Chapter 3
All the men were determined to stay in character as they played out the scene where they discovered the troll cave. "Thorin" followed "Gandalf" into the cave along with "Bofur", "Gloin", "Dwalin" and "Nori", while the rest of us waited outside. After several attempts to sit away from "Fili" and "Kili, I finally settled on a rock a few feet away from the cave entrance with both men sitting alert beside me. Fascination overcame me, as my eyes slowly trailed over to the blonde. His eyes cast down as his thick fingers pulled at the small patches of grass below him. Huh. How strange. His fingers are dirty...possibly from make-up. But with how he's scrapping the ground, the prosthetics aren't worn or torn. It's as if they were real. My eyes narrowed at the thought as I shifted my gaze from his hands to his face.
The tips of the prosthetic ears peaked beneath his disheveled hair. A few strands dangled in front of his face, running parallel with the braided mustache. Small beads of sweat formed on his forehead, yet there was no streaking of make-up. The prosthetic nose looked all too real from the skin tone to the texture. I wonder how long it took to get the make-up to last that long?
"Are you going to keep staring at me all day?" Bright blue eyes met mine bringing me out of my thoughts. Quickly I ducked my head, a blush of embarrassment creeping onto my tan cheeks. "Sorry."
Biting my lip, I slowly glanced over to the brunet. There was no amusement in his eyes as he stared at me. I shifted my body to face more forward and away from the two young men, and facing the fern bush just a few feet away from me.
"When will you let me go?" Getting no response, I pinched the bridge of my nose. "Can you at least tell me where we're going?" And please don't say Er-
"Erebor." I closed my eyes and my jaw tightened. Neither men showed any sign that what was said was a joke. I let my head fall, biting my bottom lip to hold back my groan of irritation.
"Aaand how far is that?" They said nothing, just shared a glance with each other before looking ahead once more. I let out a sigh and straightened up, feeling my spine crack a bit in the process.
The discomfort of sitting between these two very silent men lasted only another minute before my mind began to wander. The sound of the slight wind rustling the leaves above was soothing. Bird chirps could be heard in the distance as they fluttered from tree to tree. This mix of sounds and the greenery was comforting allowing me to think more clearly. I'm with a group of 14 men who look like and insist they are the characters from 'The Hobbit'. One already held a sword to my throat. Won't let me go freely…Gotta find a way to…I leaned my arms onto my knees as I glanced towards the others, noting their location. The one that looked like Bilbo sat against the wall just in front of the mouth of the cave that the others still hadn't come out of. Bomber sat on a rock next to Bilbo. Bifur stood up on hire ground, keeping watch, his back turned to me. Dori, Oin and Balin stood with each other, lost in their conversation to notice what Fili, Kili or I was doing. Ori stood on the little hill just above Bilbo, practicing with his sling shot. None of them are watching me. So all that leaves are these two…
The blonde was now staring out past the trees, just as "his brother" was. I need to distract them. Biting my lip, I scanned the forest hoping the forest would give me some answer. Just when I was about to give up, something caught my eye. Leaning forward and staring past the blonde, I noticed a branch swaying. A small animal probably. That's it! My eyes widened and quickly I sat back kept my eyes forward.
"What is it?" Hope this works. I shook my head, biting my lip. "N-nothing." Unsure if he was still looking, I quickly shifted my gaze to the once moving branch back to the fern in front of me. "What did you see girl?" The command in his voice caused me to jump. Again I did a double take back at the branch before shaking my head.
"Kili go check it out." Kili nodded and walked past me. Without hesitation I stood up causing Kili to turn back at me and Fili to jump to his feet. Their eyes narrowed before Kili took out his sword and hurried in the direction I was looking at. My heart felt like a drum as Fili held his focus on the other. With one more quick glance at the group and back at the brothers, I took off in to the forest.
I didn't have to look back to hear the other two following close behind me. Running as fast as I could, I weaved between the trees. I was in mid jump over a bush when I felt arms wrap around me and a large body hit my back, tackling me to the ground. We hit the ground with an umph. Opening my eyes as I was pulled up. The moment the arms dropped from my waist, I attempted to run again only to be spun around coming face to face with the man dressed as Kili.
Fatigue from the lack of sleep and food didn't stop me from struggling.
"Oh no you don't." He held his hold on me, quickly kneeling and lifting me over his shoulder like a sack of potatoes. My squirming and kicking ceased at the sight of the blond smirking.
"I can't believe you tackled her." I felt more than heard Kili sigh as he began carrying me back to the others. "I can't believe we believed she actually saw something."
I couldn't help but smile at Kili's comment. Guess all those acting classes are paying off.
"She's sneaky. I'll give her that." Ok seriously? You guys are gonna talk like I'm not here?
A part of me wanted to struggle and kick some more in hopes that he would drop me, but the idea of falling or getting tackled again was very unappealing at the moment. Letting out an audible sigh, I forced myself to relax. I'm too tired for this.
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Upon reaching the others, no one seemed to notice our absence as they were still in the same spots they had been in before I ran.
"From now on we can't let her out of our sight."
"Let's just hope that Thorin doesn't find out about this."
