I do not own any of the characters or the Hobbit (just the AU storyline and my OC) those are the work of the esteemed and brilliant John Ronald Reull Tolkien, and without his genius, this and many other fan fics would not be in existence.

Please review! I love getting them-they keep me encouraged! J

The next morning dawned with no clouds in the bright blue sky. There was a light breeze, alternating between warm and cold depending on whether the wind was coming from the west or the east.

The tired company had a quick breakfast, before they set out. They left the tree line, and entered the open tundra of the foothills. It was rough going. There were red and golden tussocks of grass along the path, as well as small bushes and thorn bushes here and there. In between the patches of sparse vegetation, there was loose shale atop the rocks.

Cirashala was immensely thankful that there wasn't a lot of up and down just yet. She kept stumbling over the loose shale, before becoming more wary and watching where she stepped. It caused her to run smack into whichever dwarf was in front of her a few times during a pause, but she would rather endure the slight grumbling instead of risking a sprained ankle. She made sure after the first time to only follow the hobbit, since he was the least likely to glare at her for it.

Bilbo understood her predicament quite well. He was not used to such terrain either, preferring the soft dirt and grass and smooth cobblestones of the Shire. He didn't mind that she would occasionally bump into him, though he did stub his toes a few times in the process. Even for his hardy hobbit feet, he could still feel the difference in texture of the slate.

They walked for most of the morning, before they stopped for a midday meal. Ahead of them, the land began to slope upwards, and Cirashala groaned inwardly as she munched on her cram and dried meat. After the first bite (and being reminded of her mother's early attempts at biscuits, which were just as hard, until she had learned to mix the dough properly), she had gotten creative.

She grabbed two pieces of shale and sandwiched the cram between them. Several of the dwarves raised their heads and looked at her in confusion, but she ignored them. She picked up another rock, and smashed it down on the top of her "sandwich" as hard as she could. The cram didn't budge.

Thorin raised his eyebrow at her, barely concealing his amusement, and several of the other dwarves snickered. She glared at them from the corner of her eye as she smashed the rock down again, not paying as close attention to her actions as she should have been.

"OW!" The offending rock fell from her hand. She curled her body over her smashed left thumb, scrunching her lids tightly together in a failed attempt to keep the tears from falling. Her breaths came out in rapid succession, and she felt her face grow warm as several of the dwarves started laughing at her misfortune.

She abruptly stood up and walked away, tears of pain pricking at the corner of her eyelids. She sat down on a rock some distance away from the group, but still in sight. Her back was to them, and she felt completely mortified and stupid.

She glanced down at her bleeding thumb, seeing the nail ripped halfway off as the skin around it was rapidly darkening to a deep purple.

Great, she thought to herself. She wrapped the bottom edge of her cloak around it tightly, and glanced upward at the white slopes ahead. If we had just been a little closer to snow, maybe I could put some ice on it.

She faintly heard someone approaching behind her, and jumped up and around quickly, drawing her sword with her right as she held her left close to her body. Bilbo jumped and threw up his hands with what could only be described as a whimper. She lowered her sword.

"Bilbo," she said, "Don't sneak up on me like that!" She tried to keep the quiver out of her voice as she sheathed her sword. The hobbit visibly relaxed once the steel blade was out of sight, and looked at her with concern.

"Your hand, is it all right?" he asked, gesturing toward the hand still wrapped within the cloak. She glanced down, grimacing.

"It will be," she said finally, and Bilbo sighed, smiling ruefully at her.

"Can't say I haven't been tempted to try that myself," he admitted. "Though I don't think I would be able to hit it hard enough to even crack it, let alone smash it like you did." He held out his hand, and to her surprise it held the now crumbled biscuit.

"I-it worked?" she asked, eyes wide with disbelief. The hobbit smiled and handed it to her.

"I must say the snickers ceased when I lifted the top rock off of your cram," he said. "The dwarves were just as surprised as I was." She ate the cram swiftly, surprised to see that the inside was at least chewable, if not still bland.

"Thank you, Mr. Baggins," she said between bites. "Would you like some? I don't think I will be trying that again anytime soon though…" she trailed off, and the hobbit laughed.

"If I wish to try it, I will ask Bofur to swing his mattock at it instead of risking my fingers," he chuckled. "Which reminds me, I almost forgot to tell you. The dwarves are continuing on."

"What?!" she cried. They turned around, and saw the dwarves already halfway up the incline they had stopped at, Fili and Kili lingering a little slower than the rest in the back.

The two took off running, not caring anymore about stubbed toes or blisters in their haste.

XXX

Fili and Kili had hung back as long as they could, and had gone up the path slowly, both looking back at their burglar and Cirashala.

"Why isn't Bilbo telling her we are leaving?" Kili muttered. Fili shrugged.

