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

「 Chapter 34 」

Fili opened his eyes.
It was still dark, everything was quiet. The music of the feast upstairs had long stopped, since when exactly he hadn't really noticed.
What time was it?
It had to be pretty early in the morning.
The dwarf lay on his back and stared up to the ceiling. It had started to rain, which was quite unusual in the north, as there was almost exclusively snowfall, and the wind pressed the drops against the small window of the room, the thunder could be heard in the distance. The room slowly began to smell of rain, because, thank Mahal, Ilèyn had managed to get the window open yesterday with Fili's help.
Sighing softly, he carefully straightened up, his gaze falling on Ilèyn next to him. She was lying on her stomach, hands folded under her head, eyes closed. A small smile crept onto his face and he leaned his back against the wall. He winced briefly when he felt the cold wood on his skin. He couldn't take his gaze from her, his hand moved slowly to her and he gently and slowly stroked the bare skin of her back.
The only light that lit the room very, very sparsely, came from a few candles that had been placed on a wooden board attached to the wall.
Under his fingers Fili felt Ilèyn's chest rise and fall slowly and evenly. Her soft skin was repeatedly streaked with several rough, deep scars. Sword and knife blows, he was sure of that. Some smaller, some larger, most of them only very poorly visible, but some were clearly visible to the dwarf even in the little light. Round scars on her back like... arrow wounds. One of them obviously just missed her lungs. The others were on her shoulder, on her right arm, and below her ribs. She must have survived a rather violent hail of arrows. Barely survived. Some of the arrows appeared to have barbs, the scars these arrows had left were slightly larger and the skin was significantly more damaged.
When Fili pushed the blanket back a little, a few scars appeared on Ilèyn's hip and waist. The dwarf frowned and let out a quiet, concerned breath. He picked up the blanket again and put it over Ilèyn's body. As much as he would have loved to keep looking at her, he was glad that she was actually still asleep and didn't want to risk that she would wake up from the cold.

Fili felt for his pants next to the bed. When he got hold of them he got up from the bed and quickly slipped into them. Then he looked around for his belt and top.
"I think it's both over here." it came quietly and amused behind his back. Fili turned around. Ilèyn hadn't moved, her head still rested on her hands, she just had opened her eyes and watched him.
"You sure?" he asked with a smile.
Ilèyn slowly propped herself up on her elbows and looked down at her side of the bed for a moment.
"Pretty sure." she chuckled. When she noticed shortly afterwards how he was looking at her, she reached for the blanket, which had slipped a little further down, pulled it all the way over her shoulders and sank back down on her stomach. Fili smiled and looked at her lovingly.
"You're also beautiful when wrapped in an oversized blanket, Amrâlimê." he said knowingly and walked around the bed.
"Where do you want to go...?" Ilèyn asked softly.
"I dont know." Fili admitted and picked up his belt from the floor. "I... was hoping you would get some sleep and didn't want to wake you up."
"Then you shouldn't have got up." the archer answered and looked up at him.
The dwarf paused and looked her in the eye. Then his gaze fell on the small window, daybreak was still a few hours away, it was still raining outside.
"Well..." he said then, "I guess you're right."
Grinning contentedly, Ilèyn slid to the side and Fili joined her again. Ilèyn hugged him as tightly as she could, as if she feared he would vanish if she let go of him. She laid her head on his chest and listened to his heartbeat, his even breathing made her a bit sleepy again.
"Your uncle won't be happy with this..." she said softly and drew small circles with her finger on his chest, her eyes already closed "He doesn't like me and he's really bad at hiding it."
"I don't care what my uncle thinks about it." Fili answered.
He quietly stroked her hair and breathed in her scent, her warm skin on his skin made his heart beat faster.
"Thorin has no right to push himself between us. Don't worry." his voice grew lower and lower when he noticed that Ilèyn was falling asleep.
She felt so delicate and soft in his arms. And although he knew she would try to talk him out of it, he vowed to protect her, with everything he had, and if he had to, with his life. He didn't say it, but he gave her this promise and sealed it with a long and gentle kiss on her forehead.

