THIS IS A STORY THAT I HAVE BEEN MEANING TO CONTINUE FOR A WHILE, AND NOW I HAVE! YAY! I HEARD ABOUT THE DELETED MEETING BETWEEN THRANDUIL AND THE COMPANY WHEN MY DAD AND I WERE WATCHING THE APPENDICES FOR DoS (AWESOME STUFF, BY THE WAY), LOOKED IT UP, AND LIKED THE WAY IT LOOKED AND SOUNDED FOR MY STORY. I FELT IT ADDED A LITTLE TO MY NARRATIVE, SO I USED IT. HOPE YOU LIKE THIS STORY.
GOD BLESS AND GOOD DAY!
~THE LUPINE SOJOURNER
(M)
As the doors closed behind us, I can't help feeling like I was about to die. If Valahalf is here...I am dead. I haven't seen him in decades, but...if he sees me, it won't be pleasant.
I gulp as we are led before Thranduil. He always makes me nervous with his mere presence. Commanding, cold, and calculating, he poses a threatening figure to anyone. Most of all me, who had been under a different cold, threatening figure for a lot of my life. I found people like Thranduil highly unsettling now, but somehow we'd come to an understanding and I was welcomed each time I happened to come here, which was not often by any means. I was always given an almost cell-like room, but it was better than being locked up in the dungeons just for existing. Hasn't happened yet, but...you never know, right?
"Mithra." He greets idly as we are bade to halt. I nod in return, swallowing.
"Thranduil."
"So much for the benevolence of Thranduil, Lord of the Elves." Dwalin grumbles, showing his bound wrists angrily. "Is this how you treat travelers to your lands?"
"Only the ones who annoy me." I barely refrain from rolling my eyes. This feud between these two races befuddles me constantly. As is, I merely crack the tiniest of smirks for a moment. Balin steps forward.
"Is it a crime now, to be lost in the forest?" He asks. "To be hungry and thirsty?" Thranduil cocks his head slightly, a look of graceful amusement crossing his features.
"It is a crime to wander my kingdom without leave." He replies. "If you forget, you are using the road my people made."
"We didn't forget, highness." I reply. "We hadn't meant to trouble you. We were simply passing through." He merely sniffs.
"Take them away, all but the Earth-strider and Thorin Oakenshield." He orders. I sigh. Everyone mumbles among themselves as they are led away. Fili turns and looks at me with this look of hurt and confusion before the Elf leading him shoves him forward. I don't move and soon enough, my companions are gone, Thorin and I remaining before the Elvish king. I sigh and shift from foot to foot, tears threatening to start brimming.
How could we have failed? I moan inwardly to myself. This...this shouldn't have happened.
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(A)
While I can say I am a little (okay, a lot) confused by Mia's relationship with the Woodland Elves, I am grateful she doesn't have to be locked up in the dungeon. The cells are cramped, spartan and not at all welcoming, which is the whole point, I suppose. At least one of us are being treated a little better than prisoners. I suddenly became aware that Bofur was being led toward a cell above mine and a despair overcame me, trying to keep my One in sight, but there was nothing more I could do.
Nothing I said or did would have any kind of affect on these Elves. We were trapped here for eternity...
We'd failed. We'd failed our mission, the one reason we'd come together in the first place; to get to and reclaim Erebor. Now, we would rot in an Elvish cell for all time. I felt hot tears trail down my cheeks as I hear everyone being locked away. If we'd only never left the path. Then, maybe we could have been out of Mirkwood and on to Erebor by now. Or, at least, we'd still be on our way...free. Now, we'd never see the sun again. We'd never again step further than our cells. I'd...I'd never have more than Bofur's voice to remember him by. Eventually, sadly, I'd forget everything but my love's voice. That thought started another flood.
How could we have failed this badly? There is no hope other than Gandalf coming and looking for us, but...how would he know to look in this palace? How could he even get us out? The hopelessness of the situation added to the tears.
"Aren't you going to search me?" I hear Kili ask the red-head that had saved his life. "I could have anything down my trousers." I suddenly feel like laughing through my residual tears. Typical Kili.