"He is probably seeing if she's all right," he replied. "She did hit her hand pretty hard, if the state of the cram is any indication."

"I still can't believe it worked," Kili replied, shaking his head before glancing back. He saw the two of them running towards them, and breathed out a sigh of relief.

Finally, he thought to himself. I know uncle said that they needed to keep up, but I didn't actually think he meant it.

Now that she had saved his brother, he was doubly indebted to her, as was Fili and Thorin as well. And while he could understand that Thorin did not want a woman along on their dangerous quest, he really couldn't figure out why Thorin had been willing to leave their burglar behind as well. Despite the dwarf king's opinion about the lack of usefulness of a hobbit, Kili was sure that he wasn't so stupid as to not realize that they needed Bilbo.

Gandalf had said repeatedly that the hobbit would be useful, and even had told Thorin at one point that if they didn't bring Bilbo the quest would fail. Kili hadn't quite understood why. He had listened when Gandalf mentioned that the dragon would not be able to recognize the scent of hobbit. So, Bilbo could sneak up on the dragon. But the dragon wasn't blind, or so Kili was led to believe. Surely once Bilbo was in sight, the dragon would kill him, not needing his sense of smell at that point?

He had puzzled about this for the first few weeks of their journey, but finally gave up on understanding the wizard's mind. If Gandalf said that Bilbo was needed, then he was needed. He certainly hadn't steered Kili wrong when it came to Lord Elrond. Why Thorin didn't seem to value Gandalf's advice Kili didn't know. His uncle was never one for taking advice, but the young dwarf would like to think that his uncle wasn't so stubborn as to at least value the advice of a wizard.

He glanced back, seeing that the hobbit and Cirashala were climbing the slope behind them. He gestured toward Fili, and the two of them waited for the remaining members of their company to catch up.

XXX

Cirashala was not above using both her hands and her feet to get up the steep slope. The shale was still loose, and the last thing she wanted to do was roll down to the bottom of the slope and start over. She had pulled a small bandage out of her pack as she ran, and tied it around her still bleeding thumb, resolving to put some ice on it as soon as there was ice to be had.

Bilbo alongside her was using his staff to stab at the ground as he ascended the slope. The pair managed to climb up the slope swiftly, despite Bilbo's stubbed toes and Cirashala's side throbbing with each deep breath. They reached the two young dwarves, gasping for breath.

"You….shouldn't….wait for…us," Cirashala gasped out as Kili pulled her to her feet. "Thorin…"

"Has enough sense to not leave us behind, at least," Fili said, helping the hobbit to the ledge they were standing on. "And we won't leave either of you behind either."

"Aye," Kili added. "You are both part of the company. We need our burglar, and someone who is smart enough to be able to break this blasted cram apart." He made a face, before stuffing the cram in his hand back in his pack. Fili chuckled.

"Might want to watch out for your fingers next time, lass," he said, winking at her good naturedly as Cirashala sighed, averting her eyes. The four began climbing up the rest of the slope, Fili ahead, followed by Bilbo, Cirashala, and finally Kili.

"Don't worry about it lass," Fili continued, smiling reassuringly over his shoulder. "Every single one of us has thought about smashing the dumb things at one point or another, but Dwalin refused to lend us his war hammer for some reason. Mine is too sharp and jagged to work."

"He refused to lend you his war hammer because he didn't want his best weapon used as a mere kitchen tool," Kili chuckled from behind. "Said he couldn't be considered a real dwarf if his main weapon was used for smashing food as opposed to orc skulls."

"Yet Bombur manages to do both with his ladle," Fili retorted, and the two dwarves and Bilbo started laughing heartily, finding the image of Bombur being as hearty of a warrior as Dwalin very amusing indeed. Cirashala shook her head, not quite finding it within her to laugh with her grief still too near.

They reached the top right after, seeing the company stopped about a quarter mile away, looking back at them. The four quickly caught up to the group, and after a glare from Thorin toward the two heirs that promised a lecture later, they continued on.

XXX

"Do you not find that funny?" Kili asked her quietly after they began to move again. Cirashala shook her head.

"I might have once," she replied, a shadow flicking across her face. "But I am afraid I am too old for it now." Kili's eyes grew wide at that statement, and he regarded her with a puzzled expression.

"You do not seem so very old," he said, phrasing his words carefully. He remembered an instance where he saw a dwarf man ask a dwarf woman how old she was, and promptly getting smacked in the face before receiving a lecture on how one should not ask a lady their age if they wished to live to see another day. She looked sidelong at him, raising an eyebrow.

"Are you asking me how old I am?" she asked, and Kili's wide eyes immediately focused on her hand as he stepped a little further away from her.

"N-no, of course not," he stammered. "I-I was just saying….I….nevermind." He flushed slightly, eyes focusing on the rock wall opposite them as they walked.

