A/N: Hey there lovely people, I'm back with another one. :3
Let me answer your questions. You should read with the one about how tall Fai is. :3
rubyred: Oh my :O I picked that up from somewhere and really liked the phrase, but now I need to go and warn that person as well, for she used it wrong too. :3 Thank you!
the Oz Meister and Jen Baas: I'M BEYOND GLAD!
Shippments4ever0725:Oh I'm happy that someone likes Thorin & Fai scene just as much as me! I was going mental while writing it. :3
TeddybearLovingInsomniac: YOU THINK THEY ARE CUTER THAN KILIEL? I can't even breathe. Really.
whiteredebony: Glad you asked it, cause for some reason I was thinking that I placed it into the story. Well, in my head, she is just as tall as Kili. See, if you google "Gimli and Eowyn" you'll see the height difference between them. Gimli is a short dwarf, and Eowyn is a full-grown woman. And she is also royalty. There's a thing about Tolkien and heights. He often links being tall with nobility. So, considering Fai isn't noble and also not full-grown in the Dwarves' eyes, for them her shortness is not something to be suspicious of. :)
Miriel Tolkien & Birdy21: Always a pleasure to have you liking the story. :) Also Miriel, it was one of my favorite parts.
SilverPenguin87: Hahaha we all would love that, wouldn't we? ;) But you have to wait, I won't give them the pleasure this quickly. :)
Again, I added some things to the storyline. :) You'll see what I'm talking about when you read the last part. Enjoy, and review if you feel like it! :3
Fai felt herself hovering in the air for a second, as if she was a cartoon character.
Then came the fall. She roughly landed on some moist, moss-covered surface which immediately had her sliding. It was raining dwarves as they joined her on the freaky slide of a tunnel. Their grunts echoed away, and the last thing Fai saw was the Wizard hanging way up above in the cave, holding onto a stone step with all of his power.
They were spiraling down the tunnel, colliding from time to time. When one of the dwarves passed Fai by at full steam, she felt the touch of cold metal on her shoulder to elbow. At first, there was nothing. She didn't feel anything. Seconds later, her little scream joined the cacophony. She felt her tunic sticking to her arm with the warmth of blood, as a stinging pain spidered on.
"Have a command of your blades!" she moaned in pain.
"Are you alright?!" a concerned voice waved towards her, yet there wasn't enough time to answer as the tunnel abruptly came to an end and the free fall began.
"Seriously, watch out!" she screamed over seeing the neon blue glow of Bilbo's sword with the corner of her eye. The chances were pretty high that someone could land on a weapon and split in half. Fortunately, it didn't happen. Nagging, shouting and wriggling, pile of dwarves fell into huge spherical cages. They were made out of wood and looking like claws.
Fai's landing was rather soft, for she was one of the lasts to fall and hadn't met the hard surface. Her hit had been softened by some dwarf she had fallen on. She groaned as trying to figure out who was under her. Grey eyes met brown, and she lifted her eyebrows apologetically. "Sorry-"
Her word turned into a scream when someone pulled her hair and started dragging her along. Her eyes brimmed with tears in pain, as she felt something boiling inside her out of great anger. Her arms linked to two Goblins, she felt herself levitating. A couple of kicks she swung hit the target, making the hands wandering on her sweep more aggressively. Hands, hands were everywhere. Pinching, scratching and searching. It took her couple more kicks before she found herself chained together with the rest of the company. The cuffs on their wrists were heavy and rusty, and everytime a Goblin tugged the chain, the rough edges of the cuffs cut them.
The convoy broke when Dwalin, as mad as a hornet, headbutted a Goblin. His action brought more aggressiveness from the Goblins and now Fai had to run to keep the cuffs from being buried into her skin. There was still blood pouring out from her wound, but it was the least of her worries.
There was - and still is - no proper adjective to describe how the air smelt. It was fouled with decay, and if such thing existed, Goblin sweat. Fai couldn't decide which was worse, the smell or the view. Her conundrum grew even wilder, when they had finally appeared before the gigantic, disgusting, disastrous Goblin King.
Their appearance led up to some kind of song. Goblins of all sorts of height and disgustance came out of their holes, started to cheer and circle around them. They watched a bunch of Goblins piling up under the Goblin King's throne, forming a step out of flesh.
When Fai looked up, she saw no ceiling but a neverending darkness. It was hard to guess how down they were under the ground, but the sight was frightful and she tried not to have a panic attack. At least you're not locked in a small cell, she tried to relieve herself. There's so much room to breathe. You are not kilometers under the ground. You are not.
