'I am, like, three-hundred percent done with this shit- ah!' I had ducked and tripped away from another oncoming herd of Goblins. While muttering a startled, 'I'm sorry,' I jabbed the hilt of Snowthorn into one of their sides, causing it to stumble and fall backwards off of the edge of the wooden bridge, down into the deep, unknown of Goblin Town.

The last thing I saw were its eyes, and they were scared.

'Millie, come!' said Nori, pulling me along. I followed, thankful for the Dwarves constant eyes watching what I was doing. Had it not been for them, I would have lost my way long ago.

Dwalin had picked up the 'banister' of the bridge, and soon many of the other Dwarves followed suite. They stood in a line, jutting the long stick forward, pushing the herd of Goblin's off of the bridge with the force of it. We continued to run, now that the path ahead was relatively clear. Still, I was forced to stay at the back, while the Dwarves and Gandalf cleared the way with their swinging swords and axes.

We ran fast and hard, over a constant flow of rotting, rickety bridges. I had kept my eyes firmly locked ahead of me, trying to find each of my friends among our company. It was only then that I realized that a certain Hobbit was missing. My feet tripped lazily with the shock, the realization. He was gone. I hadn't seen him in far too long, not even when the Goblin King was mocking and threatening us.

'Bil-' I was going to tell them that he wasn't there, that he hadn't been for so long. But, at that moment, my foot got caught on one of the planks that made up the small bridge and I had taken a painful tumble onto my front, too close to the edge for my liking. Tears of frustration and horror filled my eyes as I climbed carefully to my feet, aware of the Dwarves that had not noticed my fall, and the Goblins that still rocked the bridge that I stood on.

'Lady,' wheezed a voice, and I looked up to find a Goblin limp away from the fast moving fight. It's eyes were fixed upon me. 'Lady, sweet and soft, mine to take to-' It choked quite suddenly, and I saw the dirty and sweaty face of Kili peek over the Goblin, his hand holding onto the hunting knife that was embedded into the Goblin's shoulder blade.

'Kili,' I dry-sobbed, stumbling over to him with Snowthorn dangling uselessly from my hand. He grabbed my face, smearing blood and dirt onto my already bloody cheeks.

'Do not leave my sight,' he told me quickly, and then he was dragging me back to the running Dwarves who were already ahead of us. Balin was twisting his weapon around, knocking Goblins aside, Dwalin was hacking them to pieces, Thorin was splitting their stomachs. My own heaved with the sight, not knowing how I could ever get used to this, now knowing I would ever live without the protective eyes of Kili.

They were warriors, true Dwarven warriors. They twisted, they spun, they jabbed, they slid. It was a dance. A deadly, bloody, disgusting dance.

And I was the odd one out.

Fili, Oin and Thorin swung their swords at the ropes that attached the raised platform - where Goblins screeched - to where the Dwarves and Gandalf stood. I watched, terrified, as the platform broke away from us, the Goblins swinging about and falling into the darkness.

As another Goblin slid past me, ready to attack, I madly swung my sword at it and drew a large amount of blood and muscle. That time, as the Goblin's blood fell everywhere, I was forced to retreat back a few steps and empty the contents of my stomach. I felt empty and sick and alone, not knowing where Kili had disappeared to once again.

You'll kill him if you try and find his protection all the time.

I did find him though, as I tripped through the battle, dodging anything that came my way. He was holding a ladder, blocking any arrows that flew his way. My stomach dropped at the thought of one of those arrows finding him, and I quickly darted forward, catching the ladder as he dropped it onto various Goblin's heads. The other Dwarves followed Kili's example, each taking an end of the ladder and pushing it forward, successfully throwing the Goblin's out from under their feet.

'Make a bridge!' I had yelled, and the others followed my idea, planting the ladder onto the ground (and across the large gap) and we all bumbled across it, careful of our footing.

Gandalf stayed at the head of the group, fighting the Goblins with a kind of quick and special swordplay that I couldn't help but admire. I'd stumbled after the company as they had found upon another bridge. Kili turned once and surged back to yank me forward, and it was only at his concerned look that I, with much mortification, realized that my face was wet not only blood and dirt, but tears.

