Chapter 6: Coming Clean

This journey was going to be the worst thing that ever happened to her. She hadn't slept in three days, afraid that she would wriggle out of her hood in her sleep. She was having a difficult time breathing with the scarf tied over her nose and mouth. Oh, and then there was the fact that summer had just begun. She was sweltering hot in her cursed leather coat! How did Aragorn survive in his?! With a heavy sigh she reached inside her hood to wipe her brow again. She had to get ahead somehow and get some fresh air and sleep. Rubbing her eyes wearily she pulled one of the boxes of chocolate from her pack. This ought to cheer her up. She opened the box eagerly, excited for her favorite sweet. She picked out the largest one and went to pick it up, her mouth watering like feral animal. Her fingers sunk deep into the chocolate and the inside exploded all over her hand. Melted. All of the damned chocolates had begun to melt in the heat of the sun. Her eyes widened in surprise and annoyance before she slammed the wooden box shut, stuffing it back into her pack. Let the stupid things cover her clothes, she didn't even have the strength of mind to care!

"Was that chocolate?"

She turned instinctively at the sound of Kili's voice. He kicked his pony's sides so that it rode a little faster and pulled on the reigns when they were side by side. She narrowed her eyes and kept her gaze straight ahead. Long lost brother or not, she was tired and needed to get some sleep before she murdered the entire company of fourteen and a wizard. She needed to somehow ride ahead, assuming she wouldn't fall asleep on poor Boppadoo right here and now. She felt her head begin to droop and almost forgot he was there.

"My sister used to love chocolate," he mused, looking at her pack a little enviously. "Well, still does somewhere, I guess."

Brili stiffened at the mention of her. Oh, he couldn't do this to her now. She was far too sleepy to keep this ruse up long enough. She watched as Fili hung his head slightly as if he wanted to correct Kili's firm belief that she was alive. Why couldn't Kili think she was dead like Fili clearly did?

"Aye," Balin agreed ahead of them a little ways, "the lass did have quite the penchant for sweets."

"Penchant?" Fili scoffed. "That girl lived and died for candy. Couldn't come home without any or she would never forgive you!"

"Sister?" Bilbo asked behind them, ever curious about the company.

Kili turned to look at the hobbit and grinned. "Yeah, our sister, she's missing. Oh! That reminds me!" He began to search inside his coat pockets hurriedly before pulling out a very weathered piece of parchment and passing it to Bilbo. "Have you seen this girl?"

The hobbit took the paper, staring at whatever was drawn on it in surprise before he looked up at her. She shook her head subtly, hoping the hobbit would take the hint and would stop looking at her. He couldn't be sure it was her anyways! The two of them had spent a total of fifteen minutes alone in his kitchen! It was dark in that room, he wouldn't be able to recognize her! He shook his head and handed the paper back to her brother, watching her all the same.

Kili regarded it fondly before holding it out to her. "Mind you don't touch it. It's the only one I've got and you've got sticky chocolate fingers."

There she was, drawn like she had been pulled from a dream. She had worked very hard to forget those days in the mountain. This drawing was living proof that she had once been a very happy, very spoiled young woman. It was a fantastic drawing of her, with hair that fanned out from behind her in a beautiful gown. Her eyes seemed to shine with dreams of knights and princes. She looked so… joyful. No, she was not that girl, not anymore. She shook her head at the poster and turned to face the front. Kili just sighed wistfully and tucked it back into his coat.

"That's alright," he said plainly, "didn't think you had. No one has seen her in a while now."

The conversation left her feeling quite lonely. She almost wanted to rip the hood off and cry out 'I'm here! I'm here, Kili!' but she wouldn't. No, if she did that then she could kiss Rivendell and her title as Ranger goodbye! They would have her sent back to the mountain to wait for their return with Bofur. Then all of this would be for naught; all the nights she had spent lonely and doubting her decision would have been in vain.

She tucked her scarf down a little to lick a tiny bit of melted chocolate from her fingertips, glad that the conversation was over. The moment she tasted the chocolate on the tip of her tongue she almost cried out. Oh bless her, it was euphoric! It was bitter and sweet, sharp and velvety! Oh, where had she been the past four years to forget such a delicious taste! Her eyes widened and she practically dissolved into the poor pony, her limbs turning to mush in delight. It was decided; she would return to Rivendell and write a sonnet about chocolate!

"You said she was lost? What happened?" Bilbo inquired, ruining Brili's moment of private delight. Ugh, was this really necessary?

Kili frowned a little bit before pulling something from his belt. It began to sparkle and twinkle in the sunlight. She nearly choked at the sight of it. A locket from the worst day of her life! Her brother wrapped his hand around it, a look of unimaginable grief filling his eyes. He turned to Bilbo with a forlorn look marking every facial feature.

"It's my fault," he announced. "Well, kind of all of ours, really. See, she was supposed to get married to Bofur," he pointed ahead to indicate towards her least favorite person in the company, "and Bri…," he chuckled, "well, Bri can be a little… dramatic at times."

