Kida sat outside a small cabin playing a lilting melody on her pan flute and next to her singing along softly was her best friend Nerys who had come by to visit for a time before moving on as was her nomadic way.
Kida's green eyes with golden flecks were half lidded as she calmly watched the approach of an elderly man in gray robes and gray pointed hat while Nerys deep blue eyes with silver flecks were completely closed though she too knew of the approach of the wizard if the slight twitching of her ears was anything to go by. It had been a good stretch of time since they had seen their old friend, but not unusual for them to go such long stints without contact. It wasn't until he was close that Kida put her pan flute back into its holder on her hip and Nerys opened her eyes.
"Hello Gandalf." Kida said with a large smile as she tucked a strand of her long curly hair behind her ear. She had long curly red copper hair in a high ponytail decorated with small braids, beads, and charms. She wore a tight fitted long sleeved green tunic with a red brown leather vest closed over her tunic. She also wore a knee length skirt with dark brown ankle length red brown tights underneath leaving her feet bare.
Nerys had long wavy ebony hair that was in a halfway up micro braided style leaving the rest loose decorated with blue strings entwined into her braids along with silver beads and touches of grey along her temples. She wore a long sleeved fitted purple tunic with a knee length opened black vest over that, black pants that were rolled up above her ankles, and her feet were also bare.
"Hello Kida, Nerys, how are you?" Gandalf asked the young woman.
"We are well." Nerys said with a smile.
"It has been quite some time my friend." Kida added.
"Yes it has." He said with a twinkle in his eye.
"Something tells me that you are not here for a friendly visit, so you better come in and have some cider." Kida said and Gandalf nodded as he followed her inside along with Nerys. Inside the cottage Kida grabbed the drinks as Gandalf sat down in a comfortable chair near the hearth. Kida handed one to him while Nerys looked after the small pot hanging over the fire.
"Thank you." Gandalf said as he took the offered cup.
"The stew needs a little more time." Nerys commented as she took a seat across from Gandalf along with Kida. "If we had known you were coming we would have made more, but it should be enough along with the bread."
"That is quite all right. I actually came here on a matter most grave." Gandalf explained to Nerys and Kida about a quest for Thorin Oakenshield to reclaim his kingdom. "I need your talents to help this quest on its way."
Kida and Nerys were part of a race of skin changers, a people that could take on the form of an animal and their people varied in the kinds they took on from birds, to land beasts, and the fish in the water.
Kida was rather short being only a little taller than an average dwarf, but she could shift into one of the fiercest animals, a large lioness of great strength with shimmering red copper fur and claws like daggers. Nerys was an inch taller than Kida and could take on the form of a great ebony she-wolf of great speed with long fangs and sharp eyes.
"Of course we'll help." Kida said with a hardened face her green eyes flashing.
"We know all too well what it is like to lose your home. What do you need us to do?" Nerys asked with a wolfish grin.
The reason skin changers were so rare was because of orcs that had found their people's village in the Misty Mountains when they had first come from the north. They came in waves and gradually started to eradicate their people, they wiped out their families, captured them amongst others, and left little to no skin changers alive. There used to be so many of their kind, but now their race was nearly driven to complete extinction leaving only four left behind. There were others, but they had scattered to the four winds and others had completely reverted to their animal forms from grief.
"There will be a meeting in the Shire at the home of Bilbo Baggins; I will leave a mark on his door so you can find it a week from now. There are a few more that I must invite as well as the need to inform the host." Gandalf said with a smile.
"Then we'll see you again in a week." Kida said then decided to change the subject before her and Nerys's grief over came them with haunting memories of her past. "Now that business is over with I say we have us a nice dinner from the rabbit stew we just made along with some fresh bread and some more cider."
"I really must take my…" Kida and Nerys turned to Gandalf with a raised eyebrows. "I would love to stay for lunch."
