Dwarven Denouement

10

The next few months were pure heaven to Neana. She spent all of it with the boys. She liked how she was around them., how she was her cheeky, childish, curious self. She didn't have to act different with them, and she loved it. The three of them became very notorious with their pranks, earning the title 'Troublesome Trio'. And nearly every night, Neana and Fili would sneak out. The only thing bad about the last few monthss for Neana were her parents. Though her father beat less and her mother didn't scream as much, they were still being cruel to her. Feeding her scraps and verbally abusing her. But to Neana, it was worth it. As long as she could see Fili and Kili, she would be happy. Little did she know, that her happiness was about to end.

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There was a small knock on the door, waking Neana up slowly. She sat up and stretched. Her and Fili had stayed out way later than normal. She ran her fingers through her hair softly. Fili had taught her how to braid, and had braided the areas of hair framing her face. Neana, coming out of her daze, answered her bedroom door. Standing there was her mother.

"Good morning Neana darling, did you sleep well?" Neana, completely forgetting about her parents cruelty, cheerily replied,"Yes thank you! You?" Her mother smiled, "I've never slept better." Neana looked outside, it was still dark and the sun had just barely risen. "I know it's early Neana darling, but we have a guest. So could you please get dressed and wash up?" Neana nodded,"Of course mother." Maybe all of that was just some twisted dream she thought, smiling as she went to get ready.

The sight at the bottom of the stairs surprised her. Her mother, father, and a man she did not know were sitting at a table, laughing. "Neana darling, meet the master of Lake Town." Neana curtsied low, "Pleasure to meet you." The masters eyes looked her up and down, "Oh please, the pleasure is mine.", he said with an eerie smile. Neana smiled in return. Her mother called out to her,"Nana darling come sit, eat, I've made breakfast." Neana happily obliged. She did her best to keep her manners as she ate, though she was sure she could have done better. She ate the oatmeal, eggs, and biscuits, or more rather, inhaled.

Feeling filled up with content Neana began cleaning off everyone's dishes and taking them to the kitchen. When she returned, the master was handing her father a blue pouch. It jiggled, so it must be full of money. "She's perfect, you breed well.", the lake master grinned. Her father simply smiled in return. Being curious, Neana asked,"Are you selling the cow?" All three of the adults in front of her began laughing. "No darling, we are selling you."

"What?" Her mother rolled her eyes, "I told you that soon you won't be our problem."

Neana was dumbfounded. She felt her hands being pulled behind her back. She turned to see another man tying them together. Neana tried to resist,"No! No! Please! Mother!" Her parent just stared at her with malicious smiles that made Neana's skin crawl. She kept shouting and trying to break free. "Shut her up will you? She'll wake to whole village.", groaned the master. Neana felt a blunt object hit her in the back of the head and she crumpled to the floor. As her vision was going dark, she looked one last time at her mother. Tears in her eyes Neana weakly mumbled,"Mother." Her mother just turned around, and Neana plunged into darkness.

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Fili woke up to Kili right in his face. "Kili? What are you doing?", Fili groaned. Kili giggled,"You had a bug on your face......the LOVE BUG!" Kili burst into laughter, rolling onto the floor clutching his sides. Fili rolled his eyes and sat up and felt something fall from his bed. It was Neana's hair clasp. Fili smiled, now he had an excuse to see her. Not that he really needed one, she always came by at about noon. Yawning and stretching, he got up, got dressed and went down for breakfast.

"Good morning Fili.", his mother said as he got downstairs. "Good morning mother.", he replied walking into the pantry. Thorin walked in, "You seem in an awfully chipper mood." Fili just shrugged, a biscuit in his hand. "Did Neana give you a kiss on the cheek again?" Fili nearly choked on the bite he took. He looked up to see his uncle smirking. "Oh so you do like her?" When Fili didn't answer, his uncle laughed,"Bot I'm just messing with you, now go on I know you're going to see her.", he said walking over to Dis. Fili felt awkward and just shimmied out of the kitchen over to the front door wher Kili was waiting. "Ready to go?", he asks. Fili nods and both of them start towards Neana's house.

Kili knocked on the door. It was opened by a rather gruff looking dwarf. Probably Neana's father. "What do you want?" Kili looked up up afraid at this dwarfs hostile attitude, "Is Neana home?" Her father smirked,"Ha, 'afraid not. You just missed her."

"Where did she go?", Kili asked. "She's visiting her uncle on her mothers side. He's sick so she's offered to take care of the farm for him until he gets better.", he answered looking rather annoyed. Fili stepped in,"Do you know when she'll be back?". He just shook his head and shut the door. "Well some Orc crapped in his oats.", Kili said walking down the path from Neana's house,"When do you think she'll be back?" Fili shrugged, something seemed off to him. He didn't know what. "I don't know Kili, soon I hope.", he sighed. He held the hair clasp in his hand."I hope so to.", Kili said glumly. With that the brothers walked back to their home, and waited for Neana's return.