Ali hadn't the time to protest before she was thrown into the tree, dwarves scrambling everywhere, she strained to see if Bilbo was alright. Already today she had failed to keep an eye on him and was determined not to let that happen again. Though she was decidedly distracted about the time the wolves showed up, the orcs not far behind them.
This time she was prepared for the orcs, or at least she was prepared to not run screaming at the thought of killing orcs. Really that wasn't saying much, since now she felt more inclined to run screaming from the thought of orcs in general. Underneath her a wolf clawed his way uncomfortably high, shaking the tree violently. Panicked Ali moved to climb higher, instead she found herself sailing through the air towards another tree. A small shriek escaped her lips as Bifur caught her and tossed her yet again into Bofur's waiting arms.
"You can't just throw people around like that!" Ali gasped, clutching the trunk of the tree before any more aerial flights were planned out without her permission.
"If we hadn't you would be dead," Thorin snapped, watching the wolves circling beneath their feet.
"You didn't give me a chance," Ali started but stopped when Thorin's icy glare snapped up to her.
"We didn't have time to give you a chance, hesitation will get us all killed." Thorin stated, and that was that.
Around her the tree was shaking, dwarves were yelling over the snarling wolves, and Thorin's attention was drawn by something else. Ali was terrified, not only did it look like they were about to die, but she had cemented that yet again she was going to be the outcast. She didn't even know what she had done. It seemed like all she had to do was exist and it was going to piss someone off.
The tree jerked violently and Ali almost lost her grip on the trunk, beside her Fili reached across her defensively. Perhaps now was not the time for self pity though, as the tree began to fall off over the edge of the cliff. Bracing herself Ali's legs were yanked off the tree but she was able to hang on just barely.
Desperate to hold on Ali clawed at the bark, managing to only pull herself back up by a fraction. Though she knew the longer she hung on the harder it would be to finish pulling herself up.
Just as Ali managed to scrape her elbows up onto the branch Bilbo darted down the trunk past her. While this tree might not have been the safest place ever, she couldn't figure out why on god's green earth he was running TOWARDS the orcs!
"Bilbo stop!" Ali gasped out, scraping her chest and arms against the rough bark. Beneath her, her legs were flailing around for some kind of stable ground, she had to calm down. Pulling herself the rest of the way onto the trunk, Ali hardly stopped to gain her balance.
Ignoring her shaking hands Ali saw something she never wanted to. Thorin lying unconscious on the ground, Bilbo standing alone between him and a white orc, totally unarmed. All eyes were on Bilbo as Ali grabbed the first rock she could find and hurdled it at the orc. Though she hadn't thought she would be able to hit the thing it actually landed a blow across its neck.
Outraged the pale orc roared and turned to see what it was, but Ali was already in search of another rock. This time she nailed him in the chest. Just as she picked up a third, sharper stone the wolf lunged at her, Ali shrieked and dodged, barely avoiding the outstretched paw. Or claws, oh sweet cheese and rice this thing was massive up close! If there was one thing she wished to have for Christmas it was to never see one of these things up close again, or at all, at all would be much better.
Dodging barely again, Ali found herself directly next to the body, basically pressed against the riders leg. Her body moved faster than her mind though as she brought the sharpest edge of the stone down as hard as possible into its pale flesh. Above her the orc roared in what she hoped was pain more than annoyance.
Ali's luck did not hold out though as she felt the warm breath on her back before she was tossed through the air. The wolf had bitten her, or grabbed her for all she knew and threw her across the cliff. Hitting the stone hard she bounced and slid across the loose dirt, her body twisting limply from the impact, before sliding off the side.
The air felt soft on her skin as she fell, as soft as the sheets on her elven bed. Though she didn't have time to relax before she landed quite roughly, face first almost. This time it wasn't rough, but not entirely soft, were these feathers?
Wizards, elves, dwarves, orcs, trolls that turn to stone, now she was riding on the back of the biggest bird to ever fly. Was anything here normal? If she found a frog in the woods and kissed it would it turn into a prince? Carefully she looked up, in front of them were more of the birds and she could just make out the other shapes on their backs. At least this meant that she wasn't an unwelcome rider.
Lying back flat Ali sighed, trying to block out the burning sensation in her shoulder from the wolf bite. She looked a mess, head bleeding, shoulder ripped open, scrapes, and cuts all along her arms and chest. For once in her life she actually wanted to go home. She wanted to curl up on her bench in the park in all her winter gear and have people shake her awake thinking she was some lost child. She wanted to see old people feeding pigeons, couples walked by holding hands, and warm herself by a fire with the other homeless people.
