Kili called after her, his voice echoing in the wilderness, but there was no response. Camellia was gone. Never had he felt such an emptiness. His despair soon mixed with anger toward his uncle. He couldn't explain it, but he blamed his uncle for not realising who she was. Sure, neither Kili nor Fili did, but their uncle was much older and that's who Kili blamed. If his uncle had not been so cold toward the red headed girl then she would still be here, with him, not out in the woods with a broken arm. His mind was clouded. He didn't know how to act; he just stared into the dense wood where she had once been. He may have not known what to do, his legs certainly did. They tugged him into the woods.

"Kili!" Fili yelled out before going in after his brother. Once he had entered the woods, almost all the day of day disappeared. "You won't find her!" He tried to convince his brother. Remembering playing as a toddler with the missing red headed girl and his brother. "We never could!" He caught up to his brother. "She was the best at hiding."

"That never stopped me from trying."

"If she doesn't want to be found, she won't be, you know that." They had made it about 100 feet into the woods until they had hit a wall of trees and underbrush. There was no way they could get through it, not even something small like a chipmunk could. Not knowing where to go, they began to follow it north. About half a mile north a voice called out, but they did not know whose it was. They didn't even know what it said. More voices began to speak, but none of them were known to the two brothers. The voices spoke in whispers, barely audible to their dwarven ears. As they travelled, the forest seemed to grow darker, as if the sun was setting, but they haven't been travelling for long, it couldn't be sunset yet. It seemed like every time they looked away, the forest in front of them changed, growing denser and denser.

The forest was disorientating. The brothers no longer knew the time of day or whether they were still on their previous path. The whispers seemed to grow louder the longer they travelled and they weren't sure if they were real or hallucinations caused by the dark forest and their unknowing of their path.

"You shouldn't have come in here," a familiar voice called out. Camellia immerged from their right, through the thick brushwood. They were wrong, someone could get through.

"I wanted to make sure you were safe."

"And I just followed him to make sure he didn't do anything stupid."

"That wasn't why either of you came in here." She stood in front of them. "Fili, you were worried about me, but you didn't want to just rush after me because you knew Thorin would yell at you. Kili," she paused. "You didn't want to lose me and even though when you return Thorin will scold you, you have to go back. These woods are no place for dwarves."

"There no place for you either!" Kili stated.

"You heard the voices, didn't you?"

"What voices?" Fili asked.

"Don't play dumb. I know you heard them. They're the ones that you can't understand. The ones that speak in whispers. "

"You hear them too?"

"I hear them all the time. The voices of nature are always there. The trees are a bit angry that strangers have appeared. You two should go back the way you came so you don't anger them anymore.

"But you're a stranger too," Fili said, confused.

"I am no more a stranger here than I am at home. Come on, you need to re-join the company."

"Are you coming back then too?"

"No."

"Then I'm staying."

"I am too."

"You can't stay!"

"We're staying with you," they responded in unison. Camellia sighed; there was no point in arguing with them.

"Fine, but we'll have to leave the forest, for you safety." She headed north with the brother slightly behind her. The forest was still very dense, but it seemed to have been lightened since her appearance.

"How is it that you can travel through this forest?" Fili asked.

"The forest is all knowing. It has seen many people through its long life and knows who is a danger to them." She faced them and started to walk backwards. "My mother taught me that every rock and tree and creature has a life, has a spirit, has a name. I've been told that I am one with nature, but that's not true. I understand nature and nature understands me. It's comparable to the friendship we share, Fili." She returned to facing forward. "If you take some time, you can hear the voices of the mountains and the trees and the grass. The longer you try to understand the world around you, the more you understand it."

It took nearly two hours to get outside the forest. Erebor appeared closer than it was when they were standing on top of the mountain with the rest of the company. They travelled north another hour until they reached a river. It was about two kilometres wide and curved out of the forest and through the mountains. The water was a dark blue and transparent. They bottom seemed closed, but it was about a metre and a half deep at the shallowest.

"We will camp here tonight," Camellia said as she dropped her bag on the ground. She removed her shoes, cloak, and sling before jumping into the water. She made a large splash when she broke the calm surface of the water. When she surfaced she looked toward the two dwarves. "If you would, go to the edge of the forest and retrieve all twigs on the ground. Don't cut or break anything off the trees; they already don't like you, don't make them hate you." She disappeared under the water once again.

"We have to go back to that forest?" Kili complained.

"What? Are you scared brother?"

"No!" He defended immediately before walking back toward the forest they had so recently escaped.

"Only the edge, right?"

"And you say I'm scared," Kili poked fun.

"Shut up!" Fili shouted as he joined his brother picking up twigs. When they returned, Camellia was standing on the shore in new and clean clothes. On a rock near the river's edge lay her clothes, drying in the sun's light. Her hair was wet, but she used her cloak to rub out some of the water creating a tousled look. Her elvish ears were quite obvious now. Though Fili and Kili still had a large hate for the elves, they suited her well.

