As she approaches Erebor, she remembers the splendor that it used to be. The guards in ceremonial armour, the flags, the merchant caravans. But now there is only ash and ruin and rumble and the overwhelming atmosphere that seems to breathe death. She does not waste time looking for a hidden door, as she has no clue where it might be and no key to open it. The only other way in is through the broken down front gate, and that is the way she takes. She has heard Thorin say that the Arkenstone has to be in the treasure room, so that is where she goes.
She sees it immediately, it shines bright amongst the thousands other pieces of gold, jewelry and what not, almost pulsating light to it's surroundings. She walks towards it, but she notices that the piles of gold begin to shift, and she starts to run. As she puts the Arkenstone in her pocket, thinking that this was so much easier than tought, she notices a rather large eye under the gold. An eye that blinks and looks at her. A dragon's eye. She starts to run to the nearest exit, the dragon screaching and screaming about theft and the people of Laketown and Thorin. She feels her leg hurting from something, but she doesn't stop. As she sees the main entrance again, she hears the dragon breaking through the walls and she knows she will have no chance out in the open. So she hides.
The dragon is stumping around, still screaching and screaming. Threatening to attack Laketown. But she doesn't care and doesn't come out of hiding. Finally, the dragon barges through the main entrance and flies of to Laketown. She sees the beast setting fire to the small city, and she can smell his revenge. But then he falls, and keeps falling to never get up again. She sighs, and as the adrenaline starts to get out of her blood, she starts to notice the horrible pain on her right leg. She looks at it, and notice there is a gash going as deep as the bone.
She puts the Arkenstone in the middle of the entrance hall on the floor, knowing the company will find it when they get there, puts on her cloak and stumbles out of Erebor, trying to climb up the mountain to try to find a safe place where she can take care of her leg. She sees a large tower, and climbs up the stairs. She is actually crying now; the pain is almost too much to bear. But she knows she has to take care of the wound, otherwise she will have to rely on someone else to take care of it for her, and she really doesn't want to rely on the dwarves that will be walking into Erebor soon. She puts some ointment on it, bandages it as well as she can and puts on a fresh pair of pants.
At dusk, she does indeed see the dwarves enter Erebor, and she falls asleep knowing she has done her job and kept her word.
The next morning she is awoken by footsteps in the tower, and quickly she hides in the little attick in the pointed roof of the tower, gritting her teeth so she doesn't scream out in pain. But a little later she sees it was well worth it; orcs have taken up residence in the tower. She starts to panic; how will she ever get out of here?!
The next two days she stays in the attick, unable to leave. The little hunger and thirst she has, she can still with the bread and water from her pack. But on the third day, something interesting happens. She has already seen two people to the entrance of Erebor, which the darves had immediately fortified, but now an army of men and elves gathered at the gates, soon followed by an army of dwarves at the high end of the valley. They are about to clash, when the mountain starts rumbling, and an army of orcs starts marching to Erebor.
Men, dwarves and elves have rallied against the orcs, but strangely enough she doesn't see Thorin or the company coming out of Erebor. Instead, they remain at the barricades. Then, they leave for a while and when they return, they break the fortified entrance open and join their brothers in the fight.
She sees Thorin, Fili, Kili and Dwalin coming in her direction, Kili and Fili walking in to the guard tower. She wants to yell at them to leave, but she can do nothing without exposing herself. She hears sounds of a skirmish, and then Fili is dragged up the landing of the guard tower, just below her, by a giant, pale, orc. The orc starts screaming to Thorin and Dwalin, who have been looking intensely at the guard tower. He holds Fili by his hair and puts the blade that is somehow attached to his left arm to Fili's back.
"Here ends your filthy bloodline!" the orcs screams at Thorin, and she knows she has to act now. She jumps out of the attick, moaning in pain as she lands on her leg, and stabs the smaller orc that was with the pale one. The pale one now turns around, utterly shocked to see her.
"Don't you know orc, death comes to all of us and all bloodlines end. But yours first!" she says with an undertone of amusement in her voice
As he had not let go of Fili yet, it is easy to stab the orc in his belly, the soft flesh quickly giving in to her sharp blade. For good measures she also stabs his heart, and he falls to his knees, causing Fili to almost be pushed over the edge of the guard tower. She tries to grab him, but only succeeds to get hold of his hair and part of his collar. For a moment she struggles, unable to put enough weight on her leg to pull Fili up, anxiously watched by Thorin, Kili and Dwalin. But then Fili's foot finds bearing, and in a joint effort he gets on the landing again.
She wastes no time in regaining her breath or talking to Fili, as the only thing she wants is to get out of here before she will have to face Thorin. Unfortunately for her, the pale one wasn't the only orc in the guard tower, and many are running up the stairs, including one as big as the pale one. She has the advantage of standing higher than them, but soon she realises that she will not be able to prevail. But then Fili comes to stand next to her and she sees Thorin, Dwalin and Kili attacking the orcs at the bottom of the stairs. After what feels like hours, there is nothing left between Thorin and Emma than dead orcs. She is panting, leaning with her hands on her knees, and Thorin is walking over to her. Well, trying to climb over orc corpses to reach her, to be more precise. She watches his exertions with growing horror, and before he can reach her, she half runs, half slides down the stairs, ducking under his arm and almost knocking over Dwalin. She keeps running untill she finds her horse, jumps on and presses her heels in it's flanks. As the animal runs past the battle field, she sees the death, gore, pain and hopelesness, but also the Rivendell elves that have come and aid the already present armies, and somehow she feels like she can breathe again.
The feeling freedom does not last long however, as she starts to notice the pain in her leg ever more. After two hours, she is not able to go on and she stops and stumbles into some bushes. She desperantly wants to sleep, forget about Thorin, forget about her leg, but she knows it is too dangerous. So she just slumbers a bit, trying not to feel the pain, the cold or her rumbling stomach. As she is quietly cursing herself for forgetting her pack and her cloak, she hears someone discretey scraping their throat. She jumps up, sword in hand, but she doesn't see anyone. Untill Thorin comes out from behind a three.
"You really shouldn't be traveling alone, you know. Who knows what may roam these lands."
"Like you? What are you doing here?!"
"I am here to invite you back to Erebor. Did you really want to run off without getting any of the honour, or your reward for that matter?"
"I have kept to the terms of the contract. If you wish you can send me my reward, or you don't, I don't care either way. But what you don't do, is talk to me, or follow me, or ever try to contact me."
She glances over him from his face to his toes and back up with a look full of contempt and gets back on her horse, leaving Thorin to stand there, again.