Extra Company

Chapter 15

Everyone agreed as we separated into pairs, Gandalf stayed at the campsite to wait for Saharia to return, while I was stuck with Thorin. Which I didn't mind, we were now on better terms than when we started out with, I would even dare consider us friends.

I scanned across the brush, looking for anything edible as Thorin looked up into the trees. It was silent between us, a comfortable silence, but silence nonetheless. "What do you know about Saharia?" Thorin asked all of a sudden.

I whirled my head around to look at him, to see he was now looking down at me with his arms crossed. I blinked up at him confused, "I beg your pardon?"

"You and Saharia have been close since the start of the journey. What do you know about her?" Thorin questioned once more, his stance relaxing as he spoke, going back to look up in the trees.

I sniffled lightly as I slipped into thought, not knowing what I was really allowed to say or not to say. "Well ... why don't you ask Fili and Kili? They hang out with her almost as much as I do. Or have you asked Gandalf, he's known her longer." I say, hoping for him to ask them rather than me. Saharia entrusted me with her secret, I really don't want to break her trust.

"I've already asked them, they don't really know much besides her personality and her book." Thorin put in, picking an orange from a tree, throwing it up in the air before catching as he turned his head towards me. "As for Gandalf ... he won't say much anyway."

I shrug, he was right about that. Gandalf would probably say something riddle-like, telling Thorin that he should ask her himself or that she's ... something. "Ok, what would you like to know?" I ask, eyeing a bush out of the corner of my eye with blueberries on it. Saharia loves blueberries, according to her anyway, I've never seen her eat them.

"Anything that desires importance." Thorin answered, as he picked a few more oranges from the tree.

I let out a long sigh as I started picking the blueberries, "Well ... um, her favorite color is coral, she also loves snacking on blueberries." I say, unsure of what he wants to hear.

He lets out a hum, "At least it's something I don't know."

I then straighten up after slipping a few blueberries into my pocket, seeming to think for a moment. "She's different from us." I start out, "In what she sees as home anyway."

Thorin looks over at me with interest sparkling in his eyes, "What do you mean?"

"She sees home as two different things. One is where you live, a place you go to after a hard day's work, a building I guess I should say. The other is the people that are around you often, like family and friends, the people that make you feel at home." I say, keeping my eyes on the berry bush before looking over at Thorin, who was looking at me in shock. "She asked me which one I missed in Rivendell." I spoke, looking back over at the bush. "I ... didn't really know what to say, so I said it was a bit of both. When I asked her... " I trailed off looking over at Thorin who was looking at me with interest. "She said she never missed the first option, but she misses the second option everyday, that she had others help her feel that way but the gap will forever be there."

"She lost her family." Thorin spoke after a small moment of silence, looking down towards the ground sadly. "But ... how?"

I begin to feel slightly nervous, unsure if I was allowed to say this or not. But ... we got this far, there is no harm in telling him. "A dragon." I answered, causing Thorin to look up at me in shock, his blue eyes wide.

Saharia's POV

I walked up to where two large trees grew, two smaller trees on either side of the larger ones. I went down onto the ground, criss crossing my legs as I placed my hands on my knees. "Hello mother, hello father." I spoke, nodding to the two large trees. "Brother, sister." I say, nodding to the two small trees.