"Radagast!"
A smile appeared on Gandalf's face as he added, "Radagast the Brown."
The wizard? Bilbo's eyes snapped up from where he watched his cousin being mauled by overly-affectionate-when-scared rabbits to take in the figure before them.
When they had heard Poppy's scream and the crash of underbrush that immediately followed, the odd man was not what he'd been expecting. When Gandalf had said to arm themselves and Bilbo truly grasped his sword for the first time, this had not been the outcome he envisioned. Though he couldn't say he was complaining. The figure seemed more odd than dangerous.
Clad all in brown as his surname, or title rather, suggested, the man was just shorter than Gandalf, his hat not having nearly the height. Something that looked suspiciously like dried bird excrement ran in a stream from the brim of his wide-winged hat down to his unkempt beard. Well, now that he looked at the wizard, it was far easier to imagine him as a bit of a hermit. Also, was that a sled he was driving? A rabbit-drawn sled…
No, no one at home would ever believe what he'd seen. He was going to be nicknamed 'Crazy Baggins' and he'd never be respectable again. He was sure of it.
Their wizard's voice and its change from completely jovial to wary took him from his thoughts, "What on earth are you doing here?"
It took a moment for Radagast to stop staring out into the distance, his knuckles white where he held his sled and eyes wide as he breathed heavily. Instead of his fellow Istari's words, it was Poppy's that pulled him from his stupor.
She was fond of rabbits, quite fond indeed, but they needed to stop all trying to reach and sit on her head at once. After receiving the last of numerous kicks to the chest, she gasped out, gently fighting the creatures down as she struggled to sit, "Yes, yes, I love you, too. My lap isn't nearly big enough for all of you, so let's just calm down. Ow, no, my neck is not for nibbling on. That is not for rabbits."
A tilt of his head to the side the first motion he'd made, the brown wizard asked in a whisper, "Gandalf, when did you get such a rabbit? Have you had her long?"
Freezing where she sat as a bunny bounded its way onto her shoulder, Poppy blinked stupidly at the man. Her mouth gaped open like a fish's before she managed with true confusion, "I beg your pardon?"
Finding Gandalf's eyes, he nodded with ill-timed though quite comprehensive enthusiasm, "It's like she's speaking! Where did you find such a large rabbit, Gandalf? Mine are quite particular about who they befriend, though they seem to like her."
Eyes flitting to her old friend, she whispered in the voice she often used to try and calm animals, as if scared she would spook the odd figure to anger, "Gandalf, does he honestly think I am a rabbit?"
"No!" Radagast exclaimed, making them all flinch, a wide smile stretching across his face, "She is not a rabbit at all, is she! She's Anna! I've heard you spoken of, little rabbit. I should have recognized you before!"
As she stared at him with wide, shocked, and clearly disconcerted eyes, his smile remained, his gaze not straying from her. First she was a rabbit and then he knew her name, that name. Poppy couldn't get up the presence of mind to say a word.
Looking quite perturbed himself, the grey wizard coughed slightly, gaining his fellow's attention and repeating his question, "What are you doing here?"
Face contorting and going completely from one end of the emotional spectrum to the other, Radagast gasped out, fear again on his face and in his hurried voice, "I was looking for you, Gandalf. Something's wrong. Something's terribly wrong." He punctuated each word with a shaky hand gesture, his body twitching not unlike his jittery steeds.
"Yes…?" Gandalf nodded, warily urging him to continue.
The other wizard's mouth opened, his face full of purpose and knowledge…and then it was gone. He tried a few more times, a hopeful expression being conjured up every time. Finally, frowning, tilting his head as if moving his brain would cause something to slip back into place, he muttered, "Just give me a minute. Oh! I had a thought and now I've lost it. It was right on the tip of my tongue."
"Wait," Radagast concluded with a small laugh, "it's not a thought at all." Waiting as Gandalf reached over and carefully extracted a bug from atop his tongue with two fingers, he added helpfully, "It's a silly old stick insect."
