Katniss was very annoyed for having to hunt with that loud bald tattooed man - no, dwarf - who seemed to be deliberately trying to be noisier than two Peeta's combined. She felt a pang in her heart as her mind drifted to the baker's son. The cruelty of what President Snow had done to them still stung deeply. She tried to brush off these thoughts because she knew they would only distract her from her current task. Not that it would be much of a help anyway, as she doubted that she would be able to hunt anything with Dwalin stomping his feet the way he was doing.

"Can you stop doing that?" Katniss snapped as another squirrel run away after being startled by the noise made by Dwalin's heavy boots crushing a bunch of sticks.

"Stop doing what, lass?" Dwalin's eyes sparkled with mischief as he tried and failed to hide his grim. Katniss noticed and frowned her eyebrows and stared at him.

"Grow up."

"Ye ur just too amusin' for anyone to ignore."

Katniss gave Dwalin a deadly glare. At least he was much quieter after that, proving that he was indeed just messing around with her. The good side of that was that Katniss was finally able to truly show off her hunting skills to the old dwarven warrior. In less than half an hour she had tracked and captured two rabbits and a fox. She also had found a fig tree that they picked together. They were making their way back to the camp when Dwalin signalled for her to stop.

"Ye ur pretty decent with yer bow. But ye should not rely only on it durin' battle. Arrows run out, but the war carries on. Do ye have any other weapon of choice, lass?"

"I'm not nearly as good, but I can throw knives,"

"Show me."

After considering for a bit whether she should oblige with his request or not, she ended up nodding in agreement and removed one of her hidden knives from the inside of her boots' sole. She threw it at a tree that was about five metres away from the place they were standing.

"Na too bad. But yer technique can be improved."

She nodded in agreement and went to retrieve her knife.

"Can ye use an axe or a sword?"

"No," she had taken part in a workstation at the Training Centre prior to the Games that had taught her the basis of sword and axe fighting. However, somehow, she knew that Dwalin would not consider that to be proper training.

The dwarven warrior scratched his beard thoughtfully before he spoke again.

"We need to get back. Men are hungry', tha' meat needs to be cooked."

As soon as they were back, Dwalin went to talk to Thorin and Balin, leaving Katniss the task to hand over her game to Bombur and Bofur who already had started working on that evening's stew.

"I'm sorry for attacking you this morning. I did not know that you were only following orders…"

"That is OK, lass. It is water under the bridge now," the chubby dwarf said as he started to skin the animals she'd brought back to the camp.

Katniss nodded and left the dwarves to work in peace. Before she would leave though, she grabbed two figs for herself, choosing to eat one now and save the other one for later.

Katniss decided to use the time before supper was ready to relieve her bladder in the woods and pay a visit to the small water source and wash her hands, arms, face, hair and refill her water bottle. She also tried to use her communicator, still without success, a few times before she decided to make her way back to the camp. On her way back, she found quite a few traps set up. They were somehow different from the ones she used to make with Gale, but the principle was very similar. She stopped to admire their work, trying to see if she could figure out some of their making processes.

"Like what you see?" Kíli proudly asked.

"I have seen better," which was not accurately true, but Katniss did not want to give him a free compliment.

"Do you think you can make better traps than these?"

"No," she plainly answered before she went back to the main camp and picked the seating spot furthest from the others that she could, without being far from the fire. Then, she got the rope that Finnick had given to her and started practising her knots the same way he had taught her.

"Don't isolate yourself, Katniss," Gandalf said, claiming a spot next to her, followed by Bilbo. "Loneliness is not good for your soul."

"At least I know that I'm not going to let myself down."

"Yes, people might let you down sometimes, but they can also be an enormous source of comfort and joy. Stay alone, and yes, you will probably survive. Join the others and you are sure to live a brighter life…" the wizard finished by lighting his smoking pipe. Bilbo copied the wizard and ended up doing the same thing. Katniss, on the other hand, remained in silence fiddling with her piece of rope.

"Miss Katniss?" Bilbo started a bit wary "Would you mind teaching me how to tie knots like these?"

"Sure," she answered after hesitating for a second. "Come here, let's start with a bowline knot."

Overall, Bilbo was a good student. even though she did not consider herself to be a competent teacher. They remained like that for a while until Bifur and Bofur arrived, carrying two bowls of stew each, and giving one to Bilbo and one to Katniss. The hot stew went down her stomach like a warm hug after a very long day. It reminded her of Greasy Sae's stews, and if she closed her eyes, she could almost hear the noises and smells of the Hob. That was a feeling she had been longing for months - it felt like home.

"So lass, tell us…" Bofur asked, taking her away from her daydreaming, "you said you are not a Lady, but why do you dress up like one?"

"I hardly think that my armour can be considered a Lady's attire…"

"It surely is from a fine making," Balin, the white-bearded dwarf decided to join their conversation.

