She smiled despite her shivering. Kili ran to her, arms open. She picked him up and twirled him around, her sopping hair casting water droplets to and fro as she spun. Beuren lowered the young lad into her chest and wrapped her arms around him. She planted several kisses on his face; this received many giggles and squeals from Kili. She set him down and started towards Thorin and Fili.
Kili ran ahead of her. Grinning, she climbed the small knoll that the others stood upon. She opened her arms to Fili and hugged him. He laughed as she mumbled something in his ear. When she let him go she looked at Thorin. Both were panting for breath.
“What’s wrong old man? Too fast for you?” A smile spread on Thorin’s lips. As fast as a lightning strike, he caught her hips and drew her closer, his lips crashing down on hers. She smiled through the kiss and let her arms drape around his neck. The passion in his kiss made her melt; she leaned into him, her body contouring to his.
“Ewww!” The boys protested. When Beuren broke away she smiled back at the King.
“I haven’t been kissed like that in a while.” She whispered, resting her forehead on his. “Amin mela ta iire lle miqula amin ve' tanya.” She whispered breathily. Even though he hadn’t a single clue what she’d just said, he smiled. He loved it when she did that, spoke to him in that elegant tongue with her velvety tone. She hugged him one last time, then looked at little Kili.
“What?” He asked, as if he was in trouble.
“Well, you brought us all the way out here, what did you want to do that had to be done outside?”
“I dunno.” He said with a shrug. Beuren smiled and looked up. With a sigh she looked around.
“Give me an idea.” She said.
“I dunno.” He said again.
“So you made us race out here for nothing?” Thorin questioned.
“Well I don’t remember what I wanted to do!” Kili said no small amount of sass in his voice.
“Can you try?” Fili.
“I. Don’t. Know.” Kili said again, crossing his arms over his small chest. Beuren laughed, she plopped down on the wet grass next to Kili and kept laughing.
“Well what do you want to do, mister Kili?” She asked, beaming at the young lad.
“What do you want to do?”
“Whatever you want.”
“Let’s play chase!”
“Except that.” She sighed. The sun started to come out. Within the next half hour the grass was dry and so were Fili and Beuren. Her and Thorin sat in the sun and watched the kids goof around down by the river, which was now clear as crystal. Fili was teaching his younger brother to skip stones on the water.
Beuren was laying her head in Thorin’s lap, one arm was resting on her stomach, the other wrapped around behind him, thumb tucked into his belt. Thorin was occupying himself by playing with her hair, combing through it and braiding it, then taking it out and starting over.
Kili finally skipped a stone on the quickly moving waters. He cheered, so did Fili. Then they started chasing one another. Wrestling around and laughing. Thorin tugged lightly on the elf’s hair. She opened her eyes and stared up at him, he nodded at the boys, and she sat up for a moment and watched. Giggling, she scooted closer to Thorin. They sat in silence for a moment, then (finally) Thorin gathered his courage.
“We should get married.” He said bluntly. Beuren stayed silent. He was unable to tell if it was a good silence or a bad silence. “Beuren?”
“Hm?”
“Did you…”
“Yes, I heard you.” He didn’t speak. This was not at all how’d he wanted this to go.
“Listen, I didn’t mean to make you…”
“Yes.”
“Yes what?”
“Yes, we should… get married.” She said slowly. As if she was picking her words as though not to come off too excited or something like that.
“You mean it, right? You’re not just pulling one of those elf emotion confusion stunts on me right?” She leaned forward, shoulders shaking.
“Wow, I really do that though sometimes don’t I?” She sat back. “But no, I’m not.” Now, this was the complete polar opposite of how he’d expected it. He thought it would be a ‘no, I’m not worthy’ kind of talk then, after several hours, he’d talk her into it. But this. This was not expected.
“Then, Beuren, would you…”
“Sh.” She turned her head to the left, away from him. Thorin could see her ear twitch ever so slightly. Her jaw clamped shut and she slowly stood, emerald eyes flicking this way and that.
“What is it?” A howl echoed. The kids stopped playing and looked in the same direction in which Beuren was.
“Orcs, go. RUN!” She shrieked. Fili took Kili’s hand and drug him up the path. Thorin leapt to his feet and drew his sword.
“Go! Sound the alarm, go, do it now!”
“We’ve been through this before Thorin, with the dragon, you know I’m not leaving.” She turned cupping her hands around her mouth. “FILI SOUND THE ALARM!” He looked over his shoulder and nodded. The Orcs were on wargs, as always, two against a pack of orcs on wargs. Thorin looked at Beuren, if help didn’t come, this might just be the end of them.
“We’ll take a rain check on the proposal.” Thorin joked, slipping the ring on her finger. She tried to smile but couldn’t. They launched into battle. Fighting furiously, they slammed their back to one another’s. A loud battle cry rang out as an axe beheaded an orc. Dwalin stood, Dosdrat at his side. The four of them fought off the pack, none of them had even been scathed.
“That was easy.” Dwalin scoffed.
