A/N Sorry for the delay! I meant to update on Saturday, but I got triple shifted at work. Yay! Adult life! I hope you enjoy this instalment!

Thranduil was not at all pleased with Camellia's response. He ordered his guards to remove Camellia from the room. She wasn't pleased with his response. She held tight to the hands she held and refused to move. The guards became rougher and had nearly broken her hands to remove her from the brothers. Abhorrence marked her eyes as she gave one fleeting remark while she was being dragged out of the room, "Lle naa haran e' nausalle…"

A fire gleamed in Thranduil's eyes before he directed his attention to the dwarves in front of him.

"To the dungeons," he commanded in a fierce tone. Each dwarf was taken down below and was given their own cell. They were fed well during their stay, but the dungeons were still cold and damp. It was difficult for them to communicate because, well, they were kept in different parts of the palace. They had spent days alone, not knowing where each other was. Not knowing if they would ever get out. Kili and spent most of his time wondering where his beloved Camellia had been taken to, hoping it was a lot better than where he was. Camellia, on the other hand, had been given a room. A room so large and nice that it was fit for a king, but she wanted none of it. When they threw her in, she scurried right back to the door.

"Let me out!" She screamed as she pounded her pale fists on the wooden door. "Let me out!" She continued to cry out until her fist began to bleed, then she pounded harder and cried louder, but no avail. She slid to the floor in defeat. Her hands were throbbing and her throat sore. After a few hours, she moved away from the door and into the corner of the room. Guards had come in with food, but she stayed unmoving. She stayed put for days, never eating, never bothering to try an escape, barely even blinking. It wasn't until a week or so later that Camellia heard something strange. The front gate was held open a small bit too long. She bound up and ran to the barred window. Barely visible at the gates was a small curly haired person.

"Bilbo!" She smiled to herself. Quickly, she ran to the door. They had stopped locking it two days ago, convinced she wouldn't move from her spot, and she left the room, as quiet as a mouse. She had no idea where she was going, just that she was going down, but not before ransacking the weapons vault where they had put hers, and the rest of the dwarves', weapons. She had to pick the various locks with a few pins she had hid in her clothes. Her heart was pounding against her chest as she looked around. She could barely hear anything because her heart was in her ears. The door swung open with a creak.

Camellia was running through the corridor, bag swinging at her side, sword in hand. Her bow and quiver were strapped against her back. She had rushed as fast as she could down the stairs, but around the second flight, she wanted to go faster. The railing were made of smooth marble and Camellia found it extremely easy to slide down. She finally made it into the cold basement. It was dark and it smelt like rotting wood, but Camellia had found her way to a cell.

"Camellia?" A familiar voice called out, "You look terrible."

"Thanks, Nori, that's just what I wanted to hear. Did you see where they put the keys?"

"I can barely see you." Camellia sighed and pulled out her pins again. This one took longer to unlock, but she got it and soon Nori was free. He led her to where he thought he saw another.

"Camellia?"

"Fili!" Once she unlocked his door, she threw her arms around his neck. "I'm so glad to see you, you pain in the ass." He laughed and then led her to the next cell.

The dwarves were scattered around the lowest floor, meant to keep them from planning. When Camellia had retrieved six dwarves, she bumped into Bilbo and the rest of the company.

"Camellia!" The company cheered.

"Shh!" She push her finger over her lips. "If we give away our position, I'm certain that we'll be in a lot worse living situation. Come on, I have a plan." They travelled together down the long corridor in the dark. Eventually the company had made it into a glow dim, coming out of a room: the wine cellar. There were loud laughs echoing out before a thud and then silence. Camellia peeked in. "As quietly as you can, follow me." They entered the room, a butler and a guard passed out of the table. The new shipment had been a strong batch and they were out cold.

"What are we to do now?" Bilbo asked.

"These barrels are empty and, by midnight, will be cast into the water to flow to a lakeside village. They're big enough to fit at least one of us."

"So you want us to hide in barrels?" Thorin said.

"Exactly, unless you want to go back to your nice cells until Thranduil decides to release you." No one had anything to say. "Well, let's go," Camellia started lift lids off.

"Um, Camellia," Balin started. She turned toward him. "There's only fourteen…" She looked around.

"Well…looks like I'm barrelling with someone."

