Someone to Watch Over Me

Chapter Three

Although Men were taller than dwarves as a rule, there were, of course, exceptions to that rule. Seren sometimes wondered, given Dale's close proximity to Erebor and that she had no recollection at all of her father, if she wasn't part dwarf. She was just a fraction over five feet tall and Thorin towered over her, and keeping up with him proved to be a challenge, especially when she had ground to make up covering.

She'd come out of the Grey Goose to find him nowhere about, which brought several colorful oaths to her lips. Her foot hurt. Her arm still ached from where she'd been cut last eve, although at least it bled no longer. So, as she stood there, in the middle of that horrible, rutted road, she stared to the west, down the road, scanned the trees, and saw nothing but villagers.

"Damn," she whispered, shifting the sack higher on her shoulder. It wasn't the first time she'd lost him, and it most likely wouldn't be the last, but now that he knew of her existence, and that she was, in fact following him, it wouldn't surprise her in the least if he did his best to make certain she didn't find him.

Still, she couldn't very well stand in the middle of the road all day, and she did know his destination, so, with renewed resolve, she shifted the pack again and started out toward the West.

Little by little, the sun broke through the clouds, scattered them into tiny puffs of white dotting a pale blue sky. The breeze was light and warm, and within an hour, Seren was sweating. And she still had yet to see even a sign that Thorin had passed by.

The road rose and at its peak, she spotted him. He was little more than a dot on the horizon, but he was there, which made the sting in her foot and the ache in her arm a little less noticeable. Her stride quickened and within another hour, when the road leveled out, she was almost caught up to him.

However, the clouds returned, thick and iron gray and blocking out the light to the point where it seemed like nightfall had come in the middle of the afternoon.

Then the rain returned.

Seren scowled as water once more dripped into her eyes and rolled down her cheeks. She had no idea where she would sleep that night, but that the sinking feeling it would be somewhere huddled under a tree, and the blister on her foot would be joined by others before much longer. She only had two pairs of hose and both were impossible to keep dry lately.

Trying to put the horrid weather from her mind, she squinted through the drops to find she'd lost Thorin once more. They were little over halfway to Bree, but he was nowhere to be found. Well, fine. She wasn't going to keep hunting. Instead, she'd focus on making her way to Bree, hopefully finding a hot meal that wasn't too costly, since her purse grew lighter by the day it seemed, and then she'd scour the pubs until she found him or found someone who'd seen him.

With that, she ducked her head and just concentrated on making it to Bree as soon as she could.

She lost track of the time, and the early darkness didn't help, but soon lights appeared in the distance. Bree lay directly before her. A town of Man, at least she stood a decent chance of blending in, and hopefully no one would trouble her.

She hadn't seen Thorin since the rain began and as she sloshed over the bridge leading into Bree, she didn't much care. Which was probably the wrong thing to do, for as soon as she set foot in Bree, someone lunged out of the darkness, snaked their arm about her neck, and jerked her back off the road, into the underbrush.

Seren clawed at the thick arm, but couldn't reach any flesh through the equally thick sleeve, and no matter how she dug in her heels, she was too short to gain any traction in the wet underbrush. That arm tightened about her neck, cut off her air, and she fought down the rising sense of panic as she struggled to breathe. Black dots danced before her eyes, erupting into starbursts of white light, and in a final, desperate attempt to free herself, she stopped struggling, brought her left arm forward, grabbed hold of that wrist, and slammed her elbow into the man's belly.