"That is true," Katniss stroked her own armour with candour. That was Cinna's last gift for her. Her Mockingjay outfit, so she could be the face of the revolution. "Let's just say that I once had a good friend who liked to make me nice dresses."

"Nice dresses? You mean more than one? Lass, and you want us to believe that you are not a Lady from high-standing?" Bofur asked.

Katniss chuckled on her stew. Technically, her status as a victor and the Mockingjay of the rebellion made her somewhat important, but these were titles that she would rather ignore and turn down.

"My mother was until she married my father. He was a miner."

"We all have seen this story before, haven't we, lads?" Balin said, giving a meaningful look to the three Durin's heirs.

"Aye, mother and father!" Kíli gave Katniss a warm smile. "Our adad was a miner too…"

"That he was. Until he married Lady Dís," Balin concluded.

"Our amad" Kíli's eyes sparkled with joy. "One day I am going to live a love story as beautiful as theirs."

All the dwarves immediately started whistling, laughing and making silly noises. Katniss just shook her head but she could not avoid the sympathetic smile that came to her lips. Soon, both brothers started singing a love ballad about a dwarven Princess that ended up marrying a miner, a song clearly made for their parents.

Even Thorin, who was usually grumpy, seemed to be in high spirits. Their eyes met for a moment and Katniss felt some discomfort in her stomach that she was sure had to do with their argument early on. Thorin's expression was neutral, but he refused to move his sparkly blue eyes away from her as if they were in the middle of a staring contest. In the end, it was Katniss who decided to move her eyes away before someone else noticed and things started to get awkward. Before anyone could object, she quickly grabbed everyone's bowls and went back to their water source to wash them up.

"Bilbo, don't listen to them," Katniss urged the hobbit. "Just take the blanket, it is yours by right. I took it from your house without asking for permission. I'm used to sleeping in the wild. I used to do that all the time. I will be fine…"

"Mr Boggins, don't listen to her. She is a Lady, she needs to be looked after…" Fíli said.

"Repeat that again and I swear you will see who is the Lady who needs to be looked after!" Katniss spat at him.

"My brother is right, she doesn't even have a sleeping mat, for Mahal's sake!" Kíli decided to join the argument.

"If both of you carry on talking about me as if I am not here, I swear you are going to regret it!"

"Shazara!" Thorin commanded both his nephews who were quite at once. "Fíli, give her your blanket. Kíli, give her your mat. We can get new supplies when we pass through Bree."

"Didn't you hear anything I said?" she yelled at Thorin. "I'm not taking anyone's blanket nor mat. Not Bilbo's, nor anyone else's! I'm sleeping with my head on my bag, and my father's jacket over me and that is final!"

And with that said, Katniss laid down her head on her bag like she said she would, and covered herself up with her dad's old hunting jacket and closed her eyes. When she felt someone placing a blanket on her, she immediately removed it and threw it as far as she could. Nobody else attempted to cover her again after that.

Katniss was inside the Arena of her first Hunger Games. She had just finished blowing up the career pack stack of supplies and she needed to find Rue. She was following the sounds of the mockingjays, trying to find her little ally and prevent Rue's death this time. Only that when Katniss finally found the fishing net, it was her sister who was trapped inside it.

"PRIM! PRIM!" Katniss shouted.

"Katniss!" her sister shouted back, and Katniss noticed that she was surrounded by enormous wolf mutts that looked like her friends and family. They started attacking them, and she started fighting for her life with everything she had. Until the sound of a cannon made all the mutts start running away from them. Katniss knew that was not a good sign, so she grabbed her knife and started trying to release her sister as quickly as she possibly could.

"Katniss…"

"We need to get out of here, Prim!"

It was then that Katniss realised that there was a gigantic dragon, a beast as huge as an aircraft, flying in their direction straight from the sky.

"Katniss."

"No, no, PRIM!"

"Wake up Katniss," a stronger male voice that she vaguely recognised came out of her sister's mouth. The beast had landed not far away from them.

"Prim…"

"Wake up," Thorin's voice gently brought her back to reality. Katniss opened her eyes and the first thing she saw was Thorin's piercing blue eyes. Then she noticed that she was also surrounded by thirteen dwarves, one hobbit and a wizard, all looking deeply concerned. She tried to sit down, not realising that she was hyperventilating and shaking.

"The Lass is having soldier's fatigue…" she heard someone whispering, but she couldn't point out who.

"Óin, have a look at her. Everybody else, back to sleep," Thorin ordered, and all the others obliged.

Katniss was sitting on the ground, hugging both of her legs tightly in a sitting fetal position. Óin quickly examined her, placed his hands on her forehead and started to whisper some words that she did not understand, but that somehow seemed to soothe her soul. And her breathing was slowly returning to normal, though she still did not dare to open her eyes again just yet.

