'Let her go!' Thorin's voice echoed through the sleepy woods.
The strong grasp around her arm however kept the same and the muscles in her upper arm, which had already been through so much, nagged painfully.
'She tries to poison him!'
The tears appeared in her eyes when Gloin pushed her arm a little higher.
'Stop,' she whispered, 'before you break my arm.'
Gloin stared so fierce in her eyes she felt scared.
Thorin however was with them within a few steps. 'I do not say it again.'
The dwarf squeezed his eyes, but let go of her arm unwillingly.
'I swear it, Thorin. You are not objective anymore.'
'Neither are you,' the dwarf king growled. 'This forest blemishes your mind.'
'That's not true! Didn't you see her? She wanted to pour water into his mouth. Enchanted water! You don't see anything because she blinds you with her blinking eyelashes and sweet lies!'
Alyssae stared in shock at the dwarf, wondering if he had always thought about her that way. She however was taken away from her confusing thoughts when Thorin clenched his fists and stormed at Gloin, where after both men fell and rolled over the ground, fighting.
'Guys!' Alyssae yelled in despair.
They paid no attention to her and their arguing voices competed with the helpless cries of Dwalin. She couldn't listen to it any longer and she hastened to the river bank again, filled the bottle and let the water slip between his lips while the dwarves were still knocking each other's brain out.
Slowly the noises died away. Not only the curses from Thorin and Gloin, but also the heated roaring of the deathly sick dwarf.
His silence shook the others awake. Alyssae glanced at the dwarf with mixed feelings, who suddenly seemed much more peaceful. Too peaceful.
'You did it anyway?' Thorin's voice roared.
He looked at her so destructively she shrunk in fear.
'I could not listen to it any longer,' she answered with a soft voice. 'He – he is peaceful now.'
Thorin bowed over the dwarf and checked his breathing, which was calm now.
'How can you be sure he will wake up again? Now?' he yelled when she didn't react.
'I don't know.' She bowed her head, but didn't regret her actions. She wanted to save Dwalin a long and painful dead and if it was his time to go, he probably wanted to go sleeping.
'He will not be strong enough to escape from his dreaming state.'
Thorin looked so angry she was afraid he would hit her, but she strengthened her shoulders. 'If he is not strong enough to wake up, he surely is not strong enough to recover.'
She cowered when she felt a hand on her back, but when she looked aside she saw it was Balin.
'I agree with your decision, but it would have been better if we had discussed this.'
Alyssae bowed her head and kept silent. She had hoped the dwarves would have never found out.
Still she felt relieved that Balin understood the necessity, which seemed to calm down the other dwarves as well, although Gloin refused to look at her and Thorin seemed willing to skin her alive.
He threw himself into the breach for you, she tried to convince herself. She however did not know what Gloin had yelled at him, but something in his gesture had changed after his words.
'So, can we go back to sleep?' Bombur asked.
Alyssae nodded and dropped down on the ground again.
'Not you, elf,' Thorin answered. 'It's your turn to stay awake and stand guard.'
'Elf?' Alyssae repeated, forgetting to breathe. Her eyes burned. Everything she had build up the last days, seemed destroyed now.
'Forget it,' she grumbled. 'Pick someone else, because I'm not doing it.'
She was exhausted and she knew she couldn't stay awake for one more hour. Furthermore she found it an unjust comment: she had wandered through the forest for days to find Fili, while the others hadn't done a thing.
'I stay up,' Kili said quickly and he smiled uncertainly to her.
Alyssae nodded shortly as a sign of gratitude, but she felt so unsatisfied her thankfulness was pushed away by her anger soon. She turned her back to them and tried to fall asleep again, but Thorin's ferocious face kept dancing before her closed eyes.