Bonjour my Chicken Nuggets!
Here is the next installment, and I really hope you all like it. It finally reached 1000 views to this fic, which makes se super happy, gives me motivation to keep going.
Cheers for the f/f: blushingpixie, FaithfulReader92, JustARegularUnicorn, potter-granger-mad, Undead Artist, animenarutorox39 & Evakarina.
Dhalmi93 – You are my most favorite person ever. Thank you for your advice! Yeah, I wanted to make it a natural and easy relationship, not one that just leaps out from nowhere. I'm slowly working her into the company, but I have plans ahead that will definitely shape her character and her place with the group. I'm so excited for you to read it and see what you think! Thank you again my little chicken x
JustARegularUnicorn – Thank you very much for your f/f, it brightened my day! I hope that you continue to enjoy it, Cheers little chicken!
I only own Todd!
Chapter 10 – Work of the Valar
Thorin, Bilbo and Balin had returned the night before, just as Bombur had crashed through a table he was sat on and onto the floor, due to the extra sausage Bofur threw at him and his weight. Everyone was roaring with laughter, Todd even had a tear of laughter, though she was trying to keep quiet next to Kili. Their King had called for silence and explained to them that the map had expressed the need to reach the mountain before Durins Day, for then and only then could they locate the door that would gain them access. Therefore they were leaving as soon as the light was rising, without Gandalf. That realization at first had scared Todd, Gandalf was the one who had stuck up for her, but she realized that she couldn't rely on him. She needed to be brave and strong and prove herself.
Thorin told her to meet them back on the balcony once she had packed, he wasn't having her traipsing through the halls in the morning alerting every Elf to their departure. She nodded quietly and disappeared, Bilbo hot on her heels to grab her stuff and dress ready. Bilbo had been thoroughly jealous of her room, or the healing room. He had expressed a wish to have his own room too, but the dwarves wouldn't allow him to be apart from them, incase he blabbered about their quest to an over interested Elf.
"I'm sorry Master Bilbo, but that pack looks huge on you!" Todd chuckled as they were getting ready to leave on the balcony of the Dwarves room. Bilbo was swaying as he tightened a few straps.
"Very funny!" Bilbo stated back to her, his eyes rolling playfully. "Your pack isn't particularly small either, although it looks better on your skin now than it did in your other!"
"Oh, I bet that looks pretty strange huh?" She thought aloud. She carried her pack over her shoulder as a fox, in her first skin. How else was she to have clothes when she wanted to change again?
"Really strange!" He nodded.
"Are we all ready?" Thorin called, his voice a loud whisper. After he had counted everyone, his gaze growing harsher when he counted Bilbo and Todd. He led them through the serene and fair halls and towards a steep path that Gandalf had pointed him to the night before. It was pretty small and tight for a path. It wound up from the walkway they were on, up the side of the Valley and over into the distance that was shielded from them. The light of the rising sun had cast a pink and orange hue over the rock, making it look like it was glowing with magic. Todd had settled in at the back, watching her step all the way up the pass. Bilbo slowed in front of her then and paused to look back. Todd smiled and joined him for a second.
"Will you miss it?" She asked.
"He offered me a place to stay… Lord Elrond that is." He blurted, surprising himself. Todd let her eyes widen and then soften again at the fact that he had still chosen to leave with them.
"You're here now though, maybe you will see it again someday?" She offered placing a hand on his shoulder.
"I really do hope so!" He breathed, Todd stood with him whilst he had his moment. She understood his nerves at leaving such a homely safe place behind in turn for the wilds they were to be passing across.
"Be on your guard!" Came Thorin's call from the front, as if he had sensed the Hobbits reverie. "We are about to step into the wild!"
"Maybe we should…" Todd was about to urge Bilbo on when Thorin rather impolitely did it for her.
"Master Baggins!" He shouted. "I suggest you keep up!" Todd and Bilbo turned to him, to see his hard and cold gaze staring down at them from ahead.
