Sorry for the wait, but my final papers have been eating all of my free time. I am going to ask right now if there is someone who can give me a website or any information regarding dwarf customs in the Tolkien Lore. I spent most of my paycheck on buying the rest of Tolkien's books and even with the appendices (from one of the LOTR books), I am at a bit of a loss. So any help would be greatly appreciated.
I would like to say thank you to the reviewers and followers of this story. You guys give me the strength to wake up every day with a smile on my face. I love you all.
Disclaimer: I don't own the Hobbit or its characters or its events.
I feel like I am on one of those free-fall rides that you would find at a carnival. I keep my eyes closed waiting for the hard landing that is coming. Finally that hard landing comes but it is a little bit softer than I had expected. I finally open my eyes to find myself laying on the top of a dwarf pig-pile and it is Fili that has cushioned my landing.
"Sorry Fili." I say as I begin to move off of him.
"Nothing to worry about, Inara. You are lighter than the rest of us." Fili says as he begins to wiggle himself free from laying on top of Balin.
I move off of the pile of dwarves when I hear a screech coming towards us. I turn to see where it is coming from and I really wish I hadn't looked. A large group of disgusting creatures are charging towards us. Before I can reach for my weapons, two creatures break from the group and tackle me to the ground. I try to fight them off but they are way too strong.
"Inara!" Fili says before he too is grabbed.
I turn my head and see that the rest of the company has over taken by the creatures. I can feel my wrists are being bound behind my back before I am roughly lifted off the ground. The two creatures begin to take me away and I try stop them by kicking at them.
"Let go of us!"
"Leave her alone!"
I fight even harder against the two creatures that are now getting angry at me. A larger creature lands in front of us and snarls at me. I try to kick out at this larger opponent but the creature punches me in the stomach. The hit causes me to double over, and I can barely catch my breath from the hit. Yup, I will definitely have some battle damage after all of this is over. I can hear the dwarves calling out to me and some of them are trying to fight their way to get to me. It is no use though, these creatures are strong and their numbers many.
All of us are being led, or in my case dragged, by the creatures through this godforsaken place. As we go deeper into this hell, I can hear the most disgusting music being played. I really wish whoever is singing would just die already. Or better yet, put out of their misery.
The creatures that are dragging me stop, but I keep my head down. Oh, thank the higher powers that be, whoever was singing has now stopped.
"Catchy. Isn't it? It is one of my own compositions." comes a voice.
"You call that a song? I have heard better songs being sung by dying animals." I say while still keeping my head down. Sarcasm, I love it.
"Who said that?" the same voice as before shouts.
Something grabs my hair and pulls it so hard that I have to lift my head up. It is now that I really wish I was blind. Standing in front of me is a rather large, smelly, and very disgusting thing looking straight at me. Out of the corner of my right eye, I can see the company standing there. Kili, Bifur, Ori and Nori are all giving me worried looks. Some of the creatures, which I now think are called goblins, begin searching the dwarves.
"Well now what do we have here? Who would be so bold as to come armed into my kingdom. Spies! Thieves? Assassins!" The big, ugly goblin king says.
"Dwarves, your malevolence." Replies one of the goblins. The Goblin King looks back at the company before looking at the goblin who just spoke.
"Dwarves? What about that one?" the Goblin King says as he points towards me. "Bring that one to me."
"Let her go! Leave her alone!" I can hear from most of the company members as I am dragged closer to his ugliness. His large face comes down towards mine and he takes a big whiff. Then the bastard pulled a Jabba the Hut. Yup, the ugly bastard licked me from my chest, up my neck ,and ending the lick at my face. That is when the dwarves started yelling and cursing at the Goblin King.
"A female of the race of men, yet she smells like a dwarf." The Goblin Kind gives me a creepy smile. "Search them. Every crack. Every crevice. Search her as well."
