'Sorry,' she whispered softly and she looked at him with big, innocent eyes. 'Please don't hit me again. I just – I just don't feel very well.'
Thorin's face turned so red she was afraid he would explode. For a moment she imagined the second his head would blow to bits and pieces of brain, skin and beard would fly around. She trembled and eyed his face, glad it still consisted of one piece. She saw he furiously tried to sweep his shoes on the grass, but reversed bluntly in the end.
In silence Alyssae walked past the other dwarves. She felt wretched. There was a disgusting taste in her mouth and she bet he never wanted to look at her again.
She tried to set some things right by walking as fast as she could and she rejected the bottle of water from Fili.
'You must drink enough,' he protested.
'Don't waste it on me.'
'Don't be so stubborn.'
'You act stubborn yourself.'
The dwarf said no more about it and Alyssae stared at the starry sky. The lights in the sky seemed to change their places now and then and it scared her a little. It seemed like it could rain fire any moment.
'Did you ever wish you could fly?' she wondered.
'I – no. I think we can better keep silent, Alys.'
She nodded vaguely, but she started to nod because of the surrounding darkness and their silent moving. Talking kept her awake, although she knew it could endanger the others and she shut her mouth.
Next she made Thorin so angry he wouldn't hit her with his hand, but with his sword.
Alyssae started to hum softly and swung with her head a little. Sleep tried to tempt her to enter his world and it became harder and harder to resist his sudden attacks. Their silence was deafening.
Now and then Thorin looked back, since they were closing the row, and his look was so abhorrent that he almost seemed bloodthirsty, which scared her.
Around them echoed the hunting cries of unknown animals and Alyssae sometimes thought to hear a warg, which caused goose bumps on her arms.
Suddenly she saw Bilbo before her eyes. He certainly had heard those noises before he died. Her lower lip quivered and before she realized, she was crying in silence.
'What's wrong?' Fili asked frightened.
Alyssae bowed her head. She couldn't restrain her tears. It was not the first time today that thoughts of Bilbo consumed her, probably caused by the fact that she had taken the time to catch her breath. The events penetrated to her heart only now.
'Nothing,' she murmured. 'It's just a long day.'
Her eyes flashed aside when the trees next to her cracked and she screamed when some birds flew away.
'Ssh, calm down.'
Alyssae was stunned when he took her hand. Fili smiled nervously at her, but she didn't notice. His thumb rubbed along the back of her hand and she became a little calmer. She took some deep breaths and looked before her, but she froze when she noticed the king of the dwarves stood still. For some reason she wanted to take away her hand from Fili, but her fingers seemed paralyzed.
The look in Thorin's eyes was even darker than the black sky above their heads, which faded a little at the horizon, high above the black shadows of a dense forest. Seeing that wood made her gasp for breath and she didn't think about letting go of Fili's hand anymore.
She turned to Thorin. Her voice was probably the last thing he wanted to hear, but there were words on the tip of her tongue she couldn't swallow. Most likely she again took the risk to see Thorin's head exploding, but if she didn't had her say, it was possibly not only Thorin who would lose his head.