A/N: Alrighty, here we go again!
The next three days were tiring and seemed never to end. We walked as far as could until no one could go any further before stopping to rest but a few hours later we were off again. Thorin had explained that we were now on a time limit to get inside the Mountain. Apparently, Lord Elrond had been able to read the map and instructed that the last light of Durin's day would shine upon the keyhole of the secret entrance and only then could we enter Erebor. And Durin's day was fast approaching which gave cause to the king's insistence we continue on as fast as possible.
On the third night, we came to a very narrow passage, more of a ledge really, along the side of one of the mountains. As a result, we all had to trudge along carefully and in a single file line in order to not fall off. And on top of that, it began to rain. I was soaked through in minutes. So much for my clean traveling clothes but I didn't care after a while, my clothes would dry eventually. I just hoped we'd find a place to rest soon, particularly before someone fell off the mountain.
"Look out!" Dwalin suddenly yelled over the downpour. I looked up to see a large rock, I mean the side of several houses, flying through the air right toward us. It broke on the side of the mountain just above us causing us all to duck to avoid debris.
"This is no thunderstorm! It is a thunderous battle!" Balin called out to us. "Look!" I did so and saw a sort of gigantic humanoid creature made entirely of mountain rock tear of a large piece of the mountain opposite us.
"Well bless me, the stories are true," Bofur stated, "Giants, stone giants!" Said stone giant threw the piece of the mountain at us, or well above us, narrowly missing our side of the mountain in order to strike another stone giant not a hundred yards away.
However, just then the mountain we were standing on began to rumble and shake. Oh no! "Hold on!" Dwalin cried out to all of us. I backed up to the rocks behind me and held on for dear life. Apparently, the ledge we'd been standing on was yet another stone giants knees and as it rose up a giant fissure split us apart.
I happened to be standing between Kili and Fili and when the fissure opened up it was right between my legs. Before I could think Kili pulled me to his side and in the same instant Fili pushed me toward his brother. I met Fili's blue eyes and found them full of fear but also partial relief that his brother and I were safe, possibly. The fissure grew into a much larger divide taking Fili and the others further away from us.
The stone giant began to stand up fully but was knocked in the head by the first stone giant causing it to fall back into the mountain. This caused our side to be aligned with the continuation of the ledge we'd been working toward and for those of us on that side to get off of the stone giant. Those on the other side were not so lucky. As soon as my feet were on solid, unmoving ground I watched on in fear as the other half of our company was still trapped on the giant's knee. Said giant rose again and began to fight the first giant. It was strange to watch because their movements were so slow but their blows were incredibly powerful. The stone giant that held our comrades managed to knock down the first stone giant but was then hit by a rock thrown by the second stone giant causing its head to fly off and crash just above us. Kili pulled me down to avoid the debris but when we looked up the giant's headless body was beginning to crash. Somehow its knee holding our companions smashed into the mountain but when it pulled back to fall with the rest of the body they'd all disappeared.
My heart stopped and a scream caught in my throat. No, they couldn't be...Thorin bellowed over the mountain side, "No!" I had to see for myself, I had to be sure. Evidently, I wasn't the only one who thought this. We all raced over to where they'd crashed fifty feet away.
To my utter relief, we rounded the corner and found all of them uninjured. Kili raced to his brother and embraced him as I helped Bofur to his feet. Eventually, everyone was back on their feet but something was nagging at me in the back of my head, something we were missing. "Where's Bilbo? Where's the hobbit?" Bofur suddenly asked. Oh no.
I quickly looked around frantically and spotted two little hands hanging on to the edge of the ledge. "There!" I cried and Bofur, Ori, and I scrambled over to help him. He suddenly dropped a few feet down, just out of our reach only barely hanging on to a nook in the rock face. We screamed for him to grab our hands but his arms and ours were only just too short. Suddenly, Thorin jumped down onto the side of the cliff and hoisted Bilbo up to us. The King Under the Mountain would've have fallen too had it not been for Dwalin catching him and pulling him back up.
We all collapsed against the rocks, exhausted and breathing hard. "I thought we lost our burglar," Dwalin huffed.
Thorin turned to give Bilbo a withering look, "He's been lost ever since he left home. He should never have come. He has no place amongst us." He turned and marched off. "Dwalin," he called to the bald dwarf alerting him to what looked like some sort of cave.
I breathed a sigh of relief, shelter from the rain and whatever else lurked in these mountains. A hand suddenly appeared in front of me and I looked up to meet Kili's face. I smiled slightly and accepted the hand as he pulled me up. From there we all shuffled into the cave.
Dwalin assured us there was nothing in the cave and it led nowhere. Gloin attempted to start a fire but Thorin ordered him not to, probably to avoid attracting any unfriendly guests.
"Get some sleep, we leave at first light," Thorin ordered. I idly wondered why we weren't waiting for Gandalf; but it wasn't my place to question orders, however ill-advised they were.