When her chest started going up and down swiftly, she felt a cuff hitting hers. Then a hand searching for hers as their fingers intertwined seconds later. She turned and met Kili's gaze.
"Calm down." he mouthed through all the gongs and thumps. And squeezed her hand a bit. Fai nodded muddledly as Goblin King started to sing with his torture of a voice.
Swish, smack! Whip crack!
Smash, grab! Pinch, nab!
You go, my lad!
Ho, ho! My lad!
So did the Goblins. They followed every order their King gave through the song. The circle of Goblins around the company tightened and Fai got pinched for the twelfth time that day. They tried to kick them away but their efforts went down the drain. Nori's yelp reared as a Goblin pulled his beard.
The black crack! The back crack!
Down down to Goblin-town
You go, my lad!
Ho ho! My lad!
Dwalin to her right kicked a Goblin in its knees when he saw him scratching Fai's cheek with his sharp nails. Creature got mad when he tried to attack, but Dwalin sent him off with another kick. The pile of Goblin-steps squeaked when their King stepped on them. He was so huge that he could barely balance all the weight of his body. It was wrong to call that thing a body, really. It was a couple of pouches stitched together. Pouches of fat, tumor and herpes. His face was an extension of a very wobbly lump. Fai couldn't believe the sight in front of her when he started to dance.
And to their surprise, it was no ordinary tread. He was performing some kind of a ballet. His lumps flowed in the air instead of a tutu. There was Goblins in charge of keeping him on his feet. When he leaned forward, they went behind and pulled him. And when he fall behind, they pushed him back.
Fai could laugh, if he weren't looking that nauseating and by looking at the tightened grip on her hand, she thought Kili was feeling the same. She gasped when the foul creature pulled of a full pivot. When he got tired, he wobbled back to his throne and the song slowly died down.
He stomped his staff on the ground and yelled.
"Well well well! What kind of miserable poultry do we have here?" He tended to tilt his head when he talked, which made one of his eyes seem bigger, maybe it actually was.
"Dwarves, your Malevolence! And-" he pulled at Fai's chain so that she fell forward on to her knees. "This." Kili jolted a bit as they hands parted, and he clenched his fists in unison with rest of the dwarves when she fell.
"Well, don't you just stand there and gawk! Search them! Take everything!"
A grund of Goblins eagerly swarmed around them and took their swords, blades, all kinds of weapon. In seconds their belongings were piled up in front of the King. His grin got wider with every item added to the batch.
"What be your business around my kingdom? Speak!" the Goblin King snarled. Even a slight movement was snowballing into huge wobbles in his body. Fai looked around curiously to see who was going to speak up. She was still on her knees and the pain was terrible, for one of her knees landed on her chain. The metal was sinking into her skin more every second, and her knee cap was sizzling.
"We were on the road." tattled Bofur. "Well, it's not so much a road as a path. Actually, it's not even that, come to think of it. It's more like a track."
Despite all the pain, Fai bit away the smile trying to come to life on her lips. On the other hand, the Goblin King looked bewildered. One of his eyes grew even wider whilst he tried to process the words. Bofur took the chance and continued with his rambling.
"Anyway, the point is, we were on this road, like a path, like a track. And then we weren't, which is a problem, because we were supposed to be in Dunland last Tuesday."
She heard Dori's voice interrupting. "Visiting distant relations!"
However the king was out of patience. He roared so loud that all the goblins crouched down with little squeaks. Dwarves were the only was standing.
"Enough of that, really. BRING ME MY TOYS! And someone play me some music!"
The Goblins watching them from above ran off in all directions. In no time, the company were deafened by the gong again. An inauspicious rattle heard while Goblins pushed huge machines towards them. Goblin King drummed with the end of his staff, with every beat the ground beneath them quaked. The company had the pouts as the king started singing again.
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 Goblin-Town!
Unlike the other one, this song was enough to give Fai the creeps. She thought that it was highly possible to die there, and like the song said, to never be found. She tried to reposition her knee but she couldn't free it from the chain ring that had become embedded to her skin. Remembering how easily her skin bruises, she gulped.
Near the end of the song, two machines mounted before them. Numerous wooden parts bonded with ropes to form a tormentor. She wanted so bad to be with the dwarfs instead of kneeling in front of them by herself. Her torturer push her under and she yelped with pain of the chain merging in to her skin ever further.
"Well, start with the young ones will ya?" the king of the repulsiveness gestured. "The girl and the other girl among the dwarves!"
He was pointing at Fai and Ori. The dwarves protested as they pulled onto Ori's chains and refused to give him away. When they realized Fai's chains were detached from theirs, it was nearly impossible to hold Fili and Kili back. That was when Thorin's piercing voice transpired.
