Over the Mountains // Thorin Oakenshield

Chapter 13

For the next several hours Persephone stayed as far from Thorin as possible and stuck as close as she could to Fili and Kili, hoping that it would prevent any nervous encounters. When Beorn returned and replied that the orcs wouldn't beat them to Mirkwood but were close, Persephone happily busied herself saddling the ponies.

"Got your bag Seph," Kili called, scurrying out of the house with her bag.

He tossed it to her and she slung it onto her pony with a smile, "Thanks Kee."

She began to put the bit to her pony's mouth and realized that her pony was the stubborn one. She was just about to wiggle her finger into the horse's jaw to pry his mouth open when a voice caught her attention and she almost jumped when THorin's intimidating figure appeared on the other side of her horse's head.

"Having trouble?" he smirked.

Sepha felt her cheeks go red and she didn't look up to meet his steady gaze, "I should have saddled this young fella for you. You two would make good companions."

THorin chuckled and reaching over, he took the bit from Sepha's hand. She felt her cheeks flame red when his calloused finger brushed against her soft one and quickly ducked her head, hiding behind her brown waves.

She watched as Thorin put the bit to the horse's mouth and immediately, the horse opened his mouth and Thorin slipped the halter on. Sepha raised her eyebrow and saw that THorin's blue eyes were twinkling with mischief.

"Nothing a little sugar cannot handle," THorin remarked, revealing that he had a small handful of sugar cubes in his hand.

Sepha shook her head ruefully, "You tyrant. Now he'll be a biter."

THorin smiled, "Well then you two would make a perfect team."

Sepha's head snapped up and she placed her hands on her hips. Thorin tried not to chuckle but a huge grin spread across his face at the sight. She looked so cute when she was offended and the whole hands on hips thing didn't help Thorin's infatuation which was now almost unbearable especially when she cocked her head to the side, her hair falling off her shoulder and revealing her smooth, white neck and shoulder.

"Now I will pretend I didnt hear that."

"Then who will we offer this brute to?" THorin inquired.

Sepha peered around at all the dwarves and realized that most of them had already mounted or chosen a pony. Then, her eyes settled on Fili and Kili who were heading out of the house, having finally emerged with all their things. A smirk appeared on her face and she took the reins from Thorin.

Thorin watched the girl approach his nephews and hold out the reins to his youngest nephew, completely faking innocence and Kili took the reins, completely oblivious to the mischievous smile playing on THorin's face.

Sepha spun on her heel and skipped back to Thorin, her green eyes twinkling, "This'll be good."

THorin shook his head and smiled down at the girl who slung her bag onto her back and picked a more agreeable pony, "I had no idea you had a mischievous streak in you."

"I usually don't," Sepha replied. "But that's what happens when you hang around those two."

Before Thorin could comment further, Sepha had swung up onto her pony and had trotted over to Fili. THorin found his pony and had mounted just when a surprised yelp erupted from Kili. The young dwarf had found it impossible to get his pony to move until Sepha came over and slapped his pony across the rear end, sending the horse into a perfect gallop, almost dropping the dwarf.

Sepha and Fili were laughing so hard that they were almost falling off their ponies. Balin and Dwalin were grinning while the other dwarves quickly made bets as to how long Kili would manage to hang onto the horse.