Chapter 11

A chilly wind rustled the leaves of the trees. The sky had turned a dark blue, indicating that dawn was not far off.

Thorin settled back against the damp soil with a sigh. They'd found a small hollow that would offer them some protection from the wind for the night. Not even the trees could fully keep at bay the gusts sweeping in from the sea.

Bilbo had been more than willing to continue on, but signs of exhaustion were already beginning to show in his posture—no doubt he had not fully recovered from the blood loss he had suffered.

The thought only added to the doubts simmering in his mind. Thorin was certain Bilbo would not change his mind and turn back, and he could not fault him for choosing to be brave and refusing to waver from the path he had set for himself. Those were traits any dwarf would respect. Despite all odds, it seemed, they would finish this together.

But the nagging worry that Bilbo would be hurt still persisted. All it took was one wrong move, as it had with the leshen, for the irreversible to occur. It haunted him to think that it might.

Next to him, Bilbo grunted and stirred in his sleep, as though the same thoughts plagued his own mind. There was a good chance that they did. For all his stubborn confidence and determination, he'd been affected by the leshen's attack. Few experienced that much pain and survived unchanged.

As if to prove his point, Bilbo woke with a cry, breathing hard. He sat up, checking his chest, then looked up and surveyed the hollow with darting eyes.

"It's all right," Thorin said, reaching out to put a hand on his back. "It was just a nightmare."

Bilbo blinked rapidly as reality came back to him. "Right." He looked down, schooling his expression into neutrality. "Sorry if I startled you."

"You didn't." Thorin studied him with a furrowed brow. He was concealing his fear, and would likely do so for any other weakness he didn't want to display. And he was doing it to avoid Thorin's judgement.

His judgement would occur whether Bilbo wanted it to or not, and he'd already made his decision. He shifted his hand to rest on the halfling's shoulder.

"Come here."

With a uncertain glance that didn't quite meet his eyes, Bilbo moved so he was sitting closer to him. With enough gentleness that he could pull away if he wanted to, Thorin guided him by the shoulder so that his head was resting against his chest.

When Bilbo did not resist, he arranged his arms to keep him comfortable. In what small way he could, he wanted to make him feel safe and hopefully chase away any more nightmares that would threaten his sleep.

And another, smaller part of him drew comfort from holding him close and feeling his warmth and breath against his skin. Whatever dangers awaited in the future, they were far away from this moment, in the hollow that protected them from the cold wind.

Bilbo relaxed against him, and after a few minutes, his breathing became slow and even. Thorin listened to his heartbeat for a while, and the steady sound eventually lulled him to sleep as well.

It took them three days to reach the hidden island. They took a day to backtrack south to where they'd hidden their boat, which had fortunately remained undamaged during their absence, save a small pool of water at the bottom. It took them another two days to sail west around Spikeroog to reach the northern coast again. It would have been a slightly shorter trip around the eastern side, but there were two towns on that end, and Thorin did not want to risk being spotted.

Even with their delay, some of his worries had abated. Now that they had the map, there were no more uncertainties in their path. There was nowhere to run for the thieves, and Thorin had ensured that the man in yellow would not warn his allies that they were coming.

During the spare moments they had, Thorin took time to instruct Bilbo on the use of his walking stick and his knife when it came to combat. Three days was not enough—not for someone who had years of training behind him—but Bilbo was quick to learn and had undeniably improved since their first session.

The second night found them resting on a small stretch of beach on the westernmost end of the island, watching the sun descend over the crashing waves. They were sitting comfortably close, thighs pressed together, sharing casual touches that Thorin never would have dared to initiate a few days ago.

"So, what do you think you'll do after this is all over?" Bilbo asked, leaning back on his palms. "Go back to monster hunting?"

"Home," Thorin said, and the word sent a wave of longing over him. "I'll be able to go home once this is over. See my family again."

His head tilted. "You don't talk about your family much."

"It's been ten years since last I saw them." He lowered his gaze to the sand, the gentle shift of it beneath the waves. While it had been ten years for him, it would only be a few weeks if Gandalf's estimate was correct. A part of him was scared to see his sister and his nephews, so unchanged when he was the exact opposite.

Bilbo reached over and squeezed his hand. "You must miss them terribly."

"I do." Thorin tore his gaze from the ocean. "And your family? I've not heard you speak of them much either."

He could tell by the way Bilbo's shoulders rose and fell that this wasn't a comfortable topic for him either. "I've got quite a few cousins and aunts and uncles. Most of them live further north. None of them are quite like...well. None of them would be running off chasing after thieves like I am."

"I imagine most sane people would refrain from that course of action."

"And here we are anyway." Bilbo leaned against him, his head tilting back to look at the sky. "I think I'd want things to be different when I go back home. I'd want to be more like you, do more to help others. Not monster hunting, obviously, but certainly something more than what I've been doing."

Thorin smiled. For all his other flaws, Bilbo had a good heart. He was brave and selfless and so different from so many of the people he had met in this world.

