Here's Chapter four guys! I don't think I've ever posted chapters so quickly after each other! When I read the story over as published I realize there are a lot of spelling mistakes; I'll keep an eye out for them more!

The Constellation - Thank you for your review! And I do think we'll have to reunite Erika with some of her possessions Sadly I don't think Wuuthrad will be returning to her; but she may also be reunited with some old friends. Thankfully Erika does have some Daedric Artifacts so she will be seeing some of her things again.

I'd like to say thank you to Cassiy, Creative Lunatic, Lucario117 and The Constellation for putting this on story alert!

And Cassiy, Creative Lunatic, The Constellation and TheRosesOnTheWall for adding the story to your favorites.

Erika read through the contract handed to her by Balin. Reading every detail, this was very unlike her, to think about what she was doing. Even after her capture by the Imperials, at the age of sixteen when she left the safety of Riverwood to Whiterun, she had been young and carried a sword not fitting for her. Did that stop her? Of course not. She'd been taught to handle weapons from Alvor, the village blacksmith; he'd taught her basic smithing and to handle was not from Riverwood; but since loosing her mother and being captured, to be beheaded, Erika spent some time there and Alvor had taken a liking to her. He'd tried to tel her she needed to plan things out but the sixteen year old was head strong and had a different way of doing things. Now she was in a different land with nothing but her Nightingale Armour about to set off on a quest to slay a beast, a dragon. Again. Erika was ready, this was what she'd been doing for the past six years of her life; killing dragons. But it made her shiver, Smaug. She guessed in this land he was the equivalent of Alduin. She sat with her back against the wall, reading through the contract as Bilbo did. Funeral arrangement? Erika wasn't sure where she was, really she'd been in Sovngarde before this. The Nordic afterlife, she was...already dead? No problems there then. She was reaching the middle of the contract, wanting to take every detail in when she saw Thorin lean towards Gandalf.

"Nor will I be held responsible for his fate."

For a moment Gandalf was speechless. "Agreed."

You may decide you won't be responsible for his fate, but I sure as hell will be. Bilbo had been nothing but a great host and a fierce friend. He had took her in and made her feel at home. Bilbo, reading the contract out loud came to the part of various injuries, if incineration could be classed as an injury. She heard one of the Dwarves speak,

"...Melt the skin off your bones in seconds."

"You okay laddie?"

"Yep." Bilbo leaned on his knees. "Just feeling a bit faint."

"Think furnace with wings!" Said the first voice.

"I need some air."

"...searing pain and in seconds you're nothing more then a pile of ash!"

Erika grimaced as she heard Bilbo fall to the ground and felt terribly sorry for him. Within seconds she felt a few pairs of eyes on her and knew they were waiting for the same reaction. Hope you've time to spare boys. Of course Erika wasn't going to faint! But how dare they! Poor Bilbo!

"Oh very helpful Bofur!" Gandalf said, moving around Erika to help the hobbit up.

"Do you have no shame?" Erika said to Dwarf, without looking up from the contract. "Scaring him like that? Yes, I can see you don't want Bilbo with you on your quest but there was no need for that."

"Sorry, lass?"

"Bilbo, allowed you into his house. He allowed you to take advantage of his hospitality. You've eaten his food, drank his ale and muddied his floors, without so much as a complaint from him. And you thank him, how? By scaring the little hobbit out of his wits' He's been kind to you, to all of you. He's even made it clear, he has no wish to join you." Erika looked up, finding all pairs of eyes, but Gandalf and obviously Bilbo, on her. "Why don't you learn a bit of respect?"

The Dwarves looked at her, dazed. It wasn't often anyone spoke to them like that; not Bofur, who was a friendly Dwarf. Balin smiled grimly at the lass, after looking around the company, nodding he spoke to her.

"We're sorry lass."

She smiled, he couldn't speak for everyone just himself. And Erika accepted that.

"Aye. Me too." Bofur said. "I didn't scare you did I?"

"No. Dragons sound all too rare in this Middle Earth, they are not where I'm from." Erika stood and walked to the table, she'd almost finished reading the contract, which she lay down on the table. She took the inkwell and quill by Thorin. "Dragons roam the skies of Skyrim as freely as birds. Think yourself lucky, Master Dwarf. You've the trouble of all but one, at home they plague the heavens."

Having no surname, Erika signed the contract as she would in Skyrim. Erika, Harbinger, Daughter of Morgina. Folding the contract up, she handed it stubbornly to Balin. She pushed her way out of the room of Dwarves to see how Bilbo was faring. As she did so her side grazed against Thorin, who had been watching her the entire time.

