The next morning gray clouds covered the sky. Thorin did not give them a lot of time to eat breakfast. He wanted to move on as fast as possible before the weather turned bad. Around midday, the rain eventually kicked in, leaving everyone in a bad mood. They were following a stream of a river. Andy, utterly bored, started humming to herself, a Melody, none of the dwarves have ever heard. All of a sudden, she stopped her horse.
"Thorin! Gandalf! We have to stop. The Hillside in front of us is going to come down. We cannot go one, if we do not want to get caught in a landslide. We must seek shelter for a while. "
"Nonsense!", Thorin shouted through the rain with an angry voice. "We will keep going. The ground is save. It's just a little bit of water. "
"That's not true!", Andy started do get loud. "It's been raining for hours. And quite a lot, as well. The ground has been soaked. Look there", she pointed a bit ahead. Everyone narrowed their eyes, trying to see what she saw. "Thers a delta, right at the edge of the river. There is no clear riverbank, and it is shallow. The grass on the hill is mostly covered by dirt and mud. No bushes like on the other side of the river or like we saw for the last almost two days. There were landslides! The hillside is not solid. It will slide again and burry us alive!"
"What do you know about the wild?", Thorin spoke to her patronizing. "I say we go on!" He turned his horse and led it on. Andy could not believe her eyes, as one dwarf after each other followed him. Swearing she got of her horse. Giving him a smack, she chased him of, knowing he would find a safe way for himself and come back, when the weather was good again. Pulling her cloak tighter around her body, she walked after the company. It only went well for about a quarter of an hour. Then suddenly the ground began to shake. The ponies became nervous and started kicking.
"Earthquake!" shouted Ori.
"No! Landslide!", Balin corrected. Indeed. The ground beneath their feet began to slide away. Panicked, they all looked around, trying to get their pony back under control.
"Where is Gandalf?" cried Thorin, hastily turning his head in all directions.
"This way!" called Gandalf's voice from their right. "Hurry up!"
They all steered their ponies to where the light from Gandalf's staff burned. He had found a hermit's rock. Huddled together, they tried to keep their ponies calm. A cry was heard. Thorin and Kili turned around in dismay.
"Fili!", Kili called after his brother. Fili's pony had lost solid ground and together they plunged downwards, straight towards the river. "No!"
Horrified, Fili tried to reach for something to steady them. But there was nothing, everything was slipping away. "Kili!" he called back when he heard his brother calling after him. His pony tried to struggle out of the mud and threw Fili off. He did not even have time to scream before he plunged into the river and sank. He did not know how to swim. He was not prepared for this impact with the icy water and his body froze of shock. As soon as he ran out of air, he tried to pull himself back up. When he caught his breath, he stuck his head out before sinking again.
When Andy saw what had happened, she quickly jumped after Fili.
"Andrea, no!", Kili shouted desperate. But it was too late. Digging through the mud, she got flushed into the river, not to far away from Fili, but not close enough.
"Help!", she heard a gurgling cry for help.
"Hold on!" she shouted back. Banging her head against a tree trunk, she lost control of her body for a moment and was submerged under water. With powerful swimming movements, she broke through the water again, coughing.
"Damn princess," she muttered, grabbing the tree trunk, and pulling herself up. "If he wanted to kill his nephew so desperately, he could have just pushed him off a cliff. "
As soon she had a good grip on the bark and sat up. The dwarves, still sitting on the rock, tried to see what she was doing. Later, Ori would describe it as if she were riding a sledge through snow. But for the moment, Andy struggled to steer the log to Fili. Feeling the time pressure, she looked up and tried to find Fili's blonde head, only to see him sink again.
"Fili!" she screamed, no longer able to hide the fear in her voice. He was going to drown if she did not get there on time! She drew two daggers and jammed them into the sides of the tree trunk. With all her strength, she managed to pull the tree trunk around and dash through the river towards the drowning Fili.
"Kili," his voice gurgled one last time before the lack of air made him faint. No longer able to fight nature, he sank under the water. Seeing this, Andy decided to do something that was very stupid. She took a deep breath, clutched her daggers tightly and then dropped to the left with all her body weigh. In this way she managed to turn the tree trunk 180 degrees and open her eyes again upside down under water, only just able to see Fili's blurry silhouette. She took her chance and grabbed him. Making sure, she had a good grip on him, she tried to break through the water again, so they both got air again. But with the dead weight of the unconscious dwarf, she was unable to turn the log, no matter how hard she tried. She started to run out of oxygen. Getting jammed against a rock in the water, she let out a cry of pain, beginning to swallow water.
No! I do not want to die like this! Think. Think!
I AM thinking!
Think faster!
I have an idea!
That is a terrible idea!
I have no other choice!
I know! That is why, you are shouting at yourself.
Oh, it is you, she recognized her own consciousness.
Yes, now get started, before you both die!
She closed her eyes and concentrated. Her body began to tingle again, like a few days ago in the hobbit hole. Only this time she needed it. As she threw off the cover of a Hobbit, the tingling grew stronger and filled every cell in her body. The transformation was complete. When she opened her eyes, they were no longer the hazel brown of the Hobbit. They were yellow.
With much more strength than as a Hobbit, she swung her long legs around the tree trunk and pulled Fili back up to the surface with her.
"Fili?" she called him because she was afraid of being too late to save him. Conversations with oneself take longer than one thinks. "Fili? Are you all right?" Gently, she gave him a pat on the cheek. When he slowly opened his eyes, she exhaled in relief. "Hang in there, we're almost back at shore. " she assured him, grabbing the daggers again and steering them back to shore.
