Nico woke the next day in panic when someone kicked him in the side. "Get up necromancer." The bald dwarf Dwalin spat. "Pack your things, we're moving on".

"Good morning to you too." Nico wheezed out while holding his hurting side.

"Don't play smart with me boy." Dwalin said. He kicked him again for good measure and moved on without another word.

Nico made a rude gesture at the dwarf's back before he sat up. When he looked around, he saw that everyone was packing away their bedrolls and the cooking gear and was almost ready for this day's march. They hadn't even bothered to wake him when they ate breakfast, and it didn't look like there were anything left for him. His stomach growled in protest, but Nico silenced it. It would after all, not be the first time he had gone hungry. He was brought back to the time when he was 11 and lived in the dark alleys of New York. Will said that his less than heathy eating habits from that time or lack thereof, might be the reason why he hadn't hit his final growth spurt yet. The body halts its growth when it does not get the requite energy. But there was still hope, he might still get taller if Will's diagnostics were correct.

He was ripped out of his musings when something wet and slimy hit his face. He automatically went to wipe it away before he had fully registered what had happened. It's spit, his brain helpfully informed him, someone spat on you. Nico looked up to see the attacker, more shocked than angry. He had been through a lot of abuse, but nobody had ever spat on him before.

"Get a move on necromancer!" It was the red-haired dwarf. He was one of the angrier looking dwarves in the party.

"What's your problem?!" Nico yelled.

The dwarf growled at him "You're an abomination we should have killed first chance we got. I don't know why Gandalf instead on keeping you alive."

"Perhaps he would feel bad for murdering a child."

The dwarf was silence for some time before he said with contempt. "You're no child."

He spat again, this time only at the ground, and walk away.

They had been walking for hours and Nico's feet hurt, and his throat was dry as the Sahara Desert, but he was determined not to show anymore weakness to his captures. He hadn't heard anything from his dad or any of the other gods, and he still had no idea of where he was. In general, his life just sucked right now. The dwarves were however having a merry time. They were chatting away, and some were even singing! They seemed to be far more used to hiking all day than he was.

Everything was somewhat peaceful until something poked him in the heel and made him stumble. A laughter could be heard from behind him as he landed face first on the dirt road. It was two of the younger dwarves, a blond and a brown-haired with a short beard. They were both laughing but the brown-haired was holding a long walking stick he obviously used to trip Nico with, so he was the one Nico turned his glare to.

"Something's wrong with your feet necromancer?" the dwarf asked smugly.

"No. But if you do that again there might end up being something wrong with your neck." Nico growled. It was an idle threat, Nico wouldn't hurt someone just for being a jerk, but the young dwarf still turned white.

"You can't do anything to us, you're bound and watched all day." He said shakingly.

"Oh, you think this robe make me harmless?" Nico forced the shadows to grow bigger and darker around him and the greenery started to wither around him. "You don't know half of what I can do." He only meant to scare them a bit, but he could feel his hold of his powers slip. They seemed to have gotten stronger and wilder. The shadows crept closer to the two dwarves who backed away with panicked steps. It was getting colder and the warm rays of the sun seemed like a faded memory. The shadows started to move up the legs on the dwarves, and Nico could see that he had succeeded in scaring them. They were shaking and jumping around now to get rid of the snake-like shadows. The other dwarves in the back looked frightened at him to now, but some of the effect was ruined when Dwalin lifted Nico from the ground by the back of his shirt and punched him in the stomach. Nico lost all his air, and the shadows disappeared like mist for the sun in an instant.

"If you try that again I swear I'll kill you boy, you hear me?!" Dwalin shook him hard with every word so his teeth rattled. Nico just coughed and gasped to get his breath again.

"What are you doing master Dwalin?" Gandalf was hurrying down the line to see what was making all the promotion. "Put him down!"

"He was using magic to try and kill Fili and Kili!"

"Did you hear him utter a spell?"

"No, he didn't say anything."

The old wizard looked troubled. "That means he's more dangerous than we thought."

Nico could have facepalmed himself. How could he had been so stupid? It was dumb and impulsive to try and intimidate them, and now he had to try to sort out this mess before they decided he was too much of a risk too be kept alive. He really had to learn to control himself.

"I was just trying to scare them a little, so they would leave me alone." Nico muttered.

The grey wizard looked gravely at Dwalin and the other dwarves around them. "You have my permission to kill him, if he ever cast a spell again. Do you hear that boy?"

Nico nodded while he grinded his teeth. It was so tempting to just shadowtravel away from them, but he had to stay put. The gods had drop him near them for a reason. They must have or else he had a snowflakes chance in hell at finding Will!

"I would suggest you keep your mouth shut or they might mistake you for casting a spell. Do you understand me."

