A Better Place - The Hobbit Fanfiction

Twenty-Second Entry - From Elves to Dwarves

I woke with a jolt as though I'd fallen, my hands reflexively tightening around whatever they held, which thankfully was only the back of Thranduil's tunic and cloak. It was dusk now, and it had been mid-morning when Bard had spoken with Thorin. I fidgeted my feet a bit. "Let me down please."

Thranduil did so, making sure my feet could hold my own weight before releasing me. I scrubbed at my eyes and wondered how I was going to sleep that night if I'd already slept away the day. Looking up at him I asked, "Don't you elves ever get tired?" I didn't know a human that could have carried my weight that long without sore muscles, as small as I may be.

He ghosted a smile. "We are stronger than both Men and Dwarves."

I made a judgment call. "That and it endears you to Bard and the other humans to see you being so considerate with me."

His head tilted to one side, as though surprised I had cottoned on to what he was doing. He truly must not think much of my intelligence, but then even kings couldn't have everything.

"A word to the wise," I said then. "If the appearance of consideration is your aim, don't let other people help me up and down from your....your...." I gestured with my arms. "Your big animal that you've been riding. With the adorable antlers."

He lifted a brow. "My elk?"

I'd been right after all. "Yes, him. Because helping me up and down is your job if you're being fatherly in this situation."

He regarded me for several moments longer, his icy-blue eyes absorbing whatever it was he saw on my face. I scratched at my hair and watched him back. "I shall consider your advice," he said at last, and I snorted.

"It's really not my place to be giving advice to you," I admitted. "But I've lived with humans most of my life, and I understand how they think."

"You have a distinctive perspective on the world."

"Yes, but then again I've seen it from a different angle than most everyone else, haven't I?"

Thranduil swept back his cloak and took a seat on a wide, gnarl-rooted stump before the fire we had been attending as he watched the mountain. A few other elves milled about in this area—we were near the center of the camp, after all, and there were multiple tents set up as though the elves were prepared for a long stay—but we were the only ones in the immediate vicinity. "This is true."

Perhaps the lack of other elves made me brave, or foolish. Either way I knew this was a question I didn't necessarily want the answer to. "Thranduil, may I ask you an impertinent question which I don't really expect you to answer?"

This alighted his interest. There was another stump serving as a small table beside him and he took, sipped from and returned a mug of something steaming to it before replying. "You may."

"If you thought the dwarves were dead why did you bring me with you?" I was of no use here; everyone knew that.

"You suspect it was not for the pleasure of your company?"

"I think for someone as aged as you are the nearness of such things as pleasure and contentment has rather faded," I answered levelly. I'd been thinking about this, you see. "I don't think you see the world as anyone else does either, and I don't think you react to it the same way. You're different. You think differently and you feel differently. I've never witnessed you to be terribly affectionate so it stands to reason that your doing it now is for someone's benefit other than mine or your own. You only keep around you the things that are useful to you. Somehow I'm one of them, and I'm very curious as to why."

Thranduil sat forward until his elbows were on his knees, his fingertips stacked back and forth on top of one another, thumbs crossed. "I always entertained the possibility that our assumption of the dwarves' demise was erroneous."