Over the Mountains // Thorin Oakenshield

Chapter 11

"You sit here and don't even think about straining your side," Dwalin instructed.

Sepha sighed and fake pouted by crossing her arms, "Great! Now I have five new adoptive fathers! First Balin, then Beorn, Gandalf, Oin and now you! Who's next? THorin?"

Dwalin chuckled and ruffled her brown hair, "Nah. He's more of an admirer than father to you."

The girl rolled her eyes but her cheeks went pink at Dwalin's words. As the dwarf headed over to join the others who were sparring together, she pulled her braid out. Brushing her fingers through her hair, she quickly red braided her hair but left to locks of hair on either side of her ears, framing her pretty pointy ears and making her look part elvish.

Thorin strode out of the house, heading to join the others when he stopped. He took in the girl who was sitting on a stump, watching the dwarves sparring. The hair framing her face made her look so gentle... so fragile and elf like... but the braid was definitely dwarfish style and it made him smile. He couldn't believe that he could love someone as much as he loved her.

She looked so relaxed, wearing a clean shirt that she had obtained from Kili who was the one nearest her size. it was slightly loose but that helped the bandages and she had tucked it into her pair of pants and was wearing her boots that were clean. Her hands were resting on the stump beside her and she looked so relaxed and carefree... not like she was on a journey to reclaim a mountain where a dragon slept.

"Uncle! Come on!" Kili called.

Thorin headed over to the others and saw that Fili and Kili were going against Dwalin and Gloin. He circled them, fingering his beard as he watched his nephews. FIli was a great fighter but Kili had a few wrong moves.

"here, lift your arm a little more," he said, stepping in to fix Kili's stance.

He then walked over to Fili and whispered in his ear, "Dwalin is right hand dominant. Try for his left more often."

His two nephews went at it and soon managed to disarm Gloin and Dwalin, earning cheers from the others.

"Your turn Thorin!" Kili invited.

"I can't do sword fighting anymore," Dwalin grumbled. "How bout wrestling?"

Thorin was about to object when Balin sauntered past and whispered something in his ear that only Thorin could hear, "Persephone is watching."

Thorin glanced out of the corner of his eyes and saw that sure enough, his two nephews had gone and sat next to the girl and they were watching them. Thorin felt a smile appear on his face and he nodded, "You're on Dwalin."

With that, Dwalin began to remove his heavy clothing so that he was only wearing a shirt and his breeches and boots. Thorin did the same and smirked when Dwalin cracked his knuckles. They hadn't wrestled in a while and Thorin had gotten much stronger recently.

Meanwhile, Fili and Kili were watching their uncle with wide eyes. He was a father figure to them and they practically adored him and looked up at him with admiration. Their mouths were dangling open as they watched Dwalin and Thorin fighting.

"Uncle is so cool!" Kili whispered.

"Yeah!" FIli agreed.

Both of them cringed when THorin drew Dwalin over his shoulder, bringing the other dwarf to his back.

"Ouch," Sepha cringed. "Thats why I don't do wrestling."

"What do you do?" Fili inquired, "Other than archery?"

"Double swords," Sepha replied. "And self defense. Though sometimes I opt to morphing cuz it gets the job done faster."

"So how do you morph?" Kili inquired.