It smelled worse than a million dead and rotting bodies that had been thrown all over the place.

Maybe it was because she was half wolf, but the scent of the troll cave that they had found was literally overwhelming her with the stench. There was by far a huge difference standing a few miles from the cave than a few feet. A few miles had made her nose curl with disgust; a few feet almost made her faint or hurl if she got pass the dizzying effect it had on her. Elyse couldn't even get fifteen feet to look inside of the cave before thinking that she was going to fall over. She hadn't realized just how much of an influence she was.

Most of the Company was inside of the cave, shuffling through the things that the trolls had collected. Sydnee had stayed outside with Elyse. It was funny enough watching the dwarves that did go in; Winifred had a hold of Ori's scarf and was following behind him as she peeked over his shoulder cautiously. The others were just as slow when they entered with their swords drawn and their faces covered by pieces of fabric to drown out the awful smell. Elyse stood outside with Bilbo and Sydnee, waiting for either something to attack them or the dwarves and wizard to return.

"Trolls," Bilbo said suddenly, disrupting the beautiful silence that has enveloped them since the dwarves had left. "I had never imagined that I would ever see one until now."

Elyse looked up from where she had been braiding some grass blades together, glancing at Sydnee. The siren had Lammy in her lap, playing with his still floppy ears as the goat napped, and Elyse saw her eyes narrow slightly. Sydnee liked hearing nothing about the trolls; just the slight mention of them caused her nose to scrunch and her attitude to turn slightly sour. "Those were the first for us too," Elyse muttered.

"I should have just stayed home," Bilbo continued as if he hadn't even heard the shape-shifter speak. He was sitting on a large root with his large feet dangling over the side, his back turned mostly to Sydnee and Elyse as he stared at the entrance of the cave where the other half of the Company hadn't entered were standing. With a dreamy sigh, Bilbo added, "and my books. Oh how I miss my books. At least then the adventures weren't actually happening and I could be in my own personal company with five meals a day!"

"That sounds a little bit extreme," Sydnee commented dryly.

"And my bed! At least then I don't have to pick off the bugs that crawled on me when I was asleep! And I wouldn't have to listen to those wretched snores!"

Elyse scoffed. "Those do get kind of bad."

The little hobbit turned to face them, his eyes alight with curiosity. He crossed his legs and got comfortable as he placed his head in his hands, reminding Elyse of a little child waiting for their grandfather or grandmother to tell them a story. "What were your lives before this?" he asked with interest. "Did you have families that you left behind?"

"No." Sydnee's voice shook. "This life is so much better." She turned her head slightly to the side so she wouldn't have to look at Bilbo.

When the hobbit looked expectantly at Elyse, she sighed, changing from braiding the grass to ripping it into small little pieces. Her fingers shook and she fought to keep her already cowering wolf under control. "Indeed. I like traveling with the Company. It's been the best month of my life so far."

"Oh really?" She wondered briefly if the hobbit realized if he was treading on thin land. "Just how bad was your pasts?"

While Elyse bowed her head, content with remaining silent, Sydnee fidgeted. Eyeing her, Elyse could practically see as Sydnee unraveled. She had always been like that; Sydnee could always hold secrets until someone was able to come at her in a way to make her feel guilty and then she would spill. "A slave." The words caught Elyse off guard and she lifted her head. The only reason why she even heard her friend was because of her enhanced hearing.

"What?"

"I was a slave," Sydnee bit out rather angrily. "I was a slave and beaten for half my life."

Bilbo leaned away from her, surprised, and Elyse pursed her lips. Before they had somehow been transported or whatever here, Elyse, Winifred, and Sydnee knew almost everything about each other. Sydnee's life had been harsh before -she had had cancer at one point- and the expression that was twisted on her face said exactly what Elyse had feared. The three friends hadn't really had a chance to talk since the Company had began their grand adventure. She could only assume that the siren's past had been revealed to her through dreams and brief reminisces during traveling like Elyse was experiencing still. Winifred had said nothing as well, though Elyse knew that Winifred hardly told anyone anything in the first place.

"A-a slave?" Bilbo spluttered.

