I'm back! Sorry for the delay. I've been a bit busy trying to get caught up on all nine seasons of Supernatural, which I did by the way, and I've been watching season 10. So um...this chapter...yeah. Remember when I said, waayyy back in chapter 2, that Merry and Pippin would be in this as twins? Well, here they are! This story had run away from me, but now I have it back under control. So, I'd say there are going to be a few more chapters, but I promise it'll be NO MORE than ten. Okay, onward!

Rated-T

Warnings

Abuse/torture

Some OOC-ness maybe

I might not get all of their talking entirely accurate so please bear with me

MAJOR AU

DON'T LIKE, DON'T READ!

Things you need to know

"Ereborians speaking in Khuzdul"

Disclaimer-I don't own the Hobbit or How To Train Your Dragon.

Here We Stand United

Chapter 17

When Nori came to, he glanced around, shaking his head with a quiet groan of pain. He brought his hand to his forehead and was surprised to see it was covered in muck. Alarm bells immediately rang in his head, and the thief quickly took stock of his surroundings. Mountains of trash containing rotten food and splintered wood surrounded him. He'd landed in a garbage pile. Wonderful. "Gross," Nori complained, slowly dragging himself to his feet, shaking the trash from his shoulders and wanting nothing more than to scrub the indeterminate something from the back of his hands.

Before he had time to further analyze the situation, he heard footsteps approaching. Years of ducking and dodging the law after committing some illegal crime had him instinctively looking for an escape route. He found his route in the form of a rickety wooden patio in the nearest building. With all the silence of a professional thief, Nori stole across the short expanse of ground, swinging up to the patio, smiling smugly when he discovered the door was not locked. He winced at the squeak that escaped the door as he swung it open and slipped inside, slowly and silently closing the door behind him until only a tiny unnoticeable sliver remained open so that he could see what was going on and maybe pick up a few words of what was being said.

"I swore I saw someone land over here!" he heard a voice complain rather loudly. Then two soldiers came into view. One had a look of dismay on his face while the other was scowling fiercely. The younger one continued to frantically search the area Nori had recently vacated. "Look, see the imprint in the trash, someone was here!" the younger soldier insisted, and the elder just rolled his eyes.

"Aye, lad, probably someone was lying down to sleep. Come on, we've caught the one lad who was on the dragon, and the Nightmare has been caged. Let's head back. Our shift guarding the prisoners is about to start." Then the two guards quickly left the area and Nori waited a few moments before sliding back out of the house and quietly tailed the guards. He knew they were talking about his brother, and once he got Ori back they would find the Monstrous Nightmare the Vikings had given him and get to Erebor. He was anxious about his friends being in the mountain with a dragon; he couldn't know what was going on, and that bothered him. At this point it was quite clear Thorin had moved the Company along, and Nori was determined to get to his friends and family.

The people of Lake-Town were starving and scared, which made them unobservant. No one noticed a shadow of a man slide past them, too content to keep their heads down and stay absorbed only in their own lives. It was kind of sad, but Nori didn't allow himself to dwell on it, nor pity the people, for they had thrown the Ereborians aside and blamed them for the coming of Smaug. It made his blood burn, knowing so many people had wandered lost and starving and homeless. It was also that time when Dwalin and Bofur grew close, and his chances were ruined before he even knew it. If Lake-Town had offered shelter...

The past was the past, though, and Nori tried not to dwell on it. Bofur was happy and that was all that mattered. He'd seen how Dwalin acted towards her; he was good for her. He'd never get over it, of that Nori was certain, but he could be happy for her. Nori found he had to physically shake himself to return to reality. Eyes narrowed, he rounded a final corner, and smirked. The soldiers had led him right to the prison.

The thief ducked further into the shadows and watched as the guards he had followed swapped positions with the two already there. The other two guards disappeared, and the first two guards took up positions standing at attention in front of the door. Nori studied the prison. It was a squat building, made of dull, gray weathered stone and high, unbarred open windows that, for anyone else, would have been impossible to access. Not for him. Taking a moment to pull his hood over his hair, Nori strode out of the shadows, head ducked as he moved past the guards. They didn't even glance twice at him, paying more attention to each other as they argued. Nori slipped past the front door of the prison without any trouble, disappearing from their sight around the side of the building.

