The next day Cheyenne woke up with a mild headache, which was a gift from the Valar given how much alcohol she had consumed the night before. She rolled over and groaned as the sunlight filled the room from a window that she hadn't noticed last night. She didn't have a bed roll so the stone floor she lay on was cool and smooth which felt wonderful against her warm skin. While her eyes stung from the blinding light, she forced them open enough to see that she was the last of the company to wake. The dwarves along with Bilbo and Gandalf were no where to be see, getting breakfast I suppose. She stumbled as she got up but brushed off her dress which much to her joy was not wrinkled even though she had rolled around in it while she slept. Her head began to throb a little as she tried to remember what had happened the previous night. No matter how hard she tried however she could not recollect exactly what happened after her 4 pint of ale. Ale, the thought made a little bile rise in her throat.
One thing she very much did remember was punching the Prince to be and Thorin's treasured nephew, Kili. She cringed, there was no doubt Thorin was going to kill her or at the very least banish her from the company. This made her want to go hide and definitely not go find the company, her stomach was feeling particularly uneasy now but she knew there was no point in avoiding the inevitable. She made her way down the hall which was open adorned with more pillars and arches that were intricately designed and spectacular. Cheyenne took a moment to run her hand along one it was smooth and cool almost like marble but she wasn't sure if that was even found here. Since the hallway was open to the outside a warm breeze that smelled of lilac and spring water filled her nose and lungs creating a peaceful aura around her. She could hear the clamoring of chairs and the muffled voices with harsh undertones that Cheyenne knew belonged to the dwarves. She tried to comb her hands through her hair determined to keep it looking decent for as long as she could. She made her way almost to the end of the hallway where the dwarves were eating in the courtyard.
She entered slowly ready for Thorin to begin yelling at her at any moment but they didn't seem to even notice her entrance. "Good morning Master Dwarves and Bilbo of course" she smiled largely at him which made him blush but smile back.
"Good morning lass" Bofur grinned at her with a mouth full of sausage and eggs.
The rest of the dwarves smiled at her except for Thorin of course but then again he never smiled so she didn't take offence to it. She looked over at Fili and Kili who always had a seat for her between them, they were eating so she plopped down in between them. The wooden table they were sitting around had an assortment of different foods from sausage to egg and a few foreign meats that she couldn't quite identify. An Elven maiden presented her with a plate and Cheyenne glanced around to see if anything tickled her fancy. Since she had been there for a few minutes and Thorin had not tried to feed her to wargs she assumed no one had told him that she had struck Kili last night.
"You seem rather cheerful this morning as opposed to last night, seeing as where you're sitting I presume you have forgiven us?" Kili's voice was muffled as he stuffed eggs into his mouth with haste.
"Well considering I don't remember anything after my 4th ale last night I am rather chipper than what would be expected." Cheyenne could see Thorin raise an eyebrow "but I guess I forgive you both as long as you never do anything like that again."
"So you don't remember anything?" Kili asked suddenly very curious and more than a little queer about it.
Cheyenne gave him a questioning look "that's what I said, why is there something that I should remember?"
Kili took a sip of his drink and grinned slightly "who knows" he practically giggled, this did not make Cheyenne feel any better it just made her anxious.
She spotted some scrumptious looking sausages on the other side of Fili, "would you mind passing me the sausage please Master Dwarf?" she tried changing the subject.
He simply ignored her but she decided that he had merely not heard her so she asked him again and he ignored her. "Get it yourself" he said in a rough and rather unpleasant voice which Cheyenne had not known he could muster.
Cheyenne seemed rather astonished and wanted to retort but was more than a little hurt by his harshness and thought better than to yell in front of Thorin. "What's got your wand in a knot?" she murmured feeling like Hermione Granger the quote seemed more than appropriate.
Fili looked rather confused at her statement but tried to hide it in order to keep a strict face, "you, your what's got my wand" he paused "in a knot as you say."
Cheyenne's face became red and she couldn't help but think of how cute he was using a phrase from Harry Potter even though he seemed to be mad at her and had no idea what she was talking about. "What did I do?" she asked her voice a little more high pitched than normal, she looked around but the others avoided her look clearly not wanting to get involved.
