The first week of school! :D It's great to learn new things and see friends, though sometimes it would be just nicer to stay at home and do other stuff, like write fanfiction... Anyway, here's the sixth chapter. Sorry it took me so long to update!
Thank you for all the feedback! I really appreciate it how you took the time to read my stories and review. :)
They were heading towards the black door, towards Thorin and his dwarves. The closer to the door they got, the quieter the crickets became. The snapping of their palps became more silent and Bilbo could barely hear the rustling of their feet. To him, it almost appeared like the crickets were tiptoeing, as if they were trying to catch the dwarves off guard.
Bilbo frowned, considering, and gave the ropes binding him yet another experimental tug.
"Can we eat whoever we kill?" one of the crickets asked in a hushed voice.
"If we'll kill someone, then yes," the dwarf muttered from somewhere above Bilbo "Mind the prince and his nephews, though, my dears. Royalty with all their gems and jewels is never good for one's digestion... And when we come to the dwarves' line of sight, make sure that they can see the hobbit properly. Otherwise we might get regrettably closely acquainted with arrows and flying axes."
"Yes, Master," the crickets whispered. "Have to show the hobbit. Have to remember that. Show the hobbit, we will."
"Let me walk the rest of the way," Bilbo tried, wriggling a bit.
The tightening of the palps was all the answer he got.
While the crickets became more silent with each leapt they make, the voices of the dwarves – Bilbo's friends – became louder and louder the nearer them they got. The dwarves sounded angry and decisive, and Bilbo thought he could discern words like "reach", "rod" and "key", which all made him conclude that the dwarves were trying to reach the key to the locked door with a rod of some kind. Thorin was grumbling, even though Bilbo couldn't make out the exact words, while Fili, Kili, Oin, Gloin and several other dwarves could all be heard giving instructions, contradictory to each other, to whoever it was that was trying to reach the key with the rod.
Once Bilbo thought that they were close enough for the dwarves to hear him, he filled his lungs with air.
"THE CRICKETS ARE COMING!" he bellowed the warning as loudly as he possibly could, startling the unclothed dwarf into almost dropping off his cricket. "THE CRICKETS ARE-"
Bilbo's shout was cut off abruptly, when the crickets carrying him dropped him onto the hard ground. As his hands were tightly bound behind his back, Bilbo couldn't ease his fall, and so hit the ground left side first. He groaned in pain and tried to roll to his stomach, but couldn't, as there were several crickets holding him down, snapping at him with their palps.
"Beardless creature," the dwarf spat out, as if being beardless was the worst insult the dwarf could possibly imagine. "Yell again and I'll tell one of my crickets to cut your tongue off!"
The threat wasn't necessary, not really, as Bilbo had no intention of shouting again: the dwarves had fallen silent as soon as he had given them the warning. Thorin and his warriors were probably already preparing to face the approaching crickets, which meant that Bilbo had no need to warn them again.
"Now they know we're coming," the dwarf came to the same conclusion. "How inconvenient. I had hoped we would've had the element of surprise on our side. Still, it doesn't really matter, as we still have you, the lovely diamond. How much do you think the prince is ready to pay to have you back, hobbit?"
Bilbo didn't answer, but it seemed that the dwarf wasn't really waiting for an answer anyway, as he gave his crickets a curt nod and Bilbo was once again picked up from the ground.
For a while, the crickets just kept leaping forward, carrying Bilbo and their unclothed leader. The Guarding Level of Mazes was really living up to its name, and Bilbo was just wondering how many dwarves had gotten lost in its narrow, branching hallways during the years they had been built, when the crickets came to a sudden halt.
A bit startled, Bilbo tried to peer past the cricket standing in front of him, but in vain: he couldn't see anything but the backside of the giant cricket.
"The dwarves are waiting around the corner, Master," the cricket called Pullamaha squeaked, barely containing its excitement.
"We can feel anger," the other crickets added. "Anger. Anger towards us and fear, fear for the hobbit."
"Good," the Master of the crickets muttered, licking his lips. "Let the hobbit down, gently. He will round the corner before us, so that the dwarves know not to shoot."
The words had barely left the dwarf's chapped lips, when Bilbo could once more feel steady, solid ground under his feet. Bilbo might have tried to break for a run, then, hadn't the dwarf grabbed him by the hair, halting his steps.
"Don't try anything foolish, hobbit," the dwarf whispered, leaning downwards. "We are right behind you: if you try anything, you'll die. The prince probably wants my crickets dead anyway, so I might just take you with us. I have nothing to loose."
Bilbo raised his chin in defiance, but didn't saying anything, as he didn't want to show the dwarf how scared he actually was: Bilbo just knew his voice would have trembled if he had tried to say something.
The dwarf gave Bilbo a long look, but let go off Bilbo's hair and straightened his hunched back as much as it simply was possible.
