The battle for Dale was still in full swing when Gandalf and Ella fought their way through the ruins to find Tauriel.

"Those orcs spring up like mushrooms after the rain," the old wizard grumbled after he had fought off another one who had tried to stop them. "The sooner we get you into safety, the better."

Ella said nothing.

Gandalf shot her a wary side-glance. "I know that look on your face, Miss Baggins." he warned. "Don't even think of it. The dwarves can do without your help and Thorin has made quite clear it is unwanted, has he not? Apart from that, the path to that hill is heavily guarded, you would never make it there unseen."

Ella's hand closed around the ring in her pocket. "Yes I would."

The wizard wrinkled his brow. "Would you now? I'm curious, how do you think you could achieve that? Grow wings and fly?"

Ella pressed her lips into a tight line. She couldn't bring herself to tell him about the ring, not even now. And either way she was sure he wouldn't approve of her plan.

Not that she had much of a plan. All she knew was that Thorin and her friends were going to confront Azog- and she remembered quite well how that had turned out last time-

"I can't just do nothing." she tried. "I have to-"

"For the last time, no!" the wizard thundered and emphazised his words with a well-aimed blow against another attacker who was barring their way."Leave this task to those better equipped for it, this is my last word. You would only get yourself killed and for what? Your misguided feelings for a mad dwarf king?" He shook his head. "No, I won't allow it."

"I don't need your permission Gandalf," Ella retortet defiantly. "You're not my guardian. If it should have escaped you, I have never been very good at following orders and I have no intentions to start now."

The old wizard muttered something into his beard that sounded suspiciously like 'stupid hobbit lasses who've been too long in the company of dwarves and adopted more than a few of their rather questionable traits', but before Ella could so much as think of an appropriate answer, they had reached the town square.


The place was littered all over with dead orcs, humans and elves.

Tauriel was there, and also Legolas, and in the middle of it stood Thranduil, whose wide-eyed gaze roamed over the bodies of his fallen warriors- and that of his beautiful elk mount which now lay motionless at his feet- felled by a dozen orc arrows.

He looked up as Ella and Gandalf approached but did not really seem to see them, nor care about their presence.

"I never wanted this," he said quietly, and to no one in particular.

"None of us did." Gandalf said in a tone that was both soothing and imploring. "But it can be ended, now. The dwarves are going to stand up to the commander of this army, they will need your help. Rally your troops and follow them up the hill where the Defiler hides. Only together you will succeed in crushing the devil's head and end this war."

Slowly, the elven king shook his crowned head.

"I've done enough," he said with cold finality. "And at great cost of the people I have vowed to protect. Let the dwarves deal with the menace they have conjured upon themselves or die trying, I couldn't care less. My work here is done."

"No." Tauriel stepped forward and barred his way, her bow raised and an arrow aiming for his head. "You will not turn away. Not this time."

Thranduil looked at her and his crystal blue eyes narrowed in rage.

"You," he spat through clenched teeth. "How dare you talk to me like that? I have raised you like my own blood and you have repaid my trust with betrayal. You have forfeited every right to make demands on me. Get out of my way!"

The hands that held her bow tensed slightly, but Tauriel did not move. " You cannot stand back," she said with trembling lips. "The dwarves will be slaughtered."

"Tauriel is right, father," Legolas confirmed. "The orcs who attacked the Erebor were only the vanguard of Azog's army. Another troop is on the way from Gundabad, they are going to waylay the dwarves on their path to their leader. This is a trap."

Thranduil furrowed his dark brows, visibly displeased with his son's intervention. "Then they will die, so what?" he said icily. "If today, tomorrow, next year, or in a hundred years from now, what difference does it make? They are mortal."

"You think your life is worth more than theirs?" Tauriel asked, her voice choked with tears. "When there is no love in it? There is no love in you."

Thranduil dropped his gaze as if he was contemplating her words, but then he suddenly stroke out and smashed the bow out of her hands.

"What do you know of love?" he hissed angrily. "Nothing! What you feel for that dwarf is not real. You think it is love? Are you ready to die for it?"


Ella watched Thranduil drawing his sword.

She knew he would strike the elven woman down and that she had to intervene, but she was literally frozen in horror and her feet wouldn't carry out the commands of her brain.

She opened her mouth to a desperate cry but at that moment, it was Legolas who stepped bravely between his father and Tauriel.

"If you want to kill her," he said in a grim voice. "You'll have to kill me first."

For the first time since she had known him, Ella felt something akin to pure admiration for the elven prince.

It was no little thing to stand up for the one you loved when you knew this love would likely never be reciprocrated.