"I'm going to brew her a nerve-calming concoction. Can you stay with the Lass for a moment?" Óin asked Thorin, who nodded in agreement.

The king in exile sat down next to her, near enough to be able to hear the phrases that she was carrying on whispering as if it was a mantra.

"My name is Katniss Everdeen. I'm seventeen years old. I'm from District 12. I was a tribute during the Hunger Games. I escaped. District 12 was destroyed by the Capitol. I am the Mockingjay of the rebellion. I was shot during the Nut explosion at District Two. I am on a quest with thirteen dwarves, a hobbit and a wizard. I need to find my sister. I need to kill Snow so that the Hunger Games can be over…"

"Thank you Óin, I can take over from here…" Thorin said in khuzdul as he took the wooden cup from his healer's hand. The sounds of that foreign dwarven language removed Katniss away from her trance.

Óin gave Thorin a small nod and went back to his own sleeping mat. The dwarven king returned his attention back to the small dark-haired woman, only to find that she had finally opened her eyes again and was observing him.

"How much did you hear?" she inquired.

"Everything."

She gave a small frustration sigh. He had a worried expression on his face and a hint of something that looked a bit like pity. She frowned back at him, she did not need or want to have anyone pitying her fate.

"Here, drink this," he whispered offering the cup to her.

"What is it?" she took it despite looking suspiciously at him.

"Medicine."

She smelled it as if trying to find something wrong with it.

"I'm not poisoning you. And I find it offensive that you may be thinking so lowly of us."

"When you have so many people trying to kill you, you learn to be on your guard."

"If I wanted to see you dead, you would die through my axe or sword. Killing through poison is for the coward, for the unworthy,"

"Now... that is something that we can definitely agree with," she said, thinking about what Finnick had revealed about President Snow's favourite way of killing his political opponents. She gave Thorin a small cheer with her medicine cup and downed its contents in one go.

"Have some sleep."

"No way," and she promptly stood up, fetched her bow and quiver, went to her bag and grabbed her night-vision glasses, which she immediately put on her face.

"What do you think you are doing?" he gave her a stern glare.

"Isn't it obvious? I'm patrolling with you and Goldilocks over there," she whispered pointing at Fíli who was throwing them inquisitive glances from the other side of the camp.

"No, you are not."

"Fine, I'm going on a hunt, then…" she turned her back to him, just to have him grabbing her arms and forcing her to face him.

"You are not going anywhere."

"Excuse me?"

"It is not safe."

"Then let me join the patrol."

Thorin grunted in frustration before he turned to his heir and quickly exchanged some signs in iglishmêk with him. Katniss frowned. She did not understand their way of communication in the slightest, and she did not like being kept in the dark. In the end, she only realised that she was having her way when Fíli bowed his head to them and tucked himself back on his sleeping mat. Thorin went to the place that Fíli had previously been standing, sat on a rock turning his back to the company and lighted his pipe.

Katniss switched on her night vision glasses, enabling her to clearly see the entire company with details in black and white. She left her bow loaded, just in case, but pointed at the ground. She went over to the place where Thorin was sitting down, and she sat in a place near to where he was, but she turned her back down to him and focused on the company instead.

They stayed there, in silence, for several minutes. Katniss decided to play around with some of the features from her glasses and she noticed that dwarves' body temperature seemed to be much higher than Bilbo's, Gandalf's and her own. She looked at Thorin, who was sitting down next to her, and noticed that his temperature was also much higher than a normal human. She half-thought about making a comment about it, but she ended up deciding against it, as Thorin looked like he was enjoying the silence. However, to her surprise, it was he who started talking to her.

"You look ridiculous with this thing covering your eyes."

"They have night-vision. They are military glasses. It allows me to see in the dark," she removed them and offered to Thorin for him to have a better look at it. Thorin took the object and started analysing it as if he was evaluating a piece of precious jewellery. Encouraged by Katniss, he brought it to his own eyes.

"I don't see any difference…"

"Are you sure? Let me have a look," she got it from him and placed it on her own face, and it was working perfectly fine. "I don't understand, it is working for me…"

"Could it be because dwarves already have night-vision naturally?"

"Do you really?"

He confirmed with a head nod.

"Try that again. There are other features you might find interesting…"

He did, and she helped him to adjust it, showing off the zoom and recording mechanisms and the infrared vision. He gave a small grunt of approval before he gave them back to her. They went back to silence and remained like that for what felt like hours.

Katniss did not like that boring silence. It made her mind drift back to Peeta being tortured and brain-washed by the Capitol; to her sister Prim having to look after their mother without having her around this time; to Cinna, who gave his life to ignite the rebellion; to Darius, who was made an avox by Snow; Gale, who was fighting in a war without her bow to protect him this time. So many people that had their lives ruined by the Capitol.

