Where She Went

Just Thorin

It was a quiet morning when Talia got out of bed. She changed into her own clothes, and tiptoed her way down the stairs, not wanting to wake anyone up. The company had been in Laketown for two weeks now, rejuvenating and preparing for the final leg of their journey. The Master of Laketown had provided a house for the company to stay, and today would be their last day in the town.

Talia made her way into the empty kitchen and was looking around for a pair of scissors. Her hair had already been a decent length before she ever started the journey...by now, it was already reaching her rear end. That did it for Talia. She refused to let her hair get that long. She had to cut it.

It didn't take the Terran too long to find what she was looking for. She grabbed the scissors and headed over by the fireplace. Talia brought her dark, curly brown locks over her shoulders, and began to slowly snip, throwing what she cut off into the fire. She was almost done when she heard footsteps behind her.

"WHAT ARE YOU DOING?" a voice yelled, causing Talia to yelp and turn around.

"What?" she asked almost as loudly, a baffled look on her face. Bofur looked at her with wide eyes and appeared to be absolutely appalled.

"Are you doing what I think you're doing?" he asked, not calming down in any way.

Talia was completely confused. One would have thought she was holding a murdered kitten in her hands with the way Bofur was speaking to her. "I'm trimming my hair! What does it look like?" she challenged. That was when she heard even more footsteps making their way downstairs at a fast pace.

"What's going on? I hope you two have a good excuse for interrupting our sleep!" Dwalin grumbled.

"The lass is cutting her hair off!" Bofur exclaimed.

Talia furrowed her brows as multiple members of the company gasped. "Ok, why is this a big deal?" she exclaimed.

Bofur came closer and knelt down next to her. "Talia, have any of us done something to upset you, or cause you pain?" he asked sincerely.

Talia widened her eyes. "What? No! Why would you think that? And what does that have to do with shortening my hair?" Bofur looked back at the others and sighed.

"She doesn't know, lads." he told them.

"Obviously I don't! I'm not a Dwarf, how am I supposed to know? I still don't even know what "it" is!" Talia exclaimed, still completely and utterly confused as to why this was such a big deal.

"Lass, Dwarves don't cut their hair off. To a Dwarf, the value of his woman's hair is equivalent to that of gold and precious jewels." Bofur explained.

Talia's expression softened a little. "Oh...I guess that outburst makes a little more sense." she said awkwardly, but then she furrowed her brows again. "Hold on. First of all, I'm not cutting it all off, I'm just trimming off a couple of inches. And second, it's not like I'm engaged to any of you boys. Why should my hair be valuable to you?" she challenged.

"You're family to us, Talia. We could have braided it for you." Kili said...somewhat sadly. The young woman sighed, ignoring how pale Kili looked at the moment.

"You boys are sweet, you really are. But I am not gonna let my hair grow past my ass." she told them firmly.

That seemed to do it for them, most of them grumbled to themselves before going back up to their rooms. Talia finished up the job, only shortening her hair to where it was just touching her ribs. When she was done, she went into the kitchen to look for something to eat.

...

Thorin was on his way back into his bedroom when he was stopped by his nephews. "So, uncle, how do you feel about what just happened downstairs?" Kili asked cheekily.