Thank you everyone for reading, and a big thank to iamCAMBRIA for beta.
Chapter 11
Bad dreams
…
Billie blinked couple of times, as if she has just woken up. Yet she had not fallen asleep. She could feel a presence draw close to them; and then she heard a scream. Billie sat right up and looked towards the cliff. Then she sighed. It was only Orcs…
"Orcs," Kili said to the Hobbit.
"Orcs?" Bilbo asked and hurried back to the camp.
"Throat cutters," Fíli said. "There´d be dozens of them out there. The lone-lands are crawling with them."
Billie rolled her eyes and scooted over to her side near the fire.
"They strike in the wee small hours when everyone´s asleep…"
Billie couldn´t hear the rest of them as she drifted off to sleep.
Billie dreamt of war and death. Not the war she has been in, but an unfamiliar war from Middle-earth, but yet it seemed so familiar. She was fighting and could see her hand swinging an elegant sword. Sometimes she was using her bow and firing arrows with the rest of her kin.
She heard screams; screams of death and the Orcs. The Orcs were larger than she remembered. Billie imagined herself fighting. That was when she saw someone. An Elf with long golden blond hair had stopped fighting and looked at her. He gave one nod and continued fighting. So did she.
Billie felt a sharp jabbing pain through her left shoulder and she screamed. Her voice raw and cracking. At the same time she sat up panting, awaking to the safety of the camp. She looked around and saw the fire was already out; the Company was sleeping.
"Bad dream?" A voice asked.
She turned a little and saw Thorin looking at her. Billie nodded and turned again, rubbing her forehead and then her shoulder. She lay down again in her sleeping bag but found herself restless. So she sat up.
"Sit with me," Thorin´s dark voice rumbled.
Billie didn´t go to him right away, she needed to figure out her dream because she couldn´t stop thinking about it. She sighed and stood up, dragging her sleeping bag with her. She sat down next to the Dwarf King.
"Anything you would like to share?" Thorin asked.
Billie shook her head.
"It was only a bad dream," she said. They had their voices low so not wake up any. She then smiled. "Unless you say something about yourself or your family, I won´t say anything." He looked at her with a question. "I do think I have said enough about me that can last a lifetime.
"There´s nothing to be said," Thorin mumbled.
Billie frowned and didn´t say anything more. It took minutes before the Dwarf said anything.
"I have a sister waiting for word of her sons and me back in the Blue Mountains."
She looked at him curiously.
"She wanted to come with." He continued. "My sister is an excellent fighter, a great warrior; but I could not allow her to come. So I promised her I would return her sons to her alive."
Billie sank more into her sleeping bag. Not questioning anymore, for she knew his family was a weak spot for him. She could see it from the distance. Every time she saw Thorin looking at his nephews. She could see it in his eyes. The love for them, he cared deeply for his nephews, like a father would.
"Sorry I brought it up," she suddenly said. She lay now completely down on her back and looked up at the stars. "Like Kili said, I do believe we actually can be nice to each other."
Thorin smiled only for a second. "I believe so myself, Miss Estelle."
"Billie," she corrected automatically.
Thorin smile widened, he was not going to stop calling her by her first name. Billie fell asleep quickly, still looking at the stars. After Thorin woke up Gloin for the next watch, he lay down on his bedroll—next to Billie. By the end of the night their bodies rested a little closer to each other. And when Billie woke up she could feel the warmth of Thorin´s back against hers.
