Oki, so I had to rewrite this chapter because looking back compared to the other chapter it was terrible!
Prologue
In the mild heat of the midday the sun that seeped through the dense leaves of the forest canopy above Thorin closed his eyes and raised his face to the warmth of the sun's rays. He let the tension and strain of the past years slid from his features until his face was calm. His shoulders lowered and his muscles relaxed as if in sleep.
A moment of solace; of peace; of warmth and calm that had long been out of his grasp. He enjoyed his minute of silence. His mind clear within rhythmic birdsong above and the humming crickets below.
In his momentarily lapse of concentration, his pony slowed to a stop, Its head bent and nibbling at the sweet grasses that grew at the side of the road. Thorin frowned at the stubborn animal before tightening the reins and kicking viciously until the road and the wind streamed past in a blur.
His hair whipped wildly and branches clawed at his body, trying to drag him to the ground. But he never let his speed slow. His own breath ripped out of him, his horse panted and slobbered at the mouth but his pace never faltered.
He had waited too long in the dark caverns of the Blue Mountains; too long had he relied on other men's gold, too long had his home been out of his hands. The lonely mountain belonged to the line of Durin. And it soon would again.
Thorin Oakenshield could almost taste the blood of Smaug on his lips, and it was sweet.
As his poor horse tired, Thorin pitifully slowed his pace to a walk. For days now he had travelled on the dusty roads of Middle Earth, he would not allow himself rest when salvation was so close. So close and yet still so far, it was as if his saviour danced on the edge of his vision but always just out of reach.
He travelled to the Shire and to his rescue.
The darkening of the sky did not alter the warmth evening or the playful song of the wind through the tall elm trees. However, the moment Thorin had planned to sit a while, the steely squeal of a goblin racked through the wood.
Thorin's head snapped in its direction and his heels stabbed into the horse, spurring the exhausted animal towards the noise.
Fear gripped his heart as his chest rose and fell rapidly. Bag End was a rabbit burrow, a dead end, and trap. If The Company was attacked in there, they would be fish in a barrel, they would be slaughtered.
– Kili and Fili would be … - The consequences of an Orc attack now would be disastrous for the mission, Thorin had to think practically for a moment, had to think without emotion sclouding his mind and fear gripping his body. He'd had decades worth of practice, he made himself cold and stoic, like his father and his father before him: Thorin let his emotions be dragged away by the gusting wind and his pressed his horse harder.
Rounding the corner Thorin stopped the panting horse, pulling it in tight circle, waiting a heartbeat for another noise - There!- in a small clearing Thorin could see the flickering of firelight and the shadows of two figures all stood.
Dismounting and safely lashing the horse up, he crouched in the leafy darkness of a bush, trying to listen to the Orcs against the sound of his own beating heart .
"The little Bitch! We've spent so long you. And I'll tell you this, your death is not to be quick. It's gonna be long and painful and in the end your gonna wish it had been quick!" one of the Orcs screamed, holding up {what Thorin presumed was} an unflinching young She –Dwarf by the collar of her coat. "I'm gonna cut you up open and fry yer guts girly!" He cackled manically. Thorin saw the glint of madness reflected under fire light in the Orc's eye.
"You can try but I'm still going to cut your other ear off. I need the pair as trophies." The She- Dwarf smiled sweetly, staring stubbornly at the huge Orc that roughly held her.
When Thorin looked closer at the Orc, he saw the gaping hole crusted with blood where his ear should have been. The She-Dwarf's mouth was just as smeared with black blood; her teeth too had a bloody glint to them. She had ripped an Orc's ear off with her teeth.
Thorin had to admit, he liked her style.
Suddenly the sound of crushing foliage came from behind him. Thorin flattened his body into the side of the tree trunk. Another massive Orc, bigger than the other two, emerged in the clearing just by Thorin's hiding spot.
