Jane caught up to Thorin and shouted to be heard over the pouring rain. "It would probably be better if we stopped now-"

Thorin turned to her and narrowed his eyes. "We keep moving."

"It's actually more dangerous to keep going, but if you want to take that risk, alright." Jane huffed, angry at Thorin for disregarding her. "You'll be the one to bear the consequences." Jane waited for Bifur to pass her then trudged behind him, not wanting to have to be near Thorin and his stubbornness.

True to his word Thorin didn't let them stop past sunset, though it was more like a gradual darkness. He told the company it was because the sunset earlier in the mountains and they had lost time with the elves. Jane huffed and pushed her emotions out. It wouldn't do to cause an argument in a already falling apart company.

Time seemed to wear on. Jane shuffled and trudged, all the while thinking about what they were going to do once they had finished this quest. Jane wasn't sure what was going to happen. Ann had already laid down some roots here in middle earth. But what about the family tree that was already thriving back in West Virginia? The family friends, half finished college degrees-

Jane sighed and shook her head, now was not the time to be thinking so far into the future, they would cross that bridge when they came to it.

There was a scream and Jane whipped around to see Ann hanging from the edge of the cliff. Time slowed down, and Jane was pushing past Bofur, Fili was already there, trying to pull her up. There was a moment where he tried to pull her up, and Ann was slipping.

Jane dove and her hands were almost there, her fingertips brushed Ann's falling wrists, then she was gone, fallen into the murky darkness.

It wasn't like the movies, Jane thought as she sat there for a moment, the brunt of what had happened didn't fully hit her until Bofur came up to her. Some time in the melee the rain had stopped.

"She fell." Jane said dumbly.

"I'm sorry lass, I know how it feels to lose kin." Balin patted her once on the shoulder.

It was a bit awkward right after she fell, the group just sat there while Jane knelt there, wondering how the world could keep on spinning if Ann wasn't there. Jane thought about Ann, her constant, almost incessant smiling. What would Jane do now that her other half was gone?

The worst part of the feeling inside of her was that she was sure that Thorin wouldn't allow them to stop for a funeral. But how would Ann go to heaven, if she wasn't properly put to rest? How would she meet Jane in the afterlife? Would they ever see each other again, Jane couldn't imagine a life without Ann. Something had lodged herself in her throat, and wouldn't come out. Jane swallowed twice, before giving up and bringing her knees up her chest. Truly, Jane would die rather than live without her.

Fili felt funny, like he was about to laugh and cry at the same time. But nothing was funny at all. Bofur and Dwalin were arguing in heated whispers whether or not they should spend the night there.

Thorin frowned at the both of them and held up a hand. "We will stay to have dinner, and then we set off again. We will light a pyre for Ann when we get to a cave. But we must continue, as we have little time before Durin's day."

Kili came and sat gingerly by Jane "Hello."

Jane scrubbed her eyes. "Hey."

"Thorin said we're moving on in a bit."

"Oh." Jane frowned.

"Do you want to say anything, I think that with funerals for men, the father in this case, would say something."

Jane tried to blink away tears, but seeing as Ann would never get the chance to see their Mom or Dad again it was too much. Jane realized that Ann was truly cheated out of almost her whole life, she should've lived a good 60 years more, she deserved that much.

Kili looked at Jane helplessly, seeing how his remark had only made her eyes misty. "Or, I mean you don't have to. In dwarvish funerals they are buried in a tomb with their parents, and the family would set one of their valuable possessions near them so they would enjoy the afterlife."

Jane took a deep breath and patted Kili's arm. "Thank you."

"Yeah, perfectly fine." Kili shrugged, and let out a rather loud breath.

"Ann was great you know?" Jane shook her head. "She was great at everything, well except for grammar but who is really? She was constantly making jokes and really brought life to the world."

"Yeah." Kili nodded fervently, "Ann was really funny and kind."

"She hated bullies, because when we were in kindergarten we were in separate classes."

"Um ok." Kilil looked lost.

