All sounds stopped from inside the pub, and it seemed that they all held their breath. The darkness felt heavy and unnatural, and Bella's heart started to race again. A chill tripped along her arms and neck; her legs felt heavy and glued to the spot. Cold sweat broke out at her temples.

Someone inside the pub shouted, "Bloody blackouts! Hamish! Get the generator fired up!"

Bella looked back towards the toilets and saw him, 'Smeagol,' staring intently at something down the road. She couldn't see his eyes, but he stood frozen, his hands clenched into fists against his head. He turned his gaze to her. Those big eyes stared at her, and fear poured out from him towards her. Then he smirked.

She held her breath as he just looked at her, sneering, before he turned and ran off into the darkness.

She did not want to look down the road. She didn't want to see what it was that he'd seen. She didn't want to know what was coming for them.

"We should go," she said faintly staring into the dark woods. Her skin prickled with that sick, damp cold as she turned. She looked down the road and breathed out. Her breath came out as a vapor.

"We should go," she repeated.

The company looked at her and then down the road. Everyone stilled and watched.

A group of ghosts, because no human moved like they moved, approached them.

They flickered like images in a film reel as they strode towards the company, jerking and popping across the road. Their bodies shuddered and jumped, and their eyes, oh, their eyes were empty, black pools of nothing.

"Oh, my," Bella said stepping forward.

Thorin grabbed her upper arm and pulled her behind him. "Wait."

"What do you mean, 'wait'?" she said not taking her eyes off the ghosts. "This is why I'm here."

"Something's not right," he said.

"Obviously," Bella said. "Ghosts are walking down the street." She cringed as the cold of the ghosts started to tickling the edges of her mind. She frowned. It felt…odd. "Oh, something's very wrong."

The ghosts were nothing like Professor Brown or the gentle wisps Bella had encountered. These ghosts barely looked at her; they simply lurched towards the group.

"I've never seem them behave so," Gandalf said. "What-"

"Thorin Durin," the ghost in the middle rasped. "Cursed son of Durin. Go back."

Bella's jaw dropped. "What did he say?"

"Who are you?" Thorin asked.

"The one to drive you back," the ghost said, grinning. "The one who would see you dead and mad rather than master of Erebor."

"My God," Balin said, his voice breaking. "Azog. He was foreman. He worked for your grandfather."

"Worked and died," Azog growled. "Died without air. Died suffocating. Died because the old man dug too deep. His greed was too much, and we all died for it while he lived!" He grinned, and it was an evil thing that sent chills all over Bella and she clenched her hands into fists. "You'll see."

He turned his stare to Bella and sneered. "And no shining eyes will stop me from destroying you all." He leered. "No matter how lush the face they sit in."

Bella shuddered at the utter lack of anything human in his eyes. Thorin pulled her behind him and stood tall.

"You are nothing but a shadow," Thorin said, his voice loud and taunting. "I've faced down an army. You are nothing to me."

"Thorin, wait," Bella said trying to grasp his arm, but he strode forward.

"No, I won't be scared off by an insubstantial spirit that has nothing left to him but fog," he said. "Come at me, ghost."

Azog smiled. "With pleasure."

The ghosts swarmed. They darted forward and ripped straight through Thorin's body.

Bella cried out at their anguished faces. It was as though they were being pulled forward and through and couldn't stop themselves. They hit Thorin again and again.

He grunted with each impact, and Bella could see his breath spill from his mouth as a vapor and his face paled with each pass of a ghost.

He fell to one knee and still wouldn't turn away from the grinning Azog.

"Stop!" Bella shouted at the ghosts. "Please!"

They continued to swarm around Thorin, and sweat dripped down the side of his face.

"Damn it," Bella said under her breath, and then she darted forward, ignoring the cries around her.

She threw herself in front of Thorin directly into the path of an incoming spirit. The spirit's eyes widened as it passed through Bella's body, and with a sigh of relief, it flew down the path in her mind.

"That's it!" she shouted. "I'm what you want! I can give you peace! Come to me!"

One by one, the ghosts flew into her and down the path. She gasped with each sharp impact, and the cold of the ghosts stiffened her joints and made her skin tight while her lungs burned with the cold. It was agony, but she kept her eyes open and made sure each ghost passed into the beyond. Their eyes were terrible, and they grimaced in agony and then relief as they passed.

