Chapter 15:

We arrived at Beorn's with low food supplies. Gandalf insisted that we go in pairs or groups or whatever he wanted to call them.

I was in a group with Thorin and Balin. It was a rather boring period of waiting.

When Gandalf whistled us forward, we started up the path. I noticed a lot of odd acting animals, which surprised me. When we eventually got to the porch, Beorn looked surprised. "You said there were only six," he rumbled. "Six does not equal nine."

Gandalf explained, and continued with his story, until everyone was on the porch. I spent the time staring up at this huge person, who seemed at least three times as tall as me – although, I being only about four and a half feet tall (kind of short for a dwarf, too), this was not saying much.

Beorn finally turned about and stared at me as hard as I was staring at him. "You travel with a woman, I see, Gandalf. Are you sure this is wise?"

My face immediately flushed a dull, brick red.

I heard Fili mutter, "Bad idea. One does not simply imply that Freya is -"

"A burden," I finished. "I happen to have been highly helpful on this journey, Beorn. I would very much prefer not to have to go through the whole 'A woman?!' thing again. So do us all a favour of not seeing my temper burst out in full blast, and shut up."

I struggled not to clap my hands over my mouth when I was done, the words seemed so foolish to me. I mean, the guy was ginormous.

Beorn sat in silence for a second, and then started to laugh, a deep, booming laugh. "Good! I have never met a woman with fire like you – Freya, your name is?"

I nodded, staring at the wooden porch beneath my feet, my face redder than ever. I could hear Fili chuckling as Beorn said, "There's no need to be ashamed of being yourself, lass. It's not wrong to be fiery."

I glanced up at him, grinning. He reached forward and grasped my hand warmly, bringing it up to his lips to gently kiss the back of it. I blushed and giggled like the teenager that I am at heart, and he smiled warmly. "It's very nice to meet you, Freya."

Beorn dropped my hand and began to speak with Gandalf about what to do about some things that I didn't care much about right then, leaving me to just think.

We spent the next couple days just relaxing, although I spent a good hour reuniting with Moonshadow. I was surprised by how much I'd missed him.

I wandered about, sparring with people, making friends with the animals that Beorn had, eating (a lot) and, of course, I took full advantage of having stopped for awhile – I took a bath every day. I knew that there wasn't going to be much chance of that luxury once we left, and so was taking every chance I got to make full use of Beorn's house.

There was one morning where Beorn informed us that he had gone out the night before.

"Come outside," he said. "I'll show you what the outcome was."

Apparently, he had already told the dwarves what had happened, because they were snickering and shoving each other. I had just gotten up a little while ago, and had spent the last five minutes making myself relatively presentable. Now that I was down here, however, I regretted that time. Now I didn't know what they were talking about.

I decided to go for the direct approach. "So, what're you guys talkin' about?" I asked casually, picking up a piece of toast with some sort of jam on it. I crunched on it contentedly, watching them suddenly become nervous and shifty.

"Er...nothing!" said Bofur.

I rolled my eyes. Nothing got my suspicions up easier than that. "Oh, really? Why'd I come in to see you lot laughing and chuckling and shoving while Beorn here is leading you out to show you something?"

"Well, you see, lass..." started Bombur.

"Beorn went hunting last night," said Nori, rather bluntly.

Bofur glared at the both of them. "What'd he catch?" I asked brightly.

"Orc," replied Beorn. "Orc and Warg."

"Ooh, can I see?" I asked excitedly.

Before any of them could stop me, I sprinted out and down the path. I skidded to a halt as I saw a stake driven into the ground. On top was an Orc's head (reminding me forcibly of the Uruk-Hai massacre scene in the Lord of the Rings films), and on the pole was a Warg skin. There were flies everywhere, buzzing about like sick dancers, landing here and there and then taking off again.

"Eww," was all I could say.

The other dwarves caught up with me, and catching sight of my disgusted expression, they were all sent into hysterical laughter.

"Oh, you should see the look on your face!" chortled Kili.

I drew myself up haughtily and said imperiously, "You should have let me come out here, then." And so I picked my way out of the sea of dwarves and went back inside for breakfast. Even rotting-corpse-strewn battlefield couldn't have ruined my appetite.

More fun stuff ahead. And OH! I forgot! I must apologize to anyone who has read The Lord of the Rings closely and cares about the least little detail. Heh. So I was just reading Two Towers a couple days ago, and guess what I found! I find out that Shadowfax is a horse of Rohan and his purpose in life (as with his entire line before him) is to carry the kings of Rohan. Therefore the whole thing about Moonshadow and everything is incorrect and a complete fabrication of mine. I would prefer to keep it that way, as it would be a lot of work (not to mention I don't know how to do it) to go back and change it.

Oopsies. So. Sorry. Anyway, please review!