~~~~~~~<>~<3~<>~~~~~~~

"Blimey!" Tom exclaimed, backing up a step.

The dwarves, as well as Bilbo, all stared at the beast with wide eyes. She was a dragon? How was this possible? What new devilry was this? How was this skin-changing elf also a dragon?

"Grab 'er!" Bert ordered, even though he himself had taken a small step back.

Tom went to grab her since Bert had ordered him to, but when he reached out to grab the dragon by the neck, his hands were met with a stream of fire. He moved his hands back, only to give a cry of pain when the flames were blown into his face. He stumbled back as he clutched the side of his face, shrieking in pain.

Bilbo, despite still being tied up, managed to back away towards the dwarves to avoid the feet of the trolls and the dragon. Or, was she an elf? A skinchanger? What was she?

Valadhiel, when William tried to grab her, whirled around and sunk her fangs into the arm of the troll, and she clenched her teeth to keep the troll from being able to jerk free, blood spilling from his wound and across her teeth. She didn't let go until the troll began to pound on her head with his fist, and when she did, blood dripped from her fangs. She glared at the trolls with fiery eyes before she spat out an angry hiss, blood spraying when she did so.

"You think you can take us all on?" Bert scoffed, even though he had yet to actually come up and try to attack the dragon.

"The dawn will take you all!" An all-too-familiar voice came from the side. There, at the top of a large boulder, stood Gandalf.

"Who's that?" Bert asked.

"No idea." Tom said.

"Can we eat 'im, too?" William asked after Tom spoke.

Gandalf struck the rock with his staff, splitting it so that it was broken in half, and daylight streamed into the clearing. The three ugly trolls stood still after trying to clumsily run away, becoming stone almost instantly.

Valadhiel looked at all of the trolls, then she licked her fangs clean before she grimaced. "I hate trolls..." She muttered, flicking one with her tail before she walked away from them. She looked over when Gandalf climbed onto her back to get off the rock, then she lowered her head to allow him onto the ground.

"You have revealed to them that you are also a dragon?" Gandalf questioned as he untied Thorin, then he went about untying Bilbo, then the others. Thorin untied his nephews after untying Balin, and Bilbo went about untying Ori, Oin, Gloin, and so on.

"It wasn't my intention." Valadhiel replied before heaving a sigh. She looked at the dwarves and hobbit once they were all untied, realizing they were staring in a mixture of anger, fear, and shock.

"You're not only elf and skinchanger, but you're a dragon?" Thorin questioned her, giving her a look that was almost a glare, but not quite.

Valadhiel flattened her ears back a little, though not in anger; it was rather fear. She looked at Thorin after having glanced away before she spoke. "Yes. I am sorry that I didn't tell you before, but I'm sure you understand why I kept it hidden."

Thorin looked her over. Her scales were purple like amethysts, and they sparkled in the sunlight. Her blue wings glittered in the light as well, and her eyes- they seemed to be yellow and blue, though the colors were mixed in such a way to make it look beautiful in the most stunning way. He could tell just by looking into those eyes that she meant them no harm. "I understand, and I trust you." He finally said.

And he meant it. He did trust her, as she had proven herself trustworthy time and again. Yes, she kept the fact she was a dragon hidden, but she was wise in doing so. Besides, if she wanted to harm them, she could have easily done so by now. And, with Bilbo's help, she had stalled the trolls and saved their skins. He turned to Gandalf, who was looking at the stone trolls. "Where did you go, if may I ask?"

Valadhiel smiled at Thorin after he spoke, then she bowed her head to him respectfully. "Thank you, Master Thorin. I won't do anything to lose that trust." She promised him, then, when he turned his attention to Gandalf, she lifted her head and stretched out her wings. She winced after she did, however, due to the fact that she was still injured.

"Now that we've found out your biggest secret, is there anything else you want to tell us, lass?" Bofur asked, crossing his arms as he looked at her. He wasn't even sure how to feel right now.

"Somehow, I am a dragon, an elf, and a skinchanger, even though my parents were both dragons." Valadhiel replied, looking at Bofur before she glanced away. "There is nothing more to tell. Not unless you expect me to share painful stories of the past simply so you know every little detail about me."

"The trolls were actually right about you being a lizard, it seems." Fili commented, raising an eyebrow. Was he sure he wasn't dreaming? Maybe the trolls were sitting on them right now and they were out of it due to lack of air.

