Well hello to all the new readers and followers and favorites. Thank you to my reviewers. I do adore you.

TW: Valis gets a bit pissed off. Anxiety.

Some sexy things below. Not sex (I will warn you if there is sex and sadly, you'll have to read that on AO3), but definitely some sexy things mentioned.

Ed Sheeran - Shivers

Walk The Moon - Kamikaze

Taylor Swift - Style

Nikki Idol - The Bad Angel

Rihanna - Dancing In the Dark

Moulin Rouge Soundtrack - Elephant Love Medley

Ed Sheeran - The Shape Of You

Panic! At the Disco - This Is Gospel

Saint Motel - My Type

Hayley Kiyoko - Demons

ABBA - Lay All Your Love On Me

Taylor Swift - ...Ready For It?

Ed Sheeran & Justin Beiber - I Don't Care

Fun. - Some Nights

Chapter 21

"We know what we are, but not what we may be." - William Shakespeare

Wednesday night was the first night since the fight that Erdene walked home without Thorin. She had walked to Valis' in the late afternoon, finding everything frozen and herself sliding slightly with a careless step. After leaving Valis' with the girls she informed them of the argument she had with their father.

"If things keep going the way they're going," Erdene told them in low tones as they walked through the dark, cold streets past low lit torches, "I'm probably moving out soon anyway."

She was half tempted to turn around and find somewhere else to stay. Maybe see if she could catch Thorin and have him take her home with him. That was one way to meet his family. Introductions, dinner maybe, sex most definitely.

Multiple mutual orgasms. Oh yes please.

By the time they were a block from the house, snow had begun to fall again. Not the fine white powdery stuff that stuck. These snowflakes were like large wet goose feathers that disintegrated to a watery, icy mess on the ground.

The girl's groused about trekking to and from in this kind of weather. Though, wasn't Valis absolutely lovely to pay them so much for the work they did though. Isn't Valis lovely? She is so pretty! After all father said, I thought dwarves would be meaner.

"That dwarven woman who came in today, with the fair haired male." Cathrine sighed dreamily, "she must have some status, her clothes were beautiful! And he was," she blushed, the red on her cheeks deepening, "oh, I don't think father was right about dwarves at all."

"The lady had some status, Valis called her and the male 'your grace' several times. Perhaps they're noble?" Alysa noted. "I saw the dress Valis was fitting her for. It was immaculate. My stitching is fine, but Valis' is nearly invisible to the eye."

Alisabeth knocked her left shoulder into Cathrine's right. "He was quite handsome for a dwarf, wasn't he? What did he say his name was again?"

The blush across Cathrine's cheeks deepened further. "Fíli."

Erdene, who had been lost in her thoughts, "you've met Fíli?"

They were maybe twenty odd steps from the front door when as a group, the girls and Erdene stopped walking.

"And his mother Dís. They were so patient! I was nervous helping Valis with the fitting." Cathrine told her. "I dropped a dozen pins and he helped me pick them up. His fingers were so big, but he was able to collect them without issue."

Alysa spoke up next with a sly, "how do you know him, Ery?"

Erdene rolled her shoulders, "He's Thorin's nephew."

Gwen snickered, "and Thorin is the dwarf who walks you home at night?"

"Maybe. Maybe he's a little more than that now." A small chorus of Ooo followed and then more giggling. Christ almighty. "Yeah, yeah. Stop that. When you four finally meet your match, I want to see how you react."

They reached the front door and Erdene hesitated as the girls went in one after the other. Her anxiety left her remembering how irate Warren had been this morning. She honestly didn't want to deal with him. But he was usually asleep by the time she got back. By the time they were getting back now.

Deep breath.

In she went.

Warren was sleeping, thankfully. The girls went to their rooms after they all ate dinner together and went over a short quiz to gauge their current understanding of most of what they learned. Erdene went to her room, and, as she looked around at everything in her room, she began to pack. She draped her coat over the rocking chair, gloves atop it, then went to the armoire and pulled out her blue-gray dress, her small clothes and her bags from Earth.

