Disclaimer: I own nothing that is part of the original storyline of the Hobbit.

A/N: I have had it pointed out to me that the two previous chapters were a little confusing as I have all the background info and you don't (sorry :s) This chapter gives a little bit of a brief mention of Chapter 9, but it will be the following chapters that will explain those chapters a little more. As I said sorry about the confusion, but all will be explained soon :)

Chapter 11

Bilbo POV

I stared around in shock, how in the name of Yavanna had I ended up with thirteen dwarves and a wizard in my house? Oh my mother would be so proud. However I was more focused on the fact that they had completely demolished the food in my main pantry, tracked mud into the carpet, rugs and floors, had ruined several pieces of furniture, had about given me a heart attack when throwing around my mother's pottery and on top of all that they had destroyed my plumbing.

Then Thorin Oakenshield had handed me that contract and caused me to faint, the smug look on his face when I came around setting my teeth on edge. Who did he think he was coming into my home and being so rude? Honestly he was making a very poor first impression, all of them were. I groaned as they sat in my living room, puffing away on their pipes, when the doorbell rang. I turned to look at Gandalf, how many people had he invited? "I wasn't aware that we had any more people to join us." Balin, I think, said. Gandalf merely smiled and I huffed going to get the door, that wizard was planning something.

I tugged it open, expecting to see another dwarf, but stared slightly as I was met with a slight form, wrapped in a cloak and carrying their boots. The figure turned and pushed their hood down, revealing a female. She smiled over at me and my heart felt light, there was just something about her that calmed my nerves. "Good evening, I am very sorry to interrupt your evening, but you couldn't tell me where I could find Gandalf could you? He only said he would meet me in Hobbiton." She sighed out, frowning slightly. I smiled, finally someone with manners. "Well then you had better come in, I do believe he is somewhere in my living room trying to find all my Old Toby." I said lightly, holding the door open for her, she grinned widely and I saw a faint scar curving around her left eye. She ducked under the door and placed her boots on the floor, her pack next to it and hung her cloak and coat up, the only person to come through my door without a visible weapon.

She turned around and her eyes took in the mess that was my entry way and I fidgeted, wanting to tidy it. "I take it there are dwarves here with Gandalf? They never were very tidy." She mused and placed her hand against the wall, something pulsed and suddenly, my entry was tidy and I could hear the pipes working again, the groaning finally stopping. I stared at her and she smiled, her eyes shimmering gold. I tilted my head to the side and saw that her ears were very similar in shape to mine, although the point was definitely more Elven and they held a startling array of earrings, ranging from three small studs in the lobe, two silver and an onyx, to an engraved ear cuff at the top of her left ear and the same three studs at the base to the three jewelled studs in the top of her right, one diamond, one ruby and one sapphire.

Her eyes also held my gaze for a moment, the colours seemingly changing. Around the pupil seemed to be a ring of brown, bleeding into a brilliant emerald green which merged into a piercing blue that in turn faded through stormy blue-grey into a light steel grey ring around the edge of her iris. The gold swirled around, ebbing and sparking before settling to a faint sheen. I gasped and she turned to me, "A Fae." I whispered out and she grinned widely, holding a finger to her lips as if it was a secret.

"Ariana at your service." She declared, bowing deeply and her hair although tied back, settled on the floor before flicking back over her shoulder. "Bilbo Baggins at yours." I told her faintly and she winked, like she knew how speechless I was at meeting a creature that we thought had been destroyed in the last great war. I gestured for her to proceed me and she moved, the thick braid of her hair swinging against her back and resting just above the waist of her breeches. Within the braid I could see flashes of silver, almost like certain sections of hair were individually braided. It was almost dwarven in style, but this was a Fae.

