Rivendell was absolutely stunning at nightfall. During the day it had been gorgeous, but at night when the stars gleamed above the rooftops and with a moon glowing, there was no comparison.

Elyse studied the elven artitecture as she walked through the beautifully decorated hallways of Rivendell to the small rumble that she knew as the dwarves' constant snores. Soon she would return to the bedroom that she and the rest of them had been offered by Lord Elrond, though the dwarves had refused them. Sydnee was currently in her own room and Winifred, who was still apparently unconscious from whatever herb that Oin had given her, was currently being worked on by the elf healers. It was partially because of that fact and the one that Elyse couldn't sleep that she found herself here. When she had left, she had been hoping that Kili or some of the other dwarves were awake for her to talk too. She found that it wasn't the case. The only one awake was Bilbo.

The little hobbit had been given a room as well and why he wasn't in it, Elyse didn't know. As she approached the balcony, tip-toeing through the snoring dwarves, she saw his form sitting on a chair that he had brought from somewhere. He was smoking his pipe and looked peaceful as he gazed up at the stars. Even then, with the serenity and tranquility around them, he failed to notice Elyse as she walked up behind him.

"Enjoying the stars, Bilbo?"

He jumped, almost throwing his pipe up into the air, and whipped around to face her with wide eyes. Relaxing when he saw her, he sighed. "Ah, yes. It is a very beautiful view here. The animals are quiet, the stars are glittering, the night is peaceful. It is as pretty as a picture." A particularly loud snore from Bombur caused Bilbo to shot a glare at the rest of the Company. "Well, almost perfect."

A small laugh escaped her as she threw back her head, not helping but to agree. "They are our friends," she said with a quick gesture of her hand and a smile.

"Well, yes." Bilbo paused to smoke for a few seconds. Elyse shook her head as she sat down beside him on the floor; like her friends, it had taken her a little while to get used to the frequently smoking members of the Company, but she had soon gotten somewhat used to it. Her nose still crinkled at the smell but, when Gandalf sat down in the evenings to create little images out of the smoke he blew out, she sometimes found it entertaining. "It would be nice to live here," he continued after a few minutes. "With the beautiful landscape and the food. And the stars."

Speaking of food... Her stomach growled lightly and she placed a hand over it, trying to quench the noise. The meal that the eleven provided had been of vegetables mostly and salads. Sydnee had enjoyed the meal greatly along with Bilbo, both of whom had carried polite conversations with the elves and asked them little questions during the meal. They were probably the only ones to actually enjoy it. Gandalf and Thorin had not been there; the Blue wizard had urgent business to attend with the elf Lord and Thorin had demanded that he stayed with Winifred as the elf healers attended to her leg, saying that he didn't wish for any of his injured Company to be by themselves. Some of the dwarves during the supper had claimed different. Since the food wasn't too their liking, they had just began talking. Though Elyse called more of a gossip as they shoved the leafy food back and forth across their plates in boredom.

They talked about the blooming romance between Fili and Sydnee when the two weren't paying attention to them, talking in hushed voices and saying their opinion on if the blonde Prince would ask her to marry before the end of this journey. The older of the dwarves shot pointed glances at Elyse and then the youngest Prince before bowing their heads together and mumbling. But mostly they talked about Winifred and their King.

From what Elyse could guess, Thorin had never actually acted like he ever had... feelings toward anyone, let alone romantic ones. The dwarves claimed that he was beginning to fall in love with the Ice Queen. Balin thought they were perfect for one another; Thorin's stubbornness could be overrode by Winifred's selfless attitude toward life and the King seemed to be pretty good about knowing when Winifred was suffering through something, rather it be injury, anger, or a nightmare. Dwalin and Gloin just laughed; they just didn't want to lose whatever bet it was that Winifred had mentioned earlier when she was a little woozy. Some of the others had their own opinions, but they all shared the same thought that the two would be together in the future. When Elyse was asked, she bit her lip and gave a small, nervous smile. She knew something that the others did not.

