Thank you to everyone who has joined me on this journey and welcome to Chapter 1 of The Fire Within. I am looking to stick to a weekly or biweekly update schedule after posting this first chapter. I hope that you are enjoying what you are reading and that you will stick with me and let me know what you think. I am happy to respond to PMs and am opened to constructive critique.
See the end of this chapter for a glossary of Sindarin words and phrases used in this Chapter.
Thanks
Taernith
C1
Ten years later.
Life in Imladris was simple, peaceful. It was a place where quiet and rest came easily to those who wished for it. The lady Galadriel herself had sent her there with the purpose of helping her to find herself again, but instead she had lost focus. For a time Tauriel had wandered aimlessly through its halls, spent her time studying histories that she never absorbed and spoke little with her fellow inhabitants.
In Lothlórien they had taught her how to survive, gave her back the ability to breathe, break bread and contribute. There she had proven herself as huntress and scout, but the lady of Lórien had seen no true life come back to her countenance and had sent her, as she was, to Lord Elrond's keeping.
For over a month, she had wondered his halls until one of the regular patrol riders had been injured and she had volunteered to take his place. With Lord Elrond's blessing, she became a regular fixture on patrol and she soon took on work as a guide and guard for travelers looking for safe passage through the wilds.
While she never seemed to regain true happiness, she found herself content. She was able to use her training to continue her vendetta against the creatures of darkness and keep the loved ones of other's alive and well.
She had thrown herself into her work with reckless abandon that some whispered behind her back was suicidal. They were as right as they were wrong. While she was not willingly throwing herself on her own sword, if death chose to come for her, she was willing to meet it head on with both eyes open in hope that he was waiting for her on the other side.
Tauriel pulled a hiss back behind her teeth as Miluiel's apprentice pierced her skin with the needle. The last stitch in a row of eleven that would leave their mark on her forearm. Another scar to add to the others.
The apprentice looked up at her worriedly, quickly tying the final knot and snipping the excess thread as she gave him a slow nod. He had done good work. He layered a sweet smelling salve over the wound and pulled out a length of cloth to bind it as the doors to the infirmary opened and the lady Arwen appeared in the doorway.
From Aranel, seated next to her came a slightly exaggerated sigh that made the corners of Tauriel's mouth twitch. The apprentice had paused, his posture rigid as he looked at the lady who was being intercepted by Miluiel. Tauriel took the bandage from him as he stood and moved a safe distance away to one of the work benches.
"You must have your father speak some sense into her!" Miluiel said in a hushed tome as Arwen swept into the healer's hall.
Tauriel didn't have to look up to know the head healer of the house of Elrond was purposefully making her way over to the bed she was sat upon quietly, wrapping a length of linen bandage around her forearm and the freshly stitched gash on it. Aranel, a young officer in Lord Elrond's guard looked over at her and raised an eyebrow.
"I guess we're in trouble now." Aranel breathed.
"Nine orcs are dead and only twenty-three stitches between us. I doubt you will be chastised." Tauriel murmured back as Arwen answered the old healer.
"What would you have my say to her?"
The footsteps paused, a polite distance from the pair.
"I've patched her up twenty-seven times since she arrived and began her work here and so long as it was only her that I have had to continually heal. I have bitten my tongue but, Aranel has had to have twenty-one stiches in the last month alone now that she's following that one around." Miluiel's voice was pitched a little too loudly not to hear. Tauriel winched, while she knew she was careless and reckless in a fight, it had never been her intention to drag others down that same path with her. She had been in Rivendell on and off for almost six years. Perhaps this was the sign she needed that it was time to move on, permanently.
"She has her reasons and my father his reasons for sending those who go with her on patrol. She has not lost one member of her company yet." Arwen said softly. Her tone meant to be reasonable but having gotten to know Miluiel as well as she had and gotten just as quickly on her bad side, Tauriel knew the healer was only going to be affronted. "I will however bring up your concerns with Ada. Now are they both cleared to leave these halls?"
"There is no need for them to linger, my lady." The healer confirmed stiffly.
"Very good." Arwen started her advance again until she stood looking at the two unapologetic looking elleths. "Aranel, my father would have you rest until after dinner and then he would have you attend him."
"Very well, my lady." The younger elleth stood, turning her blue eyes on her companion. "Tauriel."
"You did well Aranel." Tauriel nodded as she too stood and Aranel left her alone with the Lord of Rivendell's daughter.
