Dinner wasn't as fun without Kíli and Fíli. They normally kept her entertained. Ori was doing his best, telling her about Dwarf history. He was quite a sweetheart, Ori. He was 'younger' than her, the youngest on the quest apparently. Smiling at him, she heard her name called and looked to see Bofur holding out two bowls, and telling them, "Take these to the lads. Miss Oswin, show him where they are. Those two are bound to have found some impossible place to settle."
Oswin smiled and nodded, telling Ori she'd be back and wanted to hear the rest of the story. Bilbo grabbed the bowls and the two headed towards the woods where the brothers were. As they walked, Bilbo asked her, "Miss Oswin?" When she looked over at him, he finished his question, "Do you ever miss it? Tamarin, I mean."
Smiling sadly, she answered, "Course I miss it. It was my home. I miss my room at home, with all my blankets, I miss my friends and my family. But, if I focus on what I don't have, I'll forget what I do have. I have friends here, on this quest, a new family. And they need their home back. So, that's what I'm going to help them get; their home."
The two ceased their discussion and walked up to the brothers, Bilbo telling them, "We brought you dinner."
Neither dwarf took it and Oswin leant forwards a little, looking at their faces before asking slowly, "Anything the matter?"
"We're supposed to be watching the ponies," Kíli stated.
Oswin nodded and Fíli continued, "We've run into a bit of a problem."
"We had sixteen," Kíli started, "But now there's fourteen."
Oswin frowned and looked around, counting the small horses before realizing that, yes, there were two missing. Her jaw dropped and she tried, "Maybe they just wandered off? Let's see who is missing, if it's Mindy and Byron, they probably just wandered off because they saw more grass."
Fíli nodded and Kíli began weaving his way through the ponies. While the brothers yelled back and forth as to which pony was in attendance, Oswin frowned, wandering over to an overturned tree. Well, that- trolls. She had completely forgotten about them. Trolls. Maybe?
Rubbing her head, she realized she wasn't very sure that was what happened in the movie. Why wasn't she sure? Shaking her head, she heard Kíli yell, "Daisy and Bungo are missing."
She was too busy trying to remember the book or the movie, something that would help her or any of them, and didn't notice the dwarf princes and the hobbit come to stand by her. "Ozzy?" The brunette's head shot over to her left to see Kíli looking at her, concern etched everywhere on his face.
She gave him a half smile before asking him, "Was this tree like this when you boys got here?"
Fíli and Kíli studied it, the older of the two answering slowly, "No, I don't believe it was. Something very large would have had to have done this."
"Something very, very large. And dangerous, most likely very dangerous. Maybe we should tell Thorin about this." Bilbo looked about ready to head for the camp, screaming King Grumpy's name all the way.
And quite frankly, Oswin was too. Her nerd-knowledge was evaporating from her mind, she didn't like it, not one little bit. Fíli dragged her out of her frustration, "No, best not to bother him. Look, there's a light up ahead. Let's get a look."
Almost like they were running for an amusement park, they hurried over the overturned tree, closer to the fire. Oswin sighed but followed, knowing that they were probably the safest people to be with at this point. She registered Bilbo following, with the bloody stew. As they all crouched behind a log, voices could easily be heard and Bilbo asked, "What is it?"
"Trolls," Kíli said grimly, "Mountain trolls. Oswin, maybe you should head back-"
"No." Oswin tossed a glance at the brother who apparently was worried about her more than the others, then pulled one of the daggers from her boot, waving it a little. "I happen to be the only one armed her, remember?"
Fíli pointed out, "That's about the size of a splinter to a Mountain Troll. Have you ever seen one, Oswin?"
Before anyone could reply, the ground began shaking a little and Kíli hissed, "Watch out." Instantly, he grabbed Oswin and pulled her behind a tree with him, hiding them from the sight of the large troll that came plodding by, two of the ponies in his ugly, crusty arms.
But that really didn't seem to register with Oswin. She was a little too busy staring up at Kíli who looked… well, she didn't know the word, but she had never really seen him like the way she was seeing him now. His face, it was so determined to… protect her. To make sure that the troll didn't have the faintest idea she was there to never give it the opportunity to even consider causing any harm to her what so ever. No one had ever done anything remotely similar or kind or… loving. For her, Oswin.
"He's got Myrtle and Mindy!" Oswin snapped out of her thoughts as her face turned to see Bilbo. Who was still holding the bowls of stew. For all the things to worry about, he was worried about the stew?
Kíli looked down at her and asked, "Are you alright, Ozzy?"
All she could so was stare up at him, before stammering out, "U-uh yeah. F-fine, thanks." She turned and followed his brother as her face heated up. Oswin could only assume her cheeks were inventing a new type of red as she scurried over to hide behind another tree.
Kíli, Fíli, Bilbo and Oswin all peered over the tumbled tree and watched as the god awful things babbled on.
"Someone should do something," Bilbo hissed out. Oswin gave him an odd look but shook her head and returned to watching the trolls.
"Yes, you should!" Oswin watched as the brothers convinced him he could free the horses no problem and pushed him towards the thieving giants. "Hoot twice like a barn owl, once like a brown owl if you have trouble," Fíli told him and gave him a last shove before hurrying away.
