A/N My apologises my fair readers for the late update. It has been awfully hard to find time in my schedule to sit down and fight through my writer's block. I hope that this chapter is good enough to make up for the wait. My apologises again, my lovelies.
The sun shone dimly through the clouds the following morning. There was no food on the fire; there was not even a fire. Breakfast was not coming today. The groggy and hungry dwarves groaned as they began to move. They loaded as much as they could on Alesdair's back and the rest on their own. Gandalf stood before them.
"I am not going to disappear this very instant," he began, "I can give you a day or two more." They all looked at him in disbelief. That was, certainly, not very long at all. How were they to get to the Lonely Mountain without the help of their favourite wizard? "Probably I can help you out of your present plight, and I need a little help myself. We have no food, and no baggage, and no ponies to ride; and you don't know where you are." That much was obvious. "Now I can tell you that. You are still some miles north of the path which we should have been following, if we had not left the mountain pass in a hurry. Very few people live in these parts, unless they have come here since I was last down this way, which is some years ago. But there is somebody that I know of, who lives not far away. That Somebody made the steps on the great rock-the Carrock I believe he calls it. He does not come here often, certainly not in the daytime, and it is no good waiting for him. In fact it would be very dangerous. We must go and find him; and if all goes well at our meeting, I think I shall be off and wish you like the eagles 'farewell wherever you fare!" There was automatic disproval. They didn't want him to leave. Some of the dwarves even offered part of their shares of dragon gold and other fine jewels and silver, but Gandalf was stubborn: he would not change his mind. "I think I have earned already some of your dragon gold when you have got it." Camellia snickered.
Forward they marched, with empty stomachs and on tired feet, toward the home of a stranger who they soon would meet. The sun was high in the sky when they had stopped at a river. They had quit pleading with Gandalf a while back. Upon reaching the river, the dwarves started to strip.
"Um…" Camellia started as she covered her eyes and turned her head. "I hope you didn't assume I would be bathing with you…" she muttered. The dwarves looked around. There were very few trees and bushes and everything was quite open.
"Sorry lassie, there's nowhere else," Dwalin stated. Using her hands to shield her eyes from the undressing dwarves, she looked up river. There's was a thick sassafras tree sitting about ten feet from the bank of the river. It was about twenty feet from where she stood now. There was nothing on the bank or in the river to obstruct the view between the dwarves and the tree, but it was better than smelling homeless. Camellia took at arrow from her quiver and stabbed it into the ground where she stood.
"Do not cross this arrow. If you do, I promise one just like that one will end up in your knee." She walked herself over to the tree and hid behind it. A few moments later, she emerged wrapped in her blanket. She quickly made it to the water and stepped in. As she got farther in, she unwrapped herself and used the blanket as more of a blind between her and the dwarves. Once she was completely in the water, she tossed her blanket onto the shore.
The river wasn't very deep, just deep enough to submerge most of a dwarf, and it was a transparent blue and the riverbed was made of smooth rocks. Camellia had slipped a few times on the rocks underneath her feet.
The dwarves had spent a good deal of time playing in the water, but spent longer lying in the warm sun. Distracted by the sun, the dwarves didn't see Camellia rush out of the water toward the tree. She had emerged dressed in her usual travelling clothes. Her hair draped onto her shoulder and down her injured arm. She took refuge in the tree's branches as passed the time by sketching the land before her. The dwarves were in no rush to dress and continue on their way. This break was just what they needed.
They began marching under the strong sun across the ford. The grass was long and tall elms and wide oaks lined the way.
"Is this why it's called the Carrock?" Bilbo asked as they pushed through the valley.
"He called it the Carrock, because carrock is his word for it. He calls things like that carrocks, and this one is the Carrock because it is the only one near his home and he knows it well. Who calls it? Who knows it? The Somebody I spoke of-a very great person. You must all be very polite when I introduce you. I shall introduce you slowly, two by two, I think; and you must be careful not to annoy him, or heaven knows what will happen. He can be appalling when he is angry, though he is kind enough if humoured. Still I warn you he gets angry easily." Gandalf replied. The dwarves began asking questions similar to "Is that who you are taking us to now?" and "Why couldn't you find someone more mild tempered." Gandalf answered all their questions with just a dash of sass. The dwarves were quite susceptible to complaining and Gandalf always answered with just a little bit of cheekiness. "If you must know, he name is Beorn." Beorn. That name sounded so familiar to Camellia.
