And So Died All Warriors

by Miss Always Wrong

It doesn't matter if all odds are against them, doesn't matter if the dwarves distrust them or if Thorin wants them permanently gone from his sight. It doesn't even matter if they are forced to face danger and great evil on their way. These facts are all irrelevant. They know what they were meant to do. They know the reason why they were brought there. And only that matters.

2. Chapter 1

Chapter One - Of stares and ogles

Two years later…

"What? You're jesting!"

"No, no, I'm serious! Nessa said she saw it with her own eyes!"

"Ah, really? Nessa? Of all people?"

"Yeah...? What's wrong with that?"

"Nothing. Nothing. It's just that... You actually believed her? You know as well as I that she's rather desperate for attention some times, doing strange things and acting even stranger every now and then. Going on and on about those mushrooms and odd plants and all. Gil even said to me that the girl tends to smoke the leaves of one of those plants and claims it makes her... see things! I think it's obvious that she made this all up."

"No? Really? I had no clue! Though, of course I've noticed her -, ah, curious ways. But why'd she do something like that? I didn't think her as the type to lie so easily."

"Well, how should I know? She's odd like that. You know, just last week she tried to sell out a story that something disturbing was happening in the South. Something about a shadow looming above and-, ehhh who knows? I really doubt she has it all good in her head."

"Huh, that does sound a bit off! Maybe you're right. Maybe it was all just her imagination. I mean, now that I think of it, it does sound rather silly, doesn't it?"

"Ha! You bet it does! Just the thought of it... Gosh, what was she thinking?"

"Yeah... A dozen of dwarves in our village! Accompanied by a wizard of all things! The things people make me believe in..."

In the common women's bathhouse of the village in Bree-hill, a girl abruptly stopped in the middle of brushing her wet, now clean blond hair and sucked in a long, trembling breath when hearing the other women talk around her. It was easy to eaves-drop into others' conversation in such a public place and this particular subject had suddenly taken a grand, unexpected turn, one that left the girl frozen like a statue in her place, mind numb of everything else than the words one of the women had just spoken out loud. The girl stood as abruptly as she had stopped her hair-brushing, though this movement went unnoticed by all the other guests in the room, and rushed to gather her all belongings into her arms, her hair dripping water all over them.

'A dozen of dwarves... Accompanied by a wizard... In our village...

Dwarves.

Gandalf.

Oh shit.'

They were there.

---

"Dori, Nori, Ori," Thorin called out while getting off from the back of his pony and catching the eyes of the said dwarves, "the ponies are in your care for tonight. Bombur, Óin-," he sought different pairs of eyes, "-see that our food and medical supplies are at their fullest when we leave in the morning. Gandalf, Balin and I will deal with the room settlements and dinner for tonight," he said and paused to look around their surroundings in the dimming daylight.

The village was getting quieter as people around the streets were leaving to go home and settle in for the night. Listening the silence Thorin felt unsure if it was a wise decision to stay in there at all. It was the company's first night on the road since Hobbiton and all had gone fine and just as expected with no real problems coming across them as they had ridden onward, further away from Shire and closer to the Misty Mountains. Still, if it were up to Thorin, they would've avoided coming into such a public place as Bree-hill's village and just camped out in the forest, as they would for the rest of the journey. However-, Thorin's eyes traveled over to Gandalf, -the wizard had insisted. For a reason or another, Gandalf had wanted them to come there. And as it was, Thorin didn't even begin to try and understand what sort of madness was going on inside the wizard's mind, and just kindly accepted his strange request without any bigger of a fight. Alright, now, that wasn't really the truth, he might've said few things before finally giving into the wizard's will, but then again, that fact was quite irrelevant considering he had agreed with Gandalf in the end and let the wizard lead them there anyways.

"If any of you have the need of something, make sure to purchase it here," the leader dwarf continued after a moment of clearing his own thoughts, "There won't be a town to come across with any time soon. Rest good too, you most likely won't see the comforts of an inn again in a lengthy while," he said and finally sent his company to their tasks, but hesitated before letting go of his sister's sons. "Fíli, Kíli-," two curious, young heads were turned back at him, "just-… Cause no mischief during our stay," he sighed out and threw a pointed look to the youngsters.

The Durin princes grinned sheepishly at Thorin and dutifully nodded their heads, before handing the reins of their ponies to the hands of the Ri-family and with swaggering steps, followed Dwalin, Bofur, Bifur and Gloin inside their chosen inn Prancing Pony with Bilbo soon tracking behind them like a little lost duckling.

Balin caught Thorin gazing at the hobbit with a certain distaste in his blue eyes, and the older dwarf just shook his head with a somewhat amused expression on his face. He knew exactly how much his King was against having a defenseless hobbit with them on the dangerous road, and Balin couldn't help but to feel humored noticing how put off Thorin looked when having to accept that things didn't go as he wanted them to. Like a little dwarfling, the King was just too used to having his way with everything.

Inside the tavern hovered a dim but comfy atmosphere, along with a strong smell of old, musty wood and spilled ale. The place was rather empty of passer-byers, but some travelers and locals, mostly men with the exception of a few hobbit, sat here and there, ale pints and food in their hands. Some were laughing and talking rather loudly in pairs, and some silently watching around and staying in their own company. With no signs of real danger anywhere nearby, the six dwarves and a hobbit headed towards an empty table at one quiet corner, all giving curt nods to the tavernkeeper while passing him.

"Don't like this tall race of men," Gloin couldn't help but to muttered out once they had claimed their seats at their chosen table, "Don't like how lanky they look, don't like the way they speak, don't like how improper they behave... I swear they even smell funny to my nose. I just don't like anything about them," he ranted on, eyeing suspiciously at some guests in the bar, "Arrogant buggers. No talent at all with anything they do! Bad miners. Bad crafters. Horrible fighters. Nasty people in general. Rotten. Rotten to the core. Not much to like."

"Aye, Master Glóin, it's not like the rest of feel any better bein' amon' them," Dwalin grunted at the rambling dwarf, stopping him from going on any further, "But it's for tonight only. We'll leave this dump first thin' tomorrow mornin'. Don't have to look at them while on the road."

"Perhaps," Kili partly agreed with Gloin's muttering, but his eyes were caught by a pretty, raven-haired barmaid that walked past their table and shot a sultry smile at him, "But some of their women… aren't really that bad looking, are they?"

Gloin looked at the prince with unbelieving eyes, "Beg your pardon, lad!" he exclaimed, "Those twiggy-armed creatures with no trace of hair on their face? Durin, lad, you don't know what you're talking about! Clearly, you haven't witnessed the sight of true beauty yet. Dwarrodams, ohhh, now that's folk to admire."

Kili shrugged at the subject and dutifully looked away from the barmaid. He wasn't interested in hearing lectures from his fellow dwarves just because he liked to linger his gaze on a pretty looking female. Even if the female happened to be from another race.

"Listen lads-," Bofur interrupted their conversation, his gaze too lingering at the bar counter, a spark of humor shining in his brown orbs as he kept them placed on something particular, "-been using me sharp wit 'n brains here for some time now," which itself was joke enough to make the others smirk at each other, "ye know, observing things and such, 'n suddenly got the burning need to say what's in me mind," he mused out and elbowed his axe-headed cousin to get his attention too,

"Now, got five coin on me," he dramatically presented the coins to the rest, "'n I'mma ready to wager that the lad's-" he pointed at an youthful, blond-haired human man who was casually leaning on the counter at the bar, "-certainly not going to succeed with his efforts with the dame-" he nodded at the barmaid at the other side of the counter, "-tonight, or any night, at that," he grinned playfully at the others and wiggled suggestively his eyebrows.

Being the bunch of addicted gamblers that they were, the dwarves' ears immediately perked up at the word of 'bet' and heads were turned towards the reason of their betting. The only one who lost his interest of the whole thing was Bifur, who couldn't care less of any business related to men-kind, but Gloin, however, was twice as eager to accept the gamble and eyed the human couple with his sharp eyes.

"It's a shame you know very little of the matters of love, Master Bofur. I speak with the experience of a married dwarf and my experience just happens to heavily disagree with you. I'll be delighted to prove you wrong and take those coins from you."

Fili and Kili twisted their heads to see better the subject of their betting. The brown-haired barmaid walked away from the counter to serve the pints she had been filling, leaving the blond man alone. With a smile of a dreaming fool, the human man gave a good long stare at the server's backside all while scratching his beardless chin.

Dwalin chuckled at that action.

"Five coins on the behalf of the laddie," he grunted, amusement dancing in his dark eyes.

Bilbo, feeling out of space among the sturdy dwarves, rolled his eyes at the bunch and muttered something about folk without manners, doing inappropriate bets, eating their host's pantries empty, sticking their noses into other people's business-. He was quick to caught himself though, for showing openly such ill gestures was not something a well-mannered, respectable hobbit ought to be doing. He didn't need another reason for the rest of the Shire to speak behind his back, his reputation was sure to get a big blow enough from the whole sudden whim of going onto… adventures. Bilbo shuddered at the thought.

"Do you really think so Master Dwalin?" Fili's eyebrows cocked up as he took a second look of the lonely man at the counter.

"The lad's lookin' persistent. Not goin' to give up easily that one," Dwalin shrugged.

Bofur shook his hatted head and let a wide, dimpled grin cover his face. "Oh no, no, no. 'tis not easy to charm over barmaids, 'n who's to know better than me, seen more than me fair of them!" he said and sent a playful wink to Bilbo, riling up the little creature even more, "A lost game, that boy is, just let me tell ye."

