Hello friends,
I have some very exciting news… A Child of Durin: Redux has a beta reader: the one, the only RivvyElf over at Ao3! Their knowledge of Tolkien's lore and their own writing are both incredible. I am so excited to have them as a thought partner in this project!
With that in mind, I am going to take a short break from updates to give them plenty of time to catch up to us. (I didn't want to leave you guys hanging during the exciting bits though. And I promised I would have this update out on time.) This feels like a good place to take a little rest. I'm going to plan to pick updates back up in November.
In the meantime, stay well, and I hope you enjoy this update in Brili's adventures!
-Kim
"I just want to go home," Brili groaned miserably into her knees.
Once again, she shifted her head to glare at the back of Gandalf's head; it was his fault that Borias had run off. Well, not his fault directly, but most certainly indirectly!
The thing that had spooked her pony into fleeing straight towards home had been another wizard. A wizard, Brili noted disdainfully, that had literal bird shit matted into his hair in some places. According to this newcomer, he had traveled at great speeds to reach Gandalf, likely using magic to hone in on the traveling Grey Wizard. This poop-covered wizard's sleigh, pulled by several large rabbits—each coming up to Brili's chest or higher if they stretched their necks out—had terrified Borias and kicked up enough dust in its wake that she'd let go of his lead.
She could be well on her way home if it weren't for those wizards. Come to think of it, she wouldn't even be here at all if it weren't for Gandalf.
She'll never work for another wizard again. That was an easy decision to make.
After several unsuccessful minutes of Brili desperately whistling for Borias to return, Bilbo had managed to do what an entire group of dwarves could not and shepherded the now distraught ranger to sit down on a log. He'd also gotten her to nibble on some rations and sip some calming chamomile tea. Oin had been right; the tea had done a lot of good to settle her nerves, and she'd gone from ranting and raving to docile within the hour.
"There, there," Bilbo soothed, awkwardly patting her hand. "Perhaps your pony will turn up soon."
Brili groaned again. "No. No, he won't. He's trained to head back home. He's going exactly where I need to go without me."
"We can find some other way to get you home."
She gestured a little wildly in the general direction of the dwarves, who were staring at the two of them like hawks. "Fat chance of that now. I'm doomed."
It would take an idiot not to conclude that the novelty of her discovery would likely wear off very soon if it hadn't already. Frankly, she anticipated her uncle's wrath to descend upon her any moment. Happy to see her or not, she'd dishonored the name of Durin the night she'd run away from home. She had publicly shamed her fiancé by rejecting him and disappearing before the ceremony, hell, even before speaking a single word to him.
And if they found out that she had been living with the elves of Rivendell…
Yeah, definitely doomed…
"It may not be—"
"Burglar, leave us," Thorin ordered only a few paces away.
He was approaching with long, hurried strides with Fili and Kili in tow. To his credit, Bilbo looked very much like he was going to take a stab at standing up to Thorin, but all it took was a snap of the dwarf's fingers for the hobbit to scuttle off. He at least had the decency to mumble an apology to Brili as he left for the safety of the others.
That lily-livered coward…
Kili spoke first. "How's your head?"
She snorted loudly, lifting her head from where it had been resting on her knees. Absently, she reached into her boot to fiddle with the knife she kept stored there. If she had to sit through whatever interrogation they had in store for her, she might as well do something with her hands.
It also went without saying that her knife gave her a much-needed confidence boost.
"Hurts. So do me a courtesy and buzz off."
Thorin sighed, rubbing his temple in a manner that suggested that Brili was the last thing he wanted to deal with at this point. "You cannot expect us to ignore the obvious, Brili. Ered Luin has been mourning your disappearance for half a decade. Would you care to explain to me how you've found yourself on my quest?"
She twirled her knife and scowled at it as if the blade was her uncle's face. "I can assure you, it was an accident."
"That's not a straight answer."
"It's the closest you're going to get to one," she warned.
"Where have you been?" Fili asked. "I— We searched everywhere for you. Where on earth did you go?"
I've dug myself this deep; might as well keep going.
"Did you hide in some human village?" Kili asked before she had a chance to confess.
