/-

"Come on, laddie, it's your turn today," she called to him. The joke fell flat though, he could see she was worried.

"My nightmare," she started when they were far enough from the group, "it's the same every night since the fight: Kíli with his bow, Fíli rushing after him, then both of them are dead among the orcs and wargs."

"They live, lass, you cannot dwell on what might be. You'll drive yourself mad."

"Are you the one who watches over Thorin during a fight?"

He grunted, not willing to answer. Why did she want to know? And what kind of question was that? They watched out for each other. They were all warriors here, every one of them pulling their weight.

"Why did Kíli take point?"

He peered at her with a frown. She was waiting patiently, but there was a hint of ire in her eyes. Because he didn't answer the first question? This one he might have answered, he thought, if only he understood what she meant. "Take point?"

"Why was he the most advanced of all of you, the one in the most dangerous position?"

"He's an archer." What was the woman about?

"Why did Fíli run after him? Why were they out there at all?"

"He was protecting his brother." He could not understand the purpose behind her questions or her agitation on the matter.

"Thorin, Fíli, Kíli; they die, then it's Dáin, then his sons, if he has any. Right?"

Huh? What did that have to do with anything? "There'd have to be a lot of deaths before Dáin takes the throne, lass," he all but growled.

"Don't be an idiot! Both Fíli and Kíli could have died. Don't you see it?"

He frowned and he did not see it. All this talking around instead of coming to the point was setting his teeth on edge. What did she want of him?

"Fíli and Kíli are the youngest here, by a lot. It stands to reason they are the least experienced too. Am I right?"

"Aye," he agreed with some hesitation. The youngsters were better fighters than say Bombur or even Oin, but where their cook lacked prowess, he had shrewdness.

"And yet you seasoned warriors let them go forward," she flashed her eyes at him "to save your asses."

He recoiled in shock. That was not what happened! And yet - a voice at the back of his mind tickled his conscience. And yet. Now that she said it, he could see it. He could understand how it looked to her, and it made him mad.

A woman who couldn't even hold onto her knife! He wanted to punch something - himself, first of all. Images of Kíli and Fíli swamped his mind - cut off from the rest of them, having to fight for their lives in the midst of orcs. Nobody would have gotten to them in time! Mahal, what have we done? He didn't know how much time it passed before Yeva spoke again.

"I can tell you how I would organize, but there's a caveat."

"Speak," he commanded.

"I have no experience. What I do know comes from my reading and there's no guarantee it will do any good."

He nodded. Something was better than nothing. From reading she said, but she had a good head, she saw things around her.

"You will be Thorin's shadow. You'll have to find one for Fíli and another one for Kíli. You'll have to train to fight in pairs. It doesn't work otherwise, from what I understand. And -" she faltered, unsure of herself.

"And?"

"With the understanding that if all else fails you'll take the blows yourselves to spare your charges."

"Aye." She said her piece. He saw she was done, but he didn't start back to the camp. Yeva was waiting for him, thinking he probably had questions for her. And he did. The way she spoke - he tried to recall the exact words. She spoke of things that will be, of the future that will certainly come. She was concerned about the future. And yesterday too - she had been quite insistent, talking about what happens now.

"Those orcs won't go after anybody else, you know that. We finished them." He looked at her and saw she was clenching her fists. Did she want to punch him for being too thick? The thought made him want to smile. "You also know that our king and the heirs need this protection." Not quite a question, not quite a statement. Let her make of it what she would.

"I cannot answer this question." Her eyes were searching his, still worried, but the ire was gone, and they both let out their breaths.

/-

In the afternoon Dwalin had Fíli spar with Dori and Gloin and Kíli with Bifur and Nori. Gloin was grumbling too much and Nori was too flippant for the purpose.

Now the question was would Dori and Bifur take on the task? Would they see the necessity of it? He couldn't very well tell them that Yeva said she cannot answer a question and that made their mission both necessary and urgent.

He made it look like it was his idea. Dori didn't like it, but then he rarely liked anything new. Bifur agreed to it right away, like he knew he'd be asked. "Aye, the lads worry me, charging ahead as they do, trying to prove themselves, but it was not my place to say," he explained.

It helped bring Dori to heel, so to speak. That Bifur saw something the rest of them didn't was cause for worry. That he felt his concerns would not be heard was cause for shame.

Dwalin wanted to smack himself anew.

They decided they would spar in pairs for at least two hours a day from then on. The purpose of the training would be to try to separate the opposing team. Balin was paired with Ori, Nori with Bofur, and Gloin with Oin and Bombur. Their healer too needed a minder when it came down to it.

