This chapter is almost identical to the book because i wanted to capture the essence of Beorn's character

Chapter 7

The next morning we were all crowded around the fire eating our breakfast when Gandalf stood up and began to speak.

"Always meant to see you all safe, if possible over the mountains," said Gandalf "and now by good management and good luck I have done it. Indeed we are now a good deal further east than I ever meant to come with you, for after all this is not my adventure. I may look in on it again before it is all over, but in the meanwhile I have some other pressing business to attend to."

Then we all groaned and we did not want to see him go. I had begun to think Gandalf was going in come all the way and would always be there to help us out of difficulties.

"I am not going to disappear this very instant," he said trying to comfort us. "I can give you a day or two more. Probably I can help you out of your present plight, and I need a little help myself. We have no food, and no baggage, and no ponies to ride; and you don't know where you are. Now I can tell you that. You are still some miles north of the path which we should have followed, if we had not left the mountain pass in a hurry. Very few people live in these parts, unless they have come here since I was last down this way, which is some years ago. But there is somebody that I know of, who lives not far away. That somebody made the steps on the great rock-the Carrock I believe he calls it. He does not come here often, certainly not in the daytime, and it is no good waiting for him. In fact it would be very dangerous. We must go and find him; and if all goes well at our meeting, I think I shall be off "he said taking his place back on a stump

Everybody was unhappy at Gandalf's statement, not a word was said as we finished our breakfast.

"Hey! I have an idea, something that will make us all feel better. There is a stream that connects to a ford and we can go swimming" Bofur said jumping to his feet.

"Oi! That sounds like a great idea" Kíli said tossing his bowl to the side.

Everybody else agreed full-heartedly.

Inside I was practically screaming. The last thing I wanted to see was a bunch of hairy, naked dwarfs.

" Ahh..., you can count me out on this one. Coppa needs to hunt and feed. Besides I bathed two days ago" I said standing up brushing off my breeches, and walking towards the Carrock.

" Aw, You will miss out on all the fun" I heard Fíli shouted as I climbed the steps

"Come on Rena" his brother teased.

"No thanks Boys" I said tucking a strand of brown hair behind my ear.

After I climbed to the top I quickly mounted Coppa's back.

"Good mooring Coppa, did you sleep well." I said harnessing my on to the saddle.

"Ah, as good as a Dragon could I guess" he said

"Oh, well we are going hunting now while the Dwarves go swimming" I said patting his shoulder blade.

"well it was good of you to come and see me, because I am very hungry and I can smell a stag nearby" he said his voice rumbling with anticipation.

"Alright, let's go" I said nudging him and tightening my legs around him.

We hunted for four hours; I thought the boys would have had their fill of swimming by then.

By the time I made it down back to camp they were all dried off and thankfully clothed.

I walked towards the fire where they were all chattering away and smoking their pipes.

"Did you all enjoy your swim?" I said smirking.

"Yes we had a grand time" Bofur said crossing his legs and smoking his pipe.

Before I could reply, Bilbo was pestering Gandalf with questions.

"And why is it called the Carrock?" asked Bilbo sitting next to Gandalf

"He called it the Carrock, because Carrock is his word for it. He calls things like that carrocks, and this one is the Carrock because it is the only one near his home and he knows it well." Gandalf said blowing a smoke ring.

"Who calls it? Who knows it?" Bilbo said looking just as puzzled as I am.

"The Somebody I spoke of-a very great person. You must all be very polite when I introduce you. I shall introduce you slowly, two by two, I think; and you must be careful not to annoy him, or heaven knows what will happen. He can be appalling when he is angry, though he is kind enough if humored. Still I warn you he gets angry easily." Gandalf advised us all.

The dwarves crowded around more closely and began to question him.

" But who is he, what is his name" Balin said playing with his beard.

"If you must know more, his name is Beorn. He is very strong, and he is a skin-changer." Gandalf said answering Balin.

"What! A furrier, someone who skins animals!" Bilbo said gulping nervously.

"Good gracious heavens, no, no, NO, NO!" said Gandalf. "Don't be a fool Mr. Baggins if you can help it; and in the name of all wonder don't mention the word furrier again as long as you are within a hundred miles of his house, nor, rug, cape, tippet, muff, nor any other such unfortunate word! He is a skin-changer. He changes his skin; sometimes he is a huge black bear, sometimes he is a great strong black-haired man with huge arms and a great beard. I cannot tell you much more, though that ought to be enough. Some say that he is a bear descended from the great and ancient bears of the mountains that lived there before the giants came. Others say that he is a man descended from the first men who lived before Smaug, Coppa, or the other dragons came into this part of the world, and before the goblins came into the hills out of the North. I cannot say, though I fancy the last is the true tale. He is not the sort of person to ask questions of."

