'I don't understand,' I had muttered, following Dori out of the house and into the cheering streets. The people had made the road clear, but they stood pressed against the houses, craning for a glimpse of Thorin, or Fili and Kili. They were a mix of colors and faces, all ones that I would forget upon leaving the watery town. 'We're going to the boats?'

'Yes,' said Dori, half turning to pull me forward. The group of us were walking in a line, following the Master of Laketown toward the main gates of the town. 'We will share three boats up the Long Lake and the River Running, and then we will meet some of the Men of Laketown on the Western Bank with our ponies, and from there we will make our own way'.

'Oh'. My reply had been useless, but Dori had not heard it over the bustle of the people that we had passed, nor over the sound of Bofur's pleased little remarks. The Master led us quickly, and soon we were away from the dispersing crowd who'd lingered near the town center. Somehow, I hadn't been quite as happy at our fame as I had when we'd first arrived.

Kili walked behind, and I hadn't been able to bring myself to look at him. You know, without wanting to take one of his arrows and shove it-

'I hope these will suffice for you, King Under the Mountain,' said the Master of Laketown, stopping at the head of the group. We had walked through the towns few streets and up to the waters rippling edge. Five Men were standing there, waiting for us. In their hands they held the rope, and attached to the rope were the three, long boats.

'They will,' said Thorin stepping forward. 'Thank you for your aid, once again'.

The Master, with his round belly and sweaty little face, had laughed and said, 'Yes, yes. Be sure to send word once you have reclaimed the Mountain, of course!' The words that had lingered were if you reclaim the mountain. Something had told me, and the rest of the Company, that the Master had only been so interested in the gold that lay beneath the Lonely Mountain.

Thorin had said, quite blandly, 'Of course'.

There was five of us to be put in each boat. You already know who I would be placed with, but it's not like it was a bad thing. I was just going to let him know who wore the pants in this particular relationship, and who he should not treat like an invalid. But not yet, of course. Having a domestic in the small confines of the boat hardly seemed fair to the others.

Still, as I had stepped forward with tentativeness and attempted to place myself onto the boat, Kili had been the one to take me by the waist and, while stepping onto the boat himself, place me on the wooden surface. As the others had climbed into their boats, I'd looked at him with a nervous little frown and a stiff,

'Thank you'.

He sighed. 'Millie-'

'Can you at least wait until we've all gotten into this bleedin' contraption before you-' At my glare, Bofur had shut up. 'Well, budge,' the Dwarf had said, sheepishly tugging at his hat.

As we sat down, the order of the people on my boat had gone Bofur, myself, Kili, Fili and Bombur. Thankfully, as I have said, the boats were long and big enough to fit all of us. Still, the air had been cold and the leaves were starting to fall from the trees: autumn had been approaching. With this, I had known that our journey would be uncomfortable.

Yet I could only be thankful that I was on it at all.

Many of them hardly spoke to me, perhaps of our sheer awkwardness at being found out. I knew the ones who had not voted for me to come, and both Fili and Kili were involved in that category. Of course, they were the two in the company who I was closest to, obviously. Kili was my...mine, and I understood why he had not wanted me to go to Erebor. I had, honestly.

But I had been angry. Angry that they thought it was their choice and not mine. Angry that, after everything, we were back to square one.

But at the same time, as the Men of Laketown pushed our boats out and the Master bid us farewell, I'd felt...scared, really. I mean, this was it. We had been able to see our destination. We knew that, in that Mountain, there was a dragon who, indeed, needed slaying. And a little part of me had thought of my wooden room and the bed that came with it.

But then I had remembered that I was Millie Fournier, and that means proving everyone else wrong, and doing it with style.

'How long will it take to get to the Western Bank?' I'd asked, as the current pushed us further from the safety of Laketown. The water had been fairly calm, and Kili and Bofur had been named the oarsmen of our particular 'contraption', as Bofur called it. He'd also grumbled about the weight of Bombur only putting more effort on his and Kili's rowing, much to Bombur's dissatisfaction.

'Three days,' said Thorin in reply to my question, from the boat next to ours.

My eyes had momentarily popped, but I had quickly straightened myself up and said, calmly, 'Oh, alright'. Internally, though, I was sobbing. Three days? In this thing? I mean, sure, we'd stop off to sleep...but three days?

