Autor Tópico: [Fanfic 4, cap. 20] Loyalty, Honor etc - An Unexpected Help  (Lida 5630 vezes)

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Offline Luinwen

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[Fanfic 4, cap. 20] Loyalty, Honor etc - An Unexpected Help
« em: Novembro 16, 2013, 08:10:15 am »
When the deer begun to jump over the river, the brothers were still able to pull themselves to the bank, but the last, the one Lily shot, got wild and jumped somewhat to the side of the path, Bombur got scared and unbalanced himself. Bofur was unable to steady himself and his brother, and almost fell into the river too. Thankfully the red bearded dwarf was close to the bank, and it was, in a relative way, easy to fish him out. He didn’t drown, as all his fat made him float, but was sound asleep when they managed to get him on dry ground.
“What will we do now?” Was Bofur’s desperate cry. “Wake up, brother, wake up!” He shook Bombur, slapped him lightly in the face, to no result.
“It is all my fault! If I hadn’t shot that deer it would not jump so queer and unbalanced you both!”
Lily was almost crying out of guilt.
“Why did you shot in first place?”
Thorin was not gentle at her, worried as he was and with another problem to deal with now.
“I am sorry, Thorin, I was just hungry! I thought there was so much meat we would all have a decent meal, I didn’t want to do anything wrong!”
She closed her eyes, but no tear fell from them, as they were all dehydrated so far. He shook his head, trying to recompose himself.
“You meant good, but we must think clearly! Do not waste any more arrows unless I tell you so.” She nodded. He turned back to the Company. “What is done, is done. We must take turns carrying Bombur, none of us will ever be left behind.”
And saying so he himself took Bombur’s left arm and signaled to Fíli and Kíli to help him and Bofur.
If the track through Mirkwood had been disgusting up to this time, from then on it became terrible. Thirst, hunger, worry, and now a heavy load. The carriers changed places once and then, but no one was in state to hold on for long. Thorin ordered a stop when the little light they had began to fade. They should at least rest, as there was no more water nor food, and in the complete darkness of night they could stumble out of the track, and then be lost forever. Lily was gloomy, out of hunger and guilt, when Iris came close to her.
“Hey, sis, cheer up.”
“How can I possibly cheer up, Iris? Thorin is still mad at me, Bombur is still fast asleep, and we are all still hungry.”
“Sure. So, time for dessert.”
“What?”
“Dessert! Where did you hide the chocolate? Chocolate always cheers you up, maybe it works for the others too.”
“Mahal, I forgot the chocolate!”
Lily took off her cloak and unsewed its liner open with her switchblade. Iris thought it was funny how Lily was using Khuzdul words like if she were born talking it.
“When Aunty told me to hide it, I thought that if it were easy to get I would fall in temptation and eat them before the right time. If there is one right time for chocolate, it is now!”
The dwarf-lass took out handfuls of chocolate bars. Lily was an assumed chocoholic and had bought chocolate to last her and her family the whole LARP camping with a good safety margin. She and her sister took them and began to hand them out to everyone.
“What is this?” Asked suspicious Dwalin.
“Emergency food. Not enough to quench hunger, but it will give us strength to endure a little more.” Lily handled the last two bars to Bofur and spoke quietly to him. “Keep one for when your brother wakes up.”
“Thank you. And,” He touched the back of her hand with his fingers. “I know it was not your fault, lady Lily.”
She lowered her eyes.
“I’m sorry just the same. I hope he wakes up soon.”
“We all do.”
The young dwarf woman was tired and seated herself beside Bofur, munching on her chocolate without tasting it at all. Thorin was not exactly avoiding her but after the scolding when Bombur fell into the river he went into a silence attack mode into which she dared not to reach.
“I know it is customary, but you don’t need to address me lady, Bofur. We are friends for how long? Months, already? It seems a lifetime, though. You don’t have to be so formal.”
He chuckled.
“It is not simple formality, lassie. You know, amongst our people we say that in any relationship the one who can, orders, and the one who has good sense, obeys. Since I’m in the Company of Thorin Oakenshield I found out I have very much good sense.”
Lily laughed.
“What do you mean?”
“Everybody has seen the beautiful work on your scabbard. Thorin would not allow his own knot to be wrought on the scabbard of someone less than deserving respectful addressing from his followers. So, I have the good sense to address you lady once in a while, when I think it is fitting, because it shows respect not only to you, but also to our king.”
She felt herself blush. Dwarven culture was complex, and she was having glimpses of it that made her feel... loved.
“So, if I understood it right, you call me lady because Thorin believes me fit to be at his side?”
“No.” Bofur shook his head, smiling. “Me and the lads call you lady because we agree with Thorin in this matter. And, if ever we knew someone able to stand his temper, this one is you.”
