This might actually be trash towards the end but please enjoy!

Meara focused on Mithrandir and Radagast, listening in on their conversation. The Brown Wizard proved to be a rather eccentric fellow, but despite that eccentricness, he seemed rather young to Meara and she found him more child-like than wizard-like. And she was concerned, he reeked of fear and determination.

"...webs?" Mithrandir questioned.

"Spawn of Ungoliant, I'm sure."

"Naneth."

"Hold on, Fáno," Meara held a hand up. "I'm trying to listen."

"But Naneth," Fáno bit her shirt, pulling at it with enough force to steer her away from the two wizards' conversation.

"Fáno!" Meara growled slightly.

"Listen! But not to those old men!"

Meara frowned, but opened her ears, listening to their surroundings. She shut her eyes to concentrate more. She could hear the rapid beating of Radagast' rabbits, their nerves perfuming the air with a sweet aroma. She focused on something else, the dwarves' quiet conversations, the murmur of Radagasts voice. And ever so faintly, she could hear the panting of canines, large canines. And they were almost on them.

Then the howl sounded.

"Shit." Meara groaned, drawing her sword as the dwarves began to panic.

A warg jumped over a ridge from behind them, large and mangy. Meara stepped forward, pulling Bofur out of the way as she plunged her sword into its chest as it jumped up.

"There's another!" She yelled out, twisting her blade before pulling it with more force than necessary.

There was a shout and a thud as the other warg fell, a sword in it's skull and an arrow sticking out of its shoulder.

"They're scouts." Meara said with disgust.

"Which means an orc pack isn't far behind them." Thorin concluded, pulling the sword from its carcass.

"Orc pack?" Bilbo raised his eyebrows, an incredulous look on his face.

Meara looked to Mithrandir, who stepped towards Thorin, "Who did you tell about your quest beyond your kin?"

"No one."

"Who did you tell?!" Mithrandir raised his voice, eyeing the dwarf with narrowed eyes.

"No one, I swear!" Thorin frowned at the wizard as he watched him look around with worried eyes. "What in Durin's name is going on?"

"You are being hunted." Mithrandir sighed, looking to Meara with a knowing look.

"We have to get out of here." Dwalin stated, moving towards where they left the ponies, but Ori and Dori crashed through the underbrush as howls rang closer to their location.

"We can't! The ponies have bolted." Ori cried, a frantic look on his face.

Then Radagast spoke up, "I'll draw them off."

Gandalf shook his head, "These are Gungabad wargs, they'll outrun you!"

Meara fought the grin as the brown wizard puffed his chest out. "These are Rhosgobel Rabbits. I'd like to see them try."

"Well, you can't argue with that, Mithrandir." Meara shrugged. "He'll draw them off, we're close to the pass, so we can take it for safe passage."

Mithrandir nodded, directing the group to remain quiet and head around to an outcropping of large boulders just at the grove of trees. The howling was intense as the wargs came into view in front of them, chasing after Radagast and his rabbits with gusto. Much to Meara's delight, the rabbits actually moved rather quickly despite dragging a sled and grown man behind them. Certainly faster than the wargs were moving.

Mithrandir led them from boulder to boulder, being sure to stay out of sight from the orc pack. Meara's heart raced as the sound of the wargs carried to her ears over the expansive fields. It had been a very long time since she ran with a pack, and though she would run on the full moon with Fano; it wasn't quite the same. Part of her longed to change and jump into the chase, though the wolves would have a distinct advantage with their numbers.

The group ducked behind another outcropping of large boulders pausing in a tense silence as the pack of wargs and their orc riders came dangerously close to their hiding spot. Over their fastly beating hearts Meara could hear Radagast calling out, "Come and get me!" Wargs snarled in frustration as they ran, their jaws just missing the edge of Radagasts robes. They moved on to another outcropping, just barely saving Ori from running out into the open, but Meara knew it was too late. Thorin's raised voice caught the attention of a straggling warg and it's rider. The group pressed themselves to the large boulder, holding their breaths as they looked to Kili to shoot an arrow.

