As soon as Katniss entered her room, she found Miliel was already there waiting for her. The elleth was bending down to pick up her hunting bag that had fallen on the floor. Katniss's heart almost stopped beating when she noticed that Miliel was holding and admiring Cinna's sketches that should have been inside that same bag. She frowned and went straight to the place Miliel was standing, almost snatching Cinna's drawings from the hands of the elleth, who was looking very apologetic despite being on the receiving end of Katniss's rudeness.
"I'm sorry my Lady, I didn't mean to pry. The drawings had fallen on the floor when I was making your bed and…"
"You don't need to make my bed. I am perfectly capable of doing it myself…" Katniss frowned.
"I just wanted to be of service, my Lady. After all, it is my duty to ensure that your needs are taken care of while you are Lord's Elrond guest..."
"Thank you Miliel, but I think you can remove making my bed from your task list. I also believe that I asked you to not call me my Lady..."
The elleth nodded in understatement.
"Did you make these?" the elleth asked pointing to the drawings that Katniss still held "They look so different from anything I have seen before!" Miliel said full of awe.
"Me? No, no," she vehemently denied "my friend did it for me."
"Your friend is very talented."
"Yes, he was…" Katniss said in a low voice as she tried to avoid looking Miliel in the eyes. The elleth caught the meaning behind the 'was' straight away.
"Did he ever… get to do these designs?"
"Yes, most of them at least…"
"Well, it would be my pleasure to try to make some of these for you, my Lady. If you allow me, of course. They seem to have been made for you, anyway…"
"Sure. I think he would have liked that…"
Miliel nodded in agreement as Katniss handed over Cinna's sketches to her. The elleth took it with extreme reverence and promised to be careful with it.
Only then she realised that if she was really in the past, Cinna was also yet to be born. Thorin and Gandalf both seemed to believe that she might be able to change the future on her own time. Could she possibly do something that would prevent Cinna's early death?
"Shall we go, Katniss?"
Katniss nodded and got hold of all the few clothes that she had in her possession. The basket that Miliel had given to her remained almost empty. They were about to leave her room when Katniss was suddenly aware of the lightness on her shoulder. She wasn't carrying her bow or her quiver along with her. She looked around and could not see them anywhere.
"My bow! Where is my bow!" she panicked.
"Calm down, Katniss! Where did you have it last time?"
"I think…" she tried remembering what she did that morning "I forgot it during breakfast! We need to go back…"
"Don't you worry. I am sure that your bow is somewhere safe. One of your friends must have noticed and is probably keeping it for you. Right now we need to go to the river if we want to get this done today…"
"But… What if we are attacked? I have got a few knives on me, but I much rather have my bow just in case..."
Miliel looked at Katniss as if she had lost her mind.
"I guarantee that Rivendell is an extremely safe place. In fact, this is probably one of the safest places in Arda, Miss Katniss."
Katniss did not look too convinced, but due to Miliel's insistence that they needed to go soon, otherwise she would not be able to do all her laundry. Katniss had to admit that the elleth's laundry basket was indeed overflowing. The victor from District twelve ended up giving up trying to retrieve her bow before that errand was completed.
Many other female elves seemed to be already doing their own laundry when Katniss and Miliel arrived at the area of the river that was designed to do that. They all greeted Miliel in Sindarin and threw curious glances at Katniss, who tried her best to ignore them.
Despite the fact that before she moved to the victor's village her family washed their clothes by hand, they used to do it inside their own homes. Therefore, the sight of the most stunning looking females she had ever seen bending down at the river bank while tossing their dresses and undergarments against flat stones was something that she was definitely not used to witnessing.
Miliel started quickly working on her clothes with an easiness that she acquired through the many years she had lived. Katniss, however, took her time to look around, trying to quickly pick up some of the techniques the elf maids used to remove dirt and stain from their clothes. It was then that she spotted a woman who had also stopped her own washing to have a better look at her. The woman felt embarrassed when she noticed that she had been caught. Katniss could tell straight away that the woman was most definitely not an elf. Miliel quickly noticed the awkwardness between them and decided to help to break the ice by making the proper introductions.
