When Katniss woke up the day after Thorin braided her hair, the company was already outside the cave finishing the preparations for their departure. Only her and Balin seemed to be inside it. After many consecutive raining days, they finally had woken up to a clear blue sky.

Balin gave her a warm grandfather smile, but she avoided looking him in the eyes as she felt extremely self-conscious about what had happened between her and Thorin in front of everybody the previous night. She had been glad that Thorin had waited until everybody was sleeping before he had decided to wake her up for supper last night. Now, she really wanted to bury herself under the ground and never have to face anyone from the company again.

"Good morning, Lassie" Balin said despite her clear embarrassment "I noticed you did not have nightmares today."

"Balin," Katniss acknowledged him with a short nod. She did not feel like doing small talk with the old dwarf or with anybody else for the matter. So she quickly started to gather her things to leave the cave when Balin offered her a bowl with some roasted meat that he had been holding. Katniss silently accepted it as she wondered if the white haired-dwarf had stayed there just to guard her sleep.

"It is deer venison. Thorin caught it this morning. He asked me to save some of the inner loin and backstraps for you."

Katniss looked back to the bowl showing a bit more appreciation this time.

"I have killed a good handful of deers and stags before, but I never have eaten their meat"

"Oh," Balin seemed a bit thrown back by that revelation. "Why not Lassie?"

"People do pay a good price for it." she simply stated as she ate her first bite of the juicy meat.

"You seem to have endured quite a hardship for someone so young,"

Katniss shrugged.

"I guess you can say that." she said vaguely, not really looking at him.

"I think I can see why he can relate to you so much," Balin said, finally caughting her attention and making her flush.

Willing to leave what felt like an uncomfortable conversation for her part, Katniss decided to leave the cave and Balin altogether. Only to feel even more embarrassed by finding the rest of the company waiting a few meters away, with everything already packed. Katniss felt very self-conscious when everyone went quiet as she appeared, every dwarf coming out of their way to form a clear path between Thorin and her. The dwarrow king gave her an intense look and a small grin. Katniss felt her face burn as she decided to avoid looking him in the eyes. Thorin's smile seemed to grow even bigger after witnessing her going all flushed after looking him in the eyes. However, the last thing she wanted to do was to get near him, and feel that irresistible pull she felt every time they were together. So she quickly nodded and went to find her horse so they all would be able to leave as soon as possible.

Thorin was amazed by her uneasiness. If anything, he felt like it was further proof that she might also nurture feelings for him. Despite that, he felt that it would probably be wise to leave her be for the moment. Or at least, until she could feel comfortable around him again.

But Katniss seemed determined to avoid not only him, but the whole company as much as possible. While they were riding their ponies, she decided to stay at the back of the pack, where not many members of the company would be able to see her. However, unfortunately for her, Kili and Fili decided to follow her there, and they were both determined to remind her that they all had witnessed the moment she had shared with Thorin the previous night.

"What a nice dwarrow hair-style, my Lady," Fili said with a wink, making her blush.

"It does suit you, Auntie!" Kili complemented. It took Katniss half a second for her to realise why Kili was suddenly calling her Auntie.

"There is absolutely nothing - nothing - going on between your Uncle and me!"

Katniss angrily hissed.

Both brothers bursted in a loud laughter calling the attention of the rest of the company for Katniss' dismay.

"Oh right! Did you hear that, Fee? Auntie Kat said that there is nothing going on between Uncle and her…"

Katniss felt her face burn again, as she witnessed many members of the company trying to suppress their own laughter, while others did not even bother to hide it.

She gave Kili a murderous glare. She wanted nothing more than to leave them and seek Thorin's companionship, but she knew that it would only feed the brothers' taunts towards her. Therefore, she ended up deciding to leave them regardless but remained in the middle of the group where Balin was having a friendly conversation with Bilbo.

They barely stopped that day, it was the way to catch up their late morning start. However, there was still some light in the sky when Thorin decided that they should make camp in the ruins of an abandoned farmhouse. Sooner than later, every company member was busy with a different task, hers being to train sword fighting alongside Bilbo and under Dwalin's strict supervision. Thorin did not approach them this time, but more than once he threw some intense glares at her, making Katniss blush, lose her focus and Dwalin roll his eyes.

Despite that, Katniss was making quite a quick progress, and Dwalin had told her that she was ready to start training with a real sword during their next session. They only stopped training once supper was ready.

