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

Chapter 37: Moonlight.

After the accident in the mud no one talked. They were afraid if they said anything either Thorin or Taryn would yell at them. Both Taryn and Thorin had just gotten back onto their horses without saying a word.

Someone handed Taryn a towel and she wiped her face off. She knew that she was still covered in wet mud though. She was now grumpy, annoyed, and felt gross and Thorin felt the same way. Really both her and Thorin needed a good bath and there would be no way they could take one.

Taryn leaned forward resting her hands on Luna's saddle as she rode in the front of the company next to Thorin. She rode along side his pony, but did not dare to look at him. 'Stubborn dwarves,' she thought to herself as she huffed out.

In the end Thorin had decided they would go the way Taryn said was right. And of course it was the right path, so if they had gone Thorin's way they would be lost by now.

They had been riding for what seemed like hours. Finally it had stopped raining and the sun had began to shine again. Everyone was now near dry, but Thorin and Taryn were still muddy. It was just mainly dried mud now which felt worst.

Taryn was picking pieces of mud off of her hands when she noticed a nearby stream. She so badly wanted to be able to take a bath. Even if it was a cold bath in a stream or creek. She looked over to Thorin who was trying to wipe the dried mud off of his face with a towel.

She gave him begging, 'please stop to make camp' glances. But she doubt it would work, especially since he was not looking towards her. They came to a small clearing near the stream and Taryn noticed Thorin's pony came to a halting stop.

"We'll stop to make camp here for the night," he grumbled out clearly still annoyed.

Taryn smiled as she knew she would be able to at least clean her face. She had Luna stop and she hopped down off of the horse. She grabbed her packs off of Luna's back only leaving the saddle bag on her.

Once she had her bedroll and packs sat up on their make shift camp, she helped grab firewood for a fire. When she had finished helping Glóin and Óin collect firewood, she helped Bombur get their dinner started. She wanted Thorin to see how helpful she was.

When the company was distracted by eating their dinner, Taryn snuck off to take a bath. She walked along the trees until she reached the stream she had seen. She placed her two packs down on the rocks, along with her towel. She grabbed out her body scrub, shampoo, and conditioner.

She slowly took off all of her dirty clothes, boots, socks laying them near her packs. Lastly she took her old betrothal beads, hair ties, and pins out of her hair and laid them in their locket and then put the locket back in her pack.

Grabbing a wash cloth and her bath items she slowly walked out into the cold water of the stream. She didn't go too far; just far enough to be able to still touch the stream floor without being completely under water. She then dunked her head under the cold water shivering as she did.
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The dwarves, Bilbo, and Gandalf were sitting around the campfire eating dinner. Bilbo had noticed that Taryn was missing. Usually she would be sitting next to him or Fíli and Kíli. He looked to see if maybe she was sitting next to Thorin but she was not.

He then looked over to her bedroll which was empty, so she didn't go to bed early.

"Hey where is Taryn?" Bilbo asked everyone.

Thorin looked around, it was the first time he had noticed she was missing. He let out a long sigh. "Has anyone seen the she-elf?" Thorin asked with a groan.

All of the dwarves and Gandalf shook their heads. "I last saw her helping Bombur cook dinner," Bofur said to Thorin as he ate his dinner.

"I noticed she went to her bedroll after she finished helping me," Bombur said as he ate his second helping of dinner.