CHAPTER FIVE.
I woke to a warm breath on my cheek and an arm wrapped lazily over my frame. My cheek was pressed up against something pleasantly soft that rose steadily up and down, and I could not bring myself to move. The dim glow of daylight shone behind my eyelids and I tried my hardest to block it out, burying my face into whatever- or whoever- I leaned up against.
Almost immediately I found myself tumbling to the ground.
"Lizzie! Are you okay? I didn't mean to jump like that! I thought something was on top of me!" Kili quickly moved to help me off the ground and his shouts caused the majority of the lot to wake. Red flashed across my cheeks as it registered that I was sleeping on top of him. Really, I have to fall asleep on the most attractive man here. "Did I hurt you?"
"No, no I'm fine. I'm sorry, I didn't mean to fall asleep like that." I stretched and immediately brought my hands to my hair, which was all quite out of sorts. I probably looked absolutely ridiculous, and with no mirrors around I could do nothing but run my fingers through my waves and hope that the water from the creeks we rested at cleaned the dirt off my face sufficiently.
Kili's eyes went wide for a millisecond before he muffled out a few incomprehensible words. Possibly he was taking note of the fact that I looked unwashed, but then again the entire company of dwarves hadn't looked unsoiled either.
Breakfast consisted of a piece of bread and jam, and of course, a small serving of ham to help hold us over. It was surprisingly filling for the portion and not as uneatable as I might have imagined. Gandalf perched himself on a boulder by himself, smoking his pipe and pouring over the contents of the map as the ponies were saddled, fed, and watered for the day's ride.
"I suppose you'll be ridin' with me today little Lizzie." Bofur smiled and lifted me up into the saddle before clambering up himself. He chuckled and sent a coy look in the direction of Fili and Kili, who were mounted on their ponies at the back of the line. "You sure know how to give quite a disturbance to those two back there. It's best y'let them brood today."
"I didn't mean to trouble them, really I-"
Bofur cut me off with another round of laughter. "Dear, girls their age are sparse around our parts. Don' worry about them."
I caught a sly glance from Fili before turning around to grip onto a clump of the pony's mane. Riding seemed slow and laborious as ever on the second day, and the terrain continued to change. Most of my time was spent stuck in the conversations between Bifur, Bofur, and Bombur, who all enjoyed talking about their time back in the Blue Mountains. Bombur was particularly fond of talking about recipes and how to improve food as we delved deeper into the wilderness.
"If we could just catch a deer," Bombur peered out over the edge of the forest, "we could make a nice stew."
"Oi, Bombur! Quit talking about food or we'll starve by tomorrow!" Gloin groaned gruffly from two ponies ahead.
"Well it's true! If someone could just kill one-"
"Really Bombur." Bofur's voice hummed against my back. "Let's talk about somethin' else. My stomach can't take all yer chatter."
Bombur let our a frustrated breath before securing his mouth shut.
"Why don't you tell me something about the people of Middle Earth since I seem to know so little." I suggested. Bofur seemed to like the idea of a subject change so he gladly obliged my suggestion.
"Let's see... do ye remember that town of Dale I mentioned before?" I nodded against his chest. "Well there used to be somethin' about those people there. They could talk to the animals of the forest and mostly would communicate with a little bird called a thrush. It's said that they were related to the people who lived in the wood long ago..."
When the first light washed over Middle Earth, a race inhabited the shade beneath the trees. They were a kind, beautiful sort of people who walked soundlessly and grew no taller than a large berry-bush. Their homes were situated underneath the peppering of light the sun and leaves created and they nourished themselves on the greens and small animals the forest provided. They wore crowns of flowers and clothes of soft cotton and leather and worshiped the wind, the Earth, and the moon.
One special gift these people were given was the ability to speak the language of animals, and were exceptionally gifted with the speech of the thrush. They would send messages to distant places through the little birds, and were able to discover different people from far and distant places. But these people were quite different from their own kind, so they kept to the wood.
One day, a man had ventured far and deep into the place where they inhabited. His name was Théodor and he was young and lively, full of spirit and adventure, and very handsome. He came to find these people that the thrushes had spoke to him of; he boasted to be one of the only men that could understand the language of beasts. And he had found what he had been searching years for.
The people welcomed this stranger into their homes beneath the canopies, and they took quickly to his friendship. Even a fair lass, Florin, who wore her hair long and spent most of her time in the company of woodland creatures and books, found herself falling in love with him. It was said that this union between Théodor and Florin was the beginning of the end of the people of the wood.
Théodor took her to his home, and the people of Middle Earth saw her in wonderment. So much so that they began to explore for themselves and more and more began to invade on the small race. It was said that the people broke apart and faded into the darkness. But there was never any true indication of what actually happened. Those who were once of the wood were the only ones said to have retained the true story.
As for Théodor and Florin, their story had only quite just begun...
Overhead the sky had began to darken and the air indicated the threat of rain. The ponies seemed ill at ease at the sudden change in the heavens, but nevertheless we plodded on. On and on and on. The journey proved tiresome and at times boring, I was quite sad Bofur ended his story telling so soon.
Finally, we settled on letting our horses drink from a nearby river as Gandalf had grown weary of the route ahead. He was not sure whether or not we should make for Rivendell one way or the other. Of course, Thorin demanded that we especially did not stop anywhere near where elves inhabited, which was counted as a foolish and unnecessary view by the wizard. However, the outline of the forest had grown quite dark with the assistance of the ever-darkening sky and both could agree that camp should be set up for the night.
