In Time

Chapter Thirty

From the moment they stepped off the barge, Amara wanted to pull Thorin aside and demand he tell her what troubled him, but she couldn't quite make herself do it. He looked so very tired, with bruise-like smudges beneath his blue eyes. She also didn't think his abrupt waking on the barge had anything to do with a sore muscle. However, by now, she knew him well enough to know if she asked, he would not tell her the truth about it.

So, she waited as the rest of the dwarves filed off the barge, and smiled as Thorin held out his hand and said, "We will pass the night here and hopefully by tomorrow eve, we will be at Erebor."

She took his hand, let him help her up from the barge. At first, it was odd, being back on land, for the dock felt as if it swayed beneath her feet. That feeling faded after a few minutes, but she still slipped her arm through his just the same.

He led her down along the dock, toward a narrow, cobbled street. The wind whipped along the winding way, but thankfully it wasn't nearly as cold at the wind had been off the water. From the corner of her eye, she peered at Thorin, whose expression remained neutral as the Company traversed uphill, into the city of Dale.

For Amara, who'd never been beyond Rivendell's borders, Dale was unlike anything she'd ever seen and she couldn't help but wonder what it had been like in its heyday. She tightened her hand on Thorin's biceps. "Did you spend much time here, before the dragon came?"

He smiled. "A fair amount, yes. We did a healthy trade with the Men who lived here."

"And Erebor sent a prince to see to it?"

"At times, yes. It depended. I negotiated agreements with the Men of Dale and with the Woodland Realm as well, believe it or not."

"Why wouldn't I believe it?"

"I know not many see me as diplomatic," he replied. "But back then? I wasn't the same dwarf I am today."

"I know that. You've been through much since those days."

"I've matured. Older. Wiser."

She squeezed his biceps, which was like squeezing a rock. "I imagine a younger you to be much like Kili or Fili. Reckless. A flirt. With a weakness for pretty girls."

He chuckled, shaking his head. "I was far more serious than either one of them are and not nearly as reckless at all. It had been drilled into me, what lay in my future. I was the future king and had to conduct myself accordingly."

She offered up a grin. "Do you expect me to believe you had no interest in pretty girls?"

To her surprise, a hint of red swept up into his cheeks above his beard. "Now, I didn't say that."

They emerged from the shadowy darkness between a row of three-story stone buildings into the sunlight of what looked like the main thoroughfare. Amara squinted, bringing a hand up to shade her eyes as she said, "They probably fought like mad, all trying to catch the eye of Thorin Oakenshield."

She tried to imagine him younger, more carefree, and sighed softly as he said, "Some did, I suppose. But I wasn't looking to marry just then."

"You just wished to have fun?"

"To a certain extent." He shrugged. "My father, my grandfather, would never have allowed me to marry an inhabitant of Dale." He glanced over at her. "Neither of them would have allowed me to marry you, either. I think they had a dwarf maiden picked out for me, only Smaug approached before they could put anything into motion."

"Their loss is my gain."

"I don't know that is necessarily true."

She stopped. "Why do you do that? Why do you insist on running yourself down?"