It did not take Sadie long to conclude that she did not enjoy riding on the back of a horse. In fact, after only two hours of riding behind Dwalin, her body was already beginning to protest to the strenuous ride. Her thighs felt as if they had been rubbed raw and her back was sore from holding herself upright for so long. At times she had felt tempted to lean against the burly dwarf, but he had been even more cantankerous than yesterday after the rather loud and slightly frightening conversation that she had stumbled upon between him and the two brothers that morning.

By lunchtime it had only taken the dwarves a few moments to notice her wobbly legs and stiff spine as she moved. Balin, ever the practical one, had suggested that she just continue riding in the wagon as she had done the day before so that she did not become injured. With a grunt, Dwalin had agreed and she was once again placed in the wagon. This is how she found herself asleep amongst crates and chests as the wagon slowed to a stop for the night.

"Set up camp for the night." Dwalin's barked order was what had succeeded in rousing her from her slumber. Sadie ungracefully lifted herself up, peeking over the chests to find the other dwarves scrambling to follow their leader's orders. She noticed that Fili and Kili were quite careful to avoid the burlier dwarf, and it left her wondering just what their earlier conversation had been about. Unfortunately, as tempted as she was to ask about it, she knew that it was not her place to speak of it.

Sliding out of the back of the cart, Sadie stumbled about the clearing they had stopped in, trying to find Lillian and Tessa. She found her friends at the far edge of their camp surrounded by ponies. They must have decided to take on the task of looking after the ponies while the dwarves sat up camp, wanting to feel useful. By the time Sadie found them, they were unsaddling the animals and brushing them out while talking quietly to each other.

"I swear to fucking god, if Gorn makes a comment about how tight my shirt is one more fucking time-"

"If that was the worst of what he's been saying, I wouldn't be nearly as pissed," Tessa cut her friend off, her face darkened by an angry look as she tossed the saddle that she had just taken off one of the ponies to the ground. "Obviously men don't change that much between races… and, you know… worlds."

"He's only trying to get a rise out of you," Sadie spoke quietly, sitting against a tree to watch the other two work. She wasn't about to approach one of those damn ponies. She didn't trust the hungry look they had in their eyes, even if she knew they were vegetarians. She'd seen one of those suckers bite Fili earlier today.

"If he keeps it up he won't ever get a rise out of himself again," Tessa threatened through gritted teeth, making Lillian giggle. Sadie smiled to herself, glad to see that they were acting normally around each other again. She knew that Lillian was still apprehensive about the whole situation, and Tessa was still oblivious, but at least it wasn't straining their friendship. All that the three of them had left was each other, petty shit like Tessa's flirting couldn't push them apart. She wouldn't let it.

"Just ignore him," Sadie advised, even as the other two scoffed.

"He's a prick Sadie, there is no ignoring him," Lillian countered, running her fingers through the manes of one of the ponies. Sadie nearly responded, but Tessa spoke first.

"He's always mean to Kili."

Sadie watched as Lillian closed her eyes in frustration, but she found herself smiling a bit. While Lillian worried about her attachment to the dwarf, Sadie found it endearing. Tessa was a distrustful, suspicious person, to see her care about someone she barely knew was promising. Perhaps her friend was going to become less harsh and allow more people in.

Or she could just be really attracted to Kili.

"Tessa," Lillian sighed, looking ready to lecture the taller girl, who was no longer so much taller. It seemed that their trip through whatever light had brought them here had scaled them down a bit. Or perhaps the people and races in this world were just taller than what they were in their old world.

"Oh don't start," Tessa scoffed, plaiting a small braid into the mane of one of the ponies. "He helped us, and he's been kind."

"Tess-"

"He's taking us back home with him," she spoke quickly, surprising both of her friends. Lillian looked as if she was about to cough from shock while Sadie simply stared. When had this happened? And how did Tessa know? "He's not going to leave us to fend for ourselves. He said we're going back to Belegost with them. He's helping us. Why do you hate him so much?"

"I don't hate him," Lillian practically spat once her surprise had worn off. They had somewhere to go? With the dwarves? And they didn't even have to ask. Maybe she and Sadie could pull off this wild plan. "I just don't think you should be throwing yourself at him-"

"I am not throwing myself at him," Tessa hissed, offended at the insinuation. How could Lillian, her friend think that she would do something like that? She knew better! "I like his company, and I feel a sense of loyalty towards him for all that he's done."