Fili didn't look at her but took a swig of his drink, some of the liquid getting caught in his blonde mustache and beard. "Doesn't matter" he grumbled taking another swig of his drink, regardless of fact he was angry at her which practically broke her heart she couldn't get over how cute she found him.
"Well it matters to me" she raised her voice a little and saw that Thorin seemed more than a little irritated by the present conversation. "Let's go talk in private please" she asked him as politely as she could manage, she had never liked to be ignored or kept out of the loop.
Fili hesitated for a moment, "fine" he said finally and stood up heading toward one of the many gardens that Rivendell possessed. Cheyenne followed the blonde dwarf whose stride rivalled that of a lion down a path lined with flowers of a variety of types that she had never seen before. He kept going till the path ended at the most breathtaking waterfall Cheyenne had ever seen, the mist sprayed the pair with a glimmer.
"When I said private I didn't think you would take me somewhere so faraway and magical"
Fili turned around to face her his face stern "you said you wanted to talk in private, there is no one around" his voice seemed unimpressed.
"Yeah I did, so what is going on with you today?" she crossed her arms "I told you I forgive you and Kili for...the incident" her face got red.
"I don't need your forgiveness, I need you to leave the company alone"
The words felt like an arrow through the chest "what do you mean?" her voice cracked "I thought we were friends?"
"We are on a quest a very dangerous one and there is no place for distractions, that is a easy way to get everyone killed."
"Destruction? How am I a distraction?" Cheyenne's face screwed itself up and she was becoming defensive, "are talking about the fact I'm a girl?"
"Yes" he didn't even give a further explanation which irritated Cheyenne to no end.
How dare he say me being a girl will get them killed, I'm trying to save his ass. "So you can't control your own libedo and suddenly I'm going to get everyone killed!" she was livid and ran her hands down her face trying to calm herself before she did something she was going to regret.
"That has nothing to do with it, you are going to endanger yourself and put us all at risk!" his voice was raised. "Being so friendly with certain members of this company" he made sure to put emphasis on the the word friendly. "Will distract them from the task at hand and could get them killed if you get yourself into danger" he paused "which I have no doubt that you will."
"I can take care of myself thank you very much and I don't need anyone to save me! If I can't save myself then I will die end of story, I know this!" She took a breath and seemed to have calmed herself but then started speaking in a raised voice again "and what the FUCK do you mean I am too friendly with certain members of the company!"
Cheyenne could swear she could see red creep up his face from under his mustache and beard. "I would suggest not raising your voice or using such language in front of me, people would be punished severely or killed for speaking that way to the Prince of Erebor."
Cheyenne's face was even more flushed than before and there was a tightness in her chest that seemed to be growing. "I see" her voice was shaky "I never knew you cared so much about being a Prince" she sniffed and turned to walk away. She made it a few paces before whirling around to face him again "labo vi Orodruin" she spat before stomping away. Fili stood there dumbstruck for a moment he didn't know she knew Khuzdul let alone such a phrase. As she walked back up the path she noticed Fili did not follow her but stayed behind staring at the waterfall deep in thought. She made it halfway back up the path when a certain dark haired dwarf came sprinting down the path, "what do you want Kili?" she wasn't in a good mood.
"We could hear you yell 'labo vi Orodruin' and I thought I should come make sure you hadn't murdered my dear brother. Plus it isn't very nice to tell someone to go jump into Mount Doom especially in their own language." He slung an arm over her shoulder and looked at Fili who was still deep in thought, he seemed to make sure that she hadn't physically harmed him.
"Relax he is safe for now" she shrugged off his arm "I don't understand what he is so mad about, he said i was getting too friendly with certain company members. Can you believe that? he didn't even tell me who."
Kili's face looked guilty "yeah that maybe about us kissing last night."
"WHAT!"
"Relax you told me your deep dark secret and we kissed as part of a promise keeping ceremony, trust me it wasn't anything like the kiss you gave my brother."
Cheyenne eyed him suspiciously and suddenly felt a wave a panic flood her, what exactly had she told him. "When you mean I told you my deep dark secret, what did I say?" she crossed her arms.