"Yeah, a slave." She shook her head, fixing her gaze upon the ground after receiving an encouraging gaze from Elyse. "It was because of my voice. They would have me sing... And if I wouldn't... They would beat me." Her voice turned steely cold and, when she looked up, her eyes were just as harsh. "My father was a dwarf... He sold me off to pay a bet that he lost. My mother died a year after I was born. She wasn't there to protect me... I can just remember her voice but even that's a little fuzzy in my mind." She paused, brushing back a strand of hair that had managed to grow long enough to fall slightly into her eyes. "One day a man bought me from one of the worst masters that I have ever had and he helped me. He helped me heal from my years of being a slave and then let me go." Her eyes suddenly turned to Elyse, a light smile touching her lips. "And then I met Elyse."

Elyse had already had this memory wash over her one day and she smiled to herself.

She had just been chased out of another town and was curling up underneath a rock when she heard the crashing of something going through the woods. As Elyse lifted her head from the ground, her ears flicking up, she picked up the mumblings of a woman. Putting two and two together, Elyse shifted into her human form just as a short woman stumbled across her.

She was rather short, even for a dwarf. Her sandy blonde hair was cut short, causing it to stick up haphazardly in several directions, and her eyes were a dark brown in color. The woman was very skinny -her cheekbones were rather bony- and the clothes that she wore hung off her body as if they were several sizes too big for her. Several bruises lined her neck and a scar that started at the left side of her collarbone disappeared into the sleeve of her dress. A bag was slung onto her shoulder and, because of her sudden halt, all of the contents crashed into the ground.

"Oh! I'm sorry!" the woman rushed to say, surprised. "I didn't think that anyone was here!"

Elyse watched her as she scrambled to collect the things that had fallen from her bag. She leaned forward, picking up the closest item that happened to be an apple, and stood as she held it out to her. "You're fine," she said with a small smile. "I'm just passing through."

"Wait a second..." She froze, her eyes locking upon the other woman that was now eyeing her curiously. "Weren't you that woman that was working the stables for the last two weeks? Elyse, right?"

"Indeed." She forced a smile to spread across her lips. "And you're Sydnee."

Sydnee nodded before whispering, "that would mean that you're that shape-shifter that the town guards chased off then, right?" Elyse cringed slightly, but then the woman beamed. "I really don't care. I'm a siren! If the villagers had known, then Chad, the man who was taking care of me, would have had to move since the humans don't seem to like us."

"Oh. I didn't know that sirens still existed." Her wolf had noticed that the other woman's scent was slightly off, containing a more harmonized (is that even possible?) than the others.

"And I didn't know that shape-shifters were still roaming about."

Bilbo's small laugh caused Elyse to snap out of her memory. The hobbit was nervous now; his fingers were tapping against his dusty orange pants skittishly as he obviously thought of a way to ask something. "And Winifred?" he finally managed to get out. "How did you two meet her? She's a Queen."

"That's new information even for us," Sydnee said slowly and carefully. "If you want to ask questions about her, then you need to ask her them yourself."

Elyse frowned as Bilbo's lips pursed. "You don't have to tell me-"

"Bilbo. We feel like we are violating her trust in us if we tell you that," the shape-shifter stated cooly, though there was a hint of warning in her tone. "Winifred's life is something that even we don't know too much about. If she wants to keep it a secret, then she can."

More like she's trying to figure it out still, her wolf added in her mind.

Tapping his chin with a thoughtful expression and a hint of panic in his dark eyes, the hobbit managed to flash them a smile. "What's the harm of telling me when you first met? You don't have to tell me anything else."

Sydnee and Elyse exchanged a look before the siren sighed, pointing out that if Winifred learned earlier, all of them would probably have a mouthful later. Elyse closed her eyes, allowing herself to sink into yet another memory.

They met Winifred in almost the same way as Elyse had Sydnee. Except it was in the middle of a chase.

The siren and shape-shifter were making their way to the newest town to stop for the rest of the night. The path was completely empty and Sydnee had been singing for the past fifteen minutes of walking. It had been three months since the two of them had met and they had succeeded in visiting a couple of towns and making some money before being thrown out once again. Currently, they were just about a mile away from a town called Pinerun.

Some crashing came from the woods before them and Elyse froze, throwing out an arm to stop Sydnee and silence her. She did so immediately, grabbing a hold of the sleeve of Elyse's cloak. "Someone is here with us," Elyse told the siren softly, her eyes darting to try and locate the new threat.

"Well, I can tell that," Sydnee hissed back.

