Troll time!

Disclaimer: Me no own, you no sue

Arriah sat cross legged on the ground, her arms crossed.

"Prove yourself, but later. You're a distraction Arriah, a distraction. What!? What's so distracting? My breasts? Unlikely, but seriously, I've fought trolls before, and obviously I won."

She huffed.

"Dwarves. All brawn and no brain. Especially those princes, stealing my hiding spot and sending Bilbo to his death. I hope they get eaten first..."

She uncrossed her arms and clenched and un-clenched the hand that Fili had held into a fist.

"Although, my complaining isn't going to get me anywhere."

Being blind had forced her to make may hard decisions, including whether or not she would ever risk love again.

"Don't be ridiculous, I'm a woman and he's a man. That's simply it. Just sexual needs or something."

She glared at what ever was in front of her.

"I bet he's not to bad looking though."

She threw her hands up in the air.

"Why me?"

And stood. She marched into camp and felt around for her pack.

"Ahh, here it is."

She wouldn't want her swords in this situation, so her bow would do. Grabbing her bow and arrow filled quiver she quickly strapped on her quiver and marched in the direction of yelling dwarves and crackling fire.

She crouched low to the ground. not being able to see where her companions were put her at a disadvantage, but she could smell, hear, and feel the trolls. There's three of them, by the Valar, if I survive I better get a medal.

Slowly she made her way around what she assumed to be a clearing. The stench of troll invaded her senses, and she fought to not gag again. The yells and protests of the dwarves rang in her ears. She stopped quickly and notched an arrow, ready to fire at any second.

She was still, feeling for the vibrations that the trolls made in the ground. The first troll was directly across from her, on the other side of he clearing. The second troll was by what she thought to be the fire, if the heat coming from it was anything to go on.

She honed in on the third troll, marking it as her target. Without missing a beat she pulled back the string of her bow till it was taut and fired. Quickly she crashed to the ground and was still.

"Ahhhh! I've been shot! Something's shot me!"

"There's more of 'em!"

"Hush. Keep cooking 'em, I'll go 'ave a look around."

Arriah calmed her rapid breathing as best she could and began to slowly crawl away. She'd scented Thorin not to long ago, so she headed there, stopping every once in a while for extra measure.

"There's nothing 'ere! Must have been some large bug."

Arriah snorted. She was close to Thorin now. His scent was strong, mixed with some sort of cloth scent.

"Thorin." She whispered.

"Thorin."

Silence.

"Arriah."

She smirked at his stressed tone.

"Listen, I'll tell you I told you so later, alright. But right now I'll give you a knife, can you take it?"

"Yes."

She reached down and pulled a knife from it's sheath, which was always tucked inside her boot.

"Do not loose this. It's all that I have left of my mother. Tell me where to put it."

A huff came from Thorin as he shifted.

"Extend your arm out fully. Yes, now to the right. More. More. There, drop it."

Arriah did as she was told and pulled her arm back.

"I'll keep them distracted. Free yourself, and any of the others if you can."

She began to crawl away.

"And don't just attack the second you're free. We have to play this out."

All she got in response was a grunt and she was gone. Crawling around what she assumed to be some sort of rock formation she jumped up into a crouching position and readied her bow again. Honing in on one of the trolls she fired again and dropped to the ground.

"Ow! Again! I got shot again!"

"Will you stop it? Bert already went and looked! There's nothing!"

Arriah smirked and continued around. She had to carefully bide her time. Stall till sunrise, which she hoped would be soon. Maybe one of the others would catch on. She came upon a large rock and leaned against it.

"One, two-"

She spun to the side and quickly shot another arrow.

"Ow!"

"See! See!"

"Quiet Tom."

Arriah quickly spun back and fell against the rock.

"Get me the seasonings! Some sage will do."

"Wait! You are making a terrible mistake."

"You can't reason with them, they're half wits!"

"Half-wits? What does that make us?"

Arriah sighed. Dwarves.

"I meant with the uh, with the seasoning."

"What about the seasoning?"

"Well have you smelt them? You're going to need something stronger than sage before you plate this lot up."

Arriah smiled. Way to go Bilbo.

"What do you know about cooking dwarf?"

"Shut up. Let the, uh, flurbaburburglar hobbit talk."

"I, ah, ah, the secret, to cooking them is-um..."

"Yes? Come on."

"It's-uh."

"Come on, tell us the secret."

"Yes, I telling you, the secret is...to skin them first!"

