Author's Note: Hello dear readers! Welcome to the 10th chapter of Bâhukhazâd! Starting with this chapter, we will start deviating more and more from the canon story line and with much more original content of yours truly. Enjoy!

Chapter ten: Many meetings

The next morning, Ardhoniel was woken by sunlight warming her face and the strangest sensation of a warm, soft body nestled closely against hers. As she opened her eyes, it took her several moments to place the giant open window that let in the light – and a moment longer for the realization to set in that somewhere during the night, a small goat seemed to have found its way under her blanket.

They were at Beorn's house… the Skin-Changer.

Loud, familiar voices drifted towards her from a little ways down the main hall of the house. Careful not to wake the baby goat, the Elleth extracted herself from her blanket and stretched her aching muscles. For a moment, she doubted whether or not to strap on her weapons, but then decided against it and walked towards where the Dwarves could be heard.

'You are not a Dwarf,' a loud, rumbling voice concluded.

Ardhoniel looked up, surprised that anyone had seen her slip in, quiet as she had been. Then again, she must have stood out like a sore thumb between thirteen bearded Dwarves, one child-sized Hobbit and a grey robed, bearded and hatted Istar. The man who had addressed her stood tall and broad. Both his face and every inch of his bare skin that she could see was covered in coarse hair and he had a rough and dangerous appearance. Still, his eyes did not regard her unkindly. 'I am not. My name is Ardhoniel of Imladris, at your service,' here she bowed.

'I am called Beorn and I welcome you to my house, my lady.'

It was silent for a moment as she sat herself down between Bilbo and Kíli. As she filled her plate with some fruits, bread and honey, Beorn spoke once more.

'You need to reach the mountain before the last of autumn?'

'Yes, before Durin's Day,' Gandalf nodded.

'Then you are running out of time.'

'Which is why we will go through Mirkwood, there's no other way I am afraid. Going around it would take us weeks, perhaps months, never mind the dangers we might encounter in those places.'

Beorn regarded the Wizard for a moment, his bushy eyebrows drawn as he shook his head. 'A darkness lies upon that forest; a sickness has taken root beneath those trees. There are whispers of an alliance between the Orcs of Moria and the Necromancer in Dol Guldur. I would not venture there unless I had no other choice.'

As Beorn spoke about the once beautiful Elven kingdom, Ardhoniel felt a shudder run down her spine. Unbidden images of a dark figure, cloaked in the shadow of night rose in her mind's eye and whisperings in an evil language, too low to make sense of, drowned out Gandalf's answer. Shaking her head to clear it from the hallucinations, she noticed Bilbo started at the sudden movement. His head shot up and his hands quickly stilled in his lap. She offered him an apologetic smile, which the Hobbit returned somewhat sheepishly.

'The Elven Road?' Beorn repeated, questioningly, then turned his head to look at the Elf as he continued. 'The Wood-Elves are not as wise as their kin. But, it matters not.'

'What do you mean?' Thorin asked the Skin-Changer, his voice tense and demanding.

'These lands are crawling with Orcs and you are on foot. You will never even make it to the forest.' He pushed back his chair and picked up a little mouse that had been meandering through the various jars, mugs and plates on the table. 'I do not care for Dwarves; they are greedy and blind, and care more for their riches than for the lives of those that they deem lesser than their own.' As he said this, he approached the Dwarven leader and stared down at him with an impenetrable look. He was silent for a moment as he stood before Thorin, then he sighed. 'But I hate Orcs even more. You can stay here another night to rest; I will provide you with food and other provisions. Tomorrow you will set out at first light on my ponies.'

After breakfast, Ardhoniel took her bow and went to sit under a great oak tree in Beorn's garden. Laying the weapon in her lap, she fingered the dark golden wood of the bow absent-mindedly as her thoughts trailed off to what had happened during breakfast.

She had never experienced anything like it. Although Elves were generally sensitive to all that happened in the world – the good and the bad – never before had she experienced evil so deeply, so at the very core of her soul. And the whispers; Ardhoniel did not know what they had come from, but…-

'What are you doing?'

Startled, she looked up to find Thorin standing in front of her, a curious look on his face. To her surprise, he had discarded his armour and weapons, and was clothed in a simple blue tunic. It made him look less cold and almost pleasant to look at. Even more to her surprise, she found she had no qualms admitting it. 'I wanted to put a new string on my bow, but I am afraid I got lost in my thoughts.'

'You seemed tense.'

'They were not necessarily good thoughts. You may sit… if you like.' She gestured to the spot beside her.
If she was surprised at her own behaviour, she certainly was when the Dwarf did as she said. When he sat, he eyed the weapon in her lap. 'What will you use to string it?'

