Stories of Middle Earth

When you got to Lord Elrond’s office you were greeted by Lindir, a dark brown haired elf, wearing a silver circlet, with brown keen eyes,  gorgeous features for a gorgeous elf. You bowed and presented yourself. Lindir then gave a long list of chores.

“These must all be fulfilled by dinner. You also have to take my lord’s sword to be sharpened and prepare two rooms for the tomorrows guests.”

“Yes, my lord. I will get right to it.”

Lindir then left you alone, without sparing you a second look. You looked at the list and felt overwhelmed already. Sure, you had other elves to help you, but in the end this was all your job to do.

You started by picking the flowers for the Lord Elrond’s chambers. You arranged three nice colorful vases and put them in his office and chamber, making sure they were as perfect as they could be. Just as you set the last one on a table you heard the voice of Lindir.

“These colors, did you pick them yourself?” he looked at you with a serious face and you could see you were in trouble already.

“Yes, my lord.”

“This is horrible. “ he looked at the vase and started picking some flowers out, asking you to hold them until he seemed satisfied. When you looked at it you saw he had only taken out the purple irises and moved the others around, not much of a difference.

“Now go fix the other ones.” He set his brown eyes on you and you could only hold eye contact for a second before you bowed and left as fast as you could.

From that moment on you could feel his presence everywhere you were. Every time you did something he came to inspect it, offer a comment on how you could it better, sometimes it felt mean, other times it was friendly, but every time you felt bad and as time passed you felt unworthy to be there.

This kept going on for days, then days became weeks. After a month you were sure you couldn’t do anything the right way. Your friends also were part of the staff, only they never experienced this. They told you Lindir was a perfectionist, but you would hear none of it. In your mind you were already sure you were horrible at your job and he hated he had to fix everything. He hated you.

~

You wake up at sunrise as usual. Your head hurts and you are thirsty. It’s been a week since you silently cried yourself to sleep, thinking you are a disappointment for everyone around you and that they would be better off without you.

You feel empty inside, sad, forgotten. You decide you’ll leave if this keeps going. When you get out of bed you nearly fall. You steady yourself but by the time you have to get to breakfast your headache only gets worse. Your friend sends you to the healers, ignoring everything you say.

“Elves don’t get sick Y/n. You look really bad. I suggest you take some days off. Your duties can wait. “ the healer says.

“Thank you. “  you head back to your room, where you find a vase of purple irises and stare at the ceiling for about an hour. You don’t know what to do with your free time.

~

It’s the third day off you have. By this time you are bored out of your mind and not feeling particularly better.  You are reading in your bead,  enjoying the complete silence in your chamber.  Or at least you were until there’s knock on the door.

When you open the door you are greeted by the one and only Lindir, the elf that put you into this position.  You let him enter the small room you have.

“Y/n, I am sorry if I disturb you. I must apologize for the way I acted. Truth be told it’s not that what you did was bad, but I enjoyed the time I spend with you. I did not mean to upset you.”

He didn’t look you in the eyes, a shade of pink on his cheeks. He holds between you a vase of flowers, one like the one you did in the first day here, to the smallest detail.  You look at him in disbelief. You couldn’t deny that you liked the elf, but this was unexpected to say the least.

“It’s just I needed everything to be as perfect as you are” he nearly whispered this and was bright red, avoiding  eye contact. You smiled at him and took his hand into yours, playing with his fingers.

“May I have the honor of courting you? Of course I will talk to your father, and that if you accept and I really wish you would but if you don’t that’s tota-“  

“Yes.”

you cut him off before his head would explode. His brown eyes light up like fireworks and he smiles so bright you find yourself unable to hold back a smile of your own.

“But on one condition.” He looks scared, but ready to face anything, which makes your heart beat faster than usual. “You never, ever mock my flower arrangement ever again.”

He laughs at this and takes a step forward so you are really close, cupping one of your cheeks before whispering “Deal” and giving you a short but loving kiss to the lips, the first of many to come.

