I had realized my segments had gotten smaller, so technically this is two segments. I really need to work more on DOS, but as for the Hobbit, there is only one segment left!
It was daybreak of the third day in Middle-earth, and the hunger strike was finally taking a toll on me.
Apples were not a sufficient meal, apparently, and the second we made it to the troll hoard, I nearly threw up. I had no clue what was in my stomach that I could even vomit up, though. Maybe some stomach acid?
"That stench." I groaned, sitting down on a rock nearby.
Everything hurt. My head hurt, my butt hurt. I was about 95% convinced I had a bruise the size of Texas on my bum.
"Are you alright, Malia?" Kili asked, kneeling down beside me.
"Yeah." I insisted. "I mean, my ego is bruised, sure. I don't normally need to be saved that much."
Kili smiled, shaking his head before getting back up and walking over to talk to Fili. I closed my eyes, enjoying a moment of silence.
How I had managed surviving trolls was beyond me. Well, I wish I could say it was beyond me. But I knew, deep down, it was because of Kili. Kili had saved my life.
And so did Bilbo, with his quick remark about my tubes being riddled with parasites. Not sure which tubes he was talking about, but I definitely didn't want to go there with Bilbo.
But Kili, he must've ran off after me into the forest, alone. He attacked three large trolls because I was dumb enough to try to attack them with a steak knife.
He was hot, and he was humble, and I was so screwed. How was I supposed to make it out of this adventure with my heart intact? I hadn't even known I had a heart until I had gotten to Middle-Earth, and now, I was likely to lose it. How shitty is that?
"Lassie." Dwalin said, and I looked at him as he made his way out of the hoard and towards me. "Here."
Dwalin chucked a small bow and quiver at me, and I caught them. As I inspected them, I noticed how beautiful and intricate they were.
"Elvish make, Gandalf reckons you can't get a finer bow than that." Dwalin said, an amused smile falling onto his face. "I'm pretty sure that one was made for a Bairn, though."
I gave him a look as I took the bow from him. "I get it, hobbits are small."
"No, Lassie." Dwalin put his hand on my shoulder, nearly knocking me down. "Bilbo is small. Me asnân tada Mahal duhû kansu tah."
That was the first time any of the Dwarves had ever spoken Khuzdul at me. And of course, it was Dwalin insulting me. I wasn't sure if I should be happy he felt like he could speak it in front of me, or offended because he definitely was saying something offensive.
"I don't know what that means." I remarked to him as I put the quiver on my back, and held the arrow in my hand. "But I think you're trying to insult me."
Dwalin chuckled, giving me another pat on the back that nearly sent me flying. He then left me and went over to his brother, Balin.
Dwalin was right though, it fit me well. But it was probably made for a child.
"Something's coming!" Thorin yelled, startling me.
"Stay together! Hurry now, arm yourselves!" Gandalf instructed as he left Bilbo's side.
I took a few steps away away from the hoard, moving closer to Kili.
The world began spinning, and I closed my eyes and put my hands out to steady myself.
Just what I needed, really: to be getting sick right before we needed to run away.
"Malia, are you alright?" Kili asked again, and I had a feeling he had gotten closer to me again.
"The world is spinning." I said to him.
I heard Kili groan, and I opened my eyes when I felt his warm hand holding mine. I watched as he took my hand and placed it on his shoulder before arming himself with his bow and motioning for me to follow him.
I followed him through the forest, my grip on his shoulder tightening as we ran.
"Thieves!" I heard a voice cry, and the company stopped, and I ran into Kili.
"Fire, Murder!"
An old man wearing all brown came through the bushes, led by the middle-earth version of an Iditarod team, consisting of all bunnies.
The dwarves held arms up until Gandalf spoke.
"Radagast!" Gandalf motioned to the bizarre new wizard. "It's Radagast the brown." Gandalf walked closer to Radagast. "Well, what are you doing here?"
"I was looking for you, Gandalf." Radagast said, and with one swift motion Gandalf led Radagast farther away to speak to him.
I closed my eyes, feeling more faint.