Ali actually sniffed, quickly she ground the palms into her hands against the threat of tears. No tears! Not now, not ever, and that was final. Tears never solved anything; action was an answer that got results. Careful not to sit up and catch the wind like some sort of sail, Ali slid her scarf off. Once all this blew over she would have to apologize to Ori for this, she thought. Wrapping one end around her arm she moved it up and tightened the wrap around her shoulder and securing the loose end around her waist. The pressure felt as though she had trapped a hive of angry bees under her scarf, but at least it was reassuring that she might have stopped the bleeding.
As smoothly as possible she pulled off her sweater, if nothing else at least it was still with her. Carefully she shimmied it over her head, this would at least hide most of the damage, at least it would if they didn't wonder why she had suddenly become so lumpy. Using her good hand she rubbed as much of the now drying blood off her forehead as she could.
As always it was a disaster though, always some sort of embarrassment as her bird stopped short and dumped her off. Ali landed hard on her butt, which was probably the only place that didn't have bruises. Of course as soon as she did the brothers were pulling her to her feet.
"What took you so long?" Kili asked.
"Are you alright?" Fili asked before she could answer.
"I'm sorry, you know what they say about women, we can never get anywhere on time," Ali laughed, it didn't come from the heart but it seemed enough to keep them happy.
"Are you alright?" Fili asked again placing his hand on her bleeding shoulder, unaware of its state. "We lost sight of you after the eagles came and grabbed us."
Ali opened her mouth to say something, but caught Thorin's eye from across the platform. He stood with the sun illuminated behind him, one hand on Bilbo's shoulder. She didn't want to be a burden, injured people moved slower, needed attention, and generally were a bother. No, when she looked at Thorin she knew she couldn't say anything.
Smiling instead she looked back to the brothers, "I'm fine, nothing I can't walk off."
Though Fili shot Thorin an unsure look he dropped his hand, moving to grab his bag. The others began to shuffle around as well, as if suddenly nobody knew what they were actually supposed to be doing. Ali didn't miss the glances they kept throwing Thorin, as if they were waiting for him to drop, or confess that he loved Bilbo.
"So," Balin cleared his throat, "we should get a move on, best we camp at the bottom for the night and let the bodies rest."
"No, we continue on till dark, it is not safe in these woods," Thorin stated, one hand on his sword hilt.
"Nay, Oin should look after the injured, not a one of us got away without a bump or two, you best get that bite looked after. I'd be best if you didn't drop on us when we are almost there." Balin argued. At the mention of bite, Ali's heart jumped into her throat, but Balin didn't turn to look at her. Instead Thorin returned his steely determination silently, yet broke eye contact first.
"I'm fine," Thorin grumbled, "we will camp at the bottom though, let's move out."
At they began to descend Ali watched as they broke up into smaller groups. Fili and Kili moved the fastest, tossing back word that they would try to find something suitable to eat as they darted around the first corner. Next went Bifur, Bofur, and Bombur, if they were as sore as she was they definitely didn't show it. Bombur mused to Bifur about what the brothers might find to eat before Bofur prodded him in the back, claiming to have seen glaciers move faster than the two of them. Nori followed close as well, leaning in to whisper something that made Bofur turn and smile. Dori just rolled his eyes and herded poor Ori on, who was attempting to scribble in his book with such fervor that Ali was surprised the page didn't ignite. Next Gloin followed his brother Oin, watching carefully as if he was afraid the old man would slip and fall down the cliff at any moment.
On the other side of the platform Gandalf, Thorin, Dwalin, and Balin were talking in hushed tones. Ali desperately wanted to know what they were talking about, but she knew it wasn't her place to be asking kings their business.
"Alright, on we go." Bilbo walked up and grabbed her hand, squeezing it ever so gently. For a little bit she let him lead her along the path in quiet before she couldn't take it anymore.
"How are you feeling?" Ali asked, stepping around some fallen stones.
"I'd have to say out of all of us I probably faired the best." Bilbo chuckled, bouncing around the path as if to prove some point. "Probably the worst off would be Thorin."
"That's right, Thorin was bitten by a wolf," Ali remembered.
"Warg," Bilbo interjected.
"What?" Ali asked, it sounded as though he had just blurted random letters.
"That giant wolf was a warg," Bilbo said again, "don't they have them where you're from? Speaking of which, where are tourists from?"