Much to the camp's displeasure, his question only resulted in a peal of mirthless laughter that grated on a few pairs of ears. It made sense that he would think that. She'd been obsessed with the common man while living in the mountain. Kili was right. She intended to hide in one of those villages when she'd first run away. If Gandalf hadn't brought her to Rivendell, she probably would have been found within a matter of days.
Kili must not have found the humor in the situation because his eyes narrowed at her reaction.
"I was not hiding in some human village," she said bitterly.
"Then where did you go?" Kili pressed.
They were not going to like this, not one bit.
"I've been living in the city of Imladris, training to be a ranger."
"Imladris?" Kili asked, looking at Thorin and Fili so that they might explain where that was.
When neither of them reacted to that statement, Brili clarified. "Rivendell."
"Elves," Thorin growled darkly, his brows narrowing to form an impressive furrow in his brow.
"Yes, I've been living with the elves."
She had intended to be mature about the whole thing, but she couldn't stop her smirk from meeting her eyes. She'd bested him; she'd bested them all when she decided to grow roots among the race that her uncle despised so thoroughly. It was disturbingly satisfying to watch Thorin's fist curl and uncurl, almost as if it were debating on pummeling her before he abruptly turned away and marched towards the group murmuring, likely cursing, lowly in Khuzdul.
Fili pinched the bridge of his nose as Thorin stormed off. "Do us all a favor and stop trying to provoke him. How did you come by these elves?"
She'd provoke all of them if she damn well wanted to. "I hardly think that matters."
"It matters," Kili snarled, stepping forward to grab her, but was stopped by Fili throwing an arm into his chest to keep him at bay. "I thought you were dead, Brili. You should have come home!"
It was a good thing for her brother that Fili intervened. When the suggestion left Kili's mouth, Brili threw her knife into the dirt right before his boots as a warning. If he had moved another inch closer to her, then he would have taken her blade to his thigh. Her brothers stared at the knife sunk into the earth before them with unnerved expressions. There was an intense standoff between the three of them for a few moments. An unfair one if you asked Brili; there were two of them ganging up on only one of her.
"Come home?" she seethed, her voice quieter than she'd expected it to be considering how furious she was. It grew louder as she continued. "I had no home left to return to. You all drove me out when you offered my life to a stranger. I had to leave because of you."
"It was a marriage proposal," Fili defended, crossing his arms over his chest, "not a death sentence. What would you have expected us to do with the plan to retake Erebor soon to be underway?"
"Oh, I don't know, maybe leave a decision like that to me?" Brili's nose wrinkled with another sneer. "Contrary to your belief, I am perfectly capable of making my own decisions."
Kili's laugh was entirely unwelcome and cold. "Clearly."
Whatever emotion that was bubbling up in Brili's chest would get her into real trouble if she didn't calm herself down. She should have known that they would not understand her reasons for leaving. They didn't understand her then, and she stood no chance of them understanding her now. She needed to set her expectations to match the reality of her situation.
"Look, this reunion has been very… touching. But I think we can all agree that I've overstayed my welcome."
She'd never heard Kili sound so cross in all of her life as she marched past him toward her belongings. "What's thatsupposed to mean?"
She began rifling through her saddlebags to determine what she should bring on her trek back to Rivendell on foot. It might be possible for her to return for the rest later, but if she couldn't make it back, she wanted to be sure that she wasn't leaving anything important behind. Her fingers brushed Gandalf's contract, which had been stuffed in one of the side pockets.
On second thought, maybe it would be better to leave that behind…On second thought, maybe it would be better to leave that behind…
"Brili—"
"I'm going home. My home, not yours," she announced from her crouch. "Good luck with Thorin. You're going to need it."
She finally glared up at her brothers as if daring one of them to try and argue with her when a flicker of movement and the nearly undetectable rustle of foliage behind them caught her attention. A moment later, the low bay of a warg sounded off in the distance. She rose from her haunches slowly, and she smoothly unsheathed two blades that she kept buckled to her thighs. Her gaze was on the dense brush just beyond the small clearing.
