Amelia took care to distance herself from Kili over the next few days. However, eventually it just became impossible. Not only did the close quarters they were all forced to keep with each other prevent her from pulling off such a distancing without being obvious about it, but Kili simply refused to leave her alone. He sat with her whenever he could at meals, ignoring his uncle's glares, and rode his pony alongside her throughout the day.
Amelia managed some brief reprieves, slinking into the forest where Kili's pony couldn't follow. When she finally returned to the company she usually had no more than ten minutes of walking in between Bifur and Bilbo before Kili returned to her side.
Bifur and Bilbo, who were rapidly becoming something near friends for Amelia, were being no help whatsoever. In fact, whenever Kili began to join them Bifur and Bilbo would exchange smiles and pull ahead, leaving Amelia along with the young dwarf.
He seemed to have given up on guessing her name for the time being, and was instead trying to learn more about the places she had been. For this task he had enlisted Ori's help, the two riding alongside Amelia throughout the day, Ori with his large book balanced precariously in his lap.
Amelia was happy to see that the cuts on her wrist and ankle were already healed the morning after the incident in Bree, and Kili had the good sense not to tell the others of the injuries. However, she still saw him glance worriedly towards her as she walked, and at night he seemed to be trying to get her to sit faster, thinking that she was still healing.
A few nights later, when it was again Amelia's turn to take one of the watches, he still joined her, unfazed by her estrangement the past days.
"How're your injuries?" he asked, sitting beside her.
"Fine," Amelia stated. She gazed out past the flickering flames of the campfire, feeling Kili watching her.
"You've been distant these past few days," Kili remarked.
Amelia didn't respond, and Kili sighed.
"I'm sorry if I upset you," he continued. "I just- I want to know more about you."
Amelia's eyebrow rose. "Why?" she asked.
Kili shrugged. "You're intriguing. Then, on top of that, you're a legend to Gandalf of all people, some hero he adores. We're all curious."
"You're the only one who bugs me incessantly," Amelia reminded him, ignoring the notion of herself being anyone's- especially Gandalf's- hero. "Either way, once this quest is finished you'll likely never see me again. There's not much point."
Kili frowned. "The point," he said, "Is that people get lonely. Even you."
Amelia's eyebrows rose. "You don't know that."
Kili smiled softly. "Yes I do."
Amelia sighed and stood to do her usual laps around the fire. Kili waited, watching her expectantly. When she finally sat again she sighed, finally meeting his eyes.
"Alright," she said. "Fine. We can talk. Just not about my past. Anything else."
Kili nodded, grinning. "Ok. So what do you want to talk about?"
Amelia shrugged. "I don't care. What about your past. There's got to be some funny stories there."
Kili nodded, a blush coloring his cheeks. "Yeah," he admitted.
He cleared his throat, then quickly chose a story and launched into it. It was of the first time his uncle had attempted to watch Kili and his brother for a day, and it had not gone well. For anyone.
"So my uncle is stumbling around the kitchens with flour in his hair and beard, and—"
"Flour?" asked Amelia. "Where did the flour come from?"
Kili grinned. "Well, you know how I said Fili and I were hiding on one of the upper shelves? And how when Uncle heard us there we had to scramble away quickly?" He waited for Amelia to nod before continuing. "There was flour up there too. One of us- I'm not sure which, though I like to imagine it was me- accidentally kicked the sack of flour onto his head. The stuff went everywhere."
Amelia dissolved into giggles, imagining a small Fili and Kili scrambling through the upper shelves of a kitchen while Thorin staggered along beneath them, cussing as he tried to see through the thick blanket of flour in the air.
"So then what happened?" she asked.
Kili grinned. "We ran for the window, of course," he said. "It wasn't a far jump, and Fili pushed me out before I could even consider it. Then he, well, look at him." He gestured over to where his fair haired brother was asleep. "He looks like a lion, right?"
Amelia nodded, smiling. "Yeah," she agreed. "So?"
"So, he always has. Even worse, he's always known it. So I'm sitting in these bushes below, and I look up to see Fili just standing in the window. Then he roars at Thorin. Like a lion. Then he jumps."
Amelia blinked for a solid ten seconds. Then she and Kili broke down into laughter so raucous she was surprised they didn't wake the rest of the company.
Over the course of the next couple of weeks Amelia and Kili again fell into their earlier friendship. They took to sitting through their watches together, Kili relating to Amelia humorous tales of his childhood. In return she described some of the places that she had been, though she took care never to mention what mission she had been caught up in at the time.