So as they washed away the grime from their clothes, Katniss learned that the woman's name was Gilraen, and she was a permanent resident at Rivendell alongside her son Estel since her husband died. She did not seem to want to talk much about that, and Katniss knew well enough how it was like not wanting to talk about painful subjects to not insist on it. Soon enough, Miliel moved the topic of their conversation to their crafts. Gilraen seemed to share Miliel's passion for designing and making new clothes. Both ladies turned out to be quite curious and amused when they analysed Katniss clothes and undergarments, especially both her bras.
When Gilraen started asking if she had made these, Katniss was quick to deny and tell them about Cinna's brilliance.
"I don't have a craft." Katniss was quick to admit as she was finishing washing her last piece of clothing.
"But you must have one! Everyone is good at something…" Miliel said with a maternal smile.
"The only thing I am good at is hunting and poaching. And that is hardly a craft…"
"Your craft is the craft of a warrior, then. It is unusual for female's to adopt it, but definitely not something unheard of…" the elleth said thoughtfully "is there anything else you are good at?"
"Well, I guess I can sign in tune. Again, not really a craft…"
"But music is a very noble craft, Miss Katniss!" Gilraen informed her.
"I never made music of my own, nor I am able to play an instrument…"
"You probably never found the instrument who calls you yet. But do not worry, I will help you find it!" Miliel said, determined, and even though Katniss who did not have the heart to contract her, looked disbelief.
Katniss was about to pack up her things and leave, when she noticed Gandalf far ahead talking to an extremely weird old man. She frowned her eyes as she asked Miliel about the mysterious man's identity.
"Oh, if I am not wrong, that is the brown wizard! I wonder what he is doing here. I have only seen him once before…"
Katniss nodded, and after saying her farewells, she left the other ladies doing their laundry in peace.
It wasn't very hard to find the house that the dwarves had claimed as theirs during their stay at Rivendell. In order to do that, she only needed to follow their distinctive rowdy noise. The house where the dwarves were staying was much more raw and simple than the comfortable lounges and guest rooms present in Lord Elrond's main house. There was no ornate furniture and no soft silk bedspread at that house. Besides, Katniss was almost certain that the condition of this house had probably improved since her dwarrow friends had claimed it as their temporary address.
They had just started eating a very large lunch when she arrived, which was very fortunate. As Katniss had basically run away from her breakfast that morning, a nice warm meal was exactly what she was needing.
The majority of the company seemed to give her a warm welcome, though her heart sank when Kili did not return her smile.
"Don't worry Lass. He is only sulking because you left that elf to shoot with your bow and you never offered that to him…" Fili smirked.
"Honestly, Kili!" Katniss rolled her eyes. "Right, you can use my bow as soon as I can find out where it is…"
"Your bow is here." Kili mumbled, "Uncle ensured that it would not be left under the care of the elves when he went back to talk to Lord Elrond…"
"Oh, so did Thorin go back there to apologise?" she asked, a bit surprised that Thorin had actually done what he had promised he would do.
"Aye. We haven't seen him since." Dwalin gave her an intense glare.
"And he made us clean that mess we made at their dining hall. " Bofur bleated.
"I don't know what you told him Lassie, but it definitely has changed his attitude…" Balin complimented.
"Good," she said as she grabbed a roasted rabbit leg to herself as she sat down next to Kili.
"And you can stop sulking now, Kili. Feel free to have a go with my bow anytime you want." Katniss told him, but his expression did not change much.
"I got a huge scold for teaching you some of our secret sign language, you know?" the young Prince snorted accusingly.
Katniss grunted.
"I did not ask for you to teach me that." she snapped back, but one glance at Kili's miserable semblance made she decide to use a different strategy. "Though it would be helpful if you taught me how to shoot while riding my pony..."
