Beside the Undying Fire

Chapter 20

I awoke to find I was in a dungeon.

A dark, cold dungeon.

I got up off the ground, or I attempted to. My head pounded and pressure increased as I tried to sit up. I immediately went back down on all fours as I coughed up blood.

I pushed off of my hands and slid onto my butt against the nearest wall. My head pounded.

I lifted my hand to my head and felt blood on my forehead.

My mother's jacket was dirty from dragging on the floors for who knows how long.

I don't know how long I sat unconscious in there, or conscious for that matter. The pressure in my head was unbearable. My body ached. The side of my head pounded to the sound of my heart, although it was not quiet within the halls next to my dungeon, I could still hear it. I could barely keep my eyes open from the pain, blinking was a job in itself.

I could only make faint whines with the pain. Letting air escape from my lungs.

From this point, I felt only as if the pain and agony would spread. It would not ease.

I got my head a bit straighter and began to look at my surroundings, or what I could see. It was dark, and the only light was from that of the halls on the other side of the dungeon.

Then.

The mental agony set in. I

I didn't know where I was. And I had not told anyone where I was headed. So no one would know unless word got out that I had been missing. But the odds of that weren't extremely high.

But then it came into mind: why in Durin's name should I be sitting here? What for!

My head eased slowly. Allowing me to feel an other trauma. Sure enough, my neck had a small cut that burned and bled furiously. I placed my hand on my mouth, it was more blood.

I took my hand down and immediately jumped on all fours again, coughing up more blood. Horrible sounds exited my mouth as I coughed.

But it did explain the blood on my mouth.

I sat back down upon the floor, breathing heavily. It was almost laboured.

The pain all around began to ease. Slowly. But it did.

After what felt like an eternity, I gathered the strength to get up as the pain in my head eased, I trudged towards the dungeon door. It was just bars, so I could see everything outside of it. I clutched the bars with my filthy, bloody hands. It was sealed with a key, I could see the key hole, out of the corner of my eye.

I was in the Woodland Realm of Mirkwood.

How.

I did not know.

I would immediately pin it on Legolas and Avalinn. But what in Durin's name would they want me for?

I gripped the bars and looked around. There was no guards. 1 Dwarf woman, why would they need guards?

I walked back to the nearest wall and leaned against it, sliding down the wall as I went to sit. This would not end well. There was no good foreseeable outcome.

Thorin could come and get captured. Or someone else.

He could assume I'm dead. Never come.

Or I could rot in here before either of those things happens.

So I sat. Rethinking every decision.

But immediately brushing it off as I thought about the purpose.