"Wait."
The giant king's eyes were thrice the size. He looked at Thorin like he was walking and breathing gold.
To the Goblin King, he actually was.
"I can't believe my eyes!" he sang. "The King Beneath the Mountain is beneath my own mountain! It is very interesting now, innit? I know someone who'd pay a pretty price for your not so pretty head!"
Thorin glowered, letting no words out.
"You know of him very well. A Pale Orc." He spoke slowly and extended the words, enjoying their effect to the most. When Thorin opened his mouth to respond, his eyes were inflamed.
"I slained him with my own two hands, Azog the Defiler is buried in the filthy pages of history!"
The Goblin King's chortle was worse than his singing. It twisted and turned, died down at some points and then got even louder. He laughed for a full minute, wobbling and jiggling every inch of his body. When he finally fell out of breath, he skewered a few of goblins with the horns on his staff. He then threw them away, with a final touch of a giggle. Every one of his servants fell silent again, out of utter fear.
"Send the word to the pale Orc, and claim my prize!" the King commanded, as a baby-goblin scribbled on a piece of paper. When finished, he pulled a lever and slid down a system of ropes and pulleys, his evil laugh echoing in the dark.
The giant creature held Fai's gaze and whispered brutally.
"There's no reason why we can't have fun while waiting. And I still want to know about your scheme."
The pain was beyond measure. It was as if every millimeter of her body was on fire. The muscles in the joining points of her limbs burned like embers. Her eyes rolled back into her head as she cried out in excruciating pain. And then there was the pain she caused herself. She was biting her lips to keep the words inside. Biting so hard that her canine teeth sinked into her lips, pouring the blood out. She was afraid of giving their plan away. But then there was one more thing she was afraid of.
She was afraid of giving herself away. With all of her body, she wanted it to stop. She wanted to beg, she wanted to offer her knowledge to make it all stop. She choked on her own blood as her tensed veins and muscles started to feel like hot wires under her skin.
Ori was no better. Fai and him were both tied onto some desks with gears attached on them. A gear for each limb, a Goblin for each gear. The Goblins on duty were rotating gears little by little, making their victims' limbs stretch out in painful angles. They were enjoying their job so much that at some point they had became tongue-tied out of joy. Ori put up with it all just as bravely, but there was something that was pushing his limits.
His hand. The thought of losing the ability to draw or write was almost more painful then the torture itself. He tried to stretch his body so that his hand suffers the least. When the fuckers rotated the gears even more, he screamed in unison with Fai.
Even though he enjoyed the scene, the Goblin King was also bored with their discretion. "Show me their belongings." he complained, wanting to keep himself busy with something else.
A few of his servants besieged the pile of weapons they took from the Dwarves. Oin's flattened hearing trumpet was among them. Choosing the most magnificent looking ones and showing them, they tried to impress their King. It was then, a third scream joined Fai and Ori's.
A long, frightening scream that alarmed all the Goblins.
"The Goblin-Cleaver! The Biter!" the King wailed. The one who found the Orcrist dropped it immediately. All of the Goblins were moved away with fear and dwarves started looking around for a chance to escape, but a shout resonated through the walls killed their attempt.
"Slash them! Cut their heads off!"
Fai was definitely sure that her arms and legs weren't attached to her anymore. At some point, pain had became her reality and there was no such thing as "more pain". There was only pain, erasing everything else and taking over her body and mind. That's why when she got blinded with a bright, white light, she thought she was dying and felt happy.
She didn't know that that light was visible to everyone. Her tormenters screamed in fear and stepped back immediately, when a familiar voice scolded them all.
"Take up arms! Fight! FIGHT!"
On Gandalf's mark, Fai saw someone coming to her aid, struggling with the ropes that tied her down. She couldn't feel, but saw, for her limbs were beyond numb to his touch.
"Can you stand up?" he asked, then took her into his arms, guessing the answer way before she spoke. Tattooed hands held her tightly as its owner ran back to the battleground, headbutting and kicking every Goblin who stood in their way. She saw they were getting closer to Gandalf, as he spread his arms to take her. Ori was hanging loose on Wizards shoulder. After ensuring their security, Dwalin picked up his hammer and lashed into a bunch of Goblins.
Fai wanted to participate, wanted to jump back on the ground and fight with them. She was flaming with vengeance, and wished for someone to slay her and Ori's tormenters. She wasn't familiar with this feeling, but decided it was way better than fear. She wanted to hurt someone back.
Way up high from where she had been carried, she had a good vision of the battle ground. It was finally a good thing for Gandalf to be that tall. She realized the dwarves were still chained together, except for Dwalin. He was exclaiming battle cries and hammering two or three goblins at the same time. He looked like the description of being badass.
