Chapter 10

A/N: I own nothing! User name animefreak, thank you for your continued support. I really appreciate it.

When Everyone was once again dressed and had collected their weapons, they returned to their abandoned camp and decided to catch a couple of hours of shut-eye before continuing further. Once they woke up, they pack up and went off in search of the troll's cave.

Buttons could tell they found it long before the had arrived. The smell coming from the mouth of the cave was just vile and it made her eyes water. She wished she could rip off her nose for a short period of time to spare herself this torture.

She waited outside the cave with Bilbo while the others searched inside. Gandalf eventually emerged and offered a short elvish sword to her brother. Gandalf told him how it would shine blue if ever there were goblins or orcs close by and Emel though that would most likely come in handy at some point.

It came into use sooner then she would have expected because not long after the crazed Brown wizard crashed through the underbrush with his oversized rabbits in search of Gandalf, a rider-less warg came bounding into view.

"Warg Scout!" Cried Thorin and the whole of the company began to run for it. Regretfully the ponies were long gone having been scared off by the vicious predators, so they had to escape on foot.

Across open plains dotted with stones, Gandalf led them and Thorin became suspicious about where he was taking them if his scowl at the Wizard meant anything, he suspected the worst.

After making too much noise in killing a warg that had drawn too close, the Orc pack stopped chasing Radagast and began pursuing the dwarfs.

When they were surrounded people noticed that Gandalf seemed to have vanished.

"He's abandoned us! Khazâd ai-mênu! We fight!"

As everyone was fighting for there lives Gandalf called out to them from a hidden passage, "In here you fools! Run!"

One by one everyone dropped into the hole. Thorin and Kili were the last. Kili was slow to retreat and continued to fire his arrows. He did not see a smaller orc sneak up behind him, but before he was stabbed in the back, (Literally) Buttons charged back out and threw herself and the Orc.

While she was distracting the enemy Thorin barked at Kili to retreat.

Clawing his ugly mug into ribbons, Emel sank her long canines into the foul thing's neck and refused to let go. The orc grabbed one of her legs and tried to yank her off of him at an odd angle. He managed to dislocate her shoulder and break her paw, but he also ripped out his own jugular in the process when her teeth wouldn't let him go. Spitting out the horrible tasting rotten flesh from the thing she hobbled over to the hole and rolled down the passage ending in a heap at the bottom.

"Buttons!" cried Bilbo. He ran over to his sister and checked her over. "There something wrong with her leg." He announced tearfully. He tried to pick her up, but he wasn't strong enough to carry her for long as they followed the passage and began to fall behind.

"Here laddie, let me take her. You'll hurt yourself if you keep going with her." Said Dwalin. Having heard from Thorin that the feline saved Kili, he began to respect the little thing and was sad to see it injured like this.

At the end of the Tunnel, Thorin growled. "Rivendell, I should have known. Wizard, what did I say about this godforsaken valley just yesterday eve?"

"Relax Thorin Oakenshield. The only enemy you will find here is your own pigheadedness. Come, your company is wounded and tried. Lead them down into Rivendell where they will find reprieve." Gandalf Beseeched tiredly.

When they approached the front courtyard, they found that Lord Elrond was not in but then Horse hooves thundered across the bridge and surrounded the company. The dwarves closed ranks shoving Bilbo in the middle of there circle.

Elrond greeted Gandalf warmly and then he turned to Thorin. "Welcome to Imladris Thorin, son of Thrain son of Thror."

"I don't believe we have met." He growled in answer.

"I knew you Grandfather Thror while he was king under that mountain. You look much alike and have a similar bearing." Said Lord Elrond genially.

"He made no mention of you," Thorin replied. Bilbo groaned at Thorin's lack of courtesy, but he was ignored.

Lord Elrond then saw what Dwalin was carrying with one arm while the other held his axe keeper at the ready. "And what is this? I have never seen such an animal before in all my years. It appears to be injured."

Thorin growled menacingly, "The cat is a dwarf friend and no concern of yours. We shall take care of her." The other dwarves shifted and whispered to each other at the significance of Thorin's words.

Lord Elrond put up his hands signaling for peace. He then spoke to Lindir and the dwarves were led into the building to find food and shelter after there run in with the orc pack.

The dwarves had commandeered a balcony to camp in rather than excepting to rooms they had been offered. They did not trust the elves enough to be separated and their position was easily defendable. Oin, the deft doctor was charged with Buttons care and the dwarf grumbled say how he was a healer, not a veterinarian, but he still did his best for her. He managed to force her shoulder bone back in place and put her paw into a splint. Afterward, he gave her some bitter healing tea which he poured down her throat and it made her very sleepy.

