Hello Lovelies,

Here is the next instalment, I hope that you all enjoy! It has been a real pleasure getting back into writing this story, as with life work gets so busy and wipes me out a lot these days, but I am trying my best.

Massive thanks for the favourites and follows, and I am always excited to read reviews.

I do not own The Hobbit, just my OC.


Chapter 44 – Spy Games

It had felt like an eternity before the sound of approaching footsteps reached Todd's waiting ears. She had been humming to herself to keep herself entertained, even singing a few times. It had kept her peaceful in the end. She knew that the incessant worrying was doing her and the company no good, at least not while she was locked up away from them. She needed to be calm so that when the guards came, she didn't look like a wreck. She needed to look strong and unaffected.

At the sound of footsteps, she immediately pushed herself up onto her feet and braced herself for what was to come. She made sure her back was straight and her eyes were unforgiving.

The door swung open and a guard strode in. He regarded Todd and then grabbed at the collar that Todd had thrown off as soon as she was able. Once in his hands, he approached Todd once more. She immediately growled at him and fell into step, ready to fight the elf off.

The elf paused, a frustrated and affronted look to him, and called out of the room and within seconds another elf strode in and immediately grabbed at Todd pinning her arms at her sides so that she couldn't swipe at them. She started to panic and wriggled and writhed around as much as she could, trying to kick at them, but they were too big and too strong. She was so much weaker in her second skin after the effects of the diseased forest.

The collar was placed back over her head and tightened with a lock so that she couldn't loosen it to pull it off, or shift. The lock sat across one of the chains rings so that they could still pull it to tighten it, but it wouldn't go any wider. If she were to try and shift now the collar would squeeze her head straight off her shoulders. She was completely compromised.

Once on, the guards took a step back, one holding firmly onto the chain so that he could pull at a moment of notice. She stood there panting to try and get her breath back, her hands moving to touch at the collar. She could already feel the tips of the spikes touching her neck. She wasn't any help to any one now. If she even managed to get out of this confinement and find her Company, how was she supposed to protect them if she couldn't shift back into her first skin.

Then he was there, gliding in through the door like he was floating. The power and attention that he commanded was intense, and Todd knew that he was used to getting exactly what he wanted, which only made her want to refuse all the more. Todd sucked in a breath and steeled herself, pulling her back straight again and her head held high. Behind him followed the red headed she-elf that had saved Kili and dragged him back whilst in the forest. She was wearing just as blank a look as the king.

"You still look feral" The Kings voice mocked as he came to stand before her. Hands held together before him. His light eyes peering at her as if he wanted to read her mind before the words had left her mouth.

They stood like that for a while, Todd with her hands balled into fists at her side as she defiantly glared up at the ethereal Elven King. Him in turn, staring down at her with such indifference that she wondered why he had bothered to come and see her in the first place.

"Why am I here?" She asked first, her words clipped and concise. "Why not with my company?"

"What do they call you?" He demanded more than asked, completely ignoring her questions. He raised an eyebrow to her when he noticed how

"Why have you come here?" She pushed once again, not really wanting the King of the Woodland realm to have power over her name.

"I ask the questions here, for you are in my realm…" He raised his voice, much like he had with Thorin. She did not flinch, with nothing more than a blink of her eyes, she held her ground. "… are you not?"

She remained silent, her glare turning into a sneer as her lip parted to reveal her sharp canines. Yet even that small reaction had King Thranduil of the Woodland Realm smirking in return.

"Very well, Tauriel?" He turned then to the she-elf behind him. Whose eyes slid from Todd to her King.

"I believe the Dwarve with the hat called her Todd, my King!" She answered back with a bow of her head, a few perfect red curls falling over her shoulder.

Todd couldn't help but let a growl slip out of her chest as the red haired she-elf gave up her name so easily. She hadn't even realised Bofur had called her name out with the elves around. It made her feel unsettled, how much more had they picked up on. The guard, in reaction to her guttural growl, pulled at the collar, making Todd hiss out in pain as the spikes dug into her neck. Her hands flew to the collar and she managed to pry it open as far as it could go before settling for glaring once more.

"Well… Todd" Thranduil started, looking from the redheaded elf back to her. The way he said her name made her feel like it was the dirtiest thing he had ever said. "I want to offer you something."

"What could I possibly want from you?" She guffawed at the absurdity of his statement.

"A place at my side" He deadpanned, his eyes looking eager to see her reaction.

She was expecting a few things to come out of a one to one with the Elven King, and not one of them had been him offering her a place at his side. She couldn't help but let a confused and bewildered expression fall over her features. Subconsciously she lifted a hand to push her bright red curls from her face.

"Why would I want that?" She asked, the confusion evident in her voice.

"You see, every King needs to protect what's his, and sometimes that means knowing the… intricacies of another realm…" He reasoned, separating his large elegant hands and reaching one out to trace the collar at her neck.

"You want me to spy for you?" She elaborated for him, her voice more of a statement than a question. The realisation dawning on her of what he really meant.

She sighed and took a step back out away from the Kings hand and glared up at him. All her life people had assumed she was only good for a few things. Spying, cheating, betraying. Nothing good. She was fed up with it. She had never once betrayed anyone; she had no intention of turning her back on the ones she loved. No amount of coin would ever turn her away from her heart. She was everything everyone thought she was not. She was loyal, she was caring and kind. She wished no ill will on anyone unless they crossed her and her loved ones.

The fact that this Eleven King was there before her, asking her to spy on other kingdoms for him was beyond what she wanted to listen to. All she wanted was to be reunited with her Company. There was a small part of her that knew exactly who he wanted her to spy on to, and the very thought had her blood boiling.

"In such plain and savage terms… yes" He breathed, standing straight and tucking his hands behind his back.

