We made it to the end of the clearing and Thorin boosted me up to the nearest branch and I grabbed onto the closest hand- which happened to be Dwalin's.

He pulled me up and I turned away from him and turned to reach a hand to Thorin. He took it and we climbed up as high as we could just as a warg appeared and snapped its jaws shut just inches from his foot.

He wrapped his arm around my waist and lifted me up to a higher branch, away from Dwalin and closer to Bilbo and Fili.

Suddenly, a giant white warg appeared with a giant Orc on its back, skin a pale white and riddled with pale pink scars.

"Do you smell it? The stench of fear?" Azog the Defiler asked in the vile language those of Mordor spoke. Black Speech. "You are rank with it, Thorin Oakenshield."

"No. It cannot be." Thorin breathes from the branch below me.

"Thorin no." I say and grab his arm. "He's baiting you."

Azog pointed the blade attached to his long-ago severed arm and snarled, "Bring me his head!"

"Thorin, no!" I shouted as he stood and climbed down from the tree, drawing his sword. He looked back at me and smiled and said softly,

"I love you."

It took both Fili and Kili to hold me back now as he went down to face Azog.

I watched in horror as the warg lunged and Azog swung a club and hit him across the clearing. I knew in this moment that this was how Thorin had felt watching me, not just a few hours before with the Goblin King.

My heart hammered painfully in my chest as Thorin was grabbed in the teeth by the white warg and thrown again. He landed hard under the tree I was in.

He didn't get back up.

I wrenched my self free from Kili's grasp and pulled a dagger from my belt, glaring at the warg and Azog as I leapt down branch to branch, running forward to stand over Thorin.

"Not today." I snarled. But it was a language that wasn't any the others spoke. It was a language I didn't even know I knew. "You will die, Azog the Defiler. I swear it today, upon everything. You will pay a thousand times for what you have done to Thorin Oakenshield."

I then felt a gust of wind as Finian appeared, flying in place over me and in front of the dwarves in the trees, guarding them. He let out a roar that sent shivers through the ground beneath my feet.

Azog glared at me and lifted his sword arm, releasing a guttural roar and the warg charged at me. I lifted the dagger calmly, released a slow breath, and threw it.

It imbedded itself in the warg's eye. It let out a yelp and tripped and rolled, flinging Azog off of its back.

Finian released a torrent of flames.

To add to the confusion, the Eagles arrived.

One by one, the giant birds saved the dwarves from the trees. Finian sent them a greeting and an Eagle screeched in return, claws clipping his horn as it turned to grab an orc and toss it over a cliff.

Finian landed and stood protectively over Thorin and I and said in my mind, You both seem to get hurt a lot. There was amusement in his voice.

I rolled my eyes, then turned my attention to Thorin and didn't look at the blood on his chest and instead slid an arm under his head and shoulders and lifted him into a sitting position. One of his arms circled around my waist tightly, fist tight around my jacket. His face was contorted in pain.

"Come on, Thorin." I whispered, and his other hand came up slowly, shaking all the way, to tighten around my arm as I pulled him up the rest of the way and Finian gently nudged his head forward and Thorin held into a neck spike and I helped him onto Finian's back and I sat behind him.

The second he was on the dragon, however, his head slumped onto my shoulder and his eyes closed.

"Thorin? Thorin! Oh my gosh, no. No no no. Stay with me. There's no taking turns with this, you idiot."

His eyes were heavy, barely slits. But he was still there.

Finian raised his wings and took off and I held onto Thorin as tightly as I could. I willed him to stay with me. Keep his eyes open. Anything. He just held my arm, his grip the only thing telling me he was alive.

"Stay withe me. Please." I whispered.

The Eagles brought us to a large outcropping of rock in the center of a forest. The dwarves were already there, and the second Finian landed, Fili, Kili, and Dwalin helped me down with Thorin.

I didn't leave his side and held his hand as he lay on the ground. Gandalf kneeled over him with his staff and whispered a few words under his breath.

At first, nothing happened.

I felt weak. Fragile. If someone were to touch me I was certain I would shatter into a thousand pieces.

But instead, Thorin sucked in a sharp breath and those blue eyes opened.

I choked on a sob and gasped, "Oh my gosh, Thorin!" I pulled him into a tight hug. His arms wrapped around me just as tightly, face turned into my neck and beard faintly tickling my skin. "I love you, too." I whispered.

His arms tightened around me all the more and he turned his head to kiss my cheek, then pulled away and rested his hands on my cheeks. I smiled at him, then just took his hands and stood, pulling him to stand with me.

The others all cane forward with big smiles on their faces and Bilbo came over and hugged me tightly. I hugged the hobbit back, but looked up when Finian said,

"The mountain is close."

We all walked over to the ledge and I walked over to my dragon and he lowered his head to me and nudged my stomach with his nose. I ran my hand over his blue scales and Thorin came over to wrap an arm around my shoulders.

"Home." He breathed. "Finally home, Freya."

But I couldn't look at the mountain for long. My eyes instead wandered down to the forest of Mirkwood which stood between us and our destination.

Where my father and brother were. I wondered, for a moment, what it would be like to meet them. And how they would respond to my companions.

As the sun set, Finian took us down from the rock and we went about looking for where to make camp for the night, setting off into the woods to find new supplies with nothing but the clothes and weapons on our backs.

Finian told me he couldn't stay, but that he would fly close and remain out of sight. The closer we got to the mountain, the farther he would have to stay, because Smaug would certainly see the two of us together as a threat.

I couldn't exactly deny that.

But I was still sad as I watched him go.

"Freya." Dwalin's voice said my name. I didn't turn to face him and merely asked,

"What?"

"Can I talk with ye?"

I actually turned to face him at that. "Whatever you have to say can be said in front of the others." I said with a glare.

Thorin was the first to look over at us. Dwalin glances over at him, then surprised the daylights out of me when he kneeled down on one knee and took my hand and held it to his forehead.

I stiffened all over.

"Freya....I have not been behaving right towards you. I hope that you will accept my apology. I was wrong to treat you in such a way and I will never do so again. I hope you can forgive me."

I didn't know what to say. Or if I completely trusted him yet, let alone could forgive him or not. So, I said, "Prove it to me, then. And earn my trust back. You have your forgiveness, now prove to me your apology is real." I pulled my hand free from his grasp and stepped back from him.

I looked to Thorin and turned away from Dwalin and took his hand. And in silence, the Company turned and headed off into the woods.