And now she was riding away from him with anger anger flowing through her veins and growls on her lips.

What the hell went wrong?!

The journey started of nice enough. She had learned that the aim was to steal the Arkenstone from Smaug, therewith forcing the other dwarven kings to rally beside Thorin in order to kill the beast. Thorin had some sort of map for it, that no one could read yet, but that did show a hidden door. She talked a lot with Fili and Kili, whom, as she learned, were Thorin's nephews. The other members of the company were also kind to her, taking better care of her then they did for themselves, probably since she is a woman. But Thorin did not pay much attention to her. Every once in a while she glanced at him, noticing that he was staring intensely at her, as if her were some kind of an insult to him. A useless thing her father sent instead of a man. She didn't get it; they had had great times together, and she had been sure he felt the same about her as she had about him, so why the cold shower? At fist, it made her doubt herself. Perhaps she had misread the signals. Perhaps he had never been anything more than a friend, or an acquintance.

She hid the feelings away, somewhere deep inside her where the rest of the rejection, humiliation and anger was hiding. Instead, she turned to his nephews, admiring their talent for making fun no matter the circumstances.

But then things went a little too far; two ponies were lost (not her horse, thank Mahal), and Fili and Kili sent her to retrieve them from the smelly trolls that had taken them to make a meal out of them. She did not exactly deliver, but if it had not been for her stalling, Gandalf's help would have come too late. But all ended up well, and she did not expect and repercussions. But then Thorin sent everyone else ahead, telling Fili, Kili and her to stay behind with him.

She heard Gandalf whispering to Thorin. "I would not include her in this, if I were you."

"This is my company and I shall do I as see fit." Thorin grunts back at Gandalf, but then his voice becomes softer. "I have promised her father I would take care of her as if she were my own child, and make sure she would not do anything stupid."

Gandalf looks at him as if he wants to say something else, but then joins the others who are already going ahead.

"You three were normally not supposed to come on this journey; you are all too young, especially you." He started, pointing to her. "But I have warned you, no exceptions will be made regading the consequences for actions because of your age. And you three have thoroughly fucked up."

"But uncle.." Kili started.

"NO! We could all have died! You have endangered our quest, endagered our lives!"

Emma looked at him darkly, unable to hold her tongue.

"You! You are the one responsable! You are supposed to take all the decisions, and you should have had the surroundings controlled!" She smirked. "You're just a bad leader who is afraid to fail and now blames others for possible failures."

Fili and Kili look at her with wide eyes, while Thorin's face had slowly but steadily reddened with every word she said. When she finishes he sees her defiance and disdain in her eyes, and just as she was unable to hold her tongue, he is unable to stop himself from hitting her across her face. The moment his fingertips make contact with her veiled cheek he regrets his actions, and even more so when he sees her head swing to the side by the impact of the blow, and the way she straightens it again, her eyes squinted a bit and almost black with all-consuming anger

She balls her hands into fists, but does not say anything more. Instead, she walks through the woods to her guard.

**"We're leaving."**

**"My lady?"**

**"I said that we're leaving. He's an asshole."** She says, jerking her head towards Thorin.

She gets on her horse and takes the contract out of her pack. She looks at Thorin, who is looking at her with a pained expression on his face, and rips the contract in two and start riding away. She hears Thorin saying:

"Come on Emma, I'm—I'm!"

But she doesn't look at him, she just keeps riding, passing the others, who look at her with the same expression Thorin had. She doesn't care anymore about the possible reward, the freedom it could buy her or the rest of her life. She will not surrender her pride for any of it.

Thorin feels utterly wrangled. From the second he saw her in the hobbit's house he had been trying to keep his distance. He had underestimated the effect she would have on him when he agreed to her father sending her, and he was afraid she would be a major distraction. So he avoided speaking ot her, avoided looking into the eyes he had longed to see for so long, eben though he wanted nothing more than to talk with her, as they did before, and be close to her. But he could not keep himself from looking at her when he thought no one saw him. And then she left, because he could not control his frustration and had behaved terriby dishonourable. From thereon, he was in an even more foul mood than he was before.

Emma's journey goes unexpectedly well. There are no problems that her and her guard, who has not dared to ask what happened, can't handle. But at night she doubts herself, as she always does. She has given her word that she would help them, and she has really not done anything for them. Her part would only come once her have arrived in Erebor. She is supposed to steal the Arkenstone. And what is she going to do now? She can not go home with her head held high, even if her father is willing to take her back into his home. For nights she tosses and turns, untill the answer becomes clear: she will have to steal the stone anyway, perhaps even slaying the dragon in the process. If she is lucky, the dragon is asleep and she can just kill the nasty beast in his sleep.

Once arrived in Laketown, she sends her guard away, instructing him to say nothing about what happened. She doesn't mind about his protests, after all, there are only two possible outcomes: she will get the stone or she will die. If she dies, she is finally rid of the weight on her shoulders, and if she gets the stone, she will have fulfilled her part and her can go home where her brother will probably take care of her.