Hello, hearties, new chapter for you!

I'm sorry updates are coming a bit slower at the moment, I'm having a bit of a weird busy time, organizing a few things and therefore don't really find the time to update properly, but I'm doing my best for regular updates :)

Doodler100: Haha, yeah, Fili always gets the right vibes from everybody, the little psychoanalyst :D Oh no, don't be jealous of our little Tarya when the poor thing didn't even realize she was getting held by Kili :D Thank you for your review! :D

Also thanks to Dj Sparkles and DwarvenWarrior! And to kungfupandabear as well, I hope there will be no further confusion with this chapter!

And also thank you to the people who favorited and followed! It is highly appreciated!

Now, this one is a bit of a filler/build up, really, to what happens in the next chapter but it's still quite... well... just read :D

And, of course, I'd be very happy if you'd leave me a review afterwards and let me know what you think :D

Tarya was woken by a loud thump and a curse in a language she didn't understand. She jerked up, looking around confusedly. It took her a moment to realize she was in a bed at Beorn's.

As she looked up, she saw Bofur scrambling to his feet, him being the one who had caused the whole commotion by falling down the little platform his bed was on. Bilbo was rubbing his back slightly and shot the dwarf an annoyed glance. Tarya could only guess that Bofur had fallen right on top of him before landing on the wooden floor. She had to withhold a giggle as Bofur readjusted his hat.

"Well, come on, lazybones," the merry dwarf said then. "Or else, there will be no breakfast left for you."

Tarya smiled, as Bilbo was immediately wide-awake. "Breakfast? Where?" he called out and the Amarok could only raise her eyebrows at how fast the hobbit had reached the table in the middle of the room, which was empty.

"Mostly in us," Gloin answered him as he walked by. "But if you hurry up, you might still find something. We are eating out on the veranda."

Tarya laughed slightly as Bilbo hurried outside and she slowly got up to get some breakfast herself, only now realizing that she had slept longer than usual and that the morning was already giving in to midday. Most of the dwarves were done eating already when Tarya sat down next to Dwalin who acknowledged her presence with a short nod.

"Slept well, wolf girl?" he asked, putting some sliced bread and butter on her plate that he had obviously been saving for her. Tarya smiled warmly at the bald dwarf who cleared his throat slightly, ignoring he grateful look.

"Thank you. I did," she answered. "Like a log."

Dwalin chuckled a bit. "I saw that. You didn't even wake up when Kili carried you to bed last night."

Tarya raised her eyebrows at Dwalin but he simply grinned slightly into his mug and she looked around to find Kili. Only to realize now that the familiar brown head of hair was not present at the small table they had set up on Beorn's veranda. She frowned a bit, when she couldn't find Fili and Ori either. Bofur seemed to read her mind.

"Lads went for the stream behind the stables," he told her, calmly slicing an apple with a small knife. "Doing some training, I reckon."

Tarya nodded slightly, although she felt kind of disappointed when she thought of not seeing the three of them for a while and she wondered why they had left so early. She could have gone with them, for she could use some training herself. Well, she thought, she would just have to find an occupation for herself, then.

"Where is Gandalf?" Bilbo suddenly asked, looking around for the wizard while biting into a juicy red apple.

"He vanished in the early hours of the morning," Thorin, who was just stepping out of the house, explained and Tarya looked up at him, slowly chewing on her slice of bread with honey and butter. The dwarf-king shortly looked down on her, looking rather unhappy, before he continued. "Mahal knows where he went off to. I reckon we won't be seeing him for a while."

Tarya huffed silently. The wizard was making it highly difficult for her to talk to him. It was as if he was deliberately avoiding the conversation that he knew she needed to have with him. As Thorin sat down and started to speak with Dwalin, he sent another sharp look towards her and the Amarok wondered what she had done to deserve it. She had thought he was unhappy about Gandalf but now she started to think that he was somehow displeased with her. She quickly finished her breakfast and got up, leaving her companions behind on the veranda.

Walking in a random direction, she huffed quietly to herself. She was angry. No, not angry, she was frustrated, she realized. With Gandalf. The wizard was supposed to help her; he was supposed to tell her what she was meant to do with herself, with her human self, that was. And now he had vanished and left her on her own. Again.

