The Skin-Changer's Daughter (Hobbit Fanfic)

The Harsh Truth

Beorn's POV
My daughter just lay there, white against the blankets. There was a cut across her eyebrow, splitting it in two and stopping just short of her eye. Bruises decorated her neck, dark blue against her pale skin. Her breathing was deep and even as she slept, as she had done for the past two days. I dreaded telling her the fate of Thorin, who lay barely alive in another part of the mountain. I watched as her eyes slowly flickered open and she awoke for the first time in days.
~{<>}~
Eleana's POV
"A-Ada?" I asked, my voice hoarse from disuse. He looked gently down at me, a protective look in his eyes.
"Lay still little one," he said gently. I did as he said, beginning to feel the aches and pains that battle had left me with. My head hurt worst of all, the cut on my forehead burning like a firebrand. I tried to move my head a little, wanting to see where I was, but my vision blurred and I was forced to stay still.
"We are in Erebor little one," explained Ada "You have been asleep for the past two days." Slowly, my brain began to piece together the events before I had blacked out. The battle. Azog. Thorin. I remembered his face before I lost consciousness, full of pain, close to giving up.
"Th-Thorin," I whispered quietly. My father watched me silently, sadness in his eyes, I knew there was something he needed to tell me.
"Where is he?" I asked. Ada shifted uncomfortably in his chair.
"He is in another part of the Mountain little one, Oin is taking care of him."
I scrutinised my father, there was something else. He tried to hold my gaze, but he could not. He looked down at the floor, clearly wrestling with something in his mind.
"Ada. What is it?" I said gently, trying to keep my constantly unfocused sight on him. With a sigh, he met my gaze. As soon as he looked at me, I knew something was badly wrong. My insides went cold, I bit my lip and breathed in deep. My father reached a calloused hand to me and engulfed my own hand in his. His brown eyes were troubled, and begrudgingly he confessed:
"He's dying little one."