Chapter VII: The Way They're Carrying On...

A/N: Finally a faster update. This was another fun chapter to write. Blondiezhere helped with the Khuzdul and the elvish. Translations will be given at the end. Enjoy the chapter! SSD

"Some may imagine a noble quest is at hand. A quest to reclaim a homeland and slay a dragon," the point-ear king started.

"I am not going to volunteer any information!" Thorin thought.

"I myself suspect a more prosaic motive. Attempted burglary or something of that ilk. You found a way in."

"Do elves have the ability to read minds?" Thorin wondered. Ashara herself had made what he'd thought at the time to be lucky guesses.

"You seek that which would bestow upon you the right to rule. The King's Jewel. The Arkenstone. It is precious to you beyond measure. I understand that. There are gems in the Mountain that I too desire: White gems of pure starlight," the elf king remarked.

Thorin remembered that incident all too well.

"I offer you my help."

"I am listening," Thorin stated.

"I will let you go, if but return what is mine."

He turned around then said, "A favor for a favor?"

"You have my word, one king to another." Thranduil said.

"I would not trust Thranduil, the great king, to honor his word should the end of all days be upon us! YOU! Who lack all honor!" Thorin turned to face Thranduil. "I have seen how you treat your friends: We came to you once, starving, homeless, seeking your help... But you turned your back! You turned away from the suffering of my people and the inferno that destroyed us! Imrid amrâd ursul!" Thorin shouted.

Moving almost faster than Thorin could see, Thranduil was up in his face hissing, "Do not talk to me of dragon fire! I know... it's wrath and ruin!"

Suddenly the skin on the left side of Thranduil's face seemed to melt away showing a horrible wound that went down to the muscles of his jaw. "I have fought the great serpents of the North!"

The elf king regained some of his composure before saying, "I warned your grandfather of what his greed would summon. But he would not listen." The king started ascending his throne, "You are just like him."

Thranduil motioned to his guards who grabbed him. Thorin began struggling.

"Stay here if you will and rot. 100 years is a mere blink in the life of an elf. I'm patient. I can wait."

As Thorin was being dragged away, Thranduil called out one last thing: "Oh by the way... Did you know you travel with the granddaughter of Elrond? Practically a princess she is- I cannot fathom what would make her debase herself to the point of willingly traveling with dwarves!"

Ashara cringed as the dwarves were thrown into their cells. She had not been thrown in one yet. At least not down here.

Her cell would likely be very different than the ones here. Ashara smirked as Fili snuck two of his daggers past the elf who searched him before pushing him into his cell./

Tauriel was dealing with Kili. Ashara had not seen her since Legolas's last visit to Rivendell roughly a century prior. They'd gotten along fairly well.

Kili asked cheekily, "Aren't you going to search me? I could have anything down my trousers!"

"Or nothing!" Tauriel replied as she shut the door to his cell. Ashara did not even bother to suppress her snort of amusement.

She walked behind Tauriel to the other end of the dungeon level, and felt the eyes of the dwarves on her the entire time.

While they walked up the stairs Tauriel asked, "Ta caro ala ista carota?"

Ashara replied, "Ala voro. Inyë caurë ta rato mendë."

Almost immediately after Thorin was thrown into his cell, Balin asked, "Did he offer you a deal?"

"He did. I told him he could îsh kakhfê ai'd dur-rugnul! Him and all his kin!" Thorin shouted.

"Well that's that then. A deal was our only hope," Balin said before asking, "Have you seen Ashara?"

Thorin felt his ire rise again as he snarled, "Do not speak to me of that lying kanbûna u nu' durûz!"

Clearly shocked Balin asked, "What the razâd are you talking about? How did Ashara lie to us?"

"She neglected to mention that she's the granddaughter of Elrond! Practically a princess!"

His most trusted advisor was silent for a moment before saying, "If Thranduil told you that, he might have done it to mess with you."

Thorin would not put it past Thranduil to cause trouble. He said, "She has not exactly been forthcoming with information about herself, at least with me."

"You haven't been the most welcoming Thorin, what reason would Ashara have to share information like that?" Balin asked.

Ashara basked in the private bathing area that was attached to her room. She really wanted to be alone in her thoughts, since she had been surrounded by males for the past few months, privacy was something Ashara had come to heartily appreciate.

The webs were an absolute nightmare to get out of her hair. Ashara had needed to wash her hair three times before she was satisfied that all of it was removed.

A large part of her felt bad that the dwarves she'd come to view as good friends, with Fili and Kili becoming practically surrogate brothers, had been thrown in the dungeons, where Ashara herself had gotten a room and a bed.

It was likely only Thranduil's respect for her grandfather and great-grandmother that had kept her out of the dungeons.

As soon as she got dressed (Tauriel had loaned her some clothes as all of her clothing and armor were filthy), there was a knock at her door.

"Come in" she called.

It was a page who handed her an invitation to dine with Thranduil and Legolas.

"I will come of course" Ashara said to the page.

"Thranduil wants something. And he likely needs me to do it."

After the past two months of being around the constant chatter of the dwarves, Ashara had almost forgotten how quiet a meal could get.

Midway through the meal, she asked, "Aran Thranduil. You never do anything without reason. What is it you wish of me?"

"I need you to reason with Oakenshield," the King of the Woodland Realm replied.

Ashara laughed at that before saying, "You're serious?"

"I am."

"I hold little favor with Oakenshield. He only relented on me coming along after Gandalf somehow talking him into it," Ashara explained.

She sighed after thinking for a moment, "Better me than Thranduil attempting to reason with Thorin again!" Aloud Ashara said, "I will go to the dungeons, if only to check on the others. I make no promises in regards to Oakenshield. He's the very definition of stubbornness."

