He sleeps and thinks it must be death

[favourthebow]

Who: Kíli and anyone!
Where: Anywhere between the beach and the outside of the mansion
When: Now, though do feel free to walk into him after his wound's been tended to and he's just walking around the place.
Rating: PG, I'd expect
Summary: An injured and disheveled Dwarf washes ashore. Quite literally.
The Story:

Kíli's eyes blinked blearily as he woke up. Knowing not where he was or why he had been rolled over onto his stomach, he did little more than grunt a complaint, wanting nothing more than to close his eyes and go back to sleep. But the feeling underneath his face was strange, and he could not recognize any sound or smell around him - he had no time to either, because just as he started thinking about perhaps lifting his head and looking at where he was, his face was engulfed by water. He choked and sputtered, rolling away from the wave that washed over him, retreating for a brief second before another followed, smaller but still going up to his shoulders.

Propped on his elbows, he looked around in a haze that only got more confusing as he realized his surroundings. He was at a beach, he could tell, and this was the sea. Not that Kíli was all too familiar with the sea, but he could recognize it at the very least.

Getting up was a struggle, what with his still injured leg, but he did eventually, stumbling and nearly falling back down on the ground. For all his looking around and searching, he could not find another single soul, or any explanation as to how he had ended up here. Lake Town was what he last remembered... perhaps he had fallen into the lake, and... somehow it had led him here. He was not sure on specifics but so far it was the only thing that even remotely made any sense to him.

He examined the wound on his thigh, wrapped in clear linen, even if now it was soaking wet and starting to yellow. Someone had switched his bandage at least, and he mused for half a second that perhaps it really had been Tauriel. He did not linger on that thought or that place for long, however. He was dizzy and he needed to find someone that could help him, someone that hopefully was not an orc.

The more he dragged himself along, the stranger the place was. He ended up walking into a garden, big and so perfectly kept that it vaguely reminded the Dwarf of Rivendell. And across it, a house, huge, unlike anything Kíli had ever seen. It looked nothing like any creation of Dwarves, so he quickly discarded that option. It was no place for orcs or goblins either, he noted with some relief - he was sporting no more than a white shirt, pants and his boots, and had nothing on him he could use as a weapon. A Kingdom of Men, perhaps?

A sharp pain to his leg caught his attention, and he looked down. His injury had started bleeding again, and the linen wrap was coming loose, so he picked up his place towards that house. He would have to tend to that soon, if he wanted to be able to stand long enough to return to Esgaroth, whichever way the town was.

Comments

[not_apriest]

After the Frenchwoman appeared in the water, the sea seemed rather more curious to Aramis. He happened to be on the beach when a dark lump of some sort washed ashore some distance away. He frowned and headed towards it.

It was less lumpy and more person-shaped as he drew nearer.

"Hello?" he called.

[favourthebow]

Startled would be a good way to describe his reaction. He had stood turned to one side for long enough that when the man approached him he did not see him, and he jumped a little when he turned around to face him.

There was a moment of silence as the Dwarf looked up at him.

"Hello, is..." he paused, confusion clear in his voice. "Lake Town?"

[not_apriest]

It was normal to be confused on landing here. "Wonderland," he corrected. The man didn't look particularly well, either. "Are you injured?"

[favourthebow]

Kíli merely stared at the man. It was an odd name for a place, but he kept that thought to himself.

"No, I am fine," he shook his head. "Where is this place, then?"

[not_apriest]

"Nobody is sure. There are people here from many worlds," Aramis told him. "And we don't know how we got here."

[ex_alighthouse135]

As Kili wanders through the garden grounds, he might hear faint singing coming from one area in particular. Elizabeth often sat in the garden reading a book or working on some project while singing a tune to herself.

The stumbling does catch her attention when Kili gets closer though, and the tune ends so she may look up to see the injured dwarf.

"Oh! Are you alright?" Some knitting is placed down, a new past time, so she might get a better look at him.

[favourthebow]

Kíli was walking as straight as he could towards the house, but the singing, and then the voice as a young woman approaches him stops him on his way there.

"I am," he shakes his head dismissively, a hand raising just barely. "Don't mind me, I'm just... lost."

It is hardly the whole truth, but it's far from a lie either. The girl doesn't look like a menace at all, so he asks hopefully. "Have you seen any other Dwarves in these parts?"

