Shayla lurched upwards once more, ignoring how exhausted she felt and the pressure of Kili's hand on her shoulder. The words he was anxiously speaking did not register in her mind and she awkwardly swung her legs over the bed, pushing past Kili in an attempt to stand.
Instead, Shayla stumbled as she put her weight on shaky legs, resulting in her falling to her knees in front of Riley. With tears in her eyes, she looked at her friend lying still on the bed. The orange glow of the candles lighting her face made it easy for Shayla to see the light sheen of sweat covering Riley's forehead and the dark circles underneath her eyes.
A small sob escaped Shayla's lips. She felt so tired, every inch of her body and her being exhausted beyond belief. There were so many questions that ran through her mind, so many things that she wanted to know, but she couldn't bring herself to verbalise the thoughts. She wanted to know where she was, and who these people were, but deep down, it was almost as if she didn't want the answer.
Shayla felt a movement close to her side, and she looked up miserably through tear-brimmed eyes. Kili had knelt down only half a metre from Shayla, looking at her with a mixture of concern and curiosity. The young girl became uncomfortable under his gaze and looked back to Riley instead. Shayla didn't tear her gaze away from her unconscious friend, not even when Kili spoke several minutes later through the silence.
"I will bring some food and water for you, but you must rest. We will watch over Miss Riley." Silence again ensued, until Shayla found her voice, albeit still quivering and weak.
"Why should I trust you? Shayla turned to face Kili after a few moments, not realising that the man had seemed almost taken aback by the question. When she looked at him, his features were schooled, no hint of surprise or frustration there. His voice was soft, softer than before, when he answered.
"Durin's folk would not bring harm to one in need of aid, much less two women unaccustomed to the ways of Middle Earth."
There it was again, that place that everyone continued to speak of. Middle Earth. It sounded vaguely familiar to Shayla, though she couldn't put a finger on where she had heard it from. Why couldn't they just tell her the closest city or town, so they could find their way back from there?
Shayla didn't have a chance to say anything, before Kili stood and left the room abruptly. Sighing, she took Riley's hand in her own and let her head rest on the bed.
"I don't know what is happening Riley. I don't.. I can't.. I can't do this without you. Please, you have to wake up." Wiping her arm across her eyes, Shayla moved slowly to her feet, and shuffled back to her bed. She wanted to stay right there with Riley, but she had no energy left to give.
Her body had begun to shut down Shayla's consciousness once more, and despite the lack of want for sleep, her mind met the darkness in a deep, exhaustion-fuelled slumber.
Another half day passed before Shayla was awoken by the smell of roasting meat, baked bread and cooked vegetables. Her stomach growled angrily as she realised that she hadn't eaten since the night before they had been dragged into the river.
Sitting up slowly on the bed, she saw a small cup of water and some bread rolls lying on a small wooden table at her head. Almost ravenously she moved for the liquid, her dry throat feeling as though a fire had just ravaged her insides. Within but a few minutes, she had downed the entire cup of water and begun to chew through the rolls there.
"Oh my god," she whispered through mouthfuls, the fresh bread tasting like something of divinity. Shayla had gotten through her third roll when she remembered her senses, and remembered where she was. Quickly she moved from the bed, her body stiff with sleep but feeling better than she had the last time that she woke.
Riley was still lying on the bed opposite Shayla's, covered in blankets that she didn't remember being there before. Shayla was glad that Kili or one of the others hadn't been lying when they said they would look after Riley. Moving several strands of blonde hair from Riley's face, Shayla noticed that she didn't look quite as pale as she had the night before.
Shayla bit down on her lower lip as she moved the blankets away from Riley's leg in order to look at the gash there, hoping that it wasn't still bleeding with dark liquid and pus as it was when they had first looked at the wound.
When her dark eyes moved to Riley's uncovered leg, she sighed with relief to see that her leg was wrapped with clean bandages, and that there was nothing seeping through the cloth. Covering her friend back up, Shayla stood by the bed for a long time, just looking at Riley. It was the muffled sounds from outside the room that finally drew Shayla's attention away from her.
Tentatively, she moved towards the closed door; her mind was telling her to stay in the room, but a curiosity from deep within Shayla drove her to reach towards the wooden handle and pull it open.
Choruses of laughter rung out from close by, amplifying much louder than what she could hear from inside. Shayla quickly stepped outside the room and closed the door as quietly as she possibly could so not to wake Riley.
It wasn't until she could feel the cool stone beneath her feet that she realised someone had taken both her shoes and socks off. Looking down at herself properly for the first time several days, she was almost shocked by how filthy she had gotten. Her shorts and singlet were covered in dried mud and dirt, with some parts of her shirt frayed and ripped. She felt like a child once more, as though she had been playing in the mud outside and hadn't bothered about how dirty she got.