I settled down on my bedroll completely exhausted. I'd nearly fallen asleep when I sensed someone lay beside me and peaked up to discover who it was. Fili. He offered me a small smile but he too looked exhausted. Kili lay just behind him. Two days previously our wager had come to an end and Bofur had taken up taking the first watch as he usually took a while to find sleep. I returned Fili's smile before allowing my heavy eyelids to close once more, finding sleep easily.
"Wake up!" someone shouted gruffly, jarring me from my sleep. Groggily I realized there was a strong arm around me. My eyes flew open in alarm realizing that it was Fili's arm that was around my waist, his hand pressed to the flat of my black, holding me tightly as if I might disappear.
My emerald eyes flashed up to his sapphires, "Fili?"
"Avi-" he began to say but the ground giving way beneath us cut him off.
I screamed as we all fell. My arms flailed as I desperately reached for something, anything to grab onto in vain. We tumbled through cave after cave before finally landing in some sort of cage shaped like a bowl. I groaned as I landed hard on my side but before I could even think about trying to get up we were swarmed by small, ugly, foul smelling creatures. Goblins.
They grabbed at us, forcing us upright, and shoved us along. I tried to fight them off, as did the others, but there were too many. They grabbed our weapons as we were pushed along a passage way to Mahal only knows where. Eventually, we came to some kind of congregation that almost looked like a village where hundreds more goblins stared down at us as we were pushed toward the center of their disgusting village.
There, sitting on a throne made of bones, was the most disgusting creature I'd ever seen. He was a goblin but quite a bit taller, nearly as tall as the elves and five times as wide. He wore no clothing save for a piece of cloth around his waist. He was extremely fat, particularly around the middle. His ugly pale skin was covered in boils. A little crown sat on his head and a large pustule hung from his chin.
The goblin king grabbed his staff that held the skull of some animal on the top and stepped off his throne to get a better look at us. His revolting amber eyes sweeping over us. "Who'd be so bold as to come armed into my kingdom? Spies? Thieves? Assassins?"
"Dwarves, your Malevolence," one of the goblins answered.
"Dwarves?" the goblin king repeated.
The goblin nodded, "We found them on the front porch."
"Well don't just stand there, search them!" the goblin king ordered. The goblin directly to my right made a grab for me, drawing his sword to my throat. I froze for a split second before two things happen simultaneously. I stepped on the goblin's foot and Kili head-butted him. I nodded to him in thanks as we were all pushed closer together. Frankly I was glad to be nearer to the dwarves than the goblins. "What are you doing in these parts?" the goblin king demanded. "Speak!" But no one said a word. "Very well, if they will not talk we'll make them squawk!" The goblins cheered at that, excited about our torture. "Bring out the Mangler! Bring out the Bone Breaker!" The king turned and pointed to Ori, "Start with the youngest." No, not Ori.
"Wait," a gruff voice shouted and Thorin began to weave his way between all of us toward the ugly goblin king.
The goblins king's eyes went wide with surprise, "Well, well, well, look who it is. Thorin, son of Thrain, son of Thror, King Under the Mountain." The goblin king bowed a little, mockingly. "Oh but I'm forgetting you don't have a mountain. You're not a king which makes you nobody really." He chuckled as did the rest of the goblins. "I know someone who would pay a pretty price for your head. Just a head, nothing attached. Perhaps, you know of whom I speak. An old enemy of yours, a pale orc astride a white warg." It couldn't be. I shuddered unintentionally.
"Azog the Defiler was destroyed," Thorin returned, his anger growing. "He was slain in battle long ago."
"So you think his defiling days are done, do you?" the goblin king chuckled before turning to one of his goblins. "Send word to the pale orc, tell him I have found his prize." The little goblin laughed maniacally as it dashed off to do as ordered.
I cringed as the goblins seemed to grow louder with their merry-making. Fili glanced at me and gently put a comforting arm around my waist. "We will figure a way out of this," he said in my ear. I looked up at him. Could we? I doubted it.
Just then the goblin king began to sing as the goblins brought in several oddly shaped torture devices. "Bones will be shattered, necks will be wrung. You'll be beaten and battered, from racks, you'll be hung. You will die down here and never be found, down in the deep of Goblintown."
"Well that's cheerful," I tried to joke to lessen the tension but Fili just looked down at me fearfully as the goblins began to push all of them back toward the various torture instruments.
Just then a goblin screamed and a clang of metal sounded as if he'd dropped a sword. Both of us whirled around to see a goblin scrambling away from Thorin's elvish sword, Orcrist. The goblin king clambered back to his throne, staring at the sword in what appeared to be fear. "I know that sword, it is the Goblin Cleaver! The Biter, the blade that slashed a thousand necks." This spurred the goblins to attack us with more ferocity and strike us down to the wooden floor. "Smash them, beat them, kill them! Kill them all!" I tried to fight off the goblins attacking me and Fili beside me but we were far outnumbered and more and more came. "Cut off his head!"
