Don't Change a Thing

Wilwarin smiles with glee upon seeing a small lake past the brush of trees they were to make camp next to. As much as she loves the company she rides with; thirteen dwarves, a hobbit, and a wizard, she certainly is one who appreciates her alone time. Being the only woman on this journey was also beginning to get to her. As she slides off her horse, she grabs an extra change of clothes, her brush and her bow.

"And where do you think you're going, Wilwarin?" She hears an man's voice behind her. She turns quickly, looking up at Gandalf, the wizard who towered over her.

"Gandalf, as the only woman on this quest, I do not ask for much. I now ask for some alone time in that lake over there before the sun sets, to bathe and be alone with my thoughts," she says to him as she begins to take her ribbon out of her hair, letting down the long auburn waves of hair.

"Alright, but you must be careful!" Gandalf says quietly. "I do not like you going off on your own, but I cannot stop you."

"Now, Master Gandalf! You requested my attendance on this quest for my skill with a sword, and my bow. You know better than anyone that I can take care of myself!" She replies with a grin. Gandalf nods in response.

"Yes, yes, I know. Alright, go on! I shall tell the men not to go down to the lake until you are done," he replies. With a quick nod, she thanks him and runs down to the lake. She finds a rock to hide herself behind, strips down to her undergarments, and jumps into the rather warm lake.

Wilwarin, after a mere ten minutes in the lake climbs out, smelling of fresh roses from the oils she applied to herself. She dries herself off with the clothes she had worn prior, and put on her clean clothes; black leggings and a deep green tunic that hugged her curves. As she pulls on her boots, she hears the snapping of a twig from beside her. She quickly pulls her bow up off the floor and arms herself with an arrow, pointing at where it came from.

"It is only me!" She hears none other than Thorin Oakenshield. She lowers her weapon, and finishes pulling her boot on. He comes into view, and she catches herself getting lost in his striking blue eyes. She gets lost in the very sight of him, his thick black hair streaked with grey, his broad shoulders and chest. She evens begins imagining herself wrapped up in his arms at night. She mentally kicks herself, for this is a common occurrence as of late, and shakes her head to regain her thoughts.

"You gave me a fright, Thorin!" Wilwarin says with a nervous smile. "I could have very well killed you!" She states, her smile fading, not knowing what she would have done had she put an arrow through The King Under the Mountain. Thorin found himself feeling a pain in his stomach for being the reason her smile had faltered.

"I am truly sorry, I didn't mean to. I just wanted to make sure you were alright. Gandalf said you had gone off on your own, and I...did not like the thought of you being out here by yourself," Thorin says, rubbing the back of his neck. Wilwarin grinned at him, appreciating the fact that he worried for her.

Throughout the journey, Thorin has developed feelings for this woman of Gondor. He truly admired her wit, humor, her way with a sword, and he's deemed her attractive since they met. However, he had never seen her hair down like this; slightly damp, going past her bust line in its beautiful waves. In this moment, with the sun setting behind her on the lake, she was stunning. As he stood and stared at her, he felt a warm sensation in his chest, and a tingle that ruptured throughout his body...and he then realized that this is how it felt when a dwarf found his One.

"I wasn't gone long, was I?" She asks him, and he shakes his head, breaking him of his thoughts.

"N-no, you were not. I'm honestly surprised, for most women take ages to bathe. I'm sure I aged decades when my family and I would have to wait for my younger sister Dis to be done with her baths. I just assumed most women were like that," he says to Wilwarin as she starts to pick her things up off of the floor. She tucks a bit of her hair behind her ear as she stands up to face him, having to actually look up due to being unnaturally short for a human. Thorin stood about two inches taller than her.

"Well, Thorin. Surely, you must know by now that I am not 'most women'!" Wilwarin replies with a smile, as she walks away from him. She turns around to see Thorin smiling back at her, and it sends a chill down her spine. A smile like that is not something she sees from the usual straight faced dwarf, and she felt the sudden urge to always want to keep it there.

"We should head back," he says to her as he watches her failed attempts at getting her hair out of her face. "Wilwarin, stop. Let me help you," he says to her, lightly grabbing hold of her arm to stop her in her tracks. "Face ahead, alright?" He asks and she replies with a nod.

Thorin takes a gold clip from his pocket as he scoops all of her hair up into one swoop of his big hands, fighting with everything he has to not put a braid in her hair.

"I really need to consider cutting it, don't I?" She says to him, turning just enough so that she can look at him. She grins at how concentrated he looks as he puts up her hair.

"Your ribbon?" He asks her, holding his hand out. Wilwarin pulls her ribbon out of her pocket and hands it to him. He lightly rakes his fingers over the top of her head one last time before clipping the hair into place, then tying the ribbon around it. "Done."

"Thorin, thank you!" She says quietly. "That feels much better!"

"You should start braiding it. It will stay out of your eyes longer," he says to her as they continue their walk back. "Never, ever cut it. Don't change a thing."

"Alright, I won't cut it! Cross my heart," she says to him, earning a nod as a reply. "But certainly, I would braid it if I knew how!"

"I'll teach you someday. Maybe I'll even braid it for you," he says to her, and she thanks her lucky stars that she was walking ahead of him, so he couldn't see her bright pink face.

"You'd do that for me?" She asks him.

"I...I would, yes," he replies with a grin. "You should eat something. I believe you're on watch tonight," he adds, walking over to Dwalin and sitting with him. Wilwarin sits on a log by the fire made, and is greeted with a warm bowl of soup handed to her by the eldest of the dwarves, Balin.

"Thank you, Master Balin!" She says, taking the spoon into her tiny hand to begin eating.

"So Thorin went looking for you, did he?" Balin asks her, and she nods.

"He did, and as a matter of fact, he even helped me with my hair today, and offered to teach me to braid," she says to him with a proud smile.

"Did he now?" He asks with a twinkle in his eye. "Well that was nice of him," Balin adds, in a mood much giddier than ever before. "Excuse me, Lady Wilwarin, I shall return shortly," he says to her as he gets up off of the log next to her. Balin scurries over towards his horse which just so happens to be behind Thorin, who he notices is stealing glances at the girl of the company. "Admiring your One, are you?" He asks in a quiet voice behind Thorin who turns to him with a straight face, which eventually falters into a smile.