Indeed he had not met one like her. He watched as she bent down to pick up the contract dropped by the hobbit. Thorin followed her into the hallway seeking refuge on a bench to the side. She was unlike any he'd met; and he was unsure as to whether that was a good thing or not. A good thing perhaps, she could speak her mind to his men. Even to Dwalin, his nephews Fili and Kili wouldn't dare such a thing. And normally if spoken against Dwalin would not back down, Thorin thought about it. Dwalin hadn't backed down to her but stopped arguing, perhaps he felt the same respect to Erika as he did, perhaps they all did.

"She's a different one, eh laddie?"

Thorin smiled at his old friend, Balin walked out of the Dwarf filled room to the almost charming silence where Thorin sat, taking a seat by him. In his hand he had Erika's contract.

"She has a...determination."

"I'd have said stubbornness."Baling said, jokingly. "She'll fit right in."

"Not if she contradicts them again."

"They don't mind. Bofur really is sorry, he just doesn't fancy truly admitting it to her." The old Dwarf sat thinking for a moment. "We never expected that she'd know. I figured she may want to join us. you could see the spark in her eyes, as we'd lightly mention the quest before you arrived. I thought she'd merely be interested, but she wouldn't truly understand what she'd be getting herself into, but she does."

Thorin watched the old Dwarf.

"She knows the heartache. I asked Mister Baggins about her before when she took a step outside. She'd had many adventures for one so young. She lost her mother young, not to dragons, to a fever. Never knew her father. Mister Baggins told me she had told him of a group of warriors within Skyrim, the best of everyone and how she longed as a child to meet them."

"The Companions, Balin. She spoke of them to me already. She longed to meet them and became one of them."

"Leader of them in fact. Harbinger. Mister Baggins told me that she had explained to him that in her village, even when her mother was alive, she was no more then a bastard. And to sign your name as son or daughter to your mothers name was frowned upon; and yet she does it freely."

"Indeed, I do not see anyone scaring the girl into anything she does not want." Thorin got up, pacing the hallway, turning and looking at Balin. "She was not ashamed of her parentage."

"Aye, She..." Balin stopped short. Bilbo came out of one of the many doorways, and walked down the corridor to what Balin presumed was his bedroom. With the closing of a door, Balin and Thorin's former conversation was lost. "It seems we have lost our burglar. Probably for the best; the odds were always against us. After all, what are we? Merchants, miners, tinkers and toy makers. Hardly the stuff of legends."

"There are a few warriors among our ranks."

"Old warriors." Balin shook his white head.

"I would take each and every one of these Dwarves over an army from the Iron Hills. For when I called upon them, they answered. Loyalty. Honor. A willing heart. I can ask for no more then that."

"You don't have to do this." The old Dwarf stood. "You've done honorably by your people. You have built a new life for us in the blue mountains. A life of peace and plenty. A life that is worth more then all the gold in Erebor."

"From my grandfather to my father, this has come to me." Thorin held the key to Erebor up. "They dreamt of the day when the Dwarves of Erebor would reclaim their homeland. There is no choice Balin, not for me."

"Then we are with you laddie. We will see it done."

Balin patted Thorin on the arm and moved into one of the rooms; Thorin stood statue still, the key still help up in his hand. He came out of his small trance as small padded footsteps came closer, looking up he met the blue eyes of Erika. She stood, leaning against the doorway with her arms wrapped around her body, hugging herself, a sad smile on her lips. Thorin pocketed the key as she spoke.

"You have your wish," came her soft whisper. "Bilbo refuses to come. I hope such distaste will not be put upon I as I join your quest."

"Does as you're told, and no ill words will be inflected."

Thorin turned away from her, to follow Balin.

"I know its hurts. The village from which my mother was born...I watched it burnt to the grounds. I heard screams and roar of the beast; If I can help you slay this foul monster, then I shall. I shall do as you say."

Thorin continued into the room, with a barely audible "Thank you."

Erika stood where she was for a moment, as she heard a low hum emit from the room full of Dwarves, quietly she made her way in. She found Gandalf sat to the side, smoking his pipe, a troubled expressed lay upon his old face. Sitting by him, she listened to the song of the Dwarves. It was a song of their home, of their loss and the beast; and to Erika it almost sounded like a lullaby, a haunting lullaby. She watched as they all joined in their song, and she closed her eyes. She could picture the terror of which they sang,it didn't matter how different the dragon, how different the people...the destruction, the pain, the death. It was always the same.

How'd you guys like that?

They'll be starting their quest next chapter!