Chapter XII

"Who is it?" Crista called out to the mysterious person or rather elf on the other side of the door.

"It's me my lady." They immediately recognized the voice, it was Arwen.

"Oh, come in!" Elise chirped.

Arwen opened the wooden door and went into the room with a smile evident on her features. Once inside the girls' room, there she saw the three looking like they've just woken up.

"Did you get a good night's sleep?" She asked them.

"Well, yes..but..uhmm.." Elinor's face suddenly was full of confusion.

"How did we get here?" Elise finished

Even before Arwen could reply, Crista cut her short.

"I mean, we were like with Lord Elrond last night in the gardens and now we just woke up here in our room, h-how?"

"Well, from what my father told me, you three fell asleep while ada was telling you a story." She replied, not really answering the question.

"Oh..." The hobbit's voice trailed

"In fact, my father carried you in his arms while he brought you back here to your room. Whilst you two were carried off by the servants." Arwen added.

"Who, m-m-me?" Elise stammered and was now blushing almost as red as Crista's hair.

"Yes." Arwen smiled at her.

The poor little hobbit could only look at the ground and blush thinking about how the handsome and majestic looking lord elf had carried her into their room.

"Lucky you dude!" Crista fake pouted at her friend

"Yeah! I wish I were you." Elinor punched Elise by the arm in a playful manner.

As soon as the elf heard this, she chuckled and began to think how amusing it is that the three girls had this little crush on his father.

Elinor and Crista was now starting to tease Elise and kept on going until the hobbit decided to change the subject.

"Why are you here Arwen?" Elise asked her politely.

"I'm because my father and I wanted to invite you if you could join us for breakfast this morning."

"YES!" The three suddenly exclaimed making Arwen raise her eyebrows in amusement.

"Before anything else, let us get you decent first." She said as she pointed out how messy their hair and their dresses full of wrinkles are, making the girls blush in embarrassment.

Maryse POV

I hugged my knees closer to my chest in attempt to keep warm from the cold wind and rain. What a good time to throw Thorin his coat.

After some while, I started to sneeze and let out some hearty coughs. Oh great.

Thorin POV

After Markus ran into the forest, I just stood there as if my feet were planted into the ground. I didn't know what to do. Though even after all of the things he shouted at me, I refused to believe it. Still, it hurts me deep inside that he had said those kinds of things to me.

At first I was confused because from earlier we were in such intimate position. Then it came to this.

For the first time in my life, I was confused and didn't know what to do.

Oh Aule, help me!

"Thorin! Go after him! It's dangerous for him to go alone!" As soon as I heard Gandalf's commanding voice, I was snapped out of my thoughts and subconsciously I felt my feet move under me, mounted the pony, and followed my beloved Markus into the woods.

As I urged on the pony to run faster, everything that had happened earlier kept on repeating inside my mind.

"I HATE YOU! I DON'T LIKE YOU! I WAS JUST PLAYING WITH YOU! I HAD THIS BET WITH MYSELF TO SEE IF YOU WOULD FALL FOR ME! IT WAS..."

"It was all...just...a joke Thorin."

"So please..stop...and don't come near me again..."

I gripped the pony's ropes tighter until my knuckles turned white.

At the back of my mind, something was telling me that all of the things he said were all just a lie.

Maryse POV

I'm beginning to feel weak and dizzy. I thought.

I tried to open my mouth to call out to someone for help, but nothing came out.

My eyes are starting to feel heavy each passing second and getting harder to fight off the sleepiness that is trying to overcome.

After a while of the internal struggle within me as to whether to let the sleep come to me or fight to stay awake, I suddenly someone's voice- it was Thorin's.

"Wake up, Markus!"

Yeah like he'll come save you after all of the things that you had said. I bet he already hates you.

I only realized that my eyes were already closed when I felt something warm against my cheek that made me open them. There just in front of me was the dwarf king that I love. My vision wasn't that much clear for me to confirm that it was really him.

"Stay with me." I heard him again as I felt him carry me in his arms from the ground.

"Thorin? Why are you here?" I whispered hoarsely and even before I could make out what he was saying, I felt darkness consume me.

The rain was still pouring and the skies dark, and it has already been a while since Thorin came after Markus. This was starting to make the dwarves, Bilbo, and Gandalf restless and worried.