"There was this one kid who would take my cookie everyday. When Ann heard about it, she went up to him and kicked him right in the shins."

"Sounds about right." Kili nodded. "One does not simply excuse theft."

"But that was when I started looking up to her, right?" Jane picked up a rock from next to her and threw it into the abyss. "I thought, wow look at Ann, she's my older sister, she's great. I thought she could do anything."

"I know the feeling." Kili too threw a rock.

"Yeah, Fili seems like the nice older brother type."

"He would steal me sweets from the kitchen." Kili grinned nostalgically. "I could never get them for myself, the cook would always catch me."

"Were the sweets any good?"

"Yeah, but Fili would always make sure I wasn't eating too much."

"Yeah, but Ann wouldn't ever actually treat me like a little girl." Jane threw another stone, this time going farther. "Like she would always respect my opinions and give me a chance to do things my way before she over ruled me."

"Not Fili. It's his way or no way."

"Meus via aut capio ineris." Jane smiled. "It's my way or the highway in latin."

"Latin? What's that?"

"A language." Jane sighed. "One of the first, but practically no one speaks it anymore."

"How do you know it then?" Kili wrinkled his nose.

"My mom was a teacher, she taught college kids Greek and Latin at West Virginia University."

"Oh." Kili nodded.

Jane laughed, "You've no idea what that means do you?"

"No, not really." Kili grinned bashfully

"Well my mom taught us a couple of odd phrases now and then."

"What did your father do as a trade?" Kili asked curiously.

"He worked financial in the Robinson Run." A hint of pride crept into Jane's voice.

"What's that?" Kili chuckled.

"Well it's the person who managed the money in a coal company."

"My father was a coal miner." Kili looked at Jane nervously.

"That sounds fun."

"I don't think it was." Kili shook his head. "Coal mining is considered less than appropriate work for dwarves. It's like-"

"Being a peasant." Jane offered.

"Yeah, exactly." Kili nodded.

"No one is considered a peasant where we come from." Jane sighed. "I think the race of men are a bit less judgemental than dwarves though."

"What's it like where you come from, is it much different?"

"Very." Jane sighed. "My Mom and Dad would let us roam free as kids, and since we had such a big property we spent a lot of time outdoors."

"Did you play any games as a kid?" Kili grinned.

"Loads. We played card games a lot. Ann loved playing cards." Jane's voice shook. "She always kept a deck on her, I think she even had one when she fell." Jane choked out the last couple of words and fell silent.

"What are cards?" Kili scrambled for another subject.

"Little pieces of cardboard with symbols painted on them. There are four suites and thirteen cards to each suite, there's two through ten, and an ace that serves as one."

"I get it." Kili said slowly. "But what are the other three cards?"

"There's the jack, queen, and king, and the king is better than the queen and the queen is better than the jack. But in some cases the ace is above everything."

"Is there a prince card?" Kili grinned.

"No." Jane shook her head with a smile. "So there are four of each kind of card, but the thing that distinguishes them is the suite, which is either a heart, diamond, both of which are red, and then there's the two black suits, spades and clubs."

"Is there a suit that lies above the rest?" Kili threw a rock into the abyss. "Like the Ace."

"No." Jane threw a rock.

"What do the clubs and spades look like? The heart and diamond are pretty self-explanatory."

"The spade looks like an upside down heart with a little stick through it."

Jane tried to draw it in the rubble next to them, but it ended up looking like a blob.

"That's not what it looks like." Jane swept her hand through the pebbles, restoring them to their arbitrary places.

"What about a club?" Kili asked, not wanting Jane to fall back into a dark mood.

"It's a three leaf clover."

They fell into a silence broken only by the wind's whistling and the occasional scream of something sinister.

"Kili you have first watch." Bofur called.

"Alright, I'd better go then." Kili stood up then squatted down again. "You should come too."

"No, I'm fine." Jane continues tossing pebble after pebble into the abyss.

