/-

They were finally out of the house and heading for the woods!

Thorin found it impossible not to be at least somewhat hopeful, although he did try to temper his giddiness, for that was what he felt. Still, he had a good feeling about the proposed trip.

The evening before they talked a little about what she would usually take with her. He was able to figure that Yeva could have been on her way with nothing but a few supplies for her survey and the knife. There were places where she could sleep and she knew enough people that she could stay with them and never need to pay a dime.

She did not because she liked sleeping in the woods. He did not understand the sentiment and did not like forests, but he could appreciate her enthusiasm.

Then there was the matter of taping his shoulder and his wrist. He was not sure it was needed, but she insisted. "Hey, we waited enough days to give your joints and muscles a chance to mend. I will tape you or you can do it yourself if you don't want me to touch you. It will help. There are no prizes for people who'd rather suffer and get killed because a small injury weakened them."

/-

"It's good to be out, isn't it?" Thorin grunted something that may or may not have been an agreement. "Did I tell you I saw my new neighbor again yesterday? A weird guy."

"Is he?"

"Yep. And he exhibits a healthy dose of contempt for my berry business. Say you are a programmer and everybody listens to you. Say you are a farmer and you are brushed aside. It's almost like a test of personality as far as I'm concerned.

What are you doing for a living? She mimicked in a high-pitched voice. Why, I'm selling berries! And I swear, Thorin, you can see the contempt on their faces.

I'm also making upwards of 100K a year as a programmer and I'll be able to retire at 45 with more money than you'll ever make in two lives. And then I'll concentrate on selling even more berries!"

She could see he was smiling and felt better. He was always so… somber. He had reasons, he had more reasons than most, but she was not made to always be so serious.

"Anyway, my neighbor."

"Aye."

"He said, and I quote, that he hopes nothing untoward happened to me during the storm and that a woman living alone attracts all manner of scoundrels."

"What?"

"Yeah, he gives me the creeps. I don't understand how he can be friends with such a gentle soul as monsieur Joffrin."

"You should have told me yesterday. He meant to threaten you."

"You cannot be serious!"

"I assure you that I am."

"Thorin, I can manage on my own. I did for many years."

"No. You had your husband for many years."

"My husband; right. I might have given you the wrong impression about him. I believe I'm more faithful to him now than I ever was when he was alive if that makes any sense"

She walked quite a few steps before she noticed that Thorin was not beside her anymore. He had his arms crossed over his chest and a very disapproving look on his face.

"Oh, come on. I didn't cheat on him if that's what you think. I just… I was stupid I guess - to marry him. I shouldn't have done that. We were very good friends and I cared a lot for him, but there was no spark between us, you know? No attraction. I'm still not sure how he managed to convince me it would be a good idea. I never aimed for happiness. Contentment, sure, seemed achievable; turns out it's harder than it looks."

"The problem is - now that he's dead, I don't know what to do. I feel guilty. Like I didn't give it my best shot, didn't make enough of an effort. Like I cheated him - us - of a better life. I know it's rubbish, but I cannot help myself. I cannot seem to remember anything stupid he did, only the nice, thoughtful gestures. And how do I move on from this?"

She looked at Thorin and he looked as close to running away as she ever saw him. You kind of asked for it, buddy. Yep, emotional barf all over the king's head, but she wanted him to understand.

/-

He hoped she would not make a habit of discussing her late husband with him. Her casual manner of mentioning unfaithfulness alarmed him. He was relieved it was only an unfortunate way of expressing herself. And she impressed him with her insight. It had taken him almost a hundred years to understand that his grandfather and his father were not the paragons of virtue deserving of a pedestal that they appeared to be in his youth.

He'd spent a large part of his life wishing for and working towards achieving the glory of Thror's times. Those times were gone, he had accepted that. What he did not do was be honest with himself. His grandfather had been a great king, up to a certain point. Afterwards, he had been a fool. His father had been no better.

He should not wish to relive their time. He should forge a path for himself, for his people. He should, as Yeva put it, move on. He did not know how and neither did she, but he was envious in a sense. It took her so little time to understand what she had to do.

The first leg of their march for the day would be a little over six miles. The roads were good, the forest paths well-tended, and the people friendly. Some of them stared at him rather more than he would have liked, but since they were not malicious he did his best to ignore them.

They reached the refuge at the end of three hours and he finally understood what Yeva meant. It wasn't even a hut, as it was missing a wall. It was a shelter with four sturdy benches and a table. Nearby there was a sign indicating where they could find water and that was all.

Should any travelers be unlucky enough to be in the woods after dark, the shelter would help some. Or at least it would keep them dry, but that was all there was to it.

They camped quite a way away from the hut. Yeva said she had some work to do and didn't feel like being social. He did not either. The fewer people knew about his business, the better.

Yeva's work was not too demanding. Where most of the weight of his new backpack came from his own possessions, chief among them the mail tunic, most of the weight in hers came from the various devices.

