Blessed of the Valar

Chapter 3: On the Road and Dealing with Trolls

The next day turned out to be a bad day to travel. The heavens opened up and poured rain down upon the company, making everyone rather miserable. Belle refused to end up looking like a drowned rat and simply willed the rain to avoid her, making Gandalf grumble at her from under his wide-brimmed hat. She got a few odd looks from the dwarves near her who noticed she was dry despite the downpour, but only little Ori was willing to ask about it.

"Miss Belle?"

"Hmm? Yes Ori?"

"I was wondering…and you don't have to answer of course…but…umm…how come you're still dry?"

Belle laughed softly and gave him a slightly lopsided grin.

"It is a gift Ori…and no I will not explain further…not yet."

Ori nodded and let the subject go for the time being. He knew she would tell them when she was ready, and nothing would make it happen any faster. One of his brothers, however, had had just about enough of the rain by this point.

"Here, Mr. Gandalf? Can't you do something about this deluge?"

"It is raining, Master Dwarf, and it will continue to rain until the rain is done. If you want to change the weather of the world you should find yourself another wizard."

She snorted softly, both from Dori's question and from Gandalf's response, and couldn't help but pick at the wizard a bit.

"Are there any?"

"What?"

"Other wizards?"

"There are five of us. The greatest of our order is Saruman, the white. Then there are the two blue wizards, you know I've quite forgotten their names?"

"And who is the fifth?"

"Well, that would be Radagast, the brown."

"Is he a great wizard, or is he more like you?"

She gave Gandalf a cheeky little smirk when he turned around to frown at her.

"I think he's a very great wizard…In his own way. He's a gentle soul who prefers the company of animals to others."

"I can't say I blame him on that one. I've often been the same way myself, adopting stray injured animals into my home until they were well enough to be free again."

She got many an odd look for that comment, though she saw none of them due to the dwarves all being behind her and Gandalf at the moment.

The company continued riding through the day, thankful when the rain eventually stopped, and they came to the ruins of an old farmhouse of some sort. It looked abandoned for some time but Gandalf seemed unnerved by it and began walking around the place.

"We'll camp here for the night. Fili, Kili, look after the ponies. Make sure you stay with them."

"A farmer and his family used to live here."

"Oin, Gloin…"

"Aye."

"Get a fire going."

"Right ya are."

"I think it would be wiser to move on. We could make for the hidden valley."

"I have told you already: I will not go near that place."

Belle let her mind wander as Gandalf and Thorin began to argue over whether they should go to Rivendell or not, Oin and Gloin were arguing over how best to start a fire, Fili and Kili were doing their assigned task but not without a lot of insults and shoving, and the rest of the company was helping to remove their packs from the ponies. When Gandalf stormed past her, muttering about stubborn dwarves, she stood up in alarm.

"Gandalf? Where are you going?"

"To seek the company of the only one around here who's got any sense."

"Oh really? And just who might that be then?"

"Myself Miss Baggins!"

She felt herself growling in anger at the wizard's words and his stomping off in a hissy fit like a fauntling. The growling only stopped when a large hand came to rest on her shoulder and a deep voice spoke next to her ear.

"Do not trouble yourself over the wizard Belle. You'll only give yourself a headache."

She snorted softly at his soft words, trying not to start laughing outright though her shoulders shook with her suppressed mirth. His tone held a hint of amusement in it as he called to Bombur, a rather rotund dwarf with a heart of gold, to fix their supper. Belle slipped out from under the King's hand, giving him a saucy little smirk as she did so, and went to help Bombur while swaying her little hips to tease the regal dwarf behind her. Thorin's low groan caused her to smirk wickedly as she bent over to help Bombur.

"That little lass is going to be the death of me Balin."

"Perhaps, but at least you would die happy my old friend. I do not know much about Hobbits but I do know that there is something special about that one."

Thorin gave Balin an amused look, though he was surprised his friend was speaking like that.

"Do not tell me you want her as well Balin?"