Ilèyn had been able to sleep for about three hours when she felt Fili begin to move beside her. She forced herself to open her eyes and noticed the soft light that fell into the room through the milky glass of the window. It had stopped raining some time ago.
Grumbling, she revealed her incomprehension about Fili wanting to get up. She only heard him laugh softly as he wriggled out of her tight grip and sat up.
"It is time, Mizimelûh." he said and was already about to put his top on. "I don't think the others will hesitate to drag us out of this room by their own."
"Okay okay..." Ilèyn grumbled through the blanket and fished for her linen shirt. She tied up her shirt and swung her legs over the edge of the bed. She grabbed her pants and her leather doublet, tied them both well and then slipped into her boots. When she put on her belt and reached for her cloak, she heard the doors opening next door and the dwarves stomping out.
Ilèyn quickly tied her cloak and fastened quivers and daggers on her back. Fili opened the door after Ilèyn had taken her bow and, after giving her another warm smile, entered the corridor behind the door.
"Come on, hurry up!" it came from Dori, who was waiting impatiently for his little brother. This pattered out of his room, completely off the track.
How much must he have drunk yesterday?
Ilèyn really didn't want to know when she thought about it a second time.
She and Fili walked past Ori and Dori in the direction of the large exit of the town hall. The doors were open to reveal a crowd of people waiting for the heroes of the hour to make their way to their destination. Ilèyn spied Thorin and Dwalin, who had not yet gone outside and were still deep in a serious conversation. Balin joined them and when Fili and Ilèyn got closer, Bilbo and Kili also appeared with them.
Ilèyn moved away from the group and came towards Kili.
"How is your leg?" she asked immediately and examined the dwarf closely. He looked pale and didn't seem able to breathe very well.
"I'm fine." Kili replied tersely and waved it off. He pushed past Ilèyn, who just rolled her eyes. As she followed him back to the others, she heard the last missing members of the company coming out of the rooms. They all now gathered in the entrance hall of the town hall and waited for Thorin's orders.
"We were promised armor." noted Dwalin and looked around.
"And you should get it, dwarf." answered an annoyed voice behind them. Ilèyn turned and there stood the Master's servant in black, looking down at the group with an expression of contempt.

A moment later, yesterday's tailors appeared in the entrance hall, all of them with armor in their hands. They walked straight to the dwarfs and sorted and tried. Ilèyn took a step to the side when one of the tailors approached Fili and equipped him with iron shoulder plates as well as iron armor. The blond endured the procedure and looked down at himself as the tailor walked away again. He looked a little skeptically at the armor, but in the end he seemed to be quite satisfied with it.
Ilèyn took another step closer and looked at him.
"Handsome." she grinned. She herself had not been upgraded, but she had resolutely opposed it.
"And necessary." Fili added confidently and winked at her.
Ilèyn could suddenly feel herself being impaled by Thorin's gaze. She sighed.
"He's watching us, am I right?" she asked softly, so as not to let it become too clear how much she was bothered by the dwarf leader's behavior, especially since they were getting closer and closer to the mountain.
"He does." Fili confirmed and looked past Ilèyn to Thorin.
"Do you want to go to him?"
"I don't think I have to explain myself again and again." the blonde replied, looking back at the armor he was wearing. He tightened a couple of the leather straps and nodded in satisfaction.
"Will the armor really be necessary?" Ilèyn asked, who suddenly felt a tremendous surge of concern. She wasn't really afraid for her own life, much more for his. She resisted such thoughts or feelings a little. But at that moment she couldn't keep them away from her.
"It's gonna be okay." Fili said confidently, "The company will be successful. We all firmly believe in it and together we will make it."
His words calmed Ilèyn a little. However, she had a strange feeling. She couldn't really describe what it was, but it took hold of her body in an unusually powerful way. She tried not to waste too much thought on it, but it just wouldn't work.
The dwarves were armored and Thorin looked around seriously. The fishermen outside the doors of the town hall waited eagerly. The Mayor's servant had gone outside with his Master a few minutes ago.
"We should go now." Balin said and exchanged a look with his brother.
"We should." Thorin agreed, and turned to go.
When Ilèyn looked again at the dwarves around her, something struck her.
Wasn't one of them missing?