Chapter Five
"Make it stop. Make it stop." Arirua kept repeating to herself. She looked at Kili who was standing next to her horse. "Help me." she begged him, tears swelling in her eyes. Kili stopped trying to help her out of the saddle, realizing that her shoulders were slumped over a little bit more and her eyes had now shut.
"Gandalf!" he yelled over the loud noise the company was making. "Gandalf!"
"Move!" Gandalf demanded as he moved through the company. "Get her out of the saddle." he told Kili as he got closer. Kili nodded and motioned to Dwalin to help him. The bigger dwarf grumbled something about weakness and elves but he went to the right side of Elenduriel. Dwalin moved her right leg to the left side of the saddle, allowing Kili to gently pull her into his arms. While Kili tried to move her out of the mud that the trail had become, Arirua opened her eyes.
"It's okay." Kili assured her, as she started looking around nervously, not sure what was going on. "Gandalf wants to look at your arm." Arirua looked at him, trying to pull her arm closer to her body, causing her to let out a small scream of pain.
"He cannot. I am fine Kili. I promise." she said trying to assure him.
"No, you're not." Fili told her, as he came up to help Kili move her. "You weren't okay last night and you are not okay now." They helped her sit down underneath one of the trees that were alongside the road. Gandalf, who was walking behind them as they moved her, spoke then.
"I wish to speak to her alone." he told them. They both nodded, though Kili looked a little reluctant.
"I will be okay." she promised them as they started walking away.
"Let us have a look now." Gandalf said after they put a little distance between the company and themselves. Arirua shook her head, not wanting the wizard to see her arm. She had showed no one but Lord Elrond before, and she had only showed him because he had insisted after she had gone through one of her fits.
"You cannot heal it Mithrandir. It is not one of those kinds of pains." she told him.
"I may be able to do something." he argued with her in his calm tone, though she could hear the underlying frustration, "Just show me." Arirua looked into Gandalf's eyes, studying them for a moment, deciding whether or not to trust this wizard with her greatest secret.
"Okay, but you cannot tell the company." Gandalf looked at her. "I will tell them in my own time." she explained. Gandalf nodded, though he didn't agree, but he knew that this was something she would have to do when she was ready.
"You know where I come from and what I am, but I know that you do not know how I came to walk upon this land. It is simple, I disobeyed. And I was punished for my choice." she explained, breathing getting slightly heavy from all the energy she was using to tell her tale and stay awake.
"What do you mean?" he asked her.
"I…" she looked at him with a sad look. "I choose not to look away from this world. For this world is dark and evil but there is good, something my brothers and sisters could not see. But I did. And I was punished for what I saw and believed. I was cast out. Cast out and branded." she said. Arirua began tugging at her sleeve on her left arm. She pulled to top of the sleeve over her shoulder and removed her hand so Gandalf could see.
He saw gold, strands of gold that wrapped around her arm and shoulder. They glowed like fire and he could see that they dug into her skin. As Gandalf looked closer he realized that they were shaped like flames. Gandalf reached to touch them, heal them if he could but Arirua stopped his hand. She leaned her head back on the tree she was resting under.
"They are burns, burned into my skin until I return home. And I have tried to return home, but he will not let me return, not yet. He says that I must stay here and survive my punishment for disobeying." she explained to Gandalf. "But Mithrandir, how can I be wrong?" she questioned the wizard. Gandalf looked at her, confused. "Look at this world. It is dark and evil lurks in the corners of the world as you said, but as does every world. Why must we turn away our eyes and ignore it when we may save it?" she cried. Arirua clutched her arm again. From where the wizard sat, he could see the burns glowing.
"That is not for me to answer, for I have been asking myself that very question Arirua." he told her. "Can you rise? I know you are in pain, but we must keep moving. This rain has already delayed our travel; we must begin to move again." Arirua nodded, gingerly getting up off the ground, biting her lip when her left arm was jostled. She was sure to pull her sleeve back into place and gently replace her cloak back on her shoulder so none of the dwarves and Bilbo could see her shoulder.
"Are you ready to leave?" Thorin asked gruffly as they came closer to the company. Everyone looked at Arirua, which made her pull her hood over her face more; embarrassed they had seen her in such a weak state.
"I believe we are." Gandalf told him, "Arirua?"
