Here you go again With yet another chapter. I hope you'll like it.

I had some problems writing it, and if you find something which don't make sence, read it twise, and if it still don't make sence, contact me. Some of it don't make sence to me either.

Oh, and I maybe should say that I own nothing except from Rosie Baggins - and probably her parents, even if they're still "in the shadow".

Anlehn, who appears later in the Chapter, belongs to Labbetussa on dA.

Chapter 13

"No, there they are!" he told the horses. "But they don't look dangerous. Just bug off!" He laughed a deep, rumbling laughter, put away the axe and came over to us. "Who are ya, and what do ya want?" he asked brusquely when he reached us.

"I'm Gandalf", the wizard replied.

"Never heard of ya", the man growled. "And what about the two little titches there?" he questioned and glanced resentful down at me and Bilbo from under his bushy eyebrows. I couldn't help but take a small step behind Bilbo.

"This is Mr. and Miss Baggins, two hobbits from a very good family and with unspotted reputation!" Gandalf introduced us. Bilbo bowed, and I quickly followed his example, and curtsied. "I am a wizard," Gandalf continued. "I've heard of you, even if you haven't heard of me, but I think you might know my cousin Radagast who lives in Mirkwood's southern limit marker?"

"Yes, he's a nifty fellow being a wizard. I used to visit him sometimes," Beorn said. "Oh, yes, now I know who ya are, or at least who ya say ya are. What do ya want?"

"To say it as it is, we lost our luggage and provision. We've lost our way, and need help, or at least a good advice. I also have to say we had some trouble with the goblins up in the mountains."

"With the goblins?" the man inquired and sounded a bit mollified. "I see, so ya got trouble with them? How did ya get so close to them?"

"We didn't intend to meet them. They ambushed us one night in a pass we should over, and it ended with us coming out of the mountains at the other side and here. It's a long story."

"Ya can come inside and tell me some of this story if it isn't that long it takes the whole day," Beorn said and lead us through a dark door facing the courtyard and leading into the house, together with the girl who brought the bucket with her.

We followed him and came into a big living room with a hearth in the middle. Though it was summer, there was fire on the hearth, and smoke rose from the soot black rafters before it found it's way out through a vent in the ceiling. We went through the gloom living room that was only lit by the fire and came through a smaller door on a sort of veranda resting on logs. Now it was illuminated by the evening sun sinking in vest, and strewed gold over the gardens and all the flowers that grew there, right up to the stairs.

There we sat at the tree benches. Gandalf told his story, while I and Bilbo sat there and weren't sure of what to do. I glanced over at the girl. She was looking at me, Bilbo and Gandalf with curious eyes, and when I briefly met her gaze, it seemed as if she was very quick to hid something. I began to wonder if she knew something about me.

"I came over the mountains with two or three friends..." Gandalf began.

"Or three?" Beorn interrupted. "I don't see more than two little titches."

"Well, to say it as it is I wouldn't bother you with all of them before I found if you were busy. Is it alright if I call them?"

"Yes, just call!" Then Gandalf let a long, shrilling whistle signal, and not long after Thorin and Dori appeared at the garden path, came around the house and stood up before bowing deeply in front of us. "I think ya meant two or four," Beorn commented. "But these aren't hobbits, but dwarves!"

"Thorin Oakenshield! At your service! Dori! At your service!" the two dwarves said, before bowing again.

"I don't need your service," Beorn replied, and to me it sounded a bit harsh, "but I understand ya need mine. I'm not very in fond of dwarves, but if it's true that ya're Thorin, son of Thrain, son of Thror, I think, and that this friend of ya is a good fellow, and that ya're enemies of the goblins and that ya don't mean any harm coming to my land – yes, by the way, what do ya want?"

"They're on their way to visit their ancestors' land," Gandalf quickly supplied. "It's eastern at the other side of Mirkwood. It's only an accident that we entered your land. We were on our way over the High Pass which would lead us on the road vest of your land, but then we were ambushed by the goblins, which I just was telling you about."