"Malia." Kili said, and I gripped tighter onto his shoulder.
I felt his hand on my cheek, and I opened my eyes to see his face full of concern.
"I'm awake." I grumbled, closing my eyes again.
"Are you now?" Kili asked, before sighing. "Sit down." He said as his hand moved from my cheek to my shoulder, and he lead me to a rock nearby.
"You need to eat something other than apples, Malia." Kili said.
I groaned and let go of his shoulder, putting my hands on my face as I sat down.
"Yeah, I know that…" I said. "Now." I added. "Unfortunately, going from meatless to meat is a lot harder than it sounds. If I eat meat now, I'll get sick and I have a funny feeling we are going to need to run again and I can't be sick and run."
"We don't have anymore apples, Malia." It was Fili this time who spoke, and I tore my hands away from my face to glare at him.
"I'll be fine." I insisted, forcing myself to stand up to prove a point.
Right as I stood, howling echoed through the forest. Bilbo came towards us, fear in his eyes.
"Was that a wolf? Are there wolves out there?" Bilbo asked, and I watched as his hand tightened on his tiny sword.
"Wolves?" Bofur asked. "No, that is not a wolf."
But in a blink of an eye, wolf-life creatures had defended upon us, and I had to duck as one nearly bit my head off. By the time I was on my feet again, the three wolves had been killed by Thorin, Kili, and Dwalin, respectively.
"Warg scouts." Thorin spat as he yanked his sword out from the skull of the wolf. "Which means an orc pack is not far behind."
If I hadn't been so thoroughly done with my near demise, I probably would've acted the same way Bilbo did.
"Orc pack?" Bilbo asked incredulously, looking at Gandalf and probably near tears.
"Who did you tell about your quest beyond your kin?" Gandalf asked, turning menacingly towards Thorin.
"No one."
"Who did you tell?" Gandalf boomed.
"No one, I swear. What in Durin's name is going on?"
"You are being hunted." Gandalf spat.
"Mmmmmm." Was all I could say. Middle-earth was determined to kill me, apparently.
"We have to get out of here!" Dwalin insisted.
"We have no ponies." Ori screamed from the upper hill.
It may be a good time to mention that I laugh when I'm nervous. One time my best friend Crystal told me her pet lizard died, and all though I could see how clearly devastated she was, I laughed instead of saying 'I'm sorry for your loss'.
I snorted, and put my hand over my mouth to silence any more noises from my mouth.
"I'll draw them off." Radagast said.
"These are Gundabad Wargs. They will outrun you." Gandalf said rudely.
"These are Rhosgobel rabbits." Radagast remarked sassily. "I'd like to see them try."
Radagast had balls, let me tell you. He jumped on his sled and mushed into danger, with nothing but a dozen rabbits.
Somehow, it worked, too. He drew them off enough for us to start running through the valley, hiding behind large boulders at increments.
"Come on!" Gandalf hissed, motioning for us to continue him to the next rock.
I let out a rigid breath, my lungs feeling as though they were on fire.
If it wasn't for Kili firmly placing my hand back on his shoulder and demanding that I 'Look down and watch my step' I probably would've just laid down and let the Orcs take me.
What can I say? I was near delusional hysterics, hadn't eaten enough or slept enough since we had left bilbo's hobbit hole, and now we were running away from Orcs. Orcs on Wargs.
"Thanks." I said, coughing while I tried to keep pace with Kili. "Not that thanks is a strong enough word, really."
"Save your strength." Kili hissed to me as we stopped behind another rock.
"God, you're so attractive." I groaned, looking away from him. I saw Ori looking at me incredulously. "I know, shut up Malia." I added, frowning at Ori and then looking away.
A few seconds later and we were running again, but thankfully we stopped right at the next boulder and hid. Kili pressed me farther into the boulder, and I tried to steady my breath and listen.
There was a Warg somewhere nearby, and I had a feeling he was on top of the rock looking for us.
Thorin looked at us, his eyes flashing from myself to Kili, and then he nodded to Kili. I had no clue what that meant, until Kili slowly raised his hand and grabbed an arrow, readying his bow.
