Chapter Seven: The Boonies

Balin had never seen a person so odd before in his long life. Emelia had been tortured, that much was clear by her injuries and overall distrusting demeanor, but other than that none of them could discern any telling information about her. She was an enigma, at best, and it puzzled the group of dwarves to no end.

Balin had not been surprised when she fell into a deep slumber after her less than pleasant outburst. He had seen the weariness of the past day's events weighing on her heavily. Her eyes were so dull and listless; he was surprised she had managed to stay awake as long as she had. Her sturdiness was surprising for such a small woman, and it impressed Balin, even if it was ever so slightly. He was not impressed, however, with the insults that she had been flinging at them, whether inadvertent and unintentional or not.

None of the dwarves were in fact.

Dwalin was the most annoyed and insulted by her words, going so far as to say they should just leave the little woman to her own devices.

Balin, and the majority of the other dwarves, had denied him that request almost as soon as it had left his mouth. None of them, despite their offense at being called insane in rather colorful terms, deemed it right or proper to just leave her where they had found her. She would die if left alone, and none of them could really stomach the thought with a good conscious.

Besides, Balin had taken a distinct liking to the little woman.

"We just can't ignore what she said." Dwalin snapped, ignoring the eye rolling of his older brother. "There is no excuse for it."

"I do not believe that our mother would have approved of your chivalry, Dwalin." Balin snapped back, shooting a glance back over at the sleeping woman. "I do not think she meant it as a form of offense."

"Perhaps she meant it as a way of complementing us?" Ori offered, sitting himself down on the grass.

"In what way is what she said a compliment Ori?" Dori asked derisively, shooting his younger brother a scathing look. "Being compared to Bat droppings isn't exactly complementary."

"Regardless of her offensive nature," Thorin cut across the debating dwarves. "When she wakes up in the morning, she will not be traveling with us, for any distance, until she answers some questions about where she came from who she is."

"Who she is?" Fili asked, keeping his gaze on the sleeping woman. She was curled into a tight little ball, quenching her eyes shut as if she was willing herself to stay asleep. "I thought she was being pretty forthcoming with who she is."

"Stop staring at her, brother." Kili said a little louder than Fili would have liked. "You might wake her up with the intensity."

Fili felt his face heating up involuntarily as all of the dwarves immediately looked over at him with raised eyebrows. "Quiet, Kili." Fili hissed, shifting slightly as he felt his uncle's intense gaze turn to him. He had lived with his uncle long enough to know when he was angry with him. His normally tan face became red and his forehead vein became more prominent.

"Both of you need to quiet yourselves." Thorin snapped. "You are of the line of Durin. I suggest you start acting like it. A pretty face should not offer such a distraction that you forget you are royalty, not some blundering vagrant incapable of controlling his thoughts or mouth."

Fili snapped his mouth shut immediately. He had been on the receiving end of his uncle's anger many times before. He had always learned to take it as it was. Thorin did not mean it maliciously or out of anything but caring. However, even though Fili knew that, he couldn't not help but feel impossibly small under his uncle's heated gaze. In truth, Fili had not meant a single thing by his playful comments towards Emelia. It was his sole intention to make her feel better about the fact that she was covered in troll filth, not to make her uncomfortable. He had not meant to come across as inappropriate and leering in any way. The fact that he did think she was, in fact, a pretty face didn't help the situation any.

"Sorry Uncle." Fili said quietly. "I will not address her in such a manner again."

"To be clear, Uncle, I wasn't distracted by a pretty face." Kili said, ignoring the sudden elbow in his side from his brother.

The dwarves all let out loud laughter at the dwarf's quip, muttering comments under their breath. Thorin turned his angry gaze on his youngest nephew, not finding anything remotely humorous about his comment. In fact, he found nothing humorous about the current situation what so ever.

"Miss Montgomery will not be a distraction, to any of you, no matter her situation." Thorin said gruffly, shooting a look to each of the dwarves in turn. "We leave for the troll hoard at first light, regardless of whether she is with us or not."

"We cannot just drag her back to the place those monsters kept her in." Balin said, moving forward slightly from his spot next to his large brother. "That would be cruel, Thorin Oakenshield and you know it as well as the rest of us."

The rest of the company watched the two dwarves for a moment, feeling the tension falling all over them. It wasn't often that they were witness to Thorin being challenged. It made all of them feel distinctly uncomfortable as they watched their King's jaw muscle working tightly underneath his dark, well-kept beard.

"Then what do you suggest we do?" Thorin asked tightly.

"Remember the fact that she is, in fact, a victim of the trolls. They kept her chained up for days. I do not think it would do us, or her, any good to force her to relive that rather traumatic experience."

"Quite right you are Master Balin." Gandalf said suddenly, surprising them all at his sudden presence. He had been out with the hobbit, scanning the area around them, offering the dwarves time to process their newest addition. "I think that would be most cruel indeed."

"I am surprised she is able to sleep so well," Bilbo said, faltering slightly as Thorin turned his glare on him. "Considering."

