Kili was inspecting the warg skin, muddying the sod where he stood with river water. I had pulled myself onto a half-submerged boulder on the shore, sitting with the water lapping at my torso. Pulling one leg up and curling it under the other as it dangled in the water, I ran my fingers across the ripples. Fili swam over on his back, his glass green eyes studying the clear sky overhead.
"So you have no memory of anything before you came to live with Beorn?" He asked, floating belly up without looking at me.
"Sometimes things come in flashes." I replied, running a hand through my damp hair, "Visions."
"Did you have one this morning when we first met?" He asked, flipping himself over and swimming to my rock.
"A little." I replied, not meeting his gaze as he rested his arms on the granite surface beside me.
"Did it happen when I told you I was a dwarf?"
I dared glance over, not sure of how I felt with him this close asking such questions. Beorn's warnings resounded in my mind. By all counts, I had broken my promise to him by running off into the woods alone with the dwarf youths. I tried not to think about that.
"Yes," I replied, bringing an index finger to my mouth and chewing at a torn nail.
"What did you see?"
Fili's calm gaze, as simple as a pool of rainwater, took me in steadily. The ends of his hair rose and fell in the water like river weeds, swirling around his sturdy shoulders sculpted by his soaked grey shirt sleeves. I looked away, wary of how to interpret my own interest in the dwarf.
"I saw your people, a few of them at least." I replied, "I had seen them before sometimes in my dreams but never that vividly. And I never knew what they were till now."
I met his eyes once more, my breath catching in my throat in an odd way I had never experienced.
"Fili!" Kili hollered rushing into the clearing, "We had better be off. There is still sign of warg in this area."
"I thought Beorn had taken care of that problem last night." Fili replied, pulling himself out of the water next to me.
"I did as well, maybe he missed a few."
I looked up at the precipice where I had stupidly left my knives. I wondered if the dwarves had even had a chance to bring their own blades before we raced off into the wood. I burst from the water and scrambled up the rock slide. Reaching the top first, I strapped my belt around my waist tightly and tossed my dripping curls from my face.
"Did you bring any weapons?" I asked Fili directly as he came up behind me, his shirt hanging loosely.
He shrugged, turning to his boots and pulling a short knife from a sheath hidden in one, "This is about it."
"We must be swift then." I answered.
"We know that's not a difficult thing for you, Cub." Kili said with a grin.
My brow creased as I studied him. These dwarves were either moronic or stupidly confident to jest in the face of a possible warg attack. Without a word, I started down the path clutching the hilt of the largest knife I had with me.
Fili studied her back as he followed her through the brush and out onto the forest path. Pulling his coat over his wet shirt, the air felt stale with humidity once again. He tried to keep his thoughts focused on the situation on hand but was loathe to admit that he could not tear his eyes away from the gentle curve of her waist where her damp tunic clung to her hips. Running a hand over his face, he gripped the knife's hilt tightly.
It had been too many weeks strictly in the company of his rough traveling party. Though she was hardly feminine in the traditional sense of the word, Cub was definitely, and most distractedly, a young woman. She was like nothing that he had ever seen before and he wasn't quite sure what he felt about only having a short time to get to know her.
She halted, her nose to the air.
"It isn't warg," She breathed, unsheathing her knife, "Goblin."
The dwarves turned outwards, their eyes wide on the woods.
"Kili," She whispered.
The dark dwarf looked over just in time as she tossed him her extra knife. He caught it by the flat end of the blade and flipped it around in his hand.
"I don't believe it has sensed us yet." She breathed, "Quickly."
She turned to a nearby tree and scuttled up the branches. Kili and Fili followed suit, swinging themselves up into the thick foliage. Fili looked up to see her crouching on a thin branch. Clenching the knife blade between her teeth, Cub rose with her feet balanced one in front of the other and her hands clutching branches over her. At the moment, she could not have looked wilder, her curls messy with dead leaves, her eyes alert to the forest floor below like a hawk. His breath caught in his throat at the sight.
A rustling came down the path they had just been on. The hunched, dark figure of a sniveling goblin passed underneath. Fili held his breath. Without warning, Cub quietly danced from branch to branch to the forest floor right behind the creature. Kili looked up at Fili in confusion and fear. Stiffening his jaw, Fili let himself drop to the forest floor. The silly girl might be impressive in a tree top but she was going to get herself killed.
He chased after her down the path where she had followed the fell creature. Coming around a corner, he stopped short in the route. His mouth dropped slightly.
Fili had come upon the scene as Cub pulled the wiry creature's head back and before it could scream, tore her blade across its throat. Black blood spurted into the air as she let it drop to the ground. He stood shocked into silence as she wiped her blade clean on a patch of tall grass next to the convulsing body of the goblin. Sheathing it at her waist, she turned towards him. Kili came up behind him, looking on the picture in as much surprise as he also felt.
"You know, we could really use her in our company." Kili commented lamely, blinking at Cub in the golden afternoon sunlight.
Author's Note: Ok just a silly observation, but the more I'm writing this, the more I'm finding inspiration from Shakespeare's "The Tempest". Seriously! Beorn is Prospero, Cub is Miranda and Fili is Ferdinand! Actually, I fashioned how Cub looks after Felicity Jones as Miranda in Julie Taymor's recent production of "The Tempest". Anyway, thanks for the sweet reviews! They are always so very appreciated!