Renacida || Fili x MGIME OC ||

Informative

"They call my kin the Unwilling," Avrien had explained in that gentle voice of his. "The Avari. We did not journey to Valinor. Instead, we spread across the land, past the Western world and into the East. We have dwelled longer in Arda than anybody else.

"We grew without the arrogance or superiority of our cousins who traveled back to this realm. It was my kin who came upon Man, and it was my kin who taught Man how to survive, how to thrive. We would not be who we are without Man, nor would they be who they are without us.

"It was my kin who were captured by Melkor when he stalked Arda's land. It was my kin who were turned to the first of the orcs.

"And it was my kin who sought out those who had been corrupted and, little by little, bade them to return home and retake the light that was stolen from them."

I flipped through the Big Binder once more just to make sure I hadn't missed anything, but I was positive that no wiki page said anything about fucking orc-elf-man integration. That'd be a pretty huge thing to write about.

The dwarves were still perturbed by this news, this revelation that the orc-filth they had been hellbent on slaughtering for so long were not, in fact, wholly evil. The ones who served Sauron and Morgoth, sure, but that was their choice, just as it was the choice of any race. And, for the most part, they did like their choice. However, there were also orcs and goblins who fled to the East in search of refuge. Many of them were women and the weak, but there were also some who dared to regard those they hunted other than prey. There were those who wanted to feel the light without being frightened or blinded or burned by it.

Generations bloomed with mixed blood, resulting in the likes of the people I saw at the encampment.

Iksa, one of Tahir's great-grandchildren and definitely interested in Dwalin, was a quarter orc. "We felt no remorse killing our distant kin in battle," she had said. "War is war, and they fought on the side of evil. The Dark One would not gain a foothold in the North. It only angered us to look upon what his darkness continues to twist.

"We did, however, manage to take prisoners and find the location of one of their brooding pens. It is near Gundabad. We sent out a number to liberate the she-orcs and children being held there. We have also accepted most of the prisoners into our tribes. They will be watched over until the light returns to them."

Fili sat on the edge of his bed while I turned to another page in the Big Binder. My hair was down, and I ate a sweet, hard cookie baked by Bombur from tonight's meal. Bombur always let me take extra food because I was obviously his favorite, and he thought I could do with a bit more meat on me.

"Brooding pens," he muttered, and not for the first time. "Brooding pens, Ria. I had always known that the ways of the orcs were far from kind, but...brooding pens. Kept like animals, they said. Mahal."

Dwarves revered their women. That came with its own cultural problems, but the thought of their own being kept in pits and cages like livestock to be raped throughout their lives and give birth to children they would never know filled them with bitter rage. Fili's mind had not yet settled over it.

"The West has good reason to think badly of the Easterlings," Amelie had explained. She kept the Coke bottle in her hand long after the soda was gone. "Animosity still remains between many of the more nomadic tribes, especially the existing Wainrider factions. I have done my best to quell such hatred, but there is still work to do. Both sides have done horrible things. Do you know what Gondorians call us, Val? Swarthy Men. What a load of racist shit."

"Yep," I said to myself, tapping the Spanish word on the page about the Easterlings. "There it is. Aywey. What a load of colonist garbage."

"Of course," Amelie had continued, "there were large tribes that served Sauron. But they would have served anyone who promised them Western land. The rest...well, the rest were lumped in with the same group, even though a vast majority would never condone it. Besides, many of the Eastern kingdoms and city-states wanted the tribes to be wiped out as well; it meant they wouldn't have to deal with raids any time in the future."