A Priestess For Middle Earth

Chapter 10 Mutual Respect

Kagome and The Company continued their journey with relative ease. There were no attacks of any kind, but everyone remained on alert. That night the Company camped along a ravine with the mountainside at their backs. A lovely meal of venison stew was being prepared by Kagome herself. She had decided that Bombur deserved the night off and took it upon herself to cook. Besides she enjoyed cooking. She made sure that the stew had plenty of vegetables and roots she had gathered and exotic herbs that she had brought from her own world. The aroma that the stew was giving off had the Dwarves' mouths watering. Along with the stew, Kagome had brought several loaves of bread with her from the Shire, and dividing it up.

When she finally declared that supper was ready, Bilbo and the Dwarves couldn't get in line fast enough. The first one in line was Bilbo. He gave her an encouraging smile as she ladled out some stew into his bowl and gave him two slices of bread. She then served the rest. She was a little nervous about whether or not the Dwarves would like it. But when they all dug in and gave her nothing but compliments her fears subsided. Thorin and Gandalf were the last two to be served.

Gandalf received his and inhaled the aroma, "My dear, Kagome, this smells heavenly."

Bofur looked up from his bowl, "And it tastes better than it smells Gandalf!"

The other Dwarves agreed, Kagome blushed. Then Thorin came up to get his bowl. He and Kagome stared at each other through narrowed eyes. She snatched his bowl from him, filled it and handed it back to him along with some bread.

"Here," Was all she said to him.

Thorin grunted his thanks and walked away to sit between Dwalin and Balin.

He eyed the food suspiciously then sniffed it. It didn't smell half bad as a matter of fact it smelled downright delicious, but he was still cautious.

"Oh, please, Thorin, it's not poisoned. If it was the entire Company would be dead already." Kagome said standing in front of him with her hands on her hips. When did she move? Thorin didn't even hear her walk over to him.

"That's right, Thorin, I'm sure the lass can think of more creative ways of killing you than poisoning all of us," Dwalin said sending a wink in Kagome's direction, she winked back at Dwalin. This cause Thorin's blood to boil, but he still couldn't understand why.

"Shall I spoon feed you Thorin?" Kagome said in the sweetest voice she could.

He was about to make a snide remark when Balin looked at him and shook his head. Thorin said nothing just took a bite of the bread and ate the delicious stew in silence.

Once supper was over and everyone was settling in for either smoke or a to go to sleep Kagome gathered all the bowls and headed for the stream to wash them. Bilbo was trying to go to sleep but couldn't due to Bombur's snoring. He got up, went over to his pony Myrtle and gave her an apple. While he watched her happily munching on the apple, he heard the most hideous noises in the distance. "What was that?" 

"Orcs,"  Kili says in an ominous tone.

"Orcs?" Bilbo repeats a little worried.

"Throat cutters, they'll be dozens of them out there. The lowlands are crawling with them," Fili adds.

"They strike in the wee small hours when everyone's asleep. Quick and quiet, no scream, just lots of blood," Kili says obviously trying to frighten Bilbo. Both Fili and Kili snicker.

"You think that's funny? You think a night raid by Orcs is a joke?" Thorin asks clearly irritated.

"We didn't mean anything by it," Kili says lowering his gaze.