"Move, then," the dwarf gave the command and Bilbo stepped obediently forward, taking a deep breath to calm his nerves. He did his best to ignore the huge staring eyes and the slimy palps, as he passed by them, focusing instead on the small mercy that he was allowed to walk on his own once more.
Following the trail of his dried blood drops, Bilbo walked around the corner.
"Bilbo!" Balin's voice called him as soon as he stepped into the view. "Put your bow away, Kili – it's just our missing hobbit. Oh, how relieved I am! Bilbo, are you..."
The question trailed away, when the crickets suddenly swarmed around Bilbo. A low growl formed in the direction of the dwarves, and Bilbo looked up at his friends.
They were standing almost thirty steps ahead of him, the black bars between them and Bilbo keeping Bilbo an eternity apart from his saviours. Between the bars, Kili was aiming an arrow at the unclothed dwarf, while Fili stood by his brother, a sword clenched in his hand. Behind them, Balin, Dwalin, Oin and Gloin were glaring at the unclothed dwarf, muttering to themselves so quietly Bilbo couldn't hear their words. There were many other dwarves behind his friends, Bilbo noted, but most of them couldn't fit into the narrow hallway, the only hint of their presence being the low growls and the clattering of weapons coming from behind the curving corner.
Thorin was standing next to Fili, his grim presence dominating the hallway. He wasn't wearing a cape and his blue corroded one was still lying on the ground next to beheaded Albert. The white linen of Thorin's shirt was wet with sweat, his long dark hair like a thundercloud around his head. The expression on Thorin's face was carefully guarded, but when his gaze flickered to Bilbo's wounded arm, Bilbo could see his eyes flashing like a lightning, even from the distance. Thorin's gaze swept Bilbo's body, as if the king was searching for other wounds. Finding none, Thorin finally looked up at Bilbo's face.
Bilbo turned his face away, unable to meet the searching gaze of his friend. He felt ashamed of causing so much trouble, of getting caught by the crickets. Oh, how Bilbo wished he hadn't been following Thorin the whole evening! Had he decided to hide in one place instead of running around until he was sweaty, Thorin never would have found him and he never would have had to escape into the hallway full of giant crickets – he never would have been caught!
Bilbo might have fretted about the situation longer, hadn't the glimmering in the corner of his eye suddenly caught his attention. It was the key he had thrown away, Bilbo noted, the key to the black door keeping him and his friends apart. The key was still glimmering rather prettily under the diamonds, lying on the exact same spot where Bilbo had thrown it. Apparently, whichever rod the dwarves had used hadn't been long enough to reach it.
The crickets moved closer to the dwarves, pulling Bilbo along. As they passed by the key, Bilbo stepped onto it as stealthily as he could. He planned to drag his foot, so that he could get the key closer to the door, close enough for him to kick it to the dwarves. It was a good plan, considering the circumstances.
Or it would have been, had his actions actually gone as unnoticed as he had thought: Bilbo had barely managed to take two scuffing steps, when he heard a snarl behind his back and one of the crickets wrenched him away from the key, proceeding to drag him towards the black door by his bleeding arm.
"Palps off him!" Kili commanded immediately, aiming the arrow at the cricket. "Let go off the halfling, now, or I swear I'll hit you right in the brain through your left eye."
"If the king's nephew kills Pullamaha," the other crickets hissed, proceeding to leap furiously around Bilbo, "we will kill the hobbit. We will tear him apart in front of you. You won't have time to stop us all. The hobbit will be dead, before you have shot all of us."
"I'd shoot as many of you as I could..." Kili muttered, even as his bow was already being withdrawn by grim-looking Thorin.
The crickets seemed to calm down, when the arrow wasn't pointing at one of their own anymore, or at least they halted their leaping, gathering behind their leader and Bilbo instead.
"Interesting..." drawled the Master of the crickets, as he looked from Bilbo to Thorin and Kili, giving Kili a malicious leer. "So that is one of the nephews of the princeling, my dears. Very interesting. I do recognize him from your descriptions. He truly is just as ugly as his uncle, just like you said he would be."
It was probably because of nervous tension and Bilbo's mixed feelings – relief at seeing his friend, frustration of being so helpless, fear of his capturers, shame for causing such trouble – why the statement and the leer the dwarf sent at Kili made Bilbo's blood boil.
Bilbo kicked the cricket holding him in the leg. Letting out a surprised "eek", the cricket let him go, and Bilbo stumbled forward, until he was standing right next to the dwarf.
Swallowing all the whimpers that threatened to escape his lips, Bilbo looked up at the dwarf and glowered.
"One of the nephews of the king," he snarled between his gritted teeth. "And don't call them ugly – they both look lovely!"
The loud slap he received across his face for his words wasn't exactly unexpected, but the fact did nothing to deaden the furious grumbling coming from the other side of the bars.
Could've been longer, but I though I'd give you some kind of an update, so that you didn't think I had abandoned the fic. I hope you liked the update.
Have a lovely weekend!