We all landed on the bridge, and the ropes were quickly cut, sending the platform swinging away from the herd of Goblins on the other side of the gap. As it reached the other side, a few jumped off, but the rest of us were quickly swung back once again. As it swung back, four Goblins jumped greedily onto the wooden platform, eager to kill the remainder of us.

I was pushed to the ground with the force of the swinging, right about ready to throw up once again. 'Millie!' shouted Fili, and had I scrambled to my feet as the platform hit the cliff edge, and had jumped onto the steady land, gasping.

'This is so shit,' I'd muttered, kicking myself upright.

We, once again, continued to run through the stone passages, the dome like caves, and past the wooden bridges where the Goblins jumped, armed and ready. There were too many, so many that I lost track of the ones killed, and the ones left behind. The Dwarves never seemed to stop swinging their swords, and Gandalf always seemed to know which direction to go in.

I had hit anything with my sword - anything that was unfamiliar, and that came too close. I didn't think, I just did. I barely noticed Gandalf enchant a rock to fall from the wall, sending it bowling in front of us and knocking away any Goblin's that lay in our path. And let me tell you, that would have been a perfect opportunity for an Indiana Jones joke.

My chest was beginning to sting with the amount of running that we were doing, and my body ached with cuts and bruises that I had not even noticed I had obtained. I looked a wreck, and I was sure that some of the smaller, deeper cuts would scar.

I'd never forget this night, even if I wanted to.

And I never did. It was my first real battle, the first time that had killed anything that looked human, that felt like I did, be the emotions terrible and its intentions even worse.

I'd murdered.

With this realization, I'd let out a shuddering sob and fallen sideways into the wall. Bombur pulled me along upon noticing my mental breakdown. 'Come, come, lass,' he had huffed, having been as equally as exhausted and unfit as me.

I had wondered then why it was me who had been chosen for this. I couldn't fight, I couldn't save anyone. I was normal. I was a normal teenage girl with zero ability in anything that would help with the quest. I knew nothing about Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit, save for a few characters names and the fact that 'good beat evil' or whatever, but that wasn't even in this film!

Then more Goblins came, and so I jabbed, and I ducked, and I blocked, and I hid behind the other Dwarves.

For a moment, we came across a relatively safe looking, stable bridge. The Goblin's seemed to be further behind us. For a moment- a small moment - I thought that we were safe, that we could run the rest of the way out without too much bother.

I had been wrong and naive.

From beneath the bridge burst the Goblin King, splintering away the wooden passage with his bulbous head. The Goblin's poured out around him from every crevice of the place, skittering and smirking. 'You thought you could escape me?' questioned the Goblin King, standing directly in front of us, panting and sweating, oozing a smell of rot and decay.

The Goblin King smacked at Gandalf with his massive staff, and myself and the other Dwarves cried out in anger, catching the old Wizard. 'What are you going to do now, Wizard?'

Gandalf promptly jabbed the Goblin King in the eye and then cut him harshly across the stomach, causing blood to ooze from the deep wound. My stomach churned with a cold, sick feeling at the sight, and I cast my eyes downwards, squeezing them shut. After a moment of panic, though, I spied out Kili and Fili to the right of me.

Good, my mind sighed. Good.

'Well, that'll do it,' said the Goblin King, nearly impressed. Thinking the worst was over, I looked up, only to see Gandalf slice the brute across the throat. The King fell face down, causing Gandalf to step back is disgust. The bridge, apparently, could not take the weight of the obese Goblin King falling, and began to buckle and groan.

'Oh, bugger'.

The bridge collapsed. It slid quickly against the wall beneath it, causing the wood and the platform to split away. I held as tightly as I could onto the wood beneath, knowing that it was disintegrating beneath mine, the men and Gandalf's grips. Part of me was thankful that we were away from the Goblins, but another part of me was a little wary about falling to my death.

'Bloody Peter Jackson!' I had wailed, closing my eyes as my stomach turned with the sheer force of the fall.

And then, finally, we landed.

