that.
"Dwalin! Make sure everyone keeps up!" Thorin orders after a tense moment and Billana lets out a relieved sigh. Thorin turns hard eyes on her. "Do not challenge me again," he snaps. "Get moving."
All three of them set off briskly, Billana still shaking as she clutches their hands in hers. She can feel Thorin glaring at the back of her head and any sense of ease from helping Fili fades away. Thorin isn't always easy to deal with, but she knows that she could have handled that whole situation better than she did. She has become so accustomed to fighting to keep them all moving in the same direction over the last several days that it had been automatic to react to Thorin in that way. However, she is glad that both Thorin and Fili are more lucid, especially an hour later when it becomes necessary to drag Dori back to his feet while keeping Gloin on the path. There are more of the odd swirling pools now, some of them on the trees in the same eye like form as the one on the statue, and it takes longer and longer each time to keep the others away from them.
"Has it been like this since we crossed?" Thorin demands a little later, his face troubled.
"It's been getting worse," Billana admits. "We would have turned back but our food was already so low that we figured our only hope was to get to the other side." Thorin nods.
"And you haven't found any game?" He presses.
Billana lets Kili handle that one. While she would normally baulk at using her abilities to find game, in this kind of situation Billana knows that they need every advantage that they can get. There is nothing large on this side of the river, aside from the stag that they encountered, and what little small life they have encountered has been no larger than a rat or squirrel and no good to eat at any rate. Too thin and sickly to bother wasting the arrows on. Besides, they have no means to cook it, even this side of the river the wood is bad. Her senses are jangling, however, even though she has kept as tight a lock on them as she can and limited her range to only a mile or so there is something on the fringes of it that screams at her to be wary. It strikes her as an almost acidic green streaked with silver and it feels wrong. More wrong than any of the other encounters she has had with strange creatures during this journey. At the moment it isn't close enough for her to worry, too far from the path and into the trees to cause them problems, but she has learnt not to rely on that as an indication of whether or not they might be safe.
It is a little after midday when Kili tells her that Thorin is showing signs that he is hallucinating again, and Fili quietly admits that the Miruvor is wearing off for him as well. It isn't as long lasting as she might of hoped, and Billana recites a few gentle curses under her breath. By Beorn's reckoning they probably still have a week in this Vána forsaken place, not that they have the food to make it through anyway, and the Miruvor will hardly last that if Fili and Thorin need up to three doses a day. She worries at a fingernail after passing the little flask to Fili so that he can take another sip and allow Thorin to do the same. It may well come down to them needing to limit how much they both take and she dislikes the thought.
She is still worrying over it when a sound reaches her ears that she hasn't heard in the forest before. A glance at the others shows that they haven't noticed it, but her hearing is better than theirs is anyway. She shifts her ears so that they are bat-like, hushing Thorin when he demands to know what she is doing, and listens. The unmistakable sounds of bows reaches her ears, as well as the thud of arrows finding their targets. There is also the lilting voices of elves as they give and receive direction, though they are mostly quiet, and the sound of blades sinking into something that crunches. She cannot feel the elves, but the sounds have them coming closer and with them comes that terrible feeling of acid and silver.
"Something's coming," she tells them as she hands the flask to Fili and turns her ears back. "Something awful, a lot of it. Make sure everyone gets a drop, we'll need our heads about us." She tells the golden mage and he nods, hurrying away to dispense the Miruvor. "There are elves with it, whatever it is, they're driving it this way."
"Is there any chance of avoiding it?" Thorin demands, already reaching for his sword.
"I don't think so, unless they change direction," she shakes her head. "I don't know if the stag's gift would still work if we left the road." She glances at Kili who shrugs and shakes his head.
Thorin grumbles under his breath, then marches back to discuss their options with a more aware Dwalin and Balin. Kili, on the other hand, pauses and sets his bow down, crouching so that he can shove a dagger that looks suspiciously like one the of the five the twins gave to Fili so far into his boot that it must be uncomfortable. He sees the way that she stares in confusion and gestures to hers.
"The elves will stop us and search us if they get chance," he tells her. "The ones here aren't as welcoming as those in Rivendell according to Uncle, it would be best if they didn't see it."
"Or get a chance to take it," Fili agrees, handing her the flask which is now alarmingly light.
He is also walking a little strangely, as though he has taken the chance to do the same as Kili. It isn't reassuring and if she couldn't feel the creatures that the elves are chasing getting closer, she thinks she might take the opportunity to fret a little bit. Fili, however, seems to realise what she is worrying over and takes her arm in his hand.
"Do you trust me, Kitten?" He asks her and she nods. She barely squeaks when he unbuttons her shirt, tugging it, her jacket and her pack down one arm so that he can use two leather cords to tie her little knife against the inside of her upper arm. Then he helps her to right herself and steals a quick kiss. "I doubt that they'll search you that thoroughly, but if they do at least it will be difficult to get it off you." He mutters.
"You seem very certain that they'll disarm us," she replies.
"I only know what Uncle has told us," he shrugs. "But it never hurts to be careful. Whatever it is that's coming, Billana, stay close to us."
A moment later a creature from her nightmares emerges from the trees and Billana decides she has no desire to anything other than stay close to them.
A.N: Studying? What's that? I lie, I'd do it if a) this story would go a little quieter and b) the Manbeast would stop interrupting every five minutes about some thing or another. *sighs*