AN: Thanks to everyone who favorited, followed, and/or reviewed the first chapter, it means a lot. The first few paragraphs are mainly about Acaelia learning of the company's trip so far, making it a bit of a summary; feel free to move past that part if you want more cute/funny stuff. More feedback makes me want to write even more, so you'll probably get the next chapter faster if you guys let me know what you think; just saying. Have a good day!
The rest of the day went by slowly, but entertainingly. Acaelia finally sat down with her guests after they finished cleaning the dishes for her and demanded that she take a load off. They talked as friends would, and Acaelia quickly got to know each and every one of them a bit better.
Kili and Fili were the nephews of Thorin, who would hopefully be the next King Under the Mountain. Balin and Dwalin were brothers and had been close friends of Thorin's family for generations. Bombur, Bofur, and Bifur were siblings as well, but Bombur didn't talk much and Bifur only knew how to speak dwarfish. Oin and Gloin were brothers, Oin with horrible hearing and Gloin always talking of his son back at home. Nori, Ori, and Dori were brothers as well, although Acaelia genuinely thought that Dori was Ori's father rather than siblings, and she couldn't help to ask how Nori managed to fashion his hair so wondrously.
Bilbo was born and raised in the Shire and spent his days in his hobbit hole, until Gandalf—who didn't release much information on himself—decided to bring him along on an adventure. It was on that note when Acaelia asked where they had been and where they were going.
Acaelia had to swear that nobody would be told of their goal before she was told where they were going, and when she found out, she was more than happy that she'd helped them out.
"I do not wish to explain why," she said in a grave tone when questioned about her dark glee for their journey, "but I will aid anyone or anything that intends to upset that oversized lizard. Smaug deserves the most painful death a thousand times over, and even worse than that."
They all had their own reasons to agree with her, but did so heartily. They then went on to tell the beautiful tail of their experience so far, and Acaelia listened closely and excitedly.
They had to persuade Bilbo into joining them before they were able to start, and on one of the first nights spent camping in the woods, they were met with three hungry giants that Bilbo cleverly thwarted.
They then made their way to Rivendell through a troll cave after a battle with orcs and goblins astride snarling wargs so that Lord Elrond would help them read the strange runes upon their map. Once they had the necessary answers, Gandalf distracted the others there so that the fourteen could sneak away since they surely would have been apprehended to keep them from meddling with the dragon.
Balin lead them into the woods, over hills, through valleys, around mountains, under waterfalls, until they found themselves teetering on the edge of a snowy mountainside in the middle of a thunder storm. Bilbo had nearly fallen off when, out of the sky, Dwalin spotted a gargantuan boulder flying through the sky and into the cliff side right above their heads! They managed to avoid the debris it caused, and Balin revealed that it was no thunder storm they endured, but a thunder battle between three stone giants made from the very mountains which they climb on.
The stones threw rocks and boulders at one another, their humongous arms swinging and smashing into one another as the rain pelted them and lightning flashed all around. At one point Fili, Bofur, Bombur, Ori, Dwalin and Bilbo had gotten separated from the rest and nearly squashed, but all ended well.
Just barely escaping the fight unscathed, the fourteen rushed into a nearby cave with relief and fatigue heavy on their minds. They were expected to wait in the mountains until Gandalf, who had been following them, caught up. While they slept, though, they found that the cave was a trap set by a nasty goblin community beneath them, and the floor gave in before they could do anything about it. They slid through tunnels, earning scrapes and bruises as they went, and were rushed by a hoard of snarling, pale, disfigured goblins covered in warts and blisters; all were captured except for Bilbo.
Across wooden bridges, the dwarfs were led to the fat goblin king and stripped of their weapons. He accused them of being spies, thieves, even assassins, and then asked what they were doing there. When no answer was given, poor Ori was threatened, but thankfully Thorin provided a distraction. While Bilbo was making his way through the trenches and tunnels, the foul creature forced them to listen to his song of how they would all die as they waited for the torture devices to arrive.
