Georgiana was not surprised at all that her friendly, neighborhood hobbit was the first to saw logs that first night on the quest. Nor was she surprised that he made it a habit to drop off first every night for those first two weeks (after his Company duties, of course). After all, they were both discovering how difficult it was to drop their sedentary lifestyles in favor of the constant exercise this quest required.
She wouldn't lie. She was absolutely terrified of all of the running she knew would come up.
She wasn't exactly the fastest chick she knew, nor the most agile...or fittest...or strongest… In fact, she was content with her knowledge that most staircases left her winded and she would never be overly athletic. It was a fair statement to say that she was very much a lady-shaped log. (She was squishy enough that she couldn't call herself a stone, like she could call some of the Company within the safety of her mind. Dwalin, Thorin and Dori came to mind.)
But back to Bilbo.
Being used to light gardening and some walking, Bilbo was understandably exhausted by the lengthy walking and lugging around of his massive supply pack. Thanks to her foreknowledge, she knew their packs would lighten quickly and had packed accordingly.
But the way Georgie saw it, Bilbo got the better end of the deal! He was able to start the journey on an excellent foot with his awesome first day. He got the whole day to bond with the Company, taking valuable first introductions and making steady memories, while Georgie had only popped in around what she guessed was midafternoon, leaving her not tired at all and with a distinct lack of a First-Day-of-Quest Memories.
This left her at a bit of a disadvantage for the first week or so, as she had trouble capturing the dwarrows' interests for longer than a few sentences, while Bilbo fared slightly better and had gotten a few dwarves to speak with him regularly since he got most of the first day awkwardness out of his system.
She sighed morosely at the loss.
Since her first choice interlocutor was currently dead to the world, Georgie decided to try her luck with the others in the ragtag bunch.
There was Gloin, over by his brother, Oin, and Dori. But, Georgie thought they looked deep into conversation already and she didn't want to disturb them.
She looked for other options.
Oh! Over by that large tree with the twisted, above-ground root was Nori and Ori and Bombur and Bofur. She had loads she could ask Nori about his sharper handed skills, she was insatiably curious about how, exactly, one trained themselves to pickpocket (or if he even had petty thief skillsets like that. Maybe the stories had gotten it wrong? It could happen!), but perhaps she should find a moment to speak with him separately. He didn't exactly seem like the type of dwarf to partake in useless chatter with people he barely knew.
Ori, she was sure, still had to be put out about her accompanying the Company, while Bombur and Bofur were, perhaps, a bit less friendly to strangers? She knew they were lovely characters in the stories, but would Bofur really be all that welcoming straight off? Bombur? Probably not. Now that she was thinking about it, Bofur would probably try to tease her, but since he didn't know her very well, she couldn't be sure his teasing would be kind-spirited.
Regarding Bombur, she was dying to question the cook on how one could improve their kitchen work! She had always been crap in the kitchen, knowing the theory and recipes to do things, but never getting enough physical practice and always screwing something up. How long did it take Bombur to accomplish his mastery? Probably not very long, he certainly whipped up that night's stew like a pro!
She did end up making a small, non committed movement toward the rotund dwarf, but decided against it, since he looked so happy talking with only Nori, Ori and Bofur.
She shrugged, though no one saw. That was alright, there were- she made a quick count in her head, fingers tallying in the air- seven more dwarves, er, dwarrow, plus a wizard she could chat with.
Bifur didn't look busy! In fact, he was walking towards her now!
She smiled up at him, tossing a greeting to him from her spot on the rock she had claimed by Bilbo's bed roll. (It was quite a sturdy, smooth, comfortable thing. She had been very pleased to find it. Honestly, she had forgotten it wasn't the bench from her backyard at home!)
He looked down at her, gave a little grunt and a small nod in her direction, slowing a bit...before walking right past her and into the trees behind her.
Oh. She blushed and shook her scrunched face to clear the mental picture. He probably needed some personal time to relieve some of the stress of the day.
Oh, crap. How was she going to find time to use her own bathroom time out here in the great outdoors? Georgie took a moment to route through the little, black sports bag she had filled with modern conveniences.
