Fíli and Kíli were certainly an annoying duo, but Katniss could not complain about them as hunting partners. They were as good, if not better, than Gale. Fíli was a master at knife-throwing. He never missed. Whereas Kíli was almost as good with a bow as she was, though she knew that if he had a bow from the same making and technology as she had, they would probably be even. Though they still had to build that almost telepathic synergy that she once shared with Gale, Kíli was making a particular effort by taking the time to teach her some useful signs in Iglishmêk. He made her promise that she would not tell any the others what he had done, as apparently dwarfs hardly ever shared that kind of knowledge with outsiders from their race.

At least now she knew how to say some random words such as 'you, me, listen, I'm listening, up, down, on your right, on your left, on my right, on my left, duck, follow me, watch out, shoot the head, shoot the leg, shoot the eye, rabbit, bird, fox'. It was hardly enough for her to understand their secret conversations at the campfire, but just enough to be useful when they were hunting together.

Dwalin pulled Katniss to the side just after she had returned from yet another hunting session with Kíli.

"Lass, Thorin asked me to train ya."

"Train me?" she frowned.

"Aye. Thorin wants me to teachya the basics of sword and axe fighting…"

"Why?"

"He wants ye to be prepared in case ye ran out of arrows…"

"Why doesn't he come here and teach me that himself?"

Dwalin gave her a funny look.

"It's nae up to me to question my king's decisions, Lass"

"King?" Katniss frowned upon discovering this new piece of information about their company leader.

"Aye. Thorin is our king," he said with pride, but after noticing the open wide eyes of the only female member of their company he quickly added, "Ye did nae know, did ya?"

"No," she answered a few seconds later, a blank expression returning on her face.

Dwalin analysed her while he scratched his beard.

"Right. We er going to be alternating between both weapons, one-day sword, one day axe until it is clear which one you favour…"

"Wait." And without giving him any further explanation, she turned her back to him making her way to the spot where the others were seated.

"Where dae ye think you are going?" he shouted, taking offence by being ignored while he was clearly doing nothing but trying to help her.

"I am going to fetch Bilbo," she simply said turning her head back to him and shrugging her shoulder.

"Why would ya do tha' for?"

"I want him to join us on this."

"Why?"

"Because Bilbo is helpless. He clearly needs some training. Don't you agree?"

"Lass, Thorin's orders are for me to train ye, not the burglar."

"You can either train both or none of us…"

Dwalin gave her an intense glare, which she promptly returned by raising one eyebrow and crossing her arms, as she waited for the dwarf's position on the matter. Dwalin just shook his head and crossed his own arms before finally speaking.

"Ye are a fierce wee thing, are ye not?" he said with a glint of mischief in his eyes. Before she could protest, he quickly added, "Aw right. Here is the deal. He can join ye if tha' is what' he wants to do. Though, persuading the laddie might be harder than ye think…"

As Dwalin had predicted, Bilbo did not seem at all interested when Katniss first invited him to join the training. So she coaxed him by appealing to his honourable good nature. That worked.

"No, absolutely no, no, no! I'm a hobbit Katniss, not a human, not a dwarf! Hobbits are not fighters…"

"Please Bilbo! Come on… look at Dwalin waiting for me over there. Doesn't he look a bit scary to you? Are you really going to let me go training with him all by myself?"

The hobbit still complained, but after that, he decided to join her and the dwarf warrior for training nonetheless. Katniss did not miss Dwalin annoyance as he threw a small coin sack to his brother Balin. The white-haired dwarf gave Katniss a wink and she smiled back at him.

As Katniss had expected, Dwalin was a harsh instructor. But she did not complain, as he was also a very good one. Bilbo, on the other hand, would do nothing but complain until he was threatened by Dwalin. Katniss almost regretted inviting Bilbo along; she only didn't because deep inside she knew that the hobbit needed to learn how to defend himself if he were to have a real chance at surviving outside the Shire. Dwalin gave them drills that she knew would leave her arms sore the next day. After one hour and a half of hard training, Dwalin dismissed them both.

Even though she knew that dinner was likely to be served soon, she decided to walk a bit away from the camp and visit one of the water marshes, as she was determined to have a proper wash, now that she had the chance of doing so. So far, the dwarves always had been nice enough to save some food for her every time she was late for the meals, but even if they didn't, she still had some beef jerky, nuts, and fruits in her shoulder bag. Therefore, she relished the opportunity to have a proper wash with soap and change her armour for her District Thirteen clothes for the first time since they started the quest.