"We should go after uncle!" Fili blurted out to his brother, but the others around him were disagreeing and saying that their leader could do it. After all, Markus was his, though deep inside them they were already starting to think about coming after the two.

"I really think that we sh-" Kili was about to say something when he was cut short by sight of his uncle's blurry figure approaching them with his pony.

"Markus!" Kili and his brother exclaimed once they saw the said lad cradled in their uncle's arms.

"Thorin! What happened to the lad?" Balin and the other's face etched with concern.

"I found him on the ground looking weak." Thorin briefly explained as got down and handed Markus to Oin.

"He's feels very hot. I think he has fever." Oin told them as soon as he got off his pony to check on Markus' unconscious form.

"I thought dwarves weren't supposed to get sick." Bilbo thought out loud.

"Dwarves do get sick my dear Bilbo, but rarely." Gandalf answered the hobbit.

"But, just a simple rain couldn't get us sick. I wonder how Mister Markus got it." Bombur added.

"Maybe because he isn't a la-oomph!" Fili immediately elbowed his brother before Kili finished his sentence.

"A what?" Dwalin asked.

"Nothing." Kili dropped the subject as he glared at Fili, who by the way was also glaring at Kili.

Then suddenly, the rain stopped making the whole company sigh in relief.

"We need to get him out of his clothes Thorin, we need to get him to warm and be dry." Oin told Thorin before going back to his pony.

As soon as Fili and Kili heard what Oin shad suggested, they looked at each other with shocked expressions.

"What shall we do brother? WE promised Mister Maryse that we wouldn't let her disguise be discovered! Let alone to uncle!" Kili whispered to Fili.

"Mister Maryse?" Fili chuckled.

"Oh nevermind! What shall we do?!" The brunette half-whispered-half- shouted, making the others turn to look at them with questioning looks, curious about what is happening between them.

Fili gestured towards them to ignore them.

"I don't know Kili! Let's just see what we can do." He patted his brother's back before going back with the others.

Then after Thorin had already got onto his own pony and Markus settled in his arms, they started to move again.

Once Elinor, Crista, and Elise were 'decent' after taking a bath, already in their new dresses, hair already combed out of knots and tangles, they were ready to go to breakfast.

"Oh wow! I love this dress!" Elise exclaimed while looking down at the dress she wore. It was like a dress that Arwen usually wears. Instead hers was in pale green with gold hems on both the long sleeves that went past her fingertips and the end of the dress that goes just half an inch above from the ground.

"Me too!" The others said. Crista's was long sleeves like Elinor's, but hers was plain cream in colour with gold intricate designs that make her hair stand out. While Elise's was in midnight blue, with white embroidery but the sleeves were kind of shorter than her friends' since Arwen told her that long ones would make her look smaller.

"Let's go! I'm starving!" Then Crista went for the door, and before the remaining three in the room could even tell the redhead to wait for them, she was already out of earshot.

"We'll camp here for the night!" Thorin's voice broke the silence as he stopped in front of a burnt down-looking kind of house.

The company was already past the forest and were already almost dry.

Thorin looked down at Markus once he felt him shiver. Even when slightly dry, he was still shivering.

"Here, let me have 'im Thorin." Balin dismounted his pony and offered to carry Markus so that Thorin would be able to go down from his own.

"Will he be okay?" The king's voice evident with concern

"I can't tell Thorin, but I think the way the lad shivers is a bad sign of a fever." Balin replied.

Thorin stared at Markus' shivering form in Balin's arms. He extended a hand and cupped a very warm cheek of Markus.

"I..I don't know what to do Balin." The king admitted to the white haired dwarf in front of him.

"Oin, check up on this lad here." Balin called out to the medic dwarf.

"Aye." Oin replied as left his things on the ground and went to where the feverish Markus is and carried the small form off Balin's arms. Oin turned his back and once he found a sunny spot 10 meters away from the company, he laid Markus on the ground and started to check up on him.

Balin, noticing the look on Thorin's eyes. "He'll be fine, just let Oin do his work."

"I know." Thorin replied before taking a last glimpse of Markus, he then turned around and went back to the others.

Once Fili and Kili got down their ride, they immediately went to their uncle to work their plain in trying not to have Markus' cover blown. But their plan didn't seem to be going anywhere when

"Fili, Kili, look after the ponies. Make sure you stay with them." Thorin told them. Making both look at each other with worry.

