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"What... what is she doing?" Bilbo asked Gandalf, looking from Valadhiel and Radagast to Gandalf, then looking back at them again. Never before had he seen anything like this. Then again, there was a lot he hadn't seen, having never been outside of The Shire before.

"Our dear dragoness is performing a mind-meld of sorts." Gandalf replied as he watched them. "She is searching for the information Radagast has lost, and she will bring it to surface so that he is able to remember what he needed to tell me."

The dwarves and Bilbo waited impatiently, rather flustered by this scatter-brained wizard. Even Gandalf got impatient after a moment, and right before Thorin seemed about to blow a fuse, Valadhiel jerked her head up and stumbled. Her neck wobbled, as did her legs, and her wings were involuntarily shaking.

"Vala, are you alright?" Thorin asked. Rather than flustered at Radagast, he was concerned for her. Did that always happen when she performed a mind-meld, or was her infected bite wound affecting her?

"I remember!" Radagast exclaimed after a moment. He walked away from the dwarves alongside Gandalf as he spoke to him.

"How many fingers am I holding up, Vala?" Kili asked after Thorin spoke, holding up two fingers for her to see. Why was she shaking like that? Was she dizzy?

"Yes, I'm alright. I always get dizzy after a mind-meld." Valadhiel assured Thorin, then she looked at Kili and squinted. "Uh, eleven? Wait- there's three of you. Which one is the real you?"

Kili and Bilbo both exchanged a look of concern, and Thorin and Fili shared the same look before the four looked back at Valadhiel. The dragoness tried stepping forward, but she ended up only slipping and falling over.

"That foot is mine..." She muttered after grunting when she hurt her burning wound, squinting at her feet. "Or is it?" She managed to get herself up and, after a moment, she managed to sit up, then stand up.

Some of the dwarves raised an eyebrow and held back a laugh, but most of the others failed at holding back their laughter. They had never seen a dragon act tipsy before, after all.

"This isn't funny." Thorin scolded the others, though he himself was trying to hold back a smile of amusement, despite the fact that they wouldn't be able to travel quickly if she was going to be dizzy.

"It's alright, Master..." She squinted and looked to Thorin's left, then his right, then she looked at him- though only because Bofur told her where to turn her head. "Master Thorin. If I were to see a giant purple reptile in such a predicament, I'd be gasping for air by now, and my sides would be aching from laughing so much." She then winced a little when she accidentally hit her head on a branch. "Headache... very bad headache..."

Kili and Fili hadn't laughed yet, and were trying so desperately to hold their laughter in, but after Valadhiel tripped over her own tail and fell onto her belly, they burst out laughing, unable to keep their amusement hidden any longer.

Bilbo, by this time, was chuckling in amusement. The poor thing... and he could only imagine the headache she had. He sat down on a nearby rock as he watched and listened.

"You know what? I think I'll just lie here for awhile." Valadhiel said, then she blinked heavily. "Will you all stop moving?"

"Vala, we're not moving." Thorin replied with a smirk, his eyes twinkling in amusement. "Your eyes are rolling in their sockets."

"I suppose that would explain why the trees are moving... last I checked, this wasn't The Old Forest, nor was it Fangorn."

"So, you experience this every time you mind-meld?" Bilbo asked after a moment, deciding to not ask how she knew about The Old Forest at the moment.

"Yes, but not to this extreme. Radagast is very scatter-brained." Valadhiel replied. After a few moments, she stood up and blinked, then she sighed in relief. "The effects have finally worn off."

The dragoness would have kept talking, but she suddenly felt a flight or fight response kick in, and she immediately knew that danger was near. She swiveled her ears when she heard a howl pierce the air, and she growled.

"Was that a wolf?" Bilbo asked, looking around and reaching for the hilt of his new blade. "Are there... are there wolves out there?"

"Wolves?" Bofur asked, then he shook his head. "No, that is not a wolf."

A warg suddenly leaped into the Company and lunged at Thorin. Valadhiel's senses had told her seconds before that the danger was coming from that area, so she whirled around and, in a flash, she had the beast in her crushing jaws. Once the warg was dead, she dropped it, glancing over at Kili when he shot at another one. "Warg-scouts." She growled.

"Which means an orc-pack is not far behind." Thorin added, placing a hand on the hilt of his sword.

Gandalf walked towards Thorin and looked at him. "Who did you tell about your quest, beyond your kin?"

"No one." Thorin replied, furrowing his brow.

"Who did you tell?" Gandalf demanded, speaking louder this time.

"No one, I swear. What in Durin's name is going on?"

Valadhiel shifted into her winged elvish form and walked over to Bilbo, keeping close to the hobbit since she had promised to protect him. She grabbed her bow and kept it at the ready, as she was fairly certain it would be needed.

Gandalf looked around before he looked at Thorin again. "You are being hunted."

"We've got to get out of here!" Dwalin shouted for all to hear.

"We can't!" Ori exclaimed. "We have no ponies! They bolted!"

Valadhiel drew an arrow and knocked it into her bow so she would be prepared for anything to come, ignoring the pain from her wound. "We need to quickly decide what we're going to do. They are getting close."

"We're never gonna make it!" Dwalin cried out. "They'll catch us for sure!"

"I'll draw them off." Radagast told the others, eager to be able to help them.

Gandalf looked at Radagast after he spoke. "These are Gundabad Wargs; they will outrun you."

Radagast looked at Gandalf with a calm smile, though a smirk seemed to glint in his eyes. "These are Rhosgobel Rabbits; I'd like to see them try." He replied, then, without another word, he had his rabbits hurry forward. After awhile of not knowing where he had gone, they heard his voice. "Come and get me! Ha ha!"

