Bofur won the race much to Lori's chagrin. She was winded and muddied but Hopscotch was much worse for wear, foaming with sweat and drool and shaking on his legs. The poor pony had given it his all but hadn't quite been able to match the larger mountain pony.

"It's okay, easy boy…" Lori patted him gently on the neck and hopped off to give him a break.

Not until then did she notice the stunned silence that pervaded the entire company, who all looked at them as if they were wraiths coming to steal their souls. The dwarves were scattered on rocks or below trees and had started eating lunch when the rambunctious two had come racing up the uneven and rock-strewn road.

In a circle by a cliff wall, all the ponies were gathered and at the late and wild arrival of their herd mates they were in a tizzy, not knowing whether to panic and stampede, or simply nay a welcome to their friends and Fili and Kili had their troubles subduing them.

Thorin had jumped up at the sound of galloping hooves and pulled out his sword. He came running at Bofur and shouted, "What is it? What is the matter?"

"This one fights dirty, tha's what's the matter," Bofur pointed a thumb back at Lori.

Lori merely scowled at him, a bit sore from her loss and not wanting to get into another fight with Thorin.

"What?" Thorin asked again.

"Aye. A real cheater. I wouldn't play cards with her, that's for sure." He looked as if the tall leader of the company wasn't armed and furiously glaring down at him as Bofur proceeded to unpack what he was going to eat for lunch and started to pull the saddle off his panting pony.

"What?" Thorin bellowed.

Hopscotch jumped and started to back away from the angry dwarf and Lori grabbed the reins to calm him down. "It's okay, shh… He's not going to hurt you." She whispered at his muzzle, effectively steadying the frightened animal.

"Do you really need to shout?" She asked. "We were just racing for goodness sakes." Bofur cringed as Thorin shifted his focus to glare incredulously at her.

He walked over to her and leaned over her, entirely intimidating and close enough that she could sense the smell of his leathers, the salt on his skin and the bread on his breath. Her meager height and the slight terrain difference made him tower over her by four inches, making her look up into his thunderous face.

Ever so slowly, as if trying to control the power of his anger, his large hands closed in an iron grip around her upper arms and he bent to look her in the eyes. The fire there was a very dangerous one, Lori knew for certain, but still she couldn't look away. She felt her breath lodge itself in her lungs and her heart beat faster as if telling her to run as fast as she could.

"You forget yourself, woman." He snarled so lowly that nobody but she could hear him. "If you wish to continue travelling along side with us you will never again question me like that, is that clear?"

She realized her mistake. To speak against him in front of his men was to challenge his authority, something that would not be tolerated whilst on a quest of this magnitude. He was a King. A leader of his people who had led them safely from Erebor to the Blue Mountains – a distance reaching across Middle Earth – Where he had built their new lives from nothing. This was a king, who had been exiled for the folly of his forbearers and suffered humiliation and defeat too many times over. A true leader and a great authority to his few but loyal men, and she had challenged that. She had neglected to recognize this one bit of power he had left and felt foolish for it.

"I- I truly apologize, your Majesty. It was not my intention and it won't happen again." Her breath fluttered back and she saw the fire in his eyes lessen to an expression that spoke of regret and almost longing.

His eyes searched her face for any trace of deceit or falseness but found none. He softened his grip but didn't release her yet. "You understand why I cannot let this go? Why I must address this?"

"I do." She spoke in a low tone that never travelled beyond the two of them. "I undermined your authority by arguing with you among the men. I still don't think your anger matched the crime, but I should have brought my concerns to you in private." She looked up at him timidly.

"Again, I apologize and understand if you need to reprimand me to prove your point to the men." Her eyes, now caught in the cerulean of his, discovered the wonder he felt as he recognized her strategic mind.

"How do you know all this?" he whispered. "Who are you?"

A slight worry formed in her stomach at the inquiry about her identity. "Isildur of Gondor wrote many journals on the dynamics of army life and warfare. I have read most of them over the course of the last five years. It is a privilege granted to me as the apprentice of Mithrandir, Sire." It was a slight deflection, but it was well hidden in truths.

The answer drew him closer to try to see what he was missing, and he all but fell into the spell of the violet tones in her eyes speckled with crystalline amethyst. Her shuddering breath drew his gaze to her soft pink lips that tempted him to touch and taste.

Suddenly, he pushed her back at arm's length, blinked hard, shook his head and sucked in a deep breath before he dared to look at her again.

"Why is it that every time I ask you something I feel as if you become a deeper mystery to me, woman?" She smiled gently and began to relax slightly, a change that he felt acutely through the contact of his hands on her.

"You just need to get to know me, Thorin, like you know everyone else here. You'll feel more at ease then."

"I do not need you to coddle me." He growled abruptly as a frown drew his brows down once more.

