Disclaimer: I own nothing that you recognise.

A/N: Sorry this took longer than I thought, I've been working more overtime and have been needed at home more than I thought I would need to this week. Also sorry that this is a fairly shortish chapter, I wanted to more in but then it would cross over with Gandalf's chapter next and that is just boring ;)

Chapter 14

Balin POV

I lingered in the doorway of the room that had Gandalf and Elrond stood at the far end, Bilbo and Thorin halfway down and then Ariana sliding up next to me. Elrond was telling Gandalf about his worries over the line Durin, Thorin was trying to explain it to Bilbo and Ariana just stood there. I turned to look at her and she began to sign quickly to me, I cannot enter that mountain if any of my kin even show the slightest hint of the sickness Balin. I can't lose what little I have left. I cannot stand and watch as a horde destroys my family from the brain out. I did not survive what I did to lose the very things I wanted. I nodded to her and squeezed her wrist. "I pray that it does not come to that Aria, I pray that Thorin is strong enough." I whispered back to her as we made our way into the room. Thorin nodded his head, everyone seemed pleased that Ariana was here, even if Elrond was wary of her.

Ariana moved to stand next to Thorin, hooking her arm through his and leaning in slightly. I hid my smirk in my beard, Ariana was crafty, by doing that she had made sure she had some control over Thorin. Hopefully it would be enough to stay his tongue. Elrond was looking at the map now and I could see the tension in Thorin's shoulders, Ariana squeezed her elbow into his side and he unclenched slightly. "These are moon runes, they can only be read under the light of the moon in which they were written, it is a practice that has long since been forgotten, but one I know." We all followed him out onto a cliff that emerged from between a waterfall.

Elrond studied the map in the moonlight, "You must reach the mountain by Durin's Day. As the last light shines upon the mountain will the door be revealed to you." I flinched, Durin's Day was a scant 5 months ahead of us, if we wanted to reach the mountain we would need to plan it carefully and linger here no longer than three more days at least. Ariana met my gaze and nodded her head slightly, she was aware and if she was then Thorin was. I sighed as we left Gandalf and Elrond to talk, moving out of the library/office and the three of us watched as Bilbo walked away towards his rooms.

Thorin groaned softly, "We will never reach the mountain in time." Ariana smacked the back of his head, "Not with that attitude we won't. We can make it, we just need to be aware of time and our lack of it." I nodded, Ariana made everything seem so simple despite it not being so. She had always had that ability, even as a child. I bowed goodnight to my cousins, hearing both of them grumble at that. I smiled and made my way back to the room Dwalin and I were sharing, closing the door softly and leaning back against it. "That bad?" Dwalin asked from his position across the room, cleaning Grasper and Keeper.

I sighed and nodded, "We need to be at the right area of the mountain by Durin's Day. It's safe to say it bad." I muttered and Dwalin swore heavily, I nodded. "Ariana seems to think we'll make it. Thorin however." I floundered, trying to think of an elegant way to say. "Thorin thinks we're fucked." Dwalin rumbled out and I sighed, nodding, "Crude, brother, but true. If we tarry in one place too long then we will likely have to either rush to make up the time or we will miss it." I sighed again, sitting down heavily on my bed, groaning as my spine popped in several places. I was truly feeling as old as Dwalin liked to tease me that I was.

Breakfast was a tense affair the next morning, Dwalin and I unaware as to why until Ariana leaned over the table and fixed her gaze on Kíli. "Zundushith, why are the elves glaring at us?" She asked softly and he tensed, staring at her and I shook my head. If it had been anyone else he would have lied, even to Thorin while they were in public, but he wouldn't lie to Ariana. "We raided their pantry last night and acquired a lot of meat. We may have broken some furniture as well." He muttered out and I could see Thorin scowling at him, I sighed silently, he was going to give Kíli a stern talking to and I had no doubt that Ariana would rip him apart for it. "I would expect that behaviour from many of our company, I even tolerated it last night, but I do not condone it coming from my nephews, be they the heir or the sp-" He froze as Ariana coughed loudly.

We all looked over at her, even the elves and Bilbo seemed to understand something big had just been said. "If the next word you speak is spare I am going to be very angry. The boys have done nothing wrong. I behaved worse than they did as a child and I certainly behaved worse yesterday. I practically told our host that his King could go and fuck himself. I am becoming very aware of how you have treated these boys and it stops. I will not stand here and watch you reprimand them for being them. Just because you're a sulking, moody bastard does not mean that everyone else has to be." She snapped out and the table was silent as Thorin processed what she had said.

