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A bruise was starting to form on Alenia's cheek from when Thorin had thrown his temper tantrum. The other dwarves were ignoring it for the most part, which Alenia was grateful for, not wanting to talk about it.
The only ones who reacting to it was Fili who had a murderous look appear in his eye, before he made to turn and confront Thorin, which she had quickly stopped, Bilbo, who had just given the half-elf a hug, and Balin, who had shaken his head sadly and offered a smile to her.
"Come on!" Thorin ordered, as he strode to the door. The other dwarves dropped the tools they were using, and replaced them with their weapons, before following after their leader.
"Not you." the King snarled as Alenia started up the steps after them.
Alenia lifted her hands in surrender, before plopping down on a pile of stone near the bottom of the staircase to wait.
"Hail Thorin, son of Thrain! We are glad to find you alive beyond hope." Bard's voice shouted from the other side of the wall. The half-elf assumed that the man noticed that she was missing, as he asked, "Where is Alenia?"
In a timeout. Alenia thought, as Thorin growled, "She's fine. Now, why do come to the gates of the king under the mountain armed for war?"
"Why does the king under the mountain fence himself in?" Bard countered. "Like a robber in his hole."
"Perhaps it is because I am expecting to be robbed." Thorin snarled.
"My lord - We have not come to rob you, but to seek fair settlement." the man said. "Will you not speak with me?"
Heavy footsteps came down the steps behind her head as Thorin walked down to speak to Bard. Alenia turned to see Bilbo looking down at her with wide eyes. "Your grandfather is here. Him and his army." he whispered.
"Really?" Alenia asked, turning her attention to listen to the dwarf and man speaking to her left.
"On behalf of the people of Laketown, I ask that you honor your pledge. A share of the treasure so that they might rebuild their lives." Bard said.
"I will not treat with any man while an armed host lies before my door." Thorin growled.
Gramps must really want those gems. Alenia thought, realizing that there was indeed an elven army outside the gates.
"That armed host will attack this mountain, if we do not come to terms." Bard warned.
"Your threats do not sway me." Thorin said.
"What of your conscience? Does it not tell you our cause is just?!" Bard asked. "My people offered you help. And in return you brought upon them only ruin and death!"
"When did the men of Laketown come to our aid, but for the promise of rich reward?!" Thorin countered.
"A bargain was struck!" Bard protested.
"A bargain? What choice did we have but to barter our birthright for blankets and food? To ransom our future in exchange for our freedom?" Thorin asked, his voice growing in volume. "You call that a fair trade? Tell me, Bard the Dragonslayer..."
The King paused, before he continued in a quieter voice, that somehow was more threatening. "Why should I honor such terms?"
"Because you gave us your word. Does that mean nothing?" Bard said.
Alenia watched as Thorin turned away from the hole in the wall through which he had been speaking to the bowman, and leaned his head back against the stone. The hard mask that had appeared for the past week, disappeared, as his eyes filled with a weariness that Alenia had never seen in him before. He caught her watching, and his face hardened again, before he shouted out to the man on the other side, "Be gone, ere arrow fly!"
A loud slap against the stone came from Bard, followed by a muttered curse, as the man got on his horse and galloped away back to Dale.
Alenia opened her mouth to go off on Thorin, but Bilbo beat her to it by exclaiming, "What are you doing?! You cannot go to war."
"This does not concern you." Thorin said.
"Excuse me?! But just in case you haven't noticed, there is an army of elves out there." Alenia said, climbing up to peer out over the elven soldiers positioned outside Dale.
"And not to mention several hundred angry fishermen. We-We are in fact outnumbered." Bilbo agreed.
"Not for much longer." Thorin said, turning to Bilbo with a smile.
"What does that mean?" Bilbo asked.
"It means, Master Baggins, you should never underestimate dwarves." the dwarf said, before he turned to address the entire Company. "We have reclaimed Erebor - Now we defend it!"
Thorin strode down the steps to head into the mountain, and Alenia, Bilbo and Balin exchanged uneasy looks.
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a/n:
what? a chapter on a random day that's not on my updating schedule? is she okay? what is happening to this girl?!
the answer is; idk, i've just been feeling super inspired recently and i wanna move onto the second part of this tolkien saga :))
AND there will be a chapter tmrw too. bc i love you guys hehe (and also this one was kind of short oops)
