A/N: Here's the fourth chapter. Thank you for those that are new followers, I'm glad you are enjoying this story so far! I have a few ideas that keep popping into my head of how I'd like to further the story. Anyways, if you enjoy, go ahead and leave a review!

DISCLAIMER: I do not own anything to do with The Hobbit or the characters.

A few minutes had passed since Holga had agreed to Erubadhriel's journey. The three of them were standing in the alley outside of the back door, ignoring the fact that the temperature had dropped significantly and it was chilly outside. Holga bent down, and wrapped her fingers around the drawstring of the young girl's bag. After taking a close look through Erubadhriel's belongings for her journey, Holga shook her head slowly.

"This is mad. But I won't argue with you anymore. Go on! Before I change my mind completely!" Holga huffed softly, tossing the raggedy bag to the girl.

Erubadhriel grabbed it mid-air and swiftly swung it over her shoulder and grinned. She peeked over at Thorin and saw he was already walking away.

With one final firm hug, Erubadhriel dashed away from Holga and the Inn.

Her heart was pounding. She was so ready for a new adventure. It'd been years since she'd journeyed away from home. She grew so bored and weary of the same day to day tasks. Adventure and fresh surroundings were the things she so desperately craved in life.

Erubadhriel's feet moved swiftly below her. She tried stretching her leg's to match the dwarf's pace, but he was still a yard or two ahead of her. She felt she'd only gone a few paces, but when she looked back to the inn she could barely make out Holga's figure. She saw the figure's arm raise up and wave slowly, and she mimicked the gesture.

They walked in silence for about ten minutes. Erubadhriel desperately wanted to break the awkwardness, but settled for just chewing her bottom limp.

They reached the end of one particular street she was not fond of. The dark alleys were riddled with women who waited in silence for business. She grimaced and looked to her feet. She would hate to live that life. To live in the streets and barely make enough money to feed herself. To have to give her body to someone that would defile her. If it weren't for Holga, she imagined that's exactly where she would have ended up.

She pinched her left arm that hung by her side, trying to shake away the thoughts of her wretched past. The thoughts constantly wormed their way into her mind day after day. It had gotten easier though. Easier to forget those days. They didn't matter now anyway. She had a home. A woman who took care of her. Friends that lived all around her. A Hobbit she was on her way to greet once again. And now she had a mysterious dwarf to follow.

Although.. come to think of it. Wasn't she supposed to be leading him?

As if Thorin had heard that last thought, he stopped abruptly.

Erubadhriel hadn't noticed this however. She continued to trot along on the paved road while staring at her shoes, averting her gaze from the poverty around her.

"Oof!"

She had walked right into him, her forehead bumping between his shoulder blades. She held her breath for a moment, looking at the massive back in front of her. His dark hair that was both braided and loose tickled her face. She scrunched her nose, and reached up to scratch it.

"What are you doing?" She huffed, still scratching her nose.

He turned to face her slowly, and realized that she had not yet stepped back. He was looking straight down at her, his face mere inches away from hers.

Thorin took notice that her eyes were a pale green color. He also noticed that her hair looked even darker in the moonlight.

Awkwardly, they took a step back in unison.

"I believe this is where you step in." He said, the rumble of his voice made her want to shiver.

Her eyebrows knitted up in confusion, scanning his face for an explaination.

"Oh!" She finally said, blushing slightly. She felt like an idiot.

"Come on then!" Erubadhriel urged. Without thinking, she grabbed his forearm and pulled him with her. Only, he didn't budge.

She looked back at him over her shoulder, and saw that he was staring at her hand. His eyes were dark with something. Anger? Yes, definitely anger.

Immediately she let go of him. He snatched his arm to his chest, as if her hand had burned him. She apologized quickly and began to turn away from him, but Thorin stopped her from doing so. He swiftly grabbed her arm just as she had done to him, but held a tighter grasp than she had.

"If you are to accompany me, you will learn your place - child." He whispered darkly.

Thorin noticed Erubadhriel's face grow dark with anger and perhaps a bit of embarrassment.

He expected the girl to spew insults at him and to snatch her arm away. He thought perhaps he himself had gone too far and that she would run back to her inn. She did none of these things however. Instead she smiled. Smiled!

The dwarf scowled when he heard her giggle. The girl was insane, he was sure of it!

He let go of her and she laughed some more. Thorin was beginning to fear for her sanity until she finally spoke up.

"I am sorry, Master Dwarf, truly I am. But you are quite a serious fellow! I haven't seen you crack a smile yet!" She laughed, blinking her eyes up at him.

Still, he stood stoic. His face was stern and showed no emotion. She rolled her eyes and turned away from him.

"Aye, this will be a fun trip indeed!" She yelled out sarcastically, waving her hand in the air.

