So I was just looking through the (few) reviews that I've gotten!

If anyone has any criticism on my writing or whatever, or has any suggestions or whatnot, feel free to review!

Haha I'm so happy that people enjoy this story, and that you guys like Ella!

"Ella, my dear, this is for you."

She blinked when Gandalf handed her what looked like a dusty dagger, in a scabbard. He and Thorin had found another Elvish blade in the troll-cave; and, agreeing that she would need some form of protection, had picked up the dagger.

It was light and long, beautifully crafted, gleaming in the sunlight. She drew it out slowly, lifting it up to see it properly in the light. He saw her eyes widen as she ran her eyes over it.

"Thank you," she said, finally, sheathing it. "It's beautiful. But I don't know how to use it."

"Hopefully you won't have to. And I'm sure Master Fili would be sure to jump up in front of you at the first sign of danger as well." He raised his eyebrows, smiling at her, and noticed her face had turned slightly pink.

He paused, took another long look at her.

Ella Aidan. A mystery he was determined to unravel.

"If I may ask, my dear," he said, gently, "how did you realise so quickly that you were in a different world?"

She blinked, swallowed, glanced down at her feet with her strange black shoes and then looked back up at him.

"Well, it was really the dwarfs and hobbit and wizard part." She smiled at him weakly. "From – from where I come from, they don't exist. Well, they do exist – but in stories and fairytales, legends and myths. Not real beings. There's just people – humans – well, men, I suppose. And you were all much too real to be some sort of prank or joke or dream."

She glanced around.

"And my world – well, it could never be as green as this. It could hardly be as beautiful."

Gandalf was still looking at her, gently.

"And, you know, when I was younger, I loved all those fairytales and stories." Ella had fixed her eyes on the dwarfs now, moving around, discussing the treasure in the troll-hole. "And I sort of hoped, I'd always hoped, that they really could be real. That they were real. So when I landed here – it was, well, it was the first thing I thought of, really. That you all had to be real."

She smiled up at him uncertainly, and Gandalf smiled back down at her.

He'd known most men, or women, to be extremely, terribly narrow-minded. And Ella Aidan, despite her youth – or maybe simply because it was because of her youth – was so open that she had simply accepted the fact that she was so obviously thrown into a different world, because it was, to her, the most logical explanation.

It was, Gandalf thought, astounding. Even most of the elves had had a hard time believing in travelling between worlds - he remembered having a hard time grasping it himself, all those years ago.

"Thank you, Miss Ella," he said, and Ella nodded uncertainly.

With another smile, he turned to Bilbo.

"Something's coming!"

When Ella first heard Thorin's shout, she instinctively wove her way towards Fili, who already had both blades out and was looking around. Catching sight of her, he promptly positioned himself in front of her. "Stay behind me."

Ella figured that it was an excellent plan.

"Thieves! Fire! Murder!" a voice was shrieking, yelling, as huge rabbits pulling a sled leapt into the middle of their company and came to an abrupt halt.

Rabbits.

Ella felt a bubble of laughter build up in her hysterically, and had to choke back her laughter when she saw the man standing in the sled.

"Radagast!"

It was Gandalf, sheathing his sword, marching forwards with a frown on his face. "Radagast the Brown. What on earth are you doing here?"

Ella had the feeling that Gandalf was not entirely happy.

"I was looking for you, Gandalf," the strange man was saying, blabbering, really. "Something's wrong. Something's terribly wrong."

"Yes?"

He opened his mouth; and shut it. Opened it again, and shut it again. In front of her, Fili had relaxed slightly, but still had his weapons out, making sure she was fully behind him.

"Oh, just give me a minute. Um, oh, I had a thought, and now I've lost it," Radagast was saying. "It was, it was right there, on the tip of my tongue."

At this, Ella let out a soft giggle; she couldn't help it. Gandalf was still looking at the man with a slightly exasperated face.