"Did you get the firewood?" Camellia asked as they reappeared at their small campsite. They dropped the twigs on the ground.

"You're arm," Kili said. She had removed the bandages from her arm revealing a bruise and a large cut.

"Oh, yeah, I took out the bandages off to clean it. It looks a lot worse than it is."

"You should really wrap it."

"You should really not worry so much, Kili. I'm fine." She moved her arm up and down. "See? Doesn't even hurt. I'll wrap it up before I go to sleep."

"You should be careful," Fili stated.

"Yeah, yeah…" She began stacking the wood into a tee-pee shape, but she couldn't get it to stay. Every time she would lay a third piece, the whole structure would fall. Eventually, she gave up and left the twigs in a pile on the ground. She retrieved a dagger from her boots and sat on the side of the river.

"What are you doing?" Fili asked.

"Catching dinner for you two."

"With just a knife?"

"Fili's right. You won't be able to get anything with just a knife."

"Don't doubt me. While I get dinner, please go start the fire." They thought it would be easy, but they were wrong. They were doing no better than Camellia was earlier. Instead of trying to stack the wood in a neat fashion, they just piled it and lit it. By the time the fire had started, Camellia had caught four fish, and skinned them too, and had collected various herbs and other greenery. Using the pans and plates that Fili and Kili had in their sacks, Camellia had prepared a small dinner of garlic and basil fish and a salad. Naturally, Camellia was the only one who dared to eat the greenery.

"This is really good," Kili muttered with a mouthful of fish.

"Who taught you how to cook?" Fili asked.

"Learned it myself. I used to watch my mother and the other maidens prepare meals back home. Often times I would experiment with the various foods in the pantry and eventually learned what was good together and what was not."

"Did you also teach yourself how to hunt?"

"Kind of. I liked to watch the animals outside. Up in Forodwaith, there are a lot of mountain lions and wolves and there were a lot of small animals like rabbits around my home. Often I would see the hunting technique of the wolves or the lions."

"So that's how you caught the fish."

"No. I put my hand in the water and waited for a fish to swim by. When I got it out of the water, I cut its head off. It took me less time to catch four fish than it did for you to get the fire started," she joked.

"Well I'm sorry Miss Perfect," Fili remarked.

"Kili, has your brother always been this sassy?"

"Don't drag me into this." There was a noise in the woods that interrupted their bickering. The two dwarves stood up and drew their weapons.

"What was that?"

"You're jumpy. It's just a bunny. Unless you're afraid of bunnies, Fili." Not a moment later a small brown hare emerged from the dark green shrubbery. The brothers lowered their weapons. "If you'd stop thinking that there are bad guys out there, you'd be a lot less jumpy."

"But there are bad guys out there, Camellia," Kili said, sitting next to her. "And with your injury, we can't be caught off guard."

"We're just looking out for you," Fili said as he took a seat on the other side of her. "And I am not scared of bunnies."

"Really? You jumped pretty high." She smirked. "No one can get through those woods without a guide. You have nothing to worry about." She looked toward the forest. "I really hope that no one else followed you. I fear they may never remerge."

"No one followed us. Thorin wouldn't let them," Kili reassured.

"He cares about you two, even though he is sometimes a hard ass. He might have sent a searching party in after you."

"I doubt it," Fili stated. "He's probably sulking about how we do stupid things and this time we were really stupid."

"When we get back, he'll probably yell at us for running after you and after a few hours, he'll be back to his brooding self." Camellia laughed slightly. She laid back to look at the sky; the sun was setting and the stars were coming out.

"If we go to sleep now, we can start moving again at sunrise."

"Who will stand watch?"

"Don't worry about it. Just go to sleep."

"Your arm."

"Oh, that's right," Camellia said as she sat up and dug through her bag. This time she pulled out a large jar. Inside there was a pinkish cream. She took a large amount of it on two of her fingers and rubbed it on the cut on her arm. She went to grab some bandages from her bag, but Kili had beaten her to it and began to wrap her arm up. She gave him smile and laid back down on the ground. She put her right arm under her head as she continued to stare up at the sky. "It never ceases to amaze me that everywhere I go, the stars are always different." Camellia pulled her bag to her side and pulled out her sketch book.

"You're always writing in that thing," Fili commented.

"You're wrong. I'm not writing." She sat up and pull her ink bottle and pen out of the front pocket of her bag. She began to depict the stars in the sky.

"What else have you drawn in there?" Kili asked as he watched her fill the tan parchment with little black stars.

"Tons of things." She finished recording the sky, placed the book in front of her and turned to the first page.

"Is that Bilbo's home?" Fili asked.

"Yes. I was only able to get down a few rooms before you guys started making a commotion in the dining room." Bilbo's front room, living room, bathroom, and bedroom were all depicted in her pen work. She had spent four pages sketching down the hallway, doors, and windows. These were the few that were in colour. The next collection were on the dwarven party. Sitting in the dining room, by the fire in Bilbo's home, by the campfire in The Shire the first night, and riding on ponies the first morning. The rest of the drawings were in black and white, seeing as she had wasted all her oil pastels detailing all the dwarves. Several were of the night sky; the moon off in one corner and the stars everywhere else. She had labelled in the corner where she was when the sky looked like this and what the date was. She had drawn birds and trees; rabbits and rocks; rivers and deer; there was even one of the trolls when they were roasting the dwarves.

