Enya's first day in the company was a lot more fun than she expected. Most of the dwarves were very friendly and treated her like one of the guys. Exceptions were Dwalin and the grumpy Thorin Oakenshield himself. Although Dori was still a little afraid of her, he appreciated her sincere apology and by the time the light was fading, he was brave enough to talk to her.

'Did you ever curse anyone?' he asked.

Enya laughed. 'No, Dori! I have no idea how to do such a thing!'

'So that means we are all safe from your wrath?'

'Only if you behave.' Enya smiled and winked at him.

'But you are a witch.' He stated.

'Yes, I am.'

'Do you know cool tricks?'

Enya stared at her hands. 'Not yet. And I'm not sure what exactly I'm capable of, so it might take a while before I can show you something.'

Dori stared at her. 'You don't know what you're capable of?'

'Well… I mean, I found out I am able to do this the moment you guys did…'

Dori shivered. 'You do control these unnatural powers, don't you miss Enya?'

'Yes. If you let me practice in peace every night.'

Dori seemed relieved and went on chatting about the life he and his brother Ori had before they decided to join Thorin on this journey. Enya wondered in silence why it was so easy to win over almost everyone from the company, and extremely frustrating hard to get Thorin to smile.

Thorin decided that they would spent the night on a large platform (could it have been an observation post?) in the mountain area they were crossing. While they set up their camp, Enya joked around with Fíli and Kíli and threatened to turn them into ice sculptures if they tried any of their 'welcome to our company' pranks on her. They laughed and sneaked off. She saw Thorin eyeing the scene from a distance. The way he glanced at his nephews made her a bit uncomfortable. He certainly knew how to look intimidating. Enya decided to do the opposite of what he expected her to do and walked to him.

'Any particular reason why you chose to look so angry today?'

Thorin looked up at her and she saw he tried his best not to smile.

'I was thinking.'

'Then it must have been dreadful, because you looked like you were ready to kill something.'

'I always am.' He simply said.

Bastard. Enya smiled.

'If you need me, I'll be in the woods.' She stood up.

'You will not venture these woods on your own.'

'I won't?'

'No.'

Enya smirked. 'I don't recall any specification in my contract about having to oblige the wishes a dwarf leader with an ill-favored temper!'

Thorin studied his fingernails and refused to look her in the eye.

'No, but it does state that you have to follow my orders.'

'Is this an order?'

Thorin gave her a little smile, which was enough to make her do EVERYTHING he wanted. She was very bad at playing hard to get, a skill he obviously mastered to the perfection.

'You annoying breathtaking bastard!' Her mind scowled. She did not dare to say that to the man, dwarf himself. She wondered what he would do to her.

'It is, miss.' He simply said.

Oh that matter-of-factly irritating tone!

She sighed. 'FINE.'

This time, she refused to look at him.

'Sent whoever you like.' She said and paced into the woods, without waiting for an answer.

When Enya woke up, it was some time before dawn. She slowly stood up (she did not want to wake the others) and slipped through the borders of the camp. She just wanted to disappear in the forest when-

'Christ!' She muttered. 'Sir Oakenshield, do you ever sleep? Or do you secretly enjoy attempting to scare me to death?'

Thorin grinned and seemed quite happy with himself.

'I might, but today I just came back from a swim in the river.'

Oh yes, he certainly looked like he just took a swim. Enya almost gasped when she saw that his hair was still wet. God, she really had to keep herself together before she would melt down at his feet! She cursed her bloody hormones in silence for making her lose her mind when just looking at the guy. One thing was certain: the lack of sex in the last few months was catching up with her.

'You look hungry.' Thorin eyed her curiously.

Enya tried not to giggle and pressed her lips in a little smile. Why would he even say such a thing? He seemed like he meant it, but her dirty mind translated it in a whole other direction.

'That I am.' FOR YOU! Her mind added. Enya bit her lip and scrambled herself together.

'But I wanted to take a dive myself before everyone wakes up and starts walking around in the area where I don't want them to be in.'

'I wonder what you would do.' Thorin mused.

HE DID NOT JUST SAY THAT! Enya hold back another giggle. Why did he make her giggle? It made her feel like a love-sick teenage girl, which was hardly appropriate for a woman in her mid-twenties. And a witch too, for god sake.

Enya narrowed her eyes. 'Keep on wondering. If I will see one of you, there will be hell to pay.'