Cries of protest rose from the dwarves.

"Arriah, my dear."

The red-head looked up.

"Gandalf."

"Yes, my dear, I am here. Are you alright?"

"Not missing any arms, only arrows."

"Ah, well that's good then. I see Bilbo caught on to your play on time."

"Yes, I gave Thorin a knife, but I don't know if he's put it to good use yet."

"Ah, I see, well there's no time like the present to jump in and save the day, eh?"

Arriah smiled.

"Now, just stay where you are and let me handle the rest."

Arriah leaned against the rock and let out a quick breath.

"The dawn will take you all!"

And suddenly the rock behind her trembled and she jumped up.

"Gandalf! When you said you'd take care of it I didn't know you meant that you were to be moving mountains!"

A chuckle came from the grey clad wizard.

"Sorry about that, my dear."

He was in front of her now.

"Come. The others have already begun to escape their binds."

Arriah nodded and allowed Gandalf to lead her into the clearing. Arriah stood alone as Gandalf left to poke around at the stone trolls.

"Lady Arriah."

She turned. "Fili. Are you alright?"

"Yes, no thanks to you, I imagine. This is your knife, isn't it?"

"Well I wouldn't know, I can't exactly see it."

The dwarf let out a small laugh and guided her hand to the hilt of her knife.

"It's a fine knife."

Arriah crouched down to sheath the small knife before standing again.

"Yes, it was my mothers. And before it was her's it was her mothers. And so on and so on. It is very old."

"Well, it certainly came in handy breaking out of those sacks."

"Excuse you?"

"Uhm, it came in ha-"

"No, they put you in sacks? That would have been some valuable information! Why didn't Thorin tell me?"

The dwarf sighed.

"Oh, yes, well, I haven't the slightest idea."

Arriah huffed. "Hey, Thorin!"

"Yes?"

She jumped and turned to her left, glaring in the direction the voice had come. She took a deep breath and smirked. "I told you so."

Thorin gave a grunt in response. "Fili, take Kili and look for the troll's cave."

"Alright, Kili-"

She pointed to her left. "It's that way."

Silence.

"In case you were wondering."

...

"What?"

...

Arriah huffed and crossed her arms.

"Show them."

Arriah sighed.

"Would it kill you to say please?"

"Now."

She turned and headed for her left, following the stench of troll. Two set's of footsteps quickly followed her.

"How do you know it's this way?"

"I can smell it."

"Oh."

Arriah shrugged and veered slightly to her right, before tripping over a rock. Luckily, she was caught. Two arms wrapped around her middle and she was steadied back onto her feet. The arms retreated.

"I hate rocks."

And she continued on, with more vigor than before. The scent became stronger, infact, now it was so overwhelming strong that she had to cover her nose as she continued. She took another step and fell forward. Once again she was saved by a pair of strong arms, only this time they retreated slower.

"You've stepped down into the cave."

Fili. Thank the Valar for Fili. He must have some sort of sixth sense that can tell when I'm about to plummet to my doom.

"Yes, well, here it is, in all it's smelly glory."

"Ah, I see that."

Arriah rolled her eyes. "Really, cause I don't. Look as bad as it smells?"

"Yep." Kili popped the 'p'.

"Gee, you've just painted a picture for me."

"I don't know how that would've helped. Considering you couldn't see that either."

Fili snickered from behind her. She elbowed him. Well, she hit something, and the following 'oof' made her smile deviously.

"Anyways, I'll go and grab the rest of the company. Try not to kill each other while I'm gone."

Arriah rolled her eyes as Kili walked away.

"Please, killing a lion would be easier."

Fili scoffed.

Silence.

"A lion? I've only read about those..."

Ah, small talk, my worst enemy.

"I've seen one before."

"Truly!?"

"Yes. It was male. Big as they come, with a golden mane of hair and bright blue eyes. It's is one of my favorite memories."

"...Form when you could still see?"

"Yes, I traveled a lot before. All over Middle Earth, in search of knowledge and adventure. Elves, dwarves, even dragons. That was one incredible encounter, and makes for a great story."

"Oh? Then, I must hear of this. Do tell?"

Arriah shook her head.

"Not now, later. But I have lot's of stories."

"I would love to hear them."

"Really? I might bore you."

"With tales filled with lions and dragons? I think not."

Arriah smiled. "Indeed."

"Fili!"

And the company arrives.

So, that was that. What did you think? R&R!