Catastrophe: noun
1. A sudden event that causes many people to suffer. Synonym: Disaster
2. An event that causes one person or a group of people to suffer, or that makes difficulties.
Word origin: mid 16th cent. (in the sense 'denouement'): from Latin catastropha, from Greek katastrophē 'overturning, sudden turn', from kata- 'down' + strophē 'turning' (from strephein 'to turn').
Source: definition/english/catastrophe
=^.^=
Bilbo woke up at the first signs of light, not even bothering about the discomfort of sleeping outdoors. He learned how to deal with back aches from sleeping on the hard ground and midge bites from being out in the wild ten years prior, and it wouldn't be any of them that would prevent him from going on now. A tender look at who was sleeping close to him at his right left no doubts about it.
"Let her sleep some more. The road has been hard on her."
The hobbit turned to the dwarf, addressing him with a wry smile.
"I've seen a hard road on a dwarf now and then, and I've seen her dealing with harsher things than this road. What makes her be on this road is far harder than the road itself."
Thorin sat down beside his official burglar, a chunk of way-bread in one hand and a mug of mint tea in the other.
"You have a lot of understanding for someone who doesn't have children of his own."
"So do you." Stated Bilbo.
"I raised my sister-sons." Thorin provided, mater-of-factly.
"Of course. Since their father passed away."
Bilbo almost regretted his words when he saw the pain in his friend's eyes.
"Since always, actually."
"Huh? Dís never mentioned it. I thought…"
"Aye, taking care of them became a full time thing after the accident, but we always were… very close."
"You and the lads?"
Bilbo asked more as a rhetoric question, his mind already on what he would say next. The answer, though, granted him mind food enough to ruminate the remaining of the day.
"Me and their father."
=^.^=
The walk through the forest was silent and gloomy. Most of the trees seemed to comply in helping them, and the trail the trio managed to tread was not as hard as Kíli found in his escapade from their camp. Part of him felt guilty about having left Tilda alone, allowing the orcs to kidnap her, yet another part conceded he wouldn't be able to fend all of them alone, and the actual rescue had been possible only due to the surprise factor.
Surprise also had been to see Legolas held captive, and his help in the escaping was undeniable. To see the elf succumb to spider poisoning was worrisome. More worrisome yet was said elf becoming worse rather than better from his poisoning, befuddling both him and Tilda. Him being befuddled by some health issue was no surprise, his chosen path was the Way of the Warrior, not the Way of the Healer, but Tild was a healer, and it was clear Legolas state was not something she was comfortable with.
"Kíli, we must rest a while."
Her voice was low, proper for their need of stealth. When Kíli looked back at her, the glassy look in Legolas' eyes made clear what she meant with must. He agreed with a nod.
"Aye. You both, sit down and rest. I'll take a look around."
"Don't." The tired voice of the elf barely reached him. The elf was already on the ground, slightly leaned against a tree. Kíli took notice he favoured his back, propped on his arm and shoulder instead. "Stay close. There's nothing for us outside the deer path we're on. No warranty of safety."
"Legolas, we need water." Justified Tilda. "Both to drink and to cleanse your back. If Kíli finds a stream…"
"No!" It would have been a shout if the elf had strength enough. "Bad water. South of the old forest road, bad water. We've never been able to cleanse it."
Kíli frowned, remembering the accident with Bombur when they crossed the forest ten years prior.
"Like the enchanted river that brings sleep?"
"No." Was the tired answer. "That is my father's doing. South of the road…"
What it was that was south of the road Legolas was unable to say, his body trebling like a green leaf in the wind, then spasming out of some evil seizure. Both Tilda and Kíli tried to hold him, prevent him from hurting himself in the throes of the convulsion. Sweat drops the size of fresh peas blossomed out of his forehead, but they could feel his whole body damp from it. It was like a whole fever night consumed the elf in less than an hour.
"Cold… Ice cold…"
Was all he was able to mumble when the worst of his seizure wore off. Tilda unfastened the sigil of Dale and took off her cloak, using it to cover the feverish form of the elf. It was short for him, of course, but better than nothing. She knew they would have to bring his temperature down, but right now his comfort was more important.
"Kíli, hold him."
"What?"
"Hold Legolas, please. He needs the feel of warmth, even if what his body need is to be cooled down. Dwarrow…"
"Of course, our bodies are warmer than those of the children on Ilúvatar."
