"Don't elves have magic?" Liruliniel stood looking slightly dumbstruck for a moment, she had been absentmindedly looking at the fire blazing away, ignorant to what was going on around it. It was Bofur who'd asked, he had been appointed to retrieve more water for Kíli, in an attempt to lower his fever.
Liruliniel looked back at the struggling dwarf and sighed, "It isn't as simple as that." She said while scratching a finger to her temple. Bofur tilted his head and looked at her sceptically, "I am not as good as Lord Elrond. I would need herbs, medicine. It isn't the case of waving my hands, and behold!" Liruliniel explained, turning on her heels she followed Bofur back to the room. "Master Óin, Master Fíli, if I may? You said your duty is with the sick, if perchance we managed to find herbs or medicine in this town, would you allow me to tend to this wound which is afflicting our young friend?"
Óin muttered something that sounded an awful lot like: "Buttering us up by addressing us so politely." Which had Liruliniel sighing, she wasn't trying to do anything. She wanted permission, acceptance even. She didn't mean to be rude, but her healing techniques would be better than a dwarves.
"Yes, of course. Anything to help my brother." Fíli responded level headed and quiet, while also shooting a quick glare at Óin, the older dwarf just grumbled some more before nodding too.
In the background Bard could be heard rummaging through the cabinets, listing off the medicinal things he could find. Óin for one looked discouragingly at him, "None of those are of any use to me. Have you got any Kings Foil?"
"No, it's a weed. We feed it to the pigs." Bard replied, as he sent a glance to the small group. The look which Liruliniel shot him was a confused one, between being appalled and shocked. She even walked over, leaned her hands against the table and tilted her head. Her eyes looked him up and down as if she was trying to figure out if she had heard right.
"Pigs? Weed? Right, don't move." Bofur perked up too, looking as if a great revelation had hit him. Pointing at Kíli had the poor dwarf groaning some more before he darted off away from them.
"I will come with you, I think." Liruliniel said with a sigh while slipping away from the table.
"Did I say something?" Bard was confused, so very confused.
"You use one of the most hardiest of plants, for pig food. Athelas deserves better than that." She sighed with a small smile, it was clear that really there was no proper apothecary here or else they'd have surely known how ridiculous that was? Regardless, she strapped her bow and quiver back in place, she trusted this family not to do anything ridiculous with her weapons, but she'd still rather have them with her. After all, there was an orc pack out there and in truth, Liruliniel had lived on the edge this past day enough thinking they'd make their presence known. Yet nothing, and she didn't like it. The silence was heavy, nervous and full of tension. It was hard to settle in that house, mainly because of poor Kíli, but just everything seemed wrong.
Bofur looked up at her when she appeared outside on the small porch with him. "Aye, suppose it makes sense for two to search. Although, I thought you'd prefer to stay in there."
"I am of no use there, not without medicine to use."
"So...elves can't do magic then?" Bofur asked while practically waddle running down the stairs, Liruliniel inhaled slowly and shut her eyes. She silently walked down them with her arms behind her back, shaking her head she pointed in a random direction. Bofur just nodded mutely and pointed in the opposite direction, between them they could cover more ground and find the pigpens.
It was cold, and it was dark; needless to say very little people out to question why she was walking about with a roaming eye and a tilted head. She was trying to listen to the familiar snorting of pigs, but also hoping her eyes would catch sight, she'd find the plant and run off back to Bard's home. So far, nothing. It was a large space to cover in such a rush, looking upwards, Liruliniel sighed again. Her breath came out in small plumes as she stepped back, only to hop and jump from a few crates to land on a roof.
She thudded quietly against the snow there, dislodging very little as she stood. Shaking her hair, she blew any wayward snowflakes from her face and looked around. Truly, with the moonlight casting its silver glow over the snow covered rooftops, the town looked still and beautiful, in a strange way. She leapt from rooftop to rooftop and raised an eyebrow, she shook her head at the familiarity here. She didn't make it a habit to commute through the town this way, but it was quicker and she was able to spy much more if she leapt from someone's chimney.
So high up, free and falling in the bitter night air, she could see far and wide and yet, still no sign. Huffing she landed and rocketed a little on her heels. Her arms stuck out to balance herself and she looked around confusedly. That definitely wasn't her messing up a landing, she looked towards the Mountain with a worried look. It seemed others in the town felt the tremor too, because a few faces peeked out from windows and behind curtains. A few brave souls even dared to come outside. One did only to exclaim with fright at the sight of the elf perching simply on the handrail to their house.