"Heavens no, lad. She's far too young and feisty for me to be able to handle…especially the feisty part. You should have seen her take your wild nephews to task when they started eating like savages in her home. I've never seen anyone but their mother get them to behave so quickly."

Thorin laughed at his friend's words and watched her move around the camp, handing bowls of stew to each member of his company and fussing over young Ori like a mother hen. When she finally made her way back to him he realized Balin had abandoned him for the food. Belle handed Thorin a bowl of the stew but he set it on a rock and gently pulled her back to him by her wrist. His voice was low and dark, sending shivers through her as he held her smaller body against his own.

"You have been teasing me little Hobbit. It is not wise to tease a king."

"Oh? Why is that? What could you do to me out here with your company watching, my King?"

She watched his eyes darken and felt, more than heard, the low growl in his chest.

"Say that again Belle."

"Say what? My King?"

"Yes…that."

He grasped her hips in his large hands and lifted her up, kissing her fiercely before gently setting her down again. He took in her slightly dazed expression and kissed her forehead.

"Go and feed my nephews Belle. We can talk later."

She merely nodded silently and grabbed another two bowls of stew before heading into the trees.

"I think you may have stunned her lad."

"That was the idea, Balin. I want her…badly. I think she may be…"

He trailed off and sat on a log to think, the rest of the company left him alone as they knew not to disturb him. Belle had found the boys who looked like a pair of dwarf statues they were so still. She was further shocked when she tried to hand them food and they still didn't move. She set the bowls on a nearby log and placed a hand on each of their foreheads.

"Are you two alright?"

"We're supposed to be looking after the ponies."

"Only we've encountered a, slight problem."

"We had 16."

"Now there's 14."

She watched as the boys started to try and figure out which ponies were gone.

"Daisy and Bungo are missing."

She froze for a moment at the name, she hadn't realized one of the ponies had the same name as her father.

"B…Bungo…and Daisy…Well, that's not good."

She noticed an overturned tree and laughed nervously.

"And that is not good at all. How the hell did you two manage to miss whatever did that? It had to be something bloody big."

The two gave her sheepish looks as she scowled at them, hands on her hips and her booted foot tapping on the ground.

"We…umm…we were…"

"Well…you see…we just…"

"Oh never mind…you can explain it to your Uncle when you tell him about this."

"Let's not bother him with this. As our official burglar we thought you might look into it."

"I'd really rather not…"

Fili noticed a light and the boys ran towards after telling her it was Trolls. She briefly considered running back to the others but was worried the boys would get themselves killed so she followed them. A troll lumbered by with another two ponies, one of them being her pony Myrtle.

"He's got Myrtle and Minty. They're going to eat them. We should do something."

"Yes you should. Mountain trolls are slow and stupid, and you're so small they'll never see you."

"Me? No. No, no, no."

"It's perfectly safe. We'll be right behind you."

"If you run into trouble, hoot twice like a barn owl and once like a brown owl."

They pushed her forward and out of the safety of cover. When she turned back to refuse they had run off already and she growled softly under her breath about idiotic dwarflings. She crept closer to the troll camp, listening to the stupid things argue over their food which smelled about as appetizing as her companion's feet in her opinion. When she got to the makeshift pen the things were keeping the ponies in and pulled out one of her daggers, only to realize rather quickly that it was nowhere near big enough to cut the thick rope. She cursed in her head in several languages and spotted a large, albeit crude, knife on the belt of one of the trolls. Unfortunately for her she was unable to grab the knife before the troll grabbed her, using her as a handkerchief much to her disgust. As they were trying to find out if there were more of her around Kili jumped out of the bushes with his sword. She wanted to yell at him to run back to the camp but the blood rushing in her ears made her a bit dizzy.

"Drop her!"

"You what?"

"I said…Drop her."

She hadn't known Kili could sound so threatening until now. The troll holding her upside down threw her at Kili, who had to drop his sword to avoid impaling her with it as he caught her. She heard the rest of the company charge in with a mighty round of battle cries as Kili set her on her feet.