It didn't take very long to load her things into her bags. Nearly nine months in Arda, in this room, and she hadn't gathered quite as much as she brought with her. Erdene moved her cell phone and solar charger into the middle of her gym bag so neither would be broken if someone grabbed the bag and went off on it. Erdene put both bags in the bed next to her where her pillows would normally sit. She covered them with a small blanket to make them look like pillows until morning. Just in case.

Just in case of what, she wasn't certain. When her lizard brain said just in case, she went with it.

Wednesday night, as Dís went over the housekeeping books, she looked up as her brother returned home using the side entrance.

Her eldest brother tended to avoid the front entrance in the evenings. He said once it was noisy, announcing he had returned to the whole household.

Thorin as always greeted her. He asked how her day was. He asked about the state of the finances. He asked about tithe time, as it was upcoming in January. He asked her to go over any outstanding balances. He asked how the arrangements were going for next week and Durin's Day.

All typical inquiries.

What he said following the reheating of his meal, though. Dís very nearly dropped her quill.

"How quickly, do you think, would we be able to move the household back to Thorin's Hall?"

Having only caught the quill before it actually fell, she set it to the side. Théli, after he and Dís married, humbly accepted the estate they lived in. He wanted to get away from the machinations of the court. Dís hadn't blamed him. He was a miner who married a princess. Tongues, as they would always, wagged.

When she was with child the first time, her husband asked her if she wanted to return. Dís told him only to see her brothers. The grumpy king and the smart mouthed prince. Her mother was growing older, more frail at the time. They stayed the full sixteen months until Fíli was born.

"To live?" Dís asked hopefully.

"Aye." Her brother answered. "Do you not wish to?"

Ah. He asked. This was new. Perhaps his one's influence? "I would not mind returning permanently. I know my husband loved this estate, and I know my sons have enjoyed growing up here. This will always be a home away from home, but, yes. I would prefer to move back to Thorin's Hall."

Dís was something a bit different from her brothers. Where Frerin and Thorin had twenty years in Erebor, she had less than ten. Of what she remembered it was beautiful, but it wasn't her home the way it was for Thorin and Frerin. Thorin's Hall was home, with its burnished gold embedded in the bedrock of the Blue Mountains.

"To answer your original question, brother, two weeks. I can keep part of the temporary staff on to shutter the estate. We will need ponies, carts, and luggage. I will need to make arrangements to end our deliveries and settle any open lines of credit."

Thorin nodded, his sister had always been quick with the household management. He envied her abilities greatly. The memory of finding himself without her after their mother's passing left him with an appreciation for all a dam did to manage her home. He had no conception of how their mother did all she did in a single day, how even now Dís managed the same.

Thorin understood running a kingdom. A household of servants was an entirely new beast.

Dís hummed, eyeing him, "I take it you wish to marry your one before she comes to her senses and refuses your grumpiness."

Scowling at her, fighting a laugh, "I am not grumpy."

"Yes you are." She said with much too much mirth. "Grumpy king."

"You call me that. No one else."

"Untrue, Frerin does as well."

"Frerin currently sits on the throne. If anyone should get the title of grumpy king it should be him."

"Frerin rules regent, for our dear brother, the grumpy king." Oh it had been so very long since Thorin was in such a mood to banter. No doubt this good mood was his one's influence. "I will make the preparations for us, your one included." And again, that sly, knowing look.

"Dís," he grumbled at her.

"Oh I know," she laughed, "I may have to change your nickname." She reached to poke his cheek, only to have her hand batted away with a half hearted glower. "I can see the dimples mother gave you."

His sister. Maker give him patience. "Erdene pays for a room in a house in the north district."

"Can she not live here?" Dís asked with a furrowed brow. "Once you two are counting, you are allowed to enjoy each other."

