Chapter Fifteen: The Sword and Sewing Room

"Come on, Lass. That is more pathetic than I would expect from you."

Emelia had expected as much. Dwalin had been shouting at her over and over again for the past three hours. He had been, as she had expected, more than a little verbally abusive in his attempts to assess about how much a liability she was going to inevitably be. They had attempted an axe first, which Emelia found to appallingly heavy and hard to wield, before moving onto bow and arrow. She had thought she might have been good at that, considering she had tried it when she was a reluctant participant in gym class. Apparently archery with dwarves was different than P.E. archery.

She had shot a stone, the base of a tree, a bench, and almost an elf by the time Dwalin told them to move onto using a pair of sparring swords.

"This is the worst attempt I've ever seen at self-defense." Dwalin snapped again, forcing Emelia to look over at him from her spot in front of a very amused looking Fili.

She gripped the sparring sword in her hands, feeling it slip slightly from the sweat that was dripping down her rolled up dress sleeves. Apparently the dwarves didn't think it was so odd for her to be sparring in a dress, despite the fact that she had tripped over it at least ten times in the last three hours. The dress stuck to her in all of the wrong places, making dark green stick out against the normal color of the once nice dress. She had attempted to braid her hair back from her face, only to have little curly pieces flying all around her now ruddy face.

"This would be easier if I wasn't in a bloody dress." Emelia snapped, fixing the bald dwarf with a very hateful look. "Why don't you try it for a while?"

Dwalin let out a loud snort, turning his attention towards Fili. "Give her another go."

Emelia looked over at Fili, barely allowing the tip of the practice sword to touch the ground. Her shoulders were on fire from all of the weapons she had cycled through. Her hands were covered in blisters from the roughness of the handle of the sword she held in her hands. Her legs, which had been taken out from underneath her what felt like a hundred times, ached like she had just run a full marathon in the middle of winter. Her back was so sore she was surprised it was still able to hold up her weight.

"Come on, Fee." Emelia whined, letting her sword dip even lower. "You're just going to 'kill' me again."

"That is an understatement." Kili said under breath, earning a dark look from Emelia.

Fili looked at her for a moment, glancing back towards Dwalin briefly, before he lifted his sword up again. She let out a heavy sigh, rolling her shoulders despite the soreness, and lifted up her own, moving into the stance that Dwalin had drilled into her head at the very beginning of their day. She tried to make her face look intimidating as she stared down the blonde dwarf. He merely smirked at her, before moving towards her slowly.

Emelia had been rather thankful that she hadn't fought Kili very much in her training session. He was too rough and quick for her to keep up with him. He had knocked her down more times than she could count before putting her through the ringer again. It wasn't until Fili offered to spar with her for a while that she finally got a break from the relentless over and over again that Kili had put her through. Kili had been oddly quiet during the duration of her training session. He did not offer many pointers and he did not speak to her more than vitally necessary. He offered snide one-liners, but other than that he kept to himself. He wouldn't even look at her half the time, not that she was going to complain about it.

Fili was quick in his first strike, forcing Emelia to stumble to the side in an attempt to avoid yet another training bruise. She turned herself to make eye contact again, which Dwalin had shouted at her at every single turn, lifting her sword up again just in time to block Fili's blow. The force of his swipe sent vibrations up her arms, making her shoulder twinge with pain again. She immediately stepped back from him, stumbling yet again over her dress.

"That dress is going to get you killed." Fili noted, standing up straighter. "Come here."

Emelia eyed him for a moment before she walked towards him, dropping her practice sword to the ground. He beckoned her over with his hand, reaching down to his belt to pull out one of the many knives he carried on his person. He bent down in front of her, ignoring the look he got from her with her crossed arms, before using the knife to cut the entire bottom off of her dress. Emelia opened her mouth to protest, only to be cut off by a look from both Dwalin and Kili.

She felt her face heat up with the thought that there would be no hiding of her hairy legs anymore. But then again, she supposed the dwarves couldn't really say anything about body hair.

"Are we finally ready to proceed?" Dwalin did not sound happy as he addressed them. Fili stood up, pulling the scrap of dress fabric with him. He held it out in front of his face, smirking over at her before he threw it at his brother, earning a loud curse in an odd language that Emelia didn't understand.