"But you did well during the battle with the Orcs…" Kili answered feeling puzzled.
"No, I got lucky, that is all. I rather not have to rely on it again."
Kili nodded in agreement.
"We can start our training session after lunch. I will request one of your special arrows as payment for my time though..." he said with a mischievous look in his eyes.
Katniss and a few dwarrow men looked puzzled by his attitude of charging a price for teaching her. Some others like Fili and Balin were giving him a smug look.
"Are you really going to charge me for teaching me this, Kili?" she said, looking uneasy. Kili was about to open his mouth to say something else, but she was faster. "Right. Whatever it takes for you to stop looking so miserable. I don't know how exactly my arrows work, but I am sure you will need to shoot them with my arrow for it to work…"
"Oh, don't worry. It should work well enough for what I have in mind…"
Katniss threw him a calculated glare but decided to stay quiet. Katniss was quite upset when she realised that it was unlikely that she would get to see Thorin before they went over to Rivendell's stables to practice shooting while riding. However, they did not go there alone, as the majority of the company decided to tag along. While some of them wanted to see how their own pony was faring, others were very keen to see how well Katniss would do and others have even gone as far as to place some bets on it.
In the end, it was not surprising that her biggest struggle was controlling her pony and maintaining her posture while shooting. Mounted archery required the rider to let go the reins, so the horse control had to come from the pressure on her legs and her body posture. And these were all advanced riding techniques that she had yet to master. Kili started by asking her to ride as fast as could and shoot ahead and then turning to her sides. In the end, he decided to ask her to attempt to turn her body to shoot backwards, but she almost ended up falling from her pony and they decided to call it day.
However, her training day was far from over. As soon her pony was back to Rivendell's stable, Dwalin took over and called her to another sword training session. So she left her bow and quiver with Kili's eager hands and borrowed his sword so she would have one during her training. Katniss was excited because that would be the first time that Dwalin dared to allow her to use a real sword. As he had said, he trusted that she was competent enough to not stab herself by accident. It had become clearer that her progress with the sword was going much quicker than what she had achieved with the axe so far. Because of that, Dwalin informed her that they would prioritise getting her competent enough on sword fighting so she would be able to hold her ground during a possible battle.
After witnessing what Orcs looked like and how they fought, Katniss was determined to master her sword fighting technique as quickly as possible. Once her training with Dwalin was over, she was torn between going back to her room at Elrond's household or returning to the place where her dwarven friends were staying. It was the perspective of seeing Thorin again and the promise of a warm dwarrow stew that made her decide to go back to their site.
However, Thorin Oakenshield was still nowhere to be seen. Nonetheless, she ate their food, enjoyed their merry tunes, laughed off their silly jokes and took comfort from their company until it was so late that the sun had set. After she resigned that she was not going to see Thorin that day, she accepted Dwalin's offer to escort her back to Elrond's household. However, when they were half-way to their destination, they saw Thorin doing the opposite walk that they were doing.
Katniss immediately felt the excitement coming from inside her chest and stomach, and this time she was certain that it was definitely not hunger of food the underlying cause of these new sensations. She had to restrain herself so she wouldn't run and wrap him in a tight hug.
"I did not think I would see you tonight…" Thorin grinned as he looked at her smiling face. He also gave Dwalin a nod in acknowledgment and as a thank you for him to be looking after her.
Thorin looked exhausted. He had sweat dripping all over his face and hair. Katniss frowned as she wondered what he could possibly have been doing.
"Well, I am glad we met. I have been waiting to see you the whole evening."
Both Thorin and Dwalin exchanged a cumplice glance.
"Any special reason why you wanted to see me so bad?" he asked her while giving a flirtatious smirk, which she noticed and ended up blushing.
"I just wanted to say well done for making amends with the elves…"
"I gave you my word, did I not, Amrâlimê?"
