Once all the dwarves were free and back in their clothes, I found it very awkward to be near Dwalin or Thorin, so I went to talk to Bilbo.

"Hey. How are you doing?" I asked him.

Truthfully, he looked a little frazzled and I offered him a kerchief from my pocket and he took it thankfully and began to clean his face of grime. "Troll boogies." He explained with a slightly pained expression.

"I'm sorry. That sounds awful." I say with a grimace.

He shrugs and says, "Well, we aren't in a pie, so I guess I should say thank you." He paused. "But, ah, was that a dragon? A real dragon? Because I know this sounds crazy but, I think it saved us. But it also seemed rather small, don't you think? The others made Smaug out to be som gargantuan monster."  He says and shook his head a little in amazement.

"Maybe not all dragons are evil." I said softly with a bit of a shrug. "Let's-"

"Freya?" I froze as Dwalin said my name.

I turned to look at him. "Yes?"

"Can I speak with you? Privately?"

"Can it wait?" I asked.

"No." He says gruffly.

I sighed heavily and sent an apologetic look to Bilbo but he just shook his head and waved for me to go talk with Dwalin.

I pulled my jacket around me tighter and followed him off to the woods. I felt like I was about to be scolded, much like I was when Dis didn't think I was "babysitting" her sons well enough, claiming a dwarf my age should be more responsible. Granted, I'm eleven years older than Fili, and thirteen older than Fili, and that was a long time ago, but I had also been dumped by my real mother on the royals' doorstep. This had much the same feel to it.

Suddenly, he stopped and without looking at me asked, "What was that? Back there?"

"The trolls turned to stone when Gandalf broke the rock. And-" I begin, attempting to avoid his obvious meaning behind the question.

"Freya. I'm not an idiot. I see how you look at him." He says seriously and looks at me.

I faltered. "Wait. What? Thorin? Is this about me helping Thorin out of the sack? In case you didn't notice I helped the others out, too. And I thought you were going to grill me about the dragon."

"You didn't help me." He says stiffly.

"What the hell does that have to do with anything?"

"I saw how you looked at him. He took your hand. How you looked at him when Balin was telling the story of the war with Azog." Dwalin says stiffly, eyes narrowed slightly.

I raised an eyebrow. "Since when is it any of your concern what I do, Dwalin?"

"Because I love you!" He says and looks at me fully then and I froze. What?

"I..." I shook my head. "Dwalin you can't just demand I-"

He suddenly grabs my face and kisses me and I froze and shoved him away from him and smacked him, hard, across the face. "I just said you can't!" I said angrily.

He glared at me. He rubbed at his face, and went to speak several times, then finally snapped, "Remember, Freya. I know your secret."

He then shoved passed me and went back to the group.

I lifted a hand to my mouth and wiped at my lips angrily. I felt my eyes brim with tears in frustration. He didn't own me.

I slowly sat down on the grass against a tree and held my face in my hands. What did he think he was going to accomplish doing that, anyways? I thought angrily. I mean, I did care about him. He was my closest friend. I might have even had a crush on him at one point. But...now I feel as though I need to second guess my feelings about Dwalin.

A twig snapped in front of me and I jumped and looked up to see none other than Thorin standing above me. I quickly wiped at my eyes furiously to attempt to hide the tears, but it was too late.

"Freya? What happened? Dwalin came back to camp with a bruised face looking angry. And here you are crying." He crouched in front of me and gently reached out to pull my hands from my face, fingers gentle on my wrists. "What happened? Did he hurt you?"

I pulled my hands from his grasp, wrapping them around my stomach, and mumbled, "Nothing."

He stared at me for a long time, but merely answered, "Very well. I won't push you. We found a cave nearby and were planning on investigating it. Come join us when you are ready, Freya." He stood, but paused and looked at me and asked, "Do I need to tell Dwalin to stay away from you?"

I looked at the grass and wrapped my arms around myself and said, "I don't think it would help in this case."

"And why not?"

"Because he's jealous. He wants me all to himself. He kissed me. I slapped him for it. I had said no. He thinks there's something going on between you and I, so you talking to him could potentially make things worse for me."

He stared at me with an unreadable expression. Finally, he said, "He touched you without permission or consent. You know the laws we have about that."

"I know. But I'm not saying anything about it. I can hold my own against him."

"All the same, Freya, I'll be watching him. I won't say anything to him, but hear me clearly when I say this." He kneeled in front of me again to meet my eyes. The king of Erebor kneeling in front of me.

"No one in all of Middle Earth or beyond gets to treat you in such a way. No man or woman. If you had allowed it, I would have sent Dwalin away from the Company for his actions. He would not see Erebor. But, if I learn he does something rash like that again to you in any way, I will step in."

I looked at him and merely nodded, a sense of peace coming over me at knowing that Thorin had my back.

He then stood and left, leaving me with my thoughts.

And Dwalin's hardly veiled threat.

He knew I had something to do with the dragon. And I knew he was serious when he said he'd spill my secret. So what was more important to me? My secret? Or my honor?

******

I found the cave Thorin had mentioned and headed inside, wrinkling my nose at the awful stench. I found Fili and Kili looking at a pile of weapons and Dori and Oin were giggling as they buried some gold about "making a long-term deposit".

"Freya! There you are. Look at this." Kili says and held up a belt that had a row of silver and gold sheaths of beautiful daggers. "I thought of you immediately. See, try them on." He says and wrapped the belt around my waist and buckled it, then waved for me to take one out, both brothers grinning, standing side by side and waiting for me.

I smiled and pulled a dagger from the belt and gazed at the silver blade in awe. Damascus steel. Perfectly balanced fighting knives.

"They're Elvish." I said softly.

"And they're small. It's like they were made for you, Freya." Fili says honestly, a shy smile on his face.

I smiled at him, my hand reaching up to the scarf I wore on my head.

I turned to see Gandalf and Bilbo standing together and talking and saw the wizard give him a short sword.

"It is of Elvish make. The blade will glow blue when orcs or goblins are near." Gandalf explained. Bilbo eyes it with wide eyes.

I walked over to them and pulled a dagger from the belt around my waist and handed it to Gandalf and asked, "What about these?"

He looked at the blade and nodded. "Yes, these are exquisite. I suppose these will glow as well. Excellent choice, Freya."

I spotted Dwalin near the entrance of the cave, then looked down deeper to see Thorin and Balin examining a few swords.

I steeled my nerves and walked out of the cave and passed Dwalin. I didn't want to make things worse for me, but I also wanted to make perfectly clear to that stubborn dwarf one way or another that I belonged to no one.

He watched me go by out of the corner of his eye. I walked over to where Oin and Gloin stood talking with Bofur.

"Hello, Freya." Bofur says with a cheery smile. "Found something you like?"

"Yeah. Fili and Kili found it for me, actually. There fighting daggers. Elvish make, but small enough to fit my hand."

"A perfect match for ye, then, lass!" Gloin says with a hearty laugh, red beard bouncing as he laughed.

"Well, try 'em out!" Oin said, holding his ear horn up.

I pulled a dagger from the belt and located a tree, and threw it, watching it sail through the air and land in the center of a nearby trunk of a tree.

"Excellent!" Bofur says happily and a few of the others gathered to watch. I grinned, but before I could throw the next dagger to show off, a sudden frantic scream made me pause.

Just as tress and branches began to snap and a sound like a hundred feet hitting the ground at once began to sound.

Coming right towards us.