Gandalf was also a rebel, balancing Ori and her at the same time, and still managing to kick some ass. They were running through narrow bridges as they pushed lines and lines of Goblins down. At one stage, she saw the company using a ladder to drive the Goblins off, Kili was on the frontmost. She also realized that he was looking back every now and then, trying to understand whether Ori and her was alright.
After some more chasing, the wooden bridge in front of them suddenly exploded. Battens and wooden bollards scattered all around. The Goblin King who came out of nowhere was responsible for the mess. He roughened with pride and gave them a threatening look, while Gandalf lowered Fai and Ori down on the ground. Rest of the dwarves immediately circled them, trying to make them stand up as Gandalf pointed his sword and staff up at the Goblin King at the same time.
"There is no escape from me! What are you going to do now, nidget?."
Fai was trying to stand upon her jelly of legs, helding by both Kili and Balin while Ori was standing still by the help of Dori and Nori. When Gandalf evaded Goblin King's strike, Fai heard Kili's concerned whisper in her ear.
*Are you alright?*
She looked him in the eye instead of giving an answer, knowing that lying was pointless. Then an abrupt gasp split the air.
"That'll do."
Figuring it was the part where Gandalf rips the Goblin's guts open, she held on to Kili's arm even tighter. The bridge teared apart with a sudden crack and they began to fall. They were all interlaced with the chains, so the fall didn't separate them.
They started to float in the air in full speed and for the tenth time of that day they were all sure of their death was coming. Kili took Fai in his arms instead of supporting her weight with Balin, and pressed her tightly to his chest. Fai saw Dori and Nori locking Ori in between. She couldn't see anything else as they kept falling, and when they finally hit the ground, there began the sliding. The bridge was acting like a sledge and carried them forward at full speed. They stopped a couple of minutes later when tossed into a wall.
It was all calm and peaceful for a few seconds, until one of them stammered, pointing up the hill. "GANDALF!"
Hundreds of Goblins were running towards them, screaming and poking the air with their weapons. They were looking like little spiders as they rushed forward. Fai saw one of the most troubled expressions appearing on the Wizards face. "Here now, get up!" he roared. "The daylight will be our saviour."
Get up, yeah Fai laughed in her head, still having jellylike limbs. This time someone else picked her up before she knew, and they all started running after the wizard. Fortunately it didn't take them long to find a way out. Blinded by the sudden daylight, they all snarled with grumpiness and Gandalf's mumblings heard as he counted them.
"Alright that's it." Gloin grunted. "We need to separate first."
Keeping counting for some reason, Gandalf absent-mindedly broke the chains binding them with his staff. His touch heated the metal and had all the Dwarves grunting even more for a few minutes. But the wizard didn't seem to care.
"Bilbo?!" he then recognized, his eyes wildly inflamed. "Where is Bilbo? Where is our Burglar?"
"What happened to him?" Bofur inquired, as all of them started looking around.
"Let me tell you what happened." Thorin gave them a condescending nose laugh. "Our nitwit of a burglar found the perfect opportunity to flee. We won't be seeing our Hobbit again, for must be on his way to his safe hole underground already."
"No he is not?"
Bilbo literally appeared out of the blue, his hand was in his pocket. Anyone else but Fai had seen that. All of the dwarves except one sighed in relieve, as they gave him comforting pats on his shoulder, some of them ruffled his hair.
"It's true that I miss my home and I'm not ashamed of this. I miss my fireplace, miss my kitchen - which you came to like it just as much, I also miss my garden and my books. It's my home, see? And that's why I'll stick around till the very end, that is why I will keep my promise. To help you reclaim the place you can call your home."
The dwarves fell quiet then, looking at the brave Hobbit in front them in admiration. Even Thorin had no words to say and there were traces of a defeated smile on his face.
"Move." he commanded but not as solemn as usual. "He have injured ones amongst us." With his last words, a worried expression appeared on his face. He reached out to support Ori's weight. As they started walking, with him carrying Ori on his back, he smiled and praised. "You did good today Ori. You did very good."
It took them around an hour to find a place they could take shelter. By the looks of it, and the piles of hay inside, it once was a barn and attached to a farm. But as they stood there was nothing but the remains of it could be seen. It didn't matter, for a barn itself was more than enough. Once Dwalin and Nori made sure that it was safe inside, and the place has been abandoned for years, they went inside and made makeshift beds out of hay. Ori and Fai were capable of some clumping by then, so they clumsily headed towards their beds. Dori accompanied Ori to his pile of hay, while Fai was rejecting any kind of help.
