Chapter 4

"What are you doing?" Dwalin glanced over at Nori, Gloin, and Bofur as they pawed dirt over a small chest filled with gold.

"We're making a long term deposit," Gloin responded, cheerful for once at their find.

Holly strolled into the cave to see if they were done with their little treasure hunt. After all the dwarves had been freed, she'd shown them the cave and they'd immediately pillaged it, apparently forgetting that they'd spent the whole night not sleeping.

A few coins were scattered around the cave, along with an assortment of weapons, bones, and rubbish. The gold glinted from the array of debris, making blurry, disorienting lines in her vision. Holly put one hand on the cave wall to steady herself, feeling a strange lurch in her stomach at the sight.

"Doing okay, Miss Holly?" Nori asked, looking up at her.

"I haven't slept in twenty four hours. I'm doing great," she replied, the sudden deluge of emotion fading.

He stood up and clapped her on the shoulder as he passed her. "Why don't you find a weapon to defend yourself with?"

She recoiled a little from the contact. "Fine." Quite unusual, that they were allowing a female to wield a weapon. From what she knew, that was part of their culture, but she wasn't.
All of the swords she found were too heavy to be of any use. But she did find a small knife, and pocketed that. A skilled opponent would be able to easily disarm her and use it against her, but it was better than nothing.

As she walked out of the cave, Holly barely had time to enjoy the fresh air before Thorin shouted, "Something's coming!"

The dwarves drew their weapons and ran towards whatever was headed their way. Holly followed, briefly considering the knife in her pocket, then deciding to let the dwarves handle things. Perhaps they wouldn't get put into sacks this time.

Among the wide range of what the company expected to burst forth—wargs, orcs, wolves, bears—a rabbit-drawn sleigh was not among them. A disheveled man appearing to have spawned from the forest itself clutched onto the sleigh, screaming about thieves and fire and murder and the like. They all stared as he skidded to a stop in the middle of the clearing.

"Radagast!" Gandalf exclaimed in greeting, striding forward. "Radagast the Brown! What are you doing here?"

This is Radagast? Holly frowned. Certainly Gandalf wasn't the most … resplendent of wizards, but at least he had some appearance of competence. This one appeared to have been out of contact with civilization for at least a century.

"I was looking for you, Gandalf. Something's terribly wrong," Radagast replied in a high, nervous voice.

"A bath might help," Nori said quietly. Holly tried and failed to hold back a grin.

There was an awkward silence. "Yes?" Gandalf prompted.

Radagast opened and closed his mouth several times, deep in thought. "Oh, I'm sorry. Just give me a minute. I had a thought, and now I've lost it!" He made a frustrated noise. "It was right on the tip of my tongue."

The dwarves exchanged glances, eyebrows raised.

"Oh!" Radagast exclaimed. "It's not a thought at all. It's a little…" Gandalf reached up and pulled something off Radagast's tongue. "Stick insect!"

Holly shoved her hands in her pockets. Certainly there were other things for her to be doing than listening to this madman. She slipped away from their little congregation and made her way back to the campsite to check if the ponies were still there.

"Where are you going, Miss Holly?"

She bit back a sigh and turned around. Ori trotted towards her, wielding his notebook as per usual.

"I'm off to check on the ponies." Alone.

"I'll come with you, then," Ori offered, brandishing his slingshot. "It's not safe for a lady to be on her own in the wild."

Deciding not to mention that she'd spent a good portion of the night 'on her own in the wild', Holly shrugged and continued walking. "Fine."

They trudged on in silence for a while.

"So," Ori finally bridged the soundless gap between them. "Are you from this side of the Misty Mountains?"

"No."

"Then where are you from?"

"Laketown, originally."

"That's far away. Have you lived there your whole life?"

Why in Arda does he want to know all of this about me? "No."

They fell back into silence, the only noise being the rustling over the undergrowth.

Which was a bad thing.

"Damn it!" Holly cursed. "The ponies are gone."

"What? How do you know?" Ori asked.

"Wouldn't we have heard them by now?"

They pushed their way through the brush and sure enough, their camp was devoid of any of the equestrian animals. Without anyone to watch them, they had bolted.

Holly exchanged a troubled glance with Ori. They hadn't even reached the Misty Mountains yet and they had already lost their mounts.

"We have to tell Thorin!" Ori took off back towards the troll's cave.

They pushed their way through the brush and were met with the aftermath of what had probably been chaos. There were two dead wargs lying in the middle of the clearing, bleeding from arrow and axe wounds.

"We've only been gone for a few minutes…" Holly muttered.

"You are being hunted," Gandalf announced to the company.

Everyone exchanged uneasy looks. Where there were wargs, orcs were almost always nearby. Orc attacks were the primary danger of traveling in the wild, and if they were focused on a certain target, it was almost impossible to escape unharmed.

"We have to get out of here!" Dwalin said.

"We can't! The ponies are gone; they've bolted!" Ori informed the others, moving closer to the group.