Glancing around, Nori studied his surroundings. As far as he could tell, the side of the prison was a large blind spot. A devious smirk stole across his face when he spotted the nearby crates, conveniently under a window. If he took a running start, he could leap up to the window and haul himself in. With a final glance around, Nori took a few steps back, and then dashed towards the low crates, keeping his footsteps light and springing from the crates as though they were tension boards. There was a brief moment where it felt like he was flying, his stomach left behind on his takeoff, and then he felt stone against his palm.

His reaction time was impeccable as he quickly grasped the ledge under his hands. Briefly, he hung there, and then gathered his feet under him, bracing them against the stone wall and hauling himself up over the ledge. He didn't waste time perched on the ledge, simply dropping into the building, crouching into the shadows. Luck was on his side, as there was no one in the immediate vicinity when he entered the prison. That was the one thing that had given him slight pause. Now it was no issue as he stole through the hallways, dodging the occasional guard and steadily searching for his little brother. Finally, he found Ori, in a back hall sitting across from a man Nori faintly remembered.

"Nori!" Ori exclaimed, standing abruptly from the cot in his cell and beaming at his older brother. Nori smirked and withdrew his lock picks. The door was a joke and Nori had it opened in under a minute. Ori embraced his brother and the two quickly bashed foreheads in greeting.

"What, you think I was gonna leave ya here? Nah, Dori would skin me alive. Come on, let's get to Erebor," Nori said, and the two turned to leave, Ori beaming because, despite what Nori said, he knew his elder brother had come back because he loved his family. It was also why he was in a hurry to get to Erebor. The two got along like a house on fire, but at the end of the day, Dori and Nori were brothers and brothers looked out for each other.

"Nori of Ri. Finally, a name for a face, or should I say hairstyle. I'd always wondered who the Thief King was. You drove Girion half mad in his quest to capture you," the man who was in the cell across from Ori's spoke, and Nori froze. It had been a while since anyone, besides Bofur, but she said it in a joking manner, had called him the Thief King. The only person who had seen him was a teen, thirteen years ago, back when he was just becoming respected in the Underworld.

"Bard. You're Bard ain't you? Girion's lad. Whatever happen to your old man? Can't imagine the Lord in Dale throwing his son in a cell for any reason," Nori said lightly. There was a hint of alarm in his voice, though, as he now realized something was very, very wrong in Lake-Town. Worse than they'd originally thought.

"There's a new master in Lake-Town. He doesn't like me very much, nor does his weasel of a second. They like Ereborians even less than Girion did. Never thought that was possible," Bard snorted, and now the alarm was showing on Nori's face. Sure, Girion hadn't been a fan of Erebor, but at least he had been civil. If this new master hated the people of Erebor more than Girion did, they were in trouble deep.

"Here, Bard, if I let you out, you gonna help us?" Nori questioned skeptically, and Bard reluctantly agreed. Nori hesitated for a few more moments, before finally shrugging and accepting Bard's promise. He unlocked Bard's cell and stepped aside so Bard could join them in the hall. "Time to go. We're getting to that Nightmare and getting out of here," Nori stated quietly, gesturing for Bard and Ori to follow him but remain silent. They slid back out the prison the same way Nori entered with no trouble at all, and then quickly disappeared into the crowds.

The challenge came when trying to get to Nori's dragon. It wasn't too hard to find the pen, but Bard had quite bluntly informed Nori that most people in Lake-Town always insisted on putting the dragons to death. Nori's was the first dragon that had been captured in a long time and it would likely be put to death soon. Nori paled at that. They wouldn't be able to get to Erebor without that dragon!

"Excuse me."

"We couldn't help but overhear."

Nori, Ori, and Bard spun towards the two voices. Behind them stood two small children, wearing over-sized clothes and mischievous grins. They were covered in filth, but their eyes sparkled with light that seemed brighter than all the glittering gold in Erebor. If the three looked close enough, they could tell that the two boys had a mop of honey curls under all the layers of filth. Bard recognized the two after a moment.

"You two! Merry and Pippin!" he exclaimed, but he looked less than happy. Nori and Ori were puzzled, glancing between Bard and the two boys in bewilderment. At Bard's shout, the grin the boys sported seemed to stretch even farther across their faces, if that was at all possible.

"So you," one began.

"Do know us," the other finished. They looked undeniably pleased by this. "As we were saying," the second continued.

"We couldn't help but overhear," the first piped up again.

As one, the two chorused, "We can help you free your dragon."

