Eclipse of Hearts ✔

36. The Frightening Unknown [Dwalin]

Dwalin stared at the dark clouds that packed together above his head. A whimsical wind blew over the water and grasped his beard. 

"Storm is coming," he mumbled. 

He wasn't scared often, but he didn't feel comfortable on the water. He had never been on a ship and he wouldn't know what to do if he fell overboard. The depth beneath him was overwhelming and both frightened and fascinated him. He had no idea what lived beneath that dark surface and while they faced the waves, he thought about the mermaids and water nymphs he knew from several stories. Would they really exist? If that was true - would they tell stories in which dwarfs played the leading role?

His fantasies about pretty water creatures disappeared with the drops that fell on his head and dripped from his eyebrows. He cursed under his breath and frowned when an elf put a bottle in his hands. 

"Stop mocking, master dwarf," a white haired elf grinned, who had strange drawings on the right side of his face. "Nature is just part of our existence."

Dwalin wondered what else was part of their existence, for they were floating around for three days now and they hadn't done much along scrubbing the deck. 

He drank a slug of the sweet drink the elves adored and although he preferred beer, it tasted better than yesterday. 

His eyes scanned the ship, although he had studied every plank by now. After all, his current world wasn't that big. He saw Kili playing cards with some elves. The captain was around the table as well and he had pulled Alyssae on his knee, since there was no more room around the table. He wondered how Thorin would react if he would see this. Would Alyssae still mean something to him? Or had he been drunk so often that he had forgotten her?
If the situation had been different, he might have felt anger because of his friend, but Thorin no longer bore that title and in the meanwhile he believed every man could make her happier than his "king" would.

While the rain kept coming he became so wet that he put the bottle to his lips ever more often to feel warm again, wondering how their plan would turn out. They wanted to lock up Thorin in the hold - that was the whole plan. He really had no idea what Alyssae thought she could do. If Thorin kept acting as a piece of shit around her, Dwalin would lose his patience in the blink of an eye. He would raise his fist. After all, his brother was somewhere in those dark cells, without sunlight reaching his eyes. As if he was back in that cursed wood where Bifur had died. 

Dwalin felt guilty for leaving his brother behind. Back in the day they had risked their lives to get Thorin out of that dark hole in Mirkwood and now he wished they had left him there to die. He would even take Thorin there himself, if that would be a way to free his brother. He didn't care if he committed treason; after all Thorin no longer was the man he had sworn an oath to. The dwarf who had led them to Erebor, surely wasn't the same bastard that had thrown Balin in the dungeons - and who would do the same with all his former friends, if he got the chance.  

Dwalin shrunk when the sky lighted up and a thunderclap followed. The light flashes ached his stomach, since the mast of their ship was almost an invitation to be set on fire. His eyes flashed nervously to the captain, but he rather saw the light in Alyssae's eyes than the continuous lightning in the sky. Dwalin suppressed a sigh, unintentionally wondering if Alyssae would drive a prominent man crazy again, like she had done with so many others. He knew she didn't do it on purpose, but nobody could deny that she had an almost scaring influence on men. Secretly he wondered if there would ever be a woman who would confuse him as well. In that light he found the might that a woman could have even more dreadful than the rolling thunder around them.