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

「 Chapter 48 」

She felt the cold creep into her bones.
She felt her head throb.
She felt the pain in her body begin to bring her back to reality.

"Go!" Fili's terrified cry echoed in her head.
"Run!"

She felt the emptiness.
She felt the grief.
She felt the faint.

At the scream of an eagle, she slowly opened her eyes.
The Eagles.
The Eagles had come.
Ilèyn felt unable to move or just to fix her gaze on the sky.
She didn't know how long she had been lying here, how long she had remained unconscious with Fili.
Was she even still alive?
Maybe it was all just a dream and she was.
"Over here!" Ilèyn heard Bofur's shocked exclamation only vaguely, as if the dwarf were miles away. Then, a few moments later, she felt like she was being grabbed by the arms. Bofur and Nori had rushed to her and were now trying to get her to safety.
"Take care of her shoulder!" That was Balin.
Underlining his statement, Ilèyn had to groan loudly as the pain went through her limbs again. When she realized that they wanted to take her away from Fili, she started to fight back.
"Let go of me..." she said softly and pulled her arm from Bofur's hands. The dwarves didn't respond or simply didn't hear her.
"Let go of me now!" Ilèyn suddenly screamed and jerked out of Noris and Bofur's grip.
"Ilèyn, your wounds must be treated immediately." said Bofur, catching the archer when she collapsed in front of him.
"I'm fine..." she moaned softly.
Nori and Bofur pulled her back up. Ilèyn's strength to fight back waned.
"I have to stay with him..." she said weakly when she was led away "I can't leave him alone!"

Ilèyn opened her eyes.
She was lying on her back, looking up at a stone ceiling.
What happened?
"Finally you're awake, lad." she heard someone say next to her. When Ilèyn wanted to turn her head, she felt her neck resisting every single movement she wanted to make. Ilèyn grimaced as she tried to move her upper body. The right side of her body felt stiff and in great pain, she had a headache and she felt sick. Her right arm was placed in a tight sling that was attached to the back of her neck.
Suddenly Oin's head came into her field of vision.
"I was afraid we would lose you, to be honest with you." said the dwarf, and began to dab Ilèyn's head with a wet rag.
"Gloin, how... where am I?" Ilèyn managed to say.
"Oh, at least you recognize me." Oin winked at her "You are in Erebor, in the infirmary. The others have found you, you..." The dwarf paused for a moment and looked for the right words.
"You passed out next to Fili, you were absolutely hypothermic and lost a lot of blood." he said seriously "If we had come just a few hours later, you would probably have frozen to death."
At the mention of Fili's name, Ilèyn had to swallow hard. She wanted to defend herself against the tears welling up in her eyes, but she was powerless against it.
"I... I'm sorry, little one..." sighed Oin. The dwarf put a new bandage around Ilèyn's head and then left the room.
Alone with herself, Ilèyn began to sob softly. With each time her body shuddered, she went through pain in her shoulder, hip, and thigh. The tears would not stop flowing and Ilèyn closed her eyes, wishing that they would never have found her and simply let her freeze to death.
How many hours had passed since the battle?
Was the fight over?
How many fell?
Maybe days had passed?

Ilèyn lay motionless on the plank in the infirmary for hours.
Time seemed to slip by her so she couldn't get hold of it. Her thoughts were silent and her eyes were blank.
The walls around her were cold and rough, and the torches attached to them gave scant light.
After long hours more, Balin and Gandalf had checked on Ilèyn. They had told her that Thorin and Kili had also died in the fight against Bolg and Azog.
Ilèyn heard from Gandalf that it was the morning after the battle and that all armies had suffered great losses. She heard that Azog had been killed by Thorin. That Bolg had been killed by Legolas. That the eagles had come and helped in the fight against the second army from the north, together with Beorn and Radagast. And that Thranduil wanted to return to Mirkwood with his army by noon today.
Balin told of the ongoing arrangements for Thorin Oakenshield's, Fili and Kili's funeral.
Ilèyn had listened to the dwarf and the wizard in silence, without emotion on her face. When Balin and Gandalf carefully expressed their condolences on Fili's loss, Ilèyn looked them both in the eyes for the first time since they had entered the room. With a glazed look, Ilèyn slowly led her ungrazed hand to her stomach and let it lie there.
A knowing and sad nod from Gandalf, Balin silently looked at the ground.
The two slowly left the room to allow Ilèyn more rest.
However, the archer was not alone for a long time, because half an hour later there was a knock on the door of the infirmary.
Ilèyn did not answer the knock and hoped that whoever stood there in front of the door would leave by itself if no one responded. But then the door was opened and a warrior slowly entered the room to see if anyone was present. The warrior was an Elf. When he saw Ilèyn lying on the bunk, he stood at attention next to the door and made room for someone else who came into the room after him.
Thranduil appeared in the doorway and his eyes fell on his badly injured niece.
"Uncle..." Ilèyn groaned hoarsely and immediately began to push herself from the supine position into a sitting position, her face contorted.
Thranduil looked as if he wanted to argue that Ilèyn wanted to sit up, but before he could bring anything to his lips, Ilèyn was hunched over on the plank in front of him.
"What do you want?" she asked softly.
"It was said that you were on the mend." said Thranduil in his usual calm voice, "I wanted to see for myself."
The Elf King stepped closer and looked at Ilèyn.
"I'm fine..." she said softly and met her uncle's gaze.
For a moment no one said a word.