Dwalin gasped in surprise by hearing his friend calling that girl his love. While the dwarrow warrior had no doubt that Thorin's heart had already chosen her to be his one, watching his king voicing his suspicions added a whole new weight to it. He then wondered if the girl was aware of the powerful meaning behind that confession. Somehow, he suspected that she didn't.
"Was it difficult?" Katniss asked as she tucked a strand of loose hair behind her ear.
"Extremely." his eyes lingered on the strand of hair that she had just fixed full of desire
"Oh?"
"A little damage to my pride, but I will survive." he said, returning his attention to her eyes. They remained at their usual silent glaring contest for a while. Dwalin, who was still waiting a few steps behind her, almost lost his patience with them. Thorin felt the unseaness of his friend and decided to break the moment they were sharing.
"Let me escort you back to your quarters, Mizin" he said offering an arm for her to hold, which she promptly accepted. Dwalin still followed them, but allowed a much larger gap between him and the couple, in order of giving them some privacy.
"Your treasure has been retrieved by that elf. My impression is that there were more things inside that hoard than what he has brought, but there is no way to prove it now. I wish you had allowed me to have my way and send my own men to do that job…"
"You saw what Gandalf said. It wasn't safe for us to go back!"
"Tharkûn could be wrong. Maybe the conflict with the Orcs was nothing but ill lucky…"
"Still… would you dare risk their lives for a bit of treasure?" she asked in pure disbelief "I can understand risking it to take back your homeland, but doing the same thing for gold?"
Thorin considered his words carefully.
"You are right. But you are also wrong. I don't like to see them taking advantage of your innocence, Mizin. Elves can have a silver tongue, and twist things and facts to serve their own ill purposes…"
"I promise to be more on my guard around them, if that gives you peace of mind"
"It does." Thorin confirmed as he tried to reduce the pace of their walk. He knew that they were approaching Elrond's house, but he was not ready to be apart from her again. "I hope you don't mind that I took the liberty of separating some precious stones to use on something that I am working on…"
"Sure," she nodded. "You know well enough that I did not want anything to do with that treasure for starters…"
"Why not? You know well enough what it is like to have a hard life. That treasure could make you live a tranquil life where you would not need to worry about where your next meal is going to come from."
"I don't like that treasure. I had to kill in order to have it,"
"Trolls. You killed trolls, Katniss…"
"Trolls or not, it's still a life…"
"A worthless, horrible and disgusting existence. The world is a much better place without them. They were nothing but worthless murders. And they weren't the original owners of that treasure if that is what you are thinking. They probably got their hands much dirtier than you can imagine as they built that little hoard. I see retrieving that treasure from their dirty hands as divine providence,"
"That may be the case, but I still see little use for so much money. I am not really fond of jewels, and I already had more money than I could spend, and that did not bring me happiness…"
"It doesn't." he agreed as they climbed the steps to Lord Elrond's household. "But it can make the pain more bearable…"
Once they were at the main door, they both turned around to face each other. This time Thorin vowed to himself that he would not break their silence. He could not help but think about what she had told him earlier. Because he barely had been able to focus on anything else that wasn't his hands braiding her soft wave hair again during the whole day.
Even Erebor had stayed in the second plan, so much was his fixation. Gandalf had to remind him to ask Lord Elrod assistance to read his map, which he begrudgingly did, just to find out that the map contained moon runes. This meant that they would need to remain in Rivendell for longer than he had originally wished for, and wait until the date they would be able to read the map.
The mere thought that Katniss had said that she wanted him to braid her hair again made him lose his mind. But he would not lose his composure. He would not impose. He would not remind her. He would not ask. He wanted her to be the one to suggest that again.
However, he did not need to wait much. Unable to restrain herself any longer, Katniss narrowed the gap between them and wrapped him into a tight hug.
"Thorin…" she whispered in his ear. She had craved for the warmth of his strong arms since her nightmare the previous night. She had to force herself to let him go, but he was quick to hold her there.
"Katniss…" he whispered her name, making her lose her balance. He was about to ask her about the true nature of her feelings for him when they were forced to break apart as a female voice called her name.
