A/N

Y'ALL

SO SORRY

LIFE HAPPENED

At least this time is was fun happy good things but still. It was a time trying to get back into the swing of things. BUT I think I'm back baby!

Not much Aragorn in this chapter and I know we're due for a flashback but bear with me, I'm getting my sea legs back again after a month and a half.

There was a road. A whole, followable road through the Trollshaws. Josephine would've hoped they'd use it but Thorin kept them to the north of it, following a similar cut through the wilderness to what she'd walked before. Sometimes she thought she recognized part of it, a particular outcropping or dell that sent a pang of familiarity through her like she'd maybe once seen something like it in a dream.

If she closed her eyes and took a deep breath, the scent of the trees and grasses and flowers took her back to those early days. But when she opened them again, Aragorn's soft gaze wasn't there to comfort her.

The line of ponies made its way up a hillside to their left, littered with boulders that had come down from the mountainside. The day hadn't grown late yet, but when the ruins of an old farmhouse came into her view she knew they'd be stopping for the night. Stopping. But not resting.

"We'll camp here for the night. Fili, Kili, look after the ponies. Make sure you stay with them." Thorin ordered, pulling around to face them.

Josephine watched Gandalf step warily into the ruins and let Kili take Walnut's reins as she dismounted so she could follow him.

"A farmer and his family used to live here." He said mostly to himself, then turned and looked very pointedly at her as if waiting for an explanation of what happened.

"Oin, Gloin, get a fire going." Thorin continued.

Josephine didn't have an answer for him, but an inescapable grim look on her face probably gave him clue enough that his gut was right.

"I think it would be wiser to move on. We could make for the Hidden Valley." Gandalf suggested.

Thorin stalked into the ruins and gave Gandalf a tired look. "I have told you already, I will not go near that place."

"Why not?!" Gandalf said, continuing an old argument. "The elves could help us, we could get food, rest, advice!"

"I do not need their advice." Thorin snapped.

"We have a map that we cannot read. Lord Elrond could help us"

"Help?" Thorin said darkly, looking up at Gandalf. "A dragon attacks Erebor. What help came from the Elves? Orcs plunder Moria, desecrate our sacred halls, the Elves looked on and did nothing! You ask me to seek out the very people who betrayed my grandfather, who betrayed my father."

Josephine rubbed a hand over her forehead and sighed, mumbling to herself. "Where was Gondor when the Westfold fell, where was Gondor when our enemies closed in around us…Why do I keep getting stuck in these arguments."

Gandalf and Thorin, if they'd noticed her mumbles, didn't pay her any mind and kept on with their business. Knowing the stubbornness of dwarves, Thorin at the very least probably hadn't heard her, being too focused on Gandalf.

"You are neither of them. I did not give you that map and key for you to hold on to the past."

"I did not know they were yours to keep."

Gandalf sighed and turned, abruptly leaving her and Thorin standing in the ruins. Josephine watched him go, answering Bilbo's questions without stopping, until the tip of his gray hat disappeared into the forest.

"And I suppose you agree with the wizard that we should seek the advice of the elves." He pinned her with a stern look and cocked his head to the side. "Come now, Seer. Surely you too have your opinions on the matter."

His attitude turned towards her, she bristled with annoyance. The prospect of how their night would go already had her on edge and her patience was low. "And if I feel like telling you I won't wait for permission." That marked her turn to leave Thorin in the ruins of the famous and she set to work helping the dwarves with the ponies.

She should've run off with Gandalf and avoided the whole thing. All he had to do was show up on time and crack open a boulder. But no, Josephine had decided she needed to be a team player. If she ran off with Gandalf and they got stuck with the trolls all alone they'd all guess she knew and skipped out to avoid it. She had a feeling Thorin McGrumpy Pants wouldn't have taken too lightly to the abandonment of it all. But dammit she'd really been hoping to never deal with trolls again.

So she sat by the fire, ate her stew, and watched out of the corner of her eye as Bilbo set off with two bowls for Fili and Kili. By morning there would be no supplies, no horses, and worst of all, no food.