Mahal knew she and Théli were courting less than three hours before she was on her hands and knees all but screaming his name into a pillow. They didn't leave his bedroom for three days. She was with child a month or two after they married.

After what was it, almost three weeks now, Dís was surprised her eldest brother could stand or sit without a tent in his trousers. He always was strong willed. Strong enough to deny the pull of his one for longer than any dwarrow she knew of.

Well, save one. Dwalin's stubbornness knew no bounds.

Thorin could and would bend, given the right incentives. And his one was enough of an incentive to push his boundaries.

Wednesday evening's dreams were sadly of the traditional, brain processing stimuli kind. And, once again, Erdene woke to an ice cold room and more wet snow muddying the world outside Thursday morning. Thursday was quiet, with the snow she couldn't go to the plaza. She hoped Thorin would understand or at least not worry too much.

Erdene spent all of Thursday reading the handful of books she picked up since coming to Arda. She rarely ventured out of her room for anything but food or water or the call of nature.

By Friday morning she was going stir crazy. The temperature was rising though and the snow was starting to melt into muddy little rushing streams that flooded the drainage alleys with run off. She hadn't bothered setting her alarm either just in case Warren decided to barge in on her.

What time was it anyway?

She drew back a curtain only to see a solid gray sky above. If she pushed up on her toes she could just barely see the white caps of the mountains in the distance. The girls told her when she first asked months ago, the mountains were almost three days away by foot. At the time it was curiosity that made her ask. She honestly had been more worried about potential orc or goblin raids than anything else.

Warren had all but laughed at her. Goblin raids? There haven't been goblins raids on South Yard since before my grandmother was born.

Now that raised a question for her. Had the refugee dwarves cleared out the goblins to take up residence nearby? Was the potential removal of goblins from the mountains in any way related to Bilbo Baggins' grandfather's battle with goblins where said hobbit also supposedly invented golf?

Erdene glanced in the mirror, stuck her tongue out at her reflection and said, "your nerd is showing."

She grabbed her shift, her dress and her boots. An idea came to her yesterday while she was thumbing through her phone and books she had downloaded and meant to read at work (the books on the shelves are for paying customers, Ery. This isn't Borders Books for goodness sake. Judith had chided her in the beginning. I don't care, I'd rather you read, just not the lone copies. So getting the eReader app on her phone was easier. Amazon alway had Kindle Unlimited.) Erdene read through two incredibly trashy, borderline pornographic modern romances before finding a semi-cosy romance with some sex and lots of plot and a main character who just wanted to feed the world comfort food.

Which led her ADHD brain down some Middle Earth-esq rabbit holes. What kinds of foods would Thorin be used to eating? What kinds of foods could she make here that he probably wouldn't have had before?

Erdene headed downstairs.

Time to test a hypothesis.

Thorin had only just arrived, early as the streets were clear, when Erdene appeared, her cheeks and nose pink with cold. She held three smaller brown packages, one with a little oil seepage at the corner. "I know we're technically waiting, but," Mahal how she bit her lower lip, looking at him with amber eyes, "Master Oakenshield, would you go on a breakfast date with me?"

He has no idea what she is speaking of. "What is a date?"

She blinked wide blue-amber eyes at him. "Master Oakenshield, are you tellin' me no one has ever asked you out?"

"Asked what?" He has been asked many things in his life but this is a first for him.

"I mean…I suppose dwarrow may not have the concept." Which really explained so much about their awkward moments. Back on earth, if a guy walked her home as often as Thorin walked her home she would have at least entertained the idea of asking him out. She hadn't done anything about it because this was Thorin, son of Thrain, son of Thror. And, prior to this past weekend, he was out of her league. "So, you meet someone you would like to get to know better. You ask them to join you for dinner or lunch or something like that. Maybe just drinks if you're not sure about how much you like them. Then, if you do like being around them, you ask them out again, maybe a few more times before you two decide to exclusively see each other."

