p style="margin-right: 0in; margin-left: 0in; font-size: medium; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; margin-top: 0in; line-height: 21.6pt;"span style="font-size: 11.5pt; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; color: #222222;"Why is it that we are always getting cornered?" Bilbo complained as he gripped the trunk of the tree./span/p
p style="margin-right: 0in; margin-left: 0in; font-size: medium; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; line-height: 21.6pt;"span style="font-size: 11.5pt; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; color: #222222;"They were stuck at the top of a tree, staring down at the orcs beneath them. Suddenly, a huge white warg stepped forward and atop him, the pale orc. Thorin pushed a branch aside and stared in horror./span/p
p style="margin-right: 0in; margin-left: 0in; font-size: medium; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; line-height: 21.6pt;"span style="font-size: 11.5pt; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; color: #222222;""AZOG!"/span/p
p style="margin-right: 0in; margin-left: 0in; font-size: medium; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; line-height: 21.6pt;"span style="font-size: 11.5pt; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; color: #222222;"Azog sniffed the air and petted his warg, "strongDo you smell it? the scent of fear. I remember your grandfather reeked of it. THorin son of Thrain."/strong/span/p
p style="margin-right: 0in; margin-left: 0in; font-size: medium; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; line-height: 21.6pt;"span style="font-size: 11.5pt; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; color: #222222;""it cannot be," Thorin whispered, feeling his throat clench./span/p
p style="margin-right: 0in; margin-left: 0in; font-size: medium; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; line-height: 21.6pt;"span style="font-size: 11.5pt; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; color: #222222;"Azog lifted his mace and pointed at THorin, "That one is mine... kill the re..." /span/p
p style="margin-right: 0in; margin-left: 0in; font-size: medium; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; line-height: 21.6pt;"span style="font-size: 11.5pt; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; color: #222222;"he never finished for a whole warg was thrown straight at him, causing the white warg and the pale orc to stumble back. Two orcs were torn from their wargs and thrown at least twenty feet away. the wargs all growled and crowded around Azog to protect him./span/p
p style="margin-right: 0in; margin-left: 0in; font-size: medium; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; line-height: 21.6pt;"span style="font-size: 11.5pt; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; color: #222222;"Just when the dwarves had no idea what was happening, several arrow shot from nowhere and struck three wargs down at the same time. /span/p
p style="margin-right: 0in; margin-left: 0in; font-size: medium; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; line-height: 21.6pt;"span style="font-size: 11.5pt; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; color: #222222;""strongSHOW YOURSELF/strong!" Azog growled./span/p
p style="margin-right: 0in; margin-left: 0in; font-size: medium; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; line-height: 21.6pt;"span style="font-size: 11.5pt; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; color: #222222;"The petite, slender figure rose from her hiding position behind a rock and slowly approached Azog./span/p
p style="margin-right: 0in; margin-left: 0in; font-size: medium; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; line-height: 21.6pt;"span style="font-size: 11.5pt; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; color: #222222;""Sepha," THorin heard Kili whisper above him./span/p
p style="margin-right: 0in; margin-left: 0in; font-size: medium; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; line-height: 21.6pt;"span style="font-size: 11.5pt; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; color: #222222;"The girl's hood was down, her brown hair billowing behind her. She had pulled her torn jacket back on, covering her bleeding back. Her side was bleeding, covering the side of her pant and dripping onto the ground. In one hand she held her bow that Kili had given her, three arrows loaded on it already. /span/p
p style="margin-right: 0in; margin-left: 0in; font-size: medium; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; line-height: 21.6pt;"span style="font-size: 11.5pt; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; color: #222222;""strongWell look who it is/strong!" Azog taunted. "strongPersephone Anatello. It has been a long time! The last time I saw you, you were just a little girl screaming your brother's name/strong."/span/p
p style="margin-right: 0in; margin-left: 0in; font-size: medium; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; line-height: 21.6pt;"span style="font-size: 11.5pt; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; color: #222222;"Persephone's body tensed which didn't help the bleeding but THorin knew her face was twisted in anger. "strongyou murdered my brother,"/strong she spat in black speech. strong"You killed THror. I will not let you touch anyone else!"/strong/span/p
p style="margin-right: 0in; margin-left: 0in; font-size: medium; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; line-height: 21.6pt;"span style="font-size: 11.5pt; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; color: #222222;"Azog chuckled loudly, strong"You cannot protect everyone in the world stupid quarterbreed!"/strong/span/p
p style="margin-right: 0in; margin-left: 0in; font-size: medium; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; line-height: 21.6pt;"span style="font-size: 11.5pt; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; color: #222222;"Sepha smiled knowingly, "strongMaybe not. But I can most certainly protect the ones I love."/strong/span/p
p style="margin-right: 0in; margin-left: 0in; font-size: medium; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; line-height: 21.6pt;"strongspan style="font-size: 11.5pt; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; color: #222222;""Well this is a sad day for you then,"/span/strongspan style="font-size: 11.5pt; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; color: #222222;" Azog taunted, circling Sepha on his warg, strong"Because all of those dwarves, the wizard and that handling... they're all going to die."/strong/span/p
p style="margin-right: 0in; margin-left: 0in; font-size: medium; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; line-height: 21.6pt;"span style="font-size: 11.5pt; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; color: #222222;"Sepha smiled and instead, she spoke in perfect Kuzdul, "emNot while I have breath in my body they wont.'/em/span/p
p style="margin-right: 0in; margin-left: 0in; font-size: medium; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; line-height: 21.6pt;"span style="font-size: 11.5pt; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; color: #222222;"With that she fired the three arrows, taking out three more orcs with them. She then threw her bow onto her back and drew her two swords. Azog charged at her and she brought them above her head, leaving a decent gash in the beast's belly./span/p
p style="margin-right: 0in; margin-left: 0in; font-size: medium; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; line-height: 21.6pt;"span style="font-size: 11.5pt; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; color: #222222;"Just when the dwarves were about to cheer, the tree began to tip till it was dangling over the side of the cliff! Fili pulled Kili back up who barely had a grip on the tree./span/p
p style="margin-right: 0in; margin-left: 0in; font-size: medium; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; line-height: 21.6pt;"span style="font-size: 11.5pt; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; color: #222222;""Sepha," they both muttered./span/p
p style="margin-right: 0in; margin-left: 0in; font-size: medium; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; line-height: 21.6pt;"span style="font-size: 11.5pt; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; color: #222222;"All the dwarves turned to look at the girl who was crouching in a fighting stance. When the warg came charging at her again, two wargs went at her from both sides, reaching her first. While she drove her sword into one, the other one grabbed her around the waist and bit down hard. /span/p
p style="margin-right: 0in; margin-left: 0in; font-size: medium; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; line-height: 21.6pt;"span style="font-size: 11.5pt; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; color: #222222;"THorin felt tears prick his eyes at the sound of her painful scream that split the air. Azog then chuckled as he glared down at the girl. The warg threw her against a tree and Thorin was sure he heard a snap. The girl fell to the ground, slowly pushing herself up. she was bleeding far to much and her face pale with pain./span/p
p style="margin-right: 0in; margin-left: 0in; font-size: medium; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; line-height: 21.6pt;"strongspan style="font-size: 11.5pt; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; color: #222222;""What makes you think that anyone would love you?" /span/strongspan style="font-size: 11.5pt; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; color: #222222;"Azog taunted. strong"Your brother didn't love you. That's why he allowed himself to die. No one will ever love you."/strong/span/p
p style="margin-right: 0in; margin-left: 0in; font-size: medium; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; line-height: 21.6pt;"span style="font-size: 11.5pt; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; color: #222222;"Sepha lifted her head and forced a brave look on her face, em"It's the ones who love you the most who hurt you. not because they don't love you... but because they love you so much that it hurts." s/emhe said in "My brother didn't die because he wanted to. He died because I wasn't fast enough to save him. People may not love me now... or never... but I will always love them."/em/span/p
p style="margin-right: 0in; margin-left: 0in; font-size: medium; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; line-height: 21.6pt;"span style="font-size: 11.5pt; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; color: #222222;"With that, her eyes flitted towards the dwarves and for a split second, green met blue before Azog's warg bit into her body again and she passed out from the pain. THorin had had enough and standing up, he drew out Orcrist./span/p
p style="margin-right: 0in; margin-left: 0in; font-size: medium; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; line-height: 21.6pt;"span style="font-size: 11.5pt; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; color: #222222;""Thorin no," Dwalin warned but he ignored him./span/p
p style="margin-right: 0in; margin-left: 0in; font-size: medium; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; line-height: 21.6pt;"span style="font-size: 11.5pt; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; color: #222222;"Charging across the field, he lifted his sword and pulled out his oaken shield. Azog's warg looked at him and threw Sepha against a nearby tree. Thorin bit his lip when he heard another crunch, but went charging at Azog. /span/p
p style="margin-right: 0in; margin-left: 0in; font-size: medium; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; line-height: 21.6pt;"span style="font-size: 11.5pt; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; color: #222222;"Before he knew it, the warg had bitten him and he cried in pain. he was thrown across the clearing and his blacked out just before he saw Bilbo jump at Azog./span/p
p style="margin-right: 0in; margin-left: 0in; font-size: medium; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; line-height: 21.6pt;"span style="font-size: 11.5pt; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; color: #222222;"The last thing he remembered was seeing red when Sepha's body was bitten... whipped... prodded by goblins... thrown against a tree... her last words.../span/p
p style="margin-right: 0in; margin-left: 0in; font-size: medium; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; line-height: 21.6pt;"span style="font-size: 11.5pt; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; color: #222222;" /span/p
p style="margin-right: 0in; margin-left: 0in; font-size: medium; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; line-height: 21.6pt;"span style="font-size: 11.5pt; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; color: #222222;" /span/p
p style="margin-right: 0in; margin-left: 0in; font-size: medium; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; line-height: 21.6pt;"span style="font-size: 11.5pt; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; color: #222222;"hen Thorin came to, the first thing he thought of was Bilbo for he was the last person he saw before he blacked out, "The halfling."/span/p
p style="margin-right: 0in; margin-left: 0in; font-size: medium; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; line-height: 21.6pt;"span style="font-size: 11.5pt; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; color: #222222;"Gandalf sighed, glad he was alright, "it's alright. Bilbo is here. He's quite safe."/span/p
p style="margin-right: 0in; margin-left: 0in; font-size: medium; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; line-height: 21.6pt;"span style="font-size: 11.5pt; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; color: #222222;"Kili and Dwalin helped THorin to his feet but he pushed them off, turning to face Bilbo, "You! What were you doing? Didn't you know you just got yourself killed? Didn't I say that you would be a burden? That you had no place amongst us?"/span/p
p style="margin-right: 0in; margin-left: 0in; font-size: medium; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; line-height: 21.6pt;"span style="font-size: 11.5pt; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; color: #222222;"There was a long dreadful silence. A thousand things were running through Thorin's head. He remembered Sepha's words. Even though she had known that Bilbo had contemplated leaving, she remained strong to him... because she cared. She didn't just care about her kin... she cared about everyone./span/p
