Author's Note: I started writing the first part of this chapter without any plan for where it was going and….this happened. XD

Chapter 10-Dwarven Shenanigans

Karra opened her eyes slowly and looked around her. Something seemed oddly different about this…this wasn't what she was used to. The bed she was lying on was quite comfortable. She rolled over and sighed. She wasn't quite ready to get up.

Wait a minute…..she was lying on a bed? How was she not sleeping on the ground like she had for the last couple of months? Suddenly it all came back to her. They were at Rivendell….the home of the elves. She sighed and buried herself deeper in the blankets. If they were only going to be here for a couple of days, she might as well get as much sleep as she could.

Knock. Knock. Knock.

"What is it?" Karra grumbled, opening her eyes with a groan.

Knock. Knock. "Karra!" she heard a voice exclaim.

"Just one more minute," she mumbled, rolling over and burying her face in the comfortable pillow.

"Karra! I came to wake you up. The elves are having the morning meal and I didn't think you'd want to miss it."

"What….Oh!" she suddenly exclaimed, sitting up quickly. "I'm coming!" She slid out of bed, practically jumping to the ground—these beds obviously weren't made for short people—smoothed her rumbled clothes, ran her fingers through her hair—entirely forgetting that she actually had a comb and a mirror at her disposal—and headed out the door, running right smack into Kili, who was standing outside waiting for her.

"Oh….hi….good morning….sorry," she fumbled, trying to fit her apologies and morning greetings into one sentence and failing. "Where are we going?"

"To breakfast, of course." Kili led her in the direction of what she presumed to be breakfast. That, or he was playing some dirty trick on her. She wouldn't put that past him.

Presently, to her relief, they came upon a long table of elves and the rest of the dwarves. Apparently she had slept in…..breakfast had already been served, and some were almost finished. Hoping against hope that no one teased her about how late she was, she slid into a seat in between Bofur and Kili. She would have picked a different one, but there wasn't one available beside Fi—anyone else. Great. This was going to be interesting.

"Well, here's the sleepy lass!" Bofur announced loudly as she sat down. "Are you awake now, Karra?"

"Not really, but there's a right way to wake me up and a wrong way to wake me up, and announcing to the whole world that I slept in late is the wrong way," she retorted. She sighed as she looked at the food in front of her…..more vegetables…..all healthy. Oh well. Maybe this meal wouldn't be as….eventful….as yesterday's.

Fortunately, it wasn't. But it was still quite obvious that the dwarves didn't quite fit in here. After finishing his meal, Gloin of them let out a loud burp, quite horrifying the elves. Karra caught Nori slipping something into the pocket of his tunic. Dori complained about the greens. The dwarves' conversation turned a bit rowdy. And worst of all, Karra managed to knock her glass over—straight into Bofur's lap.

"Oh….I'm sorry!" she cried, then remembered dumping her bowl onto Kili's lap yesterday and began to giggle.

"I've had worse things on these clothes than elvish drink," Bofur replied with a grin. A moment later, though, he 'accidentally' dumped his glass over—straight into Karra's lap.

"Hey!" she exclaimed. But then she grinned. "Oh, you….we are not starting that again." Bofur began to laugh, and then Kili started laughing, and pretty soon the whole table—well, the whole table minus the elves—was laughing uproariously.

Karra shook her head. "I'm done with my breakfast anyway," she said firmly, slamming her bowl down on the table, and managing to spill the salad in the process. Laughing a little and gathering her mess up into one place, she slid off the chair, which was obviously not built for dwarves or people of dwarven size either. Half of her felt like she would be glad to get out of here; the other half felt like she would never get tired of giggling at the elves' strange looks at them.

Apparently the rest of the company was finished, too, for soon everyone began to drift off. Karra found herself walking beside Kili, much to her annoyance.

"Hi," she said, trying to sound stiff, and failing. It was obvious that Kili was trying to hold his laughter back. "What?!" she exclaimed. Glancing down at herself, she too began to laugh. "My pants are completely soaked. That looks bad, doesn't it."

Kili looked rather shocked. "Well….." he said, "I wasn't thinking of that."

"Then what were you laughing about?"

"The look on your face when Bofur…." He began to laugh again.

"Alright, alright." Karra rolled her eyes. "I'll dump my glass on you next time." Suddenly she noticed they were walking by a fountain, and a mischievous grin grew on her face. She stopped walking for a moment, and as soon as Kili had walked past her, she reached down and splashed some water at his back. He turned around and stared at her for a moment, and then, with an equally mischievous grin, splashed some water right back at her. Her eyes narrowed, and she scooped up a handful of water and practically threw it at his face. Almost before she had time to duck, he was throwing water right back at her. Pretty soon, they were in the middle of a regular water fight, throwing water at each other as fast as they could.

