"You need to know something," said Fili, taking her face in his large warm hands. "You will always have me. Even if the Valar take you away tomorrow, I will always be your brother. I want you. I'm going to fight Thorin for you, but even if I lose, y...
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In which history is revealed to all.
The days of imposed rest and confinement in King Thranduil's halls passed with exaggerated slowness. After having spent several weeks contained to a single path through the dark forest and months before that in the open, the rooms and communal area provided in the corridor felt unbearably small. The first day or two were not so bad as they were indeed used to rest and regain strength. Even Sara's strength had almost returned in full, and save for the white bandage on her arm one would never guess she had been in mortal peril days before. Bilbo bustled about quite cheerfully, happy to eat much and often as the elves were apparently familiar with the hobbit's meal customs and Bomber, Dori, and Nori had been only too glad to join in on the frequent meals.
Unfortunately, once the company's strength and energy had recovered the boredom had set in. For some it was better than others. Balin had requested books from Kings Thranduils's library and was mostly content to read by the window in the room that he and Bilbo shared, which happened to be the only room with a window other than Sara's. Ori likewise could often be found hunched over his sketchbook or records. Gloin and Oin kept to themselves for the most part, except when Oin would disappear to the infirmary to be near Dwalin. He went so frequently in fact, that the orderlies attending Dwalin had requested that Airdan regulate how often he was allowed to visit. Apparently Oin had begun to drive the elf healers a little stir crazy with his non stop questions, complaints, and unsolicited advice. Dwalin was still asleep two days after arrival but the elves had assured them that this was their doing as he would recover faster if he were asleep. They said that in another two days they would allow him to wake.
Bofur and Nori were restless in confinement. Bofur had taken to flirting with the female guards when they happened to be on duty at the end of the hall, that is, until one of them finally became fed up with him and pinned him to the wall, threatening to run him through should he approach her again. Bofur for his part did not stop his teasing, though he did become more covert and selective with his targets. Nori had been caught smuggling objects into his pocket several times and although he was subjected to a nightly search, Thorin has still instructed the others to keep eyes on him when he was around. Despite these measures, Sara was sure that her ceiling was more than a few stones shy. Her suspicions had been confirmed when the little white stones had cropped up being used as makeshift chips in the poker games that have become a quite popular pastime.
There was precious little money left in the group so they had begun to gamble for favors, the few trinkets they had, dares, or even simple bragging rights. Even Sara and Bilbo had joined in. To everyone's surprise Bifur had become quite adept at poker, even surpassing Nori, whom Sara was sure was cheating. The funny thing was that once it became certain the thief was cheating, the poker games had quickly shifted into a contest of who could cheat the most and not get caught. Sara soon found herself out of her depth in the games and so had resorted to teaching Fili, Kili, and Bilbo other card games. She and Fili were sitting on Sara's bed playing slapjack, while Kili sat behind her, inventing new ways to braid her hair when there was a knock on the open door frame. They all looked up to see Tauriel in the doorway, a bag in hand. Kili's hands ceased their work and behind her Sara could feel his body stiff.
