Thorin was the first to wake, as always. The sun's first rays were just beginning to peek over the horizon. The late night they had had barely gave them enough hours of sleep, but a cosy home was more than they could wish for these past days. He stretched and groaned, then called out to his companions quietly, so as not to wake their host. He couldn't care less if the Hobbit came along. The company rose, satisfied with their warm, dry and safe night of sleep, however short it was. Bombur immediately shuffled to the kitchen to get breakfast started, and Thorin followed.
Fili and Kili started putting the cushions in place and the others gathered their things. Shifting his gaze, Kili watched their new companion. Ruby was still asleep, a deep frown on her face and a sheen of sweat on her brow. Her breathing was heavier than usual for someone who should be sleeping soundly, her fingers gripping her own shirt tightly. He came closer and touched her shin, calling her name.
With a strong jerk, her head snapped up, eyes wide and alarmed. She yanked her legs back and stood on the armchair, two daggers in her hands, one held low behind her, the other pointed at the Dwarf.
"Whoa, hey, it's just me." Kili raised his hands and stepped back.
"Oh, gods, don't startle me like that." She lowered her weapons and stepped down from the chair.
"Are you alright?" Fili stood by his brother.
"I'm fine." Ruby said stiffly. At their disbelieving looks, she sighed and rubbed her face. "Really, I'm fine, it was just a nightmare." She made her way to the kitchen, where the smell of bacon was wafting from.
"Good mornin', lass. Did you sleep well?" a Dwarf with a funny hat handed her a plate. She accepted the food and smiled at him.
"Good morning, uh...Bofur?" she picked up a slice of bacon.
"Aye, you'll fit in in no time!" he grinned back and handed two more plates to the two brothers who came in behind her.
"Rub—" Kili started.
"I'm fine." She cut him off, annoyance in her voice. "I apologize for my reaction, I'm not used to being awoken by others."
"What happened?" Thorin eyed them warily.
"Kili nearly got his fingers cut off!" Fili snickered into his bread.
"What?" Thorin turned his glare to Ruby.
"Nonsense." She waved the angry Dwarf away. "He just startled me, is all."
"You should get used to sleeping in a group from now on." He warned her and turned away to sit at the table. He understood her reaction in company of strangers, but the safety of his Company was still his priority.
"Don't worry about him, lass." Bofur pat her shoulder.
"I don't blame him." Ruby shrugged. "I have to run down to the marketplace and get me some provisions and whatnot. A new sleeping roll, a new cloak..." she counted off on her fingers. "What else?" she looked around to find her pack on one of the chairs. Quickly searching around the bag and muttering a list to herself, the Dwarves ate and made their own mental list, bestowing Ori with the burden of going to the marketplace before they left.
"Good morning!" he called to her as they stood.
"Hello, Ori, is it?" Ruby scrunched up her nose as she tried to remember the Dwarf's name. He nodded happily and they made their way out of the Hobbit hole, making light conversation.
Thorin inspected the things Ori had bought. A new pot, some flour, dried fruits, salted meat, a spare bedroll, cloak and another pony for Ruby. She had her own new belongings strapped to the pony, and he refrained from checking them.
"Let's move." He ordered and they all mounted and set off. Right before they left Hobbiton, Gandalf appeared on his own horse and trotted next to Ruby.
"Where were you?" she asked.
"Oh, around." The Wizard answered mysteriously and rode up to talk to Thorin. Ruby chuckled and listened to the Dwarves mutter about their 'waste of time'. Ruby smirked as they bet if the Hobbit would even show up.
"Would you like in on the bet, Ruby?" Fili shook his coin purse at her. She reached down the neck of her shirt and took three gold coins, jingling them in her palm. Handing them to the Dwarf next to her, she smiled and looked forward. "Do you know something?"
"Of course not, I'm not a fortune teller, Fili. I just have a hunch."
As if on cue, Bilbo ran up from behind them.
"Wait! Wait!" he called. "I signed it!" he handed Balin the contract. Fili cursed lowly as Ruby held out her hand. He slapped six coins on her palm.