Hand sanitizer. Check. Toilet paper. Check. Black, rubber bands for her hair? (She had to dig a bit for the case, small as it was.) Phew! Check. Knitted hat. Check. Large plastic Ziplocs? Check. Toothbrush? Check. Towel. Sun screen. Blank paged notebook and pens and pencils and erasers and sharpener. Checks. The biggest bottle of otc antibiotics and modern first aid she could find (and afford). (The first aid kit contained the usual as instructed by Red Cross: a large bottle of rubbing alcohol, extra wound dressings, triangle bandages, tweezers, gloves, breathing masks- twenty-eight, thermometer, cold compresses, burn cream, antiseptic wipes, two bottles of aspirin and tylenol and a note telling her to go back to her world for prescription painkillers if the need arose.) Lastly, a few Gillette razors for when she got the chance to shave.
Well, that unnecessary inventory killed about twenty minutes. She cringed, not wanting to think of it as "killed time". More like she used her time, since she hated to waste time. Well, she could say she knew how to budget time...
That might have been another two minutes of time wasted thinking about how she didn't just waste her time.
This quest is turning out to be sooo interesting.
She sought out anyone else to talk to. Dwalin, Balin, Thorin and Gandalf of course were huddled together discussing God only knew what.
But that meant Fili and Kili weren't with them. Hm.
She stood up and looked for them around their campsite, a small clearing surrounded by lush bushes and short trees a few days after their supply stop at Bree.
All of a sudden she felt two sets of phantom hands grab an arm apiece and yank her back down onto her sitting rock.
She couldn't hold in her yelp of shock, which was loud, sharpish and incredibly girly. Most of the Company, with the exception of a knocked out Bilbo, turned to glare at her for being so loud, His Royal Grumpiness even called her out for it!
Blushing, she glared up at the two troublemakers who had scared her, "What in the Queen's bloody navy was that for?" She received odd looks from both brothers before they decided to ignore her other-worldly reference. (Their Uncle had no queen yet and they couldn't think of any other kings.)
"Apologies, Miss Georgiana. That being, who often is confused for a stray orc that stalks me, wished only to bask in your glorious presence-", started Kili before he received a hard whap to the diaphragm by said orc-ish brother.
"Actually, Kili here, lump of boil that he is-"
"Bless his heart.", threw in Georgie, grinning to the scowling archer and winking at Fili.
Fili caught the wink and laughed, continuing through Kili's cries of protest, "-decided that annoying me for the entirety of this journey would be a waste of his time, since he now has Master Boggins-"
"Baggins", corrected Georgie absentmindedly.
"-and yourself to include in his attacks of infancy."
"Fili worries over you like a mother hen and has done since looking out for you all day the first day of the quest! He only relaxed when you showed up in the middle of Uncle's story!", Kili blurted, triumphantly embarrassing Fili and Georgiana.
Fili, blushing like a tween, saved face with a calm smile and the ready explanation, "Twas nothing, to be sure." He finished, proud of himself for the quick fix, "I was merely looking after your things and waiting to give them to you when you joined us again. As for the rest… Though I am sure Kili has no gentile bone in his waifish body, I was raised to be a gentledwarf." His chest inflated with machismo as he ended proudly, "That means watching over the ladies of the Company."
Georgie felt her eyebrows rise of their own accord, bringing the tips of her lips up with them. Ladies? Who's the other girl in the group?
She decided to let it go. He was probably talking about Bilbo, anyway. She shook her head, chuckling at his nonsense.
To his brother, she stage-whispered, "Is he always this smooth?"
Kili looked a bit confused at first, but caught on quickly, along with a bemused Fili, "Oh yes. He talked us both out of all sorts of trouble when we were younger, too! People called him 'charming.'"
The trio grinned goodnaturedly as Georgie turned back to Fili. "Doesn't surprise me much. You are quite charming." , she teased, voice adopting shrillness as, with the last words, she flapped her arms about impersonating a cartoon Southern Belle.
Kili suddenly found himself on the floor with his laughing.
Fili kinda smirked at her a bit.
"But really, what was that all about? I thought you guys would be more prim and polite towards proper young ladies in this era?", she overemphasized 'proper young ladies' with an imitation of a Disney Harridan and held a hand to her chest to indicate herself.
"You're not exactly proper, though. You're just, Miss Georgiana and you're a part of this Company.", began Fili, matter-of-factly.
"And since nobody in the Company-"
"-with the exception of Master Baggins-"
"-could ever really be called proper, we'll treat you just the same as everyone else!"
"Rudely, Miss Georgiana.", finished Fili.