Suddenly Karra thought she heard a step behind her. She stopped quickly and looked behind her.

"What is it?" Kili asked, stopping in mid-splash.

"An elf," Karra hissed. "Quick, get behind the fountain!"

Kili wrinkled his brow. "Why?"

"Do you want an elf to see us like this?" she asked, gesturing to her dripping clothes. "They'll think we're the weirdest things ever." She pulled him by the hand and they ducked behind the fountain just as the elf walked by. Suddenly Karra had the almost irresistible urge to jump out and yell Boo!, just to see if she could make the elf drop some of his graceful decorum. She put her hand over her mouth to stop the giggles, and glanced over at…..

Wait a minute, where was Kili? He was supposed to be right beside her…..

"Up here!" Karra looked up to see that Kili had actually climbed the fountain, which was in the shape of a woman pouring water, and was now sitting on her hair. "That elf was rather surprised to find a dwarf sitting on his fountain." Kili raised an eyebrow and gave Karra a lopsided mischievous grin.

"Hey, you!" Karra exclaimed. "Get down here!" But instead of coming down, he simply reached a hand towards her, and Karra rather suddenly found herself sitting on top of fountain with him.

"Hey," she said with a shrug, "the view's pretty nice up here!"

"Isn't it?" Kili gave her a smile and raised an eyebrow in a way that could only be described as flirting. Oh, no, not that again.

"Kili…." she began, exasperated, but Fili chose that unfortunate moment to walk by.

"Kili!" he exclaimed. "What are you doing…..and Karra! What are you doing up there?!"

"Wanted to see what the view looked like from up higher," Karra said awkwardly.

"I see. Well, I suggest you get down before someone sees you."

"Oh, someone already has," Karra said dryly. "At least, the elf saw your brother. I had sense enough not to climb up here until he pulled me up—Hey!" she suddenly exclaimed, for Kili had given her a nudge that threw off her balance, and before she knew what was happening, she found herself sliding down right….into….the….fountain.

She came up spluttering and completely soaked. "This—was—all—your—fault!" she exclaimed, shaking her fist at Kili. "And don't laugh," she exclaimed, turning to Fili. "It's not funny!"

The corners of his mouth twitching, Fili offered her his hand. "Would you like me to help you out of there?" he asked, the amusement in his voice barely concealed.

"No thank you," she said stiffly, standing up and stepping out. A small puddle began to form at her feet. Still trying to stand on her dignity, she looked up at Kili and said firmly, "You are coming down here this minute—the same way I did."

"No, thank you," Kili said lightly, sliding down the back of the fountain. "I'd rather not do it the way you did."

"I'd suggest you go get dried off," Fili said with a huge grin on his face.

Karra just glared at him.

Karra slowly wandered the stately halls of Rivendell. The setting sun hit everything with an early evening light, making it glow. She sighed. She could stay here forever, just for this view.

She had finally gotten a chance to explore the place a little. After managing to get herself somewhat dried off, though not completely, not having any dry clothes to change into, she had been pulled along by the rest of the company in a series of Dwarven shenanigans, from raiding the elves' kitchens in hopes of finding some good beer or ale (of which of course there was none) to bathing—or rather splashing, sliding around, and having something like water fight—in a large elven fountain. She was constantly getting the feeling that these kinds of things would be perfectly fine in a Dwarven home, but were totally out of place in the Elven home. Finally, she had taken an opportunity to slip off and explore a little. It was nice to be by herself for a bit. The view was wonderful, with the waterfalls and the sunset and the graceful architecture. She slowly wandered into an open hall that looked to be something of a museum, with paintings and a statue or two. The sun slanted through a grand window, hitting something on a platform with a ray of light. Karra wandered over to look. On display sat a sword, broken in shards, laid out on a piece of cloth.

That's odd, she thought. Who keeps a broken sword? I'd think it'd be useless.

After a moment, she wandered back out, nearly bumping into an elf on the porch outside. "Sorry…" she mumbled, her face reddening. Bumping into someone significantly taller than you was rather embarrassing. As she walked away, she noticed the elven lady staring at her.

"A dwarf woman…." The elf said softly. Karra rolled her eyes. This was probably, like, the tenth weird look she had gotten from an elf. It was getting really old.

She dawdled back to the dwarves' quarters, stopping frequently to gaze at the moonrise over Rivendell. The view was almost, almost, more stunning at night, with silver moonlight touching everything, and the gently tinkling of waterfalls lending the scene an ethereal quality. What could anyone every have against this place? How could the dwarves be so uncomfortable here? At that moment, she felt like she could stay here forever.

The moment was broken when she reached the dwarves' quarters. The seemed to be having some sort of noisy party; they had a fire (what was that that they were burning?!), and were roasting things over it. She slipped in and sat down in the background. Of course Fili was the first to notice she was there. He greeted her with a friendly, "You're back."

