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

「 Chapter 40 」

The people helped where they could, collected wood, looked for tools that they could take with them, loaded makeshift carts, distributed blankets and looked after the elderly, the sick, wounded and children to prepare them as best they could for the march towards the mountain.
It was still quite early in the day and Bard had already announced that they would soon be making their way around the lake to the mountain. When the people finally started to move, the strenuous walk began. Bard had planned that they could reach Dale with the last light of the sun, at least that was his goal. The people were also very interested in reaching the ruins before nightfall, which would at least protect them from the cold. During the hike there, isolated minor incidents occurred again and again, when one of the old people stumbled or fell, when one of the children suddenly felt worse or an injured person got problems with their wounds. Ilèyn hurried to and fro in the great crowd, Tilda at her side and put on new bandages, calmed the angry and still completely distraught people and supported the old in difficult places that had to be overcome.
The march seemed like an eternity, but at some point after they had reached the top of a wide hill, Erebor rose before her eyes, far larger than she had seen from Lake Town. The mountain reached into the sky, the snow-covered slopes only slightly contrasted with the blue sky, which was criss-crossed with clouds.
Ilèyn noticed how the long walk and the associated excitement and work were taking a lot out of her already weakened body, but although she hadn't slept for two days, she didn't feel weak at all. She stopped for a moment, looked at the mountain on the horizon and breathed deeply in the fresh air of the rising breeze, which pulled on her cloak and hood.
She thought of Fili again. With every step that she took closer to the mountain, she felt her longing for him increase. She knew he cared for her, that he didn't even know she had made it out of the firestorm alive. She couldn't lose any more time. As soon as the people of Lake Town reached their destination, Ilèyn had to find a way to get into the mountain.

She let her gaze wander and saw the ruins of Dale protruding from the landscape on the slopes of Erebor. The dreary, destroyed walls of the city were the only place of retreat that the people had left.
"Ilèyn." came the bright voice of Tilda, who had approached the archer.
"Come on. Father says the way is not long now."
Ilèyn refused to be asked twice and started walking again. Bard was right with his assumption, because after two more hours of walking the people reached the city of Dale. Or what was left of it. The men, women, and children looked around the ruins, uncertain, awestruck, and intimidated.
People began to explore which rooms were best to find shelter without being haunted by the cold and winds of the night. A kind of infirmary and warehouse quickly formed, where all supplies that could be brought along were initially stowed away.
Ilèyn looked around the ruined city. She had heard of the beauty of Dale in a few stories, but there was really nothing left of it. When she, Sigrid and Tilda helped the people to lie down or to set up the first places to sleep, Ilèyn's gaze fell back to the mountain, which now seemed to cast its long shadow over the city.
The braziers were lit.
Thorin was alive. Just like everyone else in the company, as Ilèyn assumed.
"Make camp here tonight!" it suddenly came from Bard, who was standing with Alfrid on a bridge to a lookout tower. Ilèyn sighed and continued to help people with their injuries.
She would have to stay here tonight.
"Find what shelter you can! Get some fires going!" Those were Bard's last instructions before he went back downstairs.
The people did as they were told, the fires were lit and in fact after a few more hours many camps for the night had already been set up.
Ilèyn had took Sigrid and Tilda with her and was on one of her further tours of the ruins to check on the women and children. Most of these had withdrawn near the great hall.
When Ilèyn turned a corner with the two girls, the first mothers looked up at her with relief.
"There you are again, thank you." said a woman who was holding a little boy in her arms and smiled weakly.
Ilèyn looked around and took a quick look. She breathed out heavily because of the tasks that awaited her here.
"Sigrid, you should try to prepare the potatoes you were able to find there." Ilèyn pointed to the far end of the hall, where a little fire was already burning. Sigrid nodded and went to work.
Ilèyn gave Tilda the rags she was holding in her hand and had the girl clean and re-bandage some wounds as Ilèyn had shown her.
Meanwhile, the dwarf approached a mother with two children.
The woman sat leaning against the stone wall, her son crouched in front of her on a folded coat.
"Ilèyn, you are back here." said the woman, relieved. Ilèyn smiled slightly and stepped beside her. In front of her lay a young girl, her eyes closed, her head resting on her mother's lap. The child was breathing irregularly and shallowly. Ilèyn knelt next to the girl, the boy slid to one side and watched the dwarf as she examined his sister.
Ilèyn carefully lifted a sheet that they had spread over the right part of the child's body. The terrible extent of the severe burn became evident again. A huge burn injury stretched across the girl's right waist, down to her hip and right thigh.
Ilèyn had discovered mother, daughter and son on the lakeshore that morning and had immediately began to clean and treat the wound. The girl had survived so far, but Ilèyn dared not hope. Not yet.