Daughter of Beorn: The Hobbit Fanfiction

The Plague

"I have a question." Bofur said as he stepped over a rock, reaching his hand back for me to take. It was a gentlemanly action which I certainly wasn't accustomed to. "Why is it that there seem to be two types of women? The first type, may I say, appears to be completely dependent on a man's help. I can imagine her to be the one to weave flowers in her hair, and smell of lavender. And then there are women like you."

I lifted an eyebrow at his words, my lips twitching into a smirk as Oin and Fili chuckled. "I think you should be a bit clearer in your speech- is that a compliment or an insult?"

He opened his mouth to respond, but laughed instead when I stepped over the rock without his help, teasingly smacking his hand away. "Neither, really! More like a statement. Women like you, as I've noticed throughout this death-filled journey of ours, never seek help from anyone. If a scribe was going to define the word 'independent' in a book, he'd have better luck employing a painter to depict your face on the page."

Nobody could hold back a laugh at that as I smiled, shaking my head. I briefly glanced back at our boat, which had been left on the shore. "No one is born independent, Bofur." I replied. "I quickly learned growing up that the only person you can trust is yourself- and even then, things are indefinite."

"That's a gloomy perspective." Fili replied. "Are you not willing to let that change?"

My expression softened as I cracked a smile in his direction, continuing to navigate through the rubble that had been left by Smaug's outburst. "Perhaps. Until now I've never met a person worthy of being trusted, and who I felt genuinely at peace around." The dwarf's cheeks flushed slightly as he bowed his head. I chuckled at his actions before looking up at the scenery before me, and all traces of the previous happy words faded. "Speaking of gloomy...."

In person, the destruction appeared even worse than any of us had pictured. Upon observation it was clear where Smaug had burst through the doors and flown ultimately to his doom. Oin bent down with a groan and stroked a chipping, yellow substance off a large rock. "Gold?" Kili asked. Oin nodded before hesitantly moving forward with hesitance in his expression. Balin fondly stroked the face of a fallen dwarf statue as I kicked a small piece of flaming rubble to the side. In truth I had never really had a home that meant this much to me before- pardoning my childhood with Radagast, of course. Nevertheless, I was aware of the feeling of loss, and could therefore empathize with the dwarves. Only one question remained... where were the others?

Having seen enough of the destruction outside, we all decided to head into the mountain to make sure our comrades were safe and sound. Not a minute after we started exploring the corridors did we hear a voice. "Wait! Wait!" My eyes widened as Bilbo ran up to us before having to pause as a means of catching his breath.

"It's Bilbo! He's alive!" Oin said with glee. To his perplexity the hobbit shook his head with a seemingly frightened gleam in his eyes.

"Stop- stop- stop! Listen to me, please- you need to leave. We all need to leave."

Fili and I exchanged glances as Bofur lifted an eyebrow. "But we only just got here!" He said.

"I've tried talking to him, but he just won't listen-"

"What do you mean, laddie?"

"Thorin!" Bilbo exclaimed, so loudly that his voice echoed down the hall and throughout the rest of the mountain. He shakily ran a hand through his copper-colored curls before releasing a sigh. "Thorin... it's Thorin. He's been out there for days. He doesn't sleep. He barely eats. He's not been himself- not at all. It's this- it's this place. I think a sickness lies on it." My eyebrows furrowed at the hobbit's words, but I couldn't help but notice as Fili caught sight of something and began to follow it. Before I had the chance to ask what was going on, Bilbo headed after the dwarf. "Fili- Fili!"