Dwalin was the one to break it as he began to chuckle, smirking over at Thorin. "I told you she was dragonfire and whisky." Bofur nodded and turned to address Thorin, "She is right though, if yer going to tell one off tell us all off. We aren't exactly bein' the perfect guests. And when Kíli said 'we' stole, he means Nori and me. The rest just enjoyed the spoils of our late night stroll." Kíli stared over at Bofur and I saw respect in Ariana's eyes, she might have missed the boys growing up, but she was as protective of them as their own mother, not that it was surprising considering her past.

I shook my head and watched as we finished eating in silence, before Ariana wondered away from the table and out into the valley. I noticed that Bilbo was walking off on his own and I realised I had not spent as much time as I probably should have with our burglar. "May I join you on your wanderings Master Baggins?" I asked softly as I walked beside him and he nodded, "Of course and please it's Bilbo. I was just going to see if I could find the Library, I wanted to have a look at some of the maps they have here." He said and I smiled, while I would have happily gone wandering around just to get to know Bilbo, I was glad he had a destination in mind for us.

As we walked Bilbo told me little tales of his life in the shire, of this cousin causing this trouble or that cousin being caught stealing this. It was fairly interesting, Hobbits had such large family's, which I suppose was both a blessing and not when you lost someone. Bilbo's family seemed rather large, but he had lived alone. I shook out of my thoughts as we found the library and we went out separate ways, browsing through the books and maps within the library in a companionable silence. It was maybe an hour before lunch when I realised it was far too quiet. "Bilbo, I think we should be finding the others around now. The amount of silence here is a little un-nerving." I said and he nodded, picking up a book and following me outside.

As we walked I managed to pick up the faint sounds of shouted Khuzdul and turned us towards the sounds. "Balin, please don't think me rude, but what is your language called? The one you were all speaking at breakfast. I keep calling it dwarvish in my head, but I feel like that's just too vague." I turned to him and smiled slightly, "I can tell you the name of our language, we don't share the meanings of words or the literal translations you understand with just anyone. The language is Khuzdul and when Bifur signs its called Ingleshmek. That we can teach you if you want to learn, Ariana would probably be one of the best to learn it from as she learnt it without really knowing the Khuzdul." I told him, wondering what Thorin would make of my offer and then decided if we were going to ask Bilbo to risk his life for us, then he could at least know that.

As we rounded the corner, with the shouts growing louder I groaned and Bilbo squeaked and covered his eyes with the book in his hand. "I know that the general feeling amongst the company for the elves is around the same feeling one has for a cow pat, but must they really do this? Sweet Yavanna, I do not need to see that much naked dwarf." Bilbo muttered and I nodded, "This is brazen and rude even for us. I am quite surprised that Thorin is participating in this foolishness, but then again I am not. I watched Thorin grow up and he was worse than Fíli and Kíli put together at times." Bilbo stared at me, sitting down on a bench.

I sighed, sitting down next to Bilbo and watching the rest of the company bathe, rather raucously in the fountain where any elf could walk past. Bilbo groaned as he turned to the side and I looked, noticing Lord Elrond and one of his advisers walking a long the path, "Just read your book laddie, hopefully they won't pay us any mind." I muttered, knowing that even as I said it, that we weren't that lucky, they were walking over towards us. "Why are your kin bathing in the fountain?" The advisor asked and I shrugged, "We found them like that, Bilbo and I had been admiring your library and thought it was a little quiet. This was what we found." I sighed out, shaking my head as I watched them.

A set of quick footsteps rounded the corner and Ariana came running into view, before skidding to a halt, her eyes on the fountain. "Mahal. My eyes, they burn. That is more of Dwalin's naked ass than I ever wanted to see." She exclaimed and Bilbo and I chuckled. "Why are you all sweaty?" The advisor asked and she looked at him, then looked down at herself, her hair swinging in the high tail she had placed it in. "I was doing some weapons practice. Is that a problem?" She asked coolly and I watched Bilbo shake his head at the elf who was clearly stupid enough to anger a woman, let alone this one.

