Elyse sat straight up in bed with a gasp, sweat causing her bangs to stick to her forehead in clumps. Her eyes were wide, her mouth slightly agape, and her nostrils were flaring wildly as she pulled her legs up into her chest to hug them close to her. Every breath she took was rapid and quick. Her body shook and she reached up to run her hands through her hair as she stared at the wall in front of her.

Nightmares. They had always been her worst fear; they hadn't been truly awful until she had joined the military and witnessed the horrors of war. But these were different than the ones that she had grown used too. These were louder... more... different.

Throwing the covers off herself and welcoming the cool air, Elyse was reminded that Sydnee was still sleeping on the other side of the bed when her friend grabbed the moving covers and pulled them over her, grumbling. Even despite Sydnee, she couldn't smile. Those nightmares plagued every thought that she had at the moment. Laughing at her drowsy friend was the last thing on her troubled mind.

Speaking of friends... Elyse realized as she slipped her feet into her boots, that Winifred wasn't there. When they had been making sleep arrangements last night after staying up just a little longer to speak with the dwarves and learn more about this adventure that they had signed up for, Winifred had convinced both Sydnee and Elyse that she slept better on couches. While the siren and skin-changer got ready for bed, Winifred had simply kicked off her boots and flopped over onto the couch. Three minutes later she was fast asleep and left both of them wondering how she could even do it. However, all that remained of her friend at the moment was an empty couch and a neatly folded blanket. She was no where to be seen. Elyse sighed as she sat on the side of the bed, knowing that Winifred had already gotten up for the morning and was wandering about, looking for something to do. She had always been an early-riser; almost the second her feet touched the floor she was ready to do something.

Slowly and quietly, Elyse tiptoed to the door and opened it, peeking out. She glanced down the hallway, seeing absolutely nothing besides from a perfectly peaceful hallway. The dwarves had slept there last night and when Sydnee had complained, they claimed that the hallway the only place that was there for them to sleep. Elyse knew better. They had been sleeping there thinking that they were going to protect the helpless ladies. When you're sitting there at night, clutching at the thick covers beside your friend, and next thing you know the snores of thirteen dwarves rumbling from the hallways, you begin to question everything in your life up to that point.

She crept down the hallway and paused when she heard some voices coming from Bilbo's kitchen. The older of the dwarves were there, eating a small breakfast of leftover biscuits and jam, conversing between themselves. She was half surprised when she heard Winifred with them. Maybe she shouldn't have been; the Ice Queen had taken a liking to the older dwarves in the Company. They were talking quietly, but loud enough for her to hear.

"So the Lonely Mountain is the old dwarf kingdom?" Winifred asked.

"The one 'n' only," Dwalin replied, his voice impossible to miss. "That's where most of us dwarves are from. Yore from down south; there ain't been any dwarves comin' from down there in near a century an' they definitely stopped when yore poppa an' momma died."

There was a small silence. "Do you remember any of that castle?" Dori said. "I've heard from stories that it was made completely out of ice."

Some clinking filled in another silence and Winifred clicked her tongue. "I'm not sure. I had a dream last night but I don't think it's anything important. Just things that were spun together."

"Dreams mean much," Oin, the one with the hearing trumpet, replied. "Anything like that could mean anything."

"Mind tellin' us, lass?" Gloin spoke up.

"Um... I'm sorry guys... I just... I trust you -all of you- but I just I don't know. Right now I'm trying to get things together myself."

"You're fine, lass. If you do not wish to tell us, then don't. None of us will be offended," Balin, the oldest dwarf there, said softly. "Some secrets are not made to be told, lass."

"You can definitely say that again."

Hand shaking, Elyse reached out and grasped the handle to Bilbo's front door. She opened it quietly before she slipped out into the dawn with an orange and pink sun just beginning to make its first appearance. She hadn't realized just how early it was. Near a fence was where the last of the dwarven company was, untying horses and laughing heartily between themselves as they tossed the remains of apples for their breakfast. The only ones she didn't see was Gandalf and Thorin, which, when she looked around a little more, she spotted Thorin saddling a stallion (who didn't look that impressive when the stallion was a fluffy pony). Gandalf was no where in sight at the moment and she cursed. If there was anyone who could interpret her dream, it would have been Gandalf.