"Dragon." Valadhiel quickly responded. "I don't do the tongue thing."

"So, you're a dragon." Dwalin commented, crossing his arms as he stared at her with narrow eyes. "You keep such a thing hidden, and you expect us to trust you?"

"No, I don't expect you to." Valadhiel replied, looking down with a sigh. "But, I could have shifted into a dragon, flown away, and left you to the trolls, I may point out."

"She's right." Kili said with a light shrug. "She could have left us for dead, but she didn't. I think we can trust her."

"So do I!" Ori added, smiling up at the dragoness.

"Don't be so naive, Ori." Dori scolded, scowling at the dragon. "We barely know her, and now she's revealed to us that she's a dragon. Dragons are not to be trusted. Any dwarf would know this. Don't you remember the entire reason we no longer dwell in Erebor's Halls?"

"If Thorin trusts her, then shouldn't we?" Bilbo spoke up, walking over to Valadhiel despite the shock of finding out what she was. He trusted her. She did save his life, after all.

"What would a halfling know? Your kind stays home and does nothing." Dwalin snapped.

Valadhiel narrowed her eyes on Dwalin. "For your information, Bilbo isn't the only hobbit to go out into the wild on an adventure, thank you very much. And Bilbo is far more observant than you lot, considering he was the one who overheard the trolls mention turning to stone, came up with the plan to distract the trolls until sunrise, and he was the one to keep making things up to protect your stubborn hides."

"Who was asking you, lizard?" Nori spat out, crossing his arms.

"Not lizard, Nori; she doesn't do the tongue thing, remember?" Bifur said mockingly.

"I knew we couldn't trust this mongrel." Gloin murmured, then he looked at Oin in shock when he heard what he said.

"I agree with Bilbo, Kili, Ori, and Thorin. She can be trusted." Oin said.

Valadhiel looked away, her ears drooping, when she was called a mongrel. She soon shifted back into elven form, though she she kept her wings; they were simply smaller in her elven form, and red rather than blue. Their shape was also different, allowing her to fold them in. Her clothes reappeared, as did her satchel, and all else she carried. She then walked over to grab her weapons, which the trolls had taken, then she walked off to get away from them.

"Just watch. You'll see. She can't be trusted." Dwalin muttered harshly.

"But wouldn't she have killed us by now if that truly was her intention?" Kili asked, trying to get them to see reason.

"Unless her goal is for us to lead her to The Lonely Mountain so that, after Smaug is gone, she can claim the treasure for herself." Nori replied.

Fili frowned when most of the others kept saying that Valadhiel couldn't be trusted, and he was about to speak up in defense of her before he heard his uncle speak harshly.

"That's enough." Thorin, who had overheard some of the conversation, said sharply after Valadhiel walked away. "Shut up and follow me." He then added before he followed Gandalf into a troll hoard. He didn't blame Valadhiel for keeping such a thing hidden, and already she had proven her loyalty. He trusted her, and so should the others. Besides, it had been Gandalf's idea to bring her with them. As she'd mentioned before, Gandalf always knew what he was doing. In fact, the old wizard seemed to always be many steps ahead of them.

Valadhiel had sat down on a rock and began cleaning her sword, then looked up when she heard Thorin defend her. Her heart fluttered in her chest, then she furrowed her brow before she continued cleaning her sword. She looked up again when Bilbo walked over to her.

Bilbo took a seat next to her for the time being, and he was quiet a moment before he spoke up. "What does Valadhiel mean? I know that it is elvish, I'm just... I'm just not sure of the meaning."

Valadhiel glanced at him, then she looked at her reflection in her now clean sword, looking at her eyes, her scars, and her wings before she sighed. "It means... angelic; though I don't find it very fitting."

Bilbo looked at her when she finished speaking, and he furrowed his brow. "Well, that's nonsense. It certainly fits; you have the beauty of an angel." He then paused before he added, "I- uh, I don't mean that in... in a romantic sort of way, by the way. I was just stating a fact."

Valadhiel smiled in amusement and looked at Bilbo after she sheathed her sword. "I know. And thank you, Bilbo." She replied, then she looked around. "Now, where have the others gone off to?"

"Thorin said something about a troll hoard." Bilbo replied after having smiled and nodded at her, standing up as he looked around. He then found the little cave and began walking that way, curious as to what they were looking at in there. Did trolls even keep anything of any value? "Are you coming?" He then asked when Valadhiel didn't budge.