Georgie laughed heartily at their synchronization, being at once freaked out and wildly impressed.
"Alright, fair enough! But anyway, what are you two up to? Anything interesting? Anything I can help with?", she asked rapidly, trying to be subtle about how incredibly bored she was.
The boys made a big show of pondering her question, rubbing mustaches, or in Kili's case peach fluff, and tapping their elbows from their place on the ground.
"Now that you mention it, we are doing something…", Kili began this time.
Fili picked up the punchline with a cheesy grin, "Talking to you!"
"Y'all are goofy. Anybody ever tell you that?", at their shaking heads, she stated, "Well, you are. How about this, since none of us are currently doing anything important, how about you help me with something. Just something small to kill the time before we really need to get to bed."
When they agreed, she nodded approvingly and directed through her small smile, "Alright-y, help me find the prettiest plants around here. Like at least two from both of you. I'll need you two goofballs to find a sapling you like that you think might be a native to the Shire, a flower and a shrub. all that you think won't be found anywhere else on MIddle Earth. What you'll do is find the plants really young, which shouldn't be too hard since Spring is only half finished, and uproot them as gently as you can, that way the roots don't die or get mutilated. We need seeds or nuts if you can find them, and roots. When you find them, and I only need two from both of you, probably only one, really, as long as its a different plant, and bring them back her so I can put them away. Sound good?"
"I am confused as to why you want us to help you garden at this time in the evening, but since it's around the time Kili and I would normally be training anyway, we will do our best.", Fili agreed.
"We should try to meet up within the next hour, to avoid trouble.", Kili added smartly.
"Sounds good to me. Thanks, guys, meet you here in a bit!", with that, Georgie rushed off into the trees seeking Shire treasures while the boys went the other way.
Since the Company had stayed so close to the Brandywine all day, they ended up being really close to some of the Shire's best orchards. Georgie discovered this gladly when she came to the corner of a pear, apple and peach grove. It sorta reminded her of the fence in the back of her dad's house.
The fence met at a strange angle in the back, creating a little triangular nook separating three yards. The perfect hiding spot for Hide and Go Seek growing up.
The corner created by the three orchards was very similar, being mapped out like a boxy puzzle with a tree of each kind in all three corners providing unnecessary shade from the lowering sun. Though, unlike her dad's fence, this fence wasn't taller than she was or made of wide, thin boards meant to keep neighbors out, instead being a simple rail fence she easily climbed through.
She ducked under one of two rails in the fence to get to the first tree, an apple tree. The tree was healthy, with lots of premature apples already growing on lower branches. They would probably turn a deep, crisp red before autumn began. Georgie was therefore rather shocked to find a perfectly ripe-though small- apple laying at the base of the trunk, which she swiftly grabbed and shoved into her sports bag to bring to the Durin heirs.
She climbed through the fence to her right, next, grinning as she took a long, clean whiff of peaches and apple and dark, coffee soil, sweetened with wafts of pear from yards away. She didn't know in which season peaches usually ripened, but she did find more than one resting on the ground. Two that were perfect for nibbling, having no wormholes, bruises, moldy spots or what-have-you's on the delicate skin, a miracle by itself! In they went into her sports bag.
Lastly, she crossed the unclaimed area and over the fence (to spice things up a bit) to the pear grove. Unlike the other two, she couldn't find any on the ground, in fact, she had to climb quite a ways to reach the lowest pears. They, too, went into her sports bag.
She had a bit of a dilemma getting down again. She scoffed. Understatement of the century!
See, the way Georgie figured, it shouldn't have been a big deal.
They were just little dogs! Little mongrels who were probably only a few weeks past that age when all animals were cute and harmless, being smaller than a fully grown hound and larger than a pup, with mongrel coats of black, brown and white and floppy ears. It was a pack of around six in total, she thought- They kept running around and over each other, so Georgie had a hard time counting- but they were old enough to look fierce as they yipped and nipped at her ankles.
She tried to rationalize her fear by saying they couldn't honestly do that much damage, plus she would be facing much more ferocious creatures than what she was pretty sure were the recently born dogs of Farmer Maggot, (Or, wait, Sam and Frodo and Merry and Pippin would deal with the good Farmer's dogs in another sixty years or so! So these must be the grandparent dogs of those mongrels.) but fear is an irrational beast.
