Watching her, Bilbo couldn't help feeling sorry for her.
Alright, she was a little odd. And from a different world – what was all that about? Even Gandalf was looking at her curiously, like he wasn't quite sure what to make of her.
After watching her reject Kili's clothes with a hard note in her voice – he was quite sure the young dwarf hadn't expected that at all – Bilbo hurried to his pack, which was thankfully not very far away, and took out a neatly folded spare set of clothes.
He arrived just in time to hear her lose control over having somehow shrunk in size while having journeyed to a different world.
"Ah – excuse me." He cleared his throat as he moved to step around Balin. "Bilbo Baggins." He bowed slightly, held out his clothes. "I thought perhaps you might prefer my clothes? These are rather an old pair, a little too big for myself, so it might fit you comfortably. Because, you know, the dwarfs are rather, uh, sturdily built, and their clothing might be, well, more than a little loose."
The girl smiled at him and took the bundle. "Thank you, Mr Bilbo Baggins. Ella Aidan." She gave an awkward half-curtsey, causing the hobbit to smile.
"Didn't you say your name was Eleanor, lass?" Gloin was frowning.
"Well, yes. But everyone calls me Ella."
"Enough chatter," Thorin said, voice deep, his gaze sweeping over the group before him. "Miss Aidan, I suggest you change, you're shivering in that. Balin will follow you."
Bilbo saw Ella open her mouth, then shut it again, before nodding curtly and allowing Balin to lead her on her way.
"I didn't mean for her to take offence," Kili was saying, over and over again, as the remaining dwarfs gathered their belongings.
Thorin frowned even more and whacked his nephew on the back of his head.
"That statement was completely unnecessary," he growled, then turned round to face the rest of the company. "Take note that Miss Aidan hears nothing – nothing – of our quest. As far as she knows, we are merely a group of dwarfs travelling with a hobbit and a wizard. Since she's from a different world," here his voice slowed, "she won't see anything strange about our journey."
He turned to Gandalf.
"Is there nothing you can do about her?"
Gandalf looked down at the King under the mountain, and raised an eyebrow.
Eleanor Aidan interested the wizard quite a lot. An inter-world traveller, who had somehow managed to guess on her own that she was in a completely different world, and somehow had not started screaming or shrieking. Add that to the fact that she still looked extremely young – certainly not a day over twenty, and had managed to keep her composure perfectly, despite the little incident with her change in height. Yes, Gandalf was indeed curious about the young lady.
"I'm afraid not," he said. "These travellers have to find their own way in the world. And as of now, I believe that her own path lies with you and your quest."
"I will not have her trailing after us to Erebor. She is a liability. She could get injured or killed – or indirectly cause one of the others to be."
"Be as it may, I fear you have little say in the matter," said Gandalf, as the company slowed in their tasks, listening to their conversation. "From what I understand, these travellers are travellers simply because they are needed someplace else – or because her previous life left so little fulfilled that they are giving her another chance in this quest. Whichever the case, I'm afraid you're quite stuck with her."
"We shall see," was all Thorin said, darkly.
"Miss Aidan?"
Ella glanced around, from her perch on top of a rock, to see the dark-haired young dwarf at her side.
"I want to apologise for earlier," he said, quickly, before she could move away. "I didn't mean for it to sound offensive. It was just that you seemed so upset, I thought it might make you laugh – "
"No, no," she interrupted, hurriedly, before he could continue, "no, it's my fault, I was just short tempered, I didn't mean to snap at you or anything, it was really just an instinctive reaction." For some reason she was blushing furiously again, and she hoped the dwarf wouldn't notice.
He began to smile at her, about to say something else, when one of the other dwarfs gave a loud yell: "KILI!"
His smile turned apologetic as he turned away.
Ella tugged at the sleeves of Bilbo's extra clothes as she watched the dwarfs pack up their supplies and try to figure out a way for her to journey with them for a while.
The truth was, she didn't usually encounter male attention, apart from when she was arguing with them. She just wasn't the kind of girl that was generally noticed, even the boys were just joking, or flirting for the sake of flirting. No, she'd always been much too tall, much too scary, not the slim, slender, giggly girls that boys seemed to like. It had never really bothered her, though she would admit that she used to get slightly jealous. But after a while, she'd accepted it. It just didn't happen to her. And to be honest, the boys she knew would probably have to be prodded and forced into being concerned for her, and it was hardly likely any would want to offer her anything like a jacket, much less clothes.
To find dwarfs and hobbits eagerly offering their own clothes and flashing winning smiles at her was more than a little strange.
