Bring Me With Her

From the Inside Out

He didn't know how long it took her to fall asleep last night. It had been such a long time since Thorin saw Talia lying completely still. She looked exhausted, she even gave the near impression that she would never move again. But nevertheless, Thorin was grateful to see her breathing steadily. He hoped that Talia was finally having a dreamless sleep for once that would leave her feeling recovered from her nausea when she woke. For that reason, Thorin decided to delay the journey for a few hours and let her sleep. The sun had already risen bright in the sky, and the Dwarf king kept watch over their campsite while Gollum was roaming off somewhere.

If he had seen him coming just a second sooner, Thorin would've stopped him. The Dwarf king turned around at the sound of Gollum crawling right up to Talia, waking her up with what appeared to be two dead rabbits in his mouth. The creature dropped them right onto her lap, and Thorin gritted his teeth as she woke with a start.

"Look! Look! See what Smeagol finds?" he laughed, clearly feeling very pleased with himself. Thorin only studied Talia's face. She was still groggy, and didn't seem to be entirely sure what just happened. She eyed the rabbits, glanced back at him, and then back once more at the rabbits. Talia still didn't look as well as Thorin had hoped, if anything, she looked worse. Her eyes were tired, and her dry lips formed into a small frown. The sad thing was that Talia was trying to look pleased at what Gollum brought them, but she only appeared to have lost more color from her face.

She jerked back and grimaced when Gollum picked up one rabbit and broke its spine in front of her face. She looked disgusted, but Gollum only continued to smile. "They are young! They are tender and they are nice! Yes they are! Eat them! Eat them!" Thorin could no longer hold his breath in when Gollum began to take a raw bite out of the rabbit he held in his hands.

"Oh God, the smell." Talia gagged, right as Thorin approached and yanked the rabbits away from Gollum.

"Are you daft? You're going to make her sick!" Thorin barked, walking away before he could be chastised by either of them. There was only one way they were going to eat these, and it was going to be like civilized human beings.

Thorin was never any good at cooking, or even making camp food. That was one area in his life where he truly could say that he was spoiled. Being the heir to the throne of Durin, Thorin's people always insisted that he have his meals be cooked for him; and by the time she was old enough, Dis became the cook in the family, insisting that Thorin couldn't make an edible meal if his life depended on it. She wasn't entirely correct on that statement, Thorin could make camp food that could sustain him well enough...even if it usually did end up a bit overdone.

Gollum was appalled as he watched Thorin skinning the two rabbits, and he let out another famous wail as he began to roast them over a fire. "No! What's it doing? Stupid Dwarfses! It ruins it!" Thorin rolled his eyes and was on the verge of snapping at him when another voice cut in.

"Hey! That's only okay when I say it!"

Thorin furrowed his eyebrows at Talia's comment. He wasn't exactly sure what to think about that. Did she actually just save him from an insult by Gollum? Or was she just looking to pick at someone? She was probably just taking her hard time out on Gollum, as Thorin could clearly see that Talia still wasn't feeling well. The Dwarf king merely shook his head and turned his attention back to Gollum.

"What is there to ruin anyway? There's hardly any meat on them." But what Thorin wouldn't tell Gollum was that he truly didn't care about the little amount of meat they had. He was grateful to have any meat at all, especially when the aroma began to fill his nose. He'd been living off of that Elven bread for what felt like too long. He wanted to taste a real meal again.