"So, instead of saving us, you drew a picture of our misery," Fili stated, feigning anger.

"You're here now aren't you? You weren't hurt too bad."

"And what if I was?"

"Toughen up." The two stared at each other for a few moments before returning back to Camellia sketch book. The following page was a drawing of a woman's face. She had long hair and very light coloured eyes.

"This is your mother," Kili said as he stared at the picture. He looked up at Camellia. "You do look like her."

"Oh, I remember her. She always brought us candy," Fili said as he stared at the picture.

"Taught us to make some too."

"Could you make any?"

"Every time I would try, I set the kitchen on fire. I think I made two successful batches ever and they were nowhere near as good as my mother's."

"You could always practise. We're here to test your work," Fili offered. Camellia laughed.

"Of course you are." The next page was her horse towering over all the other ponies. Alesdair was grooming himself in this picture; the other ponies were eating grass. The next several were of the night sky. The one before her current picture was a view from atop the eagles. The river and mountains below, the company spread out on other eagles and her own eagle with a partial of her legs. It looked almost exactly as if someone were to be riding an eagle with a book in their lap.

"Why did you choose those things to draw?" Kili asked.

"I wanted to have something to show my children of my adventures. Words can only describe so much so I learned how to draw so when I did travel, I could put the sights onto paper and share them for generations to come. Though I couldn't put everything to paper, I could put some things down when I had the time." Camellia stifled a yawn. "Time for me to go to sleep." She laid down, putting her bag under her head and closed her eyes. Fili laid back, using his arm as a pillow before falling asleep. Kili put a blanket over Camellia before closing his eyes. It wasn't a moment later that Kili felt something placed over him. She had taken the blanket he laid on her and placed it on him. He opened one eye to watch her. "I don't need that," she muttered as she let sleep take over her.

They had slept hard the night. The fire turned into embers by sunrise. When Kili woke up, he noticed his blanket was only half covering him. It seemed that in the night, Camellia had become cold and pulled part of the blanket onto her as she curled close to him. Her bag was away from its original spot. Fili seemed to be displaced the worst. He had rolled a metre away from where he had fallen asleep. Kili snickered as he remembered her parting words the night before. He went to get up, but a hand laid gently on his chest.

"I'll take care of it." Camellia pushed herself up and made toward the river. She rubbed the sleep from her eyes as a yawn escaped her throat. He was about to say something, but Camellia waved him off. "Don't say anything. If you want to do anything, fix the fire."

It hadn't taken him long to restart the fire, but Camellia was not performing as well as she had the night before. She caught one fish and it took her over twenty minutes to do so. She threw the skinned fish on the fire with the few remaining herbs.

"I'm sorry. It was all I could get."

"And here I thought you were some fishing guru," Fili yawned out.

"I need a nap," came her response. She laid back down and closed her eyes. "Give it another minute before taking it out." They obeyed and ate their small breakfast while their small companion caught more sleep.

Once they had finished, they packed up their things and, instead of waking up the sleeping, Camellia, Kili gently picked her up and began to carry her.

"Where are we supposed to go?" Fili asked as he situated most of their backs on his back.

"Just head toward Erebor," Kili answered as he established a comfortable position for Camellia in his arms. They began toward Erebor. The forest ended about four miles north, giving the brothers a feeling of tranquillity as they got away from the old talking forest. They reached a large flat plain once they had cleared the forest line. You could see from one end to the other with no interference. There were no rocks, just tall grass. Across the field they saw a creature, white as the clouds, standing in the tall grass. It spotted them and began to run toward them. It was growing larger and larger the closer it got; when it was about 50 yards out, it was the same height as the dwarves. It stopped in front of them and stared down at the female in Kili's arms.

"Didn't she call it Alesdair?" Fili asked.

"I think so." The large white horse sniffed Camellia's head before licking her face. It woke her up with a smile.

"Alesdair…" she said, jovial. She reached up to pet her right hand to touch her horse's snout. Camellia rolled onto her feet and out of Kili's arms to pet Alesdair. "I was worried about you," she whispered. Alesdair gave out a quiet neigh. "I'm glad." His nose lightly bumped her shoulder. "It's nothing. It's much better now; just a small break."

"Small?!" Kili sounded shocked.

"You had it poking out of your arm," Fili supplemented. Alesdair looked up at the brothers and neighed loudly twice. Camellia smiled again and spoke in a foreign tongue that sounded vaguely familiar. Alesdair licked the side of her face.

"Do you two have your own language or something?" Fili asked.

"No. He's really smart. He understands everything we say. It just takes a special kind of person to understand him. A horse's language is much more complicated than any of our languages." She looked toward the Lonely Mountain. "Come on. We've got a mountain to take back."