Nico nodded again.

Getting howled through a fight tied to an angry dwarf was not a pleasant experience. Nico would almost place it on his top ten list of bad things he had tried. The worst part was that he didn't even have a weapon to defend himself with. Why did bad things always happen to him? They had been traveling somewhat peacefully through the forest, when they walk directly into a trap. It was the creatures that was hunting the Oakenshild party, that had caught up. They were big and ugly just like the monsters at home, but these did not try to blend in with society. The first sign of an attack had been an arrow aimed right at the Dwarf leader. His quick reflexes saved him, as he jumped out of the way.

"THORIN!" The wizard yelled. So that's his name, Nico thought while looking for more danger to avoid, that only took two days to get to know.

"WE'RE UNDER ATTACK" One of the dwarves bellowed as he drew his axe. Great big monsters with malformed faces ran down hills surrounding the rode.

The dwarves and Gandalf were amazing fighters, even Dwalin who had to tuck Nico along with him. They were a lot nimbler and more acrobatic than their size would indicate. They ducked, rolled and sprang round their bigger opponents. Dwalin was raging and Nico had a hard time following him. He was wielding dual axes and slashed open more stomachs then Nico could count. The dwarf was in such a battle rage that he didn't sense the world around him. But Nico saw the big fugly guy who were aiming a flaming tree truck at them. Talk about over kill.

"We have to run right now!" He yelled to his capture.

"Coward!" the dwarf spat. "I will never run from a fight."

The fugly guy was readying his throw, and Nico had to take drastic measures.

"Arg Hades have mercy." He prayed as he tackled the dwarf into the shadow of a tree.

He was surrounded by the familiar shadows trying to ripe his face off. Ah… The comfort of shadow-traveling. It was cold as they glided trough the dark and all around them the shadows whispered to them. "Join us…. Give up… join us." Nico had learned to ignore them a long time ago, but he could feel the dwarf gripping his arm painfully in panic. It was however only a short trip and soon after they started to materialize out in the sun again. Nico barely had time to gather his bearings before a fist collided with his face and he feel to the ground.

"What the hell did you do necromancer?!" Dwalin yelled. He was barring his fist and looked ready to murder someone, most likely him.

Nico dried some blood of his face with the back of his hand. "We shadow traveled."

"Where did you take me?!"

"Look around you, dumbass. We're on the other side of the road."

The fighting was dying out, and the rest of the monsters were running away, with some of the dwarves running after then to finish them off. The road was muddy with the blood of the fallen, but none from the party seemed to be seriously injured. Bilbo was facing the last fighting enemy. He was sloppy with his attacks and it was a wonder that he even hit the creature.

Dwalin looked around and froze when he saw where they had been standing before. The burning tree truck had crushed the body of the monster he had been fighting with and its gore was splatted everywhere. Some parts of it was even hanging from the threes beside the road and forming a large pool of blood underneath it. Nico and the dwarf would have faced a similar death, had Nico not moved them in time.

"You saved me…" The dwarf slowly realized.

Nico was pinching his nose, trying to stop the blood. "Yeah sorry about that. Next time I'll think twice before doing something stupid like that. It's clearly not appreciated." He could feel his face swelling up and knew he would get a black eye. Damn the dwarves for having such big hands that they could break his nose and give him a black eye in one hit.

The dwarf frowned "You should watch your words boy. I was going to thank you."

Nico was quick to reply. "Like a verbal thank you would do me any good. If you really wanna show your gratitude, then stop aiming for the face when you hit me!" It was getting harder to breath and Nico knew he had to do something about his nose. Normally Will would be there to help him, but here he was one his own. He grabbed it with both his hands and took a deep breath. "Hey what do you think you're doing?" the dwarf asked just before Nico moved his hands to the right and yanked his nose in place again. You could hear a crunching and Nico cursed. It hurt worst to set it right again. Hot tears sprang to his eyes but breathing came easier again, so he must have done something right.

"You could have gotten somebody else to do that for you."

"I think you've done enough for my face already. I want people to be able to recognize me when I get back home."

The other man snorted at the idea of Nico ever going home again, but he did not comment on his optimism. Instead he sat down next to the young boy by the side of the road. The dwarf offered Nico his waterskin, which he took hesitatingly. He poured a little into his hand and washed his face before he drank greedily. They hadn't offered him water since morning and his head was pounding.

"Have you been able to travel like that all this time?"

Nico just shrugged mostly because every breathe still felt like fire and he knew it would hurt to talk.

"Why haven't you just left then?"

"I thought about it, but it's too much of a risk."

"Why is that?"

"It makes me tiered. I can sleep for days after longer trips, even this short one made me dizzy." Nico gazed up upon the sky. "And I am not leaving without Will."

