A Thousand Miles[Thorin Oakenshield Love Story]

[Chapter Eight]

After the dwarves had been rescued and freed from the log over the fire. Thorin wandered over to the skin-changer"Where did you go?" Thorin questioned Alyndra. She froze, at first she began to think someone had seen her fly over them or saw her transform, when Gandalf came up beside them

"Alyndra went to find me, and you should be thanking her. If she hadn't found me when she did, you dwarves would have been sitting in the trolls belly by now." The wizard grumbled.

" Well it was no thanks to your burglar." Thorin growled, when the wizard began to walk away.

"He was smarter then all of you. I didn't see any of you stalling until dawn." The woman hissed. The wizard gave her a look to stop, but Thorin didn't even seem to notice or question how she would know that. Silence fell between all three of them and Alyndra finally walked away, thinking to herself. 'Why was he being so nice to her, when they were alone, and acting like he hated her when they were around the others?' she shook the thought from her head and went to see what the others were doing.

"They must have come down from the Ettenmoors." The wizard finally spoke,

" Since when do mountain trolls venture this far south?"

"Not for an age. Not since a darker power ruled these lands." The wizard and the dwarf both shared a look, remembering a time when middle earth was nearly taken by the dark side.

"They could not have moved in daylight." Alyndra explained as she came walking back over to the wizard and dwarf, pulling them both out of their thoughts.

" There must be a cave nearby." Thorin said, feeling certain.

"There is. It's just on the other side of those trees." The woman declared and Thorin looked at her odd, wondering where she had the time to go searching for the troll cave, when she had only been gone for a few minutes.

"How did you find it?" Thorin questioned

" Easy. Just follow the smell, silly." Alyndra turned on her heels to lead the way letting on a low chuckle, but Thorin was close enough to hear it, and felt himself smile a little, thinking to himself that this woman was just full of surprises. Thorin ordered a few of the dwarves to come along to checkout the troll horde, while the rest, packed up camp.

The few that went followed behind the woman as she led the way. Dwalin was looking at her suspiciously, something wasn't quite right with her. He was going to inform the leader of his distrust in her but when he saw how the prince was being with her the other night he backed off until he could confirm his theory. The smell was getting stronger and some of the dwarves had already begun choking on the fumes and covering their noses. " Here we are." She spoke up, coming to a halt and pointing to the entrance.

" Well carry on." Dwalin snarled at her,

"I'm not going in that nasty hole. I led you here, now you can go check it out." She snapped. Thorin rolled his eyes at the two of them and walked passed the woman and into the cave with the wizard behind him. Dwalin sighed and followed the others that dared to continue in and when he passed Alyndra he looked at her as if he knew she was hiding something.

"Are you alright?" The concerned voice of the hobbit asked her. She looked at him and smiled.

" Yeah, why wouldn't I be?" She asked, glad to be talking with the halfling then the wizard or one of the dwarves at this point.

"It's just.You always look so sad, like you don't really want to be here." The hobbit pointed out, hoping not to offend her or upset her further. She looked to the ground, he was right. She didn't want to be here at all. Most of the dwarves had made it clear they didn't trust her. She was unsure of the dwarf prince. Something about him was making her feel drawn to him, and yet she couldn't stand being in inches of him. But she made a wizard a promise and knew if her mother was still alive to this day she would of believed this was the right thing to do. The hobbit noticed her silence and now felt bad that he had said this. He mumbled something to her, almost sounding like an apology and he began to walk away.

"No. You're right. I don't wish to be here. It's just been hard. Not being with my family, not knowing if their okay." She admitted.

" So what's stopping you from leaving. Why stay here with us when you can be with your family?" Bilbo asked.

" Because I made a promise to a wizard, and I keep my promises." she gave him an encouraging smile, that she was alright and he smiled back when they were approached by the wizard.

" Bilbo this about your size." Gandalf insisted, handing the hobbit a elven sword. He took it hesitantly and looked at the wizard, almost with a hint of fear in his eyes. Alyndra had left, she couldn't stand to be near this stench for one more second.

"Something's coming!" Thorin's voiced shouted.

"Arm yourselves!" Gandalf ordered. The dwarves charged through the pushes to attack whatever was coming. Alyndra pulled out her twin daggers and ran to catch up to the others to fight. The crashing nose was coming closer and the skin changers heart raced.