AN - Thank you to I 3filikili for answering my question.
Sci-Fy-Fanatic: I don't really know how to pronounce Djevelen's name, I was just fooling around with names on Google Translate that looked cool and I liked the way it looked so, Djevelen the dog became. P.S. – Thanks for your patience.
Chapter 3
The dwarves were not kept in suspense of what Djevelen had smelt. Almost as soon as they noticed the dog's behavior, a howl was carried to them on the wind. The howl itself seemed to fill the hearts of the listeners with despair and horror. Even Bilbo, who had never heard a warg before, knew that nothing good would come of meeting with the animal capable of making that sound.
"Was that a wolf?" He asked, hoping that he was right. Compared to the monsters that his mind had come up with, a wolf would have been welcome.
Before the hobbit could be given an answer, a warg came leaping down the hill in the distance. "We've got to get out of here," Thorin cried to the company.
Fili came back from going to get the ponies. Empty handed. "The ponies bolted." The despair that had been filling the company grew infinitely.
Gandalf, all too often the bearer of bad news, told the group a bit of news that none wanted to hear. "Thorin, you do realize that there's going to be a group of orcs with these?"
"Yes," Thorin said impatiently. "I know that. But there's not much to be done. Except go down fighting. Men, get ready."
"I can draw them off," Radagast volunteered.
"Those are wargs," Dwalin said, his tone suggesting that Radagast had taken leave of his senses. "They'll run you down in no time."
Radagast looked offended. "These are Ruskabel rabbits. I'd like to see them try." With that, the wizard took off, calling to his rabbits.
"Wait for a moment," Gandalf held the dwarves back, giving Radagast time to draw the orcs and wargs away. For a few minutes, the dwarves and Bilbo held so still that any passing would have mistaken them for statues. None dared even to breathe for fear of attracting the attention of the orcs or their mounts.
"Go now," Gandalf told them, pointing towards the outcropping of rock that would provide them shelter from their pursuers. The fourteen plus Ibenholt and Djevelen made their way quickly across the open plains, the adrenaline rush that follows finding out that you're being chased by a pack of angry wargs and orcs aiding their flight.
"Fat lot of help those witch animals are," Dwalin puffed to the others.
"I'm sure that they'll help us," Kili defended them. "When they can."
"Don't waste your breath," Thorin commanded the talking dwarves. "Obviously, we're on our own."
"At this moment," Kili refused to give up on Ibenholt, his new best friend. The dwarves paused behind another rock, barely avoiding getting caught by the orcs.
"The least she could do is show up to see us get killed," Thorin mumbled bitterly to Gandalf.
"Don't give up hope just yet, Thorin," the wizard told the dwarf. Gandalf had been having similar thoughts only moments before, but he had started picking up on certain signs from Soleil's "witch" animals, as Dwalin had so kindly described them. Djevelen had kept looking to the east, which was neither the direction that the orcs were coming from nor the direction that the dwarves were headed in, and his tail had even wagged a few times. "I think that you may be surprised."
A nasally voice chimed in, "Oh, you'll be surprised all right." The company looked up to see the ugly faces of a warg and its rider peering over the rock that they were hiding behind.
Even as Kili let out a surprised yelp, he strung and shot an arrow at the huge warg. It fell off the rock, his rider leaping clear and landing with his sword drawn; ready to attack. Then, he fell over, a black shafted arrow sticking out his back.
Thorin looked up and saw a black horse with a caped rider in the distance. Already she, for Thorin knew it was Soleil, was in the process of taking down another pair of warg and orc. When he turned back, Gloin was taking his axe out of the warg's body, having finished it off. Unfortunately, a dying warg a loud racket in protesting the end of life. The noise caused by the now dead warg alerted the others to the location of Thorin and company.
"Run," Gandalf yelled before taking off across the plains no longer bothering with trying to stay hidden. Radagast was forgotten and the entire warg pack turned to get the dwarves. Even though dwarves are very fast sprinters and can move quickly over short distances, the wargs were better suited to a prolonged chase. Also, the wargs had had full nights of sleep and hadn't been in a fight with trolls that morning. In other words, the dwarves were rapidly losing ground.
