Thorin looked at the princess of the Northern Realm and his stomach wrenched in remorse. Maybe it had been a bad idea to accept her mothers offer. The princess had a strong will and an own will and forcing love on her would bring nothing but pain and grief for both. The only thing Thorin knew was that he had willingly accepted the queens offer, much to the surprise of all attendees. Bilbo had grinned and Balin had looked at him with wide eyes as he had accepted the queens offer without thinking. Even the queen seemed to be surprised, but she hid it well. Now, Kaya was standing in front of him and looked at him. Her expression was blank, but Thorin would have wished for a reaction.

'You? My mother offered you my hand in marriage? And you accepted?' Kaya whispered. 'Why?'

'In exchange for her help.' Thorin answered quietly.

'No. Why did you accept?' Kaya walked towards Thorin and for the first time in his life Thorin felt insecure.

'We...we will secure an alliance with our marriage.' he manages to say, but he stopped himself as he saw the look in her eyes. It looked like hurt, but he would not dare to tell.

'An alliance?' Kaya nodded and turned away. It was the answer she had expected, even if she had hoped for a different one. 'Very well.'

Thorin took a deep breath of relief. At least she had not ripped his head off. But her reserved reaction bothered him more than he wanted to admit. Balin entered the room in moment Thorin took a step towards Kaya.

'The contract is ready, laddie.' the old dwarf told Thorin and looked back and forth between the king and the princess with a frown. Of course the experienced dwarf had noticed the growing attraction between Thorin and Kaya, but he could also see that both were too stubborn to act on it. With a last waiting glance at Thorin Kaya walked towards Balin and looked at the piece of paper with disgust.

'Wedding arrangements, maritial arrangements and so forth...' Balin handed Kaya the feather for her to sign. But before she could, Thorin pulled her back.

'You haven´t even read it.' Thorin told her and made her smile.

'Do I need to read it?' Kaya asked bitterly. 'All I need to know is that I will be your queen, as you wished, and that our marriage will form an alliance between our people.'

'And what do you wish?' Thorin asked.

'I wished that...we would have done this under happier circumstances.' Kaya smiled sadly and quickly signed the contract. Then she took it and slammed it into Thorins chest. Balin had to smile at the gesture, for Thorin had given the contract to Bilbo the same way Kaya handed it over to him now. That marriage would be interesting, indeed. As she left, Balin walked over to Thorin, who was still looking after her.

'You could have told you how you feel.' Balin scolded his king. 'Or do you not have any feelings?'

'I have the feeling that this was a bad idea.' Thorin remarked dryly and grabbed the feather to sign the contract as well. 'Please bring this to the queen. I need to talk to my...intended.'

Balin nodded and walked away to hand over the contract to the queen. The old kingly advisor strongly disliked the queen who practically sold her daughter to a foreign king in exchange for her troops. Thorin walked back to the healing house and found Kaya sitting at Kilis bed. His younger nephew was grinning at something Kaya said and Fili who sat nearby had an amused gleam in his eyes.

'So, uncle? We heard that congratulations are in order?' Fili smiled at Thorin. 'And may I say that you are lucky that I did not beat you to it. I saw her first, you know?'

Thorin was surprised by the merry wellwishes of his nephews, but he saw Kaya smile and forced himself to not feel jealous about the fact that Kaya apparently had a better relationship to his nephews than to him. But who was he fooling? His nephews and Kaya were the same age, at least compared in men and dwarves years. He was old. Maybe this was no good idea after all.

'Princess...Kaya, may I have a word in private?' Thorin cleared his throat and reached out for her hand, pulling her up.

Kaya only nodded and followed him out, ignoring the quiet catcalls from Kili.

As they were out of hearing range Thorin looked at Kaya in determination. 'You do not need to do this.'

'I know.' Kaya sighed and leaned back against a wooden pillar. 'But I want to do this.'

'Why?' Thorin could only whisper. He wanted to reach out for her, touch her and cup her face in his hands, but he refrained from doing so.

