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It's a little bit disjointed, it was on purpose but I'm not sure if it worked or not, so do tell :P As usual sorry for any mistakes.
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Chapter Twenty Six # Pompeii #
"And the walls kept tumbling down But if you close your eyes,
In the city that we love
Grey clouds roll over the hills
Bringing darkness from above
Does it almost feel like
Nothing changed at all?
And if you close your eyes,
Does it almost feel like
You've been here before?
How am I gonna be an optimist about this?
How am I gonna be an optimist about this?" Bastille, Pompeii
Frodo stared in awe around the huge cavern.
"So this lake supplies water to the whole city?"
Bilbo nodded absently. "According to the plans and information that Ori and Balin gave me, there's a huge indoor plumbing system supplying water to the entire city."
"Do you think that the water could be poisoned?" Merry asked curiously, staring at a nearby vein of gold running through the rock. "Do you think that that is what's making the children sick?"
Bilbo shook his head. "Possibly but I doubt it. If it is, why isn't everyone sick?"
"It could be a disease that only children are susceptible to." Merry shrugged.
"Surely if it was they would all have gotten sick?" Frodo guessed, peering into the crystal clear water.
"You would think so…" Bilbo mused.
They had been in the tunnels for the past two days, with no signs at all to where Oden, the little boy who died twice had come from, but so far they had found nothing, not a single trace.
"Where do we go now, Bilbo?" Frodo asked, gazing up at the gem studded ceiling.
"I'm not sure…" the older hobbit looked around at the numerous tunnels.
"This way…" Merry said darkly, and the two Bagginses turned to look at their young companion. He was staring down one of the significantly darker tunnels, a draft disturbing the hair around his face.
"What makes you say that?" Frodo stepped towards his younger cousin apprehensively.
"It smells awful." The faint trace of humour on Merry's face could not disguise his disgust. "Like blood, sweat and goblins."
"You always did have a good nose…" Frodo murmured as he arrived at his cousin's side, his own nose wrinkling up.
"Blood, sweat and goblins? They're the last things I would want to smell when looking for a child…" Bilbo sighed heavily. "And it makes my heart sink to think that blood, sweat and goblins mean we're on the right track."
"Hear, hear." Merry muttered, before stepping into the tunnel.
Frodo followed immediately, allowing Bilbo to take the rear. While the immense cavern behind them had its own lighting, the tunnel they had chosen to plunge into was utterly dark, with the sole exception of the bright orange flicker of their torches. As they walked on, the tunnel got smaller and smaller, until they were all but crawling on their hands and knees.
Frodo felt his breathing quicken slightly as claustrophobia loomed over him, but he forced himself to breathe deeply and keep moving.
"Do you see anything?" He asked Merry in a hushed tone.
"Nothing but darkness and damp. Oh, look, there's another Arkenstone!"
"What?" Bilbo asked sharply and Merry sniggered. Bilbo sighed with irritation. "Meriadoc Brandybuck-"
"I'm sorry, Bilbo. Just trying to diffuse the tension."
"Well you didn't do a very good job of it." Bilbo snapped, and Merry hung his head slightly.
Frodo shook his head and pressed on until Merry stopped still. "Oh..."
"What?" Frodo cried. The tunnel was too small for him to peek around Merry, so when his cousin did not answer, he repeated the question. "What is it, Merry, what's wrong?"
"It's a child..." Merry murmured, bending down.
Holding his torch over Merry's sandy head, Frodo could see a tiny, emaciated dwarfling curled in on himself on the floor and his heart sank.
The boy's hair was matted with blood and his entire body was bruised and scraped, but when Merry checked for a pulse the boy took a gasping breath, his eyes flying open.
"It's alright, I'm not going to hurt you-" Merry began, but the boy's eyes were filled with terror and he struggled desperately to sit up.
"Please!" The child rasped, before coughing violently. "Please, I can still work!"
"Work? What are you talking about?" Merry frowned, but his calm tone seemed to upset the boy more and he burst into tears.
"Oh-oh, p-please d-d-don't, I'm sorry I r-r-ran!"
"Hey, hey, we're not going to hurt you." Merry soothed, and Frodo took a small step back to give the dwarfling some space. "Where are you running from?"
The boy let out a small wail. "I'm s-sorry, I'll go b-b-back-"
"I don't want you to go back-" Merry started, and the boy wailed louder. Frodo was about to interrupt Merry, worried that he was making things worse, when his cousin asked. "Where're your parents?"
"My...my what?" The boy sniffed, looking surprised.
"Your parents." Merry repeated softly. "Your Amad and Adad, who are they?"
Slowly, the boy sniffed. "You're...you're not goblins?"
