Thank you to anyone who reviewed my last chapter and came back to see this one. I'm sorry for not answering any reviews lately. Absolutely exhausted honestly. But hopefully that lightens a little bit soon


Chapter 31: The Elven Gate

No one uttered a word as we saddled the horses that Beorn the skin-changer had let us borrow. His eyes were golden, eerily predatory as he watched us heave ourselves in the saddles. He still barely liked us which made his risk so much more interesting. If Azog caught him, he would be forced into servitude again. The chains around his wrists were enough to remind me of this fact.

It made me ashamed to be near him. Ashamed that I couldn't give him anything worthy of his selflessness. Ashamed that I couldn't give him anything worthy of his sacrifice and bravery. Nothing I could offer would be of interest to him.

"Thank you," I whispered as Fili's arms came around me to grasp the reins. Beorn had enough horses for every individual member of the party but… I wouldn't leave Fili. Not when it would be so easy to separate the group if Azog somehow intercepted us and used the skittishness of ponies to his advantage. Our mare whinnied, skittering a bit until Beorn's big hand came out to rest on her snout, her worry instantly dissolving. His eyes searched mine, silent and piercing. "You're risking yourself for us when we've given you nothing but empty cabinets and bad conversation. If we… when we reclaim the mountain, I'll be sure to come back. For now, please accept my gratitude."

"You aren't like them," he murmured and I stiffened as his gaze wandered to the points of my ears alarmingly visible with the way Fili had braided my hair. When I had mentioned my discomfort he had told me that I always tried to cover them. That they were beautiful. And then he had kissed the tips of each with such reverence that I hadn't protested anymore.

Still, the skin-changers eyes on them made uncomfortable heat prickle at my cheeks and spine. Fili tensed behind me, his hands whitening on the reins. I continued on before he could say anything rash. "I am… half elf. Raised among my dwarven side."

That tawny gaze searched across my face, his eyes digging beneath my skin in a way that made me want to squirm. "You look like the forest elves. The ones your party rides to. The same nose. The same hair coloring." Something dark slipped across his gaze and his hand tensed on our mount. "You should be warned… Your kin aren't the same as they once were. They have always been rash compared to the others but Thranduil has led his people into isolation. And there is something foul in those woods. Something that is infecting the very trees and streams that they commune with."

Troubled. Agitated. Afraid. So much fear that for a moment his eyes widened as if he wasn't entirely prepared for it. He quickly looked away, taking a step back as he turned his face to the ground, hiding himself from my eyes.

Behind me, Fili shifted, a breath slipping from his lips to warm the shell of my ear. He had seen it too.

I shouldn't push… but… "What do you mean, Beorn? They won't…hurt us will they?"

He didn't answer for a long, suffocating moment, his face still tipped to the ground. When he did look back up, his face was decidedly blank. "Stay to the path. Stay to the path and you won't see another soul until the Lonely Mountains." His eyes flicked to Fili, a strange expression tightening his features. "I would suggest covering her ears when you get to the forest."

Wind whipped through the meadow, something cold and foul sending a shot of dread through my entire body. Fili's voice was tight when he answered. "Noted."

Without another word, the hulking man turned, disappearing into the forest.

"Did he tell you that he'd put our heads on spikes to decorate his walls if we ever come back?" Kili quipped as his pony pranced closer. He had gotten a showhorse that seemed to pose at every opportune moment. Fitting.

Out of the corner of my eye, I caught Fili's foreboding expression, his gaze intent on where Beorn had disappeared. Without a word, he reached to the strap tying my hair back, slipping it free gently until my hair poofed out around us. I didn't say anything as he slipped it over my shoulder, making sure that my ears were completely covered.

To say that I was terrified would have been an understatement.


An hour's travel by horse, our pace unforgiving as we ate up the grassy hillside. Everyone kept their words to themselves even Fili and I. Something had shifted in the last day as if we had reached the edge of a doorway that we had been lingering in front of and finally decided to step over. I felt Azog as if he were a beast crouching all around us, our desperate fleeing only keeping us just in front of his relentless fingertips.

Even with that presence breathing down our necks, we never caught sight of him or his hounds. Beorn kept us safe. I could have wept for gratitude, the aching in my gut making tears well in my eyes as the tangled limbs of the Mirkwood forest finally came into view.

