The beginnings of their travels were uneventful. Bilbo became accustomed to riding a pony and the rest of the company became accustomed to him. Daisy, Thorin found, seemed to fit right in. Or at least she did whenever someone noticed her. Bilbo demanded almost constant attention to make sure he didn't hurt himself; Daisy however required none at all. Thorin wouldn't have known she was there if it wasn't for the 16 bedrolls he counted each night.

Thorin started keeping an eye on her during the day. He didn't think it was possible for her to remain unnoticeable as a hobbit woman among a bunch of dwarves. Most often he found her talking quietly with Gandalf, or Ori, who had taken it upon himself to look after her. Sometimes Fili and Kili would try flirting with her in their own dwarf fashion, but she would either not be baited or was oblivious.

She never rode beside her brother though, and that confused Thorin quite a bit. He felt it didn't concern him, at least not yet, so he let it be for the moment.

However, Thorin started noticing that Daisy intentionally avoiding Bilbo. She was very subtle about it, but that was the sort of thing he was trained to notice. As they traveled, Thorin allowed his pony to fall back besides Daisy's.

"Why do you never walk with your brother?" he asked, getting straight to the point.

Daisy looked up at him, "What's it to you if I don't spend every waking moment with my Bilbo? Besides not to be rude but that's really not any of your business," she replied in that soft voice of hers.

"It concerns members of my company, therefore it concerns me."

"Fine then," Daisy sighed looking up the column at Bilbo. "He wishes to ask me something that I will not wish to answer."

"And how can you possibly know that if you avoid him?" Thorin asked, realizing that he was speaking softly as well now.

"He fidgets, and stammers, and starts to say something but hushes up when someone else comes near. Normally he would just ask me, so I know it must be something that will upset me. And there are very few things that he would ask me about which would upset me."

"So you know what he will ask you?"

"I believe I do, I know what it will concern at least," she said with a small smile.

"Well, what is it about?"

"I'm sorry Thorin, but that is of a very personal nature, so I cannot answer that," she grinned up at him.

Thorin glared in return, and spurred his pony back to the front of the line.

Bilbo managed to corner Daisy that night. She sat a little farther away from the fire in the small cave they sheltered in and watched as Bomber made dinner. Bilbo came and sat next to her.

"So, uh, did you come because…"

"No," she interrupted him.

"You didn't even know what I was going to say!"

"Yes, you were going to ask if it was about my birthmark," she said quietly.

"Well, actually, I was going to ask about your birthmark," Bilbo said defeated.

Thorin noticed Bilbo go sit next to Daisy, and saw them talk. Daisy did not look happy at all, so it must be about whatever Bilbo had wanted to talk to her about. He did his best to listen to find out what the big deal was, but all he caught was the word 'birthmark'.

A strange cry came from near the mountains, making Bilbo start. "What was that?" he asked, clearly frightened.

"Orc," Fili said. "The mountains will be crawling with them. They attack silently, and in the middle of the night when everyone's asleep. There's always lots of blood."

Bilbo paled at this, and Fili smiled to himself, amused at the burglar.

"An orc attack is no laughing matter. The hobbit is right to fear them," Thorin scolded his foolish nephew. The foolish nephew apologized.

"Yes, after all, we can't all be as brave as you, Oakenshield," Balin said.

"Oakenshield?" Daisy questioned. She too had moved closer to the fire at the orc's cry.

"It's another name for Thorin. In battle before the mines of Moria, Thorin was fighting the pale orc Azog and lost his shield. In desperation he grabbed an oak branch that was near, and used it as a shield the rest of the battle. The dwarves won, but countless were killed," Balin explained.

Daisy paled as well, but Balin did not think it had to do with the orc cry. He also didn't think his tale was too gruesome; he purposely kept it light for her benefit. He would not ask her though, he knew she was a fairly quiet person and calling attention to her would probably embarrass her.

Thorin was also aware of Daisy's now pale features. She went sheet white when Balin said it was another name for him. Thorin knew she must've heard the name Oakenshield before, but why did it fill her with fear?

They continued to travel, and it rained. After several days of this everyone was cross with everyone, Daisy almost snapped at Ori, bit caught herself, Kili and Fili didn't even have the heart to tease and flirt with Daisy, who was still oblivious, and Thorin was cross at everyone as usual.

Finally it stopped, and they found an abandoned farmhouse to set up camp for the night. Gandalf suggested they push on and make for Rivendell, but Thorin would have nothing to do with the elves and refused. Gandalf then left to go do who knows what.

As night fell Bomber made stew per usual. Fili and Kili were looking after the ponies, so Bilbo was sent to give them their bowls.

Bilbo was gone a long time, and Daisy was starting to get worried. She knew the brothers liked to tease him a bit, but she always wondered when this teasing would go a bit too far.