"Alright then. Count me in," Kili suddenly chirped out, all while still watching at the human man who was sipping his ale at the counter, "Master Bofur's right-,"

"I'mma no Master of anything," Bofur muttered sarcastically at that.

"-he's not looking to be in much of luck at the moment."

"And what would ye know of bein' in luck, youn' Kíli?" Dwalin smirked and got the rest of the dwarves to share a laugh with him while Kili frowned and crossed his arm in front of him like a teased child.

"Don't mind him lad," Bofur gave Kili a toothy smile, "Just focus on growing out yer beard first 'n then we can talk about this whole thing with luck."

Kili 'hmph'ed and sank lower on his seat, his brother giving him a sympathetic pat on his shoulders as the others kept on snickering at him.

---

Behind the tavern was a barn, and inside the barn were the Ri-brothers who were assigned to tend after the company's beasts.

Nori, the middle brother of the three, was doing the job told just like his brothers, only he wasn't feeling as laid back as the other two. Nori was feeling uneasy. The back of his neck itched, and it was that kind of an itch Nori always felt when something wasn't right. The itch was kind of like his inner thief's sixth sense, something that had made him quite successful in his own art of crafts in the past. That, of course, was back in the days when the Ri-brothers had been living through some rough times and sources of coin had been hard to find, and to anyone asking now, his thieving days were permanently over.

And long gone.

Never to be seen again.

Back to the matter - the itch never lied to him. Not once. He knew something was definitely not right, and it made Nori anxious enough that even the ponies acted jumpy around him.

Ori and Dori were normal beside Nori and they carried on without any worries of the world, clearly not sensing anything abnormal in the air. But then again, they were not thieves-, er! Ex-thieves! And knew nothing about the itch. Nori knew better than them, he hadn't been a master thief for nothing. He couldn't see it, but he could feel someone's eyes on him and on his brothers.

The itch was bad. He kept on glancing over his shoulders for the cause of his uneasiness.

A loud grumbling sound echoed in the barn, startling the dwarves from their pony brushing.

"Ori. Was that your stomach?" Dori's eyebrows quirked up, causing the youngest Ri-brother to blush scarlet. Apparently, his belly had started talking to them. Loudly.

Ori muttered apologies.

"Take the lad inside already," Nori sighed to Dori, "We're almost done here anyways. I'll finish up quickly and follow." 'Better to get them away from here anyway.'

Dori nodded his thanks to his brother and ushered Ori away from the stables. Nori shook his head and continued brushing the last of the ponies with a thoughtful look on his face. He paused for a second to scratch the back of his neck, his mind still shouting about the possibility of a danger nearby. He focused on his hearing, getting ready to defend himself if something was about to attack him. 'I'll be damned if anyone manages to catch me off guard.' The dwarf was not left disappointed when not even two minutes later, light footsteps came from the doorway. Nori didn't turn around to face the intruder, instead he smoothly slid his hand into his inner breast pocket, searched for one of his hidden throwing knives there and took a tight grip of it, ready to put it in use if needed. The pony he was taking care of let out a nervous neigh, sensing his tenseness.

"You've got some fine ponies here Master Dwarf. Fourteen, if I'm right on my numbers" the stranger remarked with a soft, light voice.

'A female then.' Nori could hear additional brushing sounds. 'And she knows of the company.'

"Do you always lurk in the darkness, watching unaware folk, Miss?" Nori asked with a careless voice, but despite it, he tightened his grip on the knife.

"My deepest apologies Master Dwarf. I simply couldn't help myself when hearing there was a group of dwarves running around. Fear not, I mean no harm to any of you. Though honestly, I already congratulated myself on being able to sneak up on you, but it seems like I was proven wrong after all," she chuckled good-heartily, making Nori even more suspicious of her intentions.

"And just who might you be?" he asked and finally turned around to face the female in question.

"Now that might just be the question of the night. Why don't we humor ourselves for a while and act like well-behaved folk with good manners, alright? That would include you slipping back that handy little knife of yours, so that I can properly introduce myself without having to fear getting accidentally stabbed and end up bleeding on the ground."

---

The company of dwarves sat on their table, handily extending the space by pulling another table next to the first one and adding chairs for all to sit on. Lots of food, though mainly bread and different salted meats, had been brought to the tables by the tavern's two lovely barmaids (one of them being slightly too eager to serve the youngsters), alongside with pints of ale to each. Thorin had informed them of their sleeping arrangements which consisted of the three last available rooms in the tavern, reasonable putting Bilbo, Gandalf and the Ur-family in the first, the Ri-brothers and Oin and Gloin in the second, and the royal family along with Balin and Dwalin in the last one. The rooms would be crowded, but that served them well, for dwarves were naturally comfortable close to their kin.

"By my beard, look at the lad go," Bofur snickered behind his ale, his amused eyes glued on the same blond-haired man who had been that night's betting target for the dwarves.

The man was following the same pretty brown-haired barmaid like some love-struck puppy, and somehow during this, the human duo had come close enough for the ones participating in the bet to hear parts of their conversation.

The human man was not bad looking, by any means, in the standards of men. He was quite young, perhaps in his late twenties or early thirties, and was not the tallest of his kind, maybe somewhere head and a half taller than Dwalin. Though, unlike Dwalin's bulky figure, his body bare more resemblance to that of Fili. He wore a simple clean, dark green tunic along with a pair of comfy trousers, and had no doubt taken a bath just moments ago, judging by his still slightly moist, short blondish hair. The man had warm brown eyes with long lashes and slight smile lines. A faint scar around the length of a needle was visible on his left brow leaving that small line completely hairless. He had no beard, save from a small stubble, but his nose was straight and his jaw strong, something that told well that he was indeed a man, not a boy anymore, despite his lack of facial hair. His lips were quite small and constantly pulled into a warm playful grin which showed his almost straight line of healthy whitish teeth. He radiated of roguish air as he kept on pestering the poor brown-haired girl who was only trying to do her job.

"I'm trying hard to do me job here, Mister. Ye're disturbing me work," the barmaid sighed as the lad had followed her to collect empty plates from an abandoned table.

"Oh? Let me work with you, beautiful. I swear, I'll obey your every command like a good boy," the man winked at her, speaking in a surprisingly rough and odd accent, and then proceeded to help her gather the dishes.

"I'll get in trouble if me customers start doing me job," the miss tried to silently tell him off, but a small smile on the corner of her lips betrayed her real thoughts.

"Now, I don't want to see you in trouble," the man murmured and caught her eyes in an intense stare, "You say the word and I'll back off and let you go, pretty girl. You have all the right to do that."

The barmaid blushed faintly and quickly broke the eye contact to collect all the remaining plates from the table. "Shouldn't you be after Enna?" she abruptly changed the subject, "She's the one everybody's after. She's tons prettier than me..."

The blond man cocked his head to the side, searching for her eyes again but without success. The barmaid seemed to be too shy to take any part in his games.

"I wouldn't know of this Enna's beauty. I haven't been able to take my eyes off you during the whole night, you gorgeous, captivating little creature. Just what have you done to me? What kind of a spell have you cast on me?" he whispered and reached out for one of her brown locks that had escaped from her bun, and gently placed it behind her ear before lightly tracking his thumb down her earlobe.

The girl was frozen staring at him. Her dark grey eyes looking into his deep, warm brown pools, almost getting permanently stuck and lost in the intensity of them. Then she blinked, breaking the heated moment, and quickly turned around on her heels to carry away the dirty dishes, her face red as a cherry. The man was left leaning against the table with a knowing smile on his lips and an appreciating glint in his playful eyes, admiring the barmaid's backside once again.

"Hem. What… just happened?" Kili whispered to Bofur, his jaw slightly open while still watching the man who kept on lounging couple tables away from theirs.

Bofur frowned slightly and glanced at Gloin and Dwalin to see if they had also seen the scene. "Means, if this keeps on like this, I'mma loose me coins pretty soon," he grumbled when he caught Dwalin's smug eyes giving him a knowing wink.

Kili turned back to the blond human, eyes full of confusion.

The man in question suddenly turned his head to catch the young dwarf staring. His brows were quick to knot together as his eyes traveled from Kili to the rest of the company in the dark corner and as more of them were registered in his mind the more his brown eyes went wide in an alarming way. With a panicked 'Shitassfuck!' the man made a rushed turn, almost hitting his knee on one of the chairs around him, and clumsily hurried to exit the tavern.

Kili was left looking after him, feeling more confused than before. He was about to ask Bofur if he had seen this strange scene too, but was cut off by the company's youngest dwarf's voice.

"Uh. Nori is taking quite long… in the stables," Ori piped out from his spot, making few of the dwarves look around to see if the youngster was right.

Thorin blinked and looked questionably at Dori, who had a slightly worried face on him.

"Almost all of the ponies were looked after already. It shouldn't take Nori this long," the silver braided dwarf mused out, suddenly getting worried of his little brother.

More wary glances were exchanged.

"Aye… Makes me wonder what could stop a dwarf from gettin' his food…" Dwalin murmured and locked his eyes on Thorin's, both starting to feel suspicious of the whole thing.

The hobbit eyed the company in a slight distress, fearing they would end up doing something extremely loud and… violent.

"Now hear there, I have been to Prancing Pony handful of times and always experienced absolutely no trouble in here. Though, I admit some of the guests look rather… tattered from time to time, I seriously doubt there is any reason at all to suspect any unnecessary violence or-, or attacks in here," Bilbo spoke out quickly, sensing the growing distrust in the company.

His words went to deaf ears.

