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Here's another chapter with a LOTR quote inside ;)

Chapter 7

I recommend listening to Swan Theme from Swan Lake by Tchaikovsky for this chapter.

Gandalf was riding south with speed. There was a darkness growing in Dol Guldur and he would need to see it with his own eyes.

He stopped for water for himself and his horse, the summer sun getting hotter as noon approached.

The old wizard smiled when he felt the familiar rush of warm air that made his robes twirling.

"Long time no see, Selis dear" he turned to face her.

She had not changed since their last meeting, decades ago. Still the height of a hobbit, soft and white skin, with deep grey eyes.

Except her eyes were filled with worry and reproach.

"Why did you leave them Mithrandir?" she asked frowning. "On their own in this evil forest!"

He sighed and closed his eyes for a moment. He should have known.

"Selis…" he answered gently "You, better than anyone else, know that my purpose can carry me in many places. The dwarves' quest is their own… Mostly."

At his statement, she nodded and sat on a rock near the stream. She felt so defeated, so lost in that moment that tears began to run on her cheeks.

"I know" she told him, her voice filled with frustration "I don't know what's happening to me…My mind keeps coming back to Fili, all the time. I listen to the calls of Nature, to fulfil my purpose, as I have always done, but now my thoughts are crowded, and all I can think about is whether he is safe, and if I will ever see him again."

Gandalf was touched by her helplessness.

He sat next to her and tried to comfort her.

"Your love for the dwarf prince is something I could never have foreseen, especially the deepness of it" he stated, sighing.

Selis lifted her head to look at him. She looked like a child in need of counsel in this instant.

"My heart tells me that this love you have for each another will be important in the final trials of this quest. You must hang on it, my dear. Love is always somebody's salvation. Whose, I do not know. It will change many things and maybe end some others as well…" the wizard added, his eyes deep in thought. Even the very wise could not see all ends.

"I don't recognise myself anymore Mithrandir… I feel thin… the warmth of the Valar fading away from my skin as the days go by" she confessed, her eyes wide with fear of the unknown.

"There will be a choice to make before the end, Selis. But you will know your way, I'm sure" he reassured her with a small smile.

She wiped away her tears with the back of her hand, the salted water still strange on her fingers. Her eyes were slightly itchy with the crying and she felt tired. So many new sensations. She had never felt so fragile before, nor so alive.

"You will help them again on their quest?" she asked, getting up.

"I will join them at the Lonely Mountain" he assured her.

She nodded.

"Thank you for comforting me" she told him with a sigh. "I would like to know how this story ends" she added tiredly.

"So do all who live to see such times, but that is not for them to decide. All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given to us" Gandalf told her, in all his wisdom.

Selis tried to ignore the voices inside her head, telling her that a drought was starting in Rohan where the grounds needed water. They were urging her to go south to bring back the rain to the land of the horse lords.

But she was floating over Mirkwood forest instead. She could not see anything, nor smell anything besides the rancid stench of stagnant water and rotten leaves.

The webs were everywhere, even at the top of the trees. It was not a good sign.

Four days of search went by and she still couldn't not find the trace of the company. She was left to imagine the worst, when she heard a soft voice cry: "we need to find the sun!"

A small curly head appeared on top of the trees and she recognized Bilbo, the hobbit that was travelling with the dwarves. His skin was stretched and grey, lacking light, and he seemed famished.

"I can see a lake! and the Lonely Mountain!" he shouted to his companions down below. A smile of relief crept on his face. He took a deep breath of fresh air and climbed back down the trees towards the ground of the forest.

Selis rushed after him between the trees and immediately felt disgusted with the lack of air. She found the company settled on the ground, all looking very tired and dizzy, hunger marking their features.

"We shall camp here for the night" ordered Thorin in his deep commanding voice.

And the night fell very quickly, like a penetrating shadow eating everything around them. The dwarves seemed to have all succumbed to tiredness and a kind of nausea. The dwarf assigned with the first night watch, Bofur, couldn't fight sleep. There was nothing else to do here anyway.

When all was dark and quiet, Selis rushed to Fili' side, regaining once again her human form. She shook his shoulder to wake him. The first thing he noticed this time about her presence was not the usual warm air, but her ragged breath. Heavy, slightly wheezing.

"Fili?" she breathed with difficulty, reaching for his coat in the darkness.

He immediately brought her body to press against his.

"I'm here" he told her, holding her closely, sitting her in his lap.

"How are you?" she asked him breathlessly.

"I should ask you the same question. You do not seem fine to me" he told her, his voice filled with worry and dizziness at the same time.

"It's the air…" she answered slowly "I lack air inside this cursed forest".

"There is no end to these woods it seems" he stated in defeat, "but Master Baggins went up the trees today and we know now which way to go".

"Straight ahead that way" she told him, pausing several times "East… To leave the forest … and reach the Lake"

"Yes, that's what we will do" he assured her.

She could barely see his face in the dark but had seen during the day how hungry he seemed.

"I'm so sorry… I cannot help you more" she cried "I'm useless".

"Don't say that" he shushed "It's a blessing to hold you, even for a few minutes".

"I… I cannot stay long. I'm wanted elsewhere" she whispered in ragged breaths "I'm so sorry Fili"

She felt sick breathing the foul air of the woods and the callings inside her heads were getting louder and louder.

"I've been searching for you for days, but I cannot linger. My purpose is too strong. I feel so stretched" she confessed helplessly.

Fili could not understand exactly what she was felling but he tried to. He gently stroked her arms and hair to comfort her.

"Go" he said after a while "Get better outside these woods and come back to me."

"Don't you dare die in there, Fili!" she told him in a commanding voice, with all the strength she could muster.

"I won't" he assured her "I do not care about the riches of the Mountain now. I've already found the purest of jewels" he told her, kissing the soft skin of her left cheek.

He let go of her, and up the trees she went, her whole airy body shivering with the warm touch of his lips.

More, she would always want more of Fili.