It felt like hours had gone by as Thorin showed her around Erebor. It had indeed been quite some time since her last visit, and seeing her spin in circles, gazing up at the vast columns and stonewalls, made him smile. He watched as Halien climbed atop a nearby pillar and hold onto a nitch as she gazed out of the vastness of the halls.

"This is incredible! Your home is much bigger and grander than I remember!" she exclaimed.

Thorin's smile grew bigger as she stayed there for a moment to take it all in. "You are quite the climber. Do you have an excellent view of things from up there?"

"Aye, the view is amazing from here," she replied. "I like to spend more time than my father would allow climbing the trees of my homeland and scouting our borders. I know every inch of Greenwood and could lead you safely through it with my eyes closed."

"Perhaps one day you can show me your home."

Halien looked down at him and smiled. "It would my pleasure, sire." She watched as another dwarf, Balin, called to Thorin and beckoned for Halien to follow them.

Halien nodded and slid down from the stone pillar, limber as a cat. She greeted the older dwarven lord, leaning down to embrace him as he outstretched his arms with a warm smile. Taking a brief moment to tell him how much she had missed him, Halien stood upright and followed Thorin back to the throne room. Thorin took his place by his grandfather's side and a dwarf brought out a chest that gleamed like starlight when it was opened. Halien, standing by her father, watched as her father's eyes widened and he cautiously approached the chest, reaching out to it slowly before it was slammed shut. Thranduil looked up at Thror and Halien knew, instantly, that something was wrong. Thorin looked at his grandfather, not understanding what was happening either, and then back at Thranduil.

"Father?" Halien asked as Thranduil turned away to leave.

"We are leaving, Halien," he said.

"But, Father..." she tried to protest, begging him silently to explain.

"Halien, we are leaving," Thranduil repeated, his voice cold.

Halien felt tears in her eyes as she tried to reach out to her father with her mind, only to be met with an icy barricade that startled her so much that she stumbled backward. She turned back to the line of Durin and bowed.

"I am sorry, your majesties if we have offended you or upset you in any way. Thank you for your most generous hospitality."

She saw the confusion in Thorin's eyes, as clear as her own. He started to move towards her and Halien heard him silently begging her not to leave, to help him figure out what was going on, but she could not. Her father called to her one final time- his tone even colder than the barricade in his mind- and with one last look at Thorin, the tears in Halien's eyes slipped silently down her cheek, for she knew that the alliance was finished, and that she would never again be able to leave Greenwood and come back to Dale and Erebor, to gaze upon its grandness again and even worse, that she may never see Thorin again.

"I am sorry..." she whispered and turned on her heel and hurried to catch up to her father. Behind her, she heard him calling her name, sensing his father, Thrain, stopping him as he made to run after them.

"Let her go, Thorin." she heard him say to his son. "What is done is done."

Halien tried to wipe away the tears as she reached her father, still sensing Thorin's confusion- mirroring her own- and the rage that seemed to brew like a tempest inside her father.

They left the land behind and journeyed back to Greenwood. Halien tried to ask her father why things had happened the way they had, but all Thranduil would say was that the dwarves had stolen from them the treasures of the mountain, refusing to return them. Sighing, her heart aching to go back to the great kingdom, Halien watched as the Lonely Mountain grew ever smaller in the distance.


Some months later, word reached the ears of the elven court of Greenwood that Dale was under attack and they were in desperate need of reinforcements. Thranduil and the elven army he commanded hurried to assist the dwarves, Halien riding at his side. Upon their arrival, Halien saw the fires burning the lands and what remained of Dale alight with a fierce blaze.

It was dragon's fire.

She watched as the dwarves fled Erebor, smoke billowing from the great doors. Halien could not believe the sight before her, for they had just been there not too long ago. In the distance, she could hear Thorin calling out to them for help and his fear crashed into her from afar. It was overwhelming and left her feeling helpless.

"Thorin…" Halien whispered. She looked at her father, but he turned his head away from the blazing scene below. "Father, we cannot leave them! They need our help!" she called as her father steered the large elk back towards Greenwood.

"I will not risk the lives of our kin to save them. I will not endure the wrath of the dragon." Thranduil said.

"You cannot do this!" she cried.

Thranduil stopped, smacking her across the face. Her brother, Legolas, stopped and stared in fear for his sister. "I am your father, and more importantly, your king. You will not disobey me again."

Halien felt anger rising as tears fell from her eyes, a trickle of blood sneaking out of the corner of her lips. "You are no king of mine…" she said, a sudden venom to her words. "If you will not honor the alliance, then I will, as is my duty as the ambassador of our people."

As she turned away, her father warned, "If you go to help them, you will not be welcome back into Greenwood."

"I will not abandon them to the dragon," she said bluntly and with one last look at her father and brother, she turned away and urged her mare onward to the burning lands.

Without another look, she made her way through the winding hills and boulders to help anyone she could. She rode as fast as Torwen could carry her and she searched and searched, looking for any signs of Thorin or his family. There was nothing and she helped as many people escape to safety as she could before she continued to search. No matter how hard she tried, she could not find anything. But that did not stop her.