Kili sighed and slowly walked off, his eyes glues on Jane the whole time. Kili sat down next to Fili, who was sitting with whetstone and his favorite knife in hand.

"Are you going to sharpen your knife, or are you just holding it?" Kili laughed.

Fili blinked and looked at Kili. "What?"

"Are you feeling alright?" Kili looked Fili up and down, he wasn't usually this out of it. "Where'd your coat go?"

Fili opened his mouth but something flashed in his eyes, and he closed it again. "When are we going to have supper?"

"Right now I guess." Kili looked around. "But Thorin wants to wait until we find a cave to light a pyre. It's safer."

"She might still be alive." Fili sent a half hearted glare at Kili.

"I don't know brother." Kili clasped Fili's shoulder.

"She has to be."

"She fell off a cliff. Naught but a God could survive that."

"Go away Kili." Fili's jaw clenched and he jerked his shoulder out of Kili's reach.

Kili looked hurt and looked over to where the camp was congregating to Bombur. "Well it's time to eat anyway."

"Go Kili." Fili started running his whetstone hard against his knife.

"Alright." Kili stood up, and paused for a moment opening his mouth, then he sighed and walked away.

Fili fumbled his whetstone and dropped it. "Mahal curse everything." He muttered angrily, standing up and searching for the small square stone. He bent down and snatched it from the ground, rubbing the dirt off on his coat.

"Dinner's almost gone laddie." Bofur tapped Fili's shoulder.

"And?" Fili spun around, glaring at Bofur.

"You should eat." Bofur pushed the bowl into his hands, and frowned at how they were shaking.

"I'm not hungry." Fili reluctantly took his bowl.

"Not being hungry won't bring her back you know." Bofur clamped a hand on to Fili's shoulder.

"She's not-" Fili's eyes widened and his eyebrows furrowed.

"Laddie," Bofur felt a twinge of guilt at the betrayal in the light blue eyes, "whilst she might be alive, she also might be dead, the chances of her being alive are slim. It's as possible as an elf being honorous." Bofur squeezed his shoulder and watched as Fili stared into his stew.

"I don't want her to be gone." Fili muttered, sounding as though his nose were clogged.

"Aye."

"But now that she's gone-" Fili's voice cracked.

"You don't want to go on, I know, I know." Bofur nodded understandingly. "But you owe it to your uncle to keep going and finish this quest."

"But I don't want to." Fili was still staring at his bowl.

"It may seem hard now, but she would want you to." Bofur gave his shoulder one last squeeze and walked over to where Kili was sitting alone.

"Did you talk to him?" Kili gazed up hopefully.

"Aye."

"And he's alright?" Kili played with the food in his bowl.

"He'll move on." Bofur gave a small smile in sympathy.

"But what are we going to do about Jane?" Kili looked over at the edge of the path, where Jane was still sitting throwing rocks.

"She's wise." Bofur nodded. "She won't lose herself to the grief. At least while she has a purpose."

"I hope she knows she has a place here." Kili muttered.

Bofur sent him a grin

Kili's ears went red. "Everyone does."

"Aye laddie."

"But I don't know about Fili." Kili turned the conversation serious again. "I've never seen him this torn up."

"He might have fallen in love."

"If that's what love looks like, I think I'll pass." Kili shook his head.

"I don't think you have the choice anymore laddie." Bofur smiled, a small amount of mirth appearing in his eyes.

"Of course, there's a dwarrow maid sitting at home awaiting my return." Kili rolled his eyes.

Bofur smiled and shook his head. Chuckling at the young dwarfs obliviousness.

"I'm worried about him though." Kili's eyes returned to his brother.

"You should be."

"What?" Kili asked curiously.

"You need to keep an eye on your brother," Bofur looked older as his usual grin fell of his face and black bags became more prominent under his eyes, "make sure he doesn't do anything rash."

"Of course." Kili nodded faithfully. "But why would he do anything?"

"No reason." Bofur stood up and started toward Bifur muttering, "Only people who's One die tend to feel suicidal."