"Oh, it's not a thought at all," she heard Radagast say, sounding surprised, "it's a silly old…"

She saw Gandalf pluck something out of his mouth.

" – stick insect!"

Ella turned her face away.

Oh god. Stick insects. In his mouth. And he seemed to find it perfectly normal.

"Who is this guy?" Ella asked, as Radagast and Gandalf moved away to speak privately.

"A wizard," Bilbo said. "He looks after the forests, or something like that. He said that Radagast was a very great wizard in his own way."

"In his own way," Ella repeated, shutting her eyes as she remembered Gandalf picking the stick insect out of Radagast's mouth. "I'm sure."

"You're not nervous about a little stick insect, are you?" Fili was grinning at her, smirking. "I'm sure I could find some other insects around for you…"

"Oh, god, no. Please just no." Ella shut her eyes tightly. She'd never been much fond of insects; animals in general, really. Another memory; barbeques with her friends, them laughing when they saw her run away screaming from a cat; a community project late at night, her nearly having a heart attack when a massive bug had landed on the table, Kevin spitting out his food, laughing, as he saw the look on her face; her screaming at the top of her voice for Emma to come into her room and help her get rid of a cockroach, or lizard, or bug, that had come in through the window.

Shit.

The tears were already dripping down her face.

"Ella?" It was Fili's voice, sounding worried, slightly panicked. "It's okay, I wouldn't really do that, I wouldn't – "

Ella pushed herself up from the rock, shook her head furiously, and moved away slightly.

She appreciated Fili's efforts. She really did.

It was just that she was more used to being alone when she was upset, or either with Emma or Jerelee.

Ella had never been particularly good at making close friends. Her parents had always joked how much she was like her father that way, keeping nearly everyone at a distance apart from a very select few. And she hardly ever got upset in front of people.

And she'd done it who-knows-how-many times in slightly more than a day, in front of people she hardly knew.

She wasn't sure if it was anger, annoyance or disgust she felt towards herself.

"Ella?"

It was Ori's voice this time, gentle, concerned, holding out a reasonably clean strip of cloth.

"Thank you," she managed to mumble, fumbling with it and pushing her glasses up to press it to her eyes. "I'm sorry about this," she added, sniffing slightly. "You guys must be absolutely sick of me breaking down into tears at every other thing – "

"No, no! We're just really, really worried. That's all." He smiled at her, that shy, uncertain smile Ella had been seeing every time she looked at him. "No, no, keep it!" He pressed the cloth into her hands when she tried to return it after cleaning up her face as much as she could. "I'm all right, I don't use it much."

She smiled at him; and he smiled back at her, beaming slightly now, not looking as nervous or uncertain as before.

And then the first howl came, and Fili was at her side in an instant, and Ori, after glancing briefly from her to Fili, stumbled towards the ponies.

"What was that?" she whispered, gripping the cloth tightly in her hands, twisting it around. She had a sudden urge to cling onto Fili, but that, she reminded herself, would be absolutely ridiculous, and weak. And would most definitely hamper his fighting.

The cloth twisted even more in her hands.

"Not a wolf," was Fili's reply, grim, blades in his hands.

And then the most terrifying, animal-like creature she had ever seen jumped into the midst of the dwarfs, howling, grabbing a dwarf and leaping among them, until Thorin brought down his sword, leaving it whimpering as he killed it.

Ella hadn't even been aware she had started swearing until another, similar creature another leapt out of nowhere, howling as it fell to the ground with an arrow from Kili, trying to get back up and being promptly killed by Dwalin.

She thought she was going to puke.

"Warg scouts!" Thorin was shouting. "Which means an Orc pack is not far behind."

"Orc pack?" Bilbo's voice had gone up into a squeak.

"Who did you tell about your quest, beyond your kin?" Gandalf demanded, marching towards Thorin.

"No one."

"Who did you tell?" Gandalf repeated, eyes flashing.

"No one, I swear." He glanced at the dead Wargs. "What in Durin's name is going on?"