He felt a bit strange cradling the sick elf to his chest, but healers' orders were healers' orders, and he wasn't foolish enough to dispute. Would it be so strange if the elf in question were Tauriel instead of Legolas? Would it be so strange if the healer in question were Óin instead of Tilda? Kíli decided it didn't matter, when the purpose was to help someone of the Free Peoples and resist evil in any of its guises. He wiped Legolas' forehead with his sleeve, preventing sweat drops from reaching his eyes.
When the shivers began to fade, Tilda signalled Kíli to release the elf and retrieved her cloak. Above anything, she wished for fresh water, to cleanse his skin and finally tend his sting-wounds. And idea hit her.
"Legolas, can you hear me?"
The elf opened his eyes, tiredly, and nodded.
"We need water, or anything that can be used to cleanse. You said no stream south of the old forest road is proper, but what else do you know that we may use? Some underbrush or vine maybe?"
Now it was Kíli's curiosity was picked up.
"You want to use plants to cleanse, not only to treat?"
"Well, it's an idea I've been trying in Dale." She tried to explain. "If we can use water boiled with medicine to clean, why can't we use the medicine plant to cleanse, as well? Like, do you know aloe?" She almost didn't expect his negative head shake to continue. "It is used to treat burns and minor cuts, has lots of water inside, looks like it's a fat plant, do you know? It's hard to grow it this far north, because it doesn't stand harsh winters, but sometimes we get a wagon from the south. If I had some, I would use it to cleanse the spider bites."
Kíli furrowed his brows, thinking hard if he saw anything in the likes of it while… running away from her. Or briskly walking back to her. No need to consider when trekking the orcs to the camp, his mind was far too set on finding Tilda to notice anything around him. Which could explain, at least in part, why it was so hard to find the way back to the camp.
"Tree stonecrop."
Both woman and dwarf looked at the prostrate elf, whose eyes were half-open at best.
"Legolas? Do you know of a plant?"
"Tree stonecrop. Bush sedum. False hens and chickens."
The last name lightened a spark of knowledge in the healer's eyes.
"False hens and chickens? I know a plant by this name!"
"Grows in glades. If we can find…"
"Aye, it need more sun than regular underbrush. Thick leaves, like a finger?"
Her patient just nodded.
"I'll go find it." Kíli offered.
"No!" The elf protested, raising a hand in the dwarrow's direction. "You'll get lost. We're south of the old road. If we get separated…"
"I understand. I probably found you both only because the orc trail was unmistakable." Kíli turned to Tilda, seeking her opinion more than her agreement. "We walk together, then?"
"I think so. We can take turns upholding him, if necessary."
"Aye."
So they started a new stretch of the aimless run; actually, more a trudge than a run, but a run anyway. Hunger, pain and above all, thirst were their company, besides Legolas' unintelligible rant in some elven language.
After an hour or so, or what felt to be an age, there was break in the tree clusters, allowing the timid autumn sun to shine on the rocky soil. Mirkwood, as a matter of fact, was not completely mirkish, a truth few travellers had the chance to recognise because most of it was just too dangerous for someone to simply walk into it oblivious of the dangers of straying outside the path.
"We must rest."
Begged Tilda, to which Kíli agreed immediately. He had not spent any time under the hospitality of the orcs, but was depleted all the same. They slowed Legolas down to the ground, trying at least to avoid any sharp rock. The jolst of landing him down was enough to bring him back to the land of the living, so to say; at least, out of the slumber-trance state he was walking most of the time.
"There!" Legolas pointed to the north border of the glade. "Tree stonecrop!"
It was true.
Forgetting her tiredness, Tilda walked to the plant, eager to collect it and make good use, thanking Yavanna for the gift of healing herbs she bestowed on Middle-earth. The leaves were thick, light green with reddish edges, forming a flower-like pattern down the stalk. Considering the damage she witnessed on Legolas' back, Tilda collected a merciful amount of stems and got back to where her elven patient sat.
"Shirtless, please."
He looked up at her with suspicious eyes.
"No. Your intended will bite my head off."
"By the Powers, we have no time for puritanism!" Kíli all but shouted. "Tilda is a healer; did you never hear that you'd never hide anything from your healer, your attorney and your wizard?"