During this entire conversation, Bilbo had sat hunched in his seat, listening with wide eyes and a shaking hand as he ate.

"I could go without the food," Elyse commented as she turned her gaze up to the stars. "I'll probably have to leave sometime soon to go hunting. Probably for some rabbit or something like that in these woods. I'm sure the Company would like it if I brought them back a deer."

Bilbo's face contorted with the mention of her wolf. The first time that many of the Company had seen her wolf was when she had shifted with the trolls -it had been in the spur of the moment and a protective instinct had flared up inside her- and many of the dwarves had been surprised. Out of all of them though, Bilbo was absolutely petrified of her. Elyse didn't know why. Then again, if she had only seen a huge white wolf with its fangs bared and its fur bristling almost every time, she would be scared of herself too.

"They would probably enjoy it if you did," the hobbit replied.

A small, comfortable silence fell between them. Elyse was just thinking about the animals that she had scented on the way here and how they would taste, when Bilbo cleared his throat next to her. She saw that he had already put away his pipe; he was standing and wringing his hands together. "Something the matter?" she asked him. Her wolf grunted. He's concerned about Winifred.

Bilbo tried to start a certain sentence several times, only to end up opening and closing his mouth without sound a couple of times. She lifted an eyebrow as her wolf repeated her prediction over and over again. "Do-do you know how Win-Winifred is doing?"

Elyse scowled. The only reason why Thorin had been able to stay anywhere near Winifred was because of his prescient words and then by reminding everyone near him that he was a King. She had tried playing her wild card -if she wasn't granted access to see Winifred until she awoke, she would most likely shift into her wolf. The elves were already extremely nervous of her split side; instead of doing as she had asked, they had simply brought guards to the room and blocked almost everyone's entrance there. If it wasn't for the point that the elves were doing them a favor by allowing them to stay, she would have already burst through them to see her friend by now. But she couldn't. She was told that the Queen didn't need any extra stress since she had lost a lot of blood and needed to recover.

"From what I know, she's just fine," she grumbled under her breath as she pulled her legs up into her chest to wrap her arms about them. She let her gaze fall to the gorgeous waterfalls whose gentle roar was like a lullaby to her.

"Have you seen her?"

"Have you?"

If the hobbit noticed her snappish attitude, he didn't seem to take notice of it. "Actually, yes. She was still unconscious though."

"What?!" A snarl burst out of her as she stood to her feet, glaring at Bilbo. "They let you in but not me?"

Bilbo gestured for her to quiet down; one of the dwarves, Nori, shifted in his sleep before mumbling to himself and snuggling deeper into his bedroll. Still growling, Elyse's eyes flickered over the Company. The dwarves, since they had refused the rooms that Elrond had offered to each one of them, had just simply spread out their bedrolls to one of the roofed porches that allowed them the beautiful view that Bilbo and Elyse were currently looking at. They had claimed that a room wasn't what they were used too, though Elyse knew that they just didn't trust the elves. Either way, here they were. Snoring loudly and causing any elf that happened to walk by to poke their head in to glare at their sleeping forms in frustration from lack of sleep.

"It could be because of your aggressive nature." Elyse turned a smoldering gaze upon the hobbit and a visible bead of sweat dripped from his forehead. "Or because they do not like your wolf."

"I want to see my friend!"

"It doesn't matter, really! She's still unconscious so she can't even-"

"It does matter!" Elyse could feel herself fuming as she reached up and ran a hand through her hand, her fingers yanking through the tangles without a single care. The hobbit cringed at her angered movements. "She's my friend and they let two lovesick men into her room! Where does that make any sense?"

A bewildered look crossed Bilbo's face and his mouth opened to speak, but Elyse shot him such a furious glare that his mouth shut with an audible snap. Angrily, she continued to run her hands through her hair, the tangles and grim that were there only adding to her anger. It had grown since she last remembered; before the dark strands were even with her neck, but now they fell down to the middle of her shoulder blades. Travels could do that to you, apparently. She huffed. "Whatever. I'm going to ask one of these elves where I can practice with my knives."

