How are you all crunchinites??! ;D Here's Chapter 65! I really hope you like it! Please comment, vote and follow!! Thank you!!

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*Cassy's POV*

I awoke the next morning enveloped in pleasant warmth and with a pounding headache behind my closed eyes. I growled quietly, not liking the sharp pain in my head as I opened my eyes and the dim light of the room blinded me slightly. Another low grumble left me as I turned around, away from the light, and buried my head in the warmth next to me. It was only after a few moments that I realized that my face was buried against a slowly moving chest and that it was Kili's arms around my body that were giving me this warmth that I enjoyed so much in the early morning hours. I shifted against the soft cushions, growling again at the sharp pain that ran through my head at the movement.

"If you don't stop grumbling, I'm going to push you off the bed soon." Kili's words were laced with sleep as he spoke softly against the top of my head, his nose buried in my hair as his arms tightened slightly around my form. I just shifted against him in reply, only slowly opening my eyes and blinking up at the brunet dwarf tiredly. Kili returned my gaze out of sleepy brown eyes, one eyebrow cocked slightly at me.

"Don't threaten me when I have just woken up." I yawned against Kili's collarbone and heard him snort quietly in reply. The small sound made my temples throb with pain and I clenched my eyes shut, sighing deeply. "I forgot how horrible hangovers are..."

"Headache?" Kili asked as he shifted beside me, positioning himself so that he could bury his face in the crook of my neck. I just nodded silently, keeping my eyes closed as one of my hands came up to tangle in Kili's dark mane of hair. Despite my headache, I couldn't imagine a better way to wake up than this. It was quiet and peaceful, just the two of us. I could only imagine how it would be when we would wake up in the same bed every morning without it being considered improper as it was now. It wasn't as if either of us cared much about propriety anyway, but it would be different to know that we officially belonged to each other as husband and wife, I was sure. But there was still a long way to go until that day would come. I knew that Kili wanted to wait with any preparations or announcements until his mother arrived in Erebor and until then a few months surely were still to pass.

"I think it's time we get up." Kili eventually murmured against my neck, his stubble scratching lightly over my soft skin. I just sighed, moving my hand from his hair down to his shoulder lazily. Neither of us was very keen on moving from our position. "I need to go to council." Kili sighed, though he still didn't make any move to get off the bed. "And don't you have some new guards to train today?"

I chuckled slightly at the brunet's words as he pushed himself up on his elbows so that he could look down at me.

"Yes. And it is going to take me the whole day and tomorrow to train them all and assess which of them will officially be appointed into the King's Guard. And I have to do it all with a hangover." I sighed.

"I'll definitely try to come and see you later, Fili and the others will probably come and join me." He told me with a smile.

He sighed again before he leaned down and pressed a short but sweet kiss to my mouth.

"I ought to go." He murmured against my lips as he slightly pulled back to look at me. I just nodded, trailing my hand from his shoulder over his neck and down to his chest gently. The brunet dwarf exhaled deeply through his nose, shortly closing his eyes at my touch before he leaned in again and kissed me once more, his lips lingering longer and more intensely on mine this time. It was me who ended the kiss after a few moments as I lightly pushed on Kili's chest. He gave me a slightly disappointed look. "I really ought to go now, don't I?"

"If you don't want to miss Fili's first council as King under the Mountain, you should." I smiled softly at the dwarf before me who sighed quietly before he nodded and sat up in the bed. My hand fell from his chest as I kept my lying position on the warm furs but Kili caught it before it could reach the mattress. He brought my hand up to his mouth and pressed a soft kiss to my knuckles before he finally let go of me and rose from the bed completely. I watched him as he gathered his fur vest from the chair where he had put it the night before and put it on along with his boots. Kili turned around to look at me once more as he reached the door and he paused for a moment, his hand already having pushed the door handle halfway down. The dwarf slightly tilted his head, a happy smile spreading on his lips as he looked at me still lying on the bed. I just smiled back before I waved my hand toward the door and motioned him to go.

"You are running late, your highness." I said teasingly and Kili scrunched up his nose at the title. It made me laugh quietly, which in turn made the smile reappear on Kili's face before he turned away from me and opened the door. I gave him a little wave as he shot a last glance over his shoulder before the heavy door fell closed behind him.

I kept lying on the bed for a little while longer, not doing anything but revelling in my own thoughts. Just less than an hour had passed since Kili's departure when I finally got out of bed, as well. I made a short deal of getting a quick wash before I put on a set of fresh training clothes, attached my weapons onto my person and set out of my chamber to meet with the new guards on the training grounds.

As soon as I stepped onto the training grounds I was met by fourteen pairs of tired eyes; obviously I wasn't the only one with a hangover after last night's celebrations. They were all male and all were dwarfs clad in light armour, with the exception of two taller men who were dressed in their normal clothing and leather jackets. I nodded in greeting and all of them nodded in respect but the two taller men bowed and that's when I recognised them as Mikaelson and Dax.