Oh fudge buckets, she had forgotten that she hadn't actually told Bilbo yet. "It's a place quite a ways from here. You have to take a boat." A boat? Really? In all the possible things Ali could have thought of she had to say boat?
"Ah," Bilbo sort of nodded then shook his head, "that really doesn't tell me anything, what's it like there? What's it called?"
"It's called Philadelphia, and well it's normal there. No orcs or goblins trying to murder you, the birds are normal sized, there's no magic or wizards or elves. Basically it's just people doing people things." Ali shrugged even though Bilbo couldn't see, "one of the nice things are cars."
"Carts?" Bilbo asked, "we have those here as well."
"No silly, cars, there big metal carts basically, but instead of horses pulling it, there's an engine inside that is powered by fuel so that it moves on its own." Ali knew she wasn't explaining herself very well, it would have actually made more sense to say magic. "It would have cut this trip into like a two day drive."
"I don't understand," Bilbo said quietly, "that doesn't sound normal at all."
"Now you can imagine how I've felt since you found me on your bench," Ali muttered.
"But HOW did you get to my bench? How did you get from such a strange place to here?" Bilbo asked again.
"Ummm," Ali stumbled, if she thought home was hard to explain, how could she touch all this. Something about magical elves summoning her from some kind of veil, a war of multiple armies, and Thorin being killed. Ali shuttered, really she didn't even understand how all this happened. Also Thorin, there was no way she could just blurt out that he was destined to die. Unless of course she took his place. "Ummm," Ali struggled.
"Lassie!" A welcomed distraction came from Dwalin's interruption. Turning she watched him jog up, "mind if I steal a word?"
"Ummm, what word did you have in mind? There are a few I'm rather attached to and would miss if you took," she felt like suddenly she was rambling like an idiot so she shut up, instead she just looked to Bilbo for permission.
Reluctantly Bilbo tutted but nodded, "I'll talk to you in a bit, okay?" Lightly he squeezed her hand as if to reassure her.
For the first few moments as Bilbo disappeared around the corner it was awkward. Maybe that wasn't even the best way of explaining it, was there a word for super awkward? Sukward? No that was just a stupid, but then again Ali seemed to be hitting homeruns on her stupid ideas.
Beside her Dwalin cleared his throat, "handled urself alright back there."
"You think? I'll do better next time." Ali had to do better than alright, she had to be someone they could depend on.
"Thas not what…" Dwalin didn't finish, instead he just growled. "How are you feeling?"
"What?" Ali's mind jumped automatically to her shoulder, "why does everybody keep asking me that? I said I'm fine." Okay, too defensive.
"Thas all I need ta know, see ya at the bottom lassie." Dwalin nodded and stopped to wait for the others again. Perhaps sukward was going to have to be a new word in her vocabulary.
Beside Thorin, Balin sighed yet again. A sound that he was quickly getting tired of hearing, behind him Gandalf chorused in agreement. Thorin got it already, he had messed up, made the wrong choice, and said the wrong thing. He was tired for sure, and far sorer than any time spent in the forges could have made him. Yet still they insisted that now was the time to discuss this, as if he hadn't already agreed with him.
Finally Dwalin came into view, at first a sight for sore eyes, but as he sighed much like his brother Thorin took back his relief.
"Ya done messed up Thorin," Dwalin spoke low as he attempted to fall back into his place with the others on the narrow path.
"How bad is it?" Balin pushed for more information.
"She says she's fine," Dwalin rumbled, only to be echoed with another round of sighs.
"I don't understand, she says she's fine, where is the problem?" Thorin questioned.
"Oh my dear boy," Gandalf chuckled, placing his hand on Thorin's shoulder, "when a woman says she's fine, it means she's definitely not fine."
"That doesn't make any sense, why would she just not say that?" Thorin mumbled, he was too tired for this right now.
"Women are…strange creatures by nature, I'm told trying to understand one can lead a man to madness." Gandalf mused, "what I can tell you is that once you get to know one they have little signs, body language is key."
Thorin rubbed his face, he felt compelled to do something to smooth this over with her, but also tired. Perhaps after a nights rest he would find it easier to figure out. Though he couldn't say he understood, if she claimed to be fine then why would that mean she wasn't? Women.
AAAAAND here it is! The next chapter dun dun dun.
Drama, Romance, Questions Answered About Ali's Past...If I'm Feeling Nice...
All Around The Corner!
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