"Wouldn't…" Bofur started

"I am the smallest. It will be a lot easier for me to share with someone than one of you trying to share."

"Speaking of, you look a lot smaller than you did before."

"I can explain later."

"Didn't they feed you?" Dwalin asked.

"Of course they did."

"You didn't eat any of it," Kili said, "did you?"

"Protesting sometimes comes with consequences."

"You need to eat," Kili told her.

"I can eat later. Come on, let's get into these barrels." They started loading themselves into the old wine and food barrels. Whatever space was left was filled with straw and other things they could find. Some barrels were bigger and some were smaller, but they had to make do with what they had. Once Balin and Bilbo had been packed into barrels, voices were heard coming down the hall. Camellia grabbed a lid and hopped into the last open barrel. She crossed her legs in the lap in front of her and tried to make herself comfortable.

"You've lost a lot of weight."

"Kili, stop worrying about it. We need to worry about getting out of here first." They could hear the voices of the elves come closer.

"Are you sure these are empty?"

"Positive!" Came the groggy reply of the drunk butler.

"The King will have your head if we've set wine down to the Lake men." The elves rolled the barrels out through the trapdoor and into the river. The cold water splashed into the barrels as they rolled down the river.

"That's so cold!" Camellia muttered. The water felt like ice shards cutting at her skin. In her weakened state, her body couldn't handle the cold. She shivered against Kili and he did the best he could to keep her warm, but he was soaked through too. Luck was not their friend that night. They kept floating along in the cold water until daybreak when the Lake men had fished them out of the river.

"These barrels are mighty heavy!" One of them called. They had opened the barrels to see if the elves had sent them full of food and wine. They weren't quite that lucky, but the Lake Men welcomed the soaked dwarves with open arms. They gave them food and dry clothes. They built large fires and let the dwarves share in the merrymaking. Camellia was unconscious when Kili carried her out of the barrel. She was given a dry dressing gown and wrapped in the wool blankets on one of the beds in the village. Camellia had slept for the rest of the day and into the next morning. She was awoken by a wet cloth placed on her forehead. She tried to sit up, but a hand pushed her back down.

"You need to rest," an elderly woman with kind eyes told her.

"I need to find my company."

"We're all right here," a voice called from the doorway. All the dwarves, and Bilbo, stood in the doorway. "Kili never left your side. We had to bring food in for him." Fili was the one that spoke. He motioned with his head to a chair against the wall. In it was a slumped over, fast asleep Kili. "He's almost as stubborn as you are." She snorted.

"Go on now! Let her get her rest." The elderly woman shooed them out of the room. Camellia got out of the bed and walked over to the sleeping Kili.

"Now is no time to sleep. There is a dragon to beat," she whispered in his ear. He stirred slightly before his eyes opened. The chair, no matter how comfortable it was, was not a place to sleep and that was evident on his face.

"You're awake."

"And so are you."

"Miss, you should be in bed."

"I feel fine. Well…maybe a bit hungry."

"Oh! Of course!" The woman rushed out of the room.

"How are you feeling?"

"Quite fine. I should be asking you that. Sleeping in a chair is not good for your back." She grabbed his hand and pulled him up. "Come on, let's get you to bed." She dragged him over to her cot and shoved him down. "Get some sleep. You'll need your strength if you're going to fight a dragon." Camellia turned to leave when Kili pulled her down.

"You're the one that should be resting." He told her when she landed on his chest.

"I am more suited to the travelling than you are. Get your sleep. I'll check back in later." She placed a kiss on his cheek and left the room. Camellia headed down some stairs and started her search for a kitchen.

The sun was high in the sky when Camellia checked back in on Kili. He was facing away from the door, fast asleep.

"Wakey, wakey! Don't waste the whole day!" Her voice was just loud enough to pierce through his dreams.

"What time is it?" He asked, his voice muzzy.

"Don't know. Here." She handed him a plate.

"What's this?" He asked as he sat up.

"What's with all the questions? Just eat the cake!" He did as he was told. "Good isn't it? I nearly lost my arm trying to get you a piece. I couldn't let the others to hold over your head that they got cake and you didn't."

"Did you get any?"

"No, but it's okay. I made it for others anyway."

"You made it?"