While she was clutching the branch she had climbed upon and contemplated how in the world she would get past the pack of preteen catastrophes before Farmer Maggot showed up, trying desperately to think of the dogs as cute and playful puppies rather than bloodthirsty, vicious predators (their resemblance to German shepherds was uncanny!), she failed to catch the snickering duo who had approached the pear tree.
"Having trouble, Miss Georgie?", called a gleeful Kili from no more than three feet away, causing Georgie to scream bloody murder.
It wasn't her fault, really. She blamed the dumb dwarf that didn't understand she responded poorly to being startled.
She couldn't help her facepalm, dragging her left hand down her face, right hand still clutching the trunk. "Kili.", she growled his name like a threat, voice filled with all the murderous intent she could muster. Evidently, it wasn't much, because his only response was a raised brow and a smirk.
There was no winning with this one, was there?
"Where's Fili?", she asked after an exasperated sigh.
Her answer came in the words whispered directly into her left ear, so close she felt the vibrations and the mustache braids more than she heard the words.
"Behind you."
She was proud of herself for having enough sense left not to scream bloody murder like her terribly dog-frayed nerves demanded.
Instead, while she focused on shutting herself up- gasping in a great gulp of air- instinct took over.
In the span of roughly three seconds, which began when she felt- rather than heard- the vibrations on her ear, she dropped into a simulacrum of a crouch on her perch, and threw her elbow back quicker and harder than she ever realized she could.
Poor Fili, who had a weak hold on his branch to begin with and whose boots were barely on the trunk, didn't stand a chance.
At the blow to his lower stomach (but thankfully no lower), Fili lost his hold on the tree, falling back to the ground and landing hard on his back with mighty flaps of his arms and a loud grunt. (Luckily, the pear tree had pretty low branches, so he didn't fall very far from the tree.)
Georgie, likewise, lost her questionable balance and fell forward on her belly in the dirt, also with a groan.
Thankfully, her fruits were fine!
When she picked herself up, she noticed Kili had placed himself on the ground, playing with Farmer Maggot's Monster Pack, laughing his head off at the disaster Georgie had caused.
She was just helping Fili- and his many knives, which freaked her out a bit since she didn't want him to get stabbed accidentally falling from a Godforsaken pear tree before the Quest even had a chance to begin!- up off the ground, taking a selfish moment to pat his muscles under the guise of dusting him off, when she heard the first shouts of Farmer Maggot rushing (as much as the chubby hobbit could rush) down the rows of pear trees to scold them.
"Come on! Hurry up, you two!", Georgie cried urgently. She didn't like to think about what Thorin would do to them if they got caught by Farmer Maggot, who would no doubt accuse them of stealing his crops no different than troublesome Took fauntlings, which he was now calling them, actually.
Kili shooed the pups away, Fili grabbed Georgie's arm and they ran.
They ran for what felt like only a few short seconds, barely a minute, before they burst through the bushes of the campsite.
Understandably, their less-than-subtle entrance freaking the Hell out of Thorin and a few of the other battle-hardened dwarves.
They leapt from their comfortable positions around camp, weapons at the ready in an instant and pointed at the troublesome trio.
When Thorin realized the Company was in no immediate danger, he grit his teeth, stomped toward the panting three and seized his nephews by the backs of their necks, Georgie being herded uncomfortably and strategically with the other two.
"What in the name of Durin did you three think you were doing?! Do you have none of the sense with which you were born! You three could've just given away our position to Mahal only knows who! If we were anywhere but the Shire I would be moving the Company to make camp somewhere else. You could have jeopardized the safety of this Company and I demand to know why!", bellowed Thorin when he had pulled them aside of the camp and sat them down like toddlers in preparation of their incoming lecture.
Georgie tried to arrange her legs comfortably after being semi-tossed onto the ground, she was hoping to avoid explaining, but to no avail. Meekly, she answered, "Finding more firewood?" She couldn't withhold the wince when she heard the question in her own voice.
Thorin gave her a look, filled with dumbstruck disbelief, as if he couldn't believe she was stupid enough to expect that half-assed excuse to work, much less that she actually tried it!
Thorin should mass produce that look and sell it to the companies that made the Parents-of-Delinquents programs, it certainly shut her down!
He could probably make a killing if he went through with it.
Heh. Killing.
That's what Thorin's gonna be doing to us in a few seconds.
