The year was 2941. It was mid springtime and the Blue Mountains were alive with colour.
Emerald trees towered high above seas of sunny yellows, vibrant pinks and deep blues. There were wispy clouds high in the sky, floating about like ships in an endless sea of pale blue. It was a warm day, but not so hot that it was uncomfortable. A light breeze blew around the town, giving the inhabitants a cool release from the heat. In fact, one could say it was a perfect day.
The town was mainly full of men, perhaps the least special species that inhabited Middle-Earth, yet here in towns like this they thrived. They went about their daily business without complaint, building houses and other structures and trading items in small markets. At first glance the Blue Mountains would seem like any other town of men. But at a closer look you would notice the smaller people that also wandered around the town for the town was also inhabited by a group of dwarves.
These particular dwarves were known as Durin's dwarves and they had once been incredibly powerful. They owned the great kingdom of Erebor where the great king Thrór had ruled over his people, digging up thousands of precious gems. Even the elves of Mirkwood had respect for the dwarves that lived in this magnificent city. But that had long since changed.
A great dragon from the north had flew down like a hurricane and attacked the town, forcing all the dwarves living there to flee for their lives. The dragon was known as Smaug and he had guarded his treasure since that time for dragons are incredibly greedy creatures.
The Durin's dwarves, now homeless, had travelled for weeks until they encountered Azog the defiler and his army of orcs. A vicious battle had ensued, resulting in the death of Thrain and leaving his son, Thorin Oakenshield, as the leader of the people. Thorin bravely fought against Azog using nothing but an oak branch as a shield and eventually the pale Orc was defeated. Thorin had then led his people to the Blue Mountains where they had taken shelter amongst the men, desperate and poor.
It was a story that Eliza Ironhand pestered her grandfather to tell her every time she visited even though she was now 75 years old and on the verge of being considered an adult. Eliza's grandfather was Nár Ironhand, a particularly brave dwarf who had fought alongside Thorin Oakenshield in the battle with the pale Orc. He had been there by the King's side as Thrain's severed head had been raised high into the air by Azog the defiler. He had seen the look in Thorin's eyes as he'd charged towards the Orc. He'd experienced all of that and now was considered to be a friend of the King.
Nár had changed a lot since then though. During the battle he'd been badly injured, losing both his left hand and left leg. He now had a hand made of metal and a thick oak branch as a leg. For the rest of his life he was forced to limp around with a walking stick, something he was highly ashamed of.
But he was also different from the other dwarves in another way. After the battle he went away on his own for a while and found himself in a place called The Shire. This was home to small creatures with curly hair known as hobbits. He'd found a small inn to stay in for a while and that was where he met Isabella Took. She was a relatively young hobbit with an unnatural taste for adventure. She had fallen in love with the crippled dwarf, much to her family's distaste, and ran off to the Blue Mountains with him.
Isabella Took was aware that many people in this town disliked her, even thought she had no place among them but when Nár had spoken to Thorin, he insisted that she must stay. Since then no-one said anything to the hobbit for fear of angering the king but she still could not ignore the judgemental looks she got every day in the streets.
Eliza was incredibly proud of both of her grandparents so tried to visit as often as she could although this wasn't always possible because the journey from her home to the Blue Mountains was a long and potentially dangerous one that her parents would still not let her take alone. Or rather, her mother would not let her take alone. Skye Ironhand was a rather paranoid woman who preferred to have her children by her side at all times.
Now if you thought that her husband, Telchar, had strange parentage it was nothing compared to her own. Her father was the wizard Radagast the brown, perhaps the strangest of the 5 wizards for he preferred the company of animals to humans, and her mother was Lady Galadriel the elf. Lady Galadriel did not tend to make any contact eight the family as she did not approve of her falling in love with a man who was part dwarf. Not that Skye was bothered about that, she had always preferred her father and after the couple had split, Skye willingly took her fathers side and chose to live with him in his cottage in the woods.