p style="margin-right: 0in; margin-left: 0in; font-size: medium; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; line-height: 21.6pt;"span style="font-size: 11.5pt; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; color: #222222;""I have never been so wrong in my life," he sighed, drawing the hobbit in for a big hug./span/p
p style="margin-right: 0in; margin-left: 0in; font-size: medium; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; line-height: 21.6pt;"span style="font-size: 11.5pt; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; color: #222222;"There were cheers behind him and he smiled as Bilbo hugged him back. When he released him, he patted the hobbit's shoulder, "And I'm sorry I doubted you."/span/p
p style="margin-right: 0in; margin-left: 0in; font-size: medium; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; line-height: 21.6pt;"span style="font-size: 11.5pt; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; color: #222222;""no I would have doubted me too. I'm not a hero or a warrior. Or even a burglar."/span/p
p style="margin-right: 0in; margin-left: 0in; font-size: medium; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; line-height: 21.6pt;"span style="font-size: 11.5pt; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; color: #222222;"The others chuckled at that but it was cut short when Kili's horrified voice cut out, "SEPHA!"/span/p
p style="margin-right: 0in; margin-left: 0in; font-size: medium; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; line-height: 21.6pt;"span style="font-size: 11.5pt; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; color: #222222;"All eyes snapped around just in time to see the last eagle land, carrying gently in its claws, the injured girl. He set her down and cawed sadly at the sight of the unconscious girl./span/p
p style="margin-right: 0in; margin-left: 0in; font-size: medium; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; line-height: 21.6pt;"span style="font-size: 11.5pt; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; color: #222222;"Kili and Fili were at her side in an instant with Thorin, Gandalf, Dwalin, Balin and Oin next./span/p
p style="margin-right: 0in; margin-left: 0in; font-size: medium; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; line-height: 21.6pt;"span style="font-size: 11.5pt; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; color: #222222;""Sepha pleased wake up," Fili whispered, gripping one of her hands. /span/p
p style="margin-right: 0in; margin-left: 0in; font-size: medium; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; line-height: 21.6pt;"span style="font-size: 11.5pt; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; color: #222222;"Kill drew the girl's head into his lap and pushed her hair out of her face which was battered and bruised, her lip was busted and there was a small scratch on her cheek, just across the cheekbone./span/p
p style="margin-right: 0in; margin-left: 0in; font-size: medium; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; line-height: 21.6pt;"span style="font-size: 11.5pt; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; color: #222222;""let me through," Oin instructed, Dwalin moving back for him. "let me see the lass."/span/p
p style="margin-right: 0in; margin-left: 0in; font-size: medium; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; line-height: 21.6pt;"span style="font-size: 11.5pt; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; color: #222222;"Kneeling down, he felt her pulse, listened to her breathing and began to inspect her wounds, not letting anyone else get a good look at the wounds, "It's bad. We need to get to a place that has fresh water and linens. my supplies were lost in Goblin Town. I need to stitch her up or it'll open again and she'll bleed to death or die of infection. I can bandage her up but someone will have to carry her."/span/p
p style="margin-right: 0in; margin-left: 0in; font-size: medium; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; line-height: 21.6pt;"span style="font-size: 11.5pt; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; color: #222222;""We can take turns," Dwalin, Fili and Kili said all together./span/p
p style="margin-right: 0in; margin-left: 0in; font-size: medium; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; line-height: 21.6pt;"span style="font-size: 11.5pt; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; color: #222222;""What do you need Oin?" Thorin asked, trying to bite back the worry in his tone./span/p
p style="margin-right: 0in; margin-left: 0in; font-size: medium; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; line-height: 21.6pt;"span style="font-size: 11.5pt; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; color: #222222;""I need someone to hold her shoulders down. Kili, keep her head still. Fili, hold her hands down and Balin, would you mind pinning her knees? I have an ointment that will keep infection down but it will burn."/span/p
p style="margin-right: 0in; margin-left: 0in; font-size: medium; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; line-height: 21.6pt;"span style="font-size: 11.5pt; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; color: #222222;"Everyone nodded and began to get into their positions. Kili moved so that he was looking down at Sepha's face and placed his hands on either side of her face, running his thumbs over her cheek gently. Fili gripped both of her wrists to her sides while Thorin knelt across from him, placing a hand on her shoulders and holding her down. Considering that he had to reach over to hold down both her shoulders, Thorin's face was looking down at hers and he felt his heart stop./span/p
p style="margin-right: 0in; margin-left: 0in; font-size: medium; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; line-height: 21.6pt;"span style="font-size: 11.5pt; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; color: #222222;"Even covered in blood and dirt from battle, she amazed him at how beautiful she was. She looked so peaceful lying there unconscious... but not for long. The moment Oin poured the ointment on her side, the girl let out a loud, ear piercing scream and her body tensed. the dwarves held her down and Kili pressed his forehead to hers, whispering words of comfort./span/p
p style="margin-right: 0in; margin-left: 0in; font-size: medium; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; line-height: 21.6pt;"span style="font-size: 11.5pt; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; color: #222222;""It's okay Seph," he whispered. "We're almost done... we're almost there."/span/p
p style="margin-right: 0in; margin-left: 0in; font-size: medium; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; line-height: 21.6pt;"span style="font-size: 11.5pt; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; color: #222222;"Soon, she stopped and she passed out from the pain. The dwarves all relaxed and stepped back while Oin quickly wrapped the wound with what he had. When he was done, he turned to Dwalin, "If you carry her first, try to be careful of her back. I still haven't tended to her lashes yet."/span/p
p style="margin-right: 0in; margin-left: 0in; font-size: medium; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; line-height: 21.6pt;"span style="font-size: 11.5pt; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; color: #222222;"Dwalin obeyed. He knelt down and carefully scooped the girl up into his arms. Everyone could tell that Sepha was petite, barely reaching Kili's height but being carried by Dwalin dwarfed her even more. Her face lolled back over Dwalin's arm./span/p
p style="margin-right: 0in; margin-left: 0in; font-size: medium; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; line-height: 21.6pt;"span style="font-size: 11.5pt; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; color: #222222;""Can someone prop her head?" he asked. "Her neck will be sore."/span/p
p style="margin-right: 0in; margin-left: 0in; font-size: medium; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; line-height: 21.6pt;"span style="font-size: 11.5pt; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; color: #222222;"Before Fili or Kili could move to do so, Thorin walked over and gently taking the girl's head in his hands, moved it so that her head was lying against Dwalin's chest. Dwalin nodded, shifting the girl in his arms so that it was easier to carry her./span/p
p style="margin-right: 0in; margin-left: 0in; font-size: medium; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; line-height: 21.6pt;"span style="font-size: 11.5pt; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; color: #222222;""That's better."/span/p
p style="margin-right: 0in; margin-left: 0in; font-size: medium; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; line-height: 21.6pt;"span style="font-size: 11.5pt; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; color: #222222;""How long do you think you can carry her?" Fili asked./span/p
p style="margin-right: 0in; margin-left: 0in; font-size: medium; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; line-height: 21.6pt;"span style="font-size: 11.5pt; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; color: #222222;"Thorin looked at his nephew and realized that both Fili and Kili's faces were twisted into looks of fear and there were tears appearing in their eyes. They were afraid for the girl and he was too, but he didn't realize that until now... the two had never been so afraid. /span/p
p style="margin-right: 0in; margin-left: 0in; font-size: medium; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; line-height: 21.6pt;"span style="font-size: 11.5pt; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; color: #222222;""About an hour," Dwalin said. "Then you can take turns."/span/p
p style="margin-right: 0in; margin-left: 0in; font-size: medium; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; line-height: 21.6pt;"span style="font-size: 11.5pt; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; color: #222222;"The two nodded and followed. By the time they stopped for the night, almost all the dwarves had taken turns carrying the girl. First Dwalin, then Fili, kili, Gloin, Bifur, Bofur and even Gandalf. Thorin had wanted to carry her after Dwalin but Fili had beaten him to it. His two nephews had literally trailed after Dwalin like shadows just to make sure he didn't need help with the girl. After Kili he was going to ask but something had made him doubt. He had already hurt Sepha too much and he was afraid to do it again. In that case, his hesitation meant that the others beat him to it./span/p
p style="margin-right: 0in; margin-left: 0in; font-size: medium; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; line-height: 21.6pt;"span style="font-size: 11.5pt; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; color: #222222;"When they stopped for the night, Dwalin laid his cloak on the ground for the girl and they laid her on her stomach so as to aggravate her lashes. Fili and Kili then slept on either side of her, both on their sides, facing her so that they would be able to see if she needed help in the night. she had still not woken up from her unconscious state since Oin had put that ointment on her and the dwarf was beginning to worry./span/p
p style="margin-right: 0in; margin-left: 0in; font-size: medium; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; line-height: 21.6pt;"span style="font-size: 11.5pt; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; color: #222222;"While everyone else laid around, all whispering worried things about the girl, Thorin found he couldn't sleep and neither could Dwalin. Both stayed up on watch together, their backs to each other. However, both knew that the other was occasionally looking in the girl's direction for any sign of awareness. /span/p
p style="margin-right: 0in; margin-left: 0in; font-size: medium; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; line-height: 21.6pt;"span style="font-size: 11.5pt; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; color: #222222;"At one point, Thorin heard his nephews whispering and listened in on their conversation./span/p
p style="margin-right: 0in; margin-left: 0in; font-size: medium; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; line-height: 21.6pt;"span style="font-size: 11.5pt; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; color: #222222;""You can sleep for a while Ki," Fili whispered. "I'll keep an eye on her."/span/p
p style="margin-right: 0in; margin-left: 0in; font-size: medium; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; line-height: 21.6pt;"span style="font-size: 11.5pt; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; color: #222222;"Kili shook his head, "I couldn't sleep if I wanted to. You know... when we left home... I found it almost impossible to fall asleep if Sepha didn't sing something... it reminded me of home and made me feel like I was back home in my own bed... now... with Sepha hurt... it's like I know that we really aren't back home."/span/p
p style="margin-right: 0in; margin-left: 0in; font-size: medium; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; line-height: 21.6pt;"span style="font-size: 11.5pt; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; color: #222222;"There was a silence in which Thorin bit his lip. He had let the company down... all of them. He had let Bilbo down in not trusting him. he had left Sepha down by hurting her in a way that was out of turn... and he hurt the company by not being there for Persephone. He had hurt her in more ways than one. If he hadn't said those things to her, she might have not gotten whipped in Goblin town or stabbed. If he hadn't snapped about Bilbo she wouldn't have left and the warg wouldn't have bit her and broken her ribs... he had let them down./span/p
p style="margin-right: 0in; margin-left: 0in; font-size: medium; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; line-height: 21.6pt;"span style="font-size: 11.5pt; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; color: #222222;""Don't you think that Sepha is like mom?" Kili whispered./span/p
