The Warrior Queen. The Warrior and The King - Book II

Epilogue

Thorin adjusted his whale fur collar and pushed the door open. The wind hit him at once, it was a testament to his Sardaukar training that 10 degrees and a stiff wind hardly felt cold to him anymore. He walked across the wide wooden deck to the forward rail, listening to the mast creaking, the swish of the runners on the ice. There was a sound of voices behind him, he looked to see Pilot on the back deck talking to a couple of crew members. It made Thorin smile, telepaths were a shunned caste on Kzin but to the catlike Tran females he was the flavor of the month.

Thorin leaned against the rail looking out at the vast ocean of ice, the eastern sky just beginning to turn pink. He sipped at his spice coffee, the cold wind biting his face. It was a good day to be alive. Today was Durin's Day, at least it was back home on Middle Earth. He had many good memories of this day in the past 300 years. So clearly he remembered standing in front of that secret door so many years ago, willing the dying light to show him the way into his kingdom. It was odd to feel younger now than he did then but boosterspice, three years of unspeakably hard training and a low gravity planet would do that to you. His life had changed in so many ways since he had opened that door to Erebor. Rebuilding his kingdom, the births of his children, the great War of the Ring and the defeat of Sauron, then the reclaiming of Moria. And his first adventure off Middle Earth by himself - which he had somehow managed to survive. He still owed Thranduil for that one. Marrying Kaylea Wolf again, not once but twice. First in Erebor in front of hundreds of guests he had finally set a crown on her head. And then again on the lawn of Tor Graham, as he had seen in Galadriel's Mirror surrounded by her dark-haired Dorsai family. He and Blackwolf had even managed to call a truce for that day. As a father himself Thorin found he could not deny the great lord the opportunity to walk down the aisle with his daughter. And now they were here, sailing the ice ocean of Tran-Ky-Ky.

The king watched the light grow in the east, thinking about the first time he had seen this view. Shown to him by Hector in a dream, he remembered how he had been immediately drawn to it, how intensely he had wanted to be on that ship. It was strange because he was certainly not a sailor, far from it. There was a kind of freedom to it that drew him, as someone who had been burdened by many responsibilities all his life the idea of just being able to sail away from them was very attractive. As he watched the dawn he picked up someone coming across the deck towards him; he listened for the step, the breathing pattern. Kaylea. Thorin smiled as she put her arms around him, kissed him on the neck.

"A credit for your thoughts?" She asked, with a smile.

"Good morning, wife," Thorin said, leaning over to kiss her as she moved to stand beside him at the rail.

"Good morning, husband. You looked as if you were deep in thought." She smiled at him like the dawn breaking.

Thorin laughed. "Today is Durin's Day," He pulled her close to him. "I was just thinking about the many turns my life has taken."

Kaylea frowned, making the calculations. "Yes, it is the New Year. And they were not all bad turns."

Thorin chuckled. "No, indeed. Many of them were good." The sun came over the horizon, turning her face golden. There was a shout from up in the rigging, they looked to see another ship, some distance off. He could just make out the same flag as their ship was flying. He and Kaylea stood at the rail, sipping coffee and watching the sun come up, it was warm on their faces. Thorin looked over at his wife, now that his training was done they could finally live like a married couple. After this they were headed back to Erebor for a couple years. The first thing he wanted to do was to go to Moria, the reports had all been positive but he needed to see how Durin was doing for himself. Thorin wondered idly how different it would seem to him now after so many years among the conveniences of the Empire. The bargain with Lord Blackwolf to travel to Middle Earth whenever they wished had been a long time coming, but it was done now. Thinking of Blackwolf reminded him of a question he had meant to ask his wife.

"I was just thinking about that conversation we had with Blackwolf," he began. Kaylea looked at him.

"The one where you accused his mother of performing questionable sex acts with trolls?"

Thorin rolled his eyes. "What I said was much worse than that," he replied matter-of-factly. "I really need to teach you Ancient Khuzdul. Anyway, I am talking about the conversation we had at our wedding, about boosterspice."

Kaylea nodded. "That is is not supposed to make you younger and taller?" She smiled at him. "Or are you talking about his feigned slip of the tongue?"

"Was that what it was? I was just wondering about it."

"Blackwolf never says anything accidently. He did plainly say you had aged backward and he could not tell IF you would start aging again," Kaylea shook her head remembering that day, she had to give Thorin a lot of credit for holding his temper. "He is the geneticist, not me. He said 'if' and changed it to 'when', I really think that was his backhanded way of giving us a wedding present. He did give you another shot, remember."

Thorin smiled as he finished his coffee and set it down, he picked Kaylea up and swung her around. She laughed, bending her head down to kiss him. The beads of their braids clicked together in the wind. As she had many times in the past few years, Kaylea wondered why she had waited so long to marry this man.

"What shall we do then with all the time in the world, wife?"

"I am sure we will think of something, my husband."