Lily went silent for a while, thinking. Bofur was a good friend, and almost as mischievous as the small band that aggregated her family, Bilbo and Thorin’s nephews. But he was older than the boys, and knew Thorin longer.
“He is so angry at me. I’m afraid to get close to him right now.”
Bofur tapped her shoulder, reassuringly.
“You forget he uses to be angry to the ones he cares for.”
This statement lightened her heart. She took a deep breath in, and made up her mind, remembering the first time they sat together to talk, back at Imladris.
“Thank you Bofur, for your advice. I’ll go to him. If he is willing to talk, I’ll be there to talk. If he wants to be silent, I’ll be there to share the silence. He has been alone too many years to be left on his own when he is so worried.”
The dwarf with the funny hat smiled to himself as the once stranger walked carefully in the deepening darkness until she stood close to Thorin. Then he lent Lily a hand to help her to sit down, and brought her close to him. No word was exchanged, but Bofur could see the shoulders of his king relaxing as the young dwarf-lass deft hands massaged his knotted muscles. Yes, for an old pony, the best medicine was some newly sprung grass...

ooo000ooo

Iris went with her own chocolate bar to sit beside Bilbo, who was on watch, leaning on a tree trunk a bit removed from the huddled Company. Not that it was possible to see anything at all in the surrounding darkness, but at least they could be warned if any strange sound approached. If Iris were able to stop chatting, of course.
“... and then Kayla and Fran, who were so sure that they would respectively apply for physiotherapy and occupational therapy college, came from the vocational guidance with their options changed one for the other. I don’t understand, sometimes I think psychologists are crazier than regular people but smart enough to get money from others making them believe they are crazy. What do you think?”
Bilbo was so surprised when the monologue stopped he almost didn’t find what to say. But if he weren’t of the smart kind he would not have escaped the Goblins’ den.
“I think I don’t understand half of what you say...”
The girl opened her mouth as if to answer but he put his finger on it.
“... and that most of the other half doesn’t make much sense...” He quickly took her fist in his other hand to avoid being hit by her again, and smiled. “... but I love the sound of your voice and the way your words flow like the waters of a brook on a stony path; and I love the way your eyes follow the stories you tell, and the way your lips stay slightly open when you finish what you are saying. I could kiss you every time I see your lips inviting me this way.”
Iris blushed in the dark.
“It is not fair, Bilbo, you’re kidding me, making poetry out of a clumsy girl!”
He stroked her hair, playing with the curls that fell down to her shoulders, and kissed her chocolate tasting lips.
“You wield two swords more deftly than I can handle just one and you claim to be the clumsy one?”
She punched him lightly again.
“You know what I mean. I can spend a whole day chatting non-stop, but you are the one who picks up the right words to make me shiver under the sun.”
Bilbo traced the line of her jaw with his fingertips and felt her skin was cold, and remembered the hours in private they had in Beorn’s gardens. He didn’t remember anything special he had said then, but remembered with a grin how her blue eyes matching the color of the sky closed under her long eyelashes when he begun a game of kissing all of her but her lips. It was true, he made her shiver under the sun.
“It is not summer now, and you are almost shivering. Come here, if you are to share this watch with me, then let me warm you a bit.”
He sat Iris between his legs and held her close to him, with the excuse of warming her, which she didn’t dispute. It was pitch-dark time again, and he moved her hair aside so he could whisper in the girl’s ear without disturbing the sleeping Company.
“I still don’t quite believe you were human before, but if this is true, I must warn you that our people must be especially aware about hypothermia, because of our small frame. Tell me when you feel warmer.”
The hobbit gently rubbed her arms and tangled his legs around hers. He pulled his cloak so to cover her from the neck down, and Iris felt almost cocooned in his warmth.
“What more do I have to learn?”
“What do you mean?”
“What must I know to live in the Shire with you? I’m sure there is no college to learn to be a hobbit!”
He chuckled quietly.
“You are young. There will be plenty of time before your coming of age to learn everything you need, and anything you want to learn.”
“What do you mean with plenty of time? I’m just two years from coming to age, I was almost providing my driver's license!”
Bilbo held her tighter, suppressing his chuckles.
“My crazy Iris, you are twenty-five, and we hobbits come of age at thirty-three. It makes eight years, not two!”
“What? I’ll have to wait all this time?”
“Yes, we have to, Iris. The price of falling in love with so a young shield-maiden is to wait for the proper time to come, I’m already settled for this. I could not possibly marry a girl before her coming of age.”
Iris’ heart skipped a beat. She stammered, confused.
“What... what did you say?”