Cinna's Mockingjay armour was holding up amazingly well, looking almost as new as it was when she first wore it. Considering she had been wearing it non stop for more than ten days, she found it quite impressive. Still, as she had the luxury of owning a spare set of clothes, she wanted to wash some of her sweat from it. After both her clothes and herself had been washed, she made her way back to the camp. Her hair was still wet and her Mockingjay armour was also still dripping.

The first thing she did when she was back, was to grab her sleeping mat from her usual spot next to Gandalf and Bilbo and move it just next to the place that Thorin had claimed as his own. The entire company went silent and all eyes were on them. Until that moment, Thorin had been absorbed in a conversation with Balin and Dwalin on the opposite side she had placed her mat. Thorin also froze and looked at her in surprise.

Even though all the dwarves were quiet, Katniss noticed that they were still exchanging some discreet Iglishmêk signs between them. Despite not understanding what they were saying, she knew enough to realise that it was mainly about her. She had to refrain herself from doing the sign that meant 'I'm listening' that she had learned from Kíli earlier that day.

Instead, she got her armour and placed it near the fire so it would dry quicker. She was so focused on trying to look busy that she almost missed when Thorin did a sign of his own to his company, and everybody immediately started talking again.

"Miss Katniss, we saved you some food. Sorry, it might be a bit cold," Bofur informed her from the other side of the camp, near to the area where her sleeping mat was previously placed. He passed a bowl around from one dwarf to the other until it got to Thorin who passed it over to her. It did not go unnoticed by her that the bowl travelled the long way around the circle, just so Thorin would be the one to give that to her. She looked a bit suspicious but nodded to thank him before she started eating her stew. Once again, he did not take his eyes off her, almost silently inviting her to join on their private staring contests again.

"What is this commotion all about?" she decided to ask him.

"Commotion?"

"Thorin, I am not an idiot."

"Why did you decide to place your sleeping mat here?"

"You kept running away from me, so I decided that if I wanted to talk to you, I'd have to take matters into my own hands…"

"I was not running away."

"It felt like it. Every time I wanted to talk to you alone, you seemed to fetch someone else to join us. And by the way, why did you send Dwalin off to train me instead of doing that yourself?"

"I was merely being cautious. I was not sure if my presence would be welcomed, and I did not want you or anyone else to think that I was imposing."

"You are never imposing. Your presence is welcomed."

"Your presence is also welcomed, Miss Everdeen."

There was a moment of silence between them. Her grey eyes locked on his blue ones, and she felt a rush of excitement going through her spine that she could not explain.

Unfortunately, that moment was quickly broken by the noise of small money sacks that started floating around the camp. Katniss obviously noticed and frowned at the dwarves who were doing that, and then back at Thorin, who was also giving a frown of his own to the company.

"What is this commotion about?" she repeated her question, this time with a frown.

"Dwarves are quite fond of friendly gambling."

"Yeah, I noticed. It is what they are currently betting on that I would like to know…"

Thorin did not answer her, instead he gave her another one of his intense glares that made her head go all foggy. He had such a magnetic charm that she struggled to ignore. She felt like a moth drawn to a flame.

Thorin, in his turn, was lost absorbing every single detail on her face - from her thick eyebrows that were hastily growing, to her perfectly pink cheeks, to the almost invisible hairs that were starting to grow on her upper lips. He had felt over the moon when he saw her placing her sleeping mat next to his own. He was aware that she probably did not understand how that simple gesture could be interpreted by his kin. She probably did not mean anything by that either. Still, he could not help the sense of pride growing inside his chest when he saw her going out of her way to seek his companionship like that.

In dwarven culture, dams held the upper hand when it came to courting. Dwarrow men were not allowed to pursue a dam unless she had clearly signed that their advances would be welcomed. There were many ways that dams could do that, the most popular ones being the gifts of flowers or sweets. However, her clear attempt of seeking his companionship in front of the entire company after spending a good amount of time grooming herself could easily make the cut as one of these signs as well.

