It was a five day journey to the next town and over the course of their travels thus far Thorin had learnt quite a bit about Hermione. For example, she was terrible at traveling. She could not start a fire with the flint he had provided to her. She could not hunt. She did not know which plants were edible and which were poisonous. When he had questioned her on the truth of her statement about having had some experience at traveling she had merely blushed and insisted that it had been different then.

He had also learned that she was an only child, liked to read, and was one of the most curious beings he had ever had the misfortune of meeting. She asked questions about everything. Some of them were simple. Where are we going? How long does it take to get to the Blue Mountains? Do you have any siblings? Others questions were not so simple. Can you teach me Khuzdul? Who is Mahal? What are orcs?

Simply put, it was driving him a bit crazy.

She stopped asking questions when he would throw a fearsome glare over his shoulder at her and they would walk in silence for a few hours, and then it would just start back up again. Truly, she was insatiable. His answers were always as brief as possible, but it did not seem to dissuade her. If anything it seemed to encourage her.

On the third day of their travels he had decided to try the silent treatment. When her fifth question had gone unanswered, she had taken to humming some ridiculous tune as they walked. It was not much better than the questions.

Despite the incessant chattering, the traveling itself was going fairly smoothly, almost too smoothly based on all of Thorin's previous experiences. For one, it had rained again on the day they had set out. This in itself was not good, but by the end of the day he was staring at his boots in incredulity. When had they become so water resistant! And his cloak was also bone dry on the inside. He had spent more than a few minutes that night examining his boots, before Hermione had given him an odd look and had asked what he was doing.

In addition to the mystery of his miraculously water-resistant boots and cloak, he also had yet to wake up cold, despite the appearance of a fine dusting of frost on the grass around him on the third morning of their journey. He had again given his bedroll a mystified look. While he had never been uncomfortably cold before, he had never before felt so pleasingly warm on a morning with frost on the ground around him. While the source to these small my mysteries eluded him, he was pleased with the comfort they provided to him and had decided not to spend too much time pondering them as they continued their travels.

Since leaving town, most of their meals consisted of the dry pack food that they had purchased, but it was on the eve of their fourth night that Thorin was lucky enough to have killed a rabbit with a small slingshot he kept in has pack. Happy that it would not be dried meats, berries and bread for dinner this evening, he led Hermione to a small clearing under some pine trees and dropped his pack. "We will stop here for tonight. If you can begin to prepare the rabbit I will go gather some wood for the fire," he said as he held out the dead rabbit to her.

She did not take it.

"How about I go collect that firewood?" she asked, her voice sounding slightly strained as she stared at the animal in Thorin's hands.

Thorin found himself giving her a hard look, looking back down at the rabbit, and then back up at her. "You are of noble birth, aren't you?"

"No!" she exclaimed, and Thorin could see that there was an incredulous look in her eyes. "I am most definitely not of noble birth, I have just never..." she trailed off as she gestured at the rabbit. "You know..."

Thorin continued to stare at her. Never skinned a rabbit before? Dis was a princess and even she knew how to skin a rabbit. He supposed that in large cities one might not have to know how to skin an animal, but Thorin still found it hard to believe that she had no knowledge of how to do it.

"Fine," he said in exasperation. "You go collect the wood. I'll get started on the rabbit."

Hermione only nodded and hummed her agreement as she pulled off her pack and set it down next to Thorin's. Left alone to his task, Thorin made quick work of skinning and cleaning the rabbit before setting up a simple spit on which they could roast it. He worked on clearing the fallen pine needles from the earth where they would build the fire, and soon enough Hermione was back beside him, a bundle of wood in her arms.

As she unloaded the wood from her arms he could catch glimpses of the holster's that wrapped around her arms under the wide sleeves of her coat and shirt. He had noticed them before, but had not commented on them before. Tonight was different.

"I have been meaning to ask you the condition of your blades," Thorin said as he began setting up a small mound of twigs and branches. "If you would like I could take a look at them and make sure they are well sharpened."

"Oh, I just have the one, but yes. Thank you," she replied as she reached into her her right sleeve and withdrew a small dagger about eight inches in length. Thorin watched as she held it nervously in her hand. With a shake of his head, he turned his attention quickly back to the twigs, and struck a spark to them. The dried twigs quickly took to flame, and Thorin sat back as the fire began to lick its way onto some of the larger branches.

"Hand it here then," he said as he extended his hand for the dagger. "You turn the rabbit."

"Alright, that I can do," she said with a blush as she handed over the bland, and then settled herself down next to Thorin and took hold of the end of the spit.

"It is a decent enough blade," Thorin remarked as he held it lightly in his palm. "Well enough done for being crafted by men. Do you know how to use it properly?"

"Stick the pointy end in the bad guy?" Hermione said sheepishly as she gave the rabbit a turn.

Thorin could not help but let out a low sigh. "At the very basics, yes." He pulled his pack towards him and pulled out his whetstone. Methodically running the blade along the stone, Thorin looked over at his companion. "You have two holster's strapped to your arms. If you only have one blade, what is in the other? Or is it merely empty?"

He watched as a blush spread over the woman's cheeks and her right hand came up protectively over her left arm. "A memento," she said quietly.

Deciding not to pry any deeper Thorin nodded. Sitting in silence, they continued to work on their respective task, Thorin sharpening Hermione's blade while she continued to turn the rabbit until it was fully cooked. They ate in silence as well and after they were feed Thorin found himself breaking the silence once again. "I am surprised that you ever managed to do any traveling before this. Wandering the wilds is a difficult business to be doing, even when not on your own," he said slowly as he looked into the fire. "I imagine that sooner or later, you will find which way you want to go in order to get home and we will no longer be traveling together. I would, however, recommend that you do not try traveling on your own."

He glanced over at her, and noticed that her eyes had gone slightly wide at his comments about her overall survival skills.

"Would you teach me? Those skills need for traveling?" she asked, and Thorin could feel himself stiffen only briefly at the request, before he allowed his mind to give it some serious consideration. While he had found that her incessant chatter did sometimes become a bit much, he had not minded having a traveling companion these past few days, and teaching her how to survive in the wilds would not be an unmanageable task in itself.

"Yes," he said succinctly. "I think I can teach you."

His words were rewarded with a brilliant smile. "Thank you," she said, the sincerity obvious in her voice. Thorin could only nod his head before he reached into this pocket and pulled out his flint and steel in order to show Hermione how to properly use the tool she had fumbled with the first day of their journey.

.(,-_-). So I meant to make this longer, and get further in the plot. But then Thorin was like. 'Nope. I am sitting down right here and we are not going anywhere.'

Next time I promise there will be more plot development, and we will actually get to see some magic and meet up with at least one other dwarf! (guesses anyone?) And the chapter after that, I promise there will be a Hermione POV chapter. Really!

This is currently un-betaed. All mistakes are mine.