Journey to Middle Earth // Thorin Oakenshield

Chapter 5

When they stopped later that afternoon, the rain had long stopped and the whole company had dried off from the rain.

Thorin chose a small clearing in the woods for the night but Sara didn't recognize the place. She was about to voice out her opinion when suddenly she remembered that they had no idea that she knew what was supposed to happen. What's more, she had to remind herself that the books and movies didn't follow the journey day by day after all.

Sighing heavily with exhaustion, she dismounted and lifted Mason from the saddle. The puppy stretched before scampering off to chase squirrels. Sara laid her head in the saddle and closed her eyes as she began to unbuckle the girth of the saddle. Why did she feel so lightheaded.... And weak? She felt so heavy.

"Yo Sara," Kili called. "You alright?"
"Yeah I'm fine," Sara called back but when she first opened her mouth, it came out croaky like there was something in her throat.

Thorin's head snapped in her direction at the sound in her voice and just managed to see her hide behind her horse from Kili's view and cough into her shoulder. What is wrong with her?
Shrugging his shoulders, he finished unsaddling his pony and set about helping Oin start a fire. Occasionally he would look up to see where his nephews, the hobbit and Sara had wandered off to. As usual, his nephews wouldn't stop moving around and playing about. The hobbit was shyly following Gandalf around as usual... but Sara was different. Instead of talking with the others or wandering around curiously, she was seated on a rock nearby, her legs drawn to her chest and she hugged them close, resting her chin on her knees.

Thorin frowned. He felt like there was something off with her. There was no color in her cheeks and her eyes looked sunken in. She kept wobbling back and forth as if trying to either rock herself to sleep or she was dozing off every few seconds.

'Must be tired,' Thorin thought to himself.

He went back to setting up the fire when he was snapped out of it by a cry from Kili. He looked up, expecting Kili to be bleeding or getting chased by a rabbit. However, Kili was kneeling next to the rock where Sara had been seated... and was holding the girl in his arms. Sara's eyes were closed, and her head lulled to the side while Kili struggled to stand up with her in his arms.

"Sara!" Fili cried, rushing to the girl's side.

Thorin rose to his feet while all the other dwarves in the company rushed over to the two young dwarves.

"What happened?" Oin insisted.

"She just toppled over," Kili replied. "She looked like she was falling asleep... then she just collapsed."
"She must be just overly tired," Dwalin reasoned.

Oin shook his head, "Not so easily... she's poisoned."
Thorin had been about to kneel back down to finish the fire when he froze. He snapped his head around and dropped the flint and steel.

"What do you mean poisoned?" he insisted, glaring.

Oin seemed a little shocked at Thorin's outburst but was quick to recover, "the greenish hue of her skin, the way her eyes are diluted... and the fact that she is bleeding from her mouth."

Thorin was beside the healer in an instant and sure enough, he could see a small trail of blood seeping from between Sara's plush lips. Her skin was pale but also had an unnatural color to it and her eyes... well those were closed.

"But what poisoned her?" Fili insisted, helping his brother lay the girl down on a nearby bedroll.

"The plant," Gloin whispered. "She must have touched it when she pushed Ori away."