The Sisters [A Hobbit Fanfiction]

Chapter 40

Avice slowly untied her mask. The company were awkwardly crowded once again into Bard’s house facing her with bated breath. Standing all around her and looking intimidatingly protective were Aelith, Nienna, Nora and Silvia.

As the cloth fell away, the company gasped. Hidden underneath was proof of Avice’s long hidden secret. Discolored, grey skin that looked like some polished stone mottled her face.

“You are part orc…” breathed Balin, though the statement was in danger of becoming overused.

“I am,” said Avice, refusing the flinch under some of the horrified stares. Thorin stood, arms crossed and eyes hooded in the back of the room.

“But… you never said…” Kili muttered in confusion.

“You’re right,” shot back Avice sarcastically, “I totally should have spilled my dark past and all it’s secrets to a group of stubborn and biased dwarves whom I’d just met. That was obviously the right thing to do.”

Kili looked unsure of himself, given the new information and lapsed into silence… which was broken by Thorin.

“When were you planning on telling us?”

The girls looked at each other, then back at Avice in concern. It was the first time since Thorin had spoken at all since he’d fetched the rest of the company after overhearing Avice and Silvia’s conversation.

“i don’t know,” answered Avice honestly. “I knew the time was coming, but it’s not exactly something you can just drop into a conversation, is it?”

“Well you might have tried directing the conversation to a more favorable route!” retorted Thorin, his rage seeping through to his tone for the first.

Aelith looked nervously at Avice, but instead of breaking down, the dwarven king’s anger only seemed to strengthen her friend.

“Direct the conversation?” asked Avice, the disbelief etched into her voice. “Have you met yourself? Directing anything about you dwarves is like trying to tell a mountain to move!”

“You could have created opportunity!”

“Created- were you not listening to a word I just said? Arg!” Avice threw her hands up, that all too familiar glare appearing on her visage.

Suddenly, Balin, much to everyone’s shock, began to chuckle.

“What is amusing you?” demanded Thorin.

“You two,” replied Balin jovially, leaning back with a knowing smile. “Part orc, Avice may be. That changes nothing about her. One cannot pick and choose one’s heritage any more that the color of their eyes. Besides, she is clearly not hiding anything from us.”

“How do you know that?”

“We’ve all seen her try to lie before. She’s terrible at it.”

“When did I try to lie?” asked Avice in confusion.

“When you were denying that there was… something between you and Thorin.”

“That’s because there is nothing!” exclaimed both Avice and Thorin simultaneously, both flushing bright red.

“Look,” interjected Runa, forestalling yet another argument over Avice and Thorin’s love life, “you can hardly blame her for not telling you right off the bat. Halflings,” she winced slightly at the word, “aren’t exactly accepted.”

“For good reason,” pointed out Thorin. “Sometimes the double origins causes… madness in the mind.”

“You try being part orc for a day and see how you hold up,” snapped Avice.