Chapter 7: The Dragon-Slayer

Watching the Dwarves work while she sits off to the side is neither a pleasant thing nor the worst thing. On one hand, she is glad that she is getting the time to rest herself since she predicts that she'll need to be at her best state of health in the coming days (but her visions have still not returned, not that she has been trying). Also, that she doesn't feel the guilt for participating in building the wall between them and those in need.

But on the other hand, a pang of different guilt sits in her stomach as she watches the Dwarves work hard through the rest of the night and she sits there doing absolutely nothing. Kili and Balin are the most tired of them all, not sleeping at all through their short break and poor Bilbo has probably never done so much heavy lifting before.

She was almost sent back to work, but Fili very adamantly stood his ground against Thorin. At first, Thorin was trapped in his sick mind but slowly the gears started to click, and she watched as his face morphed back into something recognisable. He apologised and told her not to lift a thing.

The sun is well on its way to rising and the fortress is almost complete as they use the machines to lift the final stones along the stone barricade of the battlement. Thorin has gone off somewhere – most likely to fawn over his newfound treasures. He has been distant with her, but she hasn't brought it up knowing that he just truly isn't in the right state of mind. And Gailien doesn't particularly want him showing any sort of affection if he is not himself so as horrible as it sounds, she is glad that he has left her to sit by herself.

At one point she tries to help out the Dwarves while Thorin isn't there; just to give effort where she feels she can but before she can move to help Dwalin adjust the lifted rocks, Fili moves in front of her giving her a stern expression.

Brother.

That's what she considers him. She never gave him a true label before, but she recalls that Fili was in fact, the one to bestow the title of Karr'a to her. So as Fili shakes his head, gesturing to go back to her spot she silently obliges, knowing that he does so out of care.

She sits back on her stone seat, resting her chin in her hands as her elbows dig into her knees. But something feels wrong. She casts her gaze over to the battlement. She cannot see over it. The Dwarves finish their work, the battlement complete and they begin to find other things to do until their leader returns.

Gailien stands, her eyes latched onto the stone wall and she slowly marches towards it. Fili who is checking the sharpness of one of his blades double-takes her. "Gailien?" he calls in question, reaching out for her arm. Gailien doesn't look back at him even as his hand wraps around her wrist. Instead, she manoeuvres her hand up, latching on to his and pulls her with him. "What is it?" he presses but she doesn't answer as she pulls him up the slope leading to the battlement.

They reach the top and her instincts are proven right once again. Fili scans over the land in front of them but his eyes are not as keen and do not see it straight away. But as he focuses closer, his chin lifts and shoulders stiffen.

"Get Thorin," she instructs, finally breaking both her silence and locked gaze with Dale. Along all the ridges and fortress walls of the previous forgotten city are lines of Elves decked in golden armour. Mirkwood's army. Fili nods, scurrying back down the path before running off to one of the treasure rooms.

She wishes Gandalf were here.

From the main gates of Dale rides a single person atop of a white stallion. It takes even her eyes a while before she can identify the features of the person. It surprises her a little, but it honestly shouldn't as Bard gallops towards them along the old road.

The Dwarves that watched the short interaction between Gailien and Fili look amongst each other as the latter jogs away from them. Deciding to investigate for themselves, they stride up the stony path onto the battlement of the stone fortress.

Gailien finally breaks her gaze away as Kili stands by her side. He looks out to Dale with a mixed expression of emotions. The confliction they all feel. A dislike for the Elves – specifically Mirkwood's but the wish that they could come to a settlement instead of whatever battle both sides are currently egging on.

"Is this why you were feeling slightly better about the wall?" he asks, glancing to her. Gailien clenches her jaw, recalling the very brief vision of seeing Bard and Thranduil, but only one rides out to them now.

"Something like that," she mutters back. She glances past Kili to Bilbo. He still has the Arkenstone unless he has done something he has not yet told her. Heavy boots thud against the stone behind them as Fili and Thorin return with a few other Dwarves. Gailien steps to the side as Thorin brushes between her and Balin.

Bard arrives at the foot of the gate. "Hail Thorin, son of Thrain," he calls loudly. "We are glad to find you alive beyond hope."

As much as Gailien does truly like Bard she can't help but snort "what a load of rubbish," to Fili. She hates the act of formality that he has on considering just a few weeks ago he was cursing their names in front of the entire town.

"Why do you come to gates of the King under the Mountain armed for way?" Thorin answers back, not leaning on the wall but standing tall a step behind it.

"Why does the King under the Mountain fence himself in like a robber in his hole?" Bard counters.

"Perhaps it is because I'm expecting to be robbed."

"My Lord, we have not come to rob you, but to seek fair settlement. Will you not speak with me?"

Thorin lifts his chin in thought for a moment but juts his head to the side. Bard takes the signal and dismounts his stead, marching up to the stone barricade. The Dwarves follow Thorin down, lining up behind him as he slowly walks towards the small gap in the stone.