"The Elven Gate," Gandalf murmured, his fingers curled tightly around his staff. The path wound out into the clearing that bordered the imposing mass of the forest like a beckoning hand. From where I sat the trees looked like a tangled nest of hair, gnarled vines and leaning trees overlapping in a daunting display. I had received too many warnings about this place to not be wary. "Here lies our path through Mirkwood."

Fili's hands spanned my waist as he helped me down, his face drawn. Both of our minds were elsewhere, running through a list of things that should have felt right but didn't. Like this path. Like this forest.

We drifted nearer along with the others, the horses still saddled just with less weight beginning to graze and take a much-needed rest. Beorn had told us that they knew their way back.

"No sign of the orcs," Dwalin mused, his feet creating motes of dust as he leapt from his mount. "We have luck on our side."

"Or an incredibly generous skin-changer," Kili whispered, releasing his mount from her burden. He caught my stare with a wry smile, winking. "The eyes of an archer, my darling."

"Don't call her that," Fili murmured without any real heat, his eyes distant as he took in every single branch and root that we could see. Without looking away, he began to unwind a length of rope from his pack, his eyes troubled.

"What should I call her?" his brother whined, looking to the sky in exacerbation.

"Her name," he shot back. "It's lovely enough without adding any flare."

I couldn't help the shy smile that I sent him, my face heating at the compliment. The smirk that Fili gave me from beneath his lashes as he bent to pull out the dagger at his ankle made my knees weak.

"I'll workshop it," Kili decided, nodding absently to himself.

"Don't workshop it," Fili responded absently, beginning to tug experimentally on the length of rope. He turned me about with a deft hand.

"What are we workshopping?" My youngest brother asked, his eyes bright as he bound over to us. "Why's Tori's hair down? Fili took such care with it this morning…"

Uneasiness settled in my stomach like rocks.

"Please tell me you weren't canoodling on horseback?" Nori hissed as he stormed over, the physical embodiment of a stormcloud. Dori was hot on his heel, his expression aggressively pleasant.

"Which we would endorse wholeheartedly because -" He looked expectantly at our middle brother who rolled his eyes petulantly. "Because…"

Nori's teeth flashed. "Because we agreed to this courtship of two like-minded individuals who clearly love each other." He sneered at the last three words, his eyes shifting murderously to Fili who was tinkering away with something on my pack. "But if I find out that you had your dirty little mitts on her on some stinking fucking horse-"

Kili and Ori's eyes zipped from one person to the next, clearing enraptured by the play.

"I'm sure you both know the next step in a proper courtship," Dori broke in, his disposition so sunny that it started to worry me. He was unreasonably optimistic in regular situations. When faced with the possible union of one of his siblings… Aggressive support seemed to be his default. It was slightly more frightening than Nori's clear protectiveness over every last one of my virtues and choices. Dori's silver eyes glimmered, his nose pinkening. "Babies."

I choked on my own saliva, raw terror seizing the breath from my lunges. I gagged and gasped through the next few minutes as Ori and Kili whispered conspiratorially, their voices growing more and more excited as my coughing turned into wheezing, tears streaming down my cheeks.

"Sexual compatibility is very important in courting customs," Dori was yammering on. I stumbled as Fili did something that yanked me back once. Twice. "Why in the season of the Great Frost, nearly 1856 years ago, I heard-"

"Give me a fucking break," Nori snarled cutting off our brother with suck venom that Dori gasped, clutching at his collar. His eyes lasered in on where Fili was tightening something, tugging again until I stumbled. "If you touch my little sister before she gives her enthusiastic consent, I'll tear your fucking cock off and force it down your throat, you hear me? And it better not be in some flea-infested stack of hay, you useless whelp."

"Oh dear," Dori murmured, looking thoughtful before a serene smile tipped his lips. "I do have to agree with Nori. This next step is a very delicate time and if word gets back to us that there were any issues… well, I can't quite tell you what I'll do but it won't be pleasant."

Kili and Ori had stopped chatting to each other, their faces duel masks of concern.

"Jump, love," Fili commanded and I could imagine his eyes narrowed on whatever he had been fiddling with. I did as he said, earning me a low hum of acceptance. He took a slow draw of breath before stepping up beside me. A long length of rope corded his right wrist, slipping out and around to something behind me. He gave my older brothers a stony expression, his voice unbearably calm. "I'm glad we're on the same page about Tori's comfort," he started, completely unfazed by the debatably unhinged ramblings of my brothers. "If I do anything to hurt her, you have my permission to do whatever you can think of in retribution." A slim, deadly smile curled his lips. "Just as I'll be doing if either of you do anything unforgivable."

