Thanks to everyone who favorited and followed this story! It means a lot to me! Don't forget to leave a review if you enjoyed it!

Chapter 4 - Races, Trolls and a Golden Dragon

Aella was beginning to doze off whilst they were just plodding along. Why had she agreed to do this? She should be protecting the forest not wandering around with a dwarf on her back. Oh well, at least the two she was talking to where friendly enough. And with all the dwarves rhyming names it was easy enough for her to remember who was who.

She hadn't slept properly in ages as she was always taking the night shift for the forest and was now expected to do so for the company. At best she got a couple of hours but as a wolf that was all that was needed to keep her going throughout the day. Except today she felt like she could doze off any minute with the slow pace that they were traveling and the soothing feeling of Kili braiding her golden fur. She needed some adrenaline, she needed to hunt something or at least go for a good run. Thankfully it wasn't long before her wish came true.

"Kili, Fili scout ahead for a place to camp." Thorin's deep voice rumbled over the train of dwarves to the back and reached Aella's ears. Her head instantly rose from where it had been hanging and her ears twitched around in anticipation.

They separated off from the group and Fili kicked his pony into a trot to pass the company and then a canter t start to gain ground and distance away from them. Aella just stopped and stood in a powerful stance. Her eyes watching Fili canter off. Kili looked down slightly warily and lightly nudged her sides.

"Aella? Aella we're meant to scout ahead with Fili why have you stopped? Come on we need to go me and Fili always race to see who can go the fastest and he's winning." Kili asked cautiously, Aella took note of what he said and slowly bought her front end down as if she was at the start of a proper Olympic race. "Race? Well we can't let him win then can we? Hold on tight, and I mean tight." She waited for Kili to grab more of her fur and to wrap his legs around her middle a bit more. Then in oe swift movement she lept from the ground into a run slowly accelerating even more and startling the other ponies as they flashed past.

It was one of those moments that should've been in slow motion so that you could see the startled expression of the rest of the company and the way Aella's fur rushed backwards. They were now traveling so fast that they barely touched the floor, all of Aellas muscles working and flowing together, Kili rocking back and forth on her back whilst he hooted merrily. They were gaining on Fili like crazy because Aella was running at almost double his ponies speed. When they caught up and were running alongside the other pair Kili flashed Fili a cheeky grin before slightly nudging Aella to run even faster which she easily complied to.

Soon enough they found a small abandoned farm house and Aella slowed down to a trot. Fili quickly joined them and after a while of the brothers panting they decided that this would be an idyllic place to camp for the night. So they made their way back to the company at a leisurely canter to fill them in on the farmhouse.

"Did you find a place to camp or were you to busy larking about?" Thorin glared at the brothers but even more so at Aella. Why did he hate her so much? The boys didn't seem to notice though "Yes uncle, there's an abandoned farmhouse not to far from here that would be perfect to make camp in." Fili answered calmly with a small smile. Kili was to busy grinning stupidly to himself "Fine. Lead the way."

"Bombur get something cooking. Fili and Kili, you'll look after the ponies." The two princes groaned but got up anyway. They slowly walked off to watch the ponies leaving Aella alone. They were friendly enough and seemed to be the only members of the group to be brave enough to talk to her, everyone else seemed to just glare at her, or in Bilbo's case be too scared to look her in the eye.

"Aella would you join me and Thorin over her please?" Gandalfs voice stole her from her thoughts and beckoned her over to where the two important characters where discussing something important. "Ugh, why does she have to come over here?" Thorin said but instantly looked at his feet as if he was hiding something. "Because I trust her that's why. Now Thorin do not leave this ruined house until the morning do you understand me. Seeing as you will not listen to me and realize that it would be best to move on, you must not leave this area, I did not give you that key for nothing." "I did not realize it was yours to keep." Thorin replied quickly, why was he so stubborn? Aella just watched from the side, her eyes switching between the two as they argued like she was watching a tennis match.

Eventually Gandalf snapped and turned to Aella "Look after them whilst I'm gone, will you?" "I promise" Gandalf instantly remembered how loyal the girl was and so nodded to her, knowing that the dwarves were in safe hands and were certainly not going to die. Aella just nodded firmly and watched Gandalf storm off much to Bilbo's surprise. Aella was just going to go back to her spot by the fire when Thorin cut her off.