Thorin felt his anger mounting to an almost undeniable level. No one seemed to understand his anger and annoyance at the sudden appearance of the woman. Some of them seemed almost delighted by her unexpected presence. He was far from delighted. He did not know her, and he didn't want to know her. He saw no scenario in which she didn't distract from their quest to reclaim Erebor. She was small and appeared to be rather incapable of defending herself. She would be a burden, and he seemed to be the only one sensible enough to notice that.

"We cannot deter from out path to be sensitive to her fragile state."

"How do you know she is in such a fragile state?" Gandalf asked, a twinkle of mirth finding its way to his eyes. "She did manage to break your nephews nose, after all."

Kili shrunk in slightly at the wizards words. He had hoped to ignore the fact that the little blip of a girl had managed to get the better of him. It was not something he was proud of. In fact, it made him dislike the woman more than he probably should have.

"That was not…"

Thorin cut off Kili with a sharp look. "She cannot defend herself."

"A superficial and unfounded observation." Gandalf said simply, noticing that his words made the King's jaw clench up even more.

Thorin opened his mouth to respond with what everyone would assume would be a snide comment when he was cut off by a loud whimpering coming from the opposite side of the camp from them. They all looked over, brandishing their weapons, only to lower them almost instantly.

Emelia was currently curled into a ball so small, the dwarves would have thought she was only the size of a small child. She was squeezing her eyes so tightly it was amazing she hadn't woken herself up. It wasn't her position that was alarming to the dwarves, it was the fact that she was currently crying and whimpering like she was in physical pain. Her body was shuddering and shaking, making it appear that she was scared and traumatized.

"She's crying…" Bilbo trailed off, not entirely sure how to remedy the situation.

"I would imagine the lass is having a nightmare." Balin said slowly. "Completely understandable."

"A very astute observation." Gandalf said, not without a slight hint of sarcasm, albeit unnoticeable.

They were quiet for a moment watching her as she shuddered in Balin's cloak.

"Should we," Bofur spoke up, sounding entirely uncomfortable. "Er, do something?"

All of the dwarves eyed the crying woman awkwardly, shifting on their feet. "Gloin, you heard him." Bombur said, shoving the redheaded dwarf forward with a slight shove. "Go see if you can get her to stop crying."

"And why is this my job?" Gloin asked, shooting Bombur a dark look for the sudden shove.

"You have a wife don't you?" Bombur said, as if it was the most obvious thing in all of middle earth. "And a son. You are the most qualified amongst us to go and see if you can get her to stop crying."

"Er, well…" Gloin was not eager to try and get the sobbing woman to stop crying. He could barely manage to get his own wife to stop crying, let alone some lassie he had never really spoken to besides introducing himself in a brief sentence. "Perhaps she is just hungry again?" Gloin offered, earning a few chuckles from the dwarves. "That usually worked with Gimli."

"Gimli was also a fat little…" Bofur started with a large smile, earning a glower from Gloin.

"Watch your words." Gloin snapped, pointing a large finger at Bofur.

"Your emotional incompetence is rather astounding sometimes." Bilbo said suddenly from next to Gandalf, surprising not only himself and every dwarf around him. He suddenly felt his face heat up as they all looked at him in varying states of shock. That is, except for Thorin, who still wore his face of perpetual anger and annoyance. Thorin let out a gruff sigh, crossing his arms over his chest, brushing past the hobbits little outburst. He had no time for the crying woman, as her distress was likely to pass with time. That was what he had noticed, at least.

"We have spent too much time on this." Thorin said, ending the conversations around him. "We leave at first light; I suggest you all get some sleep. Dwalin you take first watch. Make sure Miss Montgomery does not move from her spot. Balin, make sure she is ready to move in the morning. I will not have her slowing us down any more."

All of the dwarves sensed that Thorin was not to be messed with on the matter. They all lumbered back to their respective packs and bedrolls, shooting the now almost silent woman sympathetic looks, before settling themselves down for a restless night's sleep. Emelia had quieted down from her small crying fit, only to shudder slightly before pulling knees to her chest even tighter. She didn't make much noise after her little crying debacle, which relieved all of the dwarves immensely.

It seemed, as most of them would attest to, a crying female eluded them more and made them all more uncomfortable than even the most bloody of battles.

Emelia had not had a single nightmare in the last ten years of her life. She had fallen through the ice when she was eight years old, resulting in her being hospitalized with a severe case of pneumonia and hypothermia for what felt like weeks. While she had been forced to stay in the children's ward, she had had nightmares that she was falling thought the ice over and over again. She dreamt that she hadn't been able to swim back to the top, that she hadn't been saved.

Those nightmares seemed so tame compared to the one she had had her first night being away from the trolls. She had been able to sleep for the first couple of hours rather peacefully before she had been assaulted by images from the past couple of days.

The worst was seeing Frinil and Fern being eaten, despite the fact that she knew they got away safe and sound. Their screams made her cry over and over again.