"Give him a pony." Thorin called back to them.
"No, no, no, no, that—that won't be necessary, thank you, but I—I'm sure I can keep up on foot. I—I—I've done my fair share of walking holidays, you know. I even got as far as Frogmorton once—WAGH!" Bilbo was picked up from behind by Fili and Kili as Ruby ushered a pony under him. They laughed and exchanged bets. After a while of silence, Bilbo halted the company again.
"No, no, wait, wait, stop! Stop! We have to turn around."
"What on earth is the matter?" Gandalf voiced their thoughts more delicately.
"I forgot my handkerchief."
"Here! Use this." Bofur tore a piece of his tunic and threw it at the Hobbit.
"Move on." Thorin called over the laughs of the men.
Everyone fell into comfortable conversation with each other, Fili and Kili making up the rear with Ruby between them. She was laughing at an embarrassing story Kili was telling about his brother.
"He had to walk around with a handprint on his face for days!" Kili finished.
"What about you?" Fili was still blushing.
"I am a perfect, behaved little lady." Ruby said airily. No way was she going to tell them anything embarrassing about her.
"I seem to recall otherwise." Gandalf called from the front.
"Shut up, you old bat!" Ruby tried to swerve the conversation, but the Dwarves all wanted to hear what Gandalf had to say and shushed her.
"Tell us!" Fili urged as the Wizard chuckled.
"Well, there was this one time I sent her out to collect some roots for a potion I needed." He began.
"Why?" Kili asked.
"He was my mentor for a few years. Taught me a few tricks." Ruby shrugged.
"Anyway, when she came back to the cottage we were staying in, I had left some ingredients on the table I was working on."
"Oh, gods..." Ruby rubbed her face with a grimace.
"She then proceeded to eat the rydishbeans—"
"I was hungry, I thought they were blueberries!" Ruby argued.
"Now, as we all know, rydishbeans are very poisonous and provoke strange allergic reactions." Gandalf talked over her.
"What happened to her?" Dwalin asked, amused.
"When I returned after a few hours, she was scrubbing her face over the water bucket, and wouldn't let me see what had happened. You almost gave me a heart attack, girl." He looked back at her. "When I finally forced her to turn her face at me, the colour from the rydishbeans had spread over her lips and was taking over her face quite rapidly." Ruby groaned and covered her face as the Dwarves laughed loudly. "It took me two days to find a cure, but eventually a few drops of late seed milk did the trick."
"I can't believe you sent me to town with a green face!" she accused him. "I looked like a toad!"
"Well, you learned your lesson." Gandalf smiled fondly at her. She merely grumbled.
"So," Fili said after he stopped laughing. "You were Gandalf's apprentice?"
"For a while." She ran her hand through her hair and tied the dark locks back, away from her face. "The old bat never taught me more than some parlour tricks."
"You lacked the will to learn, girl!" the Wizard called from the front of the line.
"You lacked the patience for teaching!" she called back.
Thorin looked over to Gandalf as he muttered darkly about 'exploding in my face'.
"It seems it was not coincidence that led her to Bilbo's house yesterday." He called the Wizard's attention. "Why didn't she pursue magic? It seems much safer than becoming a sellsword."
"Her story is her own to tell, master Dwarf." Gandalf answered. "And magic is not always that safe. She is very gifted in the craft, but lacks the caution. All magic comes with a price." He warned.
"Do you trust her?" Thorin asked.
"It has been years since I last saw her, and she has changed a lot. But oddly enough, I would trust her with my life." He looked back and knew she had heard him. She was laughing along with Fili and Kili, but her eyes were trained on him. She bowed her head slightly at him, then shifted her eyes to Thorin. The Dwarf locked eyes with her and she winked at him.
"I suppose she will have no problem proving her loyalty to our cause, then." He turned back to Gandalf.
"As much as I disapprove of her trade, she is an honourable mercenary. She has signed a contract and she will keep it." The Wizard said.
"I've never heard of an honourable sellsword, Gandalf." Thorin quipped. "Then again, neither of a female one. I trust you, old friend, and if you trust her, that should be enough for me."
