Imagine Dwalin saving you and confessing his love for you. This time, again, one I came up with myself.

Slowly but surely I am going to get back on track with both these daily books. All I ask for is some time to catch up :)

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You watched from across camp when Thorin was giving out orders to everyone. To everyone except you. And this time you had enough.

For the first time in weeks you decided to walk up to him and demand for him to give you an order as well. When you halted in front of him that idea had long left your mind.

"What do you need?" he asked. Thorin didn't even look up at you as you stood there. He was watching his nephews who disappeared into the woods.

"I-I... Hello?" Mentally, you hit yourself. Why could you never complete a sentence when you talked to your leader? He wasn't that scary.

He turned his head to look at you.

"You are that scary" you whispered.

Thorin raised an eyebrow. "I didn't catch that" he said. He crossed his arms, looking at you with badly concealed annoyance. "Can you tell me today?"

You swallowed thickly before answering. "Well, I was thinking, you know, you always give others a job to do here... And I was simply thinking, that maybe, if you want me to, that is, can I-"

He pointed at someone behind you. "Help him. We need food for tonight, the night after that, and so forth." Thorin looked at the small axe you carried in your boot. "You have shown us you can do many things with that small axe of yours. Let's see if you can kill a rabbit with that."

With a smirk on his face he turned around to find out what his nephews were up to.

You watched him leave in disbelief. He had seen you kill orc's with your axe. Even wargs! How dare he assume that you wouldn't be able to kill something greater then a rabbit. If only you weren't too afraid to speak up to him.

That would show him.

A hard pat on your shoulder almost send you nose first in the mud. Another hand, on your arm this time, made sure you didn''t fall over. "Careful lass, I didn't mean to send you to the ground."

You stuck your nose in the air. "I am fine, thank you Dwalin. If you will excuse me-" You bent over to grab your axe from your boot. "-I have finally be given a task."

Dwalin chuckled. "I know that lass. You are going hunting with me." He watched you struggle with taking your axe out of your boot. "Do you need help with that?" 

You huffed, stuck your nose in the air and stomped your way towards the tree line.

"That's how we are going to do this then? Fine by me." Dwalin quickly followed behind you. You were sure to get yourself into trouble before you had even seen your prey.

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Kili followed his brother without asking where they were going. They had told Thorin what he needed to tell you. At first he had been reluctant but finally he had given in. Especially when they told him why he needed to say that.

Now it was their turn.

"How much further?" Kili asked silently.

Fili put a finger against his lips.

They were there.

It didn't take long before Kili saw the beast walking around. The animal had no idea about what was going to happen to it. Dwalin would have killed it anyway. There was no reason not to stir things up a bit first.

"Are we sure about this?" Fili asked. His voice was barely above a whisper.

Kili nodded. "They won't do it otherwise."

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"We did find enough for tonight, we can head back?" Dwalin asked. He help up two dozen rabbits.

You put up a hand so that you didn't have to look at their dead bodies. Helping to kill them was one thing, it was another to look at their lifeless bodies.

He quickly put them down when he noticed. "What do you say lass?"

Your eyes locked for a couple of seconds. Then, you both looked away. A blush crept up on your cheeks. "We should try to look for something bigger. Thorin will blame me if we only bring back these."

Dwalin tried to find your eyes again but you deliberately looked the other way. "Fine, lass, where do you suggest we look?" He swung the dead rabbits over his shoulder.

Most places had already been searched by the two of you. Dwalin had suggested staying close to camp for your safety. "Maybe we should go deeper into the forest. We haven't really been there yet" you suggested.

His muscles tightened. "There are more dangerous animals out there lass. We can't risk getting hurt."

You huffed. "You mean that you don't want to risk me getting hurt?" You dared to look at him for a few seconds. "I can handle myself just fine if you hadn't noticed."

"I did notice lass. It's just that... Never mind. You are right. We should bring back something bigger." Dwalin lead the way deeper into the forest. The trees were closer together in this part. The atmosphere was creepier. Silence filled this part of the forest.

You entered a small clearing. There were little strokes of light coming through the top of the trees. It created a magical scene right in front of you.

"I will search here, you can search there" you said. You pointed from one end of the clearing to the other. "Let's go then." You gave him one more smile before you went to your side.

"Lass."

You didn't bother to stop. "Dwalin, you can still see me from your end. You are scaring the animals away" you semi-shouted back.

For a moment he wanted to go after you, protect you against anything that could be lurking behind the trees. He chose to go the way you told him to go.

It kind of felt nice to have Dwalin worrying about you. Your feelings for him had gone undetected for long enough, you didn't want to give him any reason to come to other conclusions.

Right now you had to focus on finding a bigger animal. Dwalin was taken care of so there was no worrying about him. There were small traces in the mud but nothing bigger then a rabbit's feet. You really had to come back with something bigger.