"Sorry, sir." Liruliniel apologised with the bow of her head before standing up and running along the thin pole as if it was the largest piece of boarding ever. The man did double take before he lost sight of her as she leapt up and over onto someone else's roof. There was now an extra hurry to find that hiding Athelas. Kíli was in no position to be moved, if they needed to flee, he needed to be able. And no way was anyone being abandoned, she wasn't standing for that.
Leaping upwards and being in the night sky, she was perhaps the only being to see the humanoid figures crawling over rooftops, much like herself. She landed in a skid and looked around, there were people milling about doing, to be honest, she hadn't a clue. Standing up straight, her eyes flickered over them as they seemed to be watching something else. Her eyes widened more, not something, someone, was perhaps more accurate. "Bofur," she whispered lifelessly on the wind and did a running leap over to the next roof. They would pay little mind to her, not if they knew the dwarf below was here and may lead to others.
Liruliniel couldn't help but grunt as she skidded along a particular icy part of roofing, almost falling off she grasped the guttering and let go to land nimbly on her haunches. She sat for mere seconds before jumping and running off back to Bard's. She could only presume he had found the plant, which was good. Problem was...he was ultimately bringing company, not that he knew that.
Hearing a familiar voice, Liruliniel cursed, this was all such bad luck! "Sigrid! Get inside, now!" She all but shouted, startling the young girl yet from the look on Liruliniel's face she knew not to question it and truth be told, just as she moved to do so an orc landed behind her. The scream from Sigrid was one of true fear, of course it would be, she hadn't ever seen an orc before. Liruliniel remembered those bygone times.
Chaos was putting it lightly when she slipped into the house, the orc had kicked the door down with enough force to almost wrench it from the hinges. Flicking out one of Haldir's knives, Liruliniel easily swept into motion. Fíli bypassed her to tackle an orc away from the girls, while they screamed and dived for the table. Not before Tilda seemingly threw a plate at one, earning a snarl in return. Liruliniel had to hand it to her there, that was brave.
The problem being, they were swarming now and the dwarves were just about weaponless and Liruliniel was trying her hardest while staying close to the table. An orc falling through the shattered roof had her jumping away to avoid being landed on, and in that moment the table was yanked upwards. The girls naturally screamed and clung to each other, and Liruliniel kicked the orc in front of her off of her knife. She really should thank the Marchwarden again, these knives were fantastic.
Skipping and hopping over broken items, she paused in motion seeing a familiar auburn haired elf appear. Liruliniel and Tauriel exchanged a look before both coupling in motions with dodges and slashes to rid the remnants of the house of the orcs. Hearing a very quiet thud and the sounds of flesh against steel, Liruliniel chanced a glance. Legolas looked less than pleased with the chaos he had jumped into, but he wasted very little time in attacking the orcs either. The cramped space was hard to fight in, especially with avoiding the children and the injured Kíli who at one point, got dragged by the leg screaming in agony.
Seeing it was a lost cause, the orcs bailed. They left utter destruction in their wake, what was a cosy home looked like a ransacked shack of a building, everything was ruined, or just about. Liruliniel slid her knife back into place and looked at her friends. "What took you so long?"
Legolas just gave her a look, a very Thranduil look which usually translated as: "Don't even start." Liruliniel just smiled, "There are others. Tauriel, come." Legolas said, rather blankly as he marched his way to the exit.
Tauriel looked torn, and Liruliniel held up a hand and ran after him. "You either intend to drive them out of this town, or you plan to kill them all, Legolas. What is it you are doing?" She was curious, truly. Legolas seemed serious with hunting them down and killing them, and she couldn't help but get the feeling that something else was up here. He couldn't possibly care about this little mortal inhabited spit of land, if he did then well, Liruliniel was proud truthfully. She had wondered how long it would take for him to come around.
"They will not stop until Oakenshield is dead, where then do you think they are going?" Legolas responded before leaping over a railing and easily jumping from docked boat to boat.
Liruliniel sighed, "That isn't an answer. It's fine, I can wait for it." She smiled and shook her head.
"Lark?!" Liruliniel turned and looked at the worried face of Tilda, smiling and going over she ruffled her hair fondly.
"That was brave of you. I do not know many who'd throw a plate in the face of an orc." Liruliniel said, trying to lighten her heart, yet she looked utterly shaken still. Of course she would be, Liruliniel guided her back inside, seeing Bofur had returned she felt relieved. She had hoped he hadn't had been cut down in the orc raid. "Where's your father?" She had noted, now everything was calm, Bard was nowhere in sight. The children exchanged a look, "Perhaps tell me all in a minute, we need to help our dwarf friend there, don't we?" She asked while the effort to turn the table back over took more than it should've. Avoiding corpses of orcs didn't help, and Liruliniel disregarded them with a hollow look. "You are fine to do this?"