Had Poppy not been the only one with an expression of shock and confusion by that time, she was certainly not alone after that. Frowning, an eyebrow rising of its own accord, Bilbo gazed on, wondering if the wizard had had anything to drink already that day…He swore he'd never met an odder person in all his life.
Also, how on earth did he know that name for Poppy?!
As Gandalf pulled his colleague aside, giving them all a look that said to stay put, Radagast called happily back to the girl with a little wave of his staff, "Do watch them for me, little rabbit! They've run a long way."
Stepping forward, Bilbo knelt beside his still stunned cousin. Pushing a particularly bouncy rabbit down before it could leap onto his back, he asked quietly, "How on earth does he know you?"
Eyes still wide, she shook her head.
"What does that mean, he should've recognized you?"
Again her head shook. Glancing up at him, she whispered, "I haven't the faintest idea. How did he think I was a rabbit? Do I look like a rabbit?"
Letting out an apprehensive chuckle at that, Bilbo shrugged, "Completely bonkers, that one." Reaching out, he tentatively patted one of the rabbits' heads. It stared at him for a moment before its ears perked forward and it stood up higher on its hind legs, searching for another pat. Smiling slightly, in awe at being so close to the skittish animals, he looked to Poppy with some pride. He hadn't been able to do this since they were both small and she had coaxed a cottontail out of its den, her continuous soothing voice keeping it calm enough for him to pet.
Her eyes were no longer on him or the animals, however. Her hands continued absently petting them where they crowded about her, each vying for a spot in her lap, but her gaze rested over Bilbo's shoulder.
When the wizards had turned to converse on their own, the dwarves had bunched together, a few poking through their gear and repacking things. The others stood talking lowly in groups, looking over at the two conversing Istari. Fili was standing beside Dwalin, a smile upon his face at something the warrior had said but unhappiness clear in his eyes and the way he stood.
Frowning, wondering why the less-irritating of the brothers was not with Poppy as he'd come to both expect and accept, Bilbo looked between the two. That morning they had been thick as thieves as usual. Had she not looked so very happy in the dwarf's arms, he would have made a comment about it. The genuine joy that had practically radiated off of his cousin and the knowledge that she was disinclined to take to his meddling if she didn't ask for it had given him pause.
Though a part of him would look at every male that looked at his cousin with the urge to chase them down the lane with his garden shovel, Bilbo was more than aware that Poppy needed friends, needed people besides just him to care about her. Fili gave her that and he wasn't one to try and muck about with it…or Poppy's temper for the aforementioned meddling.
However, something now seemed wrong. Whereas hours before the two had appeared as happy in one another's company as ever, after Thorin had ordered his nephews back…
And there lay the problem, Bilbo concluded. Thorin had done something. Eyes narrowing slightly, he looked about to find the dwarf king. He found Kili first, an equally displeased expression on his face as he looked from his brother to the girl who had become his friend.
They exchanged a knowing glance, at the end of which both sighed.
Sitting back on a rock, Kili continued fiddling absently with his bowstring after Bilbo looked back to the rabbits, something he said drawing Poppy's attention from looking rather forlornly at his brother. Letting out an angrier sigh, the dwarf dug the toe of his boot into the dirt.
He loved his uncle, he really did, but sometimes, one some occasions, he wondered at Thorin's actions. Something that none of them took the nerve to guess at had put him in a foul mood that morning and, as usual, the hobbit had been the one to take the brunt of the blame for it. Kili wondered what part of his uncle's thought process made it necessary to find so many faults in her.
The same thing had often happened to Fili in their youth, well younger youth. As the heir, his actions had been far more scrutinized than Kili's, and though he often pretended not to notice for Fili's sake, the younger brother had. Perhaps it was the combination of that old habit and the new one of searching for a concrete reason to send the stubborn hobbit home that had prompted the dark words they'd been told while going to gather the remnants of the first camp.
Voice gruff and harsh, the tone that said not to argue with him, their uncle had laid down in no uncertain terms that they were on a quest, a quest to regain their homeland, and neither of them had better forget it. They had one purpose and one purpose only on that journey and it was to regain their birthright, their home. Given the look of pure loathing he had sent Poppy's way before Fili had relinquished his hold on her, neither brother could doubt the purpose of the talk was to warm them away from the girl. It seemed that his brother had taken the words to heart, at least for the duration of their uncle's foul mood.
