A/N: Hello readers! How are you liking it so far? I really appreciated your reviews! Now, coming at you, Chapter 2 of Burning Ascent!

Burning Ascent

"Noble dragons don't have friends. The nearest they can get to the idea is an enemy who is still alive."
-Terry Pratchett

Chapter Two: Trolls & Sentimental Feelings

The next couple days were incredibly boring for Iskra. She was almost regretting coming along for the adventure. Iskra had spent a lot of the time riding behind Thorin and making loud-fake whisper comments about him to Bofur, who chuckled good-naturedly.

"Hey Bofur, what do you call it when Thorin has a backache?" Iskra asked loudly, looking over to her riding companion.

Bofur looked thoughtful before shrugging.

"An aking back!" Iskra laughed loudly, her laugh growing louder when she saw Thorin's eyebrow twitch as he looked back at her darkly.

"Oh Bofur! I have another one! How do you find a prince in the snow?"

Bofur tugged on his hat and finally admit, "How?"

"You follow his foot prince!" Iskra answered in peals of laughter, "Ok here's another! What does Thorin have when Fili is acting up?"

"Hey!" Fili called from behind her, "Don't use me in jokes!"

"Hush, this is a good one!" she called back, "Well, Bofur? Any guesses?"

"An annoying dwarf?" Bofur guessed, earning another protest from Fili.

"Nope! A bad heir day!" Iskra roared with laughter, causing Thorin to whirl around in the saddle.

"Be quiet!" he bellowed.

Iskra bit her lip, but didn't say anything else until Thorin stopped the Company on a grassy hill for camp. Gandalf and Thorin were talking in the distance near a rundown house while the Company unpacked bags and relieved the ponies of their burdens for the night.

Suddenly, Gandalf was storming past them muttering about dwarves before he disappeared from sight.

"Come on Bombur, we're hungry," Thorin called to the cook.

Bofur and Bifur went searching for firewood for Bombur. When they came back, Gloin made to start the fire with flint, but Iskra waved him back.

"Save that for emergencies," she said as a soft flame floated from her hand to the kindling, setting it alight.

"How exactly does your power work, Iskra?" Ori asked, journal and quill in hand, "Would you mind if I write down what you tell me?"

"Not at all, Ori," she sat down while Bombur was cooking, "I can start and control fire however I wish, but the origin is always from me. I'll heat up, the more I use the more I do. That's why I don't wear armor. It could hurt someone if they touched it."

Ori nodded as he scribbled down what she said, "What if you aren't wearing armor and someone touched you while you were casting?"

"Depends on what kind of casting I'm doing. It could roast someone alive if I'm fighting as opposed to lighting a fire."

"Thanks, Iskra!" Ori said enthusiastically, finishing the impromptu interview.

It was at that moment that Fili and Kili ran into the campsite, frantically shouting and pointing from where they came from.

"What are you doing here?" Thorin stood up, "You are supposed to be watching the ponies."

"Trolls…Bilbo," they gasped out, still pointing.

The reaction was instantaneous. The two princes had already grabbed their swords and were barreling back. The Company followed quickly, grabbing their own weapons. From up ahead, they could hear Kili shouting, "I said, drop him!"

They came pouring out of the trees and it was chaos. Iskra stayed out of the way, watching for the safety of her Company as they fought. Twice she sent bolts of fire to save Ori from being eaten. The fighting sudden stopped when two of the trolls held Bilbo up between them. Thorin looked over at her, but she shook her head. There was no way she would be able to fry them fast enough without hurting Bilbo and if she went too slowly, they would tear him apart. Thorin grudgingly released his sword, thrusting it into the ground. The dwarves around them threw their weapons to the ground, following the lead of their king.

Iskra was tied up in a bag next to Kili and Thorin, watching her friends being slow roasted over a fire. In fact, if the situation wasn't so dire, Iskra would feel embarrassed that she was practically lying on top of Thorin.

"Do something, woman," Thorin hissed in her ear.

"I can't," Iskra snapped back, "I'll roast you and Kili alive."

"We can take a little heat!"