"No, but it would seem you could use my guidance in how to treat me," she hissed sharply. "And while on the subject of coddling, the feeling is mutual!"An angry blush crept over her nose and cheeks.

"So you say," He conceded reluctantly. "And if that is the case, your insubordination will have to be punished as if you were anyone else."

"You can't punish me… I'm not actually in your company." She explained.

"Make up your mind! Either you travel with us and you follow my rules, or you leave. Even Gandalf knows better than to cause discord within the group."

"I admitted I made a mistake, but…"

"Not publicly."

"What will you have me do? Fall to my hands and knees before you and… kiss your boots? Or maybe you mean to put me over your knee and give me a spanking? 'Cause I can tell you right now that's not going to happen!"

A furious blush spread under Thorin's beard and she was taken aback at its appearance. "What did I say?"

"Look…" He pinched the bridge of his nose. "I can't just keep you on double guard or latrine duty as I would any other who transgress…"

"Why not?" she put her hands in her sides and straightened up, making her body arch a bit towards him and he immediately let go completely and stepped back further.

"Let's not start that again." Thorin glanced pointedly at her and then spoke louder so everyone could hear him, "For the rest of the week, you'll ride last and it'll be your duty to collect whatever herbs or spices you find along the way that we can use. Is that clear?"

"Yes sir," She answered, not wanting to repeat her mistake.

Thorin leaned in close and whispered, "I'll be on guard after supper, come find me then and we can talk. Maybe we can find a solution to this mess."

His hair caressed her cheeks and neck and she suddenly felt tempted to bury her face and take comfort in the warmth and scent of male that was Thorin, which made absolutely no sense to her since he had antagonized her from the beginning.

"Herbs and spices? You went from latrines to flowers?" She whispered jokingly.

"Consider yourself very, very lucky." His voice held a smile and his breath on her ear sent a shiver down her spine.

As he leaned back again, he caught her secret smirk. His features kept their austerity, but a slight humorous sparkle in his eye caught the light and Lori knew they had come to an understanding for the first time.

..o00O00o..

After lunch she fell back as ordered and rode behind the dwarves. She realized how it could be considered a punishment in combination with her task of finding usable plants, as she often fell behind and couldn't follow conversation with the others. It was a form of isolation.

Lori took to her task with vigor, because even though she knew how it might prevent her from a speedy integration with the dwarves on a friendly level, it would benefit her in the sense that they would accept her as a 'legal' member if she received her task and punishment from their leader.

She spotted basil leaves along the road and dismounted to collect it. A few yards into the forest there were sorrel and lemon grass which would certainly be a treat in the stew for supper. Then she spotted kingsfoil and a willow tree for healing, carrots and ginger, black pepper, almonds and on she went, away from the road and her pony. Eventually she made her way back towards Hopscotch though, and that's when she heard it.

The snarling growl of a wolf behind her, closely followed by its pack mates who were spreading out into a half circle.

There were six of them, large but ragged and skinny looking and all of them drooling at her scent. From what she could see they had not eaten well for a long time and she wondered where they'd come from for a brief moment. If they lived in these woods, there should have been plenty of game for them to be in better condition than they were.

But this was not the time for theories and distractions.

The leader of the pack snarled very loudly, and to her great desperation she heard Hopscotch whinny and take off up the road. She cursed under her breath. Now she had no escape, even if she somehow had managed to get back to where she'd left him.

Her hands found two throwing knives on her thighs and she slowly positioned herself so she didn't startle the wolves into action.

"I know you're hungry, and you think I'll taste good, but trust me friends. You don't want to do this…" She beckoned to the animals who were each as tall as herself and probably heavier. "I will not go down without a fight, and some of you may even lose your lives in this gamble."

She hoped against hope that her natural way with animals might dissuade them from killing her, but it was futile in the face of their hunger.

Three more seconds crept by and the leader took another step towards her before she whipped her arm at him and lodged a knife deeply into his brain through his eye.

The rest of them jerked as they saw him fall dead to the ground, twitching before going still.

"I warned him." Lori said. "And I tell the rest of you as well. Leave now and go find easier prey." Another throwing knife was unsheathed as she spoke softly, trying to exude more bravado than she felt.

A grey she-wolf was the first to snap her attention back to Lori and she did so with a vicious growl. Apparently she was next in command and just as hungry as the leader, because she wasted no time trying to close the gap between the two-legged female and herself. She fell three yards in front of Lori with a knife in her shoulder, howling and screaming in pain. It wasn't a fatal hit, but she was no longer able to get up.

The remaining four wolves tried to flank Lori, effectively dividing her attention between them making it a very dangerous situation for her. She had no way of knowing which ones would strike first, and this way the wolves could have eye contact to communicate across the field.

Lori quickly threw another knife at a younger looking wolf with slightly more meat on its bones than the rest, but the throw went wide and the animal danced sideways, escaping the knife's trajectory.

