Asdlkjghf! First of all, thank you guys so much for your lovely reviews already after the first chapter! It really, really made my day and gaahh, thanks!

So, here comes the second chapter. I hope you enjoy it!

Cautiously, she took another step towards what appeared to be a dwarf, although the man had not much of a beard, just a little stubble. That seemed rather unusual for what she knew about dwarves. But he was not of the race of Men, this she could tell for certain. She had seen many Men in her years and they had all been quite a lot taller. He couldn't be an elf, either. She had never seen a hobbit, but she knew they didn't wear footwear and their feet were big and hairy and used to walking around barefoot all the time.

Once she was half out of the bush, she stopped and observed him. He still had his weapon pointed at her but lowered it a bit when he saw her paw which was hurt and bloody. She kept it close to her body as she hopped a bit uneasy on the spot.

She didn't really know why she had come so close to this camp and she could have bitten her own head off for it now. What had she been thinking? It was dangerous to go near people she knew that. Well, she was hurt and couldn't hunt, so she thought that she might find something to eat at the camp. Men always kept food on them when they travelled and some of it was usually lying around and therefore easy to snatch. She had only done this twice in her life, though.

The dwarf now slowly put his bow to his side and fumbled with one hand in his pocket. She eyed him suspiciously and then her eyes grew big when he pulled out a little sausage and held it towards her.

She tilted her head to the side, confused. What was he doing? She didn't know exactly what he wanted from her but it indeed looked like he was offering her food. Tentatively, she came a bit closer and he slowly got down from his boulder and on one knee to get a better look at her paw. She stopped abruptly in her tracks and looked at him. Something was going on here, but she didn't quite know what. She didn't trust this dwarf.

"Don't you want it?" he asked her quietly and she tilted her head again but was immediately focused on the sausage that he waved at her. He was actually talking to her now. What a strange dwarf this was. She wondered if he knew she could understand him. Or – she eyed him warily – if he knew what she was.

He smiled at her then and the smell of the sausage filled her nose as he broke it in two pieces. Oh well, she thought, why not just take the offer. She could still bite his head off later if he tried to hurt her.

Kili watched as the black wolf – which appeared to be unusually big – slowly brought its head closer to the sausage that was lying on his palm now. The wolf then threw him a quick glance before snatching the food and taking a little step back immediately. Kili couldn't quite hold back a little smile as the animal chewed. He had always had a soft spot for animals, which had placed him at the receiving end of a lot of jokes not only from his brother when he had been younger, and this wolf was probably the most beautiful one he had ever seen.

Its black fur was dense and shimmering like silk in the faint moonlight. It almost seemed like it had a bit of a bluish shine to it. The wolf's ear-tips and belly were covered in a slightly lighter colour that appeared to be faint grey.

His gaze fell upon the animal's left paw again then. It looked quite nasty if he was to be honest and he couldn't help but pity the wolf. Obviously, it couldn't hunt in this condition, which was probably why he had taken his food offer so willingly. Who knew when that creature had last eaten?

The wolf looked back up at him when it had finished the piece of sausage. Kili smilingly offered it the second part of it. This time, the animal didn't hesitate as long as before. It came a step closer and took the food from Kili's hand and chewed it right in front of him. He could have touched it if he had wanted to. But instead, he took a closer look at its paw. It looked like something was embedded in it, which caused the wolf quite a lot of pain. The blood on it wasn't fresh but already dry and Kili wondered how the animal had gotten hurt.

Cautiously, he tried to reach for the paw and was rewarded with a sudden snarl. Immediately, he stopped in his tracks and looked at the wolf. It was scrutinizing him with its golden eyes.

"It is alright, I do not wish to hurt you" Kili said softly and the wolf seemed to consider his words. Fili would always mock him for talking to animals, be it a pony, a bird or in this case a wolf. But Kili was convinced that animals could understand what he was telling them. Maybe they didn't know exactly what his words meant or even understood them, but they understood the tone in which you were speaking them, that was for sure. They knew when you were angry and they knew when you were kind to them. And so he hoped that this wolf – which appeared to be unusually calm for a wild animal – would understand what he was trying to tell it.

