Disclaimer: I own nothing.

Pronunciations: Ana is said with an awe sound. Not an Anne.

AN at the bottom.

"By Mahal's beard, Ogri, you seem to get dirtier every time I turn my back on you."

The dark horse snorted at her, almost as if he was mocking her words. He shook out his dirt clad and grass stained dark mane, tossing clumps of mud onto the ground.

The small dwarrowdam sighed at the playful horse, patting his hard body as she reached to the other side of the stall to gather her washing supplies. "You know, you cause me more trouble than you're worth. Out of all the others I have to take care of, I by far have to spend the most time on you. And for what?! The minute I leave you decide to go play in the mud. I really should have you locked up or something."

Ana, daughter of Storin, didn't have many friends to claim; at least other dwarf companions. The horses she worked with seemed to like her plenty, though, and that was enough for her. After relocating back to Erebor, she lost many close friends she had as a young girl whose families decided to stay put. And after her three years of being in the mountain, one year of working at the stables, she hadn't had anyone take particular notice in her, besides the two neighbor sisters who lived next door. Besides them, she quietly kept to herself and her family.

As the last born out of five children, an unusual occurrence in dwarf families, the Hillins family remained particularly close, especially after the death of her mother fifty years ago. Each child, save Ana and her only sister ten years her senior, stepped into an adult to role to help support their father and family.

But now Ana was 81, more than old enough to begin pulling her weight. Her father wanted her doing something as least dangerous as possible, like her sister in the bakery; but due to the fact that she could set water on fire, being in the kitchens was out of the question. So off to the stables she went. And besides the occasional bruise or bite, no immediate danger was involved.

Except for when she dealt with Ogri, the devil horse. Some days, after work was done early, she'd try and sneak in a ride with the animal, maybe will him into being a majestic animal. Nearly every time they went out she'd come back with a limp and dirt stains, though. Due to certain employee guidelines – which were extremely unnecessary (really, who would steal hay for their own use?) – she couldn't ask who the owner was of the crazy beast and tell them that the horse needed to be trained to be more civil, if that were even possible. To make matters worse, the horse had been passed around to all the workers due to his wild behavior; and because Ana was the youngest and newest, Ogri became her problem.

"Hold still, Ogri. All I'm doing is combing your m– hey!" He swung his head towards her, his snout barely avoiding her eye. "No need to get hasty. I know you dread our time together as much as I do, you big fool."

With the clumps of dirt mostly removed from his dark mane, she grabbed a stool and pick. Sitting down and scooting as far under Ogri as she could, she grabbed his front leg and bent it on her knee, drawing her face close to his hoof for inspection. "Did you run in pure mud? Mahal, this is awful," she murmured as she began work on the black hoof.

Now onto one of his back hooves, which was even worse than the front, she could feel him becoming restless. One of his front legs began to stamp, he shook his head, he snorted and whined, and she could feel the leg in her hand start to tremble.

"What's gotten into you?" she asked the horse, tightening her grip on his leg so he wouldn't kick her. Ogri just whined in response. She ignored him and continued to work on the hoof, mumbling to herself about wanting one day of compliance with him.

"How're we today, Kol? You'll never guess what I've got you, had to steal it myself from the kitchens."

A deep voice echoed throughout her wing of the stables, and she knew that it wasn't one of her fellow workers. Everyone else was at least a good sixty years her senior, and this voice sounded much too playful and young. Whoever it was, Ogri was obviously excited to see him, because he never acted as anxious as he was in the present moment. Out of shock from the voice and fact that the stables, at least her wing, was normally ignored, Ana loosened her grip on the leg.

Big mistake.

The second Ogri's leg was free, he kicked back. She didn't have time to react from anything, and her head, still only mere inches away from her work, was the receiver of the horse large and strong hoof. With a quiet gasp, she fell off of her stool, back hitting the soft ground with an oomph.

Her vision was blurry. She could tell because as she looked up, the panels of wood and stone began to dance and blend together. She blinked hard, trying to regain her focus, but to no avail. Far off in the distance, she could hear a man talking over the ringing in her ears, but couldn't make out what he was saying.

If her eyes would have stayed open only a second longer, she would have seen the face of a dark haired dwarf.

"Miss? Miss, are you all right? Of course, this would happen. Should I fetch some one? I probably should...but I can't just leave you here, now can I? You just had to knock her out, didn't you, Kol? Now I have to deal with it. Miss? Can you open your eyes? Wait a second – YES! Oops, I mean...yeah. Keep blinking, miss, that's it."