"Come, Ada would like to see you." Arwen smiled at her, the same soft and sympathetic smile she used every time she saw her and she found herself wanting to snap back at it, but held her peace. While technically she did her own share of duties in Imladris, Tauriel was still only a guest being allowed to ply her trade with the homely house as her base of operations and it would do no good to have Arwen not on her side.
The two elleth, one dressed in a gown of fine silk and satin and the other in the soft linens and leathers of her craft walked side by side through the peaceful halls toward the courtyard where Lord Elrond preferred to attend his guests.
For a time, Arwen allowed her silence to reflect on her minor injury and to replace her bracer over the fresh bandage. The injury did not concern her, Miluiel and her apprentices were too good at their craft for there to be anything but a barely noticeable scar left over from the wound.
What was beginning to concern her was how easy it was to defend the caravans that had been requesting her aid as of late. Nothing but a skirmish here or there and even those were rare now, nothing to challenge her skill. Did that mean she was doing her job well or did it mean that the forces of darkness were once more focused elsewhere?
"While I understand your need to seek the hour of your own destiny, I would that you would take caution with those that have come to admire and follow in your footsteps." Arwen stopped suddenly and turned to face Tauriel. "There are other ways to move past your pain and there are those of us who would help you, should you wish it."
"Even in sharing there would be no end and I cannot bring myself to wish not to remember as the Lady of Lórien offered." Tauriel shook her head, the pain she carried in her chest throbbed once and then she refused to pay it anymore attention for the moment. There was always time in the darkness of night to examine her memories, give life to the dead in her thoughts and allow her grief voice.
"I will be more careful with Aranel." Tauriel conceded.
"Come then, Mithrandir has arrived and he has brought with him an unusual company." Without another word of explanation, Arwen led her into the courtyard where the tall figures of the wizard and his companions could clearly be seen speaking with the dark haired elvish lord.
"Legolas!" Tauriel cried and rushed forward.
The blonde head of her closest childhood friend whipping around to her direction as his eyes searched for her.
"Tauriel."
The smile that appeared on his face, made her feel at home and homesick all at once. While for the first time since she had left the city of Dale behind her, she actually felt a semblance of happiness. She forced herself to stop a respectable distance from him and reach out her arm to clasp his arm extended to her in greeting.
"My Prince!" She breathed, her eyes misting as she took in his lean form.
From the dust on his clothes from traveling and the slightest tightness in his brows that betrayed his tiredness. He was as familiar to her as drawing breath and with his presence come a comfort she had almost forgotten.
"Gîl síla erin lû e-govaded vín."
"My dearest friend." He returned, using their joined arms to pull her into a tight embrace.
Tauriel melted against him, hiding her face in the crook of his neck, as the tears in her eyes threatened to fall within the view of too many.
"I am glad I accompanied Mithrandir this far, if only to see you again."
"And your father? He is well?" She asked quickly as she pulled her own emotions under her control once more.
"Stubborn, well, unchanged by the years," He replied. "He misses you more than he would openly admit."
Legolas stood back, holding her at arm's length before tugging lightly on the one long braid she had tucked into her outer leather traveling tunic.
"Interesting?"
"Men like to grab hair." Tauriel shrugged.
"You have given me fits these nine years, trying to find you." Gandalf said, his voice containing a notable lack of humor.
Tauriel turned away from her old friend to look at the wizard, both eyebrows raised at the tone he had chosen.
"You must not have looked hard enough Mithrandir. I have not been hiding." Tauriel bowed to the wizard, only then noticing the rest of the company with them. Two cloaked dwarves stood behind them and despite the hoods pulled over the tops of their heads, she noted quickly that they both were clearly female.
The younger red haired and dressed in light mail and leather armor with axe and blade strapped to either hip, stood next to the dark haired elder who was dressed in a plain and simple traveling attire. There was a wicked looking curved blade at her side and the expression on her face was just as fierce as her companions.
"Something tells me not to believe you, but that is a matter for another time." The wizard followed the direction of her gaze and made a 'humph' sound at the back of his throat, before continuing. "Lord Elrond tells us that you have fashioned yourself as a mercenary. A blade for hire?"
"I am not something nearly so unscrupulous." Tauriel protested.
She hired herself out to those in need of short term protection, minor nobility, merchants and their wares at times, but mostly she took up her sword and bow for those unable to afford lavish protection. Tauriel did not fight anyone's battles for them, nor did she carry out assassinations no matter how much gold was offered.
