Author's Note: I'm posting this a day early (I post on Mondays and Thursdays, in case you haven't noticed, and I'm trying to keep up the pattern as long as I can) because I'm not sure if I'll have access to a computer tomorrow, and I figure, better a day early than a day late. So my lack of computer tomorrow is to your advantage! :D

Author's Note #2: I had way too much fun with the dialogue in this chapter.

Chapter 6-Stating the Obvious

"You seem sleepy," Fili observed.

"Yeah, *Yawn* I didn't sleep well last night." Karra sighed. "It was wet. And cold." Well, that wasn't the whole explanation. But she didn't really want to tell him that she had been awake for a while puzzling over something she had heard him and Kili talking about in the middle of the night.

Fili turned around rather quickly, as if he had just thought of something. "Here's your key," he said, handing it to her. "I'm sorry I stole it last night."

"What….what was so important about it?" Karra asked, hoping for an explanation. Unfortunately, she didn't get one. Fili just turned back around and said casually,

"I thought it looked like something I'd seen before."

"And….?"

He didn't answer. It was obvious he was preoccupied, so she didn't push the matter. She did hope she got some kind of explanation sometime, though.

At Thorin's orders, they came to a stop in front of an old, broken down shelter, held together, it seemed, by a few stray nails, vines trailing through its rotten boards

"Finally!" Karra exclaimed. "Some remnant of civilization! I was beginning to wonder if there even was any in this world."

"Any what?" Fili asked.

"Civilization!" she cried.

"I'm going to choose not to take that as an insult," Kili said saucily.

Karra allowed Fili to help her off the pony. She shot Kili a glare before saying, to Fili of course, "I'll watch the ponies with you."

"Because I'm sure it sounds interesting," he replied dryly.

Karra shrugged. "It sounds more interesting than sitting next to that creepy old house all evening."

"Creepy?"

Karra sighed. "You're never going to really learn my language, are you? Creepy….spooky….you know, eerie."

Fili and Kili were now at the task of gathering the ponies. "I wouldn't necessarily consider that house eerie," Fili said over his shoulder. "Old and dilapidated, perhaps, but not eerie."

"I can help!" Karra abruptly changed the subject. This conversation was going nowhere good.

"I'm sure you can." Kili lead a pony past her. "You don't know the difference between a pony and a horse. I'm sure you can."

Karra rolled her eyes. "That was the first day I was with you! You remember that?"

"Oh, of course we do." Fili handed her the reins of his pony. "Here, lead Myrtle over there. And we remember all your other shows of ignorance since then, too," he teased lightly. "There, that should be all of them. Tie her to that tree, Karra," he added, for Karra had been standing, holding the reigns and looking slightly confused.

"Thanks," Karra muttered, attempting to tie a good, solid knot, and somewhat failing. Oh, well, that should be good enough. And I'm sure that was kind of a show of ignorance, too, she added silently. She plopped down against a log, and Fili and Kili sat down beside her, one on either side.

"Well," Karra said, "What are we supposed to do now?"

Fili shrugged. "Watch them."

"Thanks, Mr. Obvious!" Karra grinned. "Must be a dwarf thing."

"If it is, then you're a dwarf," he shot back.

Karra tried to look innocent. "Are you saying I state the obvious?" she asked.

"Have I not said that before?"

"Oh, you have?" She knew she was being annoying, and she was thoroughly enjoying it. For once she could get on their nerves.

"Many times," Kili broke in. "I've heard him."

"Because you listen in on all of our conversations," Karra retorted.

"Unashamedly," he replied, a perfectly serious look on his face.

Karra shook her head. "You're hopeless."

"Hopeless? And what do you mean by that?" Fili asked.

"I'm quite sure you know what that word means. It's not one of those strange words I've added to the language."

"Oh, of course not." Fili smirked. "It means to be without hope. Are you saying that we are without hope?"

"Well, that wasn't what I was saying…..oh, please. You'll just never really understand my 'language.'"

"I don't think I will," said Kili. "You're hopeless."

"I'm assuming that was an example of picking up words by context. And that was the wrong context."

And so it went. Such banter continued for most of the rest of the evening, with occasional breaks for serious conversation, but that was rare. Sometimes it was hard to have a serious conversation with these two. Finally, Karra began to get rather hungry and decided to go back and see whether the others were eating dinner yet.

"Well, bye," she said cheerily, standing up. "I'll leave you two to your boring job while I go have fun eating dinner! Hope someone brings you some!"

"Thanks," Kili said dryly. "I would ask that you bring some, but I'm much too afraid you'd refuse."

Karra shook her head. "Sorry. See you tomorrow!" With that last parting shot, she tripped off in the direction of camp.

It seemed that they had already begun dinner. Karra slid into the circle and got herself a bowl of soup.

"I see you're back," observed Bofur.

"Stating the obvious." Karra rolled her eyes. "And if you want to know, I thought they could do the job well enough without me. And I was getting kind of hungry. So I came back." After a moment, she began to laugh. "I guess that was obvious." Several of the other dwarves chuckled. Karra fell to eating with a relish. Lively conversation with two young dwarves for a couple of hours tended to make one hungry.

For a while, no one talked. Everyone seemed too focused on eating.

Presently Bilbo spoke up. "He's been a long time," he stated.

"Who?" Bofur asked.

"Gandalf," Bilbo answered. Karra glanced around the circle.

"Yeah, where is Gandalf?" she asked.

"He's a wizard! He does what he chooses," Bofur said rather unhelpfully. He handed two bowls of soup to Bilbo. "Here, do us a favor, take this to the lads."

Well, Karra thought with a secret grin, someone is bringing them dinner.

"Will someone tell me where Gandalf went?" Karra asked.

"He left," explained Oin

"Obvious."

"That's all we know," explained Ori. "He said…..well, he wanted to be by himself. I've no notion why."

Glancing Thorin's direction, Karra thought she saw him giving the young dwarf a harsh glare. Well, he didn't do anything! she thought.

"Maybe he just wanted to be by himself," she said with a little grin.

Bofur, seeming to pick up on her cue, replied, "That's obvious."

Karra opened her eyes wide. "Oh, was it?" she said innocently.

This time the whole group laughed.

Karra opened her eyes wider. "Oh, was that funny?"

She could only keep it up for a moment, then broke down into laughter. Pretty soon the whole group was laughing.

"I think he left because he wanted to be by himself," chuckled Bofur.

"It's the only logical explanation," laughed Balin.

Nori decided to join in. "I think he left because he didn't think any of us were sensible in any way."

"What?" Karra asked.

"Well," began Ori, "He referred to himself as the only one who had any-"

He was interrupted. Fili and Kili suddenly came rushing into the circle around the fire.

"Trolls!" gasped Kili.

"They've stolen the ponies and they have our burglar," Fili said.

"What's a troll?" Karra tried to ask. But almost before she knew what was happening, she heard an order from Thorin, and the entire group was rushing towards the unknown danger.

Phew, some action! If you review, I'll give you…..oh, I really need to stop this before I start getting on your nerves. But, I just want to say, every time I get a review (or a fave or a follow, for that matter) it encourages me to keep writing. And the more I keep writing, the longer it will be before I catch up with myself and stop posting so regularly. So yeah, you get the idea. :)