There was a tense silence. It was impossible to outrun a warg, and their packs and equipment would only slow them down. Everyone looked to either Gandalf or Thorin.

"I'll draw them off," Radagast volunteered. Several eyebrows were raised.

"These are Gundabad wargs," Gandalf argued. "They will outrun you."

But Radagast had already mounted his sleigh. "These are Rhosgobel rabbits. I'd like to see them try."

The Company exchanged glances, not happy with putting their life in the wizard's hands. But they had no other option, and at Gandalf's command, they found themselves sprinting out of the forest and into a rocky field brushed with tawny shrubs.

The howling of wargs grew closer as the Company sprinted through the plain, occasionally hiding behind boulders to avoid being seen.

Before long, Holly's lungs were burning and her legs were giving an annoying reminder that she hadn't run this much in quite a long time.

"Come on! Move! Keep up!" Thorin urged the Company, already at the top of the incline they were ascending.

"Keep breathing, that's the key," Bombur encouraged, panting heavily at the back of the group.

They halted, a group of warg-mounted orcs chasing Radagast several yards ahead, allowing everyone a brief respite. Bilbo wasn't faring too well either, becoming aware that he didn't remember the last time he'd run at all.

A group of wargs narrowly passed their hiding place, and as soon as they had left, they were off again, taking advantage of the opportunity as the Wargs galloped out of sight. But one thing was clear—the meandering path Radagast made would likely collide with the Company before they could make it to safety. Holly scowled as the wizard veered sharply to the right, leading the wargs closer to them instead of further away. Was he even trying to help them?

"Where are you leading us?" Thorin demanded as they were forced to hide once more. Gandalf said nothing, simply motioning for him to follow the others.

But there was only place remotely close where they could seek refuge from the orcs. Holly knew where the wizard was leading them, and Thorin had likely suspected it too. "Gandalf, no," she protested breathlessly, but he ignored her.

And they were running again.

The orc pack passed them once more on a ridge further down the field. Thorin swore in Khudzul and motioned for everyone to hide behind a large boulder. Amidst a chorus of heavy breathing, they could hear the snarl of a warg from the top of the boulder they were hiding behind. Their luck had to run out eventually.

Thorin signalled for Kili to dispatch the warg. The young dwarf nocked an arrow, leapt forward, and shot.

It let out a roar of pain. Kili cringed. He'd aimed wrong and shot the beast in the shoulder instead of the throat. He fired another at its rider, but again it missed, sinking into the orc's ribcage. The warg charged down the rock face, its roars echoing throughout the plain. Both enemies were slain by Dwalin, Bifur, and Thorin, but the damage had already been done. The Company could already hear the other wargs closing in on them.

"Move! Run!" Gandalf cried, compelling them to flee yet again.

I am going to die here, Holly realized. There was no way they would be able to reach Rivendell before the wargs overtook them.

"There they are!" Gloin pointed. The orcs had already managed to circle around in front of them.

Well, this doesn't look like a quick death.

"This way! Quickly!" Gandalf motioned for them to move to the right, as though they still had a chance of survival.

"We're surrounded!" Fili shouted.

"Hold your ground!" Thorin commanded, drawing his sword.

Well, this is it. Holly drew her dagger, though she would probably be killed before she could use it. A loud growl sent shivers down her spine, and she realized too late where it had originated. To her right, a warg had snuck up on her. Its orc rider dismounted and drew a nasty-looking machete.

Its cruel sneer froze her in place. She couldn't even call for help.

And there goes my head, she thought just as Thorin stepped around her and stabbed the orc in the gut.

He glanced at her. "See? Perfectly capable of defending ourselves."

She was still trying to muster a reply when Dori grabbed her arm and half dragged her over to a rock face where Gandalf stood.

"This way, you fools!" The gray wizard waved his staff and disappeared into a crevice in the rocks.

The crevice dipped down into a fairly spacious cave. Holly practically fell down the steep incline and landed roughly at the bottom. She scrambled out of the way to make room for the others, who were coming down as well. She let Nori help her to her feet, feeling dazed and a bit embarrassed that she'd frozen up at such a crucial moment.

Fili, Kili, and Thorin were the last to arrive in the cave, where they all stopped and listened to the sound of horns. There was the hiss of arrows and the thunder of hoofbeats, accompanied by sounds of rage and pain from the wargs. An orc tumbled down the crevice, forcing the dwarves in the front of the group to scramble back. It stared at them with dull eyes, an arrow embedded in its neck.

And everything was silent.

I try so hard to take Radagast seriously, I swear. Ok maybe I don't. He's still a pretty cool guy, though.

And poor Ori, trying to be nice to Holly, and she's being...well, herself. :E Let's see how long that lasts.

So this chapter was mainly narrative besides Thorin getting the last word among other things, but next chapter, they're going to Rivendell and some very interesting information is exposed about Holly...

Leave a comment if you have anything to say (did anyone catch that LOTR reference?), it helps me out a lot, and remember to stay tuned for the next chapter! :)