Could Beorn be the same bear I saw the other night when I was bathing? Oh, no... I will never be able to look him in the eye without blushing furiously. A man should know better than to sneak up on a woman, let alone a bathing one. I felt so embarrassed!

"At any rate he is under no enchantment but his own. He lives in an oak-wood and has a great wooden house; and as a man he keeps cattle and horses which are nearly is marvelous as himself. They work for him and talk to him. He does not eat them; neither does he hunt or eat wild animals. He keeps hives and hives of great fierce bees, and lives most on cream and honey. As a bear he ranges far and wide. I once saw him sitting all alone on the top of the Carrock at night watching the moon sinking towards the Misty Mountains, and I heard him growl in the tongue of bears; 'The day will come when they will perish and I shall go back!' That is why I believe he once came from the mountains himself."

We had now plenty to think about, and we asked no more questions. We still had a long way to walk before them. The ground was rough, ridged, and hard on the feet. It grew very hot. Sometimes we rested under the shade of large pine trees. I had Coppa fly over us; I wanted to spend some more time with the dwarves. We continued to walk for many miles and we were all very tired.

"We are getting near," said Gandalf. "We are on the edge of his bee-pastures."

"You had better wait here and when I call or whistle begin to come after me - you will see the way I go-but only in pairs, mind, about five minutes between each pair of you. Bombur is fattest and will do for two; he had better come alone and last. Then you Morena, you must fly over after Boumber has been introduced, but be sure not to disturb Beorn. Come on Mr. Baggins! There is a gate somewhere round this way." And with that he went off along the hedge taking a Frightened Bilbo with him.

We all anxiously waited on the edge of the clearing waiting for our turn to be introduced.

"Coppa, can you hear me" I called to him through my mind.

"Of course Rena, I will hear you no matter where I am" he said and I could hear him chuckling.

"well come down here because we are about to be introduces to someone" I told him

They wind picked up its speed and it blew many leaves from the trees. Within a matter of moments Coppa was in front of me.

"Hello again" he said with a glimmer in his eye.

"Hello" I said climbing on to his back; I felt no need to harness myself for such a short flight.

Soon, it was my turn to fly over into the clearing, because Boumber had gone waddling of in the company's direction.

"Alright Coppa, let's go meet a new friend." I said nudging him to fly upwards.

I coasted over the trees tops and saw the group and a large figure in the clearing. I slowly began my decent as not to frighten our new host.

As I landed I felt incredibly nervous for everyone was staring at Coppa and me.

I slipped of my dragon's back and landed on my feet in the tall grass. There was about a 100 feet walk towards our host and I was across to meet his eyes for fear of recognition.

Standing near Gandalf was a huge man with a thick black beard and hair, and great bare arms and legs with knotted muscles. He was clothed in a tunic of wool down to his knees, and was leaning on a large axe. The horses were standing by him with their noses at his shoulder.

I walked timidly towards the group until I was face to face with Beorn.

"Gandalf, who is the lovely creature? She surely is no dwarf and not an elf." he said casting a critical gaze over me.

"I am Morena Sevenstreams of the late city of Coren and this is my Dragon Coppa." I said bowing low.

I would have curtsied but I was not wearing a dress.

"Ah and she speaks too, and your creature is as lovely as you are dear girl" he said tightly embracing me as to where I could hardly breathe.

It felt like my rib cage was being crushed. I could see over the large man's shoulder that the Dwarves were as shocked as I was.

"Sir Beorn I believe you do not know your own strength" I said gasping for air.

I set me back on my feet with a pat to my head.

"I believe you are right, well, now there are sixteen of you; and since goblins can count, I suppose that is all that there were up the trees. Now perhaps we can finish this story without any more interruptions." I saw then how clever Gandalf had been. The interruptions had really made Beorn more interested in the story, and the story had kept him from sending the dwarves off at once like suspicious beggars. He never invited people into his house, if he could help it. He had very few friends and they lived a good way away; and he never invited more than a couple of these to his house at a time. Now he had got fifteen strangers sitting in his porch!

By the time the Gandalf had finished our tale and had told of the eagles' rescue and of how they had all been brought to the Carrock, the sun had fallen behind the peaks of the Misty Mountains and the shadows were long in Beorn's garden.