"Ye alright, lass?" Gloin asked as he slopped another ladle of stew into her bowl without asking. "Seem a bit out of sorts."

She dug into the extra without complaint and flashed him a smile. "Just hungry. This should do the trick." A perk of traveling with dwarves, hunger was always a proper excuse for a bad mood.

That seemed to satisfy him and he turned back to the fire with a nod. Nobody noticed or worried that Bilbo hadn't returned yet, and the ponies were kept far enough away that they wouldn't hear anything amiss either.

Josephine worked through the dialog in her head, trying to get an idea of how long they had until Fili and Kili came back for reinforcements. Then the dialog ran out and they still hadn't come. Maybe she'd rushed it, there was no telling how far into the woods they'd gone…right? So she ran through it again, reaching the end of it without a sound. Without benchmarks there was no way to fully rely on timing and the benchmarks in the Hobbit were much harder to remember than she was used to. But her gut twisted with a very clear instinct that something was wrong.

She stood abruptly, catching the attention of the others. "Grab your swords and follow me, something's wrong."

Thorin watched her carefully and the dwarves shifted awkwardly around the fire. "What is it?"

"Fili and Kili should've come back for reinforcements by now. Something. Is. Wrong." She grabbed the coat of the dwarf nearest to her, which ended up being Bofur, and heaved him to his feet. "You want my advice so bad then take it when I give it!" She snapped at Thorin, who finally sprang into action.

The two of them headed the company into the trees, following a glimmer of firelight in the distance past the now empty makeshift paddock. Nearing the clearing, Thorin quietly instructed the dwarves to spread out around it and wait for his signal while he and Josephine crouched behind a fallen log.

Bilbo and Kili were already stuffed into bags and Fili was in one of the Troll's hands with his feet dangling dangerously close to the boiling cauldron. Knowing all she had to do was buy time and having precious little of it if she didn't interrupt, she vaulted over the log and hollered at them.

"Oh come on you three, that's no way to cook a dwarf! You've left his boots on and everything. You have no idea what he's been walking in."

The three trolls froze and looked down at her in surprise.

"First a burrahobbit, then a couple dwarves, and now a man?"

"No, Bert, that's no man, look at his hair. Must be an elf!"

Buy for time, buy for time. "So which one of you is Tom and which is William?

"Why's the elf know your names?" Tom said.

Bert's hand snapped out and grabbed her, lifting her up to his face and sniffing. "Don't smell like no elf, smells like a man."

The overwhelming scent of body odor, rotten meat, and sour breath washed over her and she nearly gagged. "Well you smell like five deaths warmed over in a hot sun so I think I win that contest."

Her comment seemed to confuse Tom. "What contest she talking about, William?"

"Beats me."

"Look, those two dwarves and the burrahobbit you've got there are mine, I'd really rather you didn't eat them. I'm willing to pay handsomely if you put me down."

"Or we just eat you too." Bert said, tightening his grip just enough to make her breath hitch and her bones creak.

The moment she winced a deep yell cut through the clearing and the sound of eleven dwarves charging into battle caught the trolls' attention. Bert yelled as a blade glanced over the meat of his underarm and he dropped her. She bounced into Gloin's arms and he tossed her feet first onto the ground.

On the other side of the fire, Bilbo and Kili were untied and pulled from their bags and the dwarves were making quick work of things, swarming over the trolls like ants and coming at them from every angle.

But for as dumb as the trolls were, they were smart enough to know what leverage was, and Bilbo was soon held by his arms and legs and they were laying down their weapons. The story was back on track, at least as far as Josephine could tell, so she wasn't going to complain.

Half of them were bagged and half of them were tied to the spit over the fire. Josephine was glad she was in the former group and the worst she had to contend with was Fili's shoulder digging into her ribs and Thorin's knee in her back.

"Let's just sit on 'em and squash 'em into jelly!" William suggested.

Bert had a better idea. "They should be sautéed and grilled with a sprinkle of sage."

Behind her Thorin mumbled so they wouldn't hear. "Was this part of your plan as well?"

"Do you really want to do this now?" She hissed.