The jealousy that clawed at him was almost as unfamiliar as the idea of a 'date' was. "You have done this?" She was thirty, he knew that. She was, raised amongst the children of men, he knew that too.

Her answering smile was rueful. "The rest of the world isn't lucky enough to dream about their person. Non-dwarrow have to do it the hard way." Do it. Do it.Deep breath and, geronimo. "Because if someone had just gone ahead and told a seventeen year old me, I was going to have to wait to meet the one I'm supposed to be with when I'm thirty, I probably wouldn't have given the two I met before you time of day."

The absolutely gobsmacked look Thorin gave her sent her giggling.

True, they weren't supposed to talk about their dreams but no one ever said they couldn't acknowledge their dreams. And he deserved to know she was dreaming too. He also deserved to know she was at least a little bit dwarrow.

Erdene opened her mouth to say just that when he reached for her with his left hand, taking the back of her right elbow much as he had two days ago and drew her closer. Her heartbeat stuttered for a breath, lips pressed together in sudden uncertainty. "Th-"

His deliciously warm right hand cupped her cheek. "Ekûnê."

And her mind went absolutely blank. Which wasn't something that often happened. Not to her. Oh. "Thorin, I don't speak…" His forehead touched hers and oh did he look so happy right now. So very happy. Their breaths mingled in the cold.

He was almost smiling. "You will," he whispered, his nose nuzzling hers, "it means my one."

He was so close and so warm and why wasn't she pulling him closer? A squeeze of her ungloved fingers provided the answer.

Breakfast! Shit.

She hadn't eaten this morning because she made them breakfast. Ham, egg and cheese sandwiches. And now, because she dared to remotely acknowledge it, her stomach growled loudly in protest.

"So," she blushed a bright pink, "um, breakfast?"

In one of the back rooms there was a couple of (uncomfortable looking) wooden chairs next to a small table, and being the gentleman that he was, Thorin pulled out hers, allowed her to sit and pushed her chair in.

Yep. Uncomfortable.

Thorin sat in the one across from her and opened the wrapped package with small oil stains. It was still somewhat warm.

"They're better hot, and I tried to cut the ham thin but it was a chunk of ham so…" She bit her lower lip, "um…we call this a grilled ham, egg and cheese where I'm from."

Okay so she didn't think out asking him to eat with her. Should she have brought water? But what would she have carried it in? Does he even like ham? She could have sliced some of the breast off the chicken in the stew pot and grilled it before making the sandwiches. She should have just made mayonnaise from oil and eggs and used that to fry everything instead of butter. It would have come out a better crispy brown. Maybe-

"Wednesday," Thorin said, drawing her back from worrying, "I never received your answer."

Answer? The events of Wednesday ran through her mind. Oh. Right. Shaking her head, his pins held back the hair on both sides today, just behind her ears. "It would be a terrible idea." Her eyes flashed a color he had never seen before, violet, for a single heartbeat and then it was gone. "I wouldn't fit in for one, two I don't think I have a dress nice enough to be at a royal reception full of nobles and bourgeois," Did she even have a dress nice enough to go on a date with Thorin? No. "And three, you need to be charming, kiss hands and be the gorgeous royal bachelor flirting with the single dam of this part of Middle Earth. I will just stand in the way of that."

Thorin did not bother to stop the faint curl of his lips. "Royal bachelor?"

Erdene slid one of her hands across the table, lightly brushing the tips of her fingers across the back of the knuckles of his right hand. "Personally," small cool fingers traced the faint scars of battle and work with the lightest of touches. "I prefer the handsome blacksmith with the big warm hands who saved my life." Topaz. Mahal. Her eyes were liquid brown, the color of her desire.

He turned his hand under hers, allowing her further access, to stroke calluses of his fingers, trace the lines of his palm. He watched with rapt attention as she traced the center crease backwards and forwards, before lying her palm against his.

"When I was a teenager," she whispered, wetting her lower lip with a swipe of her small pink tongue, "a friend of mine took me to see a fortune teller. Do you know what she told me?"