"Or nothing." The Elf replied in stride, closing the door.
"Nice try, Kili." I muse.
"She's wonderful, isn't she?" He mumbles under his breath. I roll my eyes.
"Remind me who it was that claimed not to fancy Elf maids?" I tease, feeling a little better now that I had teasing material. "Said they didn't have enough facial hair, if I remember correctly." He scoffs.
"Nothing better to do, really." I laugh.
"Keep telling yourself that."
"Why do you think Mia's been here before?" I hear Fili ask. "She seems to hate this forest."
"I am not sure. Maybe it's just a place to stay if she's in the area and there is bad weather."
"She seems friendly with these Elves, however. She called Legolas by name." I sigh.
"Fili, listen. We can only speculate. Let's not jump to conclusions."
"I just...dunno. She's...she's a complicated one." He replies. I smile.
"That she is." And you are smitten with her. Admit it I add internally. However, the company then seem to get the idea that they can bash their way out of the cells. I don't join in, knowing it would only aggravate my ribs. The banging and clanging only annoys me and the select few who are wise enough not to hurt themselves.
"Leave it!" Balin calls after a few minutes. "There's no way out! This is no Orc dungeon. These are the Halls of the Woodland Realm. No one leaves but by the King's consent."
"And we're not likely to get it." I add miserably. "We're never getting out."
=#=#=#=#=
(M)
Why am I still here? I get why Thranduil wanted to talk to Thorin, but...me? This doesn't make any sense, but I know better than to argue.
"Some may imagine that a noble quest is at hand. A quest to reclaim a homeland...and slay a dragon."
"Is there a point to this speech?" I ask before I can stop myself. Thranduil cocks his head but resumes speaking as though I had not interjected.
"I myself suspect a more prosaic motive." I narrow my eyes but don't risk my position in his favor by talking. "Attempted burglary or something of that ilk." He then looks to me. "I wonder which motivated you to join. Or, perhaps, it was a more...interesting notion that prompted your irregular behavior." I lick my lips.
"I got the itch to travel in a group again. It takes me from time to time." I muse sarcastically.
"I know a little...hybrid with no companions and no intention of assuaging the situation. Now, that same hybrid is in my presence, defending a company of Dwarves on a dangerous, life-threatening mission. I am...curious to know why." I stand as tall as I can.
"I am not the same woman I was when last we met, Thranduil. Do not judge me on my past." He merely smirks.
"If I did that, you would have a room and station befitting my own offspring. However, your actions have sent you where you are currently residing." He then turns his attention to Thorin, simply staring into his face. "Escort the Earth-Strider to her room." He orders off-handedly. "I wish to speak to Oakenshield in private." I moved along the halls without needing guidance. Legolas comes beside me after locking my-the company up, I assume.
"I see you survived conference with my father once again." He teases. I roll my eyes.
"Yes. He tapped out once again." I reply. It was something of a continuing joke between us. I had once sarcastically claimed to wrestle Thranduil into submission. Legolas took me seriously until I explained sarcasm to him. Since then, it had been this joke, an ice-breaker to start conversations when nothing else was available.
"Indeed. Your companions are very...intriguing." He muses. "Is that why you stay with them?" I sigh.
"In honesty, I am not sure why I stay. I just...don't have the urge to run."
"That must mean you have found the place you are meant to stay." By now, I am at my room and I enter, closing the door, not able to think of a response, witty or not. I frown. Why was I so affected by his words? I suppose that I simply...well, he's not right, so...
Hammer and stone...what if he is?
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(A)
I took to humming the song we sang, so long ago, in Bilbo's home, before all this happened. Before we knew how this quest would end; in Mirkwood, locked in a cell for all eternity. Soon enough, I hear my brothers joining in, but our song ends as Thorin is marched to a cell and locked in. I muse idly that I now have my uncle to my left, Kili to my right, Fili in the next cell over from Kili's, and Bofur somewhere above me. My family is so close, and yet so far away. It's a saddening thought...
"Did he offer you a deal?" Balin asks almost immediately.
