A Visit to Rivendell

Laid out on the ground in front of Gwaihir were open nets, one with four trunks, one with three, one with two and thirteen with one trunk a piece.

"-and that's why we don't have all the nets filled yet." Thorin finished his explanation.

"Interesting. I had not thought of this either. I will test this before we depart." With that Gwaihir hopped over to the only net to hold one trunks and be tied off. He settled his talons into the net and with great powerful down-beats of his strong wings, took off easily. He looped around and landed, releasing the nets before hopping to the next net, with two trunks, doing the same with it before landing again. He did this with nets holding three and four trunks as well, but the last was done with great effort.

"Getting off the ground with four trunks is difficult and for some of my Eagles may not be possible. The me think…", he hummed and fluffed his feathers for a few minutes before calling to his Eagles, a smaller, lighter-coloured Eagle took flight and circled the pastures. "Beorn is there a way to hold the nets partially aloft? It is lifting the nets from the ground that is the issue mostly, if that can be avoided… swooping down and grasping the nets while still in flight as we do for animals and fish, would make it much easier to leave the embrace of the ground."

"There is", and it took him only seconds to have a fine elven rope tied to the net and held high in the air by his bird friends. The Eagle in flight swooped down and as he/she(?) flew over the net talons opened and closed and the net was gone. It took a few seconds for Beorn's birds to release the rope, but being birds they didn't fall to the ground but instead flew back rest on the fence beside him, chirping and boasting their cleverness.

"If Meneldor can reach soaring height with a full net, then we have a solution. I spy many trunks, Thorin Oakenshield but not a great deal of supplies. Why is this?" Gwaihir asked.

"Travelling to Rivendell by pony and wagon we would require a large amount of supplies, but with your help we have a much shorter journey and have decided to leave a great deal of those supplies here with Beorn as we will not be needing nearly as much. Lord Elrond is a generous host and we have gifts for him from the dragon's hoard, however meat is something that Rivendell is sadly lacking in. So we take as much of the cured and dried meat with as we can. We have little in the way of fresh meat and have only kept aside two meals of it and leave the rest of it for you, my Lord, and your Eagles. You are doing us a great service and we much rather your Eagles be well fed than lose the meat to rot. Tauriel has insisted that we also prepare and take with travel food for we have little idea of how long it will take for this flight. Most other supplies we brought with us we have left for Beorn's use and in exchange he has given cunningly wrought barrels of honey, some for Lord Elrond and some to take on to Bilbo." Thorin said, explaining why each net had a trunk on it as well as three beside it, in addition to this there were two small barrels standing with each group of trunks, three nets had no barrels but instead a number of smaller sacks. Off to one side a pile of travelling bags were haphazardly clumped.

"Tauriel also suggested that because we do not know the duration of this trip and that we have not had the great fortune to be carried by Eagles much, that it would be safer for us all if there was a way to ensure that we stayed where you want us to stay. In accordance with this she and Kíli have spent some hours fashioning a type of harness to hold us. Kíli feels that to restrain your Eagles is not acceptable and between them, they came to this solution. A simple loop to go around the neck and breast of the Eagle, with a harness that goes around each person's legs and waist, that is tied to the Eagle's loop. In this way, even should we slide and fall, we not interfere with the Eagle's wings and so not put them at risk, we would be held suspended above the nets below the Eagle's breast."

"A wise solution, Captain Tauriel. This will work well and will be off little conflict for my Eagles. Ah, here returns Meneldor, let us see how difficult is was to achieve the height we need to clear the mountains."

The light-coloured Eagle glided down and came to a soft landing.

"Well done, Meneldor. A fine landing."

"Thank you, my lord."

"Did you have difficulty in reaching height?"

"Not really, lord. The first few strokes after catching the net were the most difficult. The height of the net was, I feel, still a little too low. If there was a way to have it higher, on a platform perhaps… This would enable a stronger down-thrust and allow us to grasp the nets at full flight."

"We have not the time to build a platform from scratch. What about a tall pile of rocks with a few timber slabs on top? We could put this anywhere. The only problem could be getting the trunks up onto the slabs." Beorn spoke for the first time that day.

"We will lift the trunks. Meneldor, go fetch another dozen Eagles, we will need respite along the way and my Eagles grow bored after the battle, I would rather keep them occupied if possible." Gwaihir directed the smaller bird before turning to the dwarrow who were already moving to gather rocks and boulders.

