Its been a while guys but I received a review the other day asking for a chapter for Christmas and well... voila! I was a little worried it had a different tone to other chapters as it got a little deep (something that this story was not meant to be) but I wrote what came to mind and well no one is that oblivious right? Merry Christmas everyone though and hope everyone is keeping well! Disclaimer: I do not own the Hobbit.

Chapter 6: Falling Deeper Still

Ends up a couple of months of practice on a horse does not a rider make. Every evening when the party settled down for the evening she hobbled bowlegged to the nearest flatish surface till the ache subsided enough to actually walk like a lady again.

'Lordy I haven't been this sore in the thighs since my teens!' She exclaimed a week into the journey as the Captain's squire steadily built a fire. The squire looked up at her curiously and swiftly turned his head as he met her gaze.

Jenny huffed annoyed. She had been trying to engage the squire in conversation since the outset but he was not biting. She figured he was shy but she loved children so she was quite determined to get him to open up.

'You see my friends and I went on a camping trip when I was around 18. I had finally gotten my full license and I borrowed my brothers car... well wagon I suppose? Anyway. We headed off to the ocean as a sort of graduation present to ourselves. We of course brought copious amounts of alcohol with us so we were absolutely plastered most of the time,' at this point Jenny started to chuckle to herself and she noted the squire had paused in his fire making and it encouraged her greatly, 'The point of the story though is that we were young and foolish and well... one of the guys... men with us was a bit of a metal head and he spotted some bike rentals and conned me into jumping on back which was reckless as we were half cut most days as I said. I rode with him so much that my thighs were sore for days!' She started laughing but it died off when she caught the squire's expression. The boy was as red as his crimson locks though and thoroughly frozen in his fire making.

Jenny went over the conversation in her mind and though perhaps a lot of the concepts in her story were perhaps a little too modern.

'Err... how much of that story did you understand?'

'Well more than enough judging by the small tent he's constructed instead of a fire,' a gruff voice piped up from nearby, 'Kai you best get along now.'

The boy- Kai jumped up in a twitch and scooted off into the darkness leaving the Captain who knelt down next to the woodpile and started where Kai had left.

'Now look here Your Holiness, that boy has a lot of potential but you can't be talking to him like that. Let him keep his youth a little longer. He isn't one for adult talk for some years yet.'

Jenny of course was immediately irritated at the moniker she'd been given and even more so by the apparent lack of confidence the man had in his own squire.

'Too young for adult conversation? The boy is at least 14?'

'In his 13th year actually and yes- far too young. So you'd best leave off him now,' he said as a word of warning, 'I'm sure there'd be plenty of men in our party that would be up for those sorts of conversations if you really need. However, your reputation will never be salvageable afterwards you understand?'

Jenny did understand for once what the Captain was insinuating.

'I wasn't seducing the boy! I was merely trying to engage him in conversation!' she hissed.

Flirt as she may with... basically everyone she met... she wasn't that sort of girl.

'You may need to watch your words then and perhaps keep them well away from Kai,' the Captain grumbled and with a clack, a hiss and a careful breath of air the fire sparked up. He stood up and sighed staring at the kindling flame.

'To be truthful, I have asked him to stay clear as I still haven't got your measure,' he admitted, 'You play the queen, the maiden and the tempter in a single conversation. You appear to have been kept as a precious daughter but your lifestyle is at odds with your clean face.'

Jenny stared at the Captain who she had thought had not given her a glance edgeways the entire journey and then made sure she was sitting as primly as she could on the rock she had bee-lined from since getting off her horse as to give off a good impression. This was made a little hard as it wasn't the most comfortable perch as there was an irregular point giving her a somewhat... intimate scratch. She determinedly ignored it.

'Stay clear of me? I'm not sure what you think of me if you think I'm someone that children need to "stay clear",' Jenny was quite frankly insulted.