From the east, Soleil was urging her horse to greater speeds as the pair made their way to the dwarves. While moving, she shot a few more orcs and wargs. Her aim was never off and many feel to her black arrows. Soon, she drew up alongside the dwarves, slowing her mount down to a steady canter.
"I can't even leave you for under twenty-four hours and you get into trouble." She looked back. "A whole warg pack. Really? You have powerful enemies."
"You think I didn't realize that," Thorin asked, none too politely. "And where were you? I thought that you were supposed to be protecting me."
"I had things to attend to. I can't drop everything because you decided to go on a quest," she snapped. Turning back, she shot a riderless warg. Two more tripped on the still moving carcass. When Thorin looked ahead, he noticed that Gandalf had disappeared. He wasn't the only one either. Several of the dwarves no longer saw the wizard and were all commenting on the fact.
When he turned back, Soleil had already pulled her horse away, and moved into a position behind the dwarves. She had drawn a sword from its sheath on her side. Her mount had slowed down to a trot, though it was still keeping pace easily with the last dwarf in line, which happened to be Ori. Even as Thorin noticed Ori struggling to keep up with them, a warg was preparing to leap on the young dwarf. Thorin yelled a warning to Ori, but he knew even then that it was too late. Yet, as Ori turned around, Soleil had spurred her horse forward and managed to slice into the warg's thick neck, killing it instantly.
At this moment, Gandalf appeared from seemingly nowhere and called the dwarves to come with him. When they arrived to where he was standing, they found that Gandalf had uncovered a passageway beneath one of the piles of rock. Thorin made sure that all of his company got under before he slid down himself, he had to physically push Kili down the edge. Before going himself, he turned and saw that Soleil was now in hand to hand combat with an orc, her horse nipping at the warg with its dull teeth then nimbly dancing out of the way when it tried to retaliate.
"Thorin," Balin called, "get down here. I'm sure that she can take care of herself."
The last thing the dwarf king saw before sliding down was Djevelen and Ibenholt leaping at a warg. For some reason, he wasn't surprised that the only time that they were really helping was when Soleil had showed up. A horn sounded, pulling him from his thoughts and soon following the sound, a dead orc fell down the entrance way, a white arrow with blue feathers sticking out of its throat.
"Elves," Thorin said, inspecting the arrow. The group moved farther back to where Dwalin had found a passageway in the back.
"Should we go," Fili asked, gesturing in the direction of the narrow corridor. Thorin only nodded.
"What about Soleil," Kili protested. "And Ibenholt and Djevelen. We can't just leave them behind."
"She'll be fine," Gandalf told the young dwarf. "I'm sure that she knows how to take care of herself. We must move forward." So saying, the wizard took the lead. The narrow corridor went on for about ten minutes before finally ending to reveal a beautiful area with waterfalls and an Elvin palace.
"Welcome to Rivendell," Gandalf told the group. Bilbo's jaw had dropped looking around at the amazing place, and even some of the dwarves had shock written on their faces. Thorin glared angrily at Gandalf, willing to bet that Gandalf had known exactly where the passage came out at. Gandalf took the lead.
"This will require no small amount of tact, and charm," Gandalf told Thorin and the rest of the company. "Which is why, you will leave the talking to me." (I couldn't remember exactly what he said, but this line was just so Gandalf that I needed to put it in. I always loved the part in LOTR where he told Pippin not to talk and was laughing so hard during the Hobbit when he said basically the same thing to Thorin.) Thorin growled a response that no one could quite understand; Fili and Kili decided that it was probably better that way.
As they approached the stairs that would lead them into the main area of the Elvin palace, a beautiful creature came down to meet him. Bilbo wasn't sure if the being actually walked or if he had floated down the stairs, the figure had moved so gracefully. In the most common language of the elves, Gandalf greeted the being, before asking something.
"Lord Elrond is not here," Lindir answered, Gandalf's inquiry.
"Where is he?" Gandalf pressed. "It's important that we speak to him." Even as Gandalf asked this question, the sound of hooves could be heard approaching behind the dwarves. When the company turned, they saw a long line of elves riding up one of the narrow bridges leading to where the dwarves were standing. Bilbo stared in awe at the magnificent beings approaching him. On horseback, the elves were at least three times higher than the hobbit.
