My Prince, My King, My Love

Chapter Twenty

 The ride to Mirkwood was a long, though pleasant one. We had left Beorn's home around mid-day, hoping to arrive at the border to Mirkwood while we still had the light of day. The ride was long, traveling across great plains, through small forestry, and passed rocky terrain. The ride, however long, was filled with chatter between the company. Getting to talk among the company as though we were all one big family, and in a way, I suppose we were.
One conversation, however, was particularly interesting. We had somehow gotten onto the subject of myself, varying from my likes, dislikes, pet peeves, and even so far as just talking about my life. We had already gone over so much on the topic, we were now simply chatting over things that had happened in our lives. Suddenly, Kili struck me with a question.
"Natali?" he called out to me, trying to gain my attention.
"Yes, Kili?" I replied in acknowledgment.
"Had you ever thought of settling down? Getting married and having children with someone? You know, before you met Uncle."
I stopped and thought about it for a moment, before looking up at the sky.
"I suppose it depends," I replied.
"Well, what do you mean? Either you had or you hadn't, right?" Fili butted in.
I then realized that all of the company was listening to our conversation, and they all seemed interested in my answer. I smiled some and shook my head before replying.
"I have been a part of nearly every race known to Middle Earth. The blood of elf and dwarf run through my veins and I was raised by humans, then held captive by orcs for an influential time, only to find myself in the care of a wizard and elves."
"Yes, you have told us this, but what does that have to do with whether you had thought of marriage before or not?" Bofur now weighed in with the thoughts and expression of confusion that the others held as well.
"Each race of Middle Earth has different customs when it comes to the bonding of marriage. The race of men can marry several times to several other people, even beings of other races. Elves and dwarves, however, only marry once in their lives and only to those of their kind. Due to my having been raised to know the customs of all three races, through time, my thoughts on the idea of marriage changed.
"When I was young, being raised by human parents that tried to teach me the customs of all three races, I saw many couples come and go through the village. I saw how my Mama and Papa were together and dreamed of the day that I would have that with someone I loved as well. But, after the attack on the village, I gave up any hope of ever being happy with someone like that. I didn't think that finding love, getting married, and having children was possible for me. Then, I escaped from Azog's clutches, a few years after I was blessed with Tatsiem and Tsuliem."
It had gotten silent afterward until a question was brought up that made me tense.
"Lass I've been wonder'n, and you don' 'ave to answer, but if you don' mind: Who is the boys' father?" Balin asked.
I hated that question. I didn't want to tell them, thinking they would hate me for keeping the truth from them, or worse, hate the boys for being born his sons. I didn't know what to do. They all seemed to sense my hesitance.
"It's alright lass, you needn't tell us if you aren't ready," Dwalin told me in a reassuring tone.
The moment I went to open my mouth to respond, Father called out to us, informing us of our arrival. I looked up at the forest line that stretched high above us.
"I elven fen. Ha has fallen in i wake -o i dúr." (The Elven Gate. It has fallen in the wake of the dark.) I said sadly in elvish, a frown setting in my lips at the once beautiful gate, now overrun and buried beneath the limbs of trees and weeds, darkness and a sense of foreboding emanating from it.
I felt as the arms that were wrapped around my waist from behind to hold the reigns of the pony held me tighter in a reassuring embrace. I smiled as I turned to look behind me at Thorin, who must have sensed my dampened mood, and smiled back at me in return. Thorin lent down some, seeing as I was still shorter than him even when sitting, and placed a kiss to the tip of my nose. This, in turn, made a red hue set into my cheeks, though I smiled at the small expression of affection nonetheless.
I heard a lot of chuckling and felt a lot of stares coming from the company and rolled my eyes at their childishness.
"Here lies our path through Mirkwood," Father called to us from ahead.
Everyone had gone serious upon hearing Father's words.
"No sign of the orcs. We have luck on our side," Dwalin says as he dismounts his pony.
Father, hearing the dwarf's words, frowns with a look of suspicion at the notion. I myself found it to be too good to be true, nothing came so easily in this world. Looking around, I saw Beorn (in his bear form) up on a mountain ridge a ways away. I prayed that Tatsiem and Tsuliem stayed safe and out of trouble. I knew that Beorn would protect them, but I also knew the trouble those two could get themselves in even if left alone together in an empty and locked room.
"They'll be fine, Natali," I heard Thorin's rough, though reassuring tone say to me.
Looking down I saw that Thorin had dismounted the pony while I was lost in my stupor and now was looking up at me with a hand resting on my knee in hopes of calming me. I was about to ask him what he meant when he looked at me with a knowing smile.
"You are worried about your boys' safety. But you needn't. They are in good hands. And you are forgetting whose children they are. They are so much like their mother, they will be fine. They have the blood of a warrior shooting through their veins. If push comes to shove, their instincts will kick in and they will learn how to survive," Thorin said, before adding with a smile, "Besides, they have already received some basic training from the best fighter there is."
Deciding to play around with him a little, I responded with an innocent look, "But I haven't given them any training yet?"
Thorin smirked at me as he realized the implication my of words.
"Why you," Thorin muttered as he grabbed a hold of my leg and yanked me down to him, catching me in his arms.
I laughed loudly before we heard Father calling out to everyone.
"Set the ponies loose. Let them return to their master," Father ordered.
We all began to set loose the ponies as instructed. Walking up to the pony that Thorin and I had ridden, I removed the bags from its saddle. After the removal of the bags, I reached a hand out to pet the creature's snout. I leaned into its ear and whispered a message.
Back when I lived with Beorn there had been an where we had gotten separated and after that, we decided that we could teach the animals how to relay messages to us fro the other. Using this skill I knew the pony had, I whispered the message in its ear, then gave it a kiss on its snout before patting it's back. I watched as the pony rode off back to Beorn.