When we entered the room, every dwarf fell silent and just stared. "Why in the name of Mahal do we need a woman?" The big one, Dwalin possibly, said. Ariana just tilted her head and walked towards him, staring into his eyes unblinkingly before snapping her teeth in front of his nose. His eyes widened and then he grinned, smacking his head forward in a headbutt. I half expected Ariana to break under it, but caught her moving into it, laughing. Thorin then rumbled out a sentence and I huffed, if they were going to be in my house, they could very well speak in Westron.

Ariana seemed to find it offensive and snapped out in return. "Nadadugmil, gelek menu caragu rukhs." The language sounded the same, but Ariana's lacked the rumble of Thorin's. Everyone froze, no one outside of dwarf culture spoke Dwarvish. However she had clearly said something funny as the two that had arrived together, Fíli and Kíli began to laugh at the look on Thorin's face. "Orc shit, oh god why did we never think to tell someone they smelt like that?" The brunet choked out around his laughter. Ariana turned her attention to them then and walked over to them, poking the blonde on the nose, causing him to scowl and her to clap her hands and giggle. "It's Víli's face, but oh that is Dis' glare." She then repeated the gesture to the other and he just stared at her, before grinning and playfully trying to bite her finger.

She smiled and flicked the tip of his nose, causing him to start. "And that is Víli on a Durin face. Oh I love it." She giggled, dipping into a bow again, "Ariana at your service, namadinùdôy." They stared at her for a second before launching into a series of overlapping questions, that she spectacularly managed to answer, many revolving around was she really their Aunt Ariana? They seemed rather ecstatic about it, almost like they had never met her before, but surely if she was their aunt they had?

I looked over at Gandalf and found him watching the interactions with interest, as was Thorin. "Mim kaliâl, it is good to see you again." One of the dwarves spoke from behind her and she span around. "Nori!" She squealed before launching herself at him, wrapping him in a hug. He patted her back and let her go, slipping something into his pocket. She went to turn away before holding out her hand and waggling two of her fingers. Nori stared at her, but nodded giving her back the small pouch he had taken from her pocket. Dwalin glared over at him and he just smirked, wiggling his eyebrows, clearly trying to wind the bigger dwarf up.

She smiled and moved to greet Balin with a soft head bump and then turned back to Nori, holding out a rather large pouch of what sounded like coins and a dagger. Nori just stared at her in shock and she smirked. "What? You said if I practised I would get better than you." She told him winking. Everyone stood watching her, then Dori spoke, "You where teaching her how to pick pocket Nori? I wouldn't have let her go near you if I'd known!" He asked sounding angry and Nori shrugged, nodding his head. Ori chuckled and then darted forward and wrapped her in a hug, that she seemed to return tightly. "Mister Dori, it's ok. Nori wasn't teaching me anything I didn't already know. It was very educational." She told him and Fíli and Kíli seemed to crack up at that.

She moved over to a few of the other dwarves. The deaf one got an especially long hug, one that caused him to be a little teary eyed after. His brother, maybe, got a headbump and then she turned to the remaining three dwarves. "I never got to thank you for finding me that night I ran away." She said to the one in the funny hat, who was just staring at her. "Princess? Nori ya bastard, why didn't ya tell me?" He yelled, before turning to Ariana and blushing. "Sorry, Bofur at yer service and my brother Bombur." He said flustered and Ariana just smiled at him and I could see the tension in him ease.

She bowed back, "Forget it, my language is a whole lot worse." She said winking at him. The dwarf with the axe imbedded in his head turned to her and let loose a long stream of dwarvish. Ariana merely smiled and nodded her head before replying, causing everyone to pause again. "Ariana that is ancient Khuzdul, how in Mahal's name do you know that?" Balin asked and she turned to him, her smile now more of a smirk. "Just because I didn't speak for nearly two years, doesn't mean I couldn't read and grandfather used to help me with certain words." She said and I stared at her, she wasn't dwarvish yet she knew the language.

