"It was nothing more than a simple joke. She meant no harm," Gandalf said to Thorin, trying - and ultimately failing - to get me back into the dwarven king's good book. Not that I had actually been there to begin with. It was obvious that Thorin had despised me since we had met. Nevertheless, the wizard was desperately trying to clear the tension that had yet again fallen onto camp the following morning.

Despite the fact that I was sick of Thorin glaring at me - the dwarf had done nothing but silently simmer since last evening - I hadn't asked Gandalf to have a word with him. I was pretty much resigned to the fact that Thorin hated me. I didn't care. I wasn't too fond of him either.

"It was unnecessary. It was spiteful," Thorin replied.

"I thought it was funny," Kili - bless him - piped up, only to be told by another dwarf to be quiet.. A small argument had broken out, only silenced when Thorin told them all to shut up.

"She is already causing trouble," Thorin growled, as if the argument had been my fault. I hadn't even spoken yet that morning, and I was apparently already creating mischief and mayhem. I couldn't help but smile to myself, silently pleased by my achievements so far.

Apparently the bad blood between us was ruining the morale of the rest of the company. We had only been travelling a day, and it was obvious that people were getting fed up. Mainly Bilbo, who had not stopped wallowing over the loss of his comfy, little hobbit-hole. But some of the other dwarves were also wearing glum expressions, and the excited energy that had flittered through the group yesterday was long gone. The morning seemed to arrive too early, and slowly the dwarves unwillingly dragged themselves away from their bedrolls.

That said, I was still lying down, eyes firmly shut and pretending to still be asleep. Surprisingly, I was warm and cosy in my little nest of dirt and dried leaves, and I refused to move until it was time to leave camp.

To my complete surprise , I had actually slept really well last night. Maybe the long day spent travelling had worn me out, or maybe my body had finally succumbed to the shock of being in Middle Earth. I wasn't sure. Either way, as soon as my head had hit the makeshift pillow I had made out of one of my jumpers, I had fell into a blissful slumber.

And then morning had come around way too early for my liking and the not so gentle sounds of the dwarves woke me up. They had been clomping around camp for the last half an hour. No one had dared rouse me from my fake slumber yet, but I doubted that Thorin would allow me the honour of having a lie in. I just felt sorry for the poor sod who ended up with the task of getting me up.

They were still talking about me. Still arguing over the merits of having me on this journey. Or lack of merits. Thorin still didn't seem convinced by me. Could I really blame him? I mean, I hadn't exactly made the best of impressions when we first met. And usually I didn't care what people thought of me. They could love me or they could hate me. I wasn't fussed. The only person's opinion I cared about was my own.

But this was going to be one hell of a long journey if I didn't try to make things right between Thorin and me. Only, I wasn't too sure if I could. Usually I could mould the situation to however I wanted it. I was the puppet master and the world was my toy. Harvey used to call me a manipulative bitch. That was one of the nicer compliments I ever got from him.

But Thorin wasn't Harvey. I doubted he'd be impressed by my sly tongue. He would just assume I had an agenda; that I wanted something. In a cruel twist of irony, this was the first time I had no agenda. I wanted nothing. Nothing but to go home. And unfortunately I couldn't do that until I helped the dwarves take back Erebor.

"She is nothing but a liability," Thorin was currently saying. "She does not care about us."

"Believe me, she does," Gandalf said, his voice calm and wise and generally patronising. "Miss Ainsley just has an unorthodox approach to sharing her feelings," Gandalf replied, causing me to swallow the snigger that dared to escape as I listened to his words. I suppose, for once, the stupid old wizard was right. I did have an 'orthodox approach' to feelings. As in, I didn't have any.

"I do not like her. I do not trust her," Thorin replied, dismissing the wizard's comment and seemingly ending the discussion. Yep, I thought to myself. He definitely does not like me.

"Someone get her up. We leave in ten minutes," Dwalin said gruffly. No one moved. No one dared to come close to me. The dwarves all moved away, busying themselves with the preparation for the day ahead, all pretending to be too busy to wake me up.

Eventually, it was the hobbit who wandered over and crouched down beside me. I could tell it was him by the silent footsteps. He gently pressed his hand on my shoulder, but before he could shake me awake, I opened my eyes and grinned brightly at him. "Morning Bilbo," I whispered, making sure that none of the dwarves heard me. All I needed was for them to realise I had been awake the whole time and listening in on their conversation. Somehow I didn't think that would win me any brownie points with Thorin if he realised I had been spying on them.

"Oh, you're awake," was all the hobbit could muster up, blinking in surprise at my cheery form. Like me, he glanced around camp, checking that no one had noticed our conversation.

"Yep," I replied, slowly sitting up.

"Dwalin said-" Bilbo started to say, but I interrupted him.

"One moment," I said, grabbing the clothes that I had piled at the top of my bag last night and shimmied back under my blanket again.

"What are you doing?" Bilbo asked, but instead of answering, I started to strip. I threw my top out, silencing the hobbit with an embarrassed "oh".

I could just imagine him face going bright red as he realised what I was doing under the covers. "I can come back," he said.

"Don't. I'll be done in two," I said, swiftly changing my underwear and pulling a clean pair of leggings on. I thought about throwing my discarded bra at the hobbit, knowing too well that his reaction would be priceless. What wouldn't be priceless would be the dwarves, if they happened to see what I had done. Somehow I didn't think that throwing my under garments around would make them like me any more.