"I'd better go and see-," Dori was about to stand up when the bar's door suddenly opened again and revealed the missing star-headed dwarf stepping inside and looking around to locate his companions.

"See, now. As I said," Bilbo gave them pointed looks, before continuing his dinner with a very self-satisfied face, inwardly sighing in relief. "No trouble at all!"

Nori walked to them, his eyes slightly distracted and glancing all over the tavern. "Have you seen the wizard?" he asked from them as soon as he was near enough, not sitting down.

"Gandalf left after we paid to the tavern keeper," Thorin narrowed his eyes at the dwarf's odd behavior, "What is the matter? You took quite long in the stables."

Nori pursed his lips together and seemed to be lost in thought. 'The girl was lying, must've been. There's just no way. A sneaky little liar she was, just like all these men.' Then he shook his head and took the last available seat between Bombur and Oin. "It's-, it's nothing. I'm sure. The wizard's just been doing his tricks again," he grumbled and started lapping the leftover food on his plate, ready to forget the whole strange encounter in the stables.

---

When the knock came, Gandalf had been deep in his thoughts inside his room. He had been expecting the soft knock on the door for quite some time already, and so, without wasting any more time, he moved to open the door for his long-waited guests.

He had waited for two to come, but only one was there.

On the hallway stood a human girl. She was in her twenties with a slim and short figure, standing as tall as Bofur, and dressed in a green over-sized tunic and pair of clean trousers. Her slightly wet, ash blond hair was currently in a one simple French braid, reaching up to her shoulder blades. She had baby blue eyes and long feminine lashes, high(ish) cheekbones, and a straight, somewhat delicate-bridged nose, along with slightly pale lips which were currently pulled into a friendly smile, showing a single dimple on her right cheek. Though, her face spoke of a girly softness, it was her eyes which stared unyielding at anything in her way that upgraded her whole delicate appearance into that of a strong-willed, independent woman. But, at the moment, the girl clearly wasn't on a warpath, and so gave out impossible amount of cheerful energy in a Duracell Bunny kind of way as she practically bounced on her feet at the sight of Gandalf, beaming like a child.

"Gandalf!" she sighed out as if a great burden had been lifted off her shoulders, "Thank stars! It's been too long, you sly wizard! I've missed your mystic, wizardly presence!"

Gandalf gave her a good-humored chuckle and made room for her to come inside. "Better late than never, my dear. It's good to see you, Meri, I'm relieved to know you're still keen on taking part in this quest. You had me worried there for a second, I thought we were supposed to meet right away when arriving here. But now, I believe some exchanges of views are in order, yes? First, tell me dear, where have you lost our dear boy Aleksi?"

The girl stepped inside and looked at him with a grim face, her dimpled smiled long gone. It was almost amusing how quickly her eyes changed from soft and kind to hard and serious.

"That idiot-," she groaned, looking dead-tired and ready to give up on her life, "-is the very reason why I'm running late. He was supposed to come and fetch me from the bathhouse when seeing the first glimpse of the company, and yet here I am, uninformed, and late. And without Aleksi. Were the women of this village not so keen on gossiping about every single thing that happens around this town, I might still be there washing my hair, blissfully unaware of your arrival. But that's not even the best part of this all, oh no, no, no. You want to know what's the best part? It's that I know exactly why Aleksi never came there to get me. Ohhh, I have a pretty accurate idea of what he's doing at the moment..." the girl growled and a something dark flashed through her eyes, "One day, Gandalf this I swear, one day I'll finally have enough of his cursed skirt chasing, and might just cold-bloodily murder that man."

Gandalf blinked at her words and moved quickly to close the door as the girl kept on muttering death-threats. The wizard sported a faint smirk behind his beard and a spark of humor lighted his eyes in a rather scary way. 'Oh, this will prove to be amusing for me.' He stroked his beard in though, letting Meri go on with her grumblings for a while more. 'Yes. Most amusing, indeed.'

---

Meri's heart was racing. Ever since she had seen Nori, talked with Nori, her heart hadn't stopped racing in her chest. She was finally meeting all of them. She was actually going to see each and every one of them in real flesh, living and breathing, right in front of her. She would hear them. Smell them. 'How long have I been dreaming of them and their faces? Of this adventure? Of Erebor? Oh boy. Oh stars. I'm going to have a heart attack and die before even meeting them. I need Aleksi. Where the hell is that man?'

Gandalf was leading her to the bar and giving amused chuckles at her quickly paling face. Meri pursed her lips together and looked ahead.

She saw them.

All of them. Together in a dark corner of the bar, eating and drinking and joking. Bofur's merry laughter boomed loudly around the place, and once hearing that Meri was sure she pissed in her pants. 'That's it. I'm dead. I can't do this. I'm so close that it hurts, but I can't. Sorry all, but I'm done and out. It's just too much. No way Jose. I will piss on myself.'

Meri was left behind standing frozen in the middle of a hallway, while the unaware wizard just continued walking on.

"Thorin-," Gandalf spoke when he reached the dwarves and Bilbo, "-a moment, please? I have some matters to discuss with you privately, and someone I want to introduce you to," the wizard said and was about to reach for the girl behind him, only to find nothing but air there. "Where in Arda-?" he muttered out and searched for Meri, quickly noticing her standing frozen and alone quite a way back at the hallway. "Valar help me with that girl…"

"Gandalf, what is the meaning of this?" Thorin voiced out while Dwalin and Balin sent the wizard equally questionable looks.

In his seat, Nori paused in in the middle of biting his bread, following the situation. His face suddenly paled sheet white as his eyes noted a familiar-looking blond head in the distance. 'Oh, this is bad...'

"No need to look so concerned, all will be explained. Now if you may Master Dwarf, this way. First, I believe we have to bring someone back to life," Gandalf sighed and was pleased to notice Thorin following him without giving too much of a fight.

Meri was so deep in her own world that her blank, unblinking eyes couldn't register the wizard and dwarf walking towards her. 'I'm so pathetic. Such a coward. I've worked so hard for this. Aleksi beat my arse so many times, and pushed and pushed and pushed me for this. And what happens? In the end, I'm thinking of bolting off and giving up on everything!'

"My dear girl," Gandalf's voice startled her awake, "-whenever you decide to grant us the time, I would like you to meet Thorin Oakenshield," he chuckled at her frightened expression and nodded towards the impassive-looking dwarf standing next to him.

Meri's eyes widened. 'When did Gandalf-? Goddammmmn.'

The sight of Thorin in front of her sent an explosion of feelings inside of her. 'I can't believe. He's here. He's here.' Everything she had ever learned about the dwarf flashed through her mind in a nonsensical matter. He was more than she expected, her dreams did him no justice for his figure was a saintly sight in its' own kind of rugged way. The very purpose why she was in Middle Earth was standing right in front of her. 'Thorin Oakenshield. You're-. Oh my god.' She had to swallow. 'You're alive.' The range of feelings was tearing her apart, and making her eyes sting. 'You're here. I've finally found you.

The exiled King under the Mountain stood tall(ish) and proud in front of her, as if owning the very place under his feet and air that surrounded him. His features were dark and unyielding, and clearly bred as higher class. The clothes over his short and sturdy body were made of finer materials, though still not as nice as he was probably born to be wearing as a member of the royal Durin family. Oddly, unlike the other older dwarves, he had his beard trimmed short and the long, dark hair that rested on his wide shoulders free of any braids but two. Meri knew it had to have some kind of a meaning to the dwarves, but couldn't think any further when letting her eyes lock into his unbelievably pale blue ones. One could only describe them as 'as blue as Durin's', for there was no other line in mortals that could own such a shade of color in their eyes. But as beautiful as his eyes were, they were loaded with a big burden - hardened into steel in such a way Meri couldn't see anything else past this wall.

"Thorin Oakenshield," she finally whispered out, clenching her jaw as new burning feelings flashed through her. She did one quick and very clumsy curtsy. "My name is Meri Karhu. At your service!" she added the latter part quickly, remembering that it was polite for dwarves, "Ah-, forgive my-, my strange behavior at the moment, Master Oakenshield. It's just-I've waited quite long for this day to arrive. It's sort of unbelievable to think we're finally here."

Thorin blinked and nodded his head uncertainly, giving her a wary look. The girl looked… strange. She obviously was a daughter of men, that much was clear, but her short, slight figure, the confident way she held herself and her unique features were all confusing him. As was the fact that she was wearing men's clothing, which was of course usual for female rangers and even for some she-elves, but she clearly was neither. He hadn't come across with such a woman before, even her rough accent seemed unfamiliar to him. Thorin was not friends with unfamiliar matters and so he automatically heard the warning bells inside his head ringing. A frown was not far from his face.

"Well met, Miss Kaar-hu," the dwarf said her name out with wary tone, like he was carefully trying to taste it a little before chewing, not missing the spark of humor in the girl's blue eyes after he had done this, "Though, I must admit I wasn't aware that we came here to meet anyone. Gandalf, what is the meaning of this? Why is she here?" he continued in a troubled voice, turning back to the wizard, very unamused and slightly suspicious of the girl in front of him.

Gandalf cleared out his throat, trying to mask his small nervousness. "Ah, well but, I invited her here of course. It is as I promised you Thorin, I am to find you your burglar-," he said, glancing to where Bilbo was seated and then looking back at Thorin, "-along with some other sources of additional aid for the journey. Miss Meri here is included in that last part," the wizard smiled to him with a mischievous spark in his eyes.

"Other sources of-," Thorin muttered and then growled under his breath, his eyes darkening for a moment as he finally realized what this all meant, why Gandalf had insisted them to come there in the first place.