By accepting the gifts of a dam - or in this particular case by simply not sending Katniss away, Thorin basically said to the entire company that her advances were welcomed and that he was looking forward to getting to know her better. During his one hundred ninety-six years of age, Thorin had never accepted a single gift from a dwarrowdam before, and that spoke volumes. And even though that was nothing like an official courting, he hoped that his men would be able to get the hint that she already was hugely important to him.

"Thorin?" Katniss's voice brought him back to reality. "I have been thinking about what you told me at Bree after my nightmare, and… I would like to give it a try."

All the dwarves at the campfire went silent again and looked at them. Thorin grunted in annoyance and Katniss looked at them with suspicion.

"Wha' happened at Bree, Thorin?" Dwalin asked, scratching his beard.

It was Katniss' turn to give a loud grunt and stand up.

"Nothing that anyone here should be concerned with," she answered as she put on her hunting jacket and grabbed her shoulder bag, bow and quiver before she looked at Thorin. "Let's go for a walk."

Thorin was more than happy to oblige and follow her lead, but not before he smirked at his old warrior friend.

Thorin and Katniss walked together in silence until they reached another piece of dry land within the company's sight, but outside their hearing range. Katniss sat on a rock and waited in silence as she observed Thorin as he worked on lighting a small fire for them. Katniss considered herself fairly competent when it came to lighting fires, but without matches, it usually took her quite a bit of time. Thorin, on the other hand, had the experience of almost two centuries, and she could not help but admire his technique. When he was done, he sat on the same rock she was seating and they remained in silence for a couple of minutes. She was about to ask him a question, but Thorin beat her by asking something else first.

"Why did you seek my company tonight?" Thorin's deep blue eyes staring at her, combined with his low smoky voice so near her, were giving her goosebumps. She had to take a deep breath to calm herself down before she could give him an answer.

"I… I decided that I want to give a shot to your advice, and I… I would like to tell you about what happened before and after the Games… if you are ok with that?" she felt and looked vulnerable, which was an unusual look for her.

As the Games have always been displayed for the entire Panem to see, telling people what had happened was not something that she had ever done before. Even to the doctors at District Thirteen who looked after her mental wellbeing. Telling her story from scratch to somebody else had never been a necessity, as people seemed to be even more familiar with it than her.

"I feel honoured that you chose me to be your confidant, Miss Everdeen."

She gave him a nod to say that she was listening.

"But beware, Miss Everdeen, nightmares like these won't go away like magic, from one day to the other. You are having severe soldier's fatigue every other day, and we are still waiting for a night that you don't have a nightmare. It will take time for it to go away. You will probably need to talk about it multiple times with different people. But they will, hopefully, eventually fade. Or at least diminish."

She nodded again to say that she had understood him.

And she started telling her tale. She told Thorin about how she had to sign up for tessera in order to get extra grain and oil supply for her and her family as soon as she turned 12. She told him about how she met her hunting partner Gale and the pact they had made of helping to feed each other's family in case one of them were reaped for the games. She told him about how sure she was that her sister's name would never be picked, and how her own heart stopped beating when it was. How she did not think twice to volunteer to take her place, and patiently waited for the name of a male tribute to be drawn, praying that it would not be Gale's. But also how disheartened she felt when she learnt that it was a boy whom she owed a life-debt to. And how she could not help but think that they might have had to kill each other at the arena.

She told him about her goodbyes to her family, how she had made her mother promise that she would not fade to grief again. How she had promised Prim that she would try to win for her. How Peeta's father had given her a bag of cookies, and Madge her the Mockingjay pin. How Gale had given her a pep talk. She told Thorin about the train ride to the Capitol, about her escort Effie and Haymitch, her drunk mentor.

But it was only when Katniss started describing the torturous wax shaving treatment which her prep team made her go through, that Thorin lost it for the first time that evening. Katniss was amused to see the dwarf king cursing in his foreign language when she told him that they stripped her naked and plucked every single hair from her body as if she was a chicken they were reading for a roast.

"If that's making you angry, I fear how furious you will be when you learn that they wanted to modify my body after the games. Well, they did do that, to some extent, actually… removed my scars and fixed my hearing - I lost my hearing on my left ear after I exploded the career's supplies…"

"Can they do that?" Thorin asked in shock.

"They can change people's skin colour to blue! Getting rid of my body hair was nothing compared to the other things they do."

