Hi everyone! Sorry, I haven't posted updates for a bit longer than usual but I went away for the weekend and although I meant to, I didn't get the time to post this chapter before...
JustaFallacy, sorry I scared you like that! Hopefully, this chapter will be better!
The Clown Princess, I am happy that I could make you feel that way
Legolas's Girl Forever, I'm so sorry as well, I can't believe you had been waiting all day! Thanks for all the support you are giving me!
As always, keep telling me what you thought and enjoy!

Chapter XXIV : Nothing's ever lost

The news of Luna's death had been brought to the company a couple of hours earlier already and since then, the only sounds that had been heard inside the mountain were the sobs of Ori that came back once in a while, interrupted by moments where he would just sit there, curled up against his brothers, silent tears dropping down on his face.

Bombur had been about to devour a whole meal just before the others had come back without the young girl and afterwards, he had just pushed his full plate away and stared into the emptiness.

Gloin had hugged his brother Oïn when he had come back, happy to see he was alright, and they were still now in each other's arms, afraid that if they let go, the world would collapse around them.

Bofur had said nothing, he was still standing on the spot where he had been when the news had been broken in to the others and once again, his hat was in his hands instead of on his head.

His brother Bifur wished only that the day he had gotten the axe embedded into its skull, it had been planted even deeper to make him forget what death and sorrow meant.

Balin was sitting on a chair, silent tears falling down into his beard and Dwalin was standing besides him, a hand on his shoulder. For the first time in his life, the big warrior didn't look scary or ready for a fight but instead looked as if he had been defeated.

Bilbo was sitting in a corner, his legs folded, knees against his chest. He was so small like that one would barely have noticed him. He couldn't believe what was happening. He had been such a pathetic hobbit at the beginning, when he had joined the quest for the sake of going on an adventure that he had thought would be quite fun. Never had he imagined that they would be confronted to the loss of one of them, especially not Luna.

Thorin, for the first time ever since they had reached the mountain, wasn't contemplating his piles of gold but was instead sitting with his company. He seemed to have come back to his normal self, except that normal Thorin never looked sad and tired like he did now.

The only ones who weren't in the room were Fili and Kili but they weren't far though : Kili had sat on the ground just outside of the door, against the wall and his brother had quickly joined him, not able to stay in the room with the others and knowing that Kili needed him now as much as himself needed Kili.

They were just sitting there, motionless and in silence. Even Kili had no tears left to cry. He looked like an empty shell ; pale and his eyes empty of everything but pain. Even if he had tried, he couldn't have chased the images of Luna going through his mind. He was constantly seeing her smile, her bright ginger curls, her shiny eyes that could read him so well. He could still feel on his lips her sweet taste of honey, berries and that peculiar summer night thing that made him fall for her every time. His mind didn't seem to register the fact that she was gone and was instead showing him all that and making him feel as if he just missed her because she was gone on a trip but that she would come back sometimes soon.

Fili, on the other side, had managed to clear his thoughts well enough to consider the situation. It seemed like time had stopped in the mountain. No one looked ready to do anything or to even move. He only realised now how important Luna had been to them. Behind her fragile innocent girl looks, she had been someone they had looked up to for advice, sometimes even orders. It was not only the line of Durin that she had kept safe all the way here, but the whole company. She had been a discreet but essential presence amongst them ; she had been their captain. And what was Erebor without its captain?

Another hour passed before Thorin stood up at last. They all turned their eyes towards him.

"Come on" he said hoarsely. "Let's get back to work"

Some of the dwarves widened their eyes.

"Thorin…" Balin started.

"Everyone, on your feet. She wouldn't have wanted us to let ourselves go in such a way while we have finally just taken our home back"

His tone was gentle but firm. They looked at each other then did as he said and walked out of the room towards the treasure. They needed to find the Arkenstone.

"Kili, come on" Thorin said, walking past his nephews still sitting outside.

The young dwarf didn't move and Fili shot his uncle an insistent look so he left them.

"He's right, you know" the blonde dwarf told his brother in a still broken voice. "What would she say if she could see us now?"

Again, Kili didn't speak nor move. Fili even wondered if he had heard him.

He sighed and kissed him on the top of his head.

"Come on"

He stood up and pulled his brother up. He thought for a moment that Kili would still not move but the young dwarf let him do and followed when he dragged him along the corridor behind the others. Fili fought back a new wave of fresh tears. He had lost Luna…and he had a feeling he had just lost his brother as well.

"Any sign of it?" Thorin's voice echoed in the huge halls.

"Nothing yet"

"Nothing here!"

The dwarves were looking for the Arkenstone in the huge piles of gold. That way, they hoped to keep their minds busy. Only Fili and Kili weren't searching. They were standing on the treasure like all the others but didn't have the heart to look for the stone. Kili still looked like a ghost and Fili, despite all his efforts, couldn't bring himself to look to that treasure that he saw like a curse.

