Another update! Yay! Thanks for keeping with me all this time. I hope you enjoy my newest chapter! I've begun rewriting the ending to my story but I still hope to find the original ending somewhere. Thanks for the favs and follows and I appreciate all of the reviews!
"Sharae, you still alive over there?" Fili's voice cut through the haziness of my dreams. My eyes opened lazily and I tried to get up only to thump back down in pain.
"Just barely," I said while trying to find the least painful way to sit up. Once I'd managed, I got up and made my way closer to the fire. Nori was staring into it with blank eyes and Fili was watching me, making sure I was all right. "We need to go find the others before they wander off," I said, still standing above the two. Nori looked up from his daze and nodded getting up right away. Fili sighed and got up as well.
"Are you sure you are fit to be traveling?" He asked in a tone that made me believe he thought I was anything but ready. I tried to exhale but cringed instead. I knew I wasn't fit to drive but there really wasn't another choice. We had to get to the others, we needed Grandpa, and Fili and Nori weren't able to drive.
"I'm just going to have to deal with it, we need to meet up with everyone as soon as we can." I said. He nodded and we headed toward where Grandpa had landed. Grandpa didn't look too bad; I was worried that he had landed on his side or upside down. I popped the hood of the car open to check that things were at least still in tact. Everything was relatively fine except for some branches that had managed to lodge themselves into places where they shouldn't have been. Nori and Fili stood beside me looking at the engine with blatant curiosity. As they helped me pull out the twigs and leaves they inspected the strange elements inside of my crazy driving contraption. I smiled as we finished and dropped the hood back down. There were just so cute when they were curious.
We got into the car and I tried to grab for a seat belt that wasn't there for the nth time. I rolled my eyes and turned on the engine as the other two got situated inside. After just three seconds of driving I knew the trip was going to be torment. Every jog of the car or turn of the wheel sent pain through my body. It was almost nauseating. We were headed in the direction we had last seen the eagles flying with their company in tow. We looked around trying to spot the plateau I had described to them. Nori spotted it first and as we got closer we could see the rest of our group making their way down. Fili leaned out the window and shouted in excitement as he spotted his brother among them.
When we made it to the base of the plateau Fili bailed and shouted up the cliff side. "Are all of you all right?" His voice echoed slightly off the rocks.
Dori grunted, "We'll live. Where's the lass?" The others chimed in their agreeance.
"Oh, she is still in the car…" Fili answered timidly.
There was a silent pause before Bilbo called down in irritation, "Well, is she alright?!" Fili stumbled over his reply. He must have been embarrassed that I had been injured on his watch. I felt kind of bad that he had to relay the news.
"Well, yes, relatively. Uh, I suppose she'll be fine."
"By the elves, lad!" Dori interrupted, "Just tell us what's wrong!" He growled. Fili sighed in defeat.
"She's bruised some of her ribs, or, at least, that's how it looks. She's having a hard time moving around at the moment so she's stayed in the car." He finished abruptly. There were groans as the dwarves continued their descent.
"Probably tripped on a blade of grass," someone mumbled. "Or sneezed too hard," grumbled someone else. A low chorus of chuckles followed these comments and I couldn't help but think they were trying to make light of the situation.
When they reached the ground there was a collective sigh. Bilbo quickly made his way over to the car and began questioning me relentlessly. After I had thoroughly told my story and he'd been appeased he walked off to help build the camp. I sat in the car waiting for them to finish.
Fili and Kili were reunited and talking animatedly about what had happened while they were separated. I hoped there wouldn't be another time where I had to split the group again. There were still a lot of obstacles in our journey that could go wrong. Though the last event hadn't been a failure, it hadn't ended very well. I hoped my injury didn't ruin any of our future plans.