We all groaned with the hit, finding ourselves wrapped up in the broken remains of the bridge. I, myself, was pressed against the dirty ground, the wood and the Dwarves above me. Kili's head dangled above my own, and moaned loudly, catching my eye. I had probably looked a state, but I couldn't have cared less.

'Well,' said Bofur from above me. 'That could have been worse!'

Predictably, the body of the Goblin King then decided to crash down onto the already messy mess. His huge, hulking form was enough to press tightly down onto the rest of the Dwarves, who all yelled and huffed in shock of the weight.

'You just had to say it, didn't you?' I'd asked, dragging myself out from the destroyed bridge, narrowly avoiding a piece of wood that snapped from Kili's weight. The others began to help each other out of the mess of wood and rope, sending the Goblin's body dirty looks.

I couldn't bare to look at him.

'Gandalf!' yelled Kili, just as I climbed unsteadily to my feet. We all looked quickly to see what he was shouting about, and my stomached drop with dread. There, running toward us, were thousands of angry, screaming Goblins. They piled forward, ready to seek revenge.

'There's too many. We can't fight them!'

'You don't say!' I'd bit back. I had, at this point, seen Kili struggling to scramble to his feet, just as Gandalf yelled,

'Only one thing will save us-' His words, though, were blocked out as I yanked Kili to his feet, his hands slipping from mine curiously. I looked down to find blood on my hands, both mine and the Goblin's. Shoving my sword into my scabbard, I tightly held onto him, worried that I would collapse if I did not. 'On your feet!' yelled Gandalf, pushing the Dwarves through a side exit.

I took one last look at the approaching Goblins, and then let myself be dragged along with the already running Kili, following the other Dwarves closely. We ran quickly, finally seeing the light of dawn through a stone doorway at the end of the rocky corridor. Kili pushed me forward, letting go of my hand, while Gandalf stopped ahead of us to check that we all made it through.

The moment fresh air and sunlight hit my face, I stumbled to a stop, too relieved to even begin to think that we were not yet safe.

'Come, Millie, we must find safer ground!' said Gandalf, pushing me forward with his staff. I thought about the blood that may be on it and cringed away, starting forward once again. We ran downhill, and I'd had to force myself to miss the pine trees, and to not fall flat on my face. 'Kili, Fili, Millie,' said Gandalf, counting us all as we ran past him.

'...That makes thirteen. Where's Bilbo?' asked Gandalf, suddenly aware of the absence of the Hobbit. I fell heavily onto the rock below me, burying my face in my hands while everyone looked about themselves, gasping for breath. 'Where is our Hobbit? Where is our Hobbit?'

I had pulled my face out of my hands to stare up at Kili and Fili, who looked wildly about beside me. Kili looked down at his feet, and I couldn't help but smile shrewdly at that.

'Curse the Halfling! Now he's lost, I thought he was with Dori!'

'Don't blame me!' snapped Dori.

'Well, when did you last see him?' asked Gandalf, growing alarmed.

'Well,' said Nori. 'I think I last saw him when they first came after us,' explained the Dwarf. I thought about voicing up not seeing him, but decided that it was pointless, now that we knew when he had last been seen.

'Well what happened after that?' demanded Gandalf. I closed my eyes, feeling sick and tired. Slowly, I touched my cheek, and felt the grime their, the blood and the dirt.

'Kili,' I'd said, my voice hollow and quiet. 'Can you-'

He looked down at me, and saw me point vaguely to my face. Quickly, he had knelt, ripped away some of his cloak and began wiping away at my cheeks. 'You've earned your first battle wound,' he'd said, dark eyes looking to my left cheek. There was no humor in his voice. 'A goblin must have cut your cheek, and your ear,' he'd added. 'Are you alright, Millie?'

Honestly, I shook my head.

'You were very brave,' he told me, trying to catch my gaze. I swallowed tightly, nodding.

'So were you'.

'Tell me!' said Gandalf.

'I'll tell you what happened,' said Thorin, and I anticipated another hate speech for Bilbo. Kili pulled away from me to look at his Uncle, hand still resting on the rock beside me. 'Master Baggins saw his chance and he took it! He has thought of nothing but his soft bed and his warm hearth since he stepped out of his door. We will not be seeing our Hobbit again. He is long gone, and do not try to argue with me, girl,' he said, and I had realized that he was talking to me.

