Fili and Cheyenne walked back to join the group, Cheyenne was still rather embarrassed and pissed. She moved a random piece of hair out of her face and tried to force her face which she knew must be red to calm down. She knew Fili didn't purposely mean to hurt her, he was much too kind-hearted for that. However that did not seem to make her feel much better, no matter how hard she tried. The two walked in silence, a few feet from each other, even though they had made up it was still pretty obvious something was wrong.

The sky was dark but filled with light from the immeasurable beauty of the stars, which were unlike anything Cheyenne had ever seen. The air was warm but a cool mid-summers breeze blew through kissing Cheyenne's hot face. The pair walked into the open courtyard where the dwarves were yelling and laughing as well as throwing food. The courtyard was beautiful with pillars and columns similar to those of ancient Greece or Rome. The light from the flickering flames of candle lit lanterns illuminated the area casting an romantic glow.

"Hey, where have you two been?" Kili asked looking over from where Bomber had clearly just broke the table. Neither of them said anything but Cheyenne was shooting Kili daggers with her eyes. Kili's eyebrow raised as they got closer, "Cheyenne why is your dress messed up?" he smirked.

Cheyenne looked down to see that one of her sleeves was pulled down, exposing her collarbone and shoulder. She quickly pulled it up and that's when something inside her finally snapped. Suddenly Cheyenne jerked up Kili by his cloak, she was surprisingly strong when she was angry. She pulled him up to eye level, "you son of a bitch" and she punched him as hard as she could.

Everyone gasped "what did you do that for?" Kili yelled wiping the blood away from his nose as Fili grabbed her arm ready to hit him again.

"Don't you fucking touch me" she spat and jerked away, looking down at Kili who was being helped up by Bofur.

"What in Durin's name was all that about?" Gloin like the rest of the company was startled. They were all looking at Cheyenne in complete shock, she was heaving from anger and looked murderous.

Cheyenne gritted her teeth "that little pint size asshat" she was pointing at Kili and turned around to Fili. "And the mini Simba over here plotted to...to..." her face was turning red again with embarrassment she didn't want to tell everyone "they plotted to dishonour me."

The company looked at each other more than a little confused, "what do you mean lass?" Bofur asked.

Cheyenne could feel the heat radiating from her face and decided to change the subject, "I would prefer not to talk about it." With that she went and sat by the now empty table picking up a half-pint of ale and chugging it.

"I told you I was sorry, I thought we reached a compromise" Fili stood above her with that cute lion cub face of his.

"I told you I didn't want to talk about it" Cheyenne began to chug another pint of ale. She was rather upset and wanted to drown her feelings in delicious Elven ale.

The company looked rather worried but decided not to press the subject as to not infuriate their friend again. For their own safety Fili and Kili decided it better to sit at the other end of the table from their steaming companion.

Bofur was the first one to speak and break the silence, "lassie maybe you should take it easy on the ale."

Cheyenne looked up from her fourth pint of ale and wiped her overly red lips, "why?" and before she could receive an answer she began to drink again.

Ori looked in wonder and began to scribble in his book, "amazing! I have never seen anyone who wasn't a dwarf down ale so fast let alone a woman."

Cheyenne didn't know whether to glare or thank him but the ale had definitely started to take effect. Her face was flushed and her vision becoming blurry and the room was spinning. She knew Thorin and Gandalf were with Lord Elrond at the present discussing the moon runes on the map. She was glad that they were not here for everything that had happened. Who knows what Thorin would have done if he would have seen and heard what she had done to Fili and Kili. Oh Gandalf that would have been even worse, he would have been even worse, he would have scolded her not only for hitting Kili but for drinking herself into a coma.

At this point though she did not care, she was rethinking everything she had thought about about Middle Earth. Sure she was questioning her own survival ability but she knew she was probably wasn't coming back. She had no illusion of her fate but she wouldn't go down without a fight. That wasn't the issue, she had always been led to believe if Gandalf couldn't help Lord Elrond surely could. She however had learned that this wasn't always the case which had left her in a state of melancholy.

Cheyenne was pondering these things while her eyelids were drooping and becoming rather heavy. They were stinging and she struggled to even keep them open, she was zoned out and could hear the dwarves but was too drunk to really hear what they were saying. Their figures moved in her view blurred with the flickering flames from the lanterns. Her body was tingling and numb, she couldn't even feel her own hand lifting the ale mug to her mouth or even herself drinking it.

All of a sudden when she went to raise the glass to her swollen lips it never reached them. She seemed bewildered until she realized someone had taken her mug from her. "What the hell?" she said, well more like tried to say, it came out as a babbling slur.

"You've had too much" she heard the words but it took a moment for it to register them and who said them.

Cheyenne felt a quick flash of anger when realizing it was Kili and snatched her hand away from him. "I'll decide when I have had enough!" she tried to find another pint of ale.

