"Papa!" the panic in Serina's voice was unbearable for Thorin, he reached for her as they fell through the darkness but couldn't find her. The thought of losing her again caused fear to ripple through his body.

"Serina I'm here, just calm down and it will be over in a heartbeat!" and it was, the three of them slammed against a cold stone floor, light started breaking through the dark and he could once again see her. The look in her eyes was a painful mixture between panic and fear. Pulling her into his arms he let her calm down before he helped her to her feet.

"So this is the girl, she has your hair Oakenshield, but I believe she has her mother's eyes and beauty." Jamaica floated around them in a wide circle.

"Ay, the beauty is not mine" Thorin agreed, just then realizing that his daughter had the same button nose and sharp eyebrows as his wife did. Serina was noticeably different form her mother but similar enough that anyone could tell their kinship, she was part Aila and part Thorin, the perfect mixture of them both.

Turning towards the witch Thorin once again picked the Arkenstone from his pocket and offered it to her.

"You asked for it and yet you did not take it when I gave it to you, why?"

"I never wanted that stupid stone Oakenshield, all I wanted to know was how much you were willing to pay to have her back and I happen to know this particular stone is very valuable to your family." It didn't make much sense to the dwarf but he accepted her answer and put the stone back in his pocket where it would be forgotten for weeks to come.

"Ah well then I believe we are done here, I shall accompany the two of you to Erebor. Thank you for your assistance Jamaica." Gandalf said, obviously somewhat uncomfortable under the witches stare. It wasn't until then Serina realized how big Gandalf had become, of course she knew she was a dwarf but they had all been humans in the other world so seeing him towering above her like this shocked her but not nearly as much as what he had just said did.

"Erebor? You mean that…" looking at her father with stunned eyes she saw a smile spreading wide across her face.

"Ay, we reclaimed it almost three years ago, there is still much work to be done but we're getting there"

"I wish I could have been there…" The king smiled down at his daughter knowing well enough that she would have pestered him until she was allowed to come. He might have only had her for five years but she was a dwarf and a Durin, he knew that if she had wanted to follow then she would have.

"I know flower, I know"

…..

They had been traveling for just about three weeks when Gandalf announced he would ride ahead to prepare their closest family and friends for what was to come. Those were his true intentions but the wizard was also very aware that the father and daughter were in need of some time alone before the world found out about her return.

Serina, quite honestly, didn't pay too much attention to the wizards as he left them. She found herself marveling at everything around her, every stone, tree and flower seemed so different form the world she grew up in. they looked basically the same but there was just something magical about them. Every now and then she'd look at Thorin and wonder if he was really there, at night she would wake up having to check that she wasn't back in her old bed next to Kevin. And every time she checked she got the same answer, it was real and he was there with her, riding a pony or walking beside her to a kingdom carved out into a mountain….

…

There was a question that kept circling in Serinas head as they sat in front of that night's campfire. It had come to her every night since they left the cottage in the magical forest. It was about her mother and she worried that it would hurt her father, that he would be reminded of her and become somber. But she had to know

"Dad… I… I need to ask you something, I think I know the answer but I just need to know. "

"Go on" he urged

"Mom didn't make it, right? I… I saw what they did to her but she was still alive when I fell into the water and I've always wondered if there could have been a small chance that she survive." The pain in her father's eyes answered her question before his words could.

"No, I couldn't save her, I was too late."

"You mean you came for us? How did you know something had happened?"

"You were barely out of my sight before I got word that an orc pack had been spotted coming from the direction of where you went. So I took some guards and tried to find you but when I came upon your company they were all dead, including your mother… I looked for you until my legs wouldn't carry me but all I found was this" he said as he pulled a leather string from under his shirts. Looped at the end of it was a simple silver ring with a Durin blue stone safely embedded into its metal.

"You wore it on your thumb, it was too big for your fingers. You had such small hands for a dwarfling, you still do." The warmth in his eye was back as he took her hands, considerably smaller than his, and closed them around the ring and string. Serina thought about putting it on her finger but found herself emotionally unable to take it of the well-worn leather. It was obvious that it had been strung on there for a long time and removing it felt wrong.

"You know what? I think you should keep it, just so you don't forget about me when you get old and senile." She said, winking at him as she put it back around his neck.

"I beg your pardon? Senile? I am the king under the mountain I don't get senile! And you are a mere dwarfling how dare you talk to me like that?!" He laughed, the first true happy laughter she had heard from him since he saved her from the world without magic.

"Am not!" Serina squealed as her father attacked her sensitive sides, tickling her as if she was the little dwarfling he lost so long ago.

….

The moon cast an eerie light over Dale as the king and princess walked through the quiet streets. A candle flickered in a window here and there but that was about the only sign of life that could be found. Serina thought it might have been scary was it not for the fact that most of her attention was now directed towards the outline of the giant gate separating Erebor from the outside world during the night.

"It's so much bigger than I thought it would be… you know… since we're dwarfs and all…"

"Just because we're shorter than some doesn't mean we aren't capable of great thing Rina." He had been calling her that for some days now, Rina, she'd almost forgotten about the nickname given to her as a child but now found it felt better than whatever names she had been given by people back I the other world, most simply called her Nina, some said Ina and others just went with Serina.

"I know I know… But I've been human for a looooong time and a fairly tall one so in my head you were… WE were… not big enough for this, it would be hard even when I was tall to comprehend that" she gestured towards the big statues situated on either side of the gate.