"Are you alright Belle?"

"I'm fine, go help the others."

Kili charged into the fray while Belle grabbed a forgotten knife of one of the trolls and quickly set the ponies loose. Unfortunately for her the ponies escape drew the attention of one of the trolls and she was soon being held spread eagle by two of them.

"Belle!"

"No!"

"Lay down your arms…or we'll rip hers off."

Thorin's face looked like thunder and murder as he held Kili back, and the rest looked just as angry, only she couldn't tell what exactly they were angry about. Thorin threw down his sword with a dark growl and the rest followed. Soon the trolls had half the company stuffed in sacks and the other half tied to a pole and turning over the fire like chickens. The trolls started to argue, yet again, and one of them mentioned dawn and stone. Belle's eyes lit up and she struggled to her feet, missing the quiet hiss of breath from Thorin as she wriggled in his lap.

"Wait! You are making a terrible mistake."

"You can't reason with them they're half-wits."

Half-wits? What does that make us?"

She ignored Dori and Bofur griping in favor of the huge troll lumbering her way.

"I meant with the seasoning."

"What about the seasoning?"

"Well, have you smelt them? You're going to need something stronger than sage before you plate this lot up. I can tell you from personal experience that none of them has bathed in several days at least."

She let them argue briefly again before the 'chef' of the trio told her to speak again.

"Uh, the secret to cooking dwarf is…"

She hesitated because she knew what she was going to say would anger her companions but she had to stall for time…she just hoped they would understand.

"The secret is to…skin them first."

She heard the angry yelling and winced, not noticing that Thorin was still quiet at this point and studying her carefully as she fidgeted in front of the trolls.

"Tom, get me fileting knife."

"What a load of rubbish. I've eaten plenty with their skins on. Scarf 'em I say, boots and all."

"He's right. Nothing wrong with a bit of raw dwarf. Nice and crunchy."

One of them had picked up poor Bombur and was holding the dwarf over its open mouth.

"Not that one, he's infected."

"You Wot?"

"Yeah, he's got worms, in his…tubes."

She nearly sighed in relief as the troll dropped Bombur but she couldn't afford to waste the breath.

"In fact they all have. They're infested with parasites. It's a terrible business. I wouldn't risk it. I really wouldn't."

"Parasites?"

"Did she say parasites?"

"We don't have parasites. You've got parasites."

She closed her eyes for a second, resisting the urge to groan in frustration. A muffled thump from behind her had Kili changing his tune quickly and the dwarves quickly began arguing over who had the biggest parasites. She risked a quick glance back at the pile and met Thorin's eyes as he nodded encouragement to her.

"What would you have us do then? Let them all go?"

She shrugged a bit until the thing poked her and insulted her, knocking her backwards onto her rump in the process.

"Do you think I don't know what you're up to? This little ferret, is taking us for fools."

"Ferret?!"

"The dawn will take you all!"

She nearly cried in relief as Gandalf finally made himself known to someone other than her. She had seen him in the bushes as she played for time. The wizard struck the large boulder blocking the sun with his staff, cracking it in half and letting the sun turn the trolls to stone. Belle just stayed sitting right where she was as Gandalf released a few dwarves and they started letting each other out of their sacks. She didn't move until Thorin's warm hands settled on her shoulders and slid down to her waist before lifting her up, spinning her around to see his relieved smile.

"You were very brave Belle. Thank you for helping keep us all alive."

"You wouldn't have been caught if they hadn't grabbed me."

Thorin could tell she was upset about having been caught in the first place and he gently wrapped one of his large hands around the back of her neck before touching his forehead to hers.

"If they had not grabbed you they would have grabbed one of us, likely one of my foolhardy nephews. Do not think I don't know who pushed you into this mess to begin with and I will have words with those two later. For now I am merely happy that everyone is safe and unharmed…if in need of bathing."

She wrinkled her little nose at him and looked at her filthy clothing.

"This is quite disgusting. I was used as a troll hankie."