p style="margin-right: 0in; margin-left: 0in; font-size: medium; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; line-height: 21.6pt;"span style="font-size: 11.5pt; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; color: #222222;"Dwalin and Thorin's heads both snapped around at this, surprised at the remark./span/p
p style="margin-right: 0in; margin-left: 0in; font-size: medium; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; line-height: 21.6pt;"span style="font-size: 11.5pt; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; color: #222222;"FIli smiled, "Yeah she is... stubborn... brave... strong... kind, thoughtful... and gosh she gives Uncle a run for his money!"/span/p
p style="margin-right: 0in; margin-left: 0in; font-size: medium; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; line-height: 21.6pt;"span style="font-size: 11.5pt; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; color: #222222;"Kili chuckled softly, "I just cannot believe what she did back in Goblin town! Did you know about her being a skin changer?"/span/p
p style="margin-right: 0in; margin-left: 0in; font-size: medium; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; line-height: 21.6pt;"span style="font-size: 11.5pt; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; color: #222222;"Fili nodded, "Yeah... I saw her morph one night while she went on patrol. I asked her about it and she swore me to secrecy. she said she didn't want anyone to know until it was absolutely necessary."/span/p
p style="margin-right: 0in; margin-left: 0in; font-size: medium; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; line-height: 21.6pt;"span style="font-size: 11.5pt; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; color: #222222;""So the first time she morphed was in front of a bunch of goblins," Kili mused./span/p
p style="margin-right: 0in; margin-left: 0in; font-size: medium; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; line-height: 21.6pt;"span style="font-size: 11.5pt; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; color: #222222;""Well I think the goblins already knew. But, it was necessary. She saved uncle in the process."/span/p
p style="margin-right: 0in; margin-left: 0in; font-size: medium; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; line-height: 21.6pt;"span style="font-size: 11.5pt; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; color: #222222;"Thorin felt his heart stop. She had saved him... only ending in her getting hurt further. He hadn't realized that. after everything she had done to him... she had saved him. Why?/span/p
p style="margin-right: 0in; margin-left: 0in; font-size: medium; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; line-height: 21.6pt;"span style="font-size: 11.5pt; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; color: #222222;"He felt a hand on his shoulder and turned to see Dwalin smiling sadly at him, "She saved you because she felt that you were worth saving."/span/p
p style="margin-right: 0in; margin-left: 0in; font-size: medium; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; line-height: 21.6pt;"span style="font-size: 11.5pt; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; color: #222222;"How close is the pack?" thorin asked of Bilbo./span/p
p style="margin-right: 0in; margin-left: 0in; font-size: medium; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; line-height: 21.6pt;"span style="font-size: 11.5pt; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; color: #222222;""Too close. Couple of leagues, no more but that is not the worst of it."/span/p
p style="margin-right: 0in; margin-left: 0in; font-size: medium; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; line-height: 21.6pt;"span style="font-size: 11.5pt; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; color: #222222;""The wargs picked up our scent?" Dwalin asked./span/p
p style="margin-right: 0in; margin-left: 0in; font-size: medium; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; line-height: 21.6pt;"span style="font-size: 11.5pt; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; color: #222222;"Dwalin was on his knees while Fili and Kili were carefully lifting Sepha onto his back. Oin said it would be best to not carry her bridal style since it strained her back. In that case they were tying her arms and legs around Dwalin's shoulders so he could use his arms to move./span/p
p style="margin-right: 0in; margin-left: 0in; font-size: medium; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; line-height: 21.6pt;"span style="font-size: 11.5pt; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; color: #222222;""no but they will," Bilbo replied. "We have another problem."/span/p
p style="margin-right: 0in; margin-left: 0in; font-size: medium; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; line-height: 21.6pt;"span style="font-size: 11.5pt; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; color: #222222;""DID they see you?" Gandalf asked. "They saw you!"/span/p
p style="margin-right: 0in; margin-left: 0in; font-size: medium; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; line-height: 21.6pt;"span style="font-size: 11.5pt; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; color: #222222;""No that's not it."/span/p
p style="margin-right: 0in; margin-left: 0in; font-size: medium; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; line-height: 21.6pt;"span style="font-size: 11.5pt; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; color: #222222;""What did I tell you? Quiet as a mouse," Gandalf said proudly, "Excellent burglar material."/span/p
p style="margin-right: 0in; margin-left: 0in; font-size: medium; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; line-height: 21.6pt;"span style="font-size: 11.5pt; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; color: #222222;""Will you just listen!?" Bilbo cried. "I'm trying to tell you there is something else out there."/span/p
p style="margin-right: 0in; margin-left: 0in; font-size: medium; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; line-height: 21.6pt;"span style="font-size: 11.5pt; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; color: #222222;"There was a pause before Gandalf spoke. "What form did it take? Like a bear?"/span/p
p style="margin-right: 0in; margin-left: 0in; font-size: medium; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; line-height: 21.6pt;"span style="font-size: 11.5pt; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; color: #222222;"Bilbo began to reply but stopped, "Ye... but bigger much bigger."/span/p
p style="margin-right: 0in; margin-left: 0in; font-size: medium; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; line-height: 21.6pt;"span style="font-size: 11.5pt; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; color: #222222;""You knew about this beast?" Bofur demanded./span/p
p style="margin-right: 0in; margin-left: 0in; font-size: medium; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; line-height: 21.6pt;"span style="font-size: 11.5pt; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; color: #222222;""He's a friend," A small voice whispered./span/p
p style="margin-right: 0in; margin-left: 0in; font-size: medium; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; line-height: 21.6pt;"span style="font-size: 11.5pt; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; color: #222222;"The dwarves all snapped around to see that Sepha was the one who had spoken. Her eyes were still closed and her head lying against the nape of Dwalin's neck but she had spoken./span/p
p style="margin-right: 0in; margin-left: 0in; font-size: medium; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; line-height: 21.6pt;"span style="font-size: 11.5pt; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; color: #222222;""Sepha!" Kili cried, "You're awake."/span/p
p style="margin-right: 0in; margin-left: 0in; font-size: medium; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; line-height: 21.6pt;"span style="font-size: 11.5pt; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; color: #222222;""Barely," the girl whispered. "And Kili... your voice sounds like a girl."/span/p
p style="margin-right: 0in; margin-left: 0in; font-size: medium; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; line-height: 21.6pt;"span style="font-size: 11.5pt; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; color: #222222;"A round of laughter rang through the group of dwarves at Kili's surprised face./span/p
p style="margin-right: 0in; margin-left: 0in; font-size: medium; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; line-height: 21.6pt;"span style="font-size: 11.5pt; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; color: #222222;""How did you know this beast?" Balin inquired./span/p
p style="margin-right: 0in; margin-left: 0in; font-size: medium; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; line-height: 21.6pt;"span style="font-size: 11.5pt; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; color: #222222;"Sepha couldn't answer for she had passed out again but Gandalf answered, "There is a house not far from here where we can take refuge. it has clean water and the things we need to help Sepha. Besides that, it's shelter and it has food."/span/p
p style="margin-right: 0in; margin-left: 0in; font-size: medium; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; line-height: 21.6pt;"span style="font-size: 11.5pt; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; color: #222222;""Who's house?" Thorin insisted. "Is it friend or foe?"/span/p
p style="margin-right: 0in; margin-left: 0in; font-size: medium; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; line-height: 21.6pt;"span style="font-size: 11.5pt; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; color: #222222;""Neither," Gandalf replied. "He will help us or he will kill us."/span/p
p style="margin-right: 0in; margin-left: 0in; font-size: medium; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; line-height: 21.6pt;"span style="font-size: 11.5pt; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; color: #222222;""what choice do we have?" Thorin inquired/span/p
p style="margin-right: 0in; margin-left: 0in; font-size: medium; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; line-height: 21.6pt;"span style="font-size: 11.5pt; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; color: #222222;"Just then a loud roar split the air and everyone jumped. /span/p
p style="margin-right: 0in; margin-left: 0in; font-size: medium; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; line-height: 21.6pt;"span style="font-size: 11.5pt; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; color: #222222;""None."/span/p
p style="margin-right: 0in; margin-left: 0in; font-size: medium; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; line-height: 21.6pt;"span style="font-size: 11.5pt; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; color: #222222;" /span/p
p style="margin-right: 0in; margin-left: 0in; font-size: medium; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; line-height: 21.6pt;"span style="font-size: 11.5pt; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; color: #222222;"LATER/span/p
p style="margin-right: 0in; margin-left: 0in; font-size: medium; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; line-height: 21.6pt;"span style="font-size: 11.5pt; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; color: #222222;" /span/p
p style="margin-right: 0in; margin-left: 0in; font-size: medium; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; line-height: 21.6pt;"span style="font-size: 11.5pt; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; color: #222222;"When they came barreling into the house, the dwarves all turned to close the door when the bear's huge head poked through. It growled and the dwarves pushed against it. just when they thought that he would get through, the dwarves were gently pushed out of the way./span/p
p style="margin-right: 0in; margin-left: 0in; font-size: medium; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; line-height: 21.6pt;"span style="font-size: 11.5pt; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; color: #222222;"They all turned and their eyes nearly fell out of their heads. Sepha was standing behind them, in her wolf form, meaning that she came to about the dwarves's size. the bear stopped pushing against the door and the dwarves backed up./span/p
p style="margin-right: 0in; margin-left: 0in; font-size: medium; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; line-height: 21.6pt;"span style="font-size: 11.5pt; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; color: #222222;"Sepha approached the door and leant against it weakly. She began to growl softly and the bear growled gently back. Suddenly, the bear left and Sepha pushed the door closed, the latch closing./span/p
p style="margin-right: 0in; margin-left: 0in; font-size: medium; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; line-height: 21.6pt;"span style="font-size: 11.5pt; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; color: #222222;""What is that?" Ori insisted./span/p
p style="margin-right: 0in; margin-left: 0in; font-size: medium; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; line-height: 21.6pt;"span style="font-size: 11.5pt; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; color: #222222;""That is our host," Gandalf replied, getting everyone's attention. "his name is Beorn. He's a skin changer."/span/p
p style="margin-right: 0in; margin-left: 0in; font-size: medium; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; line-height: 21.6pt;"span style="font-size: 11.5pt; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; color: #222222;"Right then, everyone understood how Sepha had managed to make him leave. The dwarves all turned back to the girl who had morphed back to human and was leaning against the door for support. She slowly slipped to the ground and THorin, being the closest one, didn't hesitate to jump forward and catch her bridal style./span/p
p style="margin-right: 0in; margin-left: 0in; font-size: medium; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; line-height: 21.6pt;"span style="font-size: 11.5pt; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; color: #222222;""OIN!"/span/p