Then he took a deep calming breath, turned back to the girl and gave her a quick once over, before slowly turning his seething sapphire eyes back to Gandalf. If a look could cast fire on someone, Gandalf would've found himself suffering some pretty serious, third-class burns right there.

The two men stared each other in a heavy silence.

"No." was Thorin's painfully slow answer.

Which obviously meant: 'I will not take her.'

"Oh, but, yeees." was Gandalf's equally slow reply

Which meant somewhat like: 'You need her. She is more important than you know and will change the outcome of everything. Do as I say.'

A fight was about to break down. All the signs were there for sparks to start flying around and Meri had to shift on her feet to ease the pressure she was feeling. Her gaze bounced from Thorin to Gandalf, taking in their serious faces and unwavering eye-contact, which was as intense as one could get without crossing the line of being romantic.

"Gandalf. No," Thorin spoke out after the small silence. 'Absolutely no. I will not take responsibility of the death of a helpless human girl on my shoulders. If you thought even for a moment that I would allow a strange daughter of men into this quest, then your old age has finally turned you into a complete senile fool. She will not come and that is final.'

Gandalf's eyes narrowed but kept on with the staring contest. "This decision has already been made two years ago, and you have nothing to say to this. Meri is a valuable friend to have, one that you will learn to appreciate in time. She will come with us on this quest." 'Fool. This stubbornness of yours will be your downfall.'

Thorin let out an ugly sneer at the wizard. "Two years ago? You're delirious, Gandalf. Just what does she have that makes her so important for the journey? Wilderness is no place for a woman and what you ask of me is a disgraceful thing to do. You have no right to send her to her death. Just like you had no right to do that to the Halfling." 'I already have an incapable burglar in my company, one that you forced me to allow to join, and I do not need another burden to slow us down.'

"Hem," the girl suddenly interrupted them, looking quite uncomfortable with the whole situation."Gentlemen, I'm right here, and can speak on my own behalf. I think we should all just sit down and-."

"I have every right to bring her along!" Gandalf boomed, cutting off the girl like whatever she wanted to say held no meaning, making her blink at the wizard in a what-the-hell kind of way, "Her fate is to be included in this adventure and there is no other way!"

Meri moved on from the surprise of getting talked over to, and turned to Thorin. "Gandalf is right. I don't mean to sound rude, but I'll most likely just follow you anyway-,"

"Her place is not in the company or in this quest!" Thorin argued heatedly back to Gandalf, bluntly ignoring Meri and her bewildered look when she was, yet again, cut off from the conversation, "She is nothing but a human child, for Mahal's sake, barely old enough to serve an ale! What reason could she have to help dwarves? I have no trust in her kind!"

"Ai!" Meri huffed, now also losing her calm, "No need to get personal here! I'm far from a child-!" she huffed out, crossing her arms in front of her.

Gandalf continued talking to Thorin, not even hearing the girl. "She has a reason, and a very fine one indeed! If you do not hold trust in her, then trust my opinion in this matter! Her talents shall bring you a great benefit on your way!"

"Seriously? Do you two even listen-!" Meri hopelessly tried to voice her opinion again, and surprisingly failing to do so, again.

"I am beginning to reconsider my trust in you Gandalf," Thorin said darkly, "Your way of taking care of matters is highly questionable! You have been doing nothing but hiding precious information from me, operating matters with a mischievous mind and choosing unsuitable individuals to join my company! I care not whether she's talented or not, she holds no importance in this case!"

"Well, bugger. This is getting ridiculous. Should I get offended? I mean-."

Meri stopped talking when sensing something wrong.

The air around them grew heavy.

The few candles around them wavered, their lights dimming.

Noises in the background faded.

And Gandalf… Woo boy, Gandalf looked very much pissed.

"She-!" the wizards growled, not too loud for the whole bar to hear but twice as effective, "-has seen your quest's outcome beforehand, Thorin Oakenshield! Do you dare to defy my wish to take her along?!"

After Gandalf's sudden wizard-like, powerful boom, a heavy silence fell above the trio. Meri blinked in surprise and looked at the wizard like he had gone mad. 'Well. That escalated quite quickly, if I may just say. I think the cat is out of the bag now. Hopefully anyone else didn't hear that or we're all pretty much screwed.''

Thorin turned to Meri with unbelieving eyes, leaving a fuming Gandalf to glare at his profile. Meri smiled weakly and sent an awkward wave to the dwarf. Well, at least, she finally got his attention now.

"Yo."

"A seer?" Thorin hissed cautiously and slowly let his gaze wander from her head to toes with a calculating look in his eyes.

'Oh, nothing beats a good old, intense and very awkward once over.' "Oh, well, I'm afraid that's slightly exaggerated. I only know of few things related to this quest. I've seen them in my dreams." 'And yeeears ago in the movies. Now, let me tell you Thorin about the movies, they do you absolutely no justice at all. You're-. Oh man. You're truly gorgeous. A sight to behold. Truly phenomenal. And taller than I expected too. Seriously. Aren't you supposed to be a dwarf? Mama would've cracked herself so bad if she ever saw me actually being shorter than a bloody dwarf. Unbelievable.' "And I've seen you in my dreams." 'No-, wait! God, that came out wrong!'

The frown on Thorin's face was so deep that his eyebrows almost touched each other. For good ten seconds he looked at Meri with mistrustful eyes before he turned to Gandalf to confirm this claim. "Is this true Gandalf? Has this-, this child truly seen what the future beholds?"

Gandalf, having calmed himself down again, nodded at him with seriousness in his wise eyes. He let his gaze wander through the bar, searching for any possible unnecessary pairs of ears that were listening, and was satisfied when finding none. "That she has."

"Ridiculous. What you're trying to claim is-, Gandalf it's impossible!"

"No," Gandalf shook his head, "It's an enormous gamble, yes, foolish even, and inhuman in many ways, but perfectly possible. Our Meri here has been given a huge burden to carry on her little shoulders, and if it's a gift or a curse, we've yet to find out."

Meri frowned slightly. 'Great, he's making me sound like some bloody saint now.'

"And just what have you seen, Dreamer?" Thorin whispered carefully, facing Meri again.

Meri shut her mouth tightly and glanced uncertainly at Gandalf, remembering the matters they had talked just half an hour ago. She was given a cautious nod from the older man and so, with a shaky sigh, she looked straight into the piercing blue eyes of Thorin, still marveling over their beauty, and spoke.

"I've seen, well, to be honest, I've seen much. I know much. I've seen things from the past, and I've seen things from the future. Odd glimpses from here and there, if you may, strange events with strange people and with no further explanations. What I've seen is-err, it's mostly been very confusing… Making only little sense afterwards when not knowing any details or backstories, or even the exact time frame of all the happenings. But there's one thing… One thing I know for sure, is that they all started in one place… and will end in the exactly same place," Meri licked her lips,

"In Erebor."

Thorin's eyes narrowed dangerously.

"What know you of Erebor?" he muttered darkly, taking threatening steps towards the surprised girl.

"I know much, King under the Mountain," Meri repeated quietly without a beat and dared not to back down.

Thorin's glare intensified after hearing the title, but Meri just took a calming breath and kept her sincere eyes on Thorin's thunderous ones, never flinching or wavering, and spoke to him with a steady voice.

"Listen, you have great mistrust for strangers, even greater for those of another race, that I know and seriously don't expect anything else," 'After all you've been through, that is…' "But what you must understand is, that I'm here only because these bloody dreams won't leave me alone. They taunt me almost every night, and make me worry for these short, hairy people I've never even met in real life." At this, she glanced at the table full of dwarves, missing the amusement dancing in Gandalf's eyes, "You can't possibly understand how frustrated I've been over this for the last two years, sometimes even feeling like I've finally lost my mind," she ran a trembling hand through her braided hair, "But, I've come to understand they have all along prepared me and showed me what I was destined to do. My purpose, the very reason why I exist… is to be here. To help you. And to guide you."

Meri paused for a while, searching for the right words to say. 'Probably should've written down some sort of speech or something. Would've made this much easier.'

"Erebor is all I've thought of ever since the dreams started. And it's all I know anymore," the girl swallowed a lump in her throat, her eyes getting annoyingly wet again. "Do you not want all the help you can get with reclaiming your home back?"

Thorin's hard eyes examined her closely while she gave out her little talk, never lessening his threatening look. He felt unsure of her, even after hearing her reasoning, and this unsureness inside him automatically pushed him into not liking her. A seer or not, she was a human child and had no place in dwarven matters, no place at all. 'Gandalf insists she is essential.' Thorin turned to the wizard's side giving him a cursing look. 'The Lonely Mountain will be lost because of this cussed wizard!'

"I will not have her slow us down, Gandalf, a seer or not," Thorin growled quietly to him, still unaccepting.

Gandalf merely gave him one pointed look. "Would you rather turn your back to this opportunity to have someone join your company who has, dare I say, some pretty critical knowledge of your future?" he asked, and after a passing thought added: "Why, you do realize what could be done with her information, should it be passed on… to wrong hands?"

A new kind of realization sunk into the head of the King dwarf. Dread began to fill his stomach just to think what could happen if someone with evil intentions should reach any piece of this knowledge about his dear quest. There would be someone to try and stop him – there always was someone. And unlike he would've wanted, he didn't have an army with him to stand by and fight for his home, only a handful of loyal dwarves who were already risking their lives for this quest.

There was no other way. He could not afford to get rid of the girl. Seer or not, she already knew too much.

