Disclaimer: Anything you recognize is not my own, yadda yadda yadda. I'm not making any money off of this. (Though I wish I could.)
The next day, Thorin had decided that we had traveled far enough and we were to let the ponies rest and there was to be a hunt. Everyone seemed to be relieved when they heard this news. Apparently, I was not the only one who was a little tired after the grueling stint of horse back riding.
I had woken to the smell of breakfast and my stomach rumbled loudly. After last nights filling soup, I suppose my body had decided that it had about enough of raw fruits, veggies, and MRE's. Whatever Bombur was cooking smelled heavenly.
I found out that most of the dwarves were really, truly, NOT morning people as they grumbled at each other and yawned. What I also found out was that they had quickly forgotten my presence. Bofur had stood up and, apparently having gone to bed sans trousers, walked past nearly stark naked, only what looked like some sort of loin cloth covering his goods. I let out a loud whistle. And he jerked his head back at me, looked down, and grinned sheepishly. Making the best of the moment, he posed a little before heading back to his sleeping roll and tugging on his trousers.
"Thank Mahal that someone here has the ability to make him put his damned pants back on," Nori muttered. He nodded his head towards me by way of good morning.
Once breakfast was ready, we ate in relative silence. Compared to last night, it was down right somber. I wasn't sure if they just were really this miserable first thing in the morning, or if they were just that tired from the last few days. I supposed, now that I thought of it, dwarves were not really supposed to be good horse-men. Er. Horse-dwarves? I'm sure they rode them out of pure necessity, but I doubted it was something they really made the habit of doing. If that was the case, no wonder they were just about as tired and as sore as me.
Once breakfast was done and I had helped clean the bowls we had used, Kili and Fili approached me. Kili's bow was over his shoulder, his quiver hanging loosely in one hand.
"Thorin told me to see what you could do with a bow," Kili said by way of explanation.
"And I am just here to see if you can make fun of his balls some more," Fili said brightly, grinning at his brother. Kili made as if to punch him and glared.
"Jealous, Master Fili? I suppose we could talk about yours, but I doubt there'd be much of a discussion." I matched his grin. Kili guffawed loudly and now it was his turn to clap his brother on the shoulder while Fili stood in shock. Kili started to walk off, his head down in laughter.
"Come on, then." I said over my shoulder, following behind Kili. Fili quickly recovered and followed us.
A short ways away, we stopped and the boys began to stamp down some of the long grass. Fili grabbed a large hunk of bark and set it up against a tree about ten yards away.
"That will be our target to start," Kili stated softly, becoming serious. Fili jogged back to us, and Kili handed me his bow.
It was a beautiful thing, his bow. It was a very large and heavy re-curve, carved handsomely and well tended. I ran my hands over it tenderly, realizing how much care he put into it. I looked it over and decided it wasn't too much different from my bow at home… except for the grip.
Kili pulled a few arrows, ones that had blunted tips, obviously for practice, not for real fighting, and stuck them in the ground in front of me. I let out a breath and stretched a little.
I tugged an arrow out of the ground and knocked the arrow to the left of the bow. I began to pull back when Kili stopped me.
"What are you doing?" He asked. I slowly stopped and looked at him questioningly.
"Why do you have the arrow on that side…? In a fight, its too time consuming and you tend to aim with just one eyes, instead of two."
"Oh," Was all I said, feeling stupid.
"Well, never mind. Go ahead and shoot how you are comfortable, and we can go from there," He said with a smile. I nodded, my confidence already waning.
I pulled back the bow again with some difficulty. It was definitely a heavier weight then my own bow at home and I assumed it had to be to be able to pierce armor and whatever.
Once the bow was fully drawn, I held my position for a few moments, steadying my breathing. I let the arrow fly and watched it soar way to the left of the target. I cursed softly. I picked up another arrow, knocked, drew back, and let loose. It clipped the edge. Another arrow. Knock. Draw. Loose. This time the arrow hit. Not dead center, but at least closer to the middle. At home, I had taken deer at 30 yards. Here, I could barely hit a target that was taller and wider then Bombur when it was practically in my face.
"You seem fairly familiar with a bow," Kili allowed. I nodded.
"Its quite a bit different then the one I shot with at home," I answered. "Mine was meant strictly for hunting deer and stuff. It wasn't as heavy as this."
"Dwarf bows are heavy. They are meant to pierce armor from a long range. If the situation called for it, I could take down a fully armored orc at 80 yards."
I had to admit, that was impressive. At my best, I could hit a bullseye at forty yards, but with little consistance. I knocked another arrow and pulled back.
"Try again," Kili said. "Relax your grip here. Spread your fingers a little. Move the fletch down your cheek bone a hair. There. Now loose when you are ready."
I breathed out again and steadied myself. I sighted down the target, waited, then let the arrow fly. It sunk dead center and I felt like cheering.
"Good!" I heard a few slow claps and turned around, mortified that Balin, Nori, Ori, Dori, Bifur and Bilbo had gathered behind to watch.
