Calm The Fire

18

A light frown flitted onto his face as he glanced at her. "Boe gin eliad?" He questioned while gesturing a hand to the dwarves which surrounded her, she was tightly packed in. Seeing as how they were clearly being talked about, the dwarves exclaimed with annoyance.

"Avo drasto!" She exclaimed above the ruckus of the dwarves. "Gin ú-cheniar," she said despairingly while looking at them sheepishly, now they all narrowed their eyes at her seems she was talking about them too.

"Man cerig hí?" Elrond asked simply while turning and looking to the staircase behind him.

"Boe din eliad." Náriel said honestly, he turned and looked at her as she answered. He merely nodded slowly and gestured to the staircase.

"Please, follow me."

"What did you say?" Náriel narrowed her eyes at Thorin who stepped in line beside her as they walked towards the staircase.

"A load of elvish formalities which will highly bore you, and that you do not need to know. It's all rather dull." Náriel said plainly while walking ahead of him, needless to say Thorin didn't believe her.

—

Náriel had never seen someone look so bemused by lettuce before. Dori and Ori did genuinely seem very confused by it. Her eyes watched them curiously, "Try it, just one mouthful." Dori had said.

Ori looked sceptically at the lettuce in his hand. "I don't like green food."

Dwalin stuck his hand in the bowl in front of him and lifted up the content before slamming the bowl back down quietly. "Where's the meat?"

"Don't look at me!" Náriel exclaimed quietly when the tattoo headed dwarf sent her a narrow eyed look. She had already made it clear she didn't eat meat. That tended to go for others of her kin too. "I'm not the only elf that doesn't eat meat..."

"Don't go getting smart with me." Dwalin said while narrowing his eyes at her even more, if that were even possible.

"What? I'm not! I'm being honest." Náriel said while looking to the meal in front of her. To her this was a fine meal. She was actually grateful of the food, unlike the others around her. Frowning, she looked up. "Chips?" She leaned forwards and whispered while looking at Ori oddly, he was the one who'd voiced the topic of chips. She sighed and hung her head, "No." She answered which caused him, and most of the others to look rather sadly down at the table.

They all perked up and looked towards Elrond, Gandalf and Thorin as they approached. Seeing as how Kíli had suddenly listed off the problems with elven women, or in general, she shot him a look. This all started because he had cheekily smiled at one of the elves playing a harp behind them. Dwalin had looked on disapprovingly, having seen one friend hurt from the likes of falling for an elf, he didn't want to watch another go through the same. Although, he couldn't help but muse, what was it with this family and elven women?

"Oh, well, there's nothing wrong with you, Náriel, nothing at all, I mean..." Kíli said while trailing off nervously. Náriel was looking at him with dangerously narrowed eyes.

"If I were you, lad," Balin piped up. "I'd be quiet."

Sticking a fork painfully into a piece of food, she had great pleasure in seeing Kíli wince. Turning in her seat she opted to ignore him, and the rest of the company then. It wasn't a personal thing. She just didn't like basing things on face value, be that literally. She could openly list off the problems she saw with their kind. "You're rude." She started, "And uncultured, and impolite, and short tempered, and irritatingly stubborn" she listed off quietly, Kíli looked at her sadly. "Oh, but there's nothing wrong with you, Kíli, nothing wrong at all."