The conversation was scarce as we rode up the river. Information was exchanged, such as the fact that the Men of Laketown would meet us with our ponies and extra supplies upon reaching the Western Bank, as well as the reminders (teasing) toward Bilbo about him being the Burglar, and how exactly he planned to enter Smaug's lair.

'Well...I suppose that my ring will do for sneaking in, won't it?' The Hobbit had inquired, and the Dwarves had quickly shut up, looking a little dazed.

'That's right, Master Hobbit,' said Balin, as if the idea had not occurred to him yet, as it had not with many of us. 'I'm sure that it will, indeed'. Uh, yeah. Although, I never really understood how that would work. Did they expect Bilbo to waltz in there and steal every bit of gold, because from what I'd heard there was a lot of it.

At one point I must have started to lean forward and drift off to sleep out of sheer boredom. It had been the tug on my coat, bringing backwards, that had me blinking blearily though.

With my back pressed against his chest, Kili had said, 'Go to sleep'.

I shuffled as he rearranged his knees to rest either side of me, hating how comfortable I was. 'We're going to need to talk later,' I informed him quietly, eyes slipping shut once again. The sound of the water had been oddly calming, as well as the woody scenery that now drifted past.

Kili paused, and I could just imagine him swallowing. He moved with the force of the oar in his grasp, lightly urging the boat forward in the already strong current 'I'll be sure to look forward to it'.

And so I slept.

The shore was rocky and lined with pine trees, all leaning toward the water as if blown by a consistent wind. Beyond the rockiness there was a flat surface in which Thorin had said we would camp on. Thankfully, we each had a sleeping bag (including me, for once!) that we had acquired before leaving. All fur lined and thick, perfect for the cold nights.

'Do we need fire wood?' I asked, standing back awkwardly as the camp was prepared. Prove yourself.

There was a brief silence as boats were pulled ashore, beds were lain out and the area was scouted and deemed safe. 'Are you sure you can manage, lass?' inquired Dwalin, half kindly and half teasingly.

Considering that he had been one of the few to vote against me coming, I had glowered. 'You can either freeze to death or ask me politely to gather some firewood, Dwalin. And yes, I can manage it'. A memory of me tripping over and scattering firewood everywhere had come to mind. 'Now. I can manage it now'. A hot flush crept up my face at the hidden smiles of most of the company.

'Then yes, if you would be so kind,' said the larger Dwarf, dipping into a mock bow.

Rigidly, I had turned on my heal and started for the forest, away from the snickering and the guilty stares. 'Kili,' I snapped loudly, entering the treeline and smelling the pine. 'Come with me'.

He had, apparently, got the message. Soon after, he was by my side, leaving behind the snorts of the Dwarves and Bilbo. Even the Hobbit was laughing at us. Or Kili. For being so whipped.

'I'm angry at you,' I informed him, pushing a branch out of the way and leaning down to gather some dry wood. Kili stood beside me, watching my every move with that annoyingly intense stare of his. I straightened up and looked at him, arms full of twigs. 'You shouldn't have decided for me whether I could come or not. I know that you did it with care-'

'Do you?' inquired Kili, dark brow raised and his new quiver of bows sticking out from behind him. 'From the way that you reacted, Millie, it did not seem like it. I didn't do it to control you-'

I rolled my eyes. 'Well yeah, I know that'.

He ignored me. 'Millie, I can't let you be put into that situation again - not like with the Goblins. You were physically ill at the notion of killing something. What if we run into Azog again?' He stepped forward, pushing my hair back and holding my face and looking at me. 'And now you're here with me, and although I am glad, and I am-'

Swallowing hard, I rushed out with, 'What if I had done that to you? Just left. Gone. What if you had to stay somewhere everyday, not knowing whether I was alive or dead? Not having said a proper goodbye? What would you have done?'

His hard jaw clenched and his dark eyes lowered. 'I see'. He dropped his hands from my face.

I half shrugged, the twigs pressed between us. 'When you left my room last night, you said that you were mine'. I stood a little higher, feet bending into a tiptoe. With my face hovering near his, I said, 'I'm not exactly liking the idea of letting something that is mine wander off without it telling me first'.

Kili cocked a brow, 'It?'

I ignored him. 'I'm just upset, Kili. You can't leave me behind like that. You can't decide what's best for me and what I should or shouldn't do. I'm learning, and I need to continue learning if I want to survive in this world, you know? I mean, I've told you that things are different for women where I'm from, and you've gotta respect that fact'.

He stared. 'I forget, sometimes. That you're from somewhere so different and so far away'.

