Here's chapter 7! I truly hope you like it.
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The next four days passed in a blur, quite peacefully and happily. Bell spent time with the company, trained with Dwalin with her elf and man friends but also with Dwalin, who strangely enough made her feel safe and warm. She pulled pranks with Fili and Kili, and with Elladan and Elrohir, much to the irritation of Lindir. She played matchmaker for Estel and Arwen who always seemed to gravitate around each other. She took strolls in the beautiful gardens with Lord Elrond.
Their departure came too fast to her liking. They had to be at Erebor's hidden door by the end of Autumn and it was already Mid-summer. A gathering of the White Council was called, and both Elrond and Gandalf advised to leave before they arrived. So, they did, they left in the middle of the night like some thieves.
She had no time to say goodbye to her friends. Elrond had been the only one she had said goodbye to. His words were still ringing in her ears as they distanced themselves from the elven city. "Remember your promise. Come back alive to us Bell." He had said before hugging her tightly and leaving in long strides.
She looked back at Rivendell for a few seconds, longing for the safety and comfort it provided. "I suggest you keep up, Miss Baggins." Thorin's oh-so regal voice called out for her and she barely suppressed a sigh.
Soon enough, a terrible thunderstorm fell upon them and the already not very practical path became even more slippery and treacherous. Suddenly a giant rock crashed just above them, Bell was going to slip when Dwalin's big hand stopped her. Smiling at him thankfully, she looked up to see stone giants fighting each other like Bofur had yelled.
They were searching for a shelter when the ground shook and cracked. And just like that with a heart breaking (for her at least) from Kili for his brother, they found themselves in two separate group. Numbly, she noticed Fili, Ori Bofur, Bombur and Dwalin were with her while the rest was on the other side.
They were on the kneecaps of a freaking stone giant. "This day just keeps getting better and better." She thought sarcastically. She very soon regretted that thought as another stone giant's knee was coming so quickly to crash into them. She heard the roars of the company, but somehow Kili's raw scream for Fili stood out. They acted totally on surged up adrenaline and jumped on another platform, hoping it wasn't yet another stone giant.
Somehow, she lost her footing. Hanging on the ledge of the freaking mountain, her heart in her throat, the only understandable thought that crossed her mind was that she would miss Kili fiercely. "Where's Bell? Where's the hobbit?" She heard Bofur scream, and she wanted to answer but her voice was lacking. The hatted miner and the shy scribe found her and immediately tried to get her back up.
But as she gave them her hand so that they could grab it and haul her up, her other hand slipped and she fell by a foot or two, screaming in anguish. She could see the terror in the dwarrows faces, she smiled slightly at them before losing her grip and falling. Then her world turned dark.
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Kili thought he'd die when his brother and love were snatched from him. He screamed in pure terror when he saw them being squashed against a rock and then sagged in relief as they found them a little battered but alive on another platform.
Oh, but how wrong he was. Fili was there but Bell wasn't, he understood as he heard Bofur scream numbly. When he saw her there, hanging, his heart stopped, his knees buckled under him and Fili was the only one to keep his upright.
Her scream of fear would haunt him for the rest of her life. Then, she looked at them and smiled. Not her usual warm and happy smile, but a small thankful and resigned smile and she fell. He didn't hear any other scream but his own. Filled with terror and pain, raw heartbreak.
His One had just fallen to her death. He was there, and he hadn't been capable of protecting her. It was all his fault. He distantly heard his Uncle talk about a cave but couldn't register it nor anything else right now. The other half of her soul just died, and he had not protected her. It was his job as a One and he failed spectacularly. The pain was just too much to bear.
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Fili was destroyed. Bell just fell from a mountain. He should have been there. He should have protected her. He should have helped her. He proclaimed her as kin but turned his back on her, just few days after. He had let her fall.
He saw his brother enter in some sort of daze. He was there physically but not mentally. He cursed himself under his breath viciously.
If only he had protected her, she would still be alive, and his brother would be fine. He couldn't accept the fact that sassy little Bell just died. That he would never see her smile anymore, he would never make her laugh. He would never be able to braid his family braid in her hair and tell the world that she was her sister. He would never see Kili's courting braid in her hair either. Oh Mahal, he had to turn his thoughts somewhere else, before he collapsed from grief.
