Rainy roads

The sound of a deep voice calling out "Breakfast!" and the smell of something burning, was what Clara woke to the next morning.

She sat up, running her fingers through her hair. Around her, the dwarves were all awake, packing their things and stuffing their mouths full of bread and the stew from the night before.

Groaning slightly over her stiff back, Clara rose and folded her blankets together, before putting them back in her backpack. It was better to be ready before breakfast, than to have to stress with the packing later.

As she walked over to the fire and sat down, her fingers braided her hair into her normal, single braid. It had turned into a habit now, since she only got annoyed by having her hair hanging into her face while they were on the road.

She accepted the bowl Bombur gave her and ate silently, watching as the dwarves spoke to one another.

"Slept well?" Bilbo sat down next to her, grabbing a bowl for himself and looking down into it with a deep sigh.

"Yes, I did actually." She smiled and tilted her bowl, scraping the last of her own breakfast up with her spoon. It felt like it was too little. "What about yourself?"

"The ground were rather hard and the snoring a bit disturbing, but I managed to get a few good hours of sleep." The hobbit shrugged his shoulders, before digging in to his own food. His tired face showed Clara that he was not happy about what he was eating. He would rather have anything else in the world.

As soon as everyone had finished their meal, they washed the bowls and everything else they had used and packed it back down in their bags, so that they could prepare the ponies.

The dwarves seemed rather happy and was singing in their deep voices as they made themselves ready. The songs were merry and none of the troubles from the night before could be spotted, as they sang of their home and the shine of precious stones in the light of the sun.

Clara almost felt like joining in herself, but since she was not as good as the dwarves at coming up with songs and remembering their concept, she kept her mouth shut and just listened. Besides, she did not even know if she could sing.

"Come on, get up. We need to head of." Thorin's voice rung out around them and caused the singing dwarves to stop and nod their heads. They knew they were now entering dangerous land and that they had to get going as soon as possible. They were already too close to the places that were packed with orcs and they had to get as far away as possible before nightfall.

So they all mounted and set off. Down the hills and into the valley.

Gandalf and Thorin rode in the front, making sure they were on the right way and keeping a look out for anything suspicious. The screams from last night still spooked their thoughts.

Clara, still riding behind Kili, was in the back. They had today's work as look-outs if anything came up from behind or the sides. It was something that barely happened and therefore, they did not have much to do.

Due to the lack of sleep and the slow rhythm of the pony, Clara soon started to get dozy. Her arms was firmly wrapped around Kili's waist and as her eyes started to fall shut, she leaned her head against the back of the young dwarf.

Kili, who also he was a bit tired after all his hours guarding, felt the slight pressure as Clara leaned against him and he could hear her slow breaths in his ear.

With a smile on his lips, he turned his head, only to find the girl already asleep and far away in the land of dreams.

"Sleep well, my lady", he murmured and placed one of his hands on her two around his waist and turned forward again. The least he could do was to make sure she did not fall off.

Clara had never experienced falling asleep on the back of a pony before and she had to admit it was an uncomfortable business.

When she woke up again, she found herself leaning dangerously to the right, with the arms clasped tightly around Kili's waist.

Every part of her body was aching and she groaned quietly as she loosened her grip from around the dwarf and brought one hand up to rub her eyes.

"How long was I asleep for?", she murmured, mostly to herself and released the dwarf from also her other arm, so that she could stretch them out.

"For about two hours, I believe." Kili turned his head slowly and grinned towards her. "I was quite amazed that you did not fall off." He chuckled and she concurred, meeting his gaze.

"I am quite happy about that, I must say." She smiled and shivered, as a cool stream of air hit her. Looking up, she found that the sky was dark-grey and rain was hanging in the air. She groaned. Just great. Rain.

Kili, who had heard the groan, turned his head slightly and raised his eyebrows.

"Are you not happy with something?" He smiled, already knowing what her reply was going to be. The other dwarves had already complained about the clouds while she had been sleeping and he was not very happy about it himself.

"The rain. I do not want rain." She sighed and wrapped one arm around his waist again. Not holding onto something had made her feel very unsteady and the ground bellow looked too hard for her taste.

Just as she spoke, the first drops came falling down and the entire company groaned in unison. The rain was not welcome and everyone wished silently for it to stop as quickly as possible.

Pulling the hood of her cloak up, Clara leaned closer to Kili and gave the dark sky a murdering glare. Something about it made her head hurt and it was like it was mocking her to remember something she could not grasp. It disturbed her.

They rode in the rain during the entire day, only stopping quickly under an overhanging rock to have some lunch and then continuing onward.

It did not take more than a few hours for all of them and their packs to get soaked.

This meant that when nightfall came and they made camp under a group of tall trees, there were no dry clothes to change into. Their packs were completely wet and the only things that seemed to have made it, was the food, and even that was damp in the end.

So the company was not a merry gathering that night. All of them complained and groaned about everything, none of them feeling like singing or brightening the mood. The seriousness of their quest had taken over and made everyone understand that this was not a trip of pleasure.

Clara ate quietly and then covered herself in her damp blankets. It was still raining and the drops fell from the trees all around them, making the forest filled with the sound of water.

With a deep sigh, she lay there and stared up through the branches at the dark sky. She wished for the stars to show again, for she had grown quite fond of the stars during the past few days.

She just loved laying on her back and watching them appear in the dark. It was something that helped her fall asleep and now when they did not, she almost felt a bit sad about it.

So that night, she instead fell asleep to the sound of the rain and the groans of the wet dwarves, something that she would trade for stars any day.