With one hand, he turned Bilbo's head towards him and pressed a gentle kiss to his lips. Bilbo put a hand on his jaw, fingers trailing lightly over his beard, and deepened the kiss. Thorin turned his head for a slightly better angle, but this was remedied as Bilbo moved his hand down to brace against his thigh and turned so they were closer. Heat flooded his body as his other hand came up to grasp at the hair at his nape. They continued on like that for a few more moments before Bilbo pulled back, his cheeks flushed.

"Sorry. Got a bit carried away, there."

"I don't mind," Thorin said, his voice slightly hoarse. In this position, Bilbo was practically on top of him. The palm pressed against his thigh was heavy, and left a brand of heat even as it was lifted away.

Bilbo shifted so they were sitting side by side, but at a more respectable distance apart. "Well, this is hardly the time or place to...to…" He put his hands in his lap. "Ahem."

Thorin placed his hands in the same position, taking a deep breath of the cool night air to try and calm the heat racing through his veins. If Bilbo was uncomfortable with going further than that, then he would respect his wishes.

"But perhaps you'll come visit me sometime? Once this is all over?" He fixed him with a hopeful smile, his face still slightly flushed.

"I…" The thought sobered him up like a bucket of cold water. "I don't believe that would be possible."

Going home meant leaving this world, and leaving Bilbo behind with it. The thought had been at the back of his mind for a while, but after the events of the past few days, it left him feeling numb.

"Oh." Bilbo's gaze turned towards the sea. "Right. Well, I suppose your home must be quite far from where I live, and—"

"No." Thorin did not want him to think he simply did not care to travel and visit him. "That's not it." He took another deep breath. Bilbo had his complete trust, and he deserved to know the truth. "There's something I've been keeping from you."

His brow twitched into a worried frown, but he said nothing.

"I am not of this world. Everything else I told you about my past is true. But I had to cross the boundary between my world and yours, with the help of a wizard, to accomplish what I had set out to do."

Bilbo stared at him for a long while. Then a slow smile spread onto his face. "I always knew there was something different about you. Not that I would have guessed that you were from a different world, but that answers quite a few questions."

"It does?"

"Well, you're not like any of the other dwarves I've met. At first I just thought it was because you were a witcher, and that you were from a different land, but...there's something else." Bilbo's gaze was keen as it traveled over his face. "I can't quite put my finger on it."

Perhaps it was the weight he carried, all the people back home who were counting on him. Even though he had spent ten years without them, his duties as king were an ever-present thought in his mind, as immutable and constant as stone.

Bilbo must have seen a shadow pass over his face, as he drew back and said, "So you'll be going back to your...your world once this is all over."

"Aye."

That was the end of it. They sat together in silence as the moon rose over the turbulent sea.

"You remember the plan, yes?"

Bilbo nodded but did not look at him, his gaze still focused on the jagged rocks ahead.

A thick fog hung about the water, and the dense haze only added to the worry in Thorin's mind. They'd been over everything multiple times—strategies, alternate strategies, fighting tactics, escape routes. He had pushed Bilbo to the point of exhaustion during their training sessions, determined to give him as much of an advantage as possible if he were to be forced to fight.

But everything remained uncertain until they arrived at the thieves' hideout. There was no way to know how many men were there, how the place was laid out, and what defenses they had in place.

And with this damned fog, it seemed they wouldn't know until they were on the doorstep.

"All right." Bilbo shook the map to straighten it and held it up. "We should be nearing the correct spot. Just past that row of little sharp rocks."

Thorin gripped the tiller and followed his directions, steering the boat between two pillars of rock. They had entered the dangerous part of the sea, where rocks of various sizes jutted from the waves and threatened to sink their boat. The water was relatively calm, but even so there came a couple points where the hull scraped against stone at a particularly tight turn.

"Must be a risky venture, bringing cargo in through this mess," Bilbo said. He glanced down at the water. "How much of it do you suppose ended up in the sea?"

"Very little of it, I'd guess."

"Go left around that boulder over there."

"These men are careful, and their cargo is precious. I doubt they'd let any of it slip from their grasp." Ward's men kept a strange collection, indeed. Though none of them were mages, they sought objects with magical properties. Thorin's key was itself not made of precious metal and could not be sold for a considerable sum. But no doubt its ability to send him back to his world gave off a magical aura of sorts, and that was what the thieves sought.

He prayed they had not figured out how to activate it yet.

After a few more tense moments, they reached a stretch of sand in the middle of the cluster of fog hung low over the empty surface.

"Where to, now?" Thorin asked.

Bilbo had gone still. He glanced down at the map. "Well, according to this...we're here."

He stiffened. "That's not possible. Check again. This cannot be it."

"I have, twice! This is where the map has led us."

"No. We must have missed something." His grip tightened on the tiller, and he strained his eyes as he searched the fog for a sign of the real island. "Are you sure that—Bilbo!"

The boat rocked as Bilbo leapt out, landing waist-deep in the swirling water. With some difficulty, he waded over to the piece of land, which was little more than a sandbar.

Thorin cursed under his breath and jumped out as well, tugging the boat along with one hand so it would not drift away. Once he ascertained that the vessel was secure, he turned to Bilbo, who was standing on dry land and shivering from the cold.

"I-It doesn't make any sense," he said. "This should be the island."

