Return to the Blue Mountains

Chapter Two

 Chapter Two

In the entrance to the mountain Rori found Thorin and 4 ponies waiting for her. Two ponies were saddled and ready to be ridden and the other two had been kitted out with their belongings. Her bags were quickly secured to a pony and she and Thorin rode out of the mountain, each leading a pack pony.

To her surprise, the path leading down and away from the Lonely Mountain was lined with dwarves, waving and wishing them (well mainly Thorin) well in their quest. Rori hung her head so that her lack of beard would be harder to spot, though she still imagined everyone staring at her.

She was surprised when someone stepped forward from the crowd and placed a hand upon her pony's bridle, halting her progress. She looked up, afraid of what she might see.

“I'm sorry for your father, my darling.” Her mother, Rei said. “Good luck and may fortune favour you.”

Rori was too shocked to speak and her mother, as discretely as she could, handed her a bag. Rori reached down and kissed her mothers cheek.

“Be safe,” Rei told her daughter.

“I will, and...” she didn't know how to finish that. She wanted her mother to stand up to father but now wasn't the time for that conversation. “Be well,” she settled for, hoping that her mother would infer her true meaning, for this was not the first time she had voiced such thoughts to her mother.

Rei smiled and stepped away, freeing the pony up to continue.

Rori swung the bag over her head and under one arm then broke into a trot to catch Thorin up. He had paused at the end of the crowds to wait for her and as soon as she had caught up, they began their journey.

“I'm sorry,” Rori apologised. “I-”

“You need not worry,” he cut her off. “We will be gone for quite a few weeks at best, a few minutes at the beginning will cost us nothing.”

“Thank you.”

They rode in silence for a while until Rori could keep her thoughts to herself no longer.

“I went to see my father this morning.”

“Oh?”

“Yes... Was it you who removed his beard?”

“It was my order, yes.”

Rori didn't know how she felt about that, which Thorin guessed from her silence.

“Removing a beard is the worst shame a dwarf can endure; if he will mete out such a punishment for so little an offence, I thought he should know how it feels.”

“You logic makes sense,” she said. “Though I hate to see him like that because of me.”

“It was not because of you,” Thorin assured her. “He chose to do that to you, so he has no one but himself to blame for the consequences of that act.”

When she didn't reply, Thorin broached a subject he had been meaning to discuss for some time now but had been avoiding.

“You are also entitled to financial compensation for the needless shame that you have endured.”

“No,” Rori answered immediately. “I don't... no.”

“Are you worried that will leave your mother in financial hardship?”

“I suppose it would but the truth is, I want nothing from my father. When I left his house it was the happiest day of my life and I have been proud of my independence ever since. To take his money would cancel that out.”