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

Chapter 38: One Step Forward, Two Steps Back.

Back at the camp Thorin and Taryn were silent. Taryn had gone over to her bedroll and unpacked her beads Thorin had made her in the past, her brush, hair ties, and hair pins. She also grabbed her hand mirror and looked at her self. She was clean now, but she sighed softly when she saw the tears still running down her cheeks. She slowly wiped them away as she sat her mirror on her blanket.

While she was brushing her hair, Thorin had walked over to his own bedroll and grabbed some new clean clothes. He then went off to the woods and quickly changed.

He looked over at Taryn as he walked back into their camp. He watched as she brushed her long white blonde hair. He let out a sigh as he made his way back to his bedroll. Of course his bedroll was still right next to her's. He didn't want her having nightmares like she did the night before.

However, that was before he kissed her and she had practically turned him down. He so badly wanted to be able to talk to her. But he just laid down on his own bedroll as he watched her re-braid her own hair. First she braided the two small and tight braids in the front of her white blonde hair and in front of her ears, so her pointed elf ears showed behind them and pinned them with her old betrothal beads Thorin had made her. She then pulled up half of her hair and braided four delicate braids and pinned them together with the hair ties and same betrothal beads.

Taryn always had two small and tight braids in the front of her hair and in front of her ears with beads in them, ever since they began courting and Thorin proposed to her all of those years ago before Smaug attacked. It started with Thorin braiding them all of those years ago, but she kept them and braided them herself when they were separated after Smaug attacked. Sometimes she would undo them to wash her hair, but she always re-did them even if she didn't braid the rest of her hair.
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They set off on their quest again early the next day as the sun was rising. Thorin wanted to make up wasted time and would not allow any breaks. He was clearly still upset from his and Taryn's trip to the stream. No one except for Taryn knew what had happened between them the night before.

"Can't we take a small break? The ponies look tired," Bilbo made the mistake of asking Thorin.

Thorin who was at the front of the company looked over his shoulder to the small hobbit. He narrowed his eyes as he stared at Bilbo. "No. I said no breaks, until night fall." He growled out.

Bilbo sunk his head down behind the person riding in front of him, as if he was trying to hide from Thorin. "Okay," he mumbled in a frightened tone.

Taryn who was riding Luna in front of Bilbo, but behind Thorin rolled her eyes. She was getting sick of Thorin's grumpy attitude. She knew the grumpiness was her fault, but he did not need to take it out on the poor hobbit.

"Don't yell at him!" She yelled out at Thorin angrily. She was clearly the only one not afraid to stand up to Thorin when he was being a jerk.

Thorin let out a loud huff of breath from the front of the company. "Don't tell me what to do!" He yelled back at her through his gritted teeth. He was trying his best to keep his cool, but it wasn't working.

This bickering between them went on back and forth for awhile, until they both got tired and became silent again. It was like they had taken one step forward and two steps back.

The rest of the dwarves and Bilbo wondered what the heck had happened between them the night before. They knew it had to be bad, because they were back to jumping down one another's throats.

Soon they rode down a small hill, revealing an abandon farmhouse in the distance. It was mainly destroyed. It was missing most of its walls and was only still standing due to its posts. The roof was nearly collapsing onto its self. At the back was a semi destroyed fireplace.