Chapter 9
Gandalf led us towards the rocky mountain side. Going on about how the cave should be nearby.
We stayed quiet; mostly just mutters were heard from the company about how tired or hungry they were. I did my best to tune them out; I was tired and hungry too. But it wouldn't do me any good to complain. Besides I have other things to worry about. Like the fact that i'm practically being held prisoner by Twiddledee and Twiddledum.
After the giant creatures were dealt with, Fili and Kili had kept me at arms reach. I was placed in the line between the two. Whenever I would try to go ahead towards Gandalf or Bilbo to see if they were okay, one of the two brothers would grab me and place me right back between them. It was beginning to get quite annoying.
Eventually we arrived at the entrance of a foul smelling cave. Yes, it definitely belonged to those horrid things. Gandalf went inside with a few choice dwarves. While the rest of us stayed outside by the surrounding rocks. I sat down on one and got comfortable as Fili sat down by my feet and started to sharpen some of his knives. Kili sat on a nearby rock, twirling around one of his arrows.
I sighed as I looked around boredly at the surrounding forest. For a few blissful seconds I allowed myself to get lost in the sound the birds and the leaves in the trees were making. It was completely relaxing and I found myself starting to slip into unconscious, slowly leaning back on my rock till I was completely supported by it.
I bolted up right on the rock suddenly. My ears flailed around like mad as I got off the rock; my eyes searching for the source of the odd energy that was fast approaching. I growled deep in my throat, though only I could hear it. The others stared at me in confusion but I ignored them and hopped off my rock towards the mouth of the cave to get Gandalf. But before I could step much closer; Gandalf and the ones who had gone inside had come back, some of them with new swords. He even gave one to Bilbo.
My shoulders relaxed minutely at the relief of knowing that I didn't have to go inside the awful smelling cave. But they tensed back up when I felt the energy get closer. In all honesty, the energy didn't feel bad per-se, but it still but her on edge. Better safe than sorry and all that.
"Gandalf" I called as I made my way to him. Absentmindedly noticing that my newest 'Who's my intended mate' lead was tailing my every move. Bless him.
The robe clad wizard turned to me expectantly. "Yes Miss Ren, is there something I can help you with?" He asked nicely, oblivious to my concerned expression.
"Something is coming straight for us, I can sense it" I said, looking around suspiciously. Just as the words left my mouth Thorin yelled out of the approaching thing as well. Gandalf immediately unsheathed his sword and began giving orders to be ready and stay together.
We did as we were told, everyone taking out their weapons and going into defensive stances. I made sure to be close enough to Bilbo that in case all hell breaks loose and we have to volt, he won't get lost. Absentmindedly I noticed both Fili and Kili in the corner of my eye. Fili being the closet to me.
We stayed silent as the thing came closer. My ears picking up the sound of at least a dozen or so pairs of feet running, and something scraping against the ground. A carriage maybe?
It wasn't long until a sled pulled by many bigger than usual rabbits came bursting through the foliage.
"Thieves! Fire! Murder!" Yelled the old man on the sled. He wore a brown robe and a weird but admittedly cute hat. Like Gandalf, though part of his face seemed to be covered in bird droppings. He seemed glittery and anxious.
At the sight of the man. Gandalf relaxed his shoulders "Radagast" he breathed out in relief. "Radagast the Brown, what on earth are you doing here?" he asked after approaching the apparent wizard. At this the rest of the company including myself began to relax and put away weapons.
"I was looking for you Gandalf. Somethings wrong, something is terribly wrong." Radagast said. After Gandalf signaled for him to continue the brown clad wizard proceeded to pull a stick bug out of his mouth. Gross…
After that interesting little moment, Gandalf pulled his friend to the side to talk. While the rest of the company went towards Thorin to see his new sword or whatever. I chose to sit myself on a rock with Bilbo who examined his own sword, every so often I would give a compliment about it to Bilbo. And even showed him how to hold it.
After everyone was done ogling Thorin's new sword the all dispersed around the small area to look around. Kili and Fili positioned themselves on either side of Bilbo and I's rock. Fili was watching me, and Kili just fiddling with his bow. Nothing new.
Suddenly the sound of a howl from not too far away made us all jump slightly. I was off the rock in an instant, listening for the source.
"Was that a wolf? Are there wolves out there?" Bilbo asked fear clearly in his voice.
"That doesn't sound like any wolf I've ever heard" I said, pulling Bilbo closer to the center of our group.
"That is no wolf" Bofur said looking ahead of us. I froze at the sound of a twig breaking from behind us and a hungry growl. We all turned around to see a huge wolf like creature on steroids somewhat bigger than my Demon form coming straight for us. Taking down Dori and snarling at him.
