Chapter 1: 72 years ago

"Erebor's riches came from the gold and gems, buried deep within the endless mines and caverns that lay within it." A fair-haired dwarf stared down at three dwarflings, each with a set of eyes that shined brightly as he told the tale. He smiled down at them for a brief moment before continuing. "It flowed from the mines as the water of a river would. Every day dwarves would emerge from the mines with more and more gold and gems."

"And that's when the Arkenstone was found!" exclaimed one of the dwarflings, a female dwarfling with flowing red hair that fell down her shoulders in large waves into two little braids that framed her face.

The older dwarf chuckled and nodded his head as the little female dwarf smiled brightly up at him. "Yes, that's when the Arkenstone was found; it was known as the King's Jewel. Thror took it as a sign that it was his right to rule, but with all the riches from the gold came trouble." He leaned forward, eyes darkening as his expression growing somber. "Someone else wanted the gold all to themselves. Or rather…something."

The three dwarflings leaned forward where they sat on the ground, their expressions ranging from enthralled to impatient.

"Smaug," a blonde male dwarfling whispered, a small smile tugging at his lips as his eyes shone.

"Smaug," the older, fair-haired dwarf nodded. "At first, hurricane winds blew through the city of Dale and the kingdom of Erebor. Then came a scorching heat that could only come from one thing. The fire drake appeared in the sky and began attacking the city and kingdom. Citizens were running and scrambling to get away to safety. Within hours, everyone who had survived escaped and the dwarves of Erebor had run away from the place they called home. Erebor had been taken over by Smaug and they traveled far to find a new place to call home."

"Here" the third dwarfling with unruly dark brown hair exclaimed. "Ered Luin!"

"That's right," the dwarf nodded. "Because of Smaug the dwarves of Erebor lost the one place they had called home and had to find sanctuary in a new location. Ered Luin. But some say, one day Smaug will be defeated and Erebor, the oldest great dwarven kingdom will be reclaimed."

"I am not scared!" the blonde dwarfling exclaimed, jumping to his feet. "I will fight Smaug and reclaim our kingdom!"

"Me too!" the dark haired mal dwarfling said, jumping to his feet as well and throwing a fist in the air. "I will help fight the ferocious beast and bring our people back to our kingdom!"

"Aye!" the little girl dwarfling cheered. "I will help as well! I will fight and bring back our kingdom!"

The dwarf chuckled and shook his head. "I'm sure you will." He slowly stood up and ruffled the blonde and female dwarflings' hair. "I can already see you three bringing back our kingdom."

"You aren't telling them the story of Erebor again, are you, Rumin?"

The dwarf and dwarflings looked up to see another dwarf with dark hair walk into the room. His face showed a somewhat angered look on his face which slowly morphed to a more relaxed expression when he saw the three dwarflings.

"Uncle Thorin!" the two males exclaimed, running up to the new dwarf.

"Rumin was telling us the story of Smaug!" the blonde dwarfling explained.

"Was he?" Thorin looked over at Rumin as he picked up the little female dwarfling. The two older dwarfs made eye contact before Thorin glanced down at the two dwarflings at his feet. "Fili, Kili, why don't you two go out and play?"

"Okay, Uncle Thorin," Kíli, the dark-haired boy said with a nod. He turned to the blonde dwarfling with a huge smile on his face. "I'm going to defeat Smaug!" he exclaimed, throwing a fist in the air once again.

"Not if I do it first!" Fíli said, running out the door.

"Hey, wait for me!" the female child called out as she watched the other two dwarflings sprint out of the room. She began to wriggle in the dwarf's arms, pushing at his face to loosen his grip. "Adad, let me go! I want to go fight Smaug too!"

Rumin chuckled as he set the little dwarfling down. "Okay, okay, Nella."

Nella huffed as she stamped her foot. "I will defeat Smaug. Just you wait, Adad!"

The father chuckled as he watched his little girl run out of the room calling out to the two brothers. "She's so rambunctious."

"It's no wonder she and my nephews have bonded as well as they have over the years," Thorin said, shaking his head as he folded his arms over his chest. He turned to Rumin. "I do not think it is wise to tell the younglings about Smaug."

"Ah, but it's our history, Thorin," Rumin said with a small chuckle. He patted his friend on the back. "They will learn about it eventually." He looked to the doorway that the dwarflings ran out of. "I am just concerned about Nella. She is young, but she has her head filled with ideas of adventure; of fighting off orcs, goblins, and dragons. It worries me and her mother."

Thorin nodded slowly as he and Rumin walked out of the room. The two made their way out of the house to the town square that the house overlooked, and watched the three dwarflings playing with wooden swords.

"Definitely a fighter…" Thorin mused as he watched the little girl swing her sword at the two brothers. "Is Namli still trying to get her to learn those healing tonics?"

"Yes, and she'll have my head if she catches Nella out here, something about getting dirt from her dress in the tonics…" Rumin ran a hand over his face before tugging at his beard thoughtfully. "I worry about her…" he repeated. "Being as beardless as she is, even at this young age." He tugged at his own beard once again, "she never got along with the other younglings. Which is why I'm truly grateful for you and how accepting your nephews are, without you and Dís, Namli and I don't know what we would have done."

"No, my friend, it is I that is thankful for you, after Vili died, Dís and I felt lost." Thorin paused and watched as Fíli knocked Kíli's sword out of his hand causing the younger brother to pout as the older laughed in triumph. A smile tugged at the dwarf's face as he watched his family run about. "The boys are better with Nella. Having you to help has helped take a huge weight off of Dis and I."

"Happy to help, my friend," Rumin said, placing a hand on his friend's shoulder. "We've been through enough together already."