"But uncle! Markus is sick! We want to look after him, not the ponies!" They insisted

"Oin is already looking after him." Their uncle told them. But the two kept on pushing until Thorin gave them a cold glare that made them go on with their task with heads hung low.

"It seems that our plan didn't work." Fili whispered to his brother while they gathered the ponies.

"We'll find another way, we need to. We can't let Maryse down!" Kili replied.

The others were already starting to fix their things for camp when Gandalf went down his horse to look at the house.

"A farmer and his family use to live here." The grey wizard mumbled.

"Gloin get a fire going." Thorin said and started walking to where Gandalf is.

"Aye."

"I think it would be wise to move on. We could make for the Hidden Valley." The wizard turned around to face the king.

"I told you, I will not go near that place." Thorin replied with such anger and kept on walking through around the house.

"Why not? The Elves could help us. We could get food, rest, advice. Let alone get Markus healed." At the mention of Markus' name, Thorin came to a halt.

"I do not need advice and let alone have those Elves lay their filthy hands on Markus."

"We have a map that we cannot read, Lord Elrond could help us." Gandalf pointed out.

"Help? A dragon attacks Erebor. What help came from the Elves? Orcs plunder Moria, desecrate our sacred halls. The Elves looked on and did nothing." Thorin told Gandalf in such manner that you can already see venom coming out of Thorin's mouth.

"And you ask me to seek out help from the people who betrayed my gradfather and my father" He added.

"You are neither of them. I did not give you that map and key to hold onto your past." Gandalf said while he rested both of his hands on top of his staff.

"I did not know that they were yours to keep."

After Gandalf had enough of Thorin's stubbornness, he shook his head in annoyance and turned around to leave.

As Gandalf passed Bilbo and the dwarves, the hobbit asked if everything was alright and where the wizard was going.

"To seek the company of the only one around here who's got any sense." Gandalf replied while he went to his horse.

"And who's that?" Bilbo asked.

"Myself, Mister Baggins!" Gandalf exclaimed before taking off. "I've had enough dwarves for one day." He muttered under his breath.

"C'mon Bombur, we're hungry." Thorin said and then went for his things in order to set up for the night as he and Dwalin talked.

"Is he coming back?" Bilbo asked Balin while he stroked his pony's mane.

And they could only look at Gandalf's retreating figure.

"Balin! I-I-I.." Oin whispered when he suddenly came to where Balin was, looking shocked, slightly disturbed, and worried all at the same time.

"What is it?" The white haired dwarf became alarmed at the sudden behaviour of the medic.

"M-M-M...he-he-he" Oin stuttered, too shocked to explain Balin as he pointed to the spot where Markus was lying on the grassy ground.

This action called some attention from almost all the dwarves namely Ori who was writing something in his journal while sitting on a rock, Bofur who was smoking his pipe while fixing his things, Gloin together with who was setting up the fire with Bombur, and finally Dori and Nori who was just passing by when he got curious as to what's happening between Balin, Oin, and Bilbo's conversation. Except Thorin, who was busy with his own things whilst still talking with Dwalin far from the others as if they didn't really care about them that much for the moment.

"What is it Oin?" Bilbo asked. Yet the said dwarf kept on stuttering.

"Good lad, spit it out!" Balin snapped at him.

"Markus is a lass!" Oin finally blurted out loud enough for the nearby dwarves to hear.

Then came a moment of silence among the dwarves, all too shocked to speak only but to gape at Oin with jaws dropped open. The only thing that could be heard was the dropping of Ori's journal and pen, Thorin and Dwalin's hushed tones of their conversation, and Bombur dropping the cooking wares.

"Oh no brother!" Fili looked at Kili with wide, shocked eyes beside him as soon as they heard what Oin said just when they were coming back to get the pony beside Balin and Bilbo.

OH NO! So..that's chapter 12! YEEYY! What do you think shall happen next?! I shall try to update again by next week or this week if i get lucky! actually it always depends on how busy I am with school work. PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE TELL ME HOW YOU THINK OF THIS CHAPPIE! ps. I am open to suggestions for the upcoming chapters ahihihi! Thank you for all of my followers! I hope you enjoyed this chappie as much as I did! R & R!