He waited with bated breath.

"She said I will love and be loved." Her fingers moved past his palm to his wrist, the tips of her nails raising gooseflesh along his skin. Her fingers, warmer now from touching him, move to his forearm.

Mahal, save him. Another moment and law be damned. He'll have her against the wall, legs wrapped around his waist, let the whole plaza hear her beg him to make her come on his cock. He caught her hand in his, stopping the inevitable.

For now.

There will be a day where they can continue this moment. Until then. He stroked his thumb over the tattoo on the inside of her left wrist. True. She told him the thick black strokes meant true. "The day after Durin's Day, Erdene. I cannot promise you more than that now."

Her fingers flexed in his hand. "The first day I saw you, do you remember? It was the end of summer. You didn't even look at me, but I couldn't take my eyes off you."

He remembered the soft accent of her voice. She made him laugh so unexpectedly. "Erdene…"

Topaz gone, blue eyes roamed his face with a hunger he felt on his skin. Erdene withdrew her hand from his. "I'm sorry I wasn't here yesterday. It was too wet and too cold. I'm sure you've noticed," she told him with a small shrug and a wry grimace, "I get cold easily."

He noticed. How far from her dwarrow ancestor was Erdene that the warmth of the mountains no longer flowed in her veins? Two generations? Three? He could not imagine more than that. Which side of her family did her dwarrow ancestor originate? Mother or father? The babe that came of a union between dwarrow and a daughter of man always favored the dwarrow father whether the child was male or female.

The race of men breeds quickly, and abundantly compared to his people.

"I have taken notice," he told her while taking one of the sandwiches in hand. There was still some warmth to the center and he broke it open to see the contents. Cheese, ham, and two eggs, the centers soft, yellow and creamy. "I take it sweets are not your only talent in cooking?"

Erdene hummed around a bite of her food. Blue eyes, different from his, brighter, softer, blue like the deepest snow on the mountains. "Surprise, I am not just a musician and singer, I am also a cook and a baker too. Just don't ask me to sew anything. Or needle work."

Blue is the color of her mirth.

One more time, Valis walked around the dress trying to understand how something so beautifully complicated managed to come together so easily. Almost as if her hands knew where and what and how without her thinking about it. Valis stepped back from the dress and the doll holding it up. While she remembered working on putting everything together, it hadn't felt like her hands were the ones working.

Even more so now as her eyes and mind came to a realization. Dam had very similar body shapes. Slightly more muscle or fat here or there, a little more height, a little less, but everything could be adjusted to fit.

This dress.

She turned the doll and touched its waist. Ribs and breasts. Arms. Hips. These were not the dimensions of a dam. They were simply too small. Too narrow. But they looked as if they could be that of a dam.

Mahal.

Well, Valis supposed as she stood back from one of her best designs in nearly three decades, perhaps it was meant to be. Erdene had helped design the dress. Mayhap the Valar wanted her to wear it too.

After gathering a large length of thick brown paper to wrap the dress in, Valis set about the task of gathering the dress, taking it off the doll and folding it down.

The idea that had been floating around in her mind. One which she dismissed twice already. Blue agate. Valis remembered her dream vividly. Erdene wore a dress with blue agate chips, and had been attended by a servant. Valis remembered when they were children, she and Frerin and Thorin compared their birthstones.

Frerin's was an vibrant orange-yellow citrine. Valis' was a red and green flecked jasper. Thorin's was a blue lace agate with white and gold ripples.

And when she saw Dís again yesterday, her cousin told her Thorin would need a Durin's blue shirt and back vest by Wednesday morning. Fíli seemed quite amused at the time though he said nothing. Kíli, the sweet boy that he was, said he was looking forward to never having another luncheon for the rest of his days.

Or at least until I must marry. The youngling huffed before dropping dramatically into one of the spare cushioned seats.

