Washed up - A Hobbit story

XVIII

I'm so sorry for not updating! I have had tons of school stuff and I focused on them. 

Fili's POV

A clatter woke me up and I saw a young woman, the same age as Bea, standing in front of me. What was curious was that she was a human, now an elf. She smiled at me and handed me a piece of bread and a glass of water. "Sorry, it's not much but it will help at least a little." There were a couple of elves around the cells, two male ones, and they were taunting the others with the food. The woman in front of me frowned and turned to look at them, "Baron, Callon, you heard what Legolas said. You must treat the prisoners with respect!" They just scoffed but were silent after that and I turned to look at her again, with even more curiosity. She was clearly someone the elves listened to, I just had no idea how she was connected here. She smiled at me again, and I returned it as she moved towards the cell next to me, where Balin was held. "Hello. Here is a piece of bread and a little water for you. I will talk to Legolas about these portions, they are the opposite of healthy." I head her speak politely to the elder dwarf as she offered him the food. Balin thanked her, sounding a little astonished by her kindness. I kept my eyes locked to the elf that had made his way to Bea's cell and was now banging on the bars with the metallic cup. She turned to face Bea's cell as well, alarmed by the noise, "Baron! I think he is already awake!" The elf turned around and shook his head, "No, she is not." 

The woman frowned and walked up to the cell and grabbed the metal mug from the elf and tapped the bars with it gently, "Excuse me, I have food for you. You should wake up, you look like you need it." There was no reaction and I leaned against the bars, trying to see what was happening. She was laying on the floor and didn't move at all. The woman sneaked her hand between the bars and tapped her leg and after she got no response, she then gently shook it. Her frown deepened and she muttered something to the elf, who just scoffed, "She is sleeping, let's just finish this so we can do something more interesting." The sentence earned him a glare from the woman. "Without a blanket or anything? On the floor? I am telling you, something is wrong. Where are the keys?" The elf looked at her like she had said something crazy. "We can not open these doors. The king..." He was cut off by her voice, "can bite me. I want to check if she is actually sleeping or is there something more to it." I took a breath in. This was not an ordinary woman, very few had the guts to talk about their king like that. "Where are the keys? I need them."  An elf carrying the keys came in and opened her cell door and both of the elves backed away.

She stepped inside the cell and bend down, and tapped Bea's cheek gently, getting no response. She frowned and tapped her cheek again, slightly harder, "Excuse me, can you hear me?" Nothing, Bea just laid still. I was hoping that this was her plan to get us free but she was still not moving and a nagging worry started to make its way into my chest. "She knows that this kind of trick would never work. She would not do it like this."  The woman was still in her cell and slid her hand gently across her body. She did not react and that is when I started to think something was wrong. She usually tensed up when someone touched her, even me or Kili. Something was wrong. I pressed myself harder against the bars, trying to see her better, "Bea." I called her name and got no answer. "Bea!" I raised my voice and yet, she stayed still. "Is that her name? Bea?" The woman peeked out of her cell and looked at me. I nodded, "Yes. Well, her real name is Beatrice but she does not like it if you call her that, so we just call her Bea." She nodded and returned back inside the cell, sliding her hands on her legs. 

She stopped moving as she reached the place where she had a gash from the spider. Her frown deepened and she slid her fingers on the surface of it. "I need to borrow a dagger." She said to the elves and they just scoffed. "I won't lend anything to you." Another one of them spat and she just stared them for a moment before yelling out "LEGOLAS!" as hard as she could. The elves jumped up and backed away in a hurry as the blonde elf came running down the stairs. The other two bowed to him but the woman jumped straight to the point, "I need to borrow your dagger. Quickly." He handed it to her, frowning. "Olivia, what is going on there? Why didn't you borrow her a dagger." He asked as the woman turned back inside with the dagger and the elves mumbled something as an answer, which he just narrowed his eyes to. "She is not responding to anything and she has a quite a bad cut on her leg." The elf smirks, "You don't heal cut's with a dagger, you know that?" His voice was playful but the woman, Olivia, was not messing around. "This isn't a joke! There is a wound on her leg and I think it has something stuck in it. So, I am going to cut her pant leg a little so I can get a better look."