Hello, people!

First, I have a short announcement to make: I'm gonna start an internship tomorrow which means that updates to this story won't come daily anymore as result of a probable lack of time. I guess I'll update twice a week if everything goes as I want, maybe even more often. Just when I find the time :D

Chilled Souls of the Forgotten: You've changed your name! I was so confused when I wanted to reply to your review and suddenly there was another name :D Ahh, well, anyway: You always make me laugh with your comments and I just wanted to tell you that :D And KILL IT WITH FIRE is definitely always a good option :D

Thank you guys so much for your reviews, I appreciate each and every one of them! Seriously, I'd never have thought that this idea would please so many of you! :D

And now, enough rambling, enjoy the new chapter!

Bilbo looked at the Amarok who had blocked the troll's attack towards him just moments ago in awe. She was still standing before him protectively but now turned around, looking nothing like she had before. When she had jumped in front of him, she had looked positively murderous and her snarl had sounded so dangerous that it had sent a shiver down his spine. But now she was happily panting as she came towards him and sniffed at him for a second.

"I'm alright" he said hesitantly, guessing that this was what she was checking. "Thank you," he then added genuinely. Tarya just huffed friendly and then walked off towards Kili who was peeling himself out of his bag.

The dwarf looked at her when she arrived by his side, now retrieving his weapons from the floor. "I'd thought you'd run off" he smiled and she grumbled to dismiss this statement. Kili stood still for a moment when she sniffed at his hand, which had gotten scratched when he'd been put into the bag.

He smiled and gently stroked her snout once. "It's okay, just a little scratch." He said and to his surprise, she carefully licked his hand once to seemingly treat the wound. He felt a warm feeling expand in his chest when he realized that she actually cared about his well-being and so his smile grew even brighter.

"Where did you go to, if I may ask?" Thorin asked Gandalf a little further away.

"To look ahead." The wizard answered nonchalantly.

"What brought you back?"

"A call for help caused me to look behind." Gandalf said, smilingly.

Thorin frowned and looked over to his nephew who was rubbing the Amarok's neck. "Her howling?" It was more of a statement than a question but Gandalf nodded nonetheless.

"Nasty business. Still they are all in one piece."

"No thanks to your burglar" Thorin huffed then, looking away from Tarya. He could not deny that she had tried to help them, after all, she had torn apart his bag and if Gandalf hadn't showed up, he would have been able to escape the sack and keep on fighting because of her actions. But the hobbit had hardly been helpful at all; he'd even needed protection from a wolf.

"He had the nous to play for time. None of the rest of you thought of that." Gandalf rebuked him and Thorin reluctantly lowered his gaze in acceptance. He couldn't really deny that the hobbit had gained them some time with his incoherent rambling about dwarf cooking. Still, he was not convinced of the Halfling's qualities.

"They must have come down from the Ettenmoors," the wizard said then, changing the topic of their conversation.

"Since when do mountain trolls venture this far south?" The dwarf-king asked, looking at the stone-trolls himself.

"Oh, not for an age. Not since a darker power ruled these lands." Gandalf replied thoughtfully, looking into the distance for a moment. When he spoke up next, Thorin saw him take a small glance at Tarya and frowned slightly.

"They could not have moved in daylight," Gandalf said.

"There must be a cave nearby" Thorin added for everyone to hear now and motioned his company to start moving to search for it.

Kili started to walk after the others but felt Tarya not following. He turned around, confused, and saw her standing in the clearing, looking back at the stone-trolls, seemingly lost in thought.

Shrugging, he started walking and decided to let her take her time; he knew she'd catch up eventually.

And indeed, once they had found the troll cave, Tarya was by his side again but stopped dead in her tracks behind Kili when he entered the cave. She gave a suffering yelp and made a few steps back.

The young dwarf turned around and grinned at the black wolf. "Not the right place for a delicate nose, huh?" he laughed as she grumblingly walked back towards where Bilbo was standing. The hobbit was not a fan of the stench, either.

Tarya watched the dwarfs disappear in the troll cave one after another. She just wrinkled her nose. How could anyone stay in there for more than two seconds? This stench was horrible, even from outside the cave. The only one that seemed to agree with her on that was the hobbit, though, standing beside her and looking out into the woods. He seemed quite distant, she thought. Tarya wondered whether he was still thinking about their encounter with the trolls. He had looked positively terrified then.