Poppy—shy, insecure little Poppy—obviously did not understand completely.
Kili was beginning to understand why he'd often heard his mother mutter angrily 'If that blasted dwarf would rather pretend to be a stone than admit he has a heart, then I'll gladly take a pick to him to find it and place the thing in his cold, cranky hands!'. The line of Durin certainly had a way with expressing themselves.
The whole predicament displeased the younger dwarf immensely. He'd just gotten Fili to admit he liked Poppy! All his hard work was for naught. There had been the potential for so much teasing! More importantly, it was his brother's heart at stake. True, he'd only admitted that he liked her and that certainly didn't mean he was going to flop down on the ground on one knee and propose to her, but he could tell there was something different about her. He couldn't describe it and he knew that Fili couldn't, but it was in the way his brother just got happy when she was around, physically or in his thoughts. There was no possible way that that could be a bad thing, no matter what Thorin said.
To say the least, Kili was disheartened as the two wizards continued to speak, their words unintelligible but their tones decidedly dark especially after Radagast handed Gandalf something sword-shaped.
Not long after, a long, low, blood-curdling noise rose upon the summer air. Every soul there paused where they were, even the rabbits' noses ceasing to twitch.
Bilbo's eyes widened as he slowly stood, Poppy right behind him, pushing the rabbits from her with some difficulty. "Was that a wolf? Are-Are there wolves out there?"
As not just one, but an entire chorus of howls rose to answer the first, he looked to Poppy for some kind of reassurance, like the night Fili and Kili had tried to convince him a screech owl was orcs. The stark white color her face had turned did not comfort him.
His mattock firmly in his grip, Bofur shook his head, "Wolf? No, that is not a wolf."
Hearing the snapping of twigs and a snarl so like the one she'd been so close to, Poppy abruptly turned to see a warg at the top of the crevice they were in, its lips pulled back over its deadly jaws. She hadn't the time to get a sound out or her staff from her back before it had leapt forward, flying over the hobbits and tackling Dwalin to the ground.
In a smooth motion that held no hesitance whatsoever, Thorin swung his new sword down into its throat. From behind him another appeared, though before it could take more than a few steps, Kili's arrow to its head had it as alive as its comrade.
"Warg scouts," Thorin declared as he ripped his sword from the dead beast's throat, "which means an orc pack is not far behind!"
"Orc pack?!" Bilbo questioned, his panic just below the surface.
Her quiet but distressed voice cutting through the continued howls, Poppy trembled as she whispered anxiously, "Gandalf, they weren't just passing through. They found us. They've turned south again."
Before the wizard could try and comfort her in any way, to tell her it was not her fault, Thorin shouted in her direction, "What do you mean 'they found us'? You knew about this, girl?!"
Given she was already trembling, clearly distraught, his tone did little to help. She physically recoiled, hers arms coming up as if to protect her from being struck should the need arise. Frowning heavily, his fears confirmed though one question left decidedly unanswered, Gandalf demanded before Thorin could do more damage, "Who did you tell about your quest beyond your kin?!"
"No one."
Thorin's glare was only pulled away from Poppy when the wizard's voice rose, its tenor demanding an answer, "WHO DID YOU TELL?!"
"NO ONE, I swear!" At the old man's troubled look and the look of determination that had set itself on the trembling hobbit's face, Thorin challenged, "What in Durin's name is going on? What did she not tell us? What danger has she put us in now?"
Sparing the king a short but heavy glare, Gandalf answered, "You are being hunted. And don't you dare start blaming her for forces beyond our control."
Turning the conversation back in the direction of the danger, Dwalin pressed, "We have to get out of here."
"We can't!" They all turned back to see Ori at the top of the ridge, clearly distressed. "We haven't any ponies. They bolted."
