*Cassy's POV*

This evening wasn't filled with the usual cheerful chatter of the dwarves, we were all were too tired to tell stories or to sing, as we sometimes did. It didn't take long after dinner until we all went to sleep, Gandalf offering to take watch, releasing Thorin from doing it himself, which the dwarf-king had actually planned on doing. But even I could see that the proud dwarf was on his limits, even if I knew he'd never admit it openly.

I felt the very same way. My body was aching and I was glad to finally catch up on the lost sleep. I laid down on my spot in between Bilbo, who was already fast asleep, and Kili who was just laying beside me looking up to the dark sky. Glancing at the hobbit a last time I turned so that I was facing Kili. He was shivering slightly from the cold air. I felt bad considering most of our provisions were lost in Goblin town which meant our bedrolls and our blankets. We had most of them but Kili's was left in Goblin town. I shuffled closer to him and covered both Kili and I with my blanket. He smiled at me and wrapped his arms around me whilst I rested my head on his chest and snuggled closer to him.

"Thank you, Cassy." He whispered.

"My pleasure." I replied. I felt Kili kiss the top of my head.

I smiled and closed my eyes, burying my face in the warmth of Kili's chest as I fell asleep.

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*Kili's POV*

The next morning we departed a little later than usual and we began journeying in the direction of Beorn's home.

"Well." Gandalf said. "I always meant to see you all safe over the mountains, which I have done by good management and no small amount of good luck. I am further east now that I ever meant to come with you, after all, this is not my adventure but yours."Everyone began to protest a bit at that but Gandalf cut them off. "I may look into it again before it is all over but for now, I have other, more pressing, business that I need to attend to."

No one looked happy after what Gandalf said and neither did I, it was like we had a secret weapon with Gandalf being a wizard and now he tells us he's leaving. He helped us this far but now he was abandoning us when there was more dangerous things to come on our quest.

"I am not going to disappear this very instant, don't you worry." Gandalf said. "I can give you some more time. We have no food, and we lost most of our baggage, we have no ponies to ride and you don't know where you are."

"And you do?" Thorin interfered a bit grumpily, obviously not happy hearing about the Gandalf's plans of leaving us soon.

"Indeed, I do." Gandalf replied, ignoring my uncle's annoyed tone of voice, as he did most of the time. "You are still some miles north from the path we should have been following. Very few people live in these parts except of course Beorn. Now, we must go and find him; and if all goes well, I think I will be off and wish you farewell for the time being."

"But you can't just leave us!" Dori called out, saying what we were all thinking. All of us looked rather upset at the thought of not having the wizard there at all times to help us out of trouble and Bilbo in particular looked positively miserable.

"As I said, Master Dori, I have important business that cannot wait any longer." Gandalf replied a bit crossly, obviously not happy with the way some of the others were nagging about his plans. "We shall see, we shall see." He said, waving their pleas off. "And I think I have earned some of your dragon-gold already - when you get it back."

He lead us on and I let himself fall back a bit to walk next to my brother again, I saw Cassy move forward so that she was falling in step next to Bilbo and Gandalf.

"I don't think she's happy with his plans." I muttered more to myself than to Fili when I saw the severe look on her face.

"You're right." Fili replied. "You should cheer her up with a little cuddle."

I didn't have to turn around to know Fili had a broad grin spread across his lips. I huffed slightly, sending my brother an annoyed look. "Would you stop that?"

"I'd rather not." Fili chuckled. "The face you make whenever I mention it is more than worth it."

"The face I make?" I asked, raising an eyebrow at my brother who smirked back at me.

"You get all flustered." Fili laughed and quickly dodged my hand that had flown out to hit him over the head, instead he trapped my head in a tight grip, laughing as I cursed and tried to get him off.

"You just never learn." Fili laughed.

"What is going on back there?" Our uncle shouted which made us let go of each other immediately. We both shot innocent looks towards the rest of the company who had all turned around to look at us after the little commotion we'd caused.

"It's nothing, uncle!" Fili assured, trying not to snigger, whilst I scratched my head sheepishly next to him. Thorin just looked at us for a moment before he shook his head, turning around to continue after the wizard, muttering something under his breath that had Balin next to him chuckle.

When the attention was no longer upon us, Fili turned back to me, his look a bit more serious. "Of course she's not happy with Gandalf leaving, none of us are. But wizard's do as they please, so I guess we will just have to deal with it." I nodded in agreement and continued after the rest of the company.

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*Cassy's POV*

"Can you tell us anything else about this Beorn?" Thorin inquired and I only realized now that he spoke up that he was standing right next to me.

"Well, he lives in an oak-wood, in a great wooden house. He lives in the company of many animals, though he doesn't eat them, neither does he hunt or eat wild animals..."

I listened as Gandalf told us about the great bees that Beorn kept, although my thoughts kept going back to the fact that he could change into a bear. I'd never met a skin-changer before, which would be interesting.

Eventually, everyone stopped asking questions and we marched on, everyone having enough to think about after Gandalf's explanations. It was quite some time later, already late in the afternoon, when I realised that the landscape was slowly changing. The large trees to either side of me were giving way to wide patches of flowers more colourful than I had ever seen, the same kinds growing together as if they had been planted.

