Chapter Thirty- Five: A Series of Strong Affections

Emelia was very insincerely interested in her shoes. They were unrecognizable by this point, having long ago lost their integrity to a slew of mud, blood, urine, and other more unspeakable things. The thick fur lining that had kept her feet warm in Alaska was cracked and mottled. She lifted up her foot and peered at the sole of her right boot. It was worn so thin she was surprised it was still attached. They were a pitiful excuse for shoes but she absolutely refused to take them off. It seemed like it would be criminal somehow, like her mother would magically know. The thought of the look on her freckly face kept Emelia wearing her boots despite the fact that she thought her feet consisted of more blistered skin than not.

"What were you going to say, Emelia?"

All of them were staring at her. Even Thorin and Dwalin, who were normally above such things, were watching her. It felt as if the air was suddenly too thick for her. Her hand rubbed the fabric of her shirt over the spot that her slowly healing cut was, picking at it until soreness flared up again.

"Don't move or you're dead."

The man, and she was certain he was a man, look liked he meant business. Emelia didn't really mind that he was pointing a particularly sharp looking arrow at them. Thirteen dwarves and a hobbit all waiting for her to answer Kili seemed marginally worse. She indicated as much, earning a wide variety of affronted looks from the dwarves and a look of confusion from the man.

"Oh, thank god." The man didn't drop his bow like she half-expected him to. He turned it on her instead, narrowing his eyes at her. She stepped back, not entirely sure where she was planning on going, holding her hands up in a placating way. "I mean… never mind."

His hand squeezed around the grip on the bow harder, staring at her for a moment before he aimed it at one of the more threatening members of their company again, Dwalin in this case. As far as Emelia was concerned the humanity in this world was sort of disappointing. The first ones she had met, Frinil and Fern, had been children and suffering from the loss of their parents and now this man, a particularly homeless looking man she noticed, had just pointed an arrow at her for no reason. The dwarves were looking better and better with each passing moment.

"Are you from Lake-town?"

The man turned the bow on Balin, drawing the arrow back even more. Balin ignored him, exhibiting a calmness that Emelia was envious off, and peered around him towards the large lake behind them. Emelia noticed that Balin had a twinkle in his eyes, making her think that he might know what he was doing. She was happy that at least someone did. Balin's eyes twinkled even more as he caught sight of something that made him happy behind them. She turned to look over her shoulder, but all she was met with was a wall of dwarves and a soggy Bilbo blocking her view.

"That barge. It wouldn't be available for hire, would it?"

Emelia hoped the man was as charmed by Balin as she was.

He wasn't, apparently.

He dropped his bow arm, not before giving them all one more distrustful look for good measure, and walked away from them. Balin did not seem to be in the mood to take no for an answer. He followed behind the man, picking his way over the slippery rocks with grace that Emelia was instantly jealous of. Thorin, and Dwalin by default, were close behind him. The other dwarves waited for a moment before they too moved towards where the small boat was tied up.

Kili struggled to stand up for a moment. Fili tried to help him but Kili pushed his hands away roughly. "I'm fine."

"Your leg is oozing." Emelia pointed out before she could stop and think about how it sounded.

"That isn't helping, Emelia." Fili said, holding his arms out just in case Kili had a sudden bout of unbalance. "Are you able to walk?"

"The two of you are suffocating me." Kili sounded like a petulant child. Emelia couldn't help but think that he looked particularly handsome when he was pouting. She pushed that thought to the back of her mind almost instantly with a determination that she usually reserved solely for avoiding doing the dishes after dinner. "All it needs is a little bit of pressure and some fresh bandages and it will be good as new."

Emelia and Fili exchanged an unconvinced look.

Emelia knew that if something was truly wrong with Kili, Fili would see to it that it was fixed. As it was, Fili was able to joke around with his younger brother, making Emelia think that Kili's leg might not be so bad. She had to tell herself that in order to keep from going into a full on panic mode. She could feel that she was building up to it, and, therefore, forced herself to pay attention to the positives. Like the fact that Kili still had a leg. That was certainly something to be thankful for.

Fili watched as Kili made his way over the slippery rocks, sporting a look very similar to a mother watching her toddler riding a bike for the first time without training wheels. Emelia, feeling that if she stood in her spot for any longer that the rest of the dwarves might leave her behind, hurried along behind them. She was tempted to hold her arms out just in case Kili started to keel but stopped mid motion when Kili glanced back at her. She smiled brightly at him, both in an attempt to make him forget what she had almost blurted out and to make sure she didn't make him any more moody than he already was.