Perhaps now you are beginning to see the unusualness of young Eliza Ironhand. With roots to four of the major species in Middle-Earth she was very much one of a kind. Well not quite for she had a younger brother by the name of Sterling. However, unlike Eliza who showed characteristics from all her grandparents, Sterling mainly took after his father, in particular the hobbit side. He rather disliked the idea of adventures and always complained when his older sister dragged him out on adventures into the forests around Rivendell.
The family had chosen to live in Rivendell as, although they strongly disliked the elves of Mirkwood, they had no problem with the elves of Rivendell who were only too happy to accept them into the city. They did not wish to live in the Blue Mountains as they hated the looks of resentment they recieved from the men there as well as some of the dwarves. Skye and Telchar had also insisted on giving their children the best education possible and Rivendell seemed to offer this. Lord Elrond himself had even agreed to mentor Eliza in all areas of her education, including archery, fighting and magic for Eliza had inherited some of her grandfather's magic abilities.
However, Eliza had also inherited her dwarf grandfathers stubborn nature which meant that whatever the elves told her to do, she did the complete opposite of. This had led to her becoming very good friends with Elrond's troublesome twin sons, Elladan and Elrohir, but also surprisingly their sensible sister Arwen. Eliza and Arwen were practically inseparable and whenever Eliza got in trouble you could guarantee that Arwen would be there to get her out of it.
Despite her love of the elves of Rivendell, Eliza still preferred the Blue Mountains despite all the strange looks she got there. She didn't have any friends in the town as their trips were usually short and far apart so she never had chance to make friends. Instead she dragged her brother into the caves in the side of the mountain and into the fields where they'd often be chased off by angry farmers. But that was what Eliza enjoyed. Rivendell was fun but it was the same thing over and over again. Sterling might be happy with the same routine day in day out but all Eliza wanted was a little adventure.
Who knew that she'd end up getting exactly what she wanted?
The day began like any other, Eliza woke up and rolled out of bed, getting dressed quickly so that she could go out exploring the town or rather the caves in the mountains. She used to visit much higher up the mountain but after a nasty incident with some Wargs when she was younger she never went anywhere higher than the fourth cave. If she had a second encounter with the vicious creatures she didn't think she'd be so lucky again.
When she reached the bottom of the stairs she found her grandfather sat at the table smoking a long pipe, blowing wide smoke rings into the air. The old dwarf looked up at his granddaughter and gave her a crinkled smile.
"Mornin', Princess." He greeted her as usual
"How many times Grandpa, you can't call me princess unless I marry a prince!" Eliza teased him as she searched for her cloak.
"Which I'm sure ye will, princess. Any prince would be stupid to not want to marry you" He said with a wink.
"I'm only marrying a prince if I fall in love with him, Grandpa. It shouldn't matter who he is as long as I love him. Take you and Grandma for example. Besides, perhaps I won't marry at all." She insisted, eventually finding the dark cloak on top of a pile of old maps of Erebor.
"Don't ye let yer mother hear that! Ye know 'ow desperate she is fer some grandkids." Nár said, laughing
"Don't remind me." She muttered, imagining how her mother would react to her saying that she was never going to marry. She found her boots by the door and began to tug them on.
"Where d'ya think yer going?" The old dwarf asked as she went to open the door. She looked back at him questioningly, he never usually had a problem with her leaving the house to go exploring. In fact, most of the time he'd encourage her inquisitive behaviour.
"Just going out." She answered him. Nár shook his head and coughed, sending spirals of smoke out of his mouth.
"Sorry, princess. Thought ye knew but I s'pose not. Every dwarf or person with dwarf blood has to go to the centre o' town in about 10 minutes." He told her, looking up at the clock to check the time.
"Who says so?" Eliza snapped, her stubborn dwarf nature kicking in.
"King Thorin says so. Ye'd be a fool to not listen to 'im." He replied without looking at her, instead choosing to focus on the perfect rings of smoke that floated up to the ceiling.