A ripple of panic went through the company, additional dismay for the ponies' wellbeing etched deep into Poppy's face, until Radagast's uncharacteristically fierce voice stopped it dead, "I'll draw them off."
"These are Gundabad wargs," Gandalf protested. "They'll outrun you!"
"These are Rhosgobel rabbits." A smug, almost saucy grin appeared on the brown wizard's face, "I'd like to see them try."
Within minutes, the company gathered together upon the edge of the forest, ready to dart out of the cover of the trees and take refuge behind a large rock until Radagast had surged forward to lead the wargs astray. Getting his rabbits lined up and settling himself onto the footboards of his sled, the odd brown wizard grinned as Poppy rushed by in Gandalf's wake.
Whispering with a nod of goodbye, he said with enthusiasm, "Take care, little rabbit. Remember the birds when you come upon my forest. They perch high these days, but they shall help one such as you."
Unsure of what else to do as Bifur's hand on her back urged her on, she wanly returned the smile and nodded, "Thank you."
And then they were sprinting out in the open, Gandalf in the lead as an even louder chorus of howls echoed through the hills. Poppy felt her blood run cold. She had slept through many nights with the howls of wolves filling the air, the sound beautiful and blood chilling at the same time. This, however, was different. The beauty in the sound was gone and only the hatred of the harsh, corrupted creatures remained.
Their hunting call still reverberated through the very earth when the group came to a temporary halt, Gandalf peering cautiously about the side of the rock. Breathing deeply in an effort to force her heart rate down in the time they had to rest, Poppy pressed herself up against the large stone, leaning her head back on its cool surface. Her lungs would need all the help they could get in mere moments she had no doubt. From beside her, Bifur offered a small smirk and a comforting squeeze to her shoulder, clearly trying to tell her it was going to be fine, that he was with her.
Returning the expression, starting to feel that odd calm she had when in danger, she reached up a hand and squeezed his arm in return. For all the good it would do, she was with him, too.
Their short moment of solidarity was cut short when the howling stopped and was replaced with a cacophony of angry snarls and the manic thudding of sprinting paws. "Come and get me!" and decidedly maniacal laughter followed immediately after and without seeing, they could all tell that Radagast had been discovered and was careening forward on his rabbit-propelled sled. Despite his oddity, Poppy sincerely hoped his rabbits proved as swift as he believed.
"Come on!" Gandalf managed to yell in a whisper, lifting his staff from the grass and racing over the rocky ground, fifteen shorter beings right on his heels.
Blood rang deafeningly in Bilbo's ears, making him wonder if his heart had somehow migrated north and settled in between them. At the very least it had to be in his throat as he felt his fear and panic getting caught at the back of it as they ran, his pack banging against his back. Only a loud, long howl breaking through the din in his head, he felt himself pitching suddenly forward. Two quick arms steadied him as the unseen rock he'd stepped on fell behind them as they kept rushing on, the pain in his foot falling to the wayside.
Glancing to either side, he found Poppy and Bifur holding him upright, urging him forward. At the fear in his eyes, a calm grin appeared on his cousin's face. Though he was unsure why, a space deep in his chest ignited at the sight. Something that was not fear began to drive his feet forward, telling his lungs to stop complaining and do their job. He wondered if that was the Took courage Gandalf was always going on about.
The hobbit focused only on forcing his legs to go faster, to keep up with his heavily burdened companions, when Poppy's voice cut through the air. Her braid flying out behind her as she sprinted, random curls breaking free, she called forward, "Gandalf, we're upwind! They'll smell us. We have to move."
Just as the words were out of her mouth, Radagast's sled and their pursuers raced past them. They all skidded to a stop and abruptly spun about-face. Going off at an angle, Gandalf urged, "Stay together."
Nodding, Thorin added as they turned away, "Move!"
His feet pounding lightly over the dry grass, Bilbo soon pulled away from Poppy and Bifur, coming up beside Dwalin and Balin as the snarls and howls again turned their way.
Grabbing Bombur's sleeve from where he was puffing mightily right behind her at the end of the line, the girl pulled him forward. Glancing behind them, seeing the chase approaching from the side yet again, she grabbed the largest of the swaying sacks from his shoulder and looped it about her own without a word.
