Chapter 11:
Just then, one of the little nasties found Thorin's sword on the pile of weapons. He unsheathed it to get a better look, then squawked and leaped away from it. I jerked my head around to see that all of the goblins were leaping back, even the Goblin King.
"I know that sword," he said, pointing a sausage-looking, wart-covered finger at it. "It is the Goblin Cleaver!"
Thorin saw his opportunity and moved among the goblins, thrashing them mercilessly with his fists and feet.
"The Biter! The blade that brought a thousand deaths!"
The goblins attacked the dwarves in ernest, and I yelped as they tried to pull Kili and I apart. "No," I growled, gritting my teeth and clinging to his hand with bone-crushing force. "NO! You – will not – get me – FROM HIM!"
Apparently, in my pissed off state, some part of me decided to put some magic behind that conviction. Any goblin who so much as touched the two of us was sent away yelping in pain, with nasty brown mushrooms popping up on their exposed skin. Also, another minor side-affect: Kili's and my hands were utterly inseparable.
He yelped. "Freya! What did you do?"
"Umm...just a second!" I quickly sorted through my thoughts, organising them, and finally figured out that I had let my anger seep into my concentration to keep me from casting spells. I simply reversed my conviction, but then cast a spell that would still keep any goblin who touched us to have the same effect as the original ones. I quickly explained what I had done, all of it, and he nodded, reached out, and touched a goblin, sending it away shrieking.
I grinned. This might be a little cool.
Although our hands were no longer tightly packed together, we still kept a tight grip on each other, moving about the goblins, burning them.
"Kill them! Kill them all!" roared the Goblin King. Thorin was pressed against the ground, his limbs held down, rendering him helpless. He stared up at the goblins. One hovered over the dwarf's body as the Goblin King ordered it to cut off his head.
Kili and I yelled in unison, fighting towards his uncle. I opened my mouth to cast a spell.
Just as the blade came down, a bright blue light illuminated the inside of the mountain with a bright glow. Machinery was thrown into the pit, as were each and every goblin. The Goblin King collapsed on the floor.
A dark figure walked towards us. The shine of a sword glimmered in one hand while the man walked with the aid of a familiar staff. We had all been pressed against the ground, but now we stood up, and with a jolt of joy, I recognised Gandalf the Grey.
"Late again!" I yelled at him.
He disregarded this. "Take up arms!" he ordered. "Fight! Fight!"
The wizard thrashed his sword as he made his way towards us. Kili stooped to pick up his sword, buckling the sheath back to his waist hurriedly and brandishing the weapon with a throaty yell. He passed my my swords, and I let go of his hand for a moment to put the sheaths on my back, then unsheathed only one, Glitterthorn, for my left hand, clinging to Kili's hand with my right.
That soon became impractical, however, and I spun, letting go of him, cleaving three goblins in half with a pleased shout of "HA!"
Kili was as protective as ever – he told me afterwards that he had killed at least six goblins that were about to stab me from behind. At one point, he stepped backwards and hit my back. We fought that way, keeping the ugly things away from each other.
Thorin brought Orcrist to meet the Goblin King's attack, the will of the blade causing the beast to trip backwards. He fell into the chasm, taking a few of his minions with him.
Gandalf skilfully swung his sword, turning his body to meet each goblin head on until one creature met Glamdring at the neck. The wizard tapped its head with his staff, only for it to slide off his neck. He quickly turned to face the Company. "Follow me," he ordered. "Quickly."
Kili grinned at me. He was clearly proud of my proficiency with which I swung Glitterthorn, as if it were no more than an extension of my arm.
I grinned back.
We followed Gandalf over the bridge, the chaos behind us not far from our heels. I sprinted as fast as I could, Kili not far behind me. Dwalin took the lead, thrashing his weapon at the goblins in front of us. A group of goblins were coming from the front, heading across the bridge, straight towards us. We picked up a long log that had been used a makeshift railing for the bridges, and began to knock goblins off the bridge.
We soon dropped the log and paused to fight our way through.
