Brine felt the water relax her muscles and thoughts. The encounter with Fili had left her nervous and dusty. Would he had discovered her? She wished she could read the dwarf's mind to find out if her identity was in danger or not. She dipped her head in the cold lake of Rivendell. The cold helped her to think calmly. She held her breath as much as she could until she noticed how something touched her body. She stifled a scream underwater and quickly surfaced. The water was calm, illuminated by the moonlight. Around only the owls' hoot was heard. Brine's green eyes scanned all around trying to locate what had touched her. She heard something move in the water just behind her. She turned quickly and found a pair of blue eyes fixed on her. Brine muttered his name. Fili approached her slowly without saying a word. Brine noticed how his hands circled her bare waist. As a reflection, she put her hands on his chest and it was when she realized that they were both naked. Brine's head was spinning thousands of times but she was unable to give any word. She felt like she was drowning slowly and the fact that Fili was getting closer didn't help.
Brine woke with agitated breathing and a sweaty back. Had everything been a simple dream? She looked around and saw the rest of the company sleeping with her in the great hall that Elrond had offered them. Fili was a few sacks to Brine's left. His breathing accompanied by being deeply asleep. Brine tried to go back to sleep but it was useless. The dream had completely abandoned her. Desperate, she decided to take a walk through those dark, endless and magical halls.
For Brine, those halls hid old stories of won battles, stories of old kingdoms and old loves. Amazed, she let her little bare feet caress the cold stone and let her eyes devour the sculptures that constantly watched over them.
"I know who you are." A sweet voice echoed in her head. Brine turned and found herself lonely. "Those eyes ... I've seen them before. A long time ago." The voice whispered.
"Who are you?" Brine asked out loud in a random direction.
"They are the same as hers." Brine turned completely in the direction of that voice. This time she met someone. It was a woman surrounded by a light of her own that conveyed a state of tranquillity and fear. Brine watched as the woman walked towards her slowly. When she was a few steps away from her it was when she could appreciate her features. It was an elven woman with her long blonde hair falling down her back like a golden waterfall. Brine looked at her rapt. "My name is Galadriel." The elf looked at her with a smile. "Mithrandir." She called someone. Brine turned and met Gandalf's aged gaze. Her face paled. "Calm down, Brine, he can't hear us." Brine heard the elf's voice again but her lips did not move.
"How do you know my name? Brine thought, checking if she could hear her too.
"How could I not know the name of my sister's daughter?" Brine froze. She knew her mother was an elf, but she did not expect to meet part of that elven family. Galadriel's glacial gaze shifted from Brine to Gandalf.
Brine arrived at a kind of stone gazebo with a large round table in the centre. She had not talked to Galadriel again in all the way. She just walked behind her and Gandalf, being careful not to step on the tail of her dress. Galadriel's words echoed in her head. She had said that it was her sister's daughter, which made Brine her niece. Upon arriving at the viewpoint, Gandalf offered her a seat that she took without delay.
"You were right, Mithrandir. She hasn't made her choice yet." This time the lady did not speak in Brine's head, but loudly for both of them to hear.
"Did you know who I was from the beginning?" Brine turned to the wizard with eyes wide. She thought she had managed to hide from everyone.
"I have lived many years and I have been able to see many faces throughout these, but there is something that always remains unique. Those eyes only remembered seeing them once. She was the future heiress of the Lothlorien forest. With a promising future, it was in every man's and elf's mind."
"As a future heiress, it was normal to have her whole life organized." Galadriel interrupted the wizard. "However, there was something no one expected. One day a dwarf appeared lost in the forest. We were all surprised. We weren't used to seeing such creatures in our kingdom."
"The two were curious about each other. They dedicated themselves to observe themselves during the day and night until slowly love was replacing that curiosity." Gandalf cast a shy look at Galadriel, who smiled as he nodded slightly.
"That sudden love made her have to make a decision. Either she followed her duties as a future queen, or she followed what her heart screamed and wanted." Galadriel continued. "I think you can guess what her choice was. She left her family and fled with him to his home. However, their love did not last long, because after two years he was mortally wounded in the battle of Moria. She could not with the pain of loneliness." With a look from Gandalf, Galadriel shut up.
Brine looked with glassy eyes to infinity. It was the first time she had heard her parents' story and she did not think it was so sad.
"What did you mean about my choice?" She asked suddenly.