Arirua nodded. She quickly moved towards Elenduriel, avoiding the looks the company was giving her. She was standing, looking at Elenduriel, trying to figure out how she was going to get on the horse without rocking her arm when Kili came up.
"Need a hand?" he asked her, causing her to jump back, putting distance between her and Kili.
"Oh, it's just you." she said, realizing that it was Kili standing next to her. "Um, no I think I will be okay. Thank you though." Arirua let go of her left arm, still keeping it pressed against her stomach, and grabbed the horn of the saddle with her right hand. She then placed her right foot into the stirrup and after a small jump, pulled herself into the saddle. "See, I have this handled. I have been doing this for a very long time." Kili just shook his head at her, but Arirua could see the smile on his face. "Now, go on, get back to your horse. Thorin wants to get moving. And the rain will be stopping soon, which means it will be easier travel from here on out." She then clicked at Elenduriel, who obeyed instantly. Elenduriel trotted gently up alongside Gandalf, who had mounted his horse and was preparing to move forward.
"Are you sure you'll be okay?" Gandalf asked her.
"Of course Mithrandir." she promised. "I have had to deal with this for a few years now. I am fine."
"She was very strong wasn't she mother?" Eldarion told his mother. Arwen smiled at her son. He had always been so smart, even when he was younger.
"Yes," Arwen told him. "Besides Frodo and your father, she was one of the strongest people I have ever met. She had such a burden to carry, but she never once complained about it. Lord Elrond once offered to find a way to heal the burn, but she refused. Arirua had said that she had made her choice and now she had to suffer the consequences. Arirua was always so brave."
"Will you continue mother?" the dark haired boy asked eagerly. "Do they make it? Out of the forest, I mean."
"But of course, for their journey was not so short. There were still great many obstacles for the company." Arirua told him. "This would not be an easy journey for them. Now, as I was saying, just as Arirua had predicted, the rain came to a stop a short while after the company had started moving again. They…."
After the rain had stopped, it had made the traveling significantly easier. The ground was still muddy, but the chill air that had accompanied the downfall was gone. Arirua rode, clutching her arm to her stomach, trying to keep the pain to a minimal amount. She grunted as Elenduriel moved over a rough part of the road. She had to keep biting the inside of her cheek to keep from screaming out in pain, but she put on a good face, not wanting the members of the company to know how much pain she truly was in. That was why Arirua had decided to ride alone after the rain stopped; so she could suffer alone, like all those times she had done the same thing in Rivendell.
"You were right." Fili commented as he and his pony pulled up alongside Arirua and her horse.
"I am never wrong, master dwarf." Arirua told him. Fili just laughed. "Where is your brother? You two seem very close. It is weird not to see the two of you together."
"Well, we're not attached at the hip, Lady Arirua." she gave him look of annoyance. "What don't like being called Lady?"
"I do not like titles in general. I am not someone who is higher than you. I am your comrade not your superior." she explained to the blonde headed dwarf, trying to push the pain to the back of her mind.
"Alrighty then. Whatever you say." he told her. Arirua nodded, knowing that he didn't understand, but she was fine with that.
"Just do not call me Lady Arirua any longer. Arirua will do just fine. We are friends are we not?" Fili nodded, not understanding where this was going. "Do you call your friends lord and lady?" she asked him, laughing.
"No, of course…" he then realized that she was laughing at him. "Aren't you merry now." he said sarcastically.
"One must distract their mind when the pain is great, am I not correct?" Arirua commented, gripping her left arm tighter, as if it could stop the pain.
"Of course. Now, Arirua, may I ask a question?"
"You already have Fili, but yes, you may ask another." she said to him with a grin.
"Are you alone?" he asked. Arirua quickly realized that this was a serious question the young dwarf was asking her.
"Yes, if you mean do I have any kin. If that is in fact the meaning of your statement then yes, I am alone. I do not have any kin, here at least. My family lives elsewhere, but I cannot return there yet. It is just me, but in a way Lord Elrond and his family have become my own. They care for me and took me in. So I guess it is a yes and no answer. May I ask why you have asked such a question?"
"No reason." Fili answered, slightly quicker then she expected.
"You, friend, are a very bad liar." Fili gave Arirua a "who me?" face. "But I will let it pass, for now."