Thorin cleared his throat before speaking to Gandalf, not even bothering to lower his voice so that the girl wouldn't hear him. "This Dreamer-," he spat out the name like it had a bad taste on it, "-will be your responsibility, as will her death fall into your hands." Because apparently, she was going to die during the quest. "This decision is yours alone, and I will not take any part of the disgrace that her involvement brings."

"Done!" Meri cried out hurriedly, her heart beating painfully fast in excitement. "Where do I sign?!"

Thorin's shoulders stiffed at her exclamation, while Gandalf looked at her with his eyebrows high on his forehead, wondering just where had disappeared his turn to speak for his own behalf.

"Just a second there, Thorin," the older man spoke and stopped Thorin from turning back to his company, "There's one more thing..."

"What. Is it?" the dwarf hissed lowly.

Gandalf stroked his beard thoughtfully before giving an answer.

"Ah. Well. You see. There might be another human involved. A man, so to speak."

Meri held her breath while seeing Thorin tightly closing his eyes. She sent a quick prayer. 'Good God, give strength to this dwarf to deal with our heavy bullshit. He's on the edge right now, and in desperate need of some holy spirit to carry him through this all. That is all I ask, some peace of mind for this poor suffering creature. Don't let him explode. For I think I can see a vein pulsing on his forehead.'

"Another one?" Thorin asked in a voice that was ready to commit a murder, "Another seer? By Mahal! Just where have you picked up these oddities? And why do I need another if I already have one?" 'Durin, how many creatures knows of my plans?!'

Gandalf cleared his throat, trying to keep his own temper in check. "Yes, the man dreams also. Which means that he knows of matters just as much as Miss Meri here. This should be reason enough to take him along and make sure that all the secrets regarding your quest are safe and close to yourself. Also, these two travel together, have traveled for a long time and will not be separated now because of this journey," he stated in a matter of fact way, not giving Thorin any chance to say otherwise.

"It's true Master Oakenshield," Meri butted in with a small, apologizing voice, "We two come as a pair."

Thorin kept his eyes closed and tried to keep his composure as calm as possible. Things were certainly not going the way he intended and he felt a hot wave of anger pulsing through his veins, building up in his head and creating the early symptoms of a major headache. He often had those when being in deep distress, and he just knew the rest of his night was doomed from any form of rest. 'Not only do I have a poor burglar, but now also two suspicious human children in my company. This cannot be a good omen for the quest.'

"Of course you do," the dwarf muttered sarcastically under his breath, "And just where might this male companion of yours be right now? Why is he not here to speak for his own behalf?"

Meri shut her mouth tightly, seeing just what kind of trouble she was causing for Thorin and it was making her feel like a total failure in front of the dwarf King. With a nervous glance at Gandalf, she silently passed the question for him to answer for she couldn't bear to be the one giving Thorin any more bad news. After all, how was she supposed to tell Thorin that the human man he was asking for had a dick as his brains?

Gandalf cleared his throat and drummed against his staff in a thoughtful way. "It seems that our young Master Aleksi has been momentarily… distracted, by other things, or so to speak. However, I have the strongest believe that he shall join us in any moment now, for he too knows the importance of this quest."

Meri felt like rolling her eyes so she simply just closed them and remained silent with the whole thing. 'Some bloody distraction that'll prove to be.'

Thorin was even less impressed than the girl and it showed on his face. The dwarf felt the greatest need to strangle something, but instead he sighed through his nose and eyed Meri with deep distaste.

"I don't care to discuss these matters twice in the same night," he said, his voice holding a certain irritated edge, "One hour. We'll wait for your companion for one hour and if he doesn't turn up, I'll have no interest in speaking to him at all. We'll go through this with you and with my company, and you will answer the questions asked and then later inform the man just what he's missed. Is this understood?"

Meri fiercely nodded her head, feeling ridiculously like a little child being told what to do by her parents. It did not help that Gandalf hummed in humor right next to her.

With that out of the way, Thorin let his eyes wander from her face to her body, once more taking in her small size and her choice of clothing as if they were personally abusing him in some way. Unbelieving what he was seeing, he just had to close his eyes and shake his head. 'Has Gandalf even realized how young and… little she is? This man-child is even shorter than my dwarves!' The early signs of headache were turning into a steady, unpleasant thudding in the front of his head. His dwarf-instincts were screaming that females were not supposed to go on such dangerous quests. Females were looked after of, cherished and protected! 'She's not built for this journey. She'll not make it. This Dreamer will die.' No matter how Thorin despised other races and no matter how he wanted nothing to do with anyone else that was not a dwarf, he still felt a painful bang of wrongness in his heart when looking at the little girl in front of him, knowing he was sentencing her to her death when allowing her to come with him. Yet another thing to add to the already huge burden on his shoulders.

"Tell me-," Thorin grunted through his teeth, hoping for at least some sort of a light in this hopeless situation "-that this isn't your first time on the road. Say that you're familiar with travelling, that you have more experience than what your appearances leads on. At least, tell me that you know something about defending yourself."

Meri was quick to grant him an answer, so keen on lessening his distress in any sort of way to pay attention to the insult he was giving her. "Yes!" she spluttered out and inwardly half-fived with herself when seeing the relieved flicker in Thorin's eyes, "Yes! Yes, on everyday basis. I'm no stranger to hard work; I've known the ways of traveling and how to defend myself for quite some time now. Master Oakenshield, I know I might not look like much, but I'll try my hardest not to be an extra weight to the company. That's… really not the reason why I'm coming along. You'll understand in time, I'll prove myself, I promise I will!"

Thorin looked grim, like he didn't fully believe what she was saying. She sounded like she was trying too hard to make him believe her, to make him trust her, and that was what made him only more wary. Strangers were not this friendly with him without a reason. Strangers-, he grimaced, -did not just try to gain his favor for nothing. "We shall see about that…" he muttered sourly, "Shan't we now? For it seems like I've been given no other options in the first place."

Thorin gave one murderous glance to Gandalf and then, like an offended child, he turned his back to them and marched off with quick, angered steps. No doubt the company would know of the newest twist of events in a matter of minutes.

Meri sighed and turned to Gandalf who seemed to be fighting off a traitorous smirk.

"Well. That… was delightful," the wizard commented, once again stroking his beard while watching the distancing back of the dwarf King.

Meri gave him a pointed look, immediately feeling much more relaxed when Thorin was gone. "You think? For a while I was actually quite afraid he might go all Hulk on our asses…! Stars, talk about being paranoid! Did you see the way he looked at me? Did you? Like I was some-, some vain, good for nothing, common town wench! Gandalf, he's even worse than what I expected, just how are we supposed to get along if he can barely even stand the sight of me? Gosh, just-, do you even want to know what my mama would've done to him if she'd seen the way he looked at me?! I mean, men like him inspire that woman's inner serial killer!" she exclaimed and threw her hands up to dramatize her statement. Then, after a moment, she nervously added, "Seriously though, do you think he'll ever learn to like me and Aleksi?"

Gandalf, quite humored with her rambling, put his hand on her shoulder in a comforting way. "Worry not dear child. Thorin might be a little challenging as a new acquaintance, even for a dwarf, yet in time I believe he will grow-hem… How should I word it, more… approachable. Even to such as you and Aleksi."

---

"Humans? In our quest? Unheard of!"

"Did ye say a seer?! Seein' Erebor in her dreams?! Durin's balls! She's a spy, an assassin!"

"Aaaaaye, and what a lovely little assassin she'll make, though… Just look at her lads, look at that fair, healthy hair!"

"Never mind her, what about the man? He's more like to try to kill us all."

"I don't approve this. Bringing gentle folk into wildlife… We'll have female blood on our hands soon."

"And she's rather small for a human, don't you think? Can she even lift an axe?"

"Doubt it. The lass is naught but skin and bones, not going to last long on the road. The faintest breeze of wind will carry her away at first given chance. Mahal knows what'll happen if an actual storm surprise us… We'll have to rope her to one of the ponies just in case."

"Would you stop gossiping about her already? She's looking right at us."

"Ha. If she's a seer, then I'm an orc."

"Ye are as ugly as one…"

"No, no, no, I don't like where this is going. Men are scheming creatures and have no place on this journey! Ori stop looking at the girl."

"But how young she looks…! Say lads, are we sacrificing human baby girls in the wilderness now?"

"Have you even considered how inappropriate it's to have one female among a company of thirteen male dwarves?"

"Oh dear. Oh dear. This is very wrong indeed. Very wrong."

"Aye, well, I'mma take me baths as naked as a baby dwarfling 'n the lass just has to adapt. Might as well fall in love with me."

"Just shut up already! Shut up! Each and one of you!" Nori boomed while banging his fist to the table and earning silence along with irritated looks from his companions. Even Thorin looked at him with raised eyebrows. "The lass is coming, we like it or not! The wizard made it clear that he wants the humans on the road with us and I wouldn't go against wizard's will! Now stop nagging about this like a bunch of elven house wives, you're all giving me a Mahal-damned headache!"

Bad looks and some annoyed grumbles were sent to his way but otherwise the dwarves succeeded smothering their whinings.

That was before Fili mused out a "I do think she's pretty, though", making the company, with the exception of his snickering little brother, groan loudly at him. "What? I'm just saying! For all we know, she could be half dwarrowdam with her height!"

"You are mistaken there, young Master Fíli," Gandalf's sudden voice spooked the gossiping group of dwarves, making most of them jump slightly on their seats as if they were caught doing something wrong.

