Much to Emily's surprise, she had had a considerable amount of fun exploring Lake Town. After her fight with Poppy, which had left her oddly sad, she had decided to go on a light stroll to clear her head. Also, Alfird was prowling around her room and she could not look at him without the disturbing thought of bum pimples.

Winding through various houses and boats, she had finally settled in the attic of an abandoned tavern, which, much to her liking, still had a few old bottles of ale in a locked chest (which was quite easy to open, actually).

Thus, for a while, Emily had sat, ale in hand, staring out a rather greasy window at the world beyond. Her daydreams had only been interrupted when, to her surprise, Poppy had climbed onto the roof of Bard's house, which was conveniently right opposite the abandoned tavern.

Emily had watched a very interesting scene play out between her dark haired friend and the king under the mountain. And she, Emily, had sat there, sipping on her ale, completely baffled by the fact that Poppy did not agree with her.

"They are so infatuated with each other it is becoming painful to watch" She exclaimed out loud, gesturing extravagantly with her long arms and almost knocking over an oil lamp.

When they had both left the roof, much to Emily's disappointment, she decided it was high time to leave the uninhabited tavern and return to her room (with her ale of course).

As she was entering the building the company was being housed in, she collided into an unsuspecting Oin and hence spilled the last of her precious beverage all over his now very damp beard.

"Ahhhhhh! Oin, I am so sorry! I was not really concentrating there…" Emily stammered, trying to gather her thoughts in her foggy brain.

"Leiress?" Oin said, rather suspiciously. "Have you been drinking?"

"Well…" Emily began, pulling a face. "Just a tiny bit, I found some bottles of ale, you see"

Oin rolled his eyes at her and sighed, pushing past her. "I thought a lass in your condition would be more careful when it came to drinking"

At that comment, Emily froze and suddenly, all her thoughts were clear again.

"My condition? What do you mean?"

Oin turned to face her, rather confused. "Well, it's obvious isn't it? You keep throwing up at the sight of the new morning sun and you thought nothing of it?"

Emily blushed, bad, very, very bad thoughts beginning to form in her mind.

When she did not answer, Oin spoke up again. "You do know you're pregnant, don't you?"

At the mention of that word, Emily threw up all the ale she had just consumed.

Oin stood there, waiting awkwardly for her to finish before she turned back to face him. "A-are you sure?"

"Well yes… I mean, you are showing all the symptoms"

Emily raised her hand to her forehead and began to babble out various incoherent curses. "Oh shit. Oh, holy, holy fucking shit fuck bugger wanker SHIT"

The dwarf raised his eyebrows, not familiar of these new words. She sounded happy none the less.

"How did this happen?" Emily explained. Then she saw Oin about to say something and corrected herself. "Actually, don't answer that. I think I know. Oh god, Thorin is going to kill me."

"Thorin does not have to know." Oin comforted, putting a hand on her shoulder. "You can stay in Lake Town and let the company leave. You can return to your homeland."

"What?! What are you saying, you senile oaf? I am NOT leaving the company now! I can't leave Kili and Amavel!" She gave a rather determined face. "You know what, Santa? I'm going to just ignore it. Just FORGET IT completely. I am going to continue with this quest, and then see what happens to…IT at the end of it! I really DON'T care, damn it! This is not what I wanted!"

The dwarf frowned at her and shrugged. "Very well, if that is what you deem best, but I do not agree with you. But, you must tell Kili"

The girl laughed out loud at that. "That's funny, gramps, but no way! And you must not say anything either. It's best if no one knows… something might happen anyway and… I just don't want to talk about it, so let's just both forget it, okay? I am exactly the same as before. And anyway, nothing might come of it…"

Oin scowled at her in a rather evil way and stormed off, muttering something along the lines of "stupid, irresponsible, ignorant girl" into his beard.

Emily stared after him, a dazed look in her grey eyes. What was she meant to do now? She would just have to act like normal. But people would eventually notice, especially Poppy and besides, Emily did not even like babies, let alone want one.

"Maybe nothing will come of it… Maybe it will just…fade away…" She kept repeating to herself, over and over, as she ascended the stairs to her room.

The two girls spent what was left of the night in their cramped rooms, trying to ignore the obvious sounds of a party occurring below. They had, to their great frustration, not been invited for, as Alfrid had put it, they were women and, "women should be in bed at that hour."

By morning, neither had slept much, and made their way to the Ceremonial send off rather grudgingly. After shoving their way through a rapidly growing crowd, Poppy ignoring the multiple inappropriate looks sent her way; they finally reached the so-called 'voyage boat'. Which was a dingy.

"Pathetic" muttered Emily irritably as she ungainly climbed into the boat behind her friend, avoiding the numerous axes and swords of the dwarves already in the tiny boat.

As Kili made to get into the boat, Thorin stopped him and muttered something to his nephew. What ever it was, Kili blanched slightly, staring at Thorin disbelievingly. Poppy, who was on the opposite side of the boat, managed to hear Kili say, "But I'm coming with you!"

"What is going on?" whispered Emily, craning her neck to get a better look at the conversation.

"I don't know…" she mumbled.

