In shock she covered her mouth with her hand. Was it really possible she had been traveling with her brother all this time without knowing? Of course he had seemed somewhat familiar but she had just thought him to be another Dúnedain.
"Aragorn" she muttered "But after we lived in Rivendell, after our father died, we called him Estel. You said that was his real name"
"You were heirs to the throne of Gondor to reunite the Gondor and Arnor, the two kingdoms of Men. We had to protect him. When he was twenty, I revealed to him his real name and his origin. He left shortly after, not accepting the duty like you did" she let out a grunt. Seemed like they weren't that different in that regard.
"Does he know? Who I am?"
"I do not believe so" he held out his hand as an invitation to go on and join him. She slowly nodded and started walking again, not feeling too well and not sure what she should say. Aragorn looked up and seemed confused
"Linnie, nice to meet you. May I ask what you are doing here, at that time?" well what to tell him? Luckily Elrond took over
"Both children reunited at their mother's grave" he spoke pensively. For some moments it was quiet
"Lhindril? My sister?" Aragorn then asked in disbelief. Before she could say a word, he embraced her "It is great to see you again, after all this time. I just knew that you were alright"
"I know. I always was fine. Well, apart from a few times"
"When you left, I blamed myself. Where have you been all those years?"
"I am sorry. I know what I did was wrong. But I simply could not deal with that Elrond told me about the decision I had to make, whether I want to claim the throne of Gondor or leave it to you. So, I simply fled the responsibility" at this he smiled
"As did I. Hearing who I am made me choose exile and become a ranger"
"One of you must do this" Elrond said "It is high time that Gondor has a queen or a king again and you are the last of your bloodline" with that he looked at her. Did he mean for her to take on that burden? But that would mean she could not return home to Erebor, to Fíli.
"I-I can't. I refuse all rights I have in that throne"
"It is not a decision you can make in such a short time. Take your time, you will need it" Elrond said sternly
"But I had time. All those years I have been gone. And now I have Fíli and a home. I can't leave him. I don't want to leave him" she whispered with tears in her eyes.
"Perhaps the quest at hand will make you change your mind" Elrond said before he left
"We will find a solution" her brother promised when he gave her shoulder a squeeze and then followed the Elf. She squeezed her eyes shut and wiped the tears away. For a short while she stood at the grave but instead of talking to her mother as she had initially wanted, her thoughts only were about the recent incidents so she soon left and went back to her room. She saw that the Dwarves were already asleep and because she feared to wake them and that she then would have to tell them what happened, she left the room again, closed the door and sank to the ground in front of it. Not much later someone passed her. Aragorn. He asked what she had and slowly, she found herself telling him what bothered her. Their mother's death, having found her brother again, needing to make this decision. And of course the looming danger over Middle Earth.
"I understand. Would you like to walk a little?" she nodded, wiping her tears away and took his hand. The whole night they walked around, talking about anything that came to their minds. Childhood memories, adventures they were on. Of course Aragorn was most interested in the quest to Erebor and they found out that they had narrowly missed each other. Only two days after the company had left, Aragorn was back and learned that she had been here but couldn't follow them.
"Did you know it was mother who noticed that I was in love with Fíli? I couldn't imagine what would have happened if she hadn't been. I don't know where I would be today. If I would be somewhere. I just can't believe she's gone"
"I feel the same. When she died, I was with her. She asked me to find you and take care of you"
"It was the same with father. His last words were that I should take care of the family. But I just abandoned you all"
"No, you didn't. You left that's all. I remember when I mentioned our father's death you pretended you didn't hear me. Was it really that bad?"
"Yes. In a way I felt responsible for it and I swore myself to avenge his death. Two Orcs had attacked us and I thought to have killed one of them and the other escaped. But on the journey to Erebor I met one again and in the end also the other that I thought to be dead. For a while I even thought that the same Orc who killed father had also killed Fíli. But then Thorin and I killed him. The Orc I mean. And Legolas killed the other one" since the sun had already risen, they decided to go back to their rooms. In front of her door they said goodbye and Aragorn hugged her, gently kissing her forehead and then leaning his head to hers. As fate would have it the door opened just in that moment and Fíli left the room. Before anyone could say something Lhindril turned to him and wanted to tell him the matter but as usual, Fíli trusted in weapons more than words and had his swords already at the ready.
"Let her go. Now" he pointed his sword at the man and at least Aragorn let her go but he pulled out his weapon too. With a defeated sigh she placed herself between them, drawing her weapon too.
"Both of you stop this now" to top it all off Kíli too had to leave the room with his sword ready. "It's not what you think. That's my brother. Aragorn"
"What?" Kíli asked
"He's my brother, I just found him again after all these years" she turned around to him who had already put his weapon away and held out his hand to Fíli
"Aragorn, son of Arathorn" luckily Fíli too put his sword away and took his hand
"Fíli, king under the mountain. At your service" while Fíli was quick to get upset he also caught himself quickly every time. "Linnie has told me much about you" Aragorn grinned
"So she got that nickname from you?"
