Thank you so much my reviewers : eeemkaaayy and MissCallaLilly. And many thanks as well to all who follow, read or favourite ;) You are the best!
Here's another chapter !
Chapter 6
I recommend listening to Big My Secret (The Piano soundtrack) by Michael Nyman for this chapter.
Selis had been counting the days since she last saw Fili. And they were many. Too many.
For the first time in her existence, she felt painfully the slow passing of time. The time spent worrying. The time spent searching. The time spent waiting.
She searched on both sides of the mountains, east and west, between the mountains, through all the high passes, paths and inner valleys… nothing.
The company must have strayed from their course.
Selis was regularly sent away from the Misty Mountains for her purpose, to bring the rain, the clouds or the thunder elsewhere in Middle-Earth. The long journeys there and back again to the Misty Mountains left her quite tired. It was also a new sensation. Tiredness.
She never did unnecessary travels before, because she didn't have anything to come back to. That was before she met Fili.
She felt older suddenly. And thin. Like a mist that clings to the frosty hills during winter.
When she finally found the company again, they were staying at the home of Beorn the skin changer, in the valley.
It was the end of the morning and the sun was shining brightly, warming the ground and the air.
Selis watched the dwarves from afar but did not want to wait until nightfall to go to Fili. She had waited long enough and feared that her fate would call her somewhere else before she had the chance to talk to him.
Thankfully, luck was on her site that morning.
The Durin Brothers were fishing on the stream below the house, hidden from sight behind the great trees that grew alongside the water.
Selis hesitated. Fili had said he wanted to introduce her to his brother, but she was worried. Meeting another dwarf? Wasn't she stepping further away from her purpose?
She materialized behind a tree and watched them unnoticed.
They both had small grazes and cuts on their faces and seemed tired.
She watched Fili closely, his face seemed older somehow, creases on his forehead. She felt her heart break with worry and could not wait any longer. She blew a gust of hot air toward him to catch his attention.
The blond dwarf felt it immediately. The warm breeze that would always soften his heart. He turned around just in time to gather in his arms the petite form of Selis that rushed to embrace him.
"I was so worried" she cried in his shoulder, her voice slightly strangled.
"So was I" he answered, his face buried inside her hair, smelling her warm scent, filling his lungs with relief.
She pushed back to see his face.
"You're hurt!" she said frowning, her small fingers tracing the fading cut on his cheek. "You encountered goblins inside the mountains?"
"Aye, we did" he answered, not releasing her small body still pressed to his.
There was a moment of silence and then Kili cleared his throat.
Both turned to face him, without stepping away from each other. Fili was firmly holding Selis to him by the waist and she still had her hands clutching his shirt.
"This is my brother, Kili" Fili said, smiling.
She smiled shyly at the dark-haired brother and nodded "Nice to meet you Kili".
He nodded and greeted her in return.
They sat back on the ground, Selis still close to Fili, her legs resting over his and his arms around her shoulders.
The brothers told her about what happened inside the mountains, the flight from the goblins, then from Azog, the ride with the eagles and the arrival at Beorn's house.
She listened to their tale with attention and often with worry and fear written on her face.
"I must have caught your scent when you were with the eagles. It carried in the air towards the south where I was, next to the Falls of Rauros" she told Fili.
Kili did not understand why she had said that, but he did not want to pry. He would ask his brother later.
His brother. Fili was completely changed in her presence: calm, relaxed, happy. Kili realised Fili cared for Selis very much. It made him feel strangely lonely because it was something that he could not share with brother. That's what happened when you grow up, but that did not mean that they should grow apart.
"What road will you take from here?" asked Selis.
"The road through Mirkwook" answered Kili, not looking much excited about it.
Selis frowned at that.
"The woods are cursed. The trees have withered, and dark creatures inhabit some parts of the forest" she told them worried.
"We know. Gandalf told us. But it's the only way" Kili said, shrugging.
She turned to face Fili and took his hands in her own.
"You will face some evil in there" she told him "Is there no other way?"
"Not if we want to reach the mountain before Durin's day, to open the hidden door" he answered her sadly.
She got up and looked to the east, towards Mirkwood, and shivered.
"There is no air inside that forest. Foul wind and dusty breeze. It's difficult for me to go in there. It's been like that for some years" she told them "A shadow grows from the south of the forest."
After a moment of reflection on her words, Kili sighed, putting away his fishing rod. He wouldn't say it out loud but sometimes he longed to be back in Ered Luin with his mother and his friends, hunting in the clear green woods around the mountains.
"According to uncle, it's the only way" stated Fili, frowning.
Selis turned back to him, her face upset, and her eyes darker. What would keep him safe inside that cursed forest?
"FILI? KILI?" a coarse voice shouted, "Time for practice!" Dwalin's voice was getting nearer, and the brothers got up at once.
"I'll go now… to give you some more time" whispered Kili, smiling "Nice to have met you" he told Selis nodding.
"You too" she whispered back.
Kili went back quickly towards the house to keep Dwalin away from the stream.
"I will try to bring you some air from the top of the trees" she said to Fili, clutching his shirt once again, slightly desperately.
He pressed his hands on her back and pushed her against him so that their foreheads were pressed against one another.
"I'm scared Fili" she said urgently, not knowing once more when she would see him again.
"Don't be" he told her, his tone reassuring "We'll find each other. We will. I already miss you. I wish this quest was over so I could spend all my days with you" he confessed, slightly blushing.
"FILI !" Dwalin was roaring now.
"Go" she whispered sadly against his lips as she began to fade into thin air, her eyes wide and grey melting with the colour of the sky as she fled into the wind.