She moved closer to him. "I still don't see what you have against this place," she said. "I mean, it's beautiful."

He raised an eyebrow. "Not that again."

She shrugged. "Whatever. Hey, what are you roasting? Looks good." Gloin reached over and handed her a sausage. "Thanks….where'd you get that? I thought the elves were vegetarians."

"Out of our own food supply," Fili replied.

"And what are you burning?" she asked, a sudden suspicion rising in her.

Fili looked a bit uncomfortable. "I'm not exactly sure you want to know…."

Karra shook her head. "I'm afraid that's rather disrespectful, burning their furniture."

Fili stared at her.

"Well, I'm not that dumb," she retorted. "I can figure some things out. But I suppose you doubt that."

He laughed. "Of course I don't! But there are times…."

Karra gave him a playful scowl. "Has anyone ever told you you're annoying?"

"My brother did once….."

Karra couldn't sleep. It wasn't the usual night sounds that were keeping her awake; she had gotten used to that over the course of their travels. And it wasn't the fact that it was probably one o'clock in the morning and she had just gotten to bed. She could usually sleep anywhere. But not here, tonight. She raised herself on one elbow and looked around. The moonlight filtered through windows, casting blue shadows about the room. Gently slipping out of bed, she tiptoed to the doorway and slipped out onto the porch outside her bedroom. Maybe fresh air would help.

The moon was high in the sky by now, illuminating Rivendell with silver. Karra leaned on the railing and stared up at the stars, thinking. The night air was cool and invigorating. She realized with a little smile that this wasn't going to help her sleep; it was probably just serving to wake her up. She didn't really care. At least it was better than lying awake alone in a room.

Alone. Maybe that was the problem. She had gotten so used to sleeping by others, that when she finally had a chance to sleep by herself, she couldn't. Last night she had been exhausted. Today had been a slower day, and good day to rest up for the coming journey. Now if only she felt the least little bit sleepy.

"Karra." A voice interrupted her thoughts. She turned quickly to see Fili standing behind her. He walked to her side. She could imagine how romantic the scene must look, with the moonlight illuminating the everything with silver, and a slight flush rose in her cheeks.

"I couldn't sleep," she said softly.

"I couldn't either."

Karra raised an eyebrow. "You couldn't sleep?"

He nodded, but said nothing. It seemed obvious that something was wrong. Almost unconsciously, she began to finger the key around her neck nervously. She felt the necklace she had picked up in the troll hoard, and realized that she had completely forgotten about it. As it slipped out from behind her shirt, the moonlight glinted off of it.

"What is that?" Fili asked.

"It's a necklace," she said lamely. "I….I found it in the troll hoard. I picked it up because it….it looks just like one my mom used to have."

Fili looked at it with a strange look on his face. "How odd. It is obviously of dwarven make."

"Weird." Karra shook her head. "Maybe it's a coincidence?"

"Perhaps. Or perhaps there is something more here at work than you know."

"Well, you're being all solemn all of a sudden," Karra said lightly. "Why the sudden seriousness?"

There was something odd in his look. "I know this might be the last time I'll ever see you," he said softly, almost to himself.

"What are you saying?!" exclaimed Karra.

"My uncle told me…." he stopped, as if unwilling to say it. After a moment, he continued. "You are to stay here," he said abruptly.

Karra drew back a bit. "Stay here? But I thought it was kind of an unspoken….agreement that I was going with you!"

"Remember what he said when we first found you? You were to travel with us until we found a place for you."

Karra looked away and swallowed. "But I thought…." Her voice trailed off. "I was starting to feel like….one of you. I thought everyone had accepted me."

Fili nodded. "I did too. But my uncle's word is law. You must stay." He paused. "I am sorry."

"Oh, I am too," she said darkly. She raised her face to his suddenly, her eyes flashing. "Why didn't you speak up for me? Why didn't you tell him I was going with you?"

"Believe me, I tried." He turned away. "I am very sorry, Karra. I tried as hard as I could."

Karra swallowed hard. "I thought I was one of you." She rested her head in her hands, moving slightly further away. She felt Fili's hand on her shoulder.

"Please," she said stiffly, without looking at him. "Just leave me."

"Very well," he replied, and she heard his footsteps as he walked away. The moonlight glinted on a tear in her eye.

I'm really sorry if this chapter isn't quite as good as the others, I didn't have as much time to proofread it before posting. This week has been way too busy for me. :P

Also, I probably won't be updating next week. I'm in a play, and next week is performance week, so my schedule is crazy busy. I don't think I'll have much time to get on the computer at all, much less actually get on here and update! I'll miss you all, but it's only for a week. ;)