Suddenly, his view was blocked as he was completely surrounded by the dwarves who had drawn the weapons and were standing ready to attack. Standing on tip toes, Bilbo was able to catch glances of faces. Gandalf looked annoyed by the dwarves' behavior, while Elrond looked amused if anything. The other elves didn't look quite as forgiving as the lord, and that worried Bilbo.
"Lord Elrond," Gandalf greeted the dismounting king.
"Gandalf," the elf responded before switching into his own language. Bilbo saw the faces of the dwarf company become even more distrustful. After a few moments, which seemed to stretch on for eternity for Bilbo, Elrond reverted to using the common tongue. "We haven't had orcs come this close to Rivendell, before. It was almost as if they were searching for something."
"I'm afraid that we might have had something to do with that," Gandalf admitted. He looked somewhat sheepish.
"Thorin Oakenshield," Lord Elrond greeted the head dwarf. "I ran into a friend of yours. She has accompanied us back." Thorin turned sharply to see Soleil in the back of the company of elves. She was still mounted and Djevelen and Ibenholt were standing next to her mount. On seeing Thorin turn to her, she dismounted smoothly. Thorin noticed that she had changed since their last meeting. She had replaced her tunic and leggings with a black dress. As she got closer, Thorin was able to pick up on the intricate embroidery (black of course) that decorated the dress. Her hood had fallen back and he saw that she was wearing a black diamond necklace. The intricacy of it didn't fail to interest him, the love of precious gems and respect for good craftsmanship of said jewels ran just as deep in Thorin as it did in any dwarf.
"So," she said, "you managed to escape. I wasn't sure if you went down the passage or if you had been shot down. Even I don't linger when I am in plain sight of orcs and their bows." She said it with such a tone of boredom that one might have thought that she said that the weather was to her liking. Only Kili was able to pick up on the strange gleam in her eye. He didn't have much time to contemplate what it meant before Ibenholt leapt at him, nearly knocking the dwarf down when she tried to lick his face.
Elrond, who had been talking to Gandalf, now spoke something in Elvin to the dwarves. Gloin, ever ready to take offense was the first to respond. "Did he just insult us?"
"No," Gandalf laughed. "He offered you dinner." The dwarves turned in on themselves and had a brief meeting.
"Then," Gloin said. "Lead on."
"Perhaps you would like to freshen up first," Elrond suggested politely. "After all, the meal will take some time to prepare." A male elf came forward to lead the dwarves to a set of rooms where they were to stay. Another elf came to take Soleil's mount to the stables. When she refused to part with the horse, the elf instead gave her directions to where the animal would stay so that Soleil could properly take care of it.
Elrond pulled Gandalf to the side. "I admit, I am curious to what you are doing with the dwarves and what journey they are on. However, the girl that rides with them is what interests me the most. Who is she?"
"I have absolutely no idea," Gandalf told the elf. "We know very little of her. We only met her officially very early this morning. Though, it seems that she has been following us, or at least Thorin, for a while now. She's an elf. And, she did tell us that she suffers from a sort of amnesia. She said that she can't remember anything before five hundred years ago. She's an interesting person from what I can tell about her."
Elrond looked at the retreating figure intently. "She fought quite well. I have no doubt that she could have fought the entirety of the orcs and wargs out there. And quite possibly have won."
"Yes," Gandalf agreed. "I'm sure that she has a talent that we can have no idea of. Now, would you happen to have a place where an old man can rest for a time?"
Elrond laughed as he lead Gandalf to a set of rooms reserved for the wizard. "Gandalf, you will never have the disabilities of an old man. You only look your age. Nothing more." With that, the two friends made their way into the palace, never dreaming what secrets were hidden deep inside the elvish maid.
Okay, so here's the annoying AN that nobody wants to read. We've now made it to Rivendell. In the next chapter there will come a BIG revelation about Soleil's identity. And maybe some other secrets revolving around her. I didn't particularly like this chapter, but I needed something to get to Rivendell and I didn't think that I could just jump in time. (No matter how much I wanted to.) I promise, next chapter's going to be much better. Please take a few minutes to review. Any suggestions or ideas are welcomed as always.