I turned and addressed the group with a neutral expression, trying not to seem as drained as I was. "As you know, over the next four days you fourteen will be assessed on whether or not you will be transferred into the King's Guard. You will all be pushed to your limits and only seven of you will pass so don't hold back." I told them, twirling my dagger over in my hand. "I will test you in five different ways and you will be marked in each. You will be assessed on your ability to wield a sword; this will consist of each of you fighting another and the winner will gain more points - the more points you gain, the better chance of getting transferred into the final seven." I began walking slowly up and down in front of them. "You will also be marked on your defensive ability in hand-to-hand combat when you have no weapons but your own fists at your disposal. This will be when you fight each other again." I glanced up to see Mikaelson smirking at me making me roll my eyes in annoyance. "Then you will each go against me as I test you on your archery and your aim. I will challenge each of you to shoot something and if you make the shot you will get more points." At this point I placed my dagger back in its sheath on my thigh. "You will then be tested on how you throw and wield daggers and knives in a fight and finally, something which I'm sure you'll all prefer, you will be assessed on your skills with an axe." I smiled as they all perked up a bit.

"At the end of those assessments you will all choose your favourite weapon and fight against me in one-on-one combat. I will be watching for how you defend yourself against my attacks, how you try and attack me, how you watch how I fight and fight to your strengths and my weaknessess. You will get extra points if you successfully beat me and if you did I could almost guarantee you a place in the King's Guard... but don't get your hopes too high." I smirked as I stood straight before them, sizing them up individually.

"Any questions?" I asked after a moment of silence.

I smaller dwarf who looked to be quite younger than the others raised his hand and I looked at him waiting for his question. "Who will fight against who in each assessment?" He asked timidly and the others all smirked as if making fun of how shy he was for a fighter and it made me frown.

"Lord Dain has given me a list of names and has already paired you with another so it is more or less random." I replied and he nodded.

"Any more questions?" I asked the others and after I saw them all shake their heads I nodded. "Right! Let's get started!" I announced, clapping my hands together.

After I sorted them into their assigned pairs I watched as one pair at a time collected their swords and positioned themselves in the centre of the training area to complete the sword fighting assessment.

After the first five pairs had fought and I had made notes on how many points each of them had gained and notes on their fighting techniques I was already incredibly bored. I watched as Dax and a light haired dwarf walked into the centre of the training area and got into their stances which I made notes on. Dax stood strong and held his sword still while his opponent was slightly hunched and with one powerful hit could be easily knocked over. It was as if Dax had heard my thoughts and as soon as they began Dax had knocked the dwarf onto his back, his sword against his throat. I chuckled and noted that Dax had won in a matter of seconds.

The next pair stepped forward and I was slightly worried at the pairing; the young, weak-looking dwarf, who was called Kainín, was stood facing a much taller, dark haired dwarf. I watched as they began fighting and my eyes, along with the other dwarf's, widened upon seeing Kainín easily manoeuvre around his opponent before knocking him over. If I learnt one thing during this session it would be that I definitely shouldn't judge people by their appearance. I grinned as I gave Kainín the points before the final pair moved forwards.

It was three hours later when I had finished the dwarfs' assessments on their sword combat, their hand-to-hand combat with no weapons and their dagger training. That was all I could be bothered to do today so I collected the parchment that I had taken notes on and put it all into my bag before I moved forwards, effectively gaining the fourteen men's attention.

"That will be all for today gentlemen." I announced as I looked at their drained faces with a small bit of satisfaction. "We will continue this tomorrow at midday when you will be assessed on the rest of the tasks."

And with that I watched as the others all left the training grounds.

"I was surprised to hear that you would be the one watching over our training."

I turned around to see Mikaelson stood there smirking.

"Oh yeah? And why's that?" I asked as I raised my eyebrows at him, getting slightly annoyed at his attitude.

"I just thought that you'd be dealing with other duties of a soon-to-be princess?" My fingers itched with a powerful urge to smack the constant smirk from his face but instead I merely gripped my dagger tightly.

"I think you'll find that because I am head of Lord Dain's guards and now head of the King's Guard that I have the privilege of choosing who I want to be in the guards under my command. And just so you know, I am grateful that you and Dax saved me but I don't tolerate anyone talking to me like you do, you need to think before you speak from now on or you won't be welcome in Erebor any more."

I felt a small bit of satisfaction from seeing his conflicted expression before I collected my bag and weapons and walked past him.

"Well I guess I'll have to listen to you considering Dax and I are staying indefinitely especially after we get into the King's Guard. We've made a promise between us that we'll protect the Archer Queen... and we intend to keep that promise." I didn't even turn to look at the leather-clad warrior as my thoughts were stuck on what he just said. Why did they think I needed protecting? Did he know something that I didn't?...

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Sorry it was a little shorter than usual! I really hope you liked it! Please comment, vote and follow! Thank you! :)

NOTICE: I have mentioned to a few of my followers (mainly @WillTreatyRA) about writing a CHRISTMAS_SPECIAL for the Archer Queen!

Basically it will be about a chapter long and I will use the characters such as Cassy, Caspian, Donovan and the characters from the Hobbit to make a funny chapter. It will be stupid, comical and I will be including numerous followers in the chapter as characters themselves. The chapter is going to be a tournament of sorts where the characters will fight each other whilst Courtney/crunchie (my character) will be narrating the whole thing in a comical way!

So... I need two more narrators to be the main characters in the Christmas special with me?! (If you are interested include it in your comment with your first name or nickname so I know what to call your character) - WillTreatyRA and doodling_dreams are now the other two narrators so sorry if you wanted to be a narrator but you can still be a part of it... JUST KEEP READING FURTHER DOWN hehhee

But if you want to be one of the characters fighting in the tournament instead then include your first name or shortened version of your username with your choice of weapon and appearance and who you would like to fight most! (It could be a character from the Archer Queen or the Hobbit or even Lord of the Rings!! :D Or you could fight another wattpad user, just include their character info too!! :) )

Thank you! If there's any questions just comment them! :)