I do not own the Hobbit nor LOTR.

Everyone lives. The story begins shortly after the War of the Ring. Sauron is defeated and the people of Middle Earth finally have peace. Or not? The dwarves of Erebor have fought the armies of Sauron in the north and claim their share of prisoners of war, mostly Easterlings and Southerns, to work in their mines. One of the prisoners will change King Thorins life forever.

A long line of chained prisoners of war marched towards the Lonely Mountain. The Easterlings and Southerns were chained at their feet, hands and necks, an escape was futile. The dwarves of Erebor as well as the men of Dale had suffered great loses under the attacks of the Easterlings under Saurons command and the prisoners were to spend to rest of their lives in the mines of Erebor, labouring without ever seeing the sunlight again. King Elessar had tried to talk King Thorin into forgiving the men of the East and South and to gain new diplomatical bonds through strong alliances, but the King of the dwarves had no interest in doing so. His heart had hardened in the past years of war. None of his prisoners could expect any mercy.

As the prisoners arrived at Erebor, they had to undergo an inspection led by King Thorin himself. The healthy prisoners were sent to the mines, the weak and old prisoners would spend their lives as slaves to the royal household. Some of the Easterlings were still wearing their armour and helmets. Thorin could only see their eyes, framed by coal lines. They did not look the dwarf king in the eye, most of them were already broken and had surrendered to their fate.

'Weak. Weak and poor-spirited.' Thorin thought in disgust. He walked the line of former warriors until he stopped in front of a smaller Easterling who staggered under the weight of the chains. That Easterling was only about six inches taller than Thorin and very petite. As Thorin stepped closer the Easterling looked up and looked right into Thorins eyes. The dwarf king was surprised. In these eyes he could see fighting spirit and fire. The Easterling did not turn away from Thorins gaze. On the contrary he stood up straight and continued staring back into Thorins deep blue eyes. Thorin took a closer look at the prisoner. His eyes were dark brown, like most of the Easterlings, but something was different. The eyelashes were longer than usual and the coal frame gave the eyes something mysterious.

'Take off his helmet.' Thorin ordered the guard standing behind the Easterling.

As the dwarf guard reached out for the Easterlings helmet he started struggling and tried to move back. The dwarf guard gave him a strong kick in the back of his knee and the Easterling fell to his knees. As the helmet was removed long streaks of straight black hair fell over the Easterlings shoulders and covered his face.

'I want to see his face.' Thorin growled and watched the dwarven guard grab the Easterlings hair and pulling back his head to make him face the dwarf king.

A loud whisper went through the line of prisoners and Thorin could not believe his eyes. The Easterling kneeling in front of him was no man, it was a young woman. He had not known that the Easterlings had been so desperate that they had sent their women into battle. But according to the angry fizzling of the other Easterling they were as surprised as Thorin was. The Easterling standing beside the kneeling woman spit on the ground in front of her and earned an angry growling from her. Thorin could not understand their language, but from the tone of her voice he could guess that the woman had said nothing nice.

'Enough!' he roared. 'Bring these prisoners into the mines.' As he saw the dwarf guard grab the woman he intervened. 'Not that one. A woman does not belong into the mines. Bring her to my sister.'

The woman was separated from the others and followed the dwarf guard. Before she turned around she glanced at Thorin one last time. Her look was full of hatred and arrogance.