The man's rambling slowly became clearer and clearer as she awakened with a massive headache. It was as if she were resurfacing from a long time underwater; everything was fuzzy for a little while and then it was all clear in a second. Her hands shot to grab her temple to try and coax the hurting away. Her eyes shut again, blocking out the light that streamed in through the windows.

"No, no. Don't do that. Keep those eyes open, miss. Can you hear me?"

"No," she moaned, turning away from the voice.

Rough hands grabbed her shoulders, forcefully pushing her back to how she was lying. If her head wasn't so bloody hurt, she'd be shocked at the boldness of this dwarf. She squeezed her eyes even tighter, willing away the pain.

The stranger spoke again. "I'm going to prop you up, all right? It's the best way to deal with the dizziness. I should know," he chuckled as his inside joke. "But let me get you sitting up, okay, miss?"

Large hands enveloped her shoulders, squeezing them harshly as he hoisted her up onto her bum and against the wall. She moaned again, shaking her head against the movement.

Slowly, she opened her eyes again now that she was resituated. Blurry again at first, the man who caused this whole mess was now kneeling in front of her, a frown on his face with brows knitted. He had shaggy dark hair down to his shoulders and stubble across his neck and jaw. He couldn't have been much older than herself, if that at all. He was clad in a dark blue tunic with a green cloak spotted with dirt. If she had been in a right state of mind, the stains would have bothered her immensely.

"How's that? Better?" the young dwarf asked brightly.

"Unh," was all the response he got. Hopefully he would understand it as a distant agreement.

"Can you hear me? How many fingers am I holding up?"

"Four. I think?" Her vision was really starting to clear now, and the ringing in her ears was now fully absent. Her head still throbbed, though.

"Can you feel this?" he boldly and swiftly pinched the hand at her side.

"Ow!" she exclaimed, wrenching her hand into her lap and away from him. "I only hurt my head. It's not like I can't feel anything else."

"Just a precaution, miss. I'm, um, not quite used to making sure people are okay. That's usually Fili's job when this happens."

The cranks in her mind just now turning again, she slowly made the connection about what he had just told her. Fili, as in Prince Fili? Heir to the throne? Would that make this man a guard or something of the sort? She'd never seen any of the royal Durin bloodline very closely, only from a far. She knew there were three – Thorin, her king, and the two princes, Fili and Kili. From what her sister's told her, they were both extremely attractive and sought after dwarves.

"Well, I wouldn't quite say that. Fili's much more popular with the dwarf maidens than I am. He likes talking to them more than I do. But it is quite amusing to see my brother try to act flirtatiously."

Cheeks blazing, she realized that she must have voiced her thoughts just then. Oh, how embarrassing! Now he knows that she's uneducated about her king and his family, which was unacceptable under the mountain. Would he report her? Maybe if she could explain to him –

Her eyes went wide as the man before her broke out into a giant grin. This was no wandering dwarf. No, it was Prince Kili. Part of the Durin line. Potential heir to the throne. Royalty. In front of her, smiling like a dwarfling who had just received his first axe.

Ignoring the pain in her head, she pushed herself up from the ground and onto her feet. Clumsily and ungracefully, she gave a pathetic curtsey on wobbling knees. As she raised her head, she saw that he too had stood up to his full height, almost a head taller than her. Quickly brushing away any dark curls that had been plastered to her face, she gave him a nervous smile.

"My Prince K– "

He held up his hand. "No need to do that. It makes things more awkward than they should be. Besides," he looked around at the stables, "I wouldn't call this a 'royal setting' so I think we can pass up those formalities, don't you think?"

The Prince looked at her expectantly, the smile only slightly smaller than before. But then the twinkle in his eye dimmed and his mouth fell into a straight line as he took a step towards her. She immediately took a small one back, but the Prince placed his hand on her shoulder again, stilling her. She froze, daring not to blink or breathe when he stood so close to her, even though her pounding heart told her to do otherwise.

She was face to face with his blue tunic when he began to speak to her. "I should probably take you to go see some one. You've got a nasty bruise on your eye and if word got back to my uncle saying that I left a young maiden to fend for herself with an injury, well...I'd be walking with a limp for a few days. See, it's normally me who has to be taken to see a healer. And even then I'm at fault some how." He laughed at another inside joke.

The instant she felt his hand lift she stumbled back until she found the wall again. "Your-your majesty, I do believe that, that I'll be fine. If a-anything, it's just a, um, slight headache. You s-see, black eyes are very, well, they're very common here. No fret, please."

His eyes narrowed playfully – oh, Mahal, what was he doing? "And how can I be sure that you're fine?"

Wringing her hands behind her back, her words spilled out of her like a waterfall. "Please, my lord, just take my word. This happens much more often than you'd think true."

