"I can't believe this was the Greenwood." Tharwen grumbles, triping over another root.
Thorin reached out to help her up but she batted his hand away rolling her eyes.
"I'm fine." She says, dusting the dirt off her front and ignoring him.
"Alright, come on get a move on." Thorin ordered.
"Whatever." She said before moving along.
She tripped again and this time she let out a string off Tharkeen curses.
"I am sick off this!" She spat, kicking the foot off the tree.
"Calm down." Bilbo said, placing a hand on her shoulder.
"You of all people really Bilbo." She gave a leveled glare and ignored the rest off the company.
"Oi, whats up with her?" Dwalin asked.
"I think it's Dariens' birthday today." Bilbo muttered quietly.
"The lass's little brother?" Bofur asked.
"Yes. She's in a bad mood, is all. Just don't make her angry, or we'll all be dead before we reach that mountain." Bilbo warned.
"She's not that bad is she?" Balin asked curiously.
"Hell no, she's bad." Bilbo says before jumping out off the way off a flying pebble.
"And here she goes." He muttered.
"You insufferable dwarf can you not, I'm not a pathetic being, okay!" Tharwen yelled at Thorin.
"Just being polite, kind, anything else off the matter." Thorin retorted
"I don't need you too!" She spat back at him.
"Oh course, you don't need anyone, which is probably why you don't have anyone!" He snapped.
Tharwen's face dropped, eyes growing dark. Thorin's words struck her in the core. Of course she didn't have anyone, they were gone, her mother, her father, Dharwen, Darien... oh Darien. She should have been there, for both Darien and Dharwen.
"You're right." She said softly.
Thorin kept the stoic expression on his face and turned away, walking further forward on the path.
'Do you feel like your drowning when you fall?' The voice floated in her head. 'Does it hurt you like it hurts everyone around you?' 'Are you clawing at your throat for breath?' 'You can see it through your eyes but you cannot act on which you desire. You watched as his throat was slit, you watched as they devoured his essence, his heart, his soul and you were defenceless to stop all that would haunt your dreams.' Tharwen blinked as someone grabbed her arm.
"Lassie, what's wrong?" Dwalin's gruff voice asked.
She shook her head slightly. "Nothing."
"We'll stop here and make camp!" Thorin ordered from the front off the group. Dwalin moved to the front off the group, leaving Tharwen and Riìkan alone at the end.
'I can feel your shift moving closer to me, come to me darling pet.' A low voice calls and Tharwen feels magic just weaving its way through the company and towards her her.
Tharwen watched as the company was taken by surprise by spiders and were wrapped up in silk in the blink off an eye, she crouched low and watched as Bilbo killed a spider on a branch above where the company hung, by stabbing it through the web it had spun around him and it crashed onto the ground infront off her, she jumped back as the arachnid slowly stopped moving.
She debated whether to help Bilbo or stay on the ground, so she could help if Bilbo's attempts failed.
Bilbo disappeared from sight suddenly and Tharwen crept back. Another spider crashed into the ground and Tharwen watched as Bilbo came back into view.
"Lath'rien, vos come vat to nehwre, deritea, srtherwyinm, nhio, justhynm." Riìkan croaked.
"Riìkan?" Tharwen asked as her vision blurred.
"Spiders my queen."
"Riìkan!" She felt the world spin as she saw a spider crawl above her and a sharp pain in her side. Looking down she saw a small sharp point protruding from her side and blood dripping down.
"That looks pretty." She murmered as the blood dripped off and she fell to the ground following the drop off blood.
"Tharwen!" Thorin screamed, seeing the spider wrap Tharwen in it's silk.
Battle cries sounded from the members off the company as spiders swarmed through the leaves and from around trees, using their webs to lower themselves onto the dwarves on the ground.
Though hacking and slashing, Thorin couldn't keep his head focused, watching as the spider that was carrying Tharwen prepared to sink his pincers into her, one off Fili's well aimed hunting daggers to the eye caused it too cry out in pain and it dropped her.
"Fili, Kili, get her away from the spiders." He ordered.
"I can't get to her!" Fili yelled, dodging a spider.
"I can try?" Kili said, sliding under a spider and running towards Tharwen.
"She's bleeding!" Kili yelled as he knelt next to her, ripping off the webbing.
"How bad?" He asked from where he stabbed another spider.
"I dunno for sure, but she's awake." Kili called back.
"Why does it hurt?" Tharwen mumbled.
"You got bitten by a spider I think." Kili said, trying to help her stand.
"Blurry. Kili?"
"Yes. Tharwen." Kili shook her gently.
"I can't see, why can't I see? I can tell it's you because off your voice and I can feel you there... I can't see you, Kili." She felt tears trickling down her face.
There was a loud comotion and shrieks from the spiders.
Thorin slowed to a stop as an arrow was pointed at his head.
"Do not think I won't kill you dwarf, it would be my pleasure." Legolas warned.
Thorin lowered his and Legolas ordered the other elves to search them.
Kili let out a scream as a spider grabbed his foot, pulling both him and Tharwen onto the ground.
"KILI!" He heard his brother yell.
An arrow hit the spider in the eye and it let go off Kili's grip.