Fili walked behind Kili to face me. His face serious once more. "That was a nice try."
"You can't do this! Let me go!"
"Then stop playing-"
"I'm playing?!" I began struggling once again, kicking with more force than before. A strong arm pinned down my legs against his chest making it impossible for me to move my lower body now.
"- and tell us who you are and how you know of us!"
"Really!? We're back to this again!? I already told you I know of the movie and I've read the book. Hell millions of people have seen and read The Hobbit! So you can stop pretending to be Fili and Kili!"
"Why do you insist on saying that we are acting?!" I laughed at his tone. I believed that he was already a great actor, but his commitment to the character, I had to admit despite my irritation, was impressive.
"Because you're Dean O'Gorman. And you're Aidan Turner. Both actors who play Fili and Kili in Peter Jackson's version of The Hobbit."
His blue eyes didn't leave mine as they narrowed. "It would be wise not to keep lying to us."
"How many times do I have to tell you, I'm not lying!"
All it took was for his to meet the eyes of the man carrying me, before I was falling towards the ground. Instinct kicked in and I quickly wrapped my arms around the young man's waist. He tightened his arms around my thighs keeping me from falling.
"You'll start telling us the truth?" My face rubbed against Kili's lower back as I nodded. Fili kneeled down to meet my face. "You won't try to run again?" I shook my head. "Good. Bring her up." Opening my eyes, to see Fili smirk.
Haunting memories of a similar smirk flashed in my mind. "i will end you!" His finger just inches away from my nose and a smirk on his face that made my blood run cold. He straightened up and laughed as a tear ran down my cheek.
Feeling the brunet's hand land on the small of my back, my body tensed and my hold around his waist tightened. Never again. With a slight tug, he paused finding my reluctance to let go.
"What the-"
"She won't let go." The harder he pulled on my legs, the tighter my arms held on. He grew frustrated and angry as he alternated between pulling at my hands and pulling my legs. While my anger fueled me to keep my hold, a part of me began to worry that I had gone too far. The worry slowly growing tempted me to just let go and not make him more angry when the sound of laughter caused both the man pulling at my hands and I to pause.
Lifting my head, Fili's body was shaking with laughter. He growled, trying harder to pull my interlaced fingers apart. The more frantic his movements became, the harder the blonde laughed. My anger slowly began to fade as I watched him stagger and keel over as he gasped for air. "Brother you should see yourself!"
"It's not funny!" His thick fingers dug into my hand as he tried so desperately to untangle my interlaced fingers. Why does his fingers feel real? "Let go or Durin help me, I will drop you!" My eyes widened and face fell at the threat. He wouldn't dare! Feeling his grip on my thighs loosen a bit, confirmed his seriousness.
"No! Don't!"
"Let her go!" Fili and Kili spun around to face the voice. Fili drew his sword, his smile long gone.
"Who are you?"
"I said let her go!" Oh no. Please not another one. Wiggling around, I tried to get a better view of who this person was. Footsteps quickly approached us. Swords slid against their sheaths as Thorin and the others rushed to the aide of Fili and Kili.
"What in Durin's name is going on?"
"Well we could ask you the same thing." We? Why does his voice sound familiar?
"Watch your tone boy. You do not know who you are dealing with." With that, the others raised their swords a bit higher, ready to fight, even the actor playing the hobbit had his "new" weapon drawn. The new comers said nothing, and instead there was just two simultaneous clicks of metal. The sound unmistakable as the cock of a gun.
"Let her go or we'll start shooting."
"Your weapons are no match for us." No one moved, nor showed any fear and I suddenly found myself wondering if maybe I was wrong about them.
"I don't even know how to respond to that."
"Look we don't want to hurt anyone, we just came for Natalya." My eyes widened hearing the second voice.
"Jake? Tommy?"
"You alright?"
"Yeah, I'm fine. What-" I tightened my hold again, feeling Kili move. I opened my eyes when my feet touched the ground. I hesitantly unlocked my fingers, my arms falling to my side as the brunet stepped back and straightened. It took a couple moments to be sure i wasn't going to be picked up again, but after a nod from the brunet I spun around to find the two tall brothers I had grown up with standing before me.
Without a second thought, I rushed into Tommy's arms. He lifted me in a brief hug before putting me back down. I lunged at Jake wrapping my arms around his waist.
"What are you doing here? I thought you were supposed to be in New York?"
"We came back for you. After we found out you went missing -"
"Missing?" I pulled out of his embrace, shaking my head in confusion. "I didn't go missing. I mean I got lost trying to find the bathroom but it hasn't even been 12 hours since I left the tent."
"Natalya, you've been gone for 2 weeks." My jaw dropped as I staggered. 2 weeks? "That's impossible."
"Something's coming!" The sound of something moving through the bushes and trees quickly advanced towards us in the distance. The company hurried into positions to attack the possible threat. Tommy held up his glock, his hands steady and eyes scanned the surrounding trees while Jake moved me behind him.
Wow, sorry for the long wait but I finally FINALLY managed to finish the third chapter. It took a while to write as I was introducing two new oc's. Hope you enjoy it. Would love to hear your reviews and hopefully the next chapter won't take so long. Thanks!