A few hours had passed since they spoke, and Erubadhriel's pace was beginning to slow. It was well past midnight now, and her legs grew weary. She had woken the previous day at the crack of dawn, and lack of sleep was beginning to affect her.

She scanned the forest around her, looking for any familiar trees or paths. Finally, after a few more paces she saw her favorite oak tree. It had served as a resting place many times in her life. She let her legs come to a stop and she turned to Thorin.

"I don't know about you but I'm exhausted. That tree -" she stopped mid-sentence to point to her right, "is where I am going to sleep for a bit if you don't mind."

Thorin wanted to object, seeing as how he still felt wide awake. However, he saw that her bright eyes shined no more. Her eyelids drooped and she looked very tired. To be fair, they had walked up countless hills and her pace never slowed. Not until this moment anyway.

Not waiting for his approval, she used whatever energy she still had to walk up the slight incline of grass to reach the tree. When she reached the base of the tree, she saw the familar circle of roots that made the shape of an odd looking bed.

Just as she was beginning to lie down she looked towards Thorin.

"Where are my manners? Would you like to sleep here, Master Dwarf?" She said, her usual sarcasm was no longer present, she seemed genuinely interested.

He searched her face for a moment and tried to decide if she was joking or not.

"If you'd like I can take that patch of grass over ther-"

"Be quiet and get some sleep. I'll keep watch."

"Watch?" She said, fighting the urge to laugh. "Watch from what, rabbits and squirrels?" She grinned, amusing herself. Only herself, however. She saw that he did not see the humor.

Instead, he continued to stare at her. With his eyes that were just so piercing, and dark, and intriguing -

"Ahem! Well. Okay, wake me in a couple of hours. I just need a bit of rest is all." She said quietly. Before she'd finished her sentence completely he'd already walked over to the tree straight across from her. It was about twenty feet away and she felt a strange sense of loneliness. She wasn't sure what it was. Maybe she wasn't used to being alone and separated this far from someone during the night anymore. She always had Holga right next door.

She felt a bit more at ease though, when he reached the tree nearest him and sat down. He sat up straight with his chest facing her direction.

A few seconds passed of awkward eye contact, and Erubadhriel could stand it no longer.

She reached into her bag and pulled out a thin blanket. After fluffing it into the air, she let it fall onto her legs.

"See you in a bit, Master Dwarf." She said, yawning at the end of her sentence.

She waited for an audible reply but instead Thorin settled for a simple bow of the head.

'Not one for conversation, I suppose' She thought to herself.

Once Erubadhriel's head was resting on a root of the large oak tree, Thorin breathed a long sigh of relief. He tilted his head so that it rested on the tree behind him and closed his eyes.

His mind was racing with thoughts and emotions. He felt annoyed that he was trapped with a talkative and slightly strange girl. He also felt angry that Gandalf had essentially thrown her into his care.

The dwarf did feel slightly intrigued though. The girl was certainly eccentric and loud. But she also seemed kind. It took some bravery, he thought, to go along on a trip with a dwarf she hardly knew anything about. He appreciated her loyalty to Gandalf and her desire to help the wizard. Or perhaps she intended to help Thorin and his company too? He wasn't sure. He didn't think she understood completely what was at stake here. What he and his kin desired to do. She certainly didn't seem to understand who he was or why his home needed to be reclaimed. The girl seemed incredibly naive but he admired her adventurous spirit.

He also began to think about the hobbit they were journeying to meet with. How did she happen to know him? Why on earth would a girl like her know anything about hobbits or any of them personally?

Thorin opened his eyes and hoped to be home in his bed or somewhere warm and less confusing. But instead all he saw was Erubadhriel's tiny form huddled on the ground.

Her name kept floating in his thoughts as well. It sounded elvish, but she was no elf. She was incredibly short and had dark wavy hair. Her eyes were pale and bright like an elf's but she showed no other similarities with the race. Then he remembered the moment at the inn when he had seen her ear. It definitely had a point to it, there was no doubt about that.

So many thoughts and questions coursed through his mind and he desperately wished to know the answers. But at the same time, he did not. Normally, he didn't like to intrude into other's private lives. He rarely cared to socialize at all.

Erubadhriel was different though. She was so odd. So strange. He almost thought he rather liked it. He was so used to women of all races being timid and shy around him that they often bored him. This girl seemed to not care who he was and showed little respect to him.

He remembered when she'd grabbed his arm as if he was a child.

Admittedly, he wished he hadn't grabbed her arm and gotten so angry. He knew he had a temper that could boil over any minute, he had been told him this countless times. He also knew better than to treat a woman that way. But it had infuriated him that she just didn't care. She had laughed!

Instead of letting himself think about her, he decided to look up at the sky.

It was incredibly dark outside but the moon and stars made the fields glow slightly.

