Author's Note: Hellooow :) So this is sort of a sequel to my one-shot called The Beauty and the Bulldozer, ft our sexy Elvenking. And since my sister, who I actually wrote that one-shot for, loved it so much, I decided to make a whole damn story out of it! So lean back and enjoy the awkwardness within it. Believe me. There's a lot of it.

A Quite Expected Journey

With bowed head she walked down the street and, although she knew how weird it must have looked, gazed into space. In her head Sandra went through all those things she wanted to take with her on her journey and if she actually had them in her backpack now. Usually, when she went somewhere, she just packed everything that came to her mind shortly before, whereby she tended to forget something, but this must not happen now, by no means. No, this was different. This was important and big and simply... the journey.

The Battle of the Five Armies had happened two weeks ago now, which meant it had been two weeks since she could show her mettle. Oh, every time she looked back upon it, she felt so happy instantly. How she unexpectedly struck down one orc after another, how she fought alongside this beautiful Elvenking with his divine hair, which she would have loved to cut off a strand from and tie around her wrist, so that she could inhale its holy scent again and again and again...

No! She must not get distracted! She had to concentrate. Once she'd left, she'd reached the point of no return.

After the battle she had felt odd. Something had changed. And during the interment of Thorin Oakenshield in Erebor, at which everyone in Dale had paid their last respect to him with eyes filled with awe, she had finally made a decision.

She couldn't be an ordinary woman anymore. She had to fight against evil, do heroic deeds, protect the weak and all that stuff. And she surely wouldn't reach that goal here.

"Noon."

The all too amused, at the same time a bit annoyed sounding voice finally let her look up. Amidst the market square, towards which she had been walking, stood a young woman with shoulder-length brown hair and grinned at Sandra, shaking her head.

Yes, Sandra had to start on this journey, but if anyone thought she would do that on her own, this one would be wide of the mark. Trekking through Middle-earth all alone? How boring and scary would that be! Besides, nothing, not even the urge to achieve great things, could separate her from her best friend Natalie. Since her 3rd year of life - after a short enmity, mark you, that stemmed from Natalie destroying Sandra's toy in an act of childish cruelty, which, however, only the latter could remember and brought the topic up from time to time much to the chagrin of the other - they were stuck to each other like bees to honey, although none of them liked honey. They did pretty much everything together, particularly since, despite obvious external differences, they were almost the same person on the inside, with same interests, same preferences, same everything. To keep Sandra away from Natalie one would have to knock her down. Just like it had happened to Natalie during the battle.

She had wanted to give proof of her abilities right at the beginning as well, had swiftly left Sandra's side and joined Bard and his men, though, before she could get even close to orcs, the elbow of a bowman had sent her to dreamland and so she had lain there for the entire battle. At least that was what she'd told the others. She'd only be honest with Sandra and confessed to her that shortly after the knock-out she had become conscious again, head spinning, and had crawled to the next corner with shame, where she had taken advantage of her slight build and, letting loose quiet sounds of distress, hidden in a big basket until everything had been over.

Now the bump on Natalie's head wasn't visible anymore and her will to fight was as vast as before, which one could recognise from her open, motivation exuding posture, which she adopted many times. Her cheerful aura mixed with her reproving look that she didn't let disappear even after hugging Sandra tightly.

"We said noon." Natalie pointed up to the sun. "Doesn't seem like noon anymore, right?"

"Yes, sorry, I had to pack.", Sandra defended herself.

"Me too! And still I would've been on time, but fortunately I know you good enough to come here one hour after noon, otherwise I would have had to wait for you half an eternity."

"Oh, stop hovering."

There all anger vanished from Natalie's expression and voice and the excitement, caused by what they were up to do, got in the lead. "So, do you have everything for leaving now?"

"I think so... But better you tell me what you packed first."

"Didn't you compile a list?"

Sandra shook her head, whereupon Natalie sighed with a smirk on her small mouth. She swung her huge backpack around, squeezing it against her chest, so that she could open it awkwardly. Sandra would offer to hold something, if she didn't know that her friend would decline that like always, so she just watched her bite her lip, working through the innards of her luggage, before taking out a piece of paper.

"So... There we have a lot of provisions, mainly meat, because... of reasons..., warrior food, you know, ink, feather and notebook for me, then a few blankets..."

"Blankets! Totally forgot about them!"

"It's alright, I've got enough for both of us, but you'll carry your own. Then a few herbs, my weapon here..." She gently patted the hilt of the curved sword at her hip without looking up from her list.

Though, before she could continue, Sandra interrupted her: "Wait, this is your weapon?!"

Natalie gave her a look of confusion. "Yes, why?"

