Warnings: None.

The day before Durin's Day, around midnight

Thorin

I was sitting on my throne, alone, with my chin resting on my hand and an incredible feeling of happiness inside of me.

Tauriel had gone for a walk, and my sister and nephews had gone to sleep early, for they were exhausted after their long journey. I, however, was certain that I would not be able to fall asleep yet, so I had decided to stay awake for a little longer, but 'a little longer' turned out to be three hours.

Gods, I was so happy to see them again! My entire world had seemed to become a little brighter. Perhaps that was why I had felt so bad this morning; I was not missing the times of adventure, I was simply missing my family.

I was pulled out of my thoughts by the sound of somebody approaching. I looked up, right into Balin's face.

I straightened up.

"Hello, Balin," I friendly greeted him.

He smiled back from behind his white beard.

"Hello, Thorin," he replied. "Can I speak to you for a moment?"

"Of course."

"Well," the older Dwarf began, "some of us are planning to leave, and reclaim Khazad-dûm. We were wondering if you wanted to come with us, and if not, wanted to give us your permission."

I felt a frown appear on my face as I thought.

Honestly, it did not seem like such a bad idea. There were many of us by now, enough to outnumber the Orcs and Trolls that had taken over Moria. We could take it back. It would be nice – and that was a huge understatement – to finish what my grandfather had started almost a hundred and fifty years ago.

It was tempting, sure, it was, but it would be dangerous, too. There were Orcs in the underground city, and since their leader had been killed not very long ago, I had reasons to think that they would like some revenge as well. They did not like the descendants of Durin before, and they certainly liked us even less now. If I decided to go, I had to leave Fíli and Kíli behind, despite the fact that they would probably do anything to come with me.

I felt my eyebrows knit together even more as I looked up at Balin.

"When are you planning to leave?"

"The day after Durin's Day," the white-bearded Dwarf replied. "It is quick, but we figured it would be better if we'd leave before the rumours of an attack could reach Moria."

I nodded.

"Good thinking," I said, getting up from my throne. I started to pace around it.

"How long will it take us to get there?"

I noticed that I said 'us'. Apparently, subconsciously, I had already made the decision.

"Two weeks, if we are lucky. Longer if we go around Mirkwood."

I put my hands behind my back.

We would not have to go around Mirkwood; we had Tauriel, and I was positive that she knew her way around there, but if we took her with us, that would give us an entirely different problem. Two problems, actually: one, Kíli would want to come with us if she came with us, and two, one of them could die, and I did not want that, especially now that they were planning to marry.

So now our only options were to either possibly get lost and get eaten by spiders in Mirkwood, or go around the forest, be safe, but add a couple of weeks to the time we would use to travel. Then we would have to carry more food with us, and the extra weight would only slow us down.

"We should go through Mirkwood," I said out loud. "But we have to leave Tauriel here, despite that she knows the way. We must make sure that Fíli and Kíli stay here as well."

Balin pulled a notebook out of one of his many pockets and scribbled something in it.

"Noted," he announced.

I barely heard him; I was still lost in my thoughts.

"How many of us will come?"

"Most of the Dwarves that are here, except some of the women and most of the children. We've decided that it would not be wise to ask Dáin and his men. They would brag about it, spread the word, and it would make it dangerous for us. The other Dwarves are too far away to ask for help."

"Are there any chances of bringing the Tale-Changer with us?"

That question seemed to surprise Balin. He raised his eyebrows.

"Sam?" he asked. "Do you want to take her with you?"

"She is a good fighter."

"It's dangerous."

"I will ask her about it," I said, my tone showing clearly that this argument was over.

I yawned loudly.

"Now, if you can excuse me, I am going to sleep. Good night."

And as I walked away, I did not notice the crouched figure who was sitting in the shadows, and who was starting to make his way back to his room a lot more quickly and swiftly than he used to.

A/N:

Any suppositions on who the person in the shadows could be? :)

PS: I've discovered that I've made a huge mistake by overestimating the time they'd have to travel to get to Moria; it's about two weeks instead of six months, as I thought earlier, so I've changed that. Oops :P