Thorin suddenly noticed a group making their way towards us on ropes from across the chasm and roared, "Cut the rope!"
Fili, Thorin, and Oin swung their weapons and detached the raised platform, causing it to crash down against the group of goblins, tying up the ones on the ropes. Some of them went round and round the platform, their war-shrieks turning into yelps and squeaks.
I couldn't help but giggle.
I suddenly realised that I couldn't see Kili. I scanned the group of us for him, screaming his name. I skidded around the corner that he had been around, and found him. He kept running until an arrow fired at him. He deflected it with his blade, looking stunned that it had worked. He deflected another one, then another, and then grabbed a ladder nearby him and used something that was eighty percent empty space as a shield from the bolts.
Then, more dwarves caught up with him. Together, they lowered the ladder around the throats of the advancing goblins. They directed the goblins backwards until they fell.
They laid the ladder across a gap, and everyone sprinted across. I was in the very back, and so as I reached the end of the ladder, I kicked it with a grunt, sending it spiralling into the chasm. I smirked with satisfaction, seeing the goblins fall and the others yelp, unable to follow us.
I soon caught up with the others, landing on a bridge just in time for Thorin to cut the rope and the bridge to swing in the air. When it reached the far right, many of us jumped off while the others waited for it to swing again. Fili was in the final round, and his sword cut the rope, making it impossible for anyone on the bridge to follow us.
Gandalf waved his staff, causing a boulder to roll in front of us, crushing all the goblins ahead, making it easy for us to run freely.
We soon got to a bridge untouched by the goblins. But we all fell backwards as the Goblin King crashed in front of us. Gandalf sprinted to the front of the group, flinging wide his arms to protect his friends.
"You really thought you could escape me?" The Goblin King threw his huge staff at the wizard, causing him to fall against the dwarves. "What are you going to do now, wizard?" bellowed the disgusting creature.
Gandlaf ran forward, poking his staff upwards to blind the Goblin King in one eye. The beast cried out and clutched at his face. After the distraction, Gandalf took his chance and sliced Glamdring across the Goblin King's fat belly. The huge beast held his wounded stomach and fell to his knees in pain.
"Well, that would do it," he said, surprised.
Gandalf, disgusted, swung his sword up to cut the creature's throat. The Goblin King fell face down. The bridge couldn't take the impact. The bridge broke away, and I leaped for Kili, catching him around his shoulders even as he caught me around my waist.
The bridge shuddered against the sides of the chasm, and then broke. I let loose a scream (causing Kili to recoil, as my mouth was near his ear) as we free fell. I landed in a crumpled heap next to Kili, then struggled to my feet, screaming to the dwarf, "Move!"
The bridge came crashing down on top of most of the group just as Kili and I leaped out of the way.
"Well, that could've been worse," someone said. Judging by the accent, I think it was Bofur.
Just then, the ginormous body of the Goblin King came crashing down. I heard the groans and complaints of the dwarves, most of them cursing Bofur for jinxing them. I heard Dwalin's bark the clearest: "You've got to be joking!"
Just then, I noticed a huge swarm of goblins coming down the sides of the cliffs. "Gandalf!" I yelled, pointing out the mass of angry creatures.
Dwalin, who was helping remove Nori from the mess, shouted, "There's too many. We can't fight them."
"Only one thing will save us!" roared the Wizard. "Fly!" I helped Kili yank his brother free of the bridge problem and we stumbled after Gandalf, me sandwiched between the two princes. We twined through many passages, running faster than ever before. Eventually, I could see a dot of light not too far ahead, and I couldn't help but smile.
Gandalf stayed to make sure every dwarf got outside before he joined us, running down the was steep, and Kili kept a firm grip on me, his arm strong and supportive. We kept on running, through pine trees, jumping from rocks and sliding down slopes. Safe at last...
I dunno why, but I really like this chapter. It was fun to write, and I just - I dunno. Anyway, thank you to those who have reviewed, and to those who haven't, please do so! I enjoy reading your comments and criticisms, and on the whole it just makes me very happy.