The Story of Us (Fili/The Hobbit)

4. The Quest Begins

"Has anyone told you the names of our whole company?" He asked me.

"I learned the names of a few, but everyone else is still unknown to me."

Then Fili went on, naming all the dwarves, pointing at them at the same time so I could keep up. "That's Dori, Nori, Ori, Dwalin, Balin, Oin, Gloin, Bifur, Bofur, and Bombur." He confirmed to me. I thanked him for telling me their names, it was really helpful.

Soon after, I heard voices of dwarves whispering behind us from within the company.

"How long do you think it'll take them?" Bofur asked.

"They seem to have a lot of things in common." Dori said.

"You should have seen the look on my brother's face when she first walked in. I've never seen him look at someone like that before!" Kili exclaimed.

"I'd give it a day, to be honest." Nori predicted.

"I'd say three days." Bofur said.

"No way! My brother is quite shy, it would be at least a week.

"So is it a bet?" Dori guessed.

"It is." Kili replied.

Are they seriously betting on when Fili and I would get together? Who even said anything about us getting together? Nosy dwarves can't keep their noses out of anything!

"No, wait, stop! We have to turn around!" Bilbo shouted, interrupting my thoughts. "I forgot my handkerchief!"

I rummaged through my bag and pulled out a clean, white handkerchief.

"Here you go, Bilbo." I said as I handed it to him.
"Thank you, Eleanor." I nodded to him.

After what seemed like forty five minutes, the skies grew heavy and gray. It began to rain. Oh how I hated the rain! I pulled up the hood of my cloak over my head before I got any more wet.

We kept on riding for two more hours before Thorin decided to stop and make camp to rest for the night. I dismounted Marco and tied him to a tree, next to Dwalin's pony. We found a fairly dry place, the edge of a high cliff, overlooked by the white moon in the black night sky. I placed my bag near a large rock before taking off my soaked cloak.

"Gloin, get a fire going. Bombur, make a start on supper." Thorin ordered. Gloin left to collect some wood while
Bombur began to prepare food.

When Gloin came back and started the fire, I sat down, my back against a stone wall with my knees up to my chest huddled up to keep warm. I was sat in between Kili and Fili, the other dwarves fell asleep right after they ate. Only Thorin, Bilbo, Gandalf and Balin were awake. After a while, we all heard a faint sound in the distance. It sounded like a mixture of wargs and orcs.

"What-.. What was that?" Bilbo asked, very much afraid of what he heard.

"Orcs." Kili answered.

"Throat-cutters. They'll be plenty of them out there. The low lands are full of them." Fili continued.

"They strike at night. Quick and quiet, no screams. Just lots of blood." Kili said very seriously. Bilbo looked so scared.

I turned my attention back to the brothers, them chuckling at his expression. I roll my eyes at their immaturity.

"You think that's funny? You think a night raid by orcs is a joke?" Thorin said angrily.

"We didn't mean anything by it." Kili apologized.

"No, you didn't. You know nothing of the world." Thorin said as he walked away to the cliff side of camp.

"Don't worry, lads. Thorin has more cause than most to hate orcs." Balin said to them and soon after went into the story about the pale orc and the battle that happened in Moria.

"But the pale orc... What happened to him?" Bilbo asked.

"He slunk back into his hole whence he came. That filth died of his wounds long ago." Thorin answered.

I looked at Gandalf with wide eyes. He's not dead. The Pale Orc is not dead. I said to myself. Gandalf knew of what I was thinking and gave me a look as if not to say anything. I would know if Azog the Defiler is alive or not. We have a terrible past. One that I do not like speaking of very much.

"Are you okay?" Fili put his hand on mine and looked into my eyes, seeing that something was bothering me greatly.
"Y-yes, I'm fine." I said, trying to crack a smile but failed.

"Are you sure?" He asked me once more. I simply nodded.

"We should rest now if we are going to be leaving first thing in the morning." Thorin announced to all of us. We all agreed. I grabbed my bag and used it as a pillow. Then I took my now dry cloak and used it as a blanket. I got comfortable as I laid in the middle of Fili and Kili.

"Goodnight El." Fili whispered.

"Night Fili." I said back to him.