'Me too'. I looked at him, reaching for his hand. 'So next time, you come to me and talk to me. No more lying to each other, not after everything, alright?' He bit his tongue and nodded, letting out a chuckle. 'Good. I'm only half forgiving you, by the way. The others can grovel first'. I looked up with a smile, only then realizing how much I had loved those moments alone. 'We don't have to go back now, you know'.

Kili considered this, smiling. 'We haven't gathered all of the twigs yet...'

'Thank God,' I'd sighed, and with that I dropped the twigs to the floor and risen onto my toes once again, dropping his hand and kissing him full on the mouth. All of the innocence and restrictions of Dwarven courtship was slowly driving me insane, and the thought of him being so protective of me...well-

Kili pushed me around and put my back gently against the tree, which had me pulling away to laugh. His cheeks were all dusty and, Mahal, he was simply irresistible. His mouth was back on mine again, and I could barely comprehend how getting firewood to have a go at him had turned into a steamy make out session.

I'd felt like such a teenager, which technically I would be for another two months, but still.

His hands felt for my waist and brought me closer. I already knew that he, in honesty, disliked the restrictions of the courtship as much as I did, but who would tell Thorin? On top of that, Kili was reckless and brave and so was I - that could have never been a good combination from the start.

And, by Jove, he'd tasted like sugar and sweets and gummy worms. I love gummy worms.

He'd done something particularly forward then, something that I wouldn't have imagined him doing without glancing up at me, unsure. Still, he'd dipped his head and kissed my neck and, sweet Lord, I'd let out an embarrassing little gaspy-giggle at the tickling sensation, forcing myself to resist a snort. He smiled against the line of my jaw, pulling away to push my hair from my face.

'You're beautiful,' he told me, eyes a little dark and cheeks a little dusted.

Knees weak and heart pounding, I'd replied with a breathless, 'You're just trying to make me forget about you being a Class A tool,' I replied a little breathlessly.

Kili pressed his forehead against mine, breathing out a chuckle. 'I'm supposing that's an insult?'

'It might have been'.

Kili pulled away from me and I fought the urge to drag him right back into the lovely, warm embrace. Instead, I had watched him bend down to retrieve the twigs (ah, the view) and then shove them into my own, startled arms. 'Wha-?'

'They'll be waiting for us to return with the firewood,' he replied, smiling cheekily at my stumped look. 'No use in keeping them wait'.

Mouth twisting into a shrewd smile, I'd jerked my head back into the general direction of the campsite and followed him away from the pine trees and back to the riverbank. Twilight loomed over us, and the water rushed passed over the great river. Once arriving back to the others, I could see that most were sitting around and smoking pipes, talking over the area.

'I'm telling you,' said Nori to Dori. 'Something here does not feel quite right. And don't say it's all the pipe weed I've been smoking'. He glanced down as I popped the firewood onto the floor and waved in the general direction of it, not one for even attempting to light it. 'Mahal, she did it'.

'Took you two a long time to gather a simple pile of wood,' said Fili, lounging against a boulder. 'Made up?'

'Shut up,' replied Kili, looking anywhere but at Thorin.

The fire was lit and the soup was made, and we all sat around, taking in the warmth of the flames. Darkness had fallen quickly and the sound of the water rolling over the rocks of the river was a distraction from the silence of the forest, something that I had not been used to.

After a small pause, I'd glanced about to see something both comical and peculiar. The circle in which we sat in had slowly become a little smokey, mostly because each and every member of the company now held a pipe to their lips and puffed away at it, drawing away to blow circles or any other shape out into the air.

'-and the last moon of autumn,' said Thorin, his voice gravelly and low. He held the pipe close to his mouth and the smoke drifted about him, making him look oddly eerie. I sat near Kili, but none of the others mentioned our sudden reconciliation, nor what had happened before leaving Laketown. 'That is when the door to Erebor will be open to us'.

'Will we make it in time?' asked Nori, fingering a pebble between his fingers.

Dwalin cast a dark glance up to him. 'You'd best hope that we will, or this quest will have been for nothing,' grumbled the permanently grouchy Dwarf, shushing up Nori in a second flat.

'How much time do we have left to reach the doors?' asked Kili, handing a tobacco pouch to his brother. Fili nodded in thanks, his eyes not straying from Dwalin or Thorin.

'Enough,' insisted Thorin with a short, gruff reply.