And with standing up against his father, Legolas had stepped out of his overpowering shadow as well. No matter how all this ended today, his life would never again be the same.

Legolas turned to Tauriel and the look in his eyes softened. "I know now that you will never feel for me what I feel for you," he said in a quiet, sad voice. "But this knowledge does not keep me from doing what my heart commands. If you are going to aid those dwarves, I will come with you."

"And so will I." Ella said and stepped forward on wobbly legs.

Legolas couldn't know it, but his words had touched something deep inside her that outweighed all her fears, and all sanity and reason.

She had to try and protect Thorin, no matter if he wanted it or not. It was her duty because she loved him. No one could release her from it, not even he himself.


Tauriel turned around and looked at Ella. Her sharp eyes took in her pale, blood-splattered face and how the hobbit practically swayed with exhaustion.

She reached out and laid a surpringly cool, comforting hand on Ella's cheek. Her eyes were filled with tears as she smiled and she was ever so beautiful. Kili was one lucky man to have won the love of such an exceptional woman.

"I told you once you were a curious girl, even for a halfling," she said softly. "And I do not doubt your courage. But this is something you cannot help me with. I have led the women and children of Dale to a cave where they will be safe- for now," she continued quickly when she saw how Ella opened her mouth to protest. "but they are terribly afraid and there aren't many men left to guard the entrance. It would alleviate my heart to know you are there to protect them. Here, take this. You need to regain your strength."

She handed the other woman a small bag with a heavy canteen in it, along with some packages of Lembas bread, wrapped in leaves. "Give the rest to them. And do not worry. I promise I will bring those dwarves back safe and sound."

Her smile took on a grim note. "I still have many arrows left in my quiver and my bow and my blades thirst for orc blood."


Ella watched how the slim shades of Tauriel and Legolas disappeared swiftly and gracefully towards the old watchtower where Azog was hiding.

A part of her- the part that could hardly keep her eyes open- was relieved that the Elven woman had made the decision for her and taken the matter into her hand.

It was reasonable, certainly- but it still felt wrong.

And besides, what would she tell Sigrid who ( hopefully ) was among the people in the cave, when she asked her about Fili? That she had left it to others to warn him when he was about to run into his almost certain death?

Ella broke off a piece of Lembas bread and chewed on it, then washed it down with a hearty draught of fresh spring water from the canteen. Immediately, she felt better.

"Come now," Gandalf said softly. "Time to leave this place or we'll soon have more unpleasant company again."


The number of their attackers may have decreased, but that didn't mean that they wouldn't still have to fight their way through the embattled city to reach their destination.

At a crossroads they were suddenly confronted with a gigantic troll who wielded a no less huge club. The monster was at least twice as big as the ones who had once wanted to cook Ella and the dwarves for dinner ( good times! ), and definitely more aggressive.

It was evident, even to Gandalf, that it would be pretty much useless to poke him with sticks and swords and so he finally decided to live up to his profession. He rubbed and fiddled about the tip of his magic wand, then aimed it at the troll and shoutet an incarnation in a language she could not understand.

Ella released a relieved breath. At last. That's more like it. Why in Eru's name had he not put the thing to the use it was obviously made for earlier?

The answer to that question presented itself when the tip of the wand only crackled like a broken light bulb.

No flashes of light came out of it, no deadly rains of fire- nothing.

The troll let out a deafening roar and Ella and Gandalf quickly jumped to the side when his barbed mace hit the ground and made the cobblestone splinter. And again. And again.

Gandalf slammed the wand into the ground and repeated his spells, but to no use. The blasted thing kept refusing its service.

The monster raised its club anew and from behind them came a terrified shriek.

Ella spun around to see a- suspiciously familiar looking, rat-faced- figure with a lace bonnet on his head who had sought refuge in the ammunition pouch of a catapult.

As she- he- writhed in panic, a coin fell off his voluptuous cleavage and landed on the lever that activated the armament's mechanism.

The catapult went off and with a loud scream, the former deputy mayor of Laketown was propelled into the air and right into the open jaw of the troll.

Bull's eye.

Ella watched the monster fall down on his knees, but she did not wait to see him choke to death on the pitiful creature who would now never become Dale's new master.

While Gandald was still distracted, she reached into her pocket, produced the ring from it and slipped it on her finger, then she turned around and left Dale in the direction of Azog's hideout, perfectly aware that this decision might well turn out to be her last.

She might not be a warrior, and it was unlikely that her support could do much against the pale orc and his frightening henchmen, but didn't they say that the tiniest stone could cause a landslide?

She would not stand back when the people she cared for were in danger, she couldn't. That was just not who she was- not any more, and all thanks to them. She would not fail them again.