Instead of facing the dwarves, Elyse cautiously found a way around them and started walking in the opposite direction on a well-worn dirt path. She needed time to herself to think about that dream. The hobbits that were just now waking up and the little hobbit children that were already awake and playing in the gardens or within the confines of their fences were a nice distraction. Even then, everything seemed to spark a memory from that dream.

When she looked at a tent that a few older hobbit children were pulling up, she had to close her eyes and turn away. Fire blazed and people screamed, running every which direction from the ugly people called Orcs terrorizing everyone. As Elyse stumbled back, screaming in surprise, one of her sisters was grabbed -the youngest of the twins younger than her- and was stabbed through the back, her body rippling as it transformed into her animal. Her eyes, now dead, closed as her sister, once a beautiful brown and white paint mare, crumpled down to the ground. Elyse watched in horror as she fell off the sword, lifeless, and the beginnings of a terrified scream lingered in her throat as the Orc approached her with a sneer on his scarred, pale face.

Shaking her head, Elyse forced herself out of the memory as quickly as she could. She had four sisters back home -she was the middle of two older sisters and a set of twins under her. While her family could be annoying at times, she had always loved them and in her dream, each one had died some horrifying death. That couldn't be right though.

"Sh... What's that noise?" asked her older sister in a shushed voice, silencing her with a raised hand.

Elyse glanced at her sister, cocking her head to the side. "I don't hear anything. Are you trying to pull another joke on me again? The last one failed, you know," she snickered as she crouched down next to her sister.

She shook her head, nose scrunching up as she quietly moved some foliage around in front of her and placed a finger to her lips. "No, I swear, I heard something." Her older sister was a leopard with white fur and black spots and, even if she did like to pick on all of her younger sisters every chance that she got, Elyse knew when she was being serious. There was a good reason why she was training to become a scout.

So Elyse sat there with her sister, not knowing that this would be her last minutes with her.

Breaking herself from yet another memory, Elyse stumbled. A few of the hobbits that were already doing small chores this early in the morning glanced up to look at her with concern. Ignoring them, Elyse grabbed her elbows and pulled them in close to her, not bothering to stop herself when her feet carried her to the woods just outside of the hobbit town. The second her feet hit the forest floor her wolf was bursting free and she was galloping senselessly through the woods.

She had done this once before. The other wolf-like creature- the larger, bulky white thing that could somehow keep up with her even with a rider- was catching up as she ran. Her mind was screaming, pleading, that it wouldn't catch her and her remaining sisters as they tried to keep up. The oldest of the sisters was clutching onto Elyse's shoulders -she was a panda bear and definitely didn't have the stamina to keep up- and the youngest of them, a blue and brown eyed husky, bounded beside Elyse. The creature's breath seemed to be blowing on her tail, it's teeth just snapping close just out of reach. The rider, a white Orc, was laughing hideously as it swung a sword in his hand and urged the creature faster. And, even though her lungs were fighting for air and her legs felt like they were going to buckle, Elyse just ran harder.

They'd found them in the spot that their father, an aggressive polar bear, had crammed her in to hide her from the Orcs. The white creature had shoved its nose into the spot after it had murdered their mother, a gorgeous lioness, howling and screeching as she and her sisters tried to beat it off, and it hadn't moved until the white Orc had came. He'd lifted her up by the back of her collar and she had shifted right then and there, giving her and her sisters a small opportunity to get away. It hadn't been long before the sounds of the sisters being chased had surrounded them by the Wargs, which the eldest of the girls had called out. Several of their kin, neighbors and friends, had been running with them nearby; they were cut down in minutes by the Wargs and killed off by the Orcs.

They were the last ones left.

