Lori didn't know how long she had slept, but when she woke up, the dim light of a heavily clouded day shone on her shelter and the camp was bustling with the morning activities of the dwarves outside.

She stretched and yawned, enjoying the pop of some of her more rigid joints. Yesterday had been an unusual exertion and today she felt the brunt of it. Her neck and shoulder burned and twinged suddenly when she made a wrong move, stretching the injured skin and she let out a pained yelp. The camp stilled.

Not two seconds later she heard running boots and the unmistakable shout of Thorin. "Kili!" Then suddenly the young dwarf popped his head in though the opening in the canvas.

"Morning Lori! Are you alright?" He smiled sweetly at her and pointed to her shoulder.

"Ugh, good morning Kili. I'm fine, just a little sore…" She extracted herself from her sleeping bag and gestured to him, "Hand me my boots, will you? They're outside."

Kili disappeared and came back with her long leather boots, but when he saw her small white feet he faltered and stared.

Lori fumbled around for her socks and not before she found them did she notice the dwarf's glazed eyes.

"Uhm… Kili?" She tried. No contact. "Kili!"

He jumped and snapped out of it, handing her the boots with a sheepish smile. "Sorry. Fell under a spell there for a moment."

Lori's head snapped up and ice ran through her veins. "Who told you?"

"Told me what?" Kili looked completely mystified.

Realizing her slip, Lori cringed and pulled her socks and boots on to give herself time to come up with an answer. When none arrived she sighed and slumped but gestured to Kili to come inside and sit. He looked a bit uncomfortable and looked around at the camp first, but did as she wanted.

"You know that I travel with Gandalf, right?" She started carefully.

"Yes? You're his ward, right?"

"Well… Sort of. He took me in, so to speak since we don't have a home, back when I lived on the streets…"

"Yes, so?"

"The thing is… I'm also an apprentice of sorts. He's teaching me to use the magic I was born with. Elemental magic, mainly, but I also seem to have some skills of inspiration and nature magic, though none that I can manipulate yet."

"Okay… And who else knows this?"

Lori was taken aback at his calm demeanor. "You don't seem surprised?"

"A little… But you're travelling with a wizard so it's not a far stretch to imagine." He shrugged.

"Oh… Okay." Then something occurred to her. "Do many dwarves have magic?"

"Some do, but not very many. And our race has been thinned out over the past many years, so they're getting farther apart. Why do you ask?"

"I was just wondering how you were so calm, and also if that's where I had my powers from…"

Kili stared blankly at her. "What do you mean?"

"Well it could be some mystical fate that the gods bestowed on me due to the astronomy surrounding my birth, but it could also have something to do with my being part dwarf."

"Pardon… Your what?" Kili turned an ear at her, for surely he must have heard her wrong.

"I'm… My mother was a half-dwarf…" Suddenly nervousness hit her. Should she not have told him?

Kili gaped at her for a full three seconds before scrambling backwards, away from her. For some reason the opening in the canvas was completely hidden to him now and he tumbled into the fabric as he kicked her bed roll out from under himself. In his panic he un-pegged several of the tent lines and made the bivouac sack in one end.

"Kili, stop!" Lori shouted.

"I should not be in here." He managed to mumble as he pulled frantically at the canvas. "You're a dwarf girl and I'm in your bed. I shouldn't be in here... This isn't proper."

"Stop! Please, let go!" Lori tried to calm him down and pulled at his arm.

He jerked away from her and accidentally pushed her so she landed with a thud and a groan on her bed roll. "Sorry, Lori! I didn't mean to do that… I just have to…" Not another word was uttered due to the hand that had shot through the now visible opening and pulled Kili out so fast his head snapped to the side.

He was standing wobbly on his feet staring up at his thunderstorm of an uncle who now had his white knuckled fists at his sides. "Just WHAT do you think you're doing?" Thorin hissed.

Kili's eyes went wide with fear. He hadn't actually been on the receiving end of Thorin's rage before. Anger and exasperation, sure, but never this raw and barely restrained rage.

"N- Nothing!" He stuttered and held up his hands in surrender.

