Adaline and Deonynn learnt a lot about the dwarves and their quest that night, as did Bilbo. The dwarves and Gandalf filled the three of them in on their intentions to return to Erebor and claim their homeland.
Gandalf had been right, neither Adaline nor Deonynn cared for the land of Erebor, or the treasures within. Neither did they fancy going face to face with Smaug, a dragon.
Once all serious matters had been taken care of, the dwarves dispersed around the hobbit's home, whilst Gandalf and Bilbo sat together in Bilbo's living room, talking things over. It became apparent Bilbo had previously had no idea of this quest and apparent that he did not want to know anything of it.
Adaline had been walking back into the house from outside after checking on their horses when she passed Bilbo and Gandalf. Bilbo was clutching a mug of something hot, looking pale and upset. Adaline paused just off the archway in the hall, pitying the poor hobbit that looked as if he had just had a whole world of problems and responsibility thrust upon him; which in reality, he had.
"Are you OK?" a voice startled Adaline.
"Sorry," she said quickly, facing Fili who stood a couple of feet away. "Yes, fine."
"You looked miles away," he grinned, folding his arms.
"I was," Adaline said awkwardly. "You haven't seen Deonynn, have you?"
"He's in the kitchen with Oin and Gloin, showing them his sword," Fili told her.
"Ah, yes," Adaline laughed lightly. "He loves that thing."
"Elven made," Fili commented. "It pains me to say it but it is a very good blade."
Adaline nodded and smiled at the blonde dwarf.
"Can I ask you something?" she then questioned.
"Of course," Fili shrugged.
Adaline paused and studied the dwarf.
"You don't mind us joining you, do you?" she asked.
Fili hesitated for a moment, unfolding his arms and scratching the back of his head.
"Because your uncle –" Adaline suddenly added, fearing she had turned the situation awkward. "- he, urm...well, he seems to mind."
Fili laughed lightly and nodded his head.
"Yeah," he nodded in agreement. "I wouldn't worry about him. He's very serious about our mission, I think he just worries and fears the path ahead."
The two fell silent; a few of the dwarves in the dining room could be heard roaring with laughter.
"And you?" Adaline said quietly.
"What about me?" Fili frowned.
"Are you scared?" Adaline queried.
Fili parted his lips to speak but hesitated, then swallowed hard.
"Of course I am," he admitted. "But with saying that, I am also very excited."
Adaline smiled at Fili and his honesty. She had expected a stubborn speech on how 'dwarves are never scared'.
"Fili!" a voice yelled from down the hallway where the dining room lay.
Both Fili and Adaline turned to see Bofur stood at the end of the hallway, waving at them.
"Come join us!" Bofur called.
Fili looked at Adaline with raised eyebrows.
"Shall we?" he asked.
"Oh, they don't want me there," Adaline admitted uncomfortably, looking down at her hands.
"What makes you say that?" Fili frowned.
Adaline looked at him with her lips parted, hoping it would have been obvious.
"You guys don't exactly like me and Deonynn," she finally told him. "I understand."
Fili laughed loudly.
"Well how do you expect us to like you if you cast yourself an outsider?" Fili grinned.
This hit home a little more harder than it should have. Her mother used to always ask her the same thing when she was growing up in Rivendell.
"Come on," Fili said, grabbing her wrist and pulling her down the hallway to where Bofur had been stood.
"I do not like it," Dwalin said through gritted teeth, shaking his head angrily and glaring before him.
Dwalin, Thorin and Balin stood at the end of the hallway, the opposite end from the dining area.
"That wizard's up to something," Dwalin continued to vent. "I can feel it."
Thorin stood leaning against the wall that Dwalin rested his back against, whilt Balin sat opposite them on a small wooden chest.
"He would not betray us," Thorin said as he watched his nephew down the hallway take the woman's hand and lead her down to the dining area, a huge grin glued to his face; a grin that made Thorin feel uneasy for reasons he could not explain.
"How can you be for sure?" Dwalin asked.
"He has no need," Balin said for Thorin who was too preoccupied watching Fili disappear to reply.