While this exchange had been going on, I had deposited my bowl and instead began fiddling with Kili's large hand with both of mine, liking the feel of his rougher skin and longer fingers. He'd barely looked at me as I had done this, only focusing on what the others were saying, a very serious look on his youthful face. How can he be in his seventies?

Halfway through tutting quietly at the state of Kili's nails (filthy, honestly), a sharp and loud howl had cut through the night, shutting up every single Dwarf and Hobbit talking.

And the worst thing? The howl had been familiar.

Kili's hand had retracted in mine, his fingers curling around my palm and looking sharply to the treeline behind us, away from the rolling river. In return, I had held his hand back, freezing in my place on the pebbly floor. The rest of the Dwarves had done the same, sharp eyes swerving to the direction in which the far away howl had come from.

'Wargs,' breathed Thorin, saying the word in which we had all dreaded.

'Are they near?' I asked sharply. 'Should we leave on the boats now?'

I could only remember the night in which Thorin had been carried in the Wargs mouth, when the Pale Orc had thrown him to the floor and Bilbo and I had risen together. I'd been sure that was it for me, that I would die then and there.

'No,' decided Thorin, standing. 'No. We cannot steer the boats in this dark. Kili, Fili - put out the fire and throw a blanket over it to make sure that no smoke rises. Dwalin - come with me and we will do a quick scout of the area to check that it is safe. Millie - ensure that all of our supplies are ready to be gathered quickly on the morrow'. With that, both he and and Dwalin stood, exchanging a hard and meaningful look.

I'd just sat there for a moment, not aware of Kili tugging his hand from mine. Thorin...Thorin had trusted me with a job?

'Better get to it, lass,' said Balin lowly, watching as Kili helped me to my feet. The older Dwarf gave me a pile of the bowls , as everyone else got up to do their own jobs or quietly settle into bed. 'Those go into Ori's pack,' he said, talking of the pile of wooden bowls in my arms.

Kili and Fili went about sorting out the fire, while I gathered the bowls and the spoons, handing them all to the nervous looking Ori. He put them into his pack and lent toward me as I eyed the still and dark forest.

'Do you think that we should stay here?' he asked, as if my opinion was important at all. 'It hardly seems very safe'. I had remembered then, listening to Ori's voice, that he was an artist, and as used to this kind of thing as I was. I'd remembered seeing him in the battles, seen him jabbing his weapons anywhere that he could, seen him defending his brothers.

'I guess Thorin knows what's best,' I replied, the doubt very evident in my voice. Snapping my gaze away from the trees, I looked to him. 'And he's King, right? Hopefully he knows what he's doing'.

But he's been wrong before.

The King and his Dwarven friend returned soon after, stating that they had seen nor heard anything while in the midst of the pine trees. True enough, we hadn't heard anything as we settled down for the night, half blind without the lit fire. The only light was the silvery moon, high up in the starry sky.

Kili, without a word, had taken me by the hand and led me to settle down beside himself and Fili. The latter had given me a hard look and nodded once, and I guess that it must have been some kind of apology, or an acknowledgment of what had happened. Still, we were fine after that, so I suppose there must have been something in that nod.

As Kili took my hand and pulled me onto the ground with him, helping me set out my sleeping bag, I'd realized something. Sure, I'd been angry. I'd been hurt. I'd been let down and upset. I've said it once and I will say it again: his lack of faith in my abilities had wounded me, especially after everything. But, as I watched him settle down in his own sleeping bag beside Fili, my own next to him...

I'd realized that I had no time to waste in being angry with him, nor any of them. Despite anything that they would do or had done to offend or hurt me, I just didn't have it in me to lose any time that I might have with them. Anything could go wrong on this journey, and if that were the case, then time was something that I did not have a lot of.

Myself especially.

So, the next morning, I had asked Dwalin to start up sword training every time that we stopped off for a break along the river. The brawny man considered me and nodded, an almost approving look on his hard face.

And I had held Snowthorn's hilt in my palm, wondering about the end of this quest.

Glad that I got this chapter out of the way. It's pretty much the start of the journey from Laketown to Erebor, so next chapter we can get on with things some more. Ugh, I'm so nervous about writing those future chapters perfectly. Anyway, I won't be ending this when the book ends, just so you know. I mean, that won't be Millie story done.

Also, thanks for the questions for Millie on my tumblr, kiliyousosilly. If you want to ask anything, go ahead!

Thank you so much for the reviews and the PM's and the favorites and the follows!