"He did." Uncle replies. "I told him he could go 'ish kakhfa ai-d dur-rugnu'! (pour human excrement on his head!)" Thorin replies. "Him and all his kin!" I gasp in shock, scrunching my eyes in disbelief.
"We're doomed." I note.
"That's that, then." Balin adds. "A deal was our only hope." He surmises grimly. I then hear Thorin move around in his cell.
"Not our only hope." He replies. I frown. What was Uncle...oh.
"Let's hope Bilbo even got into the palace with us. For all we know, he's still out there, in the woods." I reply. Then cringe. That sounded far too negative for my tastes. "But, he has come through before, so...let's hope he can do it again." I add in an attempt to make it seem like I wasn't a very negative person.
"That's the spirit, sis." Kili replies. I smile. Maybe...just maybe...this quest had hope again. After all, he did have that magic ring he found in the tunnels, right? Didn't it turn him invisible? So, in theory, all he'd have to do is avoid Elves and figure out how to get all of us out.
Dare I hope? I think so.
=#=#=#=#=
(M)
Maybe.
Maybe Legolas was right. Maybe. But this revelation comes after we are locked in Elvin cells for the rest of our days. Great. Too little, too late.
I am a prisoner. Again. Valahalf would lock me in my room for days on end. Once, I figured out how to hack at the walls without my brother hearing and storming upstairs for another round of beating. Eventually, I had made an escape hole and took my opportunity. I miscalculated and ended up running away during a snowstorm. Luckily, though, I ran into Dis and she had pity on me. It took a few days for me to regain consciousness, though, with my hypothermia and undernourishment.
It took a week after arrival at the house for me to leave the bedroom I'd woken up in. Once I had, I'd found a few Dwarves sitting and talking in the main room. There were three tiny ones.
"They will rule a kingdom one day, they will." Dis had said when I asked about them. "They are heirs, as long as my brother remains child-less." She'd gone on. I hadn't known what she meant, but nodded anyway. Then, I slowly besome a little more confident and talkative. After I got through the 'everyone and everything is out to get me' stage. Til that point, I'd made poor Dis take a bite or sip of anything she wanted me to ingest, as I was still very skittish and distrustful.
Now, I was a prisoner in a different dungeon. I just hope Bilbo will miraculously pull through for the Company again. Even if they forget to retrieve me, at least they will be free. They won't have to stay in a cell and be under guard. They'll be free to try and continue the quest.
"Please, Bilbo...don't forget me." I whisper aloud, a single tear falling down my cheek at the thought.
=#=#=#=#=
The red-head elf came to our cells a little later with food and small canteens of water.
"What's your name?" Kili immediately asks around a mouthful of the bread she'd brought. She chuckles a little.
"What is yours?" She replies, not missing a beat. Kili swallows his food before replying, thankfully.
"Fair enough." He muses. "Mine is Kili Durin." She takes a moment to decide how to respond.
"I am Tauriel." She eventually says, taking a seat on a step near Kili's cell where she can still see and hear him. Kili chuckles.
"Just Tauriel?" He asks.
"Is that not enough?" She replies.
"I suppose it is."
"Enough for what?"
"Enough for us to be friends." I face-palm at that. Oh, Kili...
"You are rather bold for a prisoner." Tauriel admonishes.
"You are rather curious for an Elf." He retorts. She suddenly stands.
"I am also late for patrol." She snaps and, in a flash, is gone.
"Was it something I said?" Kili asks, bewildered. I laugh.
"Oh, Kili. For one thing, you are rushing things. For another, you are a prisoner here. You are not supposed to interact with the guards at all."
"Guess that's what makes it fun." Kili replies nonchalantly. I scoff.
"Is that why you're doing this? For the fun of it?"
"I guess I can't help it. She's a rather intriguing creature, and the only entertainment I am likely to get here." I sigh.
"That may be, but...don't get your hopes up." I say with a yawn. "Now, I am taking a nap. I suggest you do the same."
When I wake, Kili is tossing and catching something. Most likely his rune-stone as there is not a speck of loose stone to be found in these cells. As I look at my own rube-stone, I jolt as Tauriel passes by all of a sudden, halting in front of Kili's cell.