"Why wouldn't I be?" Tauriel looked at her with a confused expression.
Liruliniel looked a little troubled, "A little piece of you goes into this. It is more than just healing. Healing a wound is easy, but..."
"It's fine, it will be fine. So shall he, trust me." Tauriel whispered, though it seemed like in part she was trying to convince herself.
Liruliniel just nodded and backed off, the children were all huddled together and she looked them over for injuries. "Now will you tell me where your father is?"
"I saw him get captured." Bain said, he looked worriedly up at her, "The guards, they chased us, we split and they got him."
Liruliniel held a patient hand up, his tone of voice was pitching. "Your dad is strong, I am sure he is unharmed." Though no less clearly in prison, she thought with a quiet sigh. With narrowed eyes, she looked at the boy curiously. "Why were you two running?" It wasn't from the orcs, that was for sure.
"He has a black arrow," Sigrid explained, her tone low and her eyes looking around as if someone else would hear. Liruliniel straightened up at that and double took. "He does!"
"I'm not saying you're lying. I'm...shocked, I did not know any existed."
"He has the last one." Bain took up from where his older sister left off. "He intends to kill the dragon."
Liruliniel ran a hand down her face while blowing out a sigh. "It is his right, I suppose." She mused, finishing what his ancestor started, it seemed apt. "I take it he no longer has the arrow then?"
"He gave it to me, and I hid it." Bain said, his wide eyes looking up at her.
"Will you get our da?" Tilda and her small voice shook as she looked up from Sigrid's side. It was the look on her face which had Liruliniel's heart twisting painfully. It was the same look she imagined she had when she was told of her own father's demise.
"Your dad can't kill a dragon while in a cell, can he?" Liruliniel said while hitching her sword in place, well, it hadn't exactly slipped while fighting, she was tinkering with it as a distraction. Though her words may have been a little sarcastic, even rhetorical.
"You will help him?!" Tilda's eyes lit up and she looked at her hopefully.
Liruliniel smiled, "It's what friends do, right?" The little girl looked content and overjoyed with being called a friend, Sigrid had to put a hand on her shoulder to calm her down while Bain looked equally thankful. "You will need to tell me where this prison is, I don't know this town."
Sigrid gave rather good directions while the other two went to help the dwarves with retrieving anything they could for getting out. They were leaving, much like the sounds of outside, everyone was leaving. This town was done for, and it was something Sigrid knew too from the look on her face. "What about you?"
"Hm?"
"You intend to help us, da too, but...staying here means..."
"Listen to me, Sigrid. I know the risks, and so does your father. Achievement in the most impossible tasks can be done by the most unlikely of people. I told your father that I would help this family, protect it even, haven't I done that so far? You are without means to get him, but I am not. At the moment, it is everyone for themselves out there, but you will have Tauriel with you, and she is one of my oldest friends. I could think of no one better to look out for you, while I retrieve your father from his cell. Trust me when I say, you will be fine. You and your family, you will live through this." Liruliniel said while having her hands gently on Sigrid's shoulders, she could feel the young woman shaking a little under her grasp, yet she stared at her earnestly as she listened to her speak.
"How...how can you say that?"
Liruliniel smiled softly, "I'm old, remember? I've seen a lot, and I have foresight. So I know you'll live, because I know your family will prosper in Dale, once more like you should've from the very beginning." Sigrid's eyes widened and she looked startled by that while Liruliniel continued to smile. "You'll be fine, you're all tough children. Family stick together, and you'll all look out for each other, and see yourselves right. Now, I need to rescue your father. As I said, Tauriel will look out for you all, so will the dwarves." Liruliniel backed away from her while casting a look at the dwarves as they finished getting all they could, but they all nodded in agreement.
Liruliniel looked down when there was a tug on her tunic sleeve, Tilda looked at her with worried eyes. "Please come back."
"Oh, I will. But I won't be coming back alone, pinig."
Tilda tilted her head, "What does that mean?"
Liruliniel let out a quiet laugh, "It means 'little one'." This had Tilda both exclaiming yet looking chuffed by the nickname, she was adamant she wasn't little, but her siblings let out quiet laughs. Feeling a hand on her shoulder, Liruliniel looked at Tauriel. She was giving her one of those looks, Tauriel knew there was zero point in trying to talk her out of this rescue mission, but also, how could she? Bard gave her a warm enough reception, listened to her, allowed her to stay, he was a good man and Liruliniel couldn't let a good man die, not without a chance of freedom first.