'Because I always dreamed of becoming queen of a stubborn, arrogant, smug and completely oblivious king one day.' Kaya replied dryly and could not hold back a smirk. 'And I always felt attracted to older men.'

Thorin looked at her with wide eyes and was at a loss of words. Nearly. 'Old?'

Kaya had to laugh at the single word leaving Thorins mouth. 'All you heard was old?'

'I am all of the other things.' Thorin managed to admit, but then he saw her smile widely. 'You were teasing me?'

'Of course I did.' Kaya had to chuckle. 'That is my revenge for you not telling me why you agreed to marry me in the first place. I may not know you very well, but even I can say that you would never agree to a marriage if you did not want to marry me. All I want to know is why you agreed to marry a princess of men you do not even know.'

Thorin took a deep breath. Every answer he had ready in his mind would make him sound like a complete fool. Because I fell in love, because I desire you, because you fascinate me...everyone of these answers would probably make her laugh into his face. Thorin decided to let action speak for itself, for he was never a dwarf of words. One of his big hands grabbed Kayas hips and the other cupped her cheek as he leaned towards her and pulled her against him. Their lips met and Kaya let out a surprised moan before she relaxed into Thorins touch. The kiss was gentle and full of desire and it left Kaya breathless after Thorin pulled away. Their lips had brushed against each other in a soft caress and Thorins beard had tickled Kayas chin. His hands had left burning marks on her skin and Kaya wanted more. Thorin smiled and wrapped his arms around his intended.

'Do you understand now?' he asked and laid his forehead against hers.

'No. But I accept.' Kaya smiled and nuzzled his big nose with her smaller one. It was their first and last peaceful evening alone.

The next morning the company was ready to move again. The dwarves had taken the news of their kings marriage quite well and most of them congratulated Thorin and Kaya. Dwalin and Dori were skeptical, but they paid their future queen their respects.

Legolas was furious as he heard how queen Neeya had practically sold her daughter to the dwarves and his anger grew even more as he saw Thorins posessive arm around Kayas waist. Kaya had to pull her old friend aside and calm him down. Legolas could not understand the women he had befriended. Both had fallen for dwarves of all people. Tauriel was clearly smitten about Kili and Kaya would marry Thorin.

'Do you not want me to be happy?' Kaya asked and smiled at the elf.

'A dwarf will not make you happy, he will only bring you misery.' Legolas growled, but Kaya shook her head.

'You do not know that.' Kaya stated and took his hands. 'Never before I have agreed to even look at one of the intended my mother chose for me. This time it is different. I want this. And you would make me happy if you could be happy for us.'

Legolas grumbled something under his breath, but he nodded and gave Kaya a firm hug.

'The minute he hurts you I will be there and I will shoot him with arrows until he looks like a dwarvish pin cushion!' Legolas told Kaya and glared at Thorin one last time before he mounted his horse with Tauriel, who was still looking at Kili with a dreamy but sad expression. They had said their goodbye in private and Kili had promised the she-elf that he would ask his uncle to accept their love if they survived the conquest of the mountain.

Kaya said her goodbyes to her mother and sister, but it was a short and cold goodbye. In fact, Kaya was very happy to leave her own blood and live with the dwarves in the future. That was if the quest would be successful. Their next station was Laketown. With the ponies which Kayas mother had provided, the company reached Laketown in one day. The mayor of Laketown greeted them and Kaya could see the excitement in his eyes. He too, hoped for a share of the dwarve´s riches. The people of Laketown were celebrating the king´s return, only one could not. Bard, a descendant of Lord Girion of Dale, was not blinded by greed or power. He knew that if the dragon awoke, this would mean death and fire for all of them. Kaya, who did not know what exactly Bard was afraid of, asked Thorin to tell her about the fall of Erebor. He told her the sad story as they walked through the city on the lake in a peaceful moment. As they passed the tower with the dwarvish windlance, Thorin stopped and stared at it for one moment.

'If the lord of men would not have missed his target, much would have been different.' Thorin stated sadly. Kaya looked at him in surprise.