But she actually got her stars that night. About an hour after that she had fallen asleep, the rain stopped and left the guarding dwarves to in silence watch the clouds fade away and get replaced by the bright little lights in the sky.

So when Clara got woken up in the middle of the night, to take her turn as guard, she found her beloved stars up above, like she had wanted.

This meant that she did not mind sitting up for a couple of hours instead of sleeping like the others.

Instead she sat with her back leaned against a tree, with her blankets and cloak wrapped around her to keep out the chill.

Bofur, who was her guarding companion, watched amused as the girl stared up at the sky in amazement, her lips moving as she spoke silent words that was not for his or anyone else's ears.

He sat by the fire, softly smoking his pipe and looking out over the dark forest. He decided to leave the girl alone, for the look on her face told him that she was far away in her thoughts and that she probably was not in the mood for talking right then.
So he kept his distance and stayed quiet.

What Clara was really thinking of, she barely knew herself. All she knew was that she had started to remember things that confused her and made her head hurt.

If it was her brain slowly remembering things by itself or if it was something else, she did not know and she did not want to think about it.

What she actually was remembering, were things that made her more confused than ever. She remembered faces, faces that she could not put a name to. A house, that she supposed was her own, and a forest, much like the one she had been found in, that was shadowed by thunderclouds.

She knew all this was important and that it was something that she needed to remember were it lay, but she just could not. It was annoying.

So after a few hours, staring up at the stars and trying to get something out of the misty memories, she gave up and rose from her spot to go sit next to Bofur. The warmth of the fire and the company of the dwarf, was welcomed and she was happy hearing another voice than the one in her mind talking.

"Are you all right?" Bofur took the pipe out of his mouth and poked the fire with a stick, causing it to grow in size.

The girl nodded.

"Yes. I just needed some time to think, that is all." She smiled and met the gentle eyes of the dwarf. "I am sorry for leaving you alone like that." Picking up an old branch, also she started poking the fire, making sparks fly up towards the dark sky.

"It is perfectly all right. Everyone needs some time on their own." The dwarf knocked the wooden pipe against the ground and then put it back in his pocket. He was not going to be impolite by blowing smoke into the face of the poor girl. "I just hope you got something out of it." He threw his stick into the flames and watched as they grew bigger, increasing the heath and smoke in the cold night.

"I cannot say I did." Clara sighed and stared into the flames, as if the answers to all her questions would appear in the middle of the hearth. "It is all a mess up here." She pointed to the side of her head and smiled. "I suppose that is what you get when suffering from amnesia." She chuckled slightly, showing the dwarf that she was not really that sad about it.

"I guess." Bofur shrugged his shoulders and suppressed a yawn with his hand. "What do you say, should we head back to bed? I believe our time is up." He threw one more stick onto the fire and then rose.

"That sounds good to me." Also Clara rose, gathering her blankets. "I will wake Balin if you take Bombur." The dwarf nodded and they quickly woke the next two guards, before both going back to sleep. A sleep they both needed.

The next two days also held rain, something that did not lighten the mood the slightest. That one night without it had been all and during the oncoming days, the sky was wide open, pouring rain down onto the poor company.

On the third day since the rain had started, which was almost a week since they had started out on their journey, they had had enough rain for a lifetime.

"Here, Mr Gandalf, can't you do something about this deluge?" Dori, having his hood pulled up over his head and a miserable look on his face, looked at the wizard whom rode in front of him.

"It is raining Master Dwarf, and it will continue to rain until the rain is done. If you wish to change the weather of the world, you should find yourself another wizard." Gandalf, who was just as grumpy as everyone else, sighed.

"Are there any?" Bilbo, suddenly finding a subject that could bring his thoughts from the rain, looked up. His light-brown hair was hanging down into his eyes and he looked even more miserable than everyone else, due to his lack of a cloak.

"What?" Gandalf turned slightly, apparently away in his own thoughts.

"Other wizards?" Bilbo patted his brown-red pony on the neck and looked expectantly at the wizard.

"There are five of us. The greatest of our order is Saruman, the White. Then there are the two Blue Wizards." Here Gandalf stopped to think for a moment, before he continued slowly. "You know, I have quite forgotten their names." He sighed and then fell silent.

"And who is the fifth", Bilbo asked, a bit curious.

"Well, that would be Radagast, the Brown." Gandalf smiled a bit to himself, proud he remembered something.

But the hobbit soon wiped that smile away.

"Is he a great wizard or is he... more like you?" Scattered laughter could be heard around the group and the mood was suddenly high once more.

"I think he is a great wizard in his own way. He is a gentle soul who prefers the company of animals to others. He keeps a watchful eye over the vast forest lands to the East, and a good thing too, for always evil will look to find a foothold in this world." The wizard hummed to himself and turned forward again, to make sure they were on the right way and did not get lost in the mud. For that would be truly unfortunate.

Author's note: So, hello there! :) I really hoped you enjoyed this part, even though I found it a bit slow. Though it was a necessary part to make sure the next one gets as long as it needs to be.
Anyway, thank you so much to all of you who as read, favourited, followed or reviewed this story! I love all of you and I really hope that you like what I write. Otherwise, I wouldn't upload.
I really hope that if you have something to comment on, that you do that, so that I get to know what you think. Cause if you find something you would like to change or get more of, then I need to know about it to be able to change it, you know :)
So don't be scared to review!
Also, at the end of the next part, I'm going to ask you some things about Clara. Cause I want you to help me to develop her character. So if you got any ideas about now already, then don't be scared to share them with me!
Thanks for reading and sorry for the long ramble!