Going to Thorin with the plan was another thing altogether. He wasn't sure how he would take the suggestion. Although it was Thorin who brought Yeva to them and insisted she be made a member of the company. Would he accept her advice? He might, he cared about his nephews.

"From now on we'll train in pairs," he said without any preamble. Thorin said nothing, except for raising his eyebrows. Dwalin meant to explain his reasoning, but found there was no need. His friend took a moment to consider the plan and nodded his assent.

/-

Thorin did not know what Yeva told Dwalin and he was almost afraid to ask. He still remembered her idea that each one of them should be in a different place when their final battle took place.

She said then that maybe some other scheme would work better, she admitted that there might be considerations that would make her plan impractical, factors that she did not know could still play a role.

Yet she went on and put her plan in place. Thorin was not sure if he should admire her for her obvious care and dedication to the preservation of the lives of his sister-sons or be incensed that she did not think to ask him first. Why did she go to Dwalin? And why did Dwalin go ahead with it?

/-

Come evening she wasn't sure Thorin would be willing to hold her hand again, so to speak. He had been throwing her funny looks all day long and she didn't know what to make of it.

She was still tired so she went into her sleeping bag earlier than the rest of them, thinking she could just let herself be lulled to sleep by the hum of conversations around the fire. What she wanted to do was take out her phone and read. Lack of internet or even electricity was nothing when you come prepared!

And Yeva was most certainly prepared: she had a solar charger for her phone and all of her best-loved books and scientific articles were downloaded in it. Internet coverage was still patchy in some parts of the mountains and what would she do without her books?

Rule 3-2-2, right? Three backups, on two different media, one offline, one offsite.

It would be impossible to put on paper everything she had in her phone, so the darn thing was it. There was no possibility to have a paper backup of her treasures. Once it croaked - from causes natural or otherwise - she would have it no more.

But now that she finally slept one night and she was feeling a notch better than exhausted, she wanted to read. To read, but not where the elves could see her and it. The first order of business would be to go through everything Tolkien wrote to understand the politics of this place. If there was anything to understand - she suspected the man was a sort of unreliable narrator and everything was to be taken with spoonfuls of salt.

"You are not sleeping yet," Thorin sat next to her, his own sleeping bag in his lap. She smiled at this. Modern sleeping bags were better than what the dwarves had. She wondered if she had enough knowledge to do something about it. An army stands or perishes on its logistics, after all, as the current Stalin wannabe was demonstrating to the world.

"I'm tired," she said when Thorin just stood there seemingly waiting for her to open her mouth, "but what I would like to do now is read."

He nodded. "Like you used to every night."

"Aye," she answered and Thorin quirked an eyebrow at her. "Did I get the accent right?"

"Nay."

"Come on!" she elbowed him, a tad annoyed. She was trying her best. "Say aye."

"What do you seek to accomplish?"

"Imitate your speech? I promised Dwalin I would tell them all about me once we are out of Rivendell, but that's as far as I want it to be known. The elves here didn't exactly ask; I don't know what Gandalf told them."

Such subjects were better left for the morning; getting angry when she should calm down and sleep was not going to help matters. Unless anger at Gandalf was better than being afraid for the youngsters? Worth considering, she decided.

"It does not matter what the wizard said or not," Thorin answered, "I do not intend to shirk my duty to you."

"I'd like to think we are friends or at least friendly with each other. Barring that, I signed a contract exactly because I don't want this to be a one-way street."

"A street?"

"I don't want my relationship with you to be something based on your perceived duty towards me. I intend to contribute to this quest."

"Aye, that you do. You had Dwalin separating my sister-sons. You are already preparing for that battle, but we are still on the road."

"A happy side effect, nothing more. I did not think so far."

"Side effect?"

"I'm fuckin' hopeless. I want so much to blend in, to look and act and talk like I was born and bred here."

"I do not understand why. The Company will not mind once they know the truth of your world."

"I just do," she knew she sounded like a petulant child, but she didn't feel like explaining. Yes, her career of choice was in IT, databases to be more precise, but she knew stuff. Where other people watched TV as a hobby, she was making explosives from pee to see if it was a thing. It was, but far too complicated, not to mention dangerous.

She not only knew how a four-stroke engine worked, but she could also build one if she put her mind to it. She had built a two-stroke diesel that worked on cooking oil.

Even now she was considering how to steer the tech of this world away from coal and onto wind power generation. It was all kinds of wrong, no doubt. And yet.

"If it was not for that, why did you have Dwalin pair them with Dori and Bifur?" Thorin sounded rather puzzled now.

"Didn't Dwalin tell you?" What the heck was this? Shouldn't they discuss strategy or whatever among themselves?

"I did not ask him."

"Why not?" Not enough data points, Yeye. You should not draw any conclusion; yet.