"I've been carried around enough for one day!" she protested, but Fili insisted on walking beside her just in case. He made sure that she made it safely to her bed, then wandered away to check on Ori.
"I suppose you didn't spill the beans."
Fai startled at the sudden whisper, why did he have to always creep up? Gandalf smiled mischievously, as he knew what had crossed her mind. She pointed her body with her two forefingers and rolled her eyes.
"And look where it got me."
The wizard's face clouded with worry, but he tried to keep it vivacious. "Oh come now." he chuckled, lightly flapping his hand in front of his face. "Don't tell me you regret it."
Fai laughed back and shook her head. "Of course I don't.. I am just surprised that I pulled it off. And to be honest.. A little bit angry, because I didn't get to stab a Goblin. I would be good to use some of the tricks Elrond taught me.."
"And I hope you never get the chance." Gandalf responded, wearing that worried look again. They stood there in silence until Oin came to tend her wounds. That was when Gandalf excused himself and went for a Valar-knows-what.
Outside of the barn, a young dark haired dwarf was sitting, his back against the faded red wall. He looked troublesome. He plucked fistfuls of dead grass out of the soil as a furious expression took over his face.
"Come on, let's go inside! I've found some water."
Looking up, he saw his brother standing with a bucket in his hand. It was one of the rarest moments that Kili didn't want his brother around. Turning a deaf ear, he kept plucking the grass. He didn't want to be inside, he had been wreaking his anger on the grass just because of that. He knew it was more than some unwillingness though, and it wasn't that he wouldn't. He couldn't be inside, for some reason.
"Stay here." commanded Fili, and held the bucket of water higher. "I'll drop this off to Oin, and come back immediately. He's trying to clean Fai's wounds."
Hearing what he just said knocked him back another fistful of grass. Being this worried was annoying him so much that he wanted to smash his head against the wall behind him. He sighed in despair, and finally left the poor grass alone. Kili's concern was arising from anger. And by former experiences, he knew how he would act around Fai when he was angry. And he was a hundred percent sure that he'd be infuriated upon seeing her wounds. Not only hers, he protested against himself in his head. Also Ori's. He wished for more Goblin ass to kick, there was no way his anger would go away easily. That foul creatures, that little-
The amount of desperation he felt when they took her and Ori was more than he could bear. At first Fili was just as eager, but after a while Kili was so out of control that he forgot about himself and focused on keeping his brother still. Kili took a breath and rolled his sleeves up. His wrists were still cuffed, but under them there were circles of half-dried blood. He let a quiet moan out of pain and closed his eyes while still trying to calm down.
"Ori is beyond happy that his wrist isn't broken." Fili reported, as he sat cross-legged against his brother.
"Oh that's fine!" Kili smiled for real. But he was restless, he was squirming lightly on where he sat. He was curious about a certain someone and could hardly hide it. It was kind of weird, really, while a part of him was dying to hear how she was, rest of his body was refusing to learn. There he stood, feeling like a total maniac.
"As for Fai," Fili began with hesitation, he had felt that something was not right about his brother. He suspected of a wound or something, and by looking how ill-at-ease Kili looked, Fili thought that he might be in pain. Analyzing every little change in his brother's mimics, he continued. "She has some unpleasant wounds."
There it was, the dramatic change on his face; instantly furrowed eyebrows, and darkened eyes. Fili thought how enraged his brother became when the Goblins tortured Ori and Fai. It had been incredibly hard to pull him down. He too, rolled his sleeves up and threw his brother a painful smile. His wounded wrists were exposed, the cuffs had slashed him too while he was struggling with his brother.
"Nothing too major tho," Fili continued, in the hopes of calming his brother down. Also, he hoped to understand what was is it with Kili. "And she asked me where you are."
As Kili's face instantly softened, Fili stared at him with his jaw dropped, slapping himself in the forehead in astonishment.
By. My. Beard. Fili thought, totally stupefied and barely banishing the smile from his lips. His face lit up with enlightenment.
"Are you alright?" Kili eyed his brother questioningly, looking confused and slightly annoyed.
"Yyep, perfectly fine." Fili laughed off. Of course Kili didn't believe it, but honestly, he was in no mood for further investigation. Truth be told, he was now obviously annoyed with his elder brother's nonsense. Mahal, he thought, as if I don't have enough to worry about.
Fili, who was constantly trying to keep a straight face, got up un his feet. "We have to go inside now alright?" he inquired, giving Kili a helping hand. "Oin's gonna check our wounds too."
The brown headed one felt his breaths shortening as they went into the old barn.