"You cold girl?" Ghia placed her hand over Shobha's cheek to check. "Not much further now - see?"

She looked at the group ahead who had begun to prepare several carts of food.

"Thank you," Shobha nodded rubbing her hands together. The mountain homes were getting too cold as the chill of autumn was truly setting in now.

"This is last celebration on Mountain before we move back in spring." Ghol nodded excited. "I like low plain. There is hot spring. We get warm bath."

Shobha grinned, understanding his sentiments completely. Bathing had recently turned into a real chore of warming buckets of water or facing the icy water of the stream.

"Oooh..." She rubbed her ever expanding abdomen as two lumps from two different directions expanded.

Ghia looked at her concerned again.

"Let me see girl."

"It's okay - just a twinge..."

She had not been allowed to walk down the mountain path, forced instead to sit with the children and elderly in one of the carriages used to transport them down.

"No. I look when we on low ground." Ghia admonished her again. She had been very protective of Shobha in recent weeks as the weather had turned cooler, not allowing her to do any chores.

Her only hope remaining was that Marek had reached Erebor by now...

...

"I would like to see the King please." Marek stood by the entrance to the stone bridge that was heavily guarded. Although short, the dwarven guard looked formidable.

"You will need an appointment to have an audience with Prince Fili - but we can take a message to Lord Balin instead." The guard grunted from under his helmet, still keeping his large hands on his axe and sword either side of him. "That or ye move along."

Marek crossed his arms angrily. He was the leader of his people and was not too happy about being spoken down to at all. He stood staring for a moment and turned to leave when his grandmother gave him a stern look that would render any grown man fearful.

"Very well, we will see your Lord. But it is urgent." Marek replied angrily. "You hear? And tell him it is about your Queen."

"What about our Queen?" The guard suddenly growled at him.

"I will only speak to your Prince." Marek spat back.

"We could MAKE ye talk -"

"Lads! Lads! I think that won't be necessary.." another guard stepped in. "It's no flint off Mahals hammer Gellon - I will take him to Lord Balin."

Marek found himself suddenly being dragged through marbled corridors filled with dwarves. And just as suddenly as he had been granted entry to Erebor, he was finally stood before a small, white haired dwarf who was sat at a desk reading through something.

Marek stood up tall, in anticipation of the dwarf looking up, but he did not.

The guard cleared his throat, to make their presence known.

"M'Lord Balin."

The dwarf looked up, still appearing a little thoughtful.

"M'Lord Balin... This... Gen'leman... says he has information 'bout our Queen." The guard announced before stepping back.

And suddenly all eyes were fixed on him.

"Lord Balin, I am Marek son of Iskan, son of Tarek, chief of our clan, and while travelling we happened upon your Queen... She saved the life of my niece and for that we have journeyed up north away from our usual travels to deliver a message. That she was with the Druedain people of the White Mountains in the South..."

"The White Mountains?" Balin pondered distantly. "It cannot be..."

"But it is the truth!" Marek replied angrily. "An Easterling Queen, clearly swollen with child!"

"It is far off from where we would imagine..." Balin held his tongue at revealing any more.

"Here... If you do not believe me -" Marek pulled out the note she had written. It was on tattered parchment with poor ink. But it was all they had. So he held it up proudly. "See?!

Suspicious now, Balin slowly took the tattered parchment and inspected it carefully using his eye glass.

"The Queen did not place her seal on it?" He asked, for he was sure she always wore her signet ring as well as the ring Thorin had given her on their wedding day.

"We have no wax, Sir." Marek replied boldly. It was true, their people had little need for parchment and wax in their life as travelling merchants. They were not ashamed of this truth, for it didn't mean they were illiterate. "There is little need for those sort of items in our lives."

"And you would be able to show us where...?"

"I would gladly take a group of your guards to where we met Chief Ghan, who protects the lady." He hesitated before asking the rest, but business was business. "Of course, this journey has cost us more than we have been able to trade until we reached Dale, so I would ask for a minor fee, which I am certain would be nothing for yourselves. It would only recover a small loss, to keep my people comfortable over winter."

