"You sit here and don't even think about straining your side," Dwalin instructed.

Sepha sighed and fake pouted by crossing her arms, "Great! Now I have five new adoptive fathers! First Balin, then Beorn, Gandalf, Oin and now you! Who's next? THorin?"

Dwalin chuckled and ruffled her brown hair, "Nah. He's more of an admirer than father to you."

The girl rolled her eyes but her cheeks went pink at Dwalin's words. As the dwarf headed over to join the others who were sparring together, she pulled her braid out. Brushing her fingers through her hair, she quickly red braided her hair but left to locks of hair on either side of her ears, framing her pretty pointy ears and making her look part elvish.

Thorin strode out of the house, heading to join the others when he stopped. He took in the girl who was sitting on a stump, watching the dwarves sparring. The hair framing her face made her look so gentle... so fragile and elf like... but the braid was definitely dwarfish style and it made him smile. He couldn't believe that he could love someone as much as he loved her.

She looked so relaxed, wearing a clean shirt that she had obtained from Kili who was the one nearest her size. it was slightly loose but that helped the bandages and she had tucked it into her pair of pants and was wearing her boots that were clean. Her hands were resting on the stump beside her and she looked so relaxed and carefree... not like she was on a journey to reclaim a mountain where a dragon slept.

"Uncle! Come on!" Kili called.

Thorin headed over to the others and saw that Fili and Kili were going against Dwalin and Gloin. He circled them, fingering his beard as he watched his nephews. FIli was a great fighter but Kili had a few wrong moves.

"here, lift your arm a little more," he said, stepping in to fix Kili's stance.

He then walked over to Fili and whispered in his ear, "Dwalin is right hand dominant. Try for his left more often."

His two nephews went at it and soon managed to disarm Gloin and Dwalin, earning cheers from the others.

"Your turn Thorin!" Kili invited.

"I can't do sword fighting anymore," Dwalin grumbled. "How bout wrestling?"

Thorin was about to object when Balin sauntered past and whispered something in his ear that only Thorin could hear, "Persephone is watching."

Thorin glanced out of the corner of his eyes and saw that sure enough, his two nephews had gone and sat next to the girl and they were watching them. Thorin felt a smile appear on his face and he nodded, "You're on Dwalin."

With that, Dwalin began to remove his heavy clothing so that he was only wearing a shirt and his breeches and boots. Thorin did the same and smirked when Dwalin cracked his knuckles. They hadn't wrestled in a while and Thorin had gotten much stronger recently.

Meanwhile, Fili and Kili were watching their uncle with wide eyes. He was a father figure to them and they practically adored him and looked up at him with admiration. Their mouths were dangling open as they watched Dwalin and Thorin fighting.

"Uncle is so cool!" Kili whispered.

"Yeah!" FIli agreed.

Both of them cringed when THorin drew Dwalin over his shoulder, bringing the other dwarf to his back.

"Ouch," Sepha cringed. "Thats why I don't do wrestling."

"What do you do?" Fili inquired, "Other than archery?"

"Double swords," Sepha replied. "And self defense. Though sometimes I opt to morphing cuz it gets the job done faster."

"So how do you morph?" Kili inquired.

Sepha chuckled, "Don't try it Kili. But basically as a skin changer, I just think that I want to change and I do."

"Can you show us again?" Kili asked. "Unless you're still healing."

"Oh I'm healing just fine," Sepha replied.

Thorin brought Dwalin down a third time and the dwarves cheered for Thorin had won the round. He smiled and helped Dwalin up. He snuck a look at where his nephews and Sepha were but saw them getting up and heading off out of sight.

"Want to go for another?" Gloin invited THorin.

Thorin was about to object but Balin beat him to it, having noticed Thorin's puzzled look, "I think Thorin has some things to do. How about you go for Bofur."

Thorin smiled at Balin as thanks as he grabbed his blue tunic and headed after his nephews and Sepha. When he found them, he kept a good distance off so they didn't notice him.

They were standing in the open field by the river and Sepha was morphing from human, to wolf. the girl and Fili kept laughing whenever Kili tried to morph but only ended in a faceplant.

"Stop trying bro," FIli said, "You're not even a skin changer!"

"It's all in the head!" Kili said, "have some imagination!"