"They look beautiful." Bilbo spoke up from beside me and I simply smiled at him as he walked beside me, looking over the fields of flowers, green grass and clover. There was a lot of clover, its colours reaching from deep green over white to light purple. "I wonder what kind of flowers those are." Bilbo continued which made me look at him. "I have never seen most of those."

"I'm not exactly a flower expert." I said grinning at the hobbit. "But you're right, they do look beautiful."

Then, I became aware of a buzzing and droning that filled the air. I felt Bilbo twitch just as he made the same discovery as myself. There were lots and lots of bees, making their way from flower to flower of the fields. Gandalf had not been exaggerating when he had told us about the size of them, most being larger than any bee I had ever seen. I didn't particularly like bees, I was always worried one would sting me and I've never been very fond of bugs or insects.

"Now." Gandalf said suddenly as we reached a belt of very large and oak trees. I looked up and saw that we were standing on a little hill and a bit further down there was a huge hedge of massive wood built up that couldn't possibly be climbed by anyone and certainly not a dwarf. "You better wait here. I will whistle for you to come after me when I deem it the right time but don't come all at once, mind you. Only come in pairs with about five minutes between each pair of you. Since Bombur is fat enough to count for two on his own, his pair should come last. That should do."

Bombur reacted rather indignantly to this statement, not at all happy with the prospect of having to come last but Gandalf wouldn't change his mind and when Thorin spoke up, saying that he agreed with the wizard, Bombur resolved to state his anger with an annoyed huff here and there, not that I blame him.

"Well, then, come along, Mr. Baggins!" Gandalf said and Bilbo quickly hurried after him as he made his way along the fence in search of the gate.

We all sat down on the grass and beneath the trees, waiting for Gandalf to make his sign. I sat down under the shadow of a large oak and closed my eyes so that I was listening to the deep humming of the bees. I felt someone kneel beside me and once I opened my eyes I saw Kili kneeling beside me.

"Hey." I said.

"Hey." He replied. Before I could say anything else he held up a beautiful dark blue flower that looked almost purple and he held it out to me. I looked away from the flower and looked at Kili.

"For me?" I asked a smile forming on my lips.

"Of course." He said smiling at me.

"Thank you, Kili. This is really sweet of you." I said as he handed me the flower. "Why this colour?" I asked curiously as I held the flower.

"It's dark blue, almost purple. It's the same colour as your eyes." Kili replied.

I looked up at him and using my free hand I placed my hand on the back of his neck and pulled his face towards mine before I pressed my lips to his for a brief moment before pulling away.

"Thank you, Kili." I said as I smiled at him as he grinned back at me.

"Your welcome." He said as he kissed my cheek.

I suddenly jumped when a shrill whistle echoed over the fields signalling that Gandalf wanted the next pair to go.

"Dori, you will be coming with me." Thorin called out. "Then Ori and Nori, Oin and Gloin, Bofur and Bifur, Fili and Kili, Dwalin and Cassy, and Balin with Bombur."

We all nodded in agreement before the dwarf-king walked off together with Dori. As the rest of us waited our turn.

Soon enough it was only Fili, Kili, Dwalin, Balin, Bombur and myself left to wait our turn. I heard Gandalf whistle again signalling that it was Fili and Kili's turn. Kili and Fili stood up and began walking towards Beorn's house.

After five minutes Gandalf whistled again. Dwalin nodded his head at me signalling that it was our turn. I nodded and stood up before I began following Dwalin. It took us a few minutes until we reached the gate and as we passed it, we saw some horses browsing the grass a few metres away. Dwalin and I walked along the path then until we saw a big wooden house behind which were other buildings made of wooden lodges, such as stables, barns and sheds.

As the both of us rounded the corner, I could hear Gandalf calling out. "Ah, and there they are. Cassy and Dwalin."

Dwalin and I bowed low, greeting the really huge man who was obviously Beorn, we inclined our heads as he looked at us. Dwalin was just about to greet him with the dwarfs usual 'At your service' but Beorn cut him off.

"Yes, yes, I don't need your service, thank you. Sit down and be quiet."

I raised my eyebrows in surprise and exchanged a glance with Dwalin but he just motioned for me to sit down. I took the vacant seat beside Kili who smiled at me.

"Now go on, Gandalf." Beorn demanded. I listened as Gandalf recounted our journey to the skin-changer, telling him about our fight in Goblin Town, our flight through the lower gate, until he came to the point where we had found out Bilbo was missing.

"You cannot imagine our horror, when we became aware of it. We counted ourselves and found that there was no hobbit. There were only fifteen of us left!"

Beorn frowned deeply. "Fifteen! That's the first time I've heard one from eleven leave fifteen. You mean ten, or else you haven't introduced all of your companions to me yet."

"Well, yes, apparently, some of them seem to have been shy to come along and lingered behind. But - oh - here they are!"

I turned his head to look over to the massive doorway where Balin and Bombur rounded the corner.

"Bombur and Balin." Gandalf announced.

Beorn didn't seem to care. "Well, finally, you seem to have all of your companions together, Gandalf." He told the wizard, huffing slightly, while Balin and Bombur were bowing low before him.