Zoor Se Dovahruth
Five

-Wo Nok Voth Beyr-
Who Lies With Guilt

Their first day of the journey, Keeva reasoned they traveled quite a ways away from the little homely hobbit hole in the ground. She spent most of her time asking questions to many of the dwarves in the company about their culture. Her mother had always told Keeva she was a very curious and intelligent girl. She learned quite a lot just from listening and trial and error. Keeva listened well when they talked about the stories of Orcs and even what dwarf women looked like. But her mind could not forget the disgust, hatred, and mistrust in the dwarves voices when they talked about Elves.

Gloin tried his best, without realizing, to keep her attention on the stories he continued to tell of Dwarfs and their culture.

"Beards, my dear," Gloin explained, while pulling out a silver locket and handing it to her to open, "My wife is the one on the left and my little boy, Gimli, on the other."

Keeva smiled as she stared upon the drawing of a very sturdy, strong, and bearded woman. She looked like she didn't take crap from anyone. The boy, from what she understood was a child, was also growing a beard at his young age. Keeva then looked back at Kili - the only dwarf in their company that didn't have much of a beard at all - her eyes squinting to study him and then her eyes went back to the picture frame. She did that a couple more times before Kili had felt her staring, "What?"

"I don't understand," she began slowly, holding up the picture of the boy to compare to the younger man, "Gloin's son is clearly much younger than you, yet he has a beard that could easily be compared to Ori's. Do you not like beards, Kili?"

Kili looked surprised but laughed lightly as he leaned over to look at the picture as well, "Gimli is a special case."

Kili's explanation had his older brother laughing, putting Kili off, "Oh, common, Kili. You know that's not why."

Keeva found Fili smiling cheekily at his little brother but Kili wasn't as amused, "Shut up, Fili."

Night came sooner than Keeva realized. The day must have been so busy for her to not notice it fly by. The company set up camp on a large overlook. Bombur waited no longer than he could to get a fire started so that he could begin cooking their dinner. Keeva settled up next to the stone wall, her pack placed behind her back and her fur coat set on the ground so she had a nice spot to set. The others set up a slightly similar situation, none of them too far away from the light of the fire. Fili and Kill rolled out their pallets on Keeva's left and waited eagerly for supper to be served.

Keeva looked pointedly over at Fili before the golden haired dwarf caught her gaze. It dawned on him that the look she was giving him was one that said 'you owe me'. Fili swallowed hard, the strained face catching the young half-breed off guard. Keeva's features softened and a small blush heated her cheeks before she said anything, "You don't have to do it. I was just teasing you."

Fili shook his head before he stood up and moved over to her. The dwarf sat down, his right leg stretching out behind her and the other bend in – pressed against her thigh - so that he could be close enough to reach her blazing colored hair. "A bet is a bet and you won fairly, Mi'lady. I wouldn't go back on it."

Keeva's blue eyes stared into his, biting her bottom lip to hold back the nerves that bubbled in the pit of her stomach. He smiled happily before reaching up into his hair to pull out one of the clasps that held one of his braids together, "Where should I put it?" he asked, reaching up to touch the waves and curls of her wild hair. Keeva smiled, "I trust your skills, Fili. Do what you think looks best."

Fili watched the girl in front of him, studying her movements, the wandering of her eyes, and the twiddling of her finger. But most of all he though and pondered over her words. Do what you think looks best and I trust you… She trusted him enough to let him touch her hair. That had to mean quite a bit, and it said a lot about what kind of person she was. Clearly she trusted only a few and he was honored that she trusted him enough to touch her hair. But then when she said 'Do what you think looks best'… did she really even care about what he was doing or was she wanting him to create something that he would enjoy looking at on her? To make her look how he wanted, to admire for himself… Fili felt an odd mixture of feelings in the pit of his stomach and tried his best to ignore them as he set the clip down and began his task by gathering a few locks of hair. He was sure he was just over thinking the whole situation.

Keeva's tresses were much softer than they looked. Sure they were wild and the few braids that she did have were random and tight, a few glass beads here and there. But for something that looked so wild, her hair was gentle and soft, much like the way she was with everyone in the company.

Fili took great care in not forming any knots in her hair. He decided a small fishtail braid would look nice just next to her temple. In his culture, a braid such as that would mean simply a sign of friendship. There were all sorts of different types of braids, all with different meanings. Braiding was a very significant part of their culture and Fili wasn't quite sure if Keeva was aware of that. Surely throughout the rest of their journey she would grow to understand that.