Sandra almost raised her brows to the sky. "This is an elven blade! Where did you get it from?!"

"Lay about the ground."

"Then it belonged to an elf. A dead elf, probably."

"Yeah, and?"

"You stole it from him, you monster!"

"If he's dead he won't want it back anyway!"

"Disrespectful."

Natalie narrowed her eyes to slits and lifted her hand to her side, implying a slap. "You, you, you shut up, or I'll make you!" Both laughed shortly, before Natalie added in calmer tone: "You're happy with your cute axe anyway, aren't you? How did you call it again? The smasher?"

"Hey hey, 'cute axe' is an insult for the dasher! Remember the name, it will go down in history!"

"Sure... Does my sword need a name as well? I mean, elves always give their weapons names, don't they? But where should I know from what this here is called? I don't dare to give it a name, if it may has one already. Perhaps, it will get furious then... and kills us while we're asleep..."

"... There's clearly something wrong with your imagination."

Natalie giggled, but then looked up in the air with widened eyes. Sandra knew this was her 'What was I going to say'-face, which was why she didn't make a sound until her counterpart seemed to relax again. "Ah yes, so, what did you decide for? Where do you want to go exactly?"

"Well, I thought that was settled, since you had this... idea."

Natalie grinned at Sandra. "That means we'll visit your crush in Mirkwood and ask him if he wants us as his warriors?" Her friend looked away, trying hide a smirk, which didn't work in the slightest, making Natalie squeak. "Oh, I can't wait to see him! Is he really as pretty as you described him?"

Sandra closed her eyes, almost pressed the words out of her lungs. "Even prettier."

The shorter one laughed. "Well then, I'm looking forward to it. How do we get to Mirkwood?"

All of a sudden the assurance in Sandra's expression faded. "I thought you knew how to get there?"

"Where should I know that from?"

"Dunno. You read. You write. You're clever. You have to know!"

"Well, I don't. And judging from your confusion, you also have no clue how to get there."

Sandra fell silent, which was enough confirmation.

Natalie let out a deep sigh, talking in a very whiny voice that would annoy anyone except her friend. "I don't want to ask anybody here for a damn map. They'll get curious and people want to join us and I don't like people..."

Silence spread over the two, while they were brooding on finding a solution for their problem, whereat all those noises of the market were of little help.

There Natalie's expression lit up again. "We could ask the dwarves!"

Sandra frowned. "You want us to ask the dwarves in Erebor how to get to the Elvenking? Isn't that a bit unproper? Like, they're not the best buddies..."

"No, we'll ask them for a map. Of all Middle-earth. Maybe they're up for negotiations, if we talk to them nicely."

"Oh, yes, sounds good. But you do the talking."

"Sandra..." When she grabbed the arm of her friend, Natalie's voice suddenly sounded constrained, as if she had to suppress an outburst of happiness with all her might. "You do realise that we're about to go on a huge adventure, the greatest adventure we will experience in our lives?"

Sandra beamed with joy. "Yeeeeah, I'm so happy!"

The smile on Natalie's lips grew even bigger, which looked a bit scary. "WE'RE GOING ON AN ADVENTURE!", she shouted and suddenly everyone at the market square turned to them.

Sandra wanted to tell Natalie to stop yelling like crazy, but wasn't able to bring forth a word due to all that laughter she burst in. Her brown-haired friend, however, didn't seem embarressed at all, turned to the inhabitants of Dale, her chest swelled with pride and her hand on the sword's hilt, declaring loudly: "Yes, you heard right, Sandra and I will leave you. Whilst you pursue your boring lives, we will fight evil, make friends with elves and dwarves and other creatures. We will see things you didn't even dare to dream of and if we ever come back, we will have become living legends already and you, that you stand here, have the privilege of being present at the beginning of our glorious story. So, farewell, people of Dale!"

In an exhuberant gesture she closed her eyes, threw her head back and spread her arms out, whereby she smacked the back of her hand against Sandra's chin, which made her stumble and trip over a box. Shocked, she turned to her friend and helped her up, at which both exploded with laughter in the attempt to bridge the embarrassment, but they failed miserably. The people at the market kept staring at them with unimpressed faces, while they hastened over to the next alley and disappeared around the corner.

"Why's leaving never as awesome as I imagine?!", Natalie whispered in a desperate tone, letting her cold hands wander all over her red face.

"I wanted to sneak away, but, of course, you had to deliver a whole speech!"

"I just want them to know how great we are! But I guess I can say good-bye to that after such a performance..."

"Oh, Lady Obvious!"

"Oh, come on! You fell!"

"Because of you!"

"It's not my fault your balance is crap!"

Shifting the blame for their failure on each other, they went away and left Dale and their entire previous life behind.