Why would Thorin need a dress shirt in Durin's blue and a vest if he were not going to begin courting someone?

Erdene had admitted her one, the cocky dwarrow who made her forget me not pins for her hair, asked her to wait until the day after Durins Day. Why would he ask that of her?

Perhaps, because he would have several dozen scheming dam in his home?

Dís, Valar bless her, had been so excited to meet her new sister. Fíli knew a little about her though the lad was tight lipped when it came to answering any questions. Kíli had all but whined about his brother's disregard for good gossip.

The princess had squeezed Valis' hand, You must come to the courting ceremony. You must. Balin will be there to witness. I haven't seen him in nearly a decade. He is your cousin too.

By marriage. Not by blood. It is an important distinction to consider. Stop that. Valis shook her head, finishing tying off the package with twine. The knock Valis was expecting, which had become much less hesitant and much more confident over the last few days, came right as she settled the bow. "Come."

Gwendolyn with her dirty blonde hair up in a loose bun, large tendrils falling around her face, swept into the room. "Valis," she clutched the green and gold ledger book against her chest, "if you have a moment I think…" the girl breathed out, "I think there may be a few accounting errors to fix in your ledgers. Also, I believe you're being overcharged by one of your vendors."

Trust me, okay? Erdene told her. Gwen is almost as good as I am with numbers, and she has an eye for spotting errors. What she lacks in sewing skills she makes up for in brains.

"Show me," Valis motioned to the desk she spent more than one evening at, glowering at numbers she disliked immensely. Her skill was clothing not accounting.

Erdene arrived with a number of goods from the bakery - the dwarven bakeries were much better than the human, more butter less sugar - in a paper bag. She pushed open the side door.

Valis, having read over Gwendolyn's math, was muttering aggravated profanities in Khuzdûl. "I will have his balls cut off and I will nail them to the center square. How dare he?"

Erdene's eyebrows rose, her head canting slightly toward a slightly shrunken in on herself, Gwen.

"The fur trader double charged her several times over the last few years." The girl frowned, her voice low as she inched away from Valis, "it's over a hundred and fifty gold total."

"I will gut him." Valis seethe through clenched teeth. "Seventy-nine years I have done business with his family. When his father retired he was brought around to each of us tailors for a formal introduction. His father assured me the lad would do their family proud. I-" Valis grabbed a pin cushion (without pins thankfully) and tossed it quite hard at the far wall. It hit with a smack and dropped to the floor.

Erdene made a mental note to develop stress balls tolerant of dwarrow strength. "You know what goes great with violence? Pastries." She waved the bag at Valis.

Valis eyed the bag. "If I didn't know better, I'd think you were trying to make me gain weight. You're not the only lass with a one out there."

This elicited a small laugh as the girl opened the bag and held it out to Valis. "Darlin' if he can't handle the curves, he shouldn't be trying to touch the merchandise."

Valis maintained her scowl while plucking an oat and cinnamon muffin. "I would be offended that you called me merchandise, but you have a point. Gwendolyn, when you are done, please write out your findings and supply me the duplicates. I will bring this to our king, he'll settle this nonsense."

Thorin made decisions about things like this? Well he is king, so, yeah he probably did but…it was weird hearing it from Valis. Weird hearing Valis refer to her king and knowing it was Thorin. It was just… weird.

Gwen took a sugar cookie and so did the other girls when Erdene went around and offered them a treat too. Then Valis called her into her small study once more. "Come, see the dress I've designed for Princess Dís."

There were two headless tailoring dolls in the room beside Valis' desk. One doll without a dress put off to the side against the wall, the other held up a gorgeous royal blue ball gown.

A plunging deep v neck cut the corset down the middle, with illusion panels of flesh (at least for a person with pale skin) tone material would give the hint of breasts and belly without actually showing anything risqué. Loose loops of artfully twisted blue chiffon made sleeves, with carefully placed embroidered golden crests faced front. The same crest stitched into the right breast of the bodice.