Merry huffed, putting his hands on his hips. "We most certainly are not! Filthy creatures, goblins! No, we're hobbits."
"Like Bilbo Baggins?" The boy whispered, the abject terror in his eyes ebbing away to simple fear.
"I am Bilbo Baggins." Bilbo mentioned softly, waving over Frodo's shoulder, and the boy's eyes widened in a mixture of wonder and horror.
"Why are you working for the goblins?" The boy cried, curling in on himself again.
"We're not working for any goblins!" Merry replied indignantly. "We're here to look for clues."
"Clues?"
"Did you know a little boy called Oden?"
The boy gasped. "He...he escaped?"
Frodo's heart twisted painfully and Merry swallowed. "He…uh…Almost. He almost escaped."
Fresh tears glistened in the boy's eyes, but his rasping voice was as strong as they had ever heard it. "You came down to look for us?"
Merry smiled. "We weren't sure what we were looking for, we were trying to find out where he came from."
"There are more of you?" Frodo asked gently and the boy nodded suspiciously.
"B-back there…"
"How many more?" Bilbo asked quietly.
The boy's eyes filled with tears. "I don't know…I don't know my numbers!"
Frodo felt another surge of pity fill his heart. "Can you tell us if there are lots?"
"Lots and lots…" he nodded with a sob, before concentrating. "Strawberries."
"What?" Merry frowned.
"There are more children than there are pips on a strawberry. And there are more goblins than children, and more come every day!" the boy started to cry again.
"More of who come every day? What are you doing down here?" Merry asked.
"Both!" the boy whispered, cringing away from Merry again. "I-I can't tell you! If I t-t-t-tell you they'll kill me!"
"You're safe now." Merry promised, reaching out to take the boy's shackled hands. "Now, I don't have anything I could use to get these off with me, but I know some people who can."
"The others, the others aren't safe!"
"Alright…" Bilbo said quietly. "What's your name?"
The boy blinked, as if he had never been asked such a question. "My…my name?"
"Yes, your name?"
An uncomfortable sense of déjà vu tingled down Frodo's spine as he watched the little boy's eyes light up.
"You were not so very different from a hobbit once, were you... Sméagol?" he asked, watching the creature careful.
"What did you call me?" it hissed.
"That was your name once, wasn't it? A long time ago." Frodo edged.
The creature's eyes lit up. "My name... My name... S... S...Sméagol…"
"My name, my name!" the little boy laughed in the same hoarse manner in which he spoke. "I had a name, once, I had name!"
"What was it?" Frodo asked, and the child blinked shyly.
"Binni…" the little boy offered warily.
"Well then, Binni," Bilbo smiled over Frodo's shoulder. "This is my friend Merry, he's going to take you back into the city, and Frodo and I are going to scout ahead and get some information so that we can all help all of the other children, alright?"
The little boy nodded shyly.
"Can you do that, Merry?" Bilbo asked quietly, and the young hobbit nodded.
"Of course." He shuffled forward, opening his arms to Binni.
With fearful reluctance the boy slipped into Merry's arms and the youngest hobbit stood up, before laughing as he tried to manoeuvre around Frodo without any space to do so.
Frodo could hear Merry chatting gently to the child as he disappeared down the tunnel.
"What do you think the goblins are doing with the children?" he asked Bilbo quietly.
"I don't think I want to know…" Bilbo put a hand on Frodo's shoulder, as much for his own comfort as for Frodo's. "Let's go."
~ The Hobbit ~
Thorin sighed. "So Bilbo and Frodo still aren't back?"
"No…" Ori nodded.
"How did Bombur take the news?"
"Well enough…" Ori murmured, "I told him all that we know."
"The boy, Binni, has he woken up yet?" the king asked.
"No, he hasn't." Ori shook his head regretfully.
"But the healers say he will live?"
"They are fairly certain that he will live."
Thorin took a deep breath, feeling a little relieved. "Do we know where his parents are?"
"I don't think that they're in Erebor." Ori admitted. "If they were, they would have come forward. But on the list of children that died in the Blue Hills, there is the name Kobinn, son Kovu…"
"Binni is a popular nickname for Kobinn." Thorin nodded. "Have you sent word to the Blue Mountains?"
"Not yet." Ori shook his head. "I'll get someone to do that right away."
Thorin nodded. "Yes, do. What about the other children, how are they doing?"
"Well it's been less than two days since we switched the water but we haven't lost any of them since. In fact, some of them seem to be getting better, according to Iona." Ori informed the king.
"That is good news." Thorin ran a hand over his jaw. "How is Nala?"
"Bombur says that she is stable, not better, not worse."
