About twenty minutes later, Sepha knew something was wrong so she quietly crept through the woods. She soon found the troll camp and saw that half the dwarves, including Bilbo were in sacks in a pile and the others were on a spit. They were all shouting things and the three trolls were trying to stoke the fire.

Sepha sighed and watched the scene from her spot in the trees. She looked over at the dwarves to see Fili and Kili were twisted about and in uncomfortable positions. She saw Fili look her way and she smiled. The dwarf's face lit up and she saw him turn and whisper something to Kili and THorin, probably alerting them to her presence. Right then, the other two looked in her direction and Kili's face lit up. However, THorin just seemed relieved.

Sepha put a finger to her lips to indicate silence and slipped off. When she was out of sight, she quickly closed her eyes and things began to change. Her hair rippled down in long purple and pink waves before it suddenly changed to a deep brown rustic coat and her eyes turned violet... she was a wolf.

THorin, Fili and Kili were beginning to wonder where Sepha disappeared to when they heard undergrowth breaking loudly nearby. Everyone, including the trolls turned just as a massive beast tore from the tears with a loud growl. The creature rammed right into one of the trolls, sending it flying backwards into the trees. It turned on it's haunches and bit into the lower calf of another troll, getting a loud groan.

The beast pushed the second troll over and stopped long enough for the dwarves to see that what was before them was a massive wolf, probably the size of a warg!

The wolf hurled itself at the largest troll and went for the head but that troll had a knife and struck at the beast's side but it narrowly escaped. Of course, Sepha didn't fail to hear all the dwarves gasp when the sword almost struck her.

She jumped down and the troll kicked her hard, sending her flying into the trees when suddenly Gandalf's voice rang loud and Sepha slipped off unnoticed and transformed back to human. When she came tearing back through the woods, the dwarves were untying themselves and pulling their clothes back on over their underwear.

Sepha shielded her eyes till they were done and Fili practically squeezed the life out of here, "Where have you been?"

"Getting a friend," Sepha replied.

"That wolf is your friend?" Kili gasped.

Sepha shrugged, "I'm very friendly!"

The two seemed to believe her and soon Sepha was called over by Gandalf. He, Thorin, Dwalin, Bofur, Gloin and Nori were going to inspect the troll hoard. As they headed down, Sepha drew up her mask to keep out the horrible stench and began to look around.

Soon, Thorin came upon a few elven swords. "These swords were not made by any troll," he muttered.

As he and Gandalf inspected the swords, she wandered over and took up two small blades that matched.

"Nor were they made by any smith among men," Gandalf pointed out. "These were forged in Gondolin by the high elves of the first age."

THorin went to put the sword back in disgust but Gandalf stopped him, "You could not wish for a finer blade."

THorin decided to give it a try and began to inspect the rather magnificent blade. Sepha went through the knives and finding a few small elven daggers she stuck them into her boot and put the two larger blades at her belt.

She soon left, not without Thorin noticing and following close behind, "Let's get out of this fowl place."

"SOMTHING"S COMING!"

When the brown wizard came surging through the undergrowth with his giant rabbits, Persephone relaxed and lowered her two swords, a huge grin spreading across her face.

"Radagast," Gandalf remarked. "Radagast the brown. What on earth are you doing here?"

"I was looking for you Gandalf," the wizard replied. "Something's wrong. Something's terribly wrong."

"Yes?" Gandalf pushed.

As the two spoke, Persephone slipped her swords back into her sheaths and just as she did, she was practically overrun with a dozen rabbits, all trying to bring her down. The dwarves all made moves to help her but her laughter caused them to stop.

"Seems they've missed you Sepha dear," Radagast said before heading after Gandalf to talk privately.

Sepha chuckled as she sat down, allowing all the rabbits to surround her, "I've missed you guys too."

The rabbits all clamored to get into her lap but Sepha was only able to hold three at a time for they were rather large rabbits. Soon, she became aware of a presence near her and turned to see Fili and Kili kneeling down in front of her, their eyes wide.

"Roscabel rabbits," Sepha told them. "Absolutely love people."

Fili's face lit up as he carefully too a rabbit into his arms and it allowed him to stroke it's long ears. Sepha grabbed a rabbit and placed it in Kili's arms. The young dwarf's eyes widened before he grinned.

What the three didn't know was that thorin was watching the whole thing from across the glade where he stood with Dwalin and Balin. The two brothers were talking to each other about the stranger brown wizard but THorin was occupied watching his nephews and the female wizard. He saw Sepha hold out another rabbit and place it on Fili's head, gaining a laugh from both the girl and Kili.

Thorin found himself smiling and he didn't realize he was staring, nor did he notice that Dwalin and Balin were watching him with smug looks until he turned to see both of them grinning.

"What?"

"You were staring laddie," Balin pointed out.

THorin frowned, "No I wasn't. I was just checking on Fili and Kili."

