Listen while you read: "You're the one that I want" Angus and Julia stone or type in and add /watch?v=kVxpk8xMN2k

Chapter 5

Nur woke with a start as a tickle ran over her hand. Her head rested in the crook of her elbow with her legs bent under a thick covering. The wind had blown blades of grass against her fingers, but she noted that the rest of her body was comfortably warm under the layers which covered her.

The sun was beginning to illuminate the plain on which they were settled. There was movement in the camp and Nur was distressed to see that all of them had already risen and were preparing to eat—she did not like to oversleep, especially when there were others to be considerate of.

Sitting up and pulling the blanket down to her knees, she looked quizzically at the covering. This fur hide did not belong to her, where had it come from? Not knowing what possessed her to do it, she held it up to her face in both hands and inhaled the scent of it. It smelled like—

"Good morning." Fili had appeared out of nowhere, offering her a slice of bread. She eyed his face, then the blanket, and reached out to accept the bread. With a half-smile, she nibbled a small bite and offered a polite, "Thank you," then held up the corner of the fur covering, "Is this yours?"

He winked at her in reply, causing her to blush, and hastened back to Kili. His brother was rolling up his sleeping mat with difficulty.

Fili stood over him for a moment, a small frown on his face, watching his brother struggle with a strap. "Is something the matter?"

Kili rolled his eyes and sighed. "It's nothing, just a little indigestion."

Fili nodded and squatted down, pushing Kili over with a hand and strapping the mat with its buckle. Kili grunted as he fell backwards onto an elbow and muttered, "What was that for?"

Fili's eyes glinted, "You would have refused my help if I offered."

"And so you force it on me? That's not your way of thinking, that's mine." Kili smirked. He jumped back to his feet and brushed his hands together, letting out a small hiccup and holding his stomach.

Fili eyed him warily, but Kili just shook his head and said, "Leave it be, I'm fine."

The company departed after the small meal. Thorin and Gulm, the doctor, were conversing on their ponies, taking the lead of their train, and Varak, the ambassador, was perched on his small pony-led cart just behind them.

Gren looked surprisingly content as he had his own conversation with Karta, the mapmaker, and Kili, while Fili brought up the rear with Nur.

They never went out of their way to be together, but were pleasantly surprised at the moments they were given. Fili especially moderated his time with her as he knew their expedition was about to require a great deal of focus, and this is what he and Nur discussed.

"The front gates were never your Uncle's intention, then?" She asked as her hips swayed with the movement of her steed.

"He tried with an army and could not take it." Fili sighed. "But this attempt will be from the rear of the mountain, for any passageways left from when the hall was first built."

Nur's eyebrows shot up. The dwarves of the Iron Hills understood most of those passages to be possessed by goblins. "But do we know for sure where this entry might be?"

Fili shook his head. "If it does exist, a small band of scouts is the only safe plan we have—too many bodies might make the beast curious enough to see what we are doing, and the terrain is such that we could not easily flee. We would be exposed to his wrath of fire with no way to escape and make him all the stronger as a meal."

Nur looked away from him doubtfully.

Fili turned to look at her, wondering what her thoughts were. "Are you afraid?"

Nur did not answer at first, but seemed to be considering her words carefully. As he waited silently for her answer, he noticed Kili slowing ahead of them and waiting for them to come forward.

"I do not fear for myself, if that is what you mean." She finally said. "I'm afraid for Thorin and his ambitions; I want them to succeed—but have you noticed that luck has not been on our side?"

Fili eyed her quizzically.

Nur bit her lip and then remarked, "There are some who might profit from our company's failure."

Fili did not know how to answer this and had no time to dwell on it as Kili began to ride alongside them. He looked frustrated and grumbled under his breath.

"What are you muttering about?" Nur leaned over the neck of her horse to see him.

Kili swept his head to the side to give her an angry look. "Your intended makes me nervous."

"What? Gren?" Nur scoffed with a little huff. "Don't let that one be a trouble you."

But Fili could not as easily have let Kili's comment go. He understood his brother best and he was painfully aware that something about him was off. He did not even have to question Kili before the younger dwarf explained himself.

"He was wooing us with beautiful words on his hopes of Thorin's mapping mission being a success. I could be wrong, but he seems to speak in the same way of our quest as he speaks of Nur's love for him."

Ambassador Varak chirped at the group to halt and had them dismount and surround the cart which he now stood on to address them. He began to explain that due to the map-maker's reckoning, they would be very close to their next stopping point—a trading outpost.

He recounted that it had once been a flourishing at the "back door" of the mountain, behind Erebor, but in the way of a road that had once been a highway. It was now nothing more than a forgotten path, and Dain had offered assistance should they require it. They had heard nothing from the dwarf traders in years and had only once sent an emissary to them, though the fellow had not returned to give a report.

"We don't have much to go by," The ambassador's face was grim, "but there was an increase in wilderness deaths surrounding the outpost before we lost contact entirely."

"Animal attacks?" The physician Gulm offered as he stood with his arms crossed.

Varak bent his elbows and shrugged. "No one knows for certain. Thorin's plans called for able-bodied men who could defend and aid; our plan to visit the outpost calls for the same." He peered with a small frown at Nur with the words "able-bodied men" but she was hardly offended.

Even she acknowledged that the word "defend" did not directly apply to her, but that "aid" was something she could offer in abundance. Though none spoke aloud concerning it, the group had one mind: her presence was not unwelcome, but Nur's purpose was not combative.

"It is more important to note, however," Varak cleared his throat, "that I am here on behalf of the King and have been appointed to speak to any remaining traders."

All except Karta, the map-maker, rolled their eyes or frowned at this, for his meaning was clearly that he did not want them to interfere with his speech-making when they reached the outpost.