A fight broke out over a certain sword when, suddenly, Gandalf appeared in a flurry of bright light and power. Commanding the dwarfs to take up arms and fight, they flew over the bridges and up the stairs, taking out anything in their way—including the goblin king—until they tumbled their way the freedom which daylight brought.
After meeting back up with Bilbo, who they had feared decided to run back on home when he saw the first chance to do so, they traveled once more. Not long after starting their trek they were attacked once more, this time by orcs who had been warned by the goblin king. The leader of these beasts was Azog the Defiler, whom had been assumed dead for a long time now.
It was clear that Acaelia knew of Azog, for her eyes grew wide and she gasped very loudly. The company all looked at her curiously and asked how she knew of the vile beast, but she only apologized for interrupting and asked for the story to continue.
There was yet another skirmish, involving furious wargs, fiery pinecones, and many close calls, when they were cleverly saved by Gandalf once again. Eagles, bigger than horses, rose up from the hillside that Ori and Dori dangled dangerously from, coming to rescue the company. They were flown to a tall hill, one from where they could see Erebor, the Lonely Mountain and were joyously filled with hope.
They made their way down the hill and towards the mountain, and found maybe a day's worth of peace before realizing that they were still being followed by Azog and his fiends. They ran and hid, letting the orcs run past them, when Bilbo spotted Beorn, who decided to chase them off.
Thorin's telling of the story was interrupted by nearly every member of the company: Bilbo bragged about tricking the trolls, Fili told how Kili was attracted to a male elf in Rivendell, Dwalin recalled that he felt no fear when almost being squashed into the mountainside, Ori shyly mentioned being threatened by the goblin king, Gandalf was proud to brag about coming to save them in the goblin town, Dori dramatically mentioned nearly falling to his death, and Bofur teasing Bombur for managing to outrun them all to the house.
The tale was an exciting and amusing one, but also one that took hours to tell. By the time the story had ended, the sun was gone and replaced with the moon, and everyone's eyes were starting to tiredly droop. Acaelia saw this and was quick to stand from the table.
"Alright then, you lot, follow me so that you might get some rest."
"Rest?" Kili laughed. "We're not nearly tired enough to rest."
Beside him, his brother let out a huge yawn and rubbed his eye, to which Kili glared at him for.
"Regardless, you need to lie down and relax. Some of you are injured, some of you are fatigued, either way you all need to go to bed."
Not taking no for an answer, Acaelia gave them no choice other than to follow her to the sections of the house holding the animals. She moved the hay away from the cows and goats, organizing it in the hallway so they wouldn't have to snuggle too closely to the livestock.
The dwarfs watched this with an air of distaste, grumbling about how they deserved to sleep on something better than some wheat on the ground. Thorin hushed and scolded them all for being ungrateful, reminding them that they'd slept in much worse conditions. This didn't keep Acaelia from feeling bad.
"If Beorn weren't so opposed to dwarfs," she sighed as they began to lie down one by one, "I would have you all sleep in our bed while we slept in the hay. Valar knows you're all small enough to fit in it."
The dwarfs chuckled at this.
"Oh, I'm sure we would end up strangling one another out of sheer irritation before actually getting any sleep." Balin chuckled from the floor.
"You know," Dwalin started with a smirk, "you could probably get away with one of us joining you in the bed. To make sure you're safe, and all that." The rowdier members of the company laughed heartily and cheered him on with hoots and hollers. Bilbo blushed and just tried to rest while Gandalf laughed from his rocking chair in the corner, pipe in hand.
Acaelia grinned smugly down at Dwalin and crossed her arms.
"First, you suggest killing me for your own safety, and now you wish to bed me with the excuse of keeping me safe." She said in an amused voice. "You have an odd way of appealing to potential lovers."
"Aye, but there is potential, isn't there?" Dwalin pointed out with a wink over the howling laughter of the others, his words only making them snicker even more. Acaelia shook her head, baffled by his endless pride and began putting out the candles which lit the room.
"Not even slightly. Now behave and go to bed, before I make all of you sleep in the yard."
