The next day started with a meal of rolls and seed cakes from the hobbit's supplies and then they packed up camp to get going. As soon as she rolled up her bed, Fili and Kili were there to take down the makeshift tent. Lori frowned and tried to stop them, "Really, I don't need you to do this for me. I can pack up my own things."

None of them stopped what they were doing, though, but Fili smiled at her, "Nonsense, miss. We are at your service for as long as you travel with us." To which Kili adamantly nodded. "Aye miss, you'll want for nothing whilst in our company. Mother raised us better than that!"

"It's our pleasure, I assure you." Said Fili.

"We'll take good care of you," Kili added.

"Protect you,"

"Feed you"

"Keep you warm,"

"And treat you like a lady." Kili finished and they both gave a great and final nod simultaneously.

'No wonder they didn't want me to come if they expected to be in servitude just by my presence' Lori thought. "Friends! Please stop. You're making me feel like a burden and that was never my intention by coming. You don't coddle Gandalf either, and I only wish to be treated the same way as him. That's how my mother raised me, you see."

Fili and Kili looked at each other for a second and then Fili turned to her in slight regret, "I'm sorry miss, but right now we are also under orders to see to your tent, so we must. Speak to Thorin if you don't want our help."

"I... It's not that I'm ungrateful! It's just a bit much, is all…" She tried to explain when she saw their fallen faces. "Please try to understand. I've fended for myself my entire life, traveled the world with my mother and only had ourselves to fend for. I'm used to pulling my own weight, so it's foreign to me to have you men treating me like I'm such a- a…"

"Woman?" Kili suggested with a teasing smile.

Lori deflated with a sigh. "I guess that's how you would see me…"

The brothers looked at her and both their faces showed confusion.

"Well of course," Fili gestured up and down her body with a very appreciative expression. "Not much to be in doubt of there, miss." He winked at her.

"No! What I meant was…" She noticed that Kili was trying to hold back a snicker. She shifted her weight to one foot and put her hands in her sides. "Are you making fun of me?"

"oh no M'lady!" Fili said with a face that was entirely too innocent to be trustworthy. "I would never!"

Now Kili actually did snicker as he turned away to hide it by resuming his work.

"I mean it from the bottom of my heart that the… Ahem… Lovely figure of your… Body! –left no room for doubt that you are, in fact, a woman." Fili back pedaled a bit and tried hard to not stare below her neckline. He failed.

"Yes and I meant that woman or not, I would like to be treated as a capable and independent person in my own right, as I have always been before." She glared at him.

"Oh.. Of course miss," He looked her in the eyes again. "I meant no disrespect. My apologies if I have offended you in any way. As I said, you'll have to talk to Thorin if you want our orders changed."

Frustrated, she threw up her hands and went to tie the last of her things to Hopscotch, just as Thorin called to move out.

..o00O00o..

Lori rode next to Gandalf in front of a the dwarf leader, who had grunted sourly at her 'good morning' when she passed him earlier that morning. She spoke quietly to the wizard so they weren't overheard.

"Gandalf, I could use your advice."

"Yes?" he turned to look at her.

"I'm not sure how to say this, but… It's the men. How do I get them to stop seeing me as some feeble woman who can't fend for myself?" She tried to explain. "I don't want them to think that I don't appreciate their chivalry, but I also don't want them to treat me so differently."

"Oh, I'm perhaps not the best person to speak to about those matters my dear. But it seems to me that if you want them to view you differently, you'll have to show them who you really are instead of the image they already seem to have of you."

"What are you talking about?" Lori was confused.

"The dwarves have a preconceived idea of who you are and how you should be treated due to your fair gender, and if you wish to change this, it stands to reason that you'll have to change what they see you as."

"But how?"

"Be yourself. Do as you've always done, meet the world head on with open eyes, stand up for yourself and the rest will take care of itself, I suspect." He chuckled.

"That is entirely unhelpful, Gandalf." Lori huffed.