After the last ghost had slipped through, she looked at Azog. He stared back, his mouth agape, but then he sneered, and with a wrench, he flew back the way he came and disappeared into the night.

The lights came back on in the pub, and its occupants cheered.

Bella staggered backwards and was only held upright by Thorin reaching for her. He got to his feet and she leaned into him to stay on her feet.

"Why did they do that?" she whispered. "They always want to go home. Why would they attack you? I don't understand."

She tilted her head back to look up at him. "Are you all right?"

"I think I should be asking you the same thing," he said, cupping her face. She gasped at the warmth of his hand on her frozen skin. He frowned. "Your lips are blue. My God, you're bloody freezing."

"She needs something hot inside her now," Tauriel said coming to look at her. She yelled for Kili. "Get some tea, now, darling!"

"Right-o," he said dashing into the Rover to look for a flask.

Bella shook her head. "Never mind me. Did they all pass through you? Did any of them stay?"

She reached up to look into his eyes.

"Let me, my dear," Gandalf said coming over. "Look at me, Captain."

"What are you looking for?" he asked, letting Gandalf look into his eyes.

"Ghost sickness," Gandalf said tilting Thorin's head back and forth. "If a ghost were to be trapped in your subconscious, you'd go mad."

"Which was that ghost's aim," Bella said shivering violently. "I've never seen them move like that before. It's like they were being compelled. But who can compel a ghost?"

He'll send them to you whispered through her mind. She shuddered again but the voice of 'Smeagol' remained.

Tauriel put a coat around Bella's shoulders and herded her into the backseat of the Rover. Thorin followed as they all made to leave.

Bella couldn't get the image of the swarming ghosts out of her mind.

"I've never heard of a ghost that didn't want to go on," she said still shivering and taking hold of the flask that Kili handed her. She took a big sip of the tea and shivered so violently, her teeth clicked against the rim. Tauriel frowned.

"Right," she said as she shoved Thorin at Bella. "Hold her."

"Beg pardon?" Thorin said.

"She just saved your life. Hold. Her." Tauriel turned away and hopped out of the Rover calling for either more hot tea or for the company to head off in search of an inn for the night.

Bella just stared after Tauriel. Then she felt a solid arm curl around her shoulders and she was enveloped in warmth that smelled of pipe smoke and engine oil. Her energy just deserted her and she sank into Thorin's side and curled into him.

She sighed.

"I think she's right," he said. "You saved my life."

"Oh, I hope not," she mumbled. He chuckled as she looked up at him horrified. "Sorry! That's not what I meant. I mean, I hope they wouldn't hurt you. I hope that wasn't their aim."

"It's okay," he said looking down at her and smiling gently. "I understand. All the same. Thank you."

"You're welcome," she said curling into him and liking the way his face changed when he wasn't scowling.

"Thank you, by the way, for asking Lord Elrond about my predicament," Bella said. "It was very gracious of you."

"It seemed the right thing to do," he replied. "Will you pursue the matter further?"

"I suppose I'll see what Mr. Elrond has to say and then decide," she said. "I honestly don't know, and I don't want anything to interfere with the business at hand."

He frowned and looked away.

"You really don't want me here," she said chuckling.

He looked over at her in surprise and then chuckled himself. "Is it very obvious?"

"Oh, no," Bella said shaking her head. "Most people converse by glaring and growling."

"I'm very sorry for how I've treated you," he said. "And for yelling at you the other evening."

"No, don't be sorry for that," Bella said. She hesitated. "No, actually, yes, do be sorry for the yelling, but not for expressing your frustrations. You're quite right; I don't know your suffering and never could. I'm sorry I said all those things to you in the manner I did."

"But not that you did say them?" he asked.

She shrugged. "You've suffered. Greatly. But so have others. If there's anything I learned from watching my mother, it was that when you realise that your suffering is not something you do all alone, you can begin to heal a bit. Not completely, of course. But a bit."

"Your mother sounds very wise," he said.

"Well, she tried," Bella said, reaching up to hold her rings, the familiar cool of the metal grounded her. "And she listened. And oh, she loved to learn. In truth, she's the Baggins woman you want with you now."

"I think the Baggins woman we do have will suffice," he said quietly.

Bella's cheeks flushed and she smiled down at her lap. "Even though you don't want me here?"

