Never Back Again // The Hobbit, Fili X OC

A tiny little oopsie

By the time Thorin decided to set up camp, the sun was long gone, stars illuminating the clear sky instead. Despite being used to travel, Emma's body still felt sore after such a long day in the saddle. The day had felt a lot longer than usual, Thorin had pushed everyone to their limits to keep on schedule, and judging from the faces of those around her, everyone felt relieved that he finally deemed it enough and called it a day.

Her feet thumped on the ground as she swung herself out of the saddle, her thighs immediately protesting. Spending over 10 hours on horseback on a single day was simply too much, even for her. After spending nearly two years only going at her own pace, it would take some time to get used to following the tight schedule Thorin placed upon the company. Finding her place in the evening routine would also take some time. All around her, the dwarves were busy setting up camp, some collecting firewood, while others took up the task of setting up the bedrolls. She felt like she was blocking traffic in a big city by just standing around like this, while everyone rushed past with a clear purpose in mind.

Seeing the seamless teamwork briefly took her back in time. For as long as she traveled with Jesse and the boys, her first task would always be to tend to the horses whenever they set up camp somewhere new. Making sure they were all clean and fed, checking their hooves and bringing them water had been her job for many a year. It was a routine she knew by heart, and handling the ponies of the company would be no trouble at all.

With a new sense of direction, she could finally make herself useful. She took her horse's reins and led the mare to a space near the sleeping spots. Not so close that the ponies would roam around their camp, but close enough to easily keep an eye on them anyway. Leading all the ponies to her chosen spot was easy enough, once she had put the first few there, the rest simply followed after. She got all the saddles off, and made sure none of the tack would get mixed up in the morning.

Falling back into her old routine felt oddly soothing, like cuddling up in your favorite blanket after a long day. No matter how well she hid it, Emma felt horribly out of place in this new world. There was always a voice in the back of her mind, telling her that she did not belong. Everything just felt off compared to the life she used to know. The most mundane things suddenly seemed completely alien at times. Even the stars in the night sky were different from the ones that she knew. But horses were still the same, taking care of them was something she was familiar with all too well, bringing a small piece of comfort with it.

A voice called over from behind her, "I was just putting down the lads bedrolls, toss me your bag and I'll set up yours as well!" It was Bofur, a wide grin plastered on his face. He was standing in the middle of the camp, placing down the last blankets. Most of the tasks had already been done, and nearly everyone was already sitting by the fire waiting for dinner to be served. She grabbed her bag and threw it at the dwarf, who caught it with ease. She only needed to check the hooves of one more pony and then she too could rest her legs and warm her hands.

Once she was satisfied with the condition of the ponies, she made her way to the glowing orange of the fire, the only source of light for miles around. She sat down on a log that was very conveniently placed and wondered for a moment if the dwarves had rolled it over or if it was simply nature's will.
The dwarves, and even Bilbo, were talking amongst themselves in a low murmur. Some spoke in a language she did not recognize at all, but did vaguely remind her of the speech of northern Europe.

Movement in the corner of her eye caught her attention, and she looked over to see Bofur diligently working on setting up her sleeping mat. He was smarter than she initially gave him credit for, or maybe smart was not the exact word she was looking for, he was very socially aware at least. He placed her bedroll on the edge of the group near the ponies, but not so far as to make her feel excluded. It felt odd to have someone pay attention to small details like that, but not in a bad way. If anything she was relieved to see how he had placed her with the group. Just as she went to turn back to the fire, Bofur accidentally jostled her bag, making a folded piece of paper slip out. The dwarf noticed the paper too and reached down to pick it up, presumably just wanting to put it back in her bag.