The Three Women Of Durin

Busy Brain & Boiling Bathwater

Rosanna Parker sat, alive and breathing, in a boiling bathtub that was barely full. The water was beyond scorching but it felt good, the pain that came along with prune pink skin and shrivelled fingers felt solid and whole, a constant reminder that she was here, that she was grounded in this moment. Yes, it felt good.

Rosie was now 5 days living, and after a horrendously emotional reunion with all those who had come to know her, she found herself shrinking back into the shadows, the dreamish like place that she had been to for the past 29 days (when she heard this she cried even harder) still echoing against the barricades of her brain. She emerged once Frankie woke and again when Cece woke, the familiarity of the scene reminding her of when they first found themselves in middle earth. She cried about this too.

The same thoughts rolled like hills before her, but every time, no matter what thought train she took, she would eventually run into a dead end. As she sat bare naked in the bath, her bruised and broken body numbed beneath her. Waking up came with the price of waking up to a body that had just been in a war. She wasn't supposed to get her wound wet, so she took time in dipping body parts into the steamy sea before draining it enough for her to sit in.

Occasionally, she would simply close her eyes and listen to her heart beating. Her mind was a mess, a jumble of frantic thoughts and dizzy wonderings, and let's not forget the mass of emotion that has been drowning her over the past few days. Yeah, her mind was not the best it had ever been.

News of the girl's revival spread like wildfire around the mountain. She couldn't simply walk through the corridors anymore without being stopped by excited passer-by's. At first, she could handle it, it seemed exciting that people she had never met before knew her name, though, she would never tell anyone that. But as the days wore on, she found that she had too much on her mind to be dealing with animated admirers.

She had talked to Frankie and Cece and had found that they had experienced very much the same as herself, the entire conversation lasted throughout the night and as they were finishing the sun was rising over the broken entrance of Erebor, it was the only place where any sunlight could actually be seen.

"When we rebuild Erebor, I'm going to get Thorin to put a balcony in my bedroom," Rosie had hummed as she pulled the blanket around her shoulders a little tighter. They each told each other about going back to America and how real it felt, the three of them shared a few nostalgic tears as they started reliving stories from those happy days.

They didn't get time to discuss theories as people were already waking up, the majority of those who were injured now in their final stages of healing. However, the three of them promised to have a think about it and meet up again soon to talk. Rosie hadn't seen them since.

And that brings us here, to an unnecessarily hot bath and a wickedly messy mind. Rosie had come up with only one main idea that had clicked to her whilst getting dressed, her phone playing a song she didn't really know the lyrics to. Because they had universe hopped their forms will forever remain in the state of time during the hop, therefore their hair wouldn't grow. It would also work for any objects that were brought through, such as their phones.

Rosie thought this now as she reached up into her hair, still not used to the shorter layers than the shoulder length cut she had been living with for the past year. It was weird, she was back home, the place where she only really wanted to be (besides earth of course) and yet there was a strange sense now of not belonging. The knowledge of what happened on the day of the crash should have been some condolence to her, answering a question that she felt like she had had since the beginning of time itself. Yet, here she was, more confused than ever.

Due to her busy mindset she had found herself distancing herself from the company and her friends, they didn't mind, they understood that she needed time to think, they were simply happy to have her back. The celebration is still going on, every night the company gathers in a hidden hall. Candles are lit as they gather around the longest table Rosie has ever seen. They chatted about this and that as they sip on whatever wine has lasted in the cellars, never going to deep into anything as everything right now held some sort of triggering aspect. But it was nice.