The dwarfs muttered "oh, alright" and "fine, fine" before making themselves comfortable and closing their eyes. Acaelia wished them all sweet dreams and finished blowing all of the candles out, but left the flames of the fireplace blaze on. She set aside a stack of blankets for them if they got cold in the middle of the night before going around the kitchen to make sure everything was tidy.
After that, Acaelia snuck out the front door and went to the gate with a pair of Beorn's trousers in hand.
…
Beorn didn't come home until the morning sun was peeking over the hills, but even this didn't keep Acaelia from waiting at the gate.
A sort of routine had taken place when it came to Beorn's change: Acaelia would close the gate after him, finish up her chores, wait at the gate when he came home, fill his belly, bathe with him, and then they would go to bed. It wasn't always like this—on the days where he stayed out longer than midnight, Acaelia usually left dinner on the table, filled the tub with warm water, and went to bed alone. Granted, she found it difficult to sleep without him by her side, but she tried for his sake nonetheless.
They were both extremely used to this routine, so things felt very off-kilter since Acaelia had refused to close the gate after him. It certainly wasn't the only strange part of her day.
She sat in the grass against the mossy stone wall, twirling a dandelion in her fingers, and pondered over how she would explain the day's excitement to her bear. He would not be happy to know of the dwarfs sleeping with the goats, or to find that they had been generously fed. And how would she inform him of the child? Or perhaps there was more than one baby inside of her…what an overwhelming thought that was.
The distracted girl didn't hear his thumping footsteps come out from the forest's edge and didn't even realize that he was there until he called out to her.
"You should be in bed, girl." His grumbling voice said across the field.
Her head snapped up and she quickly stood to make her way towards him, too eager to wait for him to meet her at the gate as usual. Once he was only a few yards away and she could see him clearly, her eyes roved over his nude body in search for evidence of an injury. As every other time she'd done this, she discovered that he was unharmed, if not slightly fatigued, for the change was always a tiring thing.
And then Acaelia discovered herself looking him over not only one more time, but two, and felt arousal stirring deep within her belly. She had half a mind not to hand over his trousers, but thought better and watched as he donned them.
"Your eyes linger, Acaelia." Said Beorn, pulling the pants on.
His own eyes looked her over, glad to see that she had not been harmed by the dwarfs who had invaded his lands. As he took in her scent, however, he was displeased to find the familiar aroma tainted with the stench of the little hairy beasts.
"Do they not have good reason to do so?" She spoke with a cheeky smirk. He ignored her words, although he did find them odd, and walked with her to the gate.
"Why are you not asleep?"
"I can never sleep knowing that you are away from me, you are more than aware of this."
"And if I had been home, would you be resting then?" Beorn challenged with his customary straight face.
"My darling bear, if you had been home, then neither of us would be resting." Acaelia said teasingly, wrapping her arm around his waist. "In fact, I'd wager that we would only be more exhausted."
Beorn's eyebrows rose at her boldness and he hesitantly put his arm around her shoulder. It wasn't common for either of them to openly show affection, and even less often for them to flirt, so Acaelia's actions were utterly curious. As they stepped through the gate, he pulled a lever with his free hand and let the stone wall slowly close behind him while they walked into the house.
"You are in an odd mood on this night, girl."
"Odd is not the word I would use to describe my current mood, my bear…although, I would use it to describe my day."
Shutting the door behind them, the man paused as the stink of dwarf filled his nostrils and overwhelmed his senses. He fought off the urge to cough the smell away and instead rumbled deep in his chest in irritation. Looking in the corner, he noticed a man with a long gray beard and pointed hat sitting in his rocking chair.
"They are still here." It was more of a statement than anything.
"Yes, I told them they could stay so long as you allowed it, and—"
"I do not allow it." Beorn grumbled as he glared at the small sleeping things with his cows and goats. He hoped that with his words, the dwarfs would be swept away and never seen again, but of course his girl had to make things complicated.
Acaelia sighed and led him to the dinner table, sitting with him and urging him to pay attention to her rather than the company.
"Why not? They have been kind to me, told me their stories and listened to mine. They even helped to clean their own dishes after dinner."
"You wasted our food on them?" Beorn asked, his irritation growing greater with every second. Acaelia was suddenly glad that she'd made him that pie and was quick to use it as a distraction.
