Daisy stood in the dark wondering how Gandalf would ever find them. He had no idea where they made camp nor that there were beastly creatures that lived in these mountains. Their fates looked grim.

The company was herded into the dark like cattle down deep towards the heart of the mountain. The cave was dark but the goblins knew their way and kept sure footing while their captives blindly stumbled over rocks. Daisy was shoved and prodded along into the stagnant darkness, the goblins were rough and pinched mercilessly while stepping on Daisy's feet. Though she could not see, she could feel a large dwarf hand take hers to help guide her through the darkness.

The end of the tunnel glowed red with light a ways away. Daisy could see that the dwarf attached to her hand was Bofur, he looked back with worry in his eyes and gave her a reassuring nod. The goblins began to sing, if you could call their horrible croaking noises singing, and smacked their feet against the stones below. Daisy's heart raced with terror as they approached the light, she screwed her eyes shut and wished to be home in her nice hobbit-hole surrounded by her family.

"Clap! Snap! the black crack!
Grip, grab! Pinch, nab!
And down down to Goblin-town
You go, my lad!
Clash, crash! Crush, smash!
Hammer and tongs! Knocker and gongs!
Pound, pound, far underground!
Ho, ho! my lad!
Swish, smack! Whip crack!
Batter and beat! Yammer and bleat!
Work, work! Nor dare to shirk,
While Goblins quaff, and Goblins laugh,
Round and round far underground
Below, my lad!"

The singing was grotesque and guttural, the walls echoed with their voices and raucous stomping. The song meaning was all too clear, the goblins took out whips and cracked them in their air sending the dwarves running down the torch lit corridor towards the red light.

Their path opened to a great cavern in the heart of the mountain full of goblins. The grotesque creatures laughed and heckled their prisoners when they came stumbling in. The goblins lined up their prisoners and bound their hands marching them to the center of the cavern. The company watched helplessly as their belongings were snatched up by their captors, their weapons were dumped in a heaping pile while the ugly creatures fought over which belongings they wanted to keep. They didn't find any particular use for Oin's ear trumpet and squished it flat.

A large goblin riddled with boils popped out of the shadows and assumed his seat on a large flat stone that resembled a throne. Surrounding him were armed goblins, standing with axes and swords to the ready.

"Who are these miserable creatures?" inquired the Great Goblin in an unusually high pitched voice for his size. "Who would be so bold as to come armed into MY kingdom? Spying on the privet business of my people? Thieves? Assassins?"

"Dwarves." spat an especially ugly goblin in a loin cloth. "And this thing."

The ugly goblin grabbed Daisy by the arm and shoved her towards their host. The little hobbit fell forward landing on her knees.

"We found them on our Front Porch."

"What are you doing int these parts?" The Great Goblin asked. "And none of your dwarf tricks, I want the truth."

"You're going to have to speak up," Oin shouted in a defiant tone. "Your boys here flattened my trumpet."

"I'll flatten more than your trumpet!" The Great Goblin bellowed.

"If it's information you want, then I'm the one you should speak to." Bofur said in a calming tone. "you see, we were on the road. 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. 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."

"Visiting distant relations." Dori chimed in.

"SHUT UP!" The Great Goblin screamed, his head was spinning trying to keep up with Bofur's babbling. "If they will not talk, we will make them squawk. Bring up the Mangler and the Bone Crusher. We shall start with the youngest."

Daisy turned to follow the direction the Great Goblin was pointing in. Her face paled when she realized that he intended his first victim to be poor Ori.

"WAIT!" Shouted Thorin as he pushed forward. "We had no intention to be a threat to you and your people, we merely sought shelter from a storm in what we thought was a conveniently unused cave. We have no farther motive."

"Well, well, well." Their host said in an amused tone. "Look who it is. Thorin, son of Thrain, son of Thror, king under the mountain. Oh wait, I'm forgetting... you don't HAVE a mountain. And you're not a king so that makes you nobody really."

Thorin stood before their captors staring down their leader with a defiant glare. How dare they call him nobody, he may not be king yet but Daisy knew he was far from 'nobody'.