"You mean the skin-changer?" She asked.
"What? A furrier, a man that calls rabbits conies, when he doesn't turn their skins into squirrels?" Bilbo asked.
"No!" Gandalf said immediately. The poor hobbit hadn't know how large of an insult that was.
"What's a skin-changer?" Kili asked Camellia.
"He changes skin."
"Sometimes he's a big black bear, sometimes he is a great strong black-haired man with huge arms and a great beard. " Gandalf explained.
"And calling him a "furrier" could be the very thing that sets him off and erases our chance of food. From the slumber stories, he lives with nature, rather than in it. Much more than any of the others any of us have met."
"Even you, flower child?" Fili joked.
"Even me. I am, actually, quite ashamed of how little I do live with nature." Gandalf explained the many theories about where Beorn came from, the great bears of the mountains or from an ancient race of man that existed far before Smaug or any other dragons, which left the company with so much to think about. The day ahead of them was long and it grew hotter as they travelled on. Occasionally, they stopped in the shade of the trees, but their hunger drove them on. As they dragged on, they encountered bees swarming around the flowers and grass. They were huge, bigger than hornets, and bigger than your thumb.
"Such bees!" Bilbo exclaimed. They swarmed around the company with their large black bodies and thick yellow stripes.
"We are getting nearer," Gandalf told the group.
"Exactly how much nearer?" Camellia asked as she watched the bees buzz about. Terror tugged heavily as her features.
"We are on the edge of his bee-pastures." A small squeal echoed through the grounds. The company stopped and looked back. The little red headed girl was cringing away from the hordes of bees.
"What? Afraid of a few bees?" Bofur teased.
"I hate bees…" Camellia muttered as she pushed through, trying her best to get out of the bee pastures. Kili watched as a smirk tugged at Fili's mouth.
"Fili, don't…" He gave Kili a look before making his way toward Camellia.
"Hey, Camellia, look what I found." Her normally curious eyes held daggers as she looked toward the older brother.
"Get away from me Fili."
"Aren't you curious?" He took another step toward her.
"I know what you're trying to do." Fili took a quick step toward her causing her to burst into a run down the pathway with Fili right after her.
"Stop right there!" Gandalf called as the two reached high thorn hedges. The rest of the company caught up with the two before too long, but Fili still found it funny to pick on Camellia with the bee in his hand. She ran back into the group and hid behind Kili. Gandalf ignored the spectacle in front of him. "When I call or whistle begin to come after me you will see the way I go, but only in pairs, mind, about five minutes between each pair of you. Bombur is fattest and will do for two, he had better come alone and last. Come on Mr. Baggins! There is a gate somewhere round this way." Gandalf and Bilbo went off along the edge. Fili approach Camellia again, bee still trapped between his hands. Anxiety passed over Camellia as she tried to think quick of a way to get him to leave her alone. Doing the only thing she could think of, she aimed one arrow at the advancing dwarf.
"Put it down!" She stared him down with the fiercest look she could muster behind all of her fear. Slowly Fili opened his hands, releasing the black and yellow insect into the air.
"Woah! Careful you'll hurt someone with that," Fili said as he raised his hands into the air. Camellia slowly lower her bow.
"Did that little bee really scare you that bad?" Ori asked.
"Yes. I'm terrified of bees…"
"Are you also scared of spiders?" Gloin asked, curious to see what makes this mysterious girl tick.
"Absolutely horrified. Creepy crawlies of all types…" her voice was angry, but soft, "…I can't deal with them," she muttered, a bit ashamed to be so girly.
"You can fight trolls and orcs without so much as a flinch, but you can't handle a little bug?" Bofur asked, a bit amused. The pale girl's cheeks lit up as she tried to hide behind her hair.
"It's okay. I don't like bugs either," Ori whispered to her has he took a spot next to her. The group stood in silence until their pre-planned intervals were met. Two by two they disappeared behind the hedge. Camellia went last with Bombur. They walked through a beautiful pathway, lined with trees and shrubs and beautiful flower bushes. They soon reached a wooden house. They re-joined the company inside.
Beorn was a tall muscular man with a thick black beard and a full head of hair. His voice boomed around the wooden beams. Gandalf had been telling their story while they waited outside. The interruptions of the arrival of the dwarven pairs had created a curiosity in Beorn to hear the rest of the story. He was so pleased with the tale that Gandalf had told him that he didn't bother to question it, he just prepared the company for a feast. Food was something they craved more than anything.