They continued on, the wargs braying like hounds on all sides, chasing Radagast and his rabbits, until the large rocks they ran behind, obscuring them from sight, began to thin. Random clusters of pine trees could be seen about a mile from them. That would be a long sprint in the open Poppy's mind noted, managing to get a thought through the wall of tranquility that had gone up, the pumping of her heart almost soothing in its rhythm.
As that one thought got through, she began to feel the burn of her lungs and the aching of her feet, the rocky ground chafing even hobbit feet. Still at the end of the line, the group ground to a quick halt behind a boulder, Thorin having to pull Ori back from sight. "Ori no! Get back!"
Hastily taking another burden from Bombur, Poppy cinched them tight about her and then pulled out her staff. The stout dwarf looked like he meant to protest but he couldn't get a word out through his puffing.
Heaving up with all her strength, she grabbed him under the arm as they again began to run again, vaguely hearing Thorin ask. "Where are you leading us?" Gandalf chose not to answer. Eyes never ceasing in their self-imposed duty of looking behind, Poppy ran on, hauling Bombur with her to the best of her ability. They had not reached the open space yet, and she hoped they would remain unnoticed long enough to cross it.
That aching part of her chest was almost buried underneath the screaming of her lungs but it clearly got the message through that it was unlikely, even with Radagast's aid. Her thoughts turning to the wizard, her eyes looked back, finding his careening sled still leading a large number of wargs away from them. Gaze still behind, not noticing that they had stopped and taken cover behind another rock, she sprinted straight into Nori's back, letting out an audible yelp of surprise upon impact with first the dwarf and then the ground as her momentum thrust her back.
She rolled a few feet, bouncing uncomfortably as her added cargo popped her up in the air. Before the hill could steepen and take her farther from the group, she dug her toes into the dirt at the same instant she felt two hands grab her under the shoulders. Before she had the chance to discern up from down again, her face was pressed into a panting chest.
Poppy didn't need to open her eyes to know that it was Fili's chest under her cheek or his arms holding her to him. For that short moment, she allowed the panic in her head to get through her walls, to flood through her and make her tremble. If being held by Fili didn't calm it some, then she wasn't sure what would.
Despite itself, her mind relaxed a little and she successfully shoved her worry back down, the calm coming back over her as she felt his chin and beard ghost across her forehead. Glancing up at her friend, she gave him a small smile as they huddled behind the rock. A short grin flashed back down at her until the sound of panting from an animal far larger than them filled their ears, an occasional snarl and sniffing coloring their hearing.
Bringing her gaze back down, her eyes finding Kili's bow to focus on, she held her breath. As the warg and its rider approached, she felt Fili suck in one of his own. His eyes were on his brother, the archer the only one who could take action. Kili and everyone else seemed to have come to that conclusion as well.
The warg's snout appearing over the edge, the time never better, Thorin nodded silently down at his youngest nephew's bow. Kili sucked in a short, deep breathe before stepping out, drawing the arrow and string back to his ear, and releasing before he let that same breath out.
It hit its mark in the warg's shoulder, sinking through flesh and muscle to find the lung beneath. A dying screech escaped it as another two arrows were shot into it and its rider, the orc's horn falling to the ground without making a sound except the dull thunk on impact. The two enemies skidded down the rock to the ground, both still alive. Dwalin and Bifur quickly remedied that, though with no small amount of noise.
Hand tightening about her staff, Poppy made to pull from Fili's embrace but the muscles in his arms tightened and he pulled her back, whispering fiercely in her ear, "No, Anna." Almost ashamed at how even in the predicament they were in, his low voice in his ear and breath on her neck could make her shiver, she mutely nodded.
As the dwarves' axes and swords descended upon the orc, she closed her eyes, turning her face into Fili's chest. With her sight gone, her ears attempted to pick up the slack, though that slack was not at all comforting. The world had gone silent aside from themselves: no howling, no snarling, no thundering paws.
They needed to go.