“I said...” And Bilbo reached closer to her pointed ear to whisper closer. “...that I have to wait until you come of age to marry you.”
She swallowed hard. Iris was having much fun with Bilbo, and she felt he really made her feel different from any boyfriend she knew in her former world. But she was still thinking in terms of her former world, and to live together was completely different from being married, or at least so it was in her teenager point of view. Her aunt lived together with someone for several years before he died in that stupid snowboard accident, and none ever questioned their decision on not having a wedding. To Iris and her generation, not being married meant that a couple was together out of free will, not out of duty.
 “You... you want to marry me when I come of age?”
There was a disquieting silence, and then deep sigh from Bilbo.
“No.”
Iris turned around in his embrace trying in vain to find a way to punch him, but he was holding her tight this time.
“I want to marry you as soon as we feel Hobbiton earth under our feet. I want to call you my fiancée as soon as we reach Brandywine bridge. I want a priest to bless us before we leave Buckland, and another priest to bless us again when we reach Tuckborough; and I want an astounding wedding party when we reach home, at Bag-End. I’ll have my neighbor Hamfast Gamgee to provide the most pretty flowers to dress your hair, and Buganvilia Cotton to make you a wedding gown, and The Green Dragon Inn staff to provide an astounding fest where there will rain drink and snow food all around Bag-End. And I want all this to happen as soon as possible, even if I have to lie your age.”
The red haired hobbit-lass felt her entire body shiver, and it was not out of cold. From everything Bilbo said, there was so much she wanted, and so much she feared, that she felt completely confused. Occidental twentieth-first century culture was too strong in her building, but Bilbo and Middle-Earth life-style enveloped her and Iris felt she was more comfortable, and wanted, like she never felt back home. She knew she was too young to marry, but then...
“Would you really lie my age to marry me?”
Bilbo teased her, answering with another question, biting her ear lobe very gently.
“Would you lie to marry me?”
For the first time in many years, Iris didn’t know what to answer. Maybe because it was the first time she was really in company of someone non-teenager that took her for whom she was, not for whom one expected her to be.
“I don’t think I would do it alone. I mean, to lie. But, if you lied too...”
He was completely amused by her confusion and the wordplay.
“If you would not be at ease to lie alone, we could lie together.”
She slapped his arm, amusing him even more.
“Bilbo! You are silly!”
“Maybe, but I’m willing to lie with you any time you wish.”
It was not fair. She used to be the silly being who teased others with second meaning words. However, Bilbo had stuck her, and she didn’t complain.
“I... can we talk about lies at another time?” She stressed the word so as to make it clear what she meant. Bilbo caressed her face so that she leaned onto him, a young halfling-lass confused to finally finding someone she could not dare, and loving it. He kissed her hair and held her closer, smilingly.
“You can talk to me about lying anytime you wish, although I myself have no much experience in this matter. But you can count on me to lie with you anytime you wish.”
“Remind me to kill you after we get out of this forest.”
“I may remind you. But maybe I’m just lying.”

ooo000ooo

For some days they dragged themselves along the trail, taking turns to carry Bombur. Sometimes he mumbled in his dreams, but nothing made him really wake up. The lack of water was parching their lips and their moods. It was getting colder, too. Every tiresome Bombur carrying day left them more exhausted than the previous, and in the third day it began to rain, cold and depressing. If they had anyway of gathering the rain to drink it, it would be a blessing, but it was too scarcely more than a drizzle, just enough to wet them and make them feel worse, as if possible.
Next day Bombur finally woke up, much to everyone’s relief, until he found out there was no food at all and begun to complain. When Thorin was about to regret his decision of not leaving anyone behind, Bofur remembered the extra chocolate bar Lily had given him, which made his brother happy but the whole Company watering mouths remembering their own chocolate bars, gone for days already.
It was quite well after nightfall, that they now called pitchfall, when Bilbo was on watch along with Iris and they thought they saw something and called on Thorin.
“What is it?”
“Over there, I thing I saw some kind of light.”
“Yes, and I think I heard something, too.” Completed Iris.
“This is elvish land, it can be dangerous.”
“No more dangerous than to starve to death, I deem.”
Desperate from hunger as they were, the chance of finding someone who could help them in the forest made any caution vanish. Hearing the hobbits talk to their leader made everyone shake oneself awake in hope that something might happen. It was solely out of hunger that Thorin agreed that they should try for the fires.
“All right, we go all together when I say “three”. Are you ready?”
They mumbled agreements.
“Three!”