"Fine, I suppose I ought to go get Sterling up." Eliza muttered, kicking off her boots and climbing up the stairs.
"Aye." Her grandfather said to her retreating figure.
Nár and Isabella's house was relatively large for people as small as them and there were plenty of rooms as although dwarves were not particularly fond of visitors, hobbits loved having people to stay. Eliza had her own room, as did her brother and her parents stayed in the guest room. Her grandparents slept downstairs because Nár now struggled to climb even the smallest number of stairs.
Eliza walked straight into her younger brothers room, not bothering to knock. She sat down on the edge of his bed and gently shook him.
"Come on Ster, we've got to get up."
"No, Elle. I don' want no adventures today." He groaned, covering his head with the pillow.
"We're not going on an adventure. We've been told that we've got to go into town."
"Since when d'you do what you're told?" Sterling asked, his bright blue eyes peeking out from under the pillow.
"Since it was the Kings order." That comment was enough for him to remove his head from under the sheltered the pillow. Eliza considered that an extraordinary feat in itself.
"S'pose I should get up then." He grimaced as he began to clamber out of bed. Eliza grinned in success and jogged downstairs to where her grandfather was putting away his pipe and trying to climb up from the table. He grimaced in pain as he leaned on the table for support. The stick he held in his hand suddenly slipped from his grasp and he went tumbling towards the ground. Within seconds Eliza was by his side, holding him up and returning his walking stick to him.
"You need to start asking for help, Grandpa." Eliza scolded him as he regained his footing.
"I'm not completely useless." He grumbled at her, his dwarvish pride kicking in as he limped away from his granddaughter.
"I'm not saying that. I'm just saying that by trying to do that by yourself you'll just cause yourself more damage." Eliza told him but the old dwarf just muttered something unintelligible under his breath. At that moment, Sterling stumbled into the room, tripping over the last few stairs and having to steady himself by clinging onto the wall.
"Clumsy." Eliza said to him with a grin which Sterling returned.
"Come on ye two. Yer fathers waiting fer us in town. If we don' leave now we'll be late and you'll be explaining to the great Thorin Oakenshield why ye don't have the decency to be on time!" Nár snapped at his grandchildren and they quickly fell to his side like obidient puppies. Together the trio made their way into the town centre where a small stage had been set up. Stood atop the structure was none other than Thorin Oakenshield.
Even though Eliza and Sterling had visited the Blue Mountains before, they had never actually seen the King. All they'd ever heard about him had come from their grandfather's stories of Erebor and of great battles. Eliza had looked up to this man who had been the main character in her bedtime stories and seeing him in the flesh seemed to confirm what the stories had told her. She knew the man had to be almost as old as her grandfather but instead of being hunched over or having to use a walking stick to move he held himself up, back straight and had the presence of being someone incredibly important which, of course, he was.
"He's exactly what I imagined." Sterling whispered beside her. Although her younger brother did not share her love for adventure, he had still enjoyed hearing tales of the great Thorin Oakenshield and he too looked up to him.
Thorin looked straight at the newcomers and inclined his head slightly at the elderly dwarf. Nár immediately straightened up and nodded back at the King with a small smile playing on his lips. After this short exchange the group of three made their way over to where their father was waiting for them.
"Now that we are all here I have an announcement to make. An announcement that affects every person with dwarven blood." Thorin spoke and his words had such power that all the surrounding dwarves, and even a few inquisitive men, fell silent and listened.
"Many years ago, Durin's dwarves were powerful, respected people who lived in the great Kingdom of Erebor. We had plenty of treasure and we positively thrived. But, as you all know, that changed when the terrible dragon, Smaug, attacked. He stole all that was rightfully ours and to this very day he guards it. He sleeps in our halls that we worked so hard to build. Well no more. We are going to claim back what is rightfully ours!"
Around the stage people were suddenly realising exactly what their King meant. The effect was instant and people began shaking their heads, turning to mutter to their neighbours.