[ex_alighthouse135]

"Lost? You must be new here." And he has her sympathies for that. Though many find this place preferable to where they came from, she won't assume that applies to him. Did he just come out of the ocean? He looks a wreck!

"No, I've never met a dwarf until now." Though she's read about them in books!

"Sit down, you look exhausted! Here." Elizabeth goes through a small basket she has with her. She had packed some light snacks for her time in the garden, but he looks like he needs it. "Drink this water." The flask is offered.

[favourthebow]

He doesn't think her words strange, after all there are a lot of faraway kingdoms in Middle Earth, and many people who have never seen Dwarves before.

"New here?" he does ask, confused but taking a few steps towards her and sitting down while she retrieves the water. Though frankly, the jar she gives him is so odd-looking that he would wonder if it really was water if she hadn't told him.

He takes it to his lips anyway, finding that he is more thirsty than he thought, and quickly drinks all the water in one go.

[freewill]

Ever since one particular encounter with a strange creature (once-human) encased in armor that had taken place down by the docks, Castiel had decided that he needed to patrol the beach just as carefully as he did the woods and the caves.

Making the trip in that direction was routine for him, then. What wasn't routine was the person staggering away from the shoreline, soaked and limping. Seeing how Castiel himself had washed up here when he'd first arrived, he had a feeling this person was brand new.

And what an interesting person he turned out to be. As Castiel approached, the stranger's height (or lack thereof) became more clear. More intriguing than that was that Castiel got a similar sense from him as he had from Tauriel, that he was something not quite human.

They weren't the same, though, seeing how this one had no pointed ears.

Castiel drew closer, looking the stranger up and down. "Did you just now arrive here?" he asked in greeting.

[favourthebow]

Kíli tried to shake as much water off his hair as he could, though the action alone nearly made him lose his footing. It didn't help much, frankly, as his clothes were still wet, his boots uncomfortably so. He steadied himself just in time to notice someone was approaching him, and he looked up.

It was a man, but the clothes he wore brought a confused look to Kíli's face. He focused on the question instead. "No, I... arrived? No, I think I fell in the water somewhere, and the tide brought me here."

[freewill]

Utter confusion, still, which meant that Castiel's question had been answered, even if it wasn't in a completely direct way.

"You coming here was no accident," he clarified with a firm shake of his head. Without putting much thought into it, Castiel reached downward and set his hand on the stranger's shoulder, instantly drying him off. The wound he would handle soon enough.

"You've been kidnapped by this place," Castiel said, glancing over his shoulder for a moment to the mansion in the distance.

[favourthebow]

Kíli looked as if he was about to say something, but when the man laid his hand on him and suddenly his clothes were dry, he startled, forgetting whatever words he had thought to say.

"Who kidnapped me?" was the question then, quickly followed by another. "Are you a wizard?"

It would explain the odd clothes, at the very least.

[seekinghome]

At this point, Ed is definitely done with snow. Unfortunately, Wonderland doesn't feel the same. So there's a decided air of annoyance about him as he takes a walk to get out of the mansion to get some minor exercise.

That goes away when he sees Kili though. "I take it you found the ocean first?"

[favourthebow]

Kíli has been through quite a few meetings between the sea and the mansion, but he remains a mess, the smell of the salty water still on his clothes, skin and hair.

He glances up at the young boy when he realizes he's being spoken to, and offers with a small smile and an arch of his eyebrows. "I'm not sure if that, or if the ocean was the one to find me."

[seekinghome]

Ed shoves his hands into his pockets; to keep the one warm, and the other from absorbing too much cold to work it's way up to his shoulder.

"Probably the second. You're the second person in about the same amount of weeks to come floundering out of there. Most people are lucky enough to show up on dry land. Although I can think of one time when a woman showed up in a tree and then pretty much promptly fell out."

So at least Kili isn't the only one to have a wet or otherwise unsatisfactory arrival.

[favourthebow]

"How very kind of whoever dragged me here, then," he says, though it hardly sounds sincere. "At the moment I am only glad that I managed not to drown before washing up on shore."

A silver lining after all. He risks a small smile, even if right now he is tired and upset, still trying to cope with the fact that he's trapped somewhere unknown and so very foreign to him. "I'm Kíli."

[itisourfight]

The sea pulled her, called to her, seduced her. She knew it could not carry her anywhere, knew that no freedom could be found in its icy embrace, and yet she could not resist the thunderous sighing of waves.