With an ill expression on my face, I looked up to glare at him. 'Last time I kill to save your arse,' I'd muttered, though he heard me quite clearly. My stomach twisted at the thoughts which entered my mind, and I bowed my head once again, biting back a gag and the rise of bile. 'I'm gonna puke'.

Kili had shared a not-so-secretive look with his brother, still kneeling beside me.

Quite suddenly, Bilbo appeared from the tree behind me. 'No,' he quipped. 'He isn't. Long gone, that is'.

Through my sickness, I yelped, 'Bilbo! Dude!' The rest of the company looked happily at the Hobbit, while Dwalin and Thorin looked grumpily on.

'Bilbo Baggins!' chuckled Gandalf. 'I have never been so glad to see you in all my life!'

The Hobbit smiled and walked forward, patting Balin on the back. 'Bilbo, we-' started Kili, standing. I realized that I had been leaning into him, and frowned. 'We'd given you up,' he laughed.

'How on earth did you get past the Goblins?' asked Fili, surprised yet pleased.

'What does it matter?' said Gandalf quickly. 'He's back!'

'It matters,' said Thorin, looking suspiciously at the Hobbit. 'I want to know...why did you come back?' I opened my mouth to have a little sass-attack at him, but clamped a hand over my mouth upon realizing that any talking would, quite literally, involve word vomit.

Bilbo stared at him for a moment. 'Look, I-I know you doubt me, I know you always have. You're right, I often think of Bag End. I miss my books,' he admitted. 'Amen to that, sister,' I said, raising my hand, my head still bowed. 'And my armchair,' carried on Bilbo. 'And my garden. See, that's where I belong. That's home. That's why I came back, because...you don't have one. All of you,' he said, and I peeked up to find his kind stare on me. 'A home,' he explained. 'It was taken from you, but I will help you take it back if I can'.

There was a brief moment of silence, in which Thorin nodded to Bilbo, having finally been one and truly told.

And then, of course, I had to ruin the moment by letting out an embarrassing and loud sob. I didn't like crying in front of people, and I still do not. So, let me tell you, crying in front of thirteen Dwarves, a Hobbit (who had just given the nicest, most heart-warming speech) and a Wizard...well, it was awkward.

'I'm sorry!' I'd gasped out, burying my face in my hands. 'I've just never killed anything before, and I'm all covered in blood and bruises, and that speech-' I held up a hand, the other still covering my face. 'It's just been a very stressful day, I'm very sorry'.

'Your fought well, Alexandria,' said Gandalf softly.

I waved away his kindness, fighting through a wobbly smile, 'Oh, pish-posh'. Wiping away my stupid, cursed tears, I had the decency to blush through my dirty cheeks. 'Oh my God, I feel like such an idiot,' I grumbled, blinking away any wetness in my eyes. A few smiles stretched out around me.

'It wa' your first battle, lass,' said Gloin. 'It's understandable'.

And then a howl cut through the air, sharp and high. I had jumped to my feet, scrambling off of the rock with my eyes wide and searching. Weapons were held higher, and the others eyes were on alert. 'No,' I'd said, not believing that even more trouble had come our way. 'No, no, no, no, no, no'.

'Out of the frying pan,' said Thorin, glancing sideways to Gandalf.

'And into the fire,' replied Gandalf, a hint of solemnity in his voice.

'Now is not the time to be thinking about food!' I had wailed, not understanding the meaning of the words. 'I mean, come on, guys!'

'Run!' roared Gandalf, and we all followed quickly, myself still struggling to repress the after effects of sobbing. My feet still hurt, and my body still ached, but whoever chased us could bugger off if they thought I would die so easily, not after what we had just survived.

Whatever chased us, though, continued to wail, roar, growl and howl from behind us, gaining on our tails quickly. 'I am so sick of running!' I growled out, my bag whacking uncomfortably against my side. Night had fallen quickly, and any rays of that orange sun were long gone, leaving behind only the dark, cloudy sky and the noises from behind us.