p style="margin-right: 0in; margin-left: 0in; font-size: medium; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; line-height: 21.6pt;"span style="font-size: 11.5pt; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; color: #222222;""Bring her over here," the healer instructed./span/p
p style="margin-right: 0in; margin-left: 0in; font-size: medium; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; line-height: 21.6pt;"span style="font-size: 11.5pt; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; color: #222222;"Thorin carried the girl over to him, surprised at how light she was. Oin led him to an empty stall, shooing all the other dwarves except Balin, Dwalin, FIli and Kili out. /span/p
p style="margin-right: 0in; margin-left: 0in; font-size: medium; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; line-height: 21.6pt;"span style="font-size: 11.5pt; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; color: #222222;""This is going to be painful to watch lads," Oin said, "her injuries are bad... but she needs our help."/span/p
p style="margin-right: 0in; margin-left: 0in; font-size: medium; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; line-height: 21.6pt;"span style="font-size: 11.5pt; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; color: #222222;"the dwarves all nodded, straightening their backs. Sepha had saved them numerous times... they would be strong for her this time./span/p
p style="margin-right: 0in; margin-left: 0in; font-size: medium; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; line-height: 21.6pt;"span style="font-size: 11.5pt; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; color: #222222;"Oin sent Dwalin for hot water, he instructed Fili to find two knives and to clean them in more hot water. He sent Kili to find clean bandages or clean sheets and Balin was sent to get several horse tail hairs for stitches and to clean them. Thorin couldn't do much except hold the limp girl. She was awake but barely./span/p
p style="margin-right: 0in; margin-left: 0in; font-size: medium; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; line-height: 21.6pt;"span style="font-size: 11.5pt; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; color: #222222;""It's going to be alright lass," Oin assured her, patting her hand. "We're going to get you all fixed up."/span/p
p style="margin-right: 0in; margin-left: 0in; font-size: medium; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; line-height: 21.6pt;"span style="font-size: 11.5pt; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; color: #222222;""Oin, wont the pain be too much for her?" THorin asked with worry. /span/p
p style="margin-right: 0in; margin-left: 0in; font-size: medium; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; line-height: 21.6pt;"span style="font-size: 11.5pt; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; color: #222222;"Oin shrugged, "I don't have anything for the pain."/span/p
p style="margin-right: 0in; margin-left: 0in; font-size: medium; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; line-height: 21.6pt;"span style="font-size: 11.5pt; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; color: #222222;""I'll be alright," Sepha whispered, "Just give me something to bite on."/span/p
p style="margin-right: 0in; margin-left: 0in; font-size: medium; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; line-height: 21.6pt;"span style="font-size: 11.5pt; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; color: #222222;"Thorin shook his head, "No one should have to endure the pain you've gone through and going through more..."/span/p
p style="margin-right: 0in; margin-left: 0in; font-size: medium; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; line-height: 21.6pt;"span style="font-size: 11.5pt; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; color: #222222;""Thorin," Sepha whispered, finding it hard to talk for her mouth was dry. "Trust me... I'm a healer...pain is only temporary... I'll be fine."/span/p
p style="margin-right: 0in; margin-left: 0in; font-size: medium; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; line-height: 21.6pt;"span style="font-size: 11.5pt; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; color: #222222;"Thorin bit his lip. He couldn't bear to see her in pain again but he didn't want her to strain while arguing so he decided to let her have her way. Soon the others returned with the supplies and Oin got to work. Finding a needle in his belt, he cleaned it and threaded a horse hair through it. Laying that aside, he grabbed one of Fili's clean daggers and turned to Thorin./span/p
p style="margin-right: 0in; margin-left: 0in; font-size: medium; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; line-height: 21.6pt;"span style="font-size: 11.5pt; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; color: #222222;""Hold her flush against you... I have to remove the spikes from the whips from her back."/span/p
p style="margin-right: 0in; margin-left: 0in; font-size: medium; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; line-height: 21.6pt;"span style="font-size: 11.5pt; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; color: #222222;"THorin felt his heart stop at those words. There were spikes in her back from the whips? He felt tears prick his eyes at realizing how much pain the girl had endured. Obeying Oin, he got Dwalin to help him slowly set the girl on her feet but he wrapped his arms around the top of her shoulders, and the other he wrapped around her waist, keeping his arms from her wounds. /span/p
p style="margin-right: 0in; margin-left: 0in; font-size: medium; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; line-height: 21.6pt;"span style="font-size: 11.5pt; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; color: #222222;"Balin grabbed a glove and held it to the girl's mouth and she bit into it. Balin gently opened the back of her shirt, exposing only her back and the dwarves took a step back. The whipping marks were much worse than they had imagined. There were at least a dozen open wounds on her back, all of them a thumb wide and at least an inch deep, oozing with blood and puss./span/p
p style="margin-right: 0in; margin-left: 0in; font-size: medium; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; line-height: 21.6pt;"span style="font-size: 11.5pt; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; color: #222222;" /span/p
p style="margin-right: 0in; margin-left: 0in; font-size: medium; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; line-height: 21.6pt;"span style="font-size: 11.5pt; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; color: #222222;""Oh Seph," FIli whispered. "What have they done to you?"/span/p
p style="margin-right: 0in; margin-left: 0in; font-size: medium; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; line-height: 21.6pt;"span style="font-size: 11.5pt; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; color: #222222;""Obviously not enough," Sepha whispered. "I have no idea how I'm still alive right now."/span/p
p style="margin-right: 0in; margin-left: 0in; font-size: medium; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; line-height: 21.6pt;"span style="font-size: 11.5pt; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; color: #222222;"Finally, Oin got to work and Thorin felt tears spring to his eyes at the sound of the girl's muffled screams. Even biting the glove didn't muffle her screams enough and Balin had to shoo the other dwarves who had rushed to see what was wrong. When Oin finished removing the spikes, he set to work stitching the wounds shut. That pain was just as bad and soon, Sepha pressed her face into THorin's chest, muffling her screams into his chest./span/p
p style="margin-right: 0in; margin-left: 0in; font-size: medium; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; line-height: 21.6pt;"span style="font-size: 11.5pt; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; color: #222222;"On any other time, Thorin would have gone red from their close proximity but now, he only felt a knife stab his heart at every scream. Suddenly, Oin stepped back and nodded./span/p
p style="margin-right: 0in; margin-left: 0in; font-size: medium; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; line-height: 21.6pt;"span style="font-size: 11.5pt; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; color: #222222;""She's all done."/span/p
p style="margin-right: 0in; margin-left: 0in; font-size: medium; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; line-height: 21.6pt;"span style="font-size: 11.5pt; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; color: #222222;""What about her side?" Fili asked./span/p
p style="margin-right: 0in; margin-left: 0in; font-size: medium; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; line-height: 21.6pt;"span style="font-size: 11.5pt; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; color: #222222;"Oin nodded and instructed Thorin to turn the girl around. Lifting her shirt up just enough to expose the side wound, THorin bit his lip. the wound was almost bone deep and still bleeding horribly. Oin got it cleaned and stitched within seconds but by then, Sepha had stopped screaming./span/p
p style="margin-right: 0in; margin-left: 0in; font-size: medium; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; line-height: 21.6pt;"span style="font-size: 11.5pt; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; color: #222222;""She passed out poor thing," Balin whispered./span/p
p style="margin-right: 0in; margin-left: 0in; font-size: medium; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; line-height: 21.6pt;"span style="font-size: 11.5pt; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; color: #222222;"Thorin turned the girl over and scooped her up, "Where should we put her Oin?"/span/p
p style="margin-right: 0in; margin-left: 0in; font-size: medium; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; line-height: 21.6pt;"span style="font-size: 11.5pt; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; color: #222222;""Somewhere warm and soft," Oin instructed. "She'll be awake tomorrow but incredibly sore. Keep as much distance between her and the ground as possible. We don't want her wounds getting infected."/span/p
p style="margin-right: 0in; margin-left: 0in; font-size: medium; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; line-height: 21.6pt;"span style="font-size: 11.5pt; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; color: #222222;"The dwarves nodded and soon, Fili and Kili had laid down their cloaks on a pile of straw for her. THorin laid her down and before he could object, his two nephews laid down on either side of her protectively. He took the first watch./span/p
p style="margin-right: 0in; margin-left: 0in; font-size: medium; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; line-height: 21.6pt;"span style="font-size: 11.5pt; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; color: #222222;"About two hours later, he saw his two nephews asleep. Kili had his head resting against Sepha's shoulder. Fili was still lying on his side but was holding her hand in both of his. Smiling to himself, he walked over to the three and laid his cloak over all three of them. None of them moved from the gesture but he saw his two nephews relax. He wasnt going to let any of them down again... never./span/p
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p style="margin-right: 0in; margin-left: 0in; font-size: medium; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; margin-top: 0in; line-height: 21.6pt;"span style="font-size: 11.5pt; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; color: #222222;"When Sepha awoke, she found both Fili and Kili sitting on either side of her, watching her protectively./span/p
p style="margin-right: 0in; margin-left: 0in; font-size: medium; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; line-height: 21.6pt;"span style="font-size: 11.5pt; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; color: #222222;""Hey nerds," she whispered./span/p
p style="margin-right: 0in; margin-left: 0in; font-size: medium; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; line-height: 21.6pt;"span style="font-size: 11.5pt; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; color: #222222;""You're awake!" they cried happily./span/p
p style="margin-right: 0in; margin-left: 0in; font-size: medium; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; line-height: 21.6pt;"span style="font-size: 11.5pt; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; color: #222222;"Sepha smiled and gripped their hands, "Can you help me sit up?"/span/p
p style="margin-right: 0in; margin-left: 0in; font-size: medium; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; line-height: 21.6pt;"span style="font-size: 11.5pt; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; color: #222222;"Both at once jumped forward and gently helped her to a sitting position. She groaned but when she was up straight, she felt better, "How long was I out?"/span/p
p style="margin-right: 0in; margin-left: 0in; font-size: medium; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; line-height: 21.6pt;"span style="font-size: 11.5pt; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; color: #222222;""You came in and out in bursts," Kili replied. "You were out till Eagle Rock and then you woke up when Oin put stuff on your side, then you were out for a good full day till we got here, then after the stitchings you have been out for almost nine hours."/span/p
p style="margin-right: 0in; margin-left: 0in; font-size: medium; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; line-height: 21.6pt;"span style="font-size: 11.5pt; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; color: #222222;""Where is everyone else?" Sepha inquired, slowly rising to her feet./span/p
p style="margin-right: 0in; margin-left: 0in; font-size: medium; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; line-height: 21.6pt;"span style="font-size: 11.5pt; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; color: #222222;"Fili wrapped an arm around her shoulders to steady her, "They're greeting Beorn."/span/p
p style="margin-right: 0in; margin-left: 0in; font-size: medium; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; line-height: 21.6pt;"span style="font-size: 11.5pt; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; color: #222222;""Uh oh," Sepha sighed, "I should go help Gandalf before he gets them all eaten."/span/p
