Thank you to everyone reading this..

Seriously.

Ya'll are beautiful.

Chapter 4

The next day went by smoothly. They had packed up camp just before dawn swiftly and were soon on their way, however, the skies were a dull gray and there was no sun to be seen. This made Nakita slightly nervous, for she had a fear of thunder, but she loved the rain and always watched storms blow by.

Fili and Kili, along with the occasion of any other traveler in their Company, had tried getting to know her a bit more. She had explained things all the way to her favorite color, being a royal purple, to the story of her cave explorations. It was quite the quest and Nakita was beginning to look up to it more and more with how close she was at becoming possible friends with the others. That is, until the rain started pelting down from the clouds.

The rain was so heavy that it soaked through the hood of her cloak and she feared that the rain would get through her saddlebags and into her food, clothes, and other things, so she stopped Ernil and hopped off, making sure that the contents of her bag would stay dry. Thorin, suspiciously, made Gloin and Dori stay back with her, but she let them continue on. Everyone was crabby and had short tempers because of the rain, so they obliged. Once she settled her paranoia, she jumped back onto Ernil and continued on the path that the group took.

The one good thing about staying back, was that they got to gallop to catch up. It had made Nakita smile and she had to bite her tongue to hold back a whoop. She hadn't been able to gallop for a while, the pony's needed agility and endurance over speed. Ernil certainly enjoyed it that when they had caught up, he flew past everyone and Nakita was forced to make him stop. He reared back and turned on his hind feet. She sat and waited and when the Company caught up, her cheeks were stained red from the awkward silence that followed as Thorin trotted past.

"You've got a fast horse." Fili offered and she thanked him for his compliment, stroking Ernil's neck. After that, there wasn't much conversation, just the constant splatter of rain on the ground below them.

They had been riding for a few hours now and everyone was irritably soaked to the bone. It was silent, except for the small rolls of thunder in the background, which caused Nakita to jump and flinch whenever she heard the blasted rumble.

"Aye, Mr. Gandalf. Can't you do something about this deluge?" Dori's voice spoke up.

"It is raining, Master Dwarf, and it will continue to rain until the rain is done." Gandalf spoke back in a short tempered voice. "If you wish to change the weather of the world, you should find yourself another wizard!" He called back, riding at the front of the group. This picked up conversation obviously as Bilbo spoke up as well.

"Are there any?" He asked.

"What?" Gandalf asked.

"Any wizards?" This struck up the attention of Nakita and a few of the others. Even though she had known Gandalf for all her life, she hadn't known much about him.

"There are five of us. The greatest of our order is Saruman the White." This name, for some reason, made Nakita's eyes narrow and Kili, who noticed, was about to ask when Gandalf continued. "Then there are the two Blue wizards, you know I've quite forgotten there names."

"And who is the fifth?" Bilbo asked.

"Well, that would be Radagast the Brown." He answered.

"Is he a great wizard, or is he like you?" Nakita snorted and laughed silently to herself at the bashing Bilbo had just unintentionally given Gandalf.

"I think he's a very great wizard, in his own way. He's a gentle soul who prefers the company of animals."

"Like me..." Nakita whispered to herself, Kili and Fili giving her a glance.

"He keeps a watchful eye on the vast forest lands to the East and a good thing too, for always, evil will look to find a foothold in this world." Gandalf finished and this seemed to be the end of the conversation, so they kept riding back into the silence.

It rained for the rest of the day and many predicted it would rain throughout the night. Only getting groans of annoyance from the Company. Fili and Kili were sent to scout of a place to camp for the night and they didn't have much luck. Another hour in the rain and Nakita stopped her horse when something caught her eye.

"Oi!" She called out to the Company, waving her hand for them to come back. "I think I found something." She jumped off her horse and walked through a large, wet, bush. She pushed the bush's branches away from her face, the movement sending a thicker shower down onto her, but she was already soaked to the bone, so she hardly felt the difference.

Behind the bush was a large stone wall, most likely carved many years ago, but the way it curved back in like a cave made it seem like it would have been used by travelers much.

"Looks like we can finally dry off, boys!" Nakita grinned, putting her hands on her hips. A few of the dwarves cheered and she received many pats on the back for her find, even Thorin, despite his usual hostility towards the dwarf maiden, gave her a nod of approval, which made her grin a bit wider. She had been hoping to gain some relation with the King, and now there was a bit of hope shining through.

Almost immediately everyone began unpacking and claiming spots to rest. Oin was hard at work trying to find dry wood for a warm and much welcomed fire, but there was nothing. An idea sparked into Ori's mind as he watched Oin's struggle.

"Um... Nakita?" His voice spoke from behind the white haired maiden, who was brushing out some water from Shadowmere's coat. She turned immediately to see what he wanted.

"Yes, Ori?" She asked in a polite tone.

Ori gestured over to Oin before speaking, "I'm not really sure what you could do, but... uh, do you think you could.. um."