"Then continue!" said Beorn, who wasn't too polite.

"Then there became a terrible storm, and the stone giants began throwing stones. At the top of the pass we found shelter in a cave, the hobbits and me and the other friends of ours..." I quickly noticed Gandalf was telling the story as if we had followed the rest of the company all the way from Rivendell, and I noted that I should ask him about that later – if I got the chance.

"Do ya think two means many?"

"No, not exactly that. In fact they were more than two."

"Where are they? Killed, eaten or have they returned home?"

"No, not exactly. It looks as if all of them didn't come when I called. They're a bit shy. We were afraid we were to many to be your guests."

"Then ya can whistle again. This seems to be a bit of a feast, and a two-three more doesn't matter," Beorn growled. Gandalf whistled again, and Nori and Ori appeared, nearly before he was finished.

"I see," Beorn said. "Ya came quickly. Where had you hid? Do ya pop up like trolls from boxes?"

"Nori at your service. Ori at your-" they began, but were cut off by Beorn.

"Thanks, thanks. If I need help, I'll ask for it. Sit down and let us continue this story, otherwise it'll be eating time before we finish."

"I went to check the road ahead, and behind us, and Miss Baggins went with me. I felt something was wrong, and found a way into the mountain where our company had been caught."

"A company? Do ya call eight a company?"

"No, the fact is we were more than eight... no, wait, there we have two more!" It was Dwalin and Balin who just had appeared and bowed so deep that their beard nearly touched the floor. The huge man seemed at the beginning a bit fierce, but the two dwarves did what they could to be very polite, and continued to bow until the fierce expression of Beorn was appeased, and he began laughing, because they seemed so comic. I couldn't help but be impressed of how deep and long the dwarves managed to bow.

"A company was the right world," Beorn said. "A comical company. Come in, cheerful friends and let me know your names. I don't need your service now, only the names. Sit and stop bowing."

"Balin and Dwalin," they quickly said, and quickly sat down together with Thorin, Dori, Nori and Ori.

"Continue the story!" Beorn told Gandalf.

"How long did I come? Yes, we found them thanks to my magi-"

"Velan," growled Beorn. "At least it's good for something to be a wizard."

"And the cave was filled with goblins, and the Goblin King was also there, together with his thirty-forthy armed guards. I thought to myself: Even if they hadn't been chained together – how could twelve dwarves manage so many goblins?"

"Twelve? This is the first time I hear someone call eight twelve. Or do ya have more box-trolls waiting to appear?"

"Velan... yes there are a few more, Fili and Kili," Gandalf said just as they appeared and stood there, smiling and bowing.

"This should be enough," said Beorn. "Sit and shut up! And ya, Gandalf, continue!"

And as Gandalf continued the story, until he reached the fight in the darkness, and that we then reached the gate, how terrified we were when we noticed Bilbo was missing, I send Fili and Kili a small smile. Both of them raised their eyebrows, but returned the smile. "We counted each other and found there was no Mr. Baggins between us. There was only fourteen left!"

"Fourteen! It's the first time in my life someone make eleven become fourteen. I think ya mean ten. Or maybe ya haven't mentioned the whole company."

"No, that's true, you haven't seen Oin and Gloin yet. But for God's sake, there they are. I hope you can forgive them interrupt."

"Oh, let them enter. Hurry up, ya two, and sit down. But listen, Gandalf, we still are only ten dwarves, plus two hobbits, one who disappeared. That'll be twelve – together with the one who disappeared – and not fourteen, if wizards don't have another way to count. But continue now."

I realized Beorn was getting curious at our story, and the girl too. Even if they tried not to show it. Beorn nodded and came with an appreciating sound when he heard how Bilbo had reappeared, how we had nearly fell down the mountain slope and came into the dense forest and reached the clearing where the wargs gathered in a circle.