A small group of the goblins surrounds me and begins running their hands all over me. I try to break free from them but I am roughly shoved to the ground. I can hear Fili, Kili, Dwalin, Bofur and even Thorin calling out to me during this invasion of my personal space. A couple of the goblins are getting a bit too frisky in their searching. So I bite a few of the hands that pass too closely to my face, and keep my legs kicking during all of this. Finally the goblins stop their search after pulling all of my weapons and my pack off of me. I am again roughly pulled back up. It isn't lost on me that my blouse has been untucked from my pants and half of the buttons of said blouse have been ripped off. The top part of the corset I am wearing underneath is showing; which means a healthy amount of cleavage is showing. However, with a goblin pushing against my upper back, I am leaning over a bit too much. If I lean over anymore, I am sure that my bust will not stay in the corset. It also isn't helping that I am breathing heavily due to my anger building. Other than my blouse, the rest of my clothes are fine.
"What are you doing in these parts?" the Goblin King asks.
I see that Thorin is about to speak up, but Oin beats him to it. As Oin speaks, Thorin looks at me and moves his lips. He is asking me if I am alright and I give him a small nod. I can see a murderous look appear on his face as he takes into account the damage done to my clothes. Kili is also looking at me and I can see his cheeks have a pink tint to them due to my blouse. I don't blame him for getting a bit embarrassed at the sight of my corset. I can see some of the other dwarves as well glancing slightly at me before turning their eyes away. Since I am not really paying attention to the conversations between the Goblin King and now Bofur, I am shocked at what I hear next.
"Since they will not talk; we will make them squawk. Bring up the bone-breaker. We will start with her!" The Goblin King says as he points at me.
"Wait!" Thorin yells as he moves so that he stand in front of the company.
"Well. Well. Well." The Goblin King says in delight. "Look who it is. Thorin, son of Thrain, son of Thror. King under the Mountain. Oh, but I am forgetting. You don't have a mountain and you are not a king. Which make you, nobody really."
"You are wrong!" I yell at the Goblin King. "You don't need a kingdom to be a king. It is in your actions, treatment of others, and deeds that determine a king. And you, you god forsaken piece of filth, are no king! You are a nothing, you fucking bastard!" I am now attempting to wiggle myself free from the multiple goblin hands that are trying to hold me away from the company and the Goblin King.
"Silence her!" The Goblin King shouts. I find myself being gagged with a piece of some nasty smelling rope before he continues talking to Thorin. "I know someone who would pay a pretty price for your head. Just a head, nothing attached to it. Perhaps you know of whom I speak. An old enemy of yours. A pale orc astride a white warg."
Thorin's face begins to falter even more as he understands of whom the Goblin King is speaking of. I don't need to hear what Thorin says, because I already know. So, I try to double my effort into wrestling myself free from my captors. A shadow blocks the torchlight, and I stop my movements to look up at the Goblin King.
The Goblin King moves a bit closer to me before turning off to the right. "Send word to the pale orc. Tell him I have found his prize. And something else to amuse the orc as well." He turns back to look at me with a smile on his face. "Oh he so does enjoy an amusement."
The company and Thorin all try to make their way to me, but the goblins surround them even more. I, however, keep letting my anger build, and I know that my brown eyes are now closer to looking black. Sometimes, anger can be used as a weapon and that is how I am planning to use mine.
The Goblin King has been singing another song as torture machines are being brought to where we all are. Each member of the company has several goblins holding them so that no one can escape or attempt to get to me. A couple of goblins have begun searching through our weapons, but luckily none have searched my pack yet. Something changes in the way a few of the goblins behave, and the next thing I know I am pushed down to the floor. I turn my head to the right and I can see Thorin is also on the floor as well. Our eyes lock before I feel a whip hitting my back. I flinch but I refuse to cry out or let out a tear. He shouts something, but the crack of the whip, as it hits my back again, drowns it out. I close my eyes now as I try to focus on something else besides the pain that is running through me. Even with my eyes closed, a bright light flashes from somewhere. Then I hear the sound of our savoir.
The goblins begin to drag me across the floor and I try to fight back as much as I can. However, it is Dwalin, Kili, and Thorin who come to my aid. Kili and Dwalin are fighting off the goblins as Thorin is cutting away the bindings on my wrists and my gag. He pulls me into a hug before helping me to my feet.