Bilbo promptly sighed and nodded back towards Thorin before following after the rest of the Company, Todd falling back to stay at least ten passes behind them. Her mind wandered as they wound their way up the pass, towards the top and out of the ravine that Rivendell sat in. It was a beautiful sight. The valley stretched on below them with the warm homely halls of Rivendell sat just behind them. The further away they trekked the lighter the hold it had on you. Yet Todds thoughts still flew back to Rhianine and the Brothers, she hadn't said goodbye to them. Although she prayed that they found her note.
After she had packed, she had sat with Bilbo and they had written a note to Lord Elrond, in which they both thanked him for his hospitality, Todd took the chance to thank Rhianine and the brothers too for treating her so kindly. She hoped that they wouldn't mind her rude departure, and that the note would suffice. Who knew, maybe one day she would see them again, and apologize in person.
The day's trek was a rather demanding one in Todd's eyes, the change in the terrain was quite exhausting for one who had been lazing about in Rivendell for the week or so. Once they had breached the pass out from the valley, they had been faced with the rather impressive visage of the Misty Mountains before them. From her spot way behind the Company she could see that they wouldn't make it to the Mountains before night fall, maybe the next day they would reach the foothills.
The land between themselves and the Mountains was undulating and had cops of trees that they were to stick to. Todd kept herself busy by keeping her senses wandering around them. She could smell the pine and the grass, fresh, as if it had rained recently, yet the rising sun had dried off any remaining damp by the time they had emerged from the valley. Her ears would pick up the snorts and steps of animals scuttling around in the undergrowth, but nothing ever bigger than a hare. She had stopped further behind for lunch, choosing to not eat anything, for she wasn't that hungry anyway. Plus she didn't want to go and ask the Company for food, it would just be too awkward.
During the afternoon, she had noticed that Ori was slipping towards the back of the Company, he was now wandering at the back with Bilbo. They were deep in chatter, and Todd had to fight the urge to catch up and ask what they were on about. Then they both turned to look at her, then snapped their head back round when they caught her eye. The whole thing was repeated at least four times before they really started to slow down.
Todd thought about slowing down too, but the gap between them and the rest of the Company was beginning to get too large. So she caught them up with a small smile on her face.
"Are you both ok?" she asked quickly.
"Of course?" Bilbo smiled back to her.
"Why have you fallen so far behind?" She urged, trying to figure them out. Ori smiled too then and nudged her playfully.
"You were walking on your own, figured you wanted some company?" He asked.
An even bigger smile broke across her face then. She hadn't even thought of the fact that they might want to keep her company, her heart swelled and hummed in her chest. Her cheeks heated up also. Todd settled walking between them and reached to touch their shoulders and gave them a gentle squeeze.
"Thank you!" She breathed. "I think, that I will disappear and look for some things for dinner though!"
"Are you sure?" Bilbo called as she set off, veering away from them and into the closest cop of trees. It was a lovely thought from them, falling behind to walk with her, but that was stepping over her mark, she thought. She was told by her King to not be a burden, and get in the way. So she excused herself, nodded to them and disappeared into the trees.
"Ori, Bilbo!" Came Dwalins gruff shout from up ahead. Todd didn't even bother turning to look to him. "Drag your arse's back up here!"
She quickened her pace then, striding deeper and deeper into the trees, yet never far enough away that she couldn't spot, or hear the Company. She made sure she was walking along side them, and began her searching. She looked first for anything she could snatch with her daggers from a distance. She found nothing, deciding that the dwarves were still to close, and therefore too loud for anything yummy to be out and about. Veering a little further into the cop, the trees came alive around her swift and quite steps. It was a sparse wood in some areas, with tufts of the same green and brown grasses appearing, instead of the normal ferns. The trees were thick towards the top but sparse at the bottom so visibility was perfect.
After about an hour she spotted a large hare. Letting her feet become lighter and her ears and nose locked on. She tracked around it and pulled her dagger from its sheath at her hip belt. She readied her arm and waited for the opportune moment. The hare froze, its nose snuffling at the air, and she knew then it was now or never. In one swift motion she jerked her arm and let the dagger fly. The red tassel a vivid blur as it rushed towards the unassuming creature.