A slow, considering look crossed both of their faces, their heads tipping to the side like Fili had just offered them a bargain and they were shocked at the fairness.

"This is weird," Kili grumbled.

"On the count of children," Fili continued and I blubbered out an astonished breath, whipping around to stare up at his handsome face, a calm smirk playing on his lips. "I plan on having many. And practicing often."

I wanted to die. Bury me here and end my humiliation. Nori gagged, recoiling at the statement while my eldest brother beamed.

"Oh good," Dori gushed, clapping excitedly. He turned excitedly to Nori, who looked a bit green. "Can you imagine, Nori? Babies running amuck again? Tearing out chunks of hair and sucking on your favorite trinkets? Doesn't it sound wonderful?"

Color leeched back into Nori's face as he seemed to think about it. He couldn't possibly - "They might get my nack for nicking things," he mused, looking suspiciously pleased with the idea.

Dori rolled his eyes. "They'd get much more reasonable skills from me. You can't steal things in polite society."

Nori's lips moved comically as he mocked our eldest brother.

"Hey!" Ori piped up, looking a bit offended. "I have abilities too! Very impressive, important abilities!"

"Oh come on," Kili groaned, looking exasperated with the whole affair. My heart soared. Finally someone of reason - "We all know Durin blood runs stronger than most. No use wishing for the stars when we already have the earth at our feet." He sniffed. "He'll look like me. Because I'm the handsomest and obviously he'll have good enough taste to make the right decision."

"Him?" I gasped, finally finding my voice. Fili had turned back to fiddling with my pack again. I whirled on him. "Aren't you going to say anything, your majesty? Or are you going to - going to - what the fuck are you doing? What is this?"

"A-" His brows knit, a deep breath exhaling from his nose as he glared at the knot currently tied securely around my pack. "Well, I guess you could call it a leash."

I blinked up at him, flabbergasted. "Excuse me?"

His blue, blue gaze met mine, frustratingly calm. "Beorn told not to leave the path. I won't leave the path. And with you tied to me, you definitely won't leave the path."

My lips curled from my teeth. "Because you're such a fucking genius?" His eyes glittered with mirth, his gaze slipping to my lips as I berated him. "I watched you eat rocks, buddy. I watched you once eat so much roast that you threw up over that pretty twit in our defense classes. You're afraid I'll wander away."

"You watched me." His eyes danced, his eyes crinkling attractively as he leaned a bit closer, head tipping to the side until I felt the ghost of his smile along my lips. His nose nuzzled mine. "It sounds like you were a bit obsessed with me, hamumal amrul."

I spluttered, heat flaring across my face. "You're arrogant."

"I am," he agreed easily. "It made deluding myself into thinking that I could win you over, a little bit easier."

"Stop distracting me," I snapped, mind nearly losing track of what this argument had even started as.

Fili's expression sobered in a moment, his voice lowering until our brother's ears wouldn't be able to catch his words. "You heard Beorn. Keep to the path. Being tied together will make sure that even if one of us wanders, we'll at least be able to find each other."

I blinked, oddly…touched by the sentiment. I glanced at where the rope wound around the middle of my pack. "You didn't put it around my waist."

He nodded. "If things don't go well, I wanted you to have the option of releasing yourself easily from me."

Deep dread coursed through my veins. He was saying… If I needed to run. If I needed to leave him. I felt like someone had slapped me. "I would never-"

"Neither of us would be able to fight if we were restricted by the other," he whispered, brushing a soft kiss to my nose. His eyes were so gentle, so soft when he looked at me. "Even if you wanted to be rid of me, you wouldn't, believe me, hamumal amrul."

Something in me settled, the tension on my body slowly loosening. Without all of those swirling emotions there was nothing to block out my own foreboding though. Like a heavy blanket, this anxiety settled more and more on me. I coudln't shake it. And the more my eyes were drawn to that beckoning path to the Elven Gates, the more I felt it press down on me.

"I don't like this," I whispered, curling closer into his chest until he arms wrapped around me. I tore my gaze away from the circle of stones that made up the entrance of the gate, brush and vines eating away at any discernible feature besides the pathway.

"I don't either," Fili whispered, his forehead meeting mine in a moment of exhaustion and fear. "Keep to the path," he repeated. "Keep to the path and no other living soul will bother you."

I didn't say anything, my eyes dragged back to that imposing beginning. This place was sick. I could feel it in my very bones.


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