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

「 Epilogue 」

The arrow quivered and stuck in the target.
"Ha! A ten!" called the girl and her eyes shone with confidence.
"Not a bad shot, little one." said the boy next to her and nodded appreciatively.
"I'm older than you!" she replied indignantly and turned to him.
The boy rolled his eyes.
"Only fifteen minutes!" he returned piqued and grimaced in annoyance.
The girl gave him a provocative grin, took the next arrow and put it on the bow string.
"But I'm taller than you." it came from the boy just as she was about to shoot. The arrow hissed uncontrollably from the string and landed in the undergrowth.
"Oh yes?" the girl asked angrily as she turned to him again, pointed her finger to the trees and twisted her mouth.
"You search." she said.
"Why me?" he asked horrified.
"Because you distracted me!" she returned.
"Oh, please, that wasn't a distraction." he laughed. "A true warrior doesn't let that be distracted."
"You are definitely not a warrior. Unless you can be the first to kill an orc with one of your books." she grumbled and stomped forward to pull one arrow out of the target and look for the other in the thicket.
"Somebody has to be first!" he called after her.
"It's certainly not you!" came the answer from somewhere between the trees.
He waited patiently for her until after a few minutes she came back to him with both arrows and a little more leaves in her hair than at the beginning.
"Do we want to go back?" he asked, pointing with his thumb over his shoulder. "Amad said there would be dinner soon."
"Sure." she replied tersely, "I don't feel like training with you any more." She put the word training in quotation marks in an exaggerated gesture.
The two made their way through the trees until after a short time they reached a small winding path. The forest wasn't particularly dense, but her mother insisted that they use it whenever they were on their way back or forth to training.
"What do you think is there today?" she asked as she took a big step over a root.
"No idea." he said casually, "I hope Amad finally prepares the berries we collected yesterday."
"Oh yes!" she exclaimed "For dessert!"
The thought of a delicious dessert made the two walk faster until they ran the last rest of the way. After only a few minutes they reached the edge of the forest, the cool autumn wind announced that it would soon begin to rain. Nevertheless, the sun, which was already leaning towards dusk, still sent a few warm rays down.
The days in the north passed faster, the nights were long and cold, and in autumn you had to wear thick clothes if you wanted to step outside the door after dark.
A small hut loomed in front of them, hidden at the foot of a hill, with a small front garden, which was lined with small blue Forget-me-nots, smoke billowed from the chimney.

She passed him in the front yard and dashed up the few wooden stairs to the open front door. Immediately she was in the small living room, which was heated by the narrow fireplace. Another door led out into the garden and a narrow staircase to a second floor.
Ilèyn came straight down the stairs and saw the girl jumping across the living room, on the way to the fireplace.
"There you are again." she said with a smile and rolled up her sleeves "How was the training?"
"The little one shot well." said the boy, who now also stepped through the door. When the girl opened her mouth indignantly and in protest, he quickly waved it off.
"All right, all right, fifteen minutes, I know..." he said and walked slowly to the wooden table that made up the center of the room.
The girl nodded contentedly.
"Fafnîr distracted me, Amad." she said then and her satisfied look changed to an offended expression.
Fafnîr had opened a book and started reading.
"Indeed." said Ilèyn with a smile and looked over at her son.
"Alhèna just can't concentrate." said the latter without looking up.
"That's not true at all!" Alhèna exclaimed, aghast, and looked at her mother for help.
Ilèyn stepped up to her and ran through the girl's dark blonde hair, which hung in a small braid from her shoulder.
"I can imagine you were pretty good with the bow today." she said soothingly and then went to the table to bend down to Fafnîr.
"I prepared the berries exactly as you wanted." she said softly to him. That was enough to make even Fafnîr look up from one of his books. He beamed at his mother.
"Really?" he asked enthusiastically "Oh, great!"
The boy brushed his wavy blond hair and closed the book.
"You mention food once and then you can't stop him." Alhèna noticed from the side, who was carefully placing the bow and the quiver next to the door.
"Something he got from his father." Ilèyn smiled and winked at her daughter.
"I think so." Alhèna laughed and ran after her brother to the small kitchen area by the fireplace.
The twins helped set the table and before there was a successful berry dessert, they filled their bellies with roast venison and potatoes.
"I would really like to know..." Alhèna started with her mouth full of potatoes.
"Don't speak with your mouth full, you..." began her brother.
"Fafnîr." Ilèyn interrupted her son before he could finish speaking.
Alhèna chewed on the food for a long time, swallowed it and then provocatively showed her brother her empty mouth. Fafnîr just grimaced and looked down at his plate. Ilèyn showed her daughter, that she should close her mouth quickly.
"What did you want to say, Mizimîth?" she now asked, looking at Alhèna across the table.
"I would really like to know what father would do now if he... would be still with us." she said.
"Alhèna, please. Not that topic again." Ilèyn rested her head on her right hand.
"Adad would teach you table manners, sure enough." Fafnîr grumbled and poked at his plate. "

"Enough of your father, you two." said Ilèyn and put both hands on the table. She looked from Fafnîr to Alhèna and back again.
"Who wants dessert?" she asked with a grin.
"Oh me!" Alhèna got up so quickly that the chair on which she was sitting fell over. The girl ran to one of the wooden kitchen counters and took one of the little cakes that were waiting there.
"Hey, me too!" Fafnîr got up quickly and ran to his sister. He reached over her shoulder for the dessert.
"Two for each one of you, then you both go upstairs." ordered Ilèyn as she stacked the plates. The twins nodded and picked up the second cake.
Ilèyn watched the two of them climb the stairs together after dinner and heard their footsteps through the creaking wood above her head. When the noises stopped, Ilèyn made herself a hot tea made from the herbs she had fetched from the garden that morning.
When she sat down in front of the fireplace with a vessel filled with tea and looked out the small window next to her, she began to think.
About what was.
About what is.
And about what may still come.
She knew that her children were special.
She knew what role her children could play in the history and tales of Middle-earth and what dangers this could hold for Ilèyn herself and for the twins.
But she was definitely sure of one thing:
That the line of Durin would not be so easily broken.