A Warg appeared in front of them, coming so quickly that neither Elyse or her youngest sister could slow down. With a yip, Elyse slid into the Warg and they crashed, Elyse being thrown in the air and howling when her oldest sister's grasp was lost in her white fur. She rolled, hopping up upon her paws instantly as the Warg surrounded them in a matter of seconds. On the ground, her face bloodied and her leg trapped by the dead body of the Warg that had caused them to stop, was her oldest sister. The youngest was trying to pull off the Warg and Elyse had just reached her when an arrow struck the side of her chest. With a bark, she had jumped back and, before Elyse could move to block her younger sister, another arrow pierced right through the side of her head. The lifeless husky crumpled down sideways toward their eldest sister, who cried out in fright and despair.

Elyse roared, whipping around to the Wargs and their Orc riders. She was so mad she couldn't even begin to describe it. With another howl she threw herself at the orcs, ignoring the arrows that entered her hide and the swords that ripped through her when she was close enough. Her jaws found a Warg's throat and she tore it clean out, pawing it away as she moved onto the next one with similar aggression and violence. By the time she was forced to stop by a scream, her white fur was stained with Orc and Warg blood.

The scream had came from her eldest sister, who was being held up by the pale Orc. The white Warg was behind him, growling and bristling at her as Elyse turned in disbelief toward them. She'd forgotten about her sister. How could she?

Hands and teeth alike grabbed her and she howled out in pain as she was dragged down to the ground to be beaten by the surviving Orcs and Warg. Surprised caused her to shift and she curled into a ball as they continued to beat her nonstop, screaming in enjoyment as the tears ran down her face. It just hurt so much. She fought back as much as she could; she managed to trip one up before a Warg closed its jaws about her leg and she screamed her head off.

When she brought her head up, she met the defeated eyes of her sister, who was being forced to watch. Her sister, older and wiser, had her head being held back so she could watch and her hands behind her back as the pale Orc murmured in her ear evilly. With a tear falling from her eye, her oldest sister mouthed, "save yourself."

Shaking her head back and forth, Elyse just missed colliding into a tree. Her legs buckled and she slid halfway into a large pond face first. She remained there, nostrils flaring as she cried silently in the only way that a wolf could and didn't move. Her ears had pinned themselves against the back of her head and her legs were sprawled still from falling but she couldn't bring herself to care. Squeezing her eyes shut, Elyse stayed where she was.

The rest of the dream had consisted of small little snippets of her being at different places. A few she had been running away from guards of a certain city or working at bars or farms before the owners figured out who she was and was forced away. No one wanted a skin-changer working for them; they had already been socially awkward when they hadn't been extinct and the last remaining one only meant trouble. From what she understood, she had existed in two places at once. When one of her forms had died in the different dimension or whatever -because there was no where they had survived that plane crash- her conscious must have transported to the surviving one.

The sun had just managed to get a fourth of the way out from above the little hill nearby when Elyse heard the sound of hooves. Instead of moving, she stayed where she was, her nose just above the water and the rest of her body hanging out on the beach. She knew they were close when she heard someone gasp and jump off their horse.

"Elyse?"

Shifting her head just enough to see, Elyse saw that a shocked Kili was standing there, hands opened and his mouth parted slightly in surprise. Her perked ears flattened against her skull and she turned away.

"Elyse? Is that you?" he asked softly as he moved closer to her. Her spine tensed when she sensed his hand near her shoulder but relaxed when he started petting her gently. When she didn't answer, he sighed and put his arms underneath her ribs, grunting as he rolled her over. Even on her side she refused to move and Kili sighed when she met his eyes with her glazed over purple eyes. "Come on. It's time for you to get up."

Part of her was amazed that he had even came after her; how had he even known that she was gone? The other was glad that he asked nothing about her condition or how she was now a forest stained, half drenched white wolf and just wanted her to stand. She pulled her legs up underneath her and Kili backed away enough for her to move. Thank you, she mumbled in her mind, knowing that he had heard when his face twisted in confusion.