"Not bad," Dory said "For a lass,"
"Oh never mind him. Hes just miffed that he could never get the 'ang of a bow." Nori said with a good natured pat on Dori's shoulder. Dori glared at him and casually elbowed him in the gut.
"Leave off," Fili said. "Didn't Thorin want us to do a bit of hunting and gathering?"
Fili had crossed his arms and looked at the others with hard eyes. Suddenly, he looked very much like Thorin, despite his blonde hair.
"You're right, lad. Come on now," Balin said, giving me a friendly smile. The others turned and left, Fili falling in behind them. I handed Kili his bow back and we both walked down to the target to tug free the arrows. He held on to them rather then replacing them in his quiver.
"I suppose I ought to go look for some game," he said. "Bombur will be right pissed if I don't come back with some fresh meat for tonight."
"Hey…uh… Master…" I started. Kili shook his head.
"Thorin might hold to such titles and formalities, Miss, but you can call Fili and I by just our names. I promise we won't mind."
"Well, Kili. I must insist you call me Talya, then. I told you, none of this ma'am, miss, or my lady crap."
"As you wish, Talya. Now, what were you going to say?"
"Would you mind if I came hunting with you? Its been awhile since I've been on a hunt, and even if I don't shoot anything, I can help you carry your quarry back."
"Well, I wont say no to the company, that's for sure, specially with a pretty face like yours," He gave me a cheeky smile and I laughed.
"None of that. I don't want anyone to get the wrong idea. I just want to make myself useful." He nodded his head.
"Right, then. We'll keep our little love affair secret then." I swatted at him then, and he just laughed it off.
We headed closer to the group and Kili called out, telling them he was heading out hunting. Gloin peeled away from the group and joined us, looking at me, then at Kili questioningly. Kili shrugged, and Gloin let the matter drop.
Without much preparation, we headed off deeper into the woods. I followed behind Kili and Gloin, trying to move as smoothly through the brush as they were. It took us a good deal of hiking before Kili came to a stop and hushed us, crouching down. Gloin and I followed suit. Before us, maybe forty or fifty yards out, was a small herd of deer. Six doe were milling around, nosing aside leaves to munch on the soft green shoots that were growing up from the nutrient rich ground. Every once and awhile, one would lift its head, peer around and snort.
Kili tugged an arrow out of his quiver and, with a smoother motion than I could ever hope to accomplish, knocked it and let it fly. It struck a large, dark brown doe just behind the shoulder blades. She bleated belatedly and tried to take a step before falling. She twitched once or twice before she was still. The rest of the herd shot their heads up and took off. Before I had even realized he had let another arrow fly, a second, smaller doe was down and bleeding.
Kili stood and tucked his bow back on his shoulder before motioning us on. Gloin and I stood and the larger dwarf brushed passed me towards the kills.
Kili made it to the first of the two does and carefully cut out his arrow, trying to avoid damaging the tip. Gloin reached Kili and, with a challenging glance at me, stuck his knife into the doe's stomach and began to gut her.
Frowning, I knelt down next to the second doe as I pulled my k-bar out of my pants pocket. I patted her side and made a small gesture of thanks. Then, upon spreading its legs and attempting to start gutting it, I found out that it was actually a young buck. I shrugged and grabbed a handful of skin and fur and set about carefully making a slit from just above the bottom of the sternum, around the small bucks' genitalia, and to the anus.
Gloin watched me with surprise on his face while Kili regarded me quietly. Gloin snorted, then reached into his doe and began to pull out the internal organs, not being too careful to limit the amount of blood he was flinging around. I ignored him and set about cutting back the bucks' bits to better reach the viscera.
Kili left us to it, and began to wander the area, looking for more game.
At one point, I felt a warm spray of blood on my face. I looked up to find Gloin shaking off his blood coated hand. He looked at me innocently and I narrowed my eyes.
"Sorry, there lass," He said, obviously not sorry at all. I watched him kneel down, sift through the organs and cut away a meaty mass that appeared to be the liver. He brought it up to his mouth and took a bite of it, his eyes not leaving mine. If he was trying to gross me out, he was failing, miserably.
I went back to what I had been doing and, once I had cut around the deers' anus and cleaned out the internal organs, I set about delicately cutting away the deer's genitalia. I held it in my hand momentarily, pausing to apologize to the deer for what I was about to do, before hefting it into the air and chucking it at Gloin, whos back was now turned, and nailing him in the back of the head.
He turned around in shock, then looked down at the offending items. He glanced down at it, then at me. We starred at each other a long moment before we both burst out laughing. Kili must have heard us laughing idiotically and emerged from the woods carrying two rabbits and a pheasant.
"What in Mahal's name is so funny?"
Gloin and I exchanged glances and erupted into laughter again, shaking our heads.
We finished field dressing the animals, including the rabbits and pheasant, then tied rope that Kili tugged out of his pocket around their hocks. Despite my protests that I could, indeed, haul one of the deer back on my own, Kili and Gloin assured me that neither one of them would live it down if they allowed me to take a heavier load.
On our way back, Gloin was animatedly telling Kili about our little blood war, and we walked back into camp, blood spattered and laughing.