With a clap of his hands, animals entered the hall and Beorn spoke to them in a strange tongue and they disappeared again, only to return with torches. Soon the room was full of critters - dogs, sheep, ponies – that helped set the long wooden tables in the centre of the room. The benches were low, low enough for Camellia to be seated comfortably. Beorn was a big man. His legs were too long for the table, but he kept it was way it was for the convenience of all the animals that waited on him.
They felt like kings as they dined. Beorn told old tales of the wilds on this side of the mountains and of the dark and dangerous forests that stretched far to the North and South, and of the horrendous forest of Mirkwood. These stories unsettled the dwarves. Soon they had to leave the warmth of Beorn's home and travel through that misery. Once dinner had been finished, the dwarves began to tell tales of their own, but Beorn grew weary and paid them little heed.
"You. Girl. What's your name?" Beorn asked, interrupting the dwarven talk of gold and jewels. Camellia was startled by the sudden deep voice that called to her.
"Camellia," she answered looking toward Beorn on in his large chair. His eyes studied her face.
"You're Lyaera's daughter. How is your mother?" Camellia took a deep breathe through her nose before attempting to answer.
"There was a raid." She paused to look at the table in front of her. The dwarves had quieted down to listen. "Thousands of soldiers paid with their lives to protect us, and to hurt us, but they weren't the only causality." She looked up and meet his eyes once more. "In the heat of the battle, no one noticed one orc slip away. He found his way up to our living quarters." They had heard this tale before, way before they had known the girl in the story was sitting afore them, but this side was new. "I was returning to my room after helping out on the front when I heard a scream. I was less than half a moment too late. Her fate was sealed, but her death was not in vain. That orc ended up one of the thousands of causalities that day."
"You look just like her," he commented. She scoffed.
"I know. When I pass mirrors, I always think that she's there, but when I turn to her, I'm disappointed." She sighed. "She's not coming back," she muttered to herself.
"That's a shame. Your mother was a good friend of mine."
"She was? She never mentioned you."
"She always talked about you. And everything you broke." Camellia looked down, a slight red colour rushed to her cheeks. "Your mother was a wonderful woman." He didn't say much after that.
Soon afterwards, everyone had begun to get ready for bed. A few had made music of low tones and sweet melodies and it had gone on for quite a while. Camellia sat in front of the fire, knees drawn into her chest, wallowing in her thoughts. The dwarves had created their own words and melodies, but Camellia heard nothing of their merrymaking; she barely noticed the dwarves that took a seat next to her.
"I don't want to talk Ori."
"You don't have to talk," Ori responded.
"I just want to be alone."
"The last time you tried to be alone," Kili started.
"Two stupid boys ran after me," she interrupted. She moved her gaze from the flames to his face. "All my life, I've been on my own. It's going to take some time for me to get used to having people care about me."
"What about your parents?" Ori asked. She turned to face him.
"Being king and queen certainly has its perks. Complete control over the kingdom. There was the stunning feasts and halls. The large fields and many beautiful horses. It is what perfect means…except it's all an invention. It may be all wonders for those who only see it in passing, but it's miserable. The royal family had a strict and busy schedule. Everyone knew it and they knew where the King and Queen were at all times. There's nothing I would have liked more than to have a normal family living in a normal house with a normal life, but that's not how it was." She looked back toward the fire. "I guess I have a normal family now." A small smile graced her face.
"You'd rather live like this, then in a palace?"
"Any day. The sleeping arrangements may not be as nice, but it's nice to share the hard floor with family."
"When did you consider us family?" Fili asked as he sat between Camellia and Kili.
"The moment that Bilbo tried to reclaim the ponies that you lost." She looked toward him.
"I didn't lose them!" Fili exclaimed, bemused.
"Oh? Who was the one that was in charge of watching them?" She held a sparkle in her eye. "How do you miss a troll carrying ponies?" Fili didn't have an answer. A yawn escaped her mouth. Camellia stood up and walked to the corner before curling up and closing her eyes. Before too long, the dwarves stopped singing and followed Camellia's example.
The floor was warm and a lot softer than the hard rock surface outside. The night sounds barely penetrated the wooden walls. The ambience of the hall was calming and congenial. It was exceptionally easy to fall asleep and to fall into a deep sleep.