I let go of his shoulder, backing up and nearly stepping on Fili. Fili didn't seem to mind, and we all watched silently as Kili jumped out of the boulder's shadow, and shot an arrow at the Warg.
The Warg fell, screeching as it went. Thorin quickly tried to silence it, but it was too late. The rest of the scouts had heard, and howling echoed though the valley.
"Move, run!" Gandalf yelled, and without thinking I grabbed onto Fili's shoulder for support as we ran.
If Fili was annoyed by this, he made no mention.
"Sorry." I said to him between gasps. "I know you're not Kili. I'd rather it be Kili," I started.
"You actually are mental, aren't you?" Fili asked, and although he wasn't looking at me, I knew he was smiling.
"This way, quickly!" Gandalf demanded, and we ran to the right.
"There's more coming!" Kili yelled, and I looked back to see him a ten feet away, looking at Thorin.
"Kili, shoot them!" Thorin yelled before looking at me.
I quickly took my hand off of Fili's shoulder, assuming it was the physical contact Thorin wasn't liking.
"Malia, shoot!"
"Right." I groaned, taking my bow off of my shoulder and stumbling slightly towards Kili. I stopped five feet behind him and readied my own bow, closing my eyes for a moment and trying not to fall to the ground.
"We're surrounded!" Fili yelled from behind me.
"Hold your ground!" Thorin said, and I opened my eyes and I watched as Kili shot his arrow, killing one of the Orcs.
Kili drew another arrow.
"This way, you fools!" Gandalf bellowed.
I took a deep breath, closing my eyes and imagining my arrow hitting one of the ugly Orcs. Which was all of them, by the way. They all looked like rotting zombies.
"Quickly, all of you!" Thorin yelled, and I let out another deep breath.
I opened my eyes, and let go of by arrow. I stayed still, watching as it flew into the air, and then directly into the chest of an orc.
"Kili, Malia!" Thorin yelled, and suddenly I saw dark brown hair out of the corner of my eye.
I turned right as Kili grabbed my hand, dragging me towards the rock and pulling me down the hole along with him.
When we reached the bottom, Kili dragged me off of the ground and we backed up and watched Fili and Thorin slide down a lot more gracefully than I had.
"All you alright?" Kili asked, for what was probably the fiftieth time that day.
"Did you see my shot?" I asked him, smiling while trying to catch my breath.
I may have felt like fresh hell, but I had killed an Orc. That was something to celebrate.
"Congratulations, Malia. Orc Slayer." Kili teased, smiling back at me.
Horns blared from the valley we had just left, but I ignored them and turned to the company.
"From now on, I want you all to call me Orc Slayer." I said.
"My dear Malia," Gandalf said, taking a step closer to me. "Do you feel faint? You look dreadful."
"I feel worse than faint." I told him, blinking multiple times as black spots blocked my vision for a moment.
I had wanted to continue to bitch to Gandalf about how ill I felt, but at that very moment an Orc came tumbling down, and it's body tumbled into the back of my legs, nearly knocking my down.
Kili kept me upright, and I gave him a thankful smile as he dragged me a little bit farther away from the Orc.
"Elves." Thorin bent down, inspecting the arrow that was in the Orc.
"I cannot see where the pathway leads." Dwalin said from ahead. "Do we follow it, or no?"
"Follow it, of course." Bofur said, nodding his head and walking to Dwalin.
"I think that would be wise." Gandalf agreed, looking at Thorin with a knowing smirk.
"Do you still want me to guide you, Malia?" Kili asked, letting the other dwarves go ahead of us.
"I think you mean, 'do you still want me to guide you, Orc Slayer'." I said.
Kili raised a brow at me, but didn't move.
"Yes." I said. "Yes, please."
Kili smiled, and grabbed my hand. I had expected him to place it on his shoulder, but he merely held it in his instead.
"Has our friendship leveled up to hand holding?" I teased.
Kili let out a light chuckle, a toothy grin forming on his face as he looked at me. "I have so many questions about that remark."
"Well, go on." I said, smiling back at him. "Ask away."