Her feet were bare, the chill of the water lapping at them not harsh enough to outweigh the earthy sensuality of sand moving beneath them.

The wind tore at her hair, one of her few concessions to vanity. It was not practical for a warrior to keep it so long, but she liked the way it looked. The elves are fond of beautiful hair, and her rich, auburn locks could not be called anything but.

It took her a too long moment to recognize Kili, her eyes seeing things truly but her mind too unprepared for that truth to accept it at first.

"Ah, no..."

[favourthebow]

After the encounter with the man in the strange coat - a wizard, he must have been, for he had managed to heal most of his wound just by touching him - Kíli found himself surprisingly drained. He bent over slightly, his head light but at least his vision was starting to clear now.

So was his hearing, and soft as her mumble may have been, it was, coupled with her shuffling, enough for him to turn to where the sound had come from.

He did not care to fight the grin that spread through his face upon seeing her, standing just a few feet away from him. "Tauriel!" He all but ran up to her, though only because he was having a hard time even standing up, let alone walking.

[itisourfight]

Without hesitation one of her hands shot out to rest on his shoulder to steady him, eyes taking in the state of him to get an idea of how he was faring. It appeared as if his head was clearer now than when she'd seen him last, which was a very good thing considering what sort of place this was.

She spared a brief thought to hope that he did not recall what he'd said to her when they were last together back home. This was not the time, nor the place, to handle delirious confessions of... something.

"I have never met anyone who handles captivity so cheerfully as you."

Not that he could know that this place was a prison any more than she had upon first arriving.

[favourthebow]

Kíli merely shrugged nonchalantly at her, his weight leaning slightly on her hand. He still found himself rather weak and tired, and he wondered for the first time how long had it been since he had eaten something.

His stomach turned at the thought of a nice warm meal, but be ignored it for now.

"It could be worse," he replied, not sparing on a cheeky grin aimed her way. "What with the company I have, I can't complain that much."

[lightgunhustler]

With winter here, or at least what passed for winter in Wonderland, there had been fewer and fewer opportunities to enjoy the outdoors, specifically the beach -- swimming was right out, and sitting out on the docks lost some of its charm when it was too cold to let your legs hang over the edge and your toes touch the water. Regardless, running was still an almost daily endeavor, though she had gotten a late start today and had wound up taking off without her usual partner -- regardless of whether she liked it or not, staying in top shape was a priority. Wonderland spit too many problems that required brute force at them for it not to be.

Her path had taken her down along the beach, as it often did, but today it wasn't as deserted as she was used to-- unfamiliar faces weren't entirely uncommon, but always worth noting, she'd found, but it was the bandaging that really caught her attention.

Wonderland sure did have a thing for pulling people in while they were injured, didn't it?

"Hey!" She slowed her pace as she got closer, raking her hair back from her face with one hand as she frowned, giving him a once-over now that she was close enough to take in details. He wasn't quite what she'd expected, but she couldn't put her finger on why, and it was rude to stare. There were more important things to be addressed first, anyway.

"You okay?"

[favourthebow]

He at first couldn't tell if she was talking to him. He looked around the beach, and seeing no one else there, turned to return the woman's greeting.

What an odd greeting it was too, he had never heard it before. "Hello," he replied in any case, hoping that she was not talking in an entirely different language. Then he opened his mouth to reply her question but only frowned in confusion at the wording. Did she just ask if he was a key...?

Perhaps if he could try having her explain the wording. "Excuse me?"

[lightgunhustler]

"Are you okay?" she echoed, not grasping that it was the word itself he didn't understand. She frowned, eyebrows knitting together as she directed her attention towards his bandaged leg, nodding towards it.

"You're hurt," she went on to clarify. "Do you need help?"

It wasn't much like her to ask -- she often forced herself on people and helped whether they liked it or not -- but after Tom and Adam's respective arrivals, she'd taken to handling newcomers with a little more care. Adam, especially, had been shaken up and ready to bolt, something he still hadn't quite grown out of.

[favourthebow]

The question still made no sense to him, so instead he worried about answering to the other for now, glancing down at his leg as he did so.

"No, I'm not," he said, and pulled the linen aside to show that the wound underneath was now closed, though the scarred skin had an unnatural darkened tone to it. "There was a man earlier, he healed me. Or whatever he was, I don't think he was a man. He did not tell me."

He looked up at the woman again. "I assume that much like him, you do not know of a way for me to return."