"You don't have to stay with us to find him."

"No, but I believe it was the gods that lead us together. People you meet by coincidence normally fall in to one of two categorize where I am from. Most want to kill you or eat you, or sometimes both. But those who don't eventually end up being useful. And since you haven't killed me yet, I might as well stick around."

"So you're still here because you think we could be useful?"

"I think it was fate that made me land near you, and that you are going to bring me to Will somehow." Nico said with confidence.

"You are a strange creature." Dwalin said bewildered.

"Maybe but at least I'm not a dwarf." The man beside him didn't know how to react to the joke, so Nico moved on before he decided to be offended. "Don't you think we could remove the rope, now that you know I can leave any time I want? It doesn't really have a purpose anymore."

The dwarf stretched his beard. "I could ask Thorin, tell him what you did. But don't get your hopes up, he does not like you very much."

Nico rolled his eyes. "You don't say Sherlock"

The older man rose. "Call me Dwalin… Master Di'Angelo."

It took the dwarf half an hour to get ready to move on. They had to clean their weapons and bind their wounds and shake off the shock of battle.

"Filli, Killi." Dwalin called to two of the younger dwarves. "Look after the kid while I talk to Thorin." The older dwarf handed Nico's leash over to the blond before he even got a chance to protest. The two dwarves looked so lost Nico almost laughed. They had no idea how to handle this situation. The blond must have realized this because he puffed out his chest and tried to make himself look bigger while he gave Nico a warning. "We won't hesitate to incapacitate you if you try anything again necromancer." The way he said necromancer lacked the same bite as when the older dwarves said it, and it earned him some unwilling good points in Nico's book, but he was still on the list of people he did not like.

"Don't poke me again and we'll get along just fine."

"What is the River Sticks?" The brown-haired dwarf asked after they had been walking for a while.

"What?"

"River Sticks. You whispered it for yourself last night."

"It called Styx not sticks, and it is the river that separates the land of the living and the land of the dead."

"That seems like an odd thing to swear on."

"Not at all. It's the most binding oath you can make, in my religion anyway. You will be cursed if you break a promised you have sworn on Styx. Bad things will happen, and it will most likely end in a very painful death." Nico was so surprised they talked to him that he forgot to be angry for a minute. He would have expected them to hate him for what he did to them earlier, but it seemed that their curiosity got the better of them. They were wary of him but not fearful, which Nico had to admit actually was nice.

"And you willingly swore on this, even if it can lead to your death?"

"Nothing Styx can throw at me will be worse than not finding Will, not even death." Nico said gravely.

One of the other dwarves who clearly had been eavesdropping turned and asked skeptically.

"You would throw away your life if you can't find your friend?" It was the one with the silly hat who asked. Nico had noticed him before, since he sang the loudest when they walked. He also hadn't been one of the dwarves who spat or abused Nico. At least not yet Nico thought grimly.

"I don't plan on dying anytime soon."

"But what if you don't find him? What if he's dead?"

Nico scoffed and rolled his eyes. "Aren't you a ray of sunshine." They walk a bit in silence before Nico said "I'll find him even if he died. I'm a necromancer after all, as you're so fond of pointing out."

"You will bring him back to life!?" Kili asked with wide eyes. "You can do that?"

"No, I'm not gonna cheat the god of the dead for a soul that belongs to him." Not again anyway, I don't think dad would like that. "But I can make sure he's going to spend his afterlife somewhere nice, and then I'll join him when my time has come."

"Stop talking beast!" The angry red-headed dwarf suddenly yelled before turning to the three younger dwarves who had started the conversation. "Is your head filled with dirt?! The necromancer is not allowed to talk."

"He wasn't harming anyone." Kili protested quietly but he looked a bit ashamed of being caught doing something he wasn't supposed to do.

"He could have." The older dwarf grunted. He turned to Nico with an evil glint in his eyes. "The wizard did give us his permission to kill you if you spoke again."

"That's not what he said!" Nico shouted outraged. "It was only if I did magic or some shit like that!"

"Which you can do when you speak!" The dwarf shouted back while gripping his axe. He had completely missed the point of the wizard's warning, and Nico couldn't figure out if it was on purpose or if this man was just very stupid.

"Hold your fire master dwarf." Gandalf said as he came over to them with Dwalin and Thorin in tow. "The boy owns us an explanation first."

AN: Uhh cliffhanger. What do you think will happen next? Don't worry you will not have to wait for long before the next chapter is out. I'm sent home from my school and internship, so I don't have that much to do beside writing. I have started a new story call "The demon" it's an AU starring Nico and Will (of course they are my OTP). Give it a try if you feel like it :)

Please tell me is you think I write anyone too OOC. I'll try to fix it if I do.

Please take care everyone!