"Are you alright?" he asks as he helps me run to the company.
"I will live for now, but you had better give me a weapon. I am going to teach these goblins to never mess with me." I reply as the company soon surrounds us. My tomahawks and sword are handed to me by Bofur and Fili is putting my pack on his back. I place one of my tomahawks into place at my waist. The other tomahawk and my sword I hold onto.
We make our way to Gandalf and it is then that I notice that he isn't alone. Aliena is with him and she is being carried by Dwalin, then is passed to Fili, then to another member of the company. This continues as we fight and run our way through the winding paths of this place. It would seem that each member, except myself, holds Aliena before passing her to another member of the company. During all this, Thorin, myself, and the company keep fighting the goblins. I can feel the pain from my back disappearing as my adrenaline and anger numb the pain.
Finally we reach a dead end and there is nowhere else for us to go. The Goblin King makes his appearance again, by appearing up through the floor. I am not really paying attention to what is going on until the floor beneath us gives way. We are all free-falling yet again.
I land, on my already injured back, on the wooden planks when I reach the bottom. I let out a gasp, then a moan, before trying to turn to the side. It is then that Ori lands on top of me and I let out a painful cry.
"Sorry. How badly are you hurt?" he asks as he is moving off of me.
I don't dare reply out of fear that I am going to either scream out in pain, or yell at Ori. Gandalf quickly helps Ori with pulling me off of the wooden planks as Aliena moves away from Gandalf. As Gandalf attempts to check me over for any possible spine or internal injuries, the dwarves start shouting. I look up and see that the Goblin King's body has landed on those who didn't move fast enough out of the rubble. I can see Aliena run over to help Kili out of his spot from the rubble. Gandalf whispers something and I can feel the pain from inside of my body disappear.
"You will still need Oin to check the whip marks once we leave here." Gandalf says to me in a serious tone.
"You will still need these." Ori says in a soft tone as he hands me my sword and a tomahawk.
"Gandalf!" Kili shouts, which the tone and way he says it reminds me of either Merry, Pippin, or Sam. Oh yes, my friend Alyssa had forced me to marathon the Lord of the Rings movie series with her. Mind you, most of what I remember was that every time someone called out for Gandalf you had to take a shot of some form of alcohol. That was my first and only time that I had ever gotten drunk and we were underage at the time too.
"There is too many of them!" Dwalin shouts as he helps a few of the dwarves out from under the rubble.
"There is only one thing that will save us. Daylight. Come on!" Gandalf responds as he helps pull Oin out from the rubble. I quickly place my tomahawk on the other side of my waist, since its brother occupies one side already.
As we all start to run, I can see that Kili is carrying Aliena in his arms. Thorin comes up to me and takes my hand as we start to run. All of us are following Gandalf as he leads us through the catacombs to escape the horde of goblins that are chasing us.
Finally, we reach an opening to the outside world and there is daylight. Once outside of the tunnel, I slow down to try and catch my breath. Thorin brings us to a stop as everyone else stops to catch their breath as well. Kili puts Aliena down and she comes running over to where I am.
"Mommy!" she says as she runs towards me. Before she can get close to me, Thorin steps in front of me and picks her up.
"You mother is injured young one." He tells her as he turns towards Oin. "Oin. Check Inara's injuries."
"Aye. Let us see how bad it is lass." Oin says as he makes his way to me.
"It isn't too bad." I tell Oin as he begins to look at my back. Once he touches the whip marks, I let out a hiss.
"Is mommy going to be alright?" Aliena asks Thorin as she begins to play with one of the braids in his hair. He gives her a kiss on the side of her head before he whispers something to her. What he says, I don't know, but she wiggles in his arms. So he lets her down before she goes over to Fili and Kili. Both boys bend down and wrap their arms around her, doing a small group hug.
Balin comes over with a pack that he managed to grab before we ran the first time. Thorin wanders over to Gandalf who is now asking where Bilbo went. I loose part of the conversation as something cold stings against the two cuts on my back and I let out a mangled cry of pain.