"First of all, I'm not quite sure what 'leveling up' is intended to mean. Shall I take it to mean growing?"
I nodded.
I should remind you all I hadn't eaten well or slept well in quite a few days. I was at the 'I don't give a fuck' stage in my life. The live fast die young stage.
"And what is our friendship growing into, Orc Slayer?" Kili asked.
"Well, you've saved my life at least three times in the last twenty four hours. I pretty much owe you my life at this point." I shrugged. "You can decide, I suppose."
"How romantic, Malia." Kili said teasingly.
"Romantic?" I whispered. "Nobody said romantic." I added. "I'm not really the romantic type." I admitted. "Or maybe I am. I honestly wouldn't know. I've never bothered."
Kili snorted.
The pathway led us to the most beautiful I had ever seen. Waterfalls cascading down around an elegant castle built into the side of the mountain. Beautiful stone, the castle was made out of.
"The valley or Imladris. In the common tongue, It's known by another name." Gandalf said.
"Rivendell." Bilbo whispered airily.
I hadn't seen so much water in years, and I had to let out a sniffle. God, Rivendell was beautiful. Rivendell was beautiful and I was losing my mind.
"Are you going to cry?" Kili whispered in my ear.
"Rivendell." I said, turning my head to look at him. "Rivers. I never thought I'd see water like this again." I sighed. "Do you think they'll let me swim in it?"
"Swim down waterfalls?" Kili asked, raising a brow as the company started moving down the side of the mountain towards Rivendell.
"I ain't judging your lifestyle." I grumbled, and he rolled his eyes before dragging me down along with him down the mountain. "I killed an Orc." I reminded him, and anyone who could hear me. "I want that river, I think."
I pointed at a smaller river to the north. Kili snorted again.
"Can we name that river 'Malia', Gandalf?" I asked him as he walked past me, to get to the front of the company.
"Keep moving, my dear Malia. You are looking more ill by the second." Gandalf reminded me.
I frowned, glaring at the back of Gandalf's head. Talk about rude.
It didn't take us much longer to reach the bridge to Rivendell, and I could tell by the silence that I must not have been the only hungry, exhausted person in the company.
"Leave the talking to me." Gandalf reminded us as he turned around, giving Thorin in particular a look.
We all stopped in the courtyard, and Kili let go of my hand as we waited for someone to come and greet us.
The Elf that walked down the stairs to us had an extremely graceful, yet stuck up air about him. He kinda had a somewhat sour expression on his face, as though he was sucking a lemon.
"Mithrandir." The elf greeted Gandalf, and giving him a tight-lipped smile.
"Ah, Lindir." Gandalf said, bowing to the elf and simultaneously making me starving for some Lindt chocolate.
Lindir spoke in elvish to Gandalf, and I rolled my eyes.
"I must speak with Lord Elrond." Gandalf insisted, breaking out of elvish.
"My Lord Elrond is not here." Lindir said.
"Not here?" Gandalf frowned. "Where is he?"
Lord Elrond apparently loved making an entrance, for moments after Gandalf asked, horns were being blown, and we all turned and watched as horses raced down the bridge towards us.
Although I had viewed the elves as simply riding towards us, Thorin apparently thought we might be attacked. He yelled in dwarfish, and Kili shoved me behind him, and the other dwarves made a tight circle, with Bilbo, Ori and I in the middle.
The elves continue to circle us, making me even more dizzy than before. Which I hadn't even thought was possible.
"Gandalf." Elrond said, stopping his horse next to Gandalf.
Yet again, Gandalf spoke elvish, leaving us completely out of the conversation. He could've been calling us assholes, and we were none the wiser. The Dwarves remained on guard, and Elrond got off of his horse and hugged Gandalf before turning to look at Thorin.
"Welcome Thorin, son of Thrain." Elrond said, bowing lightly.
Some of the Dwarves started to ease up, but Kili still appeared rigid and ready to fight.
"I do not believe we have met." Thorin said coldly.
"You have your grandfather's bearing. I knew Thror when he ruled under the mountain." If Elrond had been offended, he didn't act like it.
