Disclaimer: I do not own the Hobbit

Hello everyone! Well, its been a hectic few days no question there. We've had builders in my pub since the 2 of January so of course I've had to be there every day since my boss just "happened" to take some time off at this precise moment. I haven't had a great deal of time to write this chapter, so it is unbelievably subpar. On the plus side though we found some great stuff while ripping down walls (turns out the building is a lot older than we thought, possibly Victorian, we've emailed the city council to see what they can dig up and are waiting for a reply). We found a dumbwaiter behind some kitchen cabinets and fixed it up, now we can send cheese sandwiches and cups of tea down to the bar whenever we want! My job just became about 20x more fun, and I was already convinced I have the best job in the world! Anyway, sorry to make everyone wait but I'm back now :)

A Tale of Dragonfire

"Missing home yet, little hobbit?" The question is sprung on Bilbo quite by surprise as they sit together by a fountain in the Last Homely House, listening to the others laugh around them. Kali is rubbing oil into the blade of the short sword Fili gave her, readying it for sharpening, and half listens to the frivolities with a smile on her face while Bilbo at first tries to deny her question, but in the face of her unwavering smile finally answers truthfully.

"Yes, I am" he returns her smile will a little, nervous one. "There's no use in denying it, is there?"

"Not really" she answers softly. "If it makes you feel any better tiny one, I too am feeling a yearning for home" he looks at her with surprise while she runs a sharpening stone up the blade with a smooth, curving motion.

"I thought Erebor was your home?" At this she laughs and pushes him gently.

"Just how old do you think I am, mister Baggins? The Lonely Mountain was lost over a century ago. I was born in the world of men, and know about as much about those great halls and mines as you do" Bilbo watches her for a while, wondering if she would talk again and whether he should perhaps he should learn to tend his little elven blade.

"No, perhaps in time Erebor will become a home for me," she continues eventually, when the blade is done "but for now there is a small house less than half a mile North from the East - West road, about an hours journey on foot East of Bree, where sweet herbs grow and there is always a fire lit. That is home"

Bilbo, ever curious about things he has not experienced (which, bless his kind soul, is most of life), encourages her to tell him more, of her home and the herbs she grows. Those stories of course lead on to tales of deer hunts and carp fishing and long winter nights racing against wolves to track wild boar and, eventually, so much he pushes her for details that even she, fond of story telling and enjoying the way he exclaims in all the right places (for hobbits love nothing more than a good tale and are well versed in how to listen to them), laughs and begs him to give her tongue a rest.

The little hobbit looks down at his feet, afraid that he may have annoyed her just as he thought he was making a friend within the company, and so dejected he looks that Kali can't help but ruffle the curls on his head and say "tell me now about your home, little friend". The little hobbit perks up immediately at this, and it becomes her turn to listen as he tells her about his little house and the things he plans to do when he returns to it. She smiles, nods and begins carefully tending to the arrows Fili gave her, checking them for damage and half listening to Bilbo, who doesn't seem to care so much whether she listens or not, as more than anything he just seems to desire to talk out loud with no-one mocking him.

A few of the two dozen have been distorted and swelled by water damage from the trolls' lair, and Kali carefully removes the useless wooden shafts, storing the metal heads in a side pocket of her pack to be repaired when she has time. So engrossed she is in her work that she doesn't notice when the hobbit stops talking and, once she is done, looks up with surprise to see the others quickly packing away to leave. She shrugs, sure someone will explain everything to her soon enough, and shoulders her pack, grabbing an apple from the nearby table for the journey.

The company makes their way quietly from the Secret Valley, heading towards the hostile peaks in the distance. Above the Misty Mountains a fierce storm is brewing but they push on regardless, reaching the moutain pass by early afternoon.

Bilbo is on edge and Kali too feels nervous, the lack of the wizard's calming presence weighing heavily on their minds, but both know better than to question the king, as the foul temper he has carried since the day before still permeates the air around him, dragging down with him the mood of the whole group.

By the time they reach the high and perilous path (Thorin was well aware of the rumours of goblin raids on the safer, more well used road and chose this route in accordance) the storm has hit with a force none of them have ever seen before. Kali is almost sure she sees great, lumbering shapes moving in the haze but dismisses them, instead concentrating on where she places her feet on the slippery rock.

Like this they push on, carefully and in complete silence, until a rock, unseen by any, barrels towards them through the heavy rain. Stricking the mountain with tremendous force, it completely destroys a section of the mountainside above, bringing debris raining down upon them. Kali jumps with shock, barely clinging to the sodden rock and the cries of the others confirm that what happened was no accident. The Stone Giants (which Kali and no doubt a few of the others thought of as only a legend) are doing battle, and the company has wandered straight into their path.

Beneath them their path trembles and cracks, simultaneously revealing itself to be the legs of another giant and splitting the group into two, Kali on the left with Thorin and a few others and the rest, including Fili and Bilbo, on the right. The great stone man lurches forward and, in the confusion and terror that follows, Kali finds herself clinging desperately to the king as her feet slip and her body lunges towards the deep crevasse below.

To Kali's immense surprise, once Thorin had swung her back onto the narrow shelf he begrudgingly allows her to continue to keep her hold on him, though in truth she would have been unable to loosen her grip in that moment even if he had forced her.

The giant, who has not noticed his tiny clingers-on, stumbles from a punch from his opponent which sends shock waves through his legs, shaking the group to their core, and as he does his left leg passes close enough to the nearby mountainside for Thorin, dragging a still firmly attached Kali behind him, and the others to race across to the relative safety of the hopefully not living pathway.

The other half of the group, those stranded on the giants right leg, fare less well as the giant rights himself and returns his foes blow with an earth shattering one of his own. Kali and the rest can only watch in horror as the giants exchange blow after blow, before another appears and, with the throw of another great rock, knocks the head from the shoulders of the giant that carries their friends. He stumbles, bending at his enormous craggy knees, and crashes forwards against the path ahead of them before falling down into the great canyon below.

The dwarves, Kali finally managing to release her grip on the king, rush forward, both desperate and unwilling to know the fate of their kinsmen. Up above, around a sharp outcrop of rock and to the relief of everyone, the others lie sprawled on a wide ledge at the mouth of a cave.

After a brief but joyous reunion one among them finally collects himself enough to notice that they are one short and a mad scramble finds Bilbo hanging from his finger tips, raw terror in his eyes, from the edge of the cliff. Kali presses herself against the wet rock, offering, as many others do, her hand to the hobbit, but despite their best efforts he remains just out of reach and she finds herself cursing the grey wizard for his absence, since he could have easily reached out and snatched up the hobbit from where he hangs.

Thorin, sick and tired as he probably is at this point of saving those he deems to be the "least useful" of his company, swings down over the edge and hurls Bilbo into the waiting hands above before allowing himself to be pulled up behind. There is rage in his eyes, and Kali remembers with shame the way she clung to him only moments before. His next words serve only to cut that shame deeper into her heart "they should never have come, either of them. They have no place amongst us."