They both had stern, serious expressions and spoke low so you couldn’t hear a word they were saying, much to your dismay. How was your ship supposed to work if these two refused to participate?

But then, as if in answer to your prayers, Dwalin laid a hand on Thorin’s thigh and looked him right in the eye. Your eyes nearly bulged out of your head as you watched him move his thumb to stroke Thorin’s knee and Thorin smiled back at him appreciatively. You must have been staring a little too intensely though for Thorin caught your eye and furrowed his brow in confusion when he saw you gazing at them, mouth agape.

Dwalin followed his gaze and turned to see you staring as well, simultaneously removing his hand from Thorin’s thigh with a slight…blush on his cheeks?

Oh this was too good, perhaps your ship was sailing after all and you just hadn’t realised it sooner.

You decided to wiggle your eyebrows and smirk at them knowingly, only serving to make them scowl and exchange confused glances with each other.

“What are you looking at?” Ori, who was sat next to you, asked you after seeing your cheeky smirk.

“Shhh, my ship is becoming canon!” You whispered, your eyes still fixed on the two dwarves.

“What?” He replied in confusion.

You sighed and tore your eyes from Thwalin to look at little, innocent Ori.

“I think Dwalin and Thorin are bang-I mean courting.” You said, leaning in closer to him and whispering.

Ori blinked at you for a moment then looked as if he was trying to hide a smile, but was failing miserably.

“Dwalin and Thorin?” He said, looking over at the two dwarves who were talking amongst themselves again but shooting you curious looks every now and then.

You nodded vigorously, “What do you think? Do you think they are? You have to admit they look pretty cosy over there.”

Ori’s smile grew wider but he shook his head, “No, Dwalin is courting someone but it isn’t Thorin.”

You leaned back and raised an eyebrow at this new development, you felt your excitement at your ship being canon slowly slipping away and disappointment sinking in.

“Who is he courting then?” You asked, crossing your arms.

Ori’s cheeks turned a bright pink and he suddenly stood up, without answering your question. You watched as he strode across the camp confidently, over to Dwalin.

He tapped Dwalin on the shoulder, making the dwarf turn around, then to your utter shock he grabbed the front of the bigger dwarf’s tunic and pulled him roughly into a kiss.

You gasped out loud and your mouth hung upon again. Dwalin seemed a little surprised too, at first, but soon he was kissing the younger dwarf back softly and closing his eyes in bliss. Many of the company turned to look at the scene but none of them seemed as surprised as you were.

After a few moments Ori broke the kiss, Dwalin chasing his lips after they separated.

“He’s courting me.” Ori said, standing up straight and turning to face you.

You just about managed not to fall off the tree stump you were sitting on. Dwalin had turned a brilliant shade of red and seemed a lot more coy than Ori certainly was, Ori stood with a proud grin on his face, still clutching the front of Dwalin’s tunic.

“…When did this happen?” You managed to whisper eventually.

“They’ve been courting for months now. You didn’t know?” Thorin chuckled, “It’s common knowledge.”

Ori and Dwalin chuckled too at the shocked expression that seemed to be stuck on your face.

Dwori?

Orin?

Dwari?

You stopped and turned to see Tauriel and Legolas, your best friends coming towards you. You three spent a lot of time together and you were all great guards. You thought they would enjoy their free day by themselves, but you were wrong.

“ Go get dressed. I have a plan for today.” Legolas’ eyes were twinkling with mischief and Tauriel had her bow.

“But it’s my free day…” you pouted. You knew nothing good ever cane from his plans.

“It’ll be fun Y/n” Tauriel smileed at you and you couldn’t do anything but agree.

“This isn’t going to end well” you said walking towards your room to change from a dress in black leggings and a long green tunic, you grabbed your weapons and headed out, looking one last time to your bed.

“My free day…”

You met them just outside the gates of the Palace and you walked in silence for a while, until you were all sure there wasn’t a guard watching over you three, being the youngest elves had its disadvantages.