"Indeed?" Thorin said. "He made no mention of you."
I smacked my head into Kili's shoulder, groaning. Apparently, Lindir wasn't the only one with a stick up his butt.
Elrond smiled, turning and speaking elvish to Gandalf.
"What is he saying?" Gloin demanded, getting ready to fight. "Does he offer us insult?"
"No, Master Gloin." Gandalf shook his head, smiling. "He's offering you food."
Now that perked me up. I lifted my head from Kili's shoulder and smiled.
Food I could deal with.
"Try it." Dori urged Ori who sat beside him.
Ori held the lettuce leaf as though it might bite him, and carefully turned it in his hand.
"Just a mouthful." Dori continued.
"I don't like green food." Ori said, with such sass that I was kinda proud of him.
"I'll take it." I said, reaching over Kili and grabbing the lettuce from Ori's plate. "Thanks."
Kili chuckled, poking me in the ribs. I jerked, glaring at him as I sat back down in my seat.
The elves had let us clean up before dinner, which meant I had gotten a bath, and about 13 weird looks from she-elves whom didn't understand why I had wanted to continue wearing my weird dirty clothes. I only got them to leave me alone after I had put a dress on over my leggings, but I then put my shirt on over that and they seemed very done with me.
"Where's the meat?" Dwalin asked, grabbing the salad from the middle of the table and looking through it with his bare hands.
"I don't think they have meat." I remarked, looking down at my full plate and the Ori's lettuce in my hand.
I looked up to see Dwalin giving me a tired look.
"Have they got any chips?" Ori asked, looking down the table hopefully.
"I'm going to eat so much." I said, grabbing the salad Dwalin had set back down, and dumping most of it on top of my already full plate.
I felt eyes on me, and looked up to my right side to see Kili with his brow raised, and an amused twinkle in his eyes.
"What?" I said as I took a big bite of Ori's lettuce. "I need one last hurrah before I have to buckle down and eat meat." I paused. "And throw up on someone."
Kili shook his head, his smile growing. "Only you would find this food to be a 'last hurrah'."
"I mean, it's not just the salad." I said as I crammed the rest of Ori's lettuce into my mouth. "The wine is damn good, too."
"Why is she allowed Elvish wine?" Ori asked, looking around Kili to glare at my glass.
"You mean besides the fact that I changed worlds completely?" I asked, grabbing my glass. "I also have to deal with you." I took a sip of wine before frowning. "No offense, of course. You're a lovely Dwarf. I'm sure you'll make a female Dwarf happy someday, or you know…" I had lost track. "…succeed elsewhere in life."
"Perhaps you've had enough wine." Kili said, looking at my glass skeptically with a bemused look on his face.
"I haven't." I said. "But even if I had, I can assure you that telling me I'm cut off, and taking my glass and refusing I have anymore, are two totally different things."
"Theres a story behind that, isn't there?" Fili asked from the other side of me.
"Oh yes." I nodded, keeping my glass in my hand while eating with the other. "My dad tried cutting me off at a wedding. Then he went to talk to family friends, and I merely continued. The night ended with me sleeping on the ground in my dress clothes." I paused. "That was a good night."
"You slept in your dress clothes?" Kili asked, the smile growing on his face.
"Yes. And I was a sight that night." I said, taking another sip of wine. "It was the first wedding we had been invited to since my mom had disappeared, and honestly my dad's side of the family didn't really understand my father or myself very well." I put my glass down, and grabbed a fork to eat. "My dad had bought me a beautiful dress, I had done my hair, I had even worn make-up." I stabbed my salad with my fork. "We were going to show them how normal we were."
"And then you slept in your dress clothes." Kili said.
I nodded. "On the ground." I ate some salad.
"What is make-up?" Kili asked.
"Dreadful." I said. "It makes you look prettier, but god, at what cost?" I asked him.
Kili raised a brow at me, clearly confused.
"It hurts my eyes, it made my face itch, and I felt like an idiot." I paused. "A pretty idiot, but an idiot none the less."
