Night had fallen and Gandalf still had yet to return. The crickets chirped and the stars began to shine one by one as did the moon. Estel had fallen asleep for sometime after the wizard's sudden leave, only to had been woken up by the bumbling and bustling by the company members. She was afraid to open her eyes at the thought of catching the eyes of a dwarf who wasn't Oin, Fili, and Kili. The dwarves intimidated her, especially Thorin and Dwalin, being burly and rugged without so much as letting a smile creep up onto their faces. The hobbit fellow, however, seemed rather kind and timid; timid as she was, actually, or perhaps less so.

A wonderful, rich smell wafted into the night air, travelling around Estel and tickling her nose. She decided to open her eyes a fraction, letting her eyelashes shield her pupils. In front of her was the crackling fire, and over that was a cauldron. For a moment she wondered where in Middle Earth they had found a cauldron that large; she certainly didn't remember the dwarves carrying that on their ponies. Then again, she didn't remember very much of her journey so far. Estel opened her eyes the rest of the way, blinking away all the sleep and lazily trailing her gaze about her surroundings.

"You're awake," a rather chipper voice said from above. "It's about time!"

Estel looked up from the fire to see one of the dwarves holding some wooden bowls in his hands. He wore a strange floppy hat, and he had a kind smile. She sensed that he wouldn't be one to give her a cold shoulder, but she still was hesitant and seemed to shrink under his bright gaze.

"You must be hungry," he said, and handed her a bowl of some steaming broth. "Here."

She carefully sat up, minding her wound. Her eyes shifted from his hand to his face; the dwarf looked her with the utmost amiableness, telling her that he only had good intentions. Estel eventually took the warm bowl from him. "Thank you..."

"Bofur," he grinned before nodding his head; she still had yet to learn all their names. "At your service. Now you just eat your supper, and I'll be right back."

She watched him return to the cauldron and a rather large, redheaded dwarf reached for the ladle. Bofur swatted his hand away and told him that he had enough as Bilbo approached them with a glum face. The hobbit pointed out to the hatted dwarf that Gandalf had been gone for a while.

Bofur gave him a reassuring smile. "He's a wizard! He does as he chooses," he said and handed the hobbit two bowls of soup. "Here, do us a favor: take this to the lads."

With a sigh, Bilbo walked into the forest to give the two brothers their dinner. It occurred to Estel that she may not see them till morning; a sinking feeling in her stomach made her frown.

Bofur sat down beside her with his own bowl. "You're not eating?"

She had forgotten the bowl resting on her lap and took up a spoonful. The warmth of the soup went down her throat, and she sighed contentedly. It had been a while since she had last ate. She quietly finished her supper beside Bofur until the bowl lay empty in her lap.

"Thank you," she said softly.

He smiled and pulled out his pipe. "Glad you enjoyed it."

He pinched some pipe weed from a small, leather pouch and stuffed it into the end of his pipe. He lit the end with a flaming twig from the fire, breathing in from one end. After blowing smoke out from his nostrils, he turned his head to the young dwarrowdam.

"Now, I'm afraid I don't know your name."

"Estel," she replied.

"Estel," Bofur nodded. "Lovely name." He breathed another lungful from his pipe. "I see our Kili has taken to you, Miss Estel."

Her cheeks tinged with a light pink and she looked down at her hands. "He is kind to me... and I greatly appreciate his concern. And please, Estel is fine."

Bofur smiled. "How do you feel now?"

"Alright, I suppose," she replied. "But the wound still hurts. It makes it hard to move, but Oin is trying his best although I am very undeserving of your company's help."

"Now, don't you say that," Bofur said. "We wouldn't leave any of our kin to suffer."

"Some would think otherwise..." she trailed off and her eyes were somewhere else.

Bofur followed her gaze to see Thorin and Dwalin as well as a few other warrior dwarves. He understood now, and the hatted dwarf sighed.