When Gandalf told of how we had climbed into the trees, while the wargs gathered around us, Beorn rose and began pacing back and forth, mumbling: "Oh, if I only had been there! I should've given them something else than fireworks!"

"Yes, of course," Gandalf said, and I could tell he was happy our story made such an impression. "I only did as well as I could. There we sat and watched those wargs who became more and more voracious down at the ground, and we noticed how it began burning here and there in the forest. Just then the goblins appeared from the mountains and found us. And then they began howling and shouting of happiness and sung a song to tease us. Sixteen birds in pine cone trees..."

"Preserve me well, ya wouldn't persuade me that goblins can't count. Thirteen aren't sixteen, and they know it well."

"Yes, I know so too. Bifur and Bofur also were there. I haven't dared to introduce them earlier, but here they are." And then the mentioned two appeared.

"And here I am," said and exhausted Bombur who appeared behind them. I felt a bit sorry for him since he had been doomed to wait as the last, and I totally understood he didn't want to wait.

"Good, now we're sixteen. And since goblins can count, I guess there weren't any others in the trees, so maybe we can get finished with this story without any other interruptions." It was first now I fully understood how clever Gandalf had been. All the interruptions had in reality made Beorn and the girl more curious at our story, and it was the story which hadn't made him close the door in our faces, thinking we were beggars.

When the wizard finished our story and had told of the eagles who saved us and brought us to the Carrock, the sun had went down behind the Misty Mountains, and the shadows had became long in Beorn's garden.

"That was a very good story!" our host said. "The best I've hear in a long while, or what do ya think, Anlehn? If all beggars could tell stories like that, I's probably be more friendly to them. It can be ya only made up everything, but it still deserves a good meal. Let's get something to eat!"

"That would be good!" all of the dwarves said at once, as if they had been training at it. "Thank you very much!"

As we rose and entered the living room, the girl Beorn had called Anlehn reached over to me. She was higher than me – maybe the height of Dwalin who was the highest in our company, after Gandalf (but he was only our guide).

"Excuse me, Miss Baggins?" she questioned. I smiled at her.

"Yes?"

"The story Gandalf told... was it true? Is it true?" I frowned.

"Yes, why shouldn't it be?"

"It's just not very often I get to hear stories like that, and even rarer that they're true." Then she smiled carefully. "But I'm totally forgetting my manners. My name is Anlehn Greenleaf." She curtsied.

"Nice to meet you," I replied with a smile. "I'm Rosie Baggins!" Just then Fili and Kili appeared, one on each side of me. Anlehn's face became hard when she first glanced at Kili, but then her eyes widened as she glanced at Fili, before she slightly blushed. I cleared my throat. "Those are Fili and Kili. They're brothers, and I and Kili are..." I didn't finish the sentence, 'cause I felt the heat stream into my cheeks.

"Are you ashamed of it?" Kili questioned. I froze, before turning to him with wide eyes.

"How can you say something like that?" My voice was barely a whisper.

"You're blushing, and you didn't end the sentence."

"Kili," I began. "For 32 years I've had no friends except from Merry. If that was how it was for you, then what'd you say when you began courting someone?" For a few seconds Kili was totally silent, even if the dwarves were talking all around us, and other things I couldn't see were happening. Then Kili bowed his head.

"I understand," he whispered. I couldn't help the feeling which appeared in my chest. As if there was a butterfly inside, waiting to get free. The reason was – this is going to sound strange – the way Kili bowed his head. It seemed like he was afraid I'd hit him if he didn't say he understood. Carefully I cupped his cheeks and made him look at me. His eyes shone. Quickly he blinked a few times.

"Kili," I whispered as I brought our foreheads together, "just remember that I'll always love you. There will never be any other man – or dwarf – for me, do you understand?" After a few, silent seconds he answered quietly: "Yes." I placed a light kiss at his cheek, before letting go of him, and turning to Anlehn. For a few seconds her face was nothing but mixed feelings, then she cleaned her face and smiled.