When Tarya finally looked up and emerged from her thoughts, she found herself to be standing in a rather big garden and she couldn't help but be surprised at the sight of the low bushes filled with ripe berries, the trees and the lots and lots of flowers that grew here. Beorn's home was truly a beautiful place to live one's life, she thought as she turned around herself, and she was impressed that a man like him – big and rough as he was – was able to create beauty and calmness like this garden was filled with.

As she walked around, she saw that there were also other animals living here than the ones she'd already seen. There were squirrels in the trees and small birds had set up their nests up in the branches. Tarya sat down beneath one of the trees after a while and closed her eyes, leaning her head against the trunk.

Why was she even here?

She knew why, of course. She had stayed with the company because something had been haunting her and she had thought to find help in Gandalf. And it had been Kili that had made her trust them, really. His unreserved behaviour, his caring nature. But then things had changed, she had become human and her world had been turned upside down from one moment to another and although she knew she wouldn't really be able to bring herself to leave them on their own, she couldn't help but ask herself why she was still on this quest that had never really been hers. Nothing was haunting her anymore now and she was far away from where it had happened the night she met Kili and Gandalf wasn't much help in regaining her true form.

Maybe it would be better to leave this company now and let them continue on their quest alone. She had other things in mind at the moment, than to help them slay a dragon, which really seemed like a rather suicidal mission to her, although the purpose of their quest was a noble one. They deserved to reclaim Erebor, she thought, but dragons were not so easily defeated. Maybe she should rather be out, hunting orc, she thought, until she would find the Defiler and tear him into pieces.

But then again, something held her here. Those dwarves and Bilbo were her friends, after all and she knew that as much as one part of her wanted to go and take vengeance on every orc she'd find, the other part wanted to stay. And deep down, she knew it was mostly Kili that held her here. She had committed herself to Kili and Kili was on a quest to reclaim Erebor. And she would go with him, for he had earned her loyalty. They all had, in fact. But there was also the loyalty she felt towards her mother and the duty to avenge her assassination.

However, in a human body, that would be rather difficult to do. Of course, she had been rather able to fight, still remembering the powerful feeling that had flowed through her. But she still didn't know what that had been and how or if she could reproduce it again. And it would probably not be the best idea to fight orcs without actually knowing whether she could defeat them. It seemed much wiser to help a group of dwarves to fight for their lost home and to make sure her friends wouldn't get killed on the way there or when they faced Smaug.

"Your aim has not gotten any better," Kili chuckled as Fili let the bow sink down, the blonde dwarf frowning slightly at the tree trunk he had been aiming at. The arrow had landed quite a few centimetres from where he had wanted.

"Considering that I'm no archer and that the last time I used a bow was when you bet me I couldn't hit Dwalin's tankard a few years back, I'd say I did quite well," Fili pointed out and as he turned his head, he saw his younger brother's broad grin beaming at him.

"Oh, yes," Kili chuckled. "That was quite an eventful evening."

"If by eventful you mean Dwalin's tankard breaking, the mead spreading on the table and us running for our young lives while he chases after us with his hatchets, then yes, quite eventful indeed," Fili deadpanned, giving the bow back to his brother.

"You're right, that might have been a rather unlucky turn of events but remember we got a little advance when he slipped on the spilled mead," Kili continued to grin and now Fili felt a smile of his own tugging on the corners of his lips when he remembered the incident.

"And he took the poor barmaid right down with him," the blonde dwarf chuckled at the memory and Kili laughed as well.

"Did he get you after that?" Ori chimed in from where he was sitting under the shadowy branches of a tree.

The brothers shot their companion a grin as if they had synchronised it. "Nah, we ran and hid in the stables until he gave up and went back to the pub," Kili laughed and Ori raised his eyebrows in silent amusement.

"What are you even doing there, Ori?" Fili asked as Kili went and ripped his arrows out of the tree trunk that had been serving as an aim. The brunette dwarf turned around to see his older brother standing a few feet away from Ori who had his book pressed to his chest and was looking a bit sheepishly at the blonde dwarf before him.

"Yeah, let us just have a peek," Kili grinned as he walked towards them, putting his arrows back into the quiver. "Would only be fair if you let us see what you've had your nose stuffed into the whole day while we were training our arses off, don't you think, Fee?"

"I couldn't agree more," Fili stated with a smirk, as Ori closed his book with a snap.

"It's my journal," the young dwarf huffed. "It's not for everybody's eyes, just mine."

"You've let Tarya see," Fili pointed out, crossing his arms over his chest, as Ori hesitated for a moment.