My legs were incredibly sore from the long days' travel and I found myself gracious that we didn't have to move another step on horseback. Once again I began to think about the comforts of home- or what used to be home- and why in the world I'd been thrown into Middle Earth. First off, I'm not even physically fit enough to be here.
"Elizabeth, help Fili and Kili with the ponies." Thorin ordered as he dismounted Minty. I helped lead a couple of the scraggly, tired creatures over to the two brothers who were busy removing the saddles from a few others.
"Thank you lass." Kili took the reigns out of my hands and his chocolate eyes burned into mine. "We missed your company today."
"You should have rode alongside Bombur, Bofur and I. We had some interesting conversations about dinner." I laughed.
"Oh Bombur's always talking about dinner. That's nothing new." Fili smirked and then made a face at his brother. "On another note I didn't know you two had already made sleeping companions out of each other."
My eyebrows contorted and I wanted to smack Fili across the face. It was an accident, really. Why does he have to point this out? Out of the corner of my eye I could see Kili send a quick glance in my direction before slapping his brother's shoulder.
"Well in my opinion it's all quite soon! You two have only known each other for two days and I mean usually dwarves don't-"
Abruptly my attention was drawn away from the conversation. "The pony!"
"What about it?" Kili questioned before his eyes grew wide with realization that one of he ponies used to carry supplies was being pulled away in the current of the river. "If you hadn't insisted on being such a halfwit, Fili!"
Before I could decide what to do about the pony floating down the river, Kili had peeled his cloak off of his frame- which looked toned from what I could tell under his clothes- took off his boots, and dove straight into the water. Not far behind was Fili, who carried a rope, shouting at his brother to avoid being washed away by the current.
My eyes shot to the edge of the forest for probably the hundredth time that day. There was something very peculiar about the way the wood looked and even more so the feeling it was giving me.
The wind whispered through the air, and I caught a sound on it, almost as if it were warning danger.
Kili swam over to the little tan mass and grabbed hold of its saddle, freeing it of the contents weighing down its back. Immediately, Fili threw the rope out for him to catch, but missed and had to chuck it across a second time. At this point my insides were beginning to grow nervous at the thought of Kili adrift down the river. There just wasn't something right about the entire situation.
That's when the current swept the pony away with Kili straight after it. Fili suddenly burst into a sprint down the edge of the water helplessly trying to figure out how to save his brother. There seemed to be no way for him to jump into the water without getting himself caught up in the rushing movement. Kili's shouts filled the air as he made his way over to the pony once again.
I somehow summoned a great deal of bravery I didn't know I had an ounce of, and found myself diving straight into the wild water. In hindsight, that was incredibly stupid. Quickly I was heaving and coughing as the flow rushed over my face. There was nothing to grab onto anywhere recognizable except for an overhanging tree a few hundred feet down the river, and I cried to Fili to throw me the rope. He did as he was told, and I struggled to catch it the first two times it was thrown in my direction.
By the third time, my hand caught the rope and, struggling and gasping, I tied it securely around my waist. Kili still hung onto the pony in the middle of the river, stuck where the current butted up against a rock. Barely managing to make my way over, I clung for dear life onto Kili.
"We're going to have to leave the pony!" I yelled over the rough waters, but I only received a stubborn look in return.
"What are you doing? You're going to get yourself killed out here!" He relinquished his grip on the horse and his eyes cut into mine sharply.
"There's no time to argue. I'm trying to save you for goodness sake!" Fili was beginning to pull on the rope around my waist. Kili finally gripped onto me and pushed with all his force out into the river where we floated swiftly down to the tree. We both held on with all our might until another dwarf was able to come assist Fili in dragging us in. Once we were on the riverbank soaking wet, Fili rushed to our side to make sure we were both okay. Aside from coughing up a few bouts of water and some bruises, both of us were fine.
"We are going to end up short two members of our company if you both keep up at this rate." Fili grimaced as he glanced at a nasty bruise beginning to form on my forearm. "And now we're short a pony."
The truth was, we didn't know who had let the pony get into the water in the first place. Neither did I even know what overtook me and caused me to jump in. One minute the pony was in the water and the next Kili had gone in after it. Under the watch of both of the brothers' gazes, I rose abruptly and started to make my way back to where it had been determined we would be camping.
"Elizabeth-" Kili called, catching my wrist, "Thank you. But you really should leave the rescuing to someone else. I'd rather you not get hurt."
My eyes scanned over his features, which softened under my gaze. "You're welcome."
This time, I made my way back to the others without being stopped. Most of the dwarves wondered why I had come back sopping wet and frowned at the fact that we had lost our pack pony, which carried mostly food and other various goods. Bombur particularly, with his love of food, did not like the river's consumption of his dinner.
To answer a quick question, I won't directly address whether Lizzie is a fairy or whatever she might be yet. You will find out in time, but I will tell you that she is a pretty special girl with some cool abilities she doesn't know about yet :)
Also, the story title might be subject to change when I figure a nicer one out... there are too many "An Unexpected..." ones and I just kind of couldn't really think of a decent one when I wanted to put it out.
Either way, I'm pretty fond of Lizzie and Kili's little tension moments. They've got a bit going :) I want to point out too that after the whole river incident Kili is overwhelmed with a great feeling to protect Lizzie (and he doesn't know why he feels this way yet). I thought I would point it out since the story is just from her point of view and all and we don't get to see much into Kili's mind.
And last but not least, I love you all. Really.