"That was not 'nothing'. They shaved you - dishonoured you - when you committed no crime. They removed your scars, your honour badges…" Thorin then explained to her briefly how important hair was for the dwarrow, and how shaving for a dwarf was seen as a horrible punishment. She did not tell him, but it warmed her heart seeing him getting all disgusted with the Capitol on her behalf.

She then told him about Cinna, the first human being from that Capitol that treated her like a person with feelings and how he had helped her to gain the nickname of 'the girl on fire'. She told Thorin about the parade, the training centre, the interview. Thorin gave a grunt of approval when she told him about how she had ended up shooting an arrow at an apple in a roasted pig's mouth, just next to the Gamemakers.

"You should have shot them on their heads!"

"They would've probably just blown me to pieces as soon I stepped inside that blasted arena."

When Katniss told him how furious she felt when her fellow District tribute told the entire country that he loved her, Thorin's expression was unreadable.

"I mean, we were both about to go to the arena and he tells the entire Panen that he was in love with me? I thought that this was a sick strategy that he was playing, trying to make me look weak. Only later that my team made me realise that it actually made me seem desirable, which apparently was a good thing for getting sponsors..."

She briefly explained to him about the Cornucopia Bloodbath and her mentor's strategy for her and Peeta, to get away from there as soon as possible and find water. Her struggle to decide if she should or shouldn't have followed his advice when she spotted the bow and quiver, clearly made for her inside the Cornucopia. How she had lost the momentum and ended up running away with nothing but a knife and a backpack.

She confessed to Thorin how relieved she had felt when she found out through the sound of canons that almost half of the tributes were already dead. She also confessed to him how she had almost wished Peeta had also died, just so she would not have to kill him, but also how she was relieved when she had found out that he was still alive that evening.

"If he was the winner, my mother and Prim would also benefit from the extra rations of food given by the Capitol."

And then she had told him about her frustration when she woke up a few hours later just to find out that she had been camping a few meters away from the biggest idiot of the games.

"Can you imagine? I know it was cold, but come on! She lit a fire just revealing our location to all the careers who were hunting us!"

Thorin grunted.

"I'm guessing she died that night?"

"Your guess is correct."

Then she told Thorin how she had almost fallen off the tree when she realised that Peeta had allied with the careers when they arrived to kill that girl. Thorin frowned his eyebrows but instead of making comments about that, he lit up his pipe.

She carried on narrating her journey to find water while she battled against dehydration. And after she had found it, how the Gamemakers started throwing fireballs at her to force a confrontation between her and the career pack. She told him how she ran to find refuge on top of a tree despite having to endure the pain resulting from a burn injury on her leg, that she got during the fireball show, and how Peeta and the careers failed to follow her up that very same tree.

"My friend Gale used to say that I climb a tree like a squirrel…"

"No, I saw you climbing. You don't climb like a squirrel, you climb like a dwarf," he said with a warm smile.

Katniss was not sure why, but she smiled at him after hearing that comment.

She then carried on telling him how sponsors had sent the medicine for her leg, and how the young female tribute from Eleven, Rue, helped her come up with the plan to send a tracker jacker nest at the careers who had set up camp on the bottom of her tree. How two career girls died from these wasps and how she was finally able to get hold of her bow, despite the hallucinations triggered by their venom. And then she told him how she realised that Peeta saved her life sending her off to run, while he stayed to fight the career boy Cato.

"Did Peeta survive?" Thorin asked with a blank expression.

"Just barely…"

"So the boy did have feelings for you,"

"Yes, he did, but I didn't know at the time. I still thought he was acting to get us sponsors."

Katniss told him how she had found Rue had been helping her by healing her and how they both decided to make an alliance to blow up the careers supply. She also told him about the high price she had to pay because of that. This was the first time that Katniss' voice became a bit shaky since she started narrating the 74th Hunger Games to him.

"You lost your little friend," Thorin correctly guessed.

She nodded as she took a sip of water. After a moment, Katniss carried on narrating the events that led to little Rue's death. She had to stop from time to time to gather strength to carry on, narrating how she had killed the boy from District One and then sang to a lullaby to little Rue until she died in her arms. She told him about her revolt with the Capitol for both making her watch that innocent little girl die but also to force her to kill that boy from One.

"I needed to do something - anything - to make the Capitol accountable. I wanted to shame them, to show everyone that no matter what they do to me, they still did not own me. So I saw some blossoms and wildflowers nearby and I had this idea..." she carried on telling him how she decided to cover Rue's body with the flowers.