One evening as they set up camp however, Kili noticed that Amelia seemed rather absentminded. Her eyes were focused on the ruined house only a few meters away, then her gaze would wander off into the forest, past where the ponies were sheltered for the night.
Amelia joined Gandalf as the wizard dismounted from his horse, frowning. The two drew close together, so that the others wouldn't hear their whispered words.
"You know what will happen here tonight," she stated.
Gandalf nodded, looking slightly worried. "You plan to let it happen," he guessed. When Amelia nodded he sighed. "Thorin won't be happy."
Amelia rolled her eyes. "He never is. I need him to trust my foreknowledge, and when I tell him what will happen just before it does, it should be enough to convince him of my legitimacy."
Gandalf nodded slowly. "And if he sees only the fact that you allowed these events to occur?"
Amelia bit her lip. "He knows that he needs you for this quest, and you've made it clear that you leave if I do. We have to trust that he remembers that."
Gandalf nodded, looking uncertain. Nonetheless, he allowed Amelia to slip off into the forest to gather firewood, approaching Thorin for his scripted argument. Amelia returned just in time to see Gandalf stalking in the opposite direction, brushing roughly past a very flustered looking Bilbo.
"Gandalf," called the hobbit. "Where are you going?"
"To seek the company of the only one around here who has any sense," Gandalf snapped.
"And who would that be?" called Bilbo.
"Myself, Mr. Baggins!"
A moment later Gandalf disappeared, leaving Bilbo staring after him, and Amelia clapped Bilbo on the shoulder.
"It's alright," she said. "He'll be back."
Bilbo nodded, though he looked uncertain as the pair returned to the others. Soon Fili and Kili were sent off to keep an eye on the ponies, and Amelia braced herself, readying for what was to come.
She watched from the corner of her eye as Bilbo, eager to please Thorin in any way he could, left to bring the brothers their dinner. Settling back against a nearby tree, Amelia began to count the minutes. Barely five had passed before Fili tore into the camp, quickly rousing the others. Immediately they surged forward, pausing as they spotted Amelia still leaning against her tree.
"Aren't you coming?" asked Thorin. A heavy scowl was on his face as he drew his sword.
Amelia shook her head. "Nope."
Thorin all but growled. "And why not?"
Amelia smiled, crossing her arms behind her head. "You're going to get captured by the trolls, but they'll spend the whole night bickering over how best to cook you. Bilbo will buy you some more time until Gandalf shows up with the dawn. The sunlight will turn the trolls to stone, and you will all be fine."
Thorin stepped forward. "This is what you say will happen?" he asked.
Amelia nodded.
"Even if I believed that, why would you allow it to occur?" asked Thorin.
Amelia knew her smile only served to anger the dwarf king further. "To prove to you that I know what I'm doing."
Thorin took a step forward, looking like he wanted to attack Amelia. A sharp whinnying of fear from horses in the distance snapped Thorin's head to the side, and with a curse he bounded off into the forest. With several outraged looks in Amelia's direction, the others followed.
Amelia waiting until they had disappeared from sight, then rose herself. Just because she knew what would most likely happen in the future didn't mean it would. To be safe, she would still join the company. Just behind the scenes.
She slipped silently through the woods, rolling her eyes at the sounds of battle issuing from the clearing. At the edge she scaled a tree, finding a perch in a branch that was slightly higher than the trolls' heads. Settling into a comfortable position, she watched as the company were shoved into rather disgusting looking sacks.
Kili, Amelia noted, was looking around him frantically, and she realized he was searching for her. When he realized she wasn't there a mixture of anger and relief settled over his face, but he quickly wiped it clear of emotion, not wanting to give off any signs that they still had a member of the company free.
Soon half the company was strapped to a large spit over a fire, Fili included, and Amelia heard several of them cursing her in Khuzdul. She rolled her eyes as Bilbo wobbled to his feet, hopping forward as he shouted for the trolls to stop their bickering.
When they started considering simply sitting on Bombur to squish him into a paste, Amelia saw Bilbo's eyes widen.
"I really wouldn't recommend eating him," he stated, voice quaking. "He's got worms."
"Worms!" The troll holding Bombur released him with a squeal, and with an oomph the dwarf landed back on top of the pile that was the others.