"Keep searching!" Thorin barked.

"That jewel could be anywhere"

"The Arkenstone is in these halls. Find it"

"You heard him? Keep looking" Dwalin exclaimed.

"All of you! No one rests until it is found! Fili, Kili, you as well!"

At the sound of his uncle's angry voice in which all traces of sorrow seemed to have now disappeared, Kili snapped his head up towards him, standing on a sort of little balcony.

"One of ours is dead and all you want us to do is to look for a stone?!" he exploded.

They all stopped what they were doing and turned towards the young dwarf who locked eyes with his uncle.

The sickness had come back in those blue eyes of his.

"It is the Arkenstone, it…" Thorin started.

"I don't care what it is!" Kili cut him off. "It's just a rock and you are paying more attention to it than to her!"

"She is dead"

"Because of you! If you hadn't left us in Laketown from the start, she would never have had to face that dragon!"

"She was the one who decided to stay back against my orders, she is responsible for her own death"

Even Fili who had been trying so far to calm his brother down shot a dark look at his uncle. Kili looked shocked for a moment, as if he couldn't believe what he had just heard, then he exploded again.

"I forbid you to say such words! She died for you and your bloody mountain that she never cared for! The least you can do is to show some respect for her!"

"I have respect for her and always will" Thorin said, trying to keep a calm voice. "Once we have found the Arkenstone and brought Erebor its former glory, we will make sure that she is never forgotten. We will hold a ceremony and carve her name into stone so that it is never forgotten, I promise you that"

"That is very nice of you" came a voice from the top of a flight of stairs that made them all freeze, "but that won't be necessary"

They all snapped their heads in the direction of the voice and their eyes widened in shock when they saw who it belonged to. For an instant, silence reigned in the halls of Erebor as they all stood motionless, staring at what some of them first thought was a ghost.

Dwalin was the first to break the silence. He raced towards the young girl and wrapped her up in a rib cracking hug. That's all the dwarves needed to be dragged out of their shocked silence and they all started cheering, laughing and running towards the young girl to hug her as well.

Only Kili hadn't moved yet. He was staring at Luna, still thinking that she was a ghost. For a moment, he didn't see her anymore, hidden behind all the others who were hugging her in turns then she reappeared again and their eyes met. A soft smile passed on her lips and his heart that had been falling to pieces suddenly became whole again, and even more, it was pounding in his chest as if trying to get to the girl now although his legs were stuck in the ground.

"Luna…" he muttered and before he could even think of what to do, he raced towards her and took her in his arms to hug her so tightly he lifted her up from the ground.

She wrapped her arms around him and he buried his face against her neck to hide his tears.

"I'm here, Kili" she whispered.

Oh after all, they were tears of joy. He lifted up his head and cupped her face to look at her. She could feel that he was shaking and thought that she had never seen such happiness and emotion on anyone's face.

Then, all of a sudden, without even caring that the whole company were there watching them, he brought her face to his and kissed her.

At first surprised, she quickly kissed him back and they only stopped when they finally heard the others laughing around them. They parted, panting for breaths and finally grew aware of what they had just done in front of the others. Most of the dwarves were cheering, the others widely grinning at them.

Fili had never had such a big smile on his face. He put a hand on Luna's shoulder when she and his brother parted and hugged her as well.

"Thank you" he whispered in her ear. "Thank you for coming back"

They suddenly heard someone clearing his voice and turned to see Thorin standing before them. A flash of worry passed in Fili's eyes and for a moment he feared his uncle's reaction. It was true after all than him and Luna hadn't parted in really good terms…

The dwarf looked at the young girl for a moment then stepped forward and put a hand on her shoulder, a smile appearing on his face.

"I am glad that you are alive" he simply said and the dwarves started cheering loudly again while Luna humbly bowed her head.

"What happened to you?" Bofur asked.

"Bard said you were dead!" Oïn exclaimed and they all started asking so many questions at once that she could barely understand.

"Our captain is tougher than she looks, you should all know that by now" Balin intervened, cutting short all the questions. "Give her some air, I am sure the lass could do with a rest and a nice meal"

Luna was very grateful for that. She was starving, exhausted and in desperate need of new clothes.

"Do you have any wounds I should take a look at, lass?" Oïn asked, his eyes flashing to her side that, although Tauriel had healed it, was still covered in blood and a bit burnt.

"No, I'm fine, Oïn, thank you" she flashed him a smile then followed Balin up the stairs. Thorin would have probably wanted them to stay to keep looking for the Arkenstone but neither Fili nor Kili really cared and they went with them. Kili took the young girl's hand in his. He still needed to touch her to make sure that she was really there and that she wasn't jut an illusion that could disappear any moment.

