A Ruby's Shine (Thorin Oakenshield X OC)

82. Meeting Tauriel

Thorin's POV

I glanced around as we climbed up the rocks on the west side of the mountain, glancing back at the destroyed city of Dale below. I pulled my map free once more, annoyed and impatient, the entrance has to be here, somewhere. I glanced around this side of the mountain, growling in frustration as I spotted nothing of this hidden entrance.

Today has been rough and irritating, as the day wore on I became more irritable. I was annoyed with a lot of things, yet my mind continued to return to the guilty look in Philomena's eyes as she lied to me. I trust my nephews to keep her safe, yet I felt irrationally angry at her lying to me. I knew it wasn't right to be mad at her lying, but I was. I wanted to see the awe in her eyes as she stared upon the great halls of Erebor for the first time. I wanted to show her the great wealth of the dwarves and show her the ingenuity of the forges, she surely would have been fascinated by those with her love for interesting things. The library though.... I imagine she would love it most of all.

We dwarves were not just tinkerers and toy makers, no, we have quite the gathering of vast knowledge within that library, a massive tunnel dug down far into Erebor at the center of the library, thousands upon thousands of books to entertain her mind of years on end. I remember her look of shock when I caught her reading the book the people of Dale wrote about their history with Erebor. I remember her embarrassment as she admitted her hidden love for books as she glanced up at me.

The irritation in my heart melted slightly as I thought of all the good memories for the past few days. Her trust in me, admitting such a weakness in her heart of her past... I felt honored to receive that trust from the hardened warrior woman, to see with my own eyes the side of herself she hides under her walls, truly for the first time. I only fell in love with her even more at seeing her grey blue eyes so open and trusting as she told me of her dreams, her fears.

When she told me of her fears that Azog played a part in the massacre that resulted in her ending up in Lord Elrond's hands... I felt, for the first time, the rage that many spoke of when their One is wronged in some way. That firey rage raced over me like I had molten metal poured on my head, making it near impossible for me to stay in place and not search out Azog in my fit of rage and try to kill him. It was impossible to control, now I could see why a dwarf's One is not threatened unless that person has a death wish.

The only thing that held me there, kept me from acting, was Philomena's eyes. I didn't miss the touch of fear in them and my want to comfort her won out over my rage. My lips tingled as I remember her stepping close and reaching up to kiss me.

Her lips on my own were like being struck by the lightning for the first time all over again. When I touched her arm all those mouths ago, it was nothing more than a small shock in comparison to that kiss. It felt like I had thousand of lightning bolts repeatedly striking me all at once and I knew, for sure then, that I would never be able to let her go. I was actually the one that had to stop the kiss, because I was loosing a handle on my control, forgetting where I was, who a I was, and nearly did something I wouldn't like myself for later. We dwarves stand big by our laws and the laws state that a relationship cannot go beyond kissing until two dwarves are married before Mahal in the traditional dwarf way.

So I was the one that had to stop. Philomena did not help me, though, licking her lips as she did only made me want to continue kissing her senseless. I somehow found the will to avoid doing so.

"Anything?" I called out to the others, pulling myself from my thoughts as we searched for the entryway into the mountain, none of us finding anything that would count as an entrance. I putted away the map and stabbed my borrowed sword into the ground.