A/N: Hey guys! So my updates will probably never be this frequent again, but I already had this chapter all typed up, so why not? Please tell me what you think! I already like this version much better than the last, but I'd love to hear you opinions. Enjoy!
Disclaimer: I don't own these characters or this plot. I'm just giving it my own spin.


"What," Nori panted, "in Malah's name, is that?" The girl had literally come out of nowhere. Not that any of them would admit this even with their dying breaths, but several had nearly had a heart attack when the lassie had come crashing out of the trees.

"Elf," Thorin spat as he viewed the unconscious female before him.

"Are there more of them?" The hobbit curiously peering at the she-elf from behind him.

Gloin grunted, "Unlikely, they would have come charging out to her aid by now."

So what is she doing alone? Thorin brushed that thought aside. What was important was that this tree-licker had been spying on him and his men.

"What I want to know is what possessed her to knock herself unconscious," Balin glanced warily at the girl.

"Dwalin, bind her. We'll tie her to a tree until she wakes."

The others slowly started to continue on with setting up camp, but occasionally send glances in the elf's direction. Thorin posted Fili and Kili to watch her and tell him if there was any change.


Beautiful. Just freakin' beautiful.

Here she was, tied to a tree. With probably the biggest idiots, who she assumed were supposed to be watching her to see if she woke up, cracking jokes and hardly even glancing her way. She'd been watching them beneath hooded eyes, careful no not open them too wide or keeping them open for too long, for a good fifteen minutes now. She kept her breathing deep and slow; even drooling a bit for effect, and they didn't have a clue. And that wasn't even the worst part. They had caught her. Sure she had been trying on purpose to not hurt them, but still! She could take a hit. Or at least she should be able to. Right now all she wanted to do was poke someone's eyes out.

It was just as well, she supposed, because she was currently working at the ties around her wrists. Rings with built in sharp edges really were a girls best friend.

"Do you think Uncle will wake her up if she doesn't on her own?" the younger voice said. She recognised him as the one who had almost nailed her in the throat with his arrows.

"Probably," the older agreed. His voice was directed at her and she held steady. "And likely he will do so sooner rather than later."

Well, her time was running short.


"Fili, Kili, haul her to her feet." Thorin came towards them. The other dwarves created a semi-circle behind Thorin as he stalked towards them.

Fili and Kili went to each grab and arm.

Her hands wiped out, grabbing both of their biceps, and threw them to opposite directions. By the time they each hit a tree, she was already standing with a long blade in each hand.

Thorin mentally kicked himself. Of course she had weapons. Why had he assumed otherwise just because she hadn't used them to fight earlier.

There were shouts from the company as the grabbed their weapons. His nephews scrambled to their feet and rushed to stand flanking Thorin.

Thorin's hands itched to unsheath his sword, but she was too close. One flick of her wrist and she could end him.

Her eyes never left his. "I didn't come here to hurt you."

Thorin stayed silent, choosing to stare at her instead. She seemed… tired.

"And I still have no intentions on hurting any of you." The elf slowly lowered her weapons to the ground. She pulled out a belt containing throwing daggers that was around her stomach under her tunic. Maybe twenty small, razor sharp daggers gleamed back at them. She grabbed a dagger strapped to the underside of her biceps on both arms and laid them on the ground. She then proceeded to remove four more from her ankles, two longer wicked looking knives from her waist, and a sack she had had strapped to her.

"All I want is to have a conversation that does not involve bloodshed." She placed the sack down more gently.

"You have a rather unique way of displaying such intentions." Thorin still kept his sword within grabbing distance.

"If you recall, master dwarf, I did not engage in any violence. All I wanted to see is if you were the ones I was looking for."

Thorin studied her for a moment. "Fili, bind her hands."

Fili took a step forward; the she elf took a simultaneous step back.

"I gave over my weapons over willingly, but letting myself be bound in the middle of a dwarven camp is something I cannot agree to."

"You think that I believe you truly surrendered all your weapons elf?" Thorin spat.

Her mouth twitched up the slightest bit, before taking out four long ivory pins that held her hair in its bun. "Half-elf," she set the needle sharp pins on the ground. "My father was of the race of men."

"Fili, bind her hands." Thorin repeated.

"See, here's the thing," the she-elf again took a step back. "If I didn't want to be here, I wouldn't. Now instead of condemning us to a pointless game of chase, I thought it would be wiser to try talking this through. Any act of violence on my part would leave you with no choice to follow me, especially if my escaping caused harm to one of you."

Thorin's whole body stiffened. "So threatening us is your way to go about talking peacefully?"

"I'm saying that we're pretty evenly matched, and a fight now would hurt you as much as it would me." She didn't even flinch at the various dwarves surrounding her gripping their weapons tighter.

"And you expect me to trust the word of an elf?"

"God no, those things are vile. I'm asking you to trust the word of a half-elf. Big difference."

Thorin blinked at her.

"So then why are you here?" the hobbit piped up, peaking around Oin.

"What, is that." Her tone was a fraction sharper.

"Excuse me, I am a hobbit,"he huffed, disgruntled at being regarded as if he were a thing.

Her gaze shot back to Thorin. "Why, in the high heavens, would you have a companion so utterly helpless when there is an Orc pack-"

"Orc pack?"

"Yes! Orc pack!" She bared her teeth. "Why do you think I was trailing you for the past two weeks?!" she threw her hands up in the air. "Do you think I have an unquenchable urge to track down some random dwarves whenever I'm out taking a spiritual hike through abandoned country side-"

"What Orc pack," Thorin spoke more forcefully.

"The Orc pack that ambushed me when they came across my camp. The Orc pack that revealed, through some… gentle persuasion, that they were actually hunting a group of dwarves."