Fili took his time in gathering each strand, weaving it around and about each other. Her hair was long, so it took some time to braid but by the time it was finished dinner was ready. So he slipped the dwarvish clip at the end of the braid and then brushed her hair behind her ear only to find it pointed.

Fili had not been sure why he hadn't thought about such a trivial little detail. Pointed ears were an elfish trait. He couldn't remember if Bofur had shared exactly what kind of kin Keeva came from, but he was curious now as he reached out to touch the point. Keeva flinched, her eyes meeting his with some uncertainty, was that fear? He hadn't wanted to scare her. If fact he wasn't sure what he had done wrong to gain such a reaction. Oh, that's right, he had touched it.

Fili dropped his hand and shook his head, what was he thinking when he did that? "I'm sorry, Mi'lady. That was wrong of me. I was just curious…"

Keeva sighed but gave a weak smile, one that said she wasn't sure if she should say anything at all. But if she didn't then surely the company would start discriminating her. Just as Gloin and the others had explained earlier that day, they did not like elves.

"No, do not apologies. It's only natural to be curious," Keeva insisted, bringing the braid and a the rest of the hair that head put behind her ear back where it belonged, to hid her elvish features, " I'm part Bosmer, or Wood elf if you like. My mother was a Bosmer. She was short, very short, and I inherited the same colored hair she had."

"I imagine she was very beautiful," Fili said while turning so that he could stretch his legs out next to her, all the while she watched him carefully to see if his demeanor would change now that he knew she was part elf. He didn't though, his blue eyes glanced down at her earnestly and she knew he wasn't bothered by it at all.

Keeva hummed in agreement, "My father thought the same thing, though their marriage was considered a rare union of races, and not looked kindly upon."

"Then he must have loved her very much," Fili insisted trying to get a smile back on her face. "Imagine if your parents hadn't loved one another, then you wouldn't be here now. I'm happy that your parents found each other."

Keeva looked upon Fili with thankful eyes, "Thank you, Fili. Not for just the braid but- well, you know."

Fili smiled and nodded silently, placing a comforting hand on Keeva's shoulder. They shared their dinner next to each other that night, Kili joined in later after he'd finished smoking his pipe. But the three of them talked on and on, even after Bombur and the others were snoring lightly into the night.

Thorin watched the pair of them, his interest mostly on the way his eldest nephew watched their female companion. He hadn't noticed their interactions before but the more he studied the more he could see the subtle actions of his nephew's fascination with the girl. In the back of his mind he knew it was something he should watch over, but the interactions were so small and insignificant compared to the journey ahead, so he looked it over that night.

Fili was Thorin's heir to the throne, though he wasn't his own son, he was the closest he had to one. Kili was next after his brother if anything would happen to Fili, but Fili was next in it line and he needed to learn what the responsibilities were as a King. The way he needed to act and what was expected of him when he became King. Perhaps this was Fili's way of enjoying what was left of his prince days and Thorin could understand that. But he needed to be careful with whom he set his attentions on.

Eventually, Keeva lied down on her bed roll for that night, trying to let the heaviness in her eyes take her into her dreams but there was a shrill cry out in the distance that forced her eyes to open again. Keeva sat up slowly, finding Bilbo walking over to the campfire slightly concerned. "What was that?"

Keeva glanced over at the brothers, also looking for an answer. Kili stared at Bilbo, with the seriousness of a warrior just about to walk into the midst of battle. Fili was leaning back against the stone wall, smoking away on his pipe, not a worry in the world. But his blue eyes caught sight of the young girl, finding concern and an edge he'd never seen before. It made her look feral with her wild red hair. Something in him stirred but he pushed it away after finding his brother was playing with the hobbit.

"Orcs…" Kili answered, when another shrill cry called out in the dead of night, even closer to the camp.

"Orcs?" Bilbo questioned, hopping over to the fire delicately. Thorin watched the exchange while lying back on the rocky out crop. He looked unfazed by the notion of orcs nearby but he did sit up after seeing Keeva's edgy demeanor. A sense of fatherliness pressing on him to take care of the situation, to see her safely back under her covers, sleeping away a dreamless night…

"Throat cutters, there'll be dozens of them out there," Fili told Bilbo lightly, waving his pipe around in meaning gestures. "The low lands are crawling with them."

