HELLO ALL! And a warm welcome to the third book of "The day I met the Oakenshields" and "The day I left the Oakenshields" If you haven't read those yet, I suggest you do so. You can find it on my profile page. ^-^
This is uncharted territory. You have been warned. As such, updates will be much less frequent. Sorry about that. I'll try to update once a week, but you know... life happens. I'll try my best though!
Disclaimer: While there will most likely be no lines from the movies, the concepts for the dwarves, the world, and Erebor, are not mine. I've mostly just stuck my own OC's in. This ENTIRE STORY does not belong to me! I have no rights! ... so, yeah.
Please Enjoy!
You would believe the clamor that arose when Fili and I stumbled, cold and dripping through the front gate of Erebor. Though I was numb and shivering, being once again in a plain sleeveless black cotton dress, I couldn't help but stare wide eyed at the progress made in Erebor. Already, the mountain seemed much more alive with lights and the dim clamor of voices filling the large spaces beneath the stone.
And then, the company was around us. Their grinning, teary eyed, laughing faces.
"Where is she? Let me through you oafs." The dwarves parted as Ori came in, giving a piggyback ride to Tille. As the she dwarf's eyes fell on me, her whole face lit up. "Oh you little rascal!" She grinned widely, throwing her arms around me from Ori's back. I hugged her back tightly, already glimpsing the bandages wrapped around her legs underneath her trousers. I didn't need to be a rocket scientist to put two and two together.
"Sorry to trouble you all." I apologized, smiling meekly. Bofur handed me Kalda back and I took her gratefully. The tiny little girl hugged me tightly, ignoring how cold and wet I was. She even started crying, first tiny quiet sobs that turned into full on wails. Everyone laughed as I tried desperately to comfort her. It was attracting a bit of a scene as well. Some of the dwarves from the Iron Hills had come to see what was going on. Once they figured out what all the ruckus was about, there was a general clamor about a celebration at my return and many hurried off to fetch the ale. That was when I noticed it. Thorin and Adriana were not present. And no one made any mention of getting them.
Then I remembered. Thorin died at the end of the book. Somehow, Fili and Kili had survived, but Thorin…
"Where's Adriana?" I asked Fili quietly, so the others would not hear. His face grew grim.
"Sleeping." He said briefly. I nodded, seeing that he was not willing to elaborate. Bombur came a few moments later with dry blankets and two mugs of ale. I accepted the blanket, but refused the ale. Considering, I was still technically underage, not that it really mattered now, but I felt a strange dedication to the law.
"It'll warm you up." Bombur insisted. I rolled my eyes, took a sip, spat it back into the mug, and asked for tea instead. Fili, Kili, and Tille all found this unceasingly amusing.
And the celebration escalated from a few drinks to a full on feast. As is the way with dwarves. We all moved to a large dining hall with many long tables and an open area for dancing, though there was a decent bit of dancing on the tables as well. I wisely decided to put Kalda to bed before returning to the merry making.
The music was fast paced and lively, the musicians jumping in and out as they felt like it. At one point, the majority of the company went up and played a familiar tune, which I remembered to be the one they sang in Bag End while cleaning the dishes and generally scaring a pour little hobbit. Too bad Bilbo had gone back home already. He would have loved to hear it, I'm sure. It was beautiful music. Tille and Bofur both played flutes masterfully. Dori, Nori, and Ori also played flutes, but they resorted to clapping instead, since five flutes is far too many, even when they are all played beautifully. Bombur played a drum, which I thought very fitting. Bifur played a clarinet. Dwalin and Balin sat side-by-side, playing large violas as big as they were. And to my amusement, Fili and Kili appeared with fiddles and began strumming out a fast paced tempo.
After this group played a good few number of songs, other musicians started filtering in and out again. Though Dwalin and Balin stayed for a long time. It was all rather overwhelming as I stuffed my face, realizing I had not eaten in four days. And then after finding a quiet seat in the corner, I watched the celebration from afar, laughing at the rowdy dwarves and the food flying through the air. Then I noticed the music pause slightly and begin again, slower and building. A body came to stand in front of me. I looked up into Fili's grinning face.
"May I have this dance?" he asked, offering a hand. I smiled up at him.
"You may, good sir." I placed my hand in his and together we walked onto the dance floor. That's when I began to get self-conscious. We were the only couple dancing. The other dwarves were just carrying on and having fun. Then Fili spun me around in a full circle and stopped me again facing him.
"You almost tripped." He smirked. I raised an eyebrow.
"Yeah, but I didn-" my words ended in a little squeal as he spun me again in the opposite direction. I was laughing terribly when he caught me again.
"You really have no idea how to dance, do you?" Fili laughed. I shook my head.
"I've only danced once before in my life, and that was with my best friend's dog." I admitted, grinning from ear to ear. Fili twirled the both of us around 180 degrees and whispered into my ear.
"Then it's lucky for you that I am very good and pretending to dance." I snorted slightly in response.
"How do you pretend to dance?" I asked, mockingly.
"Like this." He then proceeded to scoop me up, twirl me around once or twice, and set me down again. I shouted in surprise, laughing the entire time.
"That is not a way to dance." I gasped when my feet were on the ground again.
"But was it fun?" Fili raised an eyebrow.
"Maybe." I admitted slowly. "But I'm not sure my heart can take much more of that." Fili laughed.
"Alright then, what do you suggest?" He gave me a pointed look.
"Ummmm…" I looked around and saw a line of dwarves doing some sort of foot stepping dance thingamabob. And it reminded me of swing dancing. I'd never gone swing dancing before in my life, but my friend had tried to teach me one time. It didn't really work out too well, but I got the basics down. "Okay, so the basic foot steps are like this…" and slowly, through much tripping and laughing, Fili and I figured out swing dancing. Or a version of it anyway. A version that involved a lot of twirls and spontaneous new dance moves that I'm pretty sure no one knew or would remember in the future. But it was fun. Just good old honest fun.
And I knew, whatever had happened in those two months since the battle, the dwarves of Erebor could overcome it. Because on some level, they already had.
It was remarkable.
A little sappy at the end. But I decided that they needed a break after the last book.
Review if you think the chapter was worth it. Reviews keep me inspired for some reason. I'm strange like that, I know.
