Hope and Memory[Thorin Oakenshield Love Story]

[Chapter Forty Five]

The dwarves soon made their way back to the kingdom when they realized the absences of their king and the woman. Freya had followed after him; the dwarf clearly unaware that he was being followed. Hobbit's were known for how quiet they walked and being unseen. The woman fell behind when she had to climb over the rubble in the middle of the pathway. Once across them, she eventually caught back up to Thorin only to see him go into the treasure room and she stopped at the entrance and knew there was nothing she could do. He was searching for the Arkenstone and the hobbit wandered back towards the grand hall to wait for her cousin and the others.

It's only been a couple of days since the dragon had been killed; though they did not know if their kin had made it out safely, all they could do was hope that they would see the two brothers and Bofur and Oin soon. Thorin spent most of his time in the treasure room, searching the mounds of gold for one particular gem: the Arkenstone. It was that would reunite his people under his rule as the rightful King under the mountain. Most of the dwarves were already willing to follow Thorin, but the dwarf was convinced not all of them would unless he possessed the stone.

Bilbo and Freya had offered to find places that weren't completely destroyed by the beast, so they all had places to rest after their long hours of searching the treasure horde; at least until the kingdom was rebuilt after what the dragon had damaged in it's time. At first when the two cousins had set out looking at rooms they often got lost, not remembering how to get back to the treasure room and usually ended up having to wait for Balin or Dwalin to come find them.

The dwarves had small fires going in different corners of the great hall to keep them warm, for the cold nights ahead as winter was coming. Once the sky was dark the dwarves turned in for the night from their long exhausting search for the stone; except for one. Thorin still continued to search through the night. He would find no rest until he had that stone in his hand. Freya wandered passed the sleeping dwarves, looking for one in particular but he wasn't among them and the pit in her stomach only grew deeper. The woman found her cousin propped up against a rock sound asleep. She smiled and decided she should do the same and she found a spot against the wall. Freya curled up against the mountain and closed her eyes. Wondering how much sleep she was going to get this night.

The hobbit still wasn't sleeping well these days; without having some sort of nightmare of the pale orc and his vicious white warg attacking her, usually resulting in her waking up screaming and breathing heavily and she wished it would stop.

Sometime later on in the night, Thorin had left the treasure room and wandered into the great hall and looked at all his tired comrades sound asleep, up against the rubble. He continued walking passed them and found Bilbo fast asleep, but he grew worried when he couldn't find the other hobbit. He scanned the area again and had too look twice when he heard the whimpers coming from the other end of the room. He walked over and saw the young woman curled up against the wall, trembling as the odd low whimper escaped her lips.

The dwarf looked at her, he couldn't recall the last time he had gotten sleep and he felt how heavy his eyes were from the past couple of days, he hadn't rested since they left Lake-town. He sat beside the hobbit, pulling her into his arms carefully, so he wouldn't wake her and he wrapped his arm around her, her head leaning against his chest and he pressed his lips against her forehead and he felt her relax against him and he closed his eyes, not able to keep them open any longer.