"And you think he's cute," Sadie added with a teasing grin. Tessa narrowed her eyes at the older girl.

"Attractiveness has nothing to do with it."

Lillian coughed in response, leaving Tessa to glare at her when one of the coughs sounded suspiciously like the word 'liar.' The older girl smiled at her friends' antics. The two may nitpick at each other, but she knew that when it came down to it, they would always have each other's' backs. Which was good, they would need to soon.

Her sleep in the wagon made it difficult for Sadie to sleep soundly that night. Her attention wandered as she faded in and out of a light sleep, watching as the watchman changed each time throughout the night. She also watched as Fror, who was supposed to be watching, fell asleep and began to snore loudly against his tree.

Sadie was feeling safer by the minute.

She considered waking up one of the other dwarves, or even waking up Fror, but didn't want to incur anyone's anger. She figured that she and her friends were on thin ice with them as it was. After Tessa's confession that Kili was going to take them back to Belegost with him, she had a pretty good idea why Dwalin had exchanged words with him and his brother this morning. So she'd put the idea off, settling for just keeping a silent vigil herself.

And then she saw the shadows moving in the trees.

At first she thought she was imagining it, just paranoia tricking her into seeing moving figures. Then she saw the shadow moving into the camp, a very well-formed shadow, shaped like a man. She froze, but only for a few seconds, then the man must have stepped on a twig, because she heard the sound of wood cracking.

Tessa started beside her, eyes flying open and she was immediately alert and staring at Sadie. Sadie could do nothing but stare back, unsure of what, if anything, she could do. Tessa stayed silent for a moment, but when she heard the shuffling of the shadow, she leapt up before Sadie could stop her.

"Hey!" her loud voice shot like a gun through the silent clearing, startling most of the dwarves to a bleary attention. "The fuck are you doing?"

The shadow stopped, not even ten feet from one of the wagons, staring at the small woman who had stood up and was glaring at him. Fror finally seemed to wake up, though he was very groggy and didn't seem to understand what was going on till a large group of black shadows emerged from the woods.

"Thieves," he muttered quietly to himself, as if he didn't believe what he was seeing. "Thieves!"

The dwarves shot into action then, clambering up and grabbing for their weapons. Tessa nudged Lillian, who was still half asleep and unaware of what was going on with her foot before leaping into the fray herself, grabbing a fallen branch on the way.

"Tessa!" Sadie yelled as she ran toward one of the shadowed figures heading near the wagons. "Get back here! You'll get yourself killed!"

"She's going to get us all killed," Lillian grumbled, lifting herself off the ground only to become tangled in her blankets when she tried to run after Tessa. She stumbled and regained her balance, but not before sending Sadie a warning glance. "Stay here."

"I'm older than you!" the disgruntled woman sputtered after Lillian, who had followed Tessa's lead and jumped into the fray. At a loss, Sadie stood back, watching the scene before her. The dwarves darted about with an agility that one wouldn't expect when looking at them, but an aggression and anger that was easily predictable.

As her eyes adjusted to the darkness, Sadie was able to realize that the shadows she saw were men. At least, she was assuming they were men. They were taller and lither than the dwarves, but she could not bring herself to consider that they were elves. No, common robbery would certainly be too distasteful for any elf. She was able to count just under a dozen of the men, nearly twice the amount of dwarves.

Luckily, the dwarves seemed to be better trained in combat and were faring quite well. Unluckily, they were outnumbered and caught off guard. The thieves were doing their best to distract the dwarves long enough for a couple of them to sneak off to the wagon. They had not, however, been anticipating two rather angry women that would stand in their way.

No one had, for that matter.

The first man that took a run at the wagon was knocked harshly to the ground after a solid branch collided rather painfully with his stomach. He fell to the cold forest floor, staring up at the sky as he panicked, wondering just what had hit him and hoping that his breath would return soon.

Tessa stood above him, none too happy that she was being forced to deal with thieves, and completely unrepentant as she brought the branch down on the man's head, ensuring that he would be incapacitated for a bit longer.

Seeing his companion rendered unconscious, a second man strode forward, sword raised, fully intending to gut the small creature that had attacked with such boldness. Even as Sadie tried to yell out a warning, Lillian charged at the man, thrusting her shoulder into the spot between his stomach and chest and sending them both tumbling to the ground. Lillian elbowed the man in his nose as he moved to throw her off him and grabbed at the short sword in his hand. Although in pain, the man fought with her, trying to regain the upper hand, even as Lillian landed multiple blows on his face and kicking him soundly in his manhood, deciding that his height and strength advantage gave her the right to fight dirty.

