The Gathering Storm. The Hobbit fanfic. A Thorin Oakenshield love story.

Chapter 34: The Cat's Out of the Bag.

"Right sure. I saw you poking Bofur," Thorin said to Taryn with a chuckle.

"Well that is what he gets for sleeping on the table," Taryn said back to Thorin with a smirk on her lips.

She turned and looked at him. "If you were the one sleeping on the table I would poke you also." She said and stuck her tongue out at him and then took a bite of her muffin.

Thorin just raised one of his eyebrows and gave her a 'oh really,' look.

"Couldn't sleep either?" She asked him curiously when he didn't say anything back.

"Aye," he said with a sigh.

"Well there are muffins in the kitchen. I guess the other dwarves didn't manage to eat everything before you arrived last night." Taryn said as she stood from her chair and walked into the kitchen.

She washed her plate, bowl, and tea mug and then put them away in the cabinet.

"When did you arrive?" Thorin asked her curiously as he walked up behind her in the kitchen and grabbed a muffin.

"Second to last, after they had already ate most of the food. But before they sang about annoying Bilbo," she said with a chuckle.

"That poor hobbit," she added.

At that Thorin rolled his eyes at her. "I still can't believe Gandalf invited him along." He said as he leaned back against the counter.

"Give him a chance Thorin he may surprise you. What about me do you think I don't belong?" She asked him curiously.

"I didn't even know you were alive Taryn, but I know you can fight better then most of us. So no worries here," he said with a sigh.

"You know, I didn't know you were alive either. Apparently the wizard did not think that was an important matter to tell us," Taryn said as she shook her head. She could feel the tears begin to well up in her pale blue eyes and she so badly did not want to cry in front of him.

"Meddling wizards," Thorin said with a sad chuckle. He could see that she was about to cry. Really he felt like crying also, but he did not like to show his emotions. He had always been like that and it had just gotten worse as he got older.

Of course it wasn't the Wizards fault that they weren't together. It was the damn dragon's fault. They were suppose to be married by now with maybe a couple of children. Their future was stolen from them by Smaug along with a Thorin's home.

"Come on we better wake up the others. We will need to head out soon and I know they will want to eat first," he said as he looked at her. He so badly wanted to wipe away her tears, but he stopped himself.

"Okay," was all she managed to say.
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A few hours later they were off on their quest without the hobbit. Taryn was riding Luna near the middle of the group next to Fíli and Kíli who were riding their ponies. There was talking going on within the group on whether Bilbo would join them or not.

Some of the dwarves had decided to bet on if he would show up or not. Taryn thought he would show up, but did not bet on it. For it was not appropriate for a princess to gamble, even if she was an exiled princess.

"I'm surprised someone as short as you is riding a full grown horse!" Fíli said to Taryn.

Taryn just laughed at this. "Well since my sister and I are the only short elves, there were not a lot of ponies around growing up in Mirkwood. So as a young elleth I was taught how to ride on our immortal horses. I can easily swing and jump up onto Luna. As an elf I am very graceful," Taryn said to Fíli.