If there was a warg calling for a pack this close to their location, then that likely meant…
"W-Was that a wolf? Are their wolves out there?" Bilbo asked, his eyes wide as he clutched the pommel of a small blade.
Where'd that come from? He hadn't been carrying any weapon before; she knew that for a fact.
Bofur gripped his hammer in front of him, his head swiveling around cautiously. "Wolves? No, that is not a wolf."
"Fili, Kili," she said slowly, eyes scanning the tree line attentively for the first sign of movement, "duck."
The moment she'd given the order, one of the wargs attacked where Bilbo and Bofur were huddled together. For a brief moment, Brili hoped that the warg had eaten her fiancé; that would solve a lot of problems for her, wouldn't it? She didn't have time to reflect on that brooding thought because, immediately after the first attack, another warg, the one she'd been tracking, bolted towards them. Fili and Kili hadn't ducked, so she couldn't throw her knife into the beast's eye like she intended.
And now it looked like that warg was about to take off Fili's head.
Unable to stop herself from screaming, the sound nothing more than a scratchy croak from her weeks of silence, she lurched forward to knock Fili to the side while Kili leapt backward to try and shoot the warg. It was a successful distraction, at any rate. The canine yelped as it was thrown off course, right into Dwalin's axe. Thorin dispatched it shortly after with a blade to the jugular.
"Warg scouts," he announced, "which means that an orc pack is not far behind."
Shit.
This day had really gone to absolute shit.
Gandalf rounded on Thorin. "Who did you tell about your quest beyond your kin?"
Thorin glared sullenly at Gandalf. "I think, out of the two of us, you have—"
"Who did you tell?!"
"No one, I swear," Thorin said as Gandalf looked at Brili, the wizard's expression telling her all she needed to know. "What in Durin's name is going on?"
"You are being hunted," Gandalf answered, waving her forward. She pushed off Fili, brushing her trousers as she walked towards the wizard.
Dwalin gripped his axe with all the fierceness of a warrior. "We need to get out of here."
"We can't! We have no ponies, they bolted." Ori's panicked voice announced.
"There is a survey tunnel nearby," Brili informed Gandalf quietly, who looked like he was desperately trying to devise a plan. "Only a few miles from here."
She didn't like it but didn't see any better options. They should be able to use the tunnels without having ponies to worry about. The only immediate problem she could foresee was that the entrance to the nearest tunnel was pretty exposed, an open field with only a few protruding stones for cover.
"You know the way?"
Her answer was given in the form of a smirk followed by a decisive nod. Of course, she knew the way. She was a ranger of Rivendell; she'd be an embarrassment if she didn't. "We'll need some cover. There's no way they won't notice all of us. It's practically an open field."
Gandalf nodded and placed a hand on her shoulder in thought. To both of their surprise, Gandalf's companion, the one that had spooked her pony into a full retreat, spoke up. "I'll draw them off."
Good enough for her.
~o~
Brili had always loved a good run, which was good because Aragorn had put her through her paces when she'd first begun her training regimen.
A good sprint was just what she needed at the moment.
She leaned against a rock, catching her breath while counting bearded heads to ensure that everyone was following Gandalf. She'd already warned the wizard not to let anyone fall behind, but with her luck, there would be one fool in the bunch who thought they could take on a pack of wargs. She would know because she was arguably one of those fools. In her opinion, anyone that stupid could get eaten, but it would also give away her position and put her at risk.
With that in mind, it was best to make sure that they were all accounted for before proceeding.
"Where is she leading us?" Thorin demanded, eyeing Gandalf suspiciously.
Whatever answer the wizard gave was lost on Brili as she kicked off into another sprint. The entrance shouldn't be much further, and that little wizard with the rabbits was doing a great job keeping the wargs off of their tail. The rest should be pretty straightforward.
Brili should have learned by now not to trust that things would go smoothly.
She should have known that things would go south when they had practically collided with their decoy. She'd quickly ducked behind a large rock for cover, and the others joined her so the orc riders wouldn't spot them. However, in the quiet chaos, Brili was smushed uncomfortably between the rock and Dwalin's bulky frame. He would lean against her and push her face into the stone whenever she tried to wrestle her way out. Then, to make matters worse, she could hear growling above them.