'I would not dare to sneak on you, miss' he answered, but his eyes told her a different story. Wait, what? He was definitely flirting with her. She licked her lips. She wanted to make a move, but her courage and sharp tongue were not cooperating.

'Well... I'm off then.' She muttered, because she could not think about anything better to say.

She quickly turned away and walked through the forest until she found the river. She hoped the cold water would cool her off. Especially her mind.

Although the water did make her feel clean and she had found a pumice to scrub the dirt off, her mind did not shut up. She hummed a song while she swam up and down the riverbanks. After a while she got fed up and she decided to get out of the water. She quickly grabbed the old rag she snatched from the camp. Although it didn't look that clean, anything could suffice as a towel. She roughly pressed it against her body until she was almost dry. She went to put on her clothes, but... Hang on! Where were her trousers? And her shirt? Where did her jacket go? She nervously looked around but her panties, corset and boots were the only clothing left. She grunted. Her bet was on two rascals she threatened just yesterday... Quickly she put on her panties and tied herself up in her corset as tight as she could. She sighed and did not know if she wanted to burst into laughter or to let out her frustation. She sat down to put on her boots, but stopped when she saw Thorin appearing from the woods. With her clothes. And from the look he had on his face, his playful flirty Thorin was gone. Shit.

'Why are you-?' She said. 'Did you-?'

'No. I happened to see two rascals sneaking off with your clothes.' He said with his teeth clenched. He breathed heavily and tried not to look at her. Did he blush? Oh, right. She vaguely became beware that she only wore panties. And a corset.

'Yeah, sorry. I will, -wait.'

He threw her clothing at her, quickly turned around and paced away. Enya put her clothes and boots on in the highest speed she could manage and ran after him.

'Wait!' She screamed and almost bumped into him when he suddenly stopped. He jerked her against a tree, like he did the day they met, and the look on his face was malignant. She realized that the furious Thorin, with a 'I am ready to shred your panties' gaze on his face was very much capable of making her legs tremble. Oh yes, she desired him more than anything she ever wanted in this world. Or her own world.

'What were you doing?"'He hissed.

'I...' she whispered and gazed into his eyes. Her mind went blank. Great. She hated the fact that every time she really needed her witty remarks and sharp tongue, they simply refused to cooperate. Even her razor-sharp reflexes were in awe. She sighed.

'You could have waited in the water! If I had not encountered them and brought your clothes back, would you really just walked like that to the camp?' he let out a deep sigh.

'What was I supposed to do?' She shot back. Yes. She found her tongue again. 'Wait IN THE WATER? Really? I'm sorry that I only realized what happened AFTER I got out! There was no point going back, so I decided to find those two bastards!'

Thorin squared his jaw and stared at her. 'You are too rash miss, attempting to walk through the woods like that and showing everyone-!' He didn't finish his sentence and breathed heavily.

Enya blushed.

'I am sorry. I did not want to embarrass you. Or the others. It's just...' She started to tremble. 'It's just that I was raised a lot more... less constraining, I suppose. Until a few weeks ago I lived by THOSE rules, in MY world! Sometimes I do not realize that things work differently here.'

'They do.' He bit back.

'I apologize.' She said.

Thorin grunted and let her go.

She leaned against the tree and tried not to cry. Maybe she was too bold for him. She was so caught up by her thoughts that she did not see him turning around. All of a sudden his face was inches away from hers. He cupped her face with his hands in a surprisingly soft manner. Wow!

'Miss Enya' he whispered.

Yet again she forgot how to breathe when she heard his low husky voice.

'Please adopt our rules, as you call it, as quickly as you can. It is difficult to contain my men around you when you are... like that.' He muttered.

As he turned away from her, Enya could swear she heard him whisper very softly:

'let alone myself...'

She moaned softly when he disappeared in the woods again and left her trembling at the root of the tree. Great! She had to get used to the fact she knew nothing of the social rules in middle earth. Why did Tolkien not write about these things? She groaned in frustration and sat down on the ground. It seemed that she was capable to make a fool out of herself when she was around him. Enya sighed. Although she had acted like a fool, she was happy to know that he was not immune to her. He flirted with her...right? She shrugged. She had to come up with a plan to behave more appropriately. Maybe she could ask Gandalf how respectful dwarf ladies behaved. He would know. She hoped…