Poppy and Emily stormed out of the mountain, clutching their chests as they rapidly fought for breath. They paused for a brief moment at the edge of the trees, still panting terribly, to regain their bearings. It was true to be said that they both looked awful. Poppy's clothes were torn and her brown hair was frizzing up wildly, flying into Emily's eyes as it caught the wind. Annoyed, Emily batted it away. It seemed that her own hair or not, there was always some form of hair flicking into her face. Emily on the other hand looked no better. Her eyes were hollow from not seeing light for a considerable length of time, and her knuckles were bruised and grazed. She sat down wearily on a nearby rock, due to the fact that Emily had never enjoyed running, or any form of exercise for that matter- bar fencing. Emily thought back to her fencing back at home and how much she missed it now. Although it was quite like sword fighting, she had to admit that her opponents were never bloodthirsty goblins that wanted to rip her throat out. A nudging on her shoulder awakened Emily from her reminiscing daydreams and she batted whatever was touching her away. Poppy sighed in frustration.
"For crying out loud, Em, stop being so down in the dumps. We made it out of that stupid mountain! HALLELULIAH"
With that, Poppy bounded down the hill that ran away from the mountain and into a valley, leaping into the air with amazing height.
Emily grumbled in irritation. It seemed that her small friend, however nice she may be, always took every opportunity to show off her bloody ballet skills. Em groaned as she lifted herself off her beloved rock and staggered down the hill after her retreating friend. After many a stumble over inconspicuous (and conspicuous) rocks, Emily finally reached her friend, who had already arrived at the bottom of the ravine.
"Now…"Poppy pondered, lighting tapping her bow, which made Emily feel quite uneasy, even if she did not say this to her friend. "Where do the dwarves end up? I think I am losing my foresight…"
"What? Aren't they like… in the trees or something?"
"Yeah, obviously. But I can't remember WHERE!" she sighed. "Anyway, it doesn't really matter. I told Thorin we would be leaving in the morning"
"WHAT?!" Emily exclaimed, gesturing violently with her arms. "Why on earth did you do that?!"
"Wow, don't get so angry with me!" her friend replied, quite shocked by the blonde's sudden outburst. "I was trying to shut him up. As you might remember he was not being very pleasant during our little 'discussion' back in the cave"
"Whatever, we will cross that bridge when we come to it. Now where are they?"
Emily shook her head in anger, since she could not recall where they ended up either. Nonetheless, much to her luck, she turned her head of tangled hair to face a row of trees just as Balin raced by, red robes billowing.
"BALIN!" Emily screamed, pointing an accusing finger at said dwarf.
Poppy looked to the trees where Emily was pointing and they both raced off, Poppy colliding headfirst into the unsuspecting Bombur as they reached the clearing.
As Poppy was staggering to get up, Emily raced over to Kili, who was standing harmlessly next to Fili at the edge of the company. He looked up just in time to see her coming before the blonde girl practically leapt on him, winding her long spindly arms around his neck.
"KILI!" she proclaimed in relief, but also out of breath because she had sprinted to see him.
Kili was about to reply something back to her when she grabbed his startled face in her hands and planted a kiss on his lips. Kili's eyes reflected shock for a brief moment before they turned to ones of pleasant surprise and he wound his arms around her, pulling her in tighter.
However, there lovely smooching session was interrupted by Poppy and Fili chanting "Kiss, kiss, kiss, kiss, kiss, kiss" softly behind them.
They broke apart in surprise and Emily, realising what she had done, went bright red with embarrassment.
"No need to be shy, Leiress" Kili whispered as he took her hand in his. Emily attempted to smile back at him, but her smile ended up looking quite manic indeed.
"Ooooooooh I think I am starting to ship you guys!" Poppy announced in front of them for the whole company to hear.
"Oh yes, me too. I totally ship them" Fili said, in a rather uncharacteristically high-pitched voice.
Poppy stared back at him in astonishment.
"Do you even know what ship means?" she inquired of the blonde dwarf.
"Not really, but it sounds tots legit." He exclaimed with a rather feminine hand gesture.
The rest of the company meanwhile was staring at Emily and Kili in awe, except Ori, who had a rather sickly look on his face.
"Well" Dwalin began, "Looks like one of them is gone!"
The rest of the company laughed and Dwalin elbowed Poppy in the ribs, "Right, lass?"
Poppy slunk away from him, slightly disturbed, predominantly due to the fact that every time she saw Dwalin the only thing she could think of was the 'King of the Rock'.
Emily was pleased to see (and hear) that no one of the company seemed to be opposing the sudden revelation of her interest in Kili. Nonetheless, who should ruin the blissful moment but Thorin, who was standing at the back of the company, glaring at Emily in a get-away-from-my-nephew-you-slut kind of way. Thorin looked like he was about to voice these thoughts when Gandalf's concerned drone drew attention away from the pair.
"That makes thirteen… Where's Bilbo? Where is our Hobbit?" he questioned, causing everyone to look around them, as if Bilbo was about to suddenly jump out from the undergrowth.
"Curse that Halfling" Dwalin exclaimed angrily, "Now he's lost?"
"I thought he was with Dori!" Gloin accused, which Emily thought to be most unjust.