"Miss Aella? I'm sorry if I was harsh to you. I shouldn't of underestimated your ability and I shouldn't have tried to force you to shift. I hope we can start over." Thorin nodded awkwardly and shuffled away leaving Aella to go back to her spot by the fire.

Bilbo had just been given the task of taking Fili and Kili their dinner when Aella felt it. Something was wrong, very wrong. She cursed to herself and tried to use all her supersonic senses to pin it down. An orc pack about ten minutes away. Great, I am sorry Gandalf but duty calls, I mean I won't be long nothing could possibly go wrong, right?

"Are you okay lass?" Bofur asked from across camp. "Yes, although I must take my leave, I'll be back soon so don't go doing anything stupid." She looked to Thorin when she said that. "Why must you go? You heard Gandalf he wants you here." Thorin asked without looking up from his sword. "Duty calls. Orc pack." And with that she ran off chasing her nose towards the orcs.

She lay down on the mini battle field after brawling with the orcs. Five wargs and four orcs. She was nursing a cut on her shoulder and she had pulled out an arrow in her back leg. Luckily her body healed quickly so it was no biggie. Aella had been gone no longer than half an hour at that point and was thinking about taking a short rest. But yet again her instincts told that the dwarves were in trouble.

God, do I not even get a minutes rest? What have they gotten into now? I've only been gone half an hour!

Making her way back to the camp she found it was empty and she could hear voices a short distance away. Making her way cautiously towards the camp her ears pricked and adrenaline ran thorugh her veins. When she edged towards the firelight she saw something that she would never forget. Half of the company were tied up in bags whilst the other half were tied to a large spit that was slowly turning over a fire. Bilbo was standing up talking to their captures, three large ugly trolls, but all he seemed to receive was an influx of insults from every dwarf in the vicinity.

Do I have to do everything around here! Why is the company of the great and noble Thorin Oakenshield so useless!

But just as she processed that thought, one of the trolls had picked Bombur up and was dangling over his mouth. That's it. Aella lept from the trees growling and biting at the trolls leg, making him through Bombur to the floor and cry out in other trolls lunged for her but she dodged elegantly and somehow managed to corner them even though they were the ones that were attacking her. Once Aella knew that the dwarves were out of the way, all of which were now shouting and cheering at her arrival, she did it. She shifted.

The trolls stopped and stared at her whilst the golden cloud surrounded her, almost intranced by the magic unveiling before them and even the dwarves stopped cheering so they could watch more intently. Her body twisted and grew larger and larger until she was twice the size of the trolls making the dwarves look like ants on the floor.

She had shifted into a dragon.

Aella's golden scales shimmered so brightly that it was almost blinding and the trolls screamed at the new creature before them. Aella bought her head down to look at the three cowering trolls and her emerald eyes glinted menacingly.

"Your time has ended."

Aella's voice was loud, deeper and much more deadly then it normally was. And with that Aella unleashed her fury in flames that turned the trolls to ash in front of them. However, her power didn't last long and the light started to fade from her eyes, and her body once again started to shift. But this time back to her normal state, a human girl. Although as her body shifted back to human form she swung from side to side a bit and collapsed in a heap on the floor, just as Gandalf arrived.

Okay, I know that Aella being able to turn into a dragon is pretty overpowered but I've made it so that if she uses her power to become things like that it could be life threatening. I don't know if you guys have watched the film Paul? But if you have it's like at the end when Graham gets shot and Paul uses his power to take on the injury which could kill him. Anyway it's not a cop out and she certainly wont be using it very often. Plus I promise that there will be more Thorin in future updats but I'm trying to get across the fact that he's jealous of her power and her growing friendship with his nephews. I know this chapter was a bit dull and took a while to get going (if it even did) but hopefully you enjoyed it anyway.

Feedback is always appreciated so please follow, favorite and leave a review on what you think I should improve on. Plus constructive criticism is amazing and I'd love for ideas on what you think should happen. Thank you so much for reading I hope you enjoyed it and will continue to read this story! xx