"Curse that Halfling!" Dwalin bellowed. "Now he's lost? I thought he was with Dori!" Camellia thought she heard something, but she could see nothing. Taking in a deep breath of air she continued to stare at the spot where the mysterious rustle came from. She could no longer hear what Dwalin was whining about, she was so concerned with finding out what caused that noise. Fili put a hand on her shoulder when she began to walk back toward where they had just come.

"What are you doing?"

"I thought I heard something." She turned back and re-joined the group. She knew Bilbo was over there. She knew that he hiding somewhere over there, listening in. She turned her head in his direction. "I know you're over there," she muttered. "They're worried about you."

"They don't sound too worried…" Bilbo muttered to himself.

"I'll tell you what happened," Thorin began. Camellia rolled her eyes. "Master Baggins saw his chance and took it. He's thought of nothing but his soft bed and his warm house since he first stepped out of his door. We will not be seeing our hobbit again. He is long gone." Camellia opened her mouth to say something, but Fili put a hand on her shoulder and shook his head. She gave a small pout and held her tongue. A sorrow fell over the group. They had grown quite attached to their burgular. Even Camellia began to feel woeful. 'If someone had said that about me, I'd turn away too,' thought she.

There was a small rustle in the woods and she was sure Bilbo had left.

"No," came a voice. Their hobbit was standing there. "He isn't." Relief.

"Bilbo Baggins! I've never been so glad to see anyone in my life!" Gandalf exclaimed. Bilbo began walking toward the group.

"Bilbo! We've given you up!" Kili said, surprised.

"How on earth did you get past the goblins?" Fili asked.

"How indeed." Camellia skipped the formalities and gathered him in a hug.

"I'm so glad you came back," she whispered in his ear. She let him go and returned to standing next to Fili. Bilbo gave a little laughed and put his hands in his pockets.

"Well, what does it matter?" Gandalf asked. "He's back." The look on his face was one of knowing, but what exactly did he know?

"It matters," Thorin stated. "I want to know: why did you come back?" Pure curiosity filled his eyes. That was a nice change. Bilbo looked at Thorin.

"I know you doubt me. I know you always have." Bilbo paused. "And you're right, I often think of Bag End." He shrugged. "I miss my books. And my arm chair, and my garden. See, that's where I belong. That's home." This was starting to sound like a good-bye speech. "And that's why I came back, 'cause," he looked at the group, "you don't have one. A home." The look in Thorin's eyes changed to one of sadness. "It was taken from you. But I will help you take it back, if I can." Everyone was surprised and a bit sad. They didn't like to think about their lack of home, but rather, how they were going to take it back.

Their reunion was cut short when a strange noise came from the mountain. Standing where the company escaped from was a pale orc. The Pale Orc. Without much thought, they ran away from the orcs, but they didn't get far before the wargs had caught up to them. Bilbo's sword, Sting, impaled one through the eye. Others were able to knock out the ones attacking them. They continued to run until the land had ended. On the very end stood trees. Tall trees. They was their only protection now. They began to climb. Bilbo had removed this stuck sword from the dead warg and ran toward the tree. Bilbo, being much shorter than all of them, had trouble reaching a tree branch. Camellia saw his blight and dangled from her knees and pulled him off the ground, just in time, but she, herself was not quick enough and earned a slash on her left cheek from a warg's claws. Before long, the plain below was swarming with orcs and wargs. They were cornered. Before long, wargs started climbing the trees. From her vintage point, Camellia was able to shoot a few down off the trees that contained her friends, but she only have so many arrows.

The pale orc, Azog, spoke in his foul tongue. It didn't seem too friendly. The trees were being shaken by the large dogs attacking them. A several branches have been broken of several of the trees. Eventually one of the trees began to fall and, much like dominoes, it took others down with it. Clinging for their lives, the company held tight. All had jumped onto the only standing tree in the area, the one on the very end of the land. Once again, the wargs began to slam into the trunk of the tree.

"Camellia," Kili called when he saw her jump onto his branch from her falling tree. She quickly got to her feet. His face reddened slightly when she faced him. "In case we don't survive this," he started and looked at his feet, "I wanted to," she cut him off by placing her lips softly on his.