“So” you said, stopping to sit on a fallen tree “ What’s the plan? Don’t get me wrong, I love to spend time with you, but I was really comfortable in my bed today.”

“We’re just going for a walk, nothing wrong with it. I figured we could go to Lake town.”

“road trip” Tauriel said and started running deeper in the forest. You and Legolas exchanged smiles and a roll of eyes.

“Ok, sounds nice.  I’ll get there before you do.” And with that you started to run, avoiding tree roots and other things that would make you trip.

You jumped over rocks and when you looked back you saw Legolas  almost catching up, Tauriel nowhere to be seen. You frowned and eased into a light jog and you stop altogether when not even Legolas was behind you. You searched the woods for a glimpse of auburn or golden hair, a green tunic,  or a pointy ear, anything to settle your nerves.

But there was nothing. You were looking at bushes and fallen tree logs and spider  webs. You were lost, or so you thought. Pulling your daggers out, you were ready to attack anything that came your way. Looking up you saw a big black spider coming your way.

It’s hairy legs were just above your head when it was killed by two arrows in the head.

Tauriel and Legolas were running through the trees, jumping from one to another. You grinned and started running on foot until you could find a tree you could climb.

For the next few hours you ran, occasionally stopping to laugh about something. It was all rainbows and butterflies until you almost bumped into an older elf. He was covered in spider webs and black blood and he had a big frown on his beautiful face.

He put a hand up to let his company know you were not a threat.  They put their bows down. From the trees jumped Legolas and Tauriel, followed by other guards.

“Do you have any idea what you did? Telling all the spiders that there are elves out of the Palace. Why are you here?” he was mad.

Normally he wouldn’t talk to you like that, you and Tauriel were very good at your job, and Legolas was the prince, but that didn’t seem to matter. They were all pretty angry, there must have been in a long battle because of you.

“Road trip?” you tried to lighten the mood and get yourselves out of trouble. No such luck.

The guard scowled and made you go back to the Palace where you had to talk to the king. After you left the company behind, you looked your friends in the eyes.

“My free day Legolas.”

“You had fun, stop complaining.” He smiled and looked at Tauriel who was smiling slyly.

“Whatever. Want to race home?”

