I do not own any of the characters or the Hobbit (just the AU storyline and my OC) those are the work of the esteemed and brilliant John Ronald Reull Tolkien, and without his genius, this and many other fan fics would not be in existence.
Please review! I love getting them-they keep me encouraged! J
It took Thorin half a second to realize what had happened, and when he did, he lunged for the quickly disappearing rope. He caught it with one hand, and if it hadn't been for Dwalin's quick reflexes grabbing his boot, he would have slid down the icy slope as well.
Several members of the company had cried out as Cirashala slid out of sight, and Fili and Kili managed to disentangle themselves from Bombur just in time to catch Dwalin's boots. If the situation had been different, the others might have laughed heartily at the spectacle before them-Thorin holding the rope while several feet down the slope with his hair over his face, Dwalin holding Thorin's boot, also down the slope, and Fili and Kili on the path with their arms wrapped around each of Dwalin's legs, red faced in exertion as they tried to keep their uncle and distant cousin from following the missing members of their company.
The two heirs were aided by the company, and between the lot of them managed to pull Thorin and Dwalin to safety. It wasn't easy, as the king and his closest friend were, with exception to Bombur, the heaviest of the company. Their heavy armor and weapons didn't help matters, nor did the lack of traction in the slippery snow.
Several members of the company peered into the swirling mist, but they had no more luck spotting her than they did Bofur. Fili and Kili shouted for Cirashala and the miner, and several of the dwarves and Bilbo echoed their calls. They heard nothing.
Kili looked at his uncle, and his eyes narrowed. Fili could sense his brother's anger begin to rise to the surface, and placed a hand on his shoulder to try and restrain him.
"Uncle!" Kili spat, not caring that he was addressing Thorin by family title, "How could you say those things! She has done nothing but help us, and now you let her fall to her death!" Fili's grip tightened on his brother's shoulder in an attempt to keep him from doing something reckless, but his glare matched his brother's as they stared at their uncle.
"She jumped herself!" Thorin growled. "Do you think I wanted her to go down there? I tried to stop her!"
"By saying she wasn't part of the company?" Kili yelled back. "That she belonged in her home? Her home is gone, uncle! She has nothing to go back to!"
"How do you know that?" Thorin angrily spat. "She might have an empty house, but it would still be safer than out here!"
"Like our house was safe for our mother?" Kili growled. "She locked herself in her room for months when father died, and it was only because of us and you that she didn't starve to death!"
Thorin's eyes darkened, and Kili knew he was treading on dangerous territory. Their mother's incapacitation was not mentioned to any save Balin and Dwalin and Oin, because after Thrain went mad with grief and went missing, there had been some talk questioning the sanity of the elder Durin's line. Rumors spread amongst taverns and marketplaces, and it had taken a great deal of effort for Thorin and his nephews to try and keep up appearances and claim their mother had gone to visit relatives. They had tried their best to not expose their mother's weakness in order to avoid the shame that would follow her after.
"You would dare to speak to me of your mother's grief openly?" Thorin replied lowly, his voice as sharp as steel. Kili stood there seething, dark eyes locked with steel blue ones.
"These dwarves are all but family. Over half of them are related to your sister by blood," Balin replied, stepping between the two angry royals and looking pointedly at Thorin. "They have all sworn loyalty to you, and would not dare to betray your confidence, am I correct?" Balin looked pointedly at the remaining company members still on the path, and each of them nodded immediately. He looked then at Kili.
"Laddie, perhaps you should calm down. Your uncle very clearly never intended her to go down there," Balin said gently but firmly.
"Cirashala's family has only been gone for a week and a half, and she just slid down a bloody mountain to rescue someone she barely knows!" the furious young dwarf protested. "And he—"
"What's that?" Ori interrupted, pointing at the rope that Thorin still held in his hands. Silence fell on the group as they looked at the still rope.
"Oh for Durin's sake, Ori, it's just a rope," Dori chided, then leaned over to whisper loudly in his ear, "Best not interrupt their argument if you would like to keep your head." Ori glared at his elder brother, and pointed again.
"I saw it move!" he protested, and just as Dori opened his mouth to scold him again, the rope jerked, harder this time. Several of the company's eyes widened as they looked to Thorin.
Thorin looked down at it with wide eyes, then looked back at Dwalin.
"You don't suppose…" he began, but then the rope jerked even harder, making Thorin stumble and nearly lose his footing. Dwalin reached out and grabbed the rope with one hand, steadying Thorin with the other.
"Get the rope lads!" Balin cried, grabbing the rope behind Dwalin. "Pull!"
XXX
Cirashala and Bofur gave another sharp tug on the rope, each one harder than the last.