"I protect travelers, nothing more and it does not appear that you lack in protection while you travel in the company of my Prince or such well-armed dwarves!"
"Not so, not so indeed," Gandalf said quickly "We are travelers only, set out from Ered Luin to Erebor on a matter of some importance. When we met with your Prince who, on his way to meet with the rangers of the north, was stopping at Rivendell to give you word of summons from your king, I assumed, perhaps wrongly, that since we were all, with the exception of Prince Legolas, traveling in the same direction that you would be unopened to hiring on as guide and an extra sword."
"And what exactly is it you need protection from? I can travel much more swiftly without others to encumbrance me." Tauriel looked over at Legolas who had folded his arms across his chest and was now frowning.
"We need no protection from an elf!" The younger dwarf threw back her head.
"Sada!" The elder dwarf snapped. "It was you who started us down this path, hold your tongue and let us find a safe way to get us all back to Erebor."
Sada hissed, but otherwise held her tongue.
"Perhaps introductions would clear things up," Lord Elrond stepped in "This is the lady Sada, warrior of the dwarvish clan Firebeard and betrothed to the crown prince of Erebor, Fili. With her is the Princess Dis, kinswoman to the king."
Knowing spread through Tauriel's bones, Dis was sister to Thorin, mother of Fili, mother of her own lost Kili. Without warning, she swayed slightly; tiny dots of blackness swam in her vision as she took in the older dwarf woman and in her features, saw her son. She felt like she had taken a punch to the gut, breathing was suddenly a skill beyond her and beyond a profound desire to fold in on herself her brain seemed to have stopped working.
"Tauriel." Legolas' hand was firm on her elbow, his strength anchoring her to the earth beneath her boots and allowed her to get her bearings once more.
"Ilúvatar deliver me." She breathed closing her eyes tightly for a moment.
Here was a favor she could willing give to the dwarf who held her heart even in death. Perhaps in delivering them safely to the Lonely Mountain she could make up for the life she had been unable to save.
"My lady Tauriel you look unwell." Gandalf sounding concern.
"I am well, only tired. Aranel and I met an orc pack out hunting while we were on patrol, now I know why." Tauriel waved off his concern as she stood straight again, taking a fortifying breath before looking at the company once more. "I will take you as far as the halls of my king in Mirkwood. I am sure that a more suitable retinue can be arranged to either meet you there or take you on. With Lord Elrond's permission, we will leave at first light."
The elven lord inclined his head.
"And after supper, perhaps you can tell me what hunts you." This last she addressed straight at the dwarves who were scowling at her from under furrowed eyebrows.
"With Lord Elrond's assent, I will help you prepare for your journey and give you the message I carry from my father." Legolas had not released his grip on her arm for which she was suddenly thankful.
"We shall see you both at dinner." Lord Elrond inclined his head.
Tauriel half leant into her friend as they left the courtyard. Lord Elrond's next words to the gray wizard floating after her.
"That went better than I expected, the wounds on her heart are deep and she clings to them, unwilling still to allow healing. I half expected her to refuse to return to the east."
o0o
"You're in a foul mood." Kili moved out of the way of a thrown book as he walked into his uncle's study. "Still no word I take it?"
"It's been eight months!" Fili growled, abandoning the chair he had been sitting in favor of moving to the fireplace and throwing a log on the glowing embers.
Spring had come to the mountain, mostly dispelling the bitter cold, but rock took time to warm again and the evening still brought with it a chill.
"Ma will find her or she'll come back when she's ready. Sada's, she's always been, well, Sada." He shrugged picking up the book, smoothing the pages within and placing it carefully on the desk once more. Ever since his brother's betrothed had slipped out of Ereber in the middle of the night and seemed to vanish without a trace, Fili had been on edge, irrational and irritable. Thorin threw work at him and Kili did his best to absorb as much of his brother's agitation as possible so others didn't have too.
"She knew she couldn't just go disappearing like this anymore. She agreed when we got engaged." Fili ranted.
The same words as any other time they had spoken about the topic spilling from his mouth, like he'd never said them aloud before.
"She never has done cooped up well Fili and she was acting out of sorts for days before she took off. I would have thought you saw it coming." He had stopped trying to understand Sada or his brother's attraction to the dwarrowdam a long time before then. It wasn't that Sada was a bad sort, she was a good friend, had grown up with him, his brother, Gimli and Tol and was just as handy to have around in a fight as any of them too and therein lay all of the problems her and Fili had.