It certainly wasn't a clean shot as the warg fell from the boulder, screeching in pain. Thorin quickly put his blade through the wargs neck, silencing the poor beast as the others pulled their weapons to kill and silence the orc.

Meara met Mithrandir's gaze. "Shit."

"Run. Run!" He shouted urging the group in a direction toward the secret path. As the dwarves ran, Meara urged Fano forward, "Go, lead them with Mithrandir to the pass. I'll buy you some time."

"But!"

"Go!" Meara pulled her sword out and shoved it into the gaping maw of a warg as it sprung to attack. With a burst of energy, she ran swiftly in an arch to circle around the group of orc riders, her sword in her left hand and her claws out in her right hand. A growl ripped from her chest as she crashed into a warg and its rider, her arm arching wide as she slashed her claws through the flimsy leather armor the orc wore. Her claws went deep, tearing half its neck away in an instant as she took her blade in her left hand and plunged it straight down through the wargs spine. It gave a pitiful sound as it lost its mobility with sharp pain engulfing it.

Two wargs charged toward her with angry howls, Meara paused only long enough to put the warg beneath her out of its misery. One warg had a rider, the other riderless. In the distance, she could hear Thorin calling for Kili, she hoped he wasn't in trouble, but her attention was swiftly averted to the opponents before her as an arrow whizzed past her head. She growled, her eyes melting molten gold as she pulled her wolf close to the surface. The wargs could sense the sudden change, wariness causing them to hesitate before approaching. The orc atop the warg to her left knocked an arrow, letting it loose in a swift motion. Just as swiftly Meara swiped the arrow from the air, cutting the arrow in two before it could strike her.

She lowered her body to the ground with a low growl and pounced with all the strength she could muster. Her body slammed into the warg, a sharp crack echoing as she collided with its neck. As the warg dropped, she stepped onto its carcass and gripped the orc around its neck, turning with quick momentum to throw the putrid being into the riderless warg. Both dazed, Meara quickly went to the two, slamming a foot down onto the wargs neck and pinning it in place as she skewered the orc through his gut and cut up in a grievous wound.

A horn blared just feet from her. Meara paused in her motion, ignoring the struggling warg beneath her foot as she focused on the horses that flew towards the orc pack that had chased after the dwarves. The elves crashed like the red sea into the orcs, slaughtering the pack quickly and efficiently. Meara looked down at the warg beneath her foot. It whimpered and cried as it tried to release itself from her grip. Meara reached down and met the eye of the wretched creature.

"Is this your nature? To follow these putrid beings to your death and live with nothing but death and fear?" Meara supposed the language that came from her lips was the language of the wolves. She'd heard the language when she had met previous wargs and wolves on her monthly transformations, but she'd never deigned to actually use it until now.

The warg whimpered, "Just kill me, wolf witch. I will die for my brethren."

"Your brethren are already dead. Answer me. Why do you let yourself live like this?"

The warg was silent as it struggled to free itself.

"You want to live." Meara told him as she lowered to whisper in his ear. "Tell me why I should let you live."

The warg was silent at first, stilling as it tensed, "I...I don't know."

"I will let you live, pup, on one condition."

The warg huffed with exhaustion waiting to hear what she had to say.

"You do not return to what remains of your pack."

"...Are you mad. A warg alone...it's a death sentence!"

"You'll die either way, won't you though?" Meara whispered in his ear. "You can live to see another day, and die a peaceful, honorable death, or you can die beneath my foot in shame."

"Wolf Witch!" The warg growled and struggled anew. Meara plunged her sword into the wargs neck, giving him a quick and painless death. She thought she could convince this warg to live differently, he was young after all, maybe only a year or so older than Fano, and yet he was devoted to a cause he couldn't even name. Meara stood, sheathing her sword as the group of elven riders turned in her direction, a familiar scent wafting to her nose over the smell of blood, decay, and horse.

"Lady Meara?"

Recognizing Lord Elrond's voice, she raised a hand in acknowledgement. "Lord Elrond? I didn't know you still rode in the scouting party."

"Eru's light! Are you alright?" He called out as he got closer, reigning his horse in as he pulled in beside her.

