A Tale of Time

Chapter 6: Something Sweet

Chapter 6: Something Sweet

Another nightmare constricts her mind, taunting and daunting her in her sleep, unable to escape its grasp until the sound of morning echoes through her metal door. Gailien wakes up in a mess: her bedsheets almost hanging off her bed with patches of blood soaking through different spots.

"Argh," she groans, placing a hand on her chest. The night blouse is damp with blood, the bandage having already soaked through and no doubt her back is the same. Her nightmare was the same as usual; Kili marching towards her with flames in his eyes, swinging his sword about through the air.

Nightmares have never been something she has suffered from, not even when her brother died so she has no idea how to cope or why they have decided to come now. Though her body revolts at the idea, she knows that Kili was right yesterday – that she should seek him out instead of hiding and see that is just her mind playing her for a fool. And she will do so - after she sees Oin.

She doesn't bother changing, her 'nightclothes' just normal attire that she has deemed comfortable enough to wear to sleep and there is no point staining another. Sauntering to the door, her fingers wrap around the handle but loud voices outside pause her movements.

It is a loud conversation between Kili and Fili, each seeming to be on either side of her door, yelling down the hallway to each other. To everybody else's ears, it sounds trivial, something about stealing the other's breakfast or what have you but all Gailien can hear is the sound of Kili's voice as loud as it was in her dream.

It seems to come closer to her door, like he's marching towards it and Gailien stumbles back, tripping over her own feet as her mind plays tricks on her. She whimpers, landing on her tailbone and she scampers backwards on her hands and heels away from the door.

Then his loud voice morphs into screams, but not just his own. Many voices screaming together: men, women, children. Like the night in Lake-town when the dragon destroyed their lives.

She doesn't stop moving backwards until her back collides with the small dresser at the foot of her bed.

"Oi," Kili hisses to his brother. "You're going to wake her up. Just go get me another bowl of food. May as well bring her one while you're at it."

"And how am I supposed to carry it?!" Fili calls back down the hall.

Kili shrugs his shoulders, throwing his hands up. "Figure-" his statement is cut off by the sound of glass smashing on the stone ground to his left. "Now you've done it," he growls.

"Me?" Fili exclaims. "You're the one standing right outside her door!"

Kili rolls his eyes, walking to the side and pushes Gailien's door open with his shoulder.

Gailien's eyes are clenched shut, her booted feet littered with small shards of glass but the vase itself fell next to her. She feels helpless, pathetic even. She is nearly five hundred years old and is cowering in her room from a young Dwarf because his voice is scaring her.

But it isn't just his voice. Reliving the desolation of Lake-town by Smaug is terrifying. She didn't have the time to really comprehend it before, but now with their year-long goal achieved, she has all the time on Middle Earth it seems, to be able to think about it.

A soft hand brushes her fallen hair away from her face and Gailien can't help but open her eyes to see who the tender touch belongs to. "I'm sorry," she whispers.

"You need to stop saying that," Kili muses, sitting down next to her. "Nightmare?"

Gailien nods, adding, "Yeah. I was alright – I was going to talk to you like you told me but then I heard the yelling and it sent me back to Lake-town." She shakes her head, trying to physically shake the memory and thoughts out of her head. "I'm tough," she declares, straightening her back.