She turned to him and gently nudged his arm. The hobbit looked at her and after a moment, he smiled slightly. "I was just thinking about your intervention back at the camp," he said, "I guess you're much better in defending yourself and others than I am. Which makes me quite a burden to this quest, I suppose."

His last words came out as a quiet murmur, probably directed more at himself than her. She pitied the hobbit a bit then. He seemed really disappointed in himself. But there was no reason for that, she thought. He was a hobbit, after all, and hobbits were gentle folk. They were not made for battle and fighting and life in the wild. But he had done well in distracting the trolls and buying them time. He should be proud of himself, she thought, and so she nudged him again and grumbled friendly.

Bilbo smiled a bit. "I don't know what you're trying to tell me. But thank you for listening." He said and held out his hand to stroke her but as he realized what he was doing, he quickly retrieved his hand.

She huffed slightly and twitched with one ear. Was he afraid of touching her? Did he think she'd attack him? Well, she thought, maybe he was just respectful enough not to touch her when he didn't know whether she'd actually like it. But she thought there was no harm in letting him pet her once. Kili did it all the time and she didn't mind.

So she took one step forward and inclined her head so that his hand was grazing it lightly. Bilbo was surprised but his smile grew brighter now and that was enough credit for her. He then gently rubbed down her neck and so they stood there for a moment, enjoying each other's company in silence.

That was until Gandalf exited the cave after the other dwarves and came towards them. He gave her a pointed look and she understood that he wanted to talk to Bilbo alone for a moment, so she gave them their privacy and jovially walked over to some bushes to lay down there.

When Kili exited the cave, he was glad to breathe in some fresh air again. The stench in there really was horrible, even for someone with a less delicate nose than a wolf.

But he had found a few arrows that he could use, at least and was now getting to a halt next to Bifur to see what the elder dwarf was inspecting. It didn't take long and Bifur shoved an animal's skull into his hands. Kili could only stare at the dwarf in confusion, holding the thing awkwardly in his right hand.

He looked over to Tarya who was lying a bit further away next to a tree. She was looking at the bushes, both ears pointed in that direction. Then, she suddenly jumped up and made a few steps back towards the company, a small bark-like sound erupting from her throat. A clear warning, Kili now knew.

Obviously, his uncle had read the wolf's behaviour, too, for he swivelled around and shouted at his companions.

"Something's coming!" Thorin yelled.

"Hurry up, arm yourselves!" Gandalf added. "Stay together!"

And that they did. Kili pulled his sword in one swift motion while he quickly walked over to his brother who had already drawn both his swords. Fili sent him a short look when he arrived at his side.

Bilbo was standing before them, shielded by the big black wolf again who had positioned herself between them and the approaching opponent.

"Thieves!" A strong male voice suddenly called out from the woods, "Fire! Murder!" Yelling, the man dashed through the bushes and only on second glance, the dwarves realized that the guy was standing on a huge sleigh that was being pulled by rabbits.

"Radagast!" Gandalf called out, relieved, before anyone would attack the brown wizard, "That is Radagast, the Brown."

Kili remembered Gandalf talking about that wizard, as he put his sword back in its sheath. And he remembered that Tarya had reacted to the name back then, as if she had known him. He looked at her and saw that she had given up her protective stance and was now just standing there, listening to the two wizards talk.

"What on earth are you doing here?" asked Gandalf sceptically.

"I've been looking for you, Gandalf" came the hurried reply. "Something's wrong. Something's… terribly… wrong."

"Yes?"

They all waited for an answer but Radagast suddenly seemed confused. "Oh," he mumbled, "oh… I had a thought… but now I've lost it." Gandalf only watched is old friend with increasing incomprehension. "It was right there… on the tip of my tongue!"

And what happened next, Kili would always remember as something most unexpected and most disgusting. "Oh, wait," Radagast said, "it was not a thought at all. It was just a little…" and with that he stuck out his tongue and pulled an insect out of his mouth, "… stick insect. Huh."