"Help her please." Kili pleaded as an auburn haired elf killed a spider.
"Who is she?"
"Her name's Tharwen, she was with us, we stopped for camp and a spider bit her, please?" Kili begged.
"It's okay, I'll help you, just." She through a dagger into another spider. "Wait a second."
"Is she alright?" Kili asked as the she-elf looked at Tharwens wound.
"I'm not sure, how long since?" She asked.
"I think, I'm not sure, half an hour, fourty five minutes. She says she can't see anything." He said quickly.
"We'll have to get her to the others." She said, before reaching an arm around Tharwen.
"Tauriel?" She groaned quietly, leaning up. "I can't see you. Why can't I see you?"
"I don't know Tharwen, I'll take you to Legolas." She said before looking at Kili.
"Can you help me carry her?" Tauriel asked.
"Sure." He picked her up.
"Tauriel? Gulthun dul nungul bine?" He asked.
"E'northeir guir niur dwhir nungul, heath'wir."
Tauriel motioned Kili to come forward.
"It's Tharwen, Legolas."
"Ai!" Legolas took in a sharp breath. "We need to take her too my father!"
"She is part off this company." Thorin said.
"She won't live if she stays with you." Legolas retorted.
"Legolas, take her, it'll be faster if you go on your own."
"Adar! It's Tharwen." Legolas found him self sweating with shock. He hadn't seen Tharwen since he was a child.
"Where did you find her?" Thranduil knelt next to Tharwen's shivering body.
"Tauriel found her with a dwarf, she said she's been bitten by a spider."
"Tôg athelas! Boe de nestad. See that a healer comes immediately!" Thranduil ordered to a nearby guard.
"Adar? Will she be alright?"
"I don't know, for now, I think we should leave her with the healers, if her conditions worsen, I will tend to her myself." Thranduil said softly, pushing the hair off Tharwen's face. "She is a sister to me Legolas, I will do what is in my power so that she can survive." He gave the unconcious Tharwen a small smile before getting up from his kneeling position.
"I will see to the prisoners, stay with her."
"Some may imagine that a noble quest is at hand. A quest to reclaim a homeland and slay a dragon. I myself, suspect a more prosaic motive, attempted bugglary... or something off that ilk. You've found a way in. You seek that would bestow upon you the right to rule, the kings jewel, The Arkenstone. It is precious to you beyond measure, I understand that. There are gems in the mountain that I too desire. White gems off pure starlight. I offer you my help." Thranduil bowed his head somewhat sincerely.
"I am listening." Thorin said.
"I'll let you go... if you but return what is mine."
"A favour for a favour?" Thorin mused.
"You have my word." Thranduil promised. "One king to another."
"I would not trust... Thranduil, great king, to honour his word! Till the end off all days be upon us! You lack all honour! I have seen how you treat your friends! We came to you once, starving! Homeless! Seeking your help!" He spat. "But you turned your back! You turned away from the suffering off my people! And the inferno that destroyed us!"
Thranduil stared in disbelief and bottled-up anger. As Thorin was in mid curse in Khuzdul when he interrupted, seeing red, feeling himself tremble at his own fear, his own pain.
"Do not speak to me about dragon fire! I know it's wrath and ruin!"
As he spoke, Thorin saw Thranduil's face contort in pain as it revealed distorted and burnt skin. "I have faced the serpents of the north!"
Thranduil walked to the steps leading to his throne.
"I warned your grandfather, of what his greed would summon, but he would not listen, you are just like him. I will not let your quest take another life I care about." He motioned to the guards and they seized Thorin by the arms.
"Stay here if you will, a hundred years is mere blink, in the life of an elf. I'm patient, I can wait." He partially sneered at the dwarf. "You will not kill my family for your own greed."
"Did he offer you a deal?" Balin asked as the elf that shoved him into the cell left.
"He did, I told him he could go Ish-kagveha do nul. Him and all his kin!" Thorin shouted from his cell.
"A deal was our only hope." Balin said.
"Not our only hope." Thorin muttered.
"How is she?" Thranduil asked the healer, kneeling next to Tharwen, who was shivering and muttering under her breath on the healing bed.
"She earnt herself a fever, the poison has already traveled far, her eyesight is damaged and the wound festers. She's not getting worse, but it'll be a while until she gets better." He said, replacing the wet cloth on her forehead. "It's a good thing your son brought her here in time, any later and her survival may be out off our hands.
"You may leave." He said softly. "I will keep watch on her health."
The healer gave a small bow and left the room.
"Echuio, Tharwen, gellon ned i galar i chent gîn ned gladhog, not your eyes filled with desire for death and darkness, im meleth le nín gwathel. Please echuio."
"Adar?" Legolas's voice came from the doorway.
"Ion nin."
"How is she?" He asked, kneeling next to his father.
"Her condition isn't worsening, but she'll take a while to recover her full strength."
"I haven't see her since, nana died. How old is she now?"
"She's only seven centuries younger than me. She is a little sister to me Legolas. She cared for you when I couldn't. Do you remember? You were only a few decades old ion nín."