"Maybe they didn't grab the rope in time!" Cirashala cried, looking wide eyed at Bofur with a dejected look on her face. "Mr. Bofur, I am so—" She cut off with a yelp as she suddenly started to rise off the ground. Bofur's face broke out in a wide grin.
"It worked!" he cried. She jerked upward again, now a foot off the ground.
"Bofur!" she cried, "You might want to grab onto me about now!" The miner jumped up and wrapped his arms around her shoulders just as she got yanked up again. He nearly lost his grip, but managed to grip the front of her tunic and pull himself up, earning a slight squeak from her at just what he gripped.
"My apologies for grabbing anything I shouldn't," he said behind her quickly, sounding a little sheepish, and she rolled her eyes.
"If it's a matter of getting you back up there to keep Thorin from killing me or my modesty, I choose getting you back up there," she replied, trying to ignore the pain in her wound as the bottom of the rope rubbed against the top of it.
"My thanks, lass," he replied, and she could hear the sincerity and relief in his tone. She sighed.
"Just remember, if you try anything like that once we're back up there, oath or no oath I will hit your face, yank off your balls and stuff them down your throat, and make your wife or mother have to start sewing dresses for you from now on," she threatened, and the miner laughed heartily.
"We may eat like heathens, or so Bilbo says," he chuckled. "But I can assure you lass, we dwarves are an honorable lot, and would never deliberately dishonor a woman. No matter what race she is. 'Tis a crime punishable by death." The two grunted, and Cirashala felt all air leave her as they were pulled out of the hole and back into the storm.
The edge of the hole had very thankfully been blunted by the wind on the ice melting, otherwise they would have been seriously cut. As is, it put a lot of pressure on Cirashala's wound, especially with Bofur now on top of her, and she sucked her tummy in as hard as she could despite the pain to keep the stitches from ripping out.
She cried out in pain as they were pulled over the lip of the hole, her shoulder shaking as she fought vomiting.
"You all right, lass?" Bofur asked her, speaking into her ear to be heard above the noise of the howling wind. She gritted her teeth, her breaths coming out in pants, and swallowed heavily.
"I….will…" she was cut off as her face hit a small drift of snow. She spat it out and shook her head, gripping Bofur's arms around her shoulder as they dropped over the small snowdrift and met ice again.
"W-wrap your legs around me," she stuttered, teeth still gripped. "D-don't want y-you falling off." The miner did as she suggested, piggybacking on her as they were pulled more swiftly up the slope now that there weren't as many hindrances. The high speed of the wind had made most of the snow blow off the ice, something the two were very thankful for at the moment.
Cirashala did not miss the fact that Bofur laid his head down atop hers, shielding her further from the wind. She was grateful for it, because the storm was far colder than the cavern they had just been in, and she was really beginning to feel the effects of being wet and cold.
As she felt the pressure of his head against the back of hers, she really hoped he hadn't been downplaying his head injury. The last thing they needed was a concussed dwarf, or worse, a dwarf with a brain injury.
XXX
The group kept pulling as quickly as they could. It had been difficult at first, but had become easier after a few minutes. There was definitely weight at the other end of the rope, and they could only hope that weight was not a rock or block of ice.
Thorin was closest to the slope, followed by Dwalin, Balin, Fili, Kili, and the rest of the company. The snow had drifted on the slope above them, which was a much gentler slope than the one below the path, and most of the company at the back of the rope had planted their feet in the snow to give them leverage.
There were a few members not holding the rope, but that was simply due to the slack they had not being long enough. As soon as there was, Bilbo had been tasked with making sure the rope was coiled neatly behind them to avoid tangles. It was the best task for the hobbit, considering that they had limited space for people to pull, and he was nowhere near as strong as the dwarves and wouldn't be as effective as pulling.
They passed the fifth knot, and Thorin and Dwalin, as well as those who weren't pulling, began to peer into the storm for sign of the end of the rope-and hopefully their companions. Few of the dwarves expected to find Bofur, given that they seriously doubted she would have been able to find him. The ones that did either were unwilling to face the possibility that their friend and companion was gone, or had hope that she had succeeded in her task.
They were getting close to what they thought was the end of the rope, when a large shadow came into sight. Thorin stopped suddenly, blinking rapidly as his eyes widened.
"By my beard," Dwalin muttered in disbelief behind him, eyes going wide as a very familiar silhouette lifted up from the shadowy lump.
"Oi, it's rather cold, so could ye please finish pulling us up before we freeze to death?" Bofur shouted, "This ice isn't all that comfortable!" Thorin gaped, and several of the dwarves let out a cheer, Bombur being the loudest along with Bifur.
By Mahal, she really did it, Thorin thought in disbelief, She actually found him!
They quickly pulled them up the last few feet, and several pairs of arms reached down to haul Bofur up onto the path. Once the heavy dwarf was off of her, Cirashala all but crawled back onto the path, panting heavily as she rested on all fours.
