And thus, the epic tale began! Please R&R :)

Fog from the night was beginning to settle on the mountain top as the sun began to show between the clouds. That sun, which could barely penetrate the darkness of the mountain, shone down to were two bodies lay, sprawled in the snow, obviously unaware of their surroundings. The ice on the frost-laden trees began to melt as the sun began its attack on the snow, and the valley at the base of the mountain was ambushed by a slow trickle of water from the mountain side. Even down in the valley, the fog from the mountains malignantly prevailed, shadowing it with mist and haze. The Misty Mountains loomed ahead, standing tall over the valley but still shadowed with mist. Near the top of one of the mountains, a small blue bird landed lightly on a tree, causing a slow trickle of snow to gradually slip down the mountain. The snow made its way down the slope until it landed on the nose of someone lying on the cold ground, causing the person to wake up with a start.

Emily opened her eyes to the white world around her, trying to free herself from the snow which was beginning to emboss her. As she went to shovel some snow away from her side, her hand came into contact with one of her swords.

"Why are my swords here? What happened after the missile?" she thought to herself.

Her mind was swimming with questions as she spun around to glance at Poppy, who was lying head down in the snow, her black and blue bow strapped to her back with a quiver of needle sharp arrows. Emily had almost freed herself when she felt something very hard (and most likely metal) hit her across the head, and she promptly slumped back into the snow, unconscious.

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The stench was what eventually caused Poppy to wake up. Flies buzzed through the rank air. Twisting her head to the side she caught sight of Emily propped up against the filthy stone walls amongst piles of varying junk. Swords and a collection of odd wicker baskets were filled haphazardly against the farthest wall, while the floor nearest to the low entrance of the cave was covered in gold coins. A rather stupid arrangement, she thought, as any old person could waltz in and steal the rich treasure trove. Abruptly, she heard a collection of voices approaching the entrance of the cave. Quickly, she whipped her head around and hissed at Emily;

"Em? Are you awake? There are people coming!"

Em jerked upwards with a bleary look in her eyes, "Of course I'm awake, you moron."

"There are people coming into the cave! We have to hide! Who knows who they might be?"

Hastily, Poppy swivelled around so that she could reach her boots. To her mild surprise, her boots where no longer heavy and made of stiff synthetic fabric, but consisted a supple leather and now reached her mid-calf. However, both of needle sharp daggers were in place inside said boots. With some effort she managed to unsheathe one of them, despite her bound hands. She flipped it through the air towards her friend, who was similarly bound. Quickly Emily cut the bonds securing her hands and feet, then turned to free Poppy. The voices were growing ever closer.

"Hurry up you half-wit" the brunette hissed before securing herself behind a pile of inconspicuous baskets.

Emily spun around, in order to follow her companion, but her desperate attempt to manoeuvre herself over to said inconspicuous baskets was interrupted when the sword on the right of her belt caught on a nearby rocky ledge and fell to the floor with a large clunk.

Emily whirled around to retrieve the deserting sword, but her companion shouted out at her, grabbing her from behind and pulling her behind the baskets.

"What are you doing, you fool? Someone- or something- is coming inside the cave!"

"But my sword!" the blonde whimpered, glancing forlornly at her sword, which was lying abandoned amongst the rubble and various junk littering the cave.

Em took one more despairing glimpse at her beloved sword before Poppy seized her head, pushing her into the ground so that she may be concealed by the baskets.

Em roughly shook her head to release herself from her friend's grasp. Nevertheless, much to her annoyance, she freed a few locks of hair which thus fell perceptibly onto her face.

"I swear, I am going to cut all my hair off." She hissed into the darkness, grabbing it as it floated effortlessly into her eyes.

Poppy just elbowed her, hence silencing her.

As Em was about to complain about her obtrusive hair yet again, they saw several figures entering the cave, being led by a tall man with a long grey beard. The old man walked over to near where the companions were hiding and caught sight of Emily's sword lying discarded on the ground. He appeared to call out to one of his companions who was busying himself looking through a collection of swords. Emily held her breath as the old man, laden with a very long (and tangled) beard, bent down to examine the sword. He picked it up and held it in his wrinkled hands, feeling the freshly sharpened blade of the weapon. This, evidently, was all too much for the hidden Emily to bear. Before Poppy could stop her, she drew her remaining sword from its belt and leapt from the hiding place. She stepped towards the old man and held her sword to his neck,

"I would drop that if I were you" she hissed in a threatening manner.

