A Journey to get Back Home

Fallen Remembers a Face

As they reached the edge of Hobbiton Thorin stopped and turned to look at Fallen who seemed to be extremely tired. "We should hurry up. The house is right over there." Thorin pointed to the little Hobbit hole with a bright green door.

Fallen and Thorin got to the door and heard noises, not just noises singing and laughing, coming from inside. Fallen knocked on the door and the noise from the inside went silent. A minute later the door was opened by a small man with short brown curly hair. Thorin walked into the house and Fallen just stood outside waiting for the hobbit to tell her she could come inside.

"Come on in Fallen." Thorin shouted as he walked into another room of the small house and sat down.

"Hi, I'm Fallen" she said as she stuck her hand out to shake the hobbits hand.

"Hello, I'm Bilbo Baggins." the hobbit said as he took Fallens hand to shake it. "You seem tired, why don't you come inside and sit down."

She walked into the small house and stood next to Thorin. The other dwarves in the dining room just watched as she leaned over to ask who these people were.

"Who is this, uncle?" One of the dwarves asked. He had long black hair that looked like it needed to be brushed, a small beard that looked like it just started to grow, and green eyes that looked so excited to see the world.

"This is a new friend of mine." Thorin answered, "Introduce yourselves so we can move on."

The dwarves started saying their names; Fíli, Kíli, Balin, Dwalin, Bifur, Bofur, Bombur, Oin, Gloin, Dori, Nori, Ori.

"Pleasure to meet you, I'm Fallen Birchstone." she said as she sat down.

As the rest of the dwarves sat down at the table Fallen noticed Bilbo pacing around. She stood up and walked over to Bilbo to see if he was ok.

"I'm fine, don't worry about me." Bilbo said as he and Fallen walked into his pantry.

"What happened in here? It looks like someone plunderd your pantry."

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As Fallen and the dwarves were riding, Fallen heard a shout from a distance. When she turned her head in that direction she saw a small figure running up to the group.

It was Bilbo Baggans. He ran over to Gandalf and handed him a paper. It was the contract, and it looks like he signed it. Fallen was right next to Thorin and could hear him whisper that he didn't believe that the hobbit should be there and that if he doesn't turn around then he might not come home. No one else seemed to hear Thorin so Fallen just shook it off and rode along with everyone else. A few minutes after they started off again the dwarves started throwing money around. Bilbo and Fallen were right next to each other at this point and were talking.

"Why are they throwing money everywhere?" Bilbo asked as he ducked out of the why of a sack of coins.

"They started betting on whether or not you would show up." Fallen answered as she caught a bag of coins that almost hit her in the face. "Who threw this to who?" Fallen shouted as she held the coins in the air.

"That would be for me, ma'lady," the dark-brown haired dwarf said as he rode up to Fallen and Bilbo. "The names Kíli, we were introduced last night."

"Right, you called Thorin your uncle." Fallen said as she handed the bag of coins to Kíli.

Fallen and Kíli started chatting away and Bilbo rode over and started talking to Gandalf. After a while of talking, they finally stop for the night so they can eat and rest.

⚫ ⚫ ⚫

As Bilbo, Fallen, and Balin sit and chat they hear Kíli and Fíli talking and making jokes, and Fallen can't help but stare at them. She didn't even notice when Bilbo left to talk to Thorin and Gandalf.

"They are a loud pair of lads aren't they?" Balin's comment brought Fallen back to her conversation with him.

"Uh, yeah, they are pretty loud." Fallen said as she looked back at him.

"What are you even doing here?" Balin finally asked after a long uncomfortable silence. "Thorin says you had a pretty comfy life you left behind."

"I wanted to see more than just my village and this gave me the opportunity." Fallen answered. She looked back to Fíli and Kíli, "And my life in the village wasn't as 'comfy' as you guys would think." Fallen laid down and closed her eyes.

"Sorry for bringing it up lassie, I..." Balin was interrupted by a loud howling sound.

Fallen shot up and started looking around. "What was that?" She stood up and walked over to the horses.

"Orcs," Kíli said as he stepped closer to Fallen.

"Orcs!?" Bilbo said, taking a step back, almost tripping.

Kíli stepped in between Bilbo and Fallen, "Throat-cutters. There'll be dozens of them out there. The lone-lands are crawling with them."

"They strike in the wee small hours when everyone's asleep. Quick and quiet, no screams. Just lots of blood." Fíli said as he looked over at Bilbo who looked ready to fall over from fear. Fíli and Kíli looked like they were about to start laughing from the fear in Bilbo's eye's as if it were some kind of joke.

"That's not funny!" Fallen stated as she walked over to Bilbo.

"No it's not." Thorin agreed. His voice was more stern than ever. He walked over, away from the group and stared out into the distance.

"We're sorry uncle. We didn't mean anything by it." Kíli stated as he tried to step forward but Fallen stopped him.

"No you didn't. You know nothing of this world." Thorin said, not even looking at the group.

"Don't mind him, laddie. Thorin has more reason than most to hate orcs." Balin stated. Fallen, Fíli, Kíli, and Blibo all sat around him to listen. "After the dragon took the Lonely Mountain, King Thror tried to reclaim the ancient Dwarf kingdom of Moria. But the orcs had got there first. Moria had been taken by legions of them, led by the most vile of all their race: Azog the Defiler. The giant Gundabad Orc, had sworn to wipe out the line of Durin. He began by beheading the king. Thrain, Thorin's father, was driven mad by grief, and he went missing. Taken prisoner or killed, we did not know. We were leaderless, defeat and death were upon us. That is when I saw him, a young Dwarf prince facing down the pale Orc. He stood alone against this terrible foe. His armor rent wielding nothing but an oaken branch as a shield. Azog the Defiler learned that day that the line of Durin would not be so easily broken. Our forces rallied, and drove the Orcs back. And our enemy had been defeated. But there was no feast nor song that night for our dead were beyond the count of grief. We few had survived. And I thought to myself then there is one who I could follow. There is one I could call king." Balin finished and Bilbo looked like he was about to pass out from shock from the story.

"And the pale orc? What happened to him?" Fallen asked.

"The filth died from his wounds long ago." Thorin answered.

The rest of the night was pretty quiet after Thorin sat down. Fallen couldn't get to sleep because every time she closed her eyes she saw a burnt face of an elf she did not recognize. She laid down on her blanket next to Kíli, who was snoring pretty loud. In the morning after everyone finished breakfast and they were on the horses again Fíli and Kíli rode next to Fallen. It was pouring rain.

"We're sorry if we upset you last night." Fíli said, trying to get Fallen to look at him. "I noticed you didn't get much sleep last night."

Fallen looked over at Fíli, "What you said last night was mean but it didn't affect my sleep. You should say sorry to Bilbo if you actually care about affecting people's sleep." She said as she looked back and forth between Fíli and Kíli.

"We will but, if what we said isn't the reason you didn't get sleep, what was the reason?" Kíli asked, with a curious look in his emerald eyes. "If you don't mind me asking."

Fallen looked down and shook her head. "It was nothing, just a face I can't get out of my head." When she finished speaking she rode to the front, next to Thorin. As she passed Bilbo and Gandalf they were talking about wizards, but she didn't hear much of their conversation. All she could really hear was the rain.

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