"I took many years to make them, a lot of hard work but dwarfs are stubborn and very skilled."
Serina didn't doubt it but that didn't keep her for wondering HOW they did it.

"You know I actually used to study architecture once a week for three years, so if there's any drawings from when it was planned or made I'd love to see them, if that's okay?" Thorin looked at her with shock, he'd never thought that's the kind of things his daughter would be interested in. Most people, let alone women, were very seldom educated so hearing this both shocked him and made him proud beyond measure.

"I'm sure there's something laying around I'll ask Ori to help you out. I didn't know you had such education."

Serina laughed "Oh it wasn't my main subject, I studied art and so architecture was a part of it, I liked it though. I've been in school since I was six but it was only through the ages of 16 to 18 that I specifically studied art. Right now I'm studying an ancient empire called Rome, or I did until I got back here I guess…" she couldn't hide the small hint of sadness that passed over her face as she realized she'd never be able to finish those studies, and at the loss of all her books and notes on the subject hurt quite a bit.

Thorin felt guilty, he barely knew anything about his own daughter and he had taken her away from something that obviously meant a lot to her.

"I'm sorry, I should have given you more time to figure out if you wanted to come back. You had a life there and I didn't think about that enough" Thorin said.

"No, dad that's not what I meant! I would have come with you however long you would have given me, I wanted to come, I want to be here! I always have, of course I'll miss things from there but I made my decision and I'm happy with it!" and that was that, the king realized.

…

As they got closer to Erebor they walked down a smaller path until they got to a stable.

"This is the only way into the mountain during the night without wakening every soul inside and outside." Thorin explained as he opened the wooden door leading into a big corridor. A guard stood just inside and shockingly stared at the king and the young woman.

"Your majesty!" he bowed clumsily and let them pass, positively shaking when Serina looked at him with her startling blue eyes and gave him a shy smile.

Moving through the corridors she couldn't help but slow down to look around her, Thorin patiently letting her take it all in. The walls were almost green, like jade, but rougher. With every set of stairs and every turn it grew bigger and bigger, soon she found herself in a corridor so big she didn't even know if she could call it that anymore. The ceiling was so far up she could barely see it in the dim light from the torches that lined the walls.

Eventually they stopped in front of a set of big double doors.

"This is my private study" was all he said before he gently pushed her inside. There was bookshelves in the one corner, maps on the walls, a huge desk and a big fireplace surrounded with comfortable looking armchairs. And it was in one of those armchairs she saw him for the first time in so many years.

The Dwarf stood up and slowly walked to her, shock evident in his eyes.

She just stood there and looked into the eyes of the warrior and every memory of him came flooding back.

"Dwalin" she whispered and that was all he needed to hear to sweep her up in a bone crushing hug, spinning her around and around.

"You remember me" he finally choked out as he put her down and held her at arm's length. Serina nodded, patting her shirt down around her neck she searched and found the neckless she always wore. Taking it of she held it up before his face, a small white stone on a silver chain.

"You gave this stone to me, you had been gone for a while and I missed you and when you came back you gave this to me. I used to carry it around in my pocket so every time I was scared or nervous I could hold it, it made me feel safe." And just like that the fearsome warrior let a tear run down his scarred cheeks, where it was wiped away by his princess.

"Ay, I did. Ye always loved it when I brought you little things like that, drove yer parents mad, ye wouldn't throw anything away." He hadn't thought about that in a long time, the fond memories warming his heart like never before.

"I remember when you used to let me ride on your shoulders, I thought I was the tallest person in all of the worlds. It's only now I realize we probably weren't even taller than the average human." She laughed.

"It was the only way I could guarantee ye couldn't run away, ye were a sneaky little bugger, could get out of any situation that didn't please ye."

"Oh, I'm sorry… I do remember being scolded about disappearing a few times but I don't think I meant to do it, I'm just easily distracted…" Serina blushed at the thought of causing such distress.

"A few times?" Thorin laughed behind her.

"From the moment you learned how to crawl there wasn't one day where you didn't go missing at least once, so I'd say you had your fair share of scoldings" the king continued.

"Ay a taste for mischief, but I'll tell ye one thing lass, so did yer father when he was a dwarfling and so does yer cousins!" Dwalin said, slapping Thorin affectionately on the shoulder.

"Fili… and Kili, are they here, in Erebor? What about Dis? And… and… what was his name, the one who made me toys, the wooden horse and my little figurines." She asked.

"Bofur you mean? Ay he is here, he helped take back the mountain" Thorin said

"and as for Fili and Kili, they're currently escorting their mother from The Blue mountain to here, Balin will know when they are to arrive."

"Balin, storyteller, right?"

"I guess that's what he was to ye lass, but I wouldn't say that was his profession, he's yer fathers counselor and me older brother." Dwalin said, pride and amusement mixed into his voice.

"How come ye can remember so much lass? I barely even know what I ate fer breakfast this mornin!" The warrior wondered. Serina herself was surprised at how well she remembered her time here but she had a good enough explanation

"Well every night before I went to bed I would list the names of the people I knew and why they were special to me, so that when I went home I wouldn't upset anyone by forgetting about them. I kept on doing it until I was maybe 13 or 14 years old."

"though…" she added "I think I might upset a few now a days cause I don't think I could remember everyone on that list even if a tried."

Dwalin was just about to say something when there was a knock on the door.

"Who is it?" called Thorin.

"It's just me Thorin" a voice answered, the voice of a storyteller.