"If I wasn't so desperate, I do believe I'd find the nearest train station and send you back to the Shire," he said ruefully.

"But you are desperate and here we are," she said. "Oh, it must curdle your milk that I'm here."

"Not in the way you are thinking," he said somewhat cryptically. "But yes. My milk is well and truly curdled."

Bella burst out laughing, and eventually he joined in with a small chuckle. It was with smiles on their faces that Fili found them when he got inside the Rover.

He grinned. "Feeling better, then?"

"Marginally," Bella said smiling. "Are we off?"

He nodded and Tauriel got in, as did Balin who took the wheel, Gandalf in the passenger seat.

"Not taking your chances on the bike with Kili?" Fili asked Tauriel.

"Need to keep my eye on my patients," she said eyeing Bella and Thorin. She shook her head. "You still look cold, Bella."

"I'm getting warmer," she said, even as Thorin pulled her closer. She sighed and turned her face into his coat.

"If you don't mind," Gandalf said. "I think I may know of a place for us to stay the night."

The Rover drove through the dark roads until Gandalf said to take the next left and then follow the track.

"Where are we?" Thorin called from his seat beside Bella, his arm still firmly around her shoulders.

"We're coming up on the home of an acquaintance of mine," Gandalf said. "I believe he'll let us stay the night to rest and recover."

"You believe?" Bella asked.

"Meaning you don't know," Tauriel said.

"I have every reason to believe that he'll assist us," Gandalf said affronted. He paused. "He is…reclusive, yes, and may not readily be prepared to take us in, but I'm sure I can persuade him."

"With what?" Thorin asked. "We have little money."

"No, when he meets the talented lady who travels with us," Gandalf said.

Bella frowned. "Is he a medium?"

"No, he's a naturalist," Gandalf said.

"He runs about starkers?" Fili asked.

"Oh, for pity's sake!" Gandalf glared at everyone. "He is very in tune with the land and all that inhabits it, including spirits. He is, however, not fond of war and violence, although he's more than capable of defending his home."

Bella squinted out the window, and could just make out a faint orange light coming from the edge of the field they drove along.

"And here we are," Gandalf said as he directed Fili to stop the Rover. Bella glanced behind them and saw the other Rover pulling to a stop, Kili alongside in his motorbike.

"Now, let's not overwhelm the man," Gandalf said opening the door. "Miss Baggins, with me, please."

Thorin's grip on her shoulders tightened as he glared at Gandalf. Bella smiled and patted his knee.

"I'm sure it'll be fine," she said. "I'll be with Gandalf, and if something goes wrong, I'll scream and you all can come dashing in, all right?"

He switched his glare to her, and a muscle in his jaw ticked, but he let her go. She patted his leg again and wondered if saving a person's life meant that you could touch them with impunity? For he didn't seem all that pleased to stop touching her, and it felt like she'd been patting his knee in a placating manner for years.

Bella got out of the car and chafed her hands together. The chill from the ghosts had left her somewhat, but she still felt the cold lingering just under her skin.

A large, sprawling log cabin loomed in front of them, the orange glow she spotted earlier flickered in the round windows, and the only entrance appeared to be a huge oak door that had black iron hinges and a massive knocker shaped like a growling bear.

Perhaps it looked more welcoming during the day, but at just past midnight it felt too big and too dark and too unknown.

"Perhaps Tauriel could join us," Bella said glancing at the other woman, who nodded and came to her side.

"Excellent idea," Gandalf said. "Thank you, Mrs Viren."

Bella walked beside Tauriel just slightly behind Gandalf as they went up to the large wooden door. She breathed in and caught the scent of honey and a low, quiet buzz that meant beehives had to be close by. She smelled tilled earth and that sharp, crisp scent of cool water and wondered if there was a lake nearby.

Gandalf knocked on the massive door and then stood patiently. Bella and Tauriel exchanged glances, and Bella fought the urge to look behind her at the rest of the company.

Eventually, the large door creaked open and a mountain of a man stood in the doorway.

"It is late," he said, his deep voice broke through the night. "Why have you come?"

"Beorn Bjornson, my good man," Gandalf said jovially. "It is Professor Gandalf, and I'm in desperate need of shelter for the evening. I do apologise for simply dropping on your doorstep like this."

Bella only barely managed to hold in a snort of disbelief. It seemed that Gandalf did nothing but drop onto unsuspecting people's doorsteps.