"Yes, well, it's different with her," he all but stuttered.

"Why?" Kili asked, raising a confused eyebrow. Ori frowned slightly when he looked at the brothers standing before him. They had basically trapped him already and they probably knew it, as well.

"She won't make fun," Ori muttered defiantly and the two Durin heirs exchanged a look, before they directed their gazes back to the dwarf before them who was still leaning against his tree trunk on the embankment of the stream they were on.

"We won't make fun, either," Kili claimed and Fili nodded beside him.

"We just want to have a look," the blonde added.

Ori hesitated still. He didn't really want to show them what he had been doing these last few hours because he was sure they would still make fun, even though they claimed they wouldn't. He had heard those promises too many times when they all had been younger and he didn't want to show them his things. But then again, they had always had a way to get what they wanted, mostly resulting in him being nicked his book and then being held back when he wanted to get it back, as the other brother read its contains out loud. And as if Kili had read his mind, he spoke up again, a slight smirk gracing his boyish features.

"You know we can also do this the hard way, Ori."

"Yeah, it's all up to you," Fili joined in, grinning as well. "But we'd really advise you to cooperate."

Ori rolled his eyes at their childish manner, hesitatingly bringing himself to hold out the book to the younger brother who took it with a satisfied smirk.

"One would think you're still dwarflings the way you behave," Ori huffed, ignoring Kili's little chuckle at his words. He watched Fili starting to flip through his journal with a little unease then, until Kili suddenly stopped his brother's flipping to take a closer look at a page, the two of them now obviously starting to read rather than just flipping through the pages and looking at the little doodles along the margins. Ori could only watch their concentrated expressions as they examined the page and wonder which one they were on.

'She tells us that her name means 'guardian', as well as 'the powerful one' and it seems to be more than just fitting when I look at her across the fire.' Kili read silently to himself. 'The dogs, Arvo and Kol, seem to be her following more than simple companionship and she sits among them with the grace of a kind-hearted queen.'

Then the text gave way to where Ori had produced a very exact drawing of Tarya between the two large dogs and Kili couldn't deny that Ori was right with his writing. Only now that he was seeing this drawing, he became aware of how graceful she looked even when she was just sitting on the floor by a fire. Her back was kept straight; she held her head high and had an expression on her face that seemed thoughtful as much as it looked friendly. She really looked like royalty, he thought and he for a moment, he didn't even realize that he was in the picture, too, before he felt Fili nudge him slightly. The brunette dwarf glanced up and closed the journal at the same time.

"Looks like a kind-hearted queen, huh?" Fili grinned at Ori who quickly scrambled to his feet and retrieved his book from Kili's grip now that he knew what they had been looking at.

"She does," the artistic dwarf replied defiantly, feeling a small blush fighting its way onto his cheeks, before he quickly stuffed his journal back into his bag. Kili didn't say anything but Fili chuckled lightly beside him.

"Certainly does in that picture," he said, pointing vaguely at where the book had disappeared in Ori's bag. "You made her look quite noble."

"I didn't make her look like that," Ori replied, not quite knowing why he was telling the two brothers this. "She always does."

Fili slightly raised one eyebrow amusedly but just inclined his head in acceptance, although he did wonder why Ori seemed so passionate about this. A quick glance towards Kili told him that he was obviously not the only one wondering and he quickly patted his brother quite roughly on the back to get his attention, which had been settled on Ori until now. Kili looked at him and Fili cleared his throat quietly. "We should head back," he said. "I don't fancy being out and about when Beorn the bear decides to come around and the sun is starting to set."

His two companions nodded in agreement and they quickly packed their things and unhurriedly walked back to Beorn's house.

Tarya opened her eyes when she heard someone clearing his throat near her. As she looked up, she saw Thorin standing before her, the late afternoon sun shining down on his form and Tarya wondered shortly how much time had actually gone by since she had sat down when she looked at the position of the sun. She must have fallen asleep. Next to Thorin, Arvo stood, looking first at her smilingly and then to the dwarf-king who slightly inclined his head at the dog. Tarya could only raise an eyebrow in question when Arvo turned around and trotted towards the exit of the garden, leaving her to stare up at Thorin confusedly.

"Is there something wrong?" she asked hesitantly, seeing his stern face.

