Liliana was still awestruck and ignored Thorins absence. Lord Elrond and Gandalf excused themselves as well. Ori strolled towards her and stopped in front of her. He cleared his throat and blushed as she looked up at him.

"I'd like to thank you, Liliana" the young dwarf said quietly.

She put the sword aside and gestured him to sit down.

"There is no need to thank me, Ori"

He shook his head and placed his hand on her arm. She knew Ori would mean no harm to her from all those dwarves but yet she still winced slightly.
He seemed not to notice it but one dwarf did. He waited patiently until the two of them finished their conversation.

"Without you I could be dead, Lili. I'm just thankful that you're here with us and that you—risked your own life to protect mine"

She smiled at him and lowered her eyes. Suddenly he reached into his pocket and revealed a journal bound in blue leather.

"I'd like to show you something" he said, opened it and handed his journal to her. Lili took it and a smile spread on her face.

It was a drawing of her riding on Arroch. "Oh, Ori—that's wonderful!" she said and flipped through the pages.

It seemed he was very talented and she saw a lot of drawings. Some were showing simple things like flowers, trees or wild animals. Then there were a lot of the Company members.
A shadow fell over her and she looked up.

"May I abduct the young lass, Ori?" Dwalin asked and the young dwarf nodded. Lili wanted to give him his journal back but he shook his head.

"Keep it. You can take a closer look at it and give it to me later" Ori said and she thanked him, got up while Dwalin backed her. He took her sword and they slowly headed to her room to store her sword on her bed. They went outside again. He led her to the rivershore and they sat down on the soft, green grass.

"So, that sword is some kind of special?" Dwalin asked after a moment of silence.

"It seems so, yes" she replied shortly while flipping through Oris journal again. She stopped on a page where she saw a drawing of Thorin with his nephews and a young dwarf lady.

"Who is that?" she asked and Dwalin smiled.

"That's Dís. Thorins younger sister and mother of Fili and Kili"

Now that he said that she could see the resemblances. Dís was also quite beautiful for a dwarf.

'Also?!' she thought and hastily closed the journal.

"Everything alright?" Dwalin asked concerned. Lili tried to calm down.

"Y-Yes...I just—I just had a very strange thought"

"Will you tell me?" he asked with a smirk but she shook her head. He knew it must have something to do with the drawing. She unintentionally answered his question as she suddenly said, "Why is Thorin that angry with me?"

Dwalin shifted and looked at her. "He's not angry with you. He is just confused"

"For what reason?"

"Because of you, Lili"

Her eyes shot to look at him. "What? Me?" she stammered in disbelief.

Dwalin couldn't help but chuckle. "You're too mysterious for him. He wants to know your secrets. Did you know that he thinks that you hate him?"

"I don't hate him—I just can't stand his intimidating and sometimes aggressive behaviour. His stubborness..."

"He's stubborn, yes. But he'd never be aggressive against you. He'd never harm you, Lili"

"How can you be so certain?" she mumbled and began to nervously rub her wrist.

"Becaue I know him for nearly my entire life. And because dwarves never harm women..." Dwalin replied but got cut off by a sudden cynical laugh of hers.

"If that would be true I wouldn't exist" she replied bitterly.

That caused him to watch her more curiously than before. "What do you mean by that?"
It was as if she realized just by now what she had said. Her eyes lowered to the ground, tried to hide the hot tears that began wetting her eyes. She sniveled quietly and Dwalin gently patted the back of her hand.

"You don't have to tell me" he quietly said but she shook her head, brushed her tears away and looked at him.

"Did you never ask yourself why I look so different than any woman from the Men race?" she whispered.

"Of course I did. We all did, Lili"

She sighed and began fumbling at her dress. "Promise that you keep it as a secret"

"I promise"

She took a deep breath before she started to tell him everything. Her voice broke more and more with each sentence. Dwalin felt the urge to pull her in his arms but he was too shocked to move. He couldn't believe what she just told him. She stopped and looked at him.

Silence surrounded them before he cleared his throat. "Lili, I'm so sorry—"

"No, don't say that, please. It's not your fault. But that's the reason why I can't trust any dwarf. Talking to you is something I never thought I would be able to do. You give me some kind of security, Dwalin. You helped me to open myself to this Company, at least a bit. They are all so friendly and kind to me. Ori is friendly. The Durin brothers are funny and Balin is like a grandfatherly figure to me"

"And Thorin?"

She kept silent for a while. "He—would outcast me..."

Dwalins eyes widened. "How can you even think he would do such a thing?"

He was not angry, more surprised.

"I'm half human-half dwarf. I'm a bastard"

He shifted closer to her. "Lili, you have to go amd talk to him! You have such a wrong image of him in your mind! He would be the first giving hell to that Finian if he could get him! Thorin has a younger sister, a sister he loves with every fibre of his heart! If he would imagine something like that could happen to her it would drive him insane! You think his hate for elves is immense? Wrong! There's nothing he hates more than people who treat their woman without any respect. No matter what race! And so I can tell you, he will not outcast you! He's too fascinated by you to—"

"Wait, what?" she cut him off, her heart bumped strangely fast in her chest.

"Surprised?" Dwalin chuckled and could see her blushing.

"A bit..."

He sensed that she didn't want to talk about Thorin anymore and an idea came up in his mind. He got up and spread his arms. "Hug me!" he said determined.

Lili watched him confused. "You what?"

"I want to help you losing your fear of touching dwarves. So...hug me!"

She couldn't help but laugh. Her eyes sparkled and she got up as well.
"Are you serious?" she asked still chuckling and quite uncertain.

He raised an eyebrow, still with arms wide open, and nodded with a smirk.
She took a deep breath and stepped closer, gently placed her arms around his waist.

"I will close my arms now, alright?" he whispered and she nodded. Slowly he embraced her, they stood silent for a while.

"And? How do you feel?" he asked as he looked into her eyes. She smiled and stepped away from him.

"Wasn't that bad" she chuckled and nudged his arm. He laughed but was highly surprised as she stepped closer and placed a short, soft kiss on his cheek. "Thank you, Dwalin. For everything"

He nodded and patted her shoulder.

"Now that you're able to hug a dwarf you should try talk to Thorin. You don't have to tell him everything at once but you should at least tell him that you don't hate him. That really hit him hard"

She avoided his eyecontact before she nodded slowly.

"Maybe you're right—but I still need time" she replied. He pulled her a bit closer again.

"We have a lot of time"

Aight, hope you enjoyed this little chapter!

Next one will contain Thorin again and maybe they manage to talk to each other. We'll see ;)