Before they head down the mountain Nori is touched to hear Dwalin ask her if she is certain that she wants to rejoin the others. The sun rising upon the slope they are camped upon has been confirmation enough that they are on the eastern side of the Misty Mountains, and distantly they can see the dark shadow of Mirkwood looming on the other side of the twisting and glittering ribbon that can only be the Anduin. They are high up, though the mountain slopes down gently, and they have enough rope between her pack, Dwalin and Fíli's, that they should be able to scale down any larger drops if they come across them. The mountains are, after all, the natural habitat of dwarves.
Nori knows that Dwalin would leave with her if she insisted on going home, she is not entirely certain that he would not resent her for it in time, but she knows that he would leave. What she is not so certain of is if either of the lads would come with them. Fíli has Hela in Ered Luin and the lass is carrying his child. It is entirely possible that he would decide that they have seen too much of the risk involved in this venture and decide to come back with them. It is also entirely possible that he still feels his uncle's frustration with the rushed marriage and misguidedly wishes to redeem himself. Fíli is the harder one of the two to read. Kíli is easier to read, but his decision would depend entirely on Briar and Fíli, and Briar would probably follow Kíli anyway. Briar has come close to being killed, and there is a dragon waiting for her at the end of this all as well, but if Fíli decided to carry on Kíli would follow, because one day he will serve as Wolf under his older brother and it is his place to lurk in the dark places nearby to watch over the lad.
She would never ask either of the boys to make that choice, and while it would have made sense to turn back if they had emerged on the other side of the Misty Mountains it does not make sense to go back now. So they carry on.
There are a few slightly hair raising points on the way down. There is no path here although it is relatively easy for them to find a route down. Some areas are incredibly narrow and Briar slips from a ledge at one point, only to be saved by Fíli's quick reflexes and the fact that they had all tied themselves together. It takes the rest of the day to make it to a wider path, though they are still far enough into the mountains that they resign themselves to another long night on the uncomfortable ground.
Just because dwarves live under stone for the most part does not mean that they necessarily enjoy lying on it after a hard day.
Even though it is summer, the mountains are cold at night and the five huddle together for warmth. A fire is almost out of the question, they have no desire to attract the attention of any passing goblin, orc or warg. Since all the fish is gone, they eat a sparse meal of a small helping of cram and dried meat. They probably should not have a second meal, but they all need it after the exertions of the day and they will be in the lowlands before the sun sets the following day so they will be able to at least attempt to hunt or forage for something. It will mean building a small fire, but they are at the stage where they will need to risk it anyway.
The following day is easier, the downward path sloping gently with only the occasional slide down a gravel strewn slope to throw them off balance. There is no missing how relieved Briar is to see the early, sparse, signs of grass as they approach the lower slopes of the mountains, the rough path that they have been clambering along giving way to scrubby life which serves to increase the speed at which they move. It does not take long for Kíli to spot a couple of rabbits, although his first shot scares the other away, but the meat will be welcome later. Briar also manages to find some brambles that bend with the heavy weight of an early crop of blackberries. They are tart when the hobbit passes a few of them over, small and a little hard even though they are ripe. It is too early for the fat, sweet ones which appear towards the early autumn. The berries are still appreciated, however, and they gather as many as they can, carrying them in the heavy canvas bag that Briar keeps tucked into one pocket of her pack for just this purpose. She has used the bag a great deal since leaving the Shire, and seeing it gradually fill with an incredible variety of plant life has been fascinating and welcome in place of trail rations.
They find a stream towards late afternoon and Briar wades into the cool water to collect some of the greenery that grows in the gently moving water while the rest of them fill their depleted water skins and drink their fill. They do not linger, however, continuing to strike out into the lowlands while keeping an eye out for bushes and trees which can be used as a source of firewood. Along with the greens and blackberries, Briar also finds some large mushrooms growing on a rotting log which she spends a while examining carefully before concluding that these are of the edible variety. By the time they stop for the night Kíli has managed to shoot down five birds and he sits with his brother cleaning his kills while they wait for the fire to heat enough to allow them to cook their haul.
The rabbit carcass is stuffed with the blackberries and some of the greens before being surrounded by rocks and wood piled on top to burn down while baking the meat within. The birds are set on wooden stakes over the top to cook as well, while Briar toasts some mushrooms on a hot rock, mourning the fact that the stew pot and frying pan had been with the ponies and the rest of the Company. The rest of the greens, at least half of the blackberries and two thirds of the mushrooms are kept in Briar's bag for the following day. The hobbit declares that she would rather keep some of the food she has foraged to one side just in case they do not managed to find much during their trek and it is agreed that two of the birds will be wrapped to form dinner the following evening if they do not catch anything new, or lunch if they do.
No one is interested in going hungry if they do not have to.
For such a simple meal, slightly burnt in places and tasting a little of the dirt that had been on the stones used to cook it, the rabbit is still one of the best things that Nori has eaten in a long while. Hunger, as they say, is truly the best sauce. It has only been a few days since they were cut off from the rest of the Company, but keeping on short rations with their exertions has left them all ravenous even after that short a time. Dwarves and hobbits have big appetites and it shows in how they all devour the food once it is cooked. It is warmer at night in the lowlands, although they keep watch over the mountains anyway since they know that their fire will be easily noticed from the mountains. Whether the goblins will bother coming to investigate is another matter. Nights are short at this time of year, although they are gradually getting longer, and unless there are some open caves lower down it will still take the goblins most of the night to get to the little camp.