They started circling her in opposite directions so she had no way of following all their movements. Slowly the circle got smaller as they advanced on her position in jerky moves, making them hard to hit. As she took aim on a brown wolf, one of the others barked behind her and made her swirl to watch her back. Sweat was trickling down her back and her entire body was tense, every sense alert and the rushing roar of adrenaline filled her ears.

"Come on then, test your fangs against my blades, you cowards," she hissed. "Four against one, and it's still not good enough odds for you?" This would not end well for her, she knew.

There was a sudden hiss in the air followed by a deep 'thunk' as an arrow imbedded itself in the brown wolf's ribcage. It yelped, screamed and writhed in agony until another one euthanized it. Lori only just saw Kili a good way up on a hill before all three of the remaining wolves moved to attacked her.

"Lori!" She heard someone shouting as jaws of gleaming canines came rushing at her. She quickly ducked and the attacker flew over her and landed on the other side, twisting back towards her as quick as lightning. She gave the animal a swift roundabout kick to the head and rolled in the opposite direction to get some distance.

She pulled out her sai and was immediately tackled from the side by a red blur of claws and fur. Her pauldron took the brunt of the attack but she was knocked off her balance and landed beneath the behemoth of a beast. Both sai were swiftly pushed upwards into the heart of the wolf, but not before the wolf landed a wicked bite to the junction between Lori's shoulder and neck.

She screamed in pain and stabbed it desperately until it went limp and released its jaws. Her arms shook as she pushed it off her, but she needed to get to her feet quickly before she was killed.

As she became vertical she found herself looking at Fili who had his dual blades out and came rushing towards her with terror written all over his face.

"Lori! Are you hurt? We found your pony." His eyes went wider at seeing the blood on her neck and he completely overlooked the wolf who now aimed its attack at him.

"Look out!" She shouted as she threw one of her sai at the wolf in reflex. It imbedded itself in the animal's neck and threw it off-balance enough to give her time to jump on it and sever its carotid arteries with one of her remaining blades.

The last wolf sprang at Fili in desperation, but the combination of another arrow from his brother and a severed throat from his swords made quick work of the attack.

Lori marched over to Fili and grabbed his sword out of his hand, continuing past him to the wounded she-wolf, who now lay whimpering in pain, bleeding out slowly. She approached it from behind and wasted no time in stabbing it in the heart, releasing it from the agony of a slow death.

Then she collected all of her knives and her bag of herbs and took the sword back to the flabbergasted Fili.

"Thanks." She said. "I need healing. Let's catch up to the others." She tried to put pressure on her wound but it was difficult to manage.

Fili started to frantically fumble with his armor. "I can bandage it with my shirt…" He started.

"No, it's not that bad," Lori stopped him. "Let's just hurry back so Oin can have a look, ok?"

Kili came sprinting down the hill as fast as a rolling boulder, shouting. "Lori! Fili! Are you alright?"

"Lori's hurt and we need to get her back to the others," Fili stated.

"I'm injured, Fili, not dying. Calm down." At the look on Kili's face you'd have thought she just told him the opposite, so evident was the fear in his eyes.

"Oh no." He said as he grabbed her around the waist and started pulling her back up the hill at a hectic pace, Fili right behind them.

"I can run myself, Kili!" She shouted.

"Of course you can," he panted. "I'm just helping you run faster."

'Stubborn dwarves!' She thought as she was all but dragged back to the company at break-neck speed.

..o00O00o..

When night started to fall and the order came to make camp, Lori got a bit apprehensive about how to conduct herself, but luckily Kili and Fili brought her the canvas instead of building her shelter away from the rest of them. Kili had a big grin on his face when he handed her pegs and tent ropes.

"Here you go Lori, all yours." Fili smirked.

Lori didn't trust those grins. Not at all.

"What did you do?" She eyed them suspiciously. A number of thoughts crossed her mind; Weakening or fumbling the cords, painting the canvas or writing something on it, dousing it with something stinky or wrapping up a dead squirrel to scare her.

"You wound us! We didn't do anything." Kili put a hand mockingly over his heart.

"In fact, we didn't knock our uncle down a few pegs this afternoon."

"Nor did we start an argument in the middle of the company." Lori winced.

"And we certainly didn't make him all flustered,"

"and make him change his standing orders on how to treat our resident princess,"

"just by using our feminine wiles." Fili winked.

"We also didn't start a fist fight with a pack of wolves,"

"Slaying four of them single-handedly,"

"and saving poor Fili here in the process." Kili looked positively tragic.

"Hey, I had it in hand."

"Didn't look like it…"

"Hrmf… I guess I do owe you thanks, Lori, for killing that wolf… I'm ashamed to admit I hadn't seen it." The blond brother said in earnest.

"Yes, but you did come to the fair maiden's rescue in return, so I think the debt is settled, don't you brother?" He heartily slapped Fili on the shoulder.

