Anna sat on a fallen tree, fumbling with the fabric of her elf dress nervously. Even though she was in her dream world, the prospect of more orcs was unbearably terrifying. At least she was with Kili, he was a strong fighter, and she guessed he was reasonably familiar with life in the woods and among the forest. The lulling sound of birds tweeting gently in the early morning sent her body relaxing and she breathed a sigh of peace, breath floating from her lips to join the mysterious carpet of fog. Nothing had quite gone to plan yet; first it was spiders, then imprisonment, now she was in the woods with no clue of her friends' location. They could be slain by orc for all she knew, but she guessed not. Legolas was a skilled warrior and she sensed nothing of death yet. A lump forced its way up her throat and she began to tremble slightly, but held tears back. She flicked her hair around her shoulders and it fell around her head loosely, swishing in the breeze. It was as if she had just washed and brushed it, perfect. It must be the effect of the elvish clothing she thought, elves were always full of enchantment and most of their crafts contained some special touch of magic. Although it was past dawn, light was still dim, and dappled the ground in shadow through the canopy. Creatures scuttled and lurked in the thickets, she knew not what the trees concealed, but did not think of it, for fear of scaring herself. Arching her back she yawned, back aching from the root that had protruded from the ground where she slept and dug into her all night. She and Kili had set up a 'camp' of sorts, just a slightly barer section of forest. The ashes from the pit they had used for a small warming fire the evening before were beginning to blow away in the ever flowing fog, sweeping across the ground. From their whispered conversation earlier, she had discovered that somewhere in these woods, were the rest of 'the dwarves'. Kili had been a bit too ambitious of his navigating skills, and had gone ahead to for fun, but, as the reckless one, got 'slightly' cut off from the dwarves with him. He said he went off by himself a lot, they wouldn't be too worried, and he would turn up sooner or later. Anna sensed he was actually slightly uneasy by himself, without the reassurance of his kin. From his manner, Anna thought that he fancied himself quite the handsome prince and all, saving her from that orc pack, like rescuing a maiden in distress. Within the short period of time she had known him, she thought they had formed a reasonably familiar friendship together, joking and laughing. Anna felt herself blush slightly. She suddenly brightened up, hearing Kili's merry voice from the trees, and then he appeared, holding a small pheasant aloft like a trophy. He beamed, transforming his face from the 'mysterious good-looker 'to the 'cute and happy otter'. Anna couldn't help giggle at his childish delight. "I got one! I am so hungry!" He said, inspecting the pheasant with keen eyes. "How did you get it?" Anna asked him, but behind her pleased impressed expression she felt quite put off by the bird's limp body. "I put an arrow in it. Oh, we need a fire to cook it, do you mind getting some more wood?" He said, as he bent to gather a few rogue sticks from yesterday's wood pile. Anna kneeled and picked up smaller sticks, dry and thin for kindling, passing them to Kili. Soon they had found enough for a decent fire, and Kili lit it. The wood sprang to life, with flickering, glowing flames licking the twigs and branches. Kili blew into it, and the flames grew higher with each exhale of breath. Anna felt its heat rising, melting her chilled bones to a comfortable warming temperature. It crackled, and spat out sparks like fireworks, a steady but thin plume of smoke rising, then whipped away by the breeze. Seeing it burning well, Kili clapped his hands together, and picked up the dreaded pheasant again. He went to sit on the log beside Anna and brought out a sharp knife from his pocket. Anna shivered as he gutted it, but soon it was over. Carefully, with his rough strong hands he wrapped the tender pink flesh with thick green leaves, in packages and laid them on the bed of hot ashes after the fire had burnt all out. The embers were still glowing and very hot, but the flames had died. The edges of the leaves started to curl and steam, going slightly black, but did not burn or crumble. Anna watched tentatively, guessing this was a method of cooking meat. Despite