"And why would you agree to help the woman you speak of without clear proof of who she is -"

"She is most certainly a lady - and no plain woman!" Marek flared up. "And she saved my sister's daughter from the very clutches of Mandos himself. And so I had a duty to bring this message."

"And take us there of course, for a fee?" Balin asked again observing him.

But something about his last comment seemed to irk the man.

"Ignore me if you please - but the lady is heavy with child - my grandmother who is knowledged in these things says she is likely carrying two babes, for how big her belly is." Marek bristled again. "She is not used to life in those mountains - she will likely perish from the cold, or from giving birth. The Drug are not skilled in delivering dwarvish babes. But I have done my best by her. The rest is up to you."

He turned angrily and began to walk out of Balins study.

"Wait lad! Where might you be staying?" Balin quickly added before he left entirely. "I would need time to arrange payment of funds. And I would prefer the crowne prince should speak with you himself before sending a search."

"We are staying outside of Dale. We have our own caravans." Marek paused briefly. "But we remain here only one more day."

"Where will your people go?"

"Back to the East now. It will be warmer there." And with that he stooped through the door walking into the corridor followed by the guard, leaving Balin to examine the parchment again.

...

"Good day Prince Fili," Bard bowed his head greeting the young dwarf as he walked into the bustling markets of Dale. He walked alongside a two dark haired dams, both dressed very well, with Nori and Balin following behind. "I imagine you have arrived today to visit the stall set by the travellers?"

"Aye, Lord Bard." Fili stepped closer to the man looking around and spotting the clearly colourful and exotic looking stand. They were certainly merchants. But he wondered what else they were. "What do you make of them?"

"They asked for a short license to sell their wares, traded with good silver and copper for it too. But I am not certain what they would come here to Dale for. They are certainly not one of our regular merchants from the east." Bard replied back quietly leaning towards the blonde dwarf. "I understand they have traded a fair few other items too. And for good money."

"Items like what?" Fili frowned, as Nori leant in closer.

"Old Hettie has a shop, selling all sorts." Bard whispered back. "She does well with it. But I understand that their leader sold a pile of old clothes, an elvish dress but too small for an elf, and some dwarvish under garments but too slim for a dwarf."

"You think these were stolen?" Fili gave Nori a glance, who instantly knew what to do.

"Not quite, but the third item they sold was far more sinister..." Bard hesitated looking more worried this time. "A length of hair, that Grendall described to me as the softest, straightest hair, of the blackest of onyx in colour was sold to him."

"Shobha?" Fili frowned, giving Nori a nod, watching the dwarf slink away. "I cannot imagine she would give her hair so? Thorin has been searching the Anduin, but perhaps she was carried by a current along a small connecting tributary?"

"It's possible laddie, but I don't know how good a swimmer she is." Balin, who had found himself very worried after hearing of the news from Thorins raven, had now found himself much more troubled by all this.

"Uncle said she could swim as well as he." Fili suggested hopefully.

"I am not so hopeful, my Prince," Bard looked at Balin, realising they were both thinking the same. "She would be not far from her labour now. A swim against such a current, and to keep afloat would be a challenge for a strapping lad, let alone a tiny woman swollen with child -"

"And that is why we have not a moment to waste. If she is being protected by the men of the White mountains, with winter setting in, we must go to her immediately. It is nearly a months ride, at speed, let alone accounting for any bad weather than may hinder the journey." Fili interrupted sternly, unwilling to accept that her life was intended to end this way.

"Perhaps let us see what Nori says first?" Balin patted Filis shoulder, only to have the young dwarf shrug his hand off.

...

The Drug had set up their camp for the winter very quickly. Many individual camps had been set up for each of the families, with each wooden structure built around a stone hearth and then covered with several thick layers of different types of foliage including ferns, pines and other larger branches.

A large store of food had also been set up with a altar. And more preparations had gone on.

"We thank for winter food." Ghan explained as Shobha watched him arranging sacks of grain. "Then they go into store."