Keeva found Gandalf's smoky eyes watching on with an odd look. He too was smoking away at his long stemmed pipe. Kili continued on with the childish joke, "They strike in the wee small hours, when everyone's asleep. Quick and quiet; no screams, just lots of blood."

Bilbo looked away in fright but the two brothers looked at each other and began to chuckle with the reaction they had earned. "You think that's funny?"

Their chuckling stopped at the sound of Thorin's angered voice. Keeva gazed at Thorin, who looked right back at her, and she was sure he was trying to get back at the boys for their little charade. "You think a night raid by orcs is a joke?"

Thorin walked out, the light of the fire illuminated his features only to prove how angry he was with Fili and Kili. Keeva bit her bottom lip, refraining from trying to say anything, though there was not much for her to say to begin with. It was clear both Kili and Fili felt terrible for their stunt.

"We didn't mean anything by it," Kili replied, his eyes traveling down to his boots with guilt.

"No, you didn't," Thorin agreed sarcastically, walking away from the camp. "You know nothing of the world."

Keeva looked on as Thorin went off to the edge of the outlook. The way he had just reacted, the way he had said those words to Fili and Kili, they were words and feelings that Keeva could relate to very well, only with a particularly blue dressed individual. She understood how much of the situation, even the thought, was not funny. Slipping in and out, slitting throats, blood on the floor, it was all bringing terrible tears to Keeva's eyes as she thought about it more. What was wrong with her?

"Don't mind him, laddie," Balin told the boys while walking up to the fire. His wise eyes glancing over Keeva briefly noting her wipe the moisture with the back of her sleeve, "Thorin has more cause than most to hate orcs. After the dragon took the Lonely Mountain, King Thror tried to reclaim the ancient dwarf kingdom of Moria. But our enemy had got their first."

Keeva listened to Balin intently as he began to recall his story of that day. Keeva could picture the battle while she stared into the fire, blades swinging and blood everywhere. "Moria had been taken by legions of Orcs lead by the most vile of all their race: Azog, the Defiler. The giant Gundabad Orc had sworn to wipe out the line of Durin. He began by beheading the King."

Keeva could see the giant orc, broad, muscular, and malicious. His mace swung down after removing the King's only defense and then he was holding the head from the hair, roaring with his prize for all to see. Azog then flung the head at Thorin, it bounced and rolled all the way down to the Prince's feet and the look on Thorin's face was complete despair.

"Thrain, Thorin's father, was driven mad by grief. He went missing, taken prisoner or killed, we did not know. We were leaderless. Defeat and death were upon us."

The fleet of orcs were chasing down the dwarves, down the rocky terrain, "That is when I saw him: a young dwarf prince facing down the Pale Orc."

Azog and Thorin where at a stand down. The malicious pale creature swung his mace knocking away Thorin's shield and then his sword. Thorin fell to the ground in an embankment, all hope seeming at a loss. "He stood alone against this terrible foe, his armor rent… wielding nothing but an oaken branch as a shield."

The Pale Orc leaped down just as Thorin reeled back up with the oak branch to block the swing. Azog continued to use his mace, slamming it down countless times but never getting any closer to harming Thorin. As the Defiler swung one last time, Thorin reached for a sword lying nearby and then cut off Azog's mace arm. The Pale Orc clutched his bleeding stump, howling in pain as blood spilt everywhere. "Azog, the Defiler, learned that day that the line of Durin would not be so easily broken."

Within the fire, Keeva watched as Azog was dragged into the depths of Moria by other orcs. Thorin turned to his kin, yelling for them 'to arms'. The dwarves rallied behind him and then returned to ferociously slaying the monsters. "Our forces rallied and drove the orcs back. Our enemy had been defeated. But there was no feast, no song, that night. For our dead were beyond the count of grief. We few had survived."

Keeva could see the vast field covered in hundreds and thousands of corpses, not only of dwarves but orc kind as well. The surviving dwarves were weeping over their loss. A younger Balin and Dwalin had hugged, touching their foreheads together in remorse. But when Balin pulled away, his gaze found Thorin framed in the sunlight, holding his oaken branch. "And I thought to myself then, there is one who I could follow. There is one I could call King."

As if cold water was thrown in her face, Keeva's vision snapped away and she was staring up at the company of dwarves that had gathered to watch their leader turn around and find them all awake and listening. Thorin walked between them back toward Keeva and the fire. Bilbo spoke up, a question she even found herself wondering, "But the pale orc? What happened to him?"

