Behold a new chapter! :D

This one is a tad longer, I think, but I wanted to get the whole scene in, so there you go :D

Thank you all so much for your reviews! I love to read your opinions and your thoughts about Tarya and I'm always looking forward to your reactions to what's coming :D

So, enjoy the chapter and let me know what you think!

Kili turned around and slumped down on a turned over tree trunk when all the ponies were tied up and taken care of. Fili followed his example mere seconds later.

The brunette brother picked up a twig and started twisting it in his hands when Tarya stepped through the bushes and walked towards them. Kili started grinning lightly as she stepped in front of him and inclined her head to sniff his hands. He showed her the twig and then threw it over her head in a swift motion.

She didn't even blink, nor did she take a second glance at where the thing had flown.

Kili could almost feel her mocking glare when she huffed, turned around and walked over to the ponies.

"You're a dog in the manger" Kili called after her, grinning and got a little low howl in return that sounded suspiciously like 'Up yours'. The young dwarf laughed lightly.

"How come you two… understand each other so well?" Fili asked in a low voice, watching the big black wolf examine the forest floor with her nose a few metres away from them. Kili shrugged.

"She's not that hard to understand, Fee. You just have to pay attention." He said, smiling slightly. His brother sighed but returned Kili's smile.

The brothers watched the Amarok trot around the ponies in silence for a moment, when she suddenly stiffened and raised her head, her ears pointing in the direction in front of her.

Before anyone of them could see what was going on, Tarya snarled low and menacingly. Immediately, Fili and Kili got up, attempting to draw their weapons.

But before they could do anything, there was a loud crack, a muffled neighing and in the next second, Tarya had vanished in the bushes.

The brothers stood there for a moment, stupefied.

They didn't even realize Bilbo approaching from behind them until he spoke up.

"What's the matter?"

Kili was the first one to regain his voice and answering the hobbit.

"We're supposed to be looking after the ponies…" he said.

"Only we've encountered a… slight problem." Fili continued, giving his brother a worried look over Bilbo's head.

"We had sixteen" the brunette said.

"Now there's fourteen" Fili finished as they looked at the assembled ponies together.

Bilbo nodded, trying to make sense of what the dwarves were telling him. "And… and where is Tarya?"

"We don't know" Kili said and then turned around to check which ponies went missing. He came back only moments later. "Daisy and Bungle are missing."

"Well, that is not good," the hobbit stuttered, "h-ha… and that is not good at all!" he added as his gaze fell upon a broken down tree trunk. "Shouldn't we tell Thorin?"

"Eh, no… Let's not worry him," Fili quickly answered, looking at the trunk himself, "As our official burglar, we thought you might like to look into it."

Bilbo looked at the blonde dwarf sceptically for a moment before he spoke. "Uh, well… T-this, something big must have uprooted these trees" he said then, walking towards the trunk and inspecting it.

"That was our thinking" Kili intervened, thinking of how Tarya had snarled at whatever it had been that had stolen their ponies.

"It's something very big, and possibly quite dangerous." Bilbo finished then, now looking around nervously.

There was a moment of silence and Kili wondered once again where Tarya had run off to. Had she simply abandoned them as soon as there was the slightest hint of danger? He didn't really believe that but it sure looked like it.

"Hey! There's a light!" Fili whisperingly called out, "Over here!"

And as they went over and ducked behind another tree trunk, Kili could see it, too. And he did not like what he saw one bit.

"What is it?" the hobbit asked.

"Trolls" came the worried and angry reply from the brunette dwarf.

She wondered where those damned dwarves were. Had they not heard the trolls? Did they not care about their ponies being stolen from camp and getting eaten? She didn't really want to believe that for it would have been a huge disappointment in what she thought these people to be. But it did not explain why she was sneaking through these bushes all by herself, seemingly the only one interested to help the other animals. Maybe she had just been to fast for them, she thought, maybe she should have made it clear what had trampled through the forest.

She ducked under a big bush of violet berries when the troll walked past her. His foot had missed her by mere inches but she withheld another snarl for she didn't want them to hear her. Yet.

When she felt it to be safe enough, she emerged from her spot and followed the troll's giant footsteps until she stood at the edge of their camp. There were three of them, she now saw. She would not be able to defeat three trolls. One maybe, with a bit of luck, but three were too many. Although while they all seemed to be in conversation about something now, she might find a way to get those ponies out of the little cave they were put into.

