The next morning Gandalf woke me up around dawn. Everyone but Bilbo packed up and we were on the road on the ponies. I rode near the back next to Bofur and Ori, and it was mid-morning with no sign of Bilbo. Everyone made bets on whether he was coming or not, and I put in most of my coins.
"Wait!" I heard a yell.
We all stopped and looked behind us to see Bilbo running up to us.
"I signed it." Bilbo said, holding out the contract to Balin.
"Everything appears to be in order." Balin said, looking at the contract. "Welcome, Master Baggins, to the Company of Thorin Oakenshield."
"Give him a pony." Thorin said from the front of the group.
"No-no. That will not be necessary. I am sure I can keep up on foot."
Bilbo's protests were ignored as Fili and Kili lifted Bilbo onto an empty pony.
"Come on Nori, give it up." Dori smiled.
Bags of coins were tossed around and I grabbed onto the one that was thrown my way.
"What is that about?" Bilbo asked.
"We placed bets on whether you were going to show up." I answered, riding up next to Gandalf who caught a bag of coins, who was next to Bilbo. "Most of them thought you would not."
Bilbo then sneezed, "All of this horse hair." He rambled as he reached into his pocket. "Wait, wait, stop! We have to turn around."
"What is wrong?" I asked.
"I forgot my handkerchief."
"Here, use this." Bofur said, ripping off a piece of his shirt and throwing it back to Bilbo.
Bilbo looked at it with disgust and some of us laughed before we continued to ride along. We rode along fields and valleys, and through the woods before we stopped for the night when it was starting to get dark.
"Azaelia, you take first watch." Thorin instructed me.
I nodded, grabbing my sword before walking over to a tree and sitting with my back against it.
A few hours later, all of the dwarves were asleep, except the lone hobbit who kept twisting and turning.
"Cannot sleep?" I asked when he sat up, glaring at Bombur.
"Kind of hard when you have 13 dwarves all snoring at once." Bilbo replied, getting up and sitting next to me.
"Can I ask you a question?" He asked me.
"Sure." I replied.
"Why do you trust Gandalf so much? You signed the contract right away without reading it." Bilbo asked.
"Gandalf is like a father to me. He took me in when he could have just left me on the streets." I answered.
"No family?"
"I did." I replied.
"What happened to them, if you do not mind me asking?" Bilbo questioned.
"Well, first you must understand that I had two younger brothers, one older brother and three younger sisters. My father died before I was born and my mum married another man and had my siblings. He was always away for work, so I had to help my mum take care of the younglings. But, one day each month I got her all to myself. The younglings would go to my mum's friend's house for the day while mum and I would walk into the forest outside of the village and have a picnic and watch the stars until it was time to go. One day we were watching the stars, and we saw giant clouds of smoke and screams coming from the village. She had to make sure my brothers and sisters were okay, so she gave me her locket, promised she would be back to get me before leaving. She never came back." I said.
"I am sorry." Bilbo replied.
I shrugged my shoulders, "I later found out it was Wargs who raided my village. No one survived, at least I do not think so. The next morning I went down there and found buildings burned to the ground, and a few dead bodies."
"Where did you go after that?"
"I left for another village only a few miles away. I was only eight, so I could not work. I stole things from the market. That is how Gandalf found me. I was pick-pocketing from a prick and he saw me. He then took me in, he trained me how to fight and told me about the adventures he went on, and now here I am." I answered.
"No one should lose their family that early." Bilbo said.
I felt someone's eyes on my but I chose to ignore it as Bilbo and I sat in comfortable silence.
The next day we traveled along mountains and we stopped when it got dark on an edge of a cliff. Fili and Kili were on watch and some other dwarves were still awake, but I woke up to the sound of Orcs.
"What was that?" Bilbo asked.
"Orcs." Kili answered.
"Orcs?" Bilbo questioned.
"Throat-cutters." Fili tells him, "There will be dozens of them out there. The lowlands are crawling with them."
"They strike in the wee small hours, when everyone is asleep." Kili said, "Quick and quiet, no screams, just lots of blood."
That's not true. I still hear the screams of the villagers in my head. Almost every night. I have been haunted by the murder of my family for the last fourteen years. I shiver at the thought.
"You alright, lass?" Bofur asked from next to me.
I nodded to him and pulled my cloak closer to me. And I hear Fili and Kili chuckle.
"You think that is funny?" I look over at Thorin who stood over by the rocks and walked over, his eyes rested on me before turning to his nephews, "You think a night raid by Orcs is a joke?"
"We did not mean anything by it." Kili replied, sounding ashamed.
"No, you did not." Thorin said, walking to the edge of the cliff, "You know nothing of the world."
"Do not mind him, laddie." Balin said, "Thorin has more cause than most to hate Orcs. After the dragon took the Lonely Mountain, King Thror tried to reclaim the ancient dwarf kingdom of Moria. But our enemy had gotten there first. Moria had been taken by legions if Orcs lead by the most vile of their race: Azog the Defiler. The giant Gundabad Orc had sworn to wipe out the line of Durin. He began..." Balin paused, then continued with pain in his voice "By beheading the king."
"Thrain, Thorin's father, was driven mad by grief. He went missing, taken prisoner or killed, we did not know. We were leaderless. Defeat and death were upon us."
I look over at Throin, who was still standing by the cliff. It must have been horrible, seeing his grandfather beheaded before his very eyes, and his father disappeared, not knowing what happened to him.
"That's when I saw him, a young dwarf prince facing down the pale Orc. He stood alone against this terrible foe, his armour rent, wielding nothing but an oaken branch as a shield. Azog the Defiler learned that day that the line of Durin would not be so easily broken. Our forces rallied and drove the Orcs back. Our enemy had been defeated. But there was no feast, no song, that night, for our dead were beyond the count of grief. We few had survived." You could hear the sadness in Balin's voice as he spoke. "And I thought to myself then, there is one who I could follow. There is one I could call king."
"But the pale Orc, what happened to him?" Bilbo asked.
"He slunk back into the hole whence he came," Thorin said, walking by us, "That filth died of his wounds long ago."
I shivered and pulled my cloak even closer to me before trying to sleep again. Which did not happen.
