✧

𝔗𝐡𝐞 𝔚𝐨𝐫𝐬𝐭 𝐢𝐬 𝐧𝐨𝐭 𝔅𝐞𝐡𝐢𝐧𝐝

Naerien had never been up so high in the sky. It was an odd sensation, being above the thick fog that rolled over the Misty Mountains and yet below the scattered clouds and the stars at the same time. It was an ocean of grey underneath her, rolling and churning around the white peaks of the mountains. The eagles flew silently through the air, taking them somewhere only they knew.

The she-elf had no idea how long they had traveled, for she had no reference until the eagles began to descend. It had been at least twenty miles, as the eagles had carried them a good way South from where they had been attacked by the wargs, goblins, and orcs.

Thorin was being carried in the talons of one of the eagles, dangling like a dead rabbit as they bore him. No one knew if he was alive or dead; they could only hope that he was the former. She couldn't see Bilbo, so she assumed that he was somewhere above her, either terrified witless or enjoying the air in his face. She had not known him long, so she wasn't quite sure if he enjoyed heights. Though, he seemed to be one of those people who was scared of high-up places.

Before she knew it, they were coming upon a flat shelf in the rocky cliffs. Several other dwarves were already there, getting to their feet as the eagle gently released the elf onto the ground. She didn't want to move. Her entire body was buzzing with pain and she didn't dare think about her foot.

Bilbo was suddenly by her side, peering down at her with terribly worried eyes. She could just imagine what she looked like to him: Her ageless face covered in soot, dirt, and blood; her dirty blonde hair a mess of tangles that rested against her back and around her face; her arm and left foot soaked in blood from her injuries.

"Are you alright?" He asked softly.

"I am alive," she replied with a pained, exhausted smile. He tried to help her stand, only to find that she was far too tall and that when she tried to get upright her head began to spin.

"You're not alright," Bilbo told her sternly, sounding like a worried mother.

"I never said I was," she reminded him, causing him to shake his head and purse his lips. He was angry, it seemed, but he was trying to hide a smile.

"How's your foot?" He continued his questions, sitting down beside her. He sounded genuinely worried, so she ceased her teasing.

"It hurts," she muttered, low enough so that only he could hear her. She didn't need the dwarves thinking of her as a liability. "A lot."

"I would assume so," he replied. "Do you think you can walk?"

"Where would I go, Bilbo?" She demanded in exasperation, looking around at the small group of them as they stood on the shelf. There was no way off, save by flying or falling. He gave her a flat look and she sighed. "I don't know, I haven't tried."

"Where is everyone else?" One of the dwarves, Fili, questioned suddenly. He, his brother, Dori, Nori, Ori, Bifur, Bofur, Bombur, Oin, Gloin were the only ones with them. Balin, Dwalin, Thorin, and Mithrandir were all not present.
"Where is Thorin?" Kili cried. He had seen his uncle carried off, perhaps dead, by the eagles and he had not seen him since.

They waited and searched the rock shelf, finding no one else but the wind with them. The sun had started to peer over the horizon, watching over them as she always did, never failing to rise in the morning to light their way. In the new light, they saw several figures flying towards them. The eagles were back.

Despite the alarmed shouts of the dwarves, the eagles plucked them from the rock shelf, lifting them into the air once again and flying up high. They took them up to a large, wide rock that shot into the sky like a chimney. When they got closer, Naerien could see that it was the eagles' eyrie and that Balin, Dwalin, Mithrandir, and Thorin were all there.

The wizard seemed to be communicating with one of the eagles, who was, in fact, the Lord of the Eagles, though only Mithrandir knew that at the time. Balin and his brother were attending to Thorin, who appeared to be sleeping peacefully. That, or he was dead. Naerien cursed herself for thinking such a thing.

The eagles dropped them off for a second time that early morning and their sudden commotion woke Thorin with a start. He was alive.

"The half-ling," he grunted, pushing himself up, despite Balin's fussing. Thorin, as it turned out, had been unconscious until that point. Alive, but just barely, and more healed thanks to the wizard's magic.

"It's alright," Mithrandir assured him, murmuring a word of thanks to the Eagle Lord and turning to the dwarf prince. "Bilbo is here; he's quite safe."