Ariana then proved that she was clearly a dwarf at heart, as her wrist said, as she pulled the thin cotton shirt over her head and placed it on the bench beside Bilbo, leaving her in only a short pair of breeches that barely reached halfway down her thighs and a cotton strapping that wound across her breasts. We stared, there was still all the faint scars from her youth, but there were quite a few more now. As she strolled by us, I looked for the tattoos that she had listed to us over a week ago now. The one on her hip turned out to be a infinite knot, the circle twisting and twirling around, in the centre was the rune for survivor. I blinked as a small birds head looked out from under the strapping and the seemed to fly across her skin, spreading it's wings out to sun itself on the base of her back. "A phoenix." Bilbo whispered.

The strapping seemed to cover a thinner area on her back and I could see the three tattoos that she had mentioned, the two similar ones where a set of beautiful wings, styled to look like eagles wings with brown feathers that were tinted with reds and gold. In the middle was a passage of Khuzdul scripture written in a pale ink that seemed to shine silver. "Ariana what does the passage say?" Bilbo asked and she turned to him, smiling. "Take my love, take my land, take me where I cannot stand. I don't care, I'm still free. You cannot take the sky from me." She said spinning around on her bare feet and striding over to the fountain. The tattoo on her foot a curling vine of some kind of flowers, "It's a pattern that represents strength. She told me about it the other night, said the design comes from a country in her old home." Bilbo muttered and I nodded.

We all watched as she crept over to the fountain, jumped on the edge and launched herself at Nori who was standing on Dwalin's shoulders, they all went down cursing and Ariana just surfaced, flung her hair back and laughed. Kíli seemed to take that as a challenge and began to splash her. "Namanith, get out now. We are all naked." Thorin bellowed out and Ariana just laughed at him, shaking her head. "You act like I've never seen a cock before. Got to tell you after you've seen one, you've seen them all. Nothing even vaguely attractive about them." She said matter of fact, sending a huge wave of water at the princes.

Everyone was simply staring at her, until Dwalin bellowed, "Where in Mahals name have you seen a cock?" Ariana turned to him and smirked, flicking her eyes down, laughing when Thorin launched himself at Dwalin. That soon set everyone off, except the elves that seemed to take great offense and walked away. Bilbo shook his head, "It's a wonder that any of you are even alive at this point. I dread to think what passes as your worst behaviour with elves if this is your best." I chuckled watching as Ariana climbed on Fíl's shoulders and set about pushing Bofur off Nori's.

I smiled and turned to look back at Bilbo, "Our worst behaviour is something I hope you never have to see, for some of us it's a murderous rage that takes over us when we fight. For others it's the need to drink more that is healthy or gamble or steal things of great importance. For other our worst behaviour is also our worst fear." I left the meaning of my last sentence blank, but Bilbo was clever. "How many of you are likely to be affected by the gold sickness?" I sighed and turned to look back over at our company. "It will probably be less for those who did not originally come from Erebor, Bifur, Bofur and Bombur. The brothers Ri may have a higher reaction than them, especially Nori. Gloín will react stronger than Oín, but Oín is older and has been around gold longer. Dwalin and I will probably suffer, but again probably not as strongly, I hope anyway.'

I paused and studied the four remaining members of our group. "My worry is for the boys and their uncle. Thorin as the oldest is more likely as his bloodline has a long history of it. The boys may still experience it, but they are the youngest of us dwarves. They also have the advantage of having a father from the Blue Mountains, this helps to bring strength to the bloodline. Ariana would rather die I feel than fall to the sickness, but I highly doubt she is going to fall. Neither are you so we may be relying on the pair of you if it comes to that." I muttered, watching as the dwarves in the fountain climbed out and lay around on the stone of the courtyard, drying in the sun, suddenly uncaring that Ariana was our princess.

Bilbo hummed and looked over at them, "I will do everything I can to help. Although I am not sure how much help I am going to be." I clapped a hand on his shoulder, "I'm sure you'll do just fine laddie. No enjoy your book, we won't be staying here too long." I said and he nodded, opening the book up and starting to read. I watched him out of the corner of my eye and noticed his gaze often flicked over to Thorin and lingered on his form and I smiled. If I was right then hopefully Bilbo would start to come out of his shell a little more and maybe get Thorin to mellow out a little. I rolled my eyes, I would probably be dead before that happened, I would probably still be waiting for it in Mahal's halls. I thought my eyes drifting closed as we all soaked in the peace and sunshine for what could be the last time before we left.

A/N:

Zundushith - Little Bird.

So Gandalf's coming up next and his white council meeting. Galadriel knows wtf Thrandy's been playing at, as does Gandalf and they think its hilarious that none of the others get it :) Because I can just see them going "'Bloody fools. Don't they know anything?' 'I think we should let them stew about it for shits and giggles!'"