"I told you I was not the best person to talk to about this. Talk to Thorin if you have a problem with day-to-day matters within the company!" He kicked his horse into a trot and went to look ahead.

She glanced back at the grumpy dwarf, not looking forward to bringing a complaint before him after the greeting she had received earlier. And only on the second day of their travels. She pulled Hopscotch back to ride next to him in silence for a bit, waiting for him to say the first word.

"Where is Gandalf off to?" He grumbled.

"He likes to scout up the road sometimes, but he'll be back before we need him I suspect." Her back was straight but her eyes stayed on her pony's bobbing ears.

"I see. And why are you not with him?"

"I- I thought I might have a word with you, if that's alright?"

"What about?"

"Um… Well… It's about what we talked about the other night," she started.

"If we've already talked about it, I'm sure there's nothing more to say." He urged his furry pony ahead and Lori just looked aghast at the back of his head.

"Now wait just a minute… Excuse me!" she almost shouted. "I'm not done yet!"

His shoulders sagged minutely and he slowed his flight. When she caught up to him she was practically fuming.

"Now I don't know who pissed on your plum-cake this morning, but when I have something to talk about you had better listen up, dwarf. I will not be dismissed as some sort of beggar because you have something stiff stuck in an uncomfortable place, thank you very much! You can tell me what I did wrong, or you can treat me like a civilized person."

Thorin looked down at the furious woman, speechless at her demanding, crude words.

"Oh I wouldn't worry miss." Fili, who was behind them interjected. "He's always like that when he's gotten too little sleep."

"Or when he's having a bad hair day," Kili piped up.

"Or when someone talks of elves,"

Or when…"

"Yes, thank you!" Thorin finally interrupted the pair, though he didn't quite manage to sound as menacing as he might have liked.

"Any time, uncle." Fili quipped before he held his tongue with a smirk.

Lori, whose head had whipped back and forth between the brothers, came to a still at Thorin. "That's it? That's why you've been acting like a grumpy old bear all morning? You stood watch over me last night, so you're tired…" She looked at him and narrowed her eyes. "And what about tonight? Will you sleep then?"

"Not that it's any of your concern, woman, but no. I have watch over the main camp tonight."

"So by all accounts, this mood you're in will be even fouler by morning?" She looked slightly horrified at the thought.

"Look," Thorin said with a sigh. "You wanted to talk. So talk."

"Alright. Well, it's about the services you and your men have done for me…" Thorins head whipped towards her and a shadow fell over his eyes. Something about her words had poked at his wounded pride and he didn't like the way it sounded.

"Now, know that I'm grateful for your help, and that I know it all comes from a place of great gallantry, I really do." Lori held up her hands to stop him from interrupting her. "But I will not be a burden to the company. If I sleep in a tent it is because I have raised and set it myself. If I warm myself by a fire or eat a meal it is because I have made or contributed to it. I insist that your men don't pack my things in the morning, - this includes the bivouac - and I will not have you exhausting yourself by standing watch over me."

By then Thorin was glaring at her. "What will you have us do? Leave you to the wolves?"

Lori scoffed at him, "I can defend myself, you know. You needn't be so worried."

"None of us will sleep a wink knowing that you are in the dark, alone. And this is your solution?"

"Of course not." She shrugged. " Let me sleep within the company and you'll have no problem with guarding me. I already slept in the same room as them at Bilbo's house. And I know that they snore…"

"Hey!" - came Kili's voice. "I do not snore!"

"Aye, you're practically dead silent when you sleep," Fili said, to which Kili nodded proudly at Lori. "You drool in stead."

"Do not! But you fart." He shot back in petulant outrage.

"No, that's Bombur…"

"Boys!" Thorin shouted. "Stay out of it."

"… So you see, I don't have a problem with their sleeping habits." Lori finished. "In fact, I might feel safer surrounded by you all." The last bit was said with a half-smile that Thorin did a double take on.