"Maybe I can help you with that paw of yours" he mumbled, taking another look at it.

And apparently, the wolf did understand what he was saying since it slowly brought forward its injured paw and held it in front of Kili so that it was half sitting up.

The young dwarf was quite surprised by this action, cautiously took the paw in one hand and frowned at the big black wolf in front of him. He wondered just how well this animal might understand what he was saying.

The animal sat still while Kili was tending to its injury. It didn't make a sound, just watched him almost curiously while he carefully cleaned the paw from all the dried blood with a tissue. The dim light of the campfire surrounded them and Kili looked at the wolf's face from time to time to see how it responded to his treatment but it just kept watching him calmly.

"Oh my" he murmured, once he could see the origin of the pain. "How did that happen to you?" Kili looked up and the wolf just snuffled a bit. It almost seemed dismissively to Kili and he gave the wolf a curious look before he looked back at the paw that had a little piece of an arrowhead buried in it.

She watched the dwarf tend to her wound with interest. It seemed strange that he would help her. Wasn't he afraid at all? After all, she was an animal, a wild one and she could attack him any second. Surely, he must know that. But he didn't seem to care much. And she didn't really have the intention to attack him, after all. He was nice, had given her some food and who was she to decline a helping hand when she was offered one?

So she sat there in silence and let him examine her paw.

"How did that happen to you?" he asked. She understood and puffed out some air of her nose to at least show him some of her annoyance concerning that topic since she couldn't talk to him. He looked at her curiously. Maybe he was beginning to see that she understood a bit more of the world than a usual wolf.

A little whine escaped her when he suddenly pulled out the piece of arrowhead.

"Sorry" he said and she took a look at her paw herself. It looked nasty and it hurt but the pain was considerably less than before now that the thing was out. She gave the dwarf a grateful look and smiled, although to him it probably just looked like simple panting.

He smiled at her nonetheless and cleaned out the wound.

"Wait a minute" he mumbled then and got up. She didn't know what he was going to do but she remained seated and watched him silently walking across the camp, avoiding to step on any of his companions. She took a moment to let her eyes wander over this company. They were all dwarves, except a small figure lying on a bedroll near the fire. Intrigued, she stretched her neck a bit to get a better look at the little man and suddenly saw one of his feet peeking out under his blanket. A big and hairy foot. A hobbit!

She had been so busy observing the hobbit that she didn't realize the dwarf returning to her until he was a few feet away from her. Immediately, she focused on him again and as he kneeled in front of her, she saw that he was holding a white bandage in his right hand.

"I don't have anything to apply on it, I'm afraid," he said and she wasn't sure he was actually talking to her or just out into the blue. "But at least the bandage will keep the dirt from getting into the wound."

With that, he held out his hand suggestively and she slowly put her paw in it. He smiled.

Kili smiled. He quite liked the way this wolf interacted with him. Carefully, he wrapped the bandage around its paw and then let go of it when he was done. He watched as it tentatively put it on the floor and tried to stand, slowly putting more weight on it. Kili heard a small hurting sound come out of its mouth and it shifted its position a bit. Still it favoured the uninjured paw but could now at least stand on all four legs again. The young dwarf smiled happily at the majestic animal that just looked at him panting. It kind of looked like it was smiling, he thought.

"There you go," he told the wolf. By now, he was quite sure that he was being well understood; he just wondered how that was possible. Maybe this wolf had a very special instinct when it came to interaction with non-animals or maybe he was tame and belonged to someone.

Kili looked up to the sky and watched the moon for a moment. The wolf still was in front of him and to be honest, he was quite enjoying the company of the animal. But his watch was almost over and he would have to awake Dori in a few minutes.

"Well," he said, "it was a pleasure to… make your acquaintance. I will have to get some sleep and leave you to yourself again, I'm afraid." The wolf tilted its head for a second and looked about the camp, seemingly thinking about something. Kili raised one eyebrow when the animal then took two steps towards his kneeling form and gently touched his hand with its nose. He didn't really have time to react before the wolf turned around and slowly walked away and disappeared between the bushes.

Kili laughed silently to himself before he got up to wake Dori up. That had been quite an extraordinary encounter, indeed.