Date: TA 2941
Thorin: 195 years old
Lina: 192 years old
The fire in the hearth had begun to die down. Beorn's animal companions allowed the light to fade, leaving the dwarven company to bed down for the night. Left alone in the large house, the dwarves were quite content. They were well-fed, comfortable, and safe.
Snatches of conversation drifted around Lina, but none caught her attention. After the dinner Beorn had fed his sudden influx of visitors, Lina was more than ready to sleep. The skin-changer had prepared a number of sleeping places to the rear of the dwelling. One, larger than the rest, had been set a little distance from the rest of the beds for privacy. One of the dogs had made certain Lina understood this was where she and Thorin were to sleep.
Thorin sat up in the bed, his back resting against one the sturdy, carved beams supporting the room. One arm wrapped protectively around Lina, holding her tucked against his side. Smoke from his pipe curled lazily around the pair. The deep rumble rolling through Thorin's body as he hummed sent chills down Lina's spine. Her eyes closed as she listened, content simply to be.
For at least one night, the dwarves were safe from the orcs following them. Bolg's minions, Gandalf and Beorn had assured them, would not dare attack them here. No orc or goblin was so foolish to go up against the skin-changer on his turf. Where their host had vanished to, Lina was not sure. The dwarves had given him quite a lot to process when they'd suddenly appeared on his doorstep that evening. Gandalf had been very careful to distract Beorn from the sheer number of dwarves appearing with a story of the company's adventures thus far. Lina and Nes had, at Gandalf's instruction, related their side of the tale as well.
Beorn had been very interested to learn of their planned journey to Kira's Fortress in the Misty Mountains. It seemed he'd encountered Kira's forces at some point in the recent past. What he was doing that far from his home or how recently this encounter had actually occurred were questions that went without answer. Whatever the case, Beorn's encounter had apparently not been unpleasant as he seemed to be quite impressed with Kira's leadership.
Thorin's humming ended, and he put out his pipe, setting it aside. Lina pulled back, thinking he was preparing for bed. Instead he pulled her back into the circle of his arms. For a long moment he did not speak. His wife followed his gaze to their nephews as they whispered to one another.
Lina smiled softly as she watched Fili wrest Kitta's letter from Kili's grasp. Just before he'd sent his finished letter back to Kitta, Lina had keyed the bird to her young nephew. The bird would now travel directly to Fili with Kitta's letters. There would be no need for the letters to pass through Lina's keeping before they reached her nephew. Kili had teased his older brother about his secret love mercilessly. Fili, however, had just shrugged off his brother's words, smiling as he read the letter again.
"When will you be leaving the company?"
Thorin's question startled Lina. She looked up at him. Why was he asking such a question now? Though, she supposed, he should know. After Gandalf's declaration that he would be leaving the dwarves soon, he had spoken quietly to Lina and Nes regarding their plans to journey back to Kira's Fortress. He had urged them to remain with the company until they reached the edge of Mirkwood which was when he was to turn back. The wizard would escort them safely to the Misty Mountains, leaving them about a day before they would reach the Fortress.
"I will stay with you until we reach the edge of Mirkwood," she answered slowly. "Then Nes and I will rejoin our comrades. I have heard nothing from them since the night they went north and we followed you. I can only assume they have reached the fortress."
Her husband didn't answer for a long time. Lina wondered what he was thinking about. The expression on his face was so serious. That worried her.
"Take Fili and Kili with you when you go," he whispered, ensuring only she heard him.
"What? Why?" Lina pulled back to get a better look at him. Why did he want to send their nephews back now? He had been very insistent Fili accompany him earlier. What had changed?
"This quest is turning out to be more dangerous than I'd anticipated," Thorin began. "I cannot, in good conscience, risk my nephews any further."
"If you send them back now, they will never forgive you," Lina pointed out. "They've grown so much already. What happened while we were apart? Something brought them closer than I've seen them since they were small, and it has you worried."
"You have heard the legends of the thunder battles?"
"I have."
Thorin cleared his throat and began the tale. At Gandalf's urging, the dwarves had left Rivendell at sunrise to prevent the elves from stopping them. The plan had been to find a place in the mountains to wait for Gandalf to catch up. As they were struggling through the pass, a storm caught them. The rain had been a hindrance, making the path more dangerous than it should have been, but they had thought it normal. Shock and awe had coursed through each and every one of them when they spotted the first stone giant, looming above them.
Here Thorin paused, trying to detach his memories from his emotions. Whatever had happened, Lina knew, it had shaken him to his core. That took some doing. Very few things disturbed her husband.
"It was hard to hear above the crunch of rock against rock and the pounding of the rain, but I could hear just enough. The path we were standing on began moving suddenly as another stone giant rose up from the mountain side. Some of us stood on one leg while the rest stood on the other. As the giant rose, I heard Fili shouting to Kili. They had been separated. Almost as soon as the giant we were on had stood, it was knocked out of the battle. My group managed to scramble onto a solid ledge, but Fili's group was trapped on the other leg of the giant as it fell."
His voice died away. Lina decided to try something. Touching Thorin's mark had shown her what had been happening the moment the mark was made. Sleeping apart from Thorin gave her dreams about what was happening to him. She wondered if there was any way to see the memory he was reliving.