As always, she had been the first person to be given food. Balin had previously explained to her that it was their custom to always feed children and women first when they were in the wild and there was not much certainly of when or where their next meal was supposed to be. While they quickly ate their rations, Bilbo shared with Katniss his concern about Gandalf's disappearance from the rest of their group.

"I'm sure he will be back soon enough Bilbo. He seems to know these lands better than anyone else here. Maybe he just wanted to scout a bit ahead?"

Although not entirely convinced, Bilbo seemed a bit more assured after that. As they were the first to finish, Bofur asked if they could give two bowls for Thorin's nephews. Begrudgingly, Katniss took hold of one of the bowls, followed by Bilbo who did the same thing. She was feeling too tired, and definitely not in the mood to be teased by the troublesome due.

However, when they approached the area where the princes were looking after the ponies, Fili and Kili looked concerned. Katniss frowned as she wondered what could be the reason behind that, however, it was Bilbo who asked the question.

"What is the matter?"

"We're supposed to be looking out for the ponies," Kili said.

"Only we've encountered a slight problem." said Fili.

"We had sixteen." Kili added.

"Now there's fourteen." Fili concluded.

Immediately after hearing that, Katniss placed the stew she was carrying on a tree truck and removed one of her arrows from her quiver and loaded her bow. She quickly started looking around, as if she was expecting to find whoever had stolen the ponies behind a tree, ready to attack them. Her cautious attitude made both brothers also decide to arm themselves and be more wary of their surroundings as well.

"Shouldn't we tell Thorin?" Bilbo asked, looking concerned.

"Uhh, no. Let's not worry him. As our official burglar, we thought you might like to look into it." Fili requested.

Katniss frowned at that, but she did not say anything. They all carried on exploring the clearance until Bilbo spotted something.

"Something big uprooted these trees." Bilbo stated pointing at the recently broken tree branches. "Something very big, and possibly quite dangerous."

"Look! I think I can see a fire," Katniss said as she squinted her eyes and pointed ahead to the shadows of an enormous creature who seemed to be sitting down next to the fire.

"What is it?" Bilbo asked.

"Trolls." Kili answered and then started moving ahead, followed closely by his brother to get a better view of the monstrous creatures. Katniss went running just behind him, and Bilbo ended up following her as well. They all crouched down behind a tree just in time to hide from a troll who was carrying two ponies, one under each side of his arms.

"He's got Myrtle and Minty! I think they're going to eat them, we have to do something." Bilbo pleaded.

"Yes; you should. Mountain trolls are slow and stupid, and you're so small." Kili said to Bilbo.

"No, no, no..." Bilbo strongly objected.

"They'll never see you." Kili insisted.

"I forbid you to send him there!" Katniss growled at Kili.

"But Auntie, it's perfectly safe! We'll be right behind him!" Kili argued.

"Absolutely not!" she told Kili with fire in her eyes before she turned her head to face the hobbit "Bilbo, you are going straight back to the camp and alert the others…" Katniss commanded.

"But Uncle is going to kill us if he learns that we lost four ponies!" Kili pressed.

"Come on, help us out. If you run into trouble, hoot twice like a barn owl, once like a brown owl." Fili said as he and Kili tried to push Bilbo to the troll's direction, but Katniss stopped them just in time.

"Go. Back. Now!" she said with all the authority she could muster. For her surprise, Bilbo did just as she said.

"Katniss! How are we supposed to retrieve the ponies now?" Fili asked.

"He is our burglar. Only him can be small and quiet enough to sneak past these beasts!" Kili agreed with his brother.

"And how noble of you! Leaving the weaker man to risk his neck to clean up the mess that you made!" Katniss' harsh words hit both brothers straight on their guts, and they suddenly felt embarrassed. She pointed her arrow to the trolls, who were still oblivious about their presence and slowly started to make her way towards them.

"Katniss, come back here!" Fili whispered with despair as he followed her close "We cannot let you get near these foul creatures."

"Uncle will be sure to kill us if anything happens to you!" Kili muttered behind them.

"And here I thought you said that this was perfectly safe," Katniss growled in frustration.

"You cannot kill trolls with a regular arrow. Their skin is too hard for that. It is like dragon skin…" Fili said in a matter of fact.

"Lucky that I have got some special arrows then," she said as she whispered 'good morning' to her bow which started humming to let her know it was turned on.

As they approached the trolls, they started hearing their sinister conversation.