the smoky pungency, an enticing smell began to waft toward her nose. She hadn't eaten anything for quite some time, and was looking forward to eating this. "MMM" Kili said. Anna yawned, and stretched out, tensing her body. She exhaled, calmly. Kili sat next to her tapping his fingers on his lap impatiently, as he watched their food cooking. "So, where do you come from? You don't seem too familiar with this world, do you?" Kili enquired, attempting to start a conversation. He was genuinely quite bemused about this girl, Anna, she definitely didn't know her way around, well neither did he to be fair. Anna paused to come up with an invented idea, she figured telling him about her falling from the sky would be a bit weird, but nothing came to mind. "Oh, uuurrrm, well, what happened is that, urm." She tried to think of something, but decided not to risk lying, she'd be 'mysterious'. "I'm a wanderer, I come from nowhere." "Well your obviously human right?" Kili said. "Yes, yes I am." Anna replied. "Then, why are you wearing elvish clothes?" Kili asked. "Oh, that's because I was given them, as a present." She said which was basically true, if you thought about it. "Thorin hates elves," Kili mumbled, "I'm not so sure about them myself." "Some of them are horrible, but I know some nice ones." She said thinking of Legolas and his selfless devotion to helping them. She smiled slightly, she was pretty sure Harriet and Legolas had something going on. "Yeah," Kili said; glancing at the bandage round Anna's arm he asked, "Hey, what's that? On your arm. Do you want me to have a look; I've got some healing herbs if you want?" Anna suddenly went tense, remembering Legolas' words to not let anyone see it, it must be concealed. "No! No, you can't, sorry, it's fine. I don't need anything. You can't look! I was told no one can see it, ok?!" Anna exclaimed. Kili went quiet, but was still curious. "Ok, ok, I was only asking." He joked. "Looks like its ready." He said, pointing vaguely at the fire. He bent down and picked up a chunk of meat with his hands, tossing it from hand to hand from the heat. Unwrapping the leaves, which crumbled away he gave it to Anna who wolfed it down hungrily. He did the same. 'It tasted good', Anna thought as she swallowed another. "Thanks Kili," She said in-between chews. "It's really nice." Kili nodded and licked his lips, they had eaten all of it now, and Anna felt full. "You know, we really should find your friends before dark. Are you sure they're here?" Said Kili to Anna. "They're somewhere." Anna replied. "I don't really know." Within half an hour they had dashed out the remains of the fire, and collected everything together before leaving to find anyone of Harriet, Legolas, Jem, Jemima, and the dwarves, preferably no orcs or spiders, but they were an occupational hazard. Before they left Kili handed Anna a weapon, a sharp curved blade about the length from her fingertips to elbow. It glinted as she held, and she marvelled at such craftsmanship, with its dark green opal at the centre of the hilt, and what seemed like patterns of gem stone in the shining metal. She felt stronger at arms, majestic even. They trudged through the day, into early hours of evening, but the forest stretched out before them never ending. They passed thickets of thorns, great oak trees, a flock of strange birds and deep sudden gouges in the ground plunging down to unknown depths. Even with the sun still bright above the treetops, the forest reeked of shadow and decay. There were seldom few flowers, all colour replaced with bramble and twining, strangling vines. There was no sign of any life, and Anna began to lose her last hope, despite Kili's constant reassuring and happy remarks. He seemed quite sure they'd be found soon, but Anna was not so. The sunshine turned to pale moonshine, glimmering through the silvery leaves. The air grew cold and biting. "I think, we really should stop now, it is night." Anna said, an owl hooting in the distance as if to prove her point. "Ah, so it is! Don't you love the peaceful night?" Kili sang happily. He never seemed to find anything negative. He pointed to a large hollow in a tree. "Let's rest here." He said, and then bet down examining the entrance to the hollow. "See!" He said excitedly, becoming for Anna to come and look too. The ground had clear defined footprints pressed into it, and inside the hollow were leaves, purposefully piled there by someone for warmth. The ground was turned