Bilbo nodded quickly. "Yes, yes. Quite nasty really. He's infested. They all are. I simply wouldn't risk it, I wouldn't."
Amelia rolled her eyes as the company began to shout objections, as well as several insults at Bilbo. She resisted the urge to chuckle at the look on Kili's face as Thorin delivered a sharp kick to his side, urging the younger dwarf to shut up.
Realization flashed across Kili's face. "I've got the biggest worms," he shouted. "Mine are the biggest."
Catching on, the rest of the company began to change their shouts, each fighting over who was the most infested. Where he was standing at the feet of the trolls, Bilbo let out a sigh of relief.
He was too soon though. The smartest of the three trolls noticed that Thorin was the only one not saying anything, merely lying with a sour expression in his burlap sack. Amelia cursed as the king was plucked from the ground; she had been hoping the trolls wouldn't notice Thorin's obstinacy.
"What about you?" they asked. "You don't got worms, do yah?"
Thorin scowled, but didn't say anything. The three trolls exchanged gleeful looks as the company insisted that Thorin had the worst of the worms.
"I say we eat him raw," said the one holding Thorin. He raised Thorin up so that he was dangling above the troll's gaping mouth, and the king began to squirm, spitting out insults and curses as he struggled to free himself.
Another troll slapped his hand. "Nuh-uh," he argued. "He's the only decent one. You gotta share."
"I don't got to do nothing!"
The trolls began to bicker, waving Thorin through the air as they did. The king's face was now turning a rather unhealthy color, and though Amelia found the greenish tint to his face rather amusing, she was growing increasingly worried. This hadn't happened in the story she knew.
She decided she could wait no longer, especially as the trolls began to toy with the idea of chopping Thorin in three pieces. Rising into a standing position, she quickly nocked an arrow, taking careful aim. She needed to time things perfectly.
Thorin was in another downward swing as the troll holding him flailed his arm when Amelia released the arrow. The troll screamed as it struck him in the arm, automatically dropping Thorin. He fell back onto the pile with the others, looking like he was going to be sick.
"Who was that?" asked the shortest troll. "Show yerself!"
The company was murmuring amongst themselves as the troll started towards where Amelia was perched. The other two trolls were clustered near the fire, one seeing to the other's injury.
"There yah are!"
Amelia glanced in front of her to see that the approaching troll had spotted her. As he reached up she leapt forward and off the tree, landing on the top of the troll's head.
"You stink," she muttered. She quickly fired two arrows downward into the troll's skull, but they seemed to have no effect other than to anger the creature. With a roar of fury he swept his arm back and forth above his head, and again Amelia jumped.
She slid down the troll's other arm, letting the friction of the rough skin slow her descent as much as it could. A moment later she hit the ground with a thud and rolled, lurching upright and nocking another arrow.
The troll paused for a moment at the sight of the weapon aimed at his eye, but then, with a snarl, he reached down and grabbed at Amelia. Her arrow sank into his forehead, but she was still plucked from the earth, her bow falling from her hand.
"Gottya!" exclaimed the troll. Amelia winced and squirmed, trying to no avail to reach her dagger.
"Phoenix!" shouted Kili.
Amelia ignored the sound of his voice, glancing to the east. Dawn was already on the horizon, and as she watched she saw Gandalf's form slink by. Bilbo saw too, for Amelia saw his gaze to go to where the wizard was soon standing on a boulder at the edge of the clearing.
"Hey, who is he?" asked the troll with the arrow in his arm.
"I dunno," said the other. "Can we eat him?"
This question received a shrug from the troll holding Amelia. "We can try."
"The dawn will take you all," shouted Gandalf. Ignoring the confused looks of the trolls, he brought his staff down with a sharp thwack, and a magical blast split apart the boulder he stood upon. Dawn's first rays split the horizon, and within moments the trolls were shuddering as they began to transform.
Amelia's mind flared, and she kicked out, knowing that she had moments to free herself. A second magical blast from Gandalf forced open the hand that was holding her, and even as the troll turned to stone Amelia fell.
She forced herself into a roll as she landed, grabbing her bow where she had dropped it. Her right hand came to hover near her quiver, just in case, but the danger had passed. For now.
"Is everyone alright?" called Gandalf.
Lowering her hand and allowing her weapons to fade from existence, Amelia gave him a thumbs up. "Just on time," she returned. "Nice dramatic entrance."
Gandalf snorted in amusement, looking pleased.