Thorin cleared his throat, "What the fuck is wrong with your ears?" He asked gruffly and everyone turned to glare at him, including Ariana. "If the next words out of your mouth contain the word elf I will dye your hair pink and shave your eyebrows off. I am NOT an elf in any shape or form. This was merely a quirk of my bloodline that my birth father hadn't seen fit to have me informed of. Besides how many of the prissy backstabbing grass-munchers have this much metal in their ears?" She demanded and he nodded, tilting her head to the side and examining the studs and the ear cuff. "Did you make this? I assume so as it has our crest on it."

She nodded at the question and pushed back her sleeve on her left arm and showed Thorin her wrist, there was a small inking on it and he studied it, before sucking in a breath at the runes. "You inked that on your wrist?" She nodded and turned her wrist to her nephews who were hovering. "Dwarf at heart, Durin always." They turned to her and she smiled, obviously it was something between her and Thorin as she was tugged into a tight hug and they were murmuring to each other in Khuzdul. I moved into the kitchen wondering what I could offer her to eat, there was food down in my lower pantry but it was mostly grains, flour, potatoes and other things that wouldn't go off.

I turned around to find her watching me, "Can I get you anything to eat, my pantry has been severely depleted, but I'm sure I can find something." I said and she stared at me before pointing at them and I nodded, she span around and cleared her throat. "Would anyone like to explain to me, why there is no food left in Master Baggins pantry?" She asked and no one moved. "I assume from the silence it's because you ate it all. Did you even ask him if you could have it or did you do the normal thing were you barge in and help yourself?" They all looked down sheepishly and she shook her head.

She turned back around to me, "I apologise on behalf of my kin. I am so sorry that you had to experience such rudeness from them, I had thought that considering some of them are at an advanced age that they would have better manners. Unfortunately I can see that isn't the case. Thorin Oakenshield." She snapped out and we all jumped, eyes darting to Thorin. "Yes, namanith?" He asked and she turned to face him, hands on her hips. "Why did you not teach our nephews the proper etiquette for entering someone's house? I am pretty sure that nowhere within those lessons is 'wipe your muddy boots on the furniture.' Also you would do well to stop glaring at Master Baggins, I don't even have to look at you to know you are doing it." She scolded him and the boys, causing them to look at the floor.

She then turned to the others, "And don't think I haven't noticed that you all seem to have forgotten your manners as well, simply helping yourself to someone else's food, flinging around their pottery and then destroying their plumbing. Aren't you lucky I can fix anything you have broken? I wouldn't be this upset if this was Elves, but we are among the gentle folk, you would do well to act less like a heard of Oliphants in a china shop." She snapped out and they all seemed properly cowed, Gandalf chuckled slightly and then froze as her gaze landed on him.

She tilted her head and I saw Thorin and Dwalin flinch. "Tell me Gandalf, you were the one to orchestrate this. Did you tell Master Baggins he would be having company? Or did you just assume that he would be too polite to tell you all to bugger off? Also must you be so damn bloody cryptic?" She asked and he looked at her and if I hadn't known better I would have said he was blushing. She turned back to me and smiled, "I think that will do don't you? And no thank you I'm not hungry. A cup of tea wouldn't go amiss though." She said and I smiled back, tea I could do.

I brought it back in and Ariana smiled at me, taking it off me, added four sugars and began sipping it. I stared at her and she shrugged, "The more magic I use, the more energy I need. I need to keep my magic levels high if we are going to make it on this quest." She said and I nodded, moved away and went to sit in my bedroom, needing some space from all the dwarves in my living room. Ariana seemed to make them aware that not every race was the same as theirs and if she was coming on this adventure then maybe there was at least some chance that it wouldn't be as terribly dangerous as being incinerated. I listened as they sang and could faintly pick up the higher tones of Ariana's voice, I was still thinking it over when I fell asleep.