A third man made a move for the wagon, leaping over Lillian and the man she was still grappling with. He was nearly to the wagon when he yelled in agony as the sound of his jaw bone cracking echoed throughout the forest. Even Sadie had winced when she witnessed Tessa using her improvised weapon as a club, taking a powerful swing that she must have learned from her years playing softball, hitting the man right on the underside of his jawbone. She wasn't sure it would ever truly heal.

The dwarves were doing quite well at subduing their opponents, most of them now left disarmed and on their backs. A few lingered, still trying to fight off the stocky dwarves that they battled, but their energy was obviously waning. These men were not warriors and had not stamina, and very little battle experience. Likely, that was why they had tried to act while the company was sleeping, knowing that dwarves were typically heavy sleepers.

They may have made off with their prize had it not been for Sadie's inability to sleep and Tessa's restless nature.

One thief, however, seemed to go unnoticed by everyone, being sure to avoid most of the fray. As Lillian leapt off of her opponent with a cry of victory, he had snuck behind her, grabbing a hold of her hair and yanking her to him before anyone had noticed.

"Lillian!" Tessa cried, gaining the attention of the dwarves as she tried to leap towards her friend. The man that held her stepped away, however, holding Lillian to him tightly and keeping a knife at her throat.

"I thought dwarves protected their women better than this?" he gloated, smirking when he noticed that the dwarves had stopped fighting. Not that there were more than one or two of his companions left standing. It mattered not, he had all the leverage he needed. If he played this right, they'd be leaving with the entire hoard, wagon and all. "Since when do you allow them to do your fighting for you?"

Tessa nearly lunged at the man when he began petting Lillian's hair, feeling the need to taunt all of them and further frighten her friend. Kili grabbed her wrist, yanking her back before she did anything rash. She was too impulsive, and if she wasn't careful she'd get her friend killed.

"We're going to take your wagon," he began with a smile, trailing a finger down the trembling girl's face as he pressed the knife into her skin a bit more. "You're going to let us have it. Along with a few of your ponies."

Sadie shivered with fear for her friend, and found her feet moving without being fully aware. Her steps were silent, but steady. She could not watch, would not watch, as this man hurt Lillian. She would not allow anyone to hurt either of her friends, not again.

"If you're good, we'll leave her for you to pick up in Bree," he continued with a nonchalant shrug. He'd seen the dwarf with the bow. He knew that as soon as they left he could shoot them. But not if he took something with him to insure their safety. The pretty little thing in his arms would do quite nicely for that. "She'll only be a bit worse for wear," he chuckled, enjoying the reactions this garnered. Some of the dwarves seemed annoyed, while a couple of them looked fit to be tied.

Sadie was nearly there now, eluding everyone's notice. They were too focused on the thief that was still speaking, trying to further anger the dwarves as his friends slowly began to rouse. Well, some of them. A few did not look as if they would ever rise again, while others just rolled on the ground in pain.

Dwalin cursed the damned man that was standing before him. What kind of a coward would threaten a woman for his own safety? It was bad enough that the man insisted upon taking from others rather than working, but this bastard was willing to kill an innocent woman to get away with his prize. Sometimes Men truly disgusted him.

"I would like to thank you for your cooperation. You've all been too ki-"

Words were no longer formed and a low gurgling noise took their place as blood began spurting from the man's neck where the handle of a dagger was left to stick out. The man's hold immediately loosened on Lillian, and she scurried away as fast as she could, but felt like someone had kicked her in the gut when she turned to see her savior.

Sadie stood behind the bleeding man, even as he crumpled to his feet, her face speckled with blood of the man that she had stabbed. Her chest heaved, but she didn't speak. As the shock of the scene registered on the faces of the dwarves and her friends, she was hit by the levity of the situation. She had wounded a man, with a wound that would likely lead to his death.

She had killed a man.

But she had saved Lillian. She had saved her friend. She had done what she never could before.

And she didn't regret it for a moment, even when she stared into the thief's lifeless eyes as she stepped over him.

Holy crap, this took entirely too long to get out. Between being sick, working a lot, and having writer's block, I never thought I would get this chapter finished. Hopefully you all enjoyed it. :) The next chapter shouldn't take nearly so long to be posted.