"Money?" Dwalin stated. "What if he's working with the men of Gondor and he's taking us there to be captured?"
"Don't be absurd," Thorin scoffed, he had every faith in Gandalf. "Gandalf has no need for treasures or our home under the mountain and neither do the men of Gondor. He means well."
Dwalin grunted, clearly not agreeing with Thorin.
The group of three stood silently, taking in all that had unfolded that evening.
"But, that all being said and true, I will be keeping a careful eye on the two siblings," Thorin finally added. "Let's not forget what happened to dragon's riches under the Grey Mountains many years ago."
Dwalin nodded in agreement, finally getting some sense from his King. Balin on the other hand, sat looking unconvinced.
"You do not agree, brother?" Dwalin asked.
Balin sighed heavily and gave a weak smile.
"On one hand I agree," he spoke, "yet on the other, I see two lost children looking to find their way to a better home."
Dwalin scoffed and shook his head.
"They'll betray us," Dwalin muttered confidently. "Mark my words."
"Do not be so quick to judge," Balin snapped; his tone eerily reminded Dwalin of their mother's. "Not everyone in this world seeks to destroy."
"It does not matter either way," Thorin finally spoke. "We cannot do this without the wizard and he will not help us unless we abide by his rules."
Dwalin and Balin looked curiously at Thorin.
"We only have to travel with them a good twenty days ride," Thorin estimated, "and then we will be rid of them."
"Aye, and the sooner the better," Dwalin added.
"Gandalf speaks the truth," Thorin continued. "An extra sword will come of hand; something troubles me about what lays out there between us and Erebor."
"And the girl?" Dwalin asked. "What of her?"
Thorin looked from Balin to Dwalin with a serious expression.
"We do not risk our lives for her," Thorin ordered. "She fends for herself and that is the end of it."
Adaline had been sat with Bofur, Bifur, Fili, Kili, Nori and Ori for over an hour since Bofur had called Fili to join them, and she couldn't help but admit she was growing warmly to the dwarves.
She hated herself for telling Fili that they did not want her to join, as realistically they were more than happy to have her sat with them.
"It's simple really, when you think about it," Bofur said as the six of them sat at the dining table.
"No it isn't," Nori said, making the others laugh.
Bofur had been explaining how he believed they could create some sort of explosive that would cause Smaug the dragon to remain in a deep slumber, whilst they could go in and end the dragon's life.
"Bofur, he's a dragon!" Fili laughed. "Not only are they firstly not the same as us and would probably be immune to such a thing, nothing like that exists!"
"Ah, now that's where you're wrong," Bofur grinned confidently. "I met an old lady in the Blue Mountains, about twenty years ago. She told me about this mix her son had been working on –"
Bifur immediately mentioned something loudly in Khuzdul that Adaline could not understand.
"Old Lady Raeryan?" Nori suddenly laughed loudly.
The group of dwarves, Adaline and Bofur excluded, burst out into a loud laugh.
"I don't get it," Adaline said dumbly.
"Old Lady Raeryan was a crazy old lady who lived in the Blue Mountains," Fili explained. "She was adamant her son was going to invent the next best thing."
"But he never did," Kili added, "because they were a very odd family."
"I'll have you know Lady Raeryan is a very lovely, sweet old lady," Bofur defended. "Not only that, she was great business for Bifur and I."
Bifur nodded his head begrudgingly in agreement and shrugged lazily.
"Business?" Adaline frowned. "What did you do?"
"After Bifur and his family were forced out of Erebor, we had a dabble at toy making," Bofur explained. "We did quite well too."
Bifur grunted again in agreement.
"What kind of toys did you make?" Adaline asked, intrigued.
Bofur finished the end of his ale and placed the empty tankard on the table.
"I'll tell you," he said, standing up quickly, "when I have another drink."
"Please," Adaline said quickly, "allow me."
She took Bofur's empty tankard from the table and looked at the others.
"Can I get anyone else a drink?" she asked.
"Well thank you very much, lass," Bofur smiled brightly, sitting back down.
Kili was the only other person to hold up an empty tankard, gesturing for another. Taking Kili and Bofur's tankards, hoping to give a good impression to the dwarves, Adaline walked off towards the pantry where she had previously seen a large keg of ale sat.