A chill breeze swept over the small island. Thorin passed a hand over his face, fighting against the wave of hopelessness rising up within. They had been so close—he had been sure of it. Yet the thieves always managed to elude them.

"Not right at all." Bilbo paced to the center of the island, then back again. "Why would they go through the trouble...?"

"They must have moved again." He turned back to the boat. "Come. We're wasting time here."

"No. I'm not leaving until we figure this out. Nothing adds up here—why have a map that leads to nowhere? If they used this place once before, where would they have kept everything? Why go through the trouble of finding a path through these rocks at all?"

Thorin frowned, a dismissal already on his tongue, but the conviction in Bilbo's voice made him pause. "How, then, would you explain this?"

"Well, they've got a good deal of magical items, right? Things that can make you invisible, see the future, shoot balls of fire, and so on."

"You think there's magic at work, here."

Bilbo nodded emphatically. "There must be."

Thorin focused his witcher's senses. There was something strange about the fog, an almost heavy tension hovering over the sea. At first he had thought it nothing more than a reflection of his nerves, but now he was not so sure.

"There must be a way to uncover this. They are thieves, after all, not mages." Bilbo circled the tiny island.

Keeping his senses focused, Thorin began to search as well. The isle—no more than twenty paces long and ten wide—was completely barren. No loose rocks, crabs, or even shells were to be found in the sand.

Bilbo had pulled out the map again and was studying it with a furrowed brow. "They steal magical objects," he said, mostly to himself. "That must mean…" Another gust of wind swept over the sand, and he shivered violently. "Let's figure this out quickly. I'm not keen to freeze out here."

They circled the island a dozen more times, and studied the map until Thorin could almost see the outline of the shapes when he closed his eyes. The sun drifted towards the horizon, turning the fog a dingy gray capped with gold.

"I don't know." Bilbo rubbed at his eyes with a sigh. "It has to be here. But I don't know how to get at it."

"Get some rest, then," Thorin said. "You're exhausted." Both of their minds were spent from turning over the problem for most of the day, and there was nothing more they could glean without the sun's light.

Bilbo seemed to have only half-heard him, as he sat down in the sand, still shivering, with his attention still on the map in his hands.

Without any wood, they wouldn't be able to light a fire. There was nothing on this barren island, either, to shelter them from the wind. Thorin took a seat next to him and put a hand on his shoulder.

"We'll need to stay close tonight. It's going to get cold."

"I-I've noticed," Bilbo replied, glancing up at him.

"Here." Thorin moved forward and rearranged their limbs so that Bilbo settled between his legs. He had never been so casually intimate with another person before, but something about touching Bilbo like this seemed decidedly right.

On his part, Bilbo seemed pleased with it as well, as he leaned back against Thorin's chest and continued to study the map. He pointed to the cluster of rocks around the island. "Does this look strange to you?"

"I'm surprised you can see it at all."

"I may not have cat eyes like you do, but I've spent my fair share of nights staying up late reading." He traced the path through the rocks with one finger. "It's a rather unique shape, though, isn't it?"

"What are you—"

"Oh!" Bilbo straightened, nearly bashing his head into Thorin's chin. "I have an idea." He stood up, and Thorin watched, half-confused and half-curious, as he picked up his walking stick.

Using the map as a reference, he traced the path marked on the paper into the sand with the end of the stick. When he was finished, he stepped back and stared at the marking.

The quiet rush of the waves filled the air. After a minute, Bilbo sighed and said, "Well, I don't know what I expected to happen. I just thought—"

"Bilbo." Thorin stood, eyes riveted on the tracing in the sand. Something was moving just beneath the surface.

A dark spot appeared, covering the marking, and he realized a moment later that it was water. The pool expanded and crept across the sand, gradually submerging it.

"Back to the boat." He grabbed Bilbo's arm and pulled him towards the vessel. He didn't know what was happening, but he wasn't going to risk the island sinking beneath their feet.

They climbed into the boat and watched as the whole of the island sank into the ocean. Before either of them could say a word, the fog, the rocks, and the sea began to shimmer around them. Thorin blinked rapidly as his vision blurred. When it finally cleared, his eyes widened. Beside him, Bilbo gasped.

Their boat was now in a small inlet, floating next to another of a similar shape and size. Surrounding them was a completely different island, populated with trees and bushes and rocks. At the other end of the inlet was the mouth of a wide cave.

"A glamour," Thorin said. "The rocks were but an illusion." He turned to Bilbo with a grin. "You did it."

"Well, I—" He was cut off as Thorin pulled him into a kiss. "You're very welcome," he said, smiling as they broke apart.

Thorin held him for a moment longer, then turned back to the cave. Somewhere within lay the end of their journey—Phineas Ward, the rest of the thieves, and the key that would allow him passage back to his home. "Now, it's time to finish this."

I wanted this chapter to be the kind of calm before the storm, along with some fluffy/romantic moments. By my estimates, there will probably be about two more chapters to go before the end.

Thanks all for reading, and I hope you enjoyed this chapter. Huge thanks to Ellinara for reviewing. It means a lot to me! Please review for this chapter as well; I'd love to know what you all think!