Kili could see how tense she became and the look of worry on her face despite trying to hide it. "Relax, you only told me that the Valar sent you here to change the ending of our story, however you did not tell me how it originally ended."
Cheyenne exhaled the breath she had been holding, she was proud she at least had enough sense to not tell him that part. "Okay" she went back to the original topic "let me get this straight he is acting like this because he saw us kiss?"
"Appears so"
Cheyenne inhaled and nodded looking around for a moment clearly upset before stomping back off in Fili's direction. Before he knew what was happening Fili felt a hand on his arm and turned around to find a pale hand slap his cheek, hard. He put a hand to his cheek which stung but before he could respond Cheyenne fired, "HOW DARE YOU!" Fili was completely stunned that she struck him "YOU TREAT ME LIKE FILTH AND QUESTION MY HONOUR ALL BECAUSE I KISSED KILI!"
"You slapped me?!"
"And I'll do it again if you're not careful" she took a sharp breath "you know I thought you were better than petty jealousy, if you had feelings for me you could have just told me instead of blowing something out of proportion."
"Jealous?" he snorted "don't be stupid, why would I want you?" Cheyenne noticed his once bright warm eyes were now dark and cold.
"That's not what you acted like yesterday" she growled.
He ignored the statement "I don't care who you..." he paused thinking of the right word "court" another pause "but I do care if it affects this quest. I will not have your promiscuity get in our way of reclaiming our birth right" that was definitely the wrong thing to say.
Blind rage engulfed Cheyenne "YOU'RE ACCUSING ME OF BEING PROMISCUOUS?!" after a yell like that Kili took off running toward the two of them. Fili actually jumped and even birds flew away from nearby trees, her voice echoed through the hillside.
Luckily Kili was a fast runner because he made it to the pair right as the blade of Cheyenne's sword pressed against Fili's neck. "Okay just everyone calm down and don't do anything rash" he shot Cheyenne a look as she tightened her grip on her sword which was ever so slightly pressed against Fili's flesh.
Cheyenne looked at Fili with angry eyes but noticed even though his face seemed unmoved his eyes flicked with something, she couldn't tell if it was fear or something else. Suddenly she felt a flood of emotion overcame her and her hand began to shake until she dropped the sword and it hit the stone pathway with a clank. Tears started streaking her cheeks, she was so hurt and angry she probably ruined her chances of saving the people she wanted to save the most. "I'm sorry" her voice shook, but the blonde haired dwarf never said a word just looked at his brother and walked back up the path.
Kili looked at her sympathetically "don't worry about him, he will come around he is just upset." Cheyenne was very surprised he wasn't taking his brother's side, from the book and movies she always assumed they agreed.
It was that moment though that Cheyenne looked up at the House of Elrond and saw Saruman, "for Hades sake!" she exclaimed.
"Who?" Kili was looking at her confused.
Cheyenne immediately began panicking "nevermind we need to move now!"
"Why?"
"Because right now a group of very powerful people including Gandalf and Lord Elrond are meeting to decide the fate of this quest. Trust me when I say they will keep you from leaving given the chance, Lindir is going to check on the dwarves right now." She noticed him walking down from the council and down the hall toward the dwarves. She took off running up the path and much to her surprise her lungs seemed fine for once in her life but she had more important things to worry about now.
She ran right into the middle of the room where the dwarves were sitting and the all reached for their weapons before realizing it was her. "What is the meaning of this?" Thorin bellowed.
"You must leave now or you will not be able too. The Council will keep you from completing your quest if you don't leave right his second."
They jumped up and looked to Thorin who looked at Cheyenne suspiciously before saying "everyone go now!"
"I will buy you some time and distract Lindir" she told Kili before getting ready to run off.
Kili grabbed her arm and stopped her "if we are leaving now then how do you plan to distract him but still come with us?"
"Go" Cheyenne gave him a soft look and darted off, that's when Kili realized that Cheyenne wasn't coming with them.
Cheyenne tried not to cry, she wasn't sure what she was going to after this but she knew she had to buy them some time. It took more than she thought to distract Lindir she had to ask him a million questions about Lord Elrond to distract him. Needless to say once the Elves figure out what happened they were not at all happy, the next challenge Cheyenne had to face was how to find the dwarves.