Star-Crossed

Chapter 3

He saw a woman, a woman he’d seen earlier that day. She was with the girl, the girl with the emerald eyes. Suddenly excited, he searched for the girl, the green eyed girl who had waved instead of bowed, treated him like a normal being.  Why he was so excited he didn’t understand. He just wanted to see her again, to speak to her, to maybe had a friend, not one of the guards men or a tutor, a real, normal, friend. That was when he saw it, a giant tuft of blue sitting on the bench along the wall, her mask was on, but he could still tell it was her, the eyes you see. He hurried down the stairs and towards the girl.

She was sitting silently on the bench, swinging her feet gently, fidgeting with something in her hands. As he grew nearer he hesitated. Deciding against it, he started to back away. A pair of strong hands picked him up.

“Oh no you don’t!” Dwalin laughed as he lifted the seven year old prince up by under his arms and took him closer to the elven lass on the bench. Thorin tried to resist, but it was no use, Dwalin, an already bearded eleven year old, was far too strong for Thorin to take on, at least without his feet on the ground. Dwalin dropped him before the girl and hurried off, back to the corner where his brother was grinning, holding back laughter. The young elf hadn’t looked up, but he now could see what she was toying with in her hand. It was a small ring, well, it was large on her hands now, but later in life she wore it almost religiously on her littlest finger. It was simple silver band, a small opal in the center; she was turning it over and over in her fingers. Thorin thought that she might not have noticed him, so he thought of what to say.

“Someone said you were a king.” She said, looking up from her ring. Thorin was surprised she’d noticed him.

“No, just a prince.” He said bluntly, not knowing what else to say. She nodded and returned to her ring. Thorin thought quickly, if he wanted a friend, he’d have to know their name. Right? That’s what normal people do, right? He looked up. “May I ask you name?” He said politely. The girl again looked up from her ring, slipping not on her thumb.

“Beuren. Yours?” She was informal in her speech, blunt or rude one might say.

“I am Thorin, Son of Thrain.” He said, taking pride in his talk. She nodded and looked around.

“So your Father is king?”

“No, my grandfather, my father is prince, and I am the second prince.” She nodded again.

“Must be nice, being prince.”

“Not as nice as you would think.” He muttered. This caught her attention. A reluctant prince, interesting.

“Whys that?” She asked again, her head cocked to one side.

“It’s lonely.” Beuren’s curiosity was getting the better of her.

“I bet you have lots of friends.” He looked at the ground sadly, shaking his head no. “No friends?” She nodded. She knew exactly what he felt like. She had never had any people to call friends either. All the girls in Laketown wanted to grow up to be princesses, or to play dress up. All Beuren wanted to do was grow up to be a great fighter and play Orcs and Warriors; because of this the girls thought she was odd. Rather than playing with dolls, she played with wooden swords and toy bows. Instead of dresses she wore pants. You would never see Beuren swooning over the new cute boy in town; she was always the first to challenge him to a duel.

“What about you? Don’t you have friends?” Thorin asked, breaking her train of thought.

“I don’t have many.” She said, which Thorin took as ‘none, absolutely no friends whatsoever’. And he was right, the only friends she had were in her head, and they weren’t really friends, more like soldiers under General Beuren of the Great Middle Earth Army, but to her they were kind, they listened and killed orcs, you can’t not like them!

“Well, since you don’t have friends and I don’t have friends, do you want to be friends?” Thorin asked shyly. Beuren looked up at him; it was odd, someone asking to be her friend. But with a smile she nodded.

“Ok.” She said simply. Careful not to be seen, they snuck away from the party, unknowingly being followed by Balin and Dwalin. They two teenage dwarves were interested in seeing how this would play out, Balin had even put away his book to observe the younger dwarf and his elven companion.

“So what do you want to do?” She asked, looking at Thorin.

“Um, hide and seek?”

“Nah, I don’t know around here well.”

“Tag?”

“Eh.”

“Orcs and Warriors?” Beuren’s eyes lit up. She nodded a wide grin on her face. Dwalin and Balin gave each other a quizzical look then followed the two. Sure enough, there they were, two wooden swords between them, going at one another. She was good, the girl, unusually good.