"I see. The Games were the Capitol's tool to keep the animosity between the Districts alive. I bet you started up a fire when you did that…"

Katniss had always thought that it was her trick with the berries that ignited the rebellion, but perhaps he was right. Her sparks might have started much before that stunt.

"You are not wrong. Rue's District sent me a piece of bread after that. That was the first time in seventy-four years that a tribute received a present from a District that was not their own."

"I'm not surprised. You showed unity and honour to people who were not used to receiving either of these two things. The Capitol seemed to maintain their power through fear, by the horror, by the despair. That is the way of the enemy. An honourable ruler should gain respect by providing and serving their people, not the other way around."

That was when Katniss looked at Thorin finally taking in who he truly was. Thorin was a king, a ruler like he said. He was not just the leader of a company of a dozen dwarrow men. Even if he was a king without a kingdom, he was still a king. She then remembered how he would always be the last one to eat, and how he decided to be among the ones on patrol duty more often than any of the others. He also did not send off a troupe to reclaim Erebor and remained hidden away somewhere safe. Thorin was there among his men, and seeing a ruler behaving like that was a novelty for her.

She must have been lost in her thoughts for a long time because Thorin broke the silence asking whether she wanted to carry on her tale that evening or if she would rather have a break from it. But she was determined to carry on, so she told him about the special announcement telling about a change of rules that they would now allow to crown two victors if both were from the same District.

How she had realised that this could only be because that 'star-crossed lovers' strategy was probably getting very popular among people from the Capitol. Not only she did have a moral duty to save him, but it was also a self-preservation move if she wanted to carry on getting good sponsors. Because of that, she did track Peeta down to keep him alive.

Katniss told Thorin how beaten and wounded Peeta had been, and how she had looked after him and cleaned his wounds despite how she always had been squeamish to the bone about that sort of thing. And then she confessed to him how she had forced herself to kiss Peeta to keep the show for the Capitol's sponsors.

"That was the first time I ever kissed a boy and... I guess that was supposed to be something special, right? But all I felt was how to warm from fever his lips were, and that I needed to keep him alive. Because... what kind of person would I be if I did not try to do that?"

Thorin frowned. He did not like what he had learnt. However, his repulse was not aimed at Katniss, as her intentions were as noble as they could possibly be. The Capitol though, and the boy… both making a young female feeling coaxed to do something like that. That was beyond revolting.

"Didn't that boy feel sick for making you go through this?"

"Peeta didn't know I was faking. And I thought that he was acting too…"

Thorin grunted, but he did not say anything else.

Katniss then told him how Haymitch's present had made her realise that she needed to carry on with the kisses and look madly in love with Peeta if she wanted to have any chance of getting him proper medicine for his leg. She then told him about the feast at the Cornucopia, and how that would be her only chance to get said medicine.

"You risked your life to save him, even if you were not in love with him?"

"I might not have had feelings for him at that time, but that did not mean that I wanted him to die."

"Still, you could have died."

"Would you have done any different, Thorin?"

He knew that there was only one honourable answer.

"No."

Katniss then narrated the events that had happened at the Cornucopia. Foxface's smart strategy of being the first one to go; her grabbing Peeta's medicine and almost dying in the hands of the girl from Two. The mercy shown by the boy from District Eleven due to her previous alliance with the little Rue.

She confessed to Thorin how she still didn't know how she had managed to run back to their camp with blood dripping from her face and gotten Peeta's medicine in his veins, only to pass out straight after that. She told him how they had remained in their cave, keeping the romance entertainment for the audience in exchange for food. Katniss told Thorin how she secretly mourned the death of the boy from Eleven that was announced while they were in that cave.

"The truth is, I did not want him dead. I did not want any of them to die! I didn't want to be there for starters. But that sort of thinking wouldn't have gotten me sponsors, which I knew I would need If I wanted to have any chance of leaving that cursed arena alive."

She then told him how Foxface also ended up dead after stealing nightlock berries gathered by Peeta, and then she told him about the wolf-like mutts that came to play for the grand finale. Katniss was surprised when Thorin recognised the mutts from her descriptions and told her that they called them wargs. She described the grossness of Cato's death, and her final mercy shot to end his life.

"The Games were over after that?"

