Bloodstained (Thorin x OC)

Falling Ill

"Here, it's been a long day. You need to eat something." Ori gave Agarwaen a bowl of Bombur's soup and sat down next to her against the cold stone wall of an old noble's home. It was nearest to the treasure horde and had some usable supplies, so the company was camped out there for the time being. They'd spent the whole day searching for the cursed stone, and now all sat around quietly while Thorin remained among the gold.

She stared down at the soup for a few minutes before lifting the bowl to her mouth.

"So what do you think will happen now?" She asked.

"I...I don't know. I suppose we just keep looking for the Arkenstone." Ori replied, fidgeting with the leather binding of a new book he must have found in the mountain. His old one was lost to the elves of Mirkwood. "Will you be staying for a while?" He asked.

"I don't know. I'll stay for as long as Bilbo does I think."

"Would...would it be alright if I included you in my writings?" Ori asked suddenly.

"What do you mean?"

"Well, I want to write of this quest, and tell of everyone in it, and I was just...I was wondering if it was alright if I wrote about you?"

"Of course, Ori. You needn't even ask, you know." She smiled down at him as he flipped open his book, which he'd been working on for snatches of the whole day. She caught glimpses of rough sketches of the company members, none of them finished, but each already resembled the dwarves perfectly.

"You're quite the artist." She remarked.

"O-oh...thank you." He said shyly. "None of them are finished, though."

"Good work doesn't just appear overnight. I used to design and craft things as a hobby many years ago. Drawing the design was almost as fun as making some of it." Ori scribbled what she'd just told him down on a page about her. She couldn't help but read small sections of it, seeing bits about her turning on Thranduil's orders and how she fought bravely against the goblins and orcs.

"What kind of things did you craft?" He asked, now curious.

"Oh, many things. Jewelry, weapons, clothes, and I even started designing different armors. Bows were one of my favorite things to make." The two sat and talked for a while, before the hours grew late and the company made makeshift beds with old dusty blankets and such.

The next day, it was back to looking for the Arkenstone.

"Agarwaen." Thorin beckoned from atop a hill of gold. She swallowed hard and approached the king. With this new and powerful lust for the treasure, he became unpredictable, greatly worrying them all. She half expected him to send her away now due to her race.

"Have you laid your claim to a fifteenth of the treasure yet?" He asked, his eyes an even duller gray than they were yesterday. They held no life in them, as if he was a dead man, and it made her heart ache.

"No. I still hold no desire for gold, jewels, or that which would weigh me down." She responded truthfully, not knowing how else to reply.

"Then you have not yet seen the true beauty of dwarven treasure." He reached into a pocket and pulled out a beautiful necklace adorned with over a hundred diamonds and sapphires, bound together by thin mithril chains.

"It is beautiful yes, but--"

"It is yours." He interrupted. "Along with anything else you find in this horde that can rival your elven beauty." His words were unsettling to her, but she couldn't help but feel complimented. To dwarves, elves were written off as ugly. So for him to reference elven beauty was strange.