Instead, I pulled my clean jumper on, immerging from the covers with a triumphant smile. One minute thirty eight. God, I was a pro at getting changed in small, dark places. After all, I had had a lot of practise. Bilbo was still a shade similar to a tomato. "What? A girl's got to change."

I ran my fingers through my hair, grimacing at the amount of knots I could feel.

Busying myself with the task of finding my hairbrush, I placed a finger up to silence Bilbo as he began to speak up again. "But-" he said, but I quickly shushed him. The only thing I cared about was sorting out the mess in my hair. I finally found my brush and began to task of de-knotting my hair.

If I had known about my sudden and totally random trip to Middle Earth, I probably would have chopped the whole lot off. Sure, I loved my luscious locks. But I did have a slightly practical side to me. I would have had it styled into a neat bob, or maybe even go for a pixie cut. That way, no knots. No mess. It would be nice and simple. But no. Of course I hadn't been forewarned. Although, if I had been, I probably wouldn't be here. No, I would have gone and gotten myself locked up in the nearest psych ward, because things like this don't happen to normal people.

Bilbo was watching me."I think we're-" he was still trying to inform me, but again I cut him off.

"Pass me that bobble," I said, gesturing with my head to the abundance of bobbles laying at the top of my bag. Dutifully, Bilbo passed me it, and I gathered my hair into a high ponytail. "Come on," I said, standing up. "I think we're leaving soon."

Bilbo groaned but followed me. I grabbed my discarded clothes and threw them in my bag and shut it again, before walking over to the fire and sitting down again. The hobbit mirrored my actions. "How are you this morning?" I asked, although not really caring about his answer. But I thought I should at least sound polite and ask. After all, the hobbit was probably going to be my only friend on the journey. Or, should I say, the hobbit was probably the only one I could bully into becoming my friend.

Like the dwarves, I doubted Bilbo actually wanted anything to do with me. Why would he? I had been nothing but mean, spiteful and obnoxious since I had met him. But he was probably too polite to tell me to piss off and I was going to use his manners against him and force him to be my friend. So as he grumbled about the terrible night he had endured, I ummed and ahhed and pretended to care about his wellbeing.

"That's such a shame. I slept splendidly," I told him, patting him on the knee whilst glancing at the pot sat on top of the fire.

Bofur who had been hovering, noticed my gaze. "You can have the rest of that, if you want. I was only going to throw it away so you might as well have it," he said, moving forward and taking it off of the dwindling fire and pouring it into a cup for me.

I smiled politely and took the cup he offered, because a dwarf was being nice to me and that didn't seem to occur often. "Thanks," I said, taking a sip. It was weak, watery and lukewarm. The smile plastered on my face faltered as I forced it down my throat, trying my hardest not to gag.

Both Bilbo and Bofur looked at me quizzically. "I'm more of a coffee person. Never really did like tea," I offered them as way of explanation, shrugging my shoulders. I downed the drink and passed the empty cup to the dwarf, before standing up and heading over to the others, who now stood around the ponies. I found the animal I had been riding yesterday and gave her a pat. I hadn't bothered asking if the pony had a name, but mine was the only white pony so she was easy enough to find in the group. "So what's the plan for today? Anything exciting planned?" I asked to no one in particular.

I was met with confused looks and silence. "We travel on," Dwalin informed me, my sarcasm completely going over his head.

I just offered a tight smile and nodded. "That's good to know," I muttered, attaching my belongings to the pony.

"Naomi," Gandalf said cheerfully as he crept up on me. I pulled a face, my fake smile dropping immediately. I was still pissed off at the wizard. In fact, I was hell-bent on being pissed off with him for the entire journey. Maybe I was being melodramatic. Maybe I should let bygones be bygones. Or maybe I should be a total bitch to him because he kidnapped me to a fictional universe and expected me to sort his shit out for him.

"Gandalf," I managed to choke out, the disgruntlement clear in my miserable tone.

"How are you this fine morning?" he asked. He didn't care about my answer though. He was using the same sickly sweet tone I had used minutes earlier with Bilbo. It was easy to spot; the fake politeness and insincere cheerfulness. I should know. I used it all the time.

So instead of calling him out on it, I plastered on yet another forced smile. "Oh, I'm grand," I told him, tone positively merry. "Although, I've got to admit...I'd be even better if I wasn't stuck here with you."

"Oh. You're still not over that," Gandalf said, frowning slightly. Obviously he didn't know me as well as he liked to claim. If he knew me, then he would know I wouldn't let something like being forced into Middle Earth go lightly. I would scream and shout and generally be a pain in the arse until I got my own way. And sure, I had come to the realisation that I wasn't going to be seeing home for a while. But that didn't mean I was going to play nicely with the wizard. He had bought me here. He could deal with the consequences.

"No, apparently I'm not," I informed him.

"Will you at least allow me to try and make it up to you?" Gandalf asked me. I frowned, but nodded, suddenly bored with the conversation. "Good. Good. You will ride with Bilbo and me today."

I stifled a sigh of annoyance. "Great," I muttered darkly, forcing a bright smile onto my face. God, my jaw was going to fucking ache after the day was done.

AN: So this ended up being a crappy filler chapter. My mind has been focussed on what is coming up in later chapters, and I just couldn't concentrate on making this one a bit more interesting. So you have my deepest apologies.

Thank you to everyone who has reviewed. Most of you are on anon, so I can't reply, so I'm just going to put a generalised 'thank you' here and tell you all that your support means everything to me.

Disclaimer: I do not own the Hobbit.