Whilst Thorin mused, the girl stirred, sleepily stretching slowly to wakefulness. Blinking away her last traces of slumber, she sat up, not yet registering her audience. When her eyes finally focused on his form, she gasped, and scooted backwards to crash into the wall. She brought her knees to her chin, and put her hands up in a defensive position, as if to say "please don't hurt me!" It was then that Thorin saw the bruises and scratches that ran up the girl's arm. Anger filled Thorin, as did the protective nature he normally only felt around D s and the boys.
"Careful there, little one. Easy now. I promise, I won't hurt you. You're safe here." Gently, Thorin eased forward, hands open and held out to her, palms up. "It's all right. You're safe now. You can trust me."
The girl whimpered, barely easing her stance,not daring to move from her corner. Her eyes were wide open as she watched him sit down across from her, and put his hands on his lap.
OK, Thorin's inner monologue mused. Let's start with something simple. "Where have you come from, little one?"
The girl only whimpered again in response, and hugged her knees to her chest. Thorin took another breath, then tried again.
"Where are your Ma or your Da?"
She only shook her head "no" to that.
Thorin closed his eyes for a moment. This is going to be harder than I thought. "Can you tell me your name?"
The girl whispered something almost inaudible. Thorin had to lean forward slightly to hear what she said. "What was that?"
"my name is Reina." Came the reply, hardly louder than before. "who're you?"
Bright blue eyes watched him warily, yet. Thorin smiled, and settled in for a long morning. "My name is Thorin, little Reina. You're sleeping in my forge." Well, not quite, but he was the only one who ever worked there, even if he didn't own the place.
The girl's eyes narrowed, though they never left Thorin. She muttered something under her breath, sounding far too much like "I'm not little" - a phrase he so often heard from a petulant Kili when he was left out of some of Fili's lessons for his age and current stature. Thorin could only respect her audacity, her words showing a firey spirit under her bedraggled curls.
"Alright, so you're not little. But you are still clearly young, so the question is begged - what are you doing /here/ of all places?"
"Why should I tell you?" Reina shot back, shifting to crouch at her feet and drawing her pack towards her - as a shield or to speed an attempt at flight Thorin couldn't be sure.
"Because I have shown you no hostility, and because - as I said before - this is my forge. Is it not fair that I ask for an explanation for your unexpected presence?" The girl thought on this a moment, her teeth showing to worry a lip as she considered her next step. With a nod and a sigh, she settled again.
"I'm looking for my Da. Ama said he was an important dwarf."
"And did your Ama tell you his name?"
"No. But she said he lived under a mountain with an Arc and a Stone, once. Now he lives somewhere around here, I think. I don't know where, though."
Thorin's heart twisted at the childish descriptive understanding of what could only have been the Arkenstone.
So, a survivor of Erebor in these hills now, had a little girl, and then...what? Abandoned her? Thought her lost? And what about her "Ama"?
"What was your Mother's name, Reina?" Thorin asked.
"Ama's friends called her Evangelina, in common."
Thorin's heart leaped to his throat. It couldn't be...I've tried to forget...maybe a different...only one way to know...
"May I?" Thorin asked, reaching to push back a lock of har that was hanging in the girl's face. Her eyes widened some, but she nodded "yes". As Thorin moved the curl behind her ear, he stopped.
There it was.
The tell-tale point.
The girl was a half-ling.
And Thorin was almost sure...
She was his.