"Wow," Erdene breathed in awe, "honey, if you wanted to make sure she is the center of attention, mission accomplished."

Laughing under her breath, Valis turned the doll toward herself. "Well she will announce Thorin has met his one to a room full of hopeful social climbers." Valis then spared Erdene a decidedly careful once over. "And I assume he hasn't asked you to join the reception, or Dís would have had me to coordinate your dress with the king's clothes."

Oh. Shit. "Please don't be upset, I was going to tell you. It just…it's weird explaining to your new friend, 'Hey, I think your king is the one I'm going to be with for the rest of my life.'"

"Our king." Valid corrected.

The American in Erdene rebelled with a vengeance. It was completely irrational and entirely ridiculous reaction. Thorin is a king. She knew that back before she came to Arda. She knew that before she fell so hard for him her bruises would have bruises. But the whole raised to bow to no one thing, yeah, that shit breathed in her bone marrow.

Great-granddaddy Theodore's grandfather Michael was standing in Yorktown when the white flag went up from the British troops. The red coat he took off the back of a dead British soldier still hung on the walls of the family estate when Theodore changed the family's name to Thoroughfare. The man may have hated his father, but he was proud of their family's involvement in the American revolution.

Erdene found herself biting the inside of her cheek so hard it bled copper on her tongue. Do not insult the dynasty you are going to marry into. Do not insult your future husband's throne. This is their culture and their society. Do not insult dwarven culture or dwarven society. For fucks sake.

It took her several long seconds before Erdene firmly stated, "I wasn't born here. Where I was raised we have no monarchy, we have a democratic republic. It'll be a long, long time until I feel comfortable with the idea of a monarchy as a governing body." Even if she was slated to be queen to Thorin's king.

Which was so weird to even think? Sure she'd seen it. Seen herself waving at a large crowd of people as they were introduced to the idea of a carnival. Called 'your grace' and 'my queen' by guards and midwives. But those were her dreams of a future that could be years from now.

Right now she is simply Erdene Thoroughfare. Thorin hasn't made a move. Yet. When he did, if he did, there would be other conversations to have.

Bigger conversations.

Possibly involving explaining where she was from. Which was not a conversation that was going to be easy. Thorin might not understand and what if he got angry or upset or-

"Mahal's great hammer, Erdene have you heard a word that's come out of my mouth?" Valis asked, pulling Erdene back to reality.

"Huh? What?" Erdene blinked large amber eyes at Valis.

The dam huffed, with an irate glare. "Erdene."

"What? Sorry, my brain." She hadn't used that excuse since she was on Earth. Judith used to shake her head and tell her wool gathering was a shepherd's job.

Valis simply canted her head to the left, acorn color eyes clearly, thoroughly confused.

Groaning, "It…I…" Did they even have people with anxiety here? ?"I get lost in the mire of my own thoughts because I have so much going on in there." Erdene said finally, choosing the explanation that wouldn't require a number of other explanations on top of it.

How does someone say I over think due to emotional and mental abuse as a kid? Would dwarves even understand the concept of child abuse?

No. They probably wouldn't. They valued their children.

Valis gave her a skeptical once over, "Aye. I can see that." Valis walked to one table and picked up a decently sized brown package. "Your courting dress," Valis brought the package back to Erdene, handing it to her.

What would her life have been like if she'd grown up here? A dam amongst people that looked like her? Would she be like Valis? Like Zarin? Like Thorin's sister?

And Valis was staring at her like she hadn't been listening. "Sorry, sorry, I'm paying attention." She hugged the package. "Thank you Valis."

Valis' dreams now made sense. How could she be friends with the Queen Under The Mountain? Because they were friends before the girl wore a crown. How could Erdene be greeting travelers arriving to find Erebor restored? Because the girl was Thorin's queen.

How the Valar moved in mysterious ways.

MUAH! I love you all. Welcome to the story.

Slow burn ends in about two chapters from now.