Date: TA 2879

Thorin: 133 years old

Lina: 130 years old

After another night and a day of travelling, the dwarven caravan made it to the first town of Men in the Hills of Evendim. Whatever had approached the group during the first night had not gone away. Lina had made sure her warriors were alert at all time, often rotating their positions in the caravan. The creature was always present. They could all smell it. Sometimes one of them caught a glimpse of it in the trees, following them.

Whatever was following the dwarves was terrorizing the Hills as well. What Lina knew had once been a simply village appeared to have been quickly fortified. The villagers were afraid to even open the gates. It took some convincing for Lina to get the villagers to let them in. Once inside, the villagers slammed heavy bars across the gates.

"What's happened?" one of the merchants asked the town's leader.

"We don't know for sure. Just a couple of weeks ago, just before the start of harvest, a young girl went missing along with her sheep. Search parties went out to find her, but came back empty-handed. Six other people have vanished the same way," the Man told them.

The townspeople gathered around the caravan were frightened and disheveled. Dark rings encircled their eyes, attesting to their many sleepless nights. So many of them had stood watch over their families, fearing that, at any moment, the thing stealing their loved ones would break into their homes. The men on the hastily constructed walls were exhausted from keeping watch night after night.

"Who's still awake enough to take watches?" Lina called back to her warriors. All of them responded positive though she knew they were also tired. They too had seen the fear in the villagers' eyes. None of these people were fighters, Lina's dwarves were.

"Get your people off the walls and into their own homes," Lina told the leader, "My warriors will take the watches for the rest of the night. We're fresher than your people and trained to handle any intruders."

The leader hesitated for a moment before agreeing. He shouted to the men on the walls that the dwarven warriors would be replacing them. Lina saw the merchants to the town's lodging house, bidding them a good night before taking her own place on the walls. Night fell quickly and heavily around the villages. Just before retiring to their homes, the townsfolk brought up torches for their protectors.

Lina listened as bars dropped into place before every door in the village. Even with trained warriors on the walls, the people were still terrified of whatever lay outside the gates in the darkness. The other dwarves remained stationary while Lina walked a circuit to speak briefly with each. They would report any movement in the darkness. If they sighted anything they were to call like an owl.

Fili's owl call pulled Lina out of a hushed conversation she'd been having with one of the other warriors. Trying not to seem hurried, Lina moved over to her nephew. Wordlessly he pointed into the darkness. There, just as the edge of the torchlight, were those eyes. This time they were not alone.

The smell caught the attention of the other warriors. Weapons were gripped tighter as the creatures appeared in a ring around the village. A rumbling growl echoed up from the darkness.

"Wargs," Kira whispered to her friend. She'd seen a number of them before, even fought them. However, no one had heard of Wargs ringing villages like this. Not this far west anyway.

"They're testing us, our resolve," someone murmured in the darkness.

"What do we do?" Fili asked his aunt.

"We wait," she answered, her eyes fixed on one of the creatures. These beasts did not dare come into the torchlight while the warriors stood guard. Mere farmers would never be able to hold their own against these creatures if they decided to attack, but trained warriors, as few as they were, could do enough damage to make the pack think twice.

The night moved slowly for the tensed warriors. It seemed the Wargs were looking for some weakness in the town's defenses, but they never came close enough for any of the dwarves to see them clearly.

By the time the sun appeared on the horizon, the pack had utterly vanished. The townsfolk began to emerge from their dwellings, curious to see if their dwarven protectors had stood watch throughout the night. None of the dwarves had moved from their assigned positions the entire night. Each still clutched their weapons, ready to use them if necessary.

Lina, Dwalin, and Kira organized the few guardsmen the village possessed so that their own warriors could take some much needed rest. The headman appeared shortly after to arrange quarters for the warriors. The trio of dwarves requested his assistance in devising some sort of plan to destroy this pack. With the pack prowling around the settlement, the people could neither bring in their harvest nor tend to their remaining animals.

"Can you do anything about those monsters?" the man asked. He, like his people, was clearly frightened.

"It's possible," Kira answered. "We'd need to be able to find their lair. Obviously this pack is rather weak or they wouldn't hide in the light of day."

The scarred female glanced at her companions before continuing. Kira was the most experienced when it came to fighting wargs. She frequently travelled with groups going as far as the Iron Hills to bring news and goods back and forth between the two peoples. These travels had brought her into conflict with a number of warg packs, some of which had left new scars on her body.

"If we can find their lair, was could try to collapse the tunnel on them. Bury them alive, you know. Best way to make sure none escape would be to ring the area with fire. They won't cross it. The stuff scares them." Kira paused thoughtfully.

"Fighting wargs is a nasty business," Dwalin put in, thinking of a couple scars he'd received from their claws. "Even amateur fighters don't fight wargs for free."

"Our gold is of little value to us while we remain trapped here," the headman answered, knowing what the dwarves sought. "Kill the beasts and bring back their heads. You shall have all that we can give you."

The dwarves grinned. Gold was something they had not seen for some time.

A/N: I'm technically late with this chapter. Sorry guys. :P I spent most of my day at work. But happy new year!