Dinner was finished shortly thereafter. Upon returning to her room, Ashara was thankful to see that her armor had been returned and cleaned.

After she finished putting it on except for her helmet, Tauriel was at the door to escort her to the dungeons.

"You're nervous," her escort stated.

"That I am. Not really looking forward to dealing with Oakenshield."

Tauriel had left her at the dungeon gates and would wait there whilst Ashara dealt with Thorin.

She checked on the dwarves, all of whom seemed to be asleep.

"Lass, is that you?" Relief coursed through Ashara's veins. It was Balin.

"Hello Balin." She could feel the tightness of her slight smile.

"Thranduil sent you down here, didn't he? To have *you* reason with Thorin," the old dwarf asked, mirth clear in his tone.

"He has no idea how unlikely it is I will be able to pull off that feat of daring off," Ashara replied with a genuine smirk.

Balin then asked, "Thorin mentioned that Thranduil told him that you were Lord Elrond's only granddaughter and a princess."

"Thranduil is exaggerating. I am no princess." Ashara took a deep breath before saying, "However, I am Lord Elrond's granddaughter."

"Why didn't you tell us before?"

"At first I did not know any of you that well. And as time wore on, I began to enjoy the anonymity," Ashara explained, hoping Balin would understand.

There were a few moments of silence before Balin replied, "I can understand that. In my books, you've more than proved yourself. Especially in that fight with Azog."

At the moment when Ashara thought that things were going well, a baritone voice joined the conversation, "Lies of omission are still lies... Princess."

Thorin was awake. And she did not know if he'd even been sleeping at all.

"Wonderful."

"How long have you been listening?" Ashara could feel the blood draining from her face.

"Long enough princess," Thorin snarled in reply.

"Then you know that I am no princess," she replied while narrowing her eyes.

"Perhaps you are also related to Thranduil and forgot to mention it," Thorin snarked.

"No. But I am related to Galadriel of Lothlorien."

"So being an elf witch runs in the family?"

Ashara felt her ears turn red as she replied, "It's certainly better than madness running in the family!"

Thorin felt his blood boil at the she-elf's latest retort. It was a low blow. So he growled, "Inbul-hibir fundhamâd-ublag!"

The elf's eyes flashed as she hissed, "So we're switching to our mother tongues? Very well then you blodren yrchion let the games begin!"

Tauriel winced as the argument got louder. Ashara was switching between Sindarin and Quenya with ease. She had never heard Ashara speak in such a manner.

She had never heard of anyone being able to move the way Ashara was implying. Tauriel doubted it was possible.

He knew that Ashara's chances of reasoning with Oakenshield were slim and none. Thranduil wondered if the two were aware that they were fast becoming the evening's entertainment.

Thranduil also wondered if either of them knew the backstories of the swords they carried. He suspected not.

"Mahal, what were you thinking with those swords?" Balin thought as he listened to Thorin and Ashara snarl poison at each other.

He could not understand what Ashara was saying, but it was quite easy to tell that it was negative.

Balin could understand Thorin perfectly. He was saying things that were not generally said near or to a female.

Ashara was a clear exception!

Bilbo had nearly jumped out of his skin when the shouting started. He was far from surprised when he recognized the two voices. Thorin and Ashara were at it again.

The elves that he was skirting around were rolling their eyes at the pair's antics.

He even heard one of them mutter, "You'd think they were married the way they're carrying on!"

As Bilbo snuck towards the kitchens, a part of him wondered what they were saying to each other.

"Then again, knowing those two, I'm better off not knowing!"

Ashara didn't know how long she'd been shouting at Thorin and didn't quite care. She'd had enough.

She stalked out of the dungeon grumbling, "To hell with this!"

Once Ashara was out of earshot (he hoped) Balin asked, "Thorin did you have to be so insulting? That girl may well have been our ticket out of here!"

Balin didn't like that he could not see Thorin's face. He had a good poker face, but Balin knew a few of Thorin's tells. He added a few moments later, "If you're lucky, she didn't understand a word you said!"

Thorin it seemed was ignoring him.

Ashara had spent the rest of the night at both the sparring ring and archery range for Thranduil's guards. Several of her sparring partners had left the ring with bruises.

"Right now, all I want to do is rest in my room!"

Unfortunately she ran smack dab into someone, who fell to the floor.

Ashara drew a dagger and snarled, "Who's there? Show yourself!"

"Hold your fire, it's me!" Ashara was surprised to see Bilbo pop into view.

Without further ado, she dragged him into her quarters and barred the door.

"How in Aule's name have you been able to avoid the guards," she asked as Bilbo wolfed down some bread and venison.

"I have my ways of moving unseen," the hobbit replied evasively.

Ashara rested her eyes for a moment. The evening prior had been exhausting.

"How will we get out of here," Bilbo asked.

Ashara racked her brains for a short time before saying, "In a week, there is a major festival for the Wood Elves: The Feast of Starlight. If there was a time to make a break for it, that would be the time."

"I don't think Thorin will be happy with the wait," Bilbo replied.

"Well, he can go get stuffed!"

A/N 2: The escape will be in the next chapter. As for the argument, if I had written it, most of it would have needed to be censored due to it's content. It was fun to write the viewpoints of four different individuals. Looking forward to hearing what you all think! SSD

Translations:

Sindarin/Quenya

Ta caro ala ista carota?- They don't know, do they?

Ala voro. Inyë caurë ta rato mendë.- Not yet. I fear they soon will.

Aran- King

blodren yrchion- arrogant son of an orc

Khuzdul

Imrid amrâd ursul!- Die a fiery death!

kanbûna u nu' durûz!- two faced bitch

Inbul-hibir fundhamâd-ublag!- Pointy-eared lembas muncher.