"Well, then, maybe you want to sit beside me during the meal?" she questioned. I smiled.

"It'd be a pleasure!" I replied. As we had talked, a table had been placed beside the hearth, torches had been placed around the hearth, and everything seemed very comfortable. The table had been covered with plates, bowls, knives and tree spoons, and a pony was shoving two chairs with low, wide wicker seats and solid legs. Those were for Gandalf and Thorin, and by the other end of the table the ponies placed a huge, black chair which seemed like the other. I guessed it belonged to Beorn. Then I spotted the man himself telling one of the ponies something. It seemed as if the pony nodded, before it exited the living room. The remaining ponies came with cut, thick tree trunks that were planed and polished and that could resemble drums, and they were so low that they would be convenient for both me and Bilbo. Then the pony who Beorn had talked to earlier, returned with the last two chairs. He placed them at Beorn's right side, and it surprised me to see that those two chairs were different. Both were wooden, but one of them had carvings of great woods and some marks which seemed to touch something inside me I couldn't describe, while the other also seemed very known, and yet so far away – as if it was something I once had loved dearly, but I had lost it very long ago.

Soon everyone were put around the table – Anlehn in the wooden chair closest to Beorn, the one with the carvings of woods, and I in the other wooden chair, something I didn't really understand.

The meal was served – dinner or supper – which none of the company's members had tasted since we left Elrond's house and Rivendell. The lights of the torches and the fire flickered over our faces, and on the table stood tall, red lights, cast from beeswax. The entire time we ate, Beorn told stories with his deep, rumbling voice. He spoke of the wildness on this side of the mountains, and especially about the black, dangerous forest that stretched from the far north to the far south. The forest which we had only one day's ride ahead of us, and blocked the road to the east, the eerie dark forest.

The dwarves listened carefully, even though I didn't. I and Anlehn sat there beside each other, talking the entire time, and it turned out that Anlehn actually knew my parents. I asked her to tell me their story, but she only replied it was a too dark story to be told in the darkness – that it'd be better to get to hear it when the sun was shining, and no evil spirits were lurking in the shadows.

We sat around the table for a good while – the dwarves, Bilbo, Gandalf and Beorn with mead in their bowls. At the outside the night came. More wood was put at the fire, the torches were extinguished, and we were sitting around the dancing fire, while the wooden columns raising high behind us and disappearing in the darkness under the ceiling, as if it was a forest.

"It looks as if it is a real forest," I whispered to Anlehn. She smiled before taking a sip of the wine she had in front of her – and again I wondered how old she actually was. That was something she hadn't decided to tell me yet.

"It's Beorn's magic," she replied. "It's some stronger in the nigh-time than the day-time. When I was younger, my brother used to travel here with me. As usually when adar needed a break from us." She laughed silently. "We – I and my brother – were always the trouble-makers. Beorn, however, didn't mind it. We always made him laughed when we tried to play one of our pranks on him." Anlehn stared dreamingly into the fire. "I really miss that time..." she muttered.

I bit my lower lip and glanced down at the dagger I had been holding in my lap the last minutes. I missed Kili's presence. Thorin had demanded to have him and Fili beside himself, and since I and Anlehn were placed beside Beorn, I couldn't do anything than glance over at Kili from time to time.

To me it seemed as if both the brothers were having a good time – and maybe a bit too much mead. They laughed, joked and told stories, and I couldn't help but smile when Kili nearly fell off his chair, being caught just in time by Fili.

"He's protective," Anlehn commented beside me, and I realized she had been watching Fili. Again.

"You don't say" I replied sarcastically with a small grin. "He's the most mature of those two, but that's only because he have the responsibility of being the second heir to the throne." Anlehn sighed.

"He reminds me very much of my brother. Legolas will be the king when adar find it in time."