With that she turned her back to Bilbo, still growling slightly as she tip-toed through the snoring dwarves. One of them, a bald dwarf with tattoos, noticed her slipping away and sat up, glancing over at Bilbo. "Somethin' wrong?" he tumbled in question.

"She's just mad that she can't see Winifred but Thorin and I could."

Sighing, Dwalin shook his head. "Kili's done gone and spoiled the wolf," he commented sourly as he stood to his feet. "Did she say what she was doin'?"

"Practice with her knives."

"Then I'm guessin' that she's gonna need someone ta fight with."

oOoOoOo

Besides from the fact that there didn't seem to be a soul awake anywhere in Rivendell, Elyse found that finding a place to practice with her knives was nearly impossible. Finding a place to practice was even worst, and she spent at least an hour struggling to find the massive courtyard that Lord Elrond had mentioned when Gloin had asked about training with weapons. She had thought that it would have been easy; even as she leaned down over the courtyard, it easily swallowed a huge amount of space. Rivendell had series after series of hallways and pathways that Elyse couldn't even figure out and most of her time lost had been spent gazing at the beauty of what she could only call a castle. So an hour later she found herself leaning against the railing above the courtyard, sighing in annoyance.

She glared down at the opened area. It was mostly clear with a series of plants that had been planted to create a somewhat box looking shape in the center of it, the green plants reaching up to Elyse's shoulders -which were about the height of the elves chests. Huffing once, she slipped through the railing and then jumped down onto the roof that was under her. It was here that she noticed that someone else was using the courtyard.

Part of her wasn't surprised when she saw that Dwalin was there, swinging an axe at the dwarf King. Both seemed focused more on their conversation; Thorin was simply angling his sword to let Dwalin's axe slid off before the burly warrior was attacking him again. What they were saying she couldn't here since they were too far away. But she watched for a few moments, taking in the two friends.

Their friendship was slightly strange to her. Balin had said that they were distant cousins -while the brothers were both older than Thorin, they were too far away from the royal line to be considered an heir to the throne. From what she could understand, the three friends' relationship had started way back. Since Thorin and Dwalin were closer in age and had the same instant in fighting, they had spent most of their time training with different weapons. Dwalin had gone on to be a Captain guard and a trainer, Thorin had gone on to be a prince. Balin and Thorin were friends through literature, really; eventually, Balin had become Thorin's mentor in languages and things like that and taught him most of what he knew. As Thorin's royal Recorder, Balin was possibly one of the few dwarves that Thorin actually listened too and respected. It made sense that the two were on this journey with him. Some of the others Elyse still drew a blank; Bifur couldn't tell her anything with his lack of speaking and her lack of knowledge in his sign language called Khuzdul and Nori was a thief, and he didn't have any problem admitting it to anyone. Gloin loved to bet; Dori just seemed to be extremely protective over his brothers. Why were she, Sydnee, and Winifred even here?

A loud grunt distracted Elyse from her thoughts and she watched as Thorin stumbled, just managing to deflect an attack from Dwalin. He panted as he rubbed at his shoulder, glaring at Dwalin. Again, the words that were exchanged between the two dwarves she couldn't hear, but she could tell by the way that the King held himself that he was tired. Without thinking about consequences, Elyse moved down the roof to a closer position knew the two. She settled beside the thorny rose bush that was there to hide herself.

"Ya need to take a break," Dwalin was in the middle of telling Thorin as he crossed his arms. "Ya've been watchin' over the Ice Lady too long."

Thorin's nose crinkled and he shook his head, running a hand behind his neck as he closed his eyes. "I'm fine, Dwalin. You just caught me off guard is all."

"Off guard? I don't think that I've ever caught you off guard before, Thorin." There was a silence that followed. Thorin sat down here, ungracefully plopping down onto the side of a fountain and sighing. Elyse could see the dark circles that were under his ice blue eyes. "Why don't ya just take yoreself an' sleep in one of 'em rooms that the elf Lord gave us? There's no problem in doin' that fer a night."