"Don't. We'll get through this. All of us." Gandalf had thrown a burning pine cone at the party below. She turned away from him and took aim with another arrow. "If there is one thing I have learned from you guys," she shot, taking out an orc and his warg, "it is that your will to succeed it far greater than your physical strength." She faced him again. "And I have never met anyone stronger than the dwarves," she said with a smile.

Flaming pine cones began to descend from Gandalf. Taking some of the fire from Bilbo's pine cone, Camellia lit the wood right behind her arrow's head and took aim. The arrow caught an orc in the shoulder and he ran back to his people, panicking. The panicking itself caused more fire to spread: from him to the wargs to other orcs. Just when everything was going well, the orcs retreating, their tree, unable to hold the weight of all 16 of them, began to fall. Ori slipped and fell off the tree, grabbing Dori's leg just in time to save himself, but Dori's grip was already shaky and with the added weight, he won't be able to hold on for long. No one would be able to hold on for long.

Dori had lost his grip, but Gandalf's staff was there immediately to provide something else for them to hold on to. As the company tried to hold on to the tree, Thorin was staring down Azog, his nemesis. Without fear, Thorin stood up on the tree's trunk and began walking toward the pale orc. With his sword raised high, Thorin advanced, ready to fight, but Azog stayed on his warg and jumped over Thorin, knocking him down with the warg's legs. Dazed, Thorin stands back up, but the pale orc's mace hit him hard in the chest, knocking the breath out of him. Without thinking, Bilbo stands up on the tree's trunk. The warg brings his jaw closed around Thorin's arm and chest. A cry of agony escapes him. Dwalin tries to pull himself up and onto the trunk, but his branch breaks and he slips farther away from the trunk. Thorin hits the warg on the head with his sword and the warg sends him flying into a rock 20 feet away. Azog orders his fellow orc to behead the dwarven leader. Though he cannot understand orc tongue, Bilbo pulls out his sword and takes a few deep breaths before charging in. He blindsided the orc standing over Thorin and knocked him to the ground. Impulse took over and Bilbo killed the orc that now lay above him. It was Bilbo's actions that send blood pumping through the dwarves' veins and they charged in too, slicing and hacking at the orcs and their wargs. Bilbo was up alone against Azog, but before he could attack, or be attacked, the sound of eagles filled the night air. They plucked off wargs and orcs and dropped them over the edge. One had picked up Thorin's unconscious body and flew away. One swooped in and stole Bilbo away before dropping him. Here, Bilbo thought he was done for, but another eagle caught him on its back. All the dwarves, and Camellia, were picked up and dropped onto another's back.

They were carried until the sun had risen in the sky. All were fallen asleep on the soft feathers of the eagles' - none could stay awake for another night – until the sun had landed on their eyelids. They were taken to a mountain with a flat top. Thorin lay, unconscious, in front of Gandalf. No one knew if he was alive or dead, until he opened his eyes. Everyone was relieved that he was alive, but Camellia feared what he would have to say to Bilbo. Bilbo was smiling, he had grown to like Thorin, even with his mean words and cruel stares.

"You!" Thorin began. The smile on Bilbo's face faded. "What were you doing? You nearly got yourself killed!" Thorin was angry. He began to approach Bilbo. "Did I not say that you would be a burden?" Bilbo took a step back. "That you would not survive in the wild? And you have no place amongst us?" Bilbo was avoiding Thorin's eyes. "I have never been so wrong in all my life." Thorin embraced Bilbo in a hug. Camellia gasped softly before a smile overtook her face. He had finally accepted Bilbo into their company, their family. Cheers erupted from the other dwarves. "I'm sorry I doubted you."

"No, I would have doubted me too," Bilbo said. Camellia stifled a giggle. "I'm not a hero or a warrior," he looked at Gandalf, "not even a burgular." The eagles flew off into the distance. Opposite them, Thorin spotted something. Something he'd been searching for all along, the Lonely Mountain. The group moved closer to the edge to get a better look. It was there, waiting for them.