Then they were on us, and I caught sight of Bilbo jabbing his sword into one of the Wargs heads. His shocked expression matched my own as the Dwarves and Gandalf began to run, bashing away any Wargs that wandered too close to our company.

'Up in the trees!' ordered Gandalf. 'All of you, come on!'

I stumbled to a stop, watching as the others began to deftly climb the trees, swinging from branch to branch to get as high as they all could. The Wargs continued to run down the hillside, the stragglers coming closer and closer to us. I turned back, away from the Dwarves and Gandalf, to face Bilbo Baggins.

'Oh, for God's sake, Bilbo!' I had grumbled. He had been attempting to yank his sword from the Warg's head, you see. 'Bilbo - hurry!' I had stumbled back to one of the trees upon seeing more Wargs burst into the clearing. I hastily scrambled up the tree, though it was still quite a blur of how I'd managed to get up there so quickly - without falling too.

The Hobbit was darting to the same pine tree as me, and I wrenched him up with me, both of us rather inexpertly and clumsily reaching the highest point of the tree. 'Thank you!' he yelped, helping me onto the same branch as him.

'Leave no brother behind,' I muttered, eyes fixed on the Wargs beneath us. They were big and terrible, dribbling and baring their teeth. After running from such things before, I had known how quick they could be, but I had not seen them this close up. They were like wolves, but bigger - bigger teeth, bigger mouths, bigger bodies, bigger claws.

That was when we all saw him.

'Is that the Pale Orc?' I had whispered to Bilbo, and the Hobbit beside me had both shrugged and nodded. 'I can kinda see why they call him that'. He had been tall, wide and white, with scars littering his body and his very presence scaring the crap out of me as he rode in on his giant, equally pale Warg-thing. Oddly enough, he had reminded me a little of Bane from the The Dark Knight Rises.

The more you know.

He began to grumble and rasp something to Thorin in a language that, even now, I did not know nor understand. I heard Thorin's name mixed into the equation, and realized how freaked out the guy must be. He had been so sure that the Pale Orc was dead, that the thing that had killed his father or grandfather (whatever) was no longer living.

'Worst reunion ever,' I had muttered, sinking further into my branch. I jumped quite suddenly when I foot appeared on the branch in front of me. 'Sweet Lord-' I yelped, but relaxed upon seeing that it was Kili, and above him, Fili. They were looking intently at the Pale Orc, hanging onto the branches around them. Right, hadn't the guy killed their grandfather, or great-grandfather (depending on which was right)?

I'd lost track by this point.

The Pale Idiot then shouted something that sounded curiously like, 'Be ba dow bee', and I guess that had meant, 'Kill them, my pretties!' because all of a sudden, the Wargs had surged forward toward our 'safe havens' (the trees) and had began to leap at them, claws scratching against the bark.

The Dwarves on the other trees shouted, while I had screamed in terror, grasping onto the pine tree and pulling Bilbo to a safer standing. 'Bilbo, if we die, I'm so sorry that I kept eating your bread, and that I took you dad's trousers!'

'That is fine!' he had replied, equally as terrified.

The Wargs roared and barked, leaping very close to where we stood on the tree. I slipped quite dangerously as the tree shook, but was quickly put right by Bilbo.

'Millie, Bilbo!' shouted Kili.

'We're still here!' I had replied, hoping that I could keep my hold on the rough bark, just for a little while longer. I dreaded the thought of being the first to fall, though it seemed more likely as the Wargs become rougher, jumping higher and snapping their teeth more often. Two attacked our tree, and one of them managed to hang briefly from the branch below Bilbo and I before falling, yapping loudly.

And then, our tree began to fall.

I pressed my forehead tightly against the bark, gritting my teeth and scraping my nails against the roughness as we tilted sideways, Kili, Fili and Bilbo's shouts were all I could hear. The other Dwarves (and Gandalf's) voices had been drowned out by the buzzing in my head and my constant mantra of, Remember your family. Remember barbecues and University and your room and your mum snoring and your dad cracking offensive jokes. Remember them.