"I would rather be damned than sleep in one of those rooms."

While Elyse snorted over in her cover, Dwalin sighed. "What ya need is a good bed, a warm meal wit' actual food, an' then a nice sleep. Winifred won't blame ya fer leavin' her 'lone. The elves will take care of her."

"I don't trust the elves."

"Of course ye don't," Dwalin mumbled just loud enough for Elyse to hear. "Listen to yoreself; ya sound like a mother hen cluckin' over her hatchlings."

The King shot a glare over at the warrior. "I am no mother hen. And I most certainly do not 'cluck over my hatchlings,' Dwalin." Leaning back slightly on the fountain, he looked up at the stars for a moment as Dwalin sat down near him, taking an axe and cleaning it. "I do not understand that woman," Thorin suddenly said. Elyse felt like she was beginning to trespass and she bit her lip, beginning to stand up and leave. "Actually, I do not understand any of the woman that we're traveling with."

Forget about leaving now, her wolf whispered in her head. I want to hear what he has to say about us. Elyse settled back down, locking her gaze upon the King and warrior that were sitting at the fountain.

"The siren serves no purpose to us what-so-ever," Thorin rumbled, running a hand over his face. "She is a good cook, but she has done nothing to prove her worth. Fili makes sure that absolutely nothing happens to her at all. Did you see him when we were running from the Wargs? He would throw himself in front of an Orc to make sure that she stays safe and out of harm's way." Dwalin hummed in agreement, his axe making a scraping noise as he dragged a rock over the blade. "The shape-shifter only proves to be more trouble than she is worth." Elyse felt herself growl. "She almost ate the rabbits of the Brown Wizard, brought along a goat for no reason, and she just picks fights out of most of the Company."

I do not pick fights with the dwarves!

"Ya forget that she does your scoutin'," Dwalin interrupted. "Ya shouldn't be so hard on any of 'em."

Thank you.

"I can do as I desire," Thorin snapped. "You must agree with me that she does pick fights when they do not need to be pursued."

"All of us do." Dwalin glanced at his King, lowering his weapon for a moment. "We were pickin' a fight with the elves earlier. Ya and Gandalf were bickerin' back with the Wargs. Ya and Winifred always share words. And what fights that the wolf does pick are ones that are thrown at her first. And you're talkin' 'bout that time when Nori stole Lammy and didn't tell her where he hide him."

Thorin ran both hands over his face. "And your thoughts on Winifred?"

Laughing, Dwalin thumped a hand on Thorin's back, causing the King to jolt forward a little. "The Ice Lady is great! A feisty lass! She's decent wit' a sword, doesn't take much crap, listens to us when we need to speak to someone, and she gives ya a piece of her mind when she gets mad at ya! Pretty too at that!"

"Anything else I should know? Something about a small bet that was made between a few members of my Company and her?"

Dwalin paused and then scowled, turning back to his weapons. "Who told ya? Little Ori, won't it?" When Thorin shrugged in response, Dwalin growled. "Remind me to not go easy on him when we train tomorrow."

"The boy was only being loyal to me when I asked about it," Thorin replied. "If you wish to be mad at anyone, Balin was the one who hinted it."

The warrior huffed. "Of course."

"Do you really think that she's my One?"

Dwalin's face scrunched and he shrugged. "We could be wrong."

Thorin glanced at Dwalin, eyebrow raised. "We?"

"Me, Balin, Gloin, Oin, Nori, Dori, Bombur, Bifur, and Bofur all think that she's yore One. The others we either have asked or we think are too young to know."

"I should have known."

"Ya shouldn't look so down! Findin' yore One is special! Excitin'! Still one of the best things that I've ever done..." The warrior dwarf trailed off before sighing and lifting up his axe to check how sharp that it was. "And I didn't get a chance to stay with my One that long. Ya do."

"If she is my One."

