The company had traveled a long way the next day, having had a rough night. Whatever Halien had sensed, it never showed. No one mentioned that Thorin and Halien had slept next to each other that night, for each of the company members had seen this as they let their leader and healer sleep. It was nearing evening, so Thorin said to set up camp.
"It would be wise not to camp here, Thorin." Gandalf said. "We should continue until we reach a safer location."
Halien got that same feeling as the night before as Thorin insisted that they make camp. Gandalf shook his head and stalked off, mumbling something about the stubbornness of dwarves.
"Thorin, perhaps Gandalf is right. It does not feel right, this area. Something bad happened here." Halien said, looking at the farm house. It looked as if something had torn it apart, brick by brick.
"We make camp here." he said, making it final. "Come, Bilbo. We are hungry."
Halien and Bilbo exchanged looks, surprised. They usually cooked the meals together. Halien nodded to Bilbo as he went about getting dinner made, knowing that Thorin was not in the best moods.
"Halien, I need you to scout around, just in case." Thorin said. Halien nodded and set off, leaving Torwen with the ponies. "Fili, Kili, watch the ponies." The two nodded and left to do their task.
Halien looked around the woods, checking everything she could see. She couldn't find anything that would be amiss, other than the abandoned home they were camped by. She could have sworn she remembered a farmer and his family living there within the past decade. As she returned to the camp, she heard someone talking and went to investigate. She hid up in one of the trees and looked through the branches to see Fili and Kili talking to each other. She started to turn away, but something Fili said made her stay.
"Kili, do you honestly think Thorin would fall in love with that elf?"
"I don't know, Fili. Perhaps, but I do not even know if she cares for our uncle the same way I believe he does for her."
Halien felt her face begin to burn.
"He does seem to really care for her, though he thinks that he does not show it."
"I would be happy for them if they could look passed the fact that she is an elf and he is a dwarf."
"Kili, Thorin hates elves. It is a miracle that he even trusts her."
"Do you really think he trusts her, Fili? Halien is a friend, a companion, an ally. I have faith in her skills and I trust her, but I hope that if she does love Uncle, and he returns that to her, they can be happy. Thorin has never experienced that kind of happiness before, but he deserves it more than any one of us."
Fili sighed and clapped his brother on the shoulder. "That's all I want for Thorin, Kili, is happiness. That and for him to live a long and prosperous life as King under the Mountain. Besides, you saw them laying together last night. Something must be going on for that to have happened and neither of them be worried about it."
Halien left, not wanting to hear another word, and jumped out of the tree, landing quietly on the other side. She made her way back to the camp as night had fallen and found dinner ready. She reported to Thorin that she could not find anything, but she mentioned that she had an eerie feeling and how uncomfortable the absence of people in the farmer's house made her.
"Thorin, we have to be careful. For there not to be a single soul living here any longer... I do not like it. This used to be the home of a farmer; last I passed through here, he had given me refuge from a storm until it passed. Whatever destroyed this house, whatever may have killed the farmer- if he is not elsewhere, safe and alive- may still be out there."
"Yet you found nothing, no foot prints, and no broken branches?"
Halien shook her head. "No, there was nothing that wasn't accounted for by the native animals in these woods. There were a few trees that had fallen over, but it looked as though they have been as they are for a long time or had been blown over with the storm that had passed through here some years ago. It had been one of the worst in Eriador. The soil around the roots appeared old and musty, not fresh as it would be if the trees had been uprooted recently."
Thorin scoffed at that. "Perhaps then your tracking and scouting skills have slowed. Another gift of yours that you are working through? One that is making you incompetent and useless?" His tone was incredibly harsh and sarcastic, one that would suggest hatred and mockery and a comment that he regretted instantly.
Halien felt anger and hurt rising in her. She stood straight, her limbs stiff. She clenched her jaw and punched Thorin square in the face. "I spoke to you of that in confidence, to make certain not to hide anything from you." Thorin fell back from a combination of the full force of her punch and surprise. Dwalin caught him and stared in shock at Halien. Balin looked at her- though every dwarf present and Bilbo were all looking at her- and saw tears in her eyes.
"How dare you doubt me after everything I have done to prove myself to you and this company, to your people? Would you doubt Dwalin if he suddenly lost his weapons and had to fight bare handed? Would you doubt Gandalf if he lost his staff?" Halien's tears poured from her eyes and she turned on her heel and stalked off, her shoulders heavy and her hands balled into fists.