He inclined his head in what looked like a concession for a moment. "I'll consider it." It didn't escape his thoughts that if she was going to wash up in her bivouac at night it would be out of the question to put her in the middle of the group. Neither she nor his men would be comfortable with such breach of modesty. Not that she knew he'd seen her and he firmly intended to keep it to himself.

"Of course if it rains, I'll expect the canvas to be used for shelter for everyone, not just myself."

"No."

"What do you mean, no?"

He looked at her pointedly. "I will not allow it."

"For the company to stay warm and dry, when there's a perfectly good canv…"

"No."

"You're being unreasonable." She implored.

"Absolutely not. I've told you this before, we are gentlemen who…"

"And this is the wild! Would you rather condemn your men to fever and misery than share a shelter with a woman?"

He sat in thunderous silence while he fumed over her words.

"No. I would rather you had listened and stayed at home!" His words burned her like acid and she gasped at the unexpected pain. But she knew she had been warned, this was exactly what he had told her of the night he had met her. Bofur had as well in Bilbo's sitting room, but there was nothing to do about it now, for she blankly refused to turn back.

She felt the traitorous tears beginning to form and angrily pushed them back with a hard blink. "If that's how you feel and you're not interested in finding a solution, my Lord, I'll sleep where I find it most convenient for all of us." She stopped hopscotch by the wayside and waited until the last dwarf had passed, as well at a good fifteen minutes longer before she set out again.

Solitude was the best companion when she was angry, and angry she was indeed at the stubborn king. His pig-headed senses of propriety had no place in the wild where they would end up getting one or more of them killed. Who was he to tell her where she could sleep and that she had to have a guard anyway? No, tonight she would sleep next to the fires that were in the group, not cast aside like a leper.

Not half an hour passed before Bofur came trotting back in her direction with a great smile on his face. "There you are, lass. We were worried you'd gotten lost in the woods."

"We?" She couldn't help but return his happy smile.

"Aye, the lads and I. Thorin said to go fetch you before ye fell off a cliff or got eaten, but he's been a bad mood all day. I wouldn't pay him any mind."

"So I've noticed, and I'm afraid it might be my fault, seeing as he detests my presence so much," she added dejectedly.

"Oh come now, don't let it get to you." His charming lilt begged her to cheer up and when he turned his pony around next to hers he nudged her elbow playfully. "The man doesn't know what to do with you. Cut him a little slack, what do you say?"

"What makes him think that he has to do anything with me?" Bofur blushed, but Lori didn't see it. "If he'd just let me travel in peace as any other we wouldn't have this problem. I'm a reasonable person, I wouldn't embarrass you guys but I also don't want you to go out of your way for me. Is that too much to ask?"

"He's just scared… He doesn't know what impact you'll have on the group or how they'll act with you around."

"Well, he'll just have to cool his heels and see for himself. I'm sleeping by your fire tonight."

"I thought you might." He shrugged.

"You don't mind?"

"Nah… But keep your clothes on, alright?"

Lori sputtered "Excuse me?"

"Your little séance last night… I imagine it was none too easy for our brave leader to avert his eyes from that shadow theater, but he did. So did I, by the way, but I wouldn't try it again in front of all the lads. Might make them rigidly uncomfortable, see." He winked conspiratorially at her.

She felt a furious heat break out and climb up her neck, towards her cheeks and finish at the top of her scalp and ears.

"Oh Aulë, shoot me now." She moaned and buried her face in both hands. Bofur just chuckled and watched the road.

"This makes so much sense now." She exclaimed. "All day he's been acting strange and wouldn't even say good morning."

"Perhaps it wasn't a good morning in his mind…" Bofur added.

"And his grumpiness,"

"No no, that's just Thorin for you…"

"And then he wouldn't look at me,"

"Probably had his fill…" Bofur snickered as she backhanded his arm in mock horror. "Ow, girl! You don't pull your punches, do you?"

"Actually, I did." She smirked. "Are you telling me my brave defender Bofur, that you can't even take a punch from a so called 'girl'?"

"Oh, you know my name, do you?"

"Of course…"

"Do you know all the lads' names?" He looked surprised.

