"Now, isn't this a suprise."

The dying screeching of the spiders remained inside of her mind long after their corpses started to decay in the rot of the forest, bouncing off the walls of her mind, making it twist and bloom with some kind of agony that set her teeth on edge like a snarling beast of old. She didn't like this, didn't like any of this, and Nymeria honestly wondered if she would of preffered being slaughtered by the vile creatures that had hunted them most horrifically to being touched by the elves as they reaped the benefits of their capture, and she could practically taste the smug ease in the air, heavy on her tongue which only made her want to spit.

I really am spending far too much time with the dwarves, the faè throught to herself in displeasure, making sure to swallow the salvia pooling in her mouth because she truly didn't trust herself all that much, not with the rough housing she'd received from the beings that were supposed to be gentle like the tales and legends perceived. That seemed to be a rather cruel joke indeed, perhaps even mocking irony considering between she and Thorin, she didn't know who's dark glares were harsher as the elves made sure everyone was wiped clean of their belongings as they searched their every crevice for any hint of a blade.

Of course, the search for her weapons had been over before it had truly begun considering she, unlike the others in her company, didn't exactly have anything deadly upon her person, well, nothing that their elf eyes could physically see anyway. Which meant that Nymeria was pretty much pushed to the back of their circle with her deadly hands tied, discarded without a second thought because of her lack of threat, probably mistaking her for a innocent and weak maid who'd got sucked into the realm of the messy dwarves like a fool with her trembling legs and pained grimace whenever she so much as moved.

There was a part of her that was desperate to prove the self righteous creatures dancing around wrong as she watched them with her gaze narrowed lazily, wanting to use those sharp teeth of hers to bite, wanting to find out just how far she could take that small smidge, that small glimmer of chaos hidden inside of her stomach and buried under her grief. But she didn't exactly see that going well, so, swallowing her temper, she forced herself to stare around the rotting forest in contempt...hoping that her hobbit was staying hidden, because it seemed that more often than not he was disappearing from her side without a trace.

"All of them, dwarf."

Her fingers twitched at the voice that was filled with venom and hatred, feeling a certain possessive rage twist in her veins as she turned her head to the side where she knew Fili stood, glaring up at the enraged looking elf in front of him with a look that was so smug she almost wanted to laugh, especially as he picked a knife from his hair to drop it into their outstretched palm. How many blades did the blonde actually have? And should she be impressed or scared that they were so well hidden that not even her own watchful mind hadn't been able to see them as she watched him pull another one from his waist like it was a magic trick.

However, this time, she couldn't help the snort that slipped out of her mouth, amusement pulling at her bruised lips that formed a grin that of course Fili noticed as he twisted his head to look towards her, something soft replacing that dark look that had once maimed his features as he looked at her like she looked at the stars, like she was a dream just out of reach, like she was ethernal in the moonlight air and a gift for a weary soul...she liked the way he looked at her, she realized with a start, she liked the way she felt seen, not for what she could do, but for the vile and ruined thing she called a heart.

And then there was a rough cuff to the side of the dwarves head, something that almost sent him off of his feet as he grunted with a pained grimace as the elf still standing in front of him ordered him to stop playing games...and Nymeria felt her chaos flair and flicker with red sin as she jerked forward abruptly, hatred rushing through her veins and filling up her hollow bones with vile intentions because how dare he lay his hands upon him, on any of the company that she found herself with...and the faè remembered too late that she was supposed to be keeping herself hidden.

Because she'd barely even had a moment to compose herself before more bonds were wrapping around her mortal corpse tightly, bringing her to her knees as she snarled and growled like a savage animal backed into a corner, hearing the shouts of her name, hearing the disgust in the calling of faè around her, echoing through the trees like a warning as they very quickly realized just what she was as she struggled against the burning chains that seized her flesh like an embrace from hell itself. But then there was a sword beneath her chin to still her, forcing her head up so she was looking upon the blonde elf who'd ensured their capture.

"And what do we have here?"

Of course, she doubted he was expecting an answer, but she gave him one the same when her eyes danced crimson...until another ungodly shriek slipped from her lips as her bounds tightened, scorching her skin with its imprints as she twisted and hissed, gnashing her teeth together, desperate for the taste of blood to soothe her thirsty throat as she howled, withering around like a snake in the grass at the irritating ash seeping into her veins. By the Gods, she was going to slaughter them, she was going to rip them apart with her divine fingers stained with sin.