Maybe you wouldn't be allowed to ever go hunting  again. Or Thorin would even tell you that you were indeed useless on this quest.

You failing today would give him all the reason to do just that.

There were no other trails to be found. Just bunnies. There must be a family close by.

You dared to look back over your shoulder. Dwalin was watching you instead of looking for tracks. He didn't even attempt to hide it. You rolled your eyes. You could handle yourself just fine, thank you very much.

That's why you didn't hear it coming on time.

When you looked back to go a little further to look for new tracks, you heard something coming from your left. Your eyes widened in fear.

A wild boar was storming right at you.

You took a hesitant step back.

An other step back.

Then, you started running away from it.

"DWALIN!" you screamed as you ran for your life. Your words were bigger then your actions. Rabbits had been big enough, a wild boar was too big for you to handle. Why didn't that dwarf tell you to call it a day and go back to camp together?

It had nothing to do with your own stubborness.

You kept running until you couldn't go any further. There was a cave which you didn't notice until it was too late. You were inside, looking for a way out. But there was none.

The wild boar was close.

A mad look lay in it's eyes as it kept charching at you. You weren't sure what you had done to upset it but that didn't matter right now. It would kill you if you didn't protect yourself.

Your knife looked small in your hands. Definitely not the right weapon to fight against a wild boar.

So you did the only thing you could do. Press yourself against the back of the cave and close your eyes, waiting for the vital blow.

You heard the beast coming closer and closer. The hooves of the boar were loud as it ran straight at you.

Just a little longer and you would be food for the animals in the forest.

You dared to open one eye. Fear took further control over your body when you saw the boar had now entered the cave. The blow would come any second now.

From the corner of your right eye you could see a massive, black shadow run into the cave as well.

Great, now there were two of them. Maybe death would come sooner that way.

However, the big shadow didn't hurt you. Whatever it was, it managed to reach the wild boar.

A small light caught your eye before the boar landed on the ground. It's head was cut off clean. The last you heard was a loud cry coming from the boar.

And panting from the dark shadow.

Tears were running down your cheeks. Why did you have to die like this? If only you would have listened to Dwalin. If only you could have told him about your feelings for him. Now, he would never know. And you would never know what he felt.

The black figure now came towards you. You closed your eyes again.

You didn't want to see it before it would kill you. That wasn't the last image you wanted to have in your brain.

Your body froze when it touched you.

When he embraced you.

Wait...

First you thought that you were being squeezed to death, but then you felt the warm fur against your skin. And the cold knuckle dusters against your back.

"D-dwalin" you said. You buried your head in the crook of his neck. Your arms held onto him like you were still in danger. He would have to peal you off before you would let go of him.

"Lass, I felt like my heart was cut out off my chest when I saw that beast chasing you. Why didn't you run towards me?" he asked. His voice was hoarse.

"I-I did not think o-of it" you answered. Your voice was uneven because of the all the stress you had just gone through.

He held you a little closer to him. His hands were rubbing over your back trying to calm you down a bit. "You are safe now. I will never let you get hurt." Before either of you knew what he was doing, Dwalin planted a kiss on the top of your head.

You were the first one to freeze. You pulled back a little to look at the tough warrior.

His eyes widened before he let go of you. He looked down at the ground, one hand behind his head. "I-I didn't mean to do that, it was a mistake. Aye, that was what it was. I must have hit my head or something. I didn't mean to offend you or anything I simply-"

You stopped his rambling by placing a soft, long-lasting kiss on his rough lips.

Without hesitation, he pulled you back in his arms and deepened the kiss. It tickled a little because of his whiskers. But you didn't mind. The kiss was perfect.

"I love you" you said when he broke the kiss.

A brilliant smile broke through on his lips. "I love you too lass. Never scare me like that again." Softly he leaned his forehead against yours. "I don't know how I could live knowing that my One had passed away" he said, his voice thick with emotion.

You smiled lovingly at him. "From now on I will only hunt for rabbits."

He smiled back at you. "I know something better. From now on you will stay back at camp so I know you will be safe."

"But you won't know for sure that I am safe if I am not with you" you countered.

Dwalin thought about this for a moment. "I am not sure if that is a trick of yours love" he said. With his eyes he searched for a clue on your face on whether you were serious or not. "You might me right."

Your smile was one of triumph.

"Now I have my doubts" he said.

You grabbed his hand in yours and pulled him with you towards the dead boar. "Can we take this with us?" you asked, looking down at the animal.

As an answer, Dwalin threw the rabbits over your shoulder and knelt down to pick up the boar. You looked in disgust at the dead animals your 'suitor' had just given you. Or rather, had thrown over you.

"I will cary this and you will carry those" Dwalin announced.

"I will stink for the rest of the day" you complained.

Dwalin chuckled. "No, my sweet. You will stink for the rest of the week" he said with a playful smirk.