I awoke the next morning to an empty house and the words of the haunting song echoing in my hallways. I sighed and quickly went about packing up a pack, tying on the old, but new bedroll and grasping my walking stick and the contract. I quickly nailed a sign to my gate and darted off through the shire, with the contracts streaming behind me, yelling at old Gaffer Gamgee that I was off on an adventure. I caught up with the dwarves fairly quickly, despite them being on ponies, I knew the shire far better than they did. I handed over the contract to Thorin and took an immense amount of pride in the shocked look on his face, "I simply needed to sleep on the decision." I told him.

He gestured for me to get on the remaining pony and I stared at it, never having ridden one before. Ariana's voice came from behind me, "You're on her right side, right foot in the rest and jump essentially." She told me, jumping down next to me from the top of a huge black horse. She gestured for me to step up into her palm and I followed her instructions, climbing clumsily up into the saddle, watching in envy as she gracefully leaped back into the saddle, looking a lot like an elf. I patted my pockets searching for a handkerchief as I felt a sneeze building and began to panic about not having one.

Ariana merely rode up next to and held out one of my monogrammed handkerchiefs, "I saw that you wouldn't remember. Thought I would save you the teasing that would come if you shouted out you needed one." She said softly, winking over at me. Ariana tried to keep near me during the day, but would often drift amongst the other dwarves, especially the younger ones, she appeared to be telling them stories, judging by the glares Dwalin and Thorin were sending back to her.

One of the time she was near me I worked up the courage to ask, "Why is your horse so big?", waving a hand to motion to all the ponies, Gandalf being the only other person to ride a horse and she was barely taller than the tallest of the dwarves probably around 5 foot and a few inches. She chuckled as her horse snorted and seemed to glare at me. "Thalion isn't a horse, not really. He is however my familiar, I guess you could say. If I need him to be a horse, he's a horse. Normally he is a raven." She told me and I raised an eyebrow at the Elvish name. She nodded, "There was a time when we were on fairly civilised terms with the Elves, that has obviously changed." She didn't elaborate on that, but I was sure as the quest wore on I would here about it in time, I was still confused how a horse was not a horse, but a raven.

That night we camped out on the edge of a high cliff, Thorin standing looking out over the edge and I found myself wedged beside Fíli and Kíli, jumping when something howled in the distance. Kíli made a teasing comment that was apparently in bad taste as Thorin turned around and scolded him, causing him to drop his head and although I was sure he didn't want it seen, tears appeared in his eyes. Ariana came and sat down next to him, squeezed his wrist and then began to gently pick twigs out of his hair and when she was done began to absently braid his hair and what seemed to shock Fíli was that his brother sat still and let her.

I turned to listen to Balin, who told us the story of the battle at the Gates of Moria, how Thorin had gone from being third in line to the throne, to heir. I watched as Ariana flinched at the mentions of the king dying and Thorin's father going missing. Then I realised that it was her father and grandfather too. Kilí had curled up against Ariana's side and she was resting her chin against his head. Fíli had shifted and moved around to her other side and was just stroking his fingers over the inking on the inside of her wrist. Ariana however was looking over at Thorin as Balin said, "And then I saw him and thought 'There is one I could follow. There is one I could call king.'" And I realised that Thorin did cut a majestic figure against the moonlight and Ariana was studying him closely.

I lit my pipe and was puffing away on it, lost in thought when movement from my right made me jump. I turned to see Fíli and Kíli asleep, leaning against Ariana, Kíli's head resting on her shoulder and Fíli's on her lap, both of them snoring softly. I shook my head and she smiled over at me, rolling her eyes as if to say, 'What can you do?' and I realised this was a person who was used to looking after young ones. I turned and found Thorin studying the scene with a fond look on his face, before he caught me looking and stormed away in a huff, for some reason he really didn't like me.