The wizard had brought the girl for introductions and, like someone had said the magic word, everyone went to shamelessly stare at the short blond girl, even Bilbo, and the girl answered their intense gazes with an equally shameless staring of her own. The back and forth ogling went on for an awkward ten seconds before Gandalf decided to take the matters into his hands.

"Judging by your rather loud chitchat, all of you must now know of Miss Meri Karhu then. Miss Meri, here is the company of Thorin Oakenshield."

Meri blinked and cleared her throat before sinking down into a deep curtsy, still feeling fourteen pairs of eyes on her. 'Talk about stepping into the spotlight. I feel like some of them are actually trying to telepathically stab me.' "At your service, gentlemen. I've been looking forward for quite some time to meet you all, as Master Oakenshield must have shared with you already. I'll be joining you on this quest for now on, and so will my partner. That is… if he'd first grant us his presence." 'That damn fool of a man. I'll be making sure he'll wake up tomorrow morning with no balls.'

Some of the dwarves gave her hesitant nods, while the rest looked at her with unimpressed eyes. No-one said a word, just continued gazing and making the girl more than aware of the uncomfortable air around them. For the second time during that evening, she nervously shifted on her feet beside Gandalf and wished for someone to say something. It was clear that no-one knew how to act in such a situation.

The silence was growing unbearable and Meri felt an awkward, cold drop of sweat rolling down her neck. She thanked gods that her hair was still slightly wet from her previous bath so that she didn't look like some sweating pig in front of them all.

"You're… a human," Fili, praise his precious soul, finally voiced out what everyone in the table was thinking.

Meri blinked again and focused her eyes solely on him, making the youngster slightly flush at the same. Whether it was because of his obvious statement or her intense gaze on his person, Meri found the sight of his ears turning to red absolutely darling, especially when they were big - as was common for dwarves - and the blush was so easily noticeable under his fair-colored hair. In a way, the girl was sorry for making him feel embarrassed by her ogling, but she simply just found it much easier to take them all in one by one rather than try to get a grasp of the whole picture in front of her.

Fili was a charming-looking, late-teen dwarf. Young, reckless and handsome, and with still some childish spark in him, though he masked it well. He was the only blonde of the group, Meri quickly noticed, and boy, was his long, golden locks looking pretty and well-taken care of, without a single tangle in them. But even more beautiful were his eyes – 'Eyes of a Durin.'- bright pale blue orbs that still shone brightly and with a child-like innocent. It was obvious that he hadn't seen his first true battlefield yet, for his eyes weren't dimmed as were the case of his uncle's. Same Durin eyes with same color, only Fili's were much, much brighter even in the current dark lighting.

Meri almost frowned at the course where her thoughts were going, but she was fast to stop herself and instead gave a small, apologizing smile to the still-blushing youngster.

"And you're… a dwarf," the girl stated in good humor, "I'm glad we've got that sorted out now."

Fili smiled sheepishly and the color in his ears got deeper. Beside him, his brother snickered quietly at his reaction and bumped their shoulders together hard, starting a hushed bickering between them.

Gandalf chuckled out and set his hand onto Meri's shoulder as a kind gesture. "You needn't feel so wary of her, Master Dwarves," he said to the company, "Meri is a perfectly trustworthy friend to have, something you'll come to realize sooner or later, I am sure. I have no doubt that she only has the best interest for the company in her mind."

"But Gandalf, is it true what Thorin says?" Balin spoke out from next to Thorin, turning his eyes off the girl and to the grey wizard, a curious glint in them, "A seer? Truly?"

Meri looked from Fili to Balin, feeling her eyes rest with the sight of him. With hair and beard already pure white from his respectable age, and strangely all free of any sort of dwarvish braids, Balin was definitely one of the oldest dwarves in the company. There was something warm and grandfatherly in the dwarf and not only because of his striking outer resemblance to Saint Nicholas, but also because of the soft, almost understanding look in his warm brown eyes. Meri could easily picture him being the one to give others support and comfort when in need, and felt a sudden bang of homesickness and longing to see her own late papa. Though, to be honest, Balin seemed to be much kinder soul than her meddling, mischievous old man from her childhood that always got her talked into his ridiculous, childish tricks. Tricks that always ended up with her alone facing the consequences with her pissed off mama. 'For an old fart with a walking stick, that man was suspiciously quick to vanish from the spot when things started going down…' No, Balin seemed much too courteous to be compared with her papa.

Meri turned to eye at Gandalf beside her with a slightly judging look on her face. 'You, however…'

Gandalf nodded at Balin and his grip slightly tightened on Meri's shoulder. "We must choose our words carefully, Master Balin, if we wish to stay unseen. These are delicate matters we're speaking of, and there are… ears everywhere."

Meri quirked an accusing brow at him. 'Really? Does that rule not apply on wizards and their wizardly power-booms in the middle of public boozers then?' She spotted a slight side-smirk from the tall man and she had no doubt he knew what she was thinking.

"I can imagine," Balin agreed with Gandalf and eyed Meri again, "All sort of things you must know of, Miss Kaar-hu… All sort of things, indeed…" he mused out mostly to himself, before he blinked and realized he hadn't even given her his name yet, "Ah! By my beard, how rude of me not to introduce myself. Apologies, lassie. I am Balin, son of Fundin. At your service."

Meri felt like sighing in relief, not even caring about the way her last name was getting slaughtered for the second time during the night when she finally got some responsive signs from one of the dwarves. Maybe the night was not doomed to fail after all. "It's truly a pleasure, Master Balin. Please, just Meri is perfectly fine." 'And that's because you're shit at pronouncing my surname, kind sir.'

"Well then," Gandalf cleared his throat, "Now that we've had this sorted out, why don't you take a seat dear girl, while we wait for the last piece of our puzzle to arrive?" he smiled thinly and gestured towards the table.

Meri listened his advice, ignored the burning stares of some of the dwarves and went to pick herself a chair to place in between Bilbo and Nori while Gandalf went to sit next to Thorin.

The hobbit looked slightly bewildered from having the human girl sit beside him and he nervously twiddled with the buttons on his vest. The presence of the girl itself was not what made Bilbo stunned, but more of the company's attitude towards her that seemed just slightly too suspicious. Surely a girl of her age and size, added with the well-mannered way she spoke, wasn't any real danger to any of them. But Bilbo would be lying if he said he wasn't surprised to hear of this sudden turn of plans – almost as surprised as hearing her speak with that curious, rough-edged accent. It perked up his natural curiosity in a way that he simply couldn't help himself.

"Ah, well, why hello there dear," the Halfling spluttered out once he had somewhat collected himself, "Pardon me for being so straight, but I couldn't help but to notice that your, eh, accent, is quite unique!" he tested the waters, though doing it very awkwardly and with an oddly uncharacteristic bluntness, "I believe I have never heard of one like that before. Where is it that you hail from Miss Karhu?"

Meri had barely time to take a calming breath once seated before the small hobbit next to her spoke to her, making her turn to his side. She focused her blue eyes on him and scanned his features closely, causing him blush from the action. 'Gosh. What an overly adorable little creature. Just look at those little curls and button nose! And he actually got my name right, good for him!'

Bilbo certainly stuck out like a sore thumb from the rest of the company. Chubby and even shorter than the dwarves, he was shorter than Meri too with the tip of his head barely reaching her shoulders, and the girl found this amusing as she was used to men towering her short frame like skyscrapers. Bilbo could've easily passed as a child if it weren't for his big, hairy hobbit-feet and a face of a mature person. He had kind features comparing to the dwarves, soft and chubby and with a healthy rosy color on his cheeks. It was obvious that the hobbit had lived a peaceful, easy-going lifestyle, with full meals on the table every day, warm and cozy bed to sleep on every night, and safe home to return to. It was almost enviable how innocent and unaffected he still was of the nasty world that began just outside the borders of Shire. Shadows hadn't yet had their chances to taint his pure being. 'But how long would this last…?'

Meri blinked and came back to the current matter. Bilbo's question was a tricky one and she had to think a while what to say to him. 'I kinda hoped this conversation could've taken place much, much later.'

"Ah, you see," she began slowly, giving him an apologetic smile, "Westron isn't really my native language, as you can tell. Nor is any of the languages here that you might know of. I come from very far Master Baggins… My home is-, it's so far away I fear it's not possible for me to return there ever again. So far, I cannot show you the lands from any map that you may have, or from any map, to say the truth. It's really no wonder you find my accent a bit strange. Actually, I'd find it very much surprising if you'd ever heard of it before."

Bilbo took in the explanation with a slight look of bewilderment on his face. Never had he heard of any unreachable lands, not other than the Undying Lands, and surely that couldn't be the case of this. But, above all, he was startled when hearing her using his name, which he was sure he hadn't given her yet. On the second though, he was more horrified of himself for not introducing himself to her in the first place as was more than polite to do when first meeting someone. Had any hobbits been near to witness this shameful moment of his, he'd never hear the end of it. "Pardon me Miss, you seem to know my name already. How can that be? I'm sure I'd remember seeing someone like you…"

Meri just shook her head with a secretive smile and gave him a little wink, to which the hobbit blushed to and sank deeper on his seat.

Dori was not convinced with the information she had given them and he quite rudely barked into the conversation. "Unknown lands? Now see, that there doesn't sound too promising to me," he spoke out suspiciously. "What are you doing here then? Surely a stranger from a strange faraway land must have a strange purpose here, other than to cause distrust in a strange group of dwarves?"

Grunts of agreement were heard from the other dwarves.