"Aye, I would've said that's how you normally are, Lassie." Dwalin teased from the other side of the table.
"Charming as always, Dwalin." I said to him, taking a vicious bite of my salad.
Hours later, and many cups of wine, and I was sat on a bench opposite of Kili. Both of our backs were rested on opposite arm rests, and our legs touched as I stretched out.
His boots were off, and I looked at his feet with amusement. They were as big as mine, but the skin less thick, and instead, much hairier.
Kili had been right, someone should've cut me off. Probably about five cups before this point, but I felt happy. I was around friends, they were laughing and joking. Bofur had tossed food at Bombur, and Bombur had broken the bench.
But there was a dark cloud looming over my mind, and my concentration was shot. I couldn't keep being his friend unless I told him the truth.
"Malia." Kili said, nudging my foot with his.
I looked at him and smiled weakly.
"I think I need to tell you something." I whispered, looking around to see if any of the other dwarves were listening. "It'll make you mad, probably. And I'm mad too, and terrified."
"What is it?" Kili asked, concern written on his face.
"In my world, this place; Middle-Earth. It's a story." I exhaled, looking down at my feet. "A book in particular is called 'The Hobbit' and it's about Bilbo Baggins meeting dwarves and taking back Erebor. Only, I'm not in the book, and I didn't actually read them, either. But I know I'm not supposed to exist in this world."
I closed my eyes. "There are some events in the book I know though. Not many, mind you. But I really, really, want to change them. But I'm afraid if I tell anyone, it'll change so much that in the end, it'll still happen somehow. And maybe, me being here has ruined enough already."
Kili reached out, touching my knee gently. I opened my eyes and stared at him. We stared at each other, his thumb gently stroking my knee.
"You being here has not ruined anything, Malia. It may have altered things, but change isn't always bad." Kili's grip on my knee tightened. "I don't know you half as well as I'd like to, but Malia, you're my…" He paused. "…friend."
I nodded my head.
Kili sighed, letting go of my knee before reaching into his pocket.
"I want you to have this. You need it more than I do." Kili said as he pulled a dark rock out of his pocket, and held it out for me to take.
"A rock?" I asked, extending my arm and letting Kili carefully put the rock into my hand.
One hand went under mine, cradling it as the other pushed my fingers around the rock into a fist.
His hands stayed around mine, and we stared at each other.
"A rune-stone. My mother gave it to me." Kili said, keeping his hands around mine. "She didn't even want me to come. I made a promise to her that I would come back."
"Why are you giving it to me?" I asked.
A small smile broke on his face, and he looked down at our hands. "So you remember next time you run willingly into three trolls, that there's someone here in this world that is expecting you to live through this." Kili said.
He let go of my hands, and I brought my hand back towards me, and looked at the rock.
"What does it say on it?" I asked him as I looked down at the rock's engraving.
Kili didn't respond for a moment.
"Return to me." Kili said quietly.
"How…friendly of you." I whispered, feeling the engraving with my fingers.
"Tell me more about your world." Kili said.
"Like what?" I asked as my thumb continued to trail the engraving.
"Anything." Kili said.
"That's too broad." I said, smiling up at him. "If you don't give me a general direction to head in, I'll talk to you about anything, like TSA guidelines at an airport."
Kili snorted, his eyes closing as he nodded. He opened his eyes and looked at me, the smile on his face remaining. "Although I'm sure hearing about the TSA guidelines at an airport would be a riveting tale, tell me about…" He paused, in thought. "Things you really like."
"What if I really like the TSA guidelines?" I teased him. "I mean, I don't."
Kili snorted.
"But I could." I said, smiling and shaking my head. "Actually, I couldn't. I don't even remember what TSA stands for. Something dumb, probably."
Kili laughed, his hand going back to my knee and resting there. The warmth from his hand radiated, and made me feel giddy.
"Things I like…" I thought about it.
But for some reason, being there amongst all the dwarves, Kili across from me with his hand on my knee, I couldn't think of anything from my world I liked.
"At least sing me another song from your world." Kili insisted, his thumb gently brushing my knee.
