An idea that popped into my head a day after watching The Hobbit :) Forgive me if my information is wrong,I haven't read the book yet and most of this will be relying on my imagination,the movie,other fanfics and a fair bit of research. Maybe AU ish for timeline issues?
Summary : "Gandalf,I have heard of this Witch of the North,how do I know she can be trusted?". When Gandalf hears of Thorin's quest,he calls on an old friend to aid their Company on the treacherous journey to reclaim Erebor and the long forgotten gold... But between Thorin's mistrust,Bilbo's sword training and the constant threat of death,who knew there would be something more precious than gold? Kili/OC.
The Witch of the North
To say that Bilbo Baggins was frustrated and angry would be an understatement - he was almost livid.
Just this morning he had met Gandalf,who had asked him to join an adventure of sorts and a hunt for treasure. Being the Hobbit he is and forgetting his Took blood,he politely declined,but not without inviting the wizard to tea later on.
However,instead of just the wizard,twelve dwarves had invaded his home :Gloin,Oin,Ori,Nori,Dori,Dwalin,Balin (The oldest by far),Bifur,Bofur,Bombur, and the two youngest brothers,Fili and Kili.
"There is no more room for any more dwarves in my pantry!" Bilbo cried out frustrated as the hulking men kept passing him with dishes piled high with food in their hands.
Gandalf,who was lazily watching the whole procession grinned down at the hobbit with a pipe in his mouth,"Not to worry Bilbo,there is only one more dwarf to wait for in our Company"
The hobbit began to wring his hands and began to rant about dwarves invading his house and tramping their mucky boots everywhere,much to the wizard's amusement. Just then,a quiet rap at the front door silenced the rowdy dwarves almost immediately. Bilbo mad his way hesitantly to the door,smoothing his hair and fixing his appearance before reaching for the doorknob. He felt quite self conscious as thirteen pairs of eyes followed his every move.
The atmosphere changed drastically as a large dwarf with long,thick hair that contained streaks of silver with a dark beard to match stood at the door. The aura he radiated almost commanded respect.
"Bilbo," Gandalf began,"May I introduce Thorin Oakenshield,the leader of our Party and King of his people" he introduced.
Some time later,the dwarves along with Bilbo and Gandalf sat around the dining table with Thorin sitting at the head. Seeing as it was getting dark out,the hobbit made a move to light the hearth.
"What are you doing?" Thorin asked.
Bilbo looked up at him almost startled,"I thought we could use some light,it's getting dark out" he explained.
"We like it dark" Gloin shrugged.
Thorin nodded,"Dark for dark business"
Just as he said that,another soft rap came at the door.
The dwarves looked at each other confusedly,with Bilbo even more confused,"Gandalf,didn't you say there was only one more coming?And that was Thorin?"
The wizard smiled,closing his eyes and blowing out a ring of smoke from his pipe,"I believe I said that there was one more dwarf" he quoted,"Our last visitor is most certainly not a dwarf"
Bilbo's face contorted into a look of disbelief before the he wandered to answer the door,muttering things about senile wizards and messy dwarves.
As the remaining Company watched the hobbit leave,Thorin turned to Gandalf with a stormy look in his eye,"Who else did you ask,Gandalf?I specifically told you that all we needed was a burglar!" the angry king growled.
The wizard payed no heed to Thorin's hostility but answered calmly,"I merely asked an old friend"
After Bilbo left his visitors,once more he straightened out his appearance before once again turning the doorknob. After what Gandalf said about the last visitor not being a dwarf,Bilbo's imagination wandered and had thought everything from an elf to a goblin,however,he didn't expect what he saw.
The stranger on his doorstep was rather short,still taller than himself but only just reaching above the height of the tallest dwarves in the Company. There wasn't much for Bilbo to see other than the two swords criss-crossed over the stranger's back,everything else was covered by a dark grey cloak. The stranger also had their hood up,obscuring their face in the shadow of the hood.
The stranger then bowed a little before introducing them self,"Rina,at your service" they said,straightening up.