"You have had almost 8 pints of ale, a dwarf would be dead by now let alone a human woman" he managed to get her up "I think it's time for you to go to sleep."

Kili was leading her to the area that Lord Elrond had designated for the company to sleep, it was rather hard given the fact she could barely stand. He wasn't sure if he should be impressed or whether he should be worried due to her exorbitant alcohol consumption in amounts he has never seen before. He brought her stumbling down a dimly lit hallway and into a small room with one lantern. "I think it's time for you to go to sleep, I don't want you to sleep through us leaving tomorrow. It would be unfortunate if we did not get to say goodbye, that is if you even want to talk to us."

Cheyenne huffed, "why are we saying goodbye?"

"You really are drunk, don't you remember that we were supposed to only take you this far."

Cheyenne swayed a little but steadied herself' "that's what you think buddy, you can't get rid of me that easily" she pointed to her chest and laughed.

Kili raised an eyebrow "given how angry you were earlier, I wouldn't think that you would want to come with us. Anyhow you have no reason to come with us, not that we have not enjoyed your company but this is our quest and it is much too dangerous for a lady like you."

This seemed to piss Cheyenne off, "I can take care of myself" she practically yelled, "this isn't just your quest you asshat it's mine too."

Kili looked at her confused, he was pretty sure he had heard her wrong since she was slurring her words but given his confused look, she repeated herself and he had indeed heard her correctly. "What do you mean it's your quest? what business could you have travelling to Erebor?"

Cheyenne scrunched up her face and her eyes became misty "that is none of your business, nosy Nancy" she crossed her arms.

"Nancy?" Kili was rather confused by her expressions but decided to question her further, "Thorin is the leader of the company and I am sure he would be interested in knowing that you were not honest with him."

Cheyenne's mind was still spinning, she was aware of what she was saying but only after the fact which was incredibly frustrating. "Don't you dare" she gave a drunken swing at him but she was slow so Kili barely had to move to avoid it.

"You know hitting a Prince would have any normal person punished severely, so stop doing that or I will have to tell Uncle Thorin, I know he will not be pleased."

"Piss off you idjit, I am not scared of Thorin or you!" she tried to steady herself against the cool stone wall.

Kili sighed and crossed his arms "you should be but I will disregard what you're saying because you are far too drunk."

"That maybe so but I still know things that you couldn't even dream to know"

"Like what?"

"Like how this whole bloody quest is going to end!" as soon as she said it she immediately regretted it.

Kili gave her an inquisitive look, "and how exactly would you know that?"

"Like I would tell you, it's none of your business anyway, like you said it's time for me to go to sleep."

"Too late you already mentioned it now you have to tell me"

Cheyenne's eye's began to water again and she bit her lower lip until her mouth tasted of copper and salt as tears started streaming down her face, "I can't tell you."

"I didn't mean to upset you" he walked over and placed a rough hand on her smooth shoulder, "you don't have to tell me."

"You don't understand" Cheyenne choked back a sob and wiped her red puffy eyes, "I want to tell you, I need to tell someone' it's killing me but I am not supposed to tell anyone."

Kili put an arm around her and she drunkenly began to cry into his shoulder, "you can tell me I swear upon the name of Durin that I will never reveal anything to anyone not even my brother."

Cheyenne seemed to consider it for a moment and it may have been the alcohol talking but she agreed to tell him her secret. He leaned in so that she could whisper it to him, "Were I am from this whole journey is in a book and it does not have a happy ending so Mahal sent me here to change the ending." She was very careful not to tell him that they all died and she hoped that he would assume she was talking about them never reclaiming Erebor.

"Why did Mahal send you? Don't get me wrong I am glad he sent you but why you wouldn't it have been better to send a trained warrior?"

Cheyenne sighed "trust me I have been asking myself that same question since I got here but you cannot tell anyone any of that."

"I swear on my Durin honour, although I forgot to mention that when dwarves make an unbreakable promise with someone they must share something?"

"Like what? Ale?"

"I think you have had way too much of that, but no something that binds them like blood. Usually we slice our hands and mix the blood but it would be a shame to cut the hands of a beautiful lady."

Cheyenne rolled her eyes at his light-hearted flirtatious attempts "then what are we supposed to do?"

"Well" he smirked "we could always seal it with a kiss."

Even though she was still fairly drunk she still managed to give him a 'seriously' look' "I don't think so Master Dwarf."

"Well that is really the only option to properly seal my promise"

Cheyenne paused for a moment before grumbling, "fine." He leaned in and kissed her softly on the lips it was over in just a second, his lips were warm but brief. even though it had only taken a second' Cheyenne could tell that his lips were softer than his brothers. The memory of kissing Fili made her turn crimson, "there now you can never speak of that again either, especially to Fili."