"Is there some one I can get for you? Overseer? Father? Kin? Suitor?"

She let out a breathy laugh. "No suitor here, your majesty. Please, I am fine, I assure you. Go on with your duties, I'm sure they're much more pressing than my state of health."

He cocked an eyebrow at her. "And what makes you think I'm here on duty?"

"Well...why wouldn't you be?"

He stepped aside, closer to the black horse. "I came to see an old friend today," he said, patting the now calm beast's middle. "Haven't seen him in so long. It took me awhile to track him down, mind you."

"Ogri is your horse?"

He turned back to her, cloak whipping around him. "You call my horse an ogre?!"

Her blue eyes went wide again. "Well, you see, my lord, your horse, well...he's got an inkling for trouble. Excuse me for that."

He paused a moment, looking at her with a confused expression. Before she had a chance to cover her tracks, he began to laugh. And not just a small snort, but full on howl with laughter. In the back of her mind, she was worried that Basil, an stern dwarrowdam who worked in the next wing over, would come to see what all the noise was about.

"Your majesty – "

"You," he breathed, "you call my horse," he laughed again, "an ogre?"

She knitted her brows together, "I'm sorry, my lord. It just came...natural, I guess. I...I apologize if it offends you."

"Offends me?" he called. "Mahal, I love it! I can't wait till Fili hears about this. It's perfect, absolutely perfect. Genius, if I may say so myself."

Ana was confused. And it wasn't because of the dull ache in her temple. What was this dwarf doing? Why was he not mad, or at the least, offended? This was nothing like the stoic prince her sister describes to her. This was a maniac and a child in disguise. Was he always this way?

"Well, I'm – I'm glad you find it appealing, my prince."

"What's your name?" he asked suddenly. "I need to tell my brother of you, he'll be laughing more so than I am."

"Ana, my lord, daughter of Storin."

He pointed a finger at her. "You're a keeper, Miss Ana." He reached into his cloak, digging around for something. "I almost forgot, I brought this for Kol – Ogri, sorry." He pulled out a carrot. "I was hoping that I could give this to him. A sort of peace offering for my absence for so long. I hope it's allowed," he added with a wink.

Ignorning that, she answered him, "By all means."

Quickly, he shoved the carrot in front of Ogri's mouth, who gobbled it right up. "Normally," Ana began, "I try to give them something good once a day, but a few of the other workers get mad. They say it's not right for them."

He was kneeling down now, stroking Ogri's face, when he inclined his head to her. "Everyone needs something sweet every once in a while," he told her.

She heard shuffling from around the corner at the end of the hall. That seemed to snap her back into the present and into the reality of her current predicament and her closeness to the prince.

"My lord, I think that maybe you should, well, you should take your leave." He stood up again. "No offense, your majesty," she added quickly at the end.

"Why?" he asked innocently. "I quite like it here, I never realized how quiet it is. It's nice."

"Yes, well...some of the others might be shocked to see you here unannounced. It'd be best if you returned with your guards, or something like the sorts. It's what you normally do, is it not?"

He scoffed at her. "If you're talking about Dwalin, that's a big no. He'd make all the people here faint out of fear. Besides, I like wandering around. Most people know that about me," he smirked at her, causing her to blush because of her ignorance to the matter.

"My apologies, then."

"Not needed, Ana, daughter of Storin. You know, if you refuse to let me take you to a healer, how about I stop in tomorrow? You know, make sure you're not dead."

Her hands went to her sides and fisted the fabric of her trousers. Oh, Mahal, she didn't even realize that she was wearing them. She must look like a joy; dirty, curly hair pulled back into an excuse of a braided bun, black eye, dirt dusted skin, and trousers. How respectable.

"Um, that would be acceptable, my lord. Even though unnecessary."

"Oh, shove it," he told her, making her eyes widen at his words. "Like I said before, my uncle, and brother now that I think about it, would strike me dead if I didn't at least make sure you're all right."

Looking down at the ground, she muttered, "All right then, if you insist."

"And I do," he threw back casually. He turned his heel and began to walk – more like bounce – out of the stall. Over his shoulder, he called back with a smirk, "Goodbye, Ana, daughter of Storin," before completely disappearing from view.

When he was gone, Ana took a deep breath. Ogri had waddled back over to her and gently nudged his nose to her middle. Oh, so now he was being kind? Stroking his mane, she whispered to him, "Oh, Ogri. What have you gotten me into?"

I"M SORRY! I had to do this. I just couldn't. I'd love to hear your feedback, criticisms, reviews, comments, suggestions...I've run out of words. Tell me what you think!