"Oh, if only! The Gamemakers never intended to let both of us win..."

Thorin's hand slowly touched her hand to give her some sort of comfort. She pulled him closer, resting her head on his shoulders. He hugged her back and gently started stroking her hair, almost fearing that he may have overstepped somehow. But if anything, she pulled him closer, making him know that his touch was welcomed. They remained there in silence, waiting until she was ready to carry on with her tale.

When she was, she told Thorin about another change in the rules, their frustration and then her realisation that the Capitol needed to have a winner. Which had led to her plan for both of them to eat the deadly berries to force the Capitol to either accept them both as victors or to have no victor at all. Fortunately, the Capital chose to let them both live as the Gamemakers informed that they were both going to be victors in the end.

"But little did I know that the true Games were about to begin..."

Then she carried on telling her tale to him. How the Capitol cleared her body for all her wounds and scars - even the ones she had before the Games. How Haymitch told her that she was in danger because of her act with the berries, and how it was important for everyone to believe that she was utterly in love with Peeta.

"At the arena, the worst that could happen to me was to die. But out there... There, I had Prim, my mother, Gale, my friends from District 12. Everyone and everything I cared about could be punished from the moment I came out as a victor from the arena. My only defence was making people believe that my acts with the nightlock berries were driven not as an act of defiance, but by my supposed love craziness for that boy."

She told Thorin about how horrible she felt when she was forced to watch the replay of the highlights of what happened inside the arena on a large screen in front of an audience. She told him about the anxiety she felt as she had to go through interviews, banquets, dinners, events with reports documenting every detail from their supposed love and pretended kisses, knowing that any false move from her part could cause everything to fall apart.

And finally, there was the whole mess that was confronting her own feelings after that. Katniss told him about Gale's stolen kiss and her inner struggle to figure out if she liked one or the other, or neither of the boys. Thorin grunted but did not say anything about what he had learned.

That followed her description of the visit paid by President Snow himself to her house, and how horrible it had been to discuss her love life with him. And how she now had to make that evil man believe that she was in love with Peeta if she wanted to keep Gale alive.

"The Games never really end. They might call you a victor, but you never really leave the arena. You are stuck there forever. You have money, and food on your plate, but you still are enslaved by the Capitol. You are forced to act as their propaganda puppet for their sickening government that makes the majority of the country to starve while some few live the most luxurious lifestyle."

She carried on telling him about the Victors' Tour, about the abusement on her body by her prep team, her fear of not being able to satisfy President Snow and how she had reached the conclusion that if she wanted to keep those she loved alive, she would have to end up marrying Peeta at some point. How she was the one that had suggested Peeta to propose to marry her on live broadcast, for the entire Panen to see. Her despair when she had realised that no matter what they did they would never manage to contain the rebellion. And then the final blow when it was announced that she was going to have to go back inside of another cursed arena as a tribute. Again.

Thorin cursed in that language of his and started to chop a tree trunk that was lying nearby with his axe. Katniss raised her eyebrows as she was caught off guard by his enraged reaction.

She told him about how the Capitol would draw their tributes from their current pool of victors, and as she was the only female victor from District Twelve, she was also their only possible choice. She told him how Peeta volunteered to take Haymitch's place, just so he could protect her. But how she was also determined that Peeta should be the one to leave the arena alive this time.

She described her second round as a victor trip to the Capitol. How now she was supposed to make new allies and gain the trust from people that have been friends for years. How she had found out that one of her old friends from District Twelve had become a mute slave after the Capitol cut off his tongue and made him her servant. She told him about the people she had met there and had decided that she wanted as allies.

She told Thorin about hers and Peeta's defiance at the Gamemaker's scoring session. Peeta for trying to shame them by making a painting about Rue's dead body covered by flowers, and Katniss by hanging a training dummy and giving it the name of their previous Head Gamemaker, who had died that way.

She also told Thorin how President Snow made her wear her wedding dress for her interview. The dress had been designed by Cinna and voted by people from the Capitol from a pool of other twenty-four dresses. And then she told Thorin about Cinna's rebellious creation as he made her dress to disintegrate as the designer turned her into a Mockingjay right at the time of her interview, putting even more fire inside the real rebellion.

"They killed him because of that, Thorin. They murdered him. My friend Cinna! They killed him the next day in front of me seconds before the games started!"