"Trying to reclaim Erebor is suicide, Thorin." A dwarf with a long black beard shouted up at Thorin "Even you are not capable of reclaiming Erebor."
"Perhaps not, but I can try!" Thorin bellowed back, reducing the dwarves to silent beings yet again. A dwarf with a pure white beard and bushy white hair stepped forwards and climbed onto the stage. All eyes were on him.
"I will follow you." The old dwarf said and Thorin smiled and rested his hand on the dwarves shoulder.
"As will I!" Cried a voice from near the front and a relatively young dwarf with a blonde beard in braids walked onto the stage.
"And so will I!" Said another voice and a beardless dwarf literally ran onto the stage to stand beside the one with braids. Thorin smiled again and said something quietly to the pair which made them positively beam. Slowly, more and more dwarves mounted the stage, mainly in groups of two or three. 12 dwarves now stood on the stage beside Thorin Oakenshield and each held a contract in their hands.
Eliza turned to talk to her grandfather but realised that he was not there. She looked around in a panic and finally spotted him a few paces away from the stairs. A few dwarves around him had stopped talking and looked at him in shock. The elderly dwarf paid no notice to them and instead focused on reaching the steps.
"Grandpa, no!" Eliza shouted as she fought her way through the crowd to reach him. Before he took his first step onto the small staircase, she had flung herself in front of him, blocking his path.
"Get out o' the way, Eliza." He muttered to her.
"No. I'm not letting you do this." She told him. They'd attracted a lot of attention now, even Thorin Oakenshieldhad turned to face them, an inquisitive look on his face.
"Eliza, please." Nár said weakly.
"I can't let you go, Grandpa. You'll get killed." Eliza told the old man.
"Princess, you know what this means to me." He said softly, looking up at her. It was true, Eliza knew exactly what this meant to him. Erebor had been his home, the purpose of this quest was not to get treasure or to become rich. It was simply to regain pride and to get their home back. Her grandfather had always complained about the dirty looks that the men in the town gave him and he always expressed his wishes for a place that he could truly call home again. But despite all this, she couldn't let him get killed.
"I know you want your home back, but you know that if you go on this adventure you won't come back." Eliza told him. After a moments pause he spoke again.
"I guess you're right." He said. The pain in his voice broke Eliza's heart and as he turned away from the stage Eliza made a decision. One that would change her life forever.
"Grandpa can't go." She repeated to herself as she walked away, following her grandfathers steps "He can't go... But you can." Eliza whipped around and quickly walked onto the stage, taking the steps two at a time. She stood in front of Thorin Oakenshield and looked up at him, the man who'd been her hero for years, and she spoke.
"I wish to join your adventure."
The impact that these few words had on the dwarves was incredible. Those in the crowd began to talk amongst themselves, some looked shocked, others found the whole matter completely hilarious but the one face that stood out was her grandfathers look of absolute pride.
"And who are you?" Thorin asked. Eliza tried to tell how he had reacted to her announcement but she couldn't detect any emotion in his tone.
"My name is Eliza Ironhand. Granddaughter of the dwarf, Nár Ironhand, the hobbit, Isabella Took, the wizard, Radagast the brown and Lady Galadriel," Eliza paused and took in a deep breath, knowing that her next words would cause an uproar "the elf."
As expected several of the dwarves signing contracts looked at each other in a mixture of disgust and shock. The crowd began to mutter amongst themselves, shooting Eliza dirty looks. Thorin raised a hand for silence.
"An elf?" He said simply after the crowd had quietened down.
"Yes but we don't have any contact with them. She doesn't approve of my mother marrying a part-dwarf." Eliza explained, surprised at how steady her voice sounded.
"I don't see why we should take an elf along on this journey, and a female at that." Thorin said to her, arms crossed. Eliza clenched her fists and could almost hear her grandfathers voice in her head telling her that it would most definitely not be a good idea to snap at the King. Naturally, she chose to ignore the voice.