The chains had not been made to kill nor maim that much was sure, but to weaken, and as she was pulled up by her arms and legs and swung aboard a sturdy sack like cattle to slaughter, it was safe to assume that she felt rather weak indeed, actually, humiliated felt like a better term, considering one of the elves obviously realised those sharp and snappy teeth of hers were deadly indeed...and wrapped some of those same bonds around her mouth as she choked around it, glaring up at them with hatred filling her gaze with venom.

Now, she was aware when her darling hobbit signed those contracts those many months ago that death and tortue and overall unpleasantness had been a great possibility for all of them, but this was starting to get ridiculous. How many times during this journey had one of them almost died? Bilbo almost falling to his death at the cliff? Thorin to Azorg the defiler? Ori to Beorn? Herself to the goblin hoard? The lot of them to mountain giants and wargs and Orcs? It honestly appeared as though something in the universe, something in the stars had it out for them, for her. At least that's what she believed as she started to be dragged along the forest floor.

"Ay, you alright lass?" Bofur whispered, walking along behind her with his hands tied...at least she believed it was Bofur, it was somewhat difficult to tell considering she was currently upside down, looking up to the dreary trees crumbling around them in ruin, once again, tied like she was about to roated on a bloody fire. She scowled at him the best she could, brows furrowed and bordering on violent as she bit down upon the chains around her face, only to hiss once more as her flesh sizzled...hoping that he could see just how stupid that question was when her very hair was collecting dust and dirt and spider innards.

And Nymeria felt indeed, very vindicated when Dwalin growled and cuffed the back of their hatted friends head with a loud and obvious grunt, ignoring his mutted and clueless ow that faded into nothing more than an echo as they were forced forwards along the haunted forest for what seemed like hours, the muttering and cursing of the dwarves her only company as her eyes searched through the thickets and moulding rocks of old, looking through the rotting grey to find where her hobbit had dissapeared off to until her gaze met Thorin's and he sent her a swift nod that settled her. Bilbo would find her...he always did.

But through the gloom and the trees that bathed them in shadow, she could see what she could only assume to be Mirkwoods kingdom as they were forced along, gasps and murmurs surrounding them, following them as they were pulled through the halls like a spectacle, chained and weary and still covered in webs and fury...until Thorin was suddenly yanked away from their sides by silver-plated guards as they all yelled, shouting their outrage into the heavens while they were all separated, torn away from one another into prisons of rust and rot and cold, something that stared back at them like an abyss of their own doom.

"Do not worry Faè, you will not be left here to rot like the rest of your friends...you will answer to the King soon enough."

The elf holding her smiled, all hatred and threat, yanking her up and clinging onto the back of her neck and bruising her burning flesh with fingers that stabbed and hurt as she lifted her chin in damned defiance, wishing her mouth was free so she could spit her venom into his smug face, claw into his skin like some kind of feral beast as hatred boiled between her tongue, a sickness so sweet it ached. But all she was able to do was hiss, eyes dilated into damning slits as she withered, trying desperately to kick at the being with rage boiling in her stomach like dragon flame.

"Get 'ur filthy hands off her, elf!"

Dwalin's deep snarl shook the two from their staredown as he slammed his broad body into his prison from the shadows with a mighty clang, voice a growl that echoed in the barrel of his chest, as one by one The Company joined coming to her salvation, offering violence and threats, screaming over one another until Nymeria herself feared she'd become deaf in their attempt. However, it did appear that they were successful as the Elf scoffed in her ear and hurled her still breathing corpse to the floor, a whine slipping through her bleeding lips and her body rolled in agony, red blaring into every corner of her mind like a omen.

And in the back of her mind she could hear their howling, the throwing of pebbles and rocks and whatever they could find until the elves had no choice but to abandon her to her prison...but she, herself, was far too busy shrieking around the stench of burning flesh as she sunk her teeth into the iron, feeling the skin around her mouth blister in grotesque symphony as she swallowed herself, bit by bit, until all that was left was spite and splintered bone as she finally, finally, tore through her chain with her sharp teeth, and let their voices wash over her once more.

"Nymeria! Lass, are you alright?!"