Bilbo turned his attention to Thorin, who had struggled to his feet. He looked worse than Naerien, blood oozing from just about everywhere and seeping into his clothes. "You!" He bellowed, startling everyone. They watched with concern as Thorin continued his verbal attack. "What were you doing?" Bilbo couldn't even respond before he continued. "You nearly got yourself killed! Did I not say that you would be a burden? That you would not survive the wild, and you had no place amongst us?"

Naerien couldn't believe what she was hearing. Bilbo had nearly died for Thorin, saving the dwarf prince from losing his head, and he was berating him for it? She was just about to speak up, but, never failing to shock everyone, Thorin surged forward and brought Bilbo into a tight embrace.

"I have never been so wrong in all my life."

The dwarves cheered, overjoyed that Thorin finally accepted Bilbo as one of them. It took a while for Bilbo to properly register what was happening and before he could hug Thorin back the dwarf pulled away. "I am sorry I doubted you."

"No, I—" Bilbo protested with a short chuckle, "I would have doubted me too. I'm not a hero, nor a warrior...not even a burglar." A rumbling laugh emanated through the dwarves and from the wizard at that. Naerien gave a smile.

Some of the eagles who had been perched around them pushed off the eyrie and into the air, circling once before flying into the blue. When watching them head East, each eye caught the sight of a solitary mountain standing in the distance, rising alone from the earth.

"Is that what I think it is...?" Bilbo questioned, staring in awe.

"Erebor," Mithrandir announced. "The Lonely Mountain. The last of the great dwarf kingdoms of Middle-earth."

"Our home," Thorin finished, breathless, as he beheld the home he had not seen in six decades.
A small bird flew through the group, rushing past the she-elf's ear and into the air, chirping as it went.

"A raven!" Oin cried. "The birds are returning to the mountain!"

They watched the bird grow smaller and smaller until it vanished as Mithrandir explained, "that, my dear Oin, is a thrush."

"Take it as a good sign," Naerien told them, still on the ground. She had refused any attempt to get up, for she knew that as soon as she did the world would spin dangerously around her.

"A good omen," Thorin agreed.

"You're right," Bilbo said, his voice full of hope. "I do believe the worst is behind us."

Naerien let out a loud laugh, startling everyone. The sound was so foreign coming from her mouth that no one was quite sure what to think of it. "I'm sorry," she spoke after her laughter had died. "But it is in my experience that no one should ever speak that way when they are only halfway through their journey. It never ends well, Bilbo."

"I'll keep that in mind, sorry," he replied sheepishly, looking down with a pink dusting to his cheeks.

✧

As it turned out, Mithrandir was on friendly terms with the Lord of Eagles and had struck up a deal with the majestic creature. To pay off a debt the Eagle Lord owed, the eagles would bear Thorin and Company out of the Misty Mountains and to the edge of Rhovanion. They may be giant eagles, but even they did not dare risk the arrows of the woodmen who would shoot them down in fear of them attacking their sheep.

The eagles carried them as far as they could, taking them to a great rock that rose out of the ground at the foot of the mountains. It was much closer to the ground, however, and that relieved the entire party. They were laid on top of the rock, with the warm sun in their faces and oaks and elms surrounding them. Wide, grassy plains stretched ahead of them, stopped abruptly by Mirkwood, the large and wicked forest that blocked their path to Erebor. Naerien wasn't sure how they would get through, or if they would go around, but she didn't dwell on it. They would cross that bridge when they arrived at it.

"Thank you, my new friend," the she-elf hummed, resting a hand briefly on one of the eagle's beaks. The massive, beautiful bird gave her a soft squawk and nudged her arm in a gesture that said, "you're welcome."

As the eagles pushed off the rock, Mithrandir called after them, "may the wind under your wings bear you where the sun sails and the moon walks!"

He turned, helping Naerien to her feet — well, foot, seeing as her left foot dangled uselessly above the ground. He studied her face for a moment, his blue eyes scrutinizing her every feature before he pressed his open palm to her forehead. She felt his magic flow through her body as he murmured a spell under his breath and she no longer felt dizzy.

"Thank you," she told him, smiling gently.

"It is only temporary, my Lady," he replied. "Once we reach the ford, you must bandage your wounds as best you can."