Ariana laughed softly and spoke just as quietly. "Don't think to badly of my brother. He is annoyed that I manipulated him into letting me come on this quest. He is worried that he will lose me again so soon after gaining me back. I also think he is slightly annoyed that Gandalf knew I was back in Middle Earth and didn't tell him." I looked at her confused, surely she had been here all her life. She smiled sadly over at me, "I was six years old when Thrór and Thrain found me broken, bloody and half dead at the bottom of the gates of Erebor. They nursed me back to health and adopted me into their family, having assumed that I was simply a child of some men who had been abandoned near the mountain. This was not the case, but that is a story for another time." She said sadly and stroked her fingers along Fíli's temple.

She looked back up at me, "I lived with them for over four years. It was in Ered Luin that everything really changed. Thorin, father and grandfather went to fight at Moria and I was left with my older sister and brother. Frerin was upset to begin with that he wasn't going to fight, but accepted that it was because I needed to be protected as I had been injured before Smaug took the mountain. Dis, this pairs mother, was newly married. I met the Ri brothers quite by accident. It was a tough time for us, the months while Thorin was away. We all missed him and worried about those that had gone. Thorin had only been back a day when they lost me."

I frowned at her choice of words and she pulled a face. "We had just found out that Dis was pregnant and grandfather had left us each letters. I had been upstairs reading mine and as I walked downstairs, I had felt this horrible pulling sensation in my stomach, almost like someone was trying to rip my guts out. I had screamed and everything that was familiar disappeared and I ended up in another world. The one I had originally been born in." She said and I blinked, trying to wrap my head around what she had told me. "It nearly broke our family, losing Ariana. I have never seen anything hit my cousin's so hard, even the death of their parents and grandfather." Balin murmured from his seat.

Ariana flicked her gaze over to him, "It nearly broke me. I ended up somewhere I really didn't want to be after that with some not very nice men. All I could think on was the hope of one day getting back here." I stared at her and the haunted look in her eyes made me want to give her a hug. "I hope they regretted what they did to you." Kilí muttered sleepily from his position on Ariana's shoulder and suddenly the sad look in her eyes transformed into a glint of insanity. "Oh they did Irakdashat, they did. Until the day they died, alone, caged and in excruciating pain." She said it so matter of fact that I shuddered, this was not a woman I wanted to cross.

The next morning dawned far too early and then to make matters worse as we were riding it began to rain, "Can't you do something about this deluge master Gandalf?" Dori asked from nearer the front and Ariana laughed, her horse prancing through the rain. She hadn't even had the sense to put up her hood on her cloak. "Namanith, put your hood up." Thorin grouched over at her and she smirked, shaking her head and flicking even more water at him. "Shan't. I want to feel the rain." She told him cheekily, sticking out her tongue. I heard Filí inhale next to me, "The last time I did that to Uncle he said he would cut it out as I wasn't a child and such behaviour was unbecoming of a prince." He muttered and I stared at him. "Ariana Durin, what in the name of Mahal is that?" Thorin exclaimed and we all paused to look at the pair of them.

Ariana grinned wickedly, "What's what dear brother?" Her sweet innocent voice did not match up to the grin. Thorin stared at her, "What. Is. That. On. Your. Tongue? " He asked, biting out every word and all she did was smile, "I thought you were fairly aware of what piercings were, nadad." She said sweetly, that wicked grin still on her face. I hadn't thought that Thorin's scowl could get any worse, it did. "I am, I want to know why you have one in your tongue." He snarled out and every dwarf moved away from the siblings and back towards me. "This could be interesting. I think Thorin could handle the ear piercings as they show she isn't an elf and are quite common among dwarf women, but any other piercing is a no. Not on his little sister." Dwalin muttered and chuckled as Thorin face turned red at Ariana's answer. "Because I paid someone to put it there."

A/N: Translations

Nadadugmil - Older brother

Gelek menu caragu rukhs - you smell like orc shit (bullshit)

Namadinùdôy - sister son's

Irakdashat - Nephew

Next chapter is Fíli, and it should hopefully explain some of the previous two chapters in a little more depth.