He smiled back at her until she tripped over her own feet. He then started laughing at her, which made Emelia want to kick the back of his uninjured leg out of spite. She wasn't sure if she should be flustered that he distracted her enough that she tripped over her feet or annoyed that even when he was injured he was still more graceful than she was.

Both, she decided.

"I'm not interested." The man who owned the barge, that was actually more like a small raft than anything, sounded more annoyed than before. Maybe Balin wasn't as charming and persuasive as she thought. "What makes you think I would be interested in helping you?" The way he said 'you' was a bit more distasteful than Emelia would have liked.

Emelia, Fili, and an ever increasingly pale Kili, joined the group at the rear, all three peering around to watch Balin work over the bargeman. Fili moved closer, leaving Emelia and Kili standing next to each other. Emelia could only watch Balin haggle with the bargeman for so long before she turned her gaze to Kili.

"I," She paused, instantly regretting drawing his attention away from the unfolding scene in front of them. His dark eyes looked at her expectantly.

"Were you finally planning on telling me what you were going to say?"

"No. Nope. Not at all."

"What was it then, Emmy?" He narrowed his eyes suspiciously when she started blinking more rapidly than she had been before. "What? Why are you looking at me like that?" Emelia immediately realized that she was staring at him with her mouth open like an idiot. She screwed up her face, trying to think of a way to turn the situation to her advantage. When she couldn't, she settled on the only other option she had. The truth.

"You called me 'Emmy'."

"Yes, that is what I call you." Kili said, leaning a bit closer to her. He struggled a bit on his injured leg, reaching out his hand to steady himself on her shoulder. He realized what he had done and pulled back, a look of stubborn determination on his face. "Don't tell Fili."

"I missed you."

There was a weird pause that made Emelia think she had said the wrong thing before Kili grabbed her by the shoulders and pulled her into the tightest hug she had been a part of in as a long as she could remember. It took her a moment to realize that it was, in fact, real. She hugged him back, subconsciously pressing her nose into the crook of his neck. He laughed a little, making her think that she might have misread the type of hug they were sharing.

"I missed you too." He spoke into her ear, pulling her even closer to him.

"So you aren't still mad at me?" She was sure if he was he wouldn't currently be burying his face into her hair, not that she was complaining.

"No. It is amazing what a little yelling on your part will do to change my mind. I am a little peeved, however."

"About what?"

"About not seeing you for almost two weeks. I've missed out on so many opportunities to bother you."

"We never got that rematch of Mirkwood Bingo."

"We'll just have to find something else to do to entertain ourselves." Emelia leaned back and smirked up at him after he had said that, not entirely sure if he was aware of how it sounded.

"Not getting shot in the leg would be a good start."

"I had forgotten how funny you are." He said dryly.

"I didn't mean what I said." Emelia had to say it before she forgot about it altogether in the cloud of Kili's charm. "There isn't much that's more important than…"

"Than what?"

"Than you." Emelia immediately tried to pull back, thinking of a way to do damage control. "Any of you. Not you specifically. Well, yes you. Ugh, you can stop me any time, you know."

"We're trying to leave, if you two want to join us. There's plenty of room on the barge for you to continue your canoodling."

Emelia pushed Kili back so violently he stumbled backwards as soon as Fili shouted at them. He reached out to stop his fall, grabbing a hold of Emelia's hand. His weight, which was substantially greater than hers, tipped the scales, sending them both flying to the ground in a heap. Emelia landed on top of Kili, accidentally jamming her knee into a rather sensitive area that caused all the dwarves, minus Balin and Thorin who rolled their eyes at the display, to snort with laughter.

"I am so sorry." Emelia said, scrambling to get off him before she either embarrassed herself further or hurt him more than she already had. She reached her hand down to help him into a sitting position, very mindful of his injured leg. "But really, you can blame Fili for being his usual obnoxious self." Kili gritted his teeth, obviously trying to hide the pain from everyone who was watching, as he moved himself into a very unsteady standing position.

"I was only trying to warn you that we're leaving. Would you rather we just left you here?" Fili asked, stepping off the barge to help Kili make his way on gingerly, Emelia trailing along after them with an embarrassed look on her red face.

"I would prefer to leave you here." She hissed icily at Fili, angry at him for ruining whatever moment she and Kili might or might not have been having.

The only response she got was more laughter that continued for quite some time as the bargeman pushed the boat off the bank of the river and out onto the large lake in front of them.

One of the many perks of living in Alaska was the undeniable way it prepared Emelia for cold weather. She did wish she wasn't still wearing the clothes Tauriel had let her borrow. When they dried they felt stiff and uncomfortable against her skin, causing it to chaif in some places and rub raw in others. The dwarves were in much the same situation as her, although they did seem to complain more. She only truly felt sorry for Bilbo, who already seemed to have the beginnings of a head cold coming on, judging by the way he was sneezing every five or so minutes.