The dagger found its mark and Todd silently thanked Yavanna for her gift. Upon reaching the creature, she mentally pated herself on the back at her aim. She had hit it straight in the eye, not spoiling any of the meat on the Hare. She just hoped that they would be happy with the tender meat. She had hunted a few times with her Father, but travelling on your own tended to make you gain skill and fast, for without it you would go hungry. She couldn't always rely on catching game in her first skin if the creatures saw her coming.
Carrying on like that another hour she managed to kill another two hares. With her kill slung over her shoulder and her dagger being wiped across her trouser legs she emerged from the cop just behind the Company again. She had the best timing for they all started to slow and Thorin announced that they were to be setting up camp here, for a good rest before the decent into the foot hills the next day. She thought it wise anyway, the light was starting to dim, and the nights were drawing in.
She slowly stood awkwardly at the edge of the clearing they were setting up. The company threw themselves into jobs that had obviously been previously assigned, for there was no questioning each other or asking for jobs. Everyone just seemed to get on with it. It was only after she spotted Oin and Gloin set up a fire and Bombur start setting up cooking equipment over it that she made her move.
"Uhm, Master Bombur?" She tried, quietly behind him. He span round with his flustered red cheeks blazing due to the heat of the fire. "I was wandering if maybe you could find use of these?"
Todd pulled the tethered game from over her shoulder and held them out to the portly dwarf. She watched as his eyes widened a little, looking from the Hares back up to her. Slowly he reached out and took them weighing them in his hands and a large smile appearing.
"Thank you very much!" He replied.
"Can I help at all?" She asked, feeling like giving a helping hand would be a nice gesture.
"Oh no, leave the rest up to me lass!" He patted her on the shoulder and then set to it.
Todd nodded her head and disappeared back to the outskirts to watch yet again. The night was fast approaching which made her yawn behind her hand. It had been a long day. She was going to have to get used to this kind of busy camp life style she presumed, it was going to take a very very long time until they were anywhere near the Lonely Mountain, if her knowledge of the map of Arda was correct.
She sat herself down, her legs crossing beneath her, her back resting upon a tree stump. Closing her eyes she let herself breath in the smell of the fire and take in the noises in the surrounding trees. She sensed movement near her and let a smile form when she heard Bilbo and Ori settle down to her left.
"How has everyone been?" She asked, opening her eyes to glance at everyone around the fire. All were sat about taking their leave. Either snoozing, or chatting idly with each other. Fili and Kili were sharpening arrowheads and daggers, whilst she clocked Bofur fussing over Bombur as he worked at the extra bits and pieces she had grabbed for him for dinner. After a bit of back and forth she noticed his eyes shoot up to hers and then back to the meat, then back up again. She nodded to him and he smiled and mouthed a thank you to her. Her cheeks immediately blushed, but she hoped that he couldn't see in the dimming light of the evening.
"They are all ok, relieved to be out of that valley!" Bilbo sighed.
"I never understood the hatred between the elves of Rivendell and the Dwarves." Todd began, letting her wanderings fill the space around them. "They were much too far away to be of any aid after the desolation of the worm, where as the hatred we hold towards those tree dwellers is completely just!"
"I was thinking the same thing!" Bilbo chipped in, both turning to look to Ori, the scholar, who was sporting a confused look also.
"I don't know?" He admitted.
"Must be the work of the Valar!" Todd mused, wiping a strand of her wild red curls from her face. The white tips of it tickling her cheeks as it whipped around her face in the breeze. Dinner was pretty soon after that, and the whole company fell silent and the noise of chatter was replaced with the noise of spoons scrapping against wooden bowls.
"Uhm Lady Todd?" Bombur called from his position beside his stew pot. "Have you a bowl?"
Todd jumped up and rustled through her pack and retrieved a wooden mug that she had kept from her old home. Rushing over to Bombur she smiled politely to him as she passed her mug into his waiting hands. His brow furrowed suddenly and she couldn't help but take a deep breath. Was he going to deny her food?
