A Willing Heart

Twenty-One

When they had left Erebor, they had had nothing, Arna told Lady Mani and I.  They only had the clothes upon their backs, their hair and beards singed by dragon fire, and hollowed eyes that  had seen too much death and loss in so little time.  No help had come for them then, but they persevered, for that's what dwarves do.

They picked up whatever they could find along the base of the mountain - wagons, animals, and whatever they could take with them as they began their long exile south.  While many traveled to the Iron Hills, the rest of them, all loyal to the line of Durin, persevered with the king.  But even that number, she said, was rapidly decreasing for already dwarves traveling south had grown much fewer overnight.  Some had even found steady work and lodgings in Fennhill, a town that was willing to take dwarves in.  While others had returned to Greenbanu where with its new master, Bernd, there were many opportunities to be had.

As Lady Mani took over the task of watching over the children again, I asked Arna to teach me all about what food supplies there were, and what to expect on the journey south.  They'd all had to learn as they went along the journey, she said.  For dwarf-women hardly ever left their mountain halls, if at all.

"These are times of great need," she said.  "And we don't have a choice.  Hence we travel because we need to, not because we want to.  And the dwarf-men are loathe to have other men look upon their dwarf-women like they do now.  That's why tomorrow, child, you dress just like a dwarf-man.  Thorin will not take kindly to anyone looking upon you the way some of the people here in Fennhill already do."

"But they don't look at me like that," I protested.

"That's because you have lived among men for as long as you can remember. You are used to it and you hardly notice it.  But Thorin does."

I turned to look at the people around us.  Were they really watching us, I wondered, seeing the men and women who now looked away from us as we turned our attention to them? Had they been observing us the entire time and I never noticed, having spent too much of my life living among them?

I wondered if they ever thought of what would become of us the moment we left the gates of Fennhill.  Did they wonder what would become of us beyond the walls, or did they simply forget about us the moment the dust settled from beneath our feet?

Just then, I saw Thorin, Dwalin and Frerin walking towards us from the direction of the forge, laughing at some joke between them.  Somehow they had finished their work early and the sight of three young dwarf-men walking along the town made me smile.  The corners of his eyes crinkled as he laughed, and I stood up from where I'd been sitting with Arna who had been counting the blocks of cheese that we had just put into the wagon.

The marketplace stood between them and the inn and as I watched, my heart beating wildly inside my chest, Master Renner appeared next to them.  He'd been coming from the opposite direction and had called Thorin by name to catch his attention.

Thorin's face darkened at something the master of Fennhill told him, as did Dwalin's.  I watched as Thorin said something to Frerin, prompting Frerin to head towards the inn where Lady Mani met him with a kiss, the nephews forgotten as they now pulled on my skirts.

As Frerin and Lady Mani headed towards the inn, Arna pulled my arm.  "Best to come inside, child.  It appears that Thorin and Dwalin have business to discuss with Master Renner."

I let Arna pull me into the inn, but not before turning to look at Thorin again and this time, he was listening intently to something Master Renner was saying.  What could the master of Fennhill possibly want to tell him, I wondered as Arna shut the main door behind me and led me and the nephews to the hallway leading to our rooms.  It was time for the boys' nap anyway, she said as she disappeared inside the room just across from me, beckoning for me to follow.