Date: TA 2922

Thorin: 176 years old

Lina: 173 years old

It had taken some time to get affairs in order that Lina and Thorin could take their journey. Two years had passed since Thorin's suggestion of leaving Belegost for a time. Envoys from the Iron Hills had to be met and taken proper care of. New dwarves were constantly arriving.

At long last, Thorin had managed to arrange matters to allow the couple to leave the city. Lina was quite pleased. It had been some time since she had last ventured beyond the city walls, not having been out on a trading caravan in nearly ten years. Since taking Fili out on his first caravan, Lina had only left the city five times. Once had been the journey to the Iron Hills. The other five had been various trading caravans. The last trade caravan, however, had been only a year before Kira had gone. It had been eighteen years since Lina's last visit to any place outside the dwarven city.

Only a select few knew Thorin and Lina were slipping away for a time. Fili and Kili had some knowledge. Dwalin and Balin had been warned as well. Dwalin was pleased to have the two younger dwarves under his eye only for the next several days. It wasn't often he was able to give fighting lessons for days on end. Balin had taken it upon himself to keep an eye on the city council in Thorin's stead. As Thorin was not a crowned king, as this was no kingdom, the city council ruled. Thorin, however, had the final say on many subjects. Balin was the only dwarf he trusted to be wise enough to make those decisions in his stead.

Lina was relieved when she saw Thorin slip out the city gates, his pack on his shoulders and weapon at his side. She readjusted her own pack and went to meet him. A rare full smile lit his face when he saw her coming toward him. It had been too long since they'd last been free of the scrutiny of others.

The first leg of their journey took them into the Hills of Evendim. The dwarves had made a habit of checking the old warg den regularly. After the pack mother had been slain, the dwarves had placed on spikes the heads they could not carry back with them. It had been a warning. Though the heads had long since decayed, the skulls were still scattered about the entrance. The dwarves always made sure the wargs did not come back.

The walls of the town rose into view, the gates open for the farmers and merchants who came and went. The two dwarves passed through. Lina smiled at one of the old guards standing beside the gates. He had been one of the men she'd trained and equipped to defend the town many years back. The man never forgot her.

The people of the town, though many had aged, did not forget the dwarves. The dwarven caravans came once a year, bringing works of stone and metal the townsfolk could use to sell for profit. The trade with the dwarven settlement had been lucrative for both sides. Even as the first generation to see the dwarves had died, the stories lived on. The current town headman had been a young man when Lina and Kira had led the dwarves against the wargs. He was over sixty now.

The headman came out to meet the pair, obviously having received word they had arrived from someone neither Lina nor Thorin had noticed. As always, he wore a smile that seemed to split his face in two.

"Lady Firehammer!" He clasped her hand in greeting. "It has been far too long since you last visited us."

"So it has," she agreed smiling.

"This," she turned to Thorin, "is Thorin Oakenshield."

"Lord Oakenshield, the dwarves who rest here speak highly of you," the headman said, bowing slightly before Thorin.

Thorin inclined his head in acceptance of the man's compliment.

"Has your inn room for us?"

"There is always room for your people among us, Lady Firehammer. I shall leave you to your business. Safe travels." With that the headman hurried away. He seemed more nervous than usual.

"I think you may frighten him," Lina told her husband with a small laugh. Thorin smirked, but said nothing.

He followed Lina through the streets of the town. It was unfamiliar territory to him as he rarely left Belegost for anything but the rare trip to the Iron Hills. Being away from the city was good, for both of them. Thorin could feel the burden of responsibility lightening with every step he took. As for Lina, she was more animated than he'd seen her in years. The duties he had as the Heir of Durin took their toll upon him, but had not pushed him down nearly as hard as the expectations on Lina. He knew what his wife went through. He heard the things his own people called her. It was like the days before the War, only worse. Then the society was so broken he could have stood up for her and fought for her. Now, even she would simply rest a hand on his forearm and draw him back from confronting one who spoke ill of her.

Her hand on his arm drew him out of his thoughts. A mischievous smile curved her lips.

"You see the woman there? The one standing beside the blacksmith?"

Thorin nodded and his wife continued.

The woman was in her early forties, the wife of the blacksmith. She was nearly as large as her husband, with muscles nearly as strong. There were scars on her body, the most noticeable a long burn down her cheek and onto her neck. Lina explained that she had been one of the females who, as a youngling, had come to Lina and Kira for training in weaponry. Over the years, she had maintained that training, becoming one of the best fighters in the town's small defense force. Most of the girls they'd trained had set aside their weapons as soon as they'd wed, but not her. When she found something she wanted, there was no dissuading her. Her husband had discovered that. She picked him, not the other way around. For nearly a month, she'd been catching him looking at her. He'd always look away quickly. She had hoped he'd make a move on his obvious attraction to her, but he did not. So she took matters into her own hands. One day, when they were barely old enough to court, she'd marched up to him as he'd labored under his father, the blacksmith, and announced that he was to be her husband. He had been so shocked that he had been unable to refuse. The following spring they were wed.

According to the news Lina had gathered over the years, the couple had produced eight children, seven of which had survived into adulthood, an amazing accomplishment. The husband had taken over his father's forge when the time came, and was just training his eldest son to take over the forge one day. Thorin saw a look in the blacksmith's eye that he recognized when the man gazed at his wife. However strong-willed his wife was, however demanding, the man was still head over heels for her.

"She certainly has a strong personality," he commented, watching her calling out orders to her adult children and seeing them scurry about to obey.

"She always has," Lina added with a laugh. "She's the little girl who decided she needed to kiss Kili on his first trip out."

Thorin looked at his wife to see if she was in earnest. She just gave that small smile which meant she was telling him the truth. He shook his head and laughed as they went on.

After two nights in the town, the dwarves moved on to wander the hills, visiting other towns and villages along the dwarven caravans' trade route. They walked mostly in silence, enjoying the company in which they found themselves.

It was the last night they would spend on the road before re-entering Belegost when Lina first felt a tugging feeling in her gut. Something was coming. What it was, she did not know, but the feeling worried her. She resolved to begin building her own small fighting force, independent of the army. Members of her special unit would be the first she'd approach. Most of them were reaching the end of their obligations to the city and so would be free to join her. Whatever was coming, Lina wanted the best of her fighters ready.