He wanted to protect and provide when Sada felt she was more than capable of standing on her own two feet, but the pair couldn't manage to stay apart and now the whole of Erebor was suffering for Sada's disappearance.
"I knew, I kept trying to head her off but she was bound and determined." Fili started pacing and then turned abruptly, his eyes flashing. "She would still be here if it weren't for you!"
"For me?" Kili's eyebrows shot up and he gave his brother a disbelieving look. He had made more than a few mistakes in his life, but making Sada Firebeard leave Erebor was not one of them.
"You're the one hung up on a bloody elf!" Fili glared at him "Tauriel's gone Kili, even Gandalf can't find her and none of the other pointy-eared bastards are willing to help or know where she is."
"Tauriel has nothing to do with Sada running off again!" Kili could feel the hairs on the back of his neck stand up as he clenched his fists at his side.
"She's the reason she left, couldn't stand seeing you walking around here refusing to even attempt to move on. She's bound and determined to do something about it." The crown prince shook his head.
"She wouldn't have felt that way if you had just managed to keep one little signal fire burning!" Kili slammed his fist into the desk he was standing next to; rage and heartache making him give voice to words he had purposefully never said before. Fili's expression changed completely and he made to take a step toward his brother, but Kili turned away from him.
"If Uncle comes looking for me, I have gone to Dale." And with that, Kili swept out of the room.
"Still no word from Sada or your dam?" Balin stopped the prince in the doorway as he slammed it shut.
"No and without her, he is ill tempered, unreasonable and I've had my fill of him. I'm going to Dale." Kili snapped, barely pausing as he moved swiftly around his uncle's chief advisor.
"Don't be too hasty lad, you haven't been much better than your brother these last years, pining as you have for your red haired lass. A little understanding will go a long way." Balin quickly fell in step with Thorin's younger heir.
"Hard to find common ground when both of us have reason to blame the other for the situation we are in now." Kili ground out.
"A mistake was made Kili by Dain, who could not recognize friend from foe and your brother was just as injured as you." The elder dwarrow was speaking to him as if he were his uncle, calm and measured but making his point clear.
"If that is the case, then I am even less to blame for the disappearance of that crazy Firebeard." He knew that Balin was only trying to lessen his temper, to keep things between him and his brother smooth. So that Thorin, who had so many more pressing matters on his plate, didn't have to deal with his sister's sons at war with each other.
"For now I ride for Dale."
"I will smooth things over with Fili." The old dwarrow shook his head with a frown.
"Not this time Balin, for once let him stew." And with that the youngest of the line of Durin left his elder behind.
o0o
"The Firebeard has reached Rivendell." The messenger barely paused to nod his head to his lord before he began to speak.
"So you have failed to secure her head again!" His master snapped, turning away from him with a billowing of his robes.
He had the good sense to hold his tongue as his lord clasped his hands behind his back and began to pace.
"She is one lone dwarrowdam traveling through the wild how hard can it truly be to overpower her?" The master's eyes were hard and a lesser man than the messenger would have been shaken to the core by his displeasure but the messenger just twitched.
"If it were truly as simple as you say my lord, I would proudly be presenting her head to you now but as it is, I've lost nearly thirty warriors in her pursuit for she is neither an untrained dam wandering the wilds or alone." He explained.
"Not alone? The prince sent an escort with her? Our intelligence said that she had left alone and in secret." The master paused his pacing.
"No, the princess Dis and a wizard dressed in grey accompany her and now they are in Rivendell, I'm sure to get an escort back to Erebor." The messenger replied.
"Which means a company of elves to go through." The master growled.
Elves were not a trifle to be messed with, not even for the well trained warriors he commanded.
"Most likely only one or two led by that red haired she-elf mercenary who lives there."
He shook his head. He had been told about the success of that particular elf against the orcs that roamed the roads that ran to the east.
"Tauriel!" The master growled her name with such venom that it surprised his subordinate "While not your first priority, if the opportunity to make sure she doesn't make herself known to the lords of the mountain presents itself, then take it."
"My lord?"
"Kill the Firebeard and the elf."
Glossary:
Ada – Father
Gîl síla erin lû e-govaded vín. - A star shines upon the hour of our meeting.