"You were gone the whole day. I know where my nephews and Ori are but no one seemed to know where to you have wandered off to. We were starting to worry. You should have told someone where you were going," he muttered and she sighed heavily, as he crossed his arms over his chest. Tarya sat up a bit straighter against the tree trunk, not feeling really at ease when he was towering over her like this. "The only one being able to track you down proved to be the dog."

"I just happened to stumble upon this place and forgot the time. It's not that bad, considering that we are safer here than we have been for weeks out in the wild," she said warily, feeling his piercing gaze on her as she spoke. "I didn't realize I needed to inform you about my every step."

"You don't inform me about a lot of things, as it seems," he countered and now Tarya shortly closed her eyes in realization.

"So, you are not actually here because you were worried about me but because you feel the need to scold me for not telling you that Azog killed my mother," she huffed and got up to her feet, feeling disgruntled now.

"I saw a member of my company missing and felt the need to remind you that you are not supposed to be out after sundown," Thorin replied gruffly, "And as you can certainly see, the sun is already setting."

The dwarf-king seemed to be in a rather foul mood but as he turned around to walk back to the house, Tarya heard herself speak, not actually knowing where the words were coming from.

"Why are you so angry with me?"

Thorin stopped in his tracks and looked at her over his shoulder with a raised eyebrow. She shortly wondered whether she should just let it go but it was already too late now. She had his attention and if she had wanted to back down, she had not expected him to turn around and glare at her.

"You are truly asking me why I'm unhappy with you?" he asked angrily and made a step towards her that had her automatically take one backwards.

"Yes," she replied, a bit taken aback by his sudden temper.

"I shall tell you then," Thorin huffed. "I do not like being withheld information from. As the leader of this company, I cannot accept one of my companions actively keeping secrets from me. And you are, if anything, shrouded in mystery. We know nothing of you, really, and it has me wondering whether you can truly be trusted."

"You think I cannot be trusted?" she inquired incredulously and quite a bit offended now.

Thorin merely crossed his arms over his chest and stared her down. "I know nothing of your motives."

"My motives?"

"Why exactly you decided to join this quest," Thorin answered, scrutinizing her. "And how loyal you truly are to it. What tells me that you won't go running off to fight an army of orcs to avenge your mother's death; that you won't endanger all of us with a reckless decision? What tells me that you are not keeping even more secrets?"

She stared at the dwarf before her for a moment, speechless. Was that truly what he thought of her? Did he really trust her this little? After all she had done for him and his company and his quest?

"I have never kept secrets from you and I will not be accused of being untrustworthy just because you never bothered to ask me anything about myself," she argued. "And I will not apologise for not telling everybody straight away that my mother has been killed by Azog when I needed time to digest the news myself first. I did not know that the Defiler killed my mother, I didn't even know he existed until that night and it was not my plan to fight him right there and then, but I had no other choice when I saw you lying there at his mercy. If any, you are the one of us to take reckless decisions and until this day, I do not know what you were thinking when you ran against him. But I did not need to know it, because I trust you had your reasons, just as I had mine. And I would have protected you with my life because I would not let this filth kill another person that I care about. Not you, or Bilbo, or Kili or anyone of this company, if I can help it."

Thorin looked like he wanted to say something but she wasn't done yet. "I have grown fond of everyone in this company. I regard each one of you as a friend and as such, you are worthy of my help. I will not go running off, killing orcs, because that would be rather selfish and quite useless, as well. It won't bring me peace. No, I will help you reclaim your homeland if I can because I honour your purpose and I think it is much wiser to fight for the future and the hopes of an entire people than for the vengeance of one person."

The dwarf-king was silently looking at her now and she felt herself slowly calm down again, after practically having shouted at him. Only now did she realize that she was feeling weirdly warm again, although not nearly as hot as she had felt on the battlefield against Azog.

"Do not question my loyalty," she all but growled. "It might be true that you don't know much about me but I am an Amarok, after all, and you can be sure of one thing. I do not owe you my allegiance but once you have earned it, you have it until the end."

Thorin observed her for a moment and then inclined his head at her in silent acknowledging of her words but he didn't say anything and Tarya could see that he was still digesting her outburst when he looked her in the eyes again.

"I apologize," he muttered and she nodded after a moment of hesitation. Thorin nodded back at her and turned around to walk back towards the house but turned around again when she called after him.

"Why did you even take me with you if you doubted me so incredibly?" she asked.