And a mischievous smile later you were running again. Maybe it wasn’t such a bad day after all.

~~~~~~~

His hobbit stomach was not used to going all these hours without a proper meal and it made sure to let him know that by gurgling loudly every few minutes. If he didn’t get a hot meal soon he would definitely collapse, or cry, either way it wouldn’t end pretty.

“Bilbo, be a lad and go and find some berries to go with this lamb.” Bombur called as he cooked the meat over the dancing flames of the fire.

Bilbo frowned and groaned but did as he was told, albeit as slowly as possible. He wandered off into the woods in the search for berries, though it was hard to see clearly with the night drawing close around him.

He had never been fond of the dark, the black shadows stirred the darker parts of his imagination, turning a simple tree branch into a reaching hand or a bush into a 10 ft tall monster. He shook his head to rid those thoughts out of his mind, no, he was a grown hobbit not some silly child who had to check under his bed every night for monsters, there was absolutely nothing to be afraid of.

A hand grabbed the back of his collar roughly and spun him around.

He felt cold metal lying against the soft skin of his neck and he was sure for a moment his heart stopped working altogether in fright. ‘This is it now Bilbo Baggins.’ He thought, 'Killed in the woods by an orc, my childhood fears came true after all.’

“What are you doing here?”

Bilbo snapped his head up sharply at the voice. That didn’t sound much like an orc at all. It was then he realised you weren’t an orc and were in fact a woman, an angry woman with a deep scowl set on your face, though he couldn’t help but think you were an attractive one nevertheless. 'Having a crush on your soon-to-be killer is probably not the best way forward.’ The more sensible part of his brain spoke up.

You shook him when he didn’t answer and huffed in impatience.

“Answer.” You snapped.

“Uhh.” He said, “W-What was the question again?”

You looked at him in disbelief and scowled. The branches blew in the wind over your heads sending pale moonlight dancing across the creatures face, revealing that he was not in fact an orc as you had first expected but a hobbit. His tawny curls and slightly plump face gave him away. Your eyes grew wide with shock and you loosened your grip on him.

“You’re a hobbit?” You asked, lowering your sword, hobbits of course were no threat to you…or, in fact, anyone.

“Y-Yes, B-Bilbo Baggins.” He said, rubbing his neck where the sword had lain against it, glad that his head was still attached.

He inwardly cringed at his awkward stuttering but you couldn’t help but let your lips be tugged up into a fond smile for a moment, this was certainly the cutest hobbit you’d come across.

“Why aren’t you in the Shire?” You asked curiously, taking a step back.

“I’ve been asking myself the same thing lately.” He chuckled.

You managed to keep the smile from pulling at your lips again this time and crossed your arms over your chest, “That isn’t an answer Bilbo Baggins.”

The way his name slipped off your lips like that made Bilbo’s heart race faster and he began to wonder how his heart hadn’t already given up on him with all these rapidly changing emotions.

“I’m…on an adventure.” He said, puffing out his chest slightly.

You chuckled softly, surprising him. You were growing to like this little hobbit more and more, “Are you really? All on your own?”

He paused and looked up into your face, trying his best not to blush at how pretty you were, “Yes, well not just on my own, I have a company of dwarves-”

“Dwarves?” You asked, intrigued, “Take me to them, I haven’t seen a dwarf around here in years.”

So the little hobbit nervously led you back to the camp. The dwarves, upon your arrival, were of course wary as proved by the way they immediately drew arms.

“Oh do put those silly swords down.” Gandalf told them as he walked over to you, “She is no threat to us, unless you provoke her.”

You recognised the old wizard as a friend who had gotten you out of a sticky situation more than once, of course he would be behind this.

“Gandalf!” You said happily, “I didn’t think I’d ever see you around here again. Is this your hobbit?”

Gandalf chuckled, “I see you’ve already been acquainted.”

You smiled in reply, glad to see your old friend again.

“You know each other?” Bilbo asked, looking from you to Gandalf.

“Yes, this is my good friend, and rather excellent warrior, Y/n.” He announced to the company who had put their weapons away by now but were still eyeing you with a great deal of suspicion.

“You should join us Y/n, you would be a valuable member of our group.” Gandalf said with a kind smile.

That made Thorin’s blood boil and he stomped over to you all, glaring at you before turning to the wizard who was at least 3 ft taller than him but that didn’t stop the dwarf from trying to intimidate him.

“Gandalf.” Said Thorin sharply, “A word.”

Gandalf nodded but gave you and Bilbo an exasperated look before walking off with the dwarf prince. You were left alone with the hobbit.

You saw him shuffle his feet nervously and his nose twitched adorably as he looked up at you. He let out a nervous chuckle and motioned to a fallen log nearby that you could use as a bench while you waited for Gandalf and Thorin to finish talking.

“I’m sorry if I scared you earlier.” You said, looking down at your feet sheepishly, “Never can be too careful out here.”

“Oh, it’s fine.” He smiled, “I wasn’t scared anyway.”

You turned to look at him and saw him smiling goofily at you before quickly turning his head away to fiddle with a golden button on his funny little waistcoat.

“Really?” You asked, straightening up, “You seemed pretty scared to me.”

“That…that was just an act.” He said.

“Right, right.” You nodded, pretending to believe him.

“It was.” He said, frowning slightly, making him look more cute than the seriousness he was trying to convey.

“What ever you say scaredy cat-I mean Bilbo.” You teased and chuckled at his less than amused face but you could tell he was trying his best to hide a smile.

You sat in silence for a moment, looking out over the camp at the other dwarves who had gone back to whatever they were doing before your arrival.

“Who’s that?” You asked, pointing to Thorin who seemed to be in a heated discussion with Gandalf.

“That’s Thorin Oakenshield, the leader of the company.”

“Oakenshield? I’ve heard of him.” You said, “Is it true he’s the grumpiest dwarf in middle earth?”

Bilbo opened his mouth to answer but looked sheepish when he saw Thorin approaching you both.

“You can come.” He grumbled to you with a glare and immediately stomped off before you could reply.

Gandalf had obviously won the little discussion and this was confirmed when you saw him in the background smiling smugly to himself.

“You’ll get used to him.” Bilbo said, rolling his eyes.