She honestly had to chomp her bottom lip to keep from grinning through her terror. It was an abhorrent habit she picked up when she was little and her dad would scold her and it stole a place on her face every time she got into trouble for as long as she could remember. Strangely, she only smiled like that when she was getting a talking to. Never when she was given a real reason to be afraid.
Oh. Fili was speaking.
"Uncle, we really were collecting supplies. Only, we ran into a pack of-"
"- ferocious beasts, sir. Miss Georgie, being inexperienced with much fighting and not knowing how best to defend against such large animals-"
"-called to us for aid. Like the gentledwarves you raised us to be-"
"-we couldn't possibly allow the young woman to remain in such distress! And so-"
"-we immediately dropped what little supplies we had acquired and came to-"
"-her rescue!", the brothers finished convincingly, though it looked like they were fighting just as hard as she to keep their own mischief grins at bay.
Thorin seemed to appreciate the theatrics of his nephews much more than her bland explanation, raising an almost bemused brow at them before speaking.
"Indeed?", Thorin asked expectantly.
When they all enthusiastically nodded, he continued with a cloying impersonation of concern. "Then Miss Georgiana will need extensive and intense training to cover her grievous disadvantage", the Kingly dwarf sneered at her. "It would be best to accomplish this during whatever restful moments we find on the road, and before we meet any real dangers", he ordered, pacing in front of them, looking disgustingly royal with starched posture and hands clasped behind his back.
A very sadistic and passive aggressive king, if Georgie could have said so.
"Fili!", he turned on the leonine heir. "You will start the girl's training with basic hand-to-hand combat. After such a point as I deem her ready (or she drags you two into more mischief) I want her to learn strategy and close-range weaponry."
Thorin paused for a moment before adding, "I also expect her to know how to hide her weapons efficiently and how to maintain them. You will do this for however long it takes her to ready herself for sparring with the others as punishment for trying to lie to me about however you three managed to terrorize the local hobbits."
Fili honestly didn't feel he had been punished. It was more that he had been given a necessary chore that no one else wanted.
Thorin hoped the task would help Fili hone his leadership skills and teach him a semblance of the humility he would need as king.
Then, it was Kili's turn. "Kili!", Thorin barked. "As Fili will be handling weapons management, strategy and hand-to-hand, you will teach the girl everything you know about long-range weaponry. Bows, spears, projectiles. Everything. You will also teach her constant vigilance-"
Georgie almost fainted for holding back the Harry Potter reference she wanted to make.
"- defensive maneuvers, how to stay out of sight when necessary and tracking. This, you will do as punishment also."
"What? Why!? For what crime do I deserve punishment?", stammered Kili, indignantly.
Georgie almost kicked the annoying dwarf. Honestly, the nerve! She wanted to tell him off, but didn't know how to start.
Thorin beat her to it.
"For aiding your brother in his misguided attempt at secrecy", Thorin finished smugly. "Oh, and as Fili will begin with hand-to-hand training, I want you to begin with evasion."
Addressing his pair of errant nephews, but glaring fiercely at her, Thorin ordered brusquely, "Use whatever teaching methods you deem necessary. Refrain only from actions which would hinder this quest."
Georgie didn't think Thorin understood how little this rated as a punishment for the Durin siblings, at least it seemed like they didn't count their orders as punishments: they kept grinning like mad whenever Thorin turned the other way. (Even Kili, who moments before sat imitating a petulant Kindergartener.)
One such time was when Thorin turned to address her. The brothers looked especially eager to hear her punishment doled out.
The majestic slavedriver turned to her slowly, probably to build up the tension. He had no need of it, of course. He grew tension in spades. Besides, one disappointed look and Georgie would've been a goner. Not that she would willingly tell any of the dwarrow that before they found out on their own!
"As for you, little girl", he began scathingly, all glower and low-thrumming voice. "you will follow their every instruction without complaint of any kind, aid them in their chores when called upon- them and any other dwarf here who calls."
That order gained matching smirks, one mustached and the other peach fuzzed.
Thorin continued, oblivious or uncaring, "In addition to your training, if Dwalin, Balin or I am too busy, you will practice what you learn in your lessons by sparring with the Burglar."
That seemed fair enough to Georgie. She didn't want to be a burden and she was sure Bilbo felt the same. She understood Thorin's decision well enough, though she certainly did not like it.
