The baying of wargs filled the forest air, spurring the dwarf band on. Thorin ran at the back of the group, unwilling to leave anyone behind. Unfortunately, this put him right beside the elfwoman, her strides limited by her narrow skirts. The more he saw of her, the more he became determined not to associate with her. She was smaller than the elves he'd encountered in his youth, but this may have been a side effect of her /condition/. There was no doubt in his mind, it was the same paleness that afflicted Azog the Defiler, though his did nothing to stunt his growth. The girl stumbled over the rocks, and for the first time he took note of her bare feet, small and delicate and bleeding. The scent would bring the wargs right on them!

The elf seemed to notice this as well, and, cursing, stopped to lean against a large boulder, running a hand over each foot.

"Hurry, elf!" He called behind him, barely slowing. "We cannot wait for you!"

To his surprise, she caught up rather quickly, and, when he looked, her feet were no longer bleeding. She had used some sort of magic to heal herself. Disgusted, he made his way to the front of Company. The orc pack crossed their path, and they all stopped abruptly. They changed direction, only to be cut off again, and Gandalf urged them back the way they came. Something was off.

"Where are you leading us?" He demanded, but the old wizard avoided the question, falling in line behind the dwarves and leaving him alone with the elf again. She was not panting, but her face was becoming quite red with exertion. Gandalf urged them all against a stone, and she shrank against it with a heavy, though silent, sigh. They quieted as the growling of a warg reached their ears, the cold sound of a blade being drawn sending them into complete silence. Thorin looked up at the orc, and nodded to his nephew, who understood the signal and drew his bow in silence, turning and shooting the warg. The creature's yelp rang out across the rock littered hills, and he winced internally. The elf beside him held her hands to her ears, her pale eyes wide with horror as she watched the Company converge on the animal and its rider. Once both were dead, she drew a shaky breath.

"Was that really necessary?"

Thorin spared her a glare, and she looked down, clearly ashamed. The howling of the warg pack grew suddenly louder, and Gandalf bade them run. The Company was on the move again, running for all it was worth, changing direction every time the beasts crossed their path. Thorin had an inkling suspicion that Gandalf was directing them somewhere, but was unable to dwell in it, as they were soon surrounded.

Kili began picking off the riders with his bow, but for every one shot down, another rose to take its place. Thorin cursed under his breath, he should not have had his nephew kill the first beast. A riderless warg circled the group, teeth bared, lunging for Ori, who stumbled back.

"Ori!" Nori shouted, rushing toward his brother, but was stopped by Fili's hand.

Thorin watched as the elf placed herself between warg and dwarf, raising her hand before the beast. Miraculously, it stopped, cowering before the white woman, her back straight and head held proudly. She yelled something in a language he could not understand, and the warg ran where she pointed, away from the dwarves.

It was one warg of many, but, still, it was impressive. The rest of the back pressed in around them, and Thorin finally drew his blade.

"Hold your ground!" He shouted. If they were going to die here, they would take every orc with them. And, blast it, where was Gandalf?

The old wizard's voice, as if summoned by the dwarf king's thoughts, cried out from behind them. "This way, you fools!"

They all turned, immediately heading for the hole in the ground their tall companion had gone into. Thorin jumped onto a rock, determined to see every member of his company to safety.

"Quickly, all of you!"

Dwarf after dwarf leapt into the abyss, until only Thorin, Kili and the elf were still above ground.

"Kili!" He cried, not willing to leave his young nephew to an uncertain fate. "Run!"

The dark haired dwarf shot down another orc before turning to answer his call, two warg riders close behind him. When Kili was close enough to the mouth of the cave that he would most certainly make it, Thorin followed his men below. Only once he was standing there did he realize that the elfwoman was not with them. Kili leapt into the hole, followed closely by the elf, and the king had to smother a swell of disappointment. She pressed her hands to the wall of the cave, and roots burst through to cover the opening, their tips jagged spikes.

The dwarves exchanged glances and whispers, and Thorin would have demanded an explanation, but a horn sounded above them and they all fell silent. A struggle could be heard, and an orc fell, screaming, upon the roots. Once it had stilled, Thorin approached it's corpse where it hung above him, and pulled an arrow from its torso.

"Elves," he said in disgust, tossing the arrow aside. He looked up at Gandalf, somehow knowing that the old man was up to something.

"I canno' see where the passage leads!" Dwalin called from the dimly lit antechamber. "Do we follow it or no?"

Bofur wasted no time in answering. "Follow it, of course!"
The dwarves filed in behind Dwalin, and when Thorin turned to see if all had followed, he saw the elfmaid looking out through the net of roots she had created, her face still red despite their short respite. She looked sad, almost pained, to be leaving, and, when she turned to him, there were tears in her eyes.

"I have never left the Greenwood, Master dwarf," she said quietly, her voice shaking. "And now I find I may not return."

"You may always return to your home," he said with vehemence; after all, was he not doing that very thing?

The pale woman shook her head sadly, stepping away from the mouth of the cave. "The trees say goodbye, and they only do that when one will never return."

He stood there a moment after she had gone, staring hard at the twisted roots and the corpse which they held. Elf or not, it would seem that, in their quest to reclaim their home, they had cost the woman her own.

I feel like Thorin's a bit OOC there at the end... Tell me if you agree, and how I can fix it while keeping the integrity of the scene.