"Fíli, you supervise them. You can't help either, lad, not yet, anyway. Kíli, with me. Beorn, do you have slabs that we might use? Kíli and I will help move them, we are not well enough yet to move boulders, not matter how much we might want it otherwise."

"Of course, Thorin. This way." Beorn was as always a man of few words.

"My Lord, Gwaihir. Where would be the best place, for your Eagles, for a us to put this platform?" Fíli approached Gwaihir.

They moved off to the south of Beorn's House before deciding on a space to make their 'platform'. Less than an our later all the Eagles wore their loop and bore their passenger, just waiting for the last Eagle to swing down and collect the last net and then they were on their way.

Thorin had no idea how the others felt on the flight, but Bofur had a fright when Meneldor, who was carrying him suffered a cramp in his/her (Thorin still didn't know if the Eagle was male or female and it was rude to ask at this point) leg and talons and did a duck and spin manoeuvre to pass the net off on to another Eagle. Watching this happen Thorin's heart was in his mouth in case Tauriel's harness' didn't work, but there were no mishaps to be had. Some of the others weren't aware that the transfer was an accidental incident and thought it a planned event as with in minutes Gwaihir ordered all Eagles to swap their nets with another, unburdened Eagle, to give all Eagles a respite from carrying both passenger and cargo.

Time was distorted as the army of Eagles flew west-ward. The sun seemed to hang in the sky and Thorin was glad that the Eagles created their own breeze as they flew otherwise being in the sun for hours would have left them all burnt and suffering heat exhaustion. As it was it was close to sunset and quite cool as the Eagles approached Rivendell. Gwaihir was the first to land, the strongest of the Eagles was carrying Fíli, the most fragile of their Company. Bare minutes passed before the entire Company were safely on the ground the Eagles back in the air. Gwaihir and his army would roost in the upper parts of the mountains surrounding Rivendell.

For now while Thorin was very grateful to Gwaihir and his Eagles for their help, he was also very glad to be on bedrock again. Flying was not going to be the way he wanted to travel.

"Thorin Oakenshield. Welcome to Rivendell again."

"Lord Elrond. Thank you for having us. It is good to be here." Replied Thorin and he was slightly surprised to find that he actually did mean it. It was good to see a familiar place, one where people were smiling. He grinned at Elrond and continued. "We bring gifts, too. From Daín. From Thranduil. From Beorn. From us. And from the House of Durin. With our thanks."

"That can wait until you've had a chance to recover. Flying all the way from the Greenwood was not something I would want to do in a hurry again. Particularly recovering from injuries. For now Lindir will show you to rooms you can use. When you're ready, we would be pleased for you to join us for a meal."

"Thank you my lord. We have some meat and other produce to add to the meal, too."

"Nonsense, Thorin. Over the last week my archers have taken your coming as a chance to do a wildlife cull in the local area and risen to the challenge to hunt for your Company. We have ice to help keep your meat fresh for you." With that Elrond gestured to Lindir, nodded Thorin and backed away.

"My lord. This way if you please." The dark haired elf may have been shorter than Lord Elrond but to the dwarrow, he was still very tall. He watched Tauriel and Kíli interact with Elladan and Elrohir, seeing how comfortable they all were with each other, he relaxed slightly as they made their way across the bridge from the pasture north-east of the settlement and into Rivendell proper.

Lindir showed them to rooms that had furniture that must have been made specifically for dwarrow or Hobbits given the size, barring of course Tauriel who had a luxurious room with elf-sized furniture. Oín and Gloín were given one room, Bifur, Bofur and Bombur another, Dori, Nori and Ori a third. The next room was for Fíli and Kíli, with Dwalin and Balin taking the room between the princes and Thorin, who other than Tauriel was the only one to have a room to himself. He also gave them a map of Rivendell with directions to the dining area. Dwalin snorted and with a comment about Thorin getting lost again, closed the door to his and Balin's room.

Thorin dumped his bag and pack and stretched, wincing as his wounds still pulled tight. He saw a door towards the back of the room and upon investigating, found it to be a bathing area which he took pleasure in using. Feeling much more relaxed and comfortably clean, he changed clothes and started sorting through his pack for the gift he had brought for Elrond. Just as he pulled it from the pack there was a knock at his door. He opened the door to find Prince Legolas, Thranduil's son.