It was eerie how quickly the dwarves quieted when there was a knock on the door. Ali leaned to see the newest man enter, but the others blocked her view. This didn't stop her from hearing him. The man commented on getting lost or something, really the words themselves didn't matter as much. His rumbling baritone could have said, 'hand me a butter knife, I need to spread some jam on this shit,' and Ali still would have shivered with excitement.
Finally Ali was able to squeeze around the roundest man she had ever had the pleasure of meeting, and she saw what all the excitement was about. He was a bit older, still hovering in the mature area of life, not quite the old part. Rivaling the looks of the two brothers, his dark hair lay perfectly, his ice blue eyes cut strait through her as he swept the crowd. She had heard his name during dinner and knew without a doubt this was Thorin.
Some where during her day dreaming he had begun to circle poor Bilbo, asking him questions. Sword or ax, was he a grocer? Really that was rude. What did it matter if he was a grocer? From the looks of his house it paid decently and that was all that mattered.
"And what of her? Shall you really leave your little wife?" Thorin actually turned and smirked at her.
"What?" Bilbo and Ali asked in unison.
"We are not married!" Bilbo huffed.
"Who are you calling little? I can handle myself just fine!" Ali huffed along with Bilbo.
Someone cleared their throat uncomfortably and Ali could have sworn she saw Thorin roll his eyes.
"Gandalf I was not expecting a fifteenth member, who is she?" The man had the gall to turn his back on her. Ali wanted to take back everything she had thought about him previously.
Gandalf just raised a hand and turned away, "I am not one to risk a woman's wrath."
"I have not even been introduced to Gandalf, something you might know if you would actually address me." Ali stood her ground, doing her best not to grab for Bilbo as a shield when Thorin did turn back around.
"You have my attention," Thorin rumbled.
Then everyone was staring at her. Really it was something that should have been obvious. If you tell someone to pay attention then that's what's going to happen right? Ali froze, the last time this many people were looking at her was when she had slipped in the grocery store and took down a whole shelf.
"I'm a tourist!" Ali blurted out, as if it wasn't completely obvious.
"Tourist? What's that?" The one with the funny hat asked.
"A tourist," Ali just repeated, as if saying it twice would unlock the hidden meaning, "you know…" Ali looked around her at the men. They really were good actors, each of them pretending to be confused. "Someone who leaves home to learn more about other people's homes." Even to her own ears that was a clunky terrible definition of what a tourist was.
"Do tourists fight?" A dwarf barked but Ali couldn't figure out which one.
"Some do I suppose," Ali stammered.
"Sword or ax?"
"Depends on the individual."
"Are they light on their feet?"
"Could be, more so if they have Redbull."
"Used to traveling long distances?"
"More often than not."
The questions hit Ali rapid fire, as if they had them prepared for just this sort of situation. Just as her head was beginning to spin as fast as she was trying to pick out which ones where actually talking, Thorin raised his hand for silence.
"What help could a tourist be against a dragon," Thorin rumbled, looking down his nose at her.
"That is a question for which the answer will be brought to light at a later time." Gandalf said softly, drawing the attention from Ali. Something she would have to thank him for later.
"Then it is time to get back to the business at hand," the older dwarf with the white beard said.
The mood didn't lighten as they moved back to sit around the kitchen table. Frankly Ali wanted to leave right now. At first they had been nice if not a bit overwhelming, but Thorin was…was rude. Not to mention that he didn't even want her to be here. She had half a mind to slam her hand on the table and demand that they tell her where she was.
The other half of her mind was not in agreement though. That would draw way too much attention back to her, something that she could feel her heart rate speed up just thinking about. No she was much too much of an introvert for that.
Beside her the brunette dwarf nudged her with his elbow, startled Ali turned. Without looking down he slipped something into her lap under the table. It was cool to the touch and slightly sharp, cautiously Ali glanced down. It was a butter knife, she looked back to the man and then back to the knife. Why on earth did he slip her a butter knife?
Realization hit her like a cold glass of water, that comment about spreading jam. Wide eyed she glanced back, his lips were pressed into a thin line trying not to smile, but he did spare her a wink.
Ali opened her mouth to protest but was cut short as Bilbo hit the floor.
Gandalf had been around for a long while, there was not much in this world that surprised him anymore. Not many puzzles that remained for him to ponder over, that was until he had wandered up to Bilbo's door this very morning.
There was something different about this girl that much Gandalf could tell, something that went beyond her foreign clothes and manner of speaking. It was as if she were here and not at the same time. This was almost unsettling for the wizard, he knew her physical body to be solid and her mind intact.
From the far side of the room Gandalf pulled on his pipe, allowing the calming smoke to fill every pore. He felt the dwarf prince slide into the seat next to him but didn't turn from watching the girl.
"I do not like this," Thorin stated, "we cannot trust her."
Gandalf released a breath of smoke, "can we not?"
"We do not know who she is," Thorin growled.
"Does knowing someone mean they can be trusted?" Gandalf pondered aloud, after a moment of silence he continued, "does not knowing a person mean they cannot be trusted."
"Trust is something that is earned," Thorin rebutted.
Gandalf turned to look at the prince who was watching the girl fussing over Bilbo, holding his features with a careful indifference. "It is something that can be falsely earned as well. Plus you haven't even given the girl a chance."
"Nobody here knows who she is, why should I take a risk for her?" Thorin asked.
The prince had a point, Gandalf would give him that much. He sighed as he turned back to see her bringing a cup of tea to the hobbit. Things in Middle Earth were changing, there was a shift in the air that concerned Gandalf. Something deep in his gut told him that it would be a mistake to leave this girl. There was more to her than she let on, maybe more than she even knew herself.
To the common eye she appeared nothing more than a shy, polite, and naive woman, a burden for sure. Gandalf was not so sure that she was. She held herself close at all times, watching the others, but more than that she watched herself. For one as foreign as herself it would have been easy to become the center of attention, but she did not seek it, answering only vaguely when asked a direct question.
"I will not be responsible for either of them," Thorin interrupted Gandalf's musing.
Gandalf took another pull, holding the smoke as the girl glanced up finally. It was only for a second that they held the glance, but he could see it clearly. Behind her polite smiling demeanor there were tired eyes that betrayed her soul for that second alone. This girl was not naïve to the cruelty of the world. He exhaled his held breath, not bothering to make any show of smoke. "Fair enough."