"Can I help?" She asked hopefully, glancing back at Ghia who was too busy to notice.

Ghan followed her line of sight, and grunted in understanding.

"Ghia say you rest, girl." He carried on. "You too close to baby birth."

"Where I come from pregnant women are encouraged to do gentle exercise." She sighed walking around again.

"Hmmm." Ghan looked at her dubiously for a moment before carrying on. "You get me in trouble with Medicine Man- wife. She very important too."

"Okay.. okay.. I'm going for a little walk." She began walking away before he could admonish her against it.

"Not far girl! You hear?"

She heard him call out angrily at her.

The Druedain winter camp was built in a clearing at the foot of the mountain, but just beyond this lay the woods. They were not dense forests, but rather appeared more like cultivated trees that gave shelter for the camp, and the branches appeared to be carefully harvested to cover the houses. Eventually when the branches that covered the camp houses were old, they would be reused for firewood. Nothing was wasted.

The sound of a quietly babbling brook lay not far off ahead. And as she continued the sound of the camp grew more distant.

It was a crisp sunny day, and still early afternoon, so the light would not fade for some hours yet. But she needed the sit down soon. Each day she grew and doing much else became harder.

Her only hope now, was that Marek had managed to get her message across to Fili or Balin in Erebor.

...

"Look Fili." Nori pointed out to the hair that had been stiched to hold it in place until a wig could be woven. "The ends are not cut sharply. If anyone had their hair cut like this it would have caused them excruciating pain..."

"Well, beggin yer pardons Sirs, but there is one sorta hair that I gets which is like this all the time..." Grendall spoke ominously from behind the counter. "Angels hair."

"Angels hair?" Fili frowned at the man and then looked to Balin and Nori.

"Aye, laddie; hair from children who've passed over into the halls of Mandos." Balin shook his head slowly. "It is a way for the family to get some money for the funeral."

"The bairns don't miss it, where they go." Grendall spoke with little emotion in his voice. "And some of your dams from the iron Hills pay a pretty penny for a soft wig like that - I only take the money it costs to make the wig, all the rest go back to the family. Tis a sin to make money off the dead."

"So you think the woman this hair came from was dead?" Fili asked reluctantly.

"Aye, most likely Sire." Grendall spoke. "Unless they had no other sharp knives."

"And how certain are you that it belongs to her?" Balin asked Nori quietly.

"It's the right colour. It is certainly soft enough - I have seen the younglings playing with her hair often." Nori carried on. "And it hasn't been washed yet... It has a floral scent to it -"

"I shan't wash this wig too thorough mind," Grendall explained. "Hair as soft as this, and with such sweet perfume, can only be ruined if I wash too much."

"Thank you for showing us this." Fili handed him a large pouch of coins. "Don't sell the hair without letting us know. I will pay you double for your incovenience."

"This would purchase the entire hairpiece, m'lord -"

"Keep the hair safely." Fili instructed. He had no intention of taking her hair back, if she was indeed dead. "I think we need to inform Thorin about this. Even if she is dead, we must return her body back to where she would have called home."

The three dwarves began to walk out of the wigmakers shop.

"Laddie, I think I have heard of the people that dwell upon those mountains and in the forests surrounding. They would commit her to fire if she had indeed perished." Balin spoke thoughtfully. "But why would the traveller claim he could lead us to where the lass was if indeed she were no longer living?"

"Where did Dwalin say they were now?"

"They are searching the Anduin now, south of Lorien."

They had searched the Bruinen, then through to the very southern remit of the Gwathlo over the last month, before returned to Lorien, to gather more supplies and search the Anduin. In truth Balin was doubtful that they would ever find her now.

They had seen far too much loss in their lifetime, and the thought of Thorin losing his one after waiting a lifetime for her, just as they were about to welcome a child, was utterly heartbreaking.

"They will be able to reach Edoras and ride south from there. King Thengel will be welcoming, and gladly supply them with new horses for the journey." Fili said feeling a little more hopeful in his determination. He refused to believe she had come to harm. The gods had protected her through many unspeakable dangers, it would make no sense to allow her to perish at this point. And then he thought of her giving birth, without their dwarven midwives, and suddenly his heart sped up. Perhaps that was the moment they all had to fear? "I think we must hurry Balin, send out some riders as well as a raven."