"Nim is not going to be happy with you." Emelia whispered, moving away to pick up her discarded sword. "I imagine she can be quite intimidating when angry." Emelia wasn't entirely sure if she believed that. Nim looked and sounded as if she had never even yelled at a person, let alone done anything about it if they made her mad.

"Do I look like I fear lady elves?" Fili asked with a loud laugh. He held up his sword, glancing down at her revealed ankles and calves. "Besides, I t…"

Kili let out a loud cough, shooting his brother a dark look. "Just spar with her, Fili. It is past noon and Thorin wants to know if she is going to get us all killed."

Emelia had to fight the urge to hit him upside the head. She had been trying her best. She honestly had. She hadn't given up, as much as she had wanted to, but he didn't really see that. All he saw her as was a hindrance, which she admitted she was. She had been trying, however, not to be. She had managed to block Fili more than once, a lot more than once actually, yet Kili did not see that. All he saw was her struggling and hindering. She had had just about enough of it. At least Fili had the decency to make her feel better about the fact that she was a complete and utter bump on the proverbial log. She couldn't help but hate the look on Kili's face as he regarded her with a very poorly hidden look of annoyance and utter lackluster at what she had been able to do.

"Let's go again, Fee."

"You seem tire…"

She lifted her up her sword, shooting Kili one more dark look before she turned back to Fili.

She allowed him to make the first advance towards her. She held up her sword, blocking his blow before she jumped to the side, swinging her own sword around in the attempt to catch him off guard. She had just managed to catch him in the side when he shoved his sword between her own and his body. He brought his arm up and grabbed her by the shoulder before spinning her around and bringing his own sword up to her neck in one swift movement. Emelia had just managed to catch him in the stomach with her elbow, the first impressive thing she had done all morning, when a soft voice interrupted them from behind Dwalin, forcing Emelia and Fili to relax from their defensive positions.

"What in the name of all that is good happened to your dress?" Emelia felt her entire body tense up at the unexpected interruption. Nim was standing off to the side, eyeing her torn dress with a look of shock and disdain. She trailed her eyes over to the discarded fabric. She had her arms crossed over her chest, regarding the dwarves with annoyance. "That was one of my favorites."

"What is the she-elf doing here?" Dwalin snapped, flexing his always intimidating arm muscles. "We're in the middle of something, elf."

Nim looked over at Dwalin, not even bothering to look upset by his words. Instead her face had a smirk on it. "My business with Lady Emelia is my own." She looked over to Emelia, shooting her small smirk before she turned back to Fili. "Can I steal her away from you?"

"I do not see for what purpose." Kili said suddenly, drawing Nim's attention over to him. He was looking back and forth between Nim and Emelia, arms crossed so tightly over his chest, Nim could see the muscles on his arms underneath his rolled up sleeves tensing up. He did not look impressed, excited, or even remotely pleased to see Nim standing there.

"You will have her back by the end of day meal." Nim said simply. She saw Kili tense up when she addressed him, forcing her to fight the eye roll. She had read and heard about the stubbornness of dwarves, but she had never expected it to be so profound. It was almost startling to see the way the dwarves looked at her with their arms crossed and their jaws firm, their anger never yielding. "Do not fret, Master Dwarf, your lady friend shall be safe with me."

Emelia could only imagine the look of horror on Kili's face when Nim referred to her as his lady friend. She imagined it mirrored her own with wide eyes and pursed lips. She shuffled her feet on the ground awkwardly, trying to avoid making eye contact with Kili or Nim. Fili let out a small laugh, despite himself, moving over to clap Kili loudly on the back. His younger brother moved slightly under the pressure of the hit, pushing him back with his elbow.

"You can take her." Kili said, moving slightly away from his brother, shooting him a dark look. "We're done with her anyway. She's about as useless as we originally thought."

"No need to sugar coat it for my sake, Kili." Emelia snapped, moving towards Nim. "I'm sure I can manage the truth."

"Don't listen to him Emmy. You actually did really well for your first time."