And that still wasn't even the worst of it…
The real treat was when Kili decided to shoot the warg that had been growling above them. He'd missed his shot, and the warg and its rider attacked the group. The company engaged in hand-to-hand combat, and the ensuing screams from the warg and the orc riding it were plenty to blow their cover.
"MOVE IT!"
Brili made a straight beeline for the tunnel; no more trying to sneak around. She couldn't shake the orcs now, even if she tried. For survival's sake, she did nothing but focus on her boots pounding against the ground and tailoring her breathing to make the most of each lungful. After several heart-pumping minutes, the tunnel was within eyesight, and it looked like her uncle and brothers might survive this mess after all.
"It's back there, Gandalf!" she bellowed, gesturing towards the entrance as she pressed ahead.
The only problem with finding the tunnel now was that the orcs would also know about the entrance. It could spell a lot of trouble later on if she didn't think of something quick to stop them.
"There's more coming!"
Well, that didn't sound good.
She slowed, letting the others rush past her to follow Gandalf. She had to do something before they wound up being—
"We're surrounded!" Fili shouted from behind her. "Brili, Kili, get back here!"
Ah, shit, that really wasn't good at all.
She moved to attack the nearest orc, a lanky thing with rotted teeth and bulbous eyes that didn't blink. She selected a small throwing knife from her belt that should have been large enough to pierce a major organ… An arrow whizzed past her head before embedding itself into the orc's right eye. When the orc toppled off its warg, the beast carrying it stopped to eat the now-dead rider.
Ew. Gross. She really hated orcs and wargs.
She turned to glare at Kili. "That was my kill you just stole."
"This way, you fools!" It seemed like Gandalf found the entrance.
Okay, that was one problem bagged up and dealt with. Now, if only this orc pack would take care of itself.
"Kili!" her uncle called out, "Brili! Run!"
She knew that Kili wouldn't retreat without her. Fili was unlikely to retreat without Kili, so she followed her brother as he raced towards their uncle. When they reached the entrance, both brothers looked up to make sure that she was behind them before they dove down into the tunnel. Thorin didn't follow after them, though. He stood there, arms out, ready to usher her to safety. But if she went down there with them, there was nothing she could do to stop the orcs from followingthem… and that could lead a pack of orcs straight to Rivendell's gates.
She could not allow that.
When she'd reached Thorin's waiting arms, she kicked behind his knee hard enough to destabilize him before shoving him down the hole. She wasn't interested in playing the role of a distressed damsel who needed saving. He tumbled down the shaft with nothing more than a startled grunt. She knew when he'd landed because he immediately started shouting after her, and her brothers quickly joined him.
Hmm, that had worked better than she thought it would... Still, she had no time to dwell on the thought. A warg was already bearing down on her, crouched and ready to spring.
"I'll catch up!" she called out, trying to shut them up. The last thing she wanted to deal with if she was about to die was them shouting after her. "Go on ahead and follow the path. I won't be far—"
The beast lunged, and she had to duck to, quite literally, save her face. As the warg soared above her, she sunk her knife into its chest and let the momentum of the lunge drag the blade down toward the beast's belly. Warm, thick blood cascaded down her arm, splattering her cheek as it sprayed. To her surprise, an orc hit the ground with an arrow in its head as a horn sounded nearby. She knew that sound. It was a platoon from Rivendell.
Maybe one of her ancestors was looking out for her after all.
She squeezed out from under the warg corpse and raised her arm high. "OI! I'm right here! No friendly fire!"
Once satisfied that her fellow riders would take care not to shoot her, she returned to work. She sliced at a nearby orc's knee with a sharp cry, cutting where she knew she would easily snip a tendon. Once the orc had dropped and was down to her level, she shoved her knife into its eye and twisted her blade.
Immediately after, she scaled up the side of one of the wargs and plunged another knife into the base of its neck. The beast yowled in pain and fell over, throwing Brili off its back, which she should have been prepared for. With a surprised shriek, she somersaulted on the ground, her feet tangling together in the confusion. When she stopped spinning, she attempted to stand and recover her knife. When she applied pressure to her left foot, pain wound up her leg and caused her to topple back over.