"Don't you mind them," he said. "They just let their prejudices cloud their heads. I'm sure that if they get to know you, they'll come to like you."

"Your leader has made his opinion of my heritage very clear. And you've only just started to talk to me-"

"And I already like you!" Bofur gave her a toothy smile. "We dwarves are stubborn, but that don't mean they won't learn. Whether you have elf blood or horns on your head, that does not mean you are something to be shunned."

Estel only gaped at him. Her eyes became glossy and she looked towards the crackling fire. "Thank you, Bofur. You are very kind."

"Don't thank me, lass."

He blew rings of smoke into the night air. They conversed lightly, and Bofur pointed and named every dwarf in their company. When he had told her who Thorin really was, she was amazed.

"So it is true, then?" She asked.

"What is?" The dwarf said.

"The heir of Durin travels to take back Erebor, to reclaim his throne."

Bofur nodded. "Aye, it's true. He sought out those to travel with him, to give us a home once more."

Estel chewed the inside of her cheek, taking a short glance at Thorin again. To her, she thought, he looked like royalty, the way he walked and talked. She could see how the dwarves admired him, but to her it seemed that he was missing something. She couldn't exactly say what it was that made him lack the image of a king, but it was missing.

"Word has traveled of your company's quest," Estel told him. "It had reached my caravan. My uncle thought it foolish and a dwarf's death wish to think of such things, but for myself... I think you all very brave, but the risks..."

"I understand your fears, lass, but most of us were all warriors at one point," Bofur said, putting a hand on her shoulder. "We will succeed and bring home our kin-"

Suddenly there was loud rustling from the woods. All heads turned toward the noise, and a few of the dwarves had unsheathed their swords. Estel's heart jumped at the sight of the bushes and branches shaking until the two company had come running out.

Fili and Kili were short of breath when they reached the camp, and Thorin had crossed the space to his nephews.

"I thought you two were looking after the ponies," he said. "What are you two doing back here?"

"Trolls," Kili said urgently. "They... They took the ponies!"

Thorin was about to scold the two brothers, but thought better of it when he realized the trolls were a bigger threat at the moment.

"Where's Bilbo?" Ori called.

The two brothers looked at the other with grim looks on their faces. "We told him to help the ponies before we ran back to get you," Fili said.

"You sent a Halfling to do a dwarf's task?" Dwalin said.

"We weren't really thinking..." Kili admitted.

"You never think," Thorin shook his head before heading towards the woods. "Come on, you lot!"

Kili looked after his uncle with a look of hurt on his face; Fili put a hand on his brother's shoulder before following their uncle. All the dwarves left their spots except for Bofur. His worry seeped through his face and Estel knew it was because of the hobbit. Even she was beside herself.

"Go, Bofur," she said, watching the last of the dwarves run to help Bilbo and the ponies. "They need your help."

He cast her an apprehensive look. "But what about you? I can't just leave you!"

"I'll be fine," she told him. "Now please go."

He gave her one last look, trusting her to take care of herself, before running off. She was alone with the fire as her company. The crickets never stopped their chirping and the wind blew lightly. Estel couldn't shake the worry off her; she hoped that the dwarves were safe, that the hobbit was safe. Mahal, she even hoped that Thorin was safe.

It would've been a good time for Gandalf to be with them, and she couldn't help but feel angry at the wizard for leaving the camp. She sighed, knowing that it wasn't her place to be angry; she had only been travelling with Thorin's company for a day. If anything she had burdened them, and now that she knew of their motives for the journey, she thought that she was slowing them down.

Estel's head turned sharply towards the woods when she heard yells and shouts, and knew that it was the dwarves. She didn't know if they were captured or getting eaten one by one; the thought made her ill. She trusted Bofur when he said that most of them were experienced warriors, but she remembered that they were up against trolls. Unless the Valar were on their side, the company did not stand a chance.

