Raging Fire

Chapter 4; 'Cuddles in Rivendell'

Altáriël had begun to free the others who were still tied up in the bags of the trolls. She sat on her knees to free Kíli, this knot was somehow even more difficult than the others. The girl decided not to waste any more time on the annoying thing and grabbed her dagger from her boot. She just cut open the entire thing, making sure not to slash Kíli. She got him up for the second time that day and he thanked her again.
"Where did you go to, if I may ask?" Thorin asked Gandalf. "To look ahead" came the answer. "What brought you back?" Oakenshield asked, looking annoyed by the vague answers from the wizard. "Looking behind. Nasty business. Still, they are all in one piece." Came yet another hazy answer. Thorin really was annoyed now, not only by the wizard. But still because of Bilbo's plan to stall, and said; "No thanks to your burglar." Gandalf simply answered, defending his hobbit friend. "He had the nous to play for time. None of the rest of you thought of that." Altáriël was following the conversation, until Bifur offered her something to drink. She thanked him for the water and went to search her bag, the trolls had thrown it away after they put her in her sack. She found it after some time in the grass nearby. The rest of the dwarves did began to follow the conversation between their two leaders when they heard something about where the trolls had come from. "There must be a cave nearby" Thorin concluded. And he ordered his companionship to find it. Bofur saw the brunette wasn't paying attention again and grabbed her hand, pulling her along with the company. She got some weird stares from Kíli but she ignored it. After a while she released Bofur's hand, the two of them had begun to talk about their weapon of choice. Altáriël showed him all the daggers she had, and god, she had a lot of those small knives. They didn't need to walk that far before they found the cave. Altáriël remained outside. Though she was very curious, the smell was enough to wait outside until Thorin, who had promised to inform her of the cave's capacity, returned. When he came out, his eyes searched his friend's right away. He walked over to her, handing a small elvish dagger. "I want you to have it. I know how much you love small knives. And this one seems perfect for you, it's also because I missed too many of your birthdays." She gratefully accepted the present. Its blade was a small version of a sword, the handle looked like an eagle, with green gems representing its eyes. It was a small gift. But to Altáriël it meant the world. "Something's coming." Thorin suddenly said. Drawing arms and stepping closer to each other, the dwarves and Altáriël ran off into the woods, they stopped when they saw who it was. Radagast the Brown had pulled up short by the company. "Thieves! Fire! Murder!" were the first thing the elf heard her friend say since a long time. "Radagast! Radagast the Brown. Ah. What on earth are you doing here?" The other wizard questioned. "I was looking for you Gandalf. Oh, hello Altáriël. Something's wrong. Something's terribly wrong." The dwarves looked at their only female companion, she just raised her eyebrows and shrugged her shoulders, wanting to follow the conversation between the wizards. Radagast spoke next; "The Greenwood is sick, Gandalf. A darkness has fallen over it. Nothing grows any more, at least nothing good. The air is foul with decay. But worst are the webs." Altáriël already knew of the spiders. She had killed many, but now she knew the source of Mirkwood's problem. She wanted to go back, and tell King Tranduil of Radagast's discovery. But she couldn't abandon the dwarves that were already starting to feel like a family, even after such short time. Gandalf told the company to wait a bit away from the wizards, so they could talk in private. The girl walked next to Fíli this time. "Altá, I have decided that I want to make another bet with you. I bet that you can never reach the top of that three, without using any daggers." He pointed towards a tree on her left. The tree's didn't have branches that she could reach without help. But she would never pass on a bet. "Of course I can reach the top, watch me! Kíli! Can you help me win a bet from your brother?" Altáriël already had a plan. She instructed her friend to give her a boost so she could reach the lowest branch. It didn't take a lot of effort to reach the top, throwing a pinecone down that hit Fíli on his shoulder. She smiled and waved. She then heard a howl. Not a howl from a wolf like Bilbo thought, no, this was the howl of a Warg she knew. Looking around for its source, Altáriël spotted the Warg on a crag. She had automatically drawn her bow. Before the rest of the dwarves had spotted the beast, it was already dead, rolling of the hill in the middle of the pack of dwarves. Thorin looked at her with a nod of approval. The girl he saw as his daughter, had not changed one bit after all those years. She was still in the tree and climbed down as quickly as she could. But in her hurry she stepped on a rotten branch and she fell. Kíli's time to respond was so fast that he had his arms wide to catch her before she touched the ground. "Altá, watch yourself, you could've gotten yourself killed if it wasn't for me!" The dwarf prince told her, a smirk on his face. She couldn't think of a fast comeback and kissed him on his cheek, hoping to throw him off his game. She succeeded and as his grip on her softened for a moment she hopped out of his arms and she put her foot behind his leg, making him fall this time. Her plan was to catch him, but the dwarf had seen it coming and grabbed her arm, making her fall next to him. The others laughed at their stupidity. Thorin helped Altá up scolded them for acting like children. The wizards were arguing about what the wisest thing to do was, in the time Altáriël had been teasing Kíli she had forgotten about the wargs. And a few seconds later Radagast was already on his sledge with the rabbits, making a distraction so the company could get away safely. They began running towards a large boulder of stone, the orcs were not even fifty meters away, chasing Radagast who's rabbits seemed tireless. "Where are you leading us?" Thorin asked, suspicious of the wizard's intentions. Gandalf did not answer. Instead, they ran to their next hiding place. They then heard something was sniffing the air above them on the rock. Thorin this time nodded to Kilí, who readied an arrow to shoot the warg. He easily hit his mark and their enemies fell down from the rock, the dwarves already had their weapons out to kill them. The screams of the orc were heard far away. Altáriël knew that the remaining orcs had heard the sound of their fight, and grabbed her bow and an arrow from its shed. "This way! Quickly!" Gandalf called, running away from the orc pack. "There's more coming!" Kilí said, not liking that they were now surrounded. "Kilí, Altá! Shoot them!" the order from Thorin came. The pair began shooting arrows as fast as they could. Arrow after arrow laid on the string of their bow before firing, hitting its mark as the arrows flew through the sky. Altáriël was so focused on destroying the orcs and their wargs, that she didn't hear the others ask for her to come. The wizard had found a passageway. Kilí however, did hear them. When he saw the girl never stopped shooting, he ran over to grab her hand. Pulling her along with him towards the crack the others disappeared in. They slid in just in time before the orcs reached the crack. A horn then was heard. Altáriël knew now what the wizard was up to, for she recognized that horn. A dead orc fell into the cave, pulling the arrow out of its chest to examine it, Thorin said with a disgusted face that it was elvish. This confirmed the girl's suspicions. Looking around for a way out, she finally realized Kilí had not yet let go of her hand. A weird tingly feeling shot up her arm. She didn't know if it was from Kilí's hand draining all the blood out of hers (he was squeezing a bit hard), or if it were something else she didn't know of. The dwarves had begun to walk again. Altáriël squeezed Kilí's hand, and looked at him. When their eyes met Kilí released her hand with a shy smile. And they followed the rest. The journey through the narrow passageway was small. They had to push Bomber through some even more narrow areas. But they make it through, ending in the beautiful valley of Rivendell. Altáriël smiled, she would see Enelya again.