Emelia had started out the ride sitting in between Fili and Kili but had decided she could only take so many innuendos from the former. She had since moved to sit next to the bargeman, Bard. While Emelia knew better than to assume that they would instantly have a connection based solely on his humanity, she couldn't help but wonder what other humans were like in this world. They couldn't all be farmers who had the misfortune of being eaten by trolls, after all. He didn't seem to have the same feelings, if his slew of one word answers were anything to go on. She was persistent, however, and didn't let his general moodiness ruin her curiosity about him and his town.

"So, fish?" She was struggling, by this point, to make a steady conversation with Bard.

"Fish."

"I happen to have a strong affection for fish." Emelia said, realizing that even though she had started despising it while she was Alaska, she had come to miss it more than she would have thought possible. "My family is all fisherman for a living."

"Well, you'll certainly feel right at home then," He paused, looking away from the water in front of him to look down at her. "Even if you are a dwarf."

"Oh, I'm not a dwarf." She could sense that some of the dwarves, Fili and Kili in particular, were watching, and more than likely, listening in on her and Bard's conversation. "I'm human."

"You're very small."

"I know. I chalk it up to a combination of stress and poor nutrition." She didn't mind being so small. She had given up on caring about that sort of thing along about the time she was neck deep in goblin gunk and bleeding from her chest. An experience like that, one that was her fourth near death encounter in a span of a couple of months, really put things into perspective for her. Being small was better than being dead. She did mind being skinny, however, not that she was about to go blabbing about it to a man she had just met. "Anyway, I haven't introduced myself. I'm Emelia Montgomery."

He looked at her for a moment longer before he finally decided conversing with her wouldn't be as awful as most people generally thought it would be at first glance. "Where are you from?"

"The north. I'm from a small village that you wouldn't have heard of."

"How is it that a woman of the north came to be traveling in the company of thirteen dwarves and a Halfling?"

"Honestly, I could write a novel about it and it still wouldn't be enough to explain it."

"Your friends are not merchants." Bard said, glancing down at the suspicious looking dwarves. Thorin was eyeing him with a particular amount of distrust that Emelia had only seen on two other occasions; once directed at her when they first met, and once directed at the elves in Rivendell.

"No."

"And you are not one either."

"Not as of yet, I don't think." Emelia found she quite liked Bard, even if the rest of the dwarves didn't. She didn't trust him however. But that didn't stop her from speaking to him like it had with the dwarves. They had paid him, which she was surprised at, and had promptly avoided interacting with him since, which she was not surprised at. Bard had stopped paying attention to her halfway through and had turned his attention to something in front of them instead.

"All of you into the barrels. Quickly."

"I am not getting back into one of those barrels." Dwalin said angrily. Emelia couldn't help but agree. She had been tossed around in one enough for one lifetime.

"You'll do as I say if you value being free." Bard seemed about as fed up with the dwarves as Emelia felt half the time. He was glancing back and forth between the dwarves and the little wooden structure in the middle of the foggy lake. Emelia squinted her eyes as she tried to make out what the hovel like thing was in the midst of the darkness and the fog that had covered them. Emelia moved towards one of the barrels, set on leading by example for once, before she was stopped by Bard.

"You don't need to, Emelia."

"What?"

"What?" Emelia shot a look at the tone in Kili's voice. He was looking at Bard like he had personally offended him, which Emelia found to be very odd.

"There are not enough barrels and she is human."

"She is." Kili seemed ever wobblier than before. "Well spotted."

"Kili, it's fine. Get in the barrel." She looked him directly in the eye, narrowing them until they were almost slits. Bard had been rather helpful, when compared to how most people had treated them in the past.

He was the only one who was hesitant, but he seemed to be the only one putting up a fight. One by one the dwarves hauled themselves back into their barrels. Kili was last, choosing to glare at Bard until Emelia finally walked over to him and pinched him.

"Ow. What?"

"Get in the damn barrel." Emelia said, shoving him towards the last empty one.

"Fine. But I don't like it, and I don't like him." Kili lifted one leg up, using Emelia's shoulder as a steadying point.

"Good. And remember how pleasant you were like six hours ago on the shore, let's get back to that." He rolled his eyes at her, shooting Bard one more withering look, before he sunk down into the barrel and out of sight. Emelia glanced around for a moment before she leaned down to speak to him so that no one would be able to hear her but him. "Consider your cooperation your 'thank you' for me helping Bilbo to spring your asses out of jail."

"I don't trust him."

"I know, I don't really either. But we have no other choice."

"Unfortunately not."