Meri would have loved to stick her tongue to the oldest Ri-brother, but decided to play it cool and be patient with him. 'God knows, this is a strange situation for all of us.' Her blue eyes took in the face of the silver-haired dwarf with fancy braids neatly sticking tightly against his scalp. He had sharp, masculine features and a strong-looking body under his clothes, all these making it easy to intimidate his enemies. However, when Meri got over the first layer of harshness and distance, she locked her gaze with his, and found a pair of sweet caramel eyes that held the look of a– 'Oh my…' -they held that exact look and softness of a loving mother. 'Or a very devoted big brother…' Dori was the eldest of the three Ri-brothers and he certainly had the air of "man of the house" around him, and the way he kept his youngest sibling glued to his side only strengthened that image. Meri could easily detect the protective streak that he had.

Drumming her fingers on the worn table, Meri thought what to answer him. She didn't want to lie, knowing that over time she would only get caught and possibly get accused for trying to horribly deceive them. But she couldn't just go ahead and tell them the whole nasty truth either, clearly remembering the words of warning from Gandalf earlier that evening. 'Still. If I ever seek for their trust, I got to be truthful. In a subtle way.' Meri took a notice of Thorin watching her with a dark look and she quickly licked her suddenly gone-dry lips before answering.

"I seriously don't have a clue of why I'm here. I wish I had the knowledge of every decision made by the higher party, but sadly, I got no idea of their true reasons, Master Dori." Hearing his own name, Dori's eyes widened and he looked around to the other dwarves to share his shock. "All I know, is that something… happened to me and my partner, something quite insane, which then lead us to our purpose in here. We've discussed this with Gandalf and decided together, that it's the best for us to just accept this without causing any unnecessary commotion, and play our parts as the Valar intended us to do."

Gandalf nodded to this, coming to her aid. "Your newest recruits are in a quite unusual situation indeed. But as it happens, their misfortune shall come to be your blessing, Master Dwarves," he gave a small sad smile to Meri, "After all, you are not the only beings in Middle Earth who are far away from home."

That brought a slight guilty flicker in Dori's eyes, and the silver braided dwarf hesitated to pursue the subject any further. After all, the pain of losing home was something he knew very well of.

Gloin was the next one to speak. "Very well then. The lass seems to be harmless enough, for now," he claimed, but still eyed Meri with caution, "But, what of the man? Where is he? There are many details to discuss and facts to get straight, so why isn't he here?"

Meri turned to look at the dwarf and noticed him immediately straightening up on his seat when he saw her looking. He answered her studying gaze with a challenging stare of his own, as if daring her to inspect his very being the same manner she had done to the others before him. Gloin was a warrior, that much could be told by looking at him and reading his body language. He was trained by mind and body to face challenges and right at that moment, his hard eyes looked at Meri like she was a new opponent for him, or more like just another new bug to be crushed under his foot. The girl didn't let his rather hostile reaction bother her, her examining eyes automatically sliding over to his hair. Fiery red and voluminous as lion's mane, Gloin's hair was probably the ideal hair in dwarvish culture, something to truly gloss over and be envied by, but Meri though it to be slightly a bit too… much with muchness. Then again, the dwarf looked like he was very proud of his uncontrollable mane so who was she to tell him he was clearly over-doing it. Moving on from his hair to his beard (really, there was no telling where one started and the other one ended when the whole dwarf seemed to be covered in the same voluptuous red hair) the girl found it fancily decorated with different beads, making her curious of the reason of them all. Gloin was the perfect image of a dwarf from all tales, from head to toe, more than anyone else sitting in the table with him.

Getting back to the situation in hand, Meri recalled Gloin's question and suddenly felt like face-palming herself. This was the third time today someone asked where Aleksi was, and that did not include her own constant questioning of the matter. Just what could she possibly answer to the dwarf? 'Well, Gloin, my dear dwarf, Aleksi is currently busy chasing skirts it seems. He might come, or not, depends really if he gets lucky enough with his efforts.' Maybe crying was more suited considering her situation. 'That bloody, useless-.'

"Oh, but. Worry not, Master Glóin," Gandalf was the one to answer the dwarf with a knowing glint in his eyes and turned to look at the main entrance in one (overly)dramatic motion, "I have a small hunch that he will be joining us any moment now. Any, moment, now…"

Meri cocked up her eyebrows at the wizard's words. Knowing that Gandalf was not one to bullshit around, she turned to look at the door with an expecting expression, the company behind her doing the same. And, as always, Gandalf's wizardly knowledge didn't let anyone down and the old man knew perfectly well what he was talking about.

Gandalf clearly knew his shit for not even a second later did the main door bang open, and in such a forceful way too that it made people in the inn send curious glances towards it. A familiar blond headed human man - at this very moment, Bofur in the background let out an unbelieving gasp when realizing who he was - rushed into the room wearing a distressed look on his face. He took couple of hasted steps inside while searching all over the bar in an anxious manner. Once his gaze settled onto Meri, he stopped right onto his tracks, looking like he had been caught doing something terribly wrong. His wide brown eyes bounced from Meri to Gandalf, to Meri, to the dwarves behind her, to Meri, to the dwarves again, and finally back to Meri. The man gulped noticeably, his Adam's apple plopping up and down.

"Oh shit," he whispered out from his place near the doorway, and ran his hand through his blond hair, "Oh arse," he breathed out and moved his hand to scratch his neck. "Meri!" he tried to smile at the girl, but could only manage a small shy quirk of lips when seeing the girl's impassive look.

The man walked with quick long strides all the way up to them, his eyes getting a certain light in them when looking at the tall wizard at the table. "And Gandalf the Grey! My man! How long it's been? It's good to see-!"

"It's good to see YOU," Meri cut him off, clenching her jaw and giving the approaching man a disappointed look all while standing up from her seat on turning her back to the dwarves, "And what a good thing too that you were here with your sharp eyes to make a note of the company's arrival…! And coming straight to get me...! Would've completely missed them otherwise…! What a good thing, indeed…!" she hissed to him quietly but angrily, not really wanting the table full of dwarves behind her to hear her.

The man gave her a guilty pout and rubbed the back of his head in a goofy way. "Ah hah hah. Now, calm down Baby Bear, you're starting to scare me a little… You see, there was this-," he tried to explain but quickly quit his fat-ass excuse when Meri gave him a quick flicker of her hand to hush him out, one that greatly amused Gandalf who watched the exchange with raised brows.

"There, always, is," the girl growled out, before taking a deep inhale and forcing a calm look on her face. With one final pointed look to the man, she turned to speak to the company again, "I really must apologize my partner's horrible manners. He's truly bad at being on time at the places he's most needed in…" she sighed at them like a mother of a disobedient child would, which was funny because she was clearly much younger than the man.

Meri glanced at Aleksi and continued her motherly role by saying: "Now, why don't you start making up your rude absence by introducing yourself to the company?"

She did a quick pointed nod towards the table full of dwarves, and Aleksi was brought into the reality of their current situation.

"Well, arse," he blinked at the sight, "Aleksi Ek, at your service!" He rushed a quick bow to the company before giving each and one of the members a long, calculating look, succeeding making the dwarves quite uncomfortable under his heavy gaze.

Gandalf and Meri were long forgotten from Aleksi's world as the man hungrily eyed the sight of dwarves in front of him like a kid in a candy shop. It was kind of scary in a way, and the dwarves surely did not appreciate his burning gaze on them. His stare lingered on Fili and Kili, and something unrecognizable passed through his eyes, before he blinked, and turned to look at the leader of the company. Brown eyes suddenly glinted with appreciation and excitement. 'Holy shit. Dude. It's happening. It's actually taking place, right now. I'm in front of Thorin-fucking-Oakenshield and his kin, and the actual goddamned company! I can't even-. Holy shit. I got to remember to breath. Going to pass out otherwise. Two long fucking years, man. You have no idea. Thorin, dude, you seriously got no fucking clue. We've been getting ready for you for two years. For this. I can't believe it. We're finally here. We're going to take over Erebor. This is-. Jesus. I need a drink.'

"Thorin Oakenshield," Aleksi rasped out with a suddenly dried throat and let his eyes take in the sight of the future King under the Mountain, who was currently staring at him with a dark, unaccepting look on his face. 'Keep the glare, man. I'm only here to make sure you're staying strong and alive and healthy and sane. Alive and sane, sane and alive. Those are the key words for this quest.'

"Isn't this a longed-for meeting!" he continued with a sudden roguish grin, looking at the dwarf like he had just seen one of his best pals again, "It's about a time you marched back in to that mountain of yours! Believe it, me and Meri have already been waiting for years for someone to take some action over the matter. Years, man! And let me tell you now, for a man who has absolutely no patience at all to begin with, that's a pretty damn long time to wait, especially for a human. You know, I don't really have any extra years in my pockets to wait around for you to be chilling and doing nothing. Any much longer and I might've dragged you there by myself, with only the three of us taking over the Mountain," he rambled light-heartily, still not being able to take his eyes off from the said dwarf.

Meri gave the man one long unbelieving look, her eyes growing wider and wider with each word Aleksi let out from his careless mouth. Before he had even finished with his talking, the girl had already fully covered her face with her hands in mortification. 'Jesus. Christ. Why did I let this man speak?' She massaged her face. 'Thank lord mighty high above that Gandalf already gave away our secret or things would've taken one rather nasty turn here. Talk about being suspicious, who the hell speaks like that to a complete stranger!' She peeked through her fingers and glared at her fellow human. 'And would you stop eye-raping the dwarves already, you big idiot!'