up, by horse's hooves and everything here indicated someone had been here. Little did they know that this was the exact place Jem and Jemima had spent the previous night. "I bet your friends were here!" Kili exclaimed. "Can you see a path where they left?" Anna said, staring at a trail through the woods. "Yes, look, this is where they left." Kili said, pointing. "Buts it's far too dark to track them now, there are nasty creatures out at this hour. We will have to follow it in the morning, when the suns up." "I suppose that is best." Anna groaned. She climbed into the hollow, which was warmer and sheltering. "I will stay out here, keep a look out. You go to sleep."Kili said firmly. "Are you sure? I don't mind staying up, but yes, I am tired." Anna asked. "Go ahead and sleep." Kili said smiling. "Night then." Anna said. "Goodnight, sleep tight, don't let the tree maggots, bark weevils, and orc fleas bite." Kili said with a cheerful laugh, seeing Anna's expression. "What!? Orc fleas! Really?" Anna said. "I bet there are thousands crawling inside that tree." Kili said laughing mischievously. "Urgh, yuck, I won't get any sleep now I know about that." Anna grumbled. "Don't worry, I'm joking." Kili laughed. "Oh, well it was very convincing." Anna said, embarrassed. "Oh, look at the starlight" Kili breathed to himslef, gazing up and seeing the distant gleaming of stars through the leaves. "What was that?" Anna mumbled. "Oh, nothing, don't worry." Kili replied. Soon Anna fell into a deep sleep, breathing heavily. The hollow was reasonably warm, and peace came easier knowing they had found evidence of her friends. She turned over in her sleep, rustling the leaves. Kili still sat outside, thinking to himself. 'I bet Fili will laugh at me so hard because I got lost, again. And this girl is funny, she seems to have appeared from nowhere, and she knew quite a lot, even my name! But I've never seen her in my entire life! Oh yeah, and I'm burning to find out what's beneath that bandage round her arm. She was so protective over it, and told me nothing of it.' He carried on his vague thoughts, but the question of her so called mysterious 'wound' began to burn him up. Surely if he just took a quick look while she slept it wouldn't hurt. He finally made his mind up, whatever it was, he needed to find out. Well, he didn't need to, but he wanted to. She kept too many secrets, just finding out one couldn't hurt a fly, could it? No, it was fine. Being careful not disrupt twigs, which could potentially wake her from slumber, he went to the hollow and reached for her arm. It was limp and the fabric of the bandage reasonably loose. She stirred momentarily, sending his heart stopping and plunging, but she did not wake. He fumbled with the cloth and slipped it down her wrist revealing her once covered arm. Kili gasped as the moon lit it up, clearly to his eyes. His heart skipped a beat with shock. On her arm, carved deep into it laid the 'evil runes'. These runes were only put on creatures of darkness, created by evil. These were carved onto the arm as a warning for others, and a punishment for terrible crime. Only released prisoners, born of shadows or if they were murderers themselves, carried these runes upon them, and would wander aimlessly for the rest of their lives. He couldn't believe that this girl, who had seemed so innocent, was capable of such darkness. The runes said she was a creature whose only aim was to spread death, she must be disguised. His heart didn't want to, but he knew he must leave her alone, or risk his own life. She meant danger, but still, how could she be a killer? He stood, shaking slightly and fastened his pack on his back. Turning he strode away into the trees. Glancing back at her serene sleeping face, he shook his head. She was abandoned, alone. Anna awoke smiling, to the early morning rays. She poked her head out of the hollow expecting to see Kili's cheerful face but he was nowhere to be seen. His pack had disappeared too. She stood up outside and scanned around for him. Her heart sank as she looked down at her arm, un bandaged. He had seen it. Now she knew Legolas had good reason for telling her to cover it. Kili had seen it, and been driven away. She guessed it was a sign of evil. Forcing back hot tears she sunk to the ground. "What do I do?" She sobbed into her hands. How could she possibly stay alive without someone else with her? He had taken the blade with him as well. She had nothing. She was helpless.