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Chapter Thirty Seven - Love Is Blind

Sometime in the night Maura had shifted her head off Thorin's chest and placed her own arm under her head as a cushion and was curled up not far from the king. The healer stirred in her sleep and finally blinked her eyes open. She saw across from her that the Dwarf King was still sound asleep on his back. Maura had half expected him to have gotten up sometime in the night and vanish back to the treasure room, presuming his search for the Arkenstone. But here he was, seeming to be his normal self for the time being.

The healer glanced over at the open ledge to see the sun peaking up from behind the mountains. She got up from the ground and carefully walked around Thorin over to the ledge and rested her arms on the wall, looking over at the mountains that appeared to have a fresh layer of snow. Maura let out a sigh, just hoping by some mere miracle she would see Bofur, Fili, Kili and Oin coming along down the road from Dale. But to her disappointment no movement was seen for miles. The woman swallowed the lump in her throat at the likely hood her friends were even still alive. If they were, they would of been here by now.

Maura exhaled her breath she was holding in, when she felt the presence of someone standing beside her. She turned to her right to see Thorin, his right arm resting on the wall, as he gazed at the ruin city. The king turned and looked at her, her mind seemed somewhere else as her eyes drifted to the ground.

The king placed a hand on her shoulder. "Maura, they will all return safely." Thorin assured, already knowing what weighed so heavily on her mind.

"I know..." She whispered, hoping this would be true. Thorin looked back out over the ledge, trying to think of a way to help easy the woman's mind and finally something clicked.

"Come with me." Thorin encouraged, a small smile forming on his lips. He took the healers hand in his his, not giving her a chance to protest and led her down another tunnel that she had never been down before. Maura was quiet for the longest time, wondering where the Dwarf could possibly be leading her.

"Where are we going?" Maura asked curiously.

"We're almost there." He replied, not divulging anything. When the King first took her hand in his, he had nearly forgotten how tiny and delicate her hand was, compared to his. He had only really felt it once when they were in Laketown, during their short dance the night the master threw a feast for them.

Thorin finally stopped at a door and released the half-breed's hand from his and cleared the thick cobwebs that had accumulated over the decades, due to being uninhibited. The Dwarf lifted the latch and pushed the door open, and allowed the healer to walk passed him. Maura walked down the steps and saw what appeared to be the healing chambers. The shelves had numerous jars, most likely filled with different types of healing herbs and other things her kin thought to be useful in healing the wounded. In the middle of the room are 3 stone tables where the injured would lie, while they got patched up. At the back of the room, on the wall were more shelves filled with books on healing, medicine and other such things one would need to know. "I know, you've been trained by the way of the Elves..." Thorin began. Maura could hear the disgust in his voice when he mentioned Elves but he was trying to remain calm. It bothered him more then he liked that she still thought so highly of the Elves over her own kin. "but I thought you would enjoy learning the way of your own kin and they're ways of healing. I know when Oin returns I'm sure I could put in a good word with him and he would defiantly take you on. Lord knows he needs the assistances now more then ever. Practically almost deaf now." Thorin smirked, Maura could hear the hope in his voice at this.

The healers eyes widen a little hearing this. Was Thorin offering her a place amongst his people? The two of them chuckled at that. The woman could only imagine how much her and Oin would disagree on their ways of doing things and she smirked to herself. But her smirk quickly fell. Even if she did decide to stay. She would be more then likely dead, before she even had the chance to enjoy it. The only thing she didn't know, was when it would come to pass. Maura turned to look at Thorin. The king nodded for her to go take a better look around and she wandered over to the bookshelf and grabbed the first book that caught her attention. The healer blew off the dust that was caked on it and opened it up and began reading it. Thorin leaned against the wall, just watching her curiously, seeing her lips twitch into a small smile as she flipped through the pages, unaware that she had intense eyes watching her the entire time and the Dwarf made his way over to her.