He must've seen her look of resignation as confusion, however, because he needlessly explained, "You and the Burglar, both, have want of strength, endurance and stamina, all things I expect you to gain and maintain through the course of this journey, though Fili or Kili are to help you train. We have no need of useless freeloaders." He spat the last derisively,"I allowed you both a place in my Company and I'll not allow anyone who travels with my name to become helpless or unfit for the challenges we will no doubt face. Since you are here, you will work. Hard."
Georgie gulped, unashamed of her abhorrence of long-term strenuous exercise. She tried looking on the bright side, at least she would lose a few pounds like she promised herself for New Year's.
Any silver lining she found melted into a scowl when she caught the sadistic looks on Fili and Kili's faces. They were probably already planning unique torments and pranks in the name of her and Bilbo's "training".
"Do you understand?", Thorin demanded impatiently. Evidently, Gandalf and the other old farts of the Company were more interesting than she thought.
Fili cleared his throat loudly when she didn't answer right away.
"Um, yes, sir, Mr. Oakenshield, sir!", she coughed out, saluting him and thinking "Oh, Captain, my Captain".
Thorin sneered at her, but she caught the roll of his eyes and the upward twitch of his mouth as he turned back to his companions for the night, boots thumping the ground with somewhat majestic, but really more goofy, percussion on the dirt.
So he didn't hate her much, after all. That was a relief, though she doubted he would ever be an open softy.
She apologized to Fili and then Kili for the misadventure she had caused that evening. They responded with illegal grins and assurances that she would be demanding apologies from them over the next few weeks. She groaned, low and wary, at the thought.
She settled her bedroll by Bilbo that evening, not wanting to be vulnerable to midnight pranks by the goofball brothers she had befriended. Before she could get comfortable enough, right when she had closed her eyes and was rolling around for the perfect position, someone flicked her forehead.
Of all the injustices!
She crunched tighter into her thin blanket, which had miraculously fit into her pack, and waited for the annoying perpetrator to vanish.
She got another flick, this time on her nose and from a hand that smelled differently than the first. This one smelled like gloves and hand sweat, rather than dirt and dog fur.
She ducked her head further hoping, foolishly, that Fili and Kili would get the message.
They didn't.
Instead, they began poking her.
The poking was kinda fun for Georgie, (if she would admit it to herself) though it embarrassed her to no end. Everyone enjoyed being tickled, didn't they? Georgie did, which was why she only sort of minded when the diabolical duo discovered her insane sensitivity for being tickled. She wriggled so hard at their pokes and jabs that she had to open her eyes and give them attention, lest they get her to yelp so badly she woke- or startled- the whole camp. For as much as she loved tickling and being tickled, now was absolutely the wrong time and place to do it!
"What do you two hooligans want!?", she groused.
"Nothing of too much importance, Your Majesty.", started Fili. "We just wanted to share our findings from earlier with you, before we could forget in the morning."
She was about to ask what findings they were talking about when Kili took her left hand, turning it over to place a weird looking nut into her palm. It was white with red streaks, reminding her of a tiger, shaped like a , Fili took her right, repeated his brother's action with the bulb of a flower of some kind. If she had to guess, she'd say it was a flower of some kind with a long stem. Tulips and Irises had bulbs like that one.
She was so happy they remembered! Even more that they found plants that were really interesting. She couldn't wait to ask Bilbo all about them so she could start cataloguing them and putting them in a baggie.
Before any of that, she yanked both dwarves down to her level and pulled them into a tight embrace, hugging them tightly like she had when she met them in person for the first time, whispering her thanks quicker than her racing heartbeat.
"Thank you. You have no idea how neat this is going to be by the end of it! I can't wait to plant these!" Her face screwed into one of intense consideration as she spouted, "Of course, we'll have to wait until we establish a nice garden area, fertile soil, loads of sun, enough shade. The works."
Grinning evilly, she stated, "You two are a part of my little scheme now. That means rules; Don't tell Thorin. Or Bilbo. Or Balin. Or Gandalf, though he'll probably figure it out or we might need to ask him some things about properly storing these to last our journey safely, but for now, let's try to keep this between us, okay?", she ramblingly instructed.
They agreed after she told them about her plan and the trio finally settled down to sleep. Gandalf watched over them with fond eyes, chuckling at their youth, before checking on the rest of the Company.
Many apologies for the slow update! Hopefully this long chapter makes up for it(even if it is mostly filler)?
PB