Kíli grabbed Oswin's hand and tugged her with him and she hissed, "We aren't just going to leave him!"
"No, we're going to get our weapons and tell Thorin," Kíli assured her. Actually that was a good idea, at this point, they did need both of those things.
The three came stumbling into camp and Bofur frowned, asking them, "Now where'd our burglar get off too? And aren't you lads supposed to be watching the ponies?"
"Uh, about that," Kíli and Fíli looked guiltily at the group and Fíli sighed, "we lost them. To trolls. And Bilbo is trying-"
"Bloody hell, he's just trying to get himself killed!" Thorin was already in a fowl temper and armed. All of the dwarves began to grab their blades and follow their leader.
Oswin went to grab her own blade and Kíli suggested, "Why don't you stay here?"
"No," Oswin shook her head firmly and said stubbornly, "I'm not just going to sit idly by while you all possibly risk your lives." Giving him a smile she told him, "I promise to try and stay out of danger if it should come. I won't get hurt, Kíli, I promise you that."
Grabbing her hand and pulling her with him to catch up with the others, he told her quickly, "I promised not to let you get hurt, Ozzy, and I'm keeping it."
As she ran after him, she felt her insides melting. How much more perfect did he get?! He was saying just the right things to turn her into Oswin-pudding. Melty, warm, red pudding who never said the right thing nor knew what he saw that made him want to say the right things.
The two of them arrived just as they saw the trolls ready to eat Bilbo. Kíli let go of her hand and burst out of the brush, yelling and slicing at the troll. Oswin watched in awe at just how… epic Kíli looked at that moment. Thorin groaned and yelled at them all, "Attack!"
Oswin glanced at her companions and sighed, pulling her blade out before letting out a cry with the others and jumping out, making a wide spin to slash at the troll hand coming for them all.
It hadn't been the greatest battle ever. Oswin would admit that, and she was near positive that their surrender wasn't too history making either. But, then again, she wasn't a great warrior she discovered. She was somewhat lucky, she had made a couple lucky strikes, but mostly dodged a lot, staying near Kíli, who had saved her at least five times. And every time, he gave her that smile that nearly turned her to goo right there in the middle of a brawl.
Oswin watched in fear as a troll continued spinning the rotisserie holding her friends. Kíli was still wriggling around and glanced at her, stopping his struggle, he assured her, "Don't worry, Ozzy, I'll get you out of this, I swear."
Swallowing, she smiled nervously and nodded as Bilbo yelled out, "WAIT! You are making a huge mistake!" Oswin was quite sure that she heard Fíli make a remark that was something along the lines of 'you just figured that one out'.
"My dagger!" Kíli looked at her and she hissed at him, "I think it's still in your pocket, after Fíli said it was a bloody splinter!" The dark haired dwarf brightened up and began squirming in his sack.
"What a load of wubbish! I've had dwawf before, you don't need to skin it! A bit of was dwawf ain't bad." Those who were still in the pile stared in fear as one of the massively awful trolls moved ungracefully towards them. Oswin nearly shrieked as something landed on her and she realized that it was Kíli, who had managed to cut a slight hole in his sack and toss himself on top of her like a human shield.
Oswin's breath caught and she just blinked up at him until they both realized that neither of them were to be the victim. Oswin yelped as they dangled the oversized dwarf who had become a good friend of hers only for Bilbo to yell, "No! Not that one! He's… infected! He's got worms. In his… tubes!"
The troll making to eat their cook howled like he was holding the bloody sun the trolls all seemed scared of. He (she was assuming its was a he since his name was Bert) dropped Bombur back onto the pile, only from him to land on Oswin and Kíli, who was still half on top of Oswin as a human shield.
They shouted and groaned, Oswin pleading, "Get off Bombur, you're going to kill me, no offense! Bloody hell!"
Somehow, Bombur managed to roll off them, and onto someone else, then another then the dirt. They were all grumbling and groaning about being rolled over. Bilbo mouthed a sorry that apparently Oswin was the only one to see because as soon as he stalled, "In fact, they're all infected with parasites!"
"Parasites?!" All of the dwarves had begun to shout in defense, "You've got parasites!" or "I've not got parasites!"
Oswin stared at Bilbo before realizing what he was doing and just as Thorin began kicking at them, she yelled over top of all of them, "I'm infested! Mine are so big that they could be a meal by themselves!"
Kíli stared at her before catching on and yelling as well, while still looking at her oddly, "Mine are as big as my arm!"
Oswin grinned at him and glanced to see he was slowly making more progress on cutting through the sack and she yelled for him, "I'm riddled with them! I have the biggest!"
Before the cutting of the sack could come into handy, they heard Gandalf yell at the trolls before impaling the rock, forcing it to split in half with his magical walking stick. The trolls began to howl and stumble, and Oswin just stared at them, forgetting about everyone else as she watched the trolls turn into solid rock statues of themselves.
As Kíli managed to cut himself out of the sack, the trolls stopped moving or making sound, and they all saw them completely turned to stone. Oswin let out a relieved cry and as Kíli began to maneuver himself out of the sack, she watched him and realized something; she needed to find her little way of showing Kíli that she cared about him too.
Authors Note: So i spent the day at work, and wrote this on my lunch. I hope you all like it :3
