Chapter 7:
Adra's POV:
I turned over and opened my eyes at the sound of horses - or ponies? I never could tell the difference. Rena was still sleeping next to me but I couldn't see Thali. Slowly, I sat up and tested my ankle. It was still a little swollen, but it didn't hurt as much anymore.
I walked down into Bilbo's pantry. I was hungry, but there was only a little bit of fruit left. I shrugged, grabbed and apple and went to see if Thali or Bilbo were awake. Bilbo was still asleep in his room, so I decided that Thali must be too, and went into the lounge room to finish off my apple.
I walked in, only to trip over a small bundle on the floor. Thali, asleep on the floor, with one of the spare blankets wrapped around her. She must've given the dwarves Rena told me about the guest rooms and slept here all night.
Poor Thali. I sat on the couch as quietly as I could, and bit into my apple. Unfortunately, that woke Thali up. Nice one, I thought to myself. 'Adra.' said Thali, sitting up sleepily, 'How's your ankle?' She asked me.
'It's a lot better.' I reassured her. 'Why did you sleep in here? And on the floor, too? You could've slept in our room, you know.'
'Well, all the guest rooms were taken by the dwarves and I didn't want to wake you or Rena up, so here I am.' A sudden thought occurred to me.
'Umm, Thali? Do you think the dwarves are still asleep?'
'Naah, they should be up by now. I'll go check.' Thali, replied and stood up and stretched, then walked out of the lounge room. While I was waiting, I heard a bang and a muffled 'OW!' then she returned, mumbling, 'Now THAT was not a door!'
'None of the dwarves are here, they must've left early.' There was something in her voice, disappointment maybe. And that surprised me. For some reason, it's easy for me to look at people and sort of work out their personality. I had thought I knew Thali, but I was wrong. At least, a little bit. Thali had never cared about what anyone thought of her, but when it comes to dwarves, apparently it's a whole other story. 'They might have left a note or something.' Thali grumbled.
'Well, what if they did?' I said, and while I said that, I saw a hopeful spark in her brilliant green eyes. Together, we started searching the house for the note.
The only thing I found was a contract. When Thali saw it, she said that one of the dwarves handed it to Bilbo last night. I quickly scanned the pages, and I almost dropped the paper in surprise. Quest!? Erebor?! Funeral arrangements?! Dragon?! INCINERATION?! my mind was in fast motion. Oh no. No no no. There is NO way I am following those dwarves now. 'Err, Th- Thali? I don't suppose you are going to follow th-these dwarves, are you?' I managed to splutter out, and she looked at me in concern. 'Of course... why?' she asked slowly, her green eyes boring into me as if by burning a hole through my soul with her retinas would answer her question. 'No-no reason.' I stammered, and shakily put the paper down. At that time Rena was up and she wandered into the lounge. 'What's wrong, Adra? you look all pale?' She inquired, her voice full of worry. 'Ah! Here's the walking dead! Welcome to life, my friend, you slept a while!' Thali exclaimed, as we both walked over to her. She rolled her eyes at Thali, and Thali grinned that crooked grin of hers. That's when Bilbo walked in, and looked around the room. Taking no notice of any of us, he found the contract on the table where Adra put it down moments before, and he picked it up. He looked over it again, sighed, and looked back at us. Rena raised an eyebrow, and said 'Fancy going on an adventure?' I could tell he wanted to, but he was scared. I glanced over at Thali, who understood, and said, 'Because we'd love to join you, if you want the company of course.' And I nodded in agreement. I may not like the prospect of dragons, but maybe if my friends were on this thing it might not be so bad.
Bilbo looked between the three of us. He hesitated, and Thali quickly added, 'It's ok, we don't have to go if you don't want us -' but Bilbo cut her off. 'No no no, I want you all to go, and that would probably be the only way I would go, to be honest.' He confessed, a hand running through his light brown hair. We all stared at him in shock. I did not expect that.
Thali was the first to recover. 'Well that's settled then. Come on, Master Baggins, sign the contract and we'll get ready to go on an adventure!' She exclaimed, then ran off to the room where all her stuff was. 'Oh dear god,'
I heard Rena say under her breath. 'Here we go' I mumbled back to her, and she snorted in laughter. When Thali gets excited, it usually doesn't end very well.
A few minutes later, once Bilbo had signed the contract and Thali had packed everyone's bags in hyper - speed, we set out on our very first adventure.
We were walking pretty fast, but that only stopped when Rena caught sight of the company and set off in a run. Following her sight, Thali saw as well and sprinted, overtaking Rena easily. Bilbo and I shared a glance, and started running as well. The hobbit started shouting out to the dwarves, telling them to stop. But because he was so small and running as fast as his legs would carry him, which is slow in comparison to Thali, his voice was pretty soft. I helped him, and Rena too, and soon all three of us were yelling at the top of our lungs, which still wasn't enough. But apparently enough for Thali to hear. Still running, she whipped her head around at the sound of us yelling, flashed a cheeky lopsided smile, and yelled, at her topmost voice, which is deafening, 'OI! STOP THE BLOODY HORSE PARADE!' That got their attention.
All the dwarves stopped, and turned around in confusion. When we caught up to them, I could see their faces clearly. Most of them looked surprised to see us, all except Gandalf. Well, what I'm sure is Gandalf anyway. Thali told me he was the wizard of our company. He smiled down at us from his horse. That's when my eyes caught sight of the leader of our group thing. He had long brown hair and icy blue eyes. He scolded at us from his pony, and I cowered a little behind Thali. Thali looked around and saw him as well, but instead she smiled a little, as if she had some sort of joke she shared with him. Once Balin had welcomed us to the group, the man, who must've been Thorin, the one that Thali told me about, said, in an unimpressed tone, 'Give them a pony.'
Bilbo started spluttering excuses here and there as to why he should not ride a pony, but two dwarves, one of whom with blonde hair and a braided moustache winked a Thali, lifted the poor hobbit off the ground and onto a small pack pony.
An extended hand reached my vision. A dwarf with a funny hat smiled down at me and said, 'Care for a pony, lass. Sadly, we don't have one for each of you, so you might have to share with your friend.' he winked. I smiled, agreed, and let him lift me up onto a beautiful chestnut pony on which Rena was already sitting, a cheeky grin on her face.
I've ridden a pony only once before, at a Fair in London. It was an exciting experience, and I've always wanted to ride one again. Well, now I can. I looked behind me. Thali had her own pony, a beautiful black one, with a flowing mane. Thali was stroking it's neck and talking to it quietly - When she was in Australia she rode horses nearly every day.
Out of the corner of my eye, I could see that blonde dwarf and his friend gesture for Thali to come over to them, and she did, guiding her pony with ease. Apparently Thali had already made friends.
'Here, Nori, hand it over.' A voice reached my ears. It was the blonde's friend, calling out to a dwarf with... interesting hair. He tossed a small bag over his shoulder and I had to duck to get out of the way of it. 'Now, Kee we're still splitting that, right?' I heard the blonde ask. 'Of course, Fee,' Said the other, in the same cheeky tone Rena and Thali use when they're up to something, 'Why would you expect otherwise?' He asked again in an innocent tone. I snorted a little.
No wonder he and Thali are friends...
