Bring Me With Her

An Entirely Different Mess

It was the sound of rocks falling to the ground that woke Thorin from his sleep. The Dwarf king blinked and looked to the ceiling of the cave that he and Talia were sleeping in. Gollum's head dropped in instantly.

"Wake up! Wake up! Wake up sleepies! We must go, yes. We must go at once." he insisted, and he didn't hesitate to give Talia a shake by the shoulders. Thorin quickly swatted the creature away, seeing that Talia was already awake by the time Gollum came. The wretch didn't need to be told twice by Thorin, he backed away instantly, beginning to head in the direction that they needed to go.

The Dwarf king looked over his Talia, and couldn't help but frown at the sight of her. She looked like a stranger compared to yesterday. Yesterday...she was so lively...she looked better than she had in the past week. It was as if his confrontation with her two days ago had finally knocked some sense back into her. But now, it looked almost like they were back to square one. Talia had dark circles under her eyes, she sat completely still, and was staring at the cave wall with a blank expression on her face.

It just...it wasn't fair. Why did Thorin get to have Talia back for only one day? Why did Talia get a break for only one day? Hadn't they done enough? They were practically slaves to the Ring now. Everything they were doing, they were doing for the sake of destroying it. Would there ever be a time when staying alive wasn't all they could think about? Thorin shook his thoughts from his head, trying to keep his increasing feelings of hopelessness at bay. He eyed Talia with concern, thinking about how she was never awake before he was in the morning. Ever.

"Talia...have you had any sleep?" he asked. Thorin felt a lump growing in his throat when Talia weakly shook her head. He gritted his teeth. He didn't want to fight her, they already had enough of that. Thorin stood up and looked outside...and furrowed his eyebrows deeply when it looked like the sun appeared only a few hours away from setting. "You shouldn't have allowed me to sleep like that. I haven't done anything like this since...what hour is it?" he finally asked, running a hand through his hair.

"You didn't oversleep." Talia answered simply. Thorin looked down at her, eyes narrowed lightly. Talia then gave a quirk of her lips. "Ok, maybe you slept in a little. But it's not even noon yet. The days are getting darker." she told him.

Just as she finished her sentence, Thorin nearly tripped over his own feet, as the ground had begun to shake. The Dwarf king looked ahead and saw it. They could clearly see Mount Doom from here. The mountain was beginning to rumble. The minute it calmed down, Gollum came crawling about in a rush.

"Come on! Must go! No time!" he urged.

Thorin narrowed his eyes. "We're not going anywhere until Talia's had something to eat." he retorted.

"No time to lose silly!" Gollum tried once more, to which Thorin completely ignored.

The Dwarf king bent down and handed Talia a pouch of Lembas bread. He watched as she held it in her hands. It took a moment before she shook her head. "I don't want any. Save it for later." she told him, trying to hand the bread back to him. Thorin sighed, bringing himself closer to her. He gently swept a loose strand of hair behind her ear.

"You've been up all night, Talia. You need some sustenance to be able to travel." he tried.

Talia shook her head again, her frown deepening. "My stomach hurts." she admitted.

Thorin furrowed his eyebrows with concern. He lifted a hand to her forehead, tracing it down her cheek. "You're feeling warm." He knew it. He had known for a while now, but he still felt like a fool for not acknowledging it to her before now. "Talia, you're ill. You're only going to get worse if you don't eat."