Disclaimer: So I own nothing you recognise!

A/N: So I apologise in advance if there are spelling mistakes in this, I think I got them all (although I say that every chapter and still find them!)

In this chapter we have an escape, a scary Ariana, a couple of loyal elves, a slow acting poison, a dragon and Thalion weirding out elves ;) enjoy :D

Chapter 19

Tauriel POV

When I had come back on duty this morning I had not foreseen that we would have empty cells, and dwarves escaping down the river in barrels. I had quickly ran along the walkway to see if they had all left, but found Ariana curled up at the back of her cell. If looks could have killed there were two elves that would be in flames, how could they get so drunk as to lose the keys to the cells. Clearly there had been another member of the company that we had missed, one that had managed to remain hidden within our midst though how I do not know, the dwarves in the cells had been rowdy and singing lewd drinking songs for most of their time in the dungeon.

So now the dwarves had gone, we had lost twenty elves and only had one orc to interrogate as the others had fled after the dwarves. "Such is the nature of evil. Out there in the vast ignorance of the world it festers and spreads. A shadow that grows in the dark. A sleepless malice as black as the oncoming wall of night. So it ever was so it ever will be. In time all foul things come forth." Thranduil said to us as we stood in the Throne room. I stood with my back to the throne, watching as Legolas held a knife to the creatures neck and Thranduil paced behind him. "What interest do you have in thirteen dwarves?" Legolas asked and the filth laughed, "Not thirteen, not any more. We got the young one. The dark haired archer." My heart clenched at Kíli being injured. "We stuck him with a Morgol shaft, the poisons in his blood. He'll be choking on it soon." I spun my blade out of its sheath, angry and desperate to get to Kíli and help him. "Answer the question filth." I commanded and Legolas looked over at me, his gaze worried.

We all froze before the orc could answer as a deep rumbling growl echoed around the throne room, starting right above my head. I span around and looked up to find a great black and white stripped cat, sat staring down at the orc from the base of the seat of Thranduil's throne. It rose and lazily began to walk down the steps, it's shape seeming to flow like water until Ariana stood in front of us. Her eyes flashing and swirling as she stared down at the orc. "You shot my nephew?" She purred out and I took a step away from the threat that dripped from her tone. The creature froze, as you would when confronted by a predator. "You shouldn't have told me that. Now I'm angry."

The orc sneered at her, unflinching even when Legolas dug his blade in a little deeper. "Your world will burn." It spat out and Legolas frowned down at it. "What are you talking about? Speak." He commanded and the orc spat out, "Our time has come again. My master serves the one. Do you understand now Elfling? Death is upon you. The flames of war are upon you." Ariana stalked towards the orc and crouched down in front of it, staring at it for a long moment, the orc becoming more and more unsettled as her gaze, unblinkingly held its.

The orc flinched away as she snapped her teeth in front of it's nose, before spewing forth a torrent of black speech, each word making Thranduil's gaze darker. Ariana just seemed to ignore it, humming as she circled the creature, her fingers sliding over it's skin, almost gently. "Thank you for your co-operation. You know, I speak many languages, some from this earth and many from another. The black speech is one of those languages. You have told me more than you know." She said as she crouched in front of it and grasped it chin in her fingers. It flinched before spitting into her face, Legolas and I started, but she merely wiped it away, listening as the filth spoke again. The laugh she gave sent a chill down my spine, "The monsters are coming? Oh dearie, the monster is already here." She smiled widely, before jerking her hand and breaking the orc's neck.

She stared down at it, before stepping over the body and walking past Thranduil, down the steps and along the walkway. "Where do you think you are going?" Thranduil barked out and she paused, turning to look at him, "To save my nephew. And if you dare try to stop me I will destroy you." She told him before walking away. I moved to go after her, only to stop when Thranduil grasped my arm, "Where do you think you are going?" He asked, glaring down at me. I stared up at the man that had raised me and pulled my arm out of his. "I am going to escort her out of the forest. It's the least I can do for the woman who saved my life." I told him and he frowned, but let me move past him.

I knew that Legolas would follow me later, he would not let Ariana out of his sight now that he had found her. I followed her at a distance, pausing beside her when she stopped and just breathed in the air of the forest. "Why did you follow me?" She asked me softly as we ran and I thought of my answer. "I am, in the eyes of many of this kingdom, a lowly elf who has reached above her position. You treat me no differently than you treat Legolas." I told her and she paused to look at me. "I treat you the way I would treat any other living being that has good in its heart. Legolas spoke to me last night before the commotion. He told me that you made the last 80 years, at least, more bearable for him."

