The Last One

Chapter 36

Ruive was the first to wake before the sun rose. She stood up and stretched her back grimacing at the cracking of her tired bones. She smiled when she saw Beorn preparing food in the kitchen, plates were set up along the large table and the smell of bread wafted through the house. Ruive walked over to Beorn careful not to wake the dwarves.

"You've been busy of late, child." Beorn's raspy voice came. 

She smiled at the pet name, even though she was over a thousand years old he still called her child.

Beorn turned and bent down to hug her. "It has been to long my friend." 

Beorn pulled back and looked down at her still bloody attire. 

"There is water in the bath, and clothes on the bed, off you go." 

Beorn nodded his head to the hallway before turning back to the bench preparing breakfast.

Ruive smiled and wandered into the room she had woken up in after Arathorn saved her. On the bed were a dark red tunic, dark brown pants, undergarments, and a brown corset with a shoulder pad. Ruive shook her head thinking to herself; 'Arathorn.' She picked up the clothes and walked into the next room. The large wooden bath was filled halfway with steaming water. She place the clothes next to a sheet and unstrapped her dirty boots. She pulled off her torn corset casting it aside along with the torn and bloodied shirt. Her pant soon followed them leaving her in a pair of breeches and a chest wrap. She took those off and tossed them into the pile of clothes before climbing into the bath. She hissed at them hot water came in contact with her skin but eased into the water. She took a brush and scrubbed away the dried blood to reveal pale scars all over her skin. When finished she climbed out dried herself off with the sheet and pulled on the breeches and pants before wrapping her chest tightly. She threw on the tunic and strapped the corset over top. 

She must have been in the bath for a while as she returned to the kitchen the dwarves, Bilbo and Gandalf were all seated around the long table eating bread and drinking milk.

"So you are the one they call Oakenshield. Tell me, why is Azog the Defiler hunting you?" Beorn asked as he filled Fili's pint with milk.

"You know of Azog? How?" Thorin asked curious.

"My people were the first to live in the mountains, before the Orcs came down from the north. The Defiler killed most of my family, but some he enslaved."

The remnants of shackles were clamped around Beorn's wrists. 

"Not for work, you understand, but for sport. Caging skin-changers and torturing them seemed to amuse him."

"There are others like you?" Bilbo piped up.

"Once, there were many."

"And now?" Bilbo asked slowly.

"Now, there is only one." Beorn's tone was grave and mournful. 

Silence enveloped the company.

"You need to reach the mountain before the last days of autumn?" Beorn asked, changing the subject.

"Before Durin's Day falls, yes." Ruive spoke up for the first time.

"You are running out of time." Beorn stated.

"Which is why we must go through Mirkwood." Gandalf said. 

Ruive's head snapped to Gandalf. He had failed to mention this when she agreed to join them.

"What?"

Gandalf looked to Ruive. "It is the fastest way to the mountain, and we are short on time."