Tear Me Apart- A Middle Earth Story

Peculiar Creatures

The following day, the rain was pouring. The whole company was grumpy and soaked to the skin, but they had nowhere to stay and take shelter. The rain made Abigail's white blouse stick to her skin, and she was aware that it made her womanly figure stand out quite much. She had no jacket nearby, and she didn't want to stop the others only to put on a coat, so she hoped that the others wouldn't notice and kept going. She did notice Fíli and Kíli looking at her, but she only stared at them back.
"Hey, Bofur, you like to sing, right?" Abbie throttled up to the happiest dwarf with her pony, and he glanced at her with surprise. He eyed her suspiciously before answering.
"Of course, laddie. You know, I was a performer at the Blue Mountains before I decided to come on this journey." He shrugged with a proud smile.
"Can you teach me some dwarven songs?" Abbie asked him with wide eyes, but then she blushed. "I've run out of hobbit songs to sing." She leaned towards the dwarf with the funny hat and whispered. She didn't want the others to know that she was bored with her own songs.
"'Course, laddie! Let me teach you my favorite one." He chuckled, before opening his mouth and starting to sing. "There's an inn, there's an inn, there's a merry old inn beneath an old grey hill!" Abbie's heart jumped with glee, but she was soon disappointed when the rest of the dwarves started to sing. They only grumbled mean words at her when she sang, but when Bofur sang, they sang with him?! How rude! At least Thorin wasn't singing. Abbie doubted he ever did something for fun, that one. Always muttering and always brooding. She was afraid she was going to get mad if she had to spend weeks with him on the road.

That night, they stopped at an old ruined farmhouse.

"We'll camp here for the night. Fíli, Kíli, Abigail, look after the ponies. Make sure you stay with them." Thorin demanded, and Abigail nodded as she jumped off her pony. As she went to tie it up with the other ponies, she heard Gandalf mutter to himself. He spoke of some farmer that used to live there. Abbie wondered what had happened to them.

"I think it would be wiser to move on. We could make for the Hidden Valley." She heard Gandalf tell Thorin suspiciously. She had never heard of the Hidden Valley, but she didn't want to go there. She hadn't had time to prove herself to Thorin yet.

"I have told you already, I will not go near that place." The dwarf prince answered with bitterness, and Abbie felt relief. If he said they would stay here, they certainly would.

"Why not? The elves could help us. We could get food, rest, advice." Gandalf said with a tinge of irritation audible in his voice. Thorin gave Gandalf a glare, which the wizard obviously tried hard not to return.

"Hey Abbie, stop staring and go to work!" Fíli ordered with a laugh, and Abbie returned to her pony. She still kept an ear open, listening to the conversation between the wizard and the dwarf.

"We have a map that we cannot read. Lord Elrond could help us." Gandalf argued. He was obviously having a hard time convincing the dwarf.

"Help? A dragon attacks Erebor, what help came from the Elves? Orcs plunder Moria, desecrate our sacred halls, the Elves looked on and did nothing. You ask me to seek out the very people who betrayed my grandfather and betrayed my father." Thorin growled desperately, and Abigail finally understood why Fíli and Kíli had warned her not to talk about elves around him.

"You are neither of them. I did not give you that map and key for you to hold on to the past." Gandalf answered, frustrated. Abbie saw that he was on the verge of exploding with anger, and looked away.

"I did not know that they were yours to keep." The dwarf replied stubbornly, crossing his arms. Gandalf stormed off, muttering words that didn't sound very nice. Thorin met Abbie's eyes and she quickly looked away, not wanting to upset him further. She went back to grooming the horses.