The next week passed by slowly. I wondered where the dragon had wandered off to, and was getting a bit worried until I stopped and reminded myself he was a wild animal and could do what he wanted. After all, a dragon was why I lived in constant fear of returning to Erebor, so why was this one any different?

I even hid my gold from him. That should at least say something about how much of me trusted the dragon. So, why was I so worried he was gone? The selfish part of me said it was because if he was found close to me, my secret would be let out.

We made camp at the edge of a forest and Thorin sent Fili and Kili to collect fire wood.

I got busy making sure the ponies had grass and oats and were picketed properly. I checked my saddlebags to see if the dragon had returned, but found nothing.

I made my way back to camp and sat down on a fallen tree and began to sharpen my sword.

"Freya?" A voice asked and I looked up to see Thorin.

"Yes?" I asked with a little smile.

"Have you seen the boys? Bofur sent Bilbo with soup to them, but the three of them have yet to return."

I stopped and furrowed my eyebrows. "No. I haven't seen them. I was tending to the horses. And now I'm here."

He looked behind me and frowned. "Two are missing."

I froze and stood up immediately, turning around and sure enough, two pegs closer to the line of trees were bare or ponies. I swore in Khudzúl, then looked at Thorin and said, "We need to find them."

His fist clenched around the pommel of his sword and said, "Yes. We do." He nodded for me to follow and I did, cursing myself for not realizing sooner two ponies had been stolen.

"I'm so sorry." I found myself saying. "I'm so stupid. I-"

"Freya. We'll get them back." Thorin interrupts me and nods for me to follow him back to camp.

As we entered camp, Kili and Fili came running out of the forest and yelled, "Mountain trolls! They have Bilbo and two of our ponies!"

I froze. "You didn't stay to save him??"

"Come. There's no use arguing now." Thorin says and we all headed off into the woods.

As we neared the camp, I heard a voice call my name in my head.

The hobbit is speaking to the trolls. Need help?

The voice was familiar but already sounded older...

Where are you?

Close. Turn to your left seven paces and climb the red oak.

I turned to the left and sure enough, there was the tree. I made sure no one was looking before I cautiously made my way toward the tree and looked up. I sheathed my sword, then began to climb. I grabbed hold of a branch and pulled myself up branch after branch.

And sure enough, the dragon was there. The last time I had seen him, he was the size of a house cat. But that couldn't have been more than two weeks ago. Now, he had to be the size of a wolf. His large claws that had to be as long as my hand held onto the bark of the tree and his forked tongue stuck out as he sniffed at me, nudging my stomach with his snout.

"Woah." I muttered out loud. "That's why you left."

Indeed. Once it is safe I will travel with you. I will never be too far from your side. He looked down at the ground where the dwarves walked towards the troll's camp.

Sunlight. He said in my mind. Mountain trolls will turn to stone. Come. Climb on my back.

I hesitated, then rested my hands on his shoulders and pulled myself up onto his back. I was surprised how easily he was able to carry me. I merely brushed it off as I was small and only really about four feet tall. I clung to his neck as he moved in the tree and leapt to another tree.

I swore in Khudzúl and held onto him tighter. He then leapt down to the ground from that tree onto a rocky slope that went up around the camp.

He slunk low to the ground and I carefully slid off of his back. I kept my hand on his shoulder as we made our way up the rock.

The sun was just beginning to peak above the horizon.

The trolls were debating on how best to eat the dwarves and hobbit now. Whether it was skinning, roasting, boiling, or in a pie. I didn't want to see any of the results. I peered through some branches and saw that they were tied up in burlap sacks. I was amused by Dwalin tied on on a large log with Bombur and some others being turned slowly over a fire. They were yelling insanities at the trolls in Khudzúl and using language their mothers would be ashamed of.

"Oh I wouldn't do that!" Bilbo says suddenly and I looked over at the hobbit to see he stood as straight as he could in his burlap sack to stand up to the trolls.

"Do what?" One troll asks and points a large knife at him.

"Don't you know? You can't eat these ones!" Bilbo says and nods towards the dwarves on the spit. "They've got worms... in their tubes."

"You what?" A troll asked sluggishly, staring in disgust at my burlap-wrapped friends.

"What? I don't have any parasites!" Kili yelled and I watched Bilbo roll his eyes. Then, Thorin kicked Kili in the leg.

They all stopped. Looked at Thorin.

Then, as one, they all began to scream about who had the bigger parasites. Illuvitar save us.

I froze when the dragon began to growl at something and I spun around to draw my sword only to stop when I saw who was standing there.

"Gandalf?"

Gandalf eyed the dragon suspiciously as he moved to stand behind me, tail curling around my legs and showing bared teeth to the Wizard.

"How curious." Gandalf mused, leaning on his staff.
"Though hardly surprising. Where did you find him?"

"In the Shire of all places. He hatched there." I say.

Gandalf seemed perturbed by that. "The Shire, you say? Well. He is magnificent. I trust you two have some sort of plan?"

The dragon faltered, and looked up at me. "Yeah he's ok." I tell him.

He looked at Gandalf again and sat down next to me, still eyeing him warily.

"Anyways. We were trying to figure out how to get sunlight into this clearing." I say and wave at the rocks behind us.

Gandalf nods. "Yes. I was here to do just that. I'm glad to see we are thinking alike." He crouched down next to me and said, "I want you to sneak down there. Ask your dragon if he can distract the trolls and make them look the opposite way. Wouldn't want them to connect the dragon to either of us, now would we?" He winks at me.

Tell the wizard I can understand the Common Tongue perfectly well. The dragon says dryly in my mind.

I laughed. "He can understand you and is already on it. And I got it."

I nodded to my dragon and he raised his wings and leapt up into the air, gliding down and and away front us to find a spot to come from, sending me a goodbye down our mental link as he flew away. I then turned to make my way through the trees to where Thorin and the others were tied on the ground.

I found Thorin first and I hid behind a rock, and he looked over at me and I held a finger to my lips.

Suddenly, a terrifying roar sounded as my dragon appeared in the sky.

Thorin stiffened all over as he stared in horror at the dragon there. I immediately felt horrible, and reached out to touch his shoulder. His hand came up under the burlap sack to touch my hand.

I looked away so he wouldn't see my scarlet cheeks.

The trolls turned to look up at the sky in shock, but my dragon flew off before any of them could attempt to catch him, roaring again as he did so. A farewell to me, but not a goodbye. I knew I'd see him again. He was following us.

"What the bloody hell was that, Freya?" Thorin whispered. "Was it really what I think it was?"

I slid out of hiding a bit more and began to work at the knots around his neck, fingers shaking from actual fear- fear of discovery and what Thorin would think of me. I played it off as of the dragon, however. "I-I don't know." I whispered, fingers grazing his beard accidentally.

I got the knots free and pulled open the sack, but before I went to anyone else, he got his arm free quickly and grabbed my hand, squeezing it once, his blue eyes gazing into mine.

I nodded to him and carefully pulled my hand free, and quickly turned away from him to hide my blushing face.

And that's when I looked up and saw Dwalin staring at me with Thorin, a harsh look on his face.

And no sooner had that happened than Gandalf appeared and hit a boulder from the hill we were on with his staff. It split in two with a deafening crack and sunlight streamed into the clearing.

The trolls began to scream as they turned to stone right before our eyes, freezing into positions I figured they'd never escape from again.

I looked away from Dwalin's cold expression and got to work untying the others, Thorin and Gandalf helping the dwarves down from the giant cooking spit.

What on earth was going on with him? Thorin and I were friends. That's all. And that's what Dwalin was to me as well.