She tried to rationalize and tell herself that none of it was real, but it never seemed to work. The nightmare got progressively worse, transitioning from Frinil and Fern being eaten alive, to her mother, father, and brother being eaten directly in front of her. It happened over and over again until she finally woke up in a cold sweat.

Emelia's chest was heaving as she struggled to get grips on where she was exactly while simultaneously trying to calm herself down. She had to repeat to herself over and over again that her family's deaths had not been real. she glanced around her, taking in the slightly lightening sky, indicating that dawn wasn't too far off.

"You should be sleeping, considering the circumstances." A voice said from out of nowhere, causing Emelia to let out a small scream. She felt her chest constrict involuntarily, making it slightly harder to breathe normally. "Sorry." The voices sentiment did not reach the sound of the voice.

Emelia looked around until she found the source of the voice, only to find herself wishing she had stayed asleep. Kili was watching her from his spot atop one of the troll stumps, an odd expression on his stubble covered face.

"Shouldn't you be sleeping as well?" Emelia asked, finding it hard to be civil to the dwarf with the nasty attitude.

"I have to keep watch?" Kili said, scrunching his face up in confusion at her lack of knowledge about traveling in the wild. "Surely you should know that."

"Why would I know that?" Emelia snapped, standing up from her spot. She immediately regretted moving so quickly when she felt all the pain in her joints and muscles come roaring back to her. She hobbled over to him, avoiding stepping on dwarves as she went. "It's not like I spend my time flouncing about in the boonies."

Kili wasn't exactly sure how to respond to her last sentence. "That makes no sense." He said, turning his attention away from her and back to the trees that surrounded he troll clearing.

"The boonies? You know, the sticks…" She trailed off when she saw no recognition cross his face. "The outback?"

"You speak alarmingly." Kili said simply.

"That's…"

"Why don't you just go back to sleep? It was much easier to keep watch without you prattling in my ear in your odd manner of speaking." Kili snapped, his uncle's words completely forgotten.

"I should have hit you harder." Emelia muttered darkly, hobbling her way back to the little patch of grass. "Stupid little princess…" He could hear her trailing off angrily, plopping herself into her previous spot before pulling Balin's cloak over her face with a thorough tug.

"I should have let you keep running." Kili mused more to himself than to her.

He wasn't exactly sure what it was about the woman that bothered him so thoroughly. She seemed pleasant enough, from her interactions with the fellow members of his company. Fili had taken an instant liking to her, as appalling as Kili found her to be. It was not surprising that Balin liked her. Balin liked everybody that wasn't an elf or an orc. It wasn't as if Kili had much to base his opinions on, besides his still stinging nose. She had said little to nothing about herself since she had unceremoniously appeared amongst them. They knew her name and that was the extent of their knowledge.

Kili suspected there was much more to her than one would first assume. However, he had made a promise to himself that he wasn't going to be the one to figure it out.

With his luck, she would find a way to injure a more vital, and personally valuable part of his body, despite her small size and unintimidating nature.

He knew he should have given her time to show that she wasn't as much of a burden as they all initially thought. Kili couldn't help but feel slightly better that she had turned his uncle's never yielding anger and annoyance onto her, as opposed to him. Kili, with the persistence of Fili, had to practically beg his uncle to allow him to come. He had insisted he would pull his fair share; that he wouldn't be a burden. He had felt a little too happy when he had first laid eyes on Bilbo Baggins. And now that he was looking at the sour woman with no foreseeable skills that could help them, he couldn't help but feel like the focus had been entirely shifted away from himself.

He knew it was selfish, and Thorin would say it was just more evidence that he wasn't old enough to accompany them, but he couldn't help the line of thought.

He glanced over at her small form, feeling his nose twinge slightly at the memory of her boney elbow colliding with it. It had come out of seemingly nowhere, making him see stars shoot across his vision. It had not been his intention to startle her. He, as well as every other member of their group, could see that she had been mistreated in the cruelest of ways. The bruises that covered her body were suspect, at best, and very horrible to look at. They had stood out on her pale skin, making them look vivid and horrendous.

It was for that reason, in addition to the fact that she was a female, that Kili had regretted grabbing her around her middle to stop her from running away from them. He pitied her. It was obvious she had gone through something that not even most grown dwarves, with the exception of those from Erebor, could imagine or fathom. He wouldn't have let her keep running, despite what he may have said aloud. It just wouldn't have been proper. He regretted treating her that way.

That is, until she landed a solid hit to the middle of his nose.

It made her a little less sympathetic in his eyes.

Kili did not exactly know what he thought of the woman, besides the initial hostility. She was small, at least smaller than him, and deceptively slight. She was pleasing to look at, not that he would ever acknowledge that, yet there was something off about her. Whether it be the odd way she carried herself, or the odd manner in which she spoke, there was something undeniably weird about her, and it made Kili regard her with the utmost caution and concern.

She could be a spy. She could be a thief. She could be a murderer. Or she could be nothing at all.

She may have been pretty, but she had a mouth, and elbows, that would get her in trouble; trouble that could be the end of the group traveling to reclaim their home in Erebor. And Kili would be damned before he let that happen.

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