── true courage is knowing not how to take a life, but when to spare one
IN WHICH THE LAST
OF THE DRAGONKIN
JOINS THE COMPANY
OF THORIN OAKENSHIELD
TO RETAKE EREBOR
A FIRE AND GOLD SERIES BOOK
THORIN OAKENSHIELD × OC
AN UNEX...
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After a moment of pause and everyone watching Bilbo's unconscious body on the floor, Gandalf and Ygritte stood to help the Hobbit. He woke up as they helped him to his feet and moved him away from everyone else. Aninth didn't follow, so she didn't know where the three had gone to.
Everyone slowly vacated the dining room, going their own ways and Aninth found herself alone again. A sigh fell from her lips and she picked Ryvniss up off her shoulder and deposited him on her forearm.
"You still think I'm doing the right thing, don't you, Ryv?" she asked him, "putting up with all of this to get to return to my mother's home?"
"Well, it's not like she can do it," the Dragon told her.
"That's not something you have to remind me of," Aninth said sadly, "I feel my parents' absence every day."
"Maybe being in the place where you mother grew up will lessen that," he said.
"Are you saying you think it is worth it?"
"Weren't you listening to me at all?" he asked as he climbed up her arm to curl around her neck once more.
Aninth rolled her eyes and finally picked herself up, leaving the dining room. Once in the hallway, she didn't know which way to go and found herself staring at a painting hung on the wall.
It was of the Shire, just as the sun was beginning to rise over the hill that Bag End was on. She could see the market and the great pond and the big empty field just barely in sight on the left side of the painting that was used for parties.
It seemed no matter where she looked or what she said, there was no avoiding thinking of her parents. The parties that she had attended as a girl with her father in the Shire were some of her best memories of him.
She wished that they could see her now, visiting the Shire and joining the quest to take back Erebor. They would have been so proud of her.
When the hairs on the back of her neck bristled, Aninth turned to see Thorin staring at her. Her gaze hardened as he saw his scowl dip from her face to the Dragon around her neck.
Aninth approached Thorin, a scowl on her face to match his. With her arms crossed over her chest, she was sure he knew she wasn't happy. She looked up at him, ready for whatever comments he would make.
"I am not leaving this quest, so you may as well stop blatantly glaring at me and my companion," Aninth told him.
"I was not-"
"But you were," Aninth interrupted. Thorin looked surprised. "I know that you care about your people a lot and weren't expecting me to be on this quest, but all I want to do is see the place where my mother grew up. She told me many stories and other things about Erebor. So just... keep in that in mind."