"I'm fine, I'm fine, stop worrying yourselves on my behalf...not when we have bigger issues at hand." Like where my hobbit has found himself in the absence of my presence, either lost to the woods or to the webbed abyss of the spiders.

Yet that only seemed to set them off once more, one voice drowning out the other, drifting through the halls as she desperately tried to keep their attention while agony laced it's way through her veins every moment her bonds clung to her...before Fili suddenly lurched forward from the cell beside her, frantically reaching for her as she stumbled towards him without cause, without reason as she crashed her body against the bars, letting his hands, his glorious and beautiful hands stained and calloused and bruised tear off the rest of the burning iron incasing her in it's torment with nothing more than his brutal desperation and pulling it through to his own cramped cell without as much as a backward glance.

"Amrâlime, what have they done to you?"

"Will you ever listen to a word I say, Dwarf?" She whispered softly, her lips twisting into something affectionate as her blistered fingers dripping red agonies intertwined their palms, thumb stroking along the vein across the bridge of his wrist like she was pressing a kiss there, the closest she could offer before she forced his hands back to his own side reluctantly, pretending she couldn't see the way he'd hesitated, lingering against their separation like he could merge through it and become one with her own to shield her away from a damned gust of air.

"Not if I can help it."

Gods above, if she wasn't so worried about her hobbit she would of loved to either strangle the blonde for his insolence or laugh at him for it, but as it stood, her mind was far to busy clinging to rotting conclusion after horrible nightmare until she wanted to pull them out, ribbon by ribbon, unravelling at the seams of ruin. However, the truth was while her terror was consuming her, there was also that awful knowledge that with every moment they were separated, it seemed to stand more and more that her darling Bilbo...no longer seemed to need her, not completely, barely at all and it was going to kill her.

The others were still arguing amongst themselves for some reason or other, though, perhaps argue was too harsh of a word, if anything they were just having a loud discussion in which she had no care to be apart of, not when her head felt like something had dug it's way inside of her mind and shaken her to the core, leaving her to clench her teeth and curl her hands into fists, her body weak and weary like a crone as she lowered herself into the darkest corner like a beast, like a monster with eyes glowing red licking at their own wounds...unable to tear her gaze away from Fili as he moved about his prison.

"Everyone should try and get comfortable lads and lass...something tells me that we're going to get very accustomed to these few walls. Rest up while we still can."
______________________________________________

The hours had passed slowly when Thorin had finally joined them all to be hurled in a cell with dignities cruel hand abandoning them to their fate, when the Company had stopped their pacing and muttering and scheming to rest or despair, no light except fire that flickered in and out of existence due to the positioning of his cage. It was safe to say that an exhaustion formed from boredom and worry had begun to possess him as he tossed a small sharp rock from palm to palm, eyes fluttering shut every so often only to force them back open...not daring to sleep when the elves threat to Nymeria still reigned strong.

But that's when he heard it, a haunting lullaby that danced through the empty halls like a melancholy howl, like something reaching out in the darkness desperate for something to hold it too. It was a ballad about love but it's mistress sang it like it was violence, like the very words coated their tongue in cannibalistic horrors, like they didn't know how else to be tender with the blood pooling in their mouth and staining their teeth with devotion. But it wasn't the loneliness that struck him, nor it's callous echo...Fili knew that lullaby, as strange and mangled as it was to him now, he'd recognise it in a thousand agonies.

It was the melody his lady mother had once sung him to sleep with.

"Where did you learn that lullaby?" He whispered, barely louder than the flickering of flame outside of his prison, dreading to think he could break the spell that had been cast around him, drowning out the nightmares with it's siren's call and his dark eyes clouded with something that could not be placed, a longing for a home that was no longer there to guide him or hold him close, unable to tear his gaze away where Nymeria sat amongst the stone, half of her face bathed in shadow, all bite and venom and sharp hatred, and the other glowing a reflective red in the other.

"What does it matter to you what I sing, master Dwarf? Am I not allowed to simply pass the time?" The faè asked, amusement swirling around in the air like smoke as she glanced towards him slowly, and feeling something inside of her soften when she looked at him, like there was something chipping away at the edges of her grief, her pained infliction of blood and chaos and graceful suffering. She despised him, she could of adored him if she had been someone different, she wished that she was in a cage away from his own, she didn't know what she would do if he wasn't beside her. Close enough to reach but not to touch, just as she preferred him.

