*Thorin's POV*

I sit there staring down at her limp body. Frozen I hold her and wait for her to say something else. Anything. With only the noise of wind and a choked sob from The Company to break the silence.

"Thorin...?" Bilbo whimpers out.

I hear him but I don't take my eyes off her.

"She's gone." Balin mumbles almost as if asking a question.

"No...she can't be. It-everything was fine!" Bofur exclaims in disbelief.

I slowly lookup. Lifting my head I turn to stare out from the cliffside. The wind whips my hair as I feel the familiar feeling sink in. I thought I had felt it before but this time it's different. It is colder, deeper, and more painful.

Its grief.

Deeper in my chest. More overwhelming. My eyes look back down again and I see her free bloodied hand gripping onto the necklace I gave her. I replay her words in my head that she spoke to me in her final moments.

"It's perfect......my first love.......it's okay...the first person I've ever loved...Thorin Oakenshield...the person I'll always love...I love you."

I caress her cold cheek and hear nothing but the cries of the company. Never in my life had I wept like this. Only as a small boy did I weep so profoundly, but not since those days. Not even when my own family died. My lip trembles and I blink my eyes. I breathe in with a slight gasp and begin to cry bringing her body up close to me. I rest my forehead on her shoulder and choke out sobs and shake my head while rubbing her face. I sit there crying feeling this emptiness inside me. I feel the sticky substance on my hand seeing it covered in the crimson blood. Her head is tilted back and lolls over letting a trickle of blood flow from the corner of her mouth. I bury my face into her shoulder running my hand down her hair and down her cheek. Her eyes are closed and her lips are crimson with blood. She is dead because of me.

I then feel Balin's hand on my shoulder "Lad, let her go. She's gone."

I look and see the faces of everyone and how disheartened they are. I can see how they look at me. No one has seen me this way. Not even myself. I rub her cheek and hug her body to me lightly rocking back and forth. After a while of holding her my tears stop. Right now I have to collect myself and get a grip. She died for me, for my people so I could lead them. So we could all live again and prosper. Her death shall not be in vain. As the last of my tears fall down my face I press a lingering gentle kiss to her cheek.

Slowly I lay her body back down on the snow in front of me and pull back sitting there. The company comes around and Kili and Fili are by her other side. Fili's lip trembles and he reaches down resting his hand on top of her head. He covers his face and weeps while Kili sits there with her head in his lap and closes his eyes with a single tear going down his cheek. As I sit there I stare out over the cliff and see the Eagles coming to soar down and pick us up taking us back to Erebor where I wished she would have stayed.

---

Everyone is gathered down the streets of Rivendell. The sun is setting behind some of the houses and the sky is fading in many different colors. After the battle, we buried all of the dead Dwarves in Erebor as well as people from Laketown. Many of them were buried in a cemetery in Dale. However, now we are gathered in Rivendell where only one funeral is being held.

Horses pull the casket slowly down the street. I walk behind only a few feet followed by the company and Gandalf next to me. I stare at her laying there. She's so beautiful in the long purple and blue dress. Her hair curled cascading around her head and dozens of white flowers fixed into her hair. As we had gone through the streets in silence we stop in the center of Rivendell. It was not my choice with her being buried here, but Gandalf's. Even though I wanted her in Erebor I did as he asked thinking there must be a good reason behind it. Besides, she loved it here and would want to be buried in this beautiful place.

They lift her under a large stone arch onto a stone platform. Lord Elrond and many Elves are there including his young daughter. Other friends and Dwarves join us such as Dain and Bard.

Gandalf steps to one side of her and looks down. The Wizard looks at her in sorrow and everyone can see it as a tear falls down his face. As the Company and I stand side by side I look down the line and see a few crying and others not even able to look. 

Gandalf speaks for all to hear "As we weep so does the sun, the moon, and the earth, but may we look up into the sky and see you up there shining bright."

Walking by her side I spot my necklace I gave her in her hands resting on her chest.

I smile sadly and lean over her whispering my goodbye. Softly I place a kiss upon her forehead lingering for a moment. I feel the single tear slip down my cheek as I open my eyes and look at her. Caressing her cheek one last time I pull away and stand back. One by one the Company bids her farewell until the Elves carry her casket into the dark stone tomb where she will remain.

---

The people had dispersed after a short while, and many started the journey back to Dale or to other parts of Mid-Earth. I had bid my cousin Dain goodbye as the company heads inside to a somber dinner. Now only I remain. Sitting there I look to the stone arch where her body now lays inside. I play through all the memories in my mind since I had met her. How blind I was to her affection as well as my own. My mind circled around how things could have been different and what could have been. The things I had thought about, desires I wanted, and things I wanted to say, but these things now could never be. Putting my head down I lowly wept. Someone approaches and sits next to me. After composing myself I sigh but keep my head down.

"The love of my life." I mutter lifting my head facing forward "I destroyed her...." I whisper.

Bilbo looks over at me sadly without saying anything.

"I destroyed everything." My voice wavers and my lip trembles "I never told her that I-"

Sitting in silence with my head down neither of us spoke. I can't finish the words locked within my heart. Now they would be just words and nothing more.

Bilbo reaches out with his hand and places something in mine. He pats my hand closed and I look at him and then my hand. Slowly I open it up and it reveals the necklace she had given me.

"I found this back on the mountain."

I stare back down at the necklace tracing my hand over it.

Bilbo sighs "Maybe someday she will return to us... somehow."

I look to the Hobbit with hopefulness in his eyes "How?"

"Stranger things have happened. I believe love can do wondrous things."

I slightly smirk and nod "Yes, I suppose it can."

The Hobbit pulls out his pipe and puffs on it lightly "And what do we do now? What do we do from here?" he asks glancing at me.
I smile at him and then down to the necklace "Just believe"

AN: There you go my lovely's! That's it! This is the end of book one. I hope you enjoyed it and it didn't make you too sad.

THE SEQUEL IS PUBLISHED: "The King Who Dreamed" (Thorin Oakensheild Fanfiction)

I hope to see you all in the second part of our journey!