Suddenly, a bright light shone through the dark cave but it was accompanied by a powerful force that knocked all of us and all of the goblins off our feet. Somehow I landed nearly on top of Fili but I didn't have time to blush. When we looked up standing there was our favorite wizard in all of Middle Earth, Gandalf. "Take up arms!" he told us wielding his staff in one hand and sword in another. "Fight! FIGHT!"
Needing no more encouragement or opportunity we rolled to our feet and made a mad dash for our weapons. I slung my bow and quiver on my back before grabbing my sword with just enough time to knock off the head of the nearest goblin. "He wields the Foehammer!" I heard the goblin king cry as I rose to my feet and slew several goblins nearby. "The Beater, bright as daylight." I looked up just in time to see Thorin slash at the goblin king's staff with such force it caused the king and several other goblins to tumble over the edge into the cavern below.
We were all fighting our way through the goblins around us and the pickings were beginning to thin. "Avi!" I heard someone, Dwalin, I think, shout just before a knife flew by me, embedding itself in a goblin. I nodded my thanks and turned back to take out the knife before returning to the fray.
"Follow me!" Gandalf ordered and none of us questioned or hesitated to do so. Quickly, we ran out onto a sort of wooden bridge, running madly through the goblin tunnels, fighting off the ugly creatures as we went. I hacked at a goblin to my right, crawling up the cave wall, before slashing at another diagonally to my left.
I heard Dwalin shout something and when I was finally free to look, he, Nori, and Bifir had grabbed a long branch of wood and were using it to swipe have a dozen goblins at a time off the bridge. Under normal circumstances, I would've laughed at their creativeness and gusto. As it was I was distracted a hair too long and felt a sting in my side. I gritted my teeth as a small stab of pain emanated from the fresh wound. Still I didn't allow myself to cry out, instead, I turned and stabbed the goblin clean through.
We continued on running and fighting simultaneously. I was amazed at how well many of these dwarves fought, the skill level was quite something. I noticed a sort of support beam holding up probably a dozen goblins and quickly hacked at it, causing it to fall and send the goblins tumbling. Just then several goblins swung toward us on ropes but there was a platform just in front of us.
"Cut the ropes!" Thorin ordered and we did so, letting loose the platform so that it got caught on their ropes and brought them down.
A few moments later, and several dead goblins later, I found myself fighting near Kili. "Avi, watch out!" Kili called as I heard metal clanging together. I looked up to find half a dozen goblins shooting arrows at the princeling but the skillful dwarf was able to block them.
Just then I spotted a ladder of some sort. "Kili, the ladder!" he looked over and I swear almost grinned. He grabbed said ladder as did I and used it swipe away more goblins allowing us to push on toward the exit. However, we suddenly ended up on an unstable moving platform that swung back and forth across the gorge between the two sides. As it swung toward the other side due to our compiled weight I was able to jump off with Bofur, Balin, Kili, and Oin. Luckily on the subsequent swing, after slaying a few more goblins, the rest joined us and Fili cut the ropes on the platform so the goblins couldn't follow.
Again we were running, fighting, hacking, slashing, pushing faster but the goblins just kept coming. The wooden bridges disappeared for a moment as we came to a rocky path and, with magic, Gandalf broke off a piece of the cave and we rolled it in front of us squishing goblins in our path. Then we were back on the wooden bridges but they were fewer and I practically felt us getting close to daylight.
However, just as we were crossing yet another bridge, the goblin king burst through the wood floor, snarling at us all. "You thought you could escape me?" the hideous creature asked before swiping at Gandalf but the wizard was able to avoid the strikes but nearly fell onto Ori and Nori. "What are you going to do now wizard?" Gandalf straightened, hit the goblin king in the head with his staff, before slashing him across his stomach. The goblin king screamed before crumbling to his knees. "That'll do it." And Gandalf cut his throat to not prolong his death.
Apparently, the bridge couldn't take the dead king's weight and broke beneath us, carrying us down into the cave. Somehow we all miraculously survived though it was a hard fall. I groaned as I stood and dusted myself off.
"Well that could've been worse," Bofur commented.
Luckily I did move because the very next moment the body of the dead goblin king fell on top of all my companions besides Gandalf, who was standing beside me. I wanted to laugh and I was sure I would later when we told this story during dinner sometime but right now we had to get out of here.
"Gandalf!" Kili bellowed alerting us to the swarming goblins heading our way. I dashed to the dwarves and helped as many of them to their feet as I could.
"There's too many, we can't fight them," Dwalin said as I helped Thorin up. The would-be king nodded his thanks and continued on.
I extended my hand to Fili next as Gandalf responded, "Only one thing will save us, daylight!"
I was able to haul Fili to his feet and noticed a purplish bruise forming on his face. But before I could examine it further we all took off running again and soon the beautiful golden rays of day shone up ahead. We were safe, for now.