"Yes, and that reminds me, I made you some honey pie."
She stood from the table and went into the kitchen, cutting him a slice. Beorn followed after her and stood closely behind her, his hands resting against the counter on either side of her. His warmth was almost scalding on her back even though there wasn't much contact being made. He leaned over her shoulder, his cheek brushing hers, and took a deep breath of the pie with a content smile, momentarily forgetting his frustration only to pass it on to Acaelia.
None of this was meant to be enticing in any way—in fact, it was something he unconsciously did quite often when she went to get him pie—but Acaelia's hands had a slight tenseness to them and she wanted so badly to arch back into him.
She wanted his strong arms wrapped around her middle and pulling her tightly, possessively back into his chest, and for his nose to skim her throat as he took in her heady scent. She wanted to reach back and hold onto his thick mane as he kissed her deeply and desperately, as if it were their first kiss and they had no time to spare in getting to know one another's body.
Acaelia nearly had to shake herself from her thoughts and reminded herself that this was not the time for amorous actions or fantasies.
Trying to focus on the matter at hand, she hurriedly took the plate of desert back to the table, sitting across from one another yet again. Sitting was uncomfortable for her though, and only made her more aware of the ache settling at the apex of her thighs.
"The dwarfs mean us no harm," she explained as Beorn ate, "they only sought out for safety, and our home just so happened to be the closest option."
"Did their attentions wander?" Beorn asked, not at all listening to the things Acaelia was saying. She blinked and mulled over his words, not sure what they meant.
"Wander?" She repeated, clueless. The man grumbled with impatience and jabbed violently at his pie.
"Have they shown interest in you, girl? If they crave your body the same way I do, then they must leave immediately."
Acaelia balked and blinked rapidly at his question. Surely, that was not something they needed to worry about. Dwalin had only been joking when he acted so forward towards her, and none of the others were interested in anything other than her food and telling their story. Then again, her mind had wandered for almost the whole day…it would have been easy for her to miss a stare or smirk if one was thrown her way.
Acaelia's unwillingness to answer right away caused Beorn to drop his fork and reach across the table to grip her chin between his thumb and forefinger. He turned her face so he could search her alert eyes, and didn't like the lack of surety found there.
"Did any of them dare to make an advance?"
She tilted her chin out of his grip, knowing better than jerk around and show attitude.
"No! And if they had, then they would have gotten a swift kick, hindering their ability to ever reproduce."
The corner of Beorn's mouth twitched in a tiny smirk, and Acaelia was thrown back into her pool of hormones.
She had seen that proud grin many times: after impressing her with his strength for the first time, after he won a game of chess, but the most she'd seen it was when he made her whimper and beg for release after nearly an hour of tortuous teasing.
They had sex daily, but only once or twice a week did Beorn throw himself into his lovemaking with the goal of agonizing Acaelia by keeping her from the bliss of absolution.
Swallowing thickly, Acaelia looked away and bounced her knee restlessly. Did he even know what that smirk did to her?
"Good." Beorn said, picking his fork up to continue eating his pie. The girl visibly relaxed and hoped that they would get back on topic now.
"For the record," the man continued as that smug smirk reappeared, "nobody could ever crave your body the same way I do, nor be able to please it." He chuckled deep in his chest, and Acaelia was close to groaning; from exhaustion, from frustration, from the sheer need of him to be inside her, she wasn't sure.
She also couldn't tell what had brought on his flirtations. Was it because there were other males present and he was jealous? No, Beorn didn't get jealous, he was too calm and collected for that. Then maybe it was because of Acaelia's staring and open touches earlier that he was acting like this. Her confidence had waned since then for some reason, and she was suddenly very embarrassed by the things Beorn was saying. She then blushed, wondering if he was able to smell the wetness through her layers of clothing.
"Anyways, they need our help." She said, trying to steer their conversation back on course.
"What do they supposedly need safety from?" He grunted.