Kili was the only person I had ever so willingly sang songs for.
"In the middle of the night,
I go walking in my sleep,
From the mountains of faith,
To the river so deep,
I must be looking for something,
Something sacred I lost,
But the river is wide,
And it's too hard to cross,
Even though I know the river is wide,
I walk down every evening and I stand on the shore,
I try to cross to the opposite side,
So I can finally find out what I've been looking for,
In the middle of the night
I go walking in my sleep,
Through the valley of fear,
To the river so deep,
I know I'm searching for something,
Taken out of my soul,
Something I'd never lose,
Something somebody stole,
I don't know why I go walking at night,
But now I'm tired and I don't want to walk anymore,
I hope it doesn't take me the rest of my life,
Until I find what it is I'm looking for,
In the middle of the night,
I go walking in my sleep,
Through the jungle of doubt,
To the river so deep,
I know I'm searching for something,
Something so undefined,
That it can only be seen,
By the eyes of the blind,
In the middle of the night,
I'm not sure about a life after this,
God knows I've never been a spiritual man,
Baptized by the fire, I wade into the river,
That is running to the promised land,
In the middle of the night,
I go walking in my sleep,
Through the desert of truth,
To the river so deep,
We all end in the ocean,
We all start in the streams,
We're all carried along,
By the river of dreams,
In the middle of night."
"Your songs never cease to amaze me." Kili admitted, smiling and looking down at his hand that was on my knee. "What do you think he was looking for?"
I sighed, and I felt my cheeks redden. "I always thought it was love." I looked down at my hands and at the rune-stone.
The next day we left bright and early. So early, the sun hadn't even have come up yet. Apparently, the elves were going to try and stop us, so we left before they could.
We made for the mountain pass, which from what I had remembered of the Lord of the Rings, should have been cold and full of snow. But it would seem that there are more than one mountain pass, because this one was merely stormy and slightly cold.
The storm grew worse as we walked, and by the time we were on a narrow cliff-pathway, it was almost like a hurricane.
Bilbo had it the worst. While I was accustomed to water being in my eyes and disturbing my vision, Bilbo was not.
At one point, he nearly fell off of the cliff. Talk about traumatizing for all of us.
"We must find shelter!" Thorin bellowed.
I squinted to look back at him, and had to bite my tongue from yelling a snarky remark back. Like, obviously we had to find shelter. We weren't that dimwitted.
"Look out!" Dwalin yelled from in front, and I whipped back around to look at him.
"Hold on!" Kili yelled, grabbing my waist and nearly body slamming me into the mountain as it shook.
His warmth enveloped, and suddenly I felt more safe than I had before.
"This is no thunderstorm." Balin yelled. "It's a thunder battle, look!"
I peered around Kili's shoulder, and my eyes grew when I saw what he meant.
The mountains had turned into freaking things. Rock things.
"Well bless me, the legends are true. Giants, stone giants!" Bofur gasped.
Fine. Giant stone…giants. Things.
"Take cover you fool." Thorin yelled, yanking Bofur back away from the edge by his hood.
Everything took an even worse turn when the mountain underneath us started to move, too.
The ground beside Fili and I broke, and half of me nearly fell down the crack. I gripped onto Kili tighter as he pulled me up, and I could hear Thorin on Fili's side screaming Kili's name.
Not mine, however. Rude, really. Dwalin was on our side too, but his name wasn't yelled either.
At this point, I merely closed my eyes and tried not to scream bloody murder in Kili's ear as I gripped onto him tighter, and I was probably squeezing the life out of him. He didn't seem to mind thankfully, and kept me in his arms. I started humming manically trying to calm myself down.
We were going on the Middle-Earth version of an unsafe carnival ride, worrisome operators and all.
Don't ask me how, but somehow, we ended up safe. At one point in time Kili pretty much lifted me up and jumped whilst carrying me, but as I said before, I was once again pretending to not exist. A hobby of mine, really.
I was humming a really cheesy song my dad used to sing.
But something told me singing "Hold On Tight" by ELO wasn't appropriate at that point.