Bilbo pulled me to him, causing me to snap my eyes open. 'Jump!' he'd said, and I saw that our tree was fast approaching another. A domino effect then took place. We jumped onto the next tree, scrambling desperately to stay upright. That tree then fell onto another, and we'd jumped onto that one. You get the idea, but after a short time, all of us managed to find ourselves on the same tree...

That just so happened to be on the edge of a cliff.

I closed my eyes and breathed in deeply, ignoring the deep fall below, ignoring the rough laugh of the Orc, and only hearing the breaths of my companions, showing that they were still alive.

My eyes found Kili's, and everything felt a little better. If only a little.

The Wargs surrounded this new tree, one in which we all occupied. I lent heavily against the trunk, my legs hanging on either side of a thick branch. I had been so tired, from what I remember. So tired that I hardly noticed Gandalf light up a freaking pine cone.

'Gandalf, what are you-'

He then promptly threw the pine cone, and it flared to life at the feet of the Wargs, subsequently making them startle back, whining and snapping at the fire which spread safely around us. 'Well shit, that's- that's actually a pretty good idea,' I'd mused tiredly. 'Gimme one'.

Gandalf passed one to Gloin, who passed one to Bilbo, who passed one to me. I threw it so quickly that I hardly felt the fire within the cone, and the satisfaction of seeing it hit the side of a Warg's head could have only of given me a great surge of pleasure and a yelled out, 'Suck on that!' as flaming pine cones surged toward the confused and angry Wargs and the Pale Orc. 'This is so therapeutic!'

We cheered, we whistled, we watched as the little shits got their fair share of karma. Then, of course, the tree had to go and ruin all of our celebrating by snapping away at the roots. It bent quickly backwards, hanging dangerously over the edge of the cliff, teasing us with the great landscape beneath. A landscape - a fall - that could quite easily be the death of us all.

I slipped quite ungracefully, scrambling to hold tightly onto the same branch as Bilbo. Everything had been so up and down that day, I was beginning to grow quite wary of it, truth be told.

That was when Thorin had stood, apparently as sick of this shit as I was. I had to be impressed by the aura that he created though, if I'm honest. He stood before the flaming ground, rising slowly to his feet with his face a mask of badass anger. All of it for the Pale Orc. Bilbo and I stared, awed, at his...I don't know, majestic persona. He just looked like a King in that moment.

With a yell, he started forward, and many of the others watched in fear and anticipation as their King, their friend, ran through fire and smoke, a shield of oak upon his arm, and his sword raised high.

The Pale Orc had lent forward on his white Warg and roared, surging forward and knocking the Dwarf from his feet and flat onto his back. The Dwarves yelled at the injustice of it all, myself and Bilbo included.

It was only then that I heard the shouts of Dori, and turned awkwardly around to see him hanging from Gandalf's staff, Ori gripping tightly onto his ankles. Both were dangling above the abyss beneath us, and I had opened my mouth in horror, my eyes stinging, my hope gone.

Thorin staggered to his feet, only to be knocked down by the Orc once again. My heart broke at the shouts of Balin, Dwalin, Kili and Fili. I had never proclaimed my loyalty to the King, nor my likeness for him. But I knew a good guy when I saw one, and Thorin did not deserve to die. 'We have to help him,' I choked, pulling myself higher. 'We have to,' I looked desperately at Bilbo, who merely stared ahead, his jaw set.

The smoke was beginning to become too much, and my lungs ached with the thickness of it. I was too tired, too tired to fight or crack a wise-arse comment. Bilbo finally looked at me, and said a simple, 'You're right, Millie'. With that, he stood shakily to his feet, the fire around him, his bare feet pressed against the trunk of the overturned tree, his bravery enviable.

And he started forward.

And, of course, I followed him.

And okay, it's up! Admittedly, this isn't as lighthearted as the earlier chapters, but I wanted to show how scared Millie is, and how unused to this life she is. She just had her first kill, and that's gotta be tough. She'll be returning to her sassy-self though, don't you guys worry!

Thank you so much for the reviews, I can't say this enough. It's amazing how you've taken to this story, and I love you all so much, I don't care if that's corny.

To those who already follow my tumblr and send me such nice things, thank you. To those who don't, take a peek at kiliyousosilly. Thank you again!