"Why were you in there?" Thorin had to consciously restrain his fist from crashing against his nephews skull. He kept hearing Lori's voice call for Kili to stop and let her go.

"T-To talk to her! I swear, uncle, we were just talking!"

Thorin gave him a shake of the head and glared him in the eye, "I find that hard to believe when she was yelling for you to release her."

"No! It wasn't like that. I was trying to get out! She's a dwarf and I didn't want to be inappropriate."

Thorin froze at the information, as well as the rest of those who had heard Kili's words. Then coming to a conclusion, he grabbed his collar and growled at Kili's terrified face. "You lie!"

Lori had finally disentangled herself from her covers and what was left of the tent and threw herself between Kili and Thorin. "No my Lord!" She begged. "He's telling the truth. Don't hurt him."

Her heart was thrumming and she was breathless as if she had just run a mile, but she kept his furious gaze trained on her, away from Kili. Slowly she tried to gently take his hand off Kili and placed herself between the dwarfs. "Please, Thorin. He never touched me. We were talking and he got startled, that's all…"

"You mean to tell me that his claim to you being a dwarf is true?" He glared at her incredulously.

"In part…" She tried to look nonchalant as she shrugged. "Please, will you let him go?"

Thorin stood back abruptly and grabbed Lori's arm before he rushed out of the camp. When they were out of earshot he let her go and whirled to face her.

"What is the meaning of this?" He crossed his arms and looked at her expectantly.

"Sorry?"

"I should think so, but what just happened?"

"Excuse me?" Lori started with a certain amount of indignity.

"I will not. Now tell me why I almost just hurt my own nephew in your defense."

She stared at him in outrage. "Because you are hot tempered, overly protective and don't think before you act!"

"You were in danger! Or so it seemed…"

"From what? Being on the receiving end of one of Kili's bad jokes? Dear, sweet Kili who ran to my aid when I was in trouble? You don't honestly believe that he would hurt me?"

"I thought…" Lori crossed her arms and raised an eyebrow at him. "No… I don't think he would hurt you."

"Good." She relaxed a bit. "Now, I asked him to sit down inside because I wanted to tell him about my magic, initially. He took it very nicely so I wondered if it had something to do with magic being common in dwarves, and he said it occurred, but why was I asking? I explained that my mother was a half-dwarf and he sort of panicked and tried to rip down the tent to get away from me. And then you intervened."

"Your mother?"

"Yes. By half." She stated again.

"Would I know her?" He queried, intrigued at this new information.

"Doubtful. Her kin hailed from Nogrod in Ered Luin, but left before your people made it there. My Grandmother was a Firebeard until she married my grandfather."

"What happened then?"

"They were cast out. My grandfather was human and they were no longer welcome in the secret society of dwarves." She spat with poorly held bitterness.

"Did he learn much from your grandmother?" He was wary of her answer because not many outsiders were ever included in the dwarven society or learned of their customs and language.

"He knew her name. Her real name, but that was all she taught him before the elders deemed her to not be a Firebeard anymore. She remained loyal to her clan though, and never revealed anything else to him, nor did she teach my mother her own native tongue. I guess she fully accepted their verdict of casting her out." Lori felt a deep sadness rise in her at the thought of the clan she might have had if not for the wills of her elders.

"Do you wish it had not been so?" Thorin had a soft look in his eyes.

"No!" Lori hardened instantly. "What do I care for stubborn dwarves who won't have me or my family? I'm better off without them and their disdain!"

"There are none here that hold ill will against you," he reminded her.

"There are also none who accept me."

"I have." Thorin calmly stated.

"I… But you don't know me."

"Then teach me." He took her by the shoulders and looked closely at her. "I am of Durin's line, not the Firebeards. I will not banish you for who your grandfather was. But you need to trust me if we are to be friends, and you must not withhold such details if I am to know and trust you in return."

Lori was caught in the gentleness of his voice and the sincerity of his eyes so she did what she could to give a nod.

"That makes sense…" She was a little out of breath and her mouth felt dry. "I'll try."

"Good…" He looked at her lips and swallowed. "Now please excuse me, I have apologies to make."