Still dazed, Fili tried to focus on the woman who had saved him. She was clearly not a dwarf. She was too tall. Maybe an elf or a human. He could not see much; she was facing away from him. Her cloak, fluttering behind her, covered him from the rain.
"Who are you?" he asked in a raspy voice. She did not hear him. Before he knew what was happening to him, she had taken him in her arms and jumped from the lodge. Effortlessly she touched the ground again and ran into the forest.
Andy did not go too far into the forest, because the others should still be able to find them. She found an old fallen tree that seemed to have been there for a while. When it was unrooted, a small cave formed, sheltered from the wind and dry. She crouched down put Fili back down on his feet and pointed in the direction of the cave, which was only a few feet away.
"Here you will be safe, until the others will come and get you"
"Wait!" Fili grabbed her arm just as she turned to leave. "Who are you?" he asked again. For a moment Andy did not understand. Then she remembered that she no longer looked like the Hobbit.
"It doesn't matter," she said quickly. As he did not move, she pushed him over to the cave. "Go on. Your little friends should be here soon. " Before he could ask anything else, she was gone. Her cloak floated quickly behind her as she disappeared into the dim light of day.
Fili shielded his eyes as he tried to see where she was going. Only then did he recognize the cloak. On the outside as bright as daylight. On the inside as dark as the deepest dwarf cave in a mountain. "Guardian angel," he whispered. He sat down in the cave and could hardly wait to tell the others who had saved him today.
"This is bad", Andy muttered to herself, as she hurried through the boarder of the forest, switching back into her Hobbit form. "This is very, very, bad. "
The rain had finally gone back a little, so that the rest of the company was able to leave the hermit rock and head for the forest. Andy stood there, watching them get closer.
"Andrea!", Kili called relieved and urged his Pony to go faster. "You managed. You did get to Fili, right? Is he okay? Is he hurt? Where is he? Are you okay?" Laughing a little she tapped against his leg.
"Calm down. Everything is okay. I have hidden him in a little cave further into the forest. C'mon. Let's go. "
With the company following her, she led them to Fili's hideout.
"Fili!" cried Kili in relief when he saw his brother. Excited, he stumbled off the pony, but quickly got back on his feet and ran to his brother. Fili ran to meet him and gave his little brother a big bear hug. "Pay a little more attention next time. Who knows how many times Andy can save you," Kili said laughing, but they all knew how serious he was. At first Andrea frowned when she heard her nickname. But when Kili gave her a grateful smile, she did not have the heart to scold him. Instead, she smiled back. Cheering, the rest of the company got off their ponies and walked over to their princes. Andy stood a little apart and watched.
"Okay, now that we've all had our sentimental moment .... Thorin!" she called out and threw. Automatically reacting to his name, he spun around. Only to be hit by an apple right in his face. "Do you believe me now! I'm not a damsel in distress. I actually know my way around. And the next time you decide to ignore the obvious just because I saw it first, you're going to get hit by more than just an apple!"
Thorin scowled at her, but surprisingly did not say a word. He felt guilty. If only he had listened to the girl, his nephew would never have gotten into this situation. And he would not owe that little milestone around his neck a favour.
"Guy's, you will not believe, who I say today!" Fili said excited. Curious, the dwarves gathered closer around him. "I actually met Thorin's Guardian Angel! She pulled me out of the water and carried me here. She was exactly, how you described her. Well, the part I could see. She was bigger than a dwarf and had that awesome cloak!" While he was gushing about her, Gandalf observed the Hobbit out of the corner of his eye. She stared at the ground, shuffling her feet. She knew, what was about to come.
"So, it wasn't Andy who saved you?" Kili asked, a betrayed undertone in his voice, as they all turned to her. Fili was quiet for a moment, realizing what this meant.
"No, it was the Guardian Angel. But..."
"You lied!" Thorin roared, interrupting the now uncertain Fili. Andy took a deep breath but looked him straight in the eye.
"I didn't," she stated. "I jumped after him, pulled him out of the water and lead him all the way over here. "
"How did you carry him? He way to big for you? Or more like, you are too weak to carry him. "
"He was still half conscious. Able to walk, even though I had to support him. It is absolutely normal, that he does not remember that. He probably has a slight concussion. "
"But... I was so sure. I really thought that I saw her," Fili mumble, starring into nothing. Thorin turned back to her, his eyes promising her, that he would turn her live into hell.
"So, if you say, you rescued him, and he say someone else, how do you explain that?"
Andy's eyes narrowed. Frustration rose in her chest. "Wow. Guys I am disappointed. I actually thought, we were all pulling on the same string. What sounds more realistic; a warrior woman in a special cloak that Thorin saw the last sixty years ago, suddenly showing up, or me, trying to save one of my annoying fellow companions, and his brain projecting a hallucination, after he had air shortage?"
The dwarves were silent. Andy made her point clear. "Yeah, thought so," she said, bitterness filling her voice, as she turned away and left them behind.
Andy felt awful. Because she lost the little trust she gained by saving Fili and the named dwarf would doubt his mind for a couple of days more, even though, he saw it right. He just did not know that the "Guardian Angel" like they call her, actually was her. Letting out a sigh she let her head hang low, her hair covering her face from the rain.
"Are you sure?" Kili whispered to his brother again. The rest of the dwarves were repacking, getting ready to move on, while Kili was looking after his brother, as Thorin ordered. They were still discussing the guardian angel. Fili nodded.
"It seemed so real. And you know, I am not the dwarf to make up things like that. It was her, but Andy says that it was her. I don't know anymore. " Fili looked lost.
"It's nothing new, that Andy's hiding something. But I believe you. If you say it was the guardian angel, then it must have been so. We'll try to find out more about her, okay?"
Thankfully Fili smiled at his younger brother. "Thank you, brother. "