p style="margin-right: 0in; margin-left: 0in; font-size: medium; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; line-height: 21.6pt;"span style="font-size: 11.5pt; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; color: #222222;"Before the two could object, the girl had limped towards the door. Beorn had been taking in the sight of the dwarves and was glaring, not looking very friendly./span/p
p style="margin-right: 0in; margin-left: 0in; font-size: medium; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; line-height: 21.6pt;"span style="font-size: 11.5pt; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; color: #222222;""Why should I let dwarves here?" he spat./span/p
p style="margin-right: 0in; margin-left: 0in; font-size: medium; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; line-height: 21.6pt;"span style="font-size: 11.5pt; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; color: #222222;""It's alright, they're friends," Sepha said weakly./span/p
p style="margin-right: 0in; margin-left: 0in; font-size: medium; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; line-height: 21.6pt;"span style="font-size: 11.5pt; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; color: #222222;"All eyes snapped around to look at her and all the dwarves gasped her name. Sepha realized that THorin was the closest to her, about three feet away and his blue eyes were staring at her with a look she had never seen before but it made her heart flutter./span/p
p style="margin-right: 0in; margin-left: 0in; font-size: medium; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; line-height: 21.6pt;"span style="font-size: 11.5pt; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; color: #222222;""Persephone," Beorn said happily, dropping his axe and approaching her, "What happened to you?"/span/p
p style="margin-right: 0in; margin-left: 0in; font-size: medium; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; line-height: 21.6pt;"span style="font-size: 11.5pt; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; color: #222222;""Oh just a little scratch," Sepha assured him./span/p
p style="margin-right: 0in; margin-left: 0in; font-size: medium; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; line-height: 21.6pt;"span style="font-size: 11.5pt; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; color: #222222;"The large man knelt down in front of her so that he was eye level with her, "A little scratch? Your screams last night spoke otherwise. I'm glad you're here. I will not let you leave till you're healed."/span/p
p style="margin-right: 0in; margin-left: 0in; font-size: medium; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; line-height: 21.6pt;"span style="font-size: 11.5pt; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; color: #222222;""And we're not planning on leaving till she heals," Oin said./span/p
p style="margin-right: 0in; margin-left: 0in; font-size: medium; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; line-height: 21.6pt;"span style="font-size: 11.5pt; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; color: #222222;"Sepha smiled at him as the other dwarves nodded in agreement./span/p
p style="margin-right: 0in; margin-left: 0in; font-size: medium; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; line-height: 21.6pt;"span style="font-size: 11.5pt; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; color: #222222;"Beorn sighed and looked at the girls, "They're your friends?"/span/p
p style="margin-right: 0in; margin-left: 0in; font-size: medium; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; line-height: 21.6pt;"span style="font-size: 11.5pt; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; color: #222222;"Sepha nodded and smiled. Beorn didn't seem to believe her, "All of them?"/span/p
p style="margin-right: 0in; margin-left: 0in; font-size: medium; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; line-height: 21.6pt;"span style="font-size: 11.5pt; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; color: #222222;"Sepha's eyes lifted and green met blue as she looked at THorin. She could see the hurt in his eyes and she knew he was upset. She could see the fear, concern and sorrow for what had happened. She smiled sweetly and nodded./span/p
p style="margin-right: 0in; margin-left: 0in; font-size: medium; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; line-height: 21.6pt;"span style="font-size: 11.5pt; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; color: #222222;""All of them."/span/p
p style="margin-right: 0in; margin-left: 0in; font-size: medium; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; line-height: 21.6pt;"span style="font-size: 11.5pt; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; color: #222222;"Beorn nodded and led the girl inside, the dwarves following. She completely missed the shocked face cross THorin's face while Balin and Dwalin exchanged knowing smirks./span/p
p style="margin-right: 0in; margin-left: 0in; font-size: medium; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; line-height: 21.6pt;"span style="font-size: 11.5pt; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; color: #222222;" /span/p
p style="margin-right: 0in; margin-left: 0in; font-size: medium; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; line-height: 21.6pt;"span style="font-size: 11.5pt; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; color: #222222;"LATER/span/p
p style="margin-right: 0in; margin-left: 0in; font-size: medium; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; line-height: 21.6pt;"span style="font-size: 11.5pt; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; color: #222222;" /span/p
p style="margin-right: 0in; margin-left: 0in; font-size: medium; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; line-height: 21.6pt;"span style="font-size: 11.5pt; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; color: #222222;""So you are the one they call Oakenshield?" BEorn asked. "Tell me. Why is Azog the Defiler hunting you?"/span/p
p style="margin-right: 0in; margin-left: 0in; font-size: medium; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; line-height: 21.6pt;"span style="font-size: 11.5pt; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; color: #222222;""You know of Azog?" THorin asked. "how?"/span/p
p style="margin-right: 0in; margin-left: 0in; font-size: medium; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; line-height: 21.6pt;"span style="font-size: 11.5pt; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; color: #222222;""My people were the first to live in the mountains," Beorn replied. "Before the orcs came down from the north. the Defiler killed most of my family. But some he enslaved. Not for work you understand but for sport. Caging skin changers and torturing them seemed to amuse him."/span/p
p style="margin-right: 0in; margin-left: 0in; font-size: medium; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; line-height: 21.6pt;"span style="font-size: 11.5pt; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; color: #222222;"Thorin felt a cold hand clutch his heart as he saw Sepha's eyes pool with tears at those words. He saw Fili wrap an arm around her shoulders and he was glad his nephew was brave enough to comfort her when he was too cowardly to even talk to her./span/p
p style="margin-right: 0in; margin-left: 0in; font-size: medium; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; line-height: 21.6pt;"span style="font-size: 11.5pt; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; color: #222222;""There are others like you?" Bilbo asked. "I mean... other than Sepha?"/span/p
p style="margin-right: 0in; margin-left: 0in; font-size: medium; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; line-height: 21.6pt;"span style="font-size: 11.5pt; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; color: #222222;""Once there were many," Beorn replied./span/p
p style="margin-right: 0in; margin-left: 0in; font-size: medium; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; line-height: 21.6pt;"span style="font-size: 11.5pt; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; color: #222222;""And now?" Bilbo asked./span/p
p style="margin-right: 0in; margin-left: 0in; font-size: medium; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; line-height: 21.6pt;"span style="font-size: 11.5pt; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; color: #222222;""Now there are only two," Beorn replied./span/p
p style="margin-right: 0in; margin-left: 0in; font-size: medium; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; line-height: 21.6pt;"span style="font-size: 11.5pt; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; color: #222222;"There was a dreadful silence during which all eyes turned to Sepha. The girl couldn't take it anymore and getting up from her chair, she left the room. Fili and Kili called her name but she ignored them, stepping outside./span/p
p style="margin-right: 0in; margin-left: 0in; font-size: medium; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; line-height: 21.6pt;"span style="font-size: 11.5pt; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; color: #222222;""What did I say?" Bilbo whispered./span/p
p style="margin-right: 0in; margin-left: 0in; font-size: medium; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; line-height: 21.6pt;"span style="font-size: 11.5pt; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; color: #222222;""It wasn't you halfling," Beorn replied. "I would have still been a prisoner of Azog if Persephone hadn't rescued me. But while she saved me, she watched a skin changer killed... the last... except for the two of us. Persephone has many scars, very few of them are scars of the body. She has carried them for a long time and no one has helped her lift them yet."/span/p
p style="margin-right: 0in; margin-left: 0in; font-size: medium; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; line-height: 21.6pt;"span style="font-size: 11.5pt; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; color: #222222;"After coming to an agreement with Beorn (they would leave once Persephone was healed and he would give them ponies), Thorin left the house to go in search of the girl. /span/p
p style="margin-right: 0in; margin-left: 0in; font-size: medium; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; line-height: 21.6pt;"span style="font-size: 11.5pt; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; color: #222222;"He found her in the back, standing near the fence, petting the ponies. The horses seemed glad to see her and he could tell she looked happy but her shoulders were slumped./span/p
p style="margin-right: 0in; margin-left: 0in; font-size: medium; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; line-height: 21.6pt;"span style="font-size: 11.5pt; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; color: #222222;""Hey," he whispered, coming to stand next to her./span/p
p style="margin-right: 0in; margin-left: 0in; font-size: medium; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; line-height: 21.6pt;"span style="font-size: 11.5pt; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; color: #222222;"Sepha didn't turn her head, her face shielded by her hair, "Hey."/span/p
p style="margin-right: 0in; margin-left: 0in; font-size: medium; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; line-height: 21.6pt;"span style="font-size: 11.5pt; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; color: #222222;""Are you feeling better?" he asked softly./span/p
p style="margin-right: 0in; margin-left: 0in; font-size: medium; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; line-height: 21.6pt;"span style="font-size: 11.5pt; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; color: #222222;"The girl nodded. /span/p
p style="margin-right: 0in; margin-left: 0in; font-size: medium; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; line-height: 21.6pt;"span style="font-size: 11.5pt; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; color: #222222;"There was a long silence between the two and for a moment Thorin thought he would never manage to get anything out before the girl spoke for him./span/p
p style="margin-right: 0in; margin-left: 0in; font-size: medium; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; line-height: 21.6pt;"span style="font-size: 11.5pt; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; color: #222222;""Thank you for... being there... last night."/span/p
p style="margin-right: 0in; margin-left: 0in; font-size: medium; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; line-height: 21.6pt;"span style="font-size: 11.5pt; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; color: #222222;"Thorin smiled, "Don't mention it. It hurt to see you in such pain...I had already inflicted enough on you... I didn't want you to have to endure more."/span/p
p style="margin-right: 0in; margin-left: 0in; font-size: medium; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; line-height: 21.6pt;"span style="font-size: 11.5pt; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; color: #222222;"Sepha bowed her head slightly and Thorin knew he had to say it./span/p
p style="margin-right: 0in; margin-left: 0in; font-size: medium; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; line-height: 21.6pt;"span style="font-size: 11.5pt; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; color: #222222;""Persephone... I want to apologize."/span/p
p style="margin-right: 0in; margin-left: 0in; font-size: medium; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; line-height: 21.6pt;"span style="font-size: 11.5pt; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; color: #222222;"The girl turned her face to him and Thorin gasped. Her beautiful face was washed and there was a slight pink mark on her cheek from the cut but her face was glowing beautiful and her eyes were red and puffy from crying, making her even more beautiful./span/p
p style="margin-right: 0in; margin-left: 0in; font-size: medium; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; line-height: 21.6pt;"span style="font-size: 11.5pt; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; color: #222222;""You don't have to," the girl said./span/p