"I wish you would not call me that," she sighed, hobbling along as he walked, carefully, down the wide stairs that had been carved into the side of the giant rock. Bilbo and the dwarves had gone ahead while he aided her.

"The day I no longer call you by your rightful title is the day the sun no longer rises," he replied resolutely.

"I have no title, Mithrandir, not after the War," she murmured, wincing every so often when her foot would hit against the rock. "My House is dead. I am all that remains."

"As long as one remains, your bloodline may continue."

"I am not sure it should," she shook her head. They had gotten to the bottom of the rock and saw that the company had rushed off to the river Anduin that was flowing through the plains. Rushing and wild, it ran through the ground like a great road of water. Nearby the large rock, only a couple hundred yards away from it, was a shallow enough ford for them to both drink from and cross when they needed to.

Mithrandir stopped at the bottom of the steps, looking at her with a frown underneath his wiry beard. He was a few inches taller than her, peering down at her underneath his wide-brimmed hat. What he was thinking was a mystery to her. He was silent, so she continued.

"You are aware of my ancestry, Mithrandir. Very few of them were good. They were cursed, and I am not entirely sure if that curse has ended — even now."

"Yes," he rumbled, nodding slightly, "I am aware of the bloody deeds of your ancestors. But you are not that way, nor was your father, nor your grandfather."

"Well, my grandfather was the greatest of us all," she murmured, looking away from him and up to the sun, which hovered above what used to be Greenwood the Great. They didn't speak anymore after that and the wizard helped her to the ford, where she could finally tend to her wound.

Naerien decided to see to her warg bite first, ignoring the cut she had gotten in the goblin tunnels for the time being. She sat a short ways off from the dwarves, letting out shaky sounds of pain as she slipped off her bloody boot. Her sock was ruined; once grey, it was now a dark reddish-brown color. She took it off, hissing in pain, and tossed it aside. She would try washing it later to see if she could salvage it, though she doubted it.

Her foot was pale, covered in blood that had coagulated within her boot. At least that had stemmed most of the bleeding. Though it looked mangled, she hoped that it just appeared worse than it truly was. Naerien slipped it into the icy water, biting back a yelp as the river rushed gently over it. Her hands were shaking as she washed it and her eyes were stinging with tears. The elf was also painfully aware that most, if not all, of the dwarves were watching her with concern.

Oin stepped forward, shuffling over the loose pebbles and stones that made up the river bank. "If you'll let me, lass," he started, holding his flattened horn to his ear in an attempt to hear the world around him better, "I'd like to help. I'm a physician myself, you see..."

Naerien smiled up at him kindly. "Thank you, Master Oin."

Even though they only possessed the clothes upon their backs (save Thorin, Bilbo, Mithrandir, and Naerien, who still had their swords), Oin treated her wounds rather well. He had called for a few herbs that he knew would help with the healing and the others dutifully retrieved them.

After the old blood was washed away, the full extent of her wounds could be examined. A row of warg tooth-sized punctures ran the length of her foot, bright red and horrible looking. Seven in total, where the warg had clamped down on her boot. They were bleeding again, the red liquid flowing down the river steadily.

Once he had his supplies, Oin carefully took her foot out of the water, treated it with the herbs (which hurt terribly), and bound her foot with a relatively clean strip of cloth the she-elf had torn from her tunic.

After her foot, Oin even offered to take a look at her arm, which she allowed him to do. It was in her experience that elven physicians were stubborn, so she reasoned that a dwarven one would be at least twice so. He treated her smaller wound in the same manner as her foot.

"I cannot thank you enough for your aid, Master Dwarf," she told him honestly. He bowed slightly.

"I am simply doing my duty, lass."

"But you did not have to," she pointed out. Dwarves and elves had always seemed to dislike each other, save for the dwarves of Moria and the elves of Ost-in-Edhil in Eregion, who had forged a strong alliance before the elven city had fallen. If history had proven one thing, it was that they could be the fiercest of enemies or the strongest of allies.

a/n: not gonna lie, this chapter is kinda just a messy filler so I can get to where I wanna in the last chapter of Act One. Sorry 😂 but I hope you have enjoyed this Act. I'm really looking forward to getting into the next Act, I have quite a few things planned :)