Happy New Year. I know it's a short chapter, I"ve rewritten this several times and for some reason, this was the best of the bunch. Next chapter is 3x as long.

Chapter Seventeen

The dealing with Darrow could be very difficult at times. After the fiasco of a dinner; which did have its moments of fun; told her just how much they had behaved in her smail. After watching Bofur get up on the table and start to dance, followed by the food fight that started almost directly afterwards, she was embarrassed to be associated with the whole group.

What was worse, was that they wouldn't even give her a moments grace to speak with the elves, who were so graciously hosting them. Even with their less than stealer arrival. It seemed as if all thirteen of her idiots were getting between her and the elves.

When their host had tried to get her attention; since she was looking forward to speaking with him, she was glad he wanted to do the same; she found Dori and Nori of all pairs ushering her away, asking stupid questions about herbs and the many things they could do with them. Which had very shortly turned into a shouting match between the two brothers because Nori started asking about which ones could be used in as poisons, in the teas that Dori was grilling her about.

Then being told that she couldn't go anywhere alone because it wasn't safe around the tree-shaggers. Honestly, wouldn't that hurt? She'd once seen a tween walking a fence and loose his balance, he never really talked the same way again.

Then being ushered off to a meeting about the map, only to find out that she'd have to put up with this horrible behaviour for two more weeks because it wasn't the right time to view the runes on the map.

But the final straw, the one that made her lose it and completely defy their idiot leader, was when he tried to make them all sleep in the gathering room, just off of all the guest rooms that the elves provided. She hadn't had a proper bath in months because she wasn't letting anyone see her in less than her smalls and just as long since she'd slept in a bed, away from the constant snoring. Really, who could honestly snore so hard that they breathed in moths, and then back out again, alive!? She was a solitary Hobbit. A confirmed spinster; though not quite the same way as her father had been before her mama.

She was going to have her own room, she was going to take a bath. Alone. And she was going to speak with the elves. If only to thank them for their graciousness towards both the company and her mother all those years before. Though, if she had a chance, was really hoping that perhaps either Lord Elrond's sons or Glorfindel were available for her to train a bit with. Since they'd been the ones to gift her mother with the bows she used, and she hoped they would be able to repair them a bit. After almost sixty years, even though they'd been well taken care of, they were getting rather ramshackle.

She also needed to find a way to get the Ur's away from the rest of the group, to get a chance to talk to them. Almost losing them twice in one day was too much to bare. She needed to tell them the truth, or at least make the attempt.

Now to just do it all without strangling her idiots.

Next chapter: Family time.