She could pray and hope that some sense could be talked into him by Bard, but she is no fool. Thorin gets worse by the day. He's unrecognisable now as a whole.

"I'm listening," Thorin says through the gap.

"On behalf of the people of Lake-town, I ask that you honour your pledge. A share of the treasure, so that they might rebuild their lives."

"I will not treat any many, while an armed host lies before my door," Thorin spits.

"That armed host will attack this mountain if we do not come to terms."

In truth, Gailien doesn't even know why Thranduil is so set on attacking the mountain. Perhaps he wants a share of the treasure but even she would not honour an agreement like that with him. He holds no claim on anything in here since the day he let them burn.

"And your threats do not sway me," Thorin replies with a snake-like tongue.

"What of your conscience?" Thorin doesn't answer and Gailien leans to the side more to try a gage his expression but it only remains like stone from what she can see. "Does it not tell you our cause is just? My people offered you help and in return, you brought upon them only ruin and death."

"When did the men of Lake-town come to our aid but for the promise of rich reward," Thorin snarls back.

"A bargain was struck!"

"A bargain?" Thorin restates breathlessly. "What choice did we have but to barter out birthright for blankets and food. To ransom our future in exchange for our freedom. You call that a fair trade? Tell me, Bard the dragon-slayer, why should I honour such terms?"

"Because you gave us your word. Does that mean nothing?"

Thorin slowly fades out of Bard's sight and he leans back against the stone wall in thought. This could be it, she thinks. A moment away from the sickness. Gailien collects her courage and takes a step forward past the brothers in front of her but a tight hand clasps around her wrist, pulling her back. She stumbles, falling back in line with them. She looks down at the hand then to Fili, glaring at him and tries to pull her hand away but his grip is fixed.

Her other hand raises, locking around his own but Thorin has already succumbed once more.

"Begone!" he cries out through the hole. "Ere our arrows fly!"

Fili finally lets go of her hand and she huffily pulls it back close as her short window of opportunity disappears. Bard fists the stone in frustration but sees the lost cause and starts to return back to his mount.

Thorin and the rest of the company walk back up to the battlements, watching as Bard rides back to the awaiting Thranduil. Her nostrils flare with anger. Anger at Thranduil, anger at Thorin and anger at Fili. She could have done something.

And now they are going to war.

"What are you doing?" Bilbo exclaims. "You cannot go to war."

"This does not concern you," Thorin dismisses.

"It concerns everybody here," Gailien retaliates with a venomous bite. "You've dragged us all into this war Thorin." She is the first to leave, knocking shoulders with Fili as she storms back down the battlement and away from the front entrance.

She can hear the sound of Bilbo continuing to speak with Thorin, but the conversation is lost on her ears as she continues right away from them all. Her muttering echoes down the hall as she does so not to scream out.

She enters the room of their old camp area, their few belongings scattered around. Gailien finds a seat on the flat rock, lying flat on her back, stretching out her limbs. Why did Fili have to hold her back! She could have tried. She could have done something!

Maybe she could find out specifically want Thranduil wants. She's an Elf, she can be sneaky. But if anybody were to find her, Thorin or not, every ounce of trust would melt away and she would surely be banished, if not killed on the spot. Maybe they would burn her – it is in her contract after all.

The image of a burning pyre takes over her mind, her body tied in the middle as the company watches on with blank faces. Forcefully shaking the image from her head, she sits back up, grasping the edge of the stone tightly under her fingers. Rocking slightly, she tries to reimage a better image of herself with the company. Nights back at Beorn's, Rivendell, even their travels through Mirkwood seem better than this.

A pair of soft feet scrape against the stone ground just outside the door and Gailien glances up from the floor towards it. Fili enters, albeit quite slowly and pauses at the threshold. Gailien's eyes drop back down to her feet, clicking the heels together.

The boots start walking again until they are next to her and Fili sits on the rock next to her. He doesn't say anything for a while, just knocking her foot with the toe of his softly.

"He wouldn't have listened to you," he says eventually. "He wouldn't have listened to any of us."

"But I could have tried," she croaks out as her anger dimmers. "Is that not better than not trying at all?"

"At the moment; maybe," he intones, looking her dead in the eye. "Who knows what he will do if he loses his temper. I didn't do that just for you. Thorin would hate himself if he did anything to you. To any of us."

"He wouldn't even realise," she counters pathetically, tired of arguing.

"We're going to get him back," Fili states with confidence. "I don't care what it takes but we will find a way to bring him back to us."

Gailien nods slowly, more to try and end the topic at hand than in agreement. She should really try and bring her visions back, even if they are only small glimpses. It could be a matter of saving a life at this point. She just has to break down the wall that she has built in her mind. "I'm…going to try and see if I can see anything," she mumbles, drawing her legs under her. "You can go back, I don't mind being alone."

Fili shakes his head, patting her knee. "Not until you're coming back with me."