"That will do lass. However, I suggest we get you another shirt." Balin says to me before walking over to Fili, Kili, and Aliena. Fili stands up and leaves the little group hug to bring me my pack.
"Here. I managed to get to this before our escape." He is keeping his eyes to the ground.
"Thank you Fili." I take my pack from Fili and begin to search for a new shirt. To my dismay, all I have left is a tunic and another corset. Placing my sword up against the tree, I make my way around said tree to attempt to change my top and corset. Unknown to me, the tree I just chose is the same tree that Bilbo is hiding behind, though I can't see him. I make short work of changing and the new corset is under the tunic. I can hear talking from the other side of the tree, but I don't pay much attention to it as I place the ruined corset and blouse into my pack. I come back around the tree to find everyone looking at me, and that is when I notice that Bilbo is standing opposite from where I am.
"What?" I ask as Bofur, Bombur, Gloin, and Dwalin look at me. Shaking my head, I grab my sword and walk over to where Kili, Aliena, Bifur, and Fili are standing. Fili takes my pack from me and places it on his back. Aliena is being held by Bifur, so I reach out to give her a small hug and a kiss on the cheek. I pull away from Bifur and Aliena when I hear it. A sound we are all dreading to have to deal with.
"Out of the frying pan." Thorin says as he hears the warg howl.
"And into the fire. Run!" Gandalf yells at us.
"Aliena." I look at her then to Bifur. "Please keep her safe for me Bifur."
Bifur says something with a nod before running off. Myself, Fili, and Kili hold off on running till we see Thorin start to run as well. We run through the trees downhill, and I am starting to find it hard not to trip. Thorin grabs my free hand to try and help lead me away from possible tripping hazards. Fili and Kili are now ahead of us as we run. However, we aren't fast enough as a few wargs finally catch up to us. Some of us have to stop to try and defend ourselves. Bilbo, it would seem, has killed a warg by himself. Another warg jumps to attack Bilbo from behind, but Thorin and I take it down. It is then that I hear Gandalf yelling.
"Climb! Into the trees!"
The company quickly climbs into the trees. Thorin and I are sharing a tree, and a branch, by ourselves. Thorin is holding the branch above us in one hand and puts his sword in its sheath. I am standing closer to the trunk of the tree, so I am slightly leaning up against it with the side of my body. I sheath my sword as well. Thorin moves a bit closer to me before wrapping an arm around my waist. Feeling more secure, I look around and see that Dwalin has Aliena with him and Balin in the next tree. Fili, Kili, Bofur and Bifur are sharing a tree and the rest of the company are further back behind us. Bilbo, I notice, is now climbing up the tree that has Fili, Kili, Bofur, and Bifur in it. I let out a sigh of relief
"We are safe, for now." I say to Thorin, but he is looking down at the wargs. They are trying to climb the tree, but to no avail. Then they all stop. I look to where Thorin is now looking before taking in a breath.
"Azog." I hear Thorin say in disbelief.
As this white monster talks, I quickly say a prayer to Mahal to protect us in my mind. It isn't lost on Azog the position Thorin and I are in and he is using it to bait Thorin.
"Don't listen to him. He is only trying to get to you." I say to Thorin. Azog then points his metal claw at us and I can feel Thorin's hand tighten at my waist.
The wargs begin in earnest to bring us down from our trees. Our tree beings to topple under the warg's siege and we quickly jump to the next tree. It continues like this till we all end up in the last tree at the edge of the cliff. Gandalf quickly lights an acorn on fire and throws it out at the wargs. That flaming acorn soon has a brush fire going. He lights another acorn on fire and passes it to Fili, who helps the others light other acorns on fire. Soon everyone is throwing flaming acorns at the wargs, except Aliena and myself. The flames are enough to keep the wargs at bay, but the tree doesn't hold up with all of our weight on it. It begins to topple over.