~~~~~~

For the rest of the evening you ate and sat with Bilbo while he told you about the Shire and how he had found himself on an adventure with thirteen dwarves and a wizard.

You mostly listened to his ramblings, smiling and nodding your head every so often to show you were still listening. His voice was gentle and soft and, for some reason, enraptured you. His soft curls bounced around his face as he talked and gestured excitedly, seemingly very pleased that he had someone to listen to him for once.

The blush on his cheeks never once faded as he talked. He wished he could stop talking for a minute and listen to what you had to say but talking too much when he was nervous had always been a bad habit of his.

Your steady gaze on him made him stumble and stutter every so often and although he was extremely embarrassed by it, it only made you smile wider and realise how adorable he was.

“Bilbo.” You had to interrupt at last.

“Yes?” He said nervously.

“Everyone has gone to sleep.” You said, gesturing to the company who were all snoring softly in their bedrolls, apart from a bald, tattooed dwarf who was on watch.

“Oh…” He said, laughing nervously, “I suppose that means we should too.”

“You can tell me the rest of your story tomorrow.” You smiled, standing up and looking for a comfortable spot to sleep in.

“You can sleep by me if you like.” Bilbo whispered, standing up besides you and moving to where he’s laid his bedroll out earlier, “I’ll lend you a few of my blankets seeing as you don’t seem to be carrying any.”

You smiled at the sweet hobbit who rushed to spread a few thick blankets on the ground besides his makeshift bed.

“Thank you.” You whispered back.

You walked over to him and squeezed his shoulder as a sign of gratitude, making his cheeks redden. You lay down on the blankets, pulling the thick fabric up to your chin to keep out the cold.

Bilbo watched you for a moment before he lay down to sleep, your hair fell over your face so he couldn’t see much of you but he watched the gentle rise and fall of your chest with fascination.

He had never before seen someone so beautiful, sure the hobbits in the shire were nice but you seemed to outshine all of them. He realised he was developing a crush on you which was slightly embarrassing seeing as he wasn’t a happy go lucky teenager anymore, though he felt like one again.

Little did he know you had also developed a crush on him. He was a small, cute, awkward creature, unlike any of the men you had come across, and his soft plumpness and kind face had your heart fluttering beneath your chest.

You could feel his soft brown eyes on you now as you tried to fall asleep and you smiled to yourself.

“Are you going to sleep or are you going to stare at me all night?” You asked, keeping you back to him.

Bilbo felt the blood rush to his cheeks and coughed nervously, “Sorry.” He mumbled before settling down in his makeshift bed.

“Good night Bilbo.” You chuckled.