She shut her eyes, trying to hold in her tears. She was worried; she was alone at the camp and she was very, very afraid. All she could think about was whether or not the dwarves or Gandalf would return, if she would ever see Oin, Bofur, or Kili again. Kili's smiling face clouded her mind, and her stomach sank at the thought of the young dwarf meeting his end at the bottom of a troll's stomach. The fear of being alone taunted the young dwarrowdam so much that she could not bear it.

With a great sigh and a small, miniscule amount of courage latching onto her thoughts, Estel tried to get onto her feet. It was hard for her, considering that she barely had any strength in her limbs. She inhaled a breath, and tried to stand fully on her own shaking legs before taking a step. She nearly fell, but regained her balance. The wound at her side screamed for her to stop, but Estel continued on, walking towards the forest. She held onto the trunks and low branches of trees that were closest to her, pushing off them to move as fast as she could.

The yells were closer, and she followed them, soon spotting an orange glow through the thick leaves and branches. She could hear a string of curses in Khuzdul, and Estel knew that she had found them. She traveled a few more feet before a terrible stench met her nose; she tried not to gag and covered her nose. Through the branches, a large revolting creature bounded in front of the fire, and Estel quickly shielded herself behind a tree. It was a troll, she realized. Her heart pounded, and she swallowed thickly. The wound was on fire and she felt tired and delirious.

There came several of the dwarves shouting and Estel had swallowed several breaths of air. She carefully craned her neck around the tree to her left, seeing a few of the dwarves tied onto a spit over a fire. Two of the trolls turned the spit slowly and one had reached for Bomber. Her eyes wandered to the rest of the dwarves, who were tied in sacks; her eyes widened upon seeing Kili and Fili yelling in anger.

"Kili... Fili," she breathed. "Oh, no..."

Her attention was drawn back when Bilbo had stood up in his sack and claimed that the dwarves were riddled with parasites. The dwarves started to shout and yell at the poor hobbit.

"Parasites, did he say parasites?" Oin exclaimed.

"We don't have parasites," Kili cried out in fury. " You have parasites!"

Estel watched as the rest of the dwarves chimed and called Bilbo a fool. Estel would have laughed had she not been so afraid. It was clear to her that he was trying to buy them time, and she looked over to see Thorin deliver a swift kick to one of the dwarves. They all became silent, realizing Bilbo's intentions before they all started to claim that they had parasites.

"I've got parasites as big as my arm," Oin said.

Kili began to exaggerate and yelled, "Mine are the biggest parasites! I've got huge parasites!"

"We're riddled," Nori cried while his brothers agreed.

Estel used the moment to come closer to the group, keeping herself hidden behind the bushes. While two of the trolls were utterly disgusted, one of them looked unconvinced.

"What would you have us do, then?" One of the trolls said. "Let 'em all go?"

Bilbo pursed his lips, before giving a helpless shrug. "Well..."

Estel peered over the top of the bushes, heart beating quickly as she watched. Bilbo was visibly shaking, and the dwarves still pulled against their restraints.

"You think I don't know what you're up to?" The troll said angrily. "This little ferret is taking us for fools!"

The troll went to reach for Bilbo, who was so afraid that he couldn't move. Estel had gasped to herself, her mind going blank as she moved up from her spot. Her whole body protested in pain, yet she ignored it, running into the light of the fire and pushing Bilbo out of the way. The troll's hand closed around her.

"Estel, no!" Someone had yelled from behind. Fili or Kili, she was unsure, but it didn't matter; she was in terrible, blinding pain.

"What are you doing, lass?" Oin cried.

She was lifted off the ground and the terrible, wretched breath of the troll almost made her faint. "What do we have here?"

"A she-dwarf?" One of them asked.

Estel pushed as hard she could against the troll's grip, but she was still held tight in its hand. An overwhelming amount of panic flooded her, and she was aware of the dwarves cries to let her go.

"Can we eat her?" A troll asked.