The company camped for the night near the edge of a cliff. Most of them slept after the long day of riding, Gandalf, Fili, Kili and Ruby were gathered around the fire. A shrill sound was heard and Bilbo ran over to them.
"What was that?" he asked.
"Orcs." Kili looked up at another scream. Thorin, who was dozing by a boulder, jerked awake at the word.
"Orcs?"
"Throat-cutters." Fili explained. "There'll be dozens of them out there. The lowlands are crawling with them."
"They strike in the wee small hours, when everyone's asleep. Quick and quiet; no screams, just lots of blood." Kili whispered. Bilbo looked away in fright as the brothers looked at each other and began snickering.
"You think that's funny?" Ruby was sitting on her bedroll, her back against a rock and her pipe smoking in her hand.
"You think a night raid by Orcs is a joke?" Thorin agreed, angered at the boys.
"We didn't mean anything by it." Kili hung his head.
"No, you didn't. You know nothing of the world." Thorin spat and walked off to the edge of the cliff, looking out over the valley. Balin walked up to Fili and Kili as Ruby stood with a grunt and went to Thorin, putting a hand on his shoulder.
"Don't mind him, laddie." Balin was saying to Kili. "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 got there first."
Thorin looked at the hand on his shoulder and followed the arm with his eyes to find Ruby looking at him, her pipe secured between her lips.
"What?" he growled at her.
"Be nice." She scolded softly and dropped her hand, relighting her pipe with a small flame at the tip of her finger.
"The world isn't going to be nice to them." He answered, watching the small show of magic.
"You think they don't know that?" she puffed a cloud of smoke politely away from his face. "Sometimes a jest in these times is what keeps people sane."
"I need to protect my people, and jesting about serious matters is not the way. You weren't too happy about it either." He raised an eyebrow. The tobacco she had bought in Hobbiton was different from the strong Dwarvish blend, but it was not unpleasant. It was much softer than the one the Dwarves favoured, even sweeter than the usual leaves the Hobbit smoked, but it was a welcome addition to their nightly puff, the different smells swirling in white clouds around the camp and soothing them.
"No, I wasn't." She agreed. "But listen to them." Balin was retelling the Battle of Azanulbizar. "They accept you as their leader and trust you. Try showing a little gratitude."
"And I thought to myself then, there is one who I could follow. There is one I could call King." Balin finished. Thorin turned away from the view beyond the cliff and stood by Ruby. The entire Company was awake and standing in awe, staring at him. Thorin looked at them, love and devotion clear in his eyes.
"But the pale Orc? What happened to him?" Bilbo asked.
"He slunk back into the hole whence he came." Thorin said. "That filth died of his wounds long ago."
Ruby saw Gandalf and Balin exchange a look, but said nothing, puffing at the remains of her tobacco. After a while of silence, Kili turned to her.
"How about a song to brighten up the night, eh?"
"Oh, I can't sing." She shook her head.
"Come on, every girl can sing." He argued. Thorin looked amusedly at Ruby and saw her point her chin upwards, exposing her long neck to the firelight. A pale scar about as thick as her little finger went from her left collarbone to the back of her right ear.
"I lost my singing voice a long time ago." She said.
"Nonsense." Gandalf wagged his pipe at her. "I personally healed that, and you can sing just fine."
"What happened?" Thorin asked, looking at her neck, even as she lowered her chin back in place and turned her head to look at him.
"I believe your nephew asked for something to lighten the mood, not a sad story." She narrowed her eyes at him.
"Well, you have the floor. Song or story." He crossed his large arms and turned to fully face her, challenging. She was shorter than him by about three inches.
"Fine." She huffed and started to walk back to her bedroll. "But then it's your turn." She looked back to see him following her and spread his own bedroll on Kili's other side. She thought for a moment, then, looking at Bilbo, who nodded encouragingly, knowing that her talent in storytelling was only matched by his own, took a deep breath and started cleaning out her pipe. "I was in Mûmakan, The Land of the Mûmakil. It is a large, hilly land best known for its myriad rivers and jungles. South of Ered Laranor, The Yellow Mountains, and north of the Haragaer, in southernmost Endor, its hot, humid climate being a tad too excessive for humans to settle." She put her clean pipe away. "Plus of course the number of Mûmakil roaming the lands."
