The Eyes of Emerald

In an Elf's Perspective Part 1

I know this sounds odd, but I sometimes envy the prisoners when I go down to the dungeons. There is literally no better place to be imprisoned. The entire area has the appearance of a grotto under water, and you can hear the peaceful sounds of the hundreds or waterfalls surrounding them. Lothlorien surely doesn't have a prison like this. There, while the entire land is bright and full of light, the prisons there are dark, made out of the darkest trees, and there are shadows that never have an end. And the roots give an aura of foreboding and looming doom. And what is worse, there is no light. I'm quite glad they decided I would practice being a soldier in the Woodland Realm rather than Lothlorien.

I have lived there half of my life, and here in the Woodland Realm the other. I am training to be, perhaps, a ruler one day. There is a plot in both King Thranduil and Lady Galadriels' mind that they with to create a new land in Fangorn Forest, to live among the ents, and the horseman of Rohan. And they wish for it to be ruled with both the physical strength of the Woodland Realm, and the mental strength of Lothlorien. My father was from Lothlorien, while my mother was from the Woodland Realm. None were exactly royal, but they had something just as good: honor. And because of that, they saw a great opportunity. Thus I began my training.

This was the most exciting day for me, because never in all my life had I ever seen a dwarf before. Let alone a company of them. I had always heard of them being sinful creatures with ill thoughts towards our kin. They were to be obnoxiously loud, odorous, rude, ugly, and of course, mortal. Though most of these were true, some were surprisingly not. It seemed there were just prideful of their own race, and at the moment the only ill thoughts they had toward us elves was the fact that we were keeping them in cells. And not only have I had my first encounter with dwarves in general, but for the first time for anyone, I have encountered a female dwarf. And not just any: it was the Balorat Su. She seems so, in a word, elf-like. Thranduil was the only person to have seen dwarves before this. This was when the great dragon, Smaug, took over Erebor. He watched as the dwarves there evacuated the fire consumed city, and there were a few women it seemed. But according to him, they seemed to be more...masculine. The Balorat Su did not seem like that at all. I am not saying the was behaving like a damsel. In fact she had a very brave and strong appearance. But when Thranduil described some of them, he said that they were fat, short (even by dwarf standards), and were supposed to have deep voices. The Balorat Su was short, but not the shortest of the company. She was very thin, in an almost both a healthy body type, but an unhealthy hunger. And when I heard her talk to me, she had a soft spoken feminine voice.

We had now left King Thranduil as he spoke to the leader of the company, and we began to lead the prisoners to the dungeons. I had the charge of bringing the Balorat Su, and a young blonde haired dwarf to their cells. Of course since the Balorat Su was a female, I had her put in her own cell. who knew what perverted things these dwarves would do in situations such as these. I first brought the Balorat Su into her cell. And between you and me, I made sure her cell had a view of the waterfalls. But what made me feel awful was the look she gave the blonde haired dwarf. It looked as if she had hurt him in some way. As I closed the gate and brought the other to his cell, I not only saw another knife hidden at the back of his neck, but also a burn at the side of his hand. I took the blade from his behind and couldn't help but laugh once more. He sighed in disappointment as he stormed into his own cell and I closed the gate, while dangling the blade.

"Once more, you are not very good at hiding your weapons. Plus, how could you reach this quickly?"

"I have ways," he snapped. I continued to giggle as I began to follow the others, and then I stopped and thought of the burn. Could the Balorat Su have...burned the blonde dwarf? I quickly erased that thought from my mind. There was no possible way she could have burned him. While we were hunting for the spiders, there was not a single scent, sound, nor sight of a fire, and this would have given them away even more. And this burn had been made very recently. And then I heard whispers. From the Balorat Su and the humorous blonde dwarf. And although this was wrong, where I was now standing I had a perfect view of what they were saying and doing.

"Dawn, don't worry, we will get out of here," said the blonde dwarf. They'll get out of here, I thought. Ha! I couldn't help but smile from this assumption. Unless Thranduil will get bored with them, there is no way they will ever leave there.

"It's not that, Fili. It's...it's what I did to you back in the woods. I HURT you! How can you expect me to forgive myself? How?" she said with a shaky breath as she curled up into a ball against the wall.

"It was the forest, not you. Remember Bombur. He fell unconscious, we had to carry him for a long time, and when he woke up, her thought his beard was a string of sausage," he chuckled. Although he clearly tried to make the matters better, the Balorat Su remained silent. The dwarf named Fili then sighed. "Look, you just had a hallucination. My point is is that you weren't the only one. Yours was just in a worse condition. If anything I'm glad you burned me, because right afterwards, you returned to your normal self." The Balorat Su lifted her head and approached the gate, where the dwarf named Fili was in his cell. Fili then reached out his arm as did the Balorat Su, and they grasped hands. As I saw that, they clearly had a passion for each other. One that was very strong.

"Don't worry, Dawn, We'll be alright."

"Who said I was afraid?" she giggled. I couldn't help but smile. And this reminded me on how I hoped to find someone like that. someone who would have the equal amount of passion for me as I would for him.

"Are you alright, Nendes?" asked a voice. As I turned I found both Tauriel and Legolas behind be, both bearing concerning looks.

"I'm fine. I just can't believe it. The Balorat Su. Here of all the places she could be."

"I know. Your father must be very pleased," said Tauriel addressing Legolas.

"I don't know. If he even is happy, I suppose it's because he has another treasure to hoard," he said. For a while now, Legolas had been thinking about his father, and how he has lately been keeping the kingdom isolated from the world. Now in all reality the only people allowed to go outside the walls are the soldiers, and even then it's limited. For me it was the first time I went outside in about 2 moons, which was the last time there were spiders around the borders.

"Legolas, you make your father sound like he's some treasure hoarding dragon like Smaug," I said without thinking. I quickly bit my lip after saying that.

"Well, if you knew him as long as I have, you'd understand. At least once a moon, he'll talk about his constant lust for those white gems in the Lonely Mountain, and continuously keeps every posession of his isolated from the world, even sometimes himself." Tauriel and I couldn't help but stare at each other in a concerning manner. Although Tauriel and I had opposite opinions on Thranduil, we both couldn't stand how Legolas often thought of his own father. Just then, two soldiers came down. Two were dragging a very aggressive Thorin Oakenshield to his cell. Then the soldiers approached the three of us.

"The king wishes to speak with the Balorat Su." The three of us looked at each other.

"Nendes, you, Tauriel, and the guards take her to Thranduil. I'm going to check if there are any more spiders near by." I nodded as I lead the guards to the Balorat Su's cell. I opened the gates as the guards grabbed her by the shoulders.

"What you want with me?" she asked.

"Our king wishes to see you."

"I'm not going anywhere without Fili," she said. I didn't know what to do exactly. But the guards seemed to be under control. And then the most thrilling thing happened. As the guards began to drag her away, she exclaimed, as her hands began to light an emerald fire and burned one of the soldiers. Her hands began to shake as it was clear she did not know how to control this power. Tauriel raised one of her daggers ready to attack, but I held my arm in front of her before she could charge. "Wait!" I said. I then looked upon the guard.

"You. Go get some ice for your wound," I said. As the one soldier left, the other one and I stared in wonder at the girl. The flame finally doused, and she had such a look of fear.

"Please! I'll hurt someone! You must know that I don't want to! Please!" She looked right at me with eyes full of desperation. I looked at the remaining guard and then back at her.

"Open the dwarfs cell. We're already wasting enough time." The girls face lit up, but still had the appearance of fear. And personally, I could not blame her. And she may have even more after she finds out his true fascination of her is.