Thorin nodded. "Thank you, Ori."
Ori bowed and left the room. The king watched the scribe's retreating back, and sighed, wondering if he might be able to catch a few minutes rest.
"Thorin! Thorin!"
Or not.
"Fíli, what is the matter?" Thorin frowned as his nephew ran towards him in a very undignified manner.
"Bilbo and Frodo, they're back!" Fíli panted. "It's bad!"
He followed Fíli back through the halls of Erebor and pushed his way through the crowd gathering around the two hobbits. His eyes widened as he saw Bofur rushing in to take Bilbo off of Frodo, who had been supporting his cousin's body weight.
"What happened?" Thorin demanded of anyone with answers.
"They just came out of that tunnel, that tunnel there!" A woman cried.
"Out of the way, get out of the way!" Bofur huffed, slinging an apparently unconscious Bilbo over his shoulder and racing towards the nearby healing halls.
"What happened?" Thorin turned to Frodo, who looked like he was in shock. Thinking quickly, Thorin grabbed Frodo's shoulder and jostled the hobbit into a nearby council room, slamming the door after Balin and Dwalin before turning to Frodo and repeating. "What happened?"
"Goblins!" Frodo's wide eyes were full of horror. "There are goblins down there, hundreds of them!"
"What?" Thorin cried. "In the city?"
"A few leagues under the city, under the Eastern side of the mountain." Frodo clarified, "And they have children, they have hundreds of children!"
"Hundreds?" Thorin's heart sank as his mind began to race.
Frodo nodded shakily.
"What are they doing with them, with the children?" Thorin demanded and Frodo closed his eyes with a shudder.
"They're using them as slaves." He said in a hollow tone.
"Slaves?" Thorin gaped.
"Yes, slaves." Frodo nodded desperately. "It's…it's bad, Thorin! There was nothing we could do against so many so we headed back, to get help…"
"Then what happened?" Thorin pressed when Frodo stopped.
"It must have been about three hours ago, we heard goblins coming towards us but there was nowhere to go. We tried to fight but Bilbo…they stabbed him!"
Thorin took a deep breath. "They stabbed him?"
Frodo nodded, looking utterly lost. "I all but carried him back."
"Alright…" Thorin rubbed a hand over his eyes. "Frodo, I need you to tell Balin everything you remember about the location of the children, any details that might help us in any way! Dwalin, go to the tunnel they emerged from and set up a guard, tell no one of what was said in this room, do you understand?"
All three of his companions bowed and Thorin swooped out of the room. If he had not been in full King mode before, he was now. Marching straight to the healing halls, Thorin burst through the doors.
"Where is he?" he demanded. "Where is our hobbit?"
One of the healers led him over. "He is unconscious, my lord, but I believe that he will live."
Thorin nodded. Though Bilbo was part of his company and makeshift family, he knew all that he needed to know to fulfil his duty as King, so he nodded at the healer. "The moment he wakes, or worsens, send word to me immediately."
"Yes, sire." The healer nodded, before scurrying off to do his duty.
Thorin walked down the hall and knocked on a nearby door.
"Nori."
"Sire." Nori bowed, recognising that Thorin would not break the age old tradition of leaving the family alone for five days without good cause.
"I am sorry to interrupt, Nori, but I need your expertise." Thorin announced gravelly. "Bilbo has been stabbed."
"What?" Nori hissed, taking a step out of the door.
"He will live," Thorin assured his friend. "Frodo has told me that there are children being kept down under the city by goblins, I need to see you and Dwalin and your Watchers in the main council room, as soon as you can-"
"Now," a soft voice said quietly, and Kára emerged from the shadows. "Nori can go now, your majesty."
"Are you sure?" Nori asked his wife quietly and she nodded.
It was the first time that Thorin had met or even seen Kára, daughter of Gunnar, but he did not have time for proper introduction. Instead he bowed deeply.
"Thank you, my lady."
She gave a little smile and nodded.
A couple of hours later Thorin was in the council room with the entire company with the exception of Bilbo, Bombur, Kíli and Legolas, and the additions of Thorin Stonehelm, several councillors and Merry.
"So…" Thorin finished. "That is what we know."
"So what's the plan?" Merry vocalised the question when the silence became too much to bear.
"Well…" Balin took a deep breath.
Suddenly the doors burst open and Caver raced in. "I'm s-sorry!"
"What's wrong?" Thorin ordered, and the young skin-changer swallowed.
"It's…well, it's Bilbo…"
I hope you enjoyed that, please let me know! Also I uploaded a new story called Strangers Like Me, check it out if you like :)
PS, yes I was a little desperate with the chapter name, I wanted to get it up tonight :P