"You know," I said tentatively, already knowing she was very protective regarding her past, and didn't like to share it with others. "One day you've got to tell me your story. I've told you mine, but I still don't really know who you are, nor what I can expect from you." Anlehn glanced at me with an arched eyebrow.

"Really?" she questioned. "You do know that your the first new friend I've made in more than a millennium? You do know that I've shared more with you, than I use to share with my other friends?"

"Well," I replied, without thinking, "then I wonder how you can call them friends, when you barely share anything with them." As soon as I had said it, I knew I shouldn't have done so. I should just have shut up and said nothing. It was as if I could watch Anlehn's face close, until she was the same person as when I first spotted her, outside the huge house. I sighed. "Excuse me," I muttered as I rose and quickly exited the house. I really needed fresh air.

I sat down at one of the stairs, my head in my hands, glancing up at the stars and wondering why it was so hard for me to make new friends.

"Rosie?" a voice asked behind me.

"I'm sorry," I whispered, and buried my face in my hands. "I shouldn't have said that."

"You have no reason to be sorry," Anlehn replied as she sat down beside me, and carefully put a hand at my shoulder. "I should be the one being sorry."

"Why?"

"Because," she replied with a small smile, "you made me realize that in fact I don't have any other friends than Legolas." I stared at her, eyes wide of surprise.

"Really?" I asked. "How can that be?"

"I'm not very good at making new friends, and even if there is this archer-group I and Legolas use to train with nearly every day, I've never had any reason to make new friends. Legolas was always there for me. We could share everything with each other – no matter what." She moved her gaze off me, and up at the stars above us.

"You must be really lucky to have a family like that," I said. "I've got no others than uncle Bilbo, and I'm not even related to him. He just adopted me."

"Did you never know your parents?" Anlehn asked, as if she couldn't believe something like that could happen to someone. After a few seconds of silence, I shook my head slowly.

"Not really," I replied. "They died when I was young, and I fled."

Meanwhile...

Kili stretched and yawned. Then he glanced toward the open door where he could see the silhouettes of Rosie and the other girl, Anlehn. They had been sitting there for a long time, and he wondered if they were all right.

"I think it's time for someone to go to bed," Fili grinned beside him. Kili snorted and lightly slapped Fili across his shoulder.

"Really," he replied. "I think so too. You've been looking at Anlehn ever since we met her." He hadn't expected Fili to blush, but that was exactly what happened. Kili stared at his older brother in disbelief, and then began laughing.

"Oh, shut up," Fili muttered when Kili rolled over on his side, gasping for air, but still laughing. After a while Kili managed to stop the laughter, and did his best to catch his breath. He managed to sit up, and finally stand.

"Come," he said and pulled Fili to his feet. "Let's go see what the ladies are doing!" Fili protested, but a few moments later they sat at each their side of the two girls; Kili beside Rosie, and Fili beside Anlehn.

Rosie's view...

I smiled when Kili sat down beside me, that was, until the smell of mead reached my nose. I still hadn't got used to it. Quickly I turned away, only to find Anlehn sitting there, looking a bit uncomfortable, and blushing. Her pointy ears were red, and she stared at the hands she had folded in her lap. My eyes moved to Fili. He was stealing glances at Anlehn, and he too blushing slightly.

My attention returned to Kili when he tried to hid a yawn. Something unknown inside me awoke, and I rose. "Kili, you really should go to bed."

"Why? I'm not tired!" Kili argued stubbornly. I sighed, before taking his hand and pulling him to his feet.

"Yes you are, and no arguments." Then I dragged the tired dwarf inside, and told the remaining pair: "Have a nice evening!" I blinked to Fili who glanced at me and looked as if I had left him in the worst soup he ever had managed to get himself into.

So, Yeah. As I said at the top, if you find something which seems like don't making sence at all (refering to Gandalf telling Beorn of how the company ended up there) just contact me.

Otherwise... hope you enjoyed the chapter but don't expect next to be up very soon. I'm taking my time at writing them, and I'm also trying to become a bit more active at dA.