'It was your grandfathers gold which drew the dragon here in the first place. Smaug would never had destroyed Dale and Erebor if it wasn´t for Thrors greed!' Kaya said and looked at Thorin. 'You cannot blame the men for your fate, Thorin!'

Thorin was taken back by her statement. He knew that she was right, but the memory of the fall of Erebor and Dale still haunted him. Hearing his future wife speak ill about his grandfather made his anger rise.

'You do not know what you are saying.' Thorin growled. 'You were not there.'

'No. I was not.' Kaya nodded. 'But I am here now and I will show you that the race of men is not as weak and fragile as you think!'

With these words Kaya turned around and left Thorin. They did not speak much the following day, but Kaya was the only one who took Thorins hand and squeezed it comforting after he had told Kili to stay in Laketown. The young dwarf was still running a fever and Thorin would not risk his life in favor of the quest. Fili stayed behind with his brother, as well as the healer Oin and Bofur, who had simply missed the boat.

The company of dwarves, the hobbit and the princess spent Durins Day looking for the hidden door and as they had found it, time was already running short. The sun had set, but there had been no keyhole. Dwalin was desperately attacking the stone wall with his axe and Nori tried to find a secret mechanism other than the keyhole to open the door, but both failed.

'What did we miss?' Thorins expression was one of pure agony and desperation and it broke Kayas heart. She thought about what Elrond had found out in Rivendell. Arwen had told her about the moon runes and...moon runes...moon.

The dwarves were about to leave and Bilbo was trying to hold them back, but they would not listen. Their hope was lost and they turned their backs on the door.

'It seems that you will not need to marry me after all.' Thorin murmured as he passed Kaya but the sad look on his face made her rising anger fade.

'You are a fool, old dwarf.' she growled. 'For ever thinking that our marriage was not in my interest and for giving up that easily. You are a warrior, you have never given up easily. Why now?'

'The secret keyhole! It is here! It is the light of the moon, not the sun!' Bilbo exclaimed behind them and turned around to search for the key that Thorin had dropped before. In his frenzy he stumbled over the key and hurled it towards the cliff, but Thorin managed to get a hold onto the keychain in the last minute. Kaya wondered how a dwarf that massive could sometimes move that swiftly. The following moments passed like a dream. Thorin opened the door and set foot inside of the mountain for the first time since the dragon came.

Kaya had tears in her eyes as she watched Thorin and Balin step inside the mountain, their eyes full of memories of their former home. Their reaction was already worth the quest for Kaya. Seeing them reclaim and restore their home would be the only reward Kaya needed.

It was then when the nightmare began. Balin and Bilbo walked down to the treasury to find the arkenstone, a family heirlome which would grant Thorin the right to rule over all the other dwarven kingdoms and gather their armies. The company could do nothing but wait. Kaya pressed herself against the cold stone of the mountain, trying to find protection against the cold wind and watched Thorin pace. His expression was blank and the look in his eyes was changing the longer they were waiting outside of the secret door. He seemed to undergo a change, but Kaya could not tell what it was. Then she remembered Elronds words about the madness which ran in the Durin line. But what was this madness about? She was about to stand up and walk over to her intended as the earth shook below their feet.

'Was that an earthquake?' Ori asked scared.

'That, my lad, was a dragon.' Balin sighed and exchanged an alarmed look with Thorin. 'We have to get him out of there.'

'Give him time.' Thorin shook his head and continued pacing.

'Time for what? To get killed?' Balin asked and stopped Thorins pacing.

'You are afraid!' Thorin uttered with disgust and snarled at Balin.

But the old dwarf did not feel bothered. 'Yes, I am afraid. I am afraid for you! You have changed already, the Thorin I know would never stand here and wait!'

'I will not risk the sake of this quest for one burglar.' Thorin stated and Kaya grew pale. Balin was right, this was not him. Kaya decided that she had to get to know more of the madness Elrond had talked about.

'His name is Bilbo.' Balin told Thorin and these words seemed to awaken the old self of the dwarf king. Drawing his sword, Thorin ran into the mountain.