"They are running from orcs, Beorn, from the defiler. Never would I leave them to the hands of those beasts, or anyone else for that matter, and I know that you wouldn't either. I know your thoughts of them and their culture, but you must put all of that aside, Beorn."
Reaching across the table, she took his large calloused hands into hers, staring at the shackle around his wrist.
"You once promised, long ago, to protect the Ford of Carrock and all those who reside in it from wargs and goblins and evil creatures of that sort. Well, the dwarfs reside here now, and with a group of orcs eager to gobble them up at the first chance they get. Will you still hold your promise?"
Her dark brown eyes strayed from the shackles and glanced up at him, surprised to see him staring so intently at her. Beorn had always been difficult to read, what with his expression always being a cold or stony one, and right now was one of the many times when Acaelia found herself struggling to know what he was thinking.
His hands squeezed hers and brought them up to his lips, looking her straight in the eye as he kissed her knuckles. Her stomach twisted in the familiar way that it did, feeling like she was being tickled and stabbed and hugged all at once. The arousal that she'd been momentarily distracted from was immediately brought to her attention yet again, making Acaelia rub her thighs together and look away shyly from Beorn's eyes.
"You are too good for me, Acaelia; too good for this world."
He let her hands go and went back to finishing his large hunk of pie, oblivious to the feelings currently roaring through his girl's body. She smiled at his compliment, knowing not to bother with any sort of answer even though she wanted to say that he was the one too good for her.
Beorn hated receiving compliments, no matter who was giving them or what they were about; another trait that he and Acaelia had in common.
"The dwarfs may stay for this night and the next if they wish it. No more than that, though; don't like the smell. If they need supplies for their trip, then we shall provide what we can and send them on their way."
"That is very kind and generous of you, Beorn. I am most certain that they will be grateful for it." Acaelia said happily as she reached for his empty plate to clean it. The man's hand reached out and gripped her wrist though, keeping her from touching it and instantly drawing her eyes up to his.
"I do it for you, not them. You are my girl, Acaelia, and they are nothing."
He leaned closer to her, and Acaelia prayed to any and every deity listening that he would capture her small, soft lips with his large, slightly chapped ones.
An image entered her mind just then, one that had her breathing hard and trying to steady her dizziness, of Beorn taking her wildly and urgently on the dinner table with Acaelia's legs wrapped tightly around his waist, groaning above her as he bucked wildly into her hot wetness with desperate abandon. Her hands held against the table above her head, whimpering and moaning for Beorn not to stop, to go harder, deeper.
"Orcs." Acaelia squeaked suddenly and swallowed.
Beorn frowned, letting her go and leaning back in his chair.
"Orcs?"
Acaelia struggled to speak and make sense of the random word she'd spewed.
"What, uh—did you run into any?"
"No, they were too fearful to let me get close." He took his plate and went to wash it, talking to her from the kitchen. "Had they approached, I would come home covered in their blood."
The thought of her bear fighting—putting himself in harm's way—made the fire in Acaelia's belly calm and even saddened her somewhat.
She tried not to worry and fuss over Beorn, knowing that he was a capable fighter and deserved her trust, but it was difficult. Some days she couldn't help but think about him dying or being kidnapped or any number of horrible things that might happen to him at one point in his life.
Then she would think about the horrible things he had endured and the fact that he managed to survive all of that, so surely, he wouldn't be brought down ever again. And if something did go wrong, Acaelia would be ready to bury any filthy thing that ever had to do with it with a vengeance unknown to all of Middle Earth.
"I don't doubt it." She said. Trying to shake the dark thoughts out of her head, Acaelia was quick to change the subject once more.
"I've got the bath filled, so whenever you're ready—"
"Join me." Beorn demanded, making Acaelia's eyes widen at the forceful request. She then frowned in confusion as he walked past her and into the washroom with clear intent in his steps.
They would occasionally bathe together, after a particularly hard day of work or just to spend extra time together. The thing was, though, that Acaelia was usually the one to ask for such a thing since Beorn wasn't half as concerned about hygiene or bonding with her. And whenever they did bathe with each other in the same room, let alone the same tub, they always ended up doing the same thing in the end…
Finding themselves in need of yet another bath.