"I asked you first."

"Yep, you did. I told him what my nightmare was about. He probably agreed that I have a point." She had the pleasure of seeing Thorin frown in concentration, trying to work out what she meant. "I answered, now it's your turn. Why did you not ask Dwalin yourself?"

He threw her a look that spoke volumes of his displeasure. "I did not know what you told him about your - erm, situation."

"Nothing at all. I told you already, I intend to tell everybody at the same time, but only after we leave Rivendell."

"And he accepted your suggestion?"

"Thorin, talk to Dwalin," She took his hand in hers and nudged him to look at her. "I'm surprised he didn't explain himself. This - this reluctance to speak straight won't help matters. I will always give you my honest analysis, I'll calculate anything possible, I will help in any way I can, but I'm not making decisions for you; nor for Dwalin, for that matter." He looked at her for some moments before he nodded and even smiled a little.

"I will remind you that you did not give me much of a choice when you announced Fíli's betrothal," he said, but he was not upset.

All was well between them. Except - "You're blowing hot and cold and I'm not sure what to think, you know? We'll have to talk about this too."

He again looked like he was trying to work out her meaning, but didn't ask anything else, just stood there with his back against the tree, his hand in hers.

/-

Thorin was nowhere to be seen in the morning, although before he left he probably bunched his sleeping bag to prop her while she slept. She woke up hugging it. It was a bit baffling that she slept so deep that she didn't feel him move around her. Baffling and vexing; she still remembered that when she whispered his name Thorin woke up in an instant.

She should be able to sleep deep enough to feel rested in the morning, but also light enough to wake up quickly if the need arose. And the need will most certainly arise.

The rest of the dwarves were still out cold if the snores were any indication. Dori alone was on guard duty and nodded to her when she stood up. She nodded back, although she didn't feel like talking and neither did he. She did wonder where Thorin was, but the man needed his alone time, just like anybody else, so she wouldn't go looking for him.

She took out her towel and soap and went to the so-called bathing hall. It was highly unlikely she'd see anybody else. The dwarves would generally use it after sparring and the elves never came by, probably because there was more than a bathing area available and this one would have been marked for the exclusive use of Thorin's Company.

/-

Of course, she found Thorin at the pond. Of course she did! At least he wasn't naked, not completely in any case. He had his pants on. That was good, right? She wasn't sure what to do: go back quietly or let him know she was there.

She stood there looking at him. It was different now from when they were back home. For one, he didn't need a nurse; Oin was eminently qualified for the job. For another, he didn't depend on her anymore. So she felt free to ogle him; that is to get a good look at him, for research purposes.

She had only seen him without a shirt on two occasions: the day she met him, and all she remembered from then was the innumerable scars; and another time she taped his shoulder, which didn't matter because she only saw the shoulder, preoccupied as she was with cutting strips and carefully applying them. Now she was at her leisure to look, although that didn't make it right.

She took one step forward and then another. Thorin was brushing his hair, half turned away from her. He did have large shoulders and powerful arms. She never thought to notice before how the muscles flexed with even the smallest move. "Hey there."

To her surprise, he did not turn right away. He took a moment then looked at her and nodded. So, what did it mean? Should she go back? Probably. Unfortunately.

She wasn't going to strip and wash while he was around and there was no point in just standing stupidly waiting for Thorin to finish his beauty routine.

She was just about to turn and go back when he spoke again: "Stay."

Hm. Just like that?

"If you wish."

If she wished. Did she? She did, although it felt funny. She was already seated when a thought went through her mind that no, she shouldn't be here. She should have turned around and walked away and left him to his peace. There would be precious little time for quiet relaxation for them all, but the brunt of worries still fell to him.

Though there were things they should talk about. No time like the present, right?

"Were you very mad at me for that betrothal allusion?"

He didn't answer right away, just continued to brush and plait his hair. Which was kind of gross, if she were honest. You could have just turned around when you first spotted him, Yeye. Nobody made you stay. She was not a great fan of watching someone else grooming themselves.

"I was angry at first, aye. I came to understand why you spoke as you did, that you saw it was necessary to explain in some way what our purpose was in making this journey. You were right that I should have thought about it myself."

"Yes. But?"

Thorin sighed. "I am concerned."

"With?" Like pulling teeth! Can he not just speak and be done with it?

"You use misdirection too much. I know you said you do not lie." He wasn't looking at her. She'd rather have him looking straight at her when they talked. It was hard to understand his mood, other than a general feeling of discontent.

"I would if I could, but I'm not good at saying anything that's not true, at least in some sense of the word."

"Aye, so you said. You are making affirmations that people can readily believe to have them think what best suits you."