"He isn't coming!" the blonde cried suddenly, watching in confusion as Kili sat down disconsolately against the nearby bollard.

Oin exited the boat, obviously to tend to the still injured dwarf, and after a brief by violent argument with Thorin, Fili went to join his brother. Any further argument was quelled by the sound of inexpertly blown trumpets.

As the Master commenced his waffling speech, Poppy leant towards her friend.

"I suppose you want to go with your darling", she muttered bitterly, glaring straight ahead, waiting for her friend to get up and leave her again. Oin looked at her, a knowing look on his face and gestured for her to join them. Emily realised that in this way, she would be safe and she would be with Kili. But was that what she truly wanted? Slowly, Emily stood up, hesitated, and then sat smartly back down.

"No." the blonde said shortly, avoiding the disbelieving stares the said darling was now giving her.

"No?"

"No… I can't help him. Besides, I am needed more here."

Oin stared at her in disbelief and seemed to shout something along the lines of "you will regret this".

Poppy was saved the need to reply to her friend by applause and whoops from the gathered crowd, as the small boat was pushed off. Unlike her friend, who kept glancing back, she stared dead ahead, her eyes fixed on their goal, the reason for their long and sometimes tedious voyage. The Lonely Mountain.

It was true to say that tensions were extremely high outside the hidden door. The last light of Durin's day was fading fast, and the dwarves were getting desperate.

They had spent the entire day making their way across the lake, climbing the damned mountain and finding the hidden door, which was inconspicuously disguised by a huge stone statue. The climb had taken longer still and by the time the company had actually reached the sight of the mystical hidden door, the sun was setting.

And then it was over. The sun had set, and their chance, their one chance to open the Secret Door was gone. And the King under the Mountain was not pleased.

"Where did we go wrong?" he sighed. The key slipped from his hand and bounced once, before hitting the floor with resounding thud. The company slowly began to file down the carved stone staircase.

"So that is it?" Poppy cried after them, "We just travel the entire breadth of Middle Earth to be defeated by a DOOR?!"

She stormed after them, still shouting.

"I was nearly imprisoned, captured, killed and EATEN on numerous occassions, and now you are going to say 'LOL, I am off'?"

"LOL?" muttered Bofur as she strode past him.

Poppy rolled her eyes. She would attempt to explain modern language to the dwarf later. Now, however, there were more pressing matters at hand.

"Thorin, WAIT!" she shouted, pushing past Dori and Balin, who mumbled grumpily. "You can't just walk away!" Despite her best shouts, the dwarf king kept walking and did not even turn around to face her.

Nevertheless, Poppy continued to shout at his back. "I never thought you would be one to give up so easily!"

Thorin then swiftly turned around and (rather majestically) bellowed back.

"Easily? My father died, my grandfather died and I have given up everything just to take part in this quest!" With anger beyond compare ablaze in his eyes, he stormed up to the girl and stared her directly in the eye, not making any attempt to hide his intense fury. "Reclaiming this mountain meant more to me than you can possibly imagine." He whispered. "You think it is easy for me to accept that all hope was in vain? To accept that I have failed? Not only myself, but my forefathers, the company and you."

"And me?" Poppy exclaimed, obviously not noticing the sentimental value this declaration had. "You have not failed Em and me! We still believe there is a chance, don't we, Em?"

Fearing the dwarf king's wrath, Em skulked past and ignored her friend. Poppy sighed, she would deal with the unfaithful one later.

While Poppy had been focusing on Em, Thorin had managed to escape. "Hey, wait!" she called after him. "Please, don't leave! We can think of something, don't be a FOOL!"

At this comment Thorin froze. The rest of the company froze. Emily froze. And Poppy froze.

Ever so agonisingly slowly, Thorin turned around, with an expression on his face that looked like if the company had not been watching, he would have most definitely grabbed Poppy and thrown her off the cliff.

Slowly, he walked up to her, a darkness in his eyes that made Poppy rather nervous.

He stopped before her and looked down upon her. Poppy glared back up at him defiantly. "I am no fool" he spat. "But you certainly are if you think you can talk to me like that and get away with it"

A terrible tension hovered in the air for what seemed like centuries and Emily could not help remembering what she had told Poppy back in Lake Town.

Despite this, Emily just prayed that Thorin did not in fact throw her dear friend off the mountain, or vice versa.

Thankfully, before any damage could be done, the sound of Bilbo's frantic voice filled the air.

"Wait! Come back! It's the light of the moon! The last moon of autumn!"

Having heard the proclamation, all the dwarves hurried back up the carved stair, pushing past Emily and Poppy who were left to straggle at the back.

Poppy breathed out a silent sigh of relief. It seemed she would not be hurled off the mountain quite yet. However, there was still the chance that Thorin might 'accidentally' push her into Smaug's fire or send her tumbling down one of the endless mines in Erebor. Considering the way he had glared at her, both options seemed quite likely.

Another chapter- because Sarah demanded it be uploaded tonight!

Quite all over the place- I apologise. Anywho I hope you liked it and please review! Thank you :D I shall try to update ASAP (we have great things planned for the future- please keep reading :) )