"There's no sign of Knurl. Where is he, woman!" the massive Orc knocked the She-Dwarf to the dirt, Thorin heard her gasp in pain as the Orc pressed his huge foot into her chest and leaned down to leer into her face.
"Idiot! How can I tell you if I can't breathe?" She spat the word with as much gall as her cracking ribs could manage.
The Orcs all drew their daggers at the nod of the big Orc and he released his foot . "No funny business Dwarf!" she stumbled backwards, scrambling in the dirt. Hands grasping for the leather cord that had been kicked into the under growth in the confusion .
Thorin started to move before even he knew what he was doing.
"I said no funny stuff!" the Orc roared raising his immense axe over his head ready to cleave the dwarf in two. At the same moment, Thorin launched himself into the air , sword in both hands above his head, slicing the weapon out of the Orc's hands.
Three things all happened at once. The Orc screeched at the bloody stump that once had a hand, turned and rushed at Thorin with a flaming log, grasped from the fire in his other hand. The two other Orcs now turned and circled Thorin from the back , growling menacingly. He was surrounded.
There was a soft click and metallic whirling and the Orcs looked around them in dumb annoyance at the new noise. Suddenly air whooshed past Thorin's face and he was barrelled over by a blur .
The She-dwarf dragged him heavily to the dirt, teeth bared in a snarl. Thorin grasped her wrists in defence, trying to push her away from his body, but she grabbed his coat and flung his body over hers, letting her body crash into his yet again.
The earth crashed about Thorin's ears, and his mouth and throat were raw with dust and dirt, the dead weight of the other dwarf made his intake of breathe painfully sharp . The She-Dwarf let out a ragged sigh of exertion and rolled of Thorin's battered body. Immediately he sprung up on his feet.
"What in Durin's name do you think …!" the angry tide of words died in his throat when he saw the twitching bodies of the Orc's laying tangled on the floor. Their bodies mangled by sharp wooden stakes which impaled all their torso's and limbs. The largest had been impaled right throw the eye socket. Blood ran freely down its face, tongue lolling in its shapeless mouth and muscles in its face twitched.
The She- Dwarf snorted at Thorin's astonished stare and tried to snatch one of the Orc's swords of the ground but she let out a hiss of pain and a potent curse. Her knees buckled and her fist bunched into the fabric at her collar bone. Thorin strode to her side, disregarding her silence and pulled her dirty coat away from the bloody wound.
"Get the hell away from me!" The women ducked away from his hands, and with an angry howl, ripped the wooden spike that impaled her flesh from her shoulder. The women's face was a steely, but her lips paled and her jaw was tight, restraining a grimace of pain. Thorin's face remained blank. He recognised such anger but he'd never seen such hate that he saw in this women's' eyes.
"I'm only trying to help, woman! What do you think you were playing at anyway? They were Orcs. You could have been killed!" he growled with dangerous exasperation, kicking one of the Orc's in the head in anger.
She whipped round to face him, eyes wild with stubborn rage "I didn't need your help! And actually, I just saved your life. So next time you decide to help, help someone else!"
The fire was between them and it danced in the white of the women's eyes. She was struggling not to pant in pain, determined to keep composure until this stranger, this Dwarf had left!
"Saved my life, I don't see how. He would have sliced you into strips!" Thorin spat, kicking the Orc with the severed hand in the head again, trying to vent his anger but failing bitterly.
"Men!" She bellowed in frustration, wiping her dark fringe from her eyes and leaving a smug of blood on her brow. "You don't use your eyes, look closer Dwarf! You walked into a boar pit!" Her body was shaking in frustration. "Do you know how..."
"A boar pit?" Thorin interrupted, a confused wrinkle appearing between his eyebrows, lessening the harshness of his features and making him seem almost amused.
The women seemed to sag under the pain and finally gave up, giving in to his onslaught of questions.
"Yes! A boar pit, have you ever hunted a boar before?" she asked irately, then waited impatiently for a response. Thorin nodded silently. "You make a trap and plant wooden spikes in the ground and wait till the boar comes." She made a gesture around the camp "pit." Then pointed her chin towards a high branch in the closest tree .