Valadhiel got to her feet after Bilbo spoke before she nodded. "Yes, I'll be there in a minute. There's something I need to do first. But you go on ahead and I will be back soon." Once Bilbo had nodded and walked into the troll hoard, Valadhiel shifted into her large leopard form and took off into the forest.

She sensed that someone was nearby, though she knew that whoever it was wasn't anyone dangerous. She reached out with her senses, then furrowed her brow. She already knew whoever it was had something urgent on his mind, though whoever this was seemed to be rather scatterbrained.

Valadhiel paused after a moment, looking around and swiveling her ears. Which way now? After a moment, she turned right and began running once more. She curled her feline lips into a smile after a moment. She had a feeling she knew who this was, but why would he be out here? Perhaps he was searching for Gandalf.

The silver leopard paused once more and sniffed the air, furrowed her brow, then took off once more. She'd thought that she had smelled something familiar, and a brief warning flashed through her mind, but it was gone as soon as it had come. Perhaps her paranoia about any dangerous animals in these parts was playing tricks on her senses.

She soon heard the sound of many thumping feet, and she heard something larger along with the thumping feet. She leaped ahead and stopped when she came across a sleigh drawn by rabbits, and she smiled when she saw who was in the sleigh. "Radagast."

~<3~<3~<3~

"Where's Vala?" Gandalf asked Bilbo when he walked into the troll hoard, looking over at the hobbit curiously.

"Last I saw her she was right out there, sitting on that rock, but she said she needed to do something." Bilbo replied, taking his gaze off of the sword that Gandalf had just handed him. Never before had he ever thought that he, a hobbit, would ever have need of one of these! "She said she would be back soon, but that was a little while ago."

Gandalf looked concerned for a moment, and he then looked around for the skin-changing, elvish dragoness, but he saw her nowhere. It wasn't like her to just run off. Well, he supposed it was like her at times.

"You don't think she would have run off, do you?" Bilbo asked, then looked at Dwalin when he butted into the conversation.

"Of course she would have. She's a dragon! Dragons aren't to be trusted." He growled, shaking his head in annoyance. A few of the other dwarves murmured amongst themselves in khuzdul, as well as voiced their concerns and complaints to Dwalin.

"Someone's coming!" Thorin shouted to the others. He'd overheard Bilbo and Gandalf, so had been about to search for Valadhiel, and he was now standing in the forest. That was when he'd heard someone coming their way.

Gandalf had given the dwarves a look, then he looked over at Thorin when he shouted the warning to them before he spoke. "Stay together! Hurry now; arm yourselves!"

Shortly after they had gathered around the area of the forest, all of them together, an older looking man with a beard and pointed hat on a sleigh of sorts pulled by rabbits burst out of the forest. "Thieves! Fire! Murder!"

A silver leopard leaped forward, in front of the bearded man and his rabbits. "It's just Radagast and I! Sorry for the alarm." She quickly said, looking back at Radagast for a moment.

While Gandalf and Radagast spoke, Kili looked at Valadhiel and walked over to the tall leopard. Even in her leopard form she was a little taller than he was, which he found completely amazing yet unfair. "Where were you?" He quietly asked her, keeping his voice lowered so the two wizards could talk.

"I sensed that Radagast was nearby, and I sensed that he had something extremely urgent on his mind." Valadhiel replied, looking over at Kili after he asked her the question. She seemed pretty out of breath, and her wound was beginning to look a little worse than it had before. "So I went to go get him and bring him here, though, he already seemed to know that Gandalf was near."

Bilbo made a face when Gandalf pulled a stick insect out of Radagast's mouth. "I would say Gandalf is the greater wizard in comparison." He commented.

Valadhiel looked at Bilbo, then she chuckled a little. "He's just scatterbrained, and he doesn't have much human company. That doesn't mean that he is not a great wizard, however." She told Bilbo before she walked over to the two wizards. "Radagast, do you need help remembering?"

"That would be helpful, my dear dragoness." Radagast replied after he looked over at her. He was so scatterbrained anymore- it was getting to be pretty bad. Many thought of him as crazy or even foolish nowadays.

"One moment." Valadhiel said, then she began transforming into her dragon self once more. The dwarves cringed and shuddered as her bones popped out of place to form a new structure. Once she finished, the purple dragon lowered her head and looked Radagast in the eye. Once he locked eyes with her, her eyes began to shine in a yellow and blue swirling light.

~~~~~~~<>~<3~<>~~~~~~~