Luna rapidly enquired about what had been happening. Balin told her how they had arrived in Erebor, found the door and send Bilbo first. He briefly related the fight against Smaug and how the dragon had ended up leaving the mountain to go to Laketown. At this point, Fili and Kili continued the story, telling how they had fled the burning town, not forgetting to mention the episode of the orcs' attack. Luna explained what had happened after she had left the boat to follow Bain and how she had ended up washed ashore where Tauriel and Legolas had found her, healed her and gave her a ride.

She then enquired about Thorin and at that, they paused for a moment.

"He…he is not the same" Fili sighed. "All he think of is the Arkenstone"

She saw the sadness in Balin's eyes.

"I am afraid that the dragon sickness has taken him" he sadly said.

She looked down. That is what she had learnt to fear from her father. She remembered that as much as her father had always wanted to reclaim the mountain, whenever he would talk about it, she could catch that little flash of worry passing in his eyes.

"But let's not talk about that. Right now, all that matters is that you are alive, lass" the old dwarf said a bit more cheerfully, squeezing her shoulder. "Come on, let's get you some food, then I'll show you something"

Settling back in a long abandoned kingdom where only a dragon had lived for the past decades meant that they didn't have much supply, yet Luna was so hungry that she was more than happy with the stew that Balin brought her.

Kili chuckled when he saw the delight with which she was eating and she raised an eyebrow at him.

"What?" she asked.

"Nothing" he said, a huge smile on his face. "I'm just happy"

That made her blush and she was about to reply when someone suddenly burst in the room and stopped in the doorframe, staring at Luna as if he was in some sort of dream.

"Lu…Luna!" Bilbo gasped.

She was the one who ran towards him and hug him. He stood motionless for a few seconds then awkwardly returned her hug.

"The others said you had come back, I couldn't believe, I…you…" he talked so fast that she chuckled.

"I missed you too, Bilbo" she said and he smiled.

The hobbit's thoughts had been troubled with worry and concern for the past few days but if Luna was back, he felt that everything would be alright.

For at least an hour, they talked lightly of things that for the first time in a very long time had nothing to do with the quest. They talked of the weather, of flowers, of the Blue mountains. They talked of the ones that some of them had left back home, including Fili and Kili's mother Dis. Bilbo told them stories of the Shire and the ways of the hobbits and they told him about dwarves. For the first time in ages, they put asides all their worries and talked only of small things that made them happy and they all felt better than they had for the past few months.

When they finally stopped talking, Balin asked Luna to follow him for he had something to show her and Fili had to convince his brother to let them go alone.

The young girl followed the old dwarf along a series of corridors, sometimes long, sometimes short, wide or narrow. They went up and down many stairs and she was actually amazed at the facility with which he was able to find his way in the labyrinth that was Erebor after so many years.

"Where are we going?" she asked for what seemed the hundredth time.

"You will see" he patiently answered with a little mysterious smile.

They turned one more corner and Balin finally stopped in front of a big beautiful door at the very end of a corridor that lead only to it.

"Where are we?" she asked, having a strange feeling that she had been in this very precise spot before.

"These are the captain's chambers"

She slightly widened her eyes. This meant that her family, her whole family including her mother and Logan, had lived behind these doors. And further more, it meant that as the captain, these were now her chambers.

She turned her eyes to meet Balin's and he gave her a small nod. She swallowed nervously and stepped towards the door. Why was she so hesitant, she did not know. Her hands were slightly shaking when she turned the massive handle and slowly pushed the door open. She paused for an instant. She wasn't sure what she would find behind the door. A place where her family had lived happily, a place that had been home to them and that, if everything had gone as it should have, wouldn't seem so scary to her now.

She took a deep breath and finally entered the place. The first thing she realised was that although she had thought that their long trip along the corridors and the stairs had taken them far within the mountain, she was standing in a room with large windows that let daylight in more than in any other place of the mountain that she had seen so far.

She looked around her. Everything was covered with a thick layer of dust and seemed frozen in time but she could imagine what it must have looked like when there was life in here. She was standing in the first room of a large suite. Old, elegant couches were disposed in the middle of the room with a low table and many bookshelves stood against the walls. Big drapes were hanging in front of the windows and wherever the walls weren't covered in bookshelves, they were covered in beautiful, rich tapestries. She slowly walked around the room, feeling like an intruder in the silence and stillness that had reigned here for so long. She took a look at the tapestries. Although their colours were a bit faded, she could still easily recognise some scenes that represented great deeds done by some of her ancestors. On the low table near the couches, books were piled up as if someone who had been reading had been interrupted and hadn't had the time to put them back on the shelves. One of the books was even open and she carefully took it, blowing the dust away. She recognised at once a story that her father and brothers often used to tell her when she was a child and an absent smile passed on her face.

