Star-Crossed

Chapter 42

Beuren strode over the stone walk way at a brisk walk. Thorin walked slower, keeping a good distance behind her. The shadows wouldn't do much for him if she turned around, and he didn't want to think of what she would think if she caught him. Thorin watched as she slowed, looking around then turned a corner; he picked up his pace and hid behind the corner of the tall shrubbery. He had no clue why he was doing this, it's not like he was jealous... well...

She was stepping into the garden, disappearing around another corner. He hurried after her turning as well. For several minutes they wound through the maze like garden, Thorin following a safe distance behind her. She stopped, before her was a fountain, and sitting on the edge of the fountain sat a young man; he looked familiar to Thorin, yet at the same time completely foreign.

He noticed her and smiled; setting down the book he had been reading and stood. She smiled and jogged to him, throwing her arms around him. He laughed with a low chuckle, and then returned her hug.

"Thank Mahal, your alive! I thought that last one I sent you on wasn't going to end well!" She said.

"It didn't for them." He rolled up his sleeve. "I made it out ok, few battle wounds, nothing more." She looked at his forearm and shook her head.

"What'd I tell you... always keep them in your sight."

"Yeah, yeah." He said, taking a seat. She wrung her hands together then took a seat beside him.

"There's, um, something I need to talk to you about." He looked up from the book and focused on her.

"What is it?" Thorin watched as she took the serpent ring off her finger. She rolled the ring between her fingertips for a moment, a sadness washed across her, the light in her eyes visibly dimming. Beuren's hand stretched outwards, catching the young man's wrist. With her long fingers, she placed the ring in his palm, closing his hand around it.

"You know how much he loved you, your father, don't you?" He was silent, so long that she thought he might not have heard her. "Estel?"

"Yes, I do. But...I don't understand."

"You will, in time, a short time I fear." She stood, pressing her lips to his forehead. She turned, her dress swirling around her legs.

"Aunt Beuren!" She paused, not too far from Thorin, who dared not breathe. "What aren't you telling me?" Beuren glanced over her shoulder and smiled gently, then strode forward. Thorin waited a moment or two before following.

When he rounded the corner to exit the garden he saw her sitting on a bench he'd passed, tucked back under the boughs of one of the great oak trees within the city. She rested her head in her hands, elbows on her knees. There was no way to get around her without getting caught, and the whirlwind of accusations and snide remarks were not on his agenda.

"He looks like his father, doesn't he?" She looked up and directly at him. He stepped forward, recognizing that there was no one else there she possibly could be talking to.

"Yes, he does, much calmer though." Thorin replied, stepping closer to the bench.

"He's older; you should have seen him when he was young. Just like Kili he was! All wound up, never stopped going."

"At least they calm down at some point." He laughed lightly.

"Kili has yet to find that point I can see." She smiled, leaning back against the curved back of the bench.

"Aye, the only person I knew who had that much energy was you... well and Dis at that age." Beuren let out a laugh.

"Remember when she would wake us up and try to get us to take her outside at night when she was little?"