Goblins are not like trolls, they will not turn to stone in the rising sun, but they dislike it all the same. They cannot see well in the light of day and their skin burns easily. They certainly dislike moving away from the mountains in the summer months, but in late autumn and winter they will travel even during the day while clouds block the harshest of the sun's light. Which goes a long way towards explaining why the orcs and goblins waited as long as they did to march on Erebor; they had needed to wait for the longer nights in order to make the trek.
The following days are much like the first day as they make their way to the banks of the Anduin, a trip which takes just over two days, and continue south to meet with the rest of the Company. It is difficult to be sure, but Dwalin estimates that with hunting and foraging for their meals it will take them about eight days to reach the ford where Thorin and the others are waiting for them. If they had their own supplies, and even their ponies, they might make better time, but the need to stop and gather what plant-life Briar deems edible, wait while Kíli and Fíli hunt down rabbits and whatever birds they can, or set up early enough that Dwalin might be able to catch some fish if their hunting has been unsuccessful takes time from their travel each day. At least they eat well, which had been a concern. The lowlands this side of the Misty Mountains are sparsely populated, the Men seem to prefer to avoid the goblin and orc infested range as much as possible, and so the game is far more plentiful than the small group had feared it would be.
Especially several days away from the populated caves.
The mood as they walk is not quite jovial, although Nori would not say that it is particularly tense either. Her previous life saw her making a trek over this part of the world in far less favourable circumstances, saw her starve while knowing there was little to no chance of finding anything to eat or drink. Aside from the creeping madness of Mirkwood, the lack of food and drink had certainly contributed to the deterioration of their minds and mood. There is no lack of food for the five of them, although there is some nervousness about whether they will have enough to eat every day that eases over the days. They always manage to find something.
"What will you do when this is over?" Fíli asks her one afternoon, Kíli has gone a little ahead to see if he can find something for their dinner and Briar is with him collecting more of the bounties of the wild.
"Retire," Nori says simply. "No matter how this turns out, I'm retiring. You aren't the only one looking to start a family, lad, but my work isn't exactly... " she pulls a face, "compatible with carrying a child. Could make it work raising one, but carrying?" She shakes her head.
"What about my brother?"
"I'll help him get settled, and I won't just vanish into the wilds," Nori assures him. "Dwalin wouldn't want that anyway and I've put too much work into your brother, grown too fond of him, to leave him hanging like that. I want him to do well, I've trained him to do well, but I've got a right to my own life too."
She pauses.
"I didn't want this job, you know, being the Wolf. If your uncle hadn't announced it the way he did I probably would have told him to get fucked."
"But you've thrown yourself into it so fully."
"Aye, because I knew it was what your brother's meant for," she shrugs. "But he was going to do it better with a solid foundation, which he wasn't going to get from your uncle or your ma. Your uncle blindsided me, but I put my all into it for your brother. Which is another reason I'm retiring. My loyalties are too split. My position with Dwalin isn't a question, or problem. Thorin understands it, but my loyalty to your brother is the bigger problem. I'd choose him over Thorin every time, and that isn't what the Wolf is supposed to do."
Fíli nods.
"I would have gone back willingly," he says suddenly, "if we had come out on the other side of the mountains I would have gone back to Ered Luin. Hela's alone there, she has friends but it isn't the same."
"Why'd you let your uncle shame you into coming then?" Nori asks him.
"I didn't," Fíli huffs. "Don't think I believe for a moment you don't know that. I didn't come because Thorin ordered it. He would have let me stay if I had really insisted on it." There is no sign of the bitterness he had spoken with in Bag End, but perhaps these weeks on the road have resigned him to it, or convinced him that there is a bigger reason for him to be here. "I came for Kíli. He isn't here because he really believes in this, he's here to keep an eye on Briar and because I think part of him still feels like he needs to be what our mother tried to make him into. Besides, Hela insisted I come, probably so that she doesn't have to put up with me worrying and moping about missing out."
"Wishing you were missing out now?"
"Aren't you?"
Nori rests a hand on his shoulder and squeezes. Fíli has been keeping secrets of his own, it would seem, but his loyalty and desire to protect his brother is something that Nori knows she will need to keep an eye on. Good thing she is always on the lookout for it.
A.N: I will finish this eventually. When I'm on book/movie I go quite quickly, everyone knows what happened and there's no need to tell it every time, but when I putter off book we end up with chapter after chapter... this. And the blackberries thing is my personal experience, I'm not saying it's true, just that years of walking dogs down the same bramble choked lanes as a teen eating said bounty and reading (I lived remotely, the lanes were on land that belonged to my grandfather and it was very unlikely I would meet another person but those were different days) and the early berries were never as sweet and juicy as the ones in late August/early September.
You'll only get one chapter next week, I've got a physics assignment due and then a maths one the week after that. Busy busy!