Katniss pulled him for another hug, and after a couple of minutes, she ended up deciding to lay down her head on his lap as she mourned her friend in silence. Thorin, in his turn, started slowly stroking her soft wavy hair again, as her loose dark mane had finally dried now. A quick glimpse at his company informed him that his men were already sleeping. Only Dwalin and Balin remained awake on patrol, no doubt hoping to exchange a few words with him.

A look back at his lap told him that the girl laying her head on it had finally succumbed to sleep. Probably for the best, he thought, considering she had revived more than enough of her troubled past for this evening. Careful not to wake her, he got up carrying her in his arms, gathered their belongings, put out the small fire with his boots, and returned to the camp.

As soon as he got back, Thorin could tell by the visible tension between Balin and Dwalin that both his friends had been rehearsing that conversation long before he arrived. He knew that he had made some undeniable controversial choices when he revealed his affection for the girl, and now he was about to find out what were the full consequences of his actions.

But before facing them, he tenderly placed Katniss on her bed mat and then covered her with his spare cloak which was still in her possession. After leaving her belongings next to her, he went to the place where the sons of Fundin were waiting for him. Balin was the first to speak.

"How is the Lass doing?"

"Grieving. She has been telling me things about her past…"

"The reasons behind her nightmares?"

"Aye," Thorin confirmed as he had a sip of the whisky he carried on, "and despite all the time we spent there, she is yet to finish her tale. It was a big ordeal. The one that she has been forced to go through…"

"I thought it would be. Soldier's fatigue like the ones she is having do not appear without a valid reason."

Thorin nodded in agreement as he took another sip of his drink. He knew that Balin was mainly making small talk, fearing that he would say something that Thorin would not like to hear.

"How bad did they take it?" Thorin asked at once. One thing that he truly hated was when people started treading on eggshells around him, holding back things they knew he would not like to hear.

"Overall, very bad. Well, to be fair, your nephews were delighted regardless."

Thorin gave Balin a weak smirk after hearing that. Obviously, Fíli and Kíli would have been delighted. They had been trying to set him up with any female they met since he could remember.

"But the Lass not being a dwarf was not even the main issue here," Balin said seriously.

Thorin frowned after hearing this new piece of information. What else could anyone have a problem with if not the fact that she was not a dwarf?

"Thorin, she is a bairn!" Dwalin spat, finally losing his not so great patience "the hobbit tauld us while ye two were gettin' aw cosy together. She is nae even of age yet!"

Thorin opened his eyes widely, clearly caught by surprise from that revelation.

"What do you mean by she is not even of age yet?"

"I mean exactly wha' I said! The hobbit tauld us that 'er comin' of age birthday is in two days! Tha' would make 'er less than sixty years old if she was a dwarf!"

Thorin opened his eyes wide and shook.

"No! It can't be…!" Thorin started denying, but deep inside he knew that it was a real possibility.

"As I've been telling, coming of age for men is a completely different affair than it is for us dwarrow, brother. They age and mature at a very different pace…" Balin tried to reason, but Dwalin was not having it.

"Thorin, she is considered a bairn among 'er own folk!" Dwalin grunted. "Ye can nae be seriously considerin' courtin' 'er after learnin' tha', can ye? She should nae even be travellin' with us in the first place!"

Thorin grunted before he downed a generous dose of his personal stash of whisky. He knew that she was young even for the standards of men, but he did not know that she was that young. Though… should he really be that surprised? After all, she had told him that the Capitol sent people's children to compete at their sickening Hunger Games.

Thorin could not help but feel ashamed for having had thoughts about her for the past week, even though he knew these feelings that were hastily growing inside his chest were beyond his control.

Dwarrow cherished children more than anything. Thorin could honestly see why his men had a bad reaction after seeing their King considering pursuing a human child as a possible match. He would probably have had a fit if any of his men appeared to show a love interest to a young woman or dwarrowdam who was still officially considered a child by their own.

"Let's not forget she is going to be considered of age in two days, and Thorin did not know, brother" Balin said.

Dwalin grunted but did not say anything after that. Thorin avoided looking at them in the eyes and had another sip of his drink for good measure. Thorin knew that the best course of action for him would be to keep his distance from Katniss. His unrequited feelings were only getting stronger, and he did not think that he would ever be able to push her away if she went after his company again.