These devices did all the work or so she said, she only needed to set them on their way. He would have been willing to help, but they were not made for his hands. She had small hands with slender fingers, which helped when everything she handled looked tiny and fragile.

/-

It took some three hours to replace the batteries for the four cameras in that zone and then it was time to eat.

She was a bit apprehensive about the amount of food she packed. Thorin ate a lot. He ate a ginormous amount of food. She would have lived a month on what she had at her cabin, but he went through everything in not even a full week.

They had a light lunch, which consisted of bread, cheese, and apples, and then it was time to move on and search for the origin of the mudslide. There would be another refuge somewhere in that area if her guess was right about where they would end up or they would sleep in the forest if she was wrong. Either way, they had plenty of time, the backpack was not too heavy and the weather was great: not too cold, not too warm. The forest in the spring was heaven!

As usual, Thorin said nothing at all and she didn't feel like talking. Best practice her powers of thinking before speaking, right?

"Did your husband help you?"

"Never." Argh, that came out harsh. He caught her by surprise with his question and her reply must have caught him by surprise too; his eyebrows were up on his forehead. "I meant what I said that I can handle myself alone. My brother comes with me when he visits though; he has a soft spot for squirrels or so he says."

And with that, they lapsed into silence again.

"I don't understand," Yeva said much later.

"What is it that puzzles you?"

"I said that I wanted to see where the mud flood started, remember?"

"Aye."

"So here you can see this… what do you call this? C'est une crevasse."

"Crevice?"

"Right, of course. So here it is full of mud. Well, not full-full, but there's mud. But if you look uphill, there's no mud. And there's no disturbance here, the bank was not washed away by the rain and all the trees are standing."

"I do not understand."

"I don't understand either. Where did the mud come from, Thorin? It couldn't have fallen from the sky."

Thorin looked less than impressed; like he didn't care one way or another about how he got into this world. Maybe he was right. Maybe how he got here had no relevance to how he'll go back, but what if it did?

"Is there anything here that you remember?"

"Nay."

"Do you want to walk around and see if there's anything that might offer clues?"

"I do not know what I should be searching for."

I'm sure you don't, sugar, but crossing your arms on your chest won't help. She didn't say it out loud though, because frustration was something she could understand very well. It wasn't like he had a choice on whether to stay or go back. She wasn't bothered by his attitude as much as she didn't know what to do with him. They didn't have a lot of things they could talk about, except the story, and she was no Tolkien expert.

"Do you want to stop here for the night? If not, we have time to circle the top of the hill and come back on the other side of the crevice."

"It would be best for you to get on with your work. I do not have an explanation myself, but I know I was never near a ditch, crevice or anything of that nature."

"Walking it is then. We'll circle almost to the top and maybe we'll have time to descend a bit on the northern side of the hill. Maybe - we'll see. I have eight cameras between this hill and the next and they are all well away from any path. The terrain is difficult too."

"Then we should go. We shall gain nothing looking at the mud."

/-

The other side of the hill was more difficult. The slope was steeper and there were no real paths. He knew Yeva hoped to finish the next ten or so locations in one day, but that would not be possible, as far as he could tell.

He was right. They slept the first night in the forest and not the refuge, since Yeva did not want to be too far away and then decided to sleep there the second night too because she could not finish in just one full day.

There was almost nothing for him to do except help her up and down the trees. His boredom got so bad that he went all the way around the hill and walked for some time along the mud-filled crevice. He was not surprised when he found nothing of interest.

The second afternoon she had a request that surprised him. "Teach me how to fight with a sword," she said. "I've had enough of climbing ladders and it's too late to finish everything today, so I thought we could do something together."

He didn't respond right away. He was taken aback; he suspected she was playing some kind of a joke on him.

"We do not have swords," he said in the end.

"We have knives."

"Yours is too short for a sword."

"Then with branches. Isn't this how kids learn at first? With wooden swords?"

"Aye."

"Come on, it will be fun. Show me your moves!"

He agreed in the end and she proceeded to surprise him again by taking a defensive stance, although he did not understand what she hoped to accomplish.

"First we get the feet into position, dominant leg forward, knees bent, back foot perpendicular to the direction of attack - like so," and she showed him. "Then the idea is to offer as little of your torso as possible - like so. One-handed foils only. This is the starting position for fencing. We have fencing competitions, with blunt weapons, of course, and we fight without a shield. One hit, one point; most points win the match."

"No shield?"

"Nope. I fenced when I was little and I liked it a lot, but I didn't grow tall enough and there's a definite advantage for taller people. The taller you are, the longer your legs and arms, you know. I'm 1.56 full-grown, which meant I had to get close to my opponent if I wanted to touch them. A taller person would have smacked me for ten points before I was in striking distance."

It made sense, he supposed.

"Do you want to demonstrate your technique?"

"Oh, no, not at all. But since I don't have a shield, I don't see how I could fight any differently."

