✓ | Forget-Me-Not ~ Fili FanFiction / Hobbit FanFiction / Fili FF

「 Chapter 10 」

Gandalf and Elrond were chatting animatedly at a smaller round table, served with food and drink. Oakenshield was also sitting with them and at that moment Elrond examined the swords found in the troll's cave.
Ilèyn watched the three gentlemen as they sat there at the table, while the rest of the dwarves, including the hobbit, had their own table to themselves. She watched carefully as Elrond explained Gandalf and Thorin about the swords, paying attention to Oakenshield's reactions and Gandalf's serious facial expressions.
Around them the twelve dwarfs carefully tried the Elvish food, surrounded by musicians and cupbearers. Over time, one by one began to complain about where the meat was, why there was only green food and whether the hosts couldn't finally play another song. The dwarves began to throw food, hitting everything except their target. The many voices around her, the roaring and shouting caused stress in the dwarf and her head began to ache.
"Bofur, a song!" shouted the old dwarf with an ear tube.
The dwarf with the big hat immediately climbed the table and began to trill a song loudly. His companions got on cheerfully until the whole valley echoed with dwarf song.
Ilèyn's head felt like it was about to burst.

Without warning, she got up stormily and left the dining area. No one responded or asked where she was going. She welcomed that. She couldn't stand dwarves who would ask her stupid questions right now. She quickly reached one of the innumerable long corridors, on the sides of which, like an avenue, stood stone pillars with vaulted roofs.
She went through the entire corridor until she reached one of the many pavilions at its end, which were spread out like vantage points in Rivendell. From now on it was quiet. Quiet except for the rustling of distant waterfalls and the birds singing their songs in the trees. Truly idyllic.
Ilèyn leaned on one of the deep railings with both elbows, sighed and buried her head in her hands. She began to massage her temples and the stress began to subside again, the headache was gone.
Why was this assignment taking so much from her? This whole journey, on which she had left completely headless and unprepared, which was in no way her usual way of behaving. All of this had become too much of a challenge, even though she had really only recently joined the group. Not physically, the dwarf definitely could do it, she had experienced much worse. But her thoughts, her mind felt... strange. Something that she couldn't name, something that she had never experienced before, bothered her soul in some way, which was more exhausting than many a fight.
She was overwhelmed by the knowledge that she couldn't sting her thoughts like her enemies. Her thoughts were often her worst and most ruthless enemy.
Ilèyn raised her head and looked around the valley. So peaceful. So bright. As if all the problems in the world out there and in your heart no longer exist. The dwarf closed her eyes. She tried to absorb the warmth of the last rays of the sun, which had almost set.
Tonight she would leave and try to get as far from Rivendell as possible. As far as possible from Oakenshield, from this wizard, the dwarves, and this hobbit. Prefer small orders again.