It was obvious to Nakita what he was asking, but he didn't want to be blunt and make her uncomfortable. She smiled gently, "Yes, Ori. I can try and help." He grinned in relief and led her over to Oin, almost everyone stopped to watch, obviously knowing what was going to happen.

"Oin, mind if I?" Nakita asked, not wanting to make him feel embarrassed for failing at the fire. She pointed down at the pile of damp wood.

Oin stood up, taking note of the eyes watching them. "If you don't mind, yes. I could use your help." She nodded and bent down. They obviously wouldn't be having any issues regarding cooking, warmth, or light anymore.

Nakita knelt down next to the pile and in an instant flames were coming up from her hands. She held it close to the wood, working her way around, drying it up. It took some time and everyone was eagerly waiting for the fire to be complete so they could stop shivering and dry off. At last, Nakita stood up and away from her work. The fire was burning at a good rate and when more wood would need to be added, she would just be called over to dry it off and then continue whatever it was she was doing.

She was laying down with her back to Ernil, who was laying on the ground next to her, drying out a book she had with her when Kili strolled up beside her.

"What is it?" She asked when she noticed the light from the campfire was being blocked. She looked up and met his golden brown eyes.

"Here." He handed her a bowl of stew.

"Oh, I didn't know the food was even being cooked. I could have helped..." She looked uncomfortable taking the bowl, but did. Kili sat down next to her with his own.

"Nonsense, you've helped enough. If it weren't for your help, we would most likely be sitting in the mud still soaked." Nakita chuckled lightly at the comment just as Fili joined his brother.

"How's our tag-along doing?" He chided.

She smirked, "Better than you."

"Ooh." Kili laughed, nudging his brother.

"Well, aren't you just a spark of fire?" Fili snorted as he drank his stew.

"It would seem that way, wouldn't it?" She chuckled, chewing on some of the vegetables in the meal.

"What are you reading?" Kili perked up when he noticed the book in her lap.

"I wasn't reading it, I was drying it off. Stupid rain washed away some of the words, so I'm going to have to rewrite it a bit."

"You wrote a book?" Fili asked, almost choking on his food.

"No, you dumb dumb. I've read so many times I could probably recite it." She snorted and, finishing her stew, continuing her drying. She was about three fourths through, so she would most likely be able to dry it completely and get some sleep before they continued on.

Kili stifled a laugh at the term she had called his brother, which got him a punch on the shoulder from Fili.

"What's it about?" He asked, rubbing his arm.

"It's about an old fairy tale of a land very far to the north from here. Well, no... more like north west." She stated, beginning to ramble a bit. "In a land called Skyrim. There, dragons are nothing to be feared. In fact, they're worshiped by the Nordic race, a race of Man." She explained, then realized that the talk of dragons had drawn attention from the others. She looked up at their shocked face. She instantly took it back and wanted to never have told what the book was of. She met the eyes of Thorin, who looked angry. His eyes bore into hers and after a moment he stormed off to be by himself. Nakita, whose face was flushed scarlet, looked down at her crossed legs and began fiercely drying her book, almost burning the pages. She muttered a very soft apology, which only Fili and Kili heard.

After it quieted down a bit and everyone went back to their own business, Kili scooted a bit closer to Nakita. "It's okay, you know. You didn't mean to bring up any bad thoughts." He tried to comfort her.

"I know, but... I should have thought before I spoke. It was foolish of me." She mumbled. She had been drying so frantically that she had sped up her rate of pages and was already on the second to last one.

"Nonsense, it was just a little... shocking." He replied, having to pause a bit to search for a word. He looked up and watched Fili, who had left the two, help clean up the mess from supper. "It sounds like a really interesting story. Is it one you told when you were a storyteller?" He asked.

"Yes, actually, it was." She smiled softly and looked up at him, finishing her book drying. "It was one of my favorites."

"Didn't you also do something like, oh what was it?" Even though he was being sly about it, Nakita still picked up his social cue. He wanted something. "Oh, I remember!" He declared, "It was fortune telling."

Nakita grew a little dark and her voice lowered, "Kili... I'm sorry, but... I'm not going to read your fortune." She closed her book and shoved it into her bag that sat beside her.

"Oh come on! Why not?" He asked, trying to beg, but failing.

"Because. I don't want to." She resisted, slowly rising to her feet. "And I mean it." She snarled at him. She walked off into the woods and Ernil immediately got up and followed her with a neigh.

Kili stared after her, while the company stared at him. He had struck a nerve and it seemed to be the fuse to a very short explosion.

Fili walked over. "Kili, what did you do?" He looked a bit shocked and slightly afraid that Nakita would come back and burn him.

"I asked her to read my fortune because she used to do it as a job, but then she just yelled at me and walked away!" He flailed his arms into wild gestures to show he was just as shocked. They stared at where she had gone off to and eventually Fili shrugged.

"She'll be fine. Come on, let's go get some sleep before it's our watch." He pulled his brother to their sleeping spot, but Kili couldn't get Nakita out of his head. He wanted to know what had caused her to quit that occupation. He wanted to know what was wrong with her eye. He wanted to know her.

He had a rough time sleeping before his watch.