"And what has me being a woman got to do with anything?" Eliza snapped and she could've sworn she heard her grandfather groan. Thorin raised an eyebrow but said nothing. Eliza saw the beardless dwarf turned to talk to the one with blonde braids.
"Maybe it's because being a woman means you're nothing more than a pretty face." He whispered but not quietly enough and Eliza heard every word he said. In an instant she had unsheathed her dagger and had chucked it at the young dwarf. It hit the back leg of the chair and cracked it slightly. The beardless dwarf laughed.
"You missed!" He shouted through his laughter.
"No I didn't." She replied with a smirk. The dwarf stopped smiling and his chair broke, sending him toppling off of the stage with a small scream. The rest of the dwarves were absolutely howling with laughter and when the dwarf re-emerged from behind the stage with leaves stuck in his hair they just laughed harder. But no-one laughed more than the blonde dwarf whom he'd been talking to. Eventually even the victim of her attack let out a small smile.
"Alright then, I suppose there's room for another person on our adventure." Thorin said to Eliza and she positively beamed back at him. She'd proved herself to be worthy of being in the company of Thorin Oakenshield and that was perhaps her proudest moment. The beardless dwarf stepped forwards and held out a hand for her to shake.
"Nice trick back there, I suppose I did deserve it." He said with a grin.
"Yes you certainly did." Eliza smiled back and the dwarf let out a laugh.
"I'm Kili. It's a pleasure to meet you." The blonde haired dwarf stepped next to Kili and bowed to her.
"And I'm Fili, this idiots older brother." He said with a grin and he passed her the contract that she had to sign to officially be a member of Thorin's company. She quickly signed it, not taking much time to read the terms and conditions. She passed it back to Fili who walked off to give it Thorin. One by one, the rest of the dwarves in Thorin's company came up and introduced themselves. There was Fili, Kili and Thorin, Ori, Nori, Dori, Oin, Gloin, Bifur, Bofur, Bombur, Dwalin and Balin. It turned out that Balin was also a friend of her grandfathers and was extremely pleased that someone from the family was joining the company.
"You are now all free to leave. Members of the company, we leave at first light tomorrow morning" Thorin told the dwarves and they immediately scattered out in all directions to continue their daily business. Eliza climbed off of the stage and headed straight towards her family. Her grandfather beamed at her in pride and even her father gave her a small smile. Sterling, however, looked to be on the verge of tears. He ran towards her and enveloped her in a massive hug.
"I- don'- want- you-to-leave!" He sniffed, looking up at her, blue eyes brimming with tears.
"Hey don't cry, little star." Eliza whispered, using his old childhood nickname. "I'll be fine." She kissed the top of his head and he pulled away, still sniffing. Eliza turned to face her grandfather. He smiled and pulled her into a hug.
"I am so proud of yer, princess." He whispered and Eliza grinned. Her grandfather was proud of her and that was all that mattered right now. Nár held her out at arms length and gave her what would've been a stern look had he not been grinning from ear to ear.
"Tha' trick with the dagger was a stupid move, Elisa." He said seriously.
"I know, Grandpa, he was just being rude and I lost my temper." She apologised, suddenly realising how much trouble she could've got in.
"Well yer lucky it ended so well for yer. But of all the dwarves yer had to pick 'im didn't yer?!" The old dwarf said laughing.
"Who is he then?" Eliza asked.
"Why, he's Thorin's own nephew! He and his brother Fili are the heirs of Erebor! Princes of sorts." He explained. Eliza was in shock. The pair had seemed completely normal to her, not like royalty at all. And as for Kili being Thorin's nephew, well, she supposed she was lucky that Thorin had seen the humour in the situation or who knows what would've happened to her.
She then turned around to face her father who was trying to hide a smile. Part of him was concerned about his daughter going on a dangerous quest but part of him was proud that she had stood up for herself and was going to reclaim the wondrous city of Erebor that he'd heard so much about since he was a small child. He looked down at his only daughter and sighed.
"Your mother's going to be furious." Was all he said.