Oh my gosh I didn't expect any reviews, let alone such an extensive one. thank you guest, whoever you are! I hope I don't dissapoint in the coming chapters.
Also if you read the first chapter before today, I have changed a small detail about them going to bree. I remembered that bree is on the complete oposite side of the shire so I've changed it. Sorry for any confusion.

Ilia was not someone who avoided physical activity, but even so she had difficulty keeping up with the group on foot. It was rather surprising, as most of the men around her seemed more out of shape then her. She would not let it show however, and made a point to keep her breath steady as they spoke with her.

As soon as she agreed to accompany them, they all introduced themselves, thought she still had trouble naming them. Occasionally, they would point to themselves and have her say their name, which they seemed to think was hilarious. She started to agree after she learned their names, and started using the wrong one just to tease them.

So far, they had traveled for only a couple of hours, by her uneducated guess, but she had already grown to enjoy Bofur the most, and Ori just behind. Bofur had the habit of talking, a lot, and she found herself always listening to his stories. Ori, in contrast, did not talk much but when he did he often blushed and smiled at her. She figured him to be the youngest, and quite shy.

Gandalf, on the other hand, seemed quite content to avoid her. She did however catch him looking at her sometimes with the oddest look on his face, though he would smile, nod, and turn away when he saw her looking.

Soon, as Ori said, they arrived at a town, and the first place the group decided to go was a pub. Ilia wasn't pleased with this, she had seen enough drunken men from her home to last her a lifetime. She was not about to refuse the group that offered her shelter, however, at least for now.

Some of the more responsible went into the town first, presumably to get supplies and food, while the rest ate and sang and drank in the pub. Gandalf, however, sat quietly in a booth and Ilia took her chance to join him.

"You have many questions for me, little one." It was a statement, not a question.

"Why must you all call me little?" Ilia asked, annoyed. "Most of your party are shorter than I, by a head." He laughed.

"Indeed they are, but you are much younger."

She scoffed, looking down into her glass. "I still don't see how that is entirely possible."

Gandalf was suddenly serious. "Or perhaps you have solved the why for yourself, yet are reluctant to accept it." Ilia's eyes flew up to meet his in surprise. "Surely, you have heard me call members of our party Master Dwarf; I hope you did not think I was simply being rude."

"I..." she started, not quite sure what she had thought about it, "I did not think to believe it was the truth. I have never known such a being to exist in my life."

Nodding, he looked suddenly quite tired. "Indeed, it appears as though you are from a very different place than this."

"To put it mildly." She murmured.

"You, my dear, are in Middle Earth. Specifically, a day's ride from The Shire. I have known that this is not where you yourself come from." He looked at you again, like he was looking through you. "It is quite obvious, to a wizard such as me."

Ilia sputtered into her drink, shocked. "A wizard? You do magic?" First dwarves and now wizards? It was all becoming too much for the poor Scottish girl to handle. Being lost was one thing, but being in the company of people who seemed to think such creatures were real was a very different matter entirely. Where was this place she had landed anyway?

"When the occasion calls for it." Gandalf answered enigmatically.

"I just don't understand." She said, trying to process everything through her mind. "Where I am from, magic, dwarves, they don't exist. There is no such thing except in children's stories."

He only smiled. "Oh, my dear, many stories are based in truths."

There was a moment, while Ilia thought about everything that had happened to her. She had somehow been transported to a land, a different world really, she was unfamiliar with, and was now travelling with several dwarves and a wizard. None of it could be explained rationally. Nothing in her life before would have been able to help her understand it. So, she took a deep breath and accepted it. This place was obviously much different world, culturally and otherwise, than any she had ever known. The only thing she could do, logically, was believe what they said and hope for the best afterwards.

"But you knew," she said suddenly, "you knew that I was not from this place when you found me."

He simply nodded.

After a moment, a thought struck her, and though she knew she did not want to know the answer, she had to ask.

"Will I ever go home?"

There was silence, as Gandalf looked on at the rest of their party, drinking and laughing, before he turned to her.

"On that matter, I'm afraid I haven't the slightest idea."

Just then there was a commotion, close by, but far enough from the others -oh goodness she would have to start calling them dwarves - that they did not notice as quickly as Ilia and Gandalf. She was the first to notice that Ori, the smallest dwarf, was the subject of the torment by the hands of a couple of average looking men.

"It seems our young master Ori has found himself in a spot of trouble." Gandalf, his tone cool, was not looking at Ori, but at Ilia.

She eyed the men. "Just a spot?"

Dori and Nori, across the room seemed to notice that their brother was no longer with them, and were yelling for him. It was just as one of the larger men shoved Ori, tossing all the mugs in his hands to the ground.

In moments Ilia was up and next to Ori.

"Excuse me," she said, trying to make herself seem just a bit taller, "but what is the meaning of this?"

The group was drunk, that much was obvious, but that only made them ever the more bold. "Little dwarf run into us." The leader, she assumed, said, his voice slurred and his tone obnoxious. Her lip curled just listening to him speak.

Ilia turned her back to them, helping the young dwarf up and seeing that their party had joined them. "I see, the next logical step was to push him. It's my mistake then." She snapped back.

They only laughed with each other. "The dwarf needs help from a woman to fight his battles, lads!"

They all laughed again, and their leader chimed in, "what would you expect, not even a respectable scrap of hair on his face!"

If Ilia had not been turned towards Ori at that moment she would not have seen the look of shame on the youngest dwarves face, nor the looks of rage on the faces of the others. Her hand squeezed Ori's shoulder in an effort to comfort him, before she swung around and, with all the power she could muster from her tiny body, landed a right hook squarely on the leaders jaw.

Pain exploded over her knuckles down to her wrist; she had never punched anyone before, but she felt a sick sort of satisfaction as the man stumbled back. The rest of the company surged in front of her, protecting her from any form or retaliation as she held her sore hand to her chest. Ilia would actively admit she would not have expected that from a group she barely knew, but a warm feeling grew in her chest as well.

The yelling began, from the drunken men, from the other patrons, and from her group. Weapons were brandished, drinks were spilled, and threats were shouted. The whole pub was in frenzy.

The owner quickly pushed their company to leave. Though they grumbled about it, none blamed Ori, or Ilia for that matter, for the incidents that caused them to be forced out. In fact it seemed as though that sort of thing was a regular occurrence, the way they joked about it.

"Well," Ilia said, as they started down the road again, "that was quite an adventure."

There was a murmur of laughter from the group that made her smile. Gloin, a wide dwarf with a magnificent ginger beard, gave her a hard clap on the shoulder that almost sent her sprawling into the dirt. "Indeed." Gandalf said, looking quite proud. "Though, I dare say, not that last you, my dear, shall have."

After a couple of moments of relative silence, Ilia could not help but ask, "Not having a beard, that was an insult, was it not?"

Bofur, from next to her laughed. "Oh aye, greatest offence of all."

She smiled. "That's a relief. I would hate to have punched him for anything less." Even Gandalf chuckled at that, and Ilia thought maybe this adventure she was on would not be so bad after all.