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Unbeknownst to Fili, Dwalin had very similar thoughts. During their trainings, he had been able to get to know the lass better and she became someone he truly cared for. To see her fall from a mountain with a small, almost tired smile, literally broke his heart.
He yelled her name along with the rest of the company, but she still fell further and further, her hand unconsciously outstretched towards them, as if begging for help while her voice couldn't. But the worse, he thought, was to see her eyes. They were filled with resignation and sadness, before they slowly closed, as the girl probably didn't want to see her own death.
He felt tears burning his eyes and had to fight them, while many were openly crying, his brother included. Dwalin knew he had grown very fond of their hobbit burglar. She was witty, respectful but teasing and gentle, all that wrapped in a small package of fierceness and cuteness. Balin saw her as a niece more than just a comrade on a suicidal quest.
Fili and Kili were in a trance, both lost in their thoughts. Bofur was sobbing loudly, grieving the death of someone he called best friend. The rest of the company was grieving her differently, some with tears, some with silence, some by holding their family closer.
Thorin came to him and informed him of a cave nearby. His king may not have liked the hobbit but Dwalin could see the grieving light in his eyes. He never wanted her death and certainly not like that.
For Mahal's sake, she couldn't even be buried, her body probably… No, don't think about it. He repeated the words in his head like a mantra, but his mind just kept supplying him with images of Bell twisted in abnormal ways, crushed on the bottom of the mountain, bloodied, her eyes dazed, no light in them anymore.
The tears came back with a vengeance and this time he did naught to stop them. Taking his brother in his arms, he had to physically oblige himself to move from the ledge and go towards that cave Thorin talked about. He had to before they lost someone else. His already sobbing heart would not take it.
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Bell Baggins was cursing everything she ever knew from adventures to her prized tomatoes passing by dwarrows and Gandalf. She just woke up at the bottom of the freaking mountain she had fell from.
Her fall seemed to have been cushioned by some sort of big, squishy, fluorescent mushrooms, and she shuddered to think about what would have happened if they haven't been here. She knew she had to cross the Misty Mountains if she wanted to join the Company.
Luck seemed to be on her side for once as she spotted an entry in the stone, but as soon as she made a move to get up, she had to rethink her opinion about luck being on her side. She literally hurt everywhere. Her ribs were probably broken, she also probably had a concussion judging by how her vison swam and dark dots appeared only to disappear again, her ankle seemed sprained but not broken. The rest of her body was black and blue, but it seemed that nothing else was truly major. But after all, she wasn't a healer and for all she knew, she could be dying from internal bleeding.
Turning her thoughts of the dark and somehow sarcastic place they turned to, she pushed herself up, ignoring the pain, fuelled by adrenaline. She was in some sort of cave with a creepy dark lake in the middle.
Bell heard a voice sing awfully off-key but hey, who was she to judge? She silently made her way towards the voice before she stepped on something. Hastily biting back a curse, she lifted her foot to discover a small golden ring. Shrugging, she took it and continued her way. She then had to rethink her plan of ever wanting to follow the voice when her eyes fell on the…? We'll say creature for she was not truly sure what it was.
Then came like the most traumatizing game of riddles she ever played, and believe me, she played a lot of those. Then here she was running from the "Gollum" whatever that was, before seeing her dwarrows and running after them.
And could she just add a tiny little detail to that? She did all that with a freaking concussion, BROKEN ribs and a goddamned sprained ankle! The adrenaline may be decreasing the pain, but Yavanna it still hurt as hell.
"Bell? Where is Bell?" She heard Gandalf's panicked voice yell, and wondered absently when he had come, but was too overjoyed and in pain to question it much.
"She fell." Well that was short, simple and terribly concise. It was also said with a very flat tone. She watched at Dwalin who was the one who had spoken and saw him gripping his axes so hard blood didn't pass. But what shocked her was his eyes, who dark with pain and regret. She suddenly felt a surge of affection for the gruff warrior and felt guilty for making him pained so.
Gandalf looked like his knees weren't holding him anymore and leaned heavily on his staff, a single tear rolling from his face.
She looked at the rest of the company, all looking grieved, some holding back tears. Kili's face was the one that struck her the most. He looked like all joy had been sucked from his life and he would never be happy again. He looked tired, no, exhausted. Like life was just too much for him.
She plucked her ring off, not able to take it anymore, and wanting to clear the darkness from everyone's faces. "Wait! Please I'm here! Wait." Those five words took her breath away and as the adrenaline faded, she felt the pain even more, struggling to breath.