"It was my idea, actually. Kíli" the younger Dwarf piped up and they shook hands too.
"A pleasure to meet you both. I too heard a lot about you in the past hours"
-oOo-
In the following time, everyone prepared for the journey. Fíli too clipped his beard a little while Lhindril wrote a letter to Dáin to inform him that they'd be gone for a while and what they had learnt about the ring. Then, the fellowship was given provisions and what else they might need and then they were ready to leave. Before they did so however, Elrond reminded them that no one was obligated to go further than they wanted.
"Somewhat obvious Elves organised that" Fíli muttered next to her and she wanted to know why "They never even thought to give us ponies or horses. Or let us take ours"
"And I bet their food leaves much to desire too" Gimli grunted and also Kíli agreed, making her shake her head. Oh well this would be a fun journey. Three Dwarves and an Elf, even one that had locked up two of the Dwarves and the father of the third what increased their hate. Then two Men that were constantly fighting and two Hobbits that couldn't resist any sort of foolery.
-oOo-
"Imagine I'm an Orc coming towards you" Fíli called when he positioned himself on the other side of the little platform they were on with his weapons up before running towards his wife. But she just stood there because she thought that lunging at him might not be the best idea because they often expected that. It seemed that Fíli did too because he stopped in confusion "What are you doing? Attack me. You can't just stand there and do nothing"
"Trust me, I know what I'm doing. Or trying to do. And you better let me try that now during practice rather than during a real fight" she retorted and after he gave her a glance, Fíli returned to the position he'd started earlier and charged at her again. This time he didn't slow down or stop and just before he reached her, she stepped aside and he simply ran past her. Now she didn't hesitate and attacked him from behind, jumping into his back before he had even realised that he'd missed her or could even do something against it. With a grin she pecked his hairline "You do know I'd have just defeated you?" she leant her chin onto his head.
"I know. Quite fast too" slowly she let go of him and slid off this back, turning around to get ready for the next exercise when he threw her to the ground and landed on top of her. This time he was the one to kiss her "But you again forgot the most important lesson, little one. Never turn your back on your enemy, even if you think to have defeated him" he got up and helped her too before they continued the training before Lhindril stumbled over her own feet and fell down with a huff. He knelt in front of her "What do you think? Enough for today?" she gave a nod "Promise? No more surprise attacks?" he inquired because usually either of them would start another surprise attack on the other.
"Promise" she confirmed and he helped her back up, brushing some dust off her skirt and pecking her knuckles before letting go of her and then collecting his weapons. They joined the others again, who were mostly just sitting around and smoking, except for Merry and Pippin, who were practicing to fight with Boromir and Kíli. Gimli got up as well and challenged his king for a duel. He only raised his eyebrows and drew his sword again but they were stopped by Legolas. Black birds were flying towards them that apparently were spies of Saruman, according to Gandalf. So everyone quickly hid and Lhindril went back to put out the fire that was still burning before taking cover in the last moment. After the birds were gone, Gandalf wanted to take the pass of Cahadras that Saruman would not find them.
It seemed like no one had expected that much snow and storm what really slowed them down. Suddenly Frodo stumbled and fell down a few feet but luckily Aragorn could catch him. Lhindril, who had decided to walk with her brother because she was trying to talk to him more since she felt bad that they hadn't seen each other in such a long time, brushed some snow off the Halfling's coat. Frodo then noticed that his ring was gone but Boromir had already picked it up and was eyeing it critically, voicing his doubt how this thing could be the doom of them all. Aragorn reminded him to return the ring which he finally did but when the man of Gondor left, she realised that her brother had held his sword to draw it if necessary.
"You distrust him" she remarked
"Not exactly him but you should never underestimate the power of the ring. It is through and through dangerous and evil"
"I hope Boromir will not succumb to it. Well that no one does, actually"
"I fear anyone who comes into contact with it will in a way" she only nodded
"You know, in a way it reminds me of dragon sickness of Erebor. Everyone who came into too close contact with the gold got it. At least most of them. You should have seen how Thorin behaved; he wasn't himself at all. All he cared about was his gold and to protect it, even if his kin had to die for it. And he did everything to separate me from his nephew. At some point he even wanted Kíli to kill me in my sleep" with that she thew a glance at the two Dwarven brothers who were a bit head of them "Of course he'd have never done something like it. Kíli"
"The two of you are close" she glanced at him guilty. It was true. For her, Kíli was more of a brother than Aragorn was if she was honest. After all she had spent more time with the Dwarf than her own brother. "And of course you're close with Fíli too" she was glad that she didn't need to answer and only nodded
"And that's why I cannot become queen of Gondor and Arnor. Because I have Fíli and a kingdom already"
"I see" he chuckled "It's kind of ironical that you ran from being a queen and then met Fíli which still made you a queen"
"I know" she sighed "But at least I have him and it's his people not mine" she smiled "What's even funnier is that Fíli is Durin's heir, the one Dwarf most people from other races know. And it's his duty to reunite all Dwarfs. Whereas I, I mean we two, are Isildur's heirs, the one Man most people of other races know. And one of us has to reunite all Men and ruled over two great kingdoms" in fact, she had only recently realised that she and Aragorn were Isildur's heirs. Of course she had known about their ancestor after Elrond told her before she left but the true meaning of it had escaped her until a few days ago.