Iskra readied herself to attack, but drew her power immediately back into herself when Kili whimpered from the heat radiating off of her.

Thorin was starting to sweat from the heat coming through the bags, but Kili was leaning against her bare arm and writhing away from her. The dwarf king was startled when the heat withdrew immediately. Not even the constant, calming warmth was being emitted from her anymore. The cold was disconcerting and Thorin did not like it at all.

"I can't, I'll hurt Kili," she whispered dejectedly.

Suddenly Bilbo was up and talking about how to cook dwarf, causing an outcry from the Company. Bombur was thrown back down on top of them suddenly, causing Kili and Oin to bite back cries of surprise and pain.

"We don't have parasites!" Kili yelled at Bilbo, "You have parasites!"

Thorin kicked them sharply, causing the pile of dwarves to change their tune quickly.

"I've got parasites as big as my arm!"

"I've got huge parasites! Mine are the biggest parasites!"

The trolls were arguing with Bilbo when Gandalf appeared upon the ledge, causing sighs of relief from the Company as the trolls were turned to stone with the sun.

Iskra actively avoided the troll horde. From where she was seated outside with Bilbo, she could already feel the pull of the gold calling to her. To distract her, she asked Bilbo about his home and about hobbits. She wasn't sure if it helped.

"Iskra!"

The half-dragon looked up from the conversation with Bilbo about food to see Fili and Kili coming out of the troll horde with identical grins on their faces.

"What did you do wrong?" she asked, standing up to meet them.

"We have something to show you!"

Iskra hid her anxiety, settling on raising an eyebrow and waiting for them to show her.

"Show her, Kili!"

Kili held out his open hand, revealing a beautiful emerald inlaid in a golden ring. Just from looking at it, Iskra could tell that the emerald was real and that the gold was as pure as it could possibly be for the design it held. She reached out slowly, touching the ring before pulling back quickly.

"It is a beautiful ring. Real emerald, good quality gold," she said shakily, looking away from it.

The brothers looked confused.

"It's for you," Fili encouraged as Kili put it in her hand.

Iskra looked up from her concentration on the ground in surprise, "For me?"

"Of course!" they both smiled.

She pulled both of them into a hug, "Thank you!"

"Someone is coming!" Thorin called out, spurning movement out of the dwarves in their various places around the troll hoard and pulling Fili, Kili, and Iskra out of their short hug.

Fili and Kili moved towards their uncle as quickly as they could. Out from the forest came a little man on a sled pulled by rabbits screaming out about murder, fire, and thieves. Gandalf relaxed and began working to calm the small wizard—Radagast—down. Iskra sat down alone on a log when Gandalf confirmed that the new arrival was not an enemy.

Suddenly, Radagast turned to Iskra with wide eyes.

"You!"

Iskra looked up, startled.

"You are not fully dwarf," Radagast whispered in horror, "Part monster."

Iskra stiffened and looked around, but the only one who had heard him was Gandalf. Said wizard looked annoyed and pulled Radagast away from her and the rest of the group to talk with him privately.

It wasn't much later when they heard the howl.

Iskra jumped up from where she was sitting and grouped with the rest of the Company. A warg appeared on the top of the hill before them. Using its powerful hind legs, it leapt at them, taking Iskra down to the ground and using its powerful jaws to snap its teeth into her tough flesh. She cried out in pain, but pushed the warg off as soon as its grip weakened. Another warg came tumbling down next to her with an arrow in it.

"Warg scouts," Thorin grimaced as he helped her up, "which means an orc pack is not far behind."

"Orc pack?" Bilbo's concerned squeak wasn't even acknowledged by the king or wizard.

"Who did you tell about your quest?" Gandalf demanded.

"No one, I swear. What in Durin's name is going on?"

"You are being hunted."

A/N: I'm sure you have noticed that this is not perfect movie verse. It is not. Come on guys! That'd be boring to write! Anyway, what did you think? Please review! The reviews really encourage me to update and write more! :) I'm sorry that its a little shorter than the last chapter, but this was the best place I could do a chapter break. Once again, review review review!