Adaline placed Bofur's tankard under the tap of the keg and turned the nozzle for it to pour, however to her disappointment and annoyance nothing came out.
"Oh you've got to be kidding," she muttered, slamming the side of the large keg with the inside of her hand.
She sighed and looked around the pantry, wondering if there was another keg she could use.
"There's another one," someone spoke from behind Adaline.
She turned quickly to see Thorin stood in the archway of the pantry, leaning against it with his arms folded.
"Down there," he nodded his head lazily to the left. "You'll probably need one of the others to move it for you. You don't exactly look strong."
Adaline frowned and paused at his words, but shortly moved towards the hallway and passed Thorin.
"Thanks," she said quietly. "I guess -"
"I need you to understand something," Thorin suddenly snarled, grabbing hold of her arm as she crossed to pass him; she stopped at a sudden halt as his large hand wrapped tightly around her arm.
She looked at him and frowned, suddenly feeling very uncomfortable. Thorin stood very still, refusing to move his steely eyes from hers.
"If you give me the slightest reason to remove you from this company, I will," he finally spoke after a moment's silence. "I will not risk the lives of my men for you. Do you understand me?"
Adaline was now breathing heavily. At first she had put this down to being scared by Thorin's sudden move to grab her and hold her still. Now he had spoken, she put it down to being blindly furious by his sudden (and unreasonable) threat.
"Thorin," she said quickly, "I do not know what impression you are under, but we are not here to threaten you."
"I do not think you are here to threaten me," he said sharply. "If I am honest I do not know what I think about you and your brother. I just know I am not comfortable with it."
Thorin narrowed his eyes and hesitated, gripping her arm tighter. Adaline flared her nostrils and looked down at her arm where Thorin's hand was remained, grasping stronger and stronger by the second.
He followed her gaze and released her arm quickly; he had not meant to be so threatening towards her, even if he was not fond of her.
She took a step backwards away from him, rubbing her arm gently where he had grabbed at it.
"I understand that your mission is serious, Thorin," she spoke after a long pause, "but please understand, Deonynn and I had no intention of burdening ourselves on you like this. We will only ride with you just over twenty days and then you will never have to see us again."
Thorin stared at her with a familiar blank yet stern expression that Adaline was beginning to hate. His fists were clenched shut tightly and his chest rose up and down with heavy breaths.
Eventually, after what Adaline assumed was Thorin coming to a silent conclusion and agreement, he nodded at her.
She took this as her leave, walking hastily past him with her hand clutching her sore arm and refusing to look at him directly.
"One more thing," he called just as she had passed him and stood a few steps out of the pantry archway.
She hesitated before spinning around on her heels and looking at him questioningly, rapidly coming to the end of her tether with the stubborn dwarf.
"Keep your distance from Fili," Thorin said warningly. "I do not wish for you to give my nephew the wrong impression."
Adaline stood with her mouth hung open in disbelief, unsure that she had actually heard him correctly.
"Excuse me?" she frowned.
"Do not think I don't see the way he looks at you –"
"We've known each other a mere evening!" Adaline laughed in amazement at his accusation.
Thorin stood silently, continuing to stare at her disapprovingly; Adaline on the other hand stared back at him with a perplexed grin on her face. He could not be serious, could he? Her grin shortly washed away when she came to realise that he was in fact being deadly serious.
"I may be ignorant to how relationships work within Dwarven culture, but I assure you, Fili is simply treating me like a friend." Adaline told him matter-of-factly.
Thorin continued to watch her, clearly remaining very unconvinced.
"Is everything OK?" a voice suddenly spoke from behind Adaline, causing her and Thorin to flinch.
They both turned to find Gandalf looming over them with a heavy frown, aware of the thick tension in the room.
"Everything's fine," Adaline muttered, she walked towards the two tankards she had previously brought into the room with her and thrust them into Thorin's hands. "Thorin was just getting Bofur and Kili another ale."
A/N: Sorry! Bit of a delay with this update.
Please review – all comments welcome!