'That remains to be seen. Though, I have been giving you the benefit of the doubt. A fellow Captain I trust from Tharbard has given his impressions of you and that you are... relatively harmless and seem of gentle breeding and so I have instructed my men to remain respectful though wary,' he gave her a sceptical side eye.

'Tharbard? Do you mean Baldor?' Jenny asked confused for she was certain Baldor was no Captain. She wasn't quite sure what he was actually?

'No, not that idiot,' he snorted amused, 'He is a trusted friend and I find I believe his words even if I haven't quite made up my mind yet about you.'

'...and what did this Captain say?'

'That if pressed to find a likeness for you that you are akin to a Lady with a flower in your right hand but a scythe in your left.'

Jenny spent the rest of the evening wondering what that meant.

The journey took them towards Rohan on the North-South Road, which brought then a change in scenery but also changes in weather as they progressed. It was the beginnings of summer and the wind turned hot and dry andJenny was almost out of her batch of moisturiser. She had stocked up well in Tharbard while waiting for the contingent to arrive but in attempts to improve her terrible reputation she had been generous in sharing her wares with the riders. They were appreciative and in fact their party was turning into a merry one, which delighted her. The downside of course was now her skin was cracking due to her rationing. This appalling weather lasted for days and put everyone in foul moods. One stray comment on her part and a complete overreaction for sure on another's led to her reputation taking a dive again.

It was also the last time she made the suggestion that another person take a sorely needed bath.

Relief came as they were heading through the Gap of Rohan and the weather turned muggier. This of course made everything sweaty but her skin soaked up that moisture like no tomorrow. A day or so afterwards the storm that had been building with the heat broke and they were forced to camp out a few days on a rocky outcropping till the storm passed.

This of course was the point where she fell ill.

'I hate this,' she snuffled into her rag thin blanket and coughed wetly.

'Spare your words,' one of the particularly more rugged of the riders grouched from where he was playing nursemaid to her and spoon feeding her some sort of pasty glue-like gruel. It was a small miracle she couldn't actually taste it.

The man of course had been the one to lose the game of dice they had started up once they realised she couldn't hold onto the spoon.

'Sowwy,' she snuffled wetly and the man cringed.

He obviously hasn't been able to catch a wife with those manners, she thought snidely.

'Poor thing,' he muttered under his breath as he daintily scraped the side of her mouth where the gruel spilt and she felt immediately chastised.

She took the opportunity to take in the riders appearance and looked beyond the slick matted hair, poorly shaven face and terrible stench (that she thankfully couldn't smell at this point). He had a kindly face she decided.

'Name?' was all she could manage but from the curious look she got he understood enough.

'Gwaithe, Your Holiness,' he smirked showing at least one missing tooth.

She gave him a droll look but nodded and looked curiously to the other riders and coughed out another "Name" command and Aiselith, Roth, Wain, Halhorne, Darrow, Kai- which she already knew- and Kailen was added to her list of names. The Captain being Kailen to her curious eye.

'Nine Riders,' she said amused as the thought suddenly came to her and then paid for it dearly as she promptly had a coughing fit. Gwaithe looked at her as if she was an idiot before setting aside the mostly uneaten gruel and settling himself beside her.

'Name,' he asked amused pointing at her and it was at this point she felt horrifically like a thumb.

'Jenny,' she rasped and did her best to muffle coughs, 'Sorry,' she apologised again but this time just for being overwhelmingly gross.

How did it get to week two of the journey to do introductions?

'Sorry,' she repeated softly.

'It's alright lass,' Gwaithe replied just as soft, 'we were rather fond of calling you by yer title anyway.'

Jenny huffed and snuggled into her blanket a bit more.

'Family?' she whispered.

Gwaithe smiled.

'I've got a wife and two sons...' he began.

Jenny settled herself deeper and spent the evening listening to the pattering of rain against rock and the rough baritones of Gwaithe as he regaled her of stories of his family that he was journeying home to.

Despite being ill it was one of her favourite days in Middle Earth.

xx