The elf seemed to ponder Kíli's statement, with a grain (or perhaps a ton) of salt, and nodded in agreement.
Thankfully, his tunic didn't adhere to the wounds as much as before, leaking less blood from the bites than the first time Tilda made him to show the stings. Taking in a deep breath to steady herself and do what had to be done despite any sign of pain of her patient, the young healer began her work.
She crushed the fat leaves of the healing herb to wash the grime and pus from the elf's back. Pressing as much as she dared in order to drain the foul-looking bites, she tried to ignore Legolas' shudders, and focused on the final result.
After what felt an age, the bites were clean, as much as possible with the scarce resources available. It was not much respite, lack of food and water taking its toll, but Tilda hoped her patient would feel better from then on.
A fool's hope.
Shudders took his body and she feared another convulsion. Was the fever back?
"Legolas, are you feeling cold again?" She asked to improve her diagnosis.
"No!" He all but shout, wiping his running nose. "Hot! I'm burning! I'm burning in fire!"
A wrist to his brow stated a clammy, cold skin. Too cold for her taste.
"He's freezing." Tilda whispered to Kíli.
"This is nonsense. He was burning in fever a moment ago."
"State it yourself. Here."
Tilda grabbed his hand and put it against the elf's brow.
"Is he dead already?" He whispered back to her.
"Not yet."
"I heard this, dwarf!"
"Was it the plant you used?" Kíli questioned the healer, ignoring the patient.
"Impossible. False hens and chickens is used for burns and cuts, it shouldn't meddle with his temperature while used outside only." She assessed the pulse in Legolas' neck, worried. "I simply can't fathom what's happening in his body."
Her doubts were cut short by a whimper, the closest to a cry Legolas allowed himself to utter. They could see the muscles on the elf's back contorting and knotting in pain.
"What if the plant is toxic for elves? I heard some herbs used by hobbits can be dangerous to dwarrow."
"Kíli, it was Legols himself who pointed out the plant, it can't be wrong."
"Is he a healer, too? A herb-lore master, perhaps?"
Stunned by the tone of his voice, Tilda faced the dwarf from the top of her indignation.
"He's a warrior just like you, Kíli! Are you doubting he possesses the basic ability to know a plant that grows in his own home-forest that can be used to tend cuts and scrapes?"
"I'm doubting nothing, I'm only stating he's getting worse rather than better, as is plain to see!"
"Do you need to shout to state such a thing?"
"I'm not the one shouting here, milady!"
"Oh, no, milord, you're only the one jealous of me tending to someone else here, it seems!"
"What? Listen here, I'm not…"
What Kíli was not, Tilda was unable to hear, as his ramble was cut short by the piercing pain of a sting in his back, followed by her own scream as she watched the dwarf she loved being lifted from the ground by a silky rope.
Her own scream was short-lived, supplanted by pain when her own shoulder received an unmerciful dose of spider poison. Through cloudy eyes, she was still able to see the spindly legs of a spider rolling Legolas in a cocoon of web.
=^.^=
More notes:
BlondiezHere, I have no words to thank you for all the reviews and support; this Kíli/Tilda story is far simpler than the fantastic work you're sharing, but I'm happy we are on the same ship! And, yep, (ch. 17) Thranduil is very rude, based on his behaviour towards the Company; yet, there's still time to change things, even for an elf. Bilbo may, eventually, find out (ch. 19) creativity is everything. Of course, if he's smart enough and musters a bit of courage. Beware, if all trees were ok with Legolas, he would be in far less trouble (ch. 38). I swear to you, it was to be a short fic, but things just couldn't be told without the due depth, so, here I am, almost a whole year after the first post. Although, I still believe there are just four or five chapters left to finish it (I'm telling this myself for the last twelve chapters at least…) (ch.40).
Mizz Alec Volturi, it may be a bit more complicated than that. Consider things that can put someone to a drugged sleep and you may find the source of the problem.
Mustard Lady, Kíli is a cute piece of candy, when he only gets the chance to show his true nature, and also a remarkably warrior and anything else someone needs. I'd keep him in my pocket if I could. Celebrisilweth, there are worst things than spider poison to be considered, it might just not be obvious yet. Welcome on board and have a nice trip, maryb1439! I'd love to hear from you, I try my best to answer all reviews, they make me really happy and motivated!