Fili ran to Kili, and Kili let go of me to man-hug his brother. I couldn't blame him, either. I wanted to man-hug Bilbo, but the second I looked around for him, Bofur yelled;
"Where's Bilbo? Where's the hobbit?"
I looked down, and spotted Bilbo hanging by his hands, dangling on the edge. Without thinking, I lunged to him, grabbing one of his hands and trying to pull.
Unfortunately for both of us, I'm not that strong, and his other hand lost its grip and I had to use my free hand to grab the edge too.
Thorin grabbed my hand before I could fall anymore, and he helped me and Bilbo up with Kili and Fili's help. Thorin nearly fell down too, and once he got up, he was very disheveled and angry.
"I thought we'd lost our Hobbits." Dwalin said relieved.
"Bilbo has been lost ever since he left home." Thorin said, glaring at Bilbo. "He should never have come." Thorin's gaze turned to me. "Either of them. They have no place amongst us."
I don't know how I had gotten on Thorin's piss-list, but I had ignored it. People say stupid shit when they are overwhelmed and scared. I would know, considering my general reaction to someone being rude to me is to call them the first profane word I can think of.
I mean yeah, it sucked to have Thorin say I shouldn't have come, and I had no place with them, but I mean honestly. My dad used to get angry all the time and say shit he didn't mean.
Maybe it was a dwarf thing.
Thorin stalked away from us and to a dip in the mountain-side. "Dwalin!"
Dwalin followed him in what must've been a cave.
Silence spread in the company as Thorin and Dwalin searched the cave. As Dwalin reached to look farther in back, Thorin beckoned us inside.
"There's nothing here." Dwalin said as the last of us filled in.
"Right then. Let's get a fire started." Gloin said as he dropped his bag, pulling firewood out of it.
Why he had chosen to carry firewood was beyond me. But, I tried not to question Gloin.
"No, no fire." Thorin dismissed. "Not in this place. Get some sleep. We start at first light."
I watched as Balin moved closer to Thorin, and they began whispering amongst each other.
I rolled my eyes, plopping myself down and taking my bag off.
"How are you feeling, Malia?" Kili asked as he sat down next to me.
"I'm fine." I said. "Happy that we aren't going to continue down the mountain during a thunder-battle."
Kili smiled slightly. "Thorin didn't mean it. You belong with us."
"I know." I said smiling back at him. "He's just cranky." I sighed.
"What was that song you were humming?" Kili asked as he took his hood off, and smiled at me as he gently pulled mine off too.
"Hold on tight." I said, watching as his smile grew.
"How fitting." He teased. "How does it go?"
"Hold on tight to your dream, hold on tight to your dream," I smiled as I looked away from him and down at the Lambras bread.
"When you see your ship go sailing,
when you feel your heart is breaking,
hold on tight to your dream.
It's a long time to be gone
Time just rolls on and on
When you need a shoulder to cry on
When you get so sick of trying
Hold tight to your dream
When you get so down that you can't get up
And you want so much but you're all out of luck
When you're so downhearted and misunderstood
Just over and over and over you could."
I paused for a moment, saying, "It goes into french for a bit, so I'm going to skip that out and avoid offending a whole country."
Kili chuckled.
"When you get so down that you can't get up
And you want so much but you're all out of luck
When you're so downhearted and misunderstood
Just over and over and over you could
Hold on tight to your dream
Hold on tight to your dream
When you see the shadows falling
When you hear that cold wind calling
Hold on tight to your dream
Hold on tight to your dream
Hold on tight to your dream."
"And what dream were you holding on tight to?" Kili asked.
I sighed, looking at him. I couldn't tell him, could I?
"It doesn't matter." I remarked dismissively.
His face fell slightly, and he cleared his throat and nodded.
"Do you reckon you'll sleep?" Kili asked, taking his bow and quiver off.
"I think I should try." I said, shrugging and looking away from him.
Kili put a hand on my shoulder, squeezing it tightly. I looked at him and he and smiled at me. "Have a good rest."
"You too." I said, carefully wrapping the lambras bread up and then back into my bag.