"Thanks, Kili. That's very kind of you." Fili smiled self-satisfied.

Lori just stared at them in disbelief, then swiftly turned around and left their silliness without a word, much to their amusement.

She went to find a good spot for the bivouac. Thankfully the brothers let her be for the moment, although she had the impression they were not done teasing her. But there were worse things in the world. Actually, being teased by those two was kind of their initiation into the group, she suspected. After all, they had nearly scared Bilbo into wetting himself last night, just to test his mettle and have a bit of fun at his expense.

A while later after she'd finished her meal and collected some wood for her fire, Thorin got up and started up the hill to the cliff overlooking the camp. He caught her eyes just as he left the firelight and she knew he wanted her to follow him.

Drawing a sigh, she hoisted up the wood and started the short climb from her side of the camp, trying to muster courage and energy for yet another challenge on this long day.

She found him sitting in the dark with his back to a rock among the low brush and thought it somehow funny that the rock camouflaged him better than the vegetation. King of the mountain indeed.

"Come, sit." He invited.

She moved closer, cleared a patch in the grass and built a small campfire of her branches and twigs, using dry grass as kindling. Then she remembered that her flint and fire steel were in her pack by the tent.

Her nerves were raw from the day when she closed her eyes and tried to reach the magic in her core to start the flames of the fire with her hands, but slowly she eased into it.

"What are you doing?" Thorin suddenly asked.

She startled a bit at his voice, and a lively flame erupted between her hands, easily starting to feed off the kindling. "Yes!" She exclaimed happily. For once, nobody had their eyebrows singed at her experimentations.

Thorin had a look of pure shock on his face when she beamed at him. "I've never been able to do that before… At least not that controlled." She explained in excitement.

"You're a witch?" He asked incredulously.

Lori's face fell into a deep frown. "No! I don't do dark magic or poisons. Nor do I use magic to do harm… If you need a class for my meager powers, I'm a sorceress I suppose… Elemental skills, mostly… Though I'm not very powerful, at all…" Her voice trailed off and she wondered if it had been a mistake showing Thorin her talent when he didn't respond.

"I see… Wizard's apprentice, indeed." Was all he said.

They sat in comfortable silence for a little while as Lori tended to the fire.

"How are your wounds?" Thorin asked.

"Sore. But not too bad, Oin cleaned and treated them so infection should be held off… luckily, my collarbone and shoulder blade caught the teeth so it's not too deep."

"Good. It could easily have been fatal."

"I know." A shiver of fear trickled down her back. "I was lucky your nephews came for me."

A smile warmed his face, "They were falling behind all afternoon. Not something I have noticed them do before…"

"I see…" For once she was grateful for the chivalry of dwarves.

"You've set up your tent?"

Lori's back stiffened. "Yes I have."

"In our camp, I see?"

"Yes."

The silence stretched on as Thorin stared into the flames, his elbows resting on his knees and his hands loosely clasped.

"So be it. But if you need to bathe or wash, let me know and I'll arrange for more private settings."

She sat cross-legged next to him and suddenly found her fingers immensely interesting. "I know… Bofur told me."

"Told you what?" He turned his eyes on her.

"That I'd not been as hidden yesterday as I thought… I apologize if I made you uncomfortable."

He stared at her for a few seconds, taking in her delicate features, small nose and large, expressive eyes, The slenderness of her neck, now ending in thick bandages. The braids that all of her platinum blonde hair was tied into were coming slightly undone and the long day had painted her cheeks red with fatigue. He found her breathtaking and wild to behold, and there was a strange tugging in his stomach at the thought that Bofur might have seen her last night as well.

She felt him watching her, but still kept looking at her hands.

"No matter." He finally said. "We dwarves have always appreciated things of beauty and I'll certainly not hold yours against you."

She looked at him, slightly puzzled. "So you were not offended?"

A smirk spread on his lips and he looked pointedly at her. "No. I knew you were unaware of the view you presented."

"Then why were you… No, you know what, never mind. Let's just forget it."

"Very well." '- As if I could', he thought.

They spent the rest of his watch sitting comfortably by the fire, enjoying their truce and relaxing. Lori started to nod off as Thorin put a hand on her back, saying it was time to go to bed. Drowsily she made her way down to her tent escorted by the dwarf king.

"Goodnight Lori. Sleep well." He bowed slightly and gave her a gentle smile.

"Goodnight Thorin. Sweet dreams." She returned the smile and ducked under the canvas.

They didn't see Balin's sharp old eyes watching them, or Fili and Kili's shared look.

..o00O00o..

THANK YOU, to everyone who reviewed and PM'ed me. And to my wonderful Beta Karen, whom this chapter would never have been written without. It was a bit of a struggle, so I hope you liked it.

Please let me know what you thought, good, bad, corrections or questions.