"No!" Kili-Estel was sure-yelled angrily. "Don't you touch her!"

"She looks a bit off, don't you think?" One of the trolls said. "Maybe she has parasites, too."

"Let them go," Estel's voice shook. "Please, don't eat them..."

"It talks!" The troll grinned mockingly.

"I beg of you," Estel said as she was close to tears. "Let them go!"

"I don't know about the looks of her " the troll at the spit said. "Looks sickly and thin. I'd dispose of her, if I was you."

"Gladly," the troll who held her said.

His grip tightened around her and he squeezed her torso. A scream scrambled out of her throat and there came shouts of anger from everywhere. It felt like her eyes and organs were going to pop right of her, and the wound reopened. She could feel blood running down her abdomen, and she was on the verge of passing out. From below, she was aware of Kili's angry cries, and the dwarves yelling and begging for the trolls to release her.

Her pained screams echoed around the camp and deafened her ears while the troll tried to squeeze her to death. Estel's body was on fire and she couldn't breathe. After a moment she quieted down and just gritted her teeth. Over the troll's shoulder, she could barely see light peeking through the trees. Suddenly, a robed figure ran up along the border and Estel felt her heart jump at the sight of the wizard.

"The dawn will take you all!" Gandalf had bellowed and all attention was drawn to him.

"Who's that?" The troll holding Estel said.

"No idea," one of them replied.

"Can we eat him too?" The other asked.

Gandalf struck the rock with his staff, splitting it in half, and allowing the sunlight behind it to pour into the clearing. The trolls screamed and howled in pain as the sunlight shined onto their skin. The troll released Estel, who dropped to the ground with a pained groan. All the air was pushed out of her lungs, and she struggled to breath as she watched the trolls. They began turning into stone amidst their loud, awful screams and howls of pain.

After a few moments, the company stared at the three stone statues of what were the trolls. They cheered with relief, but then all seemed to remember that Estel lay on the ground in pain. The dwarves on the spit still looked uncomfortable as well.

"Oh, get your foot out of my back!" Dwalin groaned.

"Get us down!" Dori shouted, face completely red from facing the low flames for so long.

The dwarves went about untying each other while Gandalf climbed down the rock to help the dwarves. Fili had helped Kili out of the sack and the dark-haired dwarf pushed himself out his brother's way to run to Estel.

He hit the ground on his knees and reached for her shoulders. Her eyes were closed and he was aware of the blood that seeped through the dressing on her wound.

"Estel? Estel, wake up!" He cried.

Her eyes fluttered open, and relief flooded her to see the that the dwarf was alright. "Kili..."

"Miss Estel," he sighed with relief. "Oh, you foolish girl! What were you thinking? You could've gotten yourself killed."

She tried to breath in, but sputtered and coughed. Kili frowned and pulled her into his lap and off the ground. Some of the dwarves, upon freeing themselves, crowded around the two young dwarves' sides.

"I thought I could help," she whimpered. "You were all in trouble... I couldn't just let you all die."

"Oh, lass, we know you mean well," Bofur sighed. "But you wouldn't have been able to have done anything."

"You would've been crushed to nothing," Kili said with a frown.

Bilbo had walked up to them with a look of guilt and mixed relief. "But she saved me, though."

"I wasn't... I didn't..." Estel mumbled.

"You pushed me out of the way," Bilbo said. "You may not have helped this lot, but you did push me out of the way."

The dwarves glanced between the hobbit and the girl before nodding in agreement.

"He's right," Ori spoke up.

Estel couldn't help but blush and she tried to hide her face in her hair. "I just wanted to help."

"And now that you did," Oin pushed past the dwarves and hobbit to kneel before her side. "You've gotten yourself hurt, and I must see to your wound."