"Don't blame me!" Dori defended, looking quite bemused himself.
"Well, where did you last see him?" Gandalf asked patiently, a hint of exasperation in his voice.
"I don't blame him for getting frustrated with these dwarves" Poppy muttered to Emily, who nodded in agreement.
Then, for the first time since the quest had begun, Nori spoke up.
"I think I saw him slip away when they first collared us"
"Well that's helpful" Emily muttered in her friend's ear, causing Poppy to let out a muffled giggle.
"What happened exactly?" Gandalf exclaimed, obviously getting quite frustrated now, "TELL ME!"
Nori was about to answer when who should interrupt but Thorin, no doubt to insult the hobbit further.
"I'll tell you what happened" he began accusingly, ignoring warning glares from the two girls standing across the clearing. "Master Baggins saw his chance and he took it! He's thought of nothing but his soft bed and his warm hearth since first he stepped out of his door! We will not be seeing our Hobbit again."
"Ummm yes we will, quite soon actually" Emily interjected, causing Thorin to whip his head around and stare at her angrily, obviously annoyed by the interruption
"He is long gone."
The dwarves all looked at each other, confused, and Emily began to count down from three.
"Three…two…one"
After she had said one, Bilbo appeared from behind them.
"No, he isn't" he proclaimed loudly for all of the company to hear.
"Ha HA!" Emily shouted at Thorin. Nevertheless, her outburst was silenced by a jab in the ribs from one of Poppy's elbows.
"Bilbo Baggins! I've never been so glad to see anyone in my life!" Gandalf smiled, looking genuinely pleased.
Bilbo gave a rather chuffed grin at the wizard's statement.
"Bilbo! We'd given you up!" Kili exclaimed, still entwined in Emily's tight embrace. Bilbo's eyebrows creased into a confused frown as he stared at them, it seemed that he, un like the rest of the company, was un aware of the chemistry between the two.
"How on, like, EARTH did you get past the goblins?" Fili voiced, yet again in a very odd voice. The dwarves stared at him perplexedly, trying to decipher his strange linguistics.
"How, indeed" Dwalin muttered from next to Poppy. Poppy realised that Dwalin had crept over and was now invading her personal space by standing un-necessarily close. She cautiously side-stepped away from him and towards Emily. However, Emily was still clinging onto Kili and Poppy decided that she did not want to bear witness to whatever may be going on over there. With a slightly uneasy sigh she moved back to stand next to Dwalin, who looked down at her with a rather unsettling smirk. Poppy frowned at him and opened her mouth to demand he stay out of her personal bubble, when Thorin pushed his way between the two with crossed arms. Poppy looked up at him, rather confused.
"Ummmm, Thorin? What are you doing?"
Whether he had heard her or not he made no attempt to reply. Poppy continued to stare bemusedly at him and a strange thought entered her mind before she pushed it away, sighing to herself.
While she had been focused on Thorin's arbitrary interjection, the conversation had moved elsewhere.
"It matters!" Thorin shouted, jolting Poppy out of her daydreams. "I want to know: why did you come back?"
There was a brief awkward silence which included Bilbo staring at the questioning Dwarf King in an admirable way.
"Em!" Poppy whispered. Whispering was proven quite difficult since Emily was on the other side of the clearing and her friend was wedged between The King of the Rock and the King under the Mountain.
"Em!" she persisted. "It's BAGGINSHIELD!"
"What's that?" Ori asked curiously, once again demonstrating his profound ignorance.
"Well, if you really want to know it's-" Poppy's excited mumbles were cut short by a shocked glance from Em, which brought Poppy back to her senses. "It's nothing". She finished, looking down at the ground.
Thorin narrowed his eyes at her suspiciously, a small thought beginning to form in his mind about the connection between 'Baggin'and 'shield'.
Thankfully, any disquieting thoughts he might have been forming were interrupted by the start of a very heart felt speech by Bilbo.
"Look, I know you doubt me, I know you always have. And you're right, I often think of Bag End. I miss my books. And my armchair. And my garden. See, that's where I belong. That's home. And that's why I came back, because you don't have one. A home. It was taken from you. But I will help you take it back if I can."
Thorin and Bilbo stared at eachother for a good long while and for a second, Poppy thought she saw admiration and acceptance for the hobbit shine in the dwarf's intense blue eyes.
Nonetheless, their beautiful moment was interrupted by the howls of many wargs from back up the valley.
Poppy looked up in alarm and looked for Emily among the circle of people. However, disturbingly, her blonde friend was nowhere to be found.
"Out of the frying pan" Thorin muttered, grabbing Poppy's arm and pulling her down the valley along with him.
"And into the fire! Run!" Gandalf finished with a dramatic swirl of his grey robes.
"Wait! Where's Em? Thorin, let go of me! I have to find Em!"
Whether he had heard her or not, Thorin did not loosen his grip on the struggling girl's arm. The company continued to move down the mountain, the wargs following then at an alarming pace. Poppy had just enough time to look over her shoulder for her lost friend once more before she was knocked to the ground.
Thank you :) Thank you to reviewers, favouriters and followers :D
Also I desperately need to do something about these chapter names. It's getting very confusing with the whole '14: Chapter 13' thing. I apologise