“G-Good night Y/n.” He said and cringed again before taking one last look at you and falling asleep.

~~~~~~~~~

You got out of the bed, pulling over the silk cover that shielded you from the cool air outside. You got ready for the day. You dressed in a (f/c) dress and braided your (h/c) hair in the braids Arwen always did for you when you were home.  

The first  half of the day you spent alone in your study, signing paperwork and looking over other administrative work and, mind you, boring things.  By lunch time you were done with paperwork and that meant you had the rest of the day free. Also lunch time meant seeing the love of your life.

~

“Y/n, let’s take a walk. It’s such a beautiful day and I feel like I’ve been neglecting you.” he smiles brightly at you, his icy eyes seem to melt when they look at you and he offers you his arm, which you gladly take.

“Thranduil… it’s ok. I know you can’t ignore the kindgom’s problems.  You…”

you had no time to finish the answer because his lips were meeting yours in a sweet kiss. You could still taste the wine on his lips when he pulled away, a smirk on his usually stern face.

“Shall we?”

You walked through the garden in a constant state of peace for hours. You were quiet, occasionally talking about stuff like the weather, the feast coming up, the flowers, the spiders and their increasing threat. All was well.

“Perfect.”

“What is?” Thranduil asks whilst looking over the sky, that is already starting to color in red and yellow.

“Tonight. It’s a perfect night for watching the stars, my love.” Just as you said that the wind started to blow, making you shiver slightly.

Your husband noticed and left to find a maid to tell her to bring you your shawl, leaving you alone in the garden, looking at a small white flower near you.

It was so pure, but fragile, and somehow different from the others, just like you were: different.  Your train of thought was  interrupted by a group of elves, a guard and two maids, not noble and definitely not sober.

“My lady.  Shall I escort you back to a human village? I am sure the weather will agree with you more.” The guard smirked and he offered you his arm.

“I beg your pardon?” You were given strange looks many times, being a half elf, but you were still a queen and no one ever said a thing, not even behind your back. They were smart enough to know Thranduil would not be happy.

“Do please beg. That’s what humans do, right? Beg? I bet that’s how you got to marry our king. You begged.” That was one of the she-elves there. Her words were like swords and they cut through your heart. You wanted to keep your head up, not show any emotion, just like your husband did, but tears threatened to spill and you had to look away.

“Leave me. Leave now and you won’t be punished.” Your voice was shaky and there were already tears  on your cheeks but you tried to hold your composure.

“Aren’t you going to beg? I thought it would have been rather funny.”

The third woman was glaring at you and then spoke in disgust. “I heard half elves don’t live as long as we do.”

“They don’t have the same intelligence either. Do you want to try it, your majesty?”

You were shaking and you let out a small sob. You turned so that your back was to them, you began to leave but was instead caught by two strong arms and you instantly recognised them as Thranduil’s. Looking up at him you saw he was practically  fuming. He looked like a big wolf ready to split someone’s throat.

  “What is the meaning of this?” his voice was so full of anger, and so intimidating, it would have made his ancestors cringe and shrink in fear. His big body was now in front of you, meaning there was no barrier between him and the ones that made the love of his life cry.  The laughter seemed to die out.

 “Get out of here! I will see that you are properly punished tomorrow morning.”

They all seemed to sober up in a split second.

“My king. We weren’t…” the guard stopped when Thranduil glared at him. His blue eyes were screaming murder. They all bowed deeply in front of you and your husband and left.

You knew they were most likely going to be severely punished, but that didn’t really matter to you now. You were shaking and crying so hard you couldn’t help but let some sobs escape, making Thranduil turn to face you. You wanted to sink to your knees and cry for the rest of eternity, but he gently started to wipe your tears with his thumb. He raised your chin and looked at your red puffy eyes.  He took your hand and guided you to your room. The halls all seemed empty so you could cry all you wanted until you got to your room. You crashed on your knees on the floor in the middle of the room, your head in your hands.

“Meleth nin…look at me.” Thranduil lifted your chin with two slender fingers, the other hand drew soothing circles on your  hand. “I love every inch of you. I love that you see the world in different eyes from me, from the rest of the elves here. There is no one I would rather spend my eternity with. There is no one who could make me smile like you do. There’s only you.”

“You don’t mind I’m not worthy enough to be in your presence, to be your wife? You don’t mind that I’m only half of what you deserve?” Your crying had now stopped but the sadness still lingered.

Your husband looked at you with a confused face, then he kissed you softly, his lips tasting the salty tears.

“No one is worthy to be your husband and yet you chose me and that is the best thing the Valar could ever send my way.  I am convinced  that half of you put the stars up in the sky and the other half of you only makes them shine more. Let me prove my love.” And with that he lifted you up, kissing you all over the face, feeling you smile under his lips.

Maybe the Valar really was never wrong, Thranduil was your one love, and you were his. 

~~~~~~~~

~Georgiana.