The whole mountain was in uproar.

It was Thorin who'd raised the alarm, who'd roared down to the courtyard below that that booming... It had been a dragon.

Now Arien shoved through the fleeing, panicking dwarves, moving as fast as she could towards the barracks. She'd lost Dwalin in the crowd.

Where was Thorin? Where was he?

She pushed further through the crowd, ducking between two dwarf women. He wasn't there, he wasn't there.

"Thorin," she gasped out.

And then strong hands were gripping her shoulder, her waist, pulling her against the wall, away from the crowd.

"I'm here," Thorin whispered in her ear. "It's all right."

He let her stay pressed against him, let her calm her breathing and her racing heart. When she pulled back and faced him, he gripped her shoulder.

"Arien," he said, but though his voice was steady, his hands –– they trembled slightly. "You are going to get anything you need from your room, and then you are going to get yourself out. Do you understand me?"

There was nothing she needed from her room, Anglachel was already strapped to her back, but...

"What about you?"

"I need to hear you say you will do it."

"Yes. I will do it. But what about you?"

He swallowed. "It is my duty to lead the King's Guard. To make a stand against the dragon."

"No," Arien whispered. Then she breathed "You plan to meet the dragon head on."

He nodded. "Yes."

"You'll stand no chance; you'll be killed. All of you."

"It's our only chance. And it is my duty, Arien."

"Please," she gasped, gripping his arm. "You will be burned. I cannot... I cannot live without you."

"Arien," he said, brushing a strand of her hair out of her face. "I will come back to you. I swear it. On my life, on your life. I will come back to you. I will always find you. But I could not bear it if you died. So I am ordering you to get out."

"Please."

"Go, Arien. For me."

She could deny him nothing. Not when he looked so desperate, so pleading, his eyes full of such fear and dread and stark terror. Not for himself, but for her. Not when he gripped her shoulder and met her gaze and the full intensity of that terror, of the fear in his burning heart for her and for his people hit her, and he said

"Please, Arien. I can't lose you as well."

So she swallowed hard, and nodded. Agreed to flee for the third time in her life. To leave her loved ones to fight while she ran to safety.

But every time she had fallen Thorin had caught her.

First, when her despair and grief had threatened to tip her over the edge, and second, when her guilt at not choosing Rivendell had begun to consume her. She had to trust him. Because if she could not trust Thorin, then she could trust no one. And she didn'the want to think about where that left her.

So she kissed him, a swift brush of their lips, and begun to run. Toward the gate, away from him.

Toward the main gate of Erebor.

And safety.