A low growl took her attention away from her leg, and she looked up to see another warg prowling around her, fangs bared, foam dripping from the corner of its mouth.
All she had left on her at the moment was her little boot knife, and it was too small to do any damage to something as big as a warg. Time slowed as the warg advanced, a rasping bark her only warning. Brili clamped her eyes shut, waiting for the impact to come.
Nothing happened after several seconds, and she could not stop herself. She opened one eye again.
The warg was motionless, a few inches from her foot, with two arrows buried in its eye.
Talk about a lucky break…
"Ah! Ranger!" a familiar voice called out, and she looked up to see Elrond's black steed cantering towards her. He dismounted and crouched beside her. "Your pony returned to us without you not long ago. My ward insisted on a search party."
A really lucky break!
Brili threw her head back and laughed. "Borias is a legend. I'll be slipping him a carrot for this one."
Elrond quirked a brow at her, perhaps not understanding what Brili found so amusing. "Where is Mithrandir? You were working for him, were you not?"
Brili gestured towards the tunnel she'd sent her family down with the rest of the company. "He'll be along in a bit. I don't suppose you brought Borias with you, by any chance? I think I've twisted up my ankle."
Elrond lifted her off the ground and dropped her onto a smooth saddle before settling behind her a moment later. "I would say that by the looks of it, you've been through more than just a twisted ankle… However, that's not unexpected, with this being your first unsupervised assignment. I'll send for Arwen upon our return."
Brili groaned, rubbing some of the blood off of her cheek. Elrond's daughter, Arwen, was a fine healer but constantly lectured Brili over her numerous injuries.
"Have I ever told you about when Aragorn had returned from his first excursion?" Elrond continued, ignoring Brili's outburst.
"Will the story embarrass him?"
She could hear the amusement in Elrond's voice as he said, "Without a doubt."
Elrond's tale entertained Brili back to the main gates of Rivendell. Once the gates were in her sights, she could feel the knot in her chest, the one that had taken residence there since that first night in the Shire, begin to unwind. The tightness in her shoulders finally began to ease. She was home, she was safe, at last.
So when they rounded the bend, she was annoyed to notice that the company and Gandalf had arrived in Rivendell before the squadron had.
Elrond led the troop through the gate while her uncle ordered his party to close ranks in a defensive circle. Elrond took his horse around the group three times before stopping in front of Gandalf. Brili kept her eyes trained on Elrond as he dismounted, purposefully avoiding eye contact with the company. They were no longer her problem; she saw no reason to look at them.
An armored guard arrived to tend to Elrond's horse, and she patted her leg to subtly inform him that she'd need a hand getting off.
"Brili?"
Now, that was a welcome voice. Her head swiveled towards it to see Aragorn striding over to her. He eyed the company of dwarves curiously, a quirk of his brow giving away that he would have questions or some joke afterward. He approached Elrond's horse and looked Brili up and down, noticing she looked far worse than when she'd left.
She beamed proudly. "Well, I've finished my first assignment."
Aragorn looked around the steed again at the company. "I'll say…"
Then, not bothering with even an ounce of decorum, she slid off the saddle to latch herself around his shoulders. His arms braced her against his chest with ease. "You have no idea how happy I am to see you."
"Bite off more than you could chew?"
"Oh yeah, most definitely."
"Let me guess, straight to the bath?" He knew her too well.
Elrond interceded, pulling away from what looked to be a particularly tense standoff with her uncle. "Aragorn, your recruit is injured. I would send for my daughter if I were you."
"Oh, yeah, do me a favor, and don't let me go."
She felt his chest expand with a sigh. "What did you do now?"
"Would you believe that I tripped over my own feet?"
"Sadly, I would." From the corner of her eye, Brili could see a couple of members of the company pointing at the two of them just as Brili was unceremoniously hoisted up and over Aragorn's shoulder so that he could haul her like a sack of grain. "Well, let's set you right again. Up you go."
Yeah, it was really good to be home again…