"Thanks, Fee." Emelia said over her shoulder as Nim began to pull her along.

Nim reached her hand down to Emelia's shoulder, pulling her along. She sensed the undeniable tension between Emelia and the dark headed dwarf the moment she walked up to collect Emelia. She had seen him watching Emelia on her way over to them, she had seen he conflict on his face and spilling out from his body language. Emelia had glared at him every chance she got, but for some reason Nim couldn't help but feel there was more to the story than just being annoyed at Emelia's obvious lack of self-defense skills.

Emelia gave Kili one last look at Kili before following after Nim. She was clenching and unclenching her hands as she followed after Nim, mumbling expletives under her breath and stomping her feet angrily into the ground as they made their way up the sloping lawn towards the halls of Rivendell. Nim thought she heard the distinct sound of her cursing the dark headed dwarf to some place she didn't quite understand as well as condemning him to spend the rest of his days surrounded by something that Nim didn't quite wish to repeat.

"He is very handsome for a dwarf." Nim said once the two were far enough away from the three dwarves that they wouldn't over hear them.

"And he's got such a sparkling personality to go with that pretty face of his."

Nim let out a small laugh, placing her hand onto her back to lead her towards one of the many rooms that lined the hallways of Rivendell. Most of them had appeared unused to Emelia in the times that she had been led through there. The room was occupied by only a couple of tables and a few benches and more fabric than Emelia would have thought possible. They all looked like the best quality and make, in soft browns, blues, greens and reds. There was a small bit of purple fabric laying on one of the tables. There was a very tall and willowy looking elf sitting behind one of the tables, sewing and humming to herself. She had her brown hair thrown over her shoulder, revealing the top of the simple brown work dress that she wore. She glanced up when the two of them walked in, offering a serene smile before she returned to her diligent work.

"The leader of your company requested, sort of, that some traveling clothes be made for you as quickly as possible." Nim said, gesturing to the garments being made by the diligent elf. "I was wondering if you have a preference for color."

Emelia moved forward, placing her hands on the soft supple feeling fabrics.

"You don't have to do this." Emelia said, inwardly loving the feel of the soft green fabric she was holding.

"It is no trouble." The sewing elf said suddenly. "I find I quite enjoy make the smaller garments."

She was smiling at Emelia with her brown eyes wide and warm. She looked so genuine it made Emelia feel instantly bad for the abrupt and rude way Thorin had inevitably treated them both. She imagined, with his never yielding paranoia, that he wouldn't have told them much. He would have just demanded that the clothes be made and left it at that. He would have demanded they make them like the two elves worked for him. The thought made her even angrier at the surly dwarf.

"Obviously, green looks good on you," Nim began, holding up a soft, but sturdy looking pile of fabric. "But I think you seem more like a blue person."

"I think purple would suit her, My Lady." The sewing elf said, smiling slightly at the two of them. "It is a shade that won't clash with her hair."

"I think you are right, Gewinthiel."

Emelia felt the familiar knot in her chest returning as she looked at the two elves debating over the colors that she would wear while she was accompanying the dwarves. She did not like Thorin going around demanding that clothes be made for her. She didn't even want to go on the stupid quest. She would have much preferred to keep wearing borrowed dresses and spending her time in Rivendell than being dragged around like she was less than a person. She felt the tears welling up in her eyes as she looked at all of the fabrics lying about the room. She pictured all of the clothes they would, and could, be made into. She pictured them being transformed into clothes like the dwarves wore. She pictured herself being forced into them and there was nothing she could do about it.

"Emelia?" Nim placed a hand on her shoulder, causing her to jump at the sudden contact.

"I don't want to go." The words spilled out of her mouth before she could stop them.

"With the dwarves?"

She nodded her head, sinking down onto one of the piles of fabric. She felt the green dress shifting underneath her, revealing that she was still soaked with sweat from her training. The sewing elf, Gewinthiel, stood up quietly, excusing herself with a small bow of her head, leaving Nim and Emelia alone in the room.

"I don't want to go back into the wild. I want to stay here."

"They are making you go with them?" Nim said slowly, sitting down next to Emelia and placing a hand on her shoulder for comfort. "And you do not wish to."

