The Fifteenth Member (Thorin Oakenshield/OFC)

Chapter 46

An hour later, Rowena had not only pierced my ears but Wani's as well. It had hurt terribly but Dis had told me that I would be expected to have some sort of piercing when I got married and since Wani would probably marry Fili at some point, she decided to get it over with now as well. Rowena had given us very specific instructions, we were to put some sort of solution on them twice a day, we had to twist them regularly, and we couldn't take them out or make them too tight for at least a week. Much to my surprise, my ears didn't hurt now that it was over, it had burned terribly at first but the burning sensation had slowly faded away and I was starving. We stopped at the local pub for lunch and, just like the shop, it was better on the inside than it was on the outside. Cushioned booths lined two of the four walls, there was a bar on the third but the fourth was barren. More than twenty tables were organized in the open space but few of them were occupied. Dis took us straight to the booth in the far corner before going up to the man at the bar. I went into the booth and scooted over to the corner so Wani could squeeze in next to me. Arwen sat across from me while Tauriel took the seat next to her.

"Why didn't you two get your ears done?" Wani asked the two elves.


"Because our ears are very sensitive." Tauriel said matter-of-factly.


"You do know that you're probably going to have to get them done before you marry Kili, right?" Arwen asked. Tauriel paled and cursed in elvish.


"What did she say?" Wani whispered to me.


"I don't know. I can only understand the language used by the high elves."


"Let's just say she used some profane language." Arwen joined our conversation.


"Ah." Dis came back and sat down at the head of the table.


"I ordered the three of us the daily special but I didn't order for you two," She nodded and Tauriel and Arwen, "Because I don't know if you eat seafood or not." Arwen wrinkled her nose at the sound of seafood but Tauriel perked up.


"What exactly does the special include?"


"Oh I don't know, I just ordered three of them, I come here rather often and all of their seafood is very good."


"I should hope so, they lived in a lake for a century!" Wani commented.


"And they did seem to have a surplus of fish." I added, "Bard smuggled the Company into Lake Town by having the dwarves get in wine barrels and filling them with tons of fish to hide them. I don't think any of them really like fish anymore. Their clothes stunk more than usual for some time after that."

"And you know that why?"


"I did Thorin's laundry while he was asleep and even now I do it whenever he's busy. I don't think the stink will ever come out all the way."


"You? Doing laundry? Who are you and what have you done with my best friend?!" Wani backed away from me.


"Were you that lazy before Mereniver?"


"I did most of the chores around the house before I got a tail! After that, I became terrified of water."


"How long ago did this happen?"


"Remember that time I went out hunting with the guys and you couldn't come cause you were sick? We went too far and had to camp in the wild. It happened that night."


"That was four years ago!"


"I know."


"And no one else in the village found out?"


"Not until the day I ran away, Rynry wanted to use it as blackmail to make me marry him."


"Is Rynry one of the two my father banished from Imladris?"