"Mutton yesterday, mutton today, and blimey, if it don't look like mutton again tomorrow."

"Quit yer' griping. These ain't sheep. These is West Nags!"

"Oh, I don't like `orse. I never `ave. Not enough fat on them."

"Well, it's better than the leathery old farmer. All skin and bone, he was. I'm still picking bits of him out of me teeth."

"Wha' is tha' noise?" said one of the trolls turned his head towards the place they were hiding.

Even though the trio was trying their best to be quiet, they are not as light on their feet as Bilbo would have been. As the troll in the middle started to make his way to investigate them, Katniss wasted no time and shot him straight in the eye, making him fall dead instantly. Realising that they were under attack, the remaining two trolls also got on their feet and started to ready themselves for battle. But before they had a chance to walk more than two meters, Katniss released another arrow on the second troll's eye, making the only remaining troll much more scared of his own fate.

Busted with confidence, Katniss placed a third arrow in her bow, stood up and came out of her hiding spot despite Kili and Fili attempts to hold her back. The remaining troll noticed her appearance and denounced her immediately.

"A woman? Ur ye tellin' me tha' th' murder of mah brothers is a mortal gal?" the troll looked beyond furious.

"Release our ponies and I might allow you to live," she demanded with fire in her eyes.

The troll growled in response and started to run towards her. Katniss then released her arrow, but this time the troll seemed to be expecting her move and was able to block it out with his arm. However, despite what Fili had said, her arrow seemed to be strong enough to get through his skin, and the troll let a groan of pain escape his mouth. She took advantage of his distraction and quickly loaded her bow again, this time she decided to go for the arrows on her left, which she knew were the explosive ones.

Katniss was feeling a bit reluctant about using the explosive arrows, as she knew well enough what an explosion could cause. After all, she had lost the hearing on her left ear that exact way during her first hunger games. However, with the gigantic troll approaching them, she did not think that she had much of a choice, so she adjusted her bow to reduce the explosion impact for the bare minimum.

Hoping that they were still far away enough to suffer any permanent damage, she released what she knew would be a fatal blow at the direction of the enormous troll. Before the arrow hit its target she had already turned her back to it, found shelter behind the tree where she knew Kili and Fili were still hiding and left her body fall on top of both brothers knocking them down on the floor as she did her best to cover both of her ears.

The explosion came just as her knees hit the ground and she closed her eyes. A deafening noise, accompanied by tremor, some light and a heatwave. Even though she could not see it, she heard some debris flying in all directions.

"What was that?" she heard Kili saying just next to her. She noticed that the younger dwarf prince was already trying to get back on his feet.

"I told you I had some special arrows, did I not?" Katniss smirked as she accepted Fili's hand in order to aid her back up.

"This was quite something!" Fili gasped as he took in the wreckage caused by her explosion. Ashes and burned debris all over the clearance. It appeared that one of the ponies also ended up dying during the explosion alongside the troll.

"I'm pretty sure you could even kill Smaug with these arrows of yours!" Fili told her as he left their hiding spot to better examine the rubble.

The rest of the company arrived just after that. Thorin was leading the group, his sword on his hand, ready to attack if necessary. The dwarf king gave a sigh of relief when he noticed that both his nephews and his One were alive and in good health. Bilbo also came back just behind all the other dwarves.

Thorin was quick to take in all the destruction caused by the explosion and the dead body of a troll with one of Katniss' arrows still stuck in its eyes. He then looked from his nephews to Katniss.

"What happened here?"

When Fili started narrating how the three of them decided to send Bilbo back and valiantly fought the three trolls together, Katniss snorted and rolled her eyes. However, instead of correcting him, she started cleaning the arrow that she managed to extract from the eye of the troll that she killed first.

"You put yourself in danger! You should have waited for me!" Thorin growled at Katniss and his nephews who seemed a bit taken back by this criticism. Katniss on the other hand just crossed her arms and rolled her eyes.

"There was no time. They heard us." she argued.

"You could have died!"

"And maybe I would be dead if I hadn't shot them first!"

Thorin looked deep in her eyes. His irritation was misplaced, as his rage was more about not being able to protect her than towards her actions. When Thorin asked about the explosion that he and his men also had heard and saw glimpses from afar, Fili had no choice but point out to Katniss and her unusual bow and set of arrows as the source behind it.

"Is that true?" Thorin asked, looking straight at her.

"Which part?" she asked as she finished cleaning her arrow and now was putting it back on her quiver.

