The Adventure of Andrea Baggins

Busted

Andy was woken by something soft tickling her nose. A buzzing sound filled her ears as she slowly opened her eyes. Andy stared into the facetted eyes of a bee as big as her Hobbit hand. With a shriek she crawled away and immediately pulled her blanket over her head. As quickly as possible, she crawled her way into the kitchen, trying not to pull the blanket off of herself. As she banged her head against a wooden shelf she started swearing under her breath and slightly lifted the blanket, to see where she was. Correcting her direction, she let it drop again and crawled on. Next, she hit a chair leg. Fili, who was sitting on that chair, looked down.

"Andy?", he asked confused. Hearing her name, made her throw back a part of the blanket and look up.

"'Sup?", she greeted.

"What are you doing?"

"Hiding", was her answer and she looked around suspiciously. Bofur, sitting on the other chair next to Fili, looked down on her.

"There's no need to worry. Master Beorn won't harm us", he spoke, thinking she was hiding from the huge man. Andy scoffed.

"As if I'm afraid of the teddy bear. " Beorn growled at that comment. "That darn bee was so close to sucking my eyeball out of its socket. Those things are terrifying!" The dwarves snickered. Andy got to her feet and pulled the blanked close around her body, only leaving a little slit open for her to see. She was looking back over her shoulder, as Fili reached down and lifted her up onto the chair bog enough for both. Andy let out a yelp and pulled the blanket closer around her body, thinking it were the bees abducting her. The snickers turned into laugher.

"The bees won't harm you, little beast. You can show your face", Beorn spoke, his lips also twitching. After a moment Andy threw the blanked back. Her hair stood off in all direction, making the dwarves giggle even more. With an unamused face expression, Andy tied her hair back. This was not a good start into the day for her.

Beorn curiously watched the scene unfold in front of him. It seemed like the dwarves really didn't see the threat in her. They all looked so familiar with her. She didn't stand out, as he thought she would. She was part of them.

Thorin stood leaned against a wall, also watching Andy enter the kitchen. He thought it was amusing, that she was afraid of those friendly fluffy bees and not from the man who tried to kill her just yesterday. Then again, she seemed to be used to such people. The smile that managed to crawl onto his face dropped, as he caught Beorn's eyes.

"So, you are the one they call Oakenshield", he spoke, watching Thorin carefully. The dwarves turned quiet, now carefully watching the giant man. Andy of course was not bothered by him and grabbed herself something to eat. "Tell me, why is Azog the Defiler hunting you?"

Thorin's eyebrow rose. "You know Azog?", he asked, not wanting to answer him.

"My people were the first to live in the mountains, before the orcs came down from the North. The Defiler killed most of my family. But some he enslaved. Not for work, you see, but for sport. Caging skin-changers and torturing them seemed to amuse him. "

Andy stopped eating, hearing this. All the guilt and the blame washed over her, knowing, it was her responsibility to prevent that. And she didn't. She was licking wounds in the Shire. For good sixty years.

"They are more people like you?", Ori asked curious.

"Once there were many", Beorn said sadly.

"And now?", Kili asked hesitatingly.

"Now there is only one. "

A silence laid over the company and they lowered their heads, showing respect to the dead.