"This isn't a bowl, lass!" He started, gaining the attention of a few of the others. "You won't fit a lot in there."
"That's fine, I don't need a lot!" She smiled, she didn't want to go hungry, by no means at all did she want that. Yet she understood her predicament. She was an extra member, one that was not originally thought for, therefore she was not going to take advantage of them and their rations.
"If your sure?" He questioned, ignoring Dwalin and Gloins muttering comments to let her starve behind them. He plopped as much as he possibly could into her mug before giving her his spare spoon. Thanking him more than once and bowing her head, she then made her way back to her tree stump that was now also surrounded by the usual suspects.
"Good evening!" She smiled to them. She plopped herself down in her spot, Bofur on one side and Bilbo on the other. They all sat together in a semi circle, chattering away to each other.
"Good Evening!" Bofur replied first. "This is a real nice treat thanks to you, and Bomburs cooking of course!"
"Oh, well hopefully I will be able to find some more tomorrow before we get too high!" She thought, her eyes stretching out into the darkness in search of the mountains, yet all she could see was darkness, with a few glints of stars.
They all ate at their side of the fire, with Thorin, Balin, Dwalin, Oin and Gloin, Nori and Dori all sat around the other side. They weren't far apart yet she could feel a certain tension in the air. Even though she was grateful for the usual suspects to be sitting with her, and involving her, she wished they would all sit together like she knew they must have done before.
"Do they always sit apart like that?" She asked Bofur quietly. He caught her eyes and she noticed his big warm brown ones were glistening in the fire light, the orange glow casting a handsome shadow across his features. He looked then over to the other side of the flames and nodded.
"Oh yeah, they like to talk politics in the evenings, which is a little too much for some of us!" He smiled, a breathy laugh following. "We like to tell tales and sing over this side."
"Oh, well I feel I choose the right side of the flames then!" She smiled to him. "I really did enjoy your song yesterday!"
"Ya did?" He blushed a little, turning more to her. He hadn't really thought his song was much to her taste, but he was glad to hear her liking to it.
"Of course, its not everyday you get to hear such a cheerful tune, sung by such a handsome voice!" She teased, catching him of guard. His laugh pulling a few others into their conversation.
"You will have to sing for us too, lass!" He nodded, his eyes playfully berating her. "Don't think you will get out of it!"
"I wouldn't dream of it Master Bofur!"
"Won't you sing a song for us now?" Kili asked, eyes going bright at Bofurs idea. Todd went to shake her head, she looked back to Bofur with a stern gaze, he had dropped her in it now.
"Lads!" He shouted, to gain everyone's attention. Todd blushed immediately. "Lady Todd is going to sing for us!"
"Oh I don't have an instrument though!" She stuttered, as the whole Company looked to her. The conversation the other side of the fire quietened down as they strained to hear what had their youngest son of Durin's kin shouting them to listen.
"What do you play?" Ori called to her. Todd sucked in a deep breath realizing that she wasn't going to be able to get out of this now.
"Uhm…" She muttered. "Guitar?"
There was some shuffling over to one side, Bifur and Bombur were rummaging through a pack, pulling things out in an attempt to get further into the pack. She looked to Bofur as if to ask him what they were up to, but his eyes were clouded and looking into the fire for a second before he realized that she was looking to him. Letting his eyes fall to her he smiled, but it didn't quite reach his eyes. She frowned and then turned back in time to see Bombur hand her a small beautiful painted wooden guitar.
"Thank you very much" She bowed a little before taking the instrument. Bombur muttering about not worrying over it. "I might be a little rusty!" She stated, before strumming delicately across the strings to get a feel. She closed her eyes then and let the words float from her, calming across the breeze, her hair fluttering about her, braid clasp and rings shining in the fire light.
Far over the Misty Mountains rise
Leave us standing upon the height,
What was before we see once more,
Is our kingdom a distant light.