Dramatic?! Dramatic?! She tugged on her reigns accidently with indignation. Boppadoo, ever the well trained pony, stopped instantly causing the other ponies behind her to stop as well. Dramatic?! They planned to pawn her off to some random stranger, hadn't given her a word of warning and then sprung the news in a box with a locket at a birthday party. And they called her dramatic?! She could barely keep herself from slapping that stupid word from his lips.

Fili snorted a little. "A little? I've never seen such a fit. Locked herself in her room for days, she did."

She could feel her blood boiling now. They made her seem like what she had done was for no good reason! Wasn't her freedom worth any cost? Had they learned nothing from her leaving?! And she had only locked herself in for one day! Who's the dramatic one now!

"She stuck around for a while and then one morning she was gone. Not a word or a note. She just left this by the river for us to find," Kili finished his tale much more somberly than it had begun.

Brili, either too tired or hungry to care just huffed and kicked Boppadoo so hard in the sides that he began running. She would have thought to stop him but the idea of going ahead seemed much more exciting.

Happy birthday to her indeed!

~o~

The company traveled for several more days. Brili never slept for more than a few hours at a time and she was growing more and more weary each day. She hated this. She was hot and cramped in her clothes, unable to speak or sing without riding so far ahead she would lose the company. More than once she had thought of just taking Boppadoo in the night and going back to Rivendell alone. But that would require abandoning her post, a dishonor she could never live down. No, she would get the wizard and his filthy dwarves to her homeland and then disappear until they left. She didn't care if they found Erebor or not, she would have nothing to do with it!

Gandalf whistled behind him and pointed ahead of him. She looked up; he wanted her to scout out the rest of the way. She knew they were close, about a day or two away from the sacred halls. She galloped past the company with decent speed for a pony. When she was far enough away she pulled the scarf from her face. Oh, the fresh air made her much calmer. When she lowered her hood she was appalled to realize how damp and dirty her curls were. She had never wanted to bathe so much in all of her life! She steered her trusted pony a little ways off of the known path, hoping to find a spring or something, anything involving water.

She had no luck really. Or nothing that boded any good will. There had been an old beaten down house that she hadn't been particularly fond of but in a pinch she supposed it would work. So with frown she covered her face with her hood, forgoing the scarf in favor of breathing, and turned back. It wasn't hard to find the company again and she settled on riding beside the wizard as if she were his watchdog. She was so, so tired. They rode for a short time and just when she thought she couldn't keep riding any longer, Thorin ordered the company to stop.

They were at the ruined farm. She instantly felt remorse for whatever fate the occupants would have suffered. The house looked as if it had been squashed and then burnt. There was a small, now untended garden off in the distance that boasted a few withered crops. She slid off of Boppadoo and approached the house with an unfortunate sigh. What could have happened here? She began to inspect around the house when she found a small pond a distance from the garden.

Oh water. Sweet, sweet water! She ran to the spring, all else be damned, and all but jumped in. She sat by the bank and pulled her boots off to soak her burning feet in the cool water. Oh relief! She looked behind her to realize that she was a good distance from the company, who were all busy cooking food and tending (or not tending) to ponies. There was a little bit of a ledge that blocked the water and Brili from sight. The sun would be down soon and a bath certainly wouldn't kill her.

She peeled off her tunic, grimacing at the way it clung to her skin, and then did away with her trousers. Without further worry or care she crept into the water quietly. There was, after all, no need to draw undue attention to her location. She could practically hear the steam sizzle off of her body and she let out a satisfied sigh. She had never felt so dirty in all her life! She lay in the water until the sun went down, her weary soul finding relief. Now all she had to do was sleep and she would be just fine.

"Wonder what's down here? Hmmm… Oh gosh! Sorry! Sorry!"

She leapt up from the water, stark naked, modesty and caution thrown to the wind. She had been seen! But by who?! Bilbo stood on the ledge, covering his eyes most amusedly and puckering his lips as if he had just licked a sour fruit. She hissed and pulled him off the ledge by his ankle and sunk back into the water to protect her modesty. He finally looked at her as he sat on the soft muddy ground by the bank.

"I-I-I'm sorry! I didn't mean to intrude!" Then he stopped his stammering and really got a good look at her. "It's you." Brili had to blink once or twice before she realized what he was talking about. "You're the lost girl they were talking about this morning."

In a panic she grabbed one of her knives from the belt and held it in front of her. Bri bit her bottom lip nervously. She simply couldn't kill the hobbit just because he knew her secret. Gandalf knew and that didn't give her just cause to kill him now, did it? Bilbo eyed the sharp blade warily, not noticing how frightened the dwarf girl truly was. She lowered the blade and swam closer to him.

"Please don't tell," she whispered, worried someone would hear her speak and come. "They cannot know who I am!"

Bilbo looked confused. Fili and Kili didn't seem so terrible to him. Then again, what did he know? "You aren't pleased to see them?"