"I remember her voice, her face, she played with me near the waterfalls and followed me pebble collecting." He said, closing his eyes at the memory.
"Yes she did. You looked up to her, and I am proud that you still do." Thranduil said softly, gently stroking the side of Tharwen's face.
"I will leave you with her ada, I know, that she is family, I will be checking on the prisoners." Legolas said, slowly getting up from next to the healing bed and heading to the door giving one last glance over his shoulder to see his father whispering to Tharwen, words of comfort and promise.
"I need to see you smile sister dear. I did a bad job looking after you sister dearest, never did it right, but you turned out right, even with glamour, you make a wonderful queen." Thranduil whispered, hearing the door click shut, unaware that someone else had slipped out with Legolas.
"The stone in your hand? What is it?" Tauriel asked.
"It's a talismen." Kili answered, clutching it in his hands protectively. "A powerful spell lies upon it, if any but a dwarf reads the runes on this stone, they will be forever cursed."
Tauriel moved away from the cell.
"Or not!" Kili said quickly. "Depending on whether you believe in that kind off thing, it's just a token." He said with a laugh. "A runestone."
"My mother gave it to me so I would remember my promise."
"What promise." Tauriel asked.
"That I would come back to her."
"She worries." He said after a slight pause. "She thinks I'm reckless."
"Are you?"
"Nah." He said, throwing the stone in the air, going to catch it, missing. The small stone clinking as it bounced through the bars.
Tauriel stopped it from falling off the end off the walkway and picked it up.
"Sounds like quite the party, you're having up there." Kili said, eyes fleeting to the ceiling as noises of cheers floated down into the dungeons.
"It is Merithen Gilith. The Feast of Starlight. All light is sacred to the eldar, but woodelves love best the light off the stars." She said fondly.
"I always thought it is a cold light, remote and far away." Kili said, almost distraught looking.
"It is memory, precious and pure, like your promise." She smiled down at Kili holding out the stone in her hand.
"I have walked there sometimes, beyond the forest and up into the night, I have seen the world fall away, and the white light forever fill the air."
"I saw a firemoon once." Kili said. "It rose over the pass near Dunland, was huge, red and gold it was, filled the sky." He said with wonder. "We were escorts for some merchants from Erid Luin, they were trading in silver work for ferns, we took the Greenway south." He smiled shyly as Tauriel sat on the steps next to his cell. "Keeping the mountain to our left and there it was, a huge fire moon lighting our path."
"We took the Greenway south." Legolas heard as he walked down the steps towards the dungeons. "Keeping the mountain to our left and there it was, a huge fire moon lighting our path."
He watched as Tauriel and a dwarf spoke to each other, sneering at every word the dwarf said.
"Any news off Tharwen?" Balin asked as Bofur continued to complain to Fili and Ori.
"Thranduil said nothing off the sort. Although," Thorin paused. 'I will not let your quest take another life I care about.' 'You will not kill my family for your own greed.' Thranduils words came back to him. "Thranduil told me, that he would not let this quest take another life he cares about, and that I would not kill his family for my own greed."
"You don't think."
"I think he has Tharwen."
"That he does, my friends." Bilbo said, peaking in from the side off the cell bars.
"Bilbo! Tharwen, how is she?" Thorin asked.
"She's in a healing room, somewhere on the second floor I think. She's unconcious, has a fever, the spiders poison has travelled far, her eyesight is damaged, and I think the spider bite, the wound, is festering, I heard the elvish healer say." Bilbo said.
"Who else was there?"
"Thranduil and his son."
"What was that elf, doing with her?"
"Childhood friends, she's seven centuries younger than him. Thranduil thinks off her as his younger sister. He said a few things in elvish, about how she should wake up, how he loved to see the shine in her eyes when she laughed... then he said something about desire for death and darkness." Bilbo relayed reluctantly.
"Anything else, about when she'll be at least concious, or able to move."
"I doubt she'll be moving for a while Thorin, even if her wound heals and fever breaks, her eyesight is temporarily gone, there will be no way she could continue this quest." Bilbo said practically.
"We won't leave without her." Thorin said. "We'll need her when the time comes, I can feel it, someway, Gandalf pulled her onto this quest for a reason."
"Tell the others, tell them not to speak a word to any of the elves until we can get Tharwen out off here with us." Thorin asked Bilbo.
Translations:
Tharkeen:
Lath'rien, vos come vat to nehwre, deritea, srtherwyinm, nhio, justhynm. = M'lady Tharwen, somthing lurks in the shadows around you, spawn off the necromancer, danger is near you.
Sindarian:
Tauriel? Gulthun dul nungul bine? = Tauriel have you killed the spiders.
E'northeir guir niur dwhir nungul, heath'wir. = Yes, but more will come, they are getting bolder.
Tôg athelas! Boe de nestad. = Bring Kingsfoil, she needs healing.
Adar/Ada. = Father.
Echuio. = Awaken/Wake up.
Gellon ned i galar i chent gîn ned gladhog. = I love to see your eyes shine when you laugh.
Im meleth le nín gwathel. = I love you my sister.
Ion nin. = My son.
Khuzdul*
*The translation is too vulgar even for me to include into my story.