I stared at her, following her in silence as we ran through the woods towards the river bank, camping for the night along the shore. I remembered the words she had spoken in the throne room, "Kíli is your nephew?" I asked and she nodded, looking over at me. "Yes, I was gone long before he was born, but to him that doesn't matter. If you hurt him in anyway, it won't be his mother, brother or uncles you have to worry about. It will be me." She told me and I stared at her nodding, I believed that she could and would do it if I hurt Kíli. "I have no intention of hurting my one. I just fear that Kíli will be affected because of our bond." She looked over at me as I spoke.

She sighed, "There will always be many among our kin that do not see how the bond could work. We have been at odds for longer than most have been alive, and many do not even know why. The story changes with each generation. Kíli is already teased because he is tall, leaner and less bearded than most dwarves. They take it as a weakness. He is not weak, he is stronger than he knows, I just hope that we can reach him in time." We spent the rest of the night in silence, taking the watch in two shifts. The next day we moved along the rocky shore line, pausing at the scene we came upon. There was a deer carcass torn to shreds, beside a bandage that had clearly been quickly made. I paused, spinning around and pulling my bow, only to be faced with Legolas.

He looked over at us. "You cannot fight thirty orcs on your own." Ariana shook her head smiling and I lowered my bow. "We are not alone." He shook his head, "You knew I would come." Legolas sighed, "It is not our fight." Ariana snorted and I looked over at him, "It is our fight. It will not end here. With every victory this evil will grow. If your father had his way, we will do nothing. We will hide within our walls, live our lives away from the light and let darkness descend. Are we not part of this world? Tell me mellon, when did we let evil become stronger than us?"

It took us nearly two weeks to arrive at the town on the Lake and by the time we arrived we were too late to stop the dwarves from heading to the mountain, but as we followed Ariana to a house on the edge of the town, we heard the grunting of the orcs. Soon there was a crash above us and we all moved quickly, Ariana drawing a short sword from her spine and Legolas and I drawing our knives. There was a small family in the house and Ariana spun the blade at the orcs managing to keep them away from the four remaining dwarves as well as the family. Legolas and I quickly dispatched the rest of the orcs and turned to watch Ariana. She had moved over to Kíli and was cutting away his breeches.

She swore in a language that was not of this earth, before tugging a dagger from her belt. "Tauriel, Leoglas hold him down. I need him as still as possible." She barked out and we nodded, moving quickly. "Fíli, keep his attention on you. Bofur, I need you to get the water skin from my pack by the door, it has a mark on it that looks like a whirlpool almost." She flicked the dagger around and looked down at Kíli, "Mizimith this is going to hurt. I am sorry, but I need to get the poison out." She sliced the blade across the wounded flesh and the man and children gagged slightly at the smell. She frowned, but held her left palm above the wound and we watched in silence and awe as her palm glowed a pale blue and black liquid seemed to flow up towards it.

The liquid seemed to keep coming, until suddenly it stopped and formed a perfect ball floating over Ariana's hand. She then turned to one of the other dwarves and he handed her a water skin, she nodded and pulled the cork. "This water is pure, collected from a sacred spring in an area of my old home that very few have the ability to reach." She told us, flicking her hand and causing the water to float out of the skin and wrap around Kíli's leg. She placed her right palm over the water and it glowed again, all of us watching in awe as the wound on his thigh healed before us. She flicked her left hand again and the black ball burst into flames.

The blonde dwarf came and stood next to her, bumping foreheads with her lightly, "That black stuff, what was it?" Ariana sighed and looked up at him, then at all of us. "That was the poison that has been in his blood since your escape. I fear if we had been a day later then it would have been an entirely different outcome." She leant over Kíli and bumped her forehead against his, "Where are the rest? Where is my brother?" She snapped out and the dwarf that had brought her the water skin shifted his feet, nervously. "They left about a week ago, they've probably reached the mountain now." She looked over at him and nodded, "Today is Durin's Day."