Dwalin snorted, "Right. Then can you explain why you are always 'checking on them' when Sepha is around them? Oh and one more thing, your whole heart practically shines in your eyes when you look at her, so don't think we don't notice."

Thorin was about to protest when suddenly a howl hit the air. The rabbits all clamored closer to Sepha who looked up instantly at the sound.

"Was that a wolf?" Bilbo asked. "Are there wolves out there?"

Sepha got up from her feet and drew her bow, knowing full well that it wasn't wolves.

"No that's not a wolf," Bofur told the hobbit.

Just then, a massive warg came bounding down through the trees but it didn't get far before an arrow pierced it's upper flank, causing it to stumble and THorin finished it off. Another warg pounced at the dwarf prince from behind but three arrows buried themselves into it's hide. All eyes turned to see Sepha standing there with a calm look on her face. Four of her arrows were gone.

"That was wicked!" Kili whispered to her in awe.

"Warg scouts!" THorin cried, removing his sword from the beast. "Which means an orc pack is not far behind."

Sepha rolled her eyes, "Duh!"

"orc pack?" Bilbo asked.

"Who did you tell about your quest beyond your kin?" Gandalf insisted.

"No one," THorin replied defensively.

"Who did you tell?"

"No one I swear!" the dwarf replied. "What in Durin's name is going on?"

"You're being hunted," Gandalf replied.

Sepha at once tensed. She knew full well who was hunting them but she was too conflicted to say anything aloud.

"We need to get out of here," Dwalin spat.

Ori came rushing back, "We can't! We have no ponies! They bolted.'

"I'll draw them off," Radagast said, answering Gandalf's prayers.

"I'll help," Sepha replied.

Gandalf turned to her, "These are wargs Persephone! They will outrun you!"

Sepha smirked, "Since when has a warg ever outrun a faerie? I'll go with Radagast. My scent will draw them away."

"your scent?" Kili asked. "What, do they like female dwarves or something?"

Sepha glowered at him and Kili decided it was time to not push his luck.

Gandalf approached the girl and looked down into her eyes, "Be careful."

"When am I never?" she inquired.

Gandalf crossed his arms and Sepha smirked, "Don't feel obliged to answer that!"

TIME SKIP

Sepha knew they had failed. One of the wargs had caught the dwarves' scent and the rest of the pack had gone after the dwarves. Radagast, at Sepha's command, had dropped her off near the company who were surrounded by the Rivendell pass.

"Okay, here goes nothing," Sepha sighed.

She saw a warg creep up on THorin who was guarding the pass as each of the dwarves slid down. Just as the warg was upon him, the dwarf prince turned to kill it but the beast was already dead. THorin's blue eyes lifted in time to see Sepha across the field from him, her bow up and her arrow buried in the beast's chest.

She nodded at him but didn't rush over to join the rest of the company. Instead, she drew both her swords and charged at the orcs who were getting closer and closer to the dwarves. Soon, she saw that THorin was the last one to go in.

"Persephone!" he yelled.

The girl turned at his voice but that was a mistake. An orc arrow shot out and buried itself in her shoulder. Letting out a scream of pain, Sepha crumbled to her knees.

"NO!" she heard Thorin yell.

Sepha stumbled to her feet, yanking the arrow out of her shoulder. She whimpered at the pain but fought it, "GO NOW!"

Thorin was about to object but Sepha grabbed her bow and pulled back an arrow. her shoulder screamed in pain at the movement but she ignored it. She aimed the arrow at Thorin, warning him that she wasn't asking him.

Thorin looked at her a moment before she heard Gandalf's voice call, telling the dwarf to obey. Thorin gave her one more look before jumping in.

Persephone swung the bow around and shot the orc who had just laid an arrow in her. She knew that her human self would loose blood faster than her wolf self so she quickly morphed and growled at the beasts in anger. The orcs looked surprised but the wargs growled back. Just when she felt like she was done in, she heard an all too familiar horn.

Soon, she was surrounded by elven horsemen, all calling out to her.

"Sepha, are you alright?"

"What happened?"

Elrond hopped down from his horse and approached her. she had fallen down onto the ground in pain and was writhing there. The elf laid a hand on her snout and shushed her.

"I'll fix this, but you have to morph back to human," he whispered.

Persephone nodded and quickly morphed, glad that her clothes never ripped when she morphed. Elrond hovered a hand over her injured shoulder and began to speak in elvish. He called for Efalas and another elf brought it. Soon the pain in her shoulder was gone and now it was just sore.

"Let's get you to Rivendell," Elrond instructed, helping her to her feet.

Lord Elrond gave her a boost onto the back of a horse behind another elf. Persephone wrapped her arms around the elf's waist and relaxed.

"We'll be there soon Sepha," The elf, Valarin, promised.

Sepha nodded and laid her head on his back, glad to know that the pain in her shoulder would soon be gone. However, she couldn't get THorin's horrified shout and look of horror on his face out of her head.