Thorin's loud booming laugh froze everyone for a moment as they stared in shock. None of them had heard him laugh like that in quite some time. Belle stuck her tongue out at him and walked over to help Ori fix his slingshot. Thorin walked over to Gandalf, looking none too happy with the wizard.

"Where did you go to, if I may ask?"

"To look ahead."

"What brought you back?"

"Looking behind. Nasty business. Still, they're all in one piece."

"We wouldn't be if not for Belle and her quick thinking. I had to kick Kili to get him to figure it out."

"I told you she would be an asset to your company did I not?"

Thorin nodded his agreement, though he was still cross with the wizard. Clearly Belle was also since she was glaring at the old man from where she was helping Kili untangle twigs and leaves from his hair.

"They must have come down from the Ettenmoors."

"Since when do Mountain trolls venture this far south?"

"Not for an age. Not since a darker power ruled these lands…They could not have moved in daylight."

"There must be a cave nearby."

Thorin soon had the company searching for a cave, and when they finally found it Belle turned up her nose and refused to get any closer to it. A few dwarves tried to convince her to venture inside to see what treasures might be inside.

"Nope. I am not going in there. There is no amount of treasure that could get me to venture into that stinking hole."

Thorin chuckled and ran a hand along her spine as he walked passed her and into the cave, making her shiver and scowl at his retreating backside. It was only a short time later when the dwarves that were bold enough to enter the cave returned to the sunshine outside. Gandalf came over to Belle and handed her a small sword, well it was a sword for her but on a human it would have been a dagger. He gave her some speech about knowing when to take a life and when to save one before walking off, while she rolled her eyes behind his back making Fili and Kili snicker quietly. She gave them both a playful scowl, making them snort with laughter, until a shadow fell over her and she looked up to see Thorin backlit by the shining sun. Belle swallowed hard and felt her ears heating up as they turned red, the smirk that slowly spread across his lips did nothing to help her either.

"Thorin? Is there something you need?"

"Not as of yet. I do, however, have a gift for you."

"A gift?"

Her head tilted to one side as he reached into his fur-lined jacket and pulled out something, keeping it hidden in his hand so she couldn't see it yet. Her curiosity was making her squirm in front of him which caused one of those deep chuckles that made her body heat up.

"Thorin…"

She knew she was whining now but she couldn't help it. Hobbits were naturally curious creatures and even more so when a gift was involved. Thorin held out his other hand and she placed her small hand in his without hesitation. She felt something cold being set in her palm and looked down to see a shining silvery chain with an intricately carved locket attached to it. The locket had swirling vines on the front and tiny little flowers made from gemstones, mostly amethysts and sapphires. Her eyes met Thorin's and her bright smile had him returning it as she wrapped her arms around his waist, his own arms coming to circle around her and hold her to him. His deep voice rumbled in her ear, low and deep.

"Will you let me place it around your neck?"

"Of course."

She turned her back to him and lifted her auburn curls, his fingers brushed the sides of her throat as he hooked the clasp around the back of her neck. As his fingers rubbed her throat and shoulders she leaned back against his strong chest, feeling warm and safe for the first time in a very long time. A rustling sound had the dwarves closing ranks and brandishing weapons, Thorin pulled Belle behind him and his nephews closed in on either side. As it turned out the protection was unnecessary, it was only the brown wizard Radagast and his sled pulled by very large rabbits. Belle found herself staring at the man in bewildered amusement, until he pulled a stick insect out of his mouth and her look turned to one of disgust.

"That…is completely…"

"Eww…"

"Precisely, Kili."

Belle was standing a short way from the rest of the company, observing the dwarves who had quickly become like family to her, when a low growl came from behind her. Her eyes went wide as she turned in horror to face the enormous wolf-like creature that stood behind her. She couldn't help the scream that tried to rip from her throat, stopped only by the large hand that covered her mouth as a Warhammer crushed the creature's skull.

"Easy lass. We'll not let those beasts hurt you. You're not alone here."

