An Unexpected Journey

Chapter Nineteen: Escaping at Night

Thalia grinned changing into her grey cable jumper and skinny jeans with ripped detail paired with rust ankle boots; the blonde had been thrilled when she had returned from dinner to find her stuff had been returned.

Pulling her hair back out of her eyes and into a ponytail so that her hair was pulled out of her face, Thalia took a deep breath knowing that from now on they would be on the road again.

Thalia didn’t know when she would get to sleep in a comfortable bed again and there was still a long, dangerous road ahead of them before they reached the Lonely Mountain and even when they did they still had to face the dragon.

The sound of someone knocking on Thalia’s bedroom door made her swallow, she hoped it wasn’t an elf since the company wanted to slip away un-noticed and the last thing that she wanted was to be held hostage against her will.

Thalia walked towards her door and opened it to find Fíli and Kíli waiting for her, she sighed in relief before she moved to collect her navy spot business bag; she ignored the curious looks from the brothers as she slipped a small book into her bag.

While they had been staying in Rivendell, Thalia had taken the time to check what sort of spells she had brought with her in notebook; she had considered summoning her book of shadows, however she had decided against it right now.

“What’s that?” Kíli asked while Thalia closed her bag, he stared at the blonde curious about why he didn’t know anything about the book that she was carrying with her.

“It’s a portable spell book,” Thalia said shouldering her bag and made sure that she had everything, there was no coming back if she left anything behind and she doubted that Lord Elrond would send her anything that she forgot.

Fíli and Kíli looked at Thalia intrigued, they knew that she was a witch but a part from a couple of tricks that they had seen her do.

“No,” Thalia said knowing that the two dwarf princes were thinking, she wasn’t about to make a mess of things by doing some spells for personal gain.

***

Thorin nodded his head making sure that everyone had arrived, he looked at his nephews as they started to walk away from the elven city; they were all glad to be leaving the city behind and to be continuing on their journey to reclaim their home land from the dragon Smaug.

Thorin quickly sort out Thalia who was walking alongside Ori and Bilbo, he approached them causing the other two men to walk away and the blonde to turn her attention to him.

“Are you sure you want to come with us?” the dwarf king asked, while he didn’t want to leave her behind with his enemies, the last thing he wanted was to put her in any danger; she meant too much to him for him to risk losing her in anyway.

Thalia blinked staring at Thorin for a moment, she didn’t know where this was coming from but she wasn’t about to abandon the quest now; she had said she would help them and that was what she was going to do.

“I’m sure… besides you’ll need me against that dragon,” Thalia said reminding Thorin that she had once mentioned that she had fought a dragon and won; she smiled as he looked at her, she knew that she would need time to gather what she required to take on the dragon.

Thorin cleared his throat and nodded his head, he was pleased that she wanted to stay and help them in every way possible; he wanted to be sure that she was protected if they were to run into trouble again.

***

“Tell us more about your world Thalia,” Ori requested as the company continued forward, he looked at Thalia hopefully making her nod her head; she hardly spoke about her home and it had been weeks since she had left it behind.

“What do you want to know?” Thalia asked, she could see that this topic wasn’t just an interest for Ori but for everyone else in the company; she was from another world and they were curious to know what her world was like.

Ori frowned for a moment before he looked at Bilbo, they both weren’t sure what question that they wanted to ask first; Thorin walked passed them as he moved forward making Thalia smile at him.

“Are there any dwarves and hobbits in your world?” Bilbo asked making Thalia smile sadly at him, this was bound to come up and sooner or later; she glanced around the group who were all curious about her answer.

“Sadly there are no hobbits… but there are dwarves, nothing like any of you though,” Thalia said remembering when she had meet some dwarves once; it was a long time ago and she had only been new to the craft when she had seen them.

Bilbo frowned, he wondered how sad her world was if they did not have hobbits at all in her world; the dwarves seemed a little put off that while there were dwarves in her world, they weren’t like them.

“I don’t know much about them… magical creatures aren’t seen much where I am from,” Thalia said knowing that they were all a little disappointed, they continued on in silence thinking about what she had said; there was so much they all wished to ask her, yet they didn’t know what to say.

Thalia had once told them that the people of her world had no idea that magic existed and that it was a secret that had to remain that way; there had been consequences the last time that anyone had revealed magic to the world.

“What about your family, I’m sure they miss you,” Bofur said making Thalia stop and look at him, they were all aware that she had just discovered that her father wasn’t her father; but he was curious about the people that had raised the extraordinary witch.

Thalia swallowed, she knew that her parents had never approved of anything that she had ever done and while her grandmother had always been supportive of her.

“There’s not much to say…” Thalia said softly as she run her fingers along the 9ct white gold amethyst teardrop pendant; she didn’t want to talk about her family right now, not when her mother’s betrayal was still fresh on her mind.

The company seemed to understand that she wasn’t ready to talk about the family that she had left behind, it was clear that in time maybe she would be able to get over the fact that they had kept things from her.

“What about courting? Did you have someone special waiting for you?” Kíli asked innocently ignoring the look that Thorin shot him, he knew that his uncle liked Thalia more than a friend and he hoped that his uncle would have a chance to court the blonde.

Thalia blinked in slight surprise that Kíli had asked her something like that and she was grateful for the change in subject; she shook her head as she tried to remember her last boyfriend.

“I’m not courting anyone… not for many years now,” Thalia said as Fíli and Kíli grinned at one another at that news; they liked Thalia and she would make the perfect aunt for them, now all they had to do was give their dear uncle Thorin a push in the right direction.