It was even more disconcerting than waking up in a strange new world after having drowned.
Drowned.
She bit her lip as Emma swam into her head, lovely Emma, with her long dark hair and her rich laugh and the sketchbooks lining her room. Emma. Face tear-stained, screaming Ella's name as the older girl sank down into the water. And her parents – oh god. Her mother – it was likely she'd never see her mother again. And they'd had such an argument that day; yet another argument about something trivial, probably, Ella couldn't even remember. And her father, getting short-tempered with her snappy comments and sarcastic remarks.
"Would you like an introduction to the company?"
It was a dwarf with a funny hat, smiling at her gently, leaning against the rock she was on, a pipe in his mouth.
She nodded, jerkily, pushing Emma and her parents out of her mind.
"My name is Bofur," he told her, "at your service." He bowed at her, straightened up and smiled again. "And of course you know Mr Baggins, and Gandalf. And then over there is Thorin Oakenshield, the leader of our company, and then there's – "
"Balin, at your service," said the old dwarf, appearing out of nowhere, smiling slightly as he bowed.
"Dwalin, at your service." The gruff dwarf paused, and then said, "Sorry to have scared you when you woke up."
"Gloin, at your service."
"Oin, at your service."
"Nori, at your service."
"Dori, at your service."
"Ori, at your service." The dwarf who had lent her his cloak and returned her glasses smiled at her.
"Bifur, at your service."
"Bombur, at your service."
"Fili – "
" – and Kili – "
"At your service!"
The two young dwarfs flashed brilliant smiles at her as they bowed, making her heart rate, to her great annoyance, increase drastically.
"Miss Aidan."
Thorin had approached the group, eyeing her with a rather resigned look in his dark eyes.
"You will be accompanying Fili on his pony. We leave immediately."
Without another word, he turned back around, gesturing for the dwarfs to get back to their horses.
"I can get down on my own," was the first thing out of Ella's mouth when Fili offered his hand to help her climb down. Stupid blond dwarf with his stupid charming smile.
He laughed. "Alright, not saying you couldn't." Before she could protest, he took her wet clothes from where they had been drying and packed them into one of the few bags on his pony, grinning at her as she approached him warily. She noticed, vaguely, that most of his packs had been transferred over to the last pony, the one without a rider.
"I'm not going to hurt you, you know," he said, sounding amused.
"It's not you," said Ella, and, to her immense surprise, realised it was true; she wasn't afraid of him. "It's just – " She paused, eyed the pony. "I've never ridden one of these before."
"All you have to do is sit," Fili said, reassuringly, swinging onto the pony and pulling Ella up in front of him, his arms going around her waist to grab hold of the reins. "I'm not making you uncomfortable, am I?" he asked, alarmed, as she tensed up at the contact.
"No, no," she said, letting her long dark hair fall forward to hide her face as they started off.
"I think," said Ella Aidan, "that you are all on some sort of mysterious quest or journey."
Fili glanced at the girl huddled in front of him, Ori's cloak still around her shoulders, the dwarf refusing it vehemently when she had tried to return it to him. She hadn't spoken for hours, not since they had started off. She had, in fact, fallen asleep at some point, curling up against Fili. He hadn't realised she had woken again.
"What makes you say that?" he asked, easily, the grip on his reins tightening.
"Well," she said, straightening up slightly, "you're a group of thirteen dwarfs, travelling with a wizard, and a hobbit – a wizard who seems as if his main purpose is to give you advice and guide you, and a hobbit who looks as if he doesn't really belong here and that he'd much rather be at home half the time."
Fili blinked at her.
"And," she continued, "you are all carrying an absolutely ridiculous amount of weapons and baggage."
Well, his uncle wasn't always right, Fili thought, dryly.
"You don't have to say anything if you can't," Ella said, hurriedly. "I just needed to talk after so long. And, well, if I'll be riding with you for who knows how long, I'd rather not have awkward silences."
He grinned at her as she continued looking around at the other dwarfs, glancing up at the trees towering up on either side of them. She seemed more comfortable, more relaxed and at ease, a little more cheerfulness in her voice. Possibly, she had gotten over her initial fear, and was now warming up to them slightly. He hoped so. It seemed, very possibly, that she might be good company.
"You're right, I can't say anything about our journey," Fili told her, his arm coming into closer contact with her as he urged the pony around a bend, "but you are sounding a lot better and much more cheerful, Miss Aidan."
"Ella. Just – just call me Ella." She looked faintly embarrassed. "Nobody calls me Miss Aidan. I'm just a student and everything. Everyone calls me Ella. And, well, yes, I am feeling a lot better."