"What were you doing so far south?" Gloin asked.
"Wanderlust." She answered simply. "Anyway, there was this one village, that insisted in staying there. They had adapted well to the climate, but not to the wildlife. So, upon discovering my trade, their leader offered a large sum for the trunk of the Mûmakil alpha male, believing the rest of the horde would leave them alone."
"Foolish." Gandalf muttered.
"As I was scouting the dense jungle," she continued, ignoring him. "I spotted the horde not too far from where I had made camp. Now, you must understand one thing." She looked at each of the Dwarves in turn. "A Mûmakil is very big and very strong, therefore, I assumed it to be slow."
"Isn't it?" Fili asked to her right. She shook her head.
"As I approached the horde just after night had fallen," she went on. "I didn't notice the alpha male patrolling. So, bold and careless as I was, I ended up hanging upside down as he held my legs with his trunk. Long story short, I managed to cut off half of the trunk, successfully releasing me. Unfortunately, I fell right on one of its six tusks." She heard a few Dwarves suck air in through their teeth, imagining the damage done to her body.
"How are you alive?" Kili wondered in awe and disbelief.
"I followed her, and pulled her bloodied form away from the horde before they could trample her." Gandalf growled. "Nearly killed myself."
"His healing powers might not be on par with the Elves', but it was enough to save me." Ruby smiled fondly at the Wizard. "It took weeks for me to move my neck, and months for me to talk."
"But you're alive, and that's what matters." Gandalf settled down on his sleeping roll.
"Why did you accept such a dangerous mission?" Dwalin asked.
"After a few decades under this old bat's wing I wanted to see if I found answers elsewhere." She nodded her head to Gandalf.
"Decades? How old are you? What answers?" Kili asked. Thorin cuffed him behind the head.
"Mind your manners." He hissed. Ruby merely laughed.
"I don't know how old I am, Kili. I have no memory from before the day Gandalf found me, and it's been...what, a millennia?" she looked to the Wizard for help.
"1069 years, this August." he said after a moment of thought.
"So it is correct to assume you're not human?" Balin asked the obvious. He watched her nod. "What are you then?"
"Those were the answers I was seeking." She looked almost shy for a moment, looking into the fire. Thorin watched Ruby's dark chestnut eyes as she stared into the fire and saw they reflected an eerie red gleam, much like they had when he saw her on Bilbo's roof. It sent shivers up his spine.
"How can someone not know their race?" Ori asked. "Surely there is someone in Middle Earth who has enough knowledge to aid you, or—"
"There isn't." She interrupted. The Dwarves understood this was a delicate subject and kept quiet. When the silence became too awkward, she turned to Thorin. "Your turn." She rested her elbows on her knees to look at him from around Kili.
"Fine, but then we turn in. I want an early start tomorrow." Thorin's deep voice filled the night air as the Dwarves settled on their bedrolls.
"Some saw the sun
Some saw the smoke
Some heard the gun
Some bent the bow
Sometimes the wire must tense for the note
Caught in the fire, say oh
We're about to explode
Carry your world, I'll carry your world
Carry your world, I'll carry your world
Some far away
Some search for gold
Some Dragon to slay
Heaven we hope is just up the road
Show me the way, lord because I am about to explode."
The Dwarves kept quiet. It struck them deep, and after a while they murmured good night to each other and each fell into their own thoughts.
"You do realize you're not carrying this burden alone, Thorin?" Ruby was propped on her elbow, looking at the dark bearded Dwarf. Kili pretended to be asleep between them. Thorin turned his blue eyes to hers and noticed the red gleam in them again.
"Your words are kind. I may have misjudged you." He admitted. "Good night, Ruby. Try not to stab anyone in the morning."
"Good night, Thorin. I won't."