*THIS IS A PAGE BREAK*

"Who decided it would be a good idea to listen to these two brats?" Nori grouched as they followed Merry and Pippin through a garbage dump. No one responded to Nori's bitching, irritating him even more by their silence. "They're just kids. How can we trust them? How do we know they're not leading us to our doom?" Nori asked, this time prompting a sigh from Ori and making Bard shift uncomfortably. Nori hated relying on others. The fact that Merry and Pippin were leading them somewhere and Nori wasn't in charge just drove the middle Ri brother absolutely crazy.

"Well I guess you'll just have to trust us," Merry said firmly, leaving no room for argument, and Pippin giggled at the look on Nori's face. Nori wasn't used to such a response as the one Merry had given him, and thus he looked as though he'd smelled something particularly foul. Although, that could just be because they were walking through a garbage dump. Even Ori would not hesitate to admit the smell was extremely unpleasant.

"We're almost there, I promise," Pippin piped up innocently, glancing over his shoulder at them with a grin. Ori couldn't help but be a little suspicious of that grin. It was a lot like the grin Fili and Kili would get when they were about to cause chaos and mayhem that ultimately led to a near-death experience at the hand of an enraged Dwalin before Thorin or Bilba would interfere to save their hides. But maybe he was just being a little paranoid. Merry and Pippin seemed like perfectly sweet, helpful young boys. There was no cause for alarm, no need to assume the worst.

"Right then. We're here," Merry stated as they came to a halt outside a small building that was within the garbage dump. "The Master keeps dragons here. He tries to tame them and use them to his own purposes. When that doesn't work, he slaughters them. Most people don't know this is here, because they don't go too far into the dump. They just leave their garbage at the edge," Merry explained. Ori was bewildered by the amount of knowledge Merry seemed to have of this area. The boy seemed a bit too mature for his age, and wasn't that a sad thought? Had he even had time to be a child, or had his life always been like this? Ori wanted to ask, but dare not, unsure how the twins would respond to his questioning.

"Let's get to it, then," Nori snarled, stalking forward and barely hesitating to bust down the door of the squat, ugly building. Ori jumped. That wasn't Nori's usual style, it was more like Dwalin's. Nori preferred to act subtly. Despite his better judgement, Ori hurried after his brother, calling a thanks over his shoulder to Merry and Pippin as he hurried into what was sure to be the lion's den.

Except it wasn't. There was no one within the little building, and a fuming Nori was releasing his Monstrous Nightmare from one of the cages. "Damn. Was hoping to beat up some people to blow off steam," Nori muttered to himself as he tugged the dragon from its cage. "Come on then, Ori. Off to Erebor we go," Nori continued, sounding a little better about it compared to facing an empty dragon jail. Nori led the dragon out of the building and Ori slowly followed, lost in thought. Something didn't add up. Why was there no one guarding this building? Even if no one ever came back here, shouldn't there be someone at least keeping an eye on the dragon. Ori got his answer when he walked back outside.

The building was surrounded by guards. Nori was furious, that much was obvious by his stance, and two guards had Bard by the arms. The man looked less than thrilled and clearly felt he should have slipped away from them before something like this happened. "Well done, boys. Flushed out the other Ereborian quickly. That's well worth a week of free food," a guard said to Merry and Pippin. Ori frowned at the twins. They were practically glowing with pride at the praise the guard offered them.

"See what I mean? This is why we shouldn't have trusted those little brats! I knew something was up! No one is that nice," Nori snarled. The Monstrous Nightmare echoed Nori's growl, but the dragon's was much more intimidating.

"Alright then, you two are coming with us," another guard spoke up, stepping forward. A low, ominous rumble stopped him in his tracks. Everyone turned to stare off into the night sky, eyes falling on the mountain, seeing the smoke rising from the peak and a small speck of light that was coming right towards Lake-Town, and moving rather fast. Nori paled as the guard stepped back and squeaked, "The dragon! Smaug the Terrible! He's coming! Warn the Master! We must get out of here!" Then the guards turned and fled, leaving them there in the garbage dump, staring with horror at the night sky and incoming disaster.

Ha! You guys don't get to know what happened in Erebor! I was going to keep writing until Smaug burned Lake-Town and Bard killed him, but I decided to cut this chapter off here. Also, since you all kind of know how Bard kills Smaug, I'll be leaving that part out of the story and switching back to Erebor next chapter. Also, next chapter, and pretty much all chapters after this one, will be told mainly through the Viking's eyes. And I'm not cutting some of this stuff because I'm lazy! It's because, as I said, you guys already know that part! No, but I was being lazy about updating. I didn't feel like logging on to post this chapter. I might have had it written for a while...oh well.

Review!