The next second, Thorin and Rumin heard the boys cry out, "Nella!" Panicked, Rumin sprints over to his daughter, sprawled on the ground, mud caking her dress.

"Nella, are you alright?" Rumin asked, hefting his daughter onto her feet. He began looking over her for any injuries, lifting up her arms and examining her face, panic clear on his.

"I am fine, Adad," Nella said, scrunching up her nose as she tried to escape his grasp.

"What happened?" he stressed, rounding on the boys. "Which one of you was it?" he demanded.

"Adad!" Nella cried out, tugging on his sleeve. "It wasn't Fíli or Kíli. I tripped."

Rumin shook his head as he knelt down to his daughter's level. "Nella, you shouldn't be playing as you are with the boys. You could get hurt. You know how your mother is about you getting your clothes dirty." He glanced down at the purple muddied dress the dwarfling was wearing and grimaced. His wife wasn't going to be happy. "Let's get you cleaned u-"

A sharp pain scorched through his scalp causing him to cry out. He whipped his head around and his glare disappeared into a sheepish grin. Standing behind him with a scowl on her face was an elderly dwarrowdam.

"You leave my little youngling alone," the elderly dwarrowdam said, waving a walking stick at him. "Let the poor thing play as she wants. If she wants to fight dragons and orcs let her fight dragons and orcs."

"Mas," Rumin said, standing up to face her. "You know how Namli is about Nella playing in the dirt."

"She's a child of course she's going to get filthy. What do you expect?" The elderly dwarf rolled her eyes and shook her head.

"I think Rumin is right about this, Mas," Thorin spoke up from where he still stood at the edge of the square. He flinched slightly when the dwarrowdam turned her sharp gaze to him. "I mean it is getting close to supper and I think it would be best for the younglings to get cleaned up."

Mas narrowed her blue eyes towards the dwarf before sighing. "Alright. Inside. The lot of you."

"Say goodbye to the boys," Rumin said as he patted Nella on the head.

The young female dwarf ran up to the two boys and smiled at them. "Bye Fíli! Bye Kíli!"

Fíli smiled at the dwarfling in front of him and nodded his head. "Bye, Nella!"

Nella turned to Kíli and smiled brightly when she saw her wooden sword in his hand. The dark haired dwarfling gave her a bright smile as he handed it to her. "See you tomorrow, Nella?"

"Yes!" Nella said as she clutched her sword to her chest. "We need to train more so we can defeat Smaug."

"Yeah!" the two brothers cheered before they were ushered away by their uncle and Nella, her father, and Mas retreated back inside for dinner.

"Hello, Amad!" Nella greeted as she flitted into the little home she and her family shared. "Hello, Ugmil'adad!"

An elderly dwarf looked up from his whittling as he sat in the small living room and gave the dwarfling a smile as she raced to him. "Hello, nathith," he grunted as she lept into his lap. His eyes drifted to her dress, smile slipping from his face. "Why don't you go wash up before dinner," he suggested, giving a pointed look towards Rumin.

"Fine," Nella grumbled in a huff as she jumped down from her grandfather's lap. "I don't see why I need to get cleaned anyway…"

"Young lady," a voice called out causing the little dwarf to turn her head towards a doorway to her right. A red haired dwarrowdam stood in the doorway, a washcloth running over her hands before she placed them on her hips. "What happened to your dress? You look like you have been rolling around with the pigs."

"I was fighting off Smaug with Kíli and Fíli," she said, standing akimbo.

The red haired dwarrowdam shook her head and sighed, running her hand down her beardless face. "How many times must I tell you, it's not lady like to fight. You need to stop playing in the dirt and start learning the trade of a healer."

"But, Amad!" Nella whined, stomping her foot. "I don't want to be a healer, I want to fight like Thorin and Adad!"

"No Nella!" her mother snapped. "You are a lady. There will be no rolling around in the dirt. No sword fighting," she yanked the wooden toy out of her daughter's hands, "and there will be no fighting dragons!"

Nella stared up at her mother, tears welling up in her hazel eyes. She quickly closed her mouth - an argument dying on her lips - only to have her lower lip begin to quiver. With a swift turn on her heel the little dwarrowdam sped off to her room, slamming the door behind her.

Her mother sighed and pinched the bridge of her nose as she collapsed onto a stool. A comforting hand was placed on her shoulder and she looked up to see her husband giving her a sympathetic look. "I just want her to be safe. She gets ridiculed enough for not having a beard as it is. I just don't want her to go through the same things I did…"

"I know, Namli, I know," her husband said, placing a kiss to her hair. "Nella is young, she will learn that she won't be fighting dragons or orcs on her own. She'll learn that life won't be that way for her and that she will need to find a new path in life. Nella will learn. She's stubborn, but she will learn. For now, let her be. You should have seen the happiness radiating from her when she was reclaiming Erebor with the little princelings, it's not like it will ever really happen, let her enjoy it while she can."

Hello, everyone! I hope you enjoyed the first chapter to this story.

I never thought I'd actually write a story for The Hobbit, but here it is. I had created Nella a long time ago, when I saw the first movie. I tend to create characters for movies, books, or shows that I like and only a few make it to paper. It wasn't until I watched all three of The Hobbit movies with my roommate right before finals week a few weeks ago that I decided to attempt to write this. However, I didn't do this alone. My friend Emily (who you can find on here and on wattpad under the name em3kitty and on tumblr under puffandproud) wanted to look at what I had written so far because I wanted an opinion on it. From there we opened a Google Doc and things happened this story was created. Now we are co-writing this story and I'm really excited for how this turned out.

We really hope you liked the first chapter and let us know your thoughts on it! We love feedback!