Shooting her head up and turning it toward Gandalf, she caught his gaze with wide eyes, silently telling him what she knew. He gave a nod after looking back into the distance, a howl rising on the air, "Move! RUN!"
Fili and Kili fell in beside her as Bofur grabbed his cousin's arm and hurried the large dwarf on, though with less to carry and the teeth of the beasts almost literally at their backs he didn't need much more encouragement. Leaping over rocks and small trees as she came to them, the hobbit sprinted along behind Gandalf, her hand clutching Fili's sleeve even as his hand turned to grab her forearm. They pulled one another along as the rocks fell behind them and the wargs did not.
The length of openness came and went and yet no cover was there to be found. The few gatherings of trees had deceived Poppy into thinking there might be something more, something preferably forest-like where the wargs' speed would no longer matter, hiding in the hills. There was not. She was too far behind the wizard and too preoccupied with breathing to reiterate Thorin's earlier question aloud.
Where on earth was Gandalf leading them?
For what felt like hours, though she knew couldn't have been more than fifteen minutes, they flat-out sprinted over the hills toward the too-distant mountains. From beside her and the brothers, Gloin shouted upon coming to a brief stop, "There they are!" Her eyes going the other way, finding Bilbo, she also found they were coming from the opposite direction.
The hobbit felt her stomach drop. Radagast had been completely forgotten, all wargs and their horrible riders zealously focusing their attention on the Company. As her legs shook beneath her, vaguely protesting her treatment of them in the back of her mind, she clutched at Fili's sleeve. Looking back, Bilbo caught her gaze. She couldn't manage a smile to help him this time, though one of resignation appeared on his face.
His head whipping from side to side, as if searching for something, Gandalf suddenly shouted, "This way!" and led them off again. They did not get very far that time as they found themselves in a dell, only a few trees and one large stone for cover as the wargs appeared on all sides, closing in.
Letting go of Poppy's arm, Fili grabbed his second sword and shouted, "We're surrounded!"
From behind them, at the center of the defensive circle about the stone they'd made, Thorin ordered, "Kili, shoot them!"
Pushing her added burdens from Bombur onto her back, Poppy planted herself at the archer's side. Kili stood on her left, Ori was on her right, and her staff was in her hands. Though she had no misconceptions about the lack of help she'd be, she might as well put her lessons to good use.
Arrows whizzed through the air relentlessly as Kili fired, though the wargs kept coming, the falling of their comrades only adding to their anger. Doing his bit, Ori let loose a stone from his slingshot. It hit the warg in front of him square in the nose. The creature's lips curled further over its teeth.
That lovely sensation of instant decision-making in the calm she felt taking over, Poppy stepped in front of the dwarf despite the warg coming ever closer. The thinking part of her brain screamed at her to stop, to stop being so bloody stupid and listen to it. Those thoughts were quickly silenced as the orc rider locked eyes with her, a menacing grin on its face. She refused to back down as Ori launched another stone at it, hitting it in the shoulder.
From Kili's other side, she heard Fili shout, apparently noticing her decision to come between Ori and a warg yet again, "Don't even think about it, Poppy!"
"I didn't!" she yelled back, something resembling a smile in her voice. "Besides, it's not that big!"
He was cut off from replying that it still wanted to eat her when Bofur cried, "Where's Gandalf?"
Neither Poppy nor Fili turned about to look for the apparently missing wizard when Dwalin replied, "He's abandoned us."
The hobbit found that hard to believe, but continued backing toward the stone with the others. Ori was pulled back into the circle by Nori, the younger dwarf being shoved next to Bilbo. No longer having him to worry about, Poppy fell back closer to Kili, deciding to do what she could to protect his right given that Fili had his left.
The seconds dragged on as the realization that they were likely unable to fight their way out of this dawned upon the companions. Only Poppy's functioning brain was too buried to force her to take notice of the likely outcome as Thorin shouted, "Hold your ground!"
From where it had been creeping closer, the orc who'd latched onto her before urged its mount forward, the beast leaping for her. Quickly turning, Kili had an arrow through its eye before it again hit the ground, another