"Perhaps because I know it's melody, amrâlime. But what I don't know is where you could of possibly heard it."

Well, she did suppose he had her there as she hummed quietly, leaning her head against the wall where she could feel the cold seep into her weary bones that were cradled in hate, holding up her devastating corpse. The lullaby was still dancing around the haunted ruins of her mind, she could hear it...she could hear him and she wanted to tear his voice from the source, from his bleeding jugular until she could only hear sweet retribution in her bloodied mouth...her desire was now different when so called Gods had bore her hungry. "Someone taught it to me, long ago...when I was naive and still held some kind of belief in the world."

And then there was a rustle to the side of her, a shift, a movement that had the dust and dirt that had settled upon the ground blooming around them like mocking flowers drifting in the wind as Fili crossed that distance, pressing himself against the bars that separated them, staring at her like he always had, in awe, in adoration, as if she was something to behold and worship...his throat bared as if ready to receive her greedy teeth, like she could rip him open and devour what belonged to her; she was a carnivorous beast, and she ate love at it's ankles...she wondered if he'd let her eat him too.

"You shouldn't stare at me like that, Dwarf."

"Like what, amrâlime?"

What a stupid question, and he knew it too, she could see that beautiful mischief held in stormy eyes that glistened in the barely there light, and she could feel his agony, his turmoil and his hope as if it were her own, she could feel his desperation for her to acknowledge the loyalty and worship that corrupted him to her like a wounded dog that would turn brutal if she needed it of him, submitting his soul to the disaster of herself. "Like you would let me ruin and destroy you if I so wished it...like I could carve my name into your side and you'd still whisper it with devotion and reverence."

"And is that what you'd wish? To ruin me?" He murmured softly, always so soft against the cruelty of her own tongue as he smiled at her through the gaps in their cell with a quirk to his brow, obviously amused by their little back and forth just as she was. But she couldn't help but cackle, head thrown back, wild and untamed because of course that would be the only part he'd let out to fester in the open, the only part he'd pretend to hear because to admit to the other would somehow break the comadery of their knowing silence that only end in their destruction or something else entirely.

"Perhaps in another lifetime, dear."

Then it was his turn to laugh, so loud that it bounced off the stone walls, and it enchanted Nymeria more than magic ever could hope to as her eyes fluttered shut with a quiet hum, feeling drowsy and content as warmth bloomed in the pit of her stomach. And slowly but surely, the faè shuffled her way over towards him with careful caution, not daring to look at him, until, she too, was finally pressed against the wall that separated them, practically shoulder to shoulder in the gloom of the elven Dungeon that grew darker by the hour the longer they were left there to rot.

Silence had stretched on around them, a comfortable silence that comforted Nymeria as her fingers stained with divinity and sin swirling patterns in the dirt until she could feel it gathering beneath her palms, crumbling to fine dust below her as everything inside of her shrieked and begged for strength, demanded that she not become weak. Inside her, something was seething, inside of her, some feral desperation, some animal clawed inside of her, trapped, condemned, forced down to dangle upon the leash of her own longing, her need growing teeth as the stars commanded her to speak.

"Are you worried about your Master Baggins? Is that what is keeping you awake tonight?"

"That and Dori's blasted snoring." Nymeria muttered, rolling her eyes as she shifted around in the dirt, desperately trying to get somewhat comfortable as certain parts of her body started to become numb and tingly the longer she was forced to settle in the dust. And with every hour that passed, she felt as though her heart was about to be dragged out of her birdcage chest and left out to fester...so used to the shadow of her hobbit by her side, by his nervous rambling in her ear, by the comfort of his familiarity that she had almost become dependent on it, on him, on the bond the two shared.

But she was distracted from such thoughts as Fili chuckled easily, crossing his arms across that thick chest lined with fur and leather as he leaned back against the wall with a content sigh, looking very much like he wished he still had one of his pipes in hand, to smoke the uncertainties and no doubt horrors, of the night away, all the while she stared at him with her brow raised in contemplation. "He's a strong lad you know, your hobbit, stronger than any of us give him credit for. Doubt we ever would of found a more perfect burglar if I'm honest."