Gandalf's eyes sparkled with amusement but Aleksi's speech did not seem to give a great impression to the dwarves. Majority of them looked at him with dark eyes.

"For two years…?" Balin whispered to Thorin, who only shrugged back to him as an answer.

"Hold yer tongue and show some respect to your superiors, boy…!" Dwalin growled at the same time, banging his fist on the table and making ale splash around from the pints, "This's no commoner yer speakin' to! The dwarf ye're currently facin' is one of the royal sons of Durin, the rightful ruler of Erebor - and the next King Under the Mountain…!" he hissed angrily and stared Aleksi with his infamous hard look on his face, making Aleksi suddenly regret his own straightforwardness.

Meri took an unintentional step back from the table while watching the big dwarf seethe at Aleksi. If she previously though Gloin looked hostile enough towards her, it was nothing compared to Dwalin's ruthless behavior that downright slashed out to attack the human man. Now, if Gloin was a warrior to the core, Dwalin, on the other hand, was an unpredictable wild beast, one that was ready to protect his territory anytime at any cost. The dwarf was… huge, and not in the fat kind of way. Comparing to the others, he was easily the tallest of the bunch, even outgrowing the Durin royals, and had the widest, most muscled shoulders Meri had ever seen on a person his size. Like Thorin, Dwalin too had grim features and no signs of gentle traits on him, looking very much unlike his kind his older brother Balin. But just like Balin, Dwalin too didn't bore any braids on his dark hair or short beard, though he did have few beads struck through (rather painful-looking too) his ears. But that wasn't the most curious thing in the dwarf, it was the fact that the crown of his head was, actually, very much bald. Which was an eye-catching twist in itself, but, the hairless area was also covered in strange tattoos, making Meri seriously think that maybe the dwarf had purposely shaved his hair off for a reason or another. Though, before the girl had the time to really start thinking about it all, she forced her eyes off the fierce-looking dwarf, afraid that he'd caught her staring.

Thorin leaned forward at the table and did a quick look around the dim tavern, searching once more for any unwanted audience before exchanging some silent words in Khuzdul with Dwalin. After that he turned to gaze at the still standing human man, giving him an unimpressed once over.

"Quite the… individuals you've found me Gandalf," the leader commented, flashing another unamused look to the wizard next to him, "From the manners of this one, I can only imagine you've picked him up straight from the streets. And you want me to welcome him to my trusted company, just like that?" he asked slowly and closed tightly his eyes, trying to keep his cool.

Gandalf stroked his beard while looking at Aleksi with twinkling eyes. He turned to Thorin and smiled.

"Why, yes. Yes, I do."

Thorin shook his head at the answer and focused his eyes on Aleksi's person again. He could spot the same unfamiliar, rough accent from the man's tongue, making it clear that he and the girl hailed from the same place, though where, Thorin did not know and it was making him feel uneasy. Odd names, odd appearances, odd accents, odd manners… And the petite girl was wearing men's clothing, for Durin's sake…! If either one would suddenly grow out a second head, the dwarf was not sure if he'd be surprised at all to see that. This human man happened to give him odd vibes too, that is, even more odd than the girl, making Thorin suspect that there was something else wrong with him than just the clear cultural differences.

"I'll be completely honest now, for I see no point in niceties here," Thorin spoke to Aleksi, eyeing him with deep resentment, "I do not want, nor do I ask for your services, Mister Ekk-," the dwarf King grimaced at the odd surname, "-and if it were up to me, I absolutely wouldn't let you join us in this quest, no matter what your female companion may claim to have seen in her dreams. Nevertheless, I find myself in tough situation because according to Gandalf, I apparently need you on this journey. And although I do not agree with his reasons, I'd be a fool to deny a wizard's demand." The wizard earned nasty looks from the other dwarves. "I'm told you too have this gift of… foreseeing," Thorin brought out with a skeptic tone, holding in the need to pinch the bridge of his nose, "Are the dreams you see the same as the girl's? Have you seen Erebor as well?"

As soon as Erebor was mentioned, the dwarves grew uncharacteristically silent around the table, a hungry curiosity burning in their eyes as they watched the humans and waited desperately for answers. Even Bilbo seemed to be more than anxious to hear the news.

Aleksi took a deep breath when listening to Thorin's voice in the air. He felt like a silly little school girl standing in front of her life-long crush - not that he had any experience of that - but couldn't care less about that, even though he felt the odd looks some of the dwarves were giving him because of his shameless ogling. 'Dudes, relax. No homo. I'm not going to molest the dwarf or anything. It's just some healthy, manly admiration, nothing gay.' He had to remember his manners when giving Thorin an answer or Meri would surely kill him in his sleep. Or Dwalin, judging from the dark look the dwarf was giving him.

"Well, then, I can only hope that in time we can prove just how useful we could be to you and to the company," Aleksi glanced at Meri and saw her hesitantly nodding at him in encouragement, "As to your question, yes, I see these dreams too. However, my-ah, visions-," he inwardly snickered at the word, wondering just what the hell had Meri and Gandalf been feeding to the dwarves, "-don't come as often and aren't as accurate as Meri's but nonetheless they are pretty much the same stuff. It's as Gandalf said, you need us in this quest. We are here to give you help with whatever comes across you while on the road." 'And after it. Dude. Especially after it.'

"Yes, yes, that much I've already gathered," Thorin said impatiently, not keen on playing nice anymore, "But Gandalf insists-," he gave a quick grim look to the wizard, "-that you've dreamed the outcome of this quest, along with other things that concerns me and my company. Whether I believe this or not, I doubt that the wizard would completely lie of such things, and though this all sounds like a big hoax to me, I'll give you a chance to humor me for a while. So have a go for it," he said and gestured to the humans in a way as if allowing them to do their magic, "Tell us. Reveal all you know. Just what lies for us in the future you claim to have seen?"

Everyone around the table seemed to be holding their breaths as Thorin leaned further on the table, watching the blond man with such a fiery intensity in his sapphire eyes it'd make any grown-ass man suddenly stutter and blush with odd thoughts. Luckily, Aleksi was more than accustomed to that kind of passionate eye-playing (though, mostly by him and in flirty fashion) that the heated stare of the dwarf King left him unaffected, if not a slightly satisfied to know that he had something that Thorin desperately seemed to want. Meri, beside him, however, was not as fortunate as him, with her being woman and all, and taking fully in the blazing intensity of Thorin's eyes that left her to swoon on her legs and making Aleksi wonder if he should be getting ready to catch her when needed.

Thorin licked his lips, only one thought in his mind as he leaned even further on the table, his gaze boring into Aleksi's brown eyes as he whispered the words out.

"Are we to be successful in reclaiming Erebor?"

---

"Men like him inspire my inner serial killer." -All women ever

So much staring. So much ogling. So much eye-molesting. And we've only just started this journey, people. Is it possible to have even more of these disturbing, totally not romantic but still oh-so intense eye-contacts? Heck yes, I've signed for this job. I'll make it happen.

The beginning kinda sucked, I think. I could've made it better, probably should've, but honestly speaking, I just wanted to get this chapter done and out with and then focus on the next one. But on to more important matters, WHAT DID YOU THINK OF MY BABIES? Let me introduce you to Aleksi Ek and Meri Karhu, my beloved children of this story! I seriously get all giddy and giggling when writing these two nutters, they're just so fun to play around with. And wooooo boy, do I got PLANS for these two. I got some serious, big-ass plans it's kinda scaring me a little. I know you've not seen that much of them yet, not anywhere near enough to make a whole character-analysis of them yet, but all in good time people, all in good time. We'll get to there, I promise. I'll lead you to there. By your hand if I must.

Let's talk some more about the characters, shall we now? So, basically, Thorin's a huge, self-centered asswipe with some serious anger problems, big surprise there. I know he's like that in so many many many other fics, but let's face it, it's because he's really meant to be this sort of a royal prick. There's really no other option, no other way to write of him, except like this. But there's so much more in him than just being a people-hating sour-puss, just like there's so much more in every single character of the story. And I want to tell about these other qualities too, about the traits and behavior that people often tend to put aside. Take Nori for example. He's a thief, alright? A thief with a kinda bad reputation. He likes to steal and usually easily gets away with that too. But why does he do it? Where did it all come from? And is there anything else significant in him than just being a dwarvish thug? Well, I'll tell you. Somewhere along the way, I'll tell you my version of his past, as well as several others'. Including Thorin. Because the grumpy dwarf is kinda important for this story.

ANOTHER major mind-blower, one that I'm really over-doing with, is the thing with dwarven ages... Buckle up your seatbelts and hold onto your laptops darlings because shit is about to get told here. You all know how Fili, Kili and Ori are basically the youngsters of the dwarven company, right, yeeears juniors from the rest, yeah? Well, I'm making them as teenagers! Basically, children with their minds, adults with their bodies (not including full beards yet etc) and it's just awesome, isn't it!? So that being, we got Ori, the youngest of the trio, in his middle teens, Kili in his later teens, and Fili who's already knocking the doors of adulthood. Oh god, how I can't wait to write down all this...! It's. Going to be. Sweeeet.

By the way, did you notice Fili's short and overly adorable moment in the spotlight? Oh god, I can totally see that happen, he kinda tends to speak out the obvious, doesn't he? One of those "If there's a key, there must be a door!" moment of his. Golden! Fili's such a darling. Praise him. Praise his precious soul. Let him never change.

Shout-out to Midnight Moon Lupine for the first review, hope you enjoyed this chapter as well!

Stay strong, stay safe and always use protection, people. And gimme feedback.

Secretly yours,

Miss Always Wrong.