Without a second thought I transformed into my demon form and tackled it off Dori while Thorin brought down his sword on the creatures head effectively killing it. Thorin yelled at Killi to use his bow as another one came from behind Thorin. Kili shot it down and Dwalin smashed its head in to kill it.
"Wrag scouts" Thorin said, removing his sword from the 'wrags' head. "Which means an orc pack is not far behind"
"There are more of these?" "Orc pack?" both Bilbo and I asked in unison. Though were ignored by Gandalf as he angrily asked Thorin who he had told of the quest. After Thorin negated ever saying anything the company decided to high tail it out of there.
And so we did, with Radagast volunteering as a distraction for the pack so we could make a safe escape on foot. I changed back into my Humanoid form just and followed the company up to the rocky field.
I followed Gandalf dutifully staying only a few steps behind him as well as keeping an ear our for the Orc pack. I could hear their howls of anger as Radagast taunted them to keep their attention. We ran among the rocks trying our best not to get noticed stopping only when pack ran straight passed us.
But one strayed from the pack and began to sniff around; making us all hide under the rock the Orc was on top of. As the Wrag got closer to the edge of the rock I felt a hand grab my arm and pull me between the three royals of the group and the rock. I could only glare in irritation at them as Thorin signaled Kili to kill the Orc.
Kili nodded and stepped out shooting the wrag right in the chest; bringing it down yowling in pain the others rushed to kill it completely. Unfortunately the wrag had made enough noise to catch the others attention.
"Move!" Gandalf yelled and took the lead again. We ran over in what one would think would be random directions but after a while I could tell that Gandalf was leading us somewhere in particular. Hopefully wherever he's taking us is safe from there things.
As I was thinking this I failed to notice that we had just gotten surrounded by the Orcs and that Gandalf was nowhere to be seen. I growled and transformed to my Demon from. I might as well kill one or two while I was here.
I lost track of Bilbo and my two friends as I gave most of my attention to the smaller wrags who didn't have any orcs riding them; snapping my jaws at their necks and flanks as best I could without getting a chunk bitten off of me. Weirdly enough, even though they were obviously pack animals they only attacked me one at a time; giving me their attention only when I've taken down their predecessor.
Suddenly, Gandalf re-appeared from somewhere and called us over to him. I got off the wrag I was currently mauling and made my way to him. When I reached him, I changed back into my Humanoid form to fit through the opening he had directed me to.
After sliding down into the nifty little cave, I noticed that most of the other members of the company were already there, including a scowling Gandalf. I relaxed at the sight of them all there but then I looked closer. And I noticed that there were three dwarfs missing in the cave.
Worry surged through me as I turned back around and climbed to the mouth of the cave again. From the mouth of the cave I watched as Thorin, Fili and Kili fought back the orcs with abandon.
"Fili!" I yelled out to him frantically. He turned at the sound of my voice, worry obviously displayed on his face. "Come on! What are you three waiting for? A formal invitation? Get your pretty little asses over here! Now!" I basically screamed at him and his brother and uncle.
Fili nodded and after a brief word exchange between him and his family members they ran in to the cave. I moved to the side of the entrance so that they could enter, the three slid down one after the other quickly. I looked down to them to make sure they were alright then turned back to the opening, readying myself to fight the orcs to protect the company.
But by the time I had turned completely to the outside of the cave, horns flared out in the distance and the orc that was running directly for the caves mouth jerked awkwardly then collapsed forward.
I barely got out the words "Oh shi-" before the orc fell into the cave, knocking me down with it. I stumbled down to the floor of the cave with the immensely smelly and heavy orc on top of me. The others stared at me in surprise.
"A little help here guys" I said, trying to move my arms under the dead orc to shove it off. Half a second later the guys came and heaved the orc off of me and I was pulled into a particular set of arms. When I looked up I was met with the eyes of none other than Fili.
He helped me to my feet and looked me over for injuries. "Are you alright? Did he hurt you?" He asked worriedly.
"Yeah, I'm fine he's just heavy" I said reassuringly and gave him a small smile. My smile fell when the distinct smell of blood rose to my nose. Removing myself from his grip; I grabbed the sides of his head and moved it gently to the right and moved a piece of his hair out of the way, revealing a cut between his side-burn and ear.
I narrowed my eyes at it as a growl rose in my chest, gaining some odd looks from the rest of the company.
"I'll take care of that once we set up camp" I said tightly, and let go of his head and turned to Gandalf. "So where are we going Gandalf?" I asked.
He stayed silent for a few moments until Thorin glared at him questioningly. Huh, where did Thorin get that that fancy looking arrow?
"We follow the path" The wizard said motioning to a winding passage way with no identifiable destination.
So that's chapter 9! Any thoughts, comments, Suggestions?
Hi! it's been a while. I know the chapter doesn't have much dialogue but bare with me :)
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-With all my love
Karybear1