Sepha chuckled and morphing again into a wolf, she caught the boy by the boot with her teeth gently and began dragging him, earning a laugh from Fili and yelps from Kili.

She morphed back and she fell onto her back with laughter at Kili's horrified face. "Don't worry Kee. Most girls aren't attracted to guys who can morph anyway. You would be better off by working on your flirting."

"If you would even call it flirting," Fili pointed out. "He's scared some dwarf girls out of their breeches."

That sent Sepha laughing again and Thorin found himself smiling. Her laughing was like music and he loved hearing it. He also loved the bright look on her face and how she seemed so peaceful and happy.

(LATER)

Thorin was seated in a chair, reading a book silently. He never really read but all the other dwarves were sparring yet again (a second day in a row) so he had decided to avoid that by finding an occupation.

The door of the house opened and in ran Sepha. Her arms were full of herbs, many of them flowering. There were leaves and small flower petals in her hair and her cheeks were rosy from running. she had been healing nicely and Oin had given her the okay to do as she pleased but to be careful of her side.

THorin felt his heart stop and he feared that he was staring, mouth slightly open for the sight before him was like seeing a goddess. Her hair was slightly messed, hair flying all about her face. She wore Kili's white shirt laced up the back with her leather jacket but not laced up, her breeches and her boots. Her arms were overflowing with green plants, white and purple flowering plants and she carried a handful of stems covered in berries.

Her eyes met his for a second before she smiled and scurried off to where Oin was."I got your herbs."

"Oh thank you dear," the dwarf said, taking the armful of things from her. "Did you go into the thicket to find them?"

"Yeah," the girl replied. "Why?"

"Cuz you have some things in your hair." Oin chuckled.

Sepha sighed and handed the herbs to the dwarf. standing up, she walked a ways towards her bag and finding a fresh hairtie, she removed the other tie and let her hair fall out. She began to pick the small pieces of leaf, petals and other things from her hair. Thorin was watching her from beneath his eye lashes and before he knew it, he couldn't hold it back any longer.

Standing up, he set his book down and approached the girl from behind. He gently touched her hands and the girl slightly jumped, "Let me."

Sepha lowered her hands and THorin began to run his fingers through her hair, removing the pieces of hair. He ran his fingers through her thick brown hair again, even though there weren't anymore petals or leaves in her hair. How he wished to braid her hair but he feared she knew about dwarven braiding customs.

"Can I ask you something Sepha?" he inquired

"Sure," the girl replied, obviously thinking he was still getting leaves out of her hair.

"What do you know about your kin's customs? I mean.... all four of them?"

"Not much honestly," Sepha replied, "My mom was about to teach me before she died. She only go to explaining skin changer and wizards but they don't really have any customs like elves do. I know how elves court... but that's about it. Dwarves... I'm ashamed to say I know very little except that a dwarf and his or her One wait till after marriage to consummate their marriage.... that's really it."

The moment she told him that she knew very little about dwarfish customs, he began to run his fingers through her hair and began to braid it in a dwarfish braid.

When he finished, he released her hair and Sepha touched the braids a moment, smiling, "Thanks. You didn't have to do that."

Thorin shrugged, "I don't mind."

Sepha smiled and thanking him again, skipped outside to where his nephews were calling her, having not figured out where she had disappeared to. THorin smiled. How he wished he could tell her what he had just initiated. In Dwarven customs, There were different ways to begin showing one's affection to the other and one of those things was staking a claim by either act of arms to fight for the person's hand, show of physical strength or braiding the other's hair. However, Thorin felt that it was too soon to tell her.

He had just gotten on good terms with her after the horrible things he said to her in Rivendell. he didn't want to ruin it by expressing his feelings too soon. Little did he know that Dwalin and Balin had seen the whole thing and were smirking at each other. Fili and Kili were going to be so ticked off when they find out that they'll be losing the bet!

hen THorin finished thinking of the best way to tell Sepha about his feelings, he headed out doors to see what the others were up to. He wasn't the least bit surprised to see that Sepha was helping Kili with his sword fighting. She had both her swords drawn and was giving him tips, pausing every few blows to show him where to put his feet and so forth.