"You are being hunted."

Ella could barely absorb this information, her eyes still fixed on the dead Wargs in front of her.

Dwalin stepped forward. "We have to get out of here."

"We can't!" Ori called out, stumbling back towards the group. "We have no ponies; they bolted."

Ella felt panic rising in her. Wargs. More Wargs. Those disgusting, dead creatures lying on the ground. And Orcs, whatever they were; hell, she didn't want to know what they were. And she was useless. Completely useless. Give her a poem to analyse, history readings to absorb; that, she could do, with little problem. But now she was useless. With a dagger in her hand that she didn't even know how to use.

"I'll draw them off!" she heard Radagast say, and brought herself back to the present. Useless or not, she could not be a burden to them. Even if Thorin still glared at her, Dwalin was still cautious around her, Bifur scared her and Gloin and Nori and Dori looked as if they weren't very sure what to do with her; they had still tried to make her feel at home. And she owed them something for that, even if it had only been slightly more than a day.

"Those are Gundabad Wargs; they will outrun you," Gandalf was saying to Radagast.

"These are Rhosgobel rabbits!" Radagast stepped forward, twitched his eyebrows. "I'd like to see them try."

Ella was thankful that she'd taken to running nearly every day the past year, an attempt to lose weight on her part. It hadn't been very successful – she'd gained more muscle, really – but she had continued it anyway, finding some comfort in running around and around the school track. And she was extremely grateful for it. It was coming in useful right about then as they ran as fast as they could away from the Orc pack and Radagast.

Of course, she didn't usually run with a dagger in her hand and carrying a pack, but she was hopeful that she wouldn't impale herself on the dagger anytime soon.

Fili glanced back at her as they continued running through the undergrowth. She was, he realised, keeping a fairly good pace, and though she was obviously straining herself, her feet never stopped moving, stumbling over roots or plants only a few times.

"Come on!" Gandalf cried from in front of them, and Ella stumbled after the dwarfs, keeping her eyes fixed on the back of Fili's blond head. They were running across a rocky plain now, sprinting as fast as they could, and Ella could hear Radagast shrieking and yelling, and the howls of even more Wargs, and low growls and shouts of what probably were Orcs.

Don't look, don't look, do not look. You are not allowed to look.

Ella could hardly take in anyything; she was only aware of dashing across the plain, pausing once in a while to take cover behind some rocks whenever the Orc pack drew too close, following Gandalf's tall grey figure as he continued leading them.

And then the next time they stopped, Ella was suddenly very aware of a low growling and sniffing on top of the rock behind them. Fili had still kept her close to him, eyes flicking around them, pushing her as far back into the rock as she could possibly go, pressing her between his brother and himself.

Movement just in front of them, and Kili whirled out and shot an arrow straight at the Warg.

Ella had to clamp her hand over her mouth when the Warg and the Orc fell onto the ground.

The Orc had to be the most disgusting creatures she had ever seen. Vaguely humanoid, but a growling, vile mess, snapping and snarling and whirling its blade around as the dwarfs repeatedly stabbed and slashed at it, until it fell limp.

Then she heard a loud and a yell in a strange, guttural language, and howling nearing them, the thump of the Wargs' feet against the ground as they realised where the dwarfs were.

And then Fili grabbed Ella's hand and they were running, flying across the rocky ground, as the Wargs howled and started chasing after them. Ella could hardly think, did her best not to glance back around at them.

One, two, three, four. She kept counting in her head, steadily, putting one foot in front of the other, sprinting as fast as she could, only vaguely aware of her hand wrapped in Fili's, tugging her along.

And then they suddenly stopped, and Fili was still in front of her, making sure she was covered, surrounded by the rest of the company.

"There's more of them coming!"

"Kili! Shoot them!"

And arrows were flying, thudding into the Wargs and the Orcs, and they were releasing loud howls as they fell to the ground. But still there were more, more coming.