The company surrounded their thought lost member, exclamations ringing out as they breathed sighs of relief. Bombur enveloped his brother into a huge bear hug, tears pricking in his eyes. Bofur's eyes teared as well, but for a completely different reason.
"Oi, Brother!" he gasped out. "Can't….breathe!" Bifur smacked his cousin across the back of his head to the amusement of the company, and Bombur released a gasping Bofur, accidentally knocking his hat off in the process. Bifur cried something in Khuzdul, pointing at Bofur's bandaged head, to which the miner shrugged.
"Seems to have gotten a bit of a bump to the head, but t'was nothing really," he replied. "The lass found me and took care of me just fine." The dwarf winked at her, grinning, and she understood that he had knocked his hat off on purpose so he could fulfill his part in their agreement.
Several pairs of eyes turned towards her, and respect shone from most of them.
"How did you find him?" Fili asked, kneeling beside the now sitting young woman.
"How indeed?" Dwalin added, looking at her with a curious glint in his eye. She swallowed and flushed a bit as she looked down at her lap.
"I fell in the same hole he did," she muttered, and Dwalin's eyebrows raised, before he burst out laughing. Several of the dwarves joined him, and she reddened even further, biting her lip, before shooting a puzzled look in Thorin's direction.
Fili and Kili followed her gaze, and so did Balin. The older dwarf sighed as he saw Thorin holding his elbow in his hand and his other hand over his face. Kili and Fili shared a worried glance. The younger swallowed nervously as he stood and approached his uncle.
"Thorin, I'm sor—" he stopped short as Thorin took no notice of him, and Kili's brow furrowed even further. "U-uncle? Are you all right?" Thorin continued to ignore him, and Cirashala's eyes widened as her mouth fell open when she saw his shaking shoulders.
"He-he's laughing at me," she said slowly, disbelief in her voice. Fili looked at her, then back at his brother. The two locked eyes, before wide grins escaped from their faces. Balin chuckled as he looked at the king, and Dwalin reached over and clapped his old raven-haired friend on the shoulder. The burly dwarf smirked before looking at Cirashala.
"Not bad, lassie," he said, grinning as he nodded his head. "Not bad."
XXX
After the laughter had died down, Thorin raised his head up from his palm, his visage stern again though a slight sparkle of amusement was still apparent in his blue eyes.
"Bofur!" he called, and the dwarf in question stood in front of him, hat back in place. "You two said something about a hole?" Bofur nodded.
"Aye, we fell into a cave of sorts," he replied. "It was a cavern in the ice." Thorin nodded, glancing at Dwalin.
"How far down is this 'cave'?" he asked, and Bofur shrugged.
"Not sure exactly," he replied. "Seemed like forever when you were pulling us up, but I figure it is no further than the length of the rope or so, since you still had a hold on it while we were in there." Thorin hummed, glancing at the rope.
"Was it dry and warm?" Balin asked. Bofur nodded.
"Warmer than out here," he replied, shivering. "And it was just the one hole- it was hard to see, but it didn't appear to have any tunnels off of it." Thorin turned toward Bofur again.
"Is it big enough to take shelter in?" he asked. Bofur nodded.
"It will be tight, but it should be big enough," he replied. "Though we would have to get into it from the hole in the top, which is about eight feet or so off the bottom of the cavern, and figure out a way to get out in the morning." Several of the dwarves nodded in agreement, each eager to be out of the foul weather and next to a warm fire.
"Dwalin," Thorin said, turning toward his friend. "Do we have any way to secure the rope up here so we can get down to this cavern and return to the path in the morning?" Dwalin stood for a moment, thinking.
"It would work if we had a stake of some sort to tie the rope to," he replied. "But it would have to be very strong to support all our weight, and set very deep in the ice." Thorin sighed, before looking at the miner.
"It would be a good place to take shelter, but it is too risky to just slide down and hope that it is found by chance again," he replied, before turning toward the group. "We need to move on!" Several of the dwarves groaned, and Bilbo sniffled loudly, his nose running like crazy in the cold. He wiped it with his sleeve, not caring anymore.
XXX
Fili got to his feet, before glancing down at Cirashala. She was breathing loudly, and had her arms wrapped around her middle. He motioned Kili over, who knelt on her other side.
"Are you all right?" the younger asked, eyes searching her face. She opened her face, her expression pained.
"I will be," she replied. "Just bumped my side a bit on the way up." The two exchanged a worried glance, and she shivered. Both placed their hands on her shoulders, and Fili looked toward Thorin.
"We need to get out of the cold!" he shouted, and Thorin turned to him. Fili glanced at the girl, then back at Thorin, his meaning clear.
She must get out of the cold, or she will die.