Gandalf moved to a rock and watched Radagast. Once the orcs gave chase, he turned and began to hurry out of the forest. "Follow me; come on!"

Valadhiel, after making sure the dwarves and Bilbo had run after Gandalf, lowered her bow and ran after them. After running for a moment, they all stopped and hid behind a rock, looking out for any warg-scouts and for any orcs.

Soon after hiding behind the rock, a warg and orc-rider appeared at the top of it. She was about to get it, but Thorin motioned to Kili, and the dwarf immediately knocked in an arrow and shot the warg down. It toppled onto the ground near them with a loud cry, and the other dwarves hurriedly silenced it; Valadhiel stabbed the orc in the head. She looked around when they heard the other wargs out in the distance howl.

"Move!" Gandalf ordered as he gestured for them to hurry. "Run!"

As everyone ran after Gandalf, they looked around. "There they are!"  Gloin said, loud enough for the others to hear. They were rapidly  gaining on them and would soon catch up.

     "This way! Quickly!" Gandalf told them.

"There's more coming!" Kili shouted as they ran along.

"Kili, shoot them!" Thorin called back to his nephew.

"We're surrounded!" Fili said as he looked around them.

Valadhiel, despite her wounded shoulder, sheathed her sword then drew her bow. Once she knocked in an arrow she quickly aimed and fired at one of the wargs, and Kili shot the orc down. She then hurriedly knocked in another to be prepared for any other orcs or wargs.

"Where's Gandalf?" Fili asked quickly.

"He's abandoned us!" Dwalin growled.

"Don't be-" Valadhiel began, but then looked back when Gandalf appeared from behind another rock.

"This way, you fools!"

"Come on, move!" Thorin ordered as he motioned them along. "Quickly, all of you! Go, go, go!"

Valadhiel stayed in the back, keeping an eye out for the wargs and orcs as she also tried to make sure they had everybody. She focused on Bilbo and the younger dwarves since Gandalf no doubt was making sure that they were all there. Soon, they'd found a crack of some sort in a rock, and Gandalf was having them all jump into it.

Meanwhile, Valadhiel shot at the wargs that had now nearly caught up to them. Her heart pounded as they got closer and closer, Gandalf telling the dwarves to hurry before he began counting all of them. She glanced back when Thorin and Kili made it inside, a warg barely missing them. Now everyone but her was inside.

The elf maiden jumped out of the way when a warg bit at her, though it caught her by her right wing and ripped the canopy, causing her to cry out in pain. While she was down due to the warg, its orc rider threw a dagger into her thigh. She couldn't shift right now; the wargs were all too close, so she couldn't shift without them grabbing or killing her first.

She grabbed the dagger, pulled it out of her thigh, and threw it at the orc that had thrown it at her, stabbing it in the neck and causing it to quickly die. She then drew her sword and quickly sliced at a few of the other orcs, put her bow up in a flash, then raised a hand and threw a ball of fire at the rest of them. After they had backed off, she froze the feet of some of the orcs and wargs before she jumped into the crack, though her eyes widened when she felt an orc jump in after her.

Thorin, Kili, and Fili quickly turned in alarm, and when they noticed the orc, Kili knocked in an arrow and shot it in the head. Soon, it stopped moving, and Thorin walked over before he kneeled by the elven maid, looking her over and grimacing when he saw her battered wing and bleeding thigh. "Are you alright? Can you stand?"

"I'll be fine; I've been through much worse." Valadhiel replied as she attempted to get to her feet. She winced, however, when a stinging pain shot through her leg due to the stab wound and fell back onto her bottom.

"Let me help you. You need to keep pressure off of that leg." Thorin murmured before he scooped her into his arms bridal style. "You should have been one of the first in here."

Valadhiel's heart skipped a beat, and her cheeks reddened a little. "Thank you." She murmured in reply, then she smiled and shook her head. "No, I was the last one in because I'm the official bodyguard. It's my duty to keep all of you safe, even if it puts my own safety at risk."

Thorin glanced around at the other dwarves. They all walked along in silence, seeming to be listening in to the conversation between Valadhiel and himself. He lowered his voice further to, hopefully, keep them from hearing him. "For that, Vala, I am most grateful. But I do ask that you don't always try to be the hero. You need someone who will look out for you, too, even if you are one of the most experienced fighters among us."

Valadhiel listened to Thorin as he spoke, able to hear him perfectly fine since her hearing was as good, if not a little better, than an elf's hearing. For some reason, a tingle crawled along her spine when Thorin used such a gentle, calm, soothing tone of voice, and her heart fluttered in her chest. "Who has time to look out for me when there are already so many others to be watched and to keep safe? I can handle myself... but thank you."

Thorin stopped after a moment, once all the others had walked out onto a cliff of sorts, and looked at Valadhiel. "None of the others may have the time to look after you, but I will take the time to do so. When you became a part of this company, you became one of my people. So, like a good king does, I will always watch out for you." Despite the three races that made up her DNA, he had come to respect Valadhiel. She was a brave fighter, and she was one with honor. Not to mention that never once had she done anything that seemed disloyal; she was a very loyal woman.

Valadhiel almost couldn't believe what Thorin had told her. He'd never heard the proud dwarf speak in such a way, and she was not only elven and part skinchanger, but she was part dragon. She felt heat creep into her cheeks, and she had to suppress a shudder as she looked at the dwarf. "Thank you, Thorin." She said quietly but sincerely.

Thorin gave the elf a smile and small bow of his head before he looked forward, hearing Gandalf mention the Valley Of Imladris. He walked out onto the cliff with the others, still carrying Valadhiel, and looked out at the valley below as Bilbo whispered, "Rivendell."

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