The old man instantly dropped her sword to the floor, but appeared to have an amused expression on his face. One of his companions, who had been looking through the swords, hurried over to where they stood and drew his sword, calling out to no doubt the rest of their company which was still at the entrance to the cave. Before the dark haired man could turn around to summon them, he was met with one of Poppy's arrows which was positioned two centimetres away from his nose. For a brief moment, piercing, ice blue eyes met quixotic blue-grey eyes before the brunette blinked awkwardly and turned her attention back to where Em was scooping her sword off the floor.

"I do hope I did not offend you, my dear Lady" the old man murmured, "For I thought this fine sword had been abandoned"

The blonde lowered her swords and gave Poppy the signal to lower her bow, both of the girls sheathing their weapons hereafter. By this time, the rest of the company had come into sight, all pushing past each other to try and get a better view of what was going on.

Emily just turned back to the old man and muttered, "Yes…okay then… well that is quite alright…I was just wondering… you know, we're just a bit confused, you know…"

"Where the hell are we? And who the hell are you?" Poppy interrupted her friend, who seemed to be lost for words.

The old man chuckled and exclaimed, "I am Gandalf the Grey, or the Wandering Wizard, you may have heard of me, and you appear to be in a troll horde"

"A troll horde?!" both the girls shouted simultaneously

"It appears so yes, as we encountered some trolls quite recently. This seems to be their cave. The real question is: why are you in here?"

"Yes" Said the dark haired man with the piercing blue eyes, stepping forwards to view them better, "I would like to know that too"

The two girls stood still, their mouths agape as they tried to reason with their whereabouts. The daunting thought finally dawned on them that they had no idea how they had come to this place.

"I woke up in the snow before" Emily began, ignoring Poppy's shocked face, "But I can't remember anything else, something knocked me out before I could get my bearings."

Gandalf narrowed his eyes in concentration and replied to them, "It seems to me, that the trolls themselves took you to their horde. I cannot imagine why though…"

"I can!" shouted a tall, bald and tattooed dwarf in a crude manner. All the other dwaves took a moment to grasp the meaning of his statement, before dissolving into sniggers.

Emily glared at him with disapproval before turning back to Gandalf, who seemed to be the only one possessing any sense so far.

"Who are you though?" she inquired, "All of you?"

"This my dear Lady, is the company of Thorin Oakenshield" gesturing to the dark haired dwarf who was still glancing at Emily with an air of disapproval. He proceeded to scowl at her and stated questionably, "Now that you know everything we are willing to tell you about us, I think we have the right to know your names."

Emily and Poppy quickly glanced at each other and decided subconsciously that they did not wish to tell this strange band of men (who outnumbered them fourteen to two) of their real names.

"My name in Leiress" Emily stated, trying to hide the guilt in her eyes as all the dwarves stared at her.

"And mine is Amavel" Poppy said, attempting to stare them all in the eye, which failed profusely

The two friends glanced at each other again, embarrassed that they had named themselves as their Skyrim characters.

"Well, Leiress, Amavel, I do believe we were meant to meet you in this cave tonight." Gandalf proclaimed mysteriously, "And I would ask you to join us"

Emily and Poppy stared at the old wizard, trying in vain to gather their thoughts. Before either of them could reply, Thorin spoke up.

"We cannot have women on our journey, Gandalf; they will slow us down and be a distraction to the rest of the men"

"Excuse me?!" Poppy shouted, surprising Emily as her usually timid friend confronted the band of men. "Are you saying we would SLOW YOU DOWN?! I'm sure Em- I meanLeiressand I could easily out run all of you! And remind me again, who was it that almost sent an arrow flying into your temple?"

She finished her exclamation by giving Thorin a furious glare, leaving him looking angry and startled but oddly amazed. Gandalf, however, was chuckling away in the corner, lighting up his pipe and smiling at the two girls.

"I am given the impression, Thorin, that these girls would be more than capable of keeping up with us, as they look extremely light on their feet. Lighter even than you perhaps"

Thorin scowled and turned to the rest of the company, looking for support. His company, however, seemed to not mind the idea of having two women travelling with them, and quickly warmed up to the suggestion, much to Thorin's annoyance.

Em laughed as she saw Poppy gloating in her victory (as she had not had her share of verbal victories in the past) and then abruptly realised that they had no idea what the purpose of this journey was.

"Ah, you are wondering of the purpose of this quest" Gandalf said to Emily's shocked face, "And I can assure you that in good time we will tell you. But for now, all you need to know it that I see that you will have a part to play in this quest yet."

Gandalf smiled at Poppy and Emily before mystifyingly returning to examine the collection of swords. "I will give you some time to think about it of course." He continued, "But we will be leaving very shortly, I warn you. I do not wish to dwell in this foul place."

Next chapter soon. Because we like cliffhangers...