"You carry elven blood in your veins, little girl," Galadriel replied.
"And dwarf blood as well," Gandalf added.
"You don't belong to any kingdom yet. You're still very young. But." Galadriel approached her slowly. "You still have time to do it. However, don't trust that time is eternal." The lady put her hand inside the sleeve of her dress, taking out a small pendant that turned with a kind of gear. "When the countdown is over, your time will be over."
"And what will happen then?" Brine's voice was empty. Galadriel and Gandalf exchanged a look before answering the question.
Brine sat on a stone wall with her feet hanging in the void. She had left the gazebo after hearing all she needed to hear about her choice. The medallion of time Galadriel had given her circled between her fingers. Her words echoing in her head.
"At last I find you." Brine turned and found Bilbo a few steps away from her. She invited him to join her on the wall, but Bilbo shook his head. "I'm better off here with my feet on the ground." Brine laughed and looked up at the mountains far from the kingdom. "I have been surprised not to see you with the others at the fountain," Bilbo confessed. Brine glanced absent-mindedly at the group of dwarves playing splash in one of the fountains in Elrond's garden.
"I find no fun in it." Brine lied with a sad smile. In the distance she saw a tower of dwarves fall into the water, making a great fuss.
"You're different, Pip." Bilbo put his hand on her shoulder. "I thought all you dwarves were rough, tough and rather careless, but you..." Brine glanced at him, hoping he would continue. "It's as if you're not a dwarf. You act in a polite and proper way..." Brine didn't know what to say to him. Of course, she was different from the other dwarves, she always had been. That's why she was often not accepted by them. But she wouldn't be accepted by the elves either. As Galadriel had said, she hadn't made her choice yet. What would be the right one?
"Pip! We've been looking for you!" Some voices cried out behind the Hobbit and the Dwarf. Brine would not turn around until she was sure her face would not show the confusion of her mind. "We need your help." It was Kili's voice in a funny tone. "We've had a little accident and..." When she heard that, Brine turned around completely. "Fili doesn't stop bleeding from his shoulder." Brine laid her eyes on Fili, who was holding his hand up to his shoulder to prevent more blood from coming out.
"What happened?" Brine's voice sounded hysterical. She ran to his side and sat him down so she could see the wound better. "Bilbo, quick, I need a needle and thread." Bilbo followed Brine's orders and soon returned with a small sewing kit. Brine took it quickly and began to close Fili's wound while he kept complaining. "Can't you hold on a little longer?" She scolded him by staring into his eyes. Fili mumbled his apologies and let Brine finish her work. After a few minutes, the wound was completely closed. "You'll have a small scar." She said as she ran her hand over Fili's shoulder. She couldn't help but appreciate the shape of his muscles and how they stick out. Brine wondered if everything would be as she had dreamed. Trying to be as discreet as possible, she looked below Fili's waist, blushing that he was completely naked. She quickly averted her eyes, but her curiosity caused her to take a second look. She gasped as she saw how reality was better than her imagination.
Once she had completed her examination of Fili's body, she slowly stepped away from him. As she looked up she saw how his blue eyes were still fixed on her.
"Kili, Bilbo, I need to talk to Pip for a moment." Fili looked seriously at Brine. She feared the worst. With pleading eyes, Brine asked Bilbo to stay, but Fili's orders were above her own.
"Fili, I have to explain to you..." She began to say as she swallowed the saliva that accumulated in her mouth.
"You don't have to explain anything to me. I understand how you feel, Pip. I've met people like you before and I know how miserable they are. Repressed and having to pretend they're something they're not." Fili interrupted Brine, who stared at him with eyes like dishes.
"Do you understand me?" Brine feared the worst. Was Fili confessing that he wasn't exactly attracted to girls?
"Of course I do. But you must understand that I don't feel that way. I can't take that same interest in you." Brine breathed a sigh of relief. "But don't worry. Your secret is safe with me." He smiled sweetly. Brine smiled back at him relief about the fact that Fili was interested in girls, and about the thing that he had not discovered her yet. They both walked together to the great salon where Bilbo and a dressed Kili played some cards game. Fili took his coat and covered himself as he joined them and invited Brine to do the same. Brine thought about her choice. Maybe the dwarfs would accept her after all. Maybe the mean ones lived only in the Blue Mountains. She could not help but smile as she had some fun with her new friends.