"You proved capable of defending yourself," he replied shortly but Tarya knew that this couldn't be it, not after what he had just told her. It just didn't make sense for him to let someone in on his quest just because she wouldn't die straight away and then question her loyalty weeks after he'd taken the decision.

"That's not the whole truth," she stated and Thorin kept quiet for a moment, just looking at her in a way that she couldn't decipher. The dwarf-king seemed to be rather deep in thought when he finally cleared his throat slightly.

"I reckoned that an Amarok could bring some advantage to our quest. That is why you were allowed to join us in the first place," he uttered, looking back at her. "I thought you could be a valuable ally, which proved to be right when you fought alongside us in your wolf form. I was not sure whether taking you along after you had changed was a good idea. I have never seen or heard of anything like it before. But you did not seem to be very keen on staying with the elves and you had earned a place amongst the others already, I could hardly leave you behind. And you proved to be just as skilled as a human as you have been as a wolf, which made one wonder what your transformation might entail."

Tarya nodded shortly, frowning at his explanation. There seemed to be something strange in Thorin's voice and she raised her eyebrows at him in question. There was a strange expression mirroring in his steel blue eyes as he looked at her and the Amarok suddenly realized what it represented.

"The origin of light," she muttered. "You were wondering whether I would bring power upon you and your company as the legends suggest."

Thorin hesitated – although merely two seconds – but it was enough for her to know she was right, the look on his face giving him away. "You have never seen… in fact, no one has ever seen a human Amarok," she concluded. "I'm but a rare, strange treasure, which you hope will bring power upon you, am I not? That is why you've let me come. That is why you are questioning my loyalty, because you want to make sure that I will not just run off, so that in case the legends are true, you will be there to benefit from it."

"That is not true," Thorin replied but Tarya could see in his eyes that she had hit a spot. "You are a member of my company. An ally, a friend."

She couldn't say for certain whether he actually meant that or not but she didn't care now, anyway. She had seen that she was definitely far from entirely wrong with what she was saying.

"No, I'm not. I'm just a means to an end."

As Kili rounded the corner of Beorn's house together with Fili and Ori, he suddenly heard a loud snarl that tore the three of them from their conversation. The young brunette didn't know what he was supposed to think about what he saw when he looked up. There was his uncle, standing a few metres from the house's entrance, looking as if he wanted to go after someone but he was blocked by one of the large grey dogs. Kili needed a moment to identify it being Kol who was snarling at Thorin vigorously, although on second glance, he saw Arvo standing a bit further ahead, too, also having his teeth bared.

"What's going on?" Fili beside him asked confusedly, but also worriedly, as they quickly came closer but what caught Kili's attention was the head of black hair he saw when he turned his head to follow Thorin's gaze.

"Tarya?" he muttered confusedly to himself, before he realized that she was about to walk past the hedge of Beorn's lands. "Tarya!" he screamed after her then but she didn't turn around and after a moment, she had disappeared out of his sight.

He quickly turned to his uncle then who sighed heavily, pinching the bridge of his nose. "Where is she going?! What happened?" the young dwarf asked agitatedly but only got a huff from Thorin.

"She's gotten furious," Thorin said. "And stormed off."

"Why?" Kili wanted to know, coming to stand directly next to Thorin who was keeping an eye on the dark-furred dog before him.

"She thinks the only reason she's here is because I want to benefit from her supposed powers," Thorin declared after a moment and not only Kili looked at him incredulously.

"Well, we have to get her back," Ori chimed in a bit shyly, not comfortable with the tension that had suddenly started to build between the dwarf-king and his youngest nephew.

"I agree with Ori," Fili said. "The sun has almost vanished behind the tree tops already, she shouldn't be out there on her own. Beorn has told us not to."

"She doesn't even have her daggers with her," Ori exclaimed worriedly, looking in the direction where Tarya had vanished.

"I tried to stop her," Thorin grumbled. "The dogs wouldn't let me."

And as if on cue, the two of them started growling again as Fili made to head after Tarya, making the blonde dwarf take a step back.

"She told them to keep anyone from following her," his uncle explained and Fili closed his eyes in understanding. What was that girl thinking? She would get probably get killed out there!

"Then what should we do?" Ori asked. "We can't just let her – "

"Is she?" Kili cut him off, looking at his uncle sternly. Thorin raised both eyebrows, not quite knowing what he was getting at. "Is she here because you want to benefit from her powers?"

There was a heavy silence over the little group as uncle and nephew stared at each other.