Land of Loss and Love; Thranduil Love Story (On Hold)

Edward and Laketown

     I woke up choking, the nightmare still plastered behind my eyes. Blood soaked snow and dead eyes. I stared up at a foggy morning sky, my spine aching, whatever I was lying on digging into my back painfully.

     Lying down. The barrel ride. I sat up, slowly from the pain, confused.

    "Good, you're alive."

     I jumped, startled by a man who was standing not far away. He had a kindly face and was older, maybe forty. He wasn't pretty like an elf, or short and grumpy like a dwarf. In fact, he looked human. Thranduil did say there was a human city nearby.

    "Are you an elf?"

    "Huh?" The question startled me. The floor shifted and I saw we were on a boat, old and rickity, it was dark brown, the color tainted in parts from years of sun and salty water. The man was grasping what I assumed was an oar of some sort.

     "An elf? Are you one?" He nodded to my soaked clothes but was staring at my hair.

     "No. I was a guest, but decided to leave." I sat up some more, groaning at the pain. My backpack was digging deeply and I didn't know how long I had been lying there. As if reading my mind the man replied.

     "I found you floating in a barrel in the river a few hours ago. I decided I couldn't just leave you there."

     A stabbing in my heart at his words. They were the same as Bilbo's. Bilbo, who I didn't know was alive or not. I had no idea what had happened to him, to any of them. "Thank you." I choked on the words.

    "Don't thank me just yet. Our destination is just ahead and I don't think they'll take kindly to that hair of yours."

     With that warning I slung my pack into my lap and looked inside it. The flap and drawstring had done a good job, but everything was still soaked. I pulled out my neff hat that I was going to wear to the club but decided gold hair was enough. I wrung out my hair and water sloshed to the wooden boards, then pulled my hair up into a bun and slipped my hat over it, hiding my hair perfectly.

     "Better?"

     The man nodded, "You would almost look like a lad if it wasn't for your... plumage." My rack, yeah. "But it wouldn't hurt to hide those clothes of yours." He rummaged in a basket I didn't notice and tossed something brown at me. I caught it, unveiling a long thick coat made of rough animal hide. I put it on, almost completely hiding the elvish clothes. The boots and brown pants were bland enough that they didn't look too obvious. It was heavy and warm, and I was grateful for it. My clothes had dried a bit but were still wet and clung to me. True enough, I thought I could pose as a young boy. "Better." Was the man's reply.

     By the time the sun was just over the horizon there was a light fog. I was frightened for a while, bugging the man, Edward, more than once about how sure he was of guiding through this, and more than once I almost lost it when a behemoth stone structure emerged from the fog, but Edward was skillfully talented( or just knew the water ways) and we never hit anything or even came close.

     "So where are we headed?" I gazed out at the dissipating fog, it kissed my cheeks with cold dew.

     "Long ago it was called Esgaroth, that is the stone remains you see. Now, it is called LakeTown, and we do nothing but try to survive and live our lives."

     "And they're all... human?"

     "Yes, but you just missed a interesting party. A group, I'm starting to feel, you know."

     Hope built up in my chest. "Dwarves?"

     Edward nodded. "They arrived yesterday, we didn't know about them until last night when they attempted to steal from our armory."