p style="margin-right: 0in; margin-left: 0in; font-size: medium; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; line-height: 21.6pt;"span style="font-size: 11.5pt; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; color: #222222;"THorin shook his head, "no I do. I really need to. You have gone through so much... some of it beyond anything I have ever imagined. I thought it was hard enough having my people slaughtered by Smaug and then my father disappearing and my grandfather being killed but... you were just a child and you saw your whole family die... you witnessed death and cruelty time and time again. You were treated unfairly, whipped... wounded... you deserved nothing of what I said to you. It was unjust of me and I apologize."/span/p
p style="margin-right: 0in; margin-left: 0in; font-size: medium; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; line-height: 21.6pt;"span style="font-size: 11.5pt; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; color: #222222;""it wasn't what you said that hurt me Thorin," Persephone told him, "It wasn't that you said it that hurt... it hurt because I knew it to be true."/span/p
p style="margin-right: 0in; margin-left: 0in; font-size: medium; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; line-height: 21.6pt;"span style="font-size: 11.5pt; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; color: #222222;""Sepha, nothing I said to you was true," Thorin started but Persephone shook her head./span/p
p style="margin-right: 0in; margin-left: 0in; font-size: medium; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; line-height: 21.6pt;"span style="font-size: 11.5pt; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; color: #222222;""No it is. I am a good for nothing wretch. I am afraid of everything... afraid to fall asleep at night for fear I will wake up to find that another person I love was killed when I was not on watch. I am afraid to turn my back on someone for a split second because I fear that when I turn around they will be dead. I am afraid to get too close to someone I cannot protect because I fear I will lose them.I have a thousand people hunting me down because of stupid, foolish things I did because I wanted to be a hero. I wanted to make a difference and now, people are suffering for it."/span/p
p style="margin-right: 0in; margin-left: 0in; font-size: medium; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; line-height: 21.6pt;"span style="font-size: 11.5pt; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; color: #222222;"Thorin couldn't stand it anymore. Reaching over, he grasped the girl's face in his huge hands gently and turned it up to look at him. "Persephone. Listen to me. You are not good for nothing. You are the bravest, strongest, kindest... most stubborn person I have ever met. Whoever comes in contact with you is blessed just to be in your presence. Fear is not a weakness. It is a strength. It shows that you are not arrogant or proud. It shows that you are a human and not a spirit. We all have our fears but many of us hide them because we are ashamed of them. You should never be ashamed of your fears. You have every right to be afraid of those things considering what people have done to you... me being one of them. I have played a part in those fears and I want to fix that. I want to help you overcome those fears... You're too perfect to have fears like that."/span/p
p style="margin-right: 0in; margin-left: 0in; font-size: medium; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; line-height: 21.6pt;"span style="font-size: 11.5pt; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; color: #222222;""No one is perfect," Persephone whispered, gently moving her face from Thorin's hands./span/p
p style="margin-right: 0in; margin-left: 0in; font-size: medium; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; line-height: 21.6pt;"span style="font-size: 11.5pt; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; color: #222222;"There was a pause during which they just looked at each other before a gentle smile appeared on Thorin's face, "You are."/span/p
p style="margin-right: 0in; margin-left: 0in; font-size: medium; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; line-height: 21.6pt;"span style="font-size: 11.5pt; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; color: #222222;" /span/p
p style="margin-right: 0in; margin-left: 0in; font-size: medium; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; line-height: 21.6pt;"span style="font-size: 11.5pt; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; color: #222222;" /span/p
p style="margin-right: 0in; margin-left: 0in; font-size: medium; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; line-height: 21.6pt;"span style="font-size: 11.5pt; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; color: #222222;""You sit here and don't even think about straining your side," Dwalin instructed./span/p
p style="margin-right: 0in; margin-left: 0in; font-size: medium; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; line-height: 21.6pt;"span style="font-size: 11.5pt; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; color: #222222;"Sepha sighed and fake pouted by crossing her arms, "Great! Now I have five new adoptive fathers! First Balin, then Beorn, Gandalf, Oin and now you! Who's next? THorin?"/span/p
p style="margin-right: 0in; margin-left: 0in; font-size: medium; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; line-height: 21.6pt;"span style="font-size: 11.5pt; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; color: #222222;"Dwalin chuckled and ruffled her brown hair, "Nah. He's more of an admirer than father to you."/span/p
p style="margin-right: 0in; margin-left: 0in; font-size: medium; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; line-height: 21.6pt;"span style="font-size: 11.5pt; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; color: #222222;"The girl rolled her eyes but her cheeks went pink at Dwalin's words. As the dwarf headed over to join the others who were sparring together, she pulled her braid out. Brushing her fingers through her hair, she quickly red braided her hair but left to locks of hair on either side of her ears, framing her pretty pointy ears and making her look part elvish./span/p
p style="margin-right: 0in; margin-left: 0in; font-size: medium; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; line-height: 21.6pt;"span style="font-size: 11.5pt; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; color: #222222;"Thorin strode out of the house, heading to join the others when he stopped. He took in the girl who was sitting on a stump, watching the dwarves sparring. The hair framing her face made her look so gentle... so fragile and elf like... but the braid was definitely dwarfish style and it made him smile. He couldn't believe that he could love someone as much as he loved her. /span/p
p style="margin-right: 0in; margin-left: 0in; font-size: medium; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; line-height: 21.6pt;"span style="font-size: 11.5pt; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; color: #222222;"She looked so relaxed, wearing a clean shirt that she had obtained from Kili who was the one nearest her size. it was slightly loose but that helped the bandages and she had tucked it into her pair of pants and was wearing her boots that were clean. Her hands were resting on the stump beside her and she looked so relaxed and carefree... not like she was on a journey to reclaim a mountain where a dragon slept./span/p
p style="margin-right: 0in; margin-left: 0in; font-size: medium; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; line-height: 21.6pt;"span style="font-size: 11.5pt; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; color: #222222;""Uncle! Come on!" Kili called./span/p
p style="margin-right: 0in; margin-left: 0in; font-size: medium; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; line-height: 21.6pt;"span style="font-size: 11.5pt; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; color: #222222;"Thorin headed over to the others and saw that Fili and Kili were going against Dwalin and Gloin. He circled them, fingering his beard as he watched his nephews. FIli was a great fighter but Kili had a few wrong moves. /span/p
p style="margin-right: 0in; margin-left: 0in; font-size: medium; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; line-height: 21.6pt;"span style="font-size: 11.5pt; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; color: #222222;""here, lift your arm a little more," he said, stepping in to fix Kili's stance./span/p
p style="margin-right: 0in; margin-left: 0in; font-size: medium; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; line-height: 21.6pt;"span style="font-size: 11.5pt; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; color: #222222;"He then walked over to Fili and whispered in his ear, "Dwalin is right hand dominant. Try for his left more often."/span/p
p style="margin-right: 0in; margin-left: 0in; font-size: medium; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; line-height: 21.6pt;"span style="font-size: 11.5pt; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; color: #222222;"His two nephews went at it and soon managed to disarm Gloin and Dwalin, earning cheers from the others./span/p
p style="margin-right: 0in; margin-left: 0in; font-size: medium; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; line-height: 21.6pt;"span style="font-size: 11.5pt; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; color: #222222;""Your turn Thorin!" Kili invited./span/p
p style="margin-right: 0in; margin-left: 0in; font-size: medium; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; line-height: 21.6pt;"span style="font-size: 11.5pt; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; color: #222222;""I can't do sword fighting anymore," Dwalin grumbled. "How bout wrestling?"/span/p
p style="margin-right: 0in; margin-left: 0in; font-size: medium; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; line-height: 21.6pt;"span style="font-size: 11.5pt; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; color: #222222;"Thorin was about to object when Balin sauntered past and whispered something in his ear that only Thorin could hear, "Persephone is watching."/span/p
p style="margin-right: 0in; margin-left: 0in; font-size: medium; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; line-height: 21.6pt;"span style="font-size: 11.5pt; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; color: #222222;"Thorin glanced out of the corner of his eyes and saw that sure enough, his two nephews had gone and sat next to the girl and they were watching them. Thorin felt a smile appear on his face and he nodded, "You're on Dwalin."/span/p
p style="margin-right: 0in; margin-left: 0in; font-size: medium; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; line-height: 21.6pt;"span style="font-size: 11.5pt; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; color: #222222;"With that, Dwalin began to remove his heavy clothing so that he was only wearing a shirt and his breeches and boots. Thorin did the same and smirked when Dwalin cracked his knuckles. They hadn't wrestled in a while and Thorin had gotten much stronger recently./span/p
p style="margin-right: 0in; margin-left: 0in; font-size: medium; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; line-height: 21.6pt;"span style="font-size: 11.5pt; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; color: #222222;"Meanwhile, Fili and Kili were watching their uncle with wide eyes. He was a father figure to them and they practically adored him and looked up at him with admiration. Their mouths were dangling open as they watched Dwalin and Thorin fighting./span/p
p style="margin-right: 0in; margin-left: 0in; font-size: medium; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; line-height: 21.6pt;"span style="font-size: 11.5pt; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; color: #222222;""Uncle is so cool!" Kili whispered. /span/p
p style="margin-right: 0in; margin-left: 0in; font-size: medium; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; line-height: 21.6pt;"span style="font-size: 11.5pt; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; color: #222222;""Yeah!" FIli agreed. /span/p
p style="margin-right: 0in; margin-left: 0in; font-size: medium; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; line-height: 21.6pt;"span style="font-size: 11.5pt; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; color: #222222;"Both of them cringed when THorin drew Dwalin over his shoulder, bringing the other dwarf to his back. /span/p
p style="margin-right: 0in; margin-left: 0in; font-size: medium; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; line-height: 21.6pt;"span style="font-size: 11.5pt; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; color: #222222;""Ouch," Sepha cringed. "Thats why I don't do wrestling."/span/p
p style="margin-right: 0in; margin-left: 0in; font-size: medium; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; line-height: 21.6pt;"span style="font-size: 11.5pt; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; color: #222222;""What do you do?" Fili inquired, "Other than archery?"/span/p
p style="margin-right: 0in; margin-left: 0in; font-size: medium; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; line-height: 21.6pt;"span style="font-size: 11.5pt; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; color: #222222;""Double swords," Sepha replied. "And self defense. Though sometimes I opt to morphing cuz it gets the job done faster."/span/p
p style="margin-right: 0in; margin-left: 0in; font-size: medium; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; line-height: 21.6pt;"span style="font-size: 11.5pt; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; color: #222222;""So how do you morph?" Kili inquired./span/p
p style="margin-right: 0in; margin-left: 0in; font-size: medium; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; line-height: 21.6pt;"span style="font-size: 11.5pt; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; color: #222222;"Sepha chuckled, "Don't try it Kili. But basically as a skin changer, I just think that I want to change and I do."/span/p
p style="margin-right: 0in; margin-left: 0in; font-size: medium; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; line-height: 21.6pt;"span style="font-size: 11.5pt; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; color: #222222;""Can you show us again?" Kili asked. "Unless you're still healing."/span/p
