The Three Women Of Durin

Falling For You

Frankie walked with uncertainty as horrid noises rung through the stone buildings, washing over and over her like waves of warning. As the sounds bore on she moved with more pace, the muscles around her lower thighs clenching in a way that had become familiar over the past few months. She had run into Bofur a while back who had been the one to tell her where Thorin was, unfortunately, she may or may not have gotten a little lost whilst trying to find him.

Everything looked the same, but maybe that was because she was going around and around in circles, a dizzying roller-coaster that she couldn't stand for much longer. Huffing in frustration, Frankie leaned against a stone wall, something wet dripping from her forehead onto her cheek. The sounds washed over her once more, a gargle of crooning cries and the sickening ticking of metal on metal, she was running out of time. Then, an idea dawned on her. Follow the noise.

Slowly, Frankie peeled herself from the wall, now taking time with her steps, carefully listening to the music of battle and following where it led. She was closer than she thought. Haste swelled within in her legs and she found a rhythm in her steps, the drum of armour colliding with armour beating through her body. Turn left, right and right again. Move, move, move.

She swerved and swayed until the harmony of hostility was beating there right in front of her. A building that was dripping with something murky, it breathed an opaque gloom and warning signs were painted in blood at the entrance. They were telling her to turn away and run, run fast and run far. But no, she couldn't, not now, not after everything she had been through. Frankie took a deep breath and stepped forward. However, she didn't get very far as a figure collapsed its way down the steps and out through the entrance laying before her, a puddle of soggy breaths. Frankie armed herself.

"Thorin?" Frankie asked as the familiar grey fur moved with it's heavy, familiar breaths.

"Oh...Frankie..." Thorin said, both glad and sad to see her.

"Are you...are you running away?" Frankie asked, trying to see Thorin's face from where he was hunched over.

"No," Thorin said sternly, "No..." He repeated, trailing off with a note of uncertainty in his voice, "Cece told me to leave, and I think it is wise not to question her judgement...I mean...after everything we've been through," He said, standing up straight and wincing slightly as a brutal scream whipped around them.

"Oh..." Frankie trailed off, "Wait - Cece's up there!" Frankie cried, trying to see past Thorin to the entrance, grasping onto the tiny note of hope within her that she would see a familiar blonde bush.

"Frankie...it's okay, it's under control," Thorin said softly, he seemed to be reassuring himself more than her. "Anyways, before I left I saw another orc army heading our way, we need to gather the others and get to the sea of ice. We have Azog here, we have him cornered, we need to keep it that way," Thorin said sternly, climbing a nearby rock and looking out over the rocky expanse. He probably knew these walls better than anyone.

"Okay," Frankie said, defeated. She glanced once more up at the tall structure, the knowledge that her friends were up there fighting echoed throughout her. This wasn't right. She swayed slightly as she looked up, her mind racing away, searching desperately for a sign of comfort. But she came crashing back to reality when she saw a sign of comfort looking right back at her. "Is that Bilbo?"

The familiar face of a tired looking hobbit was staring right back at her, seemingly just as alarmed to see her as she was him. Frankie turned to Thorin slightly, her eyes never leaving the hobbit. She was just about to open her mouth once more when he disappeared.

"Did you see that?" Thorin asked, his eyes too fixed on the point where Bilbo's brown tufts used to be.

"Yes," Frankie muttered back.