"About your bow," Thorin asked.

"What about it?"

"Fili told me it is magic,"

"I'm afraid not, though as it was made by Betee it has quite a bit of high technology." Katniss said, but as the company remained confused she felt the need to better explain it to them "my yellow arrows are incendiary. They are the ones I should use if my intention is to shoot fire. The red ones are called explosive, and it is the one I used here, though I adjusted its impact for minimal damage."

The company looked at her and her bow in complete awe.

"Why have you never told me about the properties of your bow before? We might have a chance to kill the dragon if the beast is still alive with your weapon!"

"I thought it was obvious. How else do you think I was able to put down an aeroplane with an arrow, Thorin?"

"You forget that I don't know much about aeroplanes, Amrâlimê," he said with a smile making her blush again. Katniss did not know why, and she had no idea of what that word he often used with her meant, but hearing him calling her that in public seemed to make her all flushed. She made a mental note to ask someone about the meaning behind that particular word at some point. Thorin on the other hand, adored seeing the way she avoided looking him in the eyes and how cute her rosy cheeks looked when she was feeling embarrassed.

Gandalf arrived rapidly galloping back on his horse. The wizard told them that he had immediately started to make his way back to the company as soon he heard the explosion a couple of miles away from them. So he rushed back as he hoped for the best but feared for the worst.

"Well done for getting rid of the trolls, Katniss. This was a great achievement and good riddance, but unfortunately, you revealed our position. It is unlikely to be safe to camp near here for the rest of the night," Gandalf declared, making Thorin agree with him begrudgingly.

"The trolls mentioned killing a farmer not long ago. Do you reckon they could have any more prisoners hidden somewhere?" Katniss asked.

"They could not have moved in daylight," Gandalf stated.

"There must be a cave nearby." the dwarrow king concluded.

Katniss had never watched the company breaking camp and packing up so quickly. They all moved around at the campsite with the same sturdy grace of a colony of ants. In less than ten minutes they were already on their ponies trying to locate the troll hoard. As it had already gone darker and she did not have perfect night-vision like the rest of the dwarrow men, Katniss decided to wear her dark-glasses so she could better see her surroundings and guide her pony.

When they found the troll hoard, Katniss decided to stay with the group who waited outside the cave, as it smells were the worst thing that she could remember smelling in her entire life. Therefore, she remained seated on her pony, her bow loaded and pointed straight to the floor, as she watched out for any sign of threat as they waited. Dwalin gave her a nod of approval as he positioned himself just next to her. Katniss couldn't help but think that Thorin probably ordered his best warrior to look after her while he explored the insides of the cave with the others, and she could not help the frown that came to her eyes when she reached that conclusion.

A few minutes had passed since Thorin and some others went inside the hoard, and Katniss was playing with the settings of her special night-vision glasses when the infra-red vision showed four enormous wolf-like creatures sniffing at the trolls campsite.

"Dwalin…" she whispered to the dwarf who was next to her as she pointed to the wargs who were a good three hundred meters away from them.

Dwalin noticed the wargs and realised the danger it represented straight away. He quickly signed for the others to be quiet and sent Fili inside the cave to retrieve Thorin and the others.

Almost immediately, Kili appeared by her side, his arrow also ready to be released. Kili then quickly signed in Iglishmêk for her to take the ones on her right, making a couple of eyebrows to be raised and a few frowns to be shared among the dwarrow men who witnessed Katniss nodding to confirm that she understood his Iglishmêk gestures.

Katniss heard the noises that Thorin and the others made as they came back from the hoard and were getting back up on their ponies. However, she did not dare to turn her head over to see them and leave her attention and arrow away from her prey. She just knew that she and Kili were supposed to be waiting for Dwalin's or Thorin's command to kill the beasts, and for once in her life, the thought of disobeying and doing these things on her own accord did not even crossed her mind.

After a period when the wargs seemed to be confused at the trolls campsite, they seemed to finally have picked up their scent and began to make their way to the place where the company was. Only then Thorin whispered for them to shoot, and so they did, killing two from the four wolves at the same time. Kili and Katniss quickly reloaded their bows, killing the two remaining wargs.

"Warg-Scouts! Which means an Orc pack is not far behind." Thorin said as he adjusted his new sword on his belt.

"Orc pack?" Bilbo fretted looking particularly terrified.

"You are being hunted." Gandalf declared, his eyes travelled from Katniss to Thorin.