The warrior blinked at Thorin. "Do ya really not think that she's your One?" The King sighed as he stood, excusing himself from Dwalin and then heading over to one of the many archways that led back into Rivendell. "Thorin," Dwalin called out after him.

"I just don't have time for any of that stuff, Dwalin." Thorin turned back around, looking much more older than what Elyse had seen him before. "I'm not ready."

"Not ready?" Dwalin guffawed. "Yore younger than me and yore not ready?"

Nerves were causing Thorin's shoulder to twitch and Elyse felt a small smile grow across her lips. "I have my reasons, Dwalin, and I would prefer that you didn't push me to reveal them."

The warrior snorted, turning away. "Ya don't know what yore missin' out then."

"And I suppose that you did when you spent only eight months with Anne?"

The silence that had drifted between the two was nothing compared to the one that did now; it was one of those thick silences, the kind where a knife wouldn't ever be able to cut through it. Elyse could have been imagining it, but she could have sworn that she heard a growl that came from Dwalin. A small look of guilt flashed across Thorin's face before he simply continued back into Rivendell without saying a single word. The warrior stood when he had left, the sour look still on his face. His head snapped over to where Elyse was hiding and she ducked behind it even though she knew that he had seen her.

"Get down from there," he barked.

The thought of disobeying the warrior was killed the second that he growled again.

She scrambled down the side of the roof as quickly as she could; she literally dropped from the side, catching herself on the tile, before grabbing the vines that were growing up a pole and then lowered herself. By the time that her feet had touched the ground, Dwalin's face only seemed to be even more grumpier. Thinking that it might help, Elyse gave him a small wave. His mouth only pulled into an even bigger frown and she pulled her hand back down to her side.

"How much of that did ya hear?" he asked.

A lie grew on the tip of her tongue and, before she could stop herself, she said, "Who's Anne?" It wasn't technically a lie and it didn't really avoid his question, but the way that his face dropped told her that she probably shouldn't have asked about her.

"Anne is someone that ya'll never be able to meet," the warrior said slowly, like he was walking on thin ice.

Elyse considered her next question silently. "Why?"

"She's dead." While Elyse blinked, surprised by how emotionless that his voice seemed to be, Dwalin sighed, reaching up to scratch at his bald head. She couldn't help but to notice that his right ear was bitten off at the top and then the scar that cut through his right eyebrow. "She was killed off when Smaug attacked Erebor."

"Oh." She didn't really know how to respond. She knew basically nothing of any of the dwarves' history besides from their occupations and then the stories that Balin had told Bilbo. Some of the songs that they would sing late at night when they were around a campfire sometimes said things, but she didn't know what exactly was true.

Dwalin snorted at her. "She got burnt to crisp by that damned dragon's fire. Was tryin' to get a group of orphans out of the castle when the damned thing came an' killed them all."

"Oh."

"What's wrong?" Dwalin spat, glaring at her. "Dragon got yore tongue?"

Elyse bit her bottom lip as she stared at the ground. "No. I am sorry, Dwalin. I had no clue."

The old warrior's face soften; he had realized how harsh that he was being. He looked away from her, his dark eyes twinkling with what Elyse could only guess as tears, and he sighed. "It's partially my fault. Ya don't know much 'bout us at all. I keep forgettin' that ya ain't from 'round here." He paused, scratching at his neck, before shrugging. "But I'm guessin' that ya didn't come here to listen 'bout me babble 'bout my personal life, did ya? Grab yore knives and show my what you've got."

As Elyse unsheathed her knives and blocked the first swing of Dwalin's twin battleaxes, she made a mental note to herself to learn more about all of the dwarves and this Middle-Earth. She couldn't be stuck here not knowing anything that was here.

Sorry for the late update, everyone. I'm writing another story and, with me already being out for summer, I don't have the excuse to pretend to do a lot of homework anymore to work on these chapters. If you have the time though and you enjoy the game Darksiders; go check out my new story Dormant please.

Thank you for reading though!