"Sure. Not that I've been formally introduced, but Gandalf has told me quite a bit about you."

"Let's hear it then?"

"Alright… Thorin Oakenshield is your brave leader and king under the mountain once we reclaim it. Fili and Kili are his nephews by way of his sister, Dis, who I've never met but heard good things about. You and the rotund Bombur are brothers and cousins to Bifur, who is not of Durin's line, but of the dwarves of Khazad Dûm. He is also the one with an axe lodged in his head, who used to make toys and had a family in Erebor." She smiled triumphantly at him and continued.

"Dwalin and Balin are also brothers and were with Thorin when they defeated the orcs of Moria. Oin is the company's healer and he and Gloin are cousins of Dwalin and Balin and also present at the Battle of Azanûlbizar. Gloin has a young son called Gimli with the same red hair as his father. Last, Ori, Nori and Dori are brothers from the Blue Mountains and Ori is, I think, the youngest of the group."

"Most impressive! How do you know all this? We dwarves do not usually give away information about ourselves easily."

"I read a lot. And I listen when people talk. Poor Gloin misses his family, and Bifur told me of his past last night."

"But Bifur can't speak the common tongue… Do you mean to say that you understand khuzdûl as well?"

"I don't. Gandalf does, but he says it's secret, so he won't teach it to me…"

"Well that's something, at least."

"It's nonsense! I'm part dwarf, I should be allowed to partake in the secrets of my people!"

"You're what?" Bofur's brows completely disappeared under his silly hat. Lori realized she had said too much and tried to recover.

"But anyway, Bifur can make his thoughts known in other ways if he chooses, and if the person he's with has the right ear for listening. As I'm sure you know."

"Wait wait wait… Back up for a bit there. You're a dwarf?"

Lori sighed. "Part dwarf. So?"

"How does that even happen? And where's your beard? Did you shave it off?" He studied her face closer to see if there was any stubble on her chin.

"No. I don't grow a beard as a result of my other genes. Look, can we let it go, please? It's not something I'm very fond of discussing."

He leaned back again, "Sorry, didn't mean to pry. But surely you can see why it would peak my curiosity?"

"I can, but…"

"Oh come now, what's a few secrets between friends, eh?" He charmed.

"Promise you'll let me tell everyone else on my own terms?"

"I promise."

"And you won't think that I'm predisposed for… whatever you'll associate with my bloodlines?"

"I'll take your word for it and get to know you as you are, not for who your kin is, lass. Tell me!"

"Ugh, fine… My mother was half dwarf, half human."

"I see. That couldn't have been easy on you growing up."

"No. My family weren't really welcome in the clan after my grandparents had her."

"Some clans are worse than others, I'll give you that…"

"And my father…" The words stuck in her throat and she coughed once.

"Yes?"

"He… He was an elf, who I've never met… My mother loved him deeply, but he left before I was born… Before she even knew she was expecting me. We searched and searched for him, but in the end we learned that he'd sailed west, as some elves do." Her voice lessened to a pained whisper. "I think it killed my mother to know that he had abandoned her, us, without so much as a goodbye. She died in Gondor, where Gandalf found me in the streets alone, and he rescued me like the stray mutt that I am."

Bofur sat flabbergasted for a long time after that, just looking at her and taking in her features.

When the sun reached zenith and lunch was beginning to be a welcome thought, he finally said, "I must say, lass. That's some story! And if I may, I think you got the best traits from all of your kin." He smiled warmly and a great stone fell from her heart.

"Thank you. That means more to me than you know…"

"Anytime. Let's go find the lads and see what's for lunch, what do you say my little amalgamate friend?" He winked and she giggled.

"No nicknames!"

"I'll race you for it." He grinned. "You win; No nicknames. I win; I get to choose a really good one and use it as often as I please."

Lori mock-glared at him for a few seconds, before she tightened her legs on Hopscotch and suddenly spurred him forward in a fast gallop.

"Oy! No cheating!" Bofur called as he chased after her.

..o00O00o..

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