'If they now show up again, I'll kill them. No showing pity anymore.' Dwalin hissed under his breath. 'Can't believe you could live with them for so long. Seriously.' Ori said, turning to Anders. 'Believe me, so can't I. There were times they were nice, but that was so incredibly rare, I can't even imagine them.' Anders said, taking a bite out of an apple. 'Hey, they're gone now. I hope they finally got the message. Nobody messes with my family.' Thorin said. 'And we won't let anyone mess with your family.' Balin said, getting a smile from Thorin.
'I'm just happy that I can sleep in peace tonight. I was fearing they would do anything bad to Fili, I couldn't sleep properly. I just kept on waking up, checking on Fili.' Bofur confessed. Anders grinned. 'You're not the only one. I even walked outside, checking if they were still there and not secretly in the tent.' Oin told.
'I am thankful to have you in my company. Fili wouldn't be safe if you weren't amongst us. So thank you.' Thorin smiled up at the dwarves. 'The pleasure is all ours, Thorin. Fili is a good lad.' Balin said, earning another smile from Anders. 'Hey, what's that?' Kili wondered, pointing at the gates. All the dwarves looked up. 'What's what?' Anders asked.
Kili got up and walked over to the gates. He picked up a cell phone and showed it to the others: 'This. What is this for thing?' Anders started laughing. 'What's so funny?' Bombur asked. 'Sometimes I forget that I've lived in a much more modern world. That's called a cell phone, Kili. You can talk through a cell phone to people who are miles away.' Kili looked at it. Suddenly Anders and Thorin jumped up. 'KILI! Get away from the gates! Now!' Thorin exclaimed. Kili dropped the phone and looked behind him. There he saw Gaia running towards them. Anders rushed over to Kili and pulled him close to him. 'ANDERS!' Gaia screamed. Thorin quickly joined them.
Gaia was out of breath when she arrived at the gates. 'How dare you coming back?' Thorin asked, warning her with his sword. 'I'm here to warn you! Please, hear me out!' Gaia begged. 'Warn us for what?' Nori asked. Gaia looked up: 'Mike and the others.'
'So? Mind telling us why you all of a sudden turn against those twats?' Thorin asked, standing behind Gaia to keep a close eye on her. Gaia gulped and felt Anders' eyes burning on her. 'Because I completely disagree with their behaviour.' 'And why was that never clear to us? You are just as bad as those six. I just want to kill you already. Be happy Fili is there. If it wasn't for him, you'd be dead by now.'
Gaia felt Dwalin's breath on her face and started sweating a bit. 'I'm sorry. I truly am. I don't know why I didn't show it. I never said a bad word like they did, right?' Gaia said in a small voice. 'Keep going.' Dori said. 'And, and, that's it really. I have barely spoken a word. And that what I said, wasn't offending in any way. And, no, I didn't stop them from yelling at Anders or Fili. And no, I didn't stop Stacey from slapping him either. But you should know I don't like it either. It's like they've completely changed their minds since we landed here. I honestly don't try to come across as a mean bitch.' Gaia said. 'Than you're pretty much failing.' Anders said. Gaia sighed: 'I'm sorry. If I could turn back time, I would have stopped them.' 'Too late for that now.' Thorin said. 'You wanted to warn us. Warn us for what?' Kili asked, changing the subject. Gaia turned to him: 'Tonight. Tonight, Mike and the others are coming here to, to, to kidnap you.' She pointed to Kili.
Kili's eyes grew wide: 'K-Kidnap me?' Gaia nodded: 'Yes! And I'm not kidding. When we were on our way back, Ty suddenly came with that idea.' She turned to Anders while saying that. Anders pulled Kili close to him: 'You sure? You know they can't pull that off, right?' 'I'm sure. I tried to stop them, I really did. But it was all up in their heads. They tried to get me on board as well, but I didn't want to so I walked away from them. And now I'm here to warn you for them.' Kili looked up at Anders. Anders rubbed his hands over Kili's shoulder: 'I won't let them take you. Over my dead body.' 'And how do we know this is not some sort of trap?' Thorin asked. 'You can kill me, skin me alive if this is a trap. I'm on your side.' Gaia said. Thorin sighed: 'Thanks. This was really, unexpected, but nice.' Gaia smiled a bit weak at him. 'You better be on our side now.' Anders said. 'I swear, I am.' Gaia told them honest. All the dwarves stood up and walked away from the fire. Anders stayed and let go of Kili. 'Stay close, alright?' Kili nodded and rushed over to his uncle.
Anders sighed and got up. He went sitting next to Gaia and looked at her. 'Anders, I swear. I'm so extremely sorry. I know that I wasn't exactly nice to you yesterday, but please forgive me.' Anders looked up at her: 'It's not that easy, Gaia. You I can forgive as you didn't, well, you didn't do anything at all. Just like Zeb, you don't really have anything to do with it. But my 'brothers' and 'grandpa' and Stacey I won't ever forgive. I don't understand why Stacey is being so difficult. Yes, she is a bitch. That's just her personality, but why is she working against me?' Gaia sighed and looked down: 'I'm glad you can forgive me. You need to know that I'm on your side from now on. I hesitated for a bit, but I'm sure now. Do you think you can trust me?' Anders looked at his family and back at her again: 'I'm working on it.' Gaia smiled a bit.
There was a brief moment of silence before Gaia spoke up: 'Kili, is he special to you?' Anders looked at her: 'Yes, yes he is. He means the absolute world to me. He is my little brother you know? And I never felt this way about my other brothers. Not even Axl. Kili is just, he's my everything. And I would anything to protect him. He's just the best little brother in the world. He's my best friend as well.' Gaia smiled, seeing how happy Kili made Anders. 'Well, you can see that. In the way you and Kili treat each other. You are so caring towards him. And all the other dwarves. I don't know, it's just, yeah.' Gaia said. 'Are all these dwarves family of you?'