"I would like to try something, if you are willing to let me," she told her husband. He nodded.
Placing one hand on each side of Thorin's head, Lina drew in a deep breath before closing her eyes. She sent herself into a trance using a technique she'd been taught as a young warrior. The familiar warm darkness embraced her as she slipped into the dream world. A sense that she was not alone made her aware that Thorin's mind was also here.
Cautiously, Lina mentally reached out to touch Thorin. Interacting with his conscious mind was quite different from how they'd interacted while trapped in the shadow realms. For one, Thorin and Lina were both well aware of who and where they were. Thorin's mind was also heavily armored when he was truly attached to his physical form. In the shadow realms, there had been nothing truly in his mind and so there had been nothing to protect. In this dream world, Thorin was fully aware of what his mind contained and so protected it fiercely.
Thorin lowered the walls protecting his mind, allowing his wife entrance. Lina found herself at the edge of what seemed to be an exact representation of Erebor. Her mental form was, both literally and figuratively, dwarfed by what she was seeing. She really hadn't known what to expect when trying to enter another's mind, but she had not expected a city. Her own mind was organized more like a library. To find a certain memory, one needed only to look on the right shelf and select the correct volume. Lina didn't even know where to begin looking for the memory in Thorin's city.
It seemed Thorin had sensed his wife's confusion for a representation of him appeared before her. He held out his hand, asking her to give him hers. With a smile she slipped her hand into his. The walked through the city, Thorin leading her past places she recognized. Memories of other dwarves wandered in and out of dwellings and shops, sometimes interacting with each other as memory dictated. Every now and again, Lina caught a glimpse of her younger self wandering among the remembered dwarves. Her ten-year-old self sat quietly down a side street, blood still running down her face. At a stall in the market, she saw the eighteen-year-old self adjusting the links of a bracelet. She wondered how many other memories of her were hidden throughout the city.
Thorin led her into the royal compound, a place Lina had only glimpsed during celebrations. These halls were far more detailed than the streets the pair had passed through. Perhaps it was because this had been his beloved home that he had such minute detail. As they passed through the halls of the royal compound, Lina noticed something strange. There was an entire section that looked more like Belegost than Erebor. Lina tugged Thorin to a halt and looked questioningly from the strange section to him.
A small, slightly embarrassed smile softened his face. He pushed open a door that resembled the one leading into their bedroom in Belegost. Hundreds of identical doors ran the length of a seemingly infinite hallway. While the doors all looked the same to Lina, Thorin seemed to know exactly what memory each one opened in to. He chose a door three down from where they had entered the hallway. Lina noticed that the handle was well-worn, as if the door was frequently opened. Opening the door, Thorin nudged Lina inside.
She found herself in their bedroom in Belegost. It was night, yet Lina could clearly see the pair of them, lying in bed. Memory-Lina was sound asleep, curled up against Memory-Thorin's chest. He, however, was wide awake. His hands twitched as if he was fighting to keep them from moving. Then, slowly, deliberately, he brushed the tips of his fingers against her cheek. A look of astonishment crossed his face and joy filled his eyes. It was a look Lina had seen before, on a morning one-hundred-and-thirty-nine years earlier when she'd woken up in a forest clearing beside him.
Thorin tugged her gently from the room and out of the hallway. The doors shut behind them, leaving Lina to wonder what other memories of them were stored down that hall. They moved deeper into the compound, coming to a halt before a series of blank doors. One had flashes of light appearing through the crack beneath the door. This Thorin opened, revealing the company clinging to the moving stone legs. Thorin's company scrambled to safety, but the other half remained trapped on the other leg.
Lina's whole body went cold as the giant fell, his body smashing into the hard face of the mountain. Even knowing Fili was still alive, that none of the company had perished, Lina felt panicked as the stone giant's lifeless body crumbled away, the dwarves nowhere to be seen. Thorin's desperate cry for his nephew echoed through the memory.
Taking a step back, Lina allowed Thorin to shut the door on that memory. He just looked at her, his eyes filled with uncertainty. Lina touched his cheek gently, and then began easing out of the dream world. The darkness closed in around her, hiding Thorin and his city from view.
The sound of the others dwarves drifted into Lina's ears, waking her fully from her trance. She opened her eyes to find Thorin looking at her just as he had in the dream.
"Will you take them back with you?" he asked.
"I don't know," she answered. "We shall see how this venture stands when we reach the edge of Mirkwood."
Thorin nodded his understanding, his gaze returning to rest upon their nephews. The two young dwarves had begun to bed down for the night. Lina smiled as Fili affectionately ruffled his younger brother's hair.
Her mind drifted back to that hallway in Thorin's city of memories. What other memories did that hall contain? She looked up at him questioningly. Thorin simply smiled and placed a gentle kiss on her forehead.
"We don't need to visit all those old memories," he whispered, "Not when we have so many more to make."
A/N: I apologize for the lack of updating. School got a bit crazy with one of my art projects coming due on Thursday. I spent most of my day at work or school. Then I managed to make myself sick. So when I was home, I was doing homework, eating, or sleeping. I hope you guys enjoy this chapter. Thank you to all of you who have been reading, and a big thank you to those of you sending me such wonderful reviews. Have a great weekend, and I hope to update soon.