"Uh... You're welcome." His voice was still gentle and he didn't try to flirt or joke with her. If he had, she probably would've ripped his throat out.

Even though he hadn't asked her to, her back arched and she shifted back into her regular form, looking up when she was done to see another shocked expression flicker across Kili's face. Scowling, Elyse remained on the ground and looked away. "I know; I look like a mess," she grumbled.

Had she been looking up, she would have seen the smile that grew on Kili's face. "A hot mess."

She looked up, shocked, and he offered out a hand toward her. "Come on," he said gently again, smiling reassuringly. "Let's get you back to the Shire and the others."

oOoOoOoOo

Primrose's gait and the warmth of Kili's back had caused Elyse to accidentally fall asleep. She hadn't meant too. Kili had suggested that they go back by horse and they ended up riding halfway there as Elyse had teased Kili over his mare's name all the way until she had fallen sound asleep. She didn't dream at all and was awaken when Kili gently nudged her. Her eyes fluttered open slowly and she found that they were back to the hobbit town, Primrose jogging gently down a brown path with little hobbit children staring at them with wide eyes.

"Did you have a good nap?" the brunette dwarf asked, mirth in his voice.

"As a matter of fact, your back is a wonderful pillow," she teased as she leaned back, smiling and waving at the children that hid behind fences and peeked out at them. Her waving brought them out and it wasn't soon before they were following them. "I feel as if you are not taking me to Mr. Baggins's house right now."

A smile grew on Kili's face as he slowed Primrose to a stop near a fence and hopped off, surprising Elyse for a moment. "Actually, you're right. Thorin was going to take you guys out to the market before we left to see if there were any weapons or supplies that we could buy you. We're just going slightly early." He tied Primrose's reins to the fence and turned back to Elyse still sitting on Primrose. Bowing dramatically, Kili offered a hand up. "Would the pretty lass wish for some help down?"

Elyse's face flushed. "I-I suppose so."

Preparing herself, Elyse gently took Kili's hand, who's fingers tightened about hers as she began to slid off Primrose's back. She found herself being caught in Kili's arms and placed gently upon the ground with a large, silly smile plastered on his face. It was hard to hold back her own and she felt the corners of her mouth turning up anyways into a matching smile in response to his when she felt someone pull on her dress. Her arms were still laced around Kili's -her hands had fell to the middle of his arms to steady herself and his hands were brushing her elbows- as she glanced down, not expecting the little boy that was standing there.

"Um... Could-could you play hide-and-seek with us?" the little boy with the curly brown head asked with the cutest little voice that made Elyse smile even more.

She was going to answer, but Kili moved one arm away to grin brightly at the child. "Of course we'll play!" The small crowd of eight children cheered as they immediately scattered, laughing and hollering in excitement. "Come on Elyse! Have some fun with us! I'll be the seeker first!" Kili said as he gently pushed her toward the children that were running.

Next thing she knew, a blond girl who was no taller than her thigh had grabbed her hand, her curls and bow bouncing as she dragged her toward some flower bush and Kili's voice rang out, counting down from thirty. There were onlookers and most of them were completely awestruck as they watched the dwarf counting by the fluffy Primrose and the woman being pulled toward the flower bush that she was slightly too tall for. Elyse pretended not to notice as she crouched down beside the girl, her giggling causing Elyse to smile. How did she get pulled into this again?

"5... 4... 3, 2, 1!" Kili roared out from somewhere behind the bush and both Elyse and the little girl giggled at Kili's burst of energy at the end. "Ready or not, here I come!"

Elyse tried to muffle her laughter as the little girl did the same thing. It was hard though; Kili was narrating everything that he did and would scream out "aha!" whenever he supposedly found a child's hiding spot and he would always snap his fingers and go 'darn' when he never found them. After a moment of silence, curiosity got the better of Elyse and the little girl and they both peeked out at the same time. Elyse couldn't help but to squeal when she spotted Kili leaning over their bush with his arms above his head, about to grab them both.

