Annabella~The elf-human warrior (Kili)

Chapter 2~the letter

My dearest Annabella,
It has been far too long since I last saw you and I must apologise for not coming to see you for eight years. I have my reasons which I will explain when I get the chance to. I have however had contact with your mother, I am truly sorry to hear of your fathers death, he was a great man and always a good friend to me. I've been told your archery skills have grown excellently due to legolas' teaching and in that I congratulate you. Since I last saw you my nephews have joined in my company, fili and kili are around your age and I feel you three will have a lot in common as kili is also an excellent archer. But I must admit the reason I write to you is not just to tell you about my nephews, we are in need of your help. Since the pale Orc was defeated before you were born, orcs have been growing bolder, we have reason to believe they are building armies, large armies, but we do not know what is leading them, we fear there may be a dark power in our midst. We are to go on a quest to simply wipe out as many orcs as we can in order to find their source and leader. For this you would be a great help with your fighting skills and I believe some of my dwarves could learn from you. More wargs are also being bread for war, and I know after what happened with your father you may have more knowledge on them that any of us do. I am asking you to join our company. We currently consist of our burglar-bilbo baggins, a hobbit from the shire, gandalf, myself, balin dwalin oin gloin bomber nori ori dori bofer bifer- who you have met all before, and then fili and kili. Kili is excellent with his bow but we need another who is up to his standards as one skilled bowman is not enough for what will need to be done on our quest. We have arranged a meeting at the house of our burglar- bilbo in the shire on Thursday the 18th at 8pm. If you choose to look us on out quest then all you need to do is attend. Legolas may attend off he wishes, his archery skills would be very useful, but I send this mainly asking you for your help.
Yours sincerely
Thorin
P.s. Once you have reached the shire, look for a green door with a mark on it, it should not take you long to find it.

I knew instantly I would go, whether legolas accompanied me or not I would attend, I have not been on a quest for a long time and anything to help thorin I would do, I cared deeply for him and everyone knew he had a soft spot for me as I was almost like his daughter, I wonder if it's a similar relationship to what he has with his nephews?

I went to tell my mother straight away about the letter and she said I had her blessing to go but to be careful, I also asked why he called the hobbit a burglar, she explained that bilbo was the one sent to retrieve the arkenstone from under the mountain as hobbits are small and not very noticeable compared to dwarves elves or men.

I then went to tell legolas, he said he would not go on the quest as he had a lot to do at the moment and was determined to track down the pack of orcs that we were hunting, though he did say if he found himself near where the company was he would come and visit us.

~~~thursday 11th~~~~
Thursday the eighteenth-the day of the meeting at the shire, was only a week away and I estimated it would take me about 3 days to reach the shire and bilbos house if I rode one of the fastest horses of rivendell

~~~Friday 12th~~~~
Since I had a couple of days until I started riding to the shire I practised some of my archery, I must admit I am a pretty accurate shot and I can see why thorin wanted me on the quest

I went out into the forests of rivendell and picked some targets, I was just aiming at specific branches and I ended up coming back with a few birds to cook for myself for lunch

I would always be willing to cook food I had caught for legolas but like most elves he's not a big fan of meat, but I'm half human and I love it!

***
For the next few days I just practised archery and I asked legolas a couple of times if he was sure he didn't want to come but he seemed pretty certain so I let him do as he pleased, anyway I'm more that capable of looking after myself and if he changed his mind he'd find us anyway

~~~~Monday 15th~~~~~
Tomorrow I have to leave for the shire and I must say I'm very excited! Elrond gave me one of his white geldings, named 'calista' which is elvish for "most beautiful"

I had prepared some clothes, my cloak, enough arrows, all of my weapons, some food, a blanket for sleeping, a hairbrush and lots of things I knew i need for the quest, I know thorin called it a "meeting" but normally with him it's the meeting before we actually set off on the quest

**
It was the end of the day and I was going to sleep quite early so I had energy for tomorrow's ride, I knew the way to the shire easily because legolas always used to take me on long rides around middle-earth when I was growing up, I got into my bed and just thought about what would happen on the quest, well obviously orcs, lots if them but that didn't really bother me legolas andi once fought a pack of 60 orcs just us together, and were of a similar standard so I reckon I could take on about 30-40 by myself if I have to

One thing kept crossing my mind though, thorins nephews, maybe I could actually grow a close friendship with them, the way he describes them made them seem really nice so I was looking forward to meeting them, I soon drifted off into a deep sleep

Hope you enjoyed! Xxx