"He slunk back into the hole whence he came. That filth died of his wounds long ago," Thorin hummed angrily. There was a shared look between Gandalf and Balin. Keeva had not been one to miss that. She knew Gandalf knew quite a lot, and whether it was actual fact or just a feeling, Keeva trusted Gandalf's judgment.

Thorin returned to his spot before he had scolded the brothers. The other dwarves had returned to their beds as well. But Keeva could not sleep; the vision of the battle clear and brutal in her mind. Keeva stood all of a sudden and Thorin's stormy grey eyes followed her figure to the cliffs edge. He wondered quietly what had her up and about. Curious, he got up from his spot and walked over quietly, his hands placed behind his back.

The closer he got, the more he could hear her quiet lament. Keeva's head was lowered and her shoulders shook with hazardous intakes of breath. Thorin considered walking away and leaving her be but something told him she needed a shoulder to cry on, to just say how she was feeling and to let whatever it was out. That fatherly instinct took over and he let her name pass over his lips with concern, "Miss Keeva."

The quiet whimpers suddenly where struggling deep breaths and the young girl began wiping her eyes with her sleeve. When he came around to find her usually sky blue colored eyes, she looked up at him tentatively underneath her wild bangs, the gaze was a shade darker than the ocean water during a storm. Though there was a glassy look to them, a clear sign that she had been crying. Keeva tried her best to straighten herself, taking a deep breath and forcing a smile on her face, but it all went to waste when her bottom lip trembled on its own out of the pain that was clearly breaking her heart. Thorin watched as Keeva turned her head away trying to hide her face.

The dwarf sighed but reached out, taking Keeva's shoulders and forced her to face him. She struggled only once but gave up after Thorin continued to fight her against her wishes. "Keeva, what is wrong?"

Keeva shook her head trying to deny that there was anything wrong, her gaze still lowered to her feet. Thorin placed an index finger under her chin and then lifted her gaze up to meet his. A tear slowly slid down her cheek and Keeva wiped it away quickly. "I can't have you getting emotional on this quest, Keeva. It puts not only you but us in jeopardy as well. So… tell me. What has our tough little rose upset?"

Keeva couldn't help but smile at the little nickname that Thorin had given her, "You'll think me foolish."

Thorin chuckled, "Well I already think you foolish for taking a hair clip from Fili rather than coin for winning that bet. But the choice is yours."

Keeva couldn't believe her ears. Thorin was trying to tease her to make her feel better. If he was honestly trying then she would trying her best to be honest, "It was your tale."

Thorin's gaze softened after hearing what had her in tears, "Did it move you that much?"

Keeva shook her head when Thorin didn't quite get her meaning, "No… well yes, but that's not it. Your tale, of losing your Grandfather… it reminded me of my parents and how I lost them…"

Thorin's grey eyes washed over with sympathy and his hand rose back up to Keeva's face, wiping another escaped tear away from her cheek, but left his hand there to rub the skin comfortingly. He could see in her eyes, even though she tried to deny it from not only others but herself as well… she was still grieving. There was a pain in those sky blue eyes that ached so much for the life that she once loved and cherished, a home that she could return to and be welcomed with open arms. It was a feeling Thorin knew well and had felt for quite a long time, a very long time. "How did you lose them?"

Keeva's lip trembled freely, no holding back as she tried to gather her strength to tell him, "Murdered. My father had just returned from a journey to the temple a top the highest mountain in Tamriel, hope and happiness clear in his features as he was about to tell me of the cure to my curse. His throat was slit to silence his answer. I hadn't heard the blue assassin enter my home, he'd killed my mother first and then my father when I wasn't looking. I would have been next had I not blocked out the thought of my parents deaths. It was a heartless act, what I did, forgetting that they were dead and only thinking about my own life."

Keeva let the stinging tears continue to flow down her face when she recalled their faces. Thorin looked upon her seriously. His eyes were unclear though, blocking any thoughts from her so that she could not see what he was thinking. All she could do was continue to explain herself to him, to remind herself of what she didn't do and what she should have done, "Unlike you, gaining revenge for your Grandfather, I didn't. I ran. I knocked the blue assassin out and packed what I could to survive on my way to the temple my father had just returned from. But there is not a day that goes by that I do not thing about killing that man, gaining my revenge for my parent's deaths."