The youngest child shifted behind Ariana and tugged her shirt, causing her to kneel and turn towards her. "Do you think the dragon is still in there?" She whispered and Ariana frowned. "I am unsure, dragons can live long lives. I would not fear it though, to fear gives power." She said and I studied her, wondering how she got so wise, so young. "There is a prophecy. One that we managed to bring with us from Dale." The man said, bowing shallowly, "Bard Bowman." He said at Ariana's confused look. She nodded her head and stood, stretching out, but always keeping one hand on Kíli. It was then that I noticed it was glowing blue still. I tensed slightly, there must have been a lot of damage for her to be still healing him.

"The Lord of Silver Fountains,

The King of Carven Stone,

The King Beneath the Mountain,

Shall come into his own.

And the bells shall ring in gladness,

At the Mountain King's return.

But all shall fall in sadness,

And the lake will shine and burn."

I shivered as I heard the Bowman repeat the prophecy that he had read and then we all flinched at Ariana's tone from where she was making sure that Kíli was alright. "No this lake shall not burn. If my kin have woken the dragon, I will fight it off and I will win. I will not have my kin again be the reason for the destruction of a town of men." She snapped out and the Bowman stared at her, "You cannot possibly make such promises my lady." She snorted and stared at him, as Kíli and the others shook their heads. "I can and I will. I cannot promise that you will not lose your homes, but I can promise that I will protect you as much as I can."

She helped Kíli to his feet, then we all froze, a strange sound drifting down across the lake. Ariana and the older dwarf turned to look at each other, "There is no 'if' now. They have woken the dragon. Bard, where is the highest point in you town?" She snapped out and he frowned, but led us outside. "The watch tower. I have a black arrow and a bow, if we get up there we can kill it." Ariana shook her head, "We need to do nothing, you need to start getting as many of the people out as you can. I'll get up there and try to hold it off for as long as I can." She turned quickly and pressed kisses to Kíli and Fíli's foreheads, bumping all four of them lightly with her own forehead. She turned to Legolas and hugged him tightly, before smiling at me and darting out the door.

Legolas and I watched as she scrambled up onto the roof tops and ran towards the tower. "She has clearly done that before." Bard muttered behind us, showing us down to his barge, "Go with the dwarves and my children, at least then I know they will be safe. I am going to help the town." He said before running off into the darkness. Legolas and I navigated the barge through the waterways of the town, occasionally one of us would jump off to help the people around us. We were just clearing the edges of the town when the youngest girl whimpered and looked up. Above us the dragon's silhouette flew over the town, the deep growl echoing over the lake. "Aunty." I heard the blond dwarf whisper and turned to find Ariana stood atop the watch tower.

She had her hands out to her sides, her head following the dragon as it flew over the town. As it flew down, unleashing fire over the city Ariana moved her arms and somehow the fire obeyed her, houses burning, but the people running from them were untouched. She span on the top of the tower and the water underneath us rocked violently, a wall of it coming up to protect the boats, that like us had cleared the town. I could hear the dragon chuckling above us, taunting Ariana. Legolas and I had abandoned steering the boat in favour of letting one of the dwarves. We were too busy watching Ariana, "Da!" One of the children shouted out from behind us and we looked back at the tower to find Bard and his bow stood on the platform just below Ariana.

The dragon flew over the town a few more times, fire raining down on us, the screams of the people surrounding us, but many of them seemed to be scared rather that hurt. The fire seemed to swirl and flow around the town, many of the homes smouldering. We all jumped as the lake rocked and the dragon landed atop several of the burning houses. We watched with bated breath as Bard clambered up behind Ariana and seemed to help anchor her to the roof. "You think you can stop me child? You reek of dwarf and elf, yet you are neither. Your magic is strange to me, something not seen in over an age." The dragon rumbled out and I felt Legolas twitch beside me, itching to go for his bow.

We listened intently as Ariana spoke. "You're right, I am neither Elf nor Dwarf. I am something worse. I am the last Dragon Born, I am the last child alive who holds power over the great serpents of the north. I am telling you to leave, to go home and stay there. I am telling you to leave every man, dwarf, elf and hobbit alone on your journey north and beyond." She paused and the dragon laughed, "Or what child? You'll stick me with an arrow?" Ariana's hands seemed to glow a bright white, "No or I'll take away your ability to think for yourself, I will make you obey me and my every command, from now until the day you die. So leave and never come back, do it before I force you."