"We have no way of getting down to the cavern," he replied, before glancing at the shivering girl. "Anything we try will risk getting even more members of the company hurt, and we cannot risk that."
"But she will freeze!" Kili argued, and was going to continue when Cirashala laid her hand on his arm.
"I will be fine," she replied, and Kili shook his head.
"No you won't," he replied, "You are too cold, and you are hurt."
"I am expendable," she replied, earning shocked stares. She looked at Thorin as she continued speaking to Kili. "I will not allow any more of the company get hurt because of me." The two young dwarves gave her a confused look, glancing between her and their uncle.
"Bofur falling wasn't your fault!" Fili replied vehemently.
"Why in Durin's name would you think it was?" Kili asked her, eyes wide. "You weren't anywhere near him when he slipped!"
"I don't think it wasn't my fault," she replied, "but why do you think I insisted I be the one to go after Bofur? Because if I failed, you would have only lost one member of the company not two." The two young dwarves gaped at her, completely stunned.
"You are not expendable," Kili replied after a moment. "Why would you think that?" She didn't answer, her brow furrowed in thought as she looked at a shivering Bilbo. Her eyes widened, and she looked up at Thorin.
"A hobbit hole," she said, causing confused looks from the entire company, especially Bilbo.
"A what?" Balin asked, and she stood up shakily.
"Hobbits dig holes into the side of hills for their homes," she said, looking toward Bilbo. "Am I right, Mr. Baggins?" Bilbo looked from her to Thorin and back, not quite happy about being the center of attention with a very runny nose.
"Yes?" he asked, looking at her as though she sprouted two heads. Dwalin and Thorin exchanged glances, and Kili looked at her, his eyes widening.
"Thorin we need to find shelter quickly!" he cried. "The cold is making her confused!" She shook her head adamantly.
"I am not confused!" she said, annoyance clear in her voice as she glared at the young dwarf, before turning to a very puzzled Thorin.
"If a hobbit can dig a home out of the side of a grassy hill, couldn't we dig a shelter out of the side of a hill of snow?" she asked. Thorin glanced at Balin, and the elder shook his head.
"It wouldn't be sturdy enough, lass," he said. "Snow is a lot looser than soil, and far less stable." She shook her head.
"But ice is not," she said. "We light a torch, and we pack the snow as tightly as we can. As we dig we hold the torch up next to the walls, and the snow will melt, and freeze again quickly in this cold air. It will make the walls solid ice, just like the cavern Bofur and I fell into." Thorin's eyes widened as he glanced at Dwalin and Balin, before looking back again at her.
"You are without a doubt the craziest human I have ever met," Thorin replied, shaking his head. "But that just might work."
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A response to guest reviewer Ri-chan- yeah….Thorin's gonna be a mite cranky with her, but it will up his respect for her a bit. But what she did made sense- Bilbo doesn't really have any survival skills, and she was the next lightest member (and depending on how much Bilbo weighed at this time of the quest, it is possible that he may have even been above her 138 lbs despite being a full foot shorter). And he isn't as strong as she is, because he is not used to manual labor other than basic gardening, and would have had trouble had Bofur been unconscious. She isn't trying to play the "heroine" at all, she is just trying to help. That is all she is doing and all she HAS been doing is trying to help, and she knew that if a dwarf went down there, the company probably could have gotten him back up. But it was risky, and as far as she knows, Oin is the only other person with healing experience. And he is half deaf, so he could not have heard Bofur's shouts if he was conscious, and there was a high possibility that Bofur would have been injured in the fall. She really was one of the best candidates, but alas she is a woman and a human, and dwarves can be chauvinistic in both good ways (Fili and Kili) and bad ways (Thorin).
A response to guest reviewer Berioferion- I am glad you are enjoying the story! I also do get tired sometimes of authors who only do book/movie and don't fill in the many weeks in between. I know it is making my story very lengthy, but I had always wondered what on earth happened during the "lull" times. It took by no means one day to cross the Misty Mountains (my estimate based on the Atlas of Middle Earth is fifty miles across them as the raven flies, and probably extending to 70 by the time all the winding around is taken into account), and it must have taken them at least a week on foot, if not longer given weather and up/down elevation! Plus, it's not like orcs and wargs and goblins were the ONLY things in the wild- there must have been wild animals, and given the time of year any rivers they had to cross was undoubtedly swollen from spring/early summer snowmelt. Not only that, but I can imagine weather often was a hindrance, for even if the lower elevations had rain, the upper areas with snow and glaciers must have snowed. The Misty Mountains, as demonstrated in Fellowship, are no weekend hike in a national park, and were very dangerous. These times in my opinion are very useful to use as characterization moments, and I loved the few times in the movie where they showed camping and such, because it provided awesome characterization as well.
Thanks to all who have reviewed, favorited, and followed- you guys have been absolutely wonderful! :D