Biting on her lower lip, she moved slowly through a long corridor, towards the laughter and voices that echoed through. Shayla dug her nails into her clenched palms, fear rising up within her. She still didn't know where she was, and Riley was still sleeping. She was alone, more alone than she had ever felt in her life. It was in that moment that she missed her parents more than anything else.
"As sure as day, you would not be able to bring down such a beast with a bow!" Shayla recognised Kili's voice as she drew near, his tones reverberating with playfulness. There was a gruff harrumph that sounded, before another familiar voice begun to argue in a frustrated manner.
"I do not need the use of a flimsy bow to defeat an enemy! I have my axe, and my axe ranks above the likes of your Elvish crafted weapon!" Another round of laughter followed, before Kili retaliated.
"Your axe could be forged by Mahal himself, and yet if it were yourself wielding such a weapon, it would still falter in its effectiveness in contrast to any weapon carried by myself." A flurry of noise came from Kili's words, including more laughter, some sniggers, and above all else, the foreign shouts of a very antagonised Gimli.
Shayla hesitantly poked her head through the last doorway on the left before the living room that she vaguely remembered being in as they were trying to help Riley. Through the door, however, she found a large kitchen and an even bigger dining room.
She thought of her kitchen back home, and this one easily tripled the size of hers. There was a large fireplace, with an open pantry full of various different foods. Her mouth begun to water at the sight of the hanging cheeses and breads; however, the kitchen as a whole was something that she had only seen in one way before.
It looked as though she had just stepped into a medieval movie that she may have watched as a child. This wasn't something modern, something that she was used to. Did they stumble across some kind of movie set?
The more she thought about it, the more it made sense. All of the men in costumes, pretending to be these strange characters with funny accents and foreign words; it was the only explanation for everything that was happening.
Shayla had been standing in the entrance of the kitchen with the look of enlightenment as though she had just had an epiphany, when those sitting at the massive wooden table realised she was there.
"The lass is awake!" Gimli cried from across the table.
"Miss Shayla! It is about time that you had woken." Kili spun around as Gimli spoke, and made an effort to stand from where he was sitting closest to the kitchen and meet Shayla at the door. She quickly snapped out of her inner-realisation, to pay attention to the man who was walking over to meet her.
"We have just finished lunch, though there is plenty left for you." Kili outstretched his arm towards to table where several other men sat. He had a small smirk on his face Shayla noticed, though it faltered when Gimli called out to him.
"Only because Amelia threatened your Dwarf-hood if you were to eat their food, ha ha!" The other four in the room burst into laughter, while Kili looked from Gimli to Shayla with an odd combination of frustration and some expression akin to a puppy dog. After a few moments of composing himself, Kili turned back to Shayla, though obviously somewhat deflated.
"Ignore this miscreant, Miss Shayla. If he speaks another word out of place, then he will be forcibly removed from the King's chambers." Gimli's smug look was replaced until he looked more like a child close to throwing a tantrum as he watched Kili, his face turning almost red with anger.
Shayla followed Kili's lead, albeit timidly, over to the long wooden table that was laden with various types of foods. She was forced to tear her gaze away from what was causing uproar in her stomach, as Kili began to introduce her to the other men that were at the table.
"Lads, this is Miss Shayla. Come now, don't be shy." Each of the men stood and introduced themselves, much as the others had done several nights before in the forest.
"Dori, at your service." The oldest one bowed slightly, then stood upright once more to analyse Shayla more thoroughly. It was almost as though he saw something he didn't like, as he averted his eyes after but a few seconds.
"Nori, at your service." This man had the most intricate hair and beard Shayla had ever seen, and she almost couldn't keep her eyes off of it. Wow, she thought, genuinely in awe. Whoever is working on the hair for this movie has really outdone themselves.
"Ori, at your service."
"Bilbo, son of Fili, at your service." Both of the other men looked much younger than the previous two. Ori seemed almost as timid as Shayla, and even though he looked around the same age as Kili, he seemed much younger because of the way he held himself. Bilbo seemed almost shy, though after several moments observing him, Shayla realised that he stood with more of a quiet confidence. He looked to be around 16 or 17 though, several years younger than herself.
Shayla said nothing, but instead nodded her head and sat down at the table. Forgetting all manners, she begun to pile up pieces of food upon her plate and stuffed her mouth full of the various meats and cheeses. She barely had time to taste everything, as she almost acted as a vacuum with how much food she ingested.