"Look out!" Enelya shouted, while an arrow whizzed past the lady Galadriel. The younger girl got out her two swords to defend them. The journey had not exactly been an easy one. These lands seemed to be swarming with orcs, which was very unusual. This had to be the third time they were attacked on the road, Galadriel smiled at the girl, admiring her courage. As soon as the orcs got into view, they were attacked by two elvish blades. Enelya used all the tricks Altáriël taught her. Slicing and slashing left and right she hoped that they could travel in peace once this orc pack was gone. There were more orcs than Enelya had thought there would be, there had to be at least 50 of them. Galadriel remained upon her horse, using some of her magic to kill some of the orcs approaching Enelya from behind, while protecting herself and her horse. The orcs were all gone after a few minutes, and Enelya got back on her horse. All she had were some tiny cuts and bruises, nothing that she couldn't fix herself. It wasn't that far to Imladris anymore, she would soon see Altáriël again. She thought about Legolas and the shooting lessons, why couldn't she focus? In the very beginning she thought it had been the problem that she wasn't used to a bow and arrow, now it seemed that Legolas was the source of her problem. She wondered if she should tell her best friend about the shooting lesson, Enelya decided to wait until they could speak in private to tell Altáriël. Galadriel looked at the small girl, noticing that she was a bit distracted. It made her smile, once she had been such a dreamer too. When the two finally reached their destination without any further problems, they saw that a small group of no more than 15 was surrounded by elves. "It seems that we have arrived at the same time as your friend." Galadriel said with a smile. "I can handle myself now, Enelya. It was an honour to travel with you, be off to Altáriël." "Thank you, my lady Galadriel. It has been an honour to travel with you as well." She hoped lady Galadriel hadn't read her mind while she had been thinking about the prince of Mirkwood.
The girl quickly rode towards the company. When Altáriël saw her, her face lit up again. "Enelya! Lya! Oh how nice to see you again!" she yelled. The elves looked a little uneasy, as they always did when Altáriël was as loud and energetic as she did now. She walked out of the company to greet her friend. The company looked at each other, not having seen their friend's wild side. "Gandalf." The familiar voice of Elrond said behind them. "Lord Elrond. Mellonnen! Mo evínedh?" [my friend! Where have you been] Gandalf answered the call for his name. The girls hugged each other. Telling each other briefly what they had been up to since their departing. Enelya didn't mention Legolas yet. Laughing at the reactions of the dwarves when Lord Elrond offered them food in elvish. She had never seen many dwarfs and seeing them panic was quite funny to her. The food was delicious as always. At least, for Altáriël and Enelya. Because Enelya was an elf and not half dwarfish like Altáriël she didn't eat meat like the others. The dwarfs were complaining about it, she looked at Altáriël and they both started out in laughing. The older girl had introduced Enelya to the company. Thorin already knew the girl, so when Altá requested that Enelya would join the quest, he granted his permission, knowing that the new girl was very skilled with swords and very good with medicines. "Lya, I want you to meet two of my new friends. Filí! Kilí! Come over here!" Altáriël said. Enelya looked a bit uneasy, she didn't know how to behave around dwarves, except for Altá but she was a bit crazy. The brothers were curious to get to know their new companion. "This is Enelya Lossëhelin. Enelya, this is Kilí son of Dis. And Fíli son of Dis. They're Thorin's nephews!" Altáriël said with excitement. "They've been my best friends on this journey so far." Enelya smiled, noticing the dazzled looks the brothers gave her friend. She knew that only around her, Altá had problems containing her energy. Enelya had spent the entire day travelling and could barely stay awake. Still, being around her best friend gave her energy enough to tell some of the stories about the times Altá got her in trouble but yet managed to save her just in time. Because Enelya had been here more often she showed the dwarfs their bedrooms. She didn't see Altá walking along with the rest of the group neither that one dwarf Altá had been looking at during dinner. Knowing that her friend wouldn't get lost or into too much trouble, she went to her bedroom and fell asleep.