"Trolls!" Kili shouted running back into the camp. Fili was right behind him.

"Where's Bilbo?" Daisy asked alarmed, springing up from where she was helping Bomber clean up.

"Oh we told him to go try to release the ponies," Fili said.

"Trolls are still a problem, come on everyone!" Thorin called.

Everyone grabbed their weapons and followed. Daisy didn't really have a weapon, just a little slingshot Ori had made for her. Still, it was better than nothing, and there was no way she would be staying behind when her brother was in danger.

Sure enough, Bilbo had gotten himself caught. Kili demanded that the trolls put him down, but they just threw Bilbo on top of him. The other dwarves then led a charge on the trolls, and they fought. Bilbo went back to trying to free the ponies, and Daisy did what she could to help. However the ropes were tied tightly in knots that were as big as their heads.

"Bilbo, that knife thing!" Daisy pointed out. Bilbo saw what she was pointing to. It was the same thing he had been trying to steal when he had been caught. Now it was unused. Bilbo grabbed it and cut the ropes, freeing the ponies.

The commotion from the ponies running away attracted the attention of one of the trolls, who spied an unarmed and unaware hobbit. The troll made a grab for Bilbo, but Daisy saw it first. As the troll reached for Bilbo, Daisy ran and pushed Bilbo out of the way.

The troll was surprised to see it had caught her instead, but knew it could still be used. Daisy grimaced as it squeezed her painfully. She was pretty sure she heard something crack.

"Put down yer arms! Or it loses its," one of the trolls yelled as it and another troll each held one of Daisy's arms.

Thorin scowled, but dug his sword into the ground anyway.

The trolls tied the most of the dwarves in sacks, and some on a giant spit over a giant fire. Daisy however, they left out of a bag as they inspected her.

"It looks most like the burglar-hobbit, and the burglar-hobbit looks a bit like the dwarves, but this one looks nothing like a dwarf!" one said, holding her upside down by a leg. It was now that Daisy was very grateful she had worn pants like Bilbo instead of keeping to a traditional hobbit woman's dress. She just had to worry about her shirt falling up on her.

She tried to keep it up, but she wasn't quick enough.

"Hey, what's those strange markings?" asked the one with the winey voice and the runny nose, pointing to her right side, the side hidden from the dwarves view.

"Oh that? That's um, my expiration date!" she called out loud enough for the dwarves and Bilbo to hear.

"What's that?" the one holding her gruffly asked, bringing her to his face.

"You don't know what an expiration date is? Why that's when any meat goes bad!" Bilbo exclaimed hopping up.

"Meat can go bad?" asked the third, scratching himself.

"Of course it can! The older it is the badder it is, it can make you very sick, even kill you!" Bilbo elaborated. "We all have one, I believe hers went up last month, and we're all older than she is, so it's a good bet we're all expired."

"I don't have an expiration date!" Kili exclaimed. He was silenced by a kick from Thorin. Or what was supposed to be a kick. It was really more of a sharp wiggle in Kili's direction. Kili and the other dwarves caught on.

"Actually I think I expired yesterday morning!" Kili exclaimed even louder. Then all the dwarves went on about how expired they were.

"Hush up!" yelled the troll holding Daisy. He had gone back to holding her around her middle, with only her head and feet showing. Daisy tried not to cry out; he was squeezing her very painfully. "They can't all be expired!" he protested. "I say we just eat them all raw right now before we get caught by the sun!"

Daisy thought she saw someone moving along a giant boulder that shielded the troll's camp, but it was hard to tell with the light glaring around it. Light! If only they could stall for a little bit longer, then surely Gandalf could do something, for she was quiet sure it was Gandalf she had seen; only one person she knew of wore a hat like that.

"Of course they can be! Can't you tell they're all ancient?" Daisy yelled to be heard. "Especially that one, beware of him; his beard is all white now, which means he's extremely deadly to eat!" One of the trolls had picked up Balin.

"Come on, we're not fools, hurry before the sun rises!"

"Dawn take you all for fools!" said a loud voice on top of the rock. Gandalf broke it in half, and sunlight streamed into the troll's camp.

The troll holding Daisy dropped her to the ground in surprise as it and the other two turned to stone.

Once solid, Gandalf and Daisy helped the dwarves out of the bags. Daisy was sore from being squeezed, poked, and prodded by trolls all night, but she seemed to be the worse off of all of them. But they were all safe.

"Hey Daisy, what were the markings you told the troll was an expiration date?" Ori asked innocently.

This turned out a little longer than expected, but I didn't have the heart to make it two chapters. Hopefully the next chapter will be up tomorrow or the day after, sorry about the cliffhanger.

Thanks for reading so far, and please send reviews, I love feedback! :)