She stepped back into the darkness of the trees and sneaked around the camp until she reached the ponies. In the shadows, she thought of what to do now. She could try to bite off the ropes that held the cave together but that might alert the trolls if she made a wrong move and a wrong noise.

Tarya frowned slightly when suddenly, she saw a little shadow flit behind the troll's backs towards her spot. Only on second glance she realized that it was Bilbo. What was the hobbit doing here? Had they sent him to free the ponies? Had they all gone mad now? This was much too dangerous for the hobbit to do, she thought.

But as it was, she could only stand and watch as he snuck up to one of the trolls who had by now turned out to be called Tom, trying to steal his knife.

This was going to end badly.

Just seconds later, the hobbit was scattered in troll snot and being held captive.

"What is it?" one of the others asked, Bert, if she remembered right.

"I don't know but I don't like the way it wiggles around!" Tom answered and Tarya watched as he dropped Bilbo on the ground, threating him with his knife. "What are you then? An oversized squirrel?"

"I'm a burglar… uh, hobbit!" Bilbo stammered and Tarya would have shaken her head if she hadn't set all of her concentration on the hobbit.

"A burglarhobbit?" Tom asked confused.

"Can we cook him?" Seemed to be the more important question at the moment, being asked by William, the cook.

"We can try!" Tom replied and tried to grab Bilbo but the hobbit was faster than they knew and it took them a while to catch him.

"Gotcha!" grinned William, holding the hobbit tight in one hand, "Are there anymore of you little fellas hiding where you shouldn't?"

"No!" Bilbo quickly shouted but the trolls were not so easily fooled for the moment.

"He's lying! Hold his toes over the fire, make him squeal!" Tom suggested agitatedly but before they could do any such thing, Tarya saw a familiar brunette head of hair emerge from the bushes and stabbing one of the trolls in the foot.

"Drop him!" Kili yelled.

"You what?"

"I said… drop him." He repeated and swung his sword in one hand, grinning challengingly.

Then, Bilbo was thrown at the dwarf and they both landed with a loud thud on the ground at the same time all the other dwarves entered the camp, arms raised and with a fierce battle cry on the lips.

Tarya could only stand there for a few seconds, looking at the dwarves fight and repeating the scene in her head. That had not been how she'd imagined this to go. And she had not thought that these dwarves were actually such fierce warriors. They were armed, yes, but seeing them using those weapons sent a strange feeling through her. There was something about weapons that was simply unsettling.

But then, right as she was about to enter the camp herself and slash some troll, the dwarfs reluctantly threw their weapons to the ground. Confused, she looked around and saw that Bilbo had been captured. This was not good, she thought. Then, she witnessed how her companions were put in bags one after another. Not good at all.

So she decided to change tactics, since theirs had obviously not worked out so well and she couldn't hope to fight three trolls on her own. Maybe she could get them a little help and until then, she could at least buy them some time, somehow.

Tarya sneaked along the edge of the camp until she was behind the trolls.

Then she let a loud howl escape her throat that echoed through the forest.

They all heard the sudden howling from somewhere behind the trolls, but it was hard to tell where its origin was since the echo was surrounding them. It took only one moment, before there was a second howl and now the trolls finally took notice of it, two of them hurled around, looking worriedly at the trees.

"What was that?" Kili heard one of them ask. He tried to get a better look but the way he was laying on this pile of dwarfs was making things a bit complicated.

"It sounds like a wolf," another one suggested.

Tarya, Kili thought, she had not abandoned them. She was out there, somewhere, and she was trying to help.

Then, there was a loud rustling to the trolls' left and just seconds later to their right.

"Were is it? I can't see a thing!" Bert called out nervously, trying to spy into the bushes.

"Don't worry 'bout that, 'tis just a little wolf. You could squash it with your little toe! Let's get to business with cooking these dwarfs!" William replied, turning the ones of their company who were tied on a spit over the fire.

"Oh, don't bother cooking 'em! Let's just sit on 'em and squash 'em into jelly!" The third troll, Tom, suggested.

"They should be sauteed and grilled with a sprinkle of sage." Bert answered and looked hungrily at the dwarves. Kili could only gulp, it was just too frustrating not being able to defend themselves against these cursed trolls.