They dashed for where the fires seemed to be, and they went off at once. There was a mess of dwarves and colleagues trying to gather themselves on the forest for a while, which they succeed to a measure, and then run for another fire light they saw in the distance. This one was their utter mistake, if there could be any worse mistake than to get out of the path in first place. The lights went out like first time, and they scattered. Bilbo soon found out his left arm and both legs were wrapped in a kind of a strong sticky string, which fortunately he was able to cut through with his elvish blade. Not only this, but he more felt than saw a very big spider who was most probably the owner of the sticky strings; as it turned its back to him to heed a noise in the clearing close to them, he stuck his blade deep in its entrails, making the thing crump on its own eight legs.
“Want to see mister Balin call it letter opener again!” He thought to himself.
Sensing it was sure to be more trouble ahead than none, the hobbit quickly put on the ring he found back in the Misty Mountains cavern of the goblins. He didn’t talk about it to them yet, but there was nothing else he could think to do that could give him an advantage on the spiders.
In the strange state he became when using the ring, he could figure out some image of things, even if not clearly, but better than without it in the darkness. He headed for the clearing to where the dead spider was looking at. It was disturbing.
Fifteen bundles hung from huge spider webs on the trees, one of them quite small close to a long one.
“Iris and Ellen!” Bilbo thought.
The other thirteen were of almost the same size, although one of them bulged in the middle.
“And that one must be Bombur!”
There were several spiders, some poking the bundles, some weaving more webs, but anyway they looked too much interested in them to notice an invisible hobbit at all. He threw a stone to one who was about to poke Bombur again, and it fell to the ground, making the other spiders sound as if laughing at it, but eyeing around to see where from did that unexpected stone fly.
Bilbo begun to throw more stones and make noise on purpose, to attract them out of the clearing, which they did, but at the same time weaving more webs to catch the intruder. When the hobbit had them well distracted and at a good distance from the clearing, he got into a perfect hobbit silent mode, which means no sound at all, really, and made his fastest way back to where his friends were, thanking goodness for the coming of dawn.
It was only in time to kill a fat spider that was left to guard the prisoners and was poking on poor old Bombur as they seemed to like him best.
“If you like to bite, let’s see how you like if I sting you!” He mumbled to himself as he pushed his blade deep into the spider’s belly. And then he thought Sting was a suited name for his once called letter opener.
His next step was to free his friends, and by the blond moustache braid that showed out of one of the bundles he chose Fíli first. It was hard cutting through the treads trying not to drop the dwarf into the ground, but he managed it quite well. Once free, it was a matter of moments for him to take his vambrace knife and start to help Bilbo. Soon they all were free, but the spiders were coming back really angry. But now it was not pitch dark, the Company was aware of them, and already armed, and the fight was fair.
Even so, the spiders were too many, and the Company was getting tired, as they were already weak from thirst and hunger and from carrying Bombur. Then they heard a bustle in the bushes and three seemingly young humans came running to aid them, all of them wearing ankle long dark mantles and, to the women’s surprise, white collar shirts and red and golden ties. The dark haired boy used round glasses and seemed to be their leader, albeit they seemed to be all about the same age, and shouted to the Company.
“You run away from here, we will distract the Acromantulas!”
The only girl among the newcomers took a small wand from out of her mantle and waved it up in the air while shouting.
Arania Exumai!” To which she was followed by the redhaired boy and the one with glasses. The Company eyed them wide as the spiders fell to the ground either stunned or death, and then run away, with no spare time even to thank them accordingly.
Hopefully, as they headed away from the spiders’ attack, they got into a patch where some burned spots could be seen, and the light was less dim, even a little greener, and the air was cleaner. It took them no much effort to figure out it was one of the elves’ feasting places they had stumbled into the night before, or one similar to that. The spiders didn’t get close to that elvish magic, and Lily thought what kind of repellent might there be.
When they found out the spiders would not go into the elven patch, they decided to stay there and rest as they could. They had no idea of how to find the path, and had a lot of questions to ask to Bilbo.
After he told his story fully since he was lost of them in the goblins’ den, finding the ring, finding Gollum, playing riddles and meeting them out of the mountains, the women were already tired, as it sounded like a story they already knew ; as a matter of fact, they knew it already, but had it blocked in their minds; once it was told, the memory was free again, to the point where it was told, nothing more. But the dwarves kept asking him questions over and over again, to the point where the three women just leaned one to each other and dozed out in their weariness.
Seemingly, the rest of the Company got tired too, and in the elves patch they found their first hours of sound sleep in days. Perhaps for having fallen asleep sooner; or for Iris being so small it took only one spider bite to make her pass out and then they bit her no more; perhaps for Ellen being elf and so faster to deal with poisoning; or for Lily being in love and used to have Thorin’s warmth at her side and it was not there; the fact was that they three woke up at the same moment and with the same question in their lips:
“Where is Thorin?”
"I´m shieldmaiden, and my hand is ungentle."