Apparently, I made quite the sight. I had the two skinned and gutted rabbits in one hand, and the pheasant slung over my back. I had blood splattered on my face and jacket, and my hands were coated with it. I shrugged when Gandalf, who I had not seen up until this point, fixed me with a questioning look.
Gloin and Kili left to clean up, still chuckling. I looked around me to find that Dwalin was the closest free dwarf.
"Master Dwalin? Would you mind giving me a hand?" I called out, gesturing to the deer. He frowned and crossed his arms.
"What, lass?" He asked bluntly. It was very apparent that he was still very much on Thorin's side about me. That was his problem.
"Help me sling up these deer, would you?" He furrowed his brow slightly, then nodded and came to my side.
We remained in silence as we worked to string the deer up by their back legs. By the time mid day had hit, we had the deer strung up and skinned. We were called away to lunch, then, and it seemed like Gloin could not wait to tell everyone else about our little war earlier.
"And then, she threw it's danglies at me! Hit me right in the back of the 'ead, she did!" This was met with laughter, of course. Gandalf hadn't been wrong about their humor and mannerisms.
"What in the world possessed you to do such a thing, lassy?" Balin asked.
"Well, he was over there trying to gross me out, flinging blood at me and all that. It served him right." I said defensively. I sipped at the left over stew from this morning. Not that it didn't taste good, but I was looking forward to the promise of fresh meat tonight.
After lunch, a couple of the others set off the butchering the deer. Upon hearing that there was a stream not too far away, I decided that I would go wash off and finally clean and change my clothes. While I had managed to change my underwear on a semi-regular basis, I was wearing the same ACU's since day one. They were grimy and stunk to high heaven. I doubt the dwarves noticed, but I sure as hell did.
I headed off in the general direction that Balin had told me the stream was in after having grabbed my ruck sack. It was a bit farther then I expected, but still within yelling distance, I supposed, if the noise from the camp was an indicator.
I tugged off my jacket and knelt down in the stream to first wash off my blood splattered arms. I tugged my knife out from the pocket next and began to clean that in the stream, too. Fortunately for me that I decide to do that right then. I heard a the soft crunch of boots in the grass, followed by the unmistakable sound of metal being drawn. I whipped around, knife in hand, to find Thorin Oakenshield standing with his axe drawn and leveled at me. He eyed my blade with mild surprise.
"What the hell are you playing at, Oakenshield?" I demanded, my heart in my throat.
"Trying to prove to you that you don't belong. I could have killed you here and now, and you would not have been able to draw a single breath to call for help."
"And what does that prove, except that for all your claims that men and elves are the untrustworthy ones, it is you who would offer me harm when all I have done is offer you my *help.* " I felt stupid with my little knife in my hand, so I flung it down into the ground with a mixture of anger and disgust. Thorin seemed taken aback by my words and lowered his axe.
"I don't understand it. You may ignore Bilbo and you may make snide remarks, but you have never pulled something like this with him. If its because of my gender, then please. I'll stuff a rolled up sock down my pants and you can pretend I have a dick. If its because I haven't signed a piece of paper, well, get me a damn quill and I'll sign anything you want me too. And if its because I am 'of the race of man', then get the fuck over it." I practically spat.
Thorin watched me as my shoulders heaved. I had never been so angry in my life. I had to stop myself from saying anything else before anything left my mouth that I would regret.
He dropped his axe so that the handle was touching the ground. He sized me up then, taking in my angry form, the blood still splattered on me, the dagger on the ground before me. He seemed to decide something then.
"You will train to shoot with Kili and Fili will train you with a sword. You will help to break camp each morning and make camp each evening. You will do as you are told, and whatever anyone in this company is willing to teach you, you will learn. Do not think, for one moment, however, that you are a *part* of this company. You are not entitled to any profits. If you die, we will not bury you. If you fall behind, we will not wait for you."
"You have already made that abundantly clear," I snapped. He stood for a moment longer and then walked away.
I watched him go angrily. I must have a god damn talent to make him walk away from me so often.
I had spent a good long time down at the stream, angrily washing everything I owned. I had even ventured to strip down to my underwear and breast band to take a bath in the stream. The cold water did little to wash away the biting anger I felt. Once I was done, I dressed in clean clothes and I made camp away from everyone else, trying to convince myself that I needed to dry my things, and that I wasn't just hiding.
I ignored the call for dinner and instead put away my whatever was dry, namely the smaller items, such as my socks and underwear. Even the breast band I put away, in favor of wearing a real bra for a change. The now clean ACUs I had been wearing were still damp, so I merely shook them out and turned them over. I sat with my knees up and splayed, my arms locked loosely around them.
I finally ate the food that Bilbo had prepared for me what felt like ages ago, but in reality was only the day before. I didn't have much of an appetite, but forced myself to eat anyways.
Grey-mane walked close to the fire and turned his head to look at me. He had spent the day with Dreysill, grazing in a meadow not far away. He was certainly looking much better then he had been, and I was glad for that, at the very least. I stood up and scratched his favorite spots and leaned into him for a small measure of comfort. I could feel tears building and starting to leak down my face, but I hardly made a sound.