Thorin went and stood beside Dwalin who was watching Persephone constantly. He knew that Dwalin was trying to understand Sepha's form of fighting since it was a mixture of all different kinds of races.

"She's a tough one to read," Dwalin whispered, "It's like she has no pattern. That makes it very difficult to tell where she is going to strike next. It's almost aggravating!"

THorin smiled and looked at the girl. her moves were so graceful, smooth but so deadly that THorin understood Dwalin's frustration.

"Why don't you go spar with her?" Dwalin suggested as Kili stepped back, taking a break

Thorin looked from Dwalin to the girl, then back at Dwalin before sighing, "Fine."

In truth, he was dying to spar with her, just to be close to her but he didn't want Dwalin to know about his feelings... at least not yet.

"Let's see what you've got," he invited Sepha, drawing Orcrist.

Persephone smiled and handed one of her swords to Fili. The way THorin was going about, he obviously didn't want a lesson but wanted an actual round. In that case she was going to take it seriously.

She drove her other sword into the ground and quickly laced up her jacket so it didn't get in her way. As she did, he watched her and felt his mouth go dry. How he so wished to know what it felt like to touch her hands.... her face.... all of her.... he quickly shook his heads. Stop thinking such things when you aren't even courting her!

"Vaem hef tho bjorgart ilv mikk?" Thorin muttered in Kuzdul.

He said it too quietly for Persephone to hear but loud enough for all the dwarves to hear and their eyes widened and their eyebrows shot up. Persephone cocked her head at him.

"Sorry, I didn't hear that."

Thorin shook his head, "It was nothing."

"If it was nothing, then why is Dwalin smirking?" she inquired.

THorin looked over his shoulder to see that Balin and Dwalin were indeed smirking at him while Fili and Kili had their jaws dropped and eyes practically bulging from their faces. Oh if they said a word of this to her he was going to have their heads!

"Tell you what," Thorin remarked. "If you win this round, I'll tell you."

Persephone smiled and cracked her knuckles, "Deal."

Thorin didn't know what to do especially since Persephone just stood there calmly, her sword in the ground about three feet in front of her.

"Come on," the girl invited.

Thorin charged at her but that was a mistake. Persephone completely avoided him by bending completely backwards and grabbing her sword as she went. She spun around and held her sword horizontal in front of her, gripping it backwards.

Thorin turned and considered her. This time she took the first blow. Thorin had no idea where it came from but Persephone's blows were faster than any sword fighter he had ever fought against. THorin was an incredibly talented sword master but they were both equally matched in the other.

Thorin knew that she couldn't strain her side yet so he decided to use that against and take a blow at her where she couldn't avoid him without straining her side. It worked and soon he had her disarmed and he had Orcrist at her chest.

he smiled, "I win."

Persephone just raised her eyebrows and smiled, extending her right hand, "Funny thing I learnt in my years of wandering THorin.... never try to find a woman's weakness...."

Just then, Thorin felt something fly through the air and before he knew it, Persephone's sword was in her hand... both of them and she had them crossed at his neck, Orcrist tossed to the side, "...Because we always find yours first."

Thorin's eyes were so wide that Persephone smiled, "Never try to test a wizard."

Thorin smacked himself inwardly for being so foolish. She was a wizard! She probably had a spell that enabled her to draw her weapons to her mentally.

"So, what was it that you mumbled to yourself?" the girl asked, sheathing her swords.

All eyes turned to Thorin and he felt the back of his neck go red. He swallowed and at once his mouth went dry, "Nothing."

Before Persephone could object, he had ducked his head and had headed back to the house, walking briskly and sheating Orcrist as he went.

Sepha looked at Fili and Kili who were still staring with dropped jaws while Dwalin and Balin looked disappointed, not in Sepha but in the fact that Thorin hadn't told her.

"What did I say? Was it a touchy subject?"

Finding that Fili and Kili were practically frozen at present, Balin shook his head, "The lad was just nervous."

"Nervous? THorin?" Sepha inquired, "I find that hard to believe."

Dwalin sighed, "Why is it that it is always the person involved that is oblivious?"

"Oblivious to what?" Sepha inquired.

Balin sighed and patted her shoulder, "Lass... THorin was nervous because of you. What he said was in Kuzdul and it was: What have you done to me?"