A Ruby's Shine (Thorin Oakenshield X OC)

37. Cleaning Up

"I hear water!" I heard Gloin call sometime later from the north side of the group, making me look up to see the trees have grown quite thick and tightly packed, some rising cliff edges to our right and the faint sound of a rushing, trickling water to our left. The thought made my mouth water. Luckily my water skin survived the mess, strapped to my belt instead of my lost bag, but I had drank all of it a little before the goblin mess so I am thirsty.

And in need of a nice bath. I miss pubs, at least they offer rooms and a communal bathing area and, if you pay them enough, you can get the communal bathing area to yourself for a while, which is nice. My clothes are probably in need of a good wash too. What was once a bunch of different pretty shades of grey now looks like a disaster of brown, black, and dark brown red. I know for a fact that my long sleeve shirt under my coat is stained on my arm from the wound there. And I can also get these bindings off my hands finally, any twitch of my fingers lets me know that under that cloth my hands are crusted in dried blood.

Plus, I smell like ash, nasty goblins, sweat, and blood. It is not a nice smell and it's turning my nose. How come Thorin was lucky to come away from all of that smelling so nice? Lucky stubborn dwarf. That was when I realised I was thinking about that annoying ass dwarf again and pummeled that part of myself into the ground, crossing my arms and scowling at the river as we continued to walk. Then I realised, to my horror, that when he removed Fairfin from my rat nest of hair, he probably smelt how disgusting I smell right now.

Great, will my luck of today continue?

I followed the company more down the hill and to the north, the rushing water sound getting louder until we walked through the trees to find a fast rushing river, too fast for any of us to get water from or clean ourselves so we continued to follow the river, especially since it's heading in the same direction we planned to go anyways. After a time, the river held less rocks in it and slowed to a soft rush, trees hanging low over the water to absorb the river's nutrients, which is what made the river slow enough.

"Refill your water, clean up, we leave in 30 minutes." Thorin ordered, checking the area for any threats. I walked up to the river and leaned down, unhooking my water skin and popping off the lid, holding it in the water for a moment before taking a drink of it myself. Wow, this water must be rushing straight from the mountain, because you don't normally find water this fresh on the other side of the mountain.

Or, at least, I haven't found water this fresh except from a well. I drank until I had my fill before filling up my water skin and tying off the cap, strapping it to my belt once more and standing.

I looked in the direction of the dwarves, starting to step that way till I realised there was clothing of a few of the dwarves hanging on the tree. I turned so quickly to face the other direction that it must have been comical. Geez, did these dwarves just forget a female is in their presence or do they just not care?

Alright, I am a lot less like a lady, but I still have standards. I shuddered slightly, glad I didn't see anything I definitely didn't want to see. I am sure I looked hilarious to any watching, facing the other direction with my head turned up to stare at the trees as I tapped my fingers together, thinking.

I am definitely not hopping into that river on full display like some of those dwarves no doubt are. I noticed Thorin wasn't even refilling his water skin out of the edge of my eye, just leaning against a rock, scowling at the air like it did him a personal offense.

Now that right there seems a lot more like the irritating ass of a dwarf I have come to know. Luckily he distracted me enough not to start blushing at the thought of what is happening behind me. I do not blush, I am a warrior and blushing is a frilly girly thing and I am against it.