"It's all right," she said. "I am not technically old, only 26 in human years, but I fear that recent circumstances have made me feel far older than I really am."

"T-twenty six?" he asked, surprised. She looked far younger than that, and then he saw her eyes, and realized what she meant. Her eyes looked far older than such a young person's should, a look in them much like Thorin's had when he thought back on the Battle of Azanulbizar and the Sacking of Erebor, and his mother's after the loss of her husband.

They looked out of place on her youthful face, filled with sorrow and a burden he could not name. They spoke of grief and loss, and he realized how much the loss of her family truly pained her.

"Aye, twenty six," she replied. "I am sure among dwarves that is just a child, but I would guess that I am not much older than you, all things considered." Kili furrowed his brow in concentration, racking his brain. He tried to remember Balin's calculations for comparing the age of dwarves to the age of men. To be honest, he hadn't been the best at arithmetic, and hadn't really paid much attention.

"I think that would be about 65 in dwarf years," she said, startling him out of his thoughts. He looked at her for a moment, before a smirk crossed his features.

"Actually, then you are younger than I am in dwarf years," he said. They walked in silence for a few minutes, Kili glancing at her out of the corner of his eye.

"How in Durin's name did you figure that out so quickly?" he asked curiously. She shrugged.

"I figured out the conversion of dwarf to human ages a while ago," she said honestly. "It is a human's age multiplied by 4.2, then 44 subtracted from that product. The result was 65.2." He stared at her wide eyed, and both turned their heads as they heard Fili chuckling behind them.

"Looks like you should have paid more attention during arithmetic lessons, brother," he smirked. He looked at Cirashala.

"You are technically no older than our friend Gimli," he said. "He wasn't allowed to come because Gloin said he was too young." Kili laughed loudly, as did Bofur and Gloin behind him. Cirashala realized during the course of their walk the two brothers had cleverly managed to steer Bilbo and her back toward the center of the group.

I really need to pay more attention, she thought to herself. I don't want to get myself killed.

"Aye, and was he furious!" Bofur said, chuckling. "The lad kept ranting for days to anyone who would listen! I nearly had to throw him out of my shop because the other customers were frightened away at his glares!"

"Aye, I nearly had to chain the lad to his bed to keep him from following us," Gloin chuckled, eyeing her curiously.

"You're only as old as my Gimli?" he asked, shaking his head in astonishment. She heard him mutter under his breath, "Best not be telling the lad that Thorin let a girl come along on this quest that was his age, or the lad will never forgive me."

"I am sure that he will have his moment to shine someday," she said, being very careful of her words to avoid offending the temperamental dwarf. She of course knew that the rash young dwarf would have his moment as part of the Fellowship of the Ring eighty years from now, but she could not tell the older dwarf that.

"I tried telling him that, but the lad wouldn't listen," Gloin responded, "Stubborn as an ox, that one." He suddenly seemed to remember who he was talking to, and huffed before continuing on their path. She heard him mutter something in Khuzdul under his breath as he passed her.

"D-did I offend him?" she whispered to Fili, and he shook his head.

"I think he was more embarrassed realizing that he was actually having a conversation with someone who wasn't a dwarf," he said, looking at Gloin's shrinking back as the older dwarf moved ahead in the company's line. "Not all of us are as trusting of humans as my brother and I. Thorin would call us naïve and say we know nothing of the world."

"Perhaps you shouldn't talk to me," she said quietly. "I do not wish to sow seeds of distrust among you and your kinsmen." Fili and Kili both shook their heads.

"You have saved both of our lives and sacrificed much for our quest," Fili declared firmly. "You have done nothing to earn animosity from us." Cirashala bit her lip, looking at the company ahead of them.

"Not all of you feel that way," she replied. "I earn animosity simply because of what I am, not what I have or haven't done. Is it not true that my words of loyalty fell on deaf ears and the only reason Thorin allowed me to come was because of this 'blood debt' I keep hearing about?" She looked between the two of them, awaiting their answer. Fili and Kili glanced uneasily at each other. Their silence confirmed her suspicions.

"I thought so," she said softly, before moving ahead of them. She kept her head low, watching her feet as well as the person in front of her, and not wanting to meet anyone's eyes and reveal the hurt she felt.

It won't matter what I do or don't do, she thought to herself. They will be prejudiced against me regardless. It's just a matter of not whether they hate me, but how much they do. And it is only a matter of time before Fili and Kili both begin to follow in their footsteps, choosing their kinsmen over their "naïve" friendships. It's no different than anyone else I have ever encountered, both at home and in Middle-earth. I will never be good enough for anyone. I never have been, and I never will be.

Despite being surrounded by 14 people, she suddenly felt very, very alone.