"So, here you are." it suddenly came from behind her.
Ilèyn immediately turned and looked straight into the questioning face of a blond dwarf.
Without another word, Fili stepped closer and stood next to Ilèyn at the railing. She now leaned with her back against the balustrade.
"Your uncle sent you to watch me, yes?" she asked with icy amusement, without looking at her interlocutor.
Fili smiled to himself, shaking his head slightly.
"Believe it or not, he actually didn't." he then said and continued to look down into the valley. "I started looking for you when I noticed that you had disappeared."
"Where did you left your nuisance of a brother?" Ilèyn asked.
"I'm alone, don't worry."
Ilèyn didn't answer and so they both stood at the railing for a while without exchanging a word. Ilèyn was clearly uncomfortable in this situation and began to take turns shifting her weight from one leg to the other.
Fili straightened up and stood next to her with his arms crossed.
"You have plans." he said skeptically.
Ilèyn looked seriously at the dwarf. The jacket, trimmed with white fur, somewhat concealed his weapon belt, on which he still carried his knives even in this valley. The two blades that he usually carried on his back he had put down before dinner.
There was concern in his blue eyes.
Ilèyn's eyes darkened. She didn't need a guardian or someone who kept checking on her like she was a stupid child.
As Fili opened his mouth to say something, she pushed away from the balustrade that she was still leaning against.
"Save your worries." she said immediately, "I can take care of myself well enough and don't need someone to take care of me all the time!"
"Tell me what you're up to." the young dwarf replied and his clear eyes met hers with a stern look. She lifted her chin and stared back sternly.
"It's none of your business." she said harshly and wanted to go back down the corridor to prepare for the secret departure. Fili got ahead of her and grabbed her arm to keep her from escaping this situation. She had already turned her back on him when he held her back and turned around angrily.
"Let go of me!" it escaped her poisonously and a little louder than it was planned. Fili let go of her arm and looked at her critically, but did not back away. Ilèyn felt that he saw disappointment in his features. A light wind came up, meanwhile it was dark and the silver moon was high in the sky.
"Sorry." she said, a little more composed and quieter. She got out of her defensive stance and stepped back to the railing.
"You are quite..." Fili frowned as he walked back next to her. "Hot-headed, if I may say so." He couldn't help but smile a little.
Ilèyn also allowed a very short and half-hearted smile in Filis' direction before she moved her gaze back to the valley bathed in moonlight.
"I think that's in the nature of a dwarf, don't you think?" she said.
Fili thought for a moment.
"I think I know enough dwarfs who are hot-headed and stubborn enough to still find it conspicuous at you."
For once, Ilèyn had no answer to that.
"You're trying to hide something." Fili continued. "A lot of things I think."
Ilèyn took a deep breath of the cool night air and did not look at the dwarf beside her. No answer.
"Why did you join Thorin Oakenshield's company?"
The truth would be her death, Ilèyn knew that. Whether by the hand of his nephews or by Oakenshield's hand himself. For this evening she still had to talk her way out of it.
"As I said, I'm trading. I get my goods east of the Misty Mountains. That is where I am on the way and it is well known that traveling in a group is safer." At no word she looked at the dwarf.
"I don't believe you." he said all at once. When Ilèyn turned her head to him indignantly, he just looked at her unmoved.
"I'm sure you are everything, just not a trader."
Ilèyn tried to swallow her anger at these statements. This dwarf was right. Damn it, he was right. She had to leave immediately. All of this was not what she had imagined, not what she had planned. She could only hope that through the short acquaintance with Thorin and the other dwarfs, no one would have good memories of her. Now all she had to do was break free of this conversation as soon as possible.
"My life is irrelevant here, master dwarf." she said coolly and straightened up "I don't know anything about you, you don't know anything about me, we're even."  She moved away from Fili, who was watching her.
"This is too big for me." she said, averted from him, "I'm going to leave this tonight, is that what you want to know?"
"You have no reason to stay with us." the dwarf replied calmly, "Go, I have no intention of preventing you. Nobody here has that."
Ilèyn hadn't expected such a reaction. She paused for a moment, then walked quickly down the archway until she was gone from Fili's gaze.
He sighed softly and put his arms on his side. A brief acquaintance, but a strange one, there was no other way he could explain this dwarf, or whatever she claimed to be.

"Fili!" someone called out, approaching from the same direction in which Ilèyn had disappeared. Even in the pale moonlight Fili recognized his younger brother Kili, who came rushing to him.
"What are you doing here, why are you just disappearing?" the Younger asked unsubstantially "You were gone for what felt like an eternity, Thorin and Balin followed this elf, together with the wizard and the hobbit. Whatever they are planning to do with the map..."
"I... needed some time." Fili said curtly.
"This archer, Ilèyn, she has just come towards me, in a hurry." said his brother. He eyed the Older briefly.
"What have you been doing here?" he asked and a big grin appeared on the brown-haired's face.
"I asked her who or what she really is." Fili said seriously and looked at the Younger with punishment. He stepped away from the railing and entered the archway. "And why she's here at all, why she came with us." Kili's smile disappeared instantly.
"What did she tell you? Did you found out why she doesn't like me?" He ran after his brother until he stopped.
"I didn't found out anything, do you hear?" Fili got a little angry.
Kili hesitated briefly and looked questioningly at his brother.
"What happened here?" he asked uncertainly.
"She said she wanted to get away tonight. I assured her no one would stop her, but something ... tells me it was a mistake."
The brothers looked at each other indecisively.
"What do we do now?" Kili asked.
The older one was silent for a moment. His mind revolved around the conversation he just had, around all the answers he had been looking for and not found.
"It would be best if we forget the whole thing." he then said with a resigned undertone, "Maybe it's better that way. She had no place in our company and she doesn't know anything about the venture." Fili took a few steps "She should go."
"Are you sure?" Kili seemed concerned, he hadn't moved from the spot.
"I am." Fili replied and looked over his shoulder "Come on, brother. Thorin has announced that we will be leaving early tomorrow. We should get some sleep."
The brothers quietly returned to the rest of the company.