"Oh, I am so sorry! I didn't mean to interrupt…" Katniss recognised Miliel's voice before she turned around to see her face. Thorin remained possessively holding Katniss's arm, not really willing to delay this special moment with his One any longer.
"Miliel…" Katniss' cold greeting also showed her frustration from having been interrupted by the elleth.
"I'm sorry, but Lady Galadriel of Lórien has requested to see you, Miss Katniss"
"I'm sorry, Lady who?" Katniss bluntly asked, making Thorin suffocate a laugh.
"Lady Galadriel. Both of you are yet to become acquainted, but she wants to talk to you…"
"Can't this wait?" she asked with frustration. "It is late and I am tired…"
"I'm sorry Katniss, but she was quite insistent on this…"
Katniss rolled her eyes and groaned in frustration, but Thorin gave a gentles squeeze on her hand and turned her over so she would be facing him again.
"You should go, Mizin. I hope we can carry on this conversation later?" he had a flirty glint in his eyes, that made her blush. Still, Katniss held her gaze on him, and placed a chaste kiss on his cheek making he flushed as well.
After waving goodbye to Dwalin who remained watching everything from the distance, she followed Miliel through a stoned path that led to the gardens of Rivendell leaving both dwarves alone.
Dwalin gave Thorin a sly look as his king climbed down the stairs. Thorin sighed. Dwalin started laughing about the look on Thorin's flushed face. As they headed back to their settlement house together, they started to talk quickly in Khuzdul.
"Amrâlimê, Mizin… the lass has grabbed you by the beard!" Dwalin joked.
Thorin grunted in annoyance, but he did not look as grumpy as one would expect.
"She kissed you…" Dwalin pointed out with a cheerful smile.
"On the cheeks..." Thorin added with a stern.
"I am pretty sure it would have been on the mouth if it wasn't for that elf…" Dwalin stated
Thorin grunted in agreement.
"Do you think it still counts?" Thorin asked, feeling hopeful.
"I am pretty sure it does," Dwalin answered as he scratched his beard and tried to remember everything he knew about courting procedures.
"Good. Because today I started forging her a sword." Thorin confessed without looking his friend in the eyes.
Dwalin got the meaning straight away. And he was shocked.
"Mahal's beard, Thorin! Proposing already? Don't you think it is a bit too hasty?"
"She is my One. You cannot understand what it is like because you have yet to find yours. My entire body is craving her touch more than it craves the air. You know me. I want to do the right thing. And I don't think I would be able to deny her pleasure if she decides to invite me to her bed…"
"You are doomed, my friend!" Dwalin shook his head in amusement.
"If I were to have my way with her, she would already be my Queen." Thorin confessed.
"Then for your sake and for the sake of our quest, I can only hope that we have a new Queen soon!" Dwalin gave Thorin a pat on his shoulders "Tonight we should celebrate. It is not every day that our king starts forging a sword for our future Queen!"
Thorin's smile grew wide as he gave a grunt of approval to his loyal friend.
Despite the darkness of the night, the garden that Miliel had led Katniss to was lit by the moonlight and the stars which shone as bright as she had ever witnessed. Katniss waited with her arms crossed in annoyance, her bow and quiver still resting on her shoulders. Meanwhile the Lady of Lórien calmly collected some water from a well, her long golden-silvery hair glowing radiant as the sun.
Katniss Everdeen. The Mockingjay of the rebellion from a future past. We met at last.
Katniss squinted her eyes with a growing distrustful suspicion as she heard the voice of Lady Galadriel speaking from inside her head. Katniss was about to voice a question that she had been thinking when the Lady of the Woods addressed her verbally.
"I came to Rivendell as soon as I sensed your presence in the Third Age. You have been gifted by the Valar and your fate has already been changed."
"Why did you want to see me?" Katniss asked impatiently.
Lady Galadriel gave her an enigmatic smile and poured the water she had collected from the well inside a silver basin.