There were some portraits on the walls as well. Most of them, she didn't recognise those who were represented but she stopped in front of one of her family and she had to repress the tears that were dwelling up in her eyes again. She longly watched their painted faces. There was her father of course, looking younger than she had ever seen him and without the wounds that he had gotten at the battle of Moria where he had lost one of his eyes and one of his legs. Standing on both sides of him were her brothers. Although he was younger then, probably a bit younger than she was today, she had no trouble recognising Lunkin, second son of the family. Her eyes stayed a little bit longer on the other brother, Laïn's first son, the one that she had hardly known, Logan. He was only a bit older than his brother and she had to admit that from the three of them, he was the one who looked most like their father. How close those two had been, she had always only been able to imagine it but she had the feeling that they had been as inseparable as Fili and Kili were. She was too young to realise at the time how Lunkin had really felt when Logan had died but now that she thought of their relationship as one as strong as Fili and Kili's, she wondered how he had coped with it.
The last face her eyes landed on was the one of a woman that was sitting on a chair in front of her husband. She only knew her from the descriptions she had so often heard but recognised her mother at once. She absentmindedly raised her arm and brushed the painted face with her fingertips. Although it was just a painting, she could see how beautiful her mother had been. She had sometimes heard being said that she herself had some beauty, but that was nothing compared to her mother. Her long auburn hair was neatly braided in a very nice and noble way, still she looked simple and gentle. Her face was the one of a caring mother who would do anything to protect her children.
Luna brushed the tears away from her eyes and turned her glance away until it landed on the other part of the suite that she hadn't visited yet.

She slowly walked to the second room that was separated from the this one by another door that was already open this time. She walked in and found herself standing in a large bedroom ; her parents' bedroom. Its centre was occupied by a massive four poster bed and there were also a large cupboard, a little table with some chairs in a corner, one or two other pieces of furnitures, tapestries on the walls again and carpets on the grounds and she even discovered a little bathroom. What mostly caught her attention tough was the cradle standing at the foot of her parents' bed. She slowly made her way to it, her hands shaking. The sheets were neatly arranged in the cradle and there was a little stuffed fox in it. Everything in both room had looked as if it had been used already : the books that had already been read, the couches on which people had already sat, the bed in which people had slept,…but the cradle was the only thing that looked as if it was still waiting for the first time a baby would be laid down in it.

A tear rolled down her face as she took the stuffed fox in her hand and looked at it. Of course this cradle had never been used…it had been prepared for her, a place for the newborn baby to sleep in peace but unfortunately, a dragon had come before it was possible and the baby had never slept here. She chuckled as she pictured her father placing the stuffed animal in the cradle himself. If Smaug had not come that day, everything would have been different. Her parents would be here right now, her mother quietly reading on a couch while her father would be writing a rapport for the king. She herself would probably have been in her own room to which she would have been moved as soon as she was old enough to sleep by herself, just like her brothers had been when they were younger.

She shook her head to clear her mind of these thoughts and looked around the room again. She needed to get dressed.

Balin waited for the young girl in the corridor and when she reappeared, he found it hard to repress the little tear in the corner of his eye.

She had changed her torn, burnt clothes for some that she had found there was now wearing some that had belonged to her mother. When she had been through the closet, Luna had found many of her father's weapons and clothes that didn't fit her, as well as many dresses that were unfitted for her job of captain. Fortunately, she had ended up finding a fine burgundy tunic that suited her auburn hair -the same colour as her mother's- beautifully. She had also put on some pants, her boots and a shirt underneath it, as well as a belt to which she fastened a sheath with one of the swords she had found. All her weapons had been taken by the elves in Mirkwood and she hadn't had the time to take any in Laketown with the circumstances so she had been happy to discover that her father had kept his personal little armoury in his closet. She had also put some leather armbands on her forearms and finally, as she had been about to step out of the room, her eyes had landed on a little chest that she hadn't seen before. Opening it, she had found some jewels that had no doubt belonged to her mother. Instantly, she had felt like this was more precious to her than all the gold Thorin had down there in the halls of Erebor. Most of the jewels looked very precious but the one that she had put around her neck was a thin and simple golden chain to which was hanging a small golden disk on which was engraved a rune in khûzdul that meant forever or eternity. No doubt it had been a gift from her father to her mother but it meant a lot more to her.

"You look…" Balin started with emotion in his voice and he looked for his words for a few seconds. "You look both beautiful like your mother, and strong like your father. It's like I am staring at the former glorious days of this kingdom, with that little extra thing that was never there before but that you add...and it makes it all just more beautiful"

She gave him a shy smile.

"Come on Balin" she then said a bit more cheerfully, squeezing his shoulder. "Let's bring Erebor back to its golden age"