"Run!" the little girl shrieked.

Scrambling to their feet, the little girl went one way, giggling, as Elyse did the same the opposite direction. She glanced behind her to find Kili behind her and she turned back, laughing as she picked up her pace and hurtled a barrel that a hobbit was pushing. Huffing, Elyse paused behind a wall and peeked around it. He wasn't there. Confused she walked out a little behind it and wasn't completely shocked when Kili hopped out behind her with a war cry and grabbed her, tossing her right over his shoulder like a trophy. She gasped in surprise as he laughed.

"Gotacha!" he exclaimed, laughing.

"Kili!" Elyse squealed, squirming and laughing at the same time. "Put me doooowwwnnn!"

"No way!"

They were still laughing, Elyse struggling to get down as the hobbit children gathered around and laughed at them, when Thorin and Winifred appeared on the scene. While Winifred just started laughing, Thorin narrowed his eyes and shook his head. "What are you doing?" he roared.

Everyone froze. "Oh Mahal," Kili muttered as he placed her back on her feet, keeping his hand resting just slightly on her elbow as if to make sure that she wouldn't fall.

"Indeed," Elyse mumbled back.

Thorin marched down the hill, Winifred doing her best to put on her best serious expression as she followed in behind him with her hands behind her back. "We have no times for games," he scowled them. "This should be-"

One of the little hobbit girls, the one that had pulled Elyse behind the bush, suddenly exploded into tears and began to wail. Instantly Winifred was there; she scooped up the little girl and placed her upon her hip, cooing at her as she petted the girl's head soothingly. Winifred had always been like that -three younger siblings and countless of cousins born in her lifetime helped give her that motherly instinct of hers that had developed over the years. Animals even loved her because of it. And she'd always placed things on her hips; she like to say that it was because she had birthing hips and that meant that babies were supposed to sit there. Thorin was staring at her, eyes flickering with some emotion, but Elyse couldn't figure out the expression that was on his face.

"Did the mean, scary old dwarf scare you?" Winifred cooed as she swayed back and forth as the little girl sniffled quietly, clutching at Winifred's blue dress.

Now Elyse's knew his expression.

"What?" Thorin snapped, glaring at Winifred as she tried to hide her smile behind the little girl's head. "I am neither scary or old. Kili, am I scary?"

"Uh..." Kili rubbed at the back of his neck with an uneasy smile.

Thorin's eyes narrowed at him and he grunted. "I don't need your answer." When Elyse opened her mouth and raised her hand to have Thorin acknowledge her, he shook his head. "I definitely don't need your answer. Boy." He grabbed the little boy that had asked Elyse and Kili to play hide-and-seek with them. He didn't even get the question out before the boy began wailing.

"Oh, you poor thing!" Thorin glanced up expectantly and rolled his eyes when Winifred only crouched down to the little boy and pulled him into a hug, completely ignoring the dwarf. "The mean, old dwarf scared you too didn't he? You poor little boy and girl!"

"I am not scary! Or old!" Thorin grumbled under his breath.

Standing, Winifred bumped her free hip, which was the only thing free on her because she was holding up the girl and then holding the boy's hand, up against the King's with a soft smile. He glanced at her in surprise. "Come on, we've got to apologize to these kids' parents, old one," she added to tease him and beamed brightly when he scowled.

As they walked away, Thorin obviously complaining to Winifred that he wasn't old, Kili nudged Elyse in the ribs. "Thorin so likes her."

"What? How do you know?"

Kili threw his head back with a laugh. "If anyone else had called him old, he would have slit their throats! And did you notice the way he looked at her when she was calming down those kids?"

She nodded, thinking, and then added, "But I called him old too!"

"And he didn't kill you because I was here!"

"Of course, my savior! Whatever would I do without you?"

"Uh... Mope because you're so bored."

Elyse laughed, pushing him toward where Bofur, Fili, Sydnee, and Nori were calling out for them, waving at them from the market square of the Shire. "Dream on, pretty boy."