The company was forced to stay in Rivendell for two weeks in order to wait for the appropriate moon cycle so that the map could be read. For the first week, Bilbo hardly left her side and grateful as he was Kili helped Bilbo care for her. Buttons knew how curious Bilbo was about the elves of Rivendell so with enough pushing (literally pushing him with her nose since she couldn't talk) she convinced Bilbo to go out and explore the city. The final straw that made her brother comfortable enough to leave her side was Kili and Fili's promise to look after her while he explored.

Oin kept her on the drowsy pain medication for quite some time so when the dwarves decided to bathe in one of the garden's fountains, she didn't have the strength to fight Kili off.

Much to her mortification, all the dwarves around her were completely in the nude and she would never be able to look any of them in the eye again. She tried to pull herself over the lip of the fountain and onto the grass below, but she failed in her escape.

"Kili, it seems our little azaghâl (warrior) is not fond of the water!" laughed Glóin as he seized Buttons around the waist and brought her back into the distressing fray on naked men.

Then, finally, her hero arrived. "Here now! Give Buttons over to me this instant! This is highly inappropriate!" Cried Bilbo as he entered onto the scene.

Kili obliged him since Bilbo was her master after all but though the Hobbit to be ever so odd. She was just a cat after all. How had it been inappropriate?

Emel clung to her brother for dear life while Bilbo whispered apologies to her in her ear. She just wanted to die of embarrassment.

Two days before the map was read Oin finally took her off the horrible tasting tea and she could think coherently again. It was night time and the dwarves were sleeping all around her. Her foot was still quite sore, and she was still having trouble keeping food down but as far as they could tell she was on the mend. Having been stuck on the bedroll they provided her for so long, she was getting antsy to move around a bit and decided to go for a small hobbled stroll in the gardens.

She passed Thorin on her way out as he was keeping watch at the moment and he gently patted her on the head. "Do not stray too far little azaghâl, you are still healing." He said with a surprising amount of kindness. Buttons mewed in undertraining and shuffled off into the night.

She walked around for some time enjoying the views which she had not seen for some time. Eventually, she came to the very same garden in which she had first met her mother Bella. Sitting on a bench not far from the tree she had once hidden in was the most beautiful elf she had ever laid eyes on.

Long blond hair that was in perfect golden wave and kind gray eye. Her skin was perfectly smooth, and her entry being shone with an inner light.

"Come child. Do not be afraid. You are safe here. Show yourself to me." She said in a voice that rang with power but was kind and reassuring.

Emel Didn't know why but she felt that she could trust this woman. She turned herself back into Emel and realized how disastrous she must look. She hesitated for a moment but looking back into the woman's eyes she instinctively knew that she could trust her so Emel pulled out her wand. In a quick succession of wand movements Emel cleaned herself and refreshed her clothes. She cleaned her hair and cast a detangling charm so that it tumbled down her back in neat order. Feeling much better, Emel approached the other elf until she stood before her. Even seated as she was the stranger was much taller than she was.

Galadriel cupped Emel's small face in her hand and gazed upon her in apparent amazement, looking deep into Emel's very soul. "Hello, my dear. Late is the hour in which I can finally welcome you home to middle earth. You have suffered much for one so young, but you are strong. Much stronger than you were when you first came to Rivendell. They call me Galadriel of Lothlórien and I am your grandmother. Your mother, Almarian was my youngest. I was greatly saddened to have lost her in such a way, but it gladdens me to see you. Your existence proved that she found love and happiness wherever she had been taken and it eases my heart greatly."

Emel was stunned, and rightfully so. It took her a moment to collect herself. "I-I'm sorry…"

Smiling softly Galadriel asked, "Whatever for? You have done nothing wrong."

Emel shrugged in discomfort feeling all of five years old in front of Galadriel. "Because you lost Mama like that. Because a bad man took her from you and that he came from my father's world. I guess I feel a little responsible somehow."

Galadriel chuckled. "Do not feel sorry for something you did not do. It is not your weight to bare. I have seen what your future may hold, and you will have your own struggles that will challenge you. You cannot carry the guilt of another with you as well. Lighten your heart, there is hope for you yet. I must leave you now but always remember little one, Bilbo is not the last of your family. You will always have a home with me in Lothlórien should you need it."

Galadriel then took her injured hand into hers and used her powers to finish healing her broken bones. When she was done Emel's hand was good as new and her shoulder no longer hurt when she moved it.

Galadriel then knelt and embraced Emel goodbye. As she walked away Galadriel spoke to her in her mind and told Emel one last piece of vital information which explained everything and turned her world upside down. Needing a moment to digest everything she had learned, Emel climbed up into her tree like she once did as a child and spent the whole of the next day there in deep contemplation.

A/N: Ahhhh! Did I surprise you? Did you see that coming? Let me know in the reviews! Also, can you guess what information Galadriel told Emel while she walked away which shocked out heroine so much?