"Your mind is troubled," Thorin concluded after a quick glance at her. "Would you like to talk about it?"

"No, not really," she quickly answered, but he gave her an inquisitive look and Katniss felt the need to explain her decision to him. "It is not like you would be able to understand anything that I went through anyway…"

Thorin put down his pipe and turned all his attention to her.

"Try me."

Katniss' heart started beating fast and she could not figure out why.

"I wouldn't know where to start…"

"When you were mumbling things about your life, over there," Thorin pointed to the place she had previously been sleeping. "You mentioned some games that you took part in…"

Katniss went pale.

"The Hunger Games," she forced herself to whisper. "Are you sure you want to learn about it? Because I would not want to know. Especially if I thought that was the future…"

"Remember, the wizard believes that you might be able to change that."

Katniss gave him a funny look. She did not want to point it out that she was still struggling to get her head around on that absurd time-travel idea. The concept that they could belong to different races was already too much for her to take in.

"All right. You want to learn about the Hunger Games, I will tell you all about it. Just, beware that you have been warned."

And so she told him. She started by narrating what the Capitol called the Dark Days, or when the Districts were rebelling against the Capitol of Panem. Then, she briefly told him how Thirteen had betrayed the rebellion to save their own skin and about the sanctions the Capitol gave for the remaining districts, including the Hunger Games.

The rage that Thorin felt when he learned that these 'games' involved forcing people from the Districts to send their own children to fight to the death inside of an arena, was monumental. Children were cherished by every dwarrow and protected through all costs. Learning that the people from that Capitol saw these deaths like a theatrical circus only increased his ire. He stood up and started pacing near her, in order to try to calm down his nerves. Katniss was amused by his reaction. Surely, she had warned him that her tale was definitely not all roses, but she had not expected for him to actually care so fiercely about it.

"You said you were a tribute. So your name was drawn during this ripening?"

"Actually, I volunteered. It was my younger sister's name, Prim, that was drawn. I could not let her compete, Thorin. Prim is such a gentle soul. She wouldn't have stood a chance. She would have died within minutes…"

Thorin could certainly relate to that. He knew that he would undoubtedly have done the same thing if any of his siblings were in that situation. If his nephews had been in that position... he would likely have started a war if anyone did as much as threatening to hurt one single hair of their beard.

"How about your parents? Didn't they think about volunteering for you as well?"

"It is not allowed. You need to be between twelve and eighteen years old to compete. My father died when I was eleven-years-old anyway, a mining accident. And my mother… well, she basically died alongside him. She was nothing but an empty shell for years."

The loss of a One. Thorin had never felt that particular pain, but he had witnessed his sister Dís going through it. It had taken her two decades for her to become a shadow of what she had been before her husband's death. During that time, Thorin had taken the responsibility of raising his young nephews as if they were his own children.

"Who looked after you while your mother grieved?"

After hearing that Katniss could not help the dry laugh from escaping her lips.

"I looked after us. I'm the one who went to the wild with my father's bow and brought food back to our table. I looked after me, my mother and my sister."

Having had the responsibility of looking after his people since he was mere fifty-three years old, Thorin knew well enough how it was like having to grow up ahead of time. And she had to do so when she was only eleven-years-old. He knew that was too young, even for a daughter of man. Mahal, she was still so young! Only barely old enough to be considered a young adult on her race. Despite that enormous age gap, he saw himself in her. They had more in common than she could possibly fathom.

"The horrors you have faced are worse than I had foreseen, Miss Everdeen,"

"I tried to warn you. The future is pretty grim."

"It won't be grim no more. You will change it, or at least the wizard believes that you can do it."

She closed her eyes, imagining how good it would be if that was true. A world without the Hunger Games. She took a deep breath inhaling the smell of the surrounding trees, the tobacco from Thorin's pipe and the firewood which was still burning. She opened her eyes and saw that a new day was slowly trying to rise on the horizon. She felt hopeful. She felt a calm that she had not felt in a long time. That peace brought her guard down and allowed her tiredness to get the best of her. And before she could realize what was happening, her head fell over Thorin's shoulders as the sleep finally claimed her.

Thorin felt his body freeze when he felt the human girl invading his personal space in a way that very few people would dare. He felt a sense of pride that she would let her guard down like that near him. If anything, Katniss Everdeen definitely did not seem the kind of person that would freely give her trust away for anyone like that.

Wanting to avoid the gossip that was sure to erupt if anyone caught them in that state, he quickly moved her off his shoulders and carefully adjusted her body, laying her on the ground with her shoulder bag as a pillow the best way he could muster. Only that when he looked up, he saw that he had indeed been caught. His friend and adviser Balin was giving him an inquisitive look. Thorin sighed in resignation. He would have no choice but explain what had happened to his old friend. At least he knew that he could always count on Balin for discretion.