"Tell me again, Altá, how did you end up in a royal meeting." Kíli laughed. Altáriël was telling him stories of mischief from when she was still travelling with Thorin. The pair wasn't tired yet. And the girl had promised Kíli to show him her favourite parts of Rivendell. They were walking through the valley, telling each other stories, looking more at each other than their surroundings. "Well, Thorin was teaching me how to throw knives, I missed a target and it flew right into this tent." She told him, remembering how his uncle had scolded her for just walking into the tent were the most powerful leaders were attempting to find a place where they would go next. She was quite a troublemaker, and she still was. "It is a miracle I'm still alive I think." They hadn't been looking where they were going, but somehow she had led him to her room. Call it natural instinct. "I think I'll go to bed, Altá. It's getting late again." Altáriël thought for a moment. "Where will you sleep? Enelya divided the rooms and we weren't there. We can't disturb her now. So where will you go?" Kíli hadn't thought of that, and when he remained silent, she spoke again. "You can sleep here if you want, the bed's large enough for the both of us to sleep." She blushed while talking, not knowing if she went too far. So she tried to cover up for her blunt proposition. "I mean, if you're okay with sleeping with me? I mean sleep sleep not the other activity. I really should stop talking, sorry." Well, that was awesome. Altáriël mentally slapped herself. She never lost her words. She was usually the one that made others lose their words with smart remarks and sarcastic answers. Kíli laughed, blushing as well from her blunt proposition. "If you don't feel too awkward by me sleeping next to you, I'd love to. Otherwise I'd probably ended up sleeping outside." He responded. She laughed awkwardly and shook her head. "Come on in, if you dare." She teased, now comfortable seeing that he was a bit awkward as well. They entered her room, but now had a new problem. What to wear to bed? "Uhh, Altá, are you comfortable if I sleep in my underwear? I don't have anything else and my clothes are dirty." "Me too, Kíli. But honestly, I am too tired to care now, let's just sleep in our underwear and be done with it."
Altáriël didn't realise she was staring again, but she couldn't help herself. Watching her friend undress herself made her wish they were more than friends. She scolded herself for thinking that, quickly undressed herself and crawled into bed, where Kíli already was. Little did she know that he had the exact same thought looking at her. And so they were laying in her bed, their arms slightly against each other in the middle. Staring at the ceiling. "Kíli, this is awkward, and you've stolen the blankets. Can I cuddle you?" Kíli blushed, unseen by the woman lying next to him. He didn't answer he just pulled her closer, she laid her head on his chest. And so they fell fast asleep.

Ciao guys, I don't really know if they have underwear in Middle-earth, just go with it please. If you are not okay with the people of Middle-earth wearing underwear, you can let them sleep in their dirty clothes or naked. Choose wisely

I do not own the story of the hobbit, I do own my own to characters Altáriël Alcarin and Enelya Lossëhelin.