"I would rather gnaw off my own arm than be forced to go with them."

"That is drastic and alarming." Nim said, her voice shaking slightly at the thought.

"It's a metaphor." Emelia said, sinking back against the wall. "I just want to go home, Nim."

"Where are you from?"

She had been pondering the best way to answer that question ever since she found out that she wasn't in Alaska any more. She had figured out, by process of elimination, that she wasn't even really in the United States anymore. To her knowledge, there was no place that had elves, dwarves and hobbits as part of the general populace. She was tired of being looked at like she was insane. Thorin had thought she was utterly batty when she had gone on about Alaska. She wasn't about to repeat that mistake with someone who had literally been nothing but nice to her.

"I come from the north." Emelia said, hoping that Nim got the hint to take her word for it.

"Is it beautiful?"

"Like nothing I'll ever see again more than likely."

Nim studied her face for a moment before spoke in a voice so soft, Emelia had to struggle to hear her. "You do not have to go with them. You don't have to do anything you do not want to do."

"I have to." Emelia said sadly. "They found me in the forest. They saved me."

"That does not mean you owe them."

"I know too much about what they are planning on doing. I know where they are going and Thorin isn't going to let me just slip away with that information. He said he was going to drag me along with them if he had to."

Nim did not speak for what felt like a hundred years to Emelia. She sat in her spot, back up straight and elegant like Emelia had always seen her, staring straight ahead at the piles and piles of fabric. She held her pale hands in her lap, squeezing them together tightly as she worked her jaw in concentration. She shook her head occasionally before she turned back to look at Emelia, her eyes shining with sadness as she looked over at the red head's face.

"I do not know if I can help you." Nim said in a quiet voice. "I am just a healer's apprentice. I am not in the position to start even more conflicts between elves and dwarves."

"I don't want any more adventures, Nim. I like it here. You are the first person, besides Fee and Balin, who's been nice to me."

Nim looked thoughtful for a moment before she spoke, placing a hand on Emelia's shoulder. "I cannot stop them. But I can tell you that adventures might not be as bad as they seem."

"Nim, I've been held prisoner, tortured, forced to sit in my own filth, starved, beaten, forced to witness cannibalism, chased, verbally abused, yelled at, distrusted, chased by wargs, tackled to the ground, and head-butted in the nose. All of this on top missing my family more than I have ever missed anything in the entire world. I don't want an adventure. I don't want to go trekking through the wild with a bunch of smelly dwarves who all would have much rather left me where they found me. I don't want to go with them and they obviously don't want me to be within a hundred miles of them. I just want to go home, but I sure as hell can't do that now."

"Emelia, I…"

"I just want to stay here."

"All bad things have to come to an end at some point, Emelia. I trust you know that."

Emelia stood up, turning around to face the startled elf. Her hands shook as she began to pace back and forth in the sewing room. There was a dark spot from where she had been sitting; marring the beautiful pile of fabric, indicating that her sweat still hadn't dried. Normally she would have been embarrassed, but she found, like she was finding more and more in this new place, that she didn't really care. Nim wasn't going to say anything.

"My bad things haven't come to an end yet Nim. It's never ending. I feel like I'm stuck on an endless loop of suck and I can't do anything about it."

Nim stood up, moving forward to reach her long arms around her and pull her into a tight hug. She paid no mind to the fact that Emelia was soaking and stunk worse than anything. She felt Emelia crying into her chest, making Nim's entire body shake. She tried to get her to quiet down, only to be met by more body wracking sobs.

"Emmy, Thori…" Emelia and Nim stepped back from each other, looking over at the now open door. Fili was looking at them with raised eyebrows and pursed lips. "What did you do to her?" He asked Nim suddenly, taking in the tears that were shinning on Emelia's now very red face. She hurriedly reached her shaking hands up to her face, wiping the moisture off with the back of her hands. She sniffed slightly before she fixed Fili with a steely glare.

"Stop being so damn paranoid, Fili."

She stalked past him, bumping into him roughly, before leaving the room with a loud bang of the door.

"What did you do to her?" Fili asked again harshly, crossing his arms over his chest.