"Stakes." Thorin mumbled under his breath. Fixed to a tree branch were a dozen crossbows, presumably rigged by the She-Dwarf, with what looked like a linking mechanism to connect the triggers together.
"But surely with no one to aim you'd get hit?" Thorin's military mind was a whirl of ideas and possibilities of how to apply this ingenious technique. Still looking at the cog and spring mechanism, he heard her reply behind him.
"I just make sure all the bows are aimed at things taller than me." A wondrous smile briefly curled his lips up but passed quickly, returning to his cold harsh mask as he turned back towards the women.
The both met eyes briefly, for no more than a heartbeat.
"You saved my life, I thank you." Thorin hated the pain in his belly that he got. He was in debt to this stubborn She-Witch. He was at someone's mercy yet again. He had suffered at the hands of others mercy for years, humiliated and shamed, it grated against every sensibility he had. He was the beggar king, cursed to work for a pittance and have his people treated like the lowest of the low. His people; beggars for a beggar king.
The women snorted in derision and looked away into the tree tops. "I need no thanks. We are even. Let that be the end of it." Her voice had suddenly grown tired and thin, bemused even. Actually her entire body seemed to slacken and sag, using the tree behind her keeping her from falling. Though Thorin couldn't see her properly in the dim shadow of the tree, the dark haired women seemed to have a greyish whiteness to her pale skin and the sheen of sweat on her brow and neck.
Pushing heavily away from the tree, she went to the fire and dropped down with a loud thump, poking the embers with a stick from the floor. In the better light, Thorin could see the She- Dwarf more clearly. Unlike most Dwarfs, she had no beard or facial hair that he could see; she was petite in frame, but appeared hard and stubborn. Her features were plain and small apart from the black Orc blood smeared around her mouth and chin like a grotesque smile. He supposed she had long dark hair, but couldn't see because it was tucked under the collar of her jerkin. She was certainly smaller than he was, but he wasn't actually certain she was a Dwarf.
"Which Clan do you belong to?" he questioned cautiously, slowly walking to her side, careful not to appear threatening: this woman was obviously untrusting of strangers. From within his doublet, he extracted a hipflask and, without so much as glancing at her looking at her, offered her a drink.
Although she accepted the flask, she didn't respond to his question. He stood, for a moment, watching her suspiciously. Finally, he decided to get his horse that was just tied outside the camp. However he watched her carefully; using the fall of his long black braided hair as camouflage against his piercing stare . When he returned she appeared to have not moved, so he rested on his haunches opposite her.
"Does the Boar trap usually work?" he questioned, intrigued by it. Never had he seen such an risky tactic and for one to go against so many Orcs… He didn't know if it was bravery or a death wish!
"For the most part, it does. I have successfully used it against more," she shrugged. She wasn't boasting, just merely stating a fact. She continued to talk, though still wouldn't look at the King Dwarf directly. "First, choose your targets. A scouting party, something like that. Then you take one; lure the rest in with a trial you've made. Set the trap and kill all the Bastards in one go." She paused and took another warm shot of liquor. "This time was different. "
Thorin leaned his body forward more, eyebrows raised slightly. "Different how?"
"They'd been looking for me." She stared blankly into the dying embers of the fire.
Suddenly and without warning she leapt to her feet and started filling an old leather duffle bag that had been shoved under a bush with items that were around the camp.
The women's erratic behaviour startled Thorin, who also sprang to his feet, impatiently stomping around the fire towards her. "What the hell are you doing now?"
"What does it look like; I'm going to go find them of course." She shot him a jeering look and continued packing.
"Find them… you mean the Orcs tracking you?" Thorin was astounded at this women , madness; audacity ? She's insane or has some serious balls. Probably a bit of both .
She slung the now full duffle bag on her shoulder and started padding fabric on the inside of her jerkin against her shoulder wound. Turning on her heel she glared challengingly up at him, dead in the eye.