Suddenly, a figure exploded out from the brush, falling down to their hands and knees as they panted furiously. Elyse moved in front of Sydnee, growling threateningly. Slowly the figure looked up and Elyse was surprised to find that a woman older than her was looking up at her, nostrils flaring as blood dribbled into her eye from a cut on her forehead. More dripped from the side of her mouth and she wiped it off with the sleeve of a ragged brown dress. Her black hair was short enough only give her bangs long enough to hide the right side of her face, which give Elyse the impression that side of her countenance was just as damaged as the other. The woman wasn't short -she was maybe an inch or two shorter than Elyse- and she was built stocky with wide hips and thick legs. There was just as much threat in the woman's dark brown eyes as there was in Elyse's growl.

A voice called out suddenly from the brush that the woman had appeared from, causing her to glance back over her shoulder almost frantically. Shakily she stood to her feet, seizing a nearby tree branch to stay up right when she almost fell. "Either get out of my way or help me," the woman snapped as harshly as she could through her pants.

"Why are you running?" Elyse asked just as harshly back. "Did you kill someone? Steal something?"

"More like the other way around," the woman replied.

A dog bark echoed through the woods, followed by a howl, mingling in with several others. This time, when the woman turned back to them, there was a panicked glint to her dark eyes. She pushed by them then, only succeeding on falling flat on her face seconds later. As she struggled to get to her feet, Sydnee and Elyse shared a glance.

"We can't just let her get caught," Sydnee whispered. "She has to be a slave. I won't just let her get caught," she added forcefully.

Elyse glanced back at the woman who was struggling to get to her feet. Her shoulders were hunched, her arms were shaking with the effort to just get into her knees. Sweat and dirt was rolling down her arms and face. The shape-shifter sighed, rubbing at the back of her neck. "No, we can't," she agreed silently.

"Oh," Bilbo said once Sydnee was done. "I never would have guessed that. None of you... act like that, I suppose."

Elyse stood, glaring at the hobbit. "How did you want us to act?"

Bilbo shrugged and opened his mouth to answer when someone called out the shape-shifter's name. She looked up to see Winifred and Kili approaching her, the Ice Queen with two knives in her hand. Her attention immediately locked onto the pair of blades; they were longer and skinnier than the current two that she had and had delicate swirls at the beginning of the blades. When they were close enough, Winifred smiled and held them out to her. They felt perfect in her hands, so light that she could hardly tell that they were there, and her eyes flickered by to Winifred in question.

Instantly, Elyse had to compare the Winifred that was in her memory and the one that was in front of her. There was a cockiness to her now, a sureness that hadn't existed before. A smirk was gracing her round features, her arms crossed under her chest with one of her hips poked out as she leaned on it. Instead of short hair, Winifred's hair had a healthy sheen to it and was braided all the way down to her waist. Right now, no one could have ever thought that once she had been kept from freedom. No one would be able to ever tell that once she had been beaten black and blue. Beaten until her natural rebellious personality was kicked out of her. No know would know that once, she had escaped from the chains of her master and had ran into the safety of a shape-shifter and a siren, both of whom were outcasts of society.

And no one would certainly think that she was a Queen.

"Those," the Ice Queen began to explain and gestured to the knives in her hands. "Are elven made weapons of pure chaos."

"They're names are Silme and Eleni," Kili spoke up, smiling. "Silme means 'starlight' and Eleni is 'star' in the elven language. Elven weapons are made for only one person each generation. They're practically meant for you."

She blinked, running her hand down each blade before smiling and placing them into their scabbards. "Who would've have known that trolls could be so useful?"

The dwarf Prince beamed as Winifred laughed. "You look ravishing with them," he added with a wide smile.

Again Winifred laughed, clamping a hand onto the cheeky dwarf's shoulder as Elyse blushed. "Be careful what you say there," she teased. "She might just take those knives and carve her name into your heart if you're not careful!"

"She already has," Kili smirked as he fixated his gaze onto Elyse, only causing Sydnee to start giggling this time.

A shout suddenly came from Thorin and Elyse's head shot up, listening. "Something's coming!" he roared, drawing his sword and running into the woods. Elyse heard a worried about from Bilbo and then Gandalf's reassurance as they both followed. Kili whooped and ran after the group, Elyse following as he grabbed her wrist and dragged her along.

Sorry, definitely not my best work. Kinda of a short and sweet chapter. It would have been longer; if it wasn't for the point I had to rewrite four freakin' times because it didn't sound right to me. Thanks guys, for reading! We've reached 1.04K reads!