The King and The Baker

Chapter 3

Ora was cold, hungry, exhausted and not to mention covered in blood. Not her own though, oh no, her father and brother had lived up to her expectations and pulled a hilarious prank on her involving the internal organs of a dead deer. She absolutely stunk and was itching to return to the Mountain and clean herself up.

"Slow down, grumpy!" Her father called as she marched on ahead through the snow,

"Don't get your braids in a twist!" Giora added, snickering along with Pul because they were just that funny.

"Oh har-har!" Ora hissed sarcastically, swirling round to glower at her brother and father, who were happily plodding along at their own pace, dragging two deer's with them. Ora herself was holding three hares and she shook them with anger at her infuriating family, who continued to look far too pleased with themselves.

"It was only a joke, Ora. Where's your sense of humour?" Giora called, giving the dead deer a hard tug when it got stuck in the snow.

"I have a sense of humour," Ora growled, "I just don't appreciate stinking of rotten animal."

"Hey!" Pul called, looking mildly offended by that comment, "They're fresh as daisies."

Ora rolled her eyes and turned back around, returning to her angry marching as she began to ascend a rock slope.

Erebor lay just the other side of the rocks and Ora was thankful they hadn't had to travel too far to hunt, she couldn't imagine having to walk any further than she already had done covered in mud and blood. She grumbled to herself the entire walk back to Erebor. Having a nice hot bath couldn't come sooner.

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Ora stomped through the halls of Erebor with Giora at her heel, trying to coax his way back into her good books.

"Seriously, Giora, I just want a bath right now." Ora grunted, weaving around a small gaggle of Dwarrowdams, all of which gave Ora a disgusted look. She spotted Fragh up ahead and groaned, of course the absolute last person she'd ever want to see looking like this was of course here. But why was she here?

"Oh no..." Giora spoke for her, eyes drifting past the back Fragh the Fouls big, greasy head to the Dwarf standing before her.

King Thorin seemed to be in conversation with the male Dwarf Fragh was standing next to, and when Ora made a sudden movement to run it must have caught his attention. His gaze shifted from the short, red headed Dwarf before him and his eyes landed on Ora.

Ora stopped dead in her place, her face draining of colour and her blood running cold. She knew better than to run now, especially while the King was watching her. However, he didn't make a move to advance on her and instead moved his attention back to the red headed Dwarf.

"Quick!" Giora hissed, pushing Ora down a nearby passage way before she had time to object. She quickly stumbled before sprinting away and taking the next flight of stairs down into the Mountain.

How typical, she thought, up until a week ago I'd never even so much as caught a whiff of the King, and now he's everywhere.

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Once bathed and clean, Ora went to find Ava before supper. It didn't take long to find the Dwarrowdam, after checking where she lived Ora went to the training yard and spotted her sparring with a terrified looking Uli.

"Ora, oh thank Mahal you're back!" Uli cried having noticed Ora walking towards them, almost immediately she dropped the sword she was holding like it was a dead animal and backed away from it.