Without even realizing it, his eyes began to droop. He thought about his home, as he usually did. He thought of the fire and the destruction. He saw the faces of dwarves screaming and crying. The sound of crowds running away to safety. He saw darkness overcome him and didn't even realize he had finally fallen asleep.

Words were spoken in the crisp morning air, but they were muffled and unintelligible. They were soft and quiet at first, but grew louder in volume and urgency.

It almost sounded like someone speaking his name. But the dwarf often dreamed of people calling out to him for help. He imagined a dwarf was shouting at him or perhaps a human? A woman that was for sure.

Still, the words were muffled and quiet - until finally he felt a shove on the shoulder.

"Thorin! We need to get going!"

Finally, the dwarf's eyes snapped open. It took a moment for them to adjust to the bright world around him but they finally settled on the woman leaning over him.

Her eyes were sparkling and she had a smile on her face.

'Always bloody smiling' Thorin thought to himself.

"Here!" She said quietly, handing him a piece of bread. "I've already had some, figured we ought to have something in our bellies for the journey!"

Thorin shook his head quickly, trying to shake away the sleepiness from his eyes.

He realized that her appearance had changed significantly. Instead of letting her dark hair flow all over her shoulders, it was now pulled back into a loose braid. He saw she had some stray pieces of hair covering her ears. His eyes lowered from her face to her clothing and saw that she'd opted for pants. They were certainly different from the dress she had been wearing at the inn last night.

Thorin didn't realize how long he'd kept his gaze on her lower half of her body until she stiffened and cleared her throat.

"Yes, yes. I'm wearing trousers. What a surprise, a modest little lady such as myself dares to wear trousers! For the holy ones' sake I'm so tired of everyone giving me a har-"

"I like them."

Erubadhriel's mouth slammed shut, and yet again an awkward silence fell upon them.

Thorin desperately tried to think of something to say to cover up the fact he had spoken his thoughts out loud.

"Makes more sense... for the journey, that is." He grumbled. He wished he didn't even have to be near her right now. Why on earth was he, Thorin Oakenshield, so flustered? He was never flustered! He was always collected and calm. At least for the most part.

"Right." She said softly. "Um, here! Eat something!" Her voice was a bit higher than she wished it would be.

Eventually, he reached his hand out and took the bread from her. He muttered some sort of sound and Erubadhriel took it as his way of saying 'thank you'.

She sat down beside him with her bag in between her legs. While eating his bread, he looked to his right and noticed how close her shoulder was to his. This girl had no problem with personal space and it was ridiculous.

'Almost humorous.' Thorin thought, turning his attention back to the bread.

He watched her reach into her bag and saw her pull out a rolled up map. She unrolled it and flattened it with her palm.

Her fingers danced along the page trying to locate where they were and finally found what she was looking for.

She mumbled under her breath and tapped the paper here and there and grinned.

"What are you doing?" He asked her, and she turned her head to face him.

"Just refreshing my memory. I'm so excited to see Bilbo again." She said, a smile still plastered to her face. He rather liked her smile. Not that it mattered.

"Tell me about this hobbit. How did you meet him?" He said, while taking another bite of bread.

Her eyes grew wide and she stared at him for a second. Was he actually engaging in conversation? She thought it was odd, but she didn't want to miss this opportunity to talk with the dwarf.

"Well..." She began, leaning her head on the trunk of the tree they both sat against.

"Bilbo Baggins is very kind. He can be a bit shy and nervous, but his kindness resonates. He has strict tea times and keeps his house very tidy. Above all else, he keeps to himself."

She was satisfied with her answer and she shyly nudged him with her elbow,

"Just be your usual cheerful self and he'll warm right up to you!" She teased, but he simply stared at her.

"You have an odd sense of humour, Erubadhriel."

She hadn't heard him say her name yet. The way his voice sounded made her want to melt into a puddle.

"Aye, I've been told that many times. I apologize if I offend you at all. I get carried away sometimes." She sighed, awkwardly rubbing her knuckles in her lap.

"It's not a bad thing - your sense of humour. I just don't really understand why you are so cheerful all of the time. You barely even know me and you speak to me as if I am your friend." He said, surprised that he was actually talking to her so much. He didn't mind it as much as he thought he would though.

"Oh! Well. I don't know, you seem like a nice enough person. And if we are going on this little journey together I suppose we have to get along, don't you think?" She asked, turning her face towards his once more.

"Getting along with and being friends with are two different things." He said roughly.

She sighed once more and used her hands to push herself onto her feet.

"I swear there's a smile somewhere inside of you, Thorin. You just need to let it out! I bet you ten thousand coins I'll get one out of you before our journey's end!" She said confidently, not bothering to look at his face for a reply. She grabbed her bag and starting walking back to their path.

Thorin sat with a confused look on his face. Every conversation he had with this girl ended so strangely.

However, he knew one thing was for certain.

She was going to owe him ten thousand coins by the time they reach this hobbit's house.