Kili exchanged a look with his brother who seemed just as taken aback as him.

"If that's what comes out of his mouth, I don't want to know what else he has stuck up in there." Fili mumbled and Kili couldn't hold back a grin. They were both rewarded with a stern glare from their uncle who had obviously heard them.

Then, Radagast's gaze fell upon the big black wolf standing calmly in their midst and his eyes grew wide. Even wider than they already were. "Gandalf," he said urgently, not looking away from Tarya.

The grey wizard only nodded. "Yes, yes, I am aware."

Radagast's eyes found the dirty bandage around Tarya's paw then and he questioningly looked first at her, then at Gandalf. Kili could see him smile, before he pointed at him and he suddenly found himself being scrutinized by the weird wizard that had bird-poo sticking to his head. He wasn't sure what to think of that.

"Most fascinating," Radagast murmured and Kili could only raise one eyebrow questioningly.

"What is?" he asked, frowning. Radagast merely tilted his head a little, before looking back at Tarya who had made a few steps towards Kili and was now standing in front of him.

"Most fascinating, indeed… I wonder if…" Gandalf clearing his throat interrupted the wizard. Kili didn't get an answer from him. Instead, Radagast turned around and motioned Gandalf to follow him and led him a few metres away from the company to discuss something in private.

"An interesting fellow" Fili said, shaking his head slightly.

"Interesting? More like whimsical." Kili replied, sitting down on a boulder.

Tarya didn't know what Radagast had found so fascinating but she had the suspicion that it had something to do with Kili. With Kili and herself. But she could not understand why their friendship – yes, she was considering the dwarf her friend by now – would make the wizard that speechless. Of course, it was unusual but wizards knew the unusual, it was their daily business.

She tried to focus her concentration and tried to hear what the both wizards were talking about but they were too far for her to hear. And the talking of the dwarves was too noisy. She grumbled a bit and caught an asking look from Kili but he didn't say anything and so she turned around to pay some attention to those rabbits that were still tied to the sleigh.

She had seen them before and they had fascinated her from the beginning. She'd occasionally seen Radagast dashing through the woods with their aid and she was stunned how fast those rabbits were. She was pretty fast herself if the need occurred but these animals were something else entirely.

They shuffled uncomfortably when she got close to them.

"Don't scare his ride away, Tarya" she heard Bofur chuckle to her right. He was inspecting the bunnies as well and she just grinned at him as an answer but didn't go any closer. She didn't want to upset them further.

Suddenly, she heard a growl coming from further away. Immediately, she directed her attention to that noise. It had been faint but it had definitely been there. Then, there was another one.

"Was that a wolf?" she heard Bilbo ask and she felt he was looking at her.

She snarled lowly, looking around alarmed, some of the dwarves were looking at her now; others were peeking into the bushes.

"Wolf? No… That is not a wolf" Bofur replied worriedly and she growled in agreement. She knew exactly what that was. And it was with absolute certainty not a wolf.

Then, the growl was clear and loud for everyone to hear and as she swivelled around, she saw a massive warg running down the little hill into the clearing they were standing on. Without hesitation, she jumped and cut it off before it could get to Thorin and Dwalin who had obviously been the goal.

It tried to get its teeth into her but she was faster, ducking to the right so that it missed her and so that she had free access to its now exposed throat. She didn't wait and moved forward, piling her teeth into the warg's flesh with absolute precision. It was dead within seconds.

Suddenly, there was another growl coming from the other side of the clearing and she could only turn around in time to see another warg charging towards their leader from behind. But before it reached him, an arrow buried itself in its head and as it fell down, Dwalin slashed it with his axe.

Tarya looked over to Thorin who thankfully looked at her for a second before he looked down on the creature to his feet.

"Warg-scouts," he said, "which means an orc pack is not far behind."

"O-orc pack?" Bilbo stuttered disbelievingly.

Tarya could only snarl angrily. If there was something in this world that she hated more than wargs, it were their riders.

She only listened with half an ear to what Gandalf said to Thorin then, still concentrating on her surroundings to make sure there was no more warg in immediate proximity. It was only the wizard's last words that sunk into her consciousness like a burning iron. Words that triggered both anger and fear in her heart.

"You are being hunted."