тнє нєαℓєя[тнσяιи σαкєиѕнιєℓ∂]

Chapter Thirty One - Regrettable Words

It was the next morning. The healer woke up to the sun shinning in her room, on her eyes, making her squint. She stretched her arms and threw off the covers. Maura got cleaned up and grabbed her few things and left the room. As she wandered down the hall, a thought crossed her mind. Since, learning of her future death, Maura had felt such a heaviness on her shoulders, on their long journey. Having to keep it from those she cared about, because she didn't want them to lose focus on this quest. All of them never suspected anything strange about her behavior since they had left the Elven valley. Except for one. Thorin. He had paid more attention to her then she realized. She could still picture the leaders face clearly in her mind when she revealed this all to him. He literally looked at her in shock that she had continued on this far with them, knowing what was to happen to her if she should.

To Maura's surprise, she expected Thorin to have reacted way worse, then just simply yelling at her. She knew he was right. Bilbo did deserve to know. But she couldn't bare to put that burden on him. The healer felt like she could finally breathe for the first time, in what seemed like a life time. The woman had to admit, since telling Thorin everything, from her tragic past. to this horrifying vision of what her future was to be, she felt relieved to have someone else now know. Maura never expected it to be Thorin, she would place her trust in. He had shown so many times on this quest, that he wanted nothing to do with her or the hobbit. Until they reached the home of the skin changer, Beorn. is when Maura really noticed Thorin's behavior towards her changed to concern, and yet somewhat over protective of her. The half-breed looked up and saw her companions making they're way to the front doors. They were all dressed up in much finer, warmer clothing then they were used to wearing on this quest.

"Aunt Maura. Everything alright? You seemed quite upset yesterday morning." Bilbo stated, coming up beside the woman.

Everything's fine Bilbo. I promise. I didn't mean to worry you the other morning. I've just had a few things on my mind, but it's nothing you need to worry about." She assured him, giving him a warm smile. The hobbit smiled back, but he could tell she wasn't being completely honest with him about something, but left it alone. They had other pressing matters to attend to. The healer saw Thorin speaking with Balin walking out the door and Maura and Bilbo followed behind.

"You do know we're one short, right? Where is Bofur?" Bilbo asked, noticing everyone else appeared to be accounted for but him.

"If he's not here, we leave him behind." Thorin stated harshly, which caused Maura to stop in her tracks. Was Thorin really going to leave a member of his own kin behind?

"We'll have to, if we're to find the door before nightfall. We can risk no more delays." Balin declared. The company had approached the docks, where soldiers stood, handing the Dwarves weapons and other supplies for the rest of their journey. Maura was about to climb onto the boat when she saw out of the corner of her eye, Thorin put a hand against his youngest nephew's chest, preventing him from going any further.

"Not you. We must travel with speed, you will slow us down." Thorin stated. Maura narrowed her eyes and then looked at Kili. She didn't understand. After making that healing remedy for the young lad, he looked like he was already starting to get better and now he looked worse then ever. Kili gave his uncle a slight smirk, thinking Thorin was only joking with him, and his grin began to fade when he saw the look on his face.

"What are you talking about? I'm going with you." Kili said. The leader shook his head, telling him he was staying and Maura could feel her eyes begin to sting, seeing the hurt on Kili's face as his uncle said this to him. " I'm going to be there when that door is opened, when we first look upon the halls of our fathers, Thorin."

Placing a hand on Kili's shoulder, Thorin smiled at his nephew. " Kili, stay here. Rest. Join us when you're healed." Thorin said, before turning around to continue on helping the others load the rest of the supplies onto the boat.