Fallen Starlight [Book One]

Chapter Five

"Make it stop. Make it stop." Arirua kept repeating to herself. She looked at Kili who was standing next to her horse. "Help me." she begged him, tears swelling in her eyes. Kili stopped trying to help her out of the saddle, realizing that her shoulders were slumped over a little bit more and her eyes had now shut.

"Gandalf!" he yelled over the loud noise the company was making. "Gandalf!"

"Move!" Gandalf demanded as he moved through the company. "Get her out of the saddle." he told Kili as he got closer. Kili nodded and motioned to Dwalin to help him. The bigger dwarf grumbled something about weakness and elves but he went to the right side of Elenduriel. Dwalin moved her right leg to the left side of the saddle, allowing Kili to gently pull her into his arms. While Kili tried to move her out of the mud that the trail had become, Arirua opened her eyes.

"It's okay." Kili assured her, as she started looking around nervously, not sure what was going on. "Gandalf wants to look at your arm." Arirua looked at him, trying to pull her arm closer to her body, causing her to let out a small scream of pain.

"He cannot. I am fine Kili. I promise." she said trying to assure him.

"No, you're not." Fili told her, as he came up to help Kili move her. "You weren't okay last night and you are not okay now." They helped her sit down underneath one of the trees that were alongside the road. Gandalf, who was walking behind them as they moved her, spoke then.

"I wish to speak to her alone." he told them. They both nodded, though Kili looked a little reluctant.

"I will be okay." she promised them as they started walking away.

"Let us have a look now." Gandalf said after they put a little distance between the company and themselves. Arirua shook her head, not wanting the wizard to see her arm. She had showed no one but Lord Elrond before, and she had only showed him because he had insisted after she had gone through one of her fits.

"You cannot heal it Mithrandir. It is not one of those kinds of pains." she told him.

"I may be able to do something." he argued with her in his calm tone, though she could hear the underlying frustration, "Just show me." Arirua looked into Gandalf's eyes, studying them for a moment, deciding whether or not to trust this wizard with her greatest secret.

"Okay, but you cannot tell the company." Gandalf looked at her. "I will tell them in my own time." she explained. Gandalf nodded, though he didn't agree, but he knew that this was something she would have to do when she was ready.

"You know where I come from and what I am, but I know that you do not know how I came to walk upon this land. It is simple, I disobeyed. And I was punished for my choice." she explained, breathing getting slightly heavy from all the energy she was using to tell her tale and stay awake.

"What do you mean?" he asked her.

"I..." she looked at him with a sad look. "I choose not to look away from this world. For this world is dark and evil but there is good, something my brothers and sisters could not see. But I did. And I was punished for what I saw and believed. I was cast out. Cast out and branded." she said. Arirua began tugging at her sleeve on her left arm. She pulled to top of the sleeve over her shoulder and removed her hand so Gandalf could see.