Hoard

Gandalf, Thorin and a few other dwarves went inside the cave. It stank so bad that I couldn't even stand near the door. They came out after a while, Thorin and Gandalf had both found a new sword. We planned on eating and sleeping that day due to the events of the night before.

"Let me check that wound lass." I heard Oin as he came and stood behind me.

"What wound? I said looking at him confused, he pointed under my chin, I smiled

"This is not a wound Oin it's just a prick" 

"I would still like to check it if you don't mind. " he requested looking pointedly at Thorin who was having a discussion with Dwalin. I sighed and nodded pointing my face up wards. He looked at the wound

"It's not deep, it should heal well with the ointment" he put a dollop of some paste on my chin and rubbed it until it was soaked in my skin.

"Fear fire murder" someone shouted like maniac and we all took our weapons out and went to the source. It was someone on a sledge mounted on rabbits, it whizzed to us and stopped right in the middle.

"Radagast" I shouted, "What the hell" I was pissed. The lack of sleep and food had made me edgy. It was Radagast the Brown a wizard who lived in Mirkwood. He was never a traveler until pushed by dire need so his very presence there had set off alarms in my brain.

Gandalf and Radagast walked away a little farther to talk, seemed like whatever news he had brought was for Gandalf's ears only.

"We see that you have a souvenir from the trolls" Kili says walking up to me

"Atleast I didn't end up shooting my own foot" I tease looking at him. 

"What? Who told you that?" he said pretending to be angry

"I have my sources" I wink at him

He gave Fili and angry look and said" I know who your secret source is."

Just then we heard a howl and a warg appeared behind Dwalin I fit an arrow in my bow and shot at him, he fell between the dwarves and Thorin shoved his word in his throat. 

"Warg scouts, that means an orc pack is not far behind" Thorin growled

"We need to get out of here" barks Dwalin as more howls erupt around us. 

"We can't" Ori came running, " We have no ponies they bolted " 

"Who did you tell about your quest, beyond your kin?" Says Gandalf to Thorin, anger and worry prominent in his voice.

"No one" said Thorin

"Who did you tell" 

"No one I swear, what in Durin's name is going on?" asked Thorin

"You are being hunted." replied Gandalf

Hunted, Wargs, Orcs, Azog? the realization hitting me like gut punch, I looked at Balin panic in my eyes, he looked at me and raised a brow and then nodded.

For the first time since the quest started I went and stood next to Thorin. He thought may be I was uneasy or even scared, "Don't worry I'm right next to you, nothing would happen to you." he whispered.

I felt like punching him and scream it's not me I'm worried about you idiot! it's you! I raised my brow at him and huffed but didn't move from there.

"Go, I'll distract them." Radagast said excitedly.

"These are Gundabad wargs they'll out run you." Gandalf looked at him

"These are Ruscubbel Rabbits I'd like to see them try" with that he got on and drove away.

"Run" we all ran after Gandalf. Thorin was always at the back trying to keep everyone protected. I wanted to be behind him and he wouldn't let me. He would often push me forward so that there were at least three to four dwarves behind me and I would always fall back to him. We hid behind a big rock and a warg climbed over as he could smell us. Thorin looked at Kili and pointed towards the warg with his eyes, Kili put and arrow in his bow and shot the warg. The warg fell forward and Dwalin quicky killed the orc riding him but their cries had alerted the others. They changed their course and started running towards us. Gandalf told us to run and Thorin as usual stayed behind but this time I didn't move.

"Go" he pushed me

"No, not without you" I said angrily, he looked at me trying to figure out what the hell was wrong with me and why the hell was I acting so strange but I didn't care. He grabbed my hand and ran.

A little ahead we were surrounded and Gandalf was no where to be found. The dwarves thought he had abandoned them. We all pulled out our weapons, Thorin's sword glowing blue, even Bilbo's sword glowed as they were made by elves and glowed blue whenever orcs or goblins were around. The orcs were closing in and we were ready to separate a few heads from their bodies when suddenly Gandalf came out from behind a rock

"This way you fools"

The dwarves ran towards the rock and behind it there was a crevice that could be reached by sliding off the rock. The dwarves started sliding down one by one. Thorin swung his sword and killed a warg that jumped on us from behind. " "Go" he signaled to me and I moved my head negating him. "Go" he yelled again angrily.

"No!! " I shouted back by that time everyone was inside he grabbed my hand one more time and we both jumped.

As soon as we hit the ground there was a loud horn and the sound of hooves. A dead orc came sliding down with an arrow sticking out of his chest. Thorin pulled the arrow and examined it, he threw it away with disgust "Elves "

I looked at Gandalf and he had a knowing smile on his face. Dwalin who had gone ahead to check " There's a path here. Do we follow it or no, I don't know where it leads"

"Follow it of course" said Bofur and they started walking in a single file.

I was infront of Thorin at the very rear.

"Are you trying to get yourself killed" he hissed at me in a low voice

"Are you?" I looked at him

"What exactly are you trying to do here" he hissed again

"Staying close to you as you asked me to, if we go down we'll both go down then" I said looking at him dead in the eye.

He remained silent looking at me as if I had grown horns.

The pathway ended on the big wide rock as we came out I heard Thorin growl.

"The Valley of Imladris in the common tongue it is known by another name" Gandalf announced

"Rivendell" whispered Bilbo, he was told awstruck to say anything else.

