Dawn (A Hobbit Fanfic)

Chapter 16 - Did I mention that I hate spiders?

In a surprising turn of events, Beorn took us in and even served us breakfast. He prepared milk in giant mugs and the slice of bread I got was thicker than my arm. Needless to say, I was unable to finish my portion. The others shared my leftovers between them.
"So you are the one they call Oakenshield. Tell me, why is Azog the Defiler hunting you?" Beorn asked Thorin.
"You know of Azog? How?"
"My people were the first to live in the mountains, before the Orcs came down from the north. The Defiler killed most of my family, but some he enslaved."
That is horrible. As if Azog wasn't bad enough for trying to massacre the Durin line.
"Not for work, you understand, but for sport. Caging skin-changers and torturing them seemed to amuse him," Beorn continued.
Biologically, Azog probably did have a heart, but I still felt a strong urge to carve his chest open to check.
"There are others like you?" Asked Bilbo.
"Once, there were many."
"And now?"
"Now, there is only one."
Right, let's leave the wound open then.

"You need to reach the mountain before the last days of autumn?" Beorn asked, to break the silence that had fallen.
"Before Durin's Day falls, yes," answered Gandalf.
"You are running out of time."
"Which is why we must go through Mirkwood."
I really was not looking forward to that part.

"A darkness lies upon that forest. Fell things creep beneath those trees. There is an alliance between the Orcs of Moria and the Necromancer in Dol Guldur. I would not venture there except in great need."

Exactly. Wait what?

"What news of the Elves? Is the prince safe?" I asked Beorn.
"I do not know, why do you ask?"
"

He is my brother."
"Then you are not Dawn, or a halfbreed," he concluded.
"No, I am not," I confessed.
"Why do you travel with these Dwarves, princess?"
"Gandalf asked me to, and I owed him one."

To be honest, the real reason was unknown to me. When Gandalf had first approached me, I agreed to come because it was a pristine oppertunity to get out of Bree, but if that was the only reason, I would have stayed in Rivendell, or even the Shire. I do not know what the other reasons were. Maybe just to help them where I failed to do so previously. At this point I almost thought Gandalf was on his second attempt of trying to get me adopted into a loving family.

"We will take the Elven road, that path is still safe. And Dawn knows the forest."
"Safe? The Wood-Elves of Mirkwood are not like their kin. They are less wise and more dangerous."
While I knew that I myself was the perfect example of that, I was still highly offened. I frowned at him. Kili and Fili noticed and were about to joke about it when Beorn cut them off.
"But it matters not."
"What do you mean?" asked Thorin, who also sounded amused at the fact that I just sat there being salty instead of attacking Beorn, which would have proven his point. Whatever, our wine is better.

"These lands are crawling with Orcs. Their numbers are growing, and you are on foot. You will never reach the forest alive."
We didn't really know how to respond to that.
Beorn rose from the table. "I don't like dwarves. They're greedy and blind, blind to the lives of those they deem lesser than their own."
Now it was Thorin's turn to be salty and he crossed his arms. I smirked at him and then at Kili and Fili, leaning back in my chair but falling backwards to the ground. I had forgotten that I was sitting cross-legged on the table instead of on a chair.
The rest of the Company burst with laughter. I got up and glared at them. "Shut up, I landed on my feet," I huffed.
When they'd finally calmed down, Beorn acted as if nothing had happened, but I could hear the amusement in his voice.
"Orcs I hate more. What do you need?"
"Do you have a spare knife?" I asked him.

-~-

We were saddling up horses. They were beautiful. White with black spots and long manes. Beorn only had one big horse, so I sat in front of Gandalf's saddle. The small ones were just a tad too small.
Beorn bid us farewell. He even gave me a small knife that I could use as a dagger. I could finally throw a knife again.