"Okay, I'm going to make this really easy for you to understand." Her tone purposefully slowed, demeaning, her hands gestured exasperatedly with every word she said. And with every word she uttered, Thorin clenched his fists tighter and ground his teeth harder.
"I'm going to kill whatever wants kill me first. Clear?" She shot him a patronising smile which soon faded into a self satisfied smirk in the heat of Thorin anger.
"Do you know who you are talking to women?" a growl that was barely understandable but to Thorin's surprise, the women responded in kind.
"I neither know nor care. Now out of my way lest I have to kill you." Her voice as cold as her eyes, dead and emotionless, any other man would have fled but Thorin wasn't any other man.
"You would really threaten a King? Try and kill me and I shall give you a quick death." His chest rose and fell in anger so close to her that his powerful exhale blew strands of wispy hair away from her face. Next to the close heat of the fire his face was half hidden in flickering shadow but fire danced in his pale irises dangerously. Where Fury openly showed on his face, hers was cold and impassive.
"I have neither King nor kin, kill me if you wish. But I will fight you till my last breathe leaves my body." She retorted coldly through clenched teeth, a muscle in her jaw ticked and Thorin saw she rested her hand on her hilt of a knife which rested on her hip.
Not many people could return what Kili and Fili had so fondly named "The Death Stare", but this woman could. Like an ancient tree in a gale, she straightened her spine and stared right back, challenging him to make a move . Stubborn and unyielding, Thorin gave the woman credit. She had courage.
Pale green against lurid blue, their eyes clashed in a silent battle of wills. She was suddenly overcome with unease. She had a sudden realisation just how big this dwarf was compared to her. Maybe twice as broad and a head taller. He was a powerfully built man. It took her a moment but she realised that for the first time in years she was scared.
She controlled all the emotions she felt; only allowing the ones which she needed to survive to slip through the gaps. Hunger was necessary. Anger was needed for bloodlust, but fear? She hadn't felt fear since the raid and Lake Town and the gods and the chanting and the fire and the screaming and out of the smoke of memory of Smike appeared.
Years of control kept her face impassive but Thorin watched her eyes. A flash of fear leapt across her face but as quick as it had flared, it disappeared.
But Thorin hadn't missed it. He had noticed the brief fear of someone much younger than the fierce woman in front of him. A fear of a memory. He didn't know why, but his anger subsided and he took a step back. He let the pressure of rage slide from his features, taking a step back, he let his pulse begin to slow.
"You have fire little one. What is your name?" Thorin said mildly, looking down at his hands, calloused and muddy from travelling and then wiped them on his doublet.
She twisted her head as if getting an ache out her neck and glanced at her boots.
"Bow." She said almost too quiet for him to here. Thorin smiled, firelight glimmered in his bright eyes.
When this man smiles, he looks almost handsome-Bow thought dryly.
"Well then Bow," Thorin shoved his hand out, indicating that they should depart as friends with a handshake. Bow stepped forward, her small weathered hand against Thorin large calloused one.
"I'm sorry we came to blows," Thorin said calmly taking Bows hand he pressed his lips against her knuckles in a surprisingly gentle manner. The softness of lips and the yielding coarseness of a beard brushed against her skin just enough to make her face rush with heat.
"And I'm also sorry about doing this." Before she could utter a cry, Thorin had slammed the other hand into the back of her neck. Bow's body crumpled instantly against his. She was smaller and relatively light, so it was easy for him to sweep her unconscious body into his arms and position her in the saddle in front of him.
Holding her body against his chest, he spurred the horse on. The pace quick but careful. It was just enough for the breeze to blow wisps of Bows brunette hair against his flesh.
The night was now dark and the heat of the day had disappeared. Thorin Oakenshield continued the short distance to Bag End and to The Company.
Ok my little chickens, from here on out be prepared for blood, guts and emotional turmoil!