Fili shifted, pressing his shoulder even deeper into her gut as he turned to look up at her. "Terribly sorry, lady Josephine. You shouldn't have gotten caught up in this."

Josephine sighed and dropped her head back as Bilbo started to buy for time. "Valar give me patience. It's the least you can do."

"Well, have you smelt them? You're gonna need something stronger than sage before you plate this lot up!" Bilbo explained.

"Load of rubbish!" William scoffed. "I've eaten plenty o' dwarf, boots, skin, and even armor still on. They go down just fine, even raw!"

Josephine frowned, feeling very very certain they'd just skipped a whole chunk of dialog. Was somebody upping the difficulty now? What was going on? "Oh sure, but what about the parasites?" She hollered. "The whole lots' infected."

"What?" Tom said warily, eyeing the dwarves he was rotating on the spit.

"Run in with some bad boar you see." Bilbo added. "Nasty business. We should have known better, it was quite sickly looking now that I think back on it.'

Fili opened his mouth to protest and Josephine jabbed her elbow through the back and nudged him hard. "Don't you dare."

"I don't have-"

She grimaced, elbowing Fili again. "I was sick for damn near a week after that meal."

"That one's got the worst of them too." Bilbo added with a nod to her. "I wouldn't risk it with any of them though, I really wouldn't."

"What would you have us do then? Let 'em all go?" William asked.

Bilbo grimaced and shrugged. "Well…"

"You think I don't know what you're up to. This little ferret is taking us for fools!"

"Ferret?" Bilbo squeaked.

"Fools?" Burt spat.

Then a booming voice interrupted the squabble and Josephine gave a sigh of relief. Gandalf appeared behind the trolls, hat outlined by the slight tinge of morning.

"The dawn will take you all!"

William spoke first. "Who's that?"

Then Burt. "No idea."

And last of all, Tom. "Can we eat him too?"

Gandalf brought his staff down and the boulder cracked in two, letting in a bright stream of sunlight. The trolls scrabbled and knocked into each other as their skin started to harden. Within seconds they were stone and Gandalf was untying their bags.

Free, Josephine collected her sword and knife, fastening her belt as she wandered into the circle of trolls. Those faces she remembered, snarling in pain and anger. Gently she ran a finger around the back of Tom's ear, where eighty years in the future a bird would make its nest.

"A most unusual ornament for a live troll, indeed, Aragorn." She sighed. "Oh Josephine, I'm glad you didn't know then that you'd end up back here one day."

Aragorn stood bent over the table in his study while Gimli grumbled and mumbled and set markers on the map laid out in front of them. A map leading from the Shire to as far east as the Lonely Mountain.

"My father never could quite remember where they encountered the trolls." Gimli explained.

"That is of no worry." Aragorn said. "For she has been there once before and I remember the glade well." He took up a charcoal pencil and continued a long line marking her possible path through the troll's glade. "She would have been expecting the capture." He said, straightening up again to look over their progress. "Perhaps she went with Gandalf instead, that day."

Gimli scoffed. "Are we speakin' of the same lass? Let somethin' that dangerous go on without keepin' a keen eye on it?"

Aragorn returned a wry smile and sighed. "No, I suppose she wouldn't."

"She's not the same woman she was last time she was in that glade, Aragorn." He said sternly. "Gandalf said she made it to the Battle of the Five Armies. Don't bother yourself worryin' over a few trolls. Besides," He added with a jab of his finger towards the edge of the Misty Mountains. "According to my father's story, she'll be safe in Rivendell in less than two days."

Safe in Rivendell, the thought gave him comfort. He knew they hadn't stayed long, but he hoped in that time it had brought her comfort. Eighty years ago the valley's magic was perhaps even stronger than it had been when she'd first been there, it would do her well.

Then Aragorn paused, staring at the valley drawn on the map. Where he too, had walked its paths some eighty years prior. He'd been but a child, fascinated by a party of visiting dwarves he was not allowed to meet. It hadn't been the first party or the last to stay in Elrond's halls while Aragorn had grown and the memory had long ago faded in his mind.

But she'd been there, all those years ago, and now he remembered. Dunland was not, as he'd once thought, their first meeting.