"Come closer, daughter of Abraham. I invite you to see through my mirror,"
"Your mirror…?" Katniss frowned to the basin, which in her opinion looked like anything but a mirror.
"Yes, Katniss, my mirror. It is supposed to show you things that were, and things that are, and things that yet may be,"
"Right," Katniss said, not really believing the elleth in the slightest.
Despite that, she still made her way to the place where Lady Galadriel was standing and even though she had a frown on her eyes, Katniss peaked to see what was waiting for her inside the basin. And how surprised she was by the images that she saw.
Firstly, she witnessed Thorin fighting and perishing in a mortal combat with a horrid creature - a one-handed pale orc, that cheated and ended up stabbing Thorin. Katniss who was witnessing everything from the safety of Rivendell's garden screamed his name as the orc's blade pierced his skin. She saw Thorin killing the same pale orc just after he received the mortal blow, but she knew enough about injuries to know that without the kind of medical technology they possessed on her time, Thorin would be unlikely to survive. Her heart was beating fast as she watched a much more realistic version of her last-night nightmares happening from inside the basin that Galadriel called a mirror. She was about to lift her eyes from it, when the images changed showing her a very different scenery.
Katniss saw herself inside a luxurious room that she had never seen before, wearing a dress and brushing the long wavy brown hair of a young girl that was probably not older than five years of age. Katniss looked a bit older, though if she had to guess, she was probably around her twenties. An older girl, who seemed to be in her earlier teenage years and somehow resembled her sister, slammed the door as she entered the room making both Katniss' - the one in the image inside the mirror and the one watching it - raise their eyebrows.
"Mum! Frerin and Thrór won't listen to me!"
The Katniss from inside the basin grunted in annoyance. Meanwhile, the Katniss who was watching the scene at Rivendell's garden gasped in shock.
"Prím, can you braid your sister's hair for me? I will deal with them," Katniss said as she left the room without giving the girls another glance.
She was walking hastily through the white stoned corridors, when she seemed to be caught by surprise when someone grabbed her by the waist, turning her around and giving her a passionate kiss.
"Thorin…" the Katniss who was watching the mirror whispered as she recognised him immediately. His beard was enormous, and he had more white strands of hair than she remembered him having, but overall he was still looking pretty much the same.
"Thorin…" the Katniss from the image whispered "I need to go. Frerin and Thrór…"
But he placed his hand on her lips silencing her.
"Dwalin is already taking care of it," he informed her before he pressed her body against the wall and started his way on undoing her corset and removing her clothes.
"Thorin! Not here! What if someone caught us?" she asked as his hand slid under her dress, finding the gap between her legs.
"Then let them see it" he whispered in her ear as he pressed his thumb against her clitoris and started making circular movements, making her moan.
"What if it is Príma or Kaia that finds us, hmm?" she asked as she tried to ignore what he was doing to her body.
Her phrase had the desired effect, as Thorin immediately stopped working on her body and tried to cover Katniss as he looked from side to side as if he feared that one of their daughters could enter that corridor at any moment.
"Let's go to our room, Amrâlimê" he whispered in her ear, making her shiver.
"Thorin, we don't have time for this. The banquet…"
"The banquet will not start until we arrive. This is Erebor, Mizin. The king is never late..." and without asking for her permission, he picked her up and shoved her on his shoulder in a fireman grasp. She did not fight, because she craved his touch as much he was craving hers.
Katniss was about to confront Galadriel about the meaning of these visions when the sight of her sister Primrose Everdeem in the mirror almost made her jump. Prim was in front of the President's Snow mansion from all places. She dressed up in clothes that clearly came from District thirteen, and the red cross around her arm showed that she was working as a paramedic of some sort.