"You fought valiantly. At the side of your family." Thranduil broke the silence "At the side... both of your families."
Ilèyn remained silent.
"You should know that you are always welcome should you decide to return to the Woodland Realm, Ilèyn." said the Elf King.
Ilèyn swallowed hard. She looked at her uncle for a long time and then nodded approvingly.
"I..." she began slowly, "I thank you, uncle." She bowed her head in a gentle and polite bow.
Thranduil returned the gesture.
"Cuio uae." he said.
"Berio le i Melain." answered Ilèyn.
The King of the Woodland Realm turned slowly and walked towards the door. He quietly left the room and the warrior who had come with him closed the door as he left.
Ilèyn's gaze rested on the closed door for a while. Then her eyes wandered further across the room. She looked at the bandages lying around and the medicine lined up on a wooden shelf.
Ilèyn felt more useless than ever. To sit here, almost doomed to immobility, while everyone else outside worked on removing the heavy damage of the battle. While many out there suffered significantly more than she did.
She let herself slide carefully from the plank. When she hit the ground, her injured leg and massive blood loss made itself felt. Her thigh burned from the slightly larger cut and she felt dizzy when her circulation was causing her problems.
Ilèyn leaned on the plank and took several deep breaths in and out. She dared to walk carefully to the door and opened it. Just as she stepped out into the long corridor, three dwarfs ran past her, carrying boxes and sacks, probably filled with food.
She decided to follow the dwarves as she had no orientation in this mountain. Limping slightly, she managed to follow the dwarfs into a part of Erebor that looked familiar to her. The dwarves were on their way elsewhere, but Ilèyn recognized the path to the main gate of Erebor and turned into the passage that opened on her right. Again some of Dain's soldiers came towards her, but they ignored her because they were hastily going about their tasks.
Her forehead wrinkled, concentrated on not making any wrong movements so as not to let the pain become too severe, Ilèyn reached the large entrance hall, into which the glaring sunlight could now fall. Much of the remains of the rampart that Thorin and the dwarves had built had already been cleared away. The golden bell that had paved the way for the dwarves of Erebor into battle had been pulled a little further up and now hung over Ilèyn's head on the ceiling of the hall.

Ilèyn did not dare go all the way to the front of the gate. She could already imagine that yesterday's battlefield was far from cleared and that the bodies were still piled on the plains. She would not be able to bear this sight, she knew that and so she turned away again.
Over time, Ilèyn realized that this was the first battle in her life.
She survived.
And lost everything.
The dwarf didn't know where to go. Lost she wandered slowly back and forth between the halls and corridors of Erebor. She opened doors aimlessly, looked into the rooms behind, only to continue her exploration.
After a while she noticed how her body resisted all the running and Ilèyn leaned against a wall, let her head fall back with a sigh and stared upwards.
Ravenhill's horn filled her head with its deafening sound. It seemed to dig into her ears like a knife and lodged itself in her memories like a stubborn parasite.
Ilèyn panicked and began to breathe faster and pressed her palms against her ears, whereupon the shoulder of the splinted hand let a sharp pain go into her body. The sound of the horn got louder and louder.
Ilèyn grimaced in agony.
"Stop... make it stop!"
She felt the sharp blade of the orc again, how it slashed her back, she heard the screams of humans, elves and dwarves, everything came together in her head.
"Stop!" shouted Ilèyn, clutching her head, her legs beginning to give way under her.
Images of Fili flickered in her mind until they were overlaid by Azog's diabolical grin as he rammed the blade through the dwarf's chest.
"No!" Ilèyn shouted and collapsed. She sank to her knees, propped herself on her left arm, and was breathing heavily. Her voice faded around her, the feeling of loneliness, which Ilèyn had previously perceived as a very pleasant state, weighed down on her and seemed to overwhelm her.
"Ilèyn!" someone shouted from the left in horror. She heard footsteps approaching until someone bent down to her. It was Balin.
"What are you doing here, you have to rest! In your condition you can't just walk around in the Mountain." Balin wanted to pull Ilèyn back to her feet.
"Alright, alright ..." groaned Ilèyn and let the white-bearded dwarf help her. He escorted her back to the hospital and helped her lie down again.
"You should sleep." Balin said seriously. "Tomorrow will be... a rough day."
With that he left the room.