I quickly swivel myself to straddle the trunk, as the tree topples. Once the tree stops moving, I wiggle myself towards Balin who has Aliena on his back. I am pulling her off of his back when I hear a battle cry come from a distance. I pull her into my arms before glancing back towards where the sound came from. That is when I see, through the flames, Thorin battling Azog and his warg. I turn away from the battle to see Aliena looking at me.
"Dad needs you." She says softly to me. I give her a smile before kissing her forehead. I make sure she has a good grip on the trunk before wiggling my way backwards along the tree trunk. Once I am far enough away from Aliena, I look to the other members of the company. I can see them staring at the battle and a few looking at me. I bend my head down and close my eyes.
"Mahal, please grant me your power to help aid Thorin in his fight against his enemy. To the other gods of this world, I ask that you send me courage and strength to help protect everyone in this company." I whisper softly. I begin to pull myself up to stand when I start to feel an energy enter me. I lift my head and take a deep breath before opening my eyes. It is then that I have an out of body experience. As I see myself I can see that something in me has changed.
"Inara!" I hear Kili and Fili shout as my body turns away from the company and begins to walk towards the fight.
"Inara. My girl, what have you done?" I hear Gandalf say with a sad tone to his voice.
I follow my body as it makes its way through the flames. My hands draw the tomahawks as it gets closer. As I follow, I can see Thorin in the mouth of the warg. Then I see one of my tomahawk hit the warg in the ribs. It throws Thorin away before turning towards my body. Another tomahawk sails through the air and Azog knocks it aside. Then my body charges with my sword raised and it lets out a battle cry I have never heard before. But it is the sound of my voice that sends a shockwave through my essence. That is not my voice. It would seem that something else has taken over my body, as I watch it do fighting moves that I have never seen before.
"Inara." I hear Thorin whisper before passing out. I suddenly find essence-self standing next to him. I bend down and touch his face. I try to speak but nothing comes out of my mouth. Then I hear that voice come from my body. I look up to see Azog holding my body by the throat before throwing it towards where Thorin is laying. My essence-self stands up and as my real body passes through, I can feel myself being suck back into it.
My right shoulder hits the grounds first before I go rolling a few feet to a stop. Azog lets out a laugh and before he can attack, I see Bilbo rush to our defense. Not too far behind him is Dwalin, Fili, and Kili attacking the other wargs. As Azog is about to attack Bilbo, I hear Thorin let out a shaky breath. I try to force my body to move towards him; and as I crawl my way to Thorin's side I hear an eagle cry. Just as I try to grab Thorin's hand, I see an eagle fly down and knock Azog and his warg away. Then another eagle comes and gently picks Thorin up off of the ground. After the eagle leaves with Thorin in its talons another eagle picks me up with as well before flying off into the night sky.
"Thank you, my brother." I say to the eagle and it gives a soft cry in acknowledgement. "If it isn't any trouble, can you please place myself and the other, which was picked up before me, on one of your fellow eagle's back? He is injured and needs help." It gives another soft cry before giving a loud screech.
The largest eagle, who is carrying Thorin, flies underneath my eagle. They move closer together till I can touch the larger eagles back. The eagle holding me lets go, and I land softly on the others back.
"Thank you, your grace, for coming to our rescue." I tell this eagle, who I am assuming is the King of the Sky. He gives a click of his beak before he and another eagle start a mid-air dance. Thorin's transfer form one eagle to the other is successful and it isn't long till him and I are on the back of the King of the Sky. I wrap an arm around him as the eagles continue to fly away from the cliff. I look back to see most, if not all, of the company are on the eagles. Knowing that they are safe, I gently grip the feathers of the eagle before laying myself next to Thorin. It is then that my wounded body decides it is time for rest.
I hope you all enjoyed this chapter. It took me multiple times trying to write this chapter. The out of body experience I made Inara go through was tough to write. It will be explained in the next chapter. I am hoping that none of you get offended with Inara praying to the Tolkien gods for help. I enjoyed writing the little bits of Aliena interacting with Thorin, Fili, and Kili.
Reviews are always welcome. Even reviews that are negative are welcome as constructive criticism.
Selene.