p style="margin-right: 0in; margin-left: 0in; font-size: medium; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; line-height: 21.6pt;"span style="font-size: 11.5pt; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; color: #222222;""Oh I'm healing just fine," Sepha replied. /span/p
p style="margin-right: 0in; margin-left: 0in; font-size: medium; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; line-height: 21.6pt;"span style="font-size: 11.5pt; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; color: #222222;"Thorin brought Dwalin down a third time and the dwarves cheered for Thorin had won the round. He smiled and helped Dwalin up. He snuck a look at where his nephews and Sepha were but saw them getting up and heading off out of sight./span/p
p style="margin-right: 0in; margin-left: 0in; font-size: medium; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; line-height: 21.6pt;"span style="font-size: 11.5pt; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; color: #222222;""Want to go for another?" Gloin invited THorin./span/p
p style="margin-right: 0in; margin-left: 0in; font-size: medium; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; line-height: 21.6pt;"span style="font-size: 11.5pt; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; color: #222222;"Thorin was about to object but Balin beat him to it, having noticed Thorin's puzzled look, "I think Thorin has some things to do. How about you go for Bofur."/span/p
p style="margin-right: 0in; margin-left: 0in; font-size: medium; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; line-height: 21.6pt;"span style="font-size: 11.5pt; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; color: #222222;"Thorin smiled at Balin as thanks as he grabbed his blue tunic and headed after his nephews and Sepha. When he found them, he kept a good distance off so they didn't notice him./span/p
p style="margin-right: 0in; margin-left: 0in; font-size: medium; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; line-height: 21.6pt;"span style="font-size: 11.5pt; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; color: #222222;"They were standing in the open field by the river and Sepha was morphing from human, to wolf. the girl and Fili kept laughing whenever Kili tried to morph but only ended in a faceplant./span/p
p style="margin-right: 0in; margin-left: 0in; font-size: medium; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; line-height: 21.6pt;"span style="font-size: 11.5pt; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; color: #222222;""Stop trying bro," FIli said, "You're not even a skin changer!"/span/p
p style="margin-right: 0in; margin-left: 0in; font-size: medium; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; line-height: 21.6pt;"span style="font-size: 11.5pt; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; color: #222222;""It's all in the head!" Kili said, "have some imagination!"/span/p
p style="margin-right: 0in; margin-left: 0in; font-size: medium; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; line-height: 21.6pt;"span style="font-size: 11.5pt; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; color: #222222;"Sepha chuckled and morphing again into a wolf, she caught the boy by the boot with her teeth gently and began dragging him, earning a laugh from Fili and yelps from Kili./span/p
p style="margin-right: 0in; margin-left: 0in; font-size: medium; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; line-height: 21.6pt;"span style="font-size: 11.5pt; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; color: #222222;"She morphed back and she fell onto her back with laughter at Kili's horrified face. "Don't worry Kee. Most girls aren't attracted to guys who can morph anyway. You would be better off by working on your flirting."/span/p
p style="margin-right: 0in; margin-left: 0in; font-size: medium; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; line-height: 21.6pt;"span style="font-size: 11.5pt; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; color: #222222;""If you would even call it flirting," Fili pointed out. "He's scared some dwarf girls out of their breeches."/span/p
p style="margin-right: 0in; margin-left: 0in; font-size: medium; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; line-height: 21.6pt;"span style="font-size: 11.5pt; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; color: #222222;"That sent Sepha laughing again and Thorin found himself smiling. Her laughing was like music and he loved hearing it. He also loved the bright look on her face and how she seemed so peaceful and happy./span/p
p style="margin-right: 0in; margin-left: 0in; font-size: medium; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; line-height: 21.6pt;"span style="font-size: 11.5pt; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; color: #222222;"(LATER)/span/p
p style="margin-right: 0in; margin-left: 0in; font-size: medium; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; line-height: 21.6pt;"span style="font-size: 11.5pt; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; color: #222222;"Thorin was seated in a chair, reading a book silently. He never really read but all the other dwarves were sparring yet again (a second day in a row) so he had decided to avoid that by finding an occupation./span/p
p style="margin-right: 0in; margin-left: 0in; font-size: medium; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; line-height: 21.6pt;"span style="font-size: 11.5pt; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; color: #222222;"The door of the house opened and in ran Sepha. Her arms were full of herbs, many of them flowering. There were leaves and small flower petals in her hair and her cheeks were rosy from running. she had been healing nicely and Oin had given her the okay to do as she pleased but to be careful of her side. /span/p
p style="margin-right: 0in; margin-left: 0in; font-size: medium; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; line-height: 21.6pt;"span style="font-size: 11.5pt; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; color: #222222;"THorin felt his heart stop and he feared that he was staring, mouth slightly open for the sight before him was like seeing a goddess. Her hair was slightly messed, hair flying all about her face. She wore Kili's white shirt laced up the back with her leather jacket but not laced up, her breeches and her boots. Her arms were overflowing with green plants, white and purple flowering plants and she carried a handful of stems covered in berries. /span/p
p style="margin-right: 0in; margin-left: 0in; font-size: medium; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; line-height: 21.6pt;"span style="font-size: 11.5pt; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; color: #222222;"Her eyes met his for a second before she smiled and scurried off to where Oin was."I got your herbs."/span/p
p style="margin-right: 0in; margin-left: 0in; font-size: medium; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; line-height: 21.6pt;"span style="font-size: 11.5pt; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; color: #222222;""Oh thank you dear," the dwarf said, taking the armful of things from her. "Did you go into the thicket to find them?"/span/p
p style="margin-right: 0in; margin-left: 0in; font-size: medium; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; line-height: 21.6pt;"span style="font-size: 11.5pt; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; color: #222222;""Yeah," the girl replied. "Why?"/span/p
p style="margin-right: 0in; margin-left: 0in; font-size: medium; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; line-height: 21.6pt;"span style="font-size: 11.5pt; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; color: #222222;""Cuz you have some things in your hair." Oin chuckled./span/p
p style="margin-right: 0in; margin-left: 0in; font-size: medium; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; line-height: 21.6pt;"span style="font-size: 11.5pt; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; color: #222222;"Sepha sighed and handed the herbs to the dwarf. standing up, she walked a ways towards her bag and finding a fresh hairtie, she removed the other tie and let her hair fall out. She began to pick the small pieces of leaf, petals and other things from her hair. Thorin was watching her from beneath his eye lashes and before he knew it, he couldn't hold it back any longer./span/p
p style="margin-right: 0in; margin-left: 0in; font-size: medium; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; line-height: 21.6pt;"span style="font-size: 11.5pt; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; color: #222222;"Standing up, he set his book down and approached the girl from behind. He gently touched her hands and the girl slightly jumped, "Let me."/span/p
p style="margin-right: 0in; margin-left: 0in; font-size: medium; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; line-height: 21.6pt;"span style="font-size: 11.5pt; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; color: #222222;"Sepha lowered her hands and THorin began to run his fingers through her hair, removing the pieces of hair. He ran his fingers through her thick brown hair again, even though there weren't anymore petals or leaves in her hair. How he wished to braid her hair but he feared she knew about dwarven braiding customs./span/p
p style="margin-right: 0in; margin-left: 0in; font-size: medium; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; line-height: 21.6pt;"span style="font-size: 11.5pt; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; color: #222222;""Can I ask you something Sepha?" he inquired/span/p
p style="margin-right: 0in; margin-left: 0in; font-size: medium; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; line-height: 21.6pt;"span style="font-size: 11.5pt; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; color: #222222;""Sure," the girl replied, obviously thinking he was still getting leaves out of her hair./span/p
p style="margin-right: 0in; margin-left: 0in; font-size: medium; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; line-height: 21.6pt;"span style="font-size: 11.5pt; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; color: #222222;""What do you know about your kin's customs? I mean... all four of them?"/span/p
p style="margin-right: 0in; margin-left: 0in; font-size: medium; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; line-height: 21.6pt;"span style="font-size: 11.5pt; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; color: #222222;""Not much honestly," Sepha replied, "My mom was about to teach me before she died. She only go to explaining skin changer and wizards but they don't really have any customs like elves do. I know how elves court... but that's about it. Dwarves... I'm ashamed to say I know very little except that a dwarf and his or her One wait till after marriage to consummate their marriage... that's really it."/span/p
p style="margin-right: 0in; margin-left: 0in; font-size: medium; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; line-height: 21.6pt;"span style="font-size: 11.5pt; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; color: #222222;"The moment she told him that she knew very little about dwarfish customs, he began to run his fingers through her hair and began to braid it in a dwarfish braid. /span/p
p style="margin-right: 0in; margin-left: 0in; font-size: medium; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; line-height: 21.6pt;"span style="font-size: 11.5pt; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; color: #222222;" /span/p
p style="margin-right: 0in; margin-left: 0in; font-size: medium; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; line-height: 21.6pt;"span style="font-size: 11.5pt; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; color: #222222;"When he finished, he released her hair and Sepha touched the braids a moment, smiling, "Thanks. You didn't have to do that."/span/p
p style="margin-right: 0in; margin-left: 0in; font-size: medium; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; line-height: 21.6pt;"span style="font-size: 11.5pt; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; color: #222222;"Thorin shrugged, "I don't mind."/span/p
p style="margin-right: 0in; margin-left: 0in; font-size: medium; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; line-height: 21.6pt;"span style="font-size: 11.5pt; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; color: #222222;"Sepha smiled and thanking him again, skipped outside to where his nephews were calling her, having not figured out where she had disappeared to. THorin smiled. How he wished he could tell her what he had just initiated. In Dwarven customs, There were different ways to begin showing one's affection to the other and one of those things was staking a claim by either act of arms to fight for the person's hand, show of physical strength or braiding the other's hair. However, Thorin felt that it was too soon to tell her./span/p
p style="margin-right: 0in; margin-left: 0in; font-size: medium; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; line-height: 21.6pt;"span style="font-size: 11.5pt; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; color: #222222;"He had just gotten on good terms with her after the horrible things he said to her in Rivendell. he didn't want to ruin it by expressing his feelings too soon. Little did he know that Dwalin and Balin had seen the whole thing and were smirking at each other. Fili and Kili were going to be so ticked off when they find out that they'll be losing the bet!/span/p
p style="margin-right: 0in; margin-left: 0in; font-size: medium; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; line-height: 21.6pt;"span style="font-size: 11.5pt; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; color: #222222;" /span/p
p style="margin-right: 0in; margin-left: 0in; font-size: medium; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; line-height: 21.6pt;"span style="font-size: 11.5pt; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; color: #222222;"hen THorin finished thinking of the best way to tell Sepha about his feelings, he headed out doors to see what the others were up to. He wasn't the least bit surprised to see that Sepha was helping Kili with his sword fighting. She had both her swords drawn and was giving him tips, pausing every few blows to show him where to put his feet and so forth./span/p