"And whom would you have my spying on?" She asked, her voice showing her distaste.

"Your little Company, for a start…"

She knew it.

"No" Came her quick and biting rebuttal.

She had responded so quickly and so finitely that the King had to look to her with a frown set upon his brow. He was not used to so many people rejecting his offers in a day. I had been a long time since anyone had defied him.

"Excuse me?" He vexed.

"I will do no such thing; they are my family and I would rather die than betray them" She stood her ground and spoke with such finality. She lifted her head and let her emerald eyes stare through his own clear orbs.

"You could live like royalty here…" He tried, but she had heard enough. King or not, she was done listening to his vile speech.

"I will repeat… I would rather die!"


Todd was all but dragged through the Elven halls after she had refused King Thranduil's proposal. He had left in a flurry of cloth and blond hair, harsh words in Elvish being spat. Then she was grabbed and shoved from her room and pulled after the Guard with the chain to her collar.

She followed him down and down further into the Woodland realm, wondering and hoping that his time she was being taken to her Company.

A few times along the way the Guard would fall out of patience with her shorter legs and would yank at the chain causing her to yelp and curse at him in Khuzdal. She was all but running whilst they were simply walking, and it was driving her insane. She wished that Elves were a normal size, more her size, so that she could kick their arses even whilst in her second skin.

Finally, after what felt like hours, she started to realise that they were passing cells. She immediately started trying to peer into them as she passed. This was the most likely place that her Company were being held and a little hope in her thought that she would be seeing them soon again. Glad that if that was the case, she had not being without them for too long.

As if an answer to her thoughts the guards followed the wooden walkway as it curved around a corner and that was when she heard them. Nori and Fili, to be exact.

"Can you hear something?" She heard Nori shout.

"Shut up, Nori!" Fili shouted back.

She could hear an explosion of whisper shouting, that even with her excellent hearing couldn't make heads nor tails off. She was just about to start laughing when she caught sight of her first Dwarve.

"ORI!" She shouted as she was dragged past.

"TODD?" The whole company all but shouted as she was dragged past all their cells.

She was led past Dwalin and Balin's cell and stopped in front of an empty cell. The guards opened it with a key and pushed her inside, slamming the cell door back in her face. The guard that had been in charge of the chain to her collar yanked on it one more time making her hiss out and yelp in pain before throwing the chain through the bars at her.

"Men an E ha'ak, gurnvos'comys!" She shouted at them as they turned their backs on her and made their way back up and away from the cells.

She pulled at the collar to try and free up her neck and throat, sucking in a deep breath and coughing.

"You OK?" She heard Bofur call, from what sounded like the cell right next to hers on the left.

At the sound of his voice she scrambled over to the corner of her cell and tried to peer out. All she could see where his hands gripping the cell bars and she could tell they were his hands. She reached out and placed her pale freckly hand on top of his and he immediately twisted to hold her hand.

"I'm ok, I'm ok!" She sighed.

"What did they want?" She heard Thorin shout out from a cell further up the walkway.

"They wanted me to shift to this skin" She explained, loud enough so all of the company could hear her. "Thranduil wanted to offer me a deal… stupid tree-shagging sprite!"

"HERE HERE!" The company broke out around her and she couldn't help but chuckle. She could feel Bofur laugh as his hands shook.

"What deal?" Thorin pressed, worry evident in his voice.

"The deal of him letting us go on our way… If I became his spy" Her voice was angry again, angry that that sprite had assumed she would just so easily betray the ones she loved. "He wanted me to spy on you Thorin!" The company were just as angry, shouting out curses in Khuzdul, all directed at the Elven King.

"What did you say lassie" She head Balin call from the cell to her right.

"I said that I would rather die than betray any of you, you are my family now and I love you all far too much to ever hurt you… not for all the money and power in Middle Earth." She explained, feeling Bofur's hand tighten around hers, his thumb rubbing comforting circles into her hand.

"WOO" "That's our girl!" The company all cheered around her. She even heard Thorin call out his thanks. They were a team, they were the family she had been missing since the loss of her Mother and then her Father. She enjoyed being with them, being strong with them. She was finally apart of something that mattered again. She was going to help get them into that Lonely Mountain if it was the last thing she did.

Once the Company had all settled down, Todd sighed and shuffled to sit with her back against the cell bars, her hand still firmly in Borfur's grip.

"Bofur?" She spoke quietly this time, hoping not every dwarve could hear her. She needed to clear the air with him, she needed to know why he had acted the way he had.

"Yes, ghivâshelûh?" He spoke softly back to her. Her eyes widened at his use of Khuzdul, her heart almost jumping out her mouth.

Such a term of endearment was only ever whispered between lovers and their ones. Her eyes watered and her mind raced at the possibilities of what he had just called her. Ever since they had slept so close to each other at Beorns, which felt like such an age ago, she knew. The feeling in her chest whenever he was close to her, talking to her, smiling at her. It compared to nothing. He was her One.

Therefore, to hear that name gave her hope beyond hope that he felt the same. But another part of her dreaded the word. Todd didn't want to think that Bofur was the type of Dwarrow to trick and lead a Dwarrowdam on, but what else could she think off after her being ignored by him for so long.

"Bofur, I'm so confused" She whispered, and she felt his hand tighten around hers.

"I know…" He whispered back. "I know, I need to ask for your forgiveness, and no amount of grovelling could ever make up for how I treated you." His voice sounded wounded, and she knew he felt bad, she could almost feel it in her heart.

"You do not hate me?" She asked, and she felt so stupid to ask it. Like a little child who had been scolded.

"How could I ever hate something as precious as you, Lass" He replied, and she couldn't help the relief that flooded through her veins.