Meara winced, suddenly feeling the pain radiating from her face to her shoulder. She lightly pressed a hand to her right cheek where a dull ache formed. While she didn't feel like she was swollen, she knew a pretty bruise must have bloomed where she had slammed her body into the warg. It might not look as bad as she thinks though, she could already feel the ache in her shoulder dissipating as a ravenous hunger and exhaustion began to fill her where the pain left.

"I'll be fine. I think I just need a nap and a good sized pig leg." Meara smiled, grasping the hand the elf lord offered her to help her up behind him on the horse.

"Quite a bit of trouble you've gotten yourself into, Lady Draugwen." The elf lord teased, a smile in his voice. "What brought the pack so close to our borders?"

"Oh, I'm sure we'll find out shortly," Meara yawned, dozing lightly as the group cantered toward Imladris.

She must have fallen into a deeper sleep than she had intended because before she knew it she was stirring awake as she felt herself being lifted. She blinked blearily up at Elladan, spying Elrohir peeking over his shoulder with a curious expression. "That is one nasty bruise, Draugwen."

"I hit a warg."

"With your face?" Elrohir looked like he wanted to laugh but seemed to contain it as the two hurried her to the healing ward.

"It's not that serious, I just need a nap and a lot of food." Meara blinked, feeling herself get sleepy, but forced her eyes to stay open, uncomfortable at the thought of being in such a vulnerable state.

"You're lucky Lord Glorfindel is dealing with other guests, otherwise he'd be hovering around you like a bee on honey."

Meara groaned. "Let's just not tell him I'm injured."

"Are you avoiding him?"

Meara rolled her eyes, "No, I'm not injured. Not for long anyway."

And it was true, she dozed off while they fetched her a good sized plate of food and by the time she finished the first plate her bruises had already shrunk in size and faded into a faint yellow. While her eyes still wanted to close in sleep, she shrugged it off when a familiar intrusion brushed against the back of her mind. So she ignored the want for sleep and left her rooms, wandering through the halls, following the familiar smell of Galadriel.

She paused though when she saw Bilbo and Fano standing in the archway that led to the gardens, matching looks of horror on their face. "What are you both looking at?"

Meara wished she had kept walking.

The dwarves had stripped themselves and from the looks of it had washed their clothes and themselves and were now playing a game of chicken fight in the fountain. It was the oddest thing she'd ever seen go down in the Imladris Gardens and the twins and herself have done plenty of odd things in the past four years. Meara wanted to laugh but the automatic response to gasp seemed to interfere and instead she made a very unladylike snort that had Bilbo asking if she were alright.

"Yes, yes, I'm fine." Meara wiped the water from her eyes, "I just wasn't expecting...whatever they are doing."

Smothering another snort, Meara continued on, vaguely hearing Fano give a huff. "I told you she would be fine. Naneth is very strong. Stronger than those dingbats at least."

"I don't know quite what a dingbat is but it seems to be an insult isn't it." Bilbo sighed.

Meara found the duo an odd yet welcome friendship as she continued to follow the floral yet woodsy scent of Galadriel. She ended up finding the Lady of Light, Mithrandir, Lord Elrond and the wizard she had heard much about yet never met, Saruman the White. And she was glad she had never met him prior to now. The wizard set her teeth on edge, especially with how he spoke to Mithrandir.

"There is evidence placed right in front of you, and you still deny Mithrandirs' findings?" Meara spoke up, eyes narrowing at the white wizard as she walked further into the private pavilion.

"This is a white council meeting, who are you to waltz in here-" He went on a tirade of ethics and privacy, and minding one's own business, blah, blah, blah.

Meara glanced at Elrond arching a brow at him in question. The Elf Lord looked equally annoyed at the wizard and Meara. She turned her attention to Galadriel, who seemed to be slightly privy to her thoughts, and was watching Meara with amused eyes.
"Are you done?" Meara asked when he paused to take a breath. He looked outraged as Meara gave him a bored look. When he didn't immediately respond, Meara carried on, "Great. Obviously there is a problem whether it is who you think it is," she glanced at Mithrandir and then looked to Saruman throwing air quotes around his words, "or some "mortal man dabbling in black magic", as the white council, protectors and leaders of your people, it is your responsibility to look into this matter. Or do you simply hold the title for privileges?"