"We have to get out of here," Dwalin said, glancing at Thorin as if waiting for quick instructions.

"Follow me!" urged Gandalf as he started galloping his horse away from the troll hoard.

Thorin signed for his men and did as the wizard had asked. It took no time for the others to follow suit.

Even though Katniss' horse-riding skills had improved during their journey, she was yet to do it in such a rushed way. Due to that, she ended up staying at the back of the pack, and not because she was simply trying to avoid Thorin this time. Dwalin stayed behind with her, urging Katniss to keep a correct body posture. Unfortunately, it did not take long for them to notice a few Orcs mounting wargs trying to catch them up.

"Can ye try shootin' an arrow at them, Lass?" Dwalin asked. Katniss could feel some of the orc's arrows zooming past them.

"I can try…" she said, feeling unsure, but willing to have a go nonetheless.

They had already left the forest's ravine and were at the top of a plain's hill that did not provide them with much shelter from an attack. It was then that she loaded her bow with another explosive arrow, as she thought they should be able to make some damage to their enemies, even if she completely missed her target - which she honestly thought was very likely. Especially considering she had never done horse riding and shot a target at the same time.

She aimed to the head of a warg, but ended up hitting the chest of the orc who was riding it. Nonetheless, the explosion was big enough to take that warg down and also three other pairs of wargs ridden by orcs that were nearby the one she had hit.

"Grea' job, Lassie!" Dwalin said, giving her thumbs up.

She decided to load an incendiary arrow this time, but then she heard a horn that announced about two dozen enormous horses ridden by tall men who were galloping towards them. They were also shooting some arrows, but they were aiming for the orcs and the wargs, not to the company.

"Elves," she heard Dwalin muttering begrudgingly. "Stay near me, Lassie"

The surge of that unexpected aid made the dwarrow men turn around and fight the orcs instead of running away from them.

Katniss then witnessed Thorin tearing wargs and orcs with his new sword as if they were made of paper. The other dwarves were also railing alongside him. Gandalf was also fighting with his new sword in a way you would never expect a man that looked that old to fight. He used his staff and sword simultaneously with such a mastery she would never have guessed that the wizard possessed.

Fili and Kili had joined Dwalin on his clear objective of keeping her safe. They circled her and were attacking any foul thing that dared to get near them. Even though she was annoyed with their attitude, that did not stop her from shooting some of her own arrows towards the Orc pack. She would not dare to use her explosive ones with so many dwarrow and their elven allies mixtured among the Orcs at the battlefield. However, she decided that was probably a good opportunity to try her incendiary arrows during a battle, as if anything, she thought that a bit of light would only help them out.

It turned out that the Orcs started feeling scared and started running away from them as they witnessed Katniss setting some of them on fire. The elves also looked at her in a mixture of wariness awe as they saw what her bow was capable of doing.

It did not take long for all the Orcs and Wargs to be either dead or running away from them. A few elves decided to follow the ones who were running to hunt them down. The ones who remained started circling them. It was a strange picture, ponies in the middle mounted by dwarves surrounded by enormous horses mounted by elves. Gandalf stayed at the edge of the circle - not really with the dwarves, but not with the elves either.

"What a peculiar company you are keeping, Mithrandir" said one of the dark-haired elves wearing a silvery-grey cloak.

"What brings you to our borders, mellonnen?" another elve that looked exactly the same as the first one asked.

"Elladan, Elrohir" Gandalf said with a small head nod to both twins "we wish to seek council from your father,"

"Talk for yourself, Tharkûn!" Thorin hissed determined not to go anywhere near Rivendell.

"Why did Aulë have to make you lot stubborn as a rock?" Gandalf sighed.

However, Thorin's words had already made all the elves look at him and acknowledge his presence.

"You must be Thorin, son of Thrain."

"I do not believe we have met."

"You are wrong. we have met, but you would not remember it because you were just a baby. You look exactly like Thror,"

"We visited Erebor with our father when your Grandfather was the king under the mountain."

"We welcome you and your companions to rest at the Last Homely House East of the Sea" one of the twins invited.

Thorin groaned but did not say anything good or offensive. Instead, it was Gandalf who answered that they were all very grateful for their hospitality. That made Katniss suffocate a small laugh and whisper to herself.

"And here I thought that I had trouble making friends…"

Some dwarrow men seemed to hear her and suffocated a laugh. Katniss also could swear that one of the elves that had not spoken had given her a wink after hearing her comment.