They began their descend down from where they were. Camellia began to climb down with the rest of the group when a sharp pain shot down her arm. In the daylight, she could see that her cloak was stained red. Moving it, she saw that her skin was cut and poking out from it was something white and jagged. She tried her best to climb down the side with only her right arm, but her struggle wasn't unnoticed. When they reached the bottom, she spoke up.

"I don't mean to be a bother or anything, but I think I may have broken my arm."

"What makes you think that?" Balin asked. She pushed her cloak off her arm and turned her left toward him.

"This is what concerns me."

"So that's why you were struggling on the way down," Bofur commented.

"When did this happen?" Balin asked as he made his way over to her.

"I don't know," came her honest answer.

"How can you not know?" Ori asked.

"We were under attack. Not really paying attention to much other than our survival." Balin gave her arm a quick jerk into place without warning. She supressed a screamed and closed her eyes as she let out a breath she had unknowingly been holding. Two tears fell from her eyes, one from the right and one from the left. She was breathing in deep, trying to ignore the pain. Her wound began to bleed again.

"Does that feel better?"

"No," she answered immediately, "Definitely not." She reached for her bag on her back, but it was strapped to both arms. Slipped a dagger from her boot, she cut the one strap and let the other one slide off her right arm. Digging through it, she pulled out a small container and opened it. Inside was a bluish cream that she dipped her fingers in and rubbed on the bleeding wound. The bleeding ceased immediately. After rubbing the excess cream on the ground, she searched again for some bandages. Kili took the bandages from her hand and began to wrap her arm for her. "I-I can do that."

"No you can't," Fili said. "You've really done it this time." He meant to be funny, to try and take her mind off of her pain. She scoffed and stuck her hand in her bag once again, looking for something to make a sling out of. Kili took that away from her too.

"Are you better now?" Thorin asked impatiently once her arm was in a sling.

"Yes," she responded. They began walking again. After a few minutes she asked, "What do I have to do in order for you to accept me into this company?"

"Prove that you're useful." He didn't bother to turn to answer.

"Haven't I done that? I've fought the trolls. I've fought the goblins. I've fought the orcs. Who else do I have to kill for you to respect me?"

"Smaug," came his smug answer.

"No one can single-handedly defeat a dragon, unless it's another dragon. I don't know if you can tell, but I'm much too small to be a dragon."

"Then you will never have my respect." His voice was cold. Camellia was astonished. She stopped walking. Kili stopped too and look at her. He made a move for her hand, but her words shocked him too much to move.

"70 years ago, you weren't this bitter!" She shouted at him. Thorin stopped and looked over his shoulder.

"What would you know?"

"You used to smile and laugh. You used to play with your nephews like they were your own children. You used to be such a warm person! When your sister befriended that elf from the north, you didn't scowl at her the same way you did Elrond! She was the only elf you ever considered a friend! You even treated her child like she belonged! What's different now?! Is it because she's older now? Is it because she has a sharp tongue? Or have you forgotten your old self? Have you lost who you once were?" Thorin turned to face her now. Her face was red and slightly bruised. Her clothes were torn and her side was soaked with her blood. She looked horrible.

"What are you talking about?" He was beginning to get angry.

"Your sister's, Dis's, best friend, Lyarea, is, was, my mother!" Her eyes were glossy, as if she was holding back tears. "Can't you tell? I have her face…" She stared hard at Thorin. "Every time I see my reflection, I see my mother staring back at me and I'm reminded that because of creatures like Azog, she's gone. I'll never see her again." Her eyes were overfilled: a few tears slipped out. "I thought that joining this group would not only help fulfil my need to explore, but that you would treat me like you used to when I would run around with Fili and Kili when we were toddlers and I would finally belong somewhere." She closed her eyes to squeeze out the remaining tears. "It looks like I was wrong. These past several months have been a waste of my time seeing as you have lost your sense of family." She grabbed her bag and threw it over her shoulder. "You know, I used to look up to you the way I looked up to my father, but seeing as how you won't give me a shred of humanity, I must bid you a farewell." She turned to Kili. As their eyes connected a single tear fell from hers. "I'm sorry," she said with a woeful voice before turning and walking away. She disappeared into the woods.