p style="margin-right: 0in; margin-left: 0in; font-size: medium; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; line-height: 21.6pt;"span style="font-size: 11.5pt; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; color: #222222;"Thorin went and stood beside Dwalin who was watching Persephone constantly. He knew that Dwalin was trying to understand Sepha's form of fighting since it was a mixture of all different kinds of races. /span/p
p style="margin-right: 0in; margin-left: 0in; font-size: medium; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; line-height: 21.6pt;"span style="font-size: 11.5pt; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; color: #222222;""She's a tough one to read," Dwalin whispered, "It's like she has no pattern. That makes it very difficult to tell where she is going to strike next. It's almost aggravating!"/span/p
p style="margin-right: 0in; margin-left: 0in; font-size: medium; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; line-height: 21.6pt;"span style="font-size: 11.5pt; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; color: #222222;"THorin smiled and looked at the girl. her moves were so graceful, smooth but so deadly that THorin understood Dwalin's frustration. /span/p
p style="margin-right: 0in; margin-left: 0in; font-size: medium; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; line-height: 21.6pt;"span style="font-size: 11.5pt; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; color: #222222;""Why don't you go spar with her?" Dwalin suggested as Kili stepped back, taking a break/span/p
p style="margin-right: 0in; margin-left: 0in; font-size: medium; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; line-height: 21.6pt;"span style="font-size: 11.5pt; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; color: #222222;"Thorin looked from Dwalin to the girl, then back at Dwalin before sighing, "Fine."/span/p
p style="margin-right: 0in; margin-left: 0in; font-size: medium; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; line-height: 21.6pt;"span style="font-size: 11.5pt; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; color: #222222;"In truth, he was dying to spar with her, just to be close to her but he didn't want Dwalin to know about his feelings... at least not yet./span/p
p style="margin-right: 0in; margin-left: 0in; font-size: medium; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; line-height: 21.6pt;"span style="font-size: 11.5pt; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; color: #222222;""Let's see what you've got," he invited Sepha, drawing Orcrist./span/p
p style="margin-right: 0in; margin-left: 0in; font-size: medium; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; line-height: 21.6pt;"span style="font-size: 11.5pt; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; color: #222222;"Persephone smiled and handed one of her swords to Fili. The way THorin was going about, he obviously didn't want a lesson but wanted an actual round. In that case she was going to take it seriously. /span/p
p style="margin-right: 0in; margin-left: 0in; font-size: medium; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; line-height: 21.6pt;"span style="font-size: 11.5pt; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; color: #222222;"She drove her other sword into the ground and quickly laced up her jacket so it didn't get in her way. As she did, he watched her and felt his mouth go dry. How he so wished to know what it felt like to touch her hands... her face... all of her... he quickly shook his heads. Stop thinking such things when you aren't even courting her!/span/p
p style="margin-right: 0in; margin-left: 0in; font-size: medium; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; line-height: 21.6pt;"strongspan style="font-size: 11.5pt; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; color: #222222;""Vaem hef tho bjorgart ilv mikk?" /span/strongspan style="font-size: 11.5pt; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; color: #222222;"Thorin muttered in Kuzdul./span/p
p style="margin-right: 0in; margin-left: 0in; font-size: medium; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; line-height: 21.6pt;"span style="font-size: 11.5pt; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; color: #222222;"He said it too quietly for Persephone to hear but loud enough for all the dwarves to hear and their eyes widened and their eyebrows shot up. Persephone cocked her head at him./span/p
p style="margin-right: 0in; margin-left: 0in; font-size: medium; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; line-height: 21.6pt;"span style="font-size: 11.5pt; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; color: #222222;""Sorry, I didn't hear that."/span/p
p style="margin-right: 0in; margin-left: 0in; font-size: medium; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; line-height: 21.6pt;"span style="font-size: 11.5pt; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; color: #222222;"Thorin shook his head, "It was nothing."/span/p
p style="margin-right: 0in; margin-left: 0in; font-size: medium; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; line-height: 21.6pt;"span style="font-size: 11.5pt; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; color: #222222;""If it was nothing, then why is Dwalin smirking?" she inquired./span/p
p style="margin-right: 0in; margin-left: 0in; font-size: medium; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; line-height: 21.6pt;"span style="font-size: 11.5pt; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; color: #222222;"THorin looked over his shoulder to see that Balin and Dwalin were indeed smirking at him while Fili and Kili had their jaws dropped and eyes practically bulging from their faces. Oh if they said a word of this to her he was going to have their heads!/span/p
p style="margin-right: 0in; margin-left: 0in; font-size: medium; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; line-height: 21.6pt;"span style="font-size: 11.5pt; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; color: #222222;""Tell you what," Thorin remarked. "If you win this round, I'll tell you."/span/p
p style="margin-right: 0in; margin-left: 0in; font-size: medium; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; line-height: 21.6pt;"span style="font-size: 11.5pt; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; color: #222222;"Persephone smiled and cracked her knuckles, "Deal."/span/p
p style="margin-right: 0in; margin-left: 0in; font-size: medium; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; line-height: 21.6pt;"span style="font-size: 11.5pt; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; color: #222222;"Thorin didn't know what to do especially since Persephone just stood there calmly, her sword in the ground about three feet in front of her. /span/p
p style="margin-right: 0in; margin-left: 0in; font-size: medium; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; line-height: 21.6pt;"span style="font-size: 11.5pt; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; color: #222222;""Come on," the girl invited./span/p
p style="margin-right: 0in; margin-left: 0in; font-size: medium; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; line-height: 21.6pt;"span style="font-size: 11.5pt; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; color: #222222;"Thorin charged at her but that was a mistake. Persephone completely avoided him by bending completely backwards and grabbing her sword as she went. She spun around and held her sword horizontal in front of her, gripping it backwards. /span/p
p style="margin-right: 0in; margin-left: 0in; font-size: medium; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; line-height: 21.6pt;"span style="font-size: 11.5pt; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; color: #222222;"Thorin turned and considered her. This time she took the first blow. Thorin had no idea where it came from but Persephone's blows were faster than any sword fighter he had ever fought against. THorin was an incredibly talented sword master but they were both equally matched in the other./span/p
p style="margin-right: 0in; margin-left: 0in; font-size: medium; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; line-height: 21.6pt;"span style="font-size: 11.5pt; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; color: #222222;"Thorin knew that she couldn't strain her side yet so he decided to use that against and take a blow at her where she couldn't avoid him without straining her side. It worked and soon he had her disarmed and he had Orcrist at her chest./span/p
p style="margin-right: 0in; margin-left: 0in; font-size: medium; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; line-height: 21.6pt;"span style="font-size: 11.5pt; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; color: #222222;"he smiled, "I win."/span/p
p style="margin-right: 0in; margin-left: 0in; font-size: medium; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; line-height: 21.6pt;"span style="font-size: 11.5pt; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; color: #222222;"Persephone just raised her eyebrows and smiled, extending her right hand, "Funny thing I learnt in my years of wandering THorin... never try to find a woman's weakness..."/span/p
p style="margin-right: 0in; margin-left: 0in; font-size: medium; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; line-height: 21.6pt;"span style="font-size: 11.5pt; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; color: #222222;"Just then, Thorin felt something fly through the air and before he knew it, Persephone's sword was in her hand... both of them and she had them crossed at his neck, Orcrist tossed to the side, "...Because we always find yours first."/span/p
p style="margin-right: 0in; margin-left: 0in; font-size: medium; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; line-height: 21.6pt;"span style="font-size: 11.5pt; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; color: #222222;"Thorin's eyes were so wide that Persephone smiled, "Never try to test a wizard."/span/p
p style="margin-right: 0in; margin-left: 0in; font-size: medium; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; line-height: 21.6pt;"span style="font-size: 11.5pt; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; color: #222222;"Thorin smacked himself inwardly for being so foolish. She was a wizard! She probably had a spell that enabled her to draw her weapons to her mentally./span/p
p style="margin-right: 0in; margin-left: 0in; font-size: medium; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; line-height: 21.6pt;"span style="font-size: 11.5pt; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; color: #222222;""So, what was it that you mumbled to yourself?" the girl asked, sheathing her swords./span/p
p style="margin-right: 0in; margin-left: 0in; font-size: medium; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; line-height: 21.6pt;"span style="font-size: 11.5pt; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; color: #222222;"All eyes turned to Thorin and he felt the back of his neck go red. He swallowed and at once his mouth went dry, "Nothing."/span/p
p style="margin-right: 0in; margin-left: 0in; font-size: medium; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; line-height: 21.6pt;"span style="font-size: 11.5pt; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; color: #222222;"Before Persephone could object, he had ducked his head and had headed back to the house, walking briskly and sheating Orcrist as he went./span/p
p style="margin-right: 0in; margin-left: 0in; font-size: medium; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; line-height: 21.6pt;"span style="font-size: 11.5pt; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; color: #222222;"Sepha looked at Fili and Kili who were still staring with dropped jaws while Dwalin and Balin looked disappointed, not in Sepha but in the fact that Thorin hadn't told her./span/p
p style="margin-right: 0in; margin-left: 0in; font-size: medium; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; line-height: 21.6pt;"span style="font-size: 11.5pt; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; color: #222222;""What did I say? Was it a touchy subject?"/span/p
p style="margin-right: 0in; margin-left: 0in; font-size: medium; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; line-height: 21.6pt;"span style="font-size: 11.5pt; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; color: #222222;"Finding that Fili and Kili were practically frozen at present, Balin shook his head, "The lad was just nervous."/span/p
p style="margin-right: 0in; margin-left: 0in; font-size: medium; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; line-height: 21.6pt;"span style="font-size: 11.5pt; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; color: #222222;""Nervous? THorin?" Sepha inquired, "I find that hard to believe."/span/p
p style="margin-right: 0in; margin-left: 0in; font-size: medium; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; line-height: 21.6pt;"span style="font-size: 11.5pt; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; color: #222222;"Dwalin sighed, "Why is it that it is always the person involved that is oblivious?"/span/p
p style="margin-right: 0in; margin-left: 0in; font-size: medium; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; line-height: 21.6pt;"span style="font-size: 11.5pt; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; color: #222222;""Oblivious to what?" Sepha inquired./span/p
p style="margin-right: 0in; margin-left: 0in; font-size: medium; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; line-height: 21.6pt;"span style="font-size: 11.5pt; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; color: #222222;"Balin sighed and patted her shoulder, "Lass... THorin was nervous because of you. What he said was in Kuzdul and it was: What have you done to me?"/span/p
p style="margin-right: 0in; margin-left: 0in; font-size: medium; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; line-height: 21.6pt;"span style="font-size: 11.5pt; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; color: #222222;" /span/p