"A very good tale!" said Beorn "The best I have heard for a long while. If all beggars could tell such a good one, they might find me kinder. You may be making it all up, of course, but you deserve a supper for the story all the same. Let's have something to eat!"

"Oh, yes please, we are starving." I said placing a hand on my grumbling stomach.

"Certainly girl, I shan't let you starve" he said guiding us inside the hall, it was now quite dark. Beorn clapped his hands, and in trotted four beautiful white ponies and several large long-bodied grey dogs. Beorn said something to them in a queer language like animal noises turned into talk. They went out again and soon came back carrying torches in their mouths, which they lit at the fire and stuck in low brackets on the pillars of the hall about the central hearth.

The dogs could stand on their hind-legs when they wished, and carry things with their fore-feet. Quickly they got out boards and trestles from the side walls and set them up near the fire.

Then baa-baa-baa! Was heard, and in came some snow-white sheep led by a large coal-black ram. One bore a white cloth embroidered at the edges with figures of animals; others bore on their broad backs trays with bowls and platters and knives and wooden spoons, which the dogs took and quickly laid on the trestle tables. These were very low, low enough even for Bilbo to sit at comfortably. Beside them a pony pushed two low-seated benches with wide rush-bottoms and little short thick legs for Gandalf and Thorin, while at the far end he put Beorn's big black chair of the same sort (in which he sat with his great legs stuck far out under the table). These were all the chairs he had in his hall, and he probably had them low like the tables for the convenience of the wonderful animals that waited on him. What were the rest of us to sit on? But luckily we were not forgotten. The other ponies came in rolling round drum-shaped sections of logs, smoothed and polished, and low enough even for Bilbo; so soon we were all comfortably seated at Beorn's table, and the hall looked as if had not seen such a gathering for many a year.

There we had the most delicious supper, or a dinner, such as they had not had since they left the Last Homely House in the West and said good-bye to Elrond. The light of the torches and the fire flickered about them, and on the table were two tall red beeswax candles. All the time we ate, Beorn in his deep rolling voice told tales of the wild lands on this side of the mountains, and especially of the dark and dangerous wood, that lay outstretched far to North and South a day's ride before them, barring their way to the East, the terrible forest of Mirkwood.

We listened and shook our heads for we knew that we must soon venture into that same dangerous forest and that after the mountains it was the worst of the perils that we have had to pass before we were to arrive at the dragon's stronghold. When dinner was over my stomach was filled happily and I was sleepy. But, the company had no plans to go to bed just yet. The Dwarves began to tell tales of their own, but Beorn seemed to be growing drowsy and paid little heed to them. They spoke most of gold and silver and jewels and the making of things by smith-craft, and Beorn did not seem to care for such things: there were no things of gold or silver in his hall, and few save the knives were made of metal at all. They sat long at the table with their wooden drinking-bowls filled with mead. The dark night came on outside. The fires in the middle of the hall were built with fresh logs and the torches were put out, and still they sat in the light of the dancing flames with the pillars of the house standing tall behind them, arid dark at the top like trees of the forest. The fire flies were dancing and blinking in the night and I could see Coppa's sleeping shadow.

"I am going to check on my Dragon" I said softly rising to my feet and ducking into the firefly filled darkness.

**POV Change****

I watched her leave the hall gracefully out into the night. I only caught a few glimpses of her in the moon light. She was sitting resting her head on his brow.

Beorn nudged me and whispered in my ear.

"I am sure she is more precious than all of your gold in that mountain of yours" he said in all seriousness.

The rest of dwarves were sitting cross-legged on the floor round the fire, and presently they began to sing. Some of the verses of our songs of old

"The wind was on the withered heath,

But in the forest stirred no leaf:

There shadows lay by night and day,

And dark things silent crept beneath.

The wind came down from mountains cold,

And like a tide it roared and rolled;

The branches groaned, the forest moaned,

And leaves were laid upon the mound.

The wind went on from West to East;

All movement in the forest ceased,

But shrill and harsh across the marsh

Its whistling voices were released.

The grasses hissed, their tassels bent,

The reeds were rattling-on it went

o' er shaken pool under heavens cool

Where racing clouds were torn and rent.

It passed the lonely Mountain bare

And swept above the dragon's lair:

There black and dark lay boulders stark

And flying smoke was in the air.

It left the world and took its flight

Over the wide seas of the night.

The moon set sail upon the gale,

And stars were fanned to leaping light.

By the time we finished she had returned and presently fallen fast asleep. Our soft singing must have sounded like a lullaby.