"You do not need a shield. Another branch would do just as well, one shorter and broader. Or you can find something to use with both hands."

"Nah, two-handed weapons are tricky, not for me. Let's go look for branches."

And so they did. In the end, they couldn't find anything suitable for shields, so he thought that should be her first lesson. Anything is better than nothing at all.

Yeva put her gloves on for the actual fight. "Splinters suck," was her explanation, "and I have a sneaking suspicion you'll hit harder than I might like. Gloves help some with the shock."

She was neither fast nor powerful nor particularly graceful. A couple of times she almost fell because she tripped over her own feet.

Other than her complete lack of prowess, she was more focused than he expected and he liked that. She approached their mock fight with the same determination she did everything else. She also didn't make the usual novice mistakes: her sword and shield were between them at all times and she kept her arms below shoulder level, not making grand gestures that would only open her to an attack.

If she ever wanted to learn he could see her becoming at least somewhat competent.

It was a shame they had to stop after only about half an hour, but she said she needed a break. Ten minutes later they were fighting again, although she was tired and the break didn't help. They sparred a few more rounds, each shorter than the last.

"Well, that was fun, we should do it again. Your turn to get water."

"We have water and you said the same yesterday." He did not mind the task and in any case could not imagine a time when he would send her to fetch water for him, but they had enough for the evening.

"You're the warrior. Wouldn't want to go all soft, right? Besides, I can't move a finger, let alone carry a pail."

Go all soft, he repeated in his mind. She had a way with words. "Is it not enough already?"

"No!" She looked shocked at the thought and he could not help a smile. "I'm sweaty, I cannot sleep like this. I need to wash."

He rolled his eyes and grumbled a bit, but in the end, he went to fill the pail. She needed too much water for washing. She needed too much wood for washing because the water had to be at least warm.

Women were entirely too much trouble to please.

/-

Sitting down and moving her fingers to get some feeling back into them again, Yeva considered their trip so far. At first, it seemed like a good idea to take Thorin along. It would get him used to meeting random people and understanding how stuff worked in this world. Bonus points for not having to converse much with these random people as they were, after all, unknown and likely to remain so.

Like pretty much every idea she had since she met Thorin, it turned out that her plans were not helping the matter. It was impossible not to see that he was bored out of his skull. She thought that getting to the source of the mudslide would help them somehow. No, that was not quite it. If she were honest, she thought that there would be some way to find out where exactly Thorin had landed and if that turned out to be a magical location he could go back.

It was a silly idea and she should not be at all surprised it didn't work. She wasn't, but she was disappointed. She did not know what else she could be doing. "You know what you should be doing, you don't want to admit to it," she said aloud. "You should be talking with Thorin. Ask him what he wants to do with his life here on Earth and then help him achieve it to the best of your ability. That's all."

That was exactly what was needed, yet when he came back with the water she didn't have the heart to start. For the first time in their acquaintance, he looked somewhat cheerful. He was not smiling, not exactly, but he was not frowning either and his mouth was not set tight.

/-

The next day she finished the remaining three cameras before noon.

"It's a bit strange, but I'm almost out of batteries. I didn't count on having to replace every one of them. I don't know how it happened."

"You will need to acquire more?"

"Yes. We'll have to modify our trip. Want to take a look?"

He did, still not entirely used to the strange maps she used. There were too many details, for one.

"How do you want to proceed?"

"We are here," she pointed with her crayon. "We could go back to Munster, resupply, then sleep at the cabin for one night. Or we could go west, sleep one night here," she pointed to a refuge, "resupply here," she pointed to a village, "then continue west. Take some two or three days to replace the batteries here, then come back to the cabin. I'll still have to do the northern part of my zone, but I used so many already that I don't see how we can do it in one go."

He nodded. "Will you be able to dispose of the spent batteries in the other village? You said you can only leave them in certain places. You cannot buy more otherwise."

"Probably not. I mean I could badger the poor woman to take them, but then she would have to see to their safe disposal. I could leave them in any number of places, but best not. So Munster it is then. We'll still go west and a bit north, look at two cameras and then come back to town from the other direction. Sleep a night at the cabin and go back west the next day."

It was as good a plan as they could make, so they both got up and he helped clean their campsite. She insisted that they take their time and return the place to its original condition as much as possible. Except for the food they consumed, her pack was not getting any lighter, so he made sure to put more of their supplies in his.

They made good progress that day, seeing that they were following the main road. They veered off at some point and found the refuge. The good thing about this one was that it had a wood stove which they used to cook. The cots, however, were awful. He would have slept outside but thought better of it.

They were near a peak and there were almost no trees around them. It was too exposed.

She did not seem to like the cots any better than he did and that made it more bearable for him. They spent the next morning hiking to the peak and then descending a bit on the other side. The cameras were both on the ground, within easy reach. From there they marched back to town, bought some things, and then on to her cabin.