Beside the Undying Fire

Chapter 15

Thorin and I shared the contact of our eyes for a brief moment, followed by a nod as Legolas began to walk our way, he took not two steps before his silken hair fell over his weightless shoulders as he leaned towards the ground in a bow. Surmising it was a gesture of appreciation and that of acknowledgement, I returned with a bow of my own.

"I do not appreciate fighting alongside Elves." I whispered to Thorin.

Thorin looked upon me and gave a gesture point back the way we came. So we began walking again. Striding past Avalinn and Legolas, she turned quickly at me and Thorin.

"Thank you." She spoke softly.

We nodded and continued on, back to Erebor.

"Hopefully we'll be back in time for dawn." He said.

It was just a little past dusk now. The sun hit our backs as it set over the West. The trees scattered around graciously as a breeze caressed their every leaf.

"I want to thank you again for coming." He kept looking ahead.

"It was my pleasure." I started "I promised I'd not let you see another tragedy. I hope I fulfilled it."

"You did just that, Madeira." He nodded.

I smiled.

We kept on.

My side began to ache again as it bruised. But the Elves did not inform Thorin of me being caught in Mirkwood after the battle. I took a deep breath of relief.

It got dark, abnormally dark. The moon didn't even shine through the vicious claws of cloud cover within the sky.

"I think we need to stop until dawn, Thorin." I looked at him. "We did not even take out the whole pack. It's just too dangerous."

"I was not about to wait around for more Elves to come."

"Let's just stop near one of the bundles of trees, I'm not inferring we need to sleep. But we need to get out of the open." I grabbed his hand. A spark flew into my chest from that hand.

His hands were like a fire. While mine were ice, numb from the cold. But it wasn't even as if it was that cold, it was just me, it was a family trait, we got cold.

I lead him to a bundle of trees. There was about 4, all in the shape of a perfect square, covered with some thick, medium sized bushes.

"I just don't want anything to go wrong." I looked at him.

He looked at me like I was insane. "It will be fine, Madeira, I can assure you."

"In this darkness, the Orcs have an advantage." I pleaded.

He gave a nod and I let go of his hand when we sat down together against the biggest tree in the bundle.

We sat there for a little while. I drew my sword and began to clean it with one of the leaves of the nearest bush. I wiped the blade as it sliced open a portion of my hand. It bled as I gasped. Thorin looked over at me from my right.

"I told you my coordination skills were lacking." I winced, throwing out a tortured laugh.

He laughed and took my ice cold hand and examined it.

"You'll survive." He stated with a slight smile.

I winced again, trying hard to keep it in the back of my throat, but failing. I put pressure on it with my shirt, cringing from the pain.

Something ran past the bushes, headed towards Mirkwood, back the way we came. I leaned on Thorin as he grabbed and covered my mouth with his hand and sunk down into the bushes. I was ready to cry from the pain. It shot up my hand and into my arm. My head lay on his chest as we sunk. I breathed fast as they stopped only metres away from where we were.

"Wargs." Thorin whispered.

I looked up at him, cringing.

He glared out towards the Wargs. There was only 4 Orcs, but about 7 Wargs from what I could see.

The Orcs said something that I was unable to hear. But I heard "Mirkwood" thrown into it, so I realized they were headed back for Mirkwood.

They left a second later, growling and screeching into the distance.

"I am sorry I doubted you." He admitted, looking down at me on his chest.

He let go of my mouth and grabbed the back of my shoulders, pushing me up. I took a breath of relief as I helped myself up.

"It's quite alright. I can't say people haven't listened to me before. But you did." I clutched my hand, still wrapped in the shirt.

"I swear, I hurt myself more times than Orcs do." I laughed, holding back a wince.

He looked at me.

"Try and get some sleep, I assure you I need no sleep." I affirmed.

"You need more sleep than I."

"You came back from a battle, a very dangerous battle." I interrupted.

"I promise you, I will not sleep even if I try." He looked down at me.

"I will not sleep knowing you aren't. Looks like this is going to be an uphill battle." I laughed.

"I guess neither of us are to sleep tonight." He smiled.

The night went by fast. Too fast. I'd enjoyed talking with him all night. Mostly trying to get the details of the battle out of him as he tried to get the details on how I'd wrecked up my face so good.

Of course I couldn't tell him.

It'd even gotten serious at one point, he told me of the tales his father and grandfather had told him of my father. They fought alongside each other in many a battles.

He knew how hard it had hit me when word came in my father had died.

But we were only aquatinted at the time.

I had only one person to talk to at the time; Ariannell.

"My father said your father was the most noble Dwarf he'd had the honour of fighting by." He started, sitting with his hands on his sword. "And I can see where you get that from."

I looked up at him, eyebrows raised in an almost concerned way. "I.. Thank you."

It was now light enough to travel. So we continued on.