"You may want to slow down, Miss Shayla. You will make yourself sick if you continue in such a way." Out of all of them, it was Ori who spoke up, surprisingly. Heeding his words, she slowed down her consumption but in no way stopped. She only looked up from her plate once more when two of the men seemed to start arguing in their foreign language.
Shayla looked between Kili and Dori, not understanding what words they were speaking, though knowing from who they were glancing at that they were speaking about her. Dori had begun to turn red, though not from anger it seemed. He looked more embarrassed than anything.
After what seemed like an eternity of the two arguing between each other, they finally stopped. Kili turned to Shayla, his turn to look embarrassed, as he spoke to her.
"It seems as though my dear friend Dori is a mixture of embarrassed and offended by your lack of attire, Miss Shayla. Once you finish eating, I will take you to find some clothes that you may be able to wear for the meantime."
Shayla frowned at them both, and then looked down at her own clothes. She didn't see any problem with them at all; her loose fitting khaki shorts reached her knees, and her singlet wasn't showing any cleavage at all.
"What's the point in me changing if I'm going to be going home soon?" Shayla deadpanned, somewhat surprised by her tone of voice. It seemed as though Riley had begun to rub off on her.
"How do you expect to get home?" Ori asked, seeming genuinely curious. "Are you going to see the Elves?" Shayla had to take a few moments to process what he was saying, until she realised that they weren't breaking from their characters. What the hell, she thought nervously.
"Very funny. I'd love to play along, but I'm not one for acting." She laughed anxiously, before continuing. "Your costumes are great and you're doing an awesome job at staying in character, but I need to get Riley home, or preferably to a hospital."
There was silence, silence of the most uncomfortable kind. Except for Gimli and Bilbo, who just looked confused, the others shifted in their seats and avoided eye contact.
"E-even if it's just one of you that can take the time out of whatever movie you're filming to take me and Riley. Or someone from your crew, surely you have camera-men around somewhere." Shayla looked about desperately, hoping to find someone with a camera hiding around a corner; hoping that someone would pop out and yell, "cut!"
But nothing happened. The feeling of dread begun to rise up within Shayla's chest once more, eating at her insides until she started to feel hollow inside.
Finally, Kili spoke up from to Shayla, uncertainty evident in his words.
"Miss Shayla.. I cannot begin to fathom how you must be feeling at this moment. You must understand that we cannot take you home, even if we were to try. But this is a conversation that you must have with Amelia, for we don't completely understand such things."
Shayla just looked at him with a slack jaw and eyes as wide as an owl. What did he mean that they couldn't take her back? Feeling the anger rise up within her, Shayla found it hard not to completely snap at them.
"Where the hell am I for it to be so damn hard for you to take us home? It's not like I'm stuck on the moon!" Shayla had stood up now, her usually calm demeanour being extremely shaken by her exhaustion, Riley's unconsciousness and their lack of willingness to help her.
"I think being on the moon would be easier to get back to your home than where you currently are." Shayla turned around with the others, to see Amelia standing with several fabric bags with bread poking out, and a very tall man standing next to her.
She had that same look in her eyes that was there when Shayla first met Amelia. There was a deep sadness hidden there, and pity that made it so clear for Shayla to read. The man next to her looked down at Shayla with an expression of wonder and almost shock, as though he had laid eyes on an alien.
Shayla stood watching them with wide eyes, not understanding what Amelia was hinting at.
Amelia put the bags on the wooden bench of the kitchen, and motioned for Shayla to come towards her.
"Come, Shayla. My brother and I need to explain to you some things to help you understand." Amelia's voice was warm and welcoming, which reflected in her whole body. Shayla hesitated only for a few moments, before she followed after the two. She needed to find out what was going on, despite her almost mind-numbing panic.
In an attempt to steel herself, she channelled Riley's strength and cynical disposition; she feared that if she was anything less than that, then the fear would override her body.
Easier said than done, Shayla thought dejectedly.
Hi everyone! So I'm finally back! I am sorry about the last two months of inactivity, though I hope I will be able to post at least one chapter every week and a half from now on. Thank you to everyone for your amazing reviews while I was away! It means a lot, and welcome to my new followers! You are all fab (y).
So first note- finally we have met one of Amelia's kids, all grown up! Fardreamer333, I'm sorry but it's not our beloved Bilbo Baggins! It's Bilbo, Fili and Amelia's son who was born at the end of "Not All Monsters.." I am sorry to get your hopes up! :( And wrmauney, I feel as though you are not going to like where this is heading with our beloved King under the Mountain! So many feels about Thorin, especially after botfa :(
Second note, please let me know if there are any inconsistencies or errors! It's hard to get back into the minds of my characters after a break.
Lastly- the next chapter will bring to light some things that you guys may be wanting to know! :D
Please review, and thanks a lot! xx