The dragon seemed to freeze before lunging forward, Ariana raised her left hand up and placed it on the dragons snout, the bright white light exploding out, drowning the town in its glow , before receding. The dragon shook its head and stared down at Ariana who merely pointed her finger northwards and the dragon fled, the wind from it's wings stirring the embers of the fires. The people cheered as the dragon fled, blending in to the night. We watched as we drifted towards the shore as Bard helped Ariana down from the top of the tower. We lost sight of them as we hit the shore and we began to help the people out of their boats and to make some form of shelter for them.

A raven croaked from a tree at the edge of the lake and Kíli ran over to it, "Thalion?" Legolas and I looked at each other, why would a raven be called Champion. The raven squawked before flying down and transforming into a man. "Aye laddie? Where is my mistress?" He asked and Kíli pointed towards the smoking town, the raven-man nodded. "Aye she's likely tryin' to find any survivors. Mistress hates thoughtless destruction, especially where there be innocents." Legolas and I just stared at him, he bowed to us, "Ye be my mistresses fledglings? Ye have naught to fear from me." He said before launching up into the sky, transforming mid-leap and soaring off into the darkness.

We stayed with the towns people overnight, helping with the wounds we could, barely seeing Ariana as she darted around trying to heal the burns and broken burns of those her magic had not managed to save. It took Kíli physically wrestling her into our little tented area to get her to sit and sleep for a while. They spoke in hushed tones, of what I didn't know, but it was a matter that clearly upset her. "Aunty you need to stop and rest, you will be no good to any of us if you drop down in exhaustion for we will have no one to heal you." I watched Kíli hand her the small amount of food we have been given and she ate it so quickly. "I know that khuzdith, however our kin have caused this, I will right their wrongs. Then smack Thorin six ways from Sunday for this foolishness." She muttered the last and the other dwarves chuckled.

It was early the next morning when Kíli and the other dwarves came to us, looking between Ariana, Legolas and I, then looking over at the mountain, "We need to get to the others, they need to know what happened here. I think you should stay with the people aunty. You're a better healer than they have access to at the minute and we don't know what awaits us in the mountain. I do not want to expose you to uncle if he is as bad as we assume." The blond, Fíli said and Ariana seemed to be considering it. "Plus I would feel better if you were here with Bard and his people. They need all the help they can get, there is little danger here." Kíli muttered to Ariana and she nodded, agreeing to what they had said.

She lightly headbutted the two other dwarves that had come up from the shoreline and they hugged her in return. She then hugged Fíli and whispered something to him, before turning to Kíli. "Be safe over there. Do not trust to hope that Thorin will be the same as he was when he left you last. That gold has been in the presence of a dragon for too long. I know you fear the sickness, but my magic is in your blood. It will block any effect from the sickness. I'll see you when we reach Dale, mizimith." She spoke softly to him and he nodded, hugging her tightly and letting her press a kiss to his temple. He began to walk away from us, before turning and coming back to me, placing a smooth stone in my hand and running down towards the boat. I looked down at the stone in my hand and found his promise stone, I frowned and looked up at Ariana, who smiled sadly at me. "He is promising to return to you." She said before moving off to help the people prepare to move towards Dale.

It would take us at least a week and a half if not more to reach the ruins of Dale, especially with the amount of injuries that had been sustained in Smaug's attack. Ariana had told Bard and his people that Thorin would hold to his word and give them the gold to rebuild their town. I turned to Ariana as we lead the group on the safest path. "What if Thorin does not hold to his word? What will happen then?" I asked her softly as we walked and she looked over at Legolas and I. "If Thorin goes back on his word and denies these people what he promised them, I will tear down the fucking wall and give them my share of the gold. They need it far more than I ever could." I stared at the venom in her voice and then saw the worry in her eyes. "You already know he won't hold to his word." Legolas said softly and she nodded, "If he had any sense around him, he would have sent a raven for me. Demanding I come back to the mountain. He hasn't. So I can only assume that there is something more important in that mountain than his little sister." I glared up at the mountain, how much damaged could one dwarf cause?

A/N: So how was that? Anyway here we go, time for the mountain. Bard's up next and there will be some physical elf slapping in this one ;)

Thank you so much to everyone who takes the time to review I love reading them and some of them really make me giggle...( you know who you are ;) )

Anyways I know people are eager to know when the wings will come out and if the dragons are making a comeback... well yes and it will be in chapter 22 my multi POV chapter (well I say multi its really just Ariana and Thranduil at the moment. There may be some Thorin at the end as I want injuries and guilt trips!) So stick with me please :)