Bilbo was surprised,for he was certain that it was the voice of a woman that resounded from within the shadows of the cloak. Nonetheless,he bowed back,"Bilbo Baggins,at yours" he then straightened up,"I assume your here for the same reason as the rest of the company" Bilbo stated more than asked.
The stranger,Rina,nodded and followed him into his home and to where the rest of the Company was.
Thorin and his company perked up in interest as Bilbo returned with a hooded companion trailing behind him. A broad smile crossed over the wizard's face as he recognized the person's swords on their back.
"Master Burglar" Thorin nodded to Bilbo as he stood up,"And who,may I ask,is our hooded visitor?"
A slender,fingerless-gloved hand reached up from underneath the cloak to removed the hood from their face. To the dwarves' and Bilbo's surprise,the bronzed face of a young woman stared back at their wide eyes. The woman's raven hair tumbled out of the hood and cascaded down her back in a smooth waterfall as she merely blinked her silvery-grey eyes at them.
"Rina,at your service,m'lord" Rina said respectfully,bowing her head low to show respect.
Gandalf's voice boomed out as he chuckled,"I'm glad you made it,old friend" he smiled,putting his pipe back in his mouth to smoke again.
"I see you haven't changed since I saw you last,Mithrandir" the woman said,using the Elves' name for the wizard.
Gandalf nodded before addressing Thorin,"Thorin,may I introduce the other person I choose to accompany us on this Quest"
Thorin's face darkened into a look of disbelief. Surely Gandalf the Grey didn't intend to bring along a woman of all things on a Quest like the one they would embark on. Many of his fellow dwarves were thinking the same things,women were meant to cook and clean and keep order of the house,not travel across Middle-Earth to slay a dragon.
Seeing their doubtful expressions,Rina tried to reason with them,"Gandalf requested me to join you on this Quest,that is why I came to the Shire tonight,to ask for your permission"
The dwarves looked to their leader curiously to see what his answer would be. Thorin regarded her carefully,he could see from the blades on her back she knew how to fight,but he was unsure how well or if she was skilled enough to even survive the first week.
"I admire your courage and bravery,Lady Rina,but this is no mere journey. This is not something we can afford to fail and I cannot guarantee your survival " Thorin said grimly,"Go back home. The Wild is no place for someone like you. You are but a child!" he exclaimed.
Gandalf,Bilbo and the other dwarves looked back at the woman,waiting for her reaction and searching for any sign of weakness. They found none except Fili and Kili's sharp eyes noticed that she has balled her left hand into a fist in anger,but her face did not betray her emotions. Instead,a coy smirk pulled at her lips.
"You are mistaken,Master Dwarf. No place for someone like me?The Wild has been my home for decades" she said,but then her expression darkened, "And I am not a child" a mixture of anger and sadness leaked into her now hushed voice,"Not anymore..."
A tense silence followed soon after. Everyone present repeated her words in their heads. What had she gone through to make such emotion pass into her words?
Thorin's brow furrowed in confusion,"You've been in The Wild for decades you say?How is that possible,you don't look any older than my nephews" he mused,gesturing to two young dwarves at the end of the table.
Both were equally handsome,but one was fair-haired and blue-eyed with a nice beard by dwarf standards while the other was raven-haired and dark-eyed with no beard at all,only stubble.
Gandalf took it upon himself to explain,"Rina is one of the Dunedain Rangers of the North. A descendant of Numenor,their lives are three times that of Mortal Men"
Bilbo's eyes widened,they lived just as long -or even longer- than hobbits!
Despite this new-found information,Thorin was not easily swayed,"Tell me,other than your lineage,what skills can you offer this Company and how can we count on you not to be a burden?" 'One burden is enough' he mentally added.
"I know the land" Rina replied,holding her head high,"Every valley and stream,I know that only one or two of you truly know the way to Erebor so what will happen if they're gone? Also as a Ranger,I am quite skilled with blades,though I am not as skilled with bows or spears. I assure you,my lord,I will be no burden" she insisted. She didn't travel all the way from where she was in Gondor to the Shire only to be turned away due to gender.