Instead of answering his question, to Thorin's annoyance the She-Elf only smiled as she reached up and plucked a golden hair from her head. As she went to work on tying it to the upper limb, she said conversationally 'I learned almost everything I know about arching from one of my older brothers. He was a strict teacher, but then again I suppose I was a difficult student.' Here she chuckled and Thorin found his lips twitching up as well against his own volition. He did not know why she was telling him this, but he found that he did not mind getting to know the Elven lady a little better. 'Sometimes, he, my other brother and I would go camping in the wild and they would teach me other things as well. How to find a good camping spot, how to build a fire. One day he was teaching me how to hunt. We were sneaking up on a deer and I was so tensed that I accidentally snapped my bowstring. My momentum made me tumble backwards, down a hillside and into a puddle of mud. After laughing long and deeply at my expense, he helped me up again and taught me to restring the bow with my own hair.'

'And the deer?'

'Oh it ran off of course,' she laughed, the smile pulling up her cheeks and making her sharp cheekbones seem a little less pronounced. As she was now, there was something beautiful about her that Thorin could not quite put his finger on. Nor did he want to.

You don't really care for them, do you?' She asked tentatively, effectively pulling him from his disturbing thoughts. She was looking at two rabbits that were hopping past only a few feet away from where they were sitting. There was no judgment in her voice, yet there was something heartfelt about it that made him want to not disappoint her.

Thorin watched as the rabbits stopped to look at the Dwarf and Elf curiously, as if they were the odd pair – and perhaps they were. 'I value them for what they mean to me. Cattle, beasts of burden.. food. It is different for me than it is for you, I suppose. You're an Elf, it's in your nature to care about all that lives and grows.'

She sat silently for a moment, her grey eyes thoughtful and the smile gone from her face. It was happiness he decided, then – happiness is what had made her seem beautiful. It made her sharp features a little less unforgiving. It softened the steely grey of her eyes. And he felt like it softened something deep inside of him as well. 'I do not believe that,' she said at last, slowly, her head tilted curiously to the side. 'I believe we are what we are brought up to be. From an early age on, Elves are taught the value of the lives around them – even of those that are not the same as us. We were not born loving animals, Thorin.' A sad smile played at her lips 'Just like you were not born distrusting us.'

The last comment caught him off-guard and Thorin pushed himself off of the ground. For a moment he stood there, wanting to say something to her; tell her she was wrong, that she did not understand, that she did not know anything about him. When no words came to him, he stormed off towards the house.

As Ardhoniel stared at his retreating back, she could not help but feel confused and a little upset at the sudden ending of their conversation. What had she done? Moreover, why could he not just talk to her about it, instead of walking away? She was trying so hard to be accepted, but somehow it seemed she would never be good enough in the Dwarven King's eyes.

Quickly, she finished tying the new string to her bow, tested it and then jumped up herself. Dusting off her clothes – which really made no difference in the overall dirty state of her person – she decided she would go take a bath. That morning, Beorn had informed all of them (with quite a bit of insistence) that there was a stream that ran behind the house where they would be able to safely clean themselves. It would be nice to wash the weeks' worth of dirt and grime from her body. Not to mention, it might sooth her mind a little.

Bofur was seated against the house next to the door, his floppy head lopsided on his head and a pipe hanging from the corner of his mouth, and the Elleth meant to only nod at him in passing. 'Oh I would not go in there.' At seeing her raised eyebrow he continued 'I don't know what you said to him but I think you best leave him alone for a bit.'

'Oh I was just..-'

'I am just joking with you lass,' he laughed at her puzzled expression, then he gestured with his pipe at her bow. 'I see you got that fixed.'

'Yes. It only needed a new bowstring, it was no problem.' She showed the bow to him, as if to prove her point. Ardhoniel was about to open the door when it already swung open and out came a tall, grey cloaked figure. Inwardly, the Elleth cursed her luck.

'Ah, my lady Ardhoniel, just who I was looking for,' his tone was neither friendly nor unfriendly as he stated this, but his eyes were grim as he regarded her from under his bushy eyebrows. 'Master Dwarf, if you do not mind I would like to speak to the lady Ardhoniel… alone.'

'Yes, of course, Mr. Gandalf.' Taking his pipe, Bofur scrambled to his feet and, with a wave of his floppy head, went inside the house.

'Would you walk with me?'

The Elleth nodded, feeling that despite it being posed as a question, she really did not have a choice. This time she would not get out so easily.

They walked in silence through the apiary for a short time before at last the Istar came to a halt. When he turned to her, his face was treacherously expressionless. 'I think you can imagine you are the last person I expected to find.' He paused here 'Do they know?'

'Nan Belain, no! They would never let me come if they'd know.'

'And your father?'

'I… I left him a note.'

'A note,' Mithrandir exclaimed 'A note? You left in the dead of night, to travel hallways across Middle-Earth on a Quest from which you might not return… and you left your father a note?!'

She cringed at his words, suddenly feeling like a small Elfling again. 'Please, Mithrandir…'

The Istar frowned deeply at her in disapproval 'This Quest was complicated enough as it was. However, as it is I might be able to find use of you after all.' He turned his back on her and walked away. 'May Manwë protect us...'

When the Elleth had at last recovered enough to return to the house, it was near empty and she was informed that they had gone for a bath. What a fine day it was turning out to be..

~ Nan Belain = By the Valar

Author's Note: Hope you all enjoyed this chapter. If you did, let me know in a review! Also, I'm repeating a question I asked two chaps back: do you want Tauriel in this story or not?