Meara narrowed her eyes at the white wizard, finding the old coot down right unbearable. She could smell his arrogance wafting off him in droves and just underneath it a sharp scent of jealousy though Meara couldn't quite figure out exactly whom he was jealous of. In her experience though, arrogance and jealousy were not a good mix to have, especially when coupled with a position of power. Saruman seemed at a loss for words at Meara's suggestion but she could tell that she made the occupants of the white council just slightly uncomfortable, she may have mentioned the elephant in the room. Whoops.

I believe Lord Glorfindel is searching for you. The thought flitted through the back of her mind, Galadriel brushing her thoughts briefly before retreating. Meara looked at the Lady of Light, finding an amused smile on her face though her gaze was trained on the doorway behind Meara. Turning around, she found the gold-headed elf in the archway to the pavilion, arms crossed over his chest with an arched brow.

"Well, if you'll excuse me," Meara smiled at Elrond and Mithrandir, giving a wink to Galadriel as she turned to leave. "I suppose I have some explaining to do to a certain elf."

Meara left the pavilion, following behind Glorfindel in silence as they returned to more common halls of Imladris.

Meara didn't mind the silence...at first. She didn't know how to bring up the fact that he seemed to be showing her affection that didn't seem entirely platonic without making it weird. She also had her own doubts, after all, the elves had a much more openly affectionate culture than werewolves of her home world, though there were many significant reasons for that. Like the whole mating bond between pairs, and the slight possessiveness that comes with it. Sure, many wolves have friendships with both the same and opposite gender but the tenderness that not just Glorfindel but Elladan and Elrohir, Arwen, even Haldir when she wasn't antagonizing him, just wasn't a norm for werewolves. Maybe she was overthinking the gestures that Glorfindel made toward her, then again, her nose never lied to her and she had smelled arousal from the elf on a couple of occasions. No, she was definitely overthinking it.

"Fano seems to be having a good time."

Meara nodded absently, "I'm definitely overthinking it."

"You tend to do that a lot." Glorfindel nodded.

"I'm four thousand years old, this shouldn't be an issue for me," Meara scratched her cheek and glanced at Glorfindel, pausing in her step when she realized he wasn't walking beside her. "Glorfindel?"

He stood a couple of paces behind her, a look of surprise on his face.

"Are you alright?" She tilted her head at him in question, though he seemed to snap out of his surprise as soon as she asked.

"Yes," He shook his head, "I just didn't realize exactly how old you were."

"Oh?" Meara tilted her head at him, a teasing smile gracing her lips. "Did you think I was younger?"

Glorfindel rolled his eyes, quickly falling back into step beside her. "Far younger than what you lead on, anyway."

"Good sir, one's personality should never give away one's age." Meara laughed, finding it amusing that she'd caught the elf off guard. "If I acted like a four thousand year old wolf I would be like..." Meara wrinkled her nose. "Ugh, I would be like my father."

At that, Glorfindel laughed out loud, the sound echoing through the halls and back. He quieted quickly though, and watched her from the corner of his eye. "Speaking of parental figures. How is Fano? Is he doing better than you expected?"

Meara sighed, "He is, though luckily we haven't encountered anything too dangerous...I am worried about the apparent hunt for Thorin and his company though."

"Hunt?"

Meara nodded, "Yes, a band of orcs have been following us for quite some time, though I think that Lord Elrond and the scouting party killed them off."

"When there's one, another soon follows though." Glorfindel frowned silently, his eyes trained in the distance.

"That's true. Do you think I should make Fano remain? There will always be other opportunities for him to go out…What is it?"

Glorfindel's eyebrows had raised with a surprised look as he watched down the corridor, through the window and beyond to the path that led to the mountains.

"Don't be angry."

"Why would I be angry?" Meara gave him a suspicious look. "What are you staring at?"

"It seems the company has already left. Fano included."

Meara stared at Glorfindel for a moment, processing his words. "What?"

Glorfindel patted her hand in a consoling manner. "They left already...Meara?"

"I'm gonna kill them."

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