"Aye lad."

...

She had found a cut stump to sit on, not far from the brook, which shimmered and sparkled as it danced around a few boulders in the autumn sun.

The dreams she had of Mordor had halted for long enough now to make her consider the journey she had taken through middle earth since that fateful day when she had stumbled down that hill in Wales!

She wondered whether she would ever see Thorin again.

And could it really be true that she was in some way connected to Sauron?! While it had been easy to dismiss that possibility at first, the last few weeks had left her replaying her dreams and memories and connecting the dots.

Perhaps it was indeed the reason for her arrival in Arda in the first place?!

"Identify yourself trespasser!" A voice declared from somewhere behind her. But the words were accompanied by the feel of a sharp, cold blade resting on her shoulder.

"I'm unarmed - see; I am going to lift my hands up slowly so you can see them and turn around -"

"Stay still, sorceress!" The male voice replied sternly, pressing the blade a little harder against her shoulder. "You wonder too far from your lands!"

"No - please, I am in the care of the Druedain clan. I happened to take a walk from where their winter camp is and I must have got lost..." She tried to explain. "I am just a human woman - I'm expecting a baby. Please don't hurt me..."

"Do not take me for a fool! Your disguises don't work on me!"

"Please! My name is Shobha. I am the wife of Thorin Oakenshield," she finally revealed nervously, uncertain whether this would protect her or place her in greater danger. "I know Gandalf the Grey! He will vouch for me! Or ask Chief Ghan..."

She suddenly found the blade lifted away. But the man behind shifted, his armour now giving him away.

"YOU are the new Consort to the King under the Mountain?" He asked again slowly.

"Yes. Yes. Please... My husband was taking me to see the Lady of Lothlorien, after a visit to Rivendell, when our caravan was attacked, and I fell into the river," she tried to explain quickly. "I thought I was going to drown but the Druedain found me and saved me..."

The was a heavy silence as her captor considered her words carefully.

"Where is your King now? Surely he is searching for his Queen and unborn heir?"

"I was seperated from him during the attack. There were trolls and orcs... And wargs... I have sent a message -"

"How have you sent a message? The Drug do not travel unless it is essential." He question further.

"There were some travelling merchants who stopped near here - Marek was the name of their leader." She sighed now worried that this man was set on believing she was a sorceress. "He promised to take a message to Erebor, because I treated his niece for poisoning, after she ate some leaves from the River bank thinking it was garlic... Please you can ask Chief Ghan and Ghul and Ghia -"

"Turn around. Slowly." He interrupted her.

Half expecting him to attack her, she turned slowly, keeping her eyes closed. It would be better to not know when such an attack came.

"I know Chief Ghan well, for we share these lands with the Druedain, but he has kept you a secret even from me. And you have ventured much further than the bounds of the camp."

Hearing the noise of his sword being resheathed, she slowly opened her eyes.

In front of her stood a very tall, lean but muscular man. He was probably as tall as an elf. He had dark hair, olive skin and wore a mithril vest on top of a deep blue velvet suit, with a heavy belt, not unlike Thorins.

Seeing those deep blue and silver colours together after weeks of the Druedains simpler clothing, made her pine for Thorin.

"I'm sorry... I should probably go back... I walked in a straight line, so it should be easy..." She looked behind her to find the trees all looked the same.

"You will not find entry to their camp. The Drug have powerful enchantments that are at one with nature."

He watched her at first, his olive green eyes filled with curiosity. "No you are best to stay put, and they will find you."

"Oh dear..." She sat back down on the stump. "I'm sorry I didn't know this was your land..."

"So you are the Eastern bride that this dwarf king has chosen?" He stood tall and bowed his head this time. "I am Prince Adrahil the second, son of Prince Adrahil the first, Lord of Dol Amroth, Prince of Belfalas. Gandalf has indeed spoken of you to me also, but your reputation as a most unusual choice of bride for a dwarf let alone the heir of Durin, certainly precedes you, my lady."