Beorn cocked his head to the side and studied Gandalf. "I remember you." He looked at Bella and Tauriel. "I see you've brought me a bunny and a fox."

Bella frowned and exchanged another glance with Tauriel. Bunny, indeed.

"Ah, yes," Gandalf said chuckling. "May I present, Mrs Tauriel Viren and Miss Bella Baggins."

Beorn nodded his head and the ladies nodded back. "There are also a mess of men on my drive," Beorn added. "Why have you come this far north?"

"We intend to go even farther north," Gandalf said. "And I'd be happy to tell you the full tale, but may we do so inside? We've just had a run in with some very determined ghosts, you see."

"Ghosts?" Beorn's voice turned sharp and his dark brown eyes narrowed.

"Yes," Gandalf said with a sigh. "But we're blessed to have an experienced medium with us in Miss Baggins. She sent the whole lot on their way with the snap of her fingers."

Bella exchanged yet another glance with Tauriel, this time one of utter disbelief at Gandalf's tale. Her eyes were quickly drawn back to Beorn when he stepped forward.

"This little bunny sent the whole lot back with the snap of her fingers?" he repeated. He took her hand in his massive paw-like hand. "Tiny fingers, they are."

"It wasn't as swift as Gandalf is making it out to be, I'm afraid," Bella said breathlessly. "But I did send them back."

Beorn looked her in the eyes and then nodded. "I can see the lights behind your eyes. Been a long time since I've met another medium. The last was talented, too."

"Was?" Bella asked.

"He died in the war," Beorn said flatly. "He went mad first."

"Oh," Bella said, carefully extracting her hand from his.

"Your men are approaching," he said still staring at Bella. Then he lifted his head and stared at someone who had come up behind Bella that could only be Thorin.

"I don't like groups of men on my land, Gandalf. But you may stay the night, after I hear the little bunny's tale." He grinned suddenly at his own pun. "No one is to touch anything in my house or on my lands."

He held out his arm to Bella, and she, smiling, gingerly curled her hand around his arm. Beorn held out his other arm to Tauriel, who took it with a regal incline of her head after she shot Kili a quelling glare. Bella thought she could almost hear the grinding of several jaws as they entered the house.

The house they entered reminded Bella of the illustrations in her old books of fairy tales, with high vaulted wooden ceilings and carvings on every available surface. A huge fire roared in a large hearth, and the company was told to sit in front of it. Beorn released Bella and Tauriel, and they sat on the ground near the hearth, Bella sighing when the warmth of the fire seeped into her still chilled skin.

Thorin sat close by, his eyes never leaving their host as Beorn brought out mugs and made tea.

"You will tell me the story of your ghosts, old man," he said to Gandalf handing him a mug of tea.

Bella let Gandalf's voice wash over her as she sipped tea that had been laced with honey, and before long, she found herself nodding off.

She jolted awake when Beorn said, "It takes a great deal out of you, doesn't it, little bunny?"

"Sorry?" she said blinking and turning towards him.

"Sending the spirits on," he said. "It takes its toll on your soul."

She nodded uncertainly. "So I've been told. My mother never had much of a problem, though."

"Was your mother battling dark spirits from dark places?" he asked.

"Not as such," Bella admitted. "Although one fellow did admit to nicking the family's savings to pay for his second family that he had hidden up in Torquay."

"There is something moving in the north," Beorn said, his rough voice quiet and deep. "Something rumbles and calls in the dark. The animals shy away from it. It's something…wrong."

He looked at the company. "The wars stirred something up in the air. Something may want to take advantage of that."

"For what purpose?" Bella asked softly.

"Nothing good, little bunny," he said shaking his head. "Nothing good at all."

A loud snore resounded in the room, and everyone jumped and looked over at Dwalin who had clearly drifted off where he sat.

"On that note," Gandalf said rising to his feet.

"I will show you to your rooms," Beorn said. He nodded at Dwalin. "Some of you may remain here if you wish."

The company looked at each other, and Thorin said, "We'll all remain here, if that is acceptable."

Beorn shrugged. "The fire is warm and the door is well-locked. Do not touch anything."

He nodded at Bella and Tauriel and then made his way down the hall. A door closed firmly in the distance.

Bella yawned and slouched back in the large armchair. She curled up and fell asleep to the murmured conversation between Thorin and Gandalf.