When Keeva couldn't speak anymore, her shoulders shaking and her face scrunched up in grief, a sob wracking her lungs. Thorin pulled Keeva into a hug. She hid her face in the fur of his coat trying to muffle her sobs. She clung on tight and all Thorin could do was place a reassuring hand on the back of her head and the other on her back, rubbing it to comfort her shaking body. His chin rested a top of her head as he hushed her during the long hours of the night.

"You should not feel ashamed," he told her. "In fact, you probably did exactly what your parents would have wanted you to. They would have wanted you to live. And you did just that. They knew you would know when to run or fight, right? I'm sure your judgment was right that day. And one day, once I've helped you find a home, you will take up the quest to find that man and take revenge for your parents," Thorin did his best to try and console her. There wasn't exactly a formula to fixing such a situation but he knew the best way to go about it was from the heart. "You're a strong woman, Keeva. Don't let the death of your parents stop you from become the greatest this world has yet to see."

Keeva settled down after a few more minutes. Thorin pulled back just a bit to see the young girl's face. Her eyes were completely pink and the King couldn't help but chuckle lightly, "My dear Miss Keeva, crying is not very becoming of you."

Keeva let a sigh of relieve escape her lips as she smiled at his little joke, "I'll try not to, Mr. Oakenshield."

Thorin wiped just a few more tears from her pink cheeks and smiled, patting her wild hair down, brushing over the new braid for just a second. "I'll leave you to clean up then. I imagine my nephews would enjoy teasing you in this state."

Keeva's eyes grew wide, did he just say nephews? "They're your nephews?"

Thorin gave the girl a toothy grin, "Yes, did they not tell you?"

Keeva used the back of her sleeve to wipe her cheeks dry again, but her heart was racing at the speed of a running horse, "They mentioned they were Princes but did not say any more."

"Leave it to my sister's sons to leave out the details," Thorin laughed to himself. He began to walk back to the camp, a chuckle still in his throat, "Get some sleep, Miss Keeva. It'll be a long day tomorrow."

Keeva nodded, waving him away as she tried to cool herself off and make sure her eyes were no longer puffy. In the distance, on the other side of the valley, a sharp voice had caught the half-breed's attention. Keeva's sharp sense of hearing couldn't make out what was being said but there was clearly something producing a malicious noise. Keeva wiped her eyes once more with her sleeves and then focused her keen eyes only to find the silhouette retreating into the void of the forest. Her ears twitched, listening to see if there was anything more, but the threat was gone and her pursuit with it.

Sleep was the only thing that clouded her judgment at that point. Keeva returned to her spot next to Fili and the fire. His eyes flickered open when she passed, pleased that she had returned, "You were gone long."

Keeva hummed, the habit only seeming like the right answer as she lied down and pulled a small blanket over top of her. Her eyes gazed over at the dwarf, yawning deeply to show him that she was tried. "Goodnight, Keeva."

"Goodnight, Fili," a weak mumble came from beneath the blankets across from him. Fili yawned as well before letting the weight of his eyes take him into his dreams.

…

A/N: Keeva has a lot more issues to deal with than just the curse. I thought bringing up the issue of her parents deaths and her lack of conclusion with the situation of those deaths would be important in her development as a person. She is a warrior at heart and of course her parents had taught her what she should do in such a situation that she was put it. But that doesn't change the face that the caring and kind part of her personality it struggling with the fact that she left her parents without one thought of looking back. They were the only people that cared for her for so long and she just left them for self-preservation. Guilt is something I thought would be a very terrible weakness to have as a warrior and I was interested in what it would do later on in the story. So this will not be the last of this subject or situation that deals with guilt and doing what is right as a warrior.

Again I brought up the little fatherly relationship that Thorin is feeling mainly because Keeva is still very much like a little kid. She is the youngest out of them all, with little experience outside of what she was used to in Skyrim. Even in Skyrim she was very sheltered, so I feel Thorin and even Gandalf may be these figures that will be important to her throughout this journey, almost a coming of age and learning what it is like to become an adult.

I honestly want to thank Akiluna for all of your reviews. They are possible the best feedback I have received since starting this. So thank you very much. I feel better after reading what you have to say about this and it honestly makes me strive to write each chapter even better than the last. So thank you!

Disclaimer: I don't own The Hobbit or Elder Scrolls. Any character that is not familiar is of my own creation.