Dwalin's rumbling voice and strong presence helped her to calm down, only losing it a bit when a second beast tried to attack Thorin only to meet Kili's arrow and then Thorin's new sword. Thorin's face was grim.

"Warg scouts. Which means an orc pack is not far behind."

"Orc pack?"

Belle knew she was shaking but Orcs were terrifying to her, and the wargs even more so with how closely they resembled the wolves of her childhood. Thorin quickly crossed to her side and pulled her close, murmuring low in her ear about safety and protection. Gandalf seemed just as worried as she was.

"Who did you tell about your quest beyond your kin?"

"No one I swear. What in Durin's name is going on?"

"You are being hunted."

"We have to get out of here."

"We can't. We have no ponies, they've bolted."

Belle cursed violently in several languages at Ori's words, including Khuzdul which earned her some amused looks.

"Didn't know the little lass could swear like that."

"There are many things you do not know about me Master Dwalin."

"I'll draw them off."

Everyone turned to look at Radagast, clearly all thinking the same thing…that the man was more than slightly insane.

"These are Gundabad wargs. They will outrun you."

"And these are Rhosgobel Rabbits. I'd like to see them try."

Belle was positive that wizard was more than slightly crazy, but Thorin had everyone grabbing whatever they could carry and heading for the edge of the trees. What followed was a mad dash across rock-strewn grassy hills while the mad wizard led the orcs on a merry chase. Eventually they were found out when a warg rider got too close and they couldn't kill it fast enough to keep it silent. More running had them standing before a large rock and being swiftly surrounded by the orc pack. Belle held her small sword in front of her, trying to keep from shaking. Thorin stood slightly in front of her with Fili and Kili close beside them. Gandalf's voice from behind had Thorin wrapping an arm around her waist and carrying her back to the large rock before letting her slide down a hole into a small cave. Once everyone was inside they stood, facing the entrance they came from and waiting for the orcs to come inside…only they never did. Loud horns sounded outside the cave and the pounding of hooves told Belle there were riders up there. A single orc fell through the hole, already dead with an arrow in its neck, which Thorin pulled out with a look of disgust.

"Elves."

Dwalin was at the back of the group and looking down a long winding pathway made of high rock walls on either side.

"I cannot see where the pathway leads. Do we follow it or no?"

"Follow it of course."

Bofur was quick to make his mind up and the rest could not help but follow, though Thorin gave Gandalf a suspicious look as he passed him.

"I think that would be wise."

Belle gave Gandalf a pointed look that the old man ignored completely. The path narrowed significantly the further they went and Belle was concerned that a few of the larger dwarves wouldn't be able to fit through, but she was unable to help as Thorin had placed her in front of him and kept urging her forward. She felt a tingling running along her skin and she turned to Gandalf with a curious look.

"Gandalf, where are we?"

"You can feel it?"

"Yes, my body feels…tingly…it feels like, well, it feels like magic."

"That's exactly what it is. A very powerful magic."

"It feels…familiar to me Gandalf. Like I've been here before."

"That's because you have, my dear."

When they finally came out the other end she stared in amazement at the lush greenery, cascading waterfalls, and overall peaceful valley that lay below them. Thorin looked less than impressed by the sight, rather he looked quite unhappy.

"The valley of Imladris. In the common tongue it is known by another name."

"Rivendell."

Thoring gave her a sharp look at the happy reverence in her voice as she spoke the name, before turning a fierce glare onto Gandalf.

"Here lies the last homely house east of the sea."

"This was your plan all along. To seek refuge with our enemy."

Belle sighed softly as the two of them began arguing yet again, tuning them out in favor of washing her face and hands in one of the nearby waterfalls. She gave pointed looks to the younger dwarves who quickly did the same, much to Dori's amusement. Dori and the three youngest watched as the water seemed to wrap itself around her hands and up her arms, at the shocked gasp Kili let out the other dwarves came closer. Balin's eyes widened in surprise as he began to figure something out, but resolved to speak to her alone about it since she had not yet told them anything herself.