The Fifteenth Member (Thorin Oakenshield/OFC)

Chapter 37

I allowed myself to drift off to an almost-sleep. It was quiet, the water was warm, and I was comfortable. The only thing that was keeping me from falling into dreamland was how I had just treated Thorin. He had woken up not five hours ago and I had already shouted at him. I had waited for a week for him to wake up and hold me in his arms again, to braid my hair for me, to say nice things to comfort me when I was down, to have him massage my back when he woke up but I had already pushed him away. I should probably go find him and apologize. I had no proof that he had even attempted to prank me but that still didn't explain what happened earlier but even still, I began to feel guilty, Thorin had not deserved to have me blow up at him in his face. I was about to get up to go when I heard the door open. I had left the bathroom door open so I could see the large shadow undulating in a strange way. I shrank down, unreasonably thinking that some monster had somehow gotten past the guards.

"Mereniver?" A voice called. I sighed quietly with relief when I recognized Thorin.

"I'm in here. Should I come out?"

"No," It was Oin who spoke this time, "I can bring him in there." I heard someone moving around followed by the sound of something being dragged across the fluffy, dark green carpet. Oin appeared in the doorway, pulling the harp chair behind him. He placed it in front of the tub an left again. He came back a few seconds later with Thorin using him as a crutch. Oin helped him into the chair before placing a plate of food in his lap.

"You need to eat Thorin, even if you don't want to, your body needs the nutrients. I'll be back in a couple hours to check on both of you. Mereniver, make sure he doesn't move on his own too much because he will strain himself. He will eventually regain his full strength." With that, Oin left us to our own devises. Neither of us said anything until we heard the mahogany doors click shut.

"Thorin, I'm so sorry! I-"

"Mereniver! I'm not mad at you."

"You're not? Why?" He drew my book out of his pocket, turned to a specific page and handed it to me.

"Read the first paragraph. And yes, I'm really not mad at you."

"Ok?" I wiped my hands on the towel he handed me and my eyes turned down to the cursive writing in front of me.

Mermaids don't have an official language. Therefore, they rely on the languages of others. Odds are that you can name any language and there will be a mermaid out there who speaks it. (With the exception of the Black Speech of Mordor.) I discovered that after I professed my love for my dear one, she began to develop powers that she had not had before. One of which was being able to understand any language if she knew the name and could put it to a single word from the language. This was frightening for her at first because all she heard was her native tongue, elvish, and could not differentiate between the different tongues. After a long time with much practice and patience, she was able to listen past the elvish she heard and pick up on the language that the being was actually speaking and eventually, reply in a limited way.

My jaw dropped as everything came together. It was true that I knew that the dwarves had their own language but I had now known the name of it until today. I looked at Thorin, who had an expectant look on his face.

"Well?"

"I understand now. Thank you for being patient with me."

"I have a feeling this will not be the only time."

"What do you mean? I know about the power now so it's not like I'm going to blow up at anyone about it again. I intend to keep it a secret."

"I mean this." He leaded forward so he could out his hand under the water and lay it on my still-flat abdomen."