“Too easy.” More howls rang out, just as they did, the hillside became swarming with wargs and orcs. There was easily a small army here.
Dwalin and Beuren were side by side, dealing out blows with their axes at anything and everything that moved. One warg and rider singled out Beuren, several more encircled her. She kept turning a circle, waiting for one to strike first, when one didn’t she leapt forward.
Beuren sunk her sword to the hilt in the chest cavity of a warg, it yelped and collapsed, crushing its rider. She dove to get out of the way of the rolling body. As she did, an orc pounced on her. She was pinned on her stomach. It took a hand full of hair in its grimy hand and pulled her head back. It rested the blade of a knife on her throat. She struggled but couldn’t get it off for her arm was pinned behind her.
A dagger embedded itself in the orc’s skull, killing it and allowing Beuren her freedom. She looked up at Dosdrat. Smiling she started to stand, as she did Dosdrat was tackled. Dwalin and Thorin were cornered against the thick trunk of a nearby oak tree. Staggering to her feet she ran to help Dosdrat. As she got there she was knocked off her feet by a hit to the stomach with a mace.
As she lay there, gasping for breath she heard a horrid crunching sound, followed by the blood curdling cry in pain, Dosdrat. She rolled to her side and saw the dwarf in the jaws of a warg. Its bite was strong, very strong. He was impaled by sharp, long, teeth, and crushed by the force of the creatures jaw. Then he was thrown, landing feet from her. Everyone had frozen at this point.
Overtaken by rage, Thorin and Dwalin gave one last battle cry as they attacked. They killed the orcs as brutally as they could with such little time to do so. Several more guardsmen joined them now. Balin being one of them. They finished up the last remaining few then turned toward their king.
It’s what happened next that shook the king to the core. Thorin had seen Dosdrat, he’d seen the hopelessness in Beuren’s expression. When he didn’t see her he knew something was wrong. It took then seven minutes. Seven minutes to find her. When they did, they saw a lot of blood, both red and black, a mangled warg carcass, and Beuren, straddling an orc. Thorin hurried towards her.
“Do you know what the others would do?” He heard her whispering. “They just kill you and be done with it, and eye for an eye as they say. But, you and I both know that I’m not like them. Don’t we?” She smiled down at the orc. “Who sent you after me; I’ll make your death quick if you tell.”
“Why would I do that? I die either way.”
“Yes. You do. Now who sent you?” The orc spat in her face. She turned her head. Taking a deep breath she turned back to the orc. “Ok, let us do a little reviewing shall we?” Thorin had never seen anything like this. She’d never done this, ever, in their whole lives. She placed her hands on either side of the orcs head. Her eyes were dark, nearly black with anger and hate. She stared into its eyes, he wasn’t sure what she was seeing, but whatever it was the orc certainly didn’t like it.
When she stared into its eyes, she looked as deep as she could, then dug deeper. She looked into the very soul of the creature, or what little remained of it. She could see it, what it used to be. Tall, blonde haired, blue eyed. He was once an elf. The most gorgeous creature she’d ever seen. She then saw how they did it, tortured him into insanity, then built him up as a monster. The only thing he knew in life anymore was hate, rage, and pain.
This seemed to discomfort the orc enough to get it to struggle against her. This angered her even more. She dug deeper yet. Beuren saw another elf, a beautiful female with long dark curly hair; she was dressed in all white, beneath a tree she’d only learned about through her mother, the trees of Lothlórien. They shared a kiss, and then turned to see a young boy approaching. She lifted the boy into her arms and then stepped into her lover’s arms.
The orc didn’t even struggle. A single tear rolled down its discolored and mangled cheek. Beuren took her hands away and looked down at it. She leaned forward and whispered.
“They are dead, are they not?” The orc nodded. “Do you wish to rejoin them?” He nodded again. “Tell me who sent you and I will give you back to them.”
“He will know if I do, he won’t let me leave, he’ll keep my soul. What’s left of it.”
“Then show me. Focus on him. On anything important to me.” She placed her hands on his head, looking to see what he was showing her.
It was not the fact that she was surprised by what she saw that scared her. It was that she knew who it was. She saw him, there. The same as he’d looked the first time they’d met. Just as impressive and daunting. Beuren knew who it was right away, and this frightened her. At the same time, it caused her blood to boil.
Beuren took her hands away from the orcs head. Its limbs were all bent at awkward angles from being broken during their struggle. She stood, dragging the orc by its collar towards the river. The swift, cold river. Her eyes dark with anger.
“What are you doing?” She heard a voice call. She paid no head to it.
“I told you I would end your suffering quickly.” She said.
“Yes.” The orc muttered.
“Well, I lied.” She dunked its head under the water. It struggled as anything would.
“BEUREN?! WHAT ARE YOU DOING?!” Thorin barked. She obviously didn’t hear him. She didn’t even know he was there. Beuren stared straight ahead, eyes dark enough to be black. Thorin pulled her back; she yelled and pushed him away, returning to drowning the orc. Once he was dead she pushed his body into the river, watching it float away with the current. With one last angry scream she slumped her shoulders.