"We're surrounded!" Fili yelled, still shielding her, backing her closer into the circle of dwarfs.

"Where is Gandalf?" Kili shouted as he let loose arrow after arrow.

"He has abandoned us!" Even loud, Dwalin's voice was still a growl.

They gathered closer together in a circle, Ella close to Fili, Fili close to Ella. A rock flew towards one of the approaching Wargs, hit him in the face and flew away; the Warg continued moving towards them, growling. Ella saw Ori's eyes go wide, lower his slingshot, stumble backwards, closer to the others.

"Hold your ground!" Thorin yelled, as he drew out his sword, the blade glinting in the sunlight.

And then Gandalf's voice –

"This way, you fools!"

And the next thing Ella knew, Fili had pushed her down the side of a hole, rolling along until she hit the bottom, gasping, everything suddenly clear-cut and in focus. She scrambled over to the side just as she was followed by the dwarfs, all tumbling down into the hole.

Ella couldn't see Fili's blond head anywhere.

"Fili!" she shrieked, moving back to the bottom, where she could look up. Thorin was standing there, sword out, hollering something that sounded a lot like Kili's name.

And then Fili tumbled down into the hole, followed by his brother and Thorin, and Ella sank against the side of the hole, her breathing suddenly a whole lot easier.

Ella's ears pricked up as a horn sounded, long and loud.

"Are you all right, Ella?"

Ori was beside her suddenly, looking at her worriedly, his voice full of concern.

She managed a smile, "Thank you, Ori, yes, I think I'm – "

Her voice broke off into a high-pitched shriek as a Warg flew through the hole and landed in front of her, an arrow in its body.

Thorin gave her a dark look, reached forward and plucked out the arrow, examining it.

"Elves."

There was venom in his voice.

"I cannot see where the pathway leads," Dwalin called, as he stood at the back of the cave, looking in front of him. "Do we follow it or no?"

"Follow it, of course!" Bofur's reply was immediate as he scurried after the tattooed dwarf.

"I think that would be wise," Gandalf murmured, and the dwarfs began to march through the cave, making for the pathway.

"Ella."

A hand was around her shoulders, steadying her as she took shallow breaths, her vision filled only with blood and gore and the arrow in the Warg's side. She hadn't realised that she was standing frozen in front of the Warg, her eyes still on it.

"Ella. Breathe. Come on. You can look at me instead. Don't look at it."

"Don't look at it," Ella repeated, softly, and turned her head and buried her face into Fili's shoulder.

She didn't see the glance Ori cast back at her as he followed the rest of the company into the tunnel, nor Kili's raised eyebrows at his brother, whose own eyes were solely fixed on the dark girl in his arms.

"It's okay. It's okay. Shh. Come on. We'll follow the pathway, okay? No more staying here with the ugly dead Warg."

He heard a soft, choked laugh.

"That's right, we can leave the ugly dead Warg to rot. Come on, now."

"I'm sorry," he heard her mumble into his coat. "I'm sorry. I'm so weak. And useless. And pathetic. I'm such a burden."

And, slowly, Ella peeled herself away from him and followed the rest of the dwarfs down the pathway.

Finally, finally the tunnel opened up, and Ella staggered forward, into the open space, trying to discreetly get further away from Fili.

She'd been chiding herself the whole way, telling herself what a burden she was on poor Fili, who was already trying to make sure his reckless brother didn't do anything stupid. And just now, with the dead Warg in front of her – her face heated up constantly whenever she thought of it, how she had pressed her face into Fili's shoulder.

Stupid, stupid weakling.

And so now she moved forward to stand next to Bofur, only looking up when she was sure she was a fair distance away from Fili; it was lucky there were so many dwarfs and that she was slight enough to slip through them.

And her jaw dropped.

"The Valley of Imraldis. In the Common Tongue, it's known by another name," Gandalf was saying from somewhere behind her.

And then Bilbo spoke.

"Rivendell."