Her sister seemed to be tending the wounded when a hovercraft dropped some parachutes on them, and the Capitol refugee civilians that were in front of Snow's residence went straight to collect their prize. However, they all were bombs in disguise. Katniss who was watching everything from the basin screamed Prim's name as she was forced to witness her sister's death. Before she was able to stop shaking, the images changed again to show Primrose and Peeta looking much healthier and older than she remembered them to be. They were at a lake that Katniss knew to be at District Twelve. They were throwing flower petals inside the river. Katniss wondered why she was doing that and being so wasteful, as she knew they were perfectly eatable.
"It has been ten years since she has passed away here in these woods, Peeta. And still… there is not a single day that I don't think about Katniss..."
Peeta hugged Prim from behind in a way that only a lover would do. Katniss did not feel jealous, though she was very surprised.
"We better get back, Prim. We don't want your father to be worried."
Katniss's heart started beating fast again. And then, the basin scenery changed for one last time.
Katniss saw herself again. She was old, very old. She almost failed to recognise herself. However, her eyes lit up when she realised that she was in the very same lake that her sister had been in the previous memory, though the lake was somehow bigger, the nearby trees that she knew like the back of her own hand were much smaller and younger than what she remembered. By the clothes she saw herself and the dwarf who was accompanying her were wearing, Katniss was pretty certain that they were still in the Third Age.
She approached one oak tree, touching it with respect and admiration, and then informed the dwarf.
"It is here!"
The dwarf nodded. Katniss had a better look at him, and only then she realized that he resembled Thorin. The dwarf started working on making a secret hole on the ground just in front of that tree where Katniss placed a chest. Once she was done, the dwarf covered it and concealed it again using some dwarven magic, and carved a dwarrow rune and the Mockinjay's symbols on that tree truck.
"Amad… our mission here at the Blue Mountains is complete. I did as you requested. Please, come back to Erebor with me. It will break my brothers' heart not seeing you again, especially after father…" he stopped his sentence as if voicing the words he wanted to say were just too painful.
"My Son. I cannot, and I will not step in that mountain again. Not while I am alive anyway. Take my body there when I am dead and place it with your father's, if that is your wish. But I don't want to go back just yet. Too many memories…" she stood looking at the lake. She closed her eyes and took a deep breath. "Let me stay here with my lake, and my trees, and my meadow… you don't need to worry. As you saw, we still have got some of our people here at the Blue Mountains. They will look after your old mother… you know they hold enough respect for your father to do any different."
"Amad, I cannot go and leave you here." He said, determined. "If you are so determined to stay, so shall I!"
"Nonsense. I am old, but I can still look after myself…"
"It is not only because of you that I am staying, amad."
"Oh? The girl… the daughter of Aín?" she asked, raising an eyebrow in surprise. The dwarrow went red as a ripped tomato, but he confirmed it with a nod. "Very well. Perhaps I will get to spend some time with some of my grandchildren before I die…"
Katniss raised her eyes to meet Lady Galadriel's. The elleth gave her a gentle smile. Katniss did not smile back. In fact, she looked angry.
"What was that?" she asked, trying to control her nerves the best way she could.
"You just witnessed glances of different possibilities of things that still might be…"
"Impossible." Katniss shook her head "my father is dead. Why would Prim be talking about him as if he was alive?"
"How can your father be dead if he is yet to be born, Katniss? Your future-self is yet to be born. And the life of your future-self shall be reshaped according to the decisions you make in your immediate future"
"I don't get it,"
"You have got the power to change things. The Katniss that you are, might only exist here now. Because the Katniss that is yet to be born might never have to experience hunger, or take part in the games…"
"I will never get to see my sister again?" there was real despair in Katniss' voice now, as she finally began to realise the size of the ramifications of her presence in that time.
"I am sorry, child, but you needed to understand..." Lady Galadriel looked genuinely sorry for her.
The sharpness of the elleth's words hit Katniss hard. No more Prim. No more Peeta. No more Gale. No more Haymitch, Elfie, Cinna…
"Is there anything I can do to ease your pain?" the Lady of the Woods asked full of concern.
"Just leave me alone…"
And without saying anything else, Katniss grabbed her things and disappeared inside the woods.