The dwarves took this as a sign to pack up their things and left Estel in the care of Kili and Oin. The healer peeled back the dressing to see that the wound had, indeed, reopened and was bleeding. Kili inhaled a breath when he looked at the surrounding skin; the area had grown darker and the black veins branched out farther on her skin. Estel swallowed thickly and turned her head away to see Gandalf and Thorin talking quietly.

She could hear Thorin ask, "Where did you go to, if I may ask?"

Gandalf knocked his staff against the stone troll and replied, "To look ahead."

"What brought you back?"

"Looking behind. Nasty business. Still, they are all in one piece."

"No thanks to your burglar and the girl," Thorin muttered bitterly.

"He had the nous to play for time. None of the rest of you thought of that. And as for the girl, she tried her best to help, even though you think ill of her."

Estel let out a quiet sigh. Oin had applied a salve to the wound and wrapped her in clean, new dressings from his pouch. Kili sat her up with his hand against her back. One look at her, and he knew that she was in pain; he could see it in her eyes as she tried her best to keep a straight face. She looked as if she was going to burst into tears in any moment.

Oin had left the two to pack up his own things and help the other dwarves take a share of what they had the ponies carry. The journey ahead with no ponies was going to be a long and tiring. Kili hadn't dared to leave Estel behind and so he stayed.

"Do you want to sit under the tree?" He asked her.

Estel shook her head. "I'm fine here."

"I'd rather you not be under the shade of trolls, who, may I add, tried to kill us all."

"Really, Mister Kili," Estel sighed. "I'm fine here. It's... peaceful."

"The tree is only three feet away," Kili said. He studied her for a moment and she looked away, twisting her hands in her lap. He sighed, nodding to himself as he realized. "It hurts, doesn't it?"

Estel looked up at Kili with watery eyes before she nodded and began to sniffle. "It hurts everywhere. I'm afraid to move."

Kili was about to reply to her until Thorin had spoken over the dwarves.

"The trolls must have come from a cave nearby," he said. "We'll search the area until we find it."

The company had packed up and were ready to set out. Fili handed his brother's pack and they both stood over Estel. Kili offered his hand.

"Come on, Miss Estel," the dark haired dwarf said.

"I will only slow you down," she frowned.

"Well, we don't intend to leave you here," Fili said. "You're coming with us."

"I'm not-"

"Yes, you are," Kili gave her a pointed look. "You're coming with us whether you like it or not."

Estel looked at the two brothers sadly, and she sighed to herself. She avoided their gazes and looked at their feet instead. She wiped her sleeve across her eyes and then stared out into the forest, feeling utterly hopeless. She had no idea what she was getting into and she wasn't sure if they fully understood what was going to happen to her sooner or later.

"I might die, you know," she said, and every word of hers was laced with sadness. "I might die from a dark magic which will soon reach my heart, and you two are wasting valuable time to reach the Lonely Mountain, all because you want to carry dead weight."

"Now, stop," Kili said as he lowered himself on his knees to reach her eye level. "There is still hope for you. And if you think for one moment that you are hindering this company, then you must be a very stupid girl."

Estel frowned. "Stupid?"

"Yes, stupid," Kili said. "And I know you're not, but you are if you think you should stay here."

"You're one of us," Fili added. "You proved that."

"I will carry you if I have to," Kili told her, and she knew he was serious by the look in his dark eyes.

She sighed and nodded, knowing that there was no way out of this. Kili shoved off his pack and quiver of arrows and bow, telling Fili to hold them. He turned his back to Estel and crouched low enough for her.

"Get on," he said.

"Wh-what?" Estel stuttered.

"Are you really willing to have this conversation again?" Fili quirked his brow.

She frowned and looked back to Kili. She moved to press herself against his back and wrap her arms around his neck. He carefully rose up to his height, and put his hands under her knees and shifted her up so that her chin rested atop his shoulder.

"Comfortable?" Kili looked at Estel over his shoulder.

"Not really."

"Too late," Fili laughed, and walked ahead the company. "The journey has already started!"