My Heart, My Mountain, My King {Thorin Oakenshield Fanfic}

Chapter 5 - The Shire

"Dammit, Thorin," I cursed. "I've told you ten times already. This is not the way to the Shire!"

"I know where I'm going," Thorin rasped.

"Have you ever even been to the Shire before?"

He didn't reply.

"You haven't even been to the Shire before," I confirmed. "I'm telling you, Thorin. We cannot get to the Shire through this particular trail!"

"Then take out the bloody map," he whispered, clearly annoyed. He brought the pony to a halt and I hopped off. I fished the map out of one of the sacks and opened it.

"I was right! I exclaimed. "We have to take The Great East Trail."

He growled as he ripped the map from my grasp and examined it for himself. He pursed his lips as he slowly looked back up at me. I crossed my arms, a gesture saying, 'I told you so.'

"Fine," he growled. "We will take The Great East Trail. But if that's wrong, you will never hear the end of it."

I rolled my eyes as I jumped back onto the pony. We ventured to The Great East Trail and traveled on it for the rest of the day. Night crept upon the hills. Shadows grew, and crickets sang.

We trotted through the woods until we made it out into a clearing. Down below the hill we were on, and across a pond, I saw it.

"The Shire," I breathed. It reminded me of my village before it was destroyed.

We tied the pony to a tree in an area where we found several other ponies.

"We're late," Thorin said. "Everybody else is already here."

"Oh well," I sighed. "We're here now."

We walked on a path that led us through the Shire. The two of us searched for a special mark on the doors.

"What do you think this mark looks like?" I asked.

"I have no idea," Thorin replied.

We followed the trail up a hill. We were passing a house when out of the corner of my eye, I saw something glowing on someone's door.

"Thorin," I said, tapping his arm.

"What is it?" he replied sternly.

"Look, there's a blue mark on that door. I think that's the house we're looking for."

He shifted his gaze to the door of the house.

"Then what are we waiting for?"

He opened the gate and walked up the path to the door. I caught up to him and stood next to him. He knocked on the door three times. Any activity going on in the house ceased, and it became silent. Thorin leaned to me.

"Please don't say anything to embarrass me in front of my kin," he firmly requested.

I shrugged "I can't make any promises."

"As your master, I command you."

I raised my eyebrows at him and opened my mouth to speak, but the door opened. Thorin looked up to see who it was that had answered it.

"Gandalf," he spoke. The two of us entered the Hobbit hole. "I thought you said that this place would be easy to find. I lost my way. Twice. We wouldn't have found it at all had it not been for that mark on the door."

I looked at my surroundings. Dwarves. Everywhere. A few of them I recognized, but most I did not.

"Mark?" a voice questioned.