They were cries of relief and shock and tears. "Bell Baggins I've never been so glad to see anyone in my whole life." Gandalf said, while Kili ran to her and hugged her, burrowing his head in her hair. That granted him a loud whimper of pain and he frowned, taking a step back to check her injuries when a warg howl resonated in the silence.
Kili's face darkened and hardened before he scooped her in his arms and started running. He held her like he'd never let her out of his sight ever again. She smiled at him, her hand brushing his tears of his cheeks. "I'm here. I'm here Kili. I'm here." She kept whispering those words in his ear, to reassure him or herself she did not know, but it seemed to work on both of them.
They had to climb on trees and, then, ignite the plain beneath to keep the wargs away. "Azog" Thorin whispered next to her. A white warg, ridden by a pale, scarred, huge Orc. She recognized him because of the missing arm, Balin had told her the story of the battle of Moria, when they were in Rivendell. He said something in that terrible Black Speech of theirs, that sounded mildly insulting, probably because of the sneer he casted towards Thorin.
But surprisingly, or unsurprisingly depends on the point of view, Thorin took the bait. He got up and ran towards his certain dead, absolutely not rethinking about his choice. Majesticness was practically oozing from him, and he ignored the cries of despair of his friends and family. And all of that drama just to be chewed by the white warg and hit by the huge mace of its rider, and right now, in danger of decapitation.
Hearing the terror in Kili's voice, that weirdly always struck her deeper than others, she took a deep breath, adrenaline diluting her pain. She ran to protect the leader of their company by stabbing into an orc. Her ache made her stance blurry and black spots appeared on Azog's face. She almost giggled at the sight.
She heard twin war cries and looked to her right, only to see Fili, Kili and Dwalin, their weapons rised, ready to fight to save them. To save Thorin, her mind corrected absently. She didn't exactly know why it bothered her so much.
Then giant claws pulled a group of orcs of the ground and threw them into the nothingness over the cliff. She blinked, before blinking again just for good measure. Nope, the giant eagles were still there. As she felt claws pick her up herself, her last thought before she lost consciousness was "Well that concussion might be worse than I originally thought. "
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Kili was officially going crazy. After escaping a mountain full of goblins, they found out that Bell survived the fall, and the sheer amount of relief he felt almost brought him to his knees. Then they discovered that Azog was still alive. He saw his Uncle be bitten and hit by the Pale Orc and his mount, then he watched as his alive but only barely One ran after to save his Uncle. But she was swaying on her feet and could barely keep her sword in front of her.
He saw red as the orcs began to circle her and with Fili and Dwalin on his tows, he sprinted to save Bell, but it seemed giant eagles decided to do it first. As he shifted on the back of his eagle, he looked at his Uncle and his One, just to find them both unconscious. So yeah, he was either going crazy, or white prematurely.
As the eagles put them down on some sort of giant rock, he hurried to the side of the hobbit, Oin with him, while Fili and Gandalf were with Thorin. "Broken ribs, concussion, strained ankle and wrist. She's lucky she didn't puncture a lung." The white-haired healer diagnosed. "She'll be fine, right Oin?" The dark-haired prince asked, his voice trembling. "Aye lad. Her recovery will be a long and painful one, but she should be fine. Don't worry anymore." Those words made Kili release a breath he didn't even know he was holding.
Bell whimpered as she back to her senses, mechanically trying to sit up, only to be pinned back to the ground by Oin. "What the hell do you think you're doing? Don't you dare move anything." He snapped. A grunt was heard behind them. "The Halfling?" Thorin's deep voice asked. "Bell is here. She's safe now." Gandalf answered, his relief sensed in the words.
"Thorin come here please." The hobbit requested, and he did with a little help from Dwalin and Fili. Once she could see him, she calmly threatened him. "I ran with already broken ribs to protect your royal ass. I swear to Yavanna that if you do something so stupid again, I'll kill you myself. Am I understood?" When he nodded, she closed her eyes.
"Great. I'm a little sleepy right now. Don't you dare wake me or face the consequences." She whispered before falling asleep. When all turned to face the mountain Thorin spotted, Kili kissed Bell's forehead, hoping that the worst was behind them.
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Well that finishes the seventh chapter. I originally thought about leaving it when Bell fell but then I thought the chapter would be too short. So yeah, she's not dead. Surprise!