"If I were you, Master Dwarf, I would start to look at what those in your company have done to her."

Nim had been correct when she said she couldn't do much to help her. She had come to visit Emelia after she had stormed out on her and Fili, holding a pile of freshly made clothes and a small leather bag. Nim had conversed with Fili, rather heatedly before she too had stalked out. She had tried to get him to tell her where they were going, only to be met with anger and threats. It was like talking to a wall. And Nim had decided, considering she wasn't clever enough to find a way out for Emelia, that she didn't have time for the stubbornness of dwarves.

Emelia had shrunk back into her bed ever more when she saw what Nim was holding, pulling her covers over her face in a huff. She had refused to join the dwarves for dinner, sighting that she was too sore from training. She imagined that they saw right through that. Fili had attempted to come and talk to her, only to be shoved out of her room with a loud smack to the arm and a slamming door.

Thorin, accompanied by Dwalin, had stopped by to tell her that they would be leaving in the morning. She had said something nasty that resulted in Dwalin saying something rather violent. She had thought it best not to argue with them after that.

Balin had come by once, smiling at her and offering her words of soothing and advice.

Bilbo had been kind enough to bring her some bread and cheese.

Nim had been sitting in the chair by the window for what felt like an eternity before she disappeared and returned holding a long slender package.

She placed it on the bed gingerly, removing the leather fabric that covered it.

"I thought you might do better with an elvish weapon." She said simply, forcing Emelia to peek out from underneath her covers. "It is lighter and more elegant."

"I can't use it." Emelia said with only her face sticking out of the thick covers. "I'm rubbish at fighting. I'll probably stab myself before I do any damage that's actually helpful."

"Then I suppose it's a good thing you have such handsome dwarves there to protect you."

Emelia snorted, finally emerging from underneath the blanket fully.

"Dwarves don't really seem like your type. You seem like you like them tall, blonde and handsome."

"If you happen to come across one of those, send me word." Nim said with a laugh, flipping her long hair behind her back. "Although, I don't think you'll find any men like that where you are going."

"You know?"

"No. But I can imagine it isn't the best place." Nim mumbled simply, shrugging her slender shoulders.

Emelia nodded, catching sight of the blade on the covers. She scooted towards the blade, gingerly picking it up and holding it in front of her face. It was beautiful with its deep handle with veins of blue flowing through it as well as onto the bottom of the blade. It felt like air as she held it in front of her face. It fit in her hand perfectly, curving into her palm.

"My brother gave me that as part of a set. I thought it might suit you."

"You have a brother?" Emelia asked, feeling her chest constrict at the thoughtfulness of the gesture.

"His name is Rumil. He is quite a bit older than me." Nim said simply, moving towards the bundle of clothes she had brought with her. "He gave me the set of blades as a gift for my sixth hundredth birthday. They haven't seen as much action as their craftsmanship dictates, so I thought, perhaps, you might do me the favor of taking it on the adventure it deserves."

Emelia immediately dropped the blade. "Six hundred?" She fixed the elf with a dry look. "You barely look twenty, if that."

"I assure you, I am six hundred and forty." She laid out the clothes, placing her hand on her chin. She surveyed them for a moment before she began to pair them off, folding them neatly in little bundles. She hurried over to the door, dipping outside for a moment before she came back in holding Emelia's boots and her bra in addition to her now clean smelling clothes. She placed them on the chair that she had been occupying before she turned back around.

"I thought you might like to have something to reme…" Nim trailed off, pausing in her shuffling of clothes around as she stuffed them into the bag. "I am sorry I couldn't think of anything to help you. I had thought about approaching Lord Elrond, but he has been holed up in a meeting for days. Only Lindir was allowed to interrupt. I suppose I could have been more forceful…"

"Do you miss your brother?" Emelia asked, changing the subject whens he saw the regret on Nim's face. She did not want her feeling bad for something she had no control over. Her entire body felt small and useless as she watched Nim stuff the leather pack with odds and ends.