"Then that probably makes you the mightiest couple in whole Middle Earth" she couldn't say if he was joking or not but didn't dare asking. Soon, the snowstorm got harder and to make it worse the path also became narrower, so Fíli came to see if she was alright and was warm enough. Even though she was touched that she meant so much to him and he was worried, she found he sometimes went too far or had ridiculous sorrows. After all, she had spent many years in the wild on her own and could take care of herself. If she didn't have to fight someone that was. Suddenly, they stopped and the wizard tried to mitigate the storm through spells and enchantments. Didn't he once say he could not influence the weather? But then she learned that the storm was Saruman's doing and Gandalf was merely trying to influence his magic. Unfortunately, it was of little use and an avalanche buried them all. Instantly, Lhindril tried to free herself by digging herself out of the snow, then helping others that still struggled. Fíli then joined her, again asking if she was alright and even wrapped her into his own coat and began rubbing her arms to warm her. This time she didn't mind because she was indeed cold. The others started discussing what they wanted to do and Gimli opted for the mines of Moria. Fíli and Kíli supported the idea but Gandalf was strictly against it but then said that Frodo should decide who chose the mines. Lhindril was quite glad about it, also for a part that not always Gandalf was the one to decide. After a steep descent they finally reached the entrance to the mines by nightfall. The entrance, however, was invisible like all closed Dwarven doors as Fíli explained to her
"And what makes them visible?" she asked
"It depends. Often it's moonlight or starlight"
"Do you think we should tell Gandalf?" Fíli just grinned
"I don't know. Either he knows it already or we'll let him think for a while. I bet he will find out himself pretty soon"
"I can't believe you're that mean to him" she laughed "But I admit it does sound tempting to let him see try it for a while"
"See?" her husband asked triumphantly. "If he can't figure it out in an hour or so we can still tell him. And maybe I'm wrong too" but he had barely finished speaking when Gandalf seemed to have found the solution himself and blue lines started glowing on the stone. In awe, she stared at them and felt Fíli's glance on her that she felt obligated to say something
"It's beautiful. And almost magic" he smiled
"Sounds like you had not given Dwarves the credit to create something like this?"
"Don't know" she admitted "But what puzzles me are that it's written in Elvish letters"
"Well, you see that you should never underestimate Dwarves" he pecked her cheek while Gandalf had read the inscription and said they needed a password.
"Speak friend and enter" she mumbled after the wizard had tried several different paroles. "This makes no sense, how can the door know if it's friend of foe who says the words. And why is it written in Elvish letters but in Westron?"
"If I recall correctly, Elves too know of that door and they too have the right to enter the mines. Most of them know the secret of the door as well" she looked around for Legolas but thought if he knew something about it he would have spoken up already.
"And do you have an idea what the password could be?"
"Well, I do have an idea. Speak friend and enter. It may be a riddle, the answer is already in the sentence. The correct word is friend"
"Ah I see. Very imaginative. Where is your Dwarvish difficulty now?"
"If you say the word in Westron, as you surely have seen and heard, nothing happens. And that would indeed be too easy. But seeing that it's written in Tengwar but the language is Westron, I think the word 'friend' must be translated to Elvish" he glanced at her
"What? Don't think I know it, my Elvish is not that good. But I'll ask my brother" she turned away from him and looked for Aragorn instead, who was scolding a Hobbit for throwing stones into the water.
"Where are the ponies?" she asked, realising they were gone
"We set them free. They cannot come into the mines with us. They can find their way to Rivendell, I'm sure" she just nodded, hating the fact they probably would need to walk the rest of the way. At least if they didn't get new steeds, which she doubted however.
"By the way, we think we have figured out the password we're looking for " it seemed that Gandalf had given up and sat down on a stone in frustration.
"That is?"
"Well, Fíli thinks the answer lies in the sentence already and it's the Elvish word for friend"
"Mellon?" there suddenly was a cracking sound from behind and Gandalf jumped up in surprise when the door opened. She ran back to Fíli, embracing him tightly
"Durin, Fíli, you're simply amazing" meanwhile Gandalf examined the door and it seemed like he had no idea what had just happened but didn't seem to question it further. Gimli pushed past him and entered the mine "What do you think Balin, Bifur and Ori will say when they see us?" Lhindril asked Fíli and Kíli who just shrugged
"I hope they won't hold us up too long. I can imagine they're tempted to throw a feast"
"Probably" she muttered with a smile. She stepped on something that gave a loud crack and she staggered a step back in shock with a little cry of surprise that echoed through the mine. She looked down and saw she had stepped onto the bone of a skeleton. Fíli was behind her, asking if something had happened but before she answered, she looked around and instantly regretted it. The whole area was littered with skeletons and a presentiment crept up on her.