"Dol Amroth...?"

"Yes, my lady." His eyes scanned her in her entirety this time, and a look of concern passed over his fine features, as he spotted her swollen abdomen, which she covered with a protective hand. "And I would also advise you to return with me. In your condition, you will need proper care from a midwife. That which I can offer you..."

"But Ghul..."

"They will not be able to help you when you the time comes. But also, you will perish in this cold out here." He appraised her better this time, spotting the clothing that she had clearly obtained from the travelling merchants of the east. They were ill fitting and had clearly seen better days. "This is not a life for a woman who has been used to better. And then consider what it would mean for your babe to be born into the freezing cold of this camp with no way to wash and clean properly, or warm clothes - nor proper medicine?"

She paused looking up at the final words he spoke, accepting the truth. While the Druedain had been warm and kind hosts, there was only so much that they could do to look after her right now. And she suspected they too would accept this.

She sighed. It was the response that he took as a response to his insistence, and so he looked back over his shoulder at one of his Lords that had come out hunting with him, and signalled.

"My men will fetch a carriage, while I wait with you until the Drug return to find you." He took his bow and quiver off his shoulder before looking around him. "You should have never walked so far away alone. We do our best to patrol these borders, but these are still wild lands."

It had not taken long for Ghan, Ghul and Ghia to find her, though.

As they appeared from within the tree line, their initial irritation faded into recognition on seeing the man that stood near her. He almost looked like an old fashioned body guard keeping watch with his hand resting on the hilt of his sword.

"My Lord Adrahil," Ghan bowed his head in respect as Ghia came to kneel beside her checking her forehead and searching for any obvious injuries.

"Chief Ghan." The prince bowed his head in return. "I was not aware that you had such a lovely guest staying with you."

"We more concerned for keeping lovely guest comfortable." Ghan glanced at Ghul, who watched his chief carefully. It was as if they were communicating without words. "We very busy preparing for winter too, Prince understand, with respect."

Adrahil remained silent at first. He had never considered the Druedain to be calculating, nor were they ever untrustworthy. Most of the time they kept to themselves. But on the occasions he had encountered them, he found they were decent, reliable folk. Certainly his father had held them in the highest regard.

"I understand well, Chief Ghan. It was also possibly a wise decision to protect our guest from unwanted attention by keeping her arrival quiet," Adrahil agreed, hoping they would not consider him untrustworthy to care for her. "But it would be in her best interests if we took her back to Dol Amroth now. We would be able to care for her until the King under the Mountain returned to fetch his bride safely. Would you not think?"

"We not trust Dwarves. Girl safer with us." Ghan looked to Ghia again. "There is great darkness. It seeks her out. Our enchantments protect her... Hmmm? Girl? You tell Prince. Any more dreams?"

She suddenly looked up at Ghul and Ghia, and slowly shook her head. The absence of her bad dreams had been quite noticeable, but she had not attributed it to the Druedain.

"I will call for the grey wizard. But you could still perform an enchantment to help her?"

"Wizard not sefless.." Ghul finally spoke up.

"No but he can help protect her." The prince argued.

"Very well. We let girl return with you. But we must allow Ghia to see Girl Three times in week." Ghan offered. "Girl important to us now."

Adrahil smiled.

"Very well, Chief Ghan. I give you my word."

…..

Dear All,

Thank you for following so far - an update at last! i'm sorry its taken so long. i will get back on this and try to post again soon (thank you for being patient) xx

Special thanks to -

ColdOnePaul - your reviews always encourage me along - it is me that should apologise for taking so long to update. Yes i think they are a clan of easterlings too. i often think the boundaries of good and bad were too harsh in this - with the Haradrim and Easterlings all bad, and those in the west all good - i am sure it was not all like that.

Xaiael and Obsessed Reader - thank you for your ideas… i really need the inspiration atm! We are nearing the birth so I think all will be revealed soon ❤️