"Of course I did. Where else did you think it came from?"

"I just thought…" Kili wasn't allowed to finish his though because Fili came, nearly charging through the door.

"Hey! You're up! Thought you were going to sleep the day away."

"Of course not! You wouldn't let him anyway."

"You did miss the cake though." Kili took a large bite out of the cake sitting in his lap. "How did you get that?"

"Camellia gave up her arm for it."

"Almost. Almost gave up my arm for it. You dwarves are savages when it comes to food." Fili moved in closer, attempting to get Kili's plate, but Kili knew his game and pushed him away. This did not discourage Fili for he tried again. The two got rougher and rougher until Kili had lost control of his plate. It began its descent toward the floor, tumbling and turning through the air. The boys didn't notice until the plate clanged on the floor. Their eyes flashed to the plate expecting to see a smashed cake on the floor, but they only saw the plate. Camellia was standing straight up next to the bed, her hands in front of her. When the brothers looked at her, her hands pushed against their faces, depositing large clunks of cake onto their skin. "There's your cake, Fili. I hope you enjoy it."

"Oh, don't be mad, Camellia."

"I'm not mad," she replied, faking contentment. "It's not like I spent a few hours working on that. It's not like I meant for it to be eaten rather than dropped on the floor." Anger doubled on every word.

"It wasn't dropped on the floor."

"Don't be a smartass Fili!" She snapped.

"Camellia, there's something on your face," Kili said, trying to distract her. She brushed her skin with her hands.

"Where is it?"

"Right," Kili brushed some cake onto her face, "there." Her jaw dropped as she looked at him in astonishment.

"I can't believe you just did that."

"You threw cake in my face."

"I didn't throw it."

"What are you doing in here?" A voice called. Standing in the doorway was Thorin and Balin, apparently coming to check up on Kili.

"Just, you know, cleaning up." Camellia wiped a large bit of cake on Kili's face. "You're nephews are very messy eaters." She had wondered over toward the doorway.

"You two hurry up, we need to get back on the road." Thorin was stern, if not a little angry. He was taken by surprise when a cold frosting came in contact with his cheek.

"You need to not be so tense." Thorin removed the frosting off his face with his hand. "We've got time. Let's spend some time resting and preparing to fight the dragon. Oh, and getting cake off your face." Unexpectedly, Thorin wiped the cake on Camellia face. She was completely surprised, not expecting stern, hard-ass Thorin to have a sense of humour. This backlash from Thorin turn into a full-out cake-throwing match. Whatever could be grabbed was thrown and soon the floor and their clothing were speckled with little pieces of cake and frosting.

The owner of the house came into the room, with no other intention, but to check up on the sleeping dwarf, and saw the mess they had made. A screech disrupted the cake flinging.

"Oh! I'm clean this up! Don't worry!" Camellia picked up the plate from the floor and rushed down the stairs. The dwarves looked at each other and then exited the room to clean themselves up. When Camellia returned, the room was empty. She set her bucket of soap and water on the floor and began scrubbing.

The sun had lowered just enough to shine through the window across the room and cast elongated shadows on the wall. Camellia had removed the sheets from the bed and washed them in the water basin in the corner. They hung out the window, dripping onto the grass below while she covered the bed with different sheets.

The room was clean and the bed was made, but Camellia was not. Cake had dried on her skin and clothes, making them feel stiff and leaving stains. She currently was soaking in the hot bath that the housekeeper had drawn up for her. Bubbles were floating in the air and lying on top of the water. She sunk into the water deep enough to cover her nose with the bubbles. She wasn't coming out any time soon. The sun had set and the only light in the room was from the candles that lined the walls.

Camellia had sunk into a trance as she lay in the cooling waters. Ever since she had left home, she had not been able to let herself soak and relax. It was a nice change. A knock at the door removed her from her trance. The door opened slowly, letting in the light from the hallway.

"Um…dinner's ready," came a sheepish voice from the doorway.

"You don't need to be so shy," she replied as she removed the drain plug and stepped out. "We've been living together for some time now." She wrapped herself in a robe and tied it tightly around her waist. Camellia grabbed a hold of the hand on the door's knob as she left the dimly lit bathroom behind her. She pulled at Kili's hand after she entwined her fingers in his. "Well, come on, before it gets cold."