"Arirua. Arirua." Came a voice from behind her and Fili. Arirua turned her head, grimacing slightly at the pain that shot through her arm from moving too much. She saw a dwarf, one with dirty blonde hair that seemed to have been cut with a pair of trimmers and a bowl, which would have been placed on his head, along with little braids that hung from his hair. His beard was braided into two little braids. He carried a small book with him in his hand.
"Yes?" she asked him. "Ori right?"
"Yes, that's right." he said. "I was wondering, well some of were, uh, well Kili mentioned that you had interesting tales of the stars and we were wondering if you would tell us one." Arirua looked at him as he pulled up alongside her.
"What?" she asked.
"The stories," Kili said, riding up behind Ori, "one like the ones you told Fili and me last night during the watch."
"Ori! Kili! Can't you see that the poor lass is in pain?" Dori questioned the two younger dwarves.
"It is alright Dori." Arirua said, clutching her arm again, "I would welcome a distraction from the pain. Have you heard the tale about Amlugon?" After several moments of silence, Arirua could tell that they hadn't. "Amlugon was known as the Dragon of the Sky among my people. His star was the eye of the dragon constellation that soared through the night sky. Amlugon was the leader of the stars. He was, in a sense, their king." Arirua looked around and saw that now many of the members of the company were listening to her tale. "But Amlugon was known among our people, compared to all other stars, for one reason. There was a star," Arirua began as she redirected Elenduriel around a mud puddle that was leftover from the rainfall earlier, "a young star, who did not understand why the stars did as they did. She is the star that sits where the heart of the dragon would be. The star was Amlugon's daughter. Oh, how she shone bright for her father, never wanting to disappoint him. She cared for him very much. But she did not listen when the stars told her to turn her back on the world. The young star disobeyed her father. And because she did that, her…" Arirua took a deep breath before continuing, "Her father banished her from her place among the stars. He cursed her and sent her plummeting to the land she had grown to love. So now he is called the Heartless Star by many races. For now his constellation is without its heart and therefore it cannot love as it once did when she sat there. Amlugon does not shine as brightly as he once did. The tales say that he turned back to Middle Earth, to watch his daughter. It is believed that one day, she will be allowed to sit in her place amongst the stars again, but only when her father allows it."
The dwarves all rode in silence once Arirua had finished her tale.
"That is a sad tale indeed." Bilbo Baggins said, breaking through the silence.
"It is, but it is not. For one day the star will return home and get her happy ending." Arirua assured the listeners.
"All in all, how about another one?" Ori asked. "A more cheerful one."
"Okay Ori." the young girl said, "Let me see, oh how about…"
Just as she was about to start another tale, Thorin shouted back from the front of the line, "We will be coming to a halt shortly. We need to find a good place to rest, Gloin, Dori, ride on ahead and scout out a place to stop."
Arirua sighed. "I guess I will have to save my tale for another time." she told Ori. Arirua clicked again, moving Elenduriel into a trot to get a little distance between her and the others. She grimaced from the pain that was caused by the trotting.
"Whoa girl." she said, pulling back on the reins best she could with her right hand. Arirua sighed to herself, trying to blink back tears. She wasn't sure what had compelled her to tell that story, but it was taking its toll. She felt a tear starting to slide down her cheek; she quickly wiped it away with her right hand.
No. No more tears. She said to herself. Apologies have been said and tears will do you no good now. You must wait. Arirua looked up at the bright blue sky, knowing that he was looking down on her now. But I am truly sorry. I am so sorry I did not listen. Shaking her head, Arirua was pulled back to reality when she realized she was no longer moving.
"Come on my little Maid of the Stars." Arirua whispered to Elenduriel. "Just a little bit longer, and then rest for us all."
"But that means that Arirua is…" Eldarion started to said before Arwen spoke up.
"Yes, yes she is." Arwen told her son. "She is indeed."
A/N: Hello lovely readers :D here it is... the promised chapter five. Questions have been answered, well kinda ;P! Did you like it, love it, hate it? Please let me know by writing a review :D I love suggestions and pointers! :) Anyways I hope you enjoyed the chapter and chapter six will soon be on the way... Virtual cookies to all my lovely readers, reviewers, and follwers :D -Love Zella (hey that's me XD)