"This was your plan all along, to take refuge with our enemy. Do you think the Elves will give our quest their blessing? They will try to stop us" Thorin was so mad that his throat wasn't even letting his voice come out properly.

"Of course they will. That is why I will do the talking and you will plan ahead" said Gandalf cheekily.

We all moved towards the entrance. Now that I knew we were safe I moved a little ahead and this apparently didn't sit well with Thorin. I felt a rough hand on my wrist, the grip didn't loosen until I was walking next to him.

The Elves being Elves had made a great show of their entrance and the Dwarves being Dwarves were not ready to bend their stiff necks. Me on the other hand was dreaming of a bed and food and a bath.... a bath more than everything.

xxxxx

The dwarves and Gandalf were taken for dinner, I had excused myself saying I need a bath or I'll have dirt crusted on my skin as another skin like a python. The bath was heaven, warm, steamy. I didn't know how tense my muscles were until I was in the tub. The constant fear of him getting hurt and Azog. I couldn't even imagine what Azog would do if he found him, I didn't want to imagine. I savoured the feel of warmth on my body until the water started getting slightly cold. I got out, the elves had laid out some comfortable silk clothes for me, red wide legged pants and a button up blouse. Initially when Gandalf had taken me out of my village he had brought me here because that was the only safe and secret place where they couldn't reach or find me. These clothes were made for me then and they have the softest and the most comfortable material. I missed having these clothes. I had taken some with me and worn them to shreds. 

I went out looking for the dwarves. They were sitting outside on a huge balcony. They had a fire going, talking and laughing. They all seemed relaxed after such a long time. It made me smile. 

"Look who's here looking all pretty and fresh," Kili announced.

"Ya, you would look fresh too when you bring out your real skin after a bath, all of you." I said sarcastically slightly laughing trying to deflect my embarrassment that brought everyone's attention to me. "Pretty? ummmm not so much." they all ended up laughing.

I sat near the fire but the heat on my face wasn't from the fire, it was from his eyes. He had his eyes glued to me and that made the heat of the fire go ten folds more. I shifted uneasily due to the weird heat settling in the pit of my stomach. Oin was busy telling a story about a human he had worked for as a blacksmith and the huge dogs he had. 

"God I'm so hungry" Fili said shifting to turn to the other side.

"What do you mean? didn't you just have dinner?" I couldn't hide the surprise in my voice.

"Dinner? They served us rabbit food. Every kind of damn green they could find in the kitchen I guess. We don't eat leaves." spat Dwalin looking noticeably frustrated.

"What?" I sounded even more surprised and then out of no where anger bubbled into my chest.

I huffed and got up marching towards the stairs. 

"Where are you going lass?" Dwalin called

"To get food, keep the fire going" I snapped

I wanted to break Lindir's nose, I knew it must have been his idea. He was down right nasty when it came to dwarves but he forgets that it was his leader who invited them for dinner. You don't invite people for dinner when you don't intend to fill their bellies. Asshole! I knew I would find him at the fountain and I headed straight there. Lindir was one of the friends I had made when I stayed in Rivendell. I had made a total of three friends here and he was one of them. The rest of the elves.... well they had a stick up their asses most of the time, they couldn't get out of the high of being immortal. As I had guessed he was sitting there reading a book.

'Lindir" I huffed angrily standing next to him.

He looked up and smiled, " Ooooo feisty" 

I think he knew what had my pantys in a knot, figuratively.....

 "I want some real food and do not make ask again because I am going to punch your nose and break it." 

His smile widened. "For yourself?" he stood up.

"For all of us" I whispered not wanting to raise my voice, I knew the dwarves could see me from the balcony.

"Us? When did they become us?" he cocked an eyebrow. The expression looked weird on his face especially with his long silky hair.

"It was always 'Us' never 'Them'" I huffed

The smile vanished from his face, "What are you doing with them anyway." he asked confused.

"None of your concern" I said my body going tense with anger every passing minute, the dwarves might have picked up on my body language because they all came and stood with the stone railing. Thorin's jaw set. "I need food and I need it now or I'm going to Elrond" 

He looked at me irritated and angry, he knew better then to test me. 

"Please send it to the balcony," I turned and started walking back, "And Lindir I want every single type of meat, sausage, wine , beer otherwise I'll raid the kitchen myself" I don't think my threat sounded very serious because he smiled. I smiled too. "Please don't take long" and walked back to the dwarves. 

"What happened out there? Was he being rude to you?" Fili asked as soon as I came back his brow creased with concern.

I smiled "No. Lindir is one of the few friends I made when I stayed here after leaving the village. He was just surprised to see me here with all of you."

I could feel Thorin's shoulder tense on the word 'Friend' before I could ponder more on it a small group of elves came to the balcony with huge trays with food piled high on them. Meat, sausages, nuts, bread and many other things. They had brought enough ale and wine to satisfy the dwarves for week at least. I saw Lindir make his way back to the fountain when he looked up at me, I nodded a silent thank you and his nodded back with a smile, the gesture not going unnoticed by Thorin.

The dwarves sang and ate till their bellies were full and look of content on their face, the trays were almost empty. Thorin on the other hand had not even touched the food, the only thing he had was beer, and that too enough to drown an elephant but not the angry fire in his eyes.