"Ella, then." He rolled the name around in his tongue. "So, Ella, what are these funny things on your face?"
"These?" Ella touched her glasses. "They're glasses. Or you could call them spectacles. They help me to see better. I'm short-sighted, can't see things properly if they're far away. If I don't wear them, well, I wouldn't be able to tell apart – " she paused, thinking, and then said, "Bombur and Mr Bilbo Baggins, for example."
At that, Fili laughed, then looked at the glasses in amazement.
"Wow."
Ella smiled uncertainly. "I have something called myopia. Which basically means I just have really terrible eyesight."
"I rely on my eyes more than anything," said Fili. "I can't imagine what it's like to have everything in a blur."
Ella shrugged, pushed a strand of hair behind her ear, opening her mouth before Fili could continue talking.
"Tell me about your world."
It wasn't long before Fili was telling her about the Blue Mountains, about the hobbits in The Shire and Bilbo Baggins' pantry with its massive amount of food, about Gandalf the Grey and his firecrackers, and about the elves, whom Ella gathered that he did not like very much. Some of the other dwarfs were riding within hearing distance, listening, throwing out information or stories that Fili didn't know or had forgotten about.
"What about yours?" he asked, and when her smile faltered, he tried, "your family?"
"I have a younger sister. Esmeralda. But everyone calls her Emma because she thinks Esmeralda is too fancy." Ella was smiling as she spoke, a faraway smile. "She's lovely; she's wonderful, really. She has this lovely dark hair that falls in waves, and these really huge brown eyes that shine, and she loves art; drawing and painting and everything that goes with it. And she plays sports too, she plays something called softball, and she loves it even though she's never careful and always get bruises all over herself. And she's funny, and nice, and kind; a little short-tempered, a little judgmental, but she'll help anyone even if they didn't ask."
"You love her a lot." Fili thought of Kili, the little brother he'd once thought of annoying but now couldn't imagine living without. To have one of them without the other was simply not right. He couldn't imagine being separated from Kili like that.
"Yeah." Ella let out a short laugh. "She's the reason why I'm here, really." She paused. "Oh god, that makes me sound whiny and complaining, doesn't it?"
"No, no." Fili shook his head furiously. "I'm sensing a story. Go on, we're going to be stuck together until nightfall." He wriggled his eyebrows at her, making her laugh. "Go on, tell the story!"
"There's not much to tell." Ella turned away, fighting the ache in her heart as she remembered Emma's agonised face from above the water. "She was at the edge of the jetty, drawing, when this motorbike – it's a sort of machine, a vehicle, in our world – was coming right at her. I don't even know what it was doing on the jetty. And I just ran and pushed her out of the way. And here I am."
"You gave up your life for her."
Fili glanced at her with a newfound respect. Ella was still looking away determinedly, blinking back tears.
"She's my little sister, isn't she?" A small smile had crept onto her face. "Got to take care of her. What kind of older sister would I be if I didn't?"
"We'll camp here for the night," Thorin said, stopping as the company reached an old, abandoned farmhouse. "Fili, Kili, look after the ponies. Make sure you stay with them."
Fili lowered Ella safely down from the pony first, ignoring her mumbled "I can get down myself"s as he did so, before swinging down himself.
"You," he informed her, "obviously cannot climb down a pony to save your life."
She turned away, mumbling something in a low voice.
"I thought all girls liked animals," he said, chuckling, noticing her face heat up as she realised he had heard her.
"Sexist pig," she said, as Fili just grinned at her even more. "I bet you think all girls like flowers and rainbows too."
"Are you saying you don't?" he asked, amused, as she shrugged, a half-amused, half-annoyed look on her face, digging out her wet clothes and laying them out to dry as Fili and his brother led the ponies away.
She turned back just to see Gandalf march away from a dark-faced Thorin and a baffled-looking Bilbo.
"This story," one of the younger hobbits said, "is not very interesting."
"Oh, do be quiet!" Frodo turned a glare on the hobbit before looking back at Bilbo.
"Well, it is getting late," Bilbo said, glancing out the window.
"You can't just stop halfway!"
"Bilbo!"
"Don't listen to Pippin!"
"And the grown-ups are still talking!"
"Well," said Bilbo, glancing down at them.
"Pippin's talking nonsense," Frodo said, insistently. "Oh, do continue, Bilbo!"
"Well, if you insist," said Bilbo, a smile breaking out on his face. "Now this, my dears, was when I had my first taste of danger…"