She shook her head, little droplets of water flying out as she did so. "On the contrary, I was very afraid when I saw them. I thought they had discovered me and were going to bring me back to Ered Luin, where I grew up."

The hobbit placed his chin in his hands. "And you left because of… a proposal? What an absurd thing to do!"

Brili frowned and crossed her arms over her chest. "When you first met me, what did you see?"

He blinked, trying to understand the question. "A dwarf?"

She sighed and smacked her palm to her face, letting it slide down and distort her features. Way to generalize things, Bilbo. "No, I mean did you see a princess or a ranger?"

"A ranger, I suppose," he said after a long while of thought. "But after seeing the poster I can see the princess."

She smiled ruefully before shaking her head. "That's not who I am anymore."

"I guess not," he answered, dipping his feet in the water. The dwarf turned from him ready to dive deeper in the water. "Will you ever tell them?"

Brili turned her head sharply. It was unlikely that she would ever tell them she was alive. The hobbit didn't have to know this though. He and all the others would be out of her life once she reached Rivendell. She smiled and nodded her head. "Of course, when the time is right I will tell them. Now go, little hobbit, before they notice your absence!"

The hobbit scurried off and Brili waited until she heard nothing but her own breath to step from the water. Feeling most refreshed, she pulled clean clothes from her pack and stuffed the dirty ones on the bottom, next to the boxes of melted chocolates. First order of business when she got to Rivendell would be a very long, very hot bath. She could hardly wait for the feel of a soft, creamy bar of soap over her skin and the hot water melting her troubles away. She couldn't wait to be washed and combed and pampered in every way imaginable before falling into her beloved feather bed.

It was day dreams like these that put her to sleep by the pool of water. She slept with her head leaning on her pack and a small smile on her lips. She dreamt of a hot meal and a glass of sweet red wine with her closest companion beside her. The elves would be proud of her first quest being successful and would hold a giant feast in her honor! It was in the middle of a well spoken toast that she woke to the sound of crashing and shouting.

She sat up, looking off in the distance and seeing a lot of firelight and movement through the trees. Her eyes widened as she rose to her feet, clasping her belt in place. Her knives clattered against her thighs and she felt a touch safer. It looked like a troll, but what was a troll doing around here? She crept away from her hideout and made for the trees with great haste. Taking down a troll seemed like just the amount of excitement she needed. Her first troll! Aragorn would be proud to hear of this!

She burst from the trees with a great and mighty shout, brandishing her sword like a prize. Suddenly, she stopped. Not a troll but two trolls. She cursed loudly and braced her stance. One troll she, in theory, could have handled. Two was an entirely separate matter. They stopped what they were doing (they were building a large spit for a fire) and growled at her. She had no choice, she reasoned, they had to die before they hurt someone! With that resolved, she charged, swinging her sword left and right. She began to dart between the two pairs of legs, zigzagging this way and that. She could see well in the dark tonight and used it to her advantage. She cut into their legs and left them crying out loud and grasping their ankles. She let out a happy little victory cry and hoisted herself onto one of their backs.

"I am no princess!" she called out, ready to thrust her sword into the troll's neck. Her words were venomous and acidic on her tongue. "Let them call me anything less than a ranger after this!"

Before she could strike, something lifted her off the ground and held her in the air. She let out a startled cry and looked at the large, stinky, grey hand holding her up by her shirt with a scowl. Oh, so there were three trolls, not two. She offered him an apologetic grin and shrugged a little, not fancying the idea of being ripped to shreds by a thousand pound troll. Maybe if she was nice he would put her down? The troll who caught her gnashed his teeth.

"Get a bag," he growled to his companions. "Throw 'er in with the rest!"

The rest? What was he talking about? She looked around her and then spotted the entire company staring at her like she had grown three extra heads. Kili's eyes softened as he stared at her, a look of great surprise on his face. She peeked a glance at Fili and Thorin who's eyes narrowed. They must have been unimpressed with her fighting. Her eyes widened and she silently thanked the stars for the hood on her tunic. The cool night air kissed her panicked face and she felt her hair move with it. Wait, why was her hair moving? The wind blew behind her and her curls came rushing forward with it, billowing around her cheeks and blurring her vision. She reached a hand up to the top of her head in surprise. With a gasp she realized why she could see everything so vividly. She had forgotten to put her hood up. The entire company knew who she was.

The game was up.

There it is! The moment you've all been waiting for! I had run over several ways for this scene to play out, her being discovered at dinner, not being seen until Rivendell but this is the one that felt right. I love the fact that it was a complete accident and you can bet Brili is thinking "What the heck?! Who does something so stupid!". Poor girl can't win, can she? Sorry it's not as long as I wanted it to be, I just really want the next part to be an entirely separate chapter!

The reactions? You're going to have to wait until next time to find out! :)

Special thanks to twiggy31 for not hating the last chapter (I'm actually a really big fan of the part when she spits beer all over Dori!) and my guest for the reviews! Thanks to MarvelSuperHeroes and xxMockingbirdxxx for the favorite and/or following!

Until next time,

-kimmy