The winter was colder than usual when two dwarves trudged into Mirkwood. They were travelling to negotiate terms with King Thranduil, and they were incredibly fatigued. Once they gained entrance to the halls, they were lead to the throne room where Culthien and Thranduil were whispering harshly to each other.
'King Thanduil, Queen Culthien,' the first dwarf greeted. He was short and was clothed in navy blue and a wide dirty blonde bead spilled down his front. 'It has come to our attention that the dwarves of Erebor have not been receiving their weekly food supply,' he stated gruffly.
'Does this mean war?' The other dwarf asked in a coarse tone. He was clothed in scarlet and had a short dark beard only reaching his chest.
Thranduil almost jumped from his seat, shocked by the rudeness of the dwarves. 'No, this does not mean war,' he shot back sharply. 'Come, this matter shall be dealt with somewhere else,' he ordered and he rose from his seat.
Culthien followed and gestured for the two dwarves to follow. They obeyed and shuffled after the long strides of the elves.
They arrived in a small frosty courtyard overlooking the river that ran through and around the castle. There was ice and snow at the edges of the river and leaves from autumn browned in the slosh. Culthien would have offered the dwarves a seat, but they were all wet from rain, snow and ice.
'This matter shall only be between us and your King,' Thranduil explained hastily. 'If you want to know why you haven't received a sufficient amount of food, look around,' he gestured to the misty forest behind him. 'We cannot grow enough to feed ourselves, let alone you as well.'
'We are sorry King Thranduil, we did not mean to sound rude, but we need food. We are still giving you our stone and coal and gems, this is not a fair trade,' the first dwarf complained.
'We are sorry, we barely have enough food left to last the winter, we cannot grow more, the ground is frozen solid. We do not want war,' Culthien replied. 'Forgive me, what are your names?'
'I am Bruni,' the first dwarf said.
'And I am Nadin,' the second said. 'We have been travelling for days in these conditions, would you be able to get us something to eat or drink?'
'Sure, I'll be right back,' Culthien said quietly as she turned and left.
Thranduil walked over to the edge of the courtyard, there was no railing where the steep cliff led to the icy water at the edge. Typical elvish designs. 'Forgive me, but I cannot do anything to help you,' Thranduil replied in his lazy tone.
'Please, the King needs you to resume trade. He is asking you for this on behalf of his people,' Bruni begged.
Nadin came closer and he spoke in a grave tone. 'He has told us that... If he doesn't get the crops, he'll... I can't believe I have to say this,' Nadin muttered and then took a very deep breath.
'What will he do?' Thranduil asked, not looking away from the icy water.
'He says-' Nadin was cut off by his own wobbling and stumbling. 'Mahal,' he muttered as he struggled to breathe.
'What is the matter, Nadin?' Thranduil asked in a concerned tone.
'Sorry, King. I am just very weary,' he replied, walking closer to Thranduil. 'The Kings says that he is prepared to fight you for the food, and I don't want that to happen.'
'Your king has sent you here to threaten me to give you our lifeline so we won't be killed by him?' Thranduil hissed. 'Either way we will die, so go back and tell your king to start killing his livestock.'
'Please, don't do this. Just let us take your livestock, you don't even eat meat anyway,' Bruni tried to persuade him.
'There are only a few cows, goats and sheep left and they are for milk. I cannot give them to you,' Thranduil stated. 'I know winter is tough, but I cannot let my people starve. Unless you want Orc and spider meat, I have nothing for you.'
'I'm back,' Culthien interrupted. She was holding a plate of steaming hot tea and some beautiful vegetable dishes.
'Thank you, Queen,' Bruni said eagerly rushing towards the tea, but Culthien hurriedly placed the tea aside as Nadin passed out due to sheer exhaustion, but this was the worst place to pass out.
He fell down the cliff towards the icy water only as Thranduil and Bruni turned around. Culthien raced towards the edge and dove after Nadin as he smacked into the icy rush.
'Nana!' A little voice erupted from a nearby tree.
Legolas had been watching the whole time.
Both Thranduil and Legolas watched in horror and Nadin clawed around in the water and Culthien stiffly swam up behind him as they were both carried away by the current.
Thranduil, Legolas and Bruni began to run along the edge of the cliff beside the rushing river.
'Swim!' Bruni called out to Nadin.
'I can't swim!' He shouted, and he soon went under.
'Nana!' Legolas called out in horror.
Culthien caught up to Nadin in the water and dove down into the icy depths to retrieve him. But she didn't resurface.
'Culthien!' Thranduil shouted helplessly from the side, removing most of his robe.
Soon Culthien resurfaced further downstream, spluttering water everywhere and being half drowned by Nadin who was trying to keep his head up.
Thranduil dove in next and Legolas screamed in horror. 'Ada!'
Downstream, Culthien and Nadin were being carried away further, but Nadin was pushing Culthien down so she couldn't resurface. Thranduil was close.
With one final push, Nadin shoved Culthien under the water, breaking her ankles, and he clawed onto a stray branch.
By the time Thranduil caught up to Culthien, Nadin was out of the water and her lifeless body began to sink. Thranduil screamed amidst the roar of the water and Legolas stood and watched in horror.
Thranduil dove to retrieve Culthien and Bruni traversed the cliff to retrieve Nadin.
When Thranduil resurfaced, he coughed and spluttered white his teeth chattered and his body began to lock up. He was holding Culthien and her head was limp in the water as Thranduil searched for something to grab.
A tree finally presented itself and Thranduil hoisted himself and Culthien onto it and he dragged her up the cliff to flat ground.
'Culthien?' He whimpered as he laid her down, holding her cold face in his hands. Water dripped from his face onto hers and he shivered in his wet clothes.
Legolas couldn't move, all he could do was watch.
'Culthien, please, please don't leave me!' He cried, 'Goheno nin! Dartha pel-nin! An ngell nîn! An ngell nîn!' (I'm sorry! Stay with me! Please! Please!') Thranduil begged. But she didn't move. Her lips were purple and so were her eyelids. Her creamy hair lay tangled at her right and her purple robe hugged her skin.
She was dead.
Bruni stepped closer to Thranduil. 'King Thranduil, I'm so-'
'LEAVE!' Thranduil shouted in his anger. 'You did this! LEAVE NOW!'
'I'm so dearly-'
'LEAVE. NOW!' He shouted with tears in his eyes, but they did not quench the fiery hatred burning inside his eyes.
Bruni was terrified so he carried Nadin away as fast has he could.
Thranduil turned away from the dwarves in disgust, he could never forgive them for what they had done, ever. They could starve to death for all he cared.
'Oh Culthien...' He whispered, with his head resting on hers. He then heard a sniffle from beside him. Then full on sobbing.
Legolas collapsed beside him and held Culthien's cold grey hand.
'I never got to tell Nana how... How much I loved her...' Legolas whispered with his voice croaking.
Thranduil did not look up, but he managed to mumble something before the guards came.
'I didn't either.'
- Well... Hope you enjoyed? I don't know, felt something? I don't know, you're not really supposed to enjoy reading things like this... Vote if you liked the story, means a lot to me. And also comment with some feedback or anything you think about this.
Three more stories left... Hope you keep reading.
I guess this can explain why Thranduil and Legolas hate dwarves so much...
Thank you to dearest Sam for this little idea.
Madi