"The stone in your hand..." She notes. "What is it?"
"...It is a talisman." Kili replies after a moment.
"Kili." I warn. What is he thinking? I know he enjoys her company, but there are things that should probably remain private.
"A powerful spell lays upon it." He goes on, unheeding of my words. "If anyone but a Dwarf reads the runes on this stone, they will be forever cursed!" Tauriel takes a reflexive step backwards. I sigh, nearly chuckling. Classic Kili. However, Tauriel apparently takes his words to heart and begins to leave. "Or not." He calls and she returns. I chuckle. Kili, Kili, Kili... "Depending on whether or not you believe in that kind of thing. It's just a token." He remarks.
"Kili, enough." I call. Again, he disregards my warning.
"A rune stone." He adds. "My mother gave it to me, so I'd remember my promise."
"Kili, please." I admonish.
"What promise?" Tauriel asks, stepping closer. I am nonexistent to them, I realize inwardly, rolling my eyes. They're so entranced by each other, nothing can break them apart.
"That I would come back to her." I sigh. We broke that promise, if Bilbo can't achieve the near-immpossible. "She worries."
"With good reason." I interject.
"She thinks I'm reckless."
"You are." I add.
"Are you?" Tauriel asks.
"Very much so." I reply. Why I bother, I don't know.
"...Nah." Kili chuckles, giving the rune stone an extra-hard toss, by the sound of it. However, it clatters to the floor and Tauriel catches it with her foot, inches from the edge of the cavern. I can see her from this point, but nothing more. She examines the stone closer and I realize that Kili meant to drop the stone so she'd stay longer. "Sounds like quite the party you have up there..." He then muses at the sound of laughing and chatting, as well as the liveliest Elvin music I have heard to date.
"It is Mereth e-nGilith." She replies. "The Feast of Starlight." I smile. Kili, Fili and I always enjoyed star-gazing when we had the time. Often, we wouldn't say a word. We'd just...soak it all in. It was peaceful and some of my better memories of my childhood and early adulthood, continuing up until we'd gone on this quest. "All light is sacred to the Eldar." She explains. "But Wood Elves love best the light of the stars."
"I always thought is was a cold light. Remote and far away." Kili replies softly.
"It is memory," Tauriel counters passionately, though her voice never raises in volume. I can hear her conviction that her words were true ringing in the way she speaks. "precious and pure...like you promise." She muses, handing him back his stone. I can't help a smile. Though they are two different races, they seem to have already formed a connection. "I have walked there, sometimes." She goes on, eyes lighting up at the memory. "Beyond the forest and up into the night. I have seen the world fall away and the white light of forever fill the air." I can see the treasured state the memory is held in, bright and entrancing in her eyes and smile. She is not like what we've been told of Elves. Not at all, though our source of information is most certainly biased, Thorin hating Elves and all.
"I saw a fire moon once." Kili comments off-handedly. Or perhaps he wanted to equal her memories with his own. "It rose over the pass near Dunland. Huge." He recalls.
"Aye. The three of us sat up nearly the whole night, just to watch it." I add.
"Of course. Not every night you see such a sight." Kili replies. I roll my eyes and barely refrain from adding in a sarcastic comment about suddenly becoming a known presence in their own little world. "Red and gold, it was. Filled the sky." I nod.
"I remember it being light enough to find our way to a more open area to view it better, just by the moon's light."
"We were an escort for some merchants from Ered Luin." Kili begins and Tauriel takes a seat again on the stair. "They were trading in silverwork for furs. We took the Greenway south, keeping the mountain to our left. And then it appeared, this huge fire moon, lighting our path." From there, he recalls the memory in crisp, clear detail. I myself had nearly forgotten portions of it, but never the picture of the moon hanging in the sky. It was such a clear night, thank heaven. We had been able to see the whole moon. It was as if the moon itself had banished all traces of cloud from daring to intrude upon it's majesty. I eventually fall asleep, and dream of that night, so long ago, when all seemed so clear, so certain...so innocent. We didn't know how our lives would turn out. Oh, Bilbo...I wish you were here.