"Right…"

She watched him as he walked back into the camp. His fingers were stretching and bending slightly and his head hung in thought.

..o00O00o..

Steadily during the day, the hills became steeper and the ground became harder. Rocks and cliffs protruded the grass and became the front runners to the mountains. Forests became tighter and denser and the ride increasingly taxing on the ponies, especially in the wet and muddy weather. The rain had started shortly after their departure and steadily grown into a thick downpour, making every beast, man and woman thoroughly chilled and miserable.

Lori focused intensely on the path in front of Hopscotch to avoid injury by an ill placed step or a slippery patch. Sometimes she got off and took him by the reins when the road was too rocky or steep to safely travel with her in the saddle. She hardly noticed the oppressing silence that ran through the company or the careful glances that were cast in her direction.

Some were curious and examining, others wary and suspicious, but most were sympathetic and friendly. Once or twice she caught Thorin looking at her and when she gave him a small insecure smile, he nodded lightly and returned to his thoughts. It seemed he had meant it when he claimed to have accepted her presence, even though letting the cat out of the bag on her lineage had taken some of them by such surprise, that they now were nervous to trust her again. She frowned at that thought considering that they only knew half of it and that it was the easy part. They still didn't know of her father.

The only one who seemed oblivious to the tension was Bilbo, who now travelled next to her behind Gandalf. When Dori was chastised for wanting the wizard to stop the rain, something Lori had tried to get him to do in vain as well before, Bilbo jumped into the conversation.

"Are there any?" He asked.

"What?"

"Other wizards?" Bilbo squinted through the rain.

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

Bilbo nodded, "and who is the fifth?"

"Well that would be Radagast, the brown." Gandalf said with a fond smile.

"Is he a great wizard or is he… More like you?" The miserable hobbit wondered.

Lori broke out into loud and honest laughter at the insult, much to the dismay of Gandalf and the surprising pleasure of the dwarves. The sound seemed to lift their spirits and warm their chilled bodies like a streak of sunlight. At the sour glance from the wizard, she tamed herself and mumbled "sorry," whilst still trying to suppress her mirth.

"I think he is a very great wizard… In his own way…" Gandalf tried to ignore Lori. "He's a gentle soul who prefers the company of animals to others. He keeps a watchful eye over the vast forest lands to the east. And a good thing too, for always evil will look to find a foothold in this world."

Bilbo fell silent after this and Lori turned her attention towards practicing water magic. What better chance would she have than when covered in the element to the skin? She closed her eyes and reached inside for the energy in her mind and when she thought she'd found it, she tried to make it push the wetness away from her skin. It was a delicate process as she had to be careful not to include the water inside her own body or she would surely be injured or worse, should the magic run wild on her.

Slowly, she felt the clammy wetness leave her skin and had the thought to include the soul as a repellant in the spell. That way it would not affect anyone with a soul and could dry off men and horses, should it work. She meditated for over an hour, trying to swirl the energy to her will, reluctant as it was, and to meld it to understand what its purpose was to be.

Finally in the afternoon when the rain started to hint at letting up, Lori felt sure that she had a steady handle on the spell and she pulled back Hopscotch to place herself in the middle of the company, incidentally next to Dori and Ori.

They looked at her quizzically, but she just closed her eyes and reached for her reserves. Nobody was prepared for the enormous blast of energy that emerged from her and blew a wave of water from horses and men, instantly drying them but leaving all else untouched.

Lori opened her eyes and looked around on the petrified dwarves triumphantly. "Better Dori?" She asked with a cheeky grin.

The elderly dwarf just gaped at her in utter shock.

"How did you do that?" Ori's awed voice said. "I'm all dry!"

"All of us are." Said Thorin at the front of the company. He had an astounded smile on his face as he looked at himself and his men.

Gandalf chuckled and held out his arms to examine his robe. "Well done, Lori! I hope you left some water for the trees, though?" He winked at her falling smile. "That must have taken a lot of effort?"

Her smile returned, just as she felt the acute energy drain from her body and her vision narrowed to tunnel Gandalf's worried eyes before it went completely black.

..o00O00o..

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