"There are times when I miss him terribly. But more often than not, I find I appreciate the people I find myself surrounded by." Nim said, not looking up from the bag. She left out a pair of black leggings, a purple tunic, and cream undershirt, as well as a thick jacket that Emelia was quite sure was going to make her look like she had gained about a hundred pounds in five minutes. She folded them up and placed them on the chair, setting a pair of long stockings next to them before she turned to take a seat on the edge of the bed.

"You could do worse than the dwarves, Em." Nim said simply. She told herself she wasn't going to share what Fili had said. He had been stubborn, but she could hear and see the undeniable care in his voice and on his face when he had berated Nim in the privacy of the sewing room. "As smelly and loud as they are, they are fiercely loyal to their women. They won't let anything happen to you."

"I could do better. Besides, they have made it clear that I am not one of them."

"Perhaps." Nim said with a smile. "But then again, perhaps not."

"I wish you could go with us when they kidnap me again." Emelia said, folding her hands in her lap.

Nim let out a small laugh. "I do not think I am the adventuring type."

"Me either."

Nim paused in her story, feeling her chest tighten as she got to the point in the story she hated the most. Gimli was looking up at her with an odd look on his face when he heard her voice trail off. Wenny was playing with the end of her mother's dress, lifting it up and down in her small hands, completely oblivious to the way her mother wrung her hands together. Gimli reached a hand out to Nim, placing it comfortingly on her arm as she looked down at her daughter from her chair by the fire.

"Does she still have your sword, Naneth?"

Nim looked down at her daughter, feeling her lips tighten up slightly. "Yes, she does."

"Why didn't you stop the dwarves from making her go with them?" Wenny asked, finally looking up from the fabric of her mother's dress.

"I couldn't." Nim said simply.

"Liluwen, I think you should give your mother a break." Legolas appeared out of nowhere, startling the three that were sitting by the fire. "You have missed out on dinner. Again."

Wenny stood up, drawn by the thought of food. She turned to Gimli, fixing him with a wide smile. "I know you are hungry Gimli. Dwarves are always hungry. Come with me."

"Right you are, Miss Wenny."

Gimli normally would have argued, but seeing the look on the two older elves faces, he took it as his cue to escort the little princess to her long overdue meal. He stood up heavily from his chair, shaking out his sore limbs from sitting for so long. He stomped his feet to get the feeling back into them before he turned to Wenny, extending out his arm to lead her out of the family hall that Nim had told her part of the story in. Wenny immediately grabbed his coat covered arm, before pulling him out of the hall, completely oblivious to the mood she was leaving her parents in.

Legolas waited until they were out of earshot before turning back to his blank faced wife.

"You never told me about the sword." He said, sitting himself down into the chair that Gimli had vacated.

"It never seemed important." Nim looked over at him, shrugging her shoulders. He reached out a hand, placing it on her fire lit face. She leaned into his hand, smiling slightly at his touch. "Wenny seems to like the story thus far."

Legolas let out a small laugh. "Would you expect anything different?" He scooted his chair closer to hers, drawing her closer to him. "You are a wonderful story teller."

"You are making me blush." She said, feeling her face heat up.

"It is nice to know I still can after all these years."

He pulled her towards him until she was perched on his lap, wrapping her arms around his shoulders. He placed a light kiss on her exposed neck, earning a reluctant laugh from her. He pulled her even closer to him, planting kisses along her neck until his mouth arrived at the base of her jaw. "I haven't seen you much recently."

"Wenny is stubborn and doesn't let me leave until she is too tired to stay awake."

"Like mother like daughter." He said into her neck, peppering kisses until he came to her mouth. He kissed her firmly, wrapping his hands in her hair and behind her neck. He felt her smile into his mouth, running her hands up his chest.

"Just wait until she hears about your meeting with Em." Nim said against his mouth, her breath ghosting across his face. He laughed, sending vibrations from his chest into her own. He reached his hand down from her neck, wrapping it around her back, shifting her so that she was flush against him.

"That will be more than interesting."

"Especially after she hears about the kick to the stomach and the punch to the face."

Legolas leaned back from her slightly, fixing her with a stern look. "I told you, she got lucky with those hits."

"I'm sure it was just luck." She said with a laugh, leaning towards him again, planting feverish kisses on his face and mouth.