Gandalf smoked his pipe once more before speaking,"And if I remember correctly,she is quite a skilled tracker. I greatly suggest you allow her to join us,a bent blade of grass is enough a trail for Rina to follow"
Rina shot Gandalf a grateful look before waiting for Thorin's final decision.
Thorin fell deep in thought,his eyes met with each dwarf in his company,silently asking their opinion. By the time he had gone through all of them,only one was against letting the woman join them. After scanning through them one last time he turned back to the woman to give his answer.
When Rina heard it she let out a breath she didn't know she was holding and tool the seat beside Gandalf in relief.
"So be it" he had announced,sitting back down at the head of the table,"Let us hope I didn't make the wrong decision"
"Uncle,you can't be serious!" the youngest dwarf exclaimed.
"Kili!" his brother,Fili,hissed,pulling his brother back down to his seat as their uncle shot them death glares,quickly shutting up his youngest nephew. It was Kili who agreed with Thorin that it was best she didn't join them.
She was quickly handed a contract and quill,like what Bilbo received earlier. Her eyes skimmed down the parchment before she signed her name at the bottom in her cursive calligraphy.
After that was sorted,Gandalf brought out an old map,placing it on the table. He quickly briefed Rina and Bilbo about their Quest before getting back to business.
"There is a secret door way in the side of the mountain,here" Gandalf prodded a finger at a spot in the map,"It is big enough for Men or Dwarf to pass through,but far too small for a large dragon such as Smaug"
The Company nodded and gathered closer,studying the old map intently.
"If it is a secret,how are we to find it?It tells us not how to open the door" Oin said,looking over the top of his small,round glasses with his eyes fixed on the aged ink.
"The map will have more to tell than meets the eye,you know as well as the rest of us how our people protected what was ours,with methods known only to a few" Balin scolded him quietly.
"More than meets the eye..." Rina's voice was barely audible as she thought,studying the map with keen eyes,"Moon Runes..." she breathed out.
"What was that my friend?" Gandalf asked.
"Nothing!" Rina said hastily.
"Hn" Gandalf didn't seem to believe her but let it go,"Oh, Thorin, I entirely forgot, this..." Gandalf exclaimed,changing the subject as he fished through a deep pocket in his robes,"Is yours. Your father entrusted it to me for safe keeping, until I had tracked you down, which, if I may say, was jolly hard." he handed the dwarf king an intricately carved key.
Thorin eyed the object carefully, as if unsure of its purpose.
"That is the key to the mountain door" he cleared,seeing a strange look in the king's eye.
"So" Bilbo piped up,with a Quest contract in hand,"If you have a key, why would you need a burglar? Me, especially?"
Dwalin looked up from the map with a look that the hobbit did not like,"We need someone small, someone who can go unnoticed, that can sneak past Smaug. A creature he will not readily know the smell of, as he certainly has the whiff of Dwarf up his nostrils"
"To a dragon like that,you would be invisible" Rina said.
Bilbo choked on the mug of tea he had made in an attempt to calm himself after the prior excitement of the evening,"Me? Sneak past a dragon? Oh, no no no, You will have to find your burglar elsewhere, I am a quiet Hobbit who likes to keep a quiet life" he said,placing the mug beside the contract.
"I had my doubts as to whether you would be able to help us" Gloin said in a deep and booming voice, his eyes narrowed at Bilbo.
"He can't even defend himself in battle Thorin, you know he would only weigh us down, there has to be another way" chimed in Nori, his voice also laced with a threatening tone.
"Bilbo Baggins has much to offer, he my hide it well, but I can assure you, he would be an ally on your journey." Gandalf insisted, trying to calm the sudden tension that had descended onto the room. All the dwarves eyes fixed on the Hobbit.
"I fear you are over estimating your friend Gandalf. He has shown to be nothing but a coward when talking about what we may come to face" Thorin muttered, his baritone voice barely above a whisper, but he still managed to command the attention of everyone in the room.
This night just kept getting better and better for Bilbo.
First chapter done!In the next chapter or the one after that you'll probably see why she's called The Witch of the North. Please REVIEW,FOLLOW,or FAVORITE if you want me to keep going.
-MidnightRaven323