Chapter 4

The birds were chirping, the sun was slowly rising, and you yawned. Besides the fact that you weren't entirely comfortable riding a pony, you clearly hadn't slept enough. Gandalf woke you at first light of day: somehow that came earlier than you remembered.

Adding Thorin's biting comments about how you were Gandalf's responsibility and you weren't part of the company, your mood dropped very easily. But your pony was nice, and the weather was too, so you decided to stay positive. You shot a last look at the Shire, and your temporary home, as you all crossed the border. While you weren't paying attention, Fili and Kili were riding beside you.

"So, are you up for the bet?" Fili asked you, grinning under that strange moustache of him. You raised an eyebrow.

"A bet?" you muttered, looking around. Surely, the dwarves were huddling together, talking about Hobbits and burglars and how much they were going to bet.

"Whether or not mister Boggins will join us," Kili didn't grin; he was smiling unlike his brother, and you sighed.

"I don't have any money."

It was quiet for only a split second.

"We can bet watch turns," Kili started, and you steered Marian (you had called your not so noble, tiny steed Marian) away from some bushes. Stubborn little thing.

"Since uncle is going to be bothering you about those, company or not," Fili continued, not missing a beat. You looked over at the front of the company. You didn't expect Thorin to dismiss simple duties like that just because he felt like you shouldn't be accepted into the group properly. Letting out a deep sigh, you slouched.

"Alright then. I believe that mister Baggins," you put emphasis on the name so that Kili would finally get it right, "will, in the end, join your merry men."

Well, some merry men. Mostly stout and angry men, actually.

"Deal," both patted your shoulders at the same time, and then settled for silence as you kept on travelling. Sure enough, after some time of travelling, there was a yelling in the distance.

"Wait! WAIT!"

You turned to see Bilbo racing towards the group, and you grinned. You had officially won more sleep. All ponies were halting, so that Bilbo could reach Balin and give him the contract, but yours was experiencing some problems.

"Maria- Marian. Ho. Stop. Halt. Please. Mar- Marian."

She was trotting towards the front of the company, and you were close to passing by Gandalf as Thorin briefly watched you and your steed from hell walk by. Of course, they had to give you the demented pony who was deaf. Of course.

"Marian, deary, this is really inappropriate," you muttered as you saw Bilbo being hauled onto a pony of his own, as you were now clearly ahead of everyone. You rubbed your temple, praying to whoever was out there that she would be able to stop one day.

She couldn't. Bilbo had cried out for a handkerchief –you had no idea why- and everyone briefly stopped again, leaving you to figure out if this tiny horse had some kind of brakes. Driving a car was a hundred times easier than stopping this godforsaken animal. You cursed Marian to the high heavens, and meanwhile cursed your natural love for animals.

It was good that you rode at the back of the company; it gave you quite the distance to cross before everyone started riding again. It also gave you the opportunity to briefly talk to everyone, trying to memorize their names.

When night fell, you stopped at a quaint little cliff. Let me correct that: Dwalin forcefully stopped Marian and almost dragged you off of the pony. Your fears were confirmed; Marian was older and pretty oblivious to the world. Damned dwarves.

You were looking forward to sleeping, but those plans had been cancelled too. Lying next to Bombur, you found it hard to sleep on the hard rocks with someone breathing in ten flies every few seconds. Thusly, you settled for joining Fili and Kili near the fire as you tried to sew yourself a cape. The weather had been treating you well these days, but you never knew when it might rain.

You were almost dozing off when there were high-pitched screams in the distance, and you shot up instantly.

"What was that?" Bilbo asked, thinking exactly the same as you did.

"Orcs." Kili said, his voice more serious, and you let out a muffled noise of fear. Whatever orcs were –and you had a strange feeling you didn't want to know- they clearly weren't very pleasant beings. You could see Thorin wake up from his sitting position near the fire.

Orcs clearly were bad news if they could wake up the king under the mountain.

"Throat cutters. There'll be dozens of them out there. The Lowlands are crawling with them."

You widened your eyes at Fili, who was calmly smoking his pipe. You had a lot of questions at this point –throat cutters? Dozens of them ahead of us? Could you try to read the mood instead of smoking that damned pipe like you're talking about a fairytale?- but none came out as you probably gave him a very dumb look.

"They strike in the wee small hours, when everyone's asleep. Quick and quiet, no screams…" your attention turned to Kili as you waited for him to finish his sentence, "…just lots of blood."

"I'm not falling asleep ever again," your tone was deadly serious, and both gave you a funny look before cracking a smile. You were still dumbfounded as Thorin decided to join the conversation.

"You think that's funny? You think a night raid by Orcs is a joke?"

You feared that question. Mainly because it meant they weren't joking and that there were actual throat-cutters out there.

"We didn't mean anything by it," Kili said, and you could feel the kicked puppy-look, even though his back was turned to you. You couldn't hear Thorin's muttered reply, but it sounded venomous. You watched him walk away to the side of the cliff.

"Don't mind him, laddie," Balin said, scaring the living daylights out of you. Where did he come from?!

"Thorin has more cause than most to hate Orcs."

You felt like it was story time with uncle Balin.

"After the dragon took the Lonely Mountain, King Thror tried to reclaim the ancient Dwarf Kingdom of Moria. But our enemy had got there first. Moria had been taken by legions of Orcs, led by the most vile of all their race: Azog, the defiler."

You put away your sewing gear, directing your full attention to Balin and his story. Anything that could make you redeem Thorin and his constant moodiness was a good excuse to drop everything.

"A giant, Gundabad Orc, had sworn to wipe out the line of Durin. He began…by beheading the King."

You briefly looked around; Bilbo was staring at Thorin, as were Fili and Kili. It was silent for a few seconds before Balin continued.

"Thrain, Thorin's father, was driven mad by grief. He went missing. Taken prisoner or killed, we did not know. We were leaderless. Defeat, and death, were upon us."

You could see some dwarves waking up; sitting up in their blankets, looking at their king. Suddenly it seemed a little bit clearer why Thorin always seemed so downcast. You couldn't imagine being a ray of sunshine seeing your grandfather killed and your father gone missing.

"That is when I saw him. A young Dwarf prince, facing down the pale Orc. He stood alone against his terrible foe, his armor rent, wielding nothing but an oaken branch as a shield. Azog, the defiler, learned that day, that the line of Durin could not be so easily broken.

Our forces rallied, and drove the Orcs back. Our enemy had been defeated. But there was no feast nor song that night, for our dead were beyond the count of grief. We few had survived. And I thought to myself then, there is one who I could follow. There is one I could call King."

You were too busy staring up at Balin too notice the company standing up and facing Thorin.

"And the pale Orc? What happened to him?" Bilbo asked, drawing your attention, as you turned from the hobbit to the king. His face was stern, and at the mention of the pale orc you could see it grow colder.

"Slunk back into the hole whence he came. That filth died of his wounds long ago."

For once, you could forgive the biting response, as you leaned back against the rock. However heroic the story was, it all sounded like a fantasy novel to you. Hard to believe. And you knew it was true, because it would make no sense for Balin to lie about something like this.

You just hoped you wouldn't encounter any orcs on your journey.