"I know someone who would pay a pretty price for your head." The Great Goblin stated. "Just a head mind you, nothing need be attached. Perhaps you know of whom I speak, the son of an old enemy."

"Your malevolence." A diminutive goblin shouted in horror as he dropped Thorin's glowing sword to the ground. "He has yet to explain this."

The Great Goblin let out an awful howl of pain and rage as he stared at Orcrist, all around him goblins let out wails and beat their weapons on the ground. The sword in front of them slew thousands of their kin since it was forged by the elves of Gondolin and was referred to simply as "Biter". They hated the sword and anyone who bore it.

"Murderers! Worse yet elf-friends!" The Great Goblin howled. "Slash them! Beat them! Bite Them! Take them away to the dark pits full of snakes!"

The great one launched himself off his perch and rushed towards the party of dwarves, Daisy barely had enough time to roll to the side and avoid being trampled. Before the goblin reached his captives the great fire went out leaving the large cavern in the darkness. A burst of glowing blue light scattered piercing white sparks out amongst the goblins momentarily blinding them. The room burst into chaos, goblins were falling all over each other having fits.

Out of the darkness a long sword glowed blue and sliced through and sliced through the air. In the sword light Daisy could see it skewer the great goblin, he went limp and fell to the floor with a rumbling thud.

"Quickly, follow me!" It's wielder shouted. "We have mere minutes before the torches will be relit."

It took a few seconds before Daisy understood what was going on, Gandalf had found them. Daisy followed the faint glow of Gandalf's sword as the company took off down more darkened passages away from the goblin-hall.

Gandalf's staff began to glow with soft light to illuminate the tunnels just enough for him to see the path ahead and for the dwarves to follow. His other hand wielded his sword, glowing brighter as the goblins grew closer but a ways down the darkened tunnel he made the company stop for a quick rest. The glowing sword made quick work of the companies bindings. He quickly began to distribute the dwarves personal weapons he managed to pinch from the pile, including Daisy's small sword.

"Are we all here?" Gandalf held his staff up to illuminate the small tunnel. "Let's see, one - that's Thorin; two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten, eleven; where are Fili and Kili? Oh, there you are, twelve, thirteen - and our burglar is taking up the rear at fourteen."

"Well that could've gone worse." Bofur whispered.

"Then again it might be a good deal better Master Bofur," Gandalf reminded him. "we have no food, most of our supplies are gone, we don't quite know where we are and we have hordes of angry goblins on our heels. Oh well, on we go!"

As soon as they resumed their journey down the stagnant halls goblin noises and gutteral cries echoed down the passageway providing them with an extra incentive to sped up. Daisy wasn't use to so much running and her legs were too small to keep up with her company yet she was not ready to give up. It wasn't long before they could her the clap of bare goblin feet against the stone floor ahead of them.

"Why didn't I accept Elrond's offer." Daisy muttered to herself. "Better yet why did I leave home?"

"Stupid hobbit, always slowing us down." Bombur grumbled just a head of her.

Gandalf, Thorin, and Dwalin stood at the front of the line standing at the ready to defend their group. Bofur grabbed Daisy's hand with a reassuring squeeze and pushed the hobbit behind him. The goblins came into sight, the glow of Goblin-cleaver and Foe-hammer shone cold and reflected in their wide eyes. The front line of goblins didn't have time to drop their torches before they were struck down. Then all confusion broke out in the little corridor, most goblins fled for safety while others unsuccessfully battled to regain their hostages. Once a path was cleared the dwarves stepped over the corpses of their fallen foes and continued on.

As they traveled on their path narrowed and the wall disappeared on the one side, they could tell there was nothingness to their left. One wrong move would send them into a void, with such little light they could not tell how deep it was or what lay below. A little ways away the eleven swords glowed brighter, this time the goblins minded their feet put out their torches and ran forward, swift and silent as rats in the dark. No one heard the goblins coming from behind, one ran up and grabbed Daisy by the hair flinging her at the wall. She tried to regain her footing but she teetered over the edge and fell, a blood curdling scream ripped from her chest as she tumbled into the void. At some point on the way down her head collided with a hard rock and she faded into unconsciousness.