They moved their ponies back to the path and once again formed a line on the barely visible road, a few riding two by two in conversation.

Kili and Fili rode in the rear again, Fili noticing that Kili's brow was not the only one that sheened with sweat. Gulm's pallor had taken on an eerie color and he grumbled about an outbreak of the flu escorting them from the Iron Hills while Karta, the map-maker, had suddenly become very pale. What bothered Fili most was the way Kili rode bent over on his pony.

Fili knew that if he said anything to him about it, it would only bring on a chorus of "I'm fine", "stop worrying", and the like, but he reached out to clap his hand on the ailing dwarf's back. The movement was meant to be reassuring, but it jarred Kili as though startling him out of sleep.

"Stop pretending to be mum." Kili grumbled, and he leaned over the neck of his horse wearily.

Fili's eyes did not stray from Kili's bent form often as they rode in a straight line.

From Kili's birth they had not wandered far or long from each other and that bond had not lessened as they grew into their own. Often they would think the same thing so that even unspeaking they could act in sync with each other—it disturbed Fili that something was wrong, but he was upset deep into his soul, as though his subconscious knew the source of it and his waking mind could not comprehend it.

Kili added further to that upset with a series of groans and spitting, as though his mouth had become unpleasantly soured and could get no relief from an awful taste. In the course of those next few hours, Karta had managed to vomit at the side of the road continually so that the men were becoming accustomed to riding past him, knowing his pony would sprint to catch up.

Finally, they caught sight of their object: the walls of the fortified outpost. It hugged the base of a great mountain, trees on either side of its walls, and there was a large with two doors. The walls were roughly hewn logs, splintery and sharp, looking scratched up either by weather or something else.

The traveling dwarves were atop a hill in a little gathering of trees, descending to the valley of bald land which sat in front of the gates—the road went north and south to the left and right, passing in front of the gate and Thorin's company approached it from the west.

Her first glimpse of it sent a chill through Nur and she urged her pony on, following after Thorin at the lead. Though she did not know what to expect, the fort looked ghostly and caused a pit in her stomach.

Closer and closer they rode and no less did she feel this sensation as the details came into view.

Thorin called for the dwarves to dismount not twenty feet from the massive doors, which should have been open, and each step he took toward it seemed full of great weight.

Only a dwarf would consider approaching such doors to pound on in announcing his arrival, for the thickness of their bodies made them seem as though hewn from stone. The doors were hardly hollow, but a rumble emanated from them all the same.

They stood in silence for minutes, confused and anxious.

Fili was conflicted, hoping that they find something and then fearing what they would.

Kili would have felt similar, but he was clutching his side and waiting for his body to submit to his will instead of quivering with sickness.

Thorin became tired of waiting and bellowed, "Hello there! We have come to speak to the master of trade!"

Moments more did they wait until finally the creak of movement from the large doors answered their hails.

The noise brought on by the exertion of the doors was a sickening creak, and everyone resisted the urge to clap their hands over their ears while they waited through the slow movement.

Thorin gripped one of the doors and helped it to pull it open, while Gulm aided the other, his hands shaking from the energy it took to do so. It was hard to overlook the gleam of sweat on his bald head—the hulking physician had hardly any hair, not even a beard, except a thick mustache.

They heard the footfalls of someone running away from the doors, though they saw no one, scanning the area and noting the smaller buildings which formed a perfect square with the gates the dwarves entered through. At the back of the square was a large, two-storied inn. The walls surrounding these buildings were high, much higher than the roofs of the shops or even the top of the second level of the inn, and they were filed to a point, convincing Thorin that the outpost had required—or still did—defense against some terrible force.

"Orcs?" Gulm whispered to Thorin, but he shook his greying head and looked around them at the pointed log walls, signaling with his hand that the others should remain silent.

They waited in stillness, nerves on edge, until they caught sight of movement from the doorway of the inn. The plated roof hung over the porch of the lodge, making it difficult to see the figure who stepped out, and he hesitated on the step while he eyed them.

"Are you friend or foe of Dain?" Thorin called in a low voice.

The shadowed head rose a little as though surprised he was being addressed. "Do we need to be either?" And stepping out into the sunlight, a spark of recognition passed over Gulm's face.

"Dul?" He said tentatively and stepped forward. The shadowed figure revealed them to be the same height and build, and with tears and a broken will did he throw himself into the outstretched arms of an overjoyed Gulm.

More bodies appeared from doorways. Thorin and his troop were slowly surrounded by thirty curious sets of eyes. Dul pulled away from the arms of Gulm and addressed Thorin, "I am Dul, son of Olm." And he further revealed himself to be Gulm's brother, as well as the emissary sent out two years earlier.

He ushered them into the lodge, the other traders following cautiously behind them but refusing to walk past the porch of the inn.

Nur's heart hurt with compassion for them, taking in their fearful glances. She sat herself at a broken table next to Fili and Kili, putting a hand on the shoulder of Kili when she saw the burden of sickness on him. She rubbed her hand in a circle on his back. Kili patted her hand over his shoulder and rested his head on the table top, brushing her arm away and muttering something about catching his breath.

"We have no small amount of questions for you." Thorin eyed Dul with a little suspicion as the dwarf stood before their seated company. "But perhaps we should start with why you never returned to the Iron Hills."

Dul crossed his arms. "I did not bring a report King Dain because I cannot leave."

Gulm coughed a little and asked why.

"Because no one leaves this place unless they are dead." Dul growled. "Not even you."

Hello, my dears :) The chapters will be coming much quicker now (I'd like to say one a day, but I think we all know what happens when we make ambitious promises) I guess we'll have to wait and see! Please leave feedback, even if you hated it- tell me if it sounds stuffy or melodramatic, just tell me something. I love to hear from you!