Anders grinned: 'Na, just Kili and uncle Thorin.' Gaia's head snapped up: 'That man is your uncle? Really? He's so surly! And mean to everybody.' Anders laughed: 'Mean? Yeah, to people who harass his family, him or anyone else who's special to him. But to me and Kili? Na, He's really sweet towards us. He takes care of us. And the other dwarves. They all mean a lot to him. And well, he's a former king of the dwarves. He just wants his, our, homeland back.'
'King?! You kidding right?!' Gaia exclaimed. 'Serious as ever.' Anders grinned. 'Doesn't that make you a prince?' Gaia asked in a bit of shock. Anders nodded: 'Yes. But I don't really think about that. I just see myself as a normal dwarf.' Gaia grinned: 'It still sounds weird to me. You as a dwarf. Nice hair by the way.' 'Not in the way Stacey meant it, I hope?' Anders looked at her.
Gaia shook her head: 'No, of course not. It looks good on you. I love the braids in your beard.' Anders looked at the braids: 'Thanks. You know, I don't think it would do much harm if you stayed with us. At least, until you've found a way to go back to New Zealand again.' 'Whoa, I don't think that's a good idea at all. They all hate me and they all want me dead.' Gaia hissed. 'Well, now they know you are actually quite nice so I think it would be less hard to convince them. Hang on, why not do it now?' Anders stood up and rushed over to the company. 'Anders!' Gaia hissed after him, but he didn't hear it anymore. Gaia sighed and sunk down.
'Fili! What did you talk about? You were there for quite a while and it seemed like you got some sense out of her.' Thorin said as soon as he saw Anders joining them. 'I actually did. Uncle, I need to ask this. Can she stay here?' 'No. Fili, I don't want that.' Thorin said. 'But uncle Thorin, you just heard it yourself. She is not like the others. And that conversation was actually quite nice. She hasn't harassed any of us, right? Yes, I know, I hated her too when she suddenly appeared here out of nowhere. But is not like the others. And well, she basically just saved us from an unexpected kidnapping.' Kili shuddered and Anders lay a protective hand on his shoulder. Thorin sighed: 'I know, kin. I know. Fine, she can stay. But that's that. Only she, no others.' 'Believe me when I say I don't want that either.' Anders sighed in relief and walked back to Gaia. Kili joined him this time.
Gaia looked up when she saw Anders: 'The answer is no, right? I'll just go.' She wanted to stand up, but Anders stopped her: 'It's fine, you can stay.' 'Really?!' Gaia asked surprised. 'Yes, really.' Anders said. 'Thank you. Thank you so much. I won't be a burden, I promise.' Gaia said thankful and stood up. Then she noticed Kili standing behind Anders. 'Hey. Kili, right?' Gaia looked at Kili. 'Yeah, Kili.' He answered. 'So, is Anders being a good big brother?' Gaia asked. 'I'm not a little boy, don't talk to me like I'm still a baby.' Kili chuckled. Gaia smiled and looked at Anders: 'I like him. Unlike the others, but whatever.' 'They don't like me? What a surprise.' Kili murmured. 'That's their lost, little brother. They don't know what they're missing out on. Come on, let's check on the ponies. It's our duty today.' Anders said and pulled Kili along. 'Hey! Girl! Can you come over here for a second?' Gaia looked up and saw the dwarves looking at her. She gulped and walked over to them.
'First of, what's your name?' Gloin asked. 'Gaia.' She said. 'Gaia, let's start this whole thing over again, shall we? We didn't really have a honest start due to your ignorant friends.' Balin said and pushed Gaia down till she sat down. 'That's alright.' Gaia said and looked up at them.
'So tell us, what do you really think about them?' Dwalin asked. 'Just like I said. When we were still home, there was nothing going on. Only them looking for Anders. No weird plans or anything. I still liked them. In fact, Axl and Zeb were my best friends. Now? Not so much. Since we're here, they changed. They are now close to Anders, they want him back. And they confuse me because one moment they'll do anything to get him back while the other moment they are only harassing him, wishing he was never in their lives. I tried to get along with it, you know? I did give some little hints, but that whole kidnap thing did it. They have completely lost their minds. They are crazy now and I don't want to have to do anything with them anymore. I'm done with them.' Gaia told them.
'Fair enough. And now we think about it, you were the least trouble we had when you were here. You either said nothing or asked if we had a good time.' Ori said, turning to the others. 'Listen, the only thing is, we are trying to protect Fili from getting hurt. My kin has gone through a hard time and I now I have him back to protect him myself. You understand that, right?' Thorin asked.
Gaia nodded: 'Of course. And I'm sorry if I gave you a hard time. They did give you a hard time, I can't disagree on that. But in all fairness, I don't think I did.' 'No, no you didn't. But we were just furious. So we reacted on all of you eventhough you didn't deserve it.' Bifur said. 'I understand.' Gaia said. 'You can stay with us as long as you don't try to trick us into anything. Or hurt Fili. But I believe you won't do that.' Dwalin said. 'Never. I promise, Anders is not going to get hurt on my watch.' Gaia said. Thorin smiled: 'I'm glad we had this conversation. To be honest, we were actually planning on killing any of you when you showed up again. Be happy we didn't.' Gaia grinned: 'I'm very happy you didn't. Thanks for that.'
'Come on, I see Fili and Kili returning from the ponies. I think it's time for diner as the sun is making room for the moon.' Balin said and walked over to the young lads. All the dwarves followed Balin. Gaia looked at Thorin as they walked to Anders and Kili.
Maybe he wasn't so bad after all.
Thanks for reading this everyone! Please Review this story so I know what you all think of it! :D x