"Yes," she agreed after a few moments. "Yes, that would be correct."

He sighed and stopped moving at all, just looking at her for a long moment. "It is difficult to trust your words."

She flinched back. It felt like he slapped her, only worse. It is difficult to trust your words, he said; he was kind enough not to say that it was difficult to trust her, full stop.

Yep, she could easily see he was right to think so. She would have thought so too, in his place. What was worse still, she couldn't even promise she wouldn't do that to him; because she would, if she thought it was for his own good. In his place, she would have wanted nothing to do with a person such as she was.

Her eyes were starting to sting and this brought her back from her thoughts. She turned a bit so he wouldn't see her face and prepared to make some excuse to leave him be.

"Come here," he patted her hand. "I did not mean to cause you distress."

"I - " she hiccuped, her throat too tight to speak. "It's my own fault."

/-

He was surprised to see how much she was affected. Aye, she brought it on herself, although perhaps unwittingly. She did not set out to deceive anybody. Still, she had a propensity for skirting around the truth in ways he could not fully approve of or trust. More than that, he knew with certainty that she would manage him too if she thought it best. That was something he could not tolerate.

"Would you tell me what I wanted to hear too?" Would she answer him truthfully?

"Yep. I've no doubt I would, although I'd first try to reason with you. But if you would not hear it, then I would do whatever I consider best. I even foresee a few situations, if all goes right - or if all goes wrong, if you will - where it might be necessary."

It was as he thought, although the answer brought him a measure of peace; even trust. He considered what she said. She knew him - she knew them all - mostly from her books and films, but they barely skimmed the surface of his race. He told her so little about everything, that she could not truly and fully understand what moved them.

Then again, understanding did not mean that she would act any differently.

He knew that because he would do the same. He would try to reason, but if she would not accept his arguments he would give orders and expect to be obeyed. She was more subtle in her actions and maneuvered to avoid confrontations, but that was the only difference.

Both of them saw fit to direct everybody around them.

"I would do the same," he confessed. She deserved to know he understood. "I shall do the same; I too have the gift of foresight," she made a small sound half sob, half laugh, "and know that I shall overrule you for your own good when I believe you put yourself in danger."

/-

It wasn't the same thing! She had no doubt he would try to take over - all the bloody time. However, he was supposed to do so. At the end of the day, he was responsible for everything and everybody. Which meant stuff had to be done as ordered. So no, it wasn't the same thing at all.

She looked at him, really looked at him. He was the same as ever: serious and unsmiling, with a world of worries on his shoulders. He was also honest to a fault; and caring - when you put yourself in danger.

She was about to tell him all that when he continued, sounding a bit unsure of himself. "When we didn't know we'd find trolls and my company -" he trailed and she waited. "If we stumbled upon elves or menfolk, I would have said you are my wife."

"Your wife?!"

"Aye. I could not think of a better way to keep you safe," he took her hand and pressed it. "This world is not kind to women who are without protection."

"If you said that and word got around - and word would have gotten around! Thorin, you'd have been married to me!" What the bloody hell was he thinking? He was not Smith Smitherson, there were expectations for him!

He shrugged, too unconcerned for her liking. "It was the only way."

She looked at his mouth, in his eyes, and she felt herself starting to lean toward him. She wanted to kiss him. Desire shot through her so fast and so strong that she almost did it. She jerked back.

First thing she had to put some distance between them. Second, she had to - to see to her needs. Yep, it was a must. The last thing she needed - the last thing they both needed - was her hitting on Thorin on the way to the dragon.

/-

That could have turned out better, Thorin mused once Yeva took her leave. His purpose was to show her he understood, even if he did not agree. Only now that he said it, he thought about how it would look for her.

Her first marriage had been arranged, as she said, no matter that the arrangement was between the two spouses. Here she was, in a world she did not know, her fortunes tied to strangers, and he almost pushed her into yet another arrangement.

By what right did he think to doubt her, when his own thoughts were so much worse? His own actions, if he was completely honest, for he had no doubt he would have done it.

Later he approached Dwalin about the pairings. Yes, it had been Yeva who pointed out that Fíli and Kíli were the youngest, most inexperienced fighters in their group. To his surprise, he found out that Bifur too had been concerned with what he thought was the lads' desire to prove themselves. It led them to be reckless, the miner thought.

"The lass has a good head on her shoulders," Dwalin concluded, "but we should have seen that ourselves."

"Aye," he replied, in turn chagrined and dismayed by his lack of care and attention, "now that she said it, it is obvious."

If only everyone else would see the wisdom in the scheme! His sister-sons were none too happy with the developments. No amount of explanations could soothe their vexation and the sour looks they both threw at Yeva had Thorin worried.

/-