Fiery mountain beneath the moon,
The words unspoken, we'll be there soon,
For home a song that echoes on,
And all who find us will know the tune
Bofur watched with baited breath as Todd sang her tune. It was a very mellow and light melody. When he saw his Brother and cousin jump to look for their guitar he had let his mind cloud with something he couldn't quite explain. It was his Mothers guitar and something about her playing it made his stomach flip. Yet that flip in his stomach was neither glad nor angry. He pulled his mind away and back to her voice. It was a weightless voice, wavering at times, but adding a raw reality to the words that flowed. He couldn't help but be drawn to her, as the same with the others. Everyone was silent, soaking in her lyrics with rapt attention. He watched, noticing that she hadn't dared to open her eyes yet, her head slightly bowed down, fingers brushing the strings, never once faltering. He had half the mind to try and play along on his flute.
We lay under the Misty Mountains cold,
In slumbers deep, and dreams of gold,
We must awake, our lives to make,
And in the darkness a torch we hold.
From long ago when lanterns burned,
Until this day our hearts of yearned,
Her fate unknown, the Arkenstone,
What was stolen must be returned.
Far away the Misty Mountains cold.
As she finished, and the words of her melody settled on heavy hearts, the Company sat in silence once more. Todd lifted her head once she was done and opened her eyes. She was completely embarrassed. She had sung a song that her Father had hummed and sung nonstop when they travelled.
"That was lovely!" She heard Bilbo chime from her left.
"Thank you!"
"Beautiful Lyrics Lady Todd!" Came an unexpected voice. Todds eyes flashed to Balin across the fire. He had spoken hardly any words to her, but these she could tell from his eyes were genuine. His smile lit one upon her face bright enough to melt snow.
The Company all looked to her and couldn't help but stifle grins of their own, or in Thorin, Dwalin, Dori and Gloin's case, glower even more. They had all headed for sleep after her song, thinking over her words and coming up with their own personal meanings behind the lyrics. They all set to pulling out their bedrolls and setting them up next to their kin. Thorin had insisted that Fili and Kili take the first watch, and then wake Nori for his afterwards. Todd didn't really follow his order giving. She knew she wouldn't be asked to go on watch, they didn't trust her enough, yet.
So she grabbed her pack and moved slightly away from the Company and from the heat of the fire and pulled out her roll mat and cape. She first pulled her hair up into a massive pile on top of her head and tied her red ribbon around it, so as not to let it get too knotted in her sleep. She knew it would have fallen out by morning, but at least she had tried to tame her hair. Then she settled down, pulling her cape around her tighter, she sighed. It was a shame that she wasn't closer to the Company yet, for then she could have slept closer to them and the fire, but it would not have been appropriate. The cool air, that she thought must be blowing down from the mountains, and from the approaching autumn, was biting at her nose and ears.
There was a small hum of chatter coming from near the fire. The Company were all winding down. Fili and Kili were sat a little further out too, smoking their pipes and whispering to each other. Bilbo was lying between Ori and Bofur and the rest were all piled up with their family. It was heart warming for Todd to see, but stung at her heart all the same. If only her Father and Mother were here to share her adventure. They would have loved every second of it so far. Their faces flashed through her mind, smiling brightly to her and then distorting to pained and terrified expression, and she cursed her self lightly. She was going to dream of them now, she just prayed that they would stay as dreams and not melt and twist into the nightmares they usually did.
With that thought, the itching revealed itself in the back of her mind again, scratching and hissing something that was too quiet to hear properly but to loud to completely ignore. Todd took a deep breath, steeling herself for her fated nights sleep.
AN: yes yes yes, I was so excited to add Neil Finns, Song of the Lonely Mountain into this fic. I absolutely adore it, its my favorite of the three I think. If you haven't heard it, please listen its just perfect!
It feels so nice to be writing the journey moving along. I think I will write it so it takes a good few days for them to reach the Misty Mountain pass, just to be a pain in the arse basically. Although my plans dudes, MY PLANS! I hold feelings of excitement.
Now I'm not an expert at hunting, so I didn't go into a huge detail, but I hope that segment seemed realistic. I wanted her to feel it was her duty and her job to find fresh food. Having her be a freeloader and not contribute would not be right. Any way….
Cheers for reading my little chicken nuggets x