"I have never questioned his strength...nor will I ever. You'd do well to do the same, Dwarf."

His eyes clenched shut in frustration, a grimace twisting at his features as her cold words suddenly washed over his like frostbite, burning and biting, awfully cruel and withing. He'd gotten so good, so good at not putting his foot in his mouth everytime he was around her, stumbling over words that felt too large and awkward around his lips, and yet here he was...falling once more, because what else was he supposed to for something you'd pray too, for someone you'd get down on your bloodied knees for in hopes of salvation. "I'm sorry, amrâlime. I uh, I didn't mean to-"

"Yes you did. Do not think I am blind to the Company's speculations of my loyalty to the halfling." She had heard their whispers, spoken in the dark corners of the night with only the crackling of fire to conceal them, had heard them festering like maggots inside of her ears until all that was left was a vicious and terrible rage. She had never asked her hobbit if he had listened to the same cruel words those first few weeks in their journey, some part of her scared to see his reaction to what they thought of him, to what they believed of her, and she would not regret that choice...not when she had seen how content Bilbo had grown to be. 

"Some are just...confused. And you cannot blame them too much really. We have watched you crush giants with your magic...and your hobbit, as brave as he is, is simply that. A hobbit, our wee little burglar, not exactly something to awe at." He truly was just digging his own grave now, wasn't he?

And it was then that Nymeria's attention was captured by something twitching by her feet, something so incredibly small and insignificant that she almost missed it, almost didn't take a second glance...something that pulled thick ribbons of mourning from her mortal corpse, shameless as a lamb being lead to slaughter and just as red and agonising as she stared down at it. Upon the floor a moth was dying, half torn and decaying in the pale moonlight, flickering in and out of existence as either a tragedy or a nuisance as it tried desperately to live, to fly against fates cruel hand that insisted upon haunting her with grief.

"You know, I had wings once...and they had been so beautiful and strong."

She could see his face turn in the corner of her eye, a furrow against his brow, twisting his face into something soft and anguished as he whispered her name gently, carefully, as if she would shatter into pieces in his calloused hands born for battle and creation, but she didn't dare turn her head in fear of what she'd see reflected in the beauty of his eyes. "I used to fly so high into the heavens that I truly believed I could hold the stars, could cradle them, that they could touch me back and not let go, that they could cradle me the same...if I had known one day they would be stolen from me, I would of loved them better."

Her voice was nothing more than a choked whisper, burning the back of her throat until she could taste smoke, as she watched the moth finally stop moving, as it's life was snuffed out like dying embers, it's crime mortality and the creature paying it's price through blood, her back beginning to throb in phantom pain, like she'd been ripped in half, hollowed out and drunk on agony once more. "And when they had been taken away from me, when they had been torn away and left nothing more than rot in its place...it was Bilbo that found my half mangled corpse. It was my hobbit who cradled me, not the stars nor my magic...but Bilbo Baggins."

The memories were ruining her, drowning her out in overwhelming graves to send her down to a watery grave of misery and strife, of crimson sin pouring from in rivers of mortality, soaking her back in hollow bones, her fingers drenched in it, staining it as she slipped into the pile of gore that had been left behind in a broken heap, ribs cracking, breaking as she crawled, gurgling as she spat bile and blood, shrieking to the heavens with her head thrown back and hands clutching rough, jagged rocks and dirt until they cut into her palms and left them carved open like food for hungry God's and she-

And then she felt a hand suddenly intertwining with hers, caressing the scars with rough calluses that had only ever been gentle against her flesh...when Fili had pushed his arm through the uncomfortable bars to hold her, to embrace her the best he could through the prison separating them as she sobbed quietly like a wounded beast, heaving and gasping as she tried to forgot even as everything kept rushing back to her...as he sat there and desperately cradled her while she clutched onto him the same, trying to swallow her shame as it refused to let her go. "Amrâlime, amrâlime. Breathe lass, breathe. Just let me take care of you, aye?"

She scoffed blindly, a sharp and spiteful thing, like a strangled laugh that couldn't be forced from her throat as she frantically clawed at her cheeks, scratching the tears off with her free hand until, that too, was pulled into a embrace of it's own and she grinned through blood-stained teeth, still crying as she finally looked at the Dwarf beside her. "It's rotten work."

"Not to me, Nymeria...Not it was you."