The Fifteenth Member (Thorin Oakenshield/OFC)

Chapter 63

My mind went into overdrive. Wani couldn't have her child yet, it would never survive! It had barely even started to move! I looked at Thorin, begging him to let me to to her.

"Alright but be discrete about it."

"But what about Fili? He deserves to know."

"Eleanor is way ahead of you." My servant had already pulled the crown prince from the hall and I was on my feet, moving faster than I had since my early pregnancy.

"Your majesties, perhaps I can be of assistance." Aragorn began, "I am a healer."

"The midwives would never permit it. Mereniver, go find Fenriel. She will help." I didn't like the idea of making a detour but I knew that Fenriel would be Wani's best shot.

I found the brunette elf sitting by herself in a corner, sipping from a golden goblet of ale.

"Fenriel." She looked up and was clearly surprised that I had sought her out.

"What do you want?"

"I need you help."

"With." She prompted.

"My best friend has gone into labor three months premature and she needs your healing skill if she and the child are to survive." Fenriel rose.

"I will help her to the best of my abilities but the child is already lost."

"How can you say that?!" I hissed at her as we exited the hall, "Have you so little faith in your skills?"

"It is not my skills that are at fault. It is the child."

"How dare you say that!"

"At this time in pregnancy, a baby cannot breathe outside its mother's womb. There is a reason that pregnancy lasts nine months instead of six. The mother's body is creating a whole new life a whole new, fully functioning body. I have seen a case like this before in Mirkwood, only the mother was seven months along. The child suffocated within the minute and there was nothing I or the other healers could do to stop it."

"But what about Wani?"

"She I may be able to salvage but she will never be the same. If her body has gone into labor this early, there are a few possible reasons. One may be that her body was simply not capable of carrying the child to full term and rejected it to survive. Given that the child is half dwarven, this may be normal, I don't know. But the most likely reason is that she did something to trigger it."

"The elf from Mirkwood. Did she survive?" Fenriel stopped and looked me in the eye with a very serious look on her face.

"No. She did not. During the delivery, she tore and the bleeding was too extensive and she was too tired."

"Then the same could happen to Wani." She resumed her previous pace.

"Yes." Was all I got for an answer.

When we got to her chambers, the door was already shut and Fili was outside. Inside, I could hear my best friend suffering. Fenriel pounded on the door and a voice came from inside.

"We have already told you, Fili, you are not permitted to witness this."

"I am not Fili! I am Fenriel, head healer of the Woodland Realm and you will permit me or I will break the doors from their hinges!" There was silence for a moment but the door cracked open.

"Very well. But you only. Not the queen, nor the male healer.

"But I can help her!" Strider protested but the midwife remained determined.