Fire and Water ThorinxMermaid!OC

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Loreth groaned and blinked her eyes open. Happy to no longer be trapped by the troll's stone grasp, she was just waking up. The crepuscular beams of light came from the trees above caused her to squint her eyes. She wasn't prepared to see a certain dwarf hovering above her.

Thorin.

Bofur's voice called out seeing her stirring, "Blimey, she's awake!"

Thorin let out a breath he didn't realize he was holding and let the slightest of smiles slip through, "We thought we had lost our mermaid." Or more importantly, his mermaid.

"For a moment, I thought you had too" she joked easing the tension more. Her voice was scratchy from the strain gasping put on her throat. Thorin held out a hand for her to take. She grabbed it without thinking and Thorin pulled her to her feet. A loud cry of pain escaped Loreth and she gritted her teeth, biting through the intense throbbing within her. She held her hands to her sides and slightly hunched over in pain.

"What is it?" Thorin's fretted, "what's wrong?"

Once Loreth calmed her breathing a little more, she pulled up the hem of her baggy robes to reveal giant purple and blue nebulas that covered the area over her ribs. It was mirrored all the way around her torso.

Thorin couldn't help himself as he reached out a curious hand. He let it hover over the soft of her skin, and thought better of it, thinking it would be more likely to hurt her. It was likely that Loreth's ribs were cracked maybe even broken. The company looked on at her wounds with hushed voices.

Thorin called for Oin, "Oin, get her torso wrapped. She carries nothing. Understood?"

Everyone gave a curt nod in understanding and went about their business.

While Oin was carefully wrapping her ribs, the rest of the group ventured to find the troll hoard. Loreth's mind was a jumble of emotions. Number one being overwhelmed by the pain in her ribs, number two was Thorin's actions. She decided that he just cared about his company, he would've been as worried about anyone else in this group, not just her. It was just Thorin being Thorin. Lastly, her mind was still reeling about that word she'd heard—or thought she'd heard. Whatever it was, it was spoken so tenderly, so full of worry for her safety and she'd be lying if she said she didn't crave that feeling it gave her again.

She reunited with the group when they exited the troll's cave gushing over their new found treasures. Loreth was gently rubbing her side when Thorin stepped up to her.

"Will you be able to keep up?"

She looked up at him taken aback, "Of course." Loreth was surprised that it hurt her the way it did. It made her feel like she had to keep up or risk losing her place in this company. And she worked too hard to do such a thing.

"Good." He stated and looked her up and down before walking away. A little tingle went up Loreth's spine when he did that. It wasn't entirely...unpleasant.

Just then a rapid thundering came from the trees. Brush and bramble was quickly being broken and the sound was approaching—very quickly.

"Something's coming!" Thorin yelled to everyone.

Gandalf trodded over to the group, pulling out his new sword, "stay together! Hurry! Arm yourselves!"

All the dwarves huddled into a circle, with Bilbo and Loreth at the center. The dwarves held their weapons high and Loreth created a spear from the air. She wasn't sure how good she would be in a fight in her current state, but she would die trying to protect her friends.