It was the Battle of the 5 Armies. Merrithrin was crouching behind a large boulder with her bow poking out from around the side, she was picking off goblins and Orcs and had been for the past hour. Soon she got bored and ran into the battle with her long blonde braid streaming behind her. She swung her sword too and fro, taking out the goblins that were coming at her from the front as she pushed her way deeper into the fray.

Before we get too deep into the story I will explain Merrithrin's past. She was born in Late Town to a single mother who was originally from Rohan and never knew who her father was (her mother was of course a human). Known to her friends as Ri, she was not the typical young lady a mother would hope for. Ri would spend her days in Mirkwood with the Woodelves as a child, learning how to hunt, fight and forage. Her mother was not happy about this because Ri soon got a reputation for being quite the explorer. She would get up very early in the morning and creep around the Lonely Mountain until the sun set and she was hungry.

Back to the Battle, Ri was very close to the middle where she could see the dwarves that had visited Laketown earlier in the year. Then she spotted a great big Orc that was running hard and fast towards Thorin Oakenshield. She managed to get in it's path and as It came running towards her she ducked under it's spear and stuck her sword right into it's chest so it stuck out the other side. The Orc made a small gruelling sound as blood began to poor out of his mouth and then it fell sideways onto the red-stained grass.

Ri pulled her sword out of it's body with a little bit of difficulty because it was about twice as big as she was but she soon removed it only to find an arrow being pointed at her face by a sandy-haired dwarf, she thought his name was Fili but she couldn't be sure. Before she could say anything she saw an arrow flying straight for Fili's head she grabbed a handful of his hair and yanked his head out of the way in one swift movement. The arrow whistled past Fili's ear with only centimetres to spare. Breathlessly he said; "Thank you, I will make this up to you!"

"If we both survive." Yelled Ri as she stabbed a goblin trying to make it's way towards Fili.

Soon after she had saved Fili, Ri found herself fighting off an oncoming circle of Orcs with Kili. They were standing back-to-back, swords drawn facing the Orcs. They came running at them with a yell that sounded like metal scraping on metal. For the first couple, Kili tried to face them all at once but this failed when a particularly scarred one hit him just above the temple with it's mace. Kili dropped like a rock, leaving Ri to defend his body. "Bloody dwarves can't look after themselves!" she thought as she sliced open the scarred Orc's neck. The circle around her and Kili was swiftly closing in. All Ri could see were waving swords and axes and malicious looking Orcs.

She gave up hope then suddenly a shower of arrows rained down and hit the oncoming Orcs. The elves that Ri had befriended in her childhood had come to the party, lead by one of her best friends, Legolas. The elves were blowing horns that woke Kili who, even though had been unconscious, was up and fighting in a matter of seconds.

Ri escaped the Orcs after killing a good dozen and with a quick wave to Legolas, ran towards a group of goblins that were gathered round a body. The body groaned as a goblin directly in front of Ri drew back its dagger, cutting her from the corner of her mouth to her eye. In a split second after she'd been cut, the goblin's head was clean off on the ground at the hand of her sword. The rest of the goblins fled, looking for other fallen wounded to prey on.

The body gave another groan and moved its head. She couldn't make out who exactly it was but she recognised the dwarf body shape and dark hair full of blood. His face was covered in mud and blood that was caked on his face. Since she was near the edge of the battlefield, in sight of her boulder she grabbled the dwarf under the arms and hauled him behind the rock. This was quite hard for Ri because even though dwarves were short, she was still shorter than this one and she was of a slight frame.

When Ri had positioned herself and the unconscious, injured dwarf so that they could not be seen from the battlefield she pulled out her handkerchief and water-skin, wet the handkerchief and started to clean the gunk off the dwarf's face. When most of the mud and blood where gone, except in the spots where he was wounded, she recognised the dwarf. It was Kili. Ri sighed and looked at his wounds.

It looked like his nose had been broken at the bridge by something hard, there was no blood but there was a lot of swelling and when she tried to touch it, he groaned. His lower lip had been split very deeply, contributing to most of the blood on his face. The wound on his temple had gotten worse since she had seen it last and he had a bruised right cheekbone. Ri saw blood on the shoulder of his chain mail that looked like it was coming from his chest so she wrestled the mail off him and undid his shirt. Indeed, under his right collarbone was a gash about a hand's length. Ri was starting to feel quite queasy now and she didn't know why, then a drop of blood splashed onto Kili's and she remembered her wound. She touches her face and felt an abundance of dry blood on her left cheek and down her neck. As she was coming to a realisation about her wound, an almighty burst of pain hit and she fell unconscious next to Kili.