"Never mind the seasoning, we ain't got all night! Dawn ain't far away, let's get a move on! I don't fancy been turned to stone." William said and just in that moment, there was a silent rustling near the dwarves. Kili heard it and looked up questioningly. Obviously, he hadn't been the only one who had heard the noise; his uncle was peeking into the darkness of the woods with a stern expression.

"No, wait! You are making a terrible mistake!" The hobbit suddenly cried out and drew the attention of Thorin and Kili back to their situation.

"You can't reason with them," Dori called out, "they're half-wits!"

"Half-wits? What does that make us?" Bofur yelled back from his spot on the spit. Obviously, he was still able to make jokes, even when he was being grilled over a fire.

Bilbo now got up, hopping a few centimetres towards the trolls in his sack. "I meant with the… uh, with the… the seasoning!" he stuttered, gaining the attention of the trolls now.

"What about the seasoning?" Bert asked.

"Well, have you smelt them? You're gonna need something stronger than sage before you plate this lot up!" the hobbit improvised and immediately got angry mumbles from the dwarves as an answer.

"What do you know about cooking dwarf?" William asked but was shut off by Bert.

"Shut up, and let the...uh, flurgerburbur-hobbit talk." He said angrily.

"Th...the-the secret to cooking dwarf, is um..." Bilbo was having some trouble making something convincing up.

"Yes? Come on."

"It's, uh..."

"Tell us the secret!" Bert yelled, impatiently.

"Ye-yes, I'm telling you. The secret is...to...skin them first!"

Kili couldn't believe what he was hearing from that little man. Angrily, he yelled and swore at the hobbit and he was not the only one. The others joined in, releasing their anger verbally on Bilbo who could only roll his eyes. These dwarves really were half-wits, he thought.

Tarya didn't know what the hobbit was doing but it sure held all the attention of the trolls on him and she was quite grateful for that when she was sneaking up on the pile of dwarves. Silently, she made her way through the leaves towards them but couldn't avoid a little rustling from time to time.

When she was at the very edge of the shadows, she stopped for a moment to check the situation. Thorin was the only dwarf who was lying in a way that she could reach him, so she ducked and snuck towards him. He didn't realize she was near him until she got up from her position. She saw him twitch a bit before he turned his head and recognized her. His eyes grew a bit bigger but he kept silent.

Tarya shot a quick glance to the hobbit that was now talking about Bombur being infected. He was obviously trying to buy them time. She wrinkled her nose a bit when he claimed that, in fact, all of them were infested with parasites. Suddenly, she heard a familiar voice call out from a little bit underneath.

"We don't have parasites! You have parasites!" Kili shouted at Bilbo.

Tarya snarled frustrated. Did he not understand what the little hobbit was trying to do?

Thorin looked at her for a moment, then to the hobbit and then he suddenly kicked Kili in the back to shut him up. Tarya smiled at the king. Obviously, he had finally understood. When the dwarves now started to discuss who had the biggest parasites, Tarya bent forward and buried her teeth in Thorin's bag, then she started to pull on it. But the stupid thing didn't want to give way and so she grumbled lowly before she put her forepaws on Thorin's torso, to gain some counterbalance.

The dwarf only looked at her surprised, throwing glances towards the trolls from now and then.

Suddenly, two things happened at once. The first one: the sack gave way and tore apart, leaving a surprised Thorin and Tarya who had not really believed that this would actually work. Second: The troll named William yelled at Bilbo for taking them for fools and tried to grab him.

Tarya reacted out of instinct and launched herself in front of the hobbit with one big leap. A threatening snarl escaped her mouth and she aggressively bit the hand that tried to grab hold of Bilbo.

She quickly let go before the troll could dash her away. The troll retired his hands with a pain filled yelp.

"The dawn will take you all!" a voice suddenly called out from a cliff behind and Tarya looked up to see Gandalf standing there. Finally, she thought, it had taken him long enough to get there.

"Who's that?"

"No idea"

"Can we eat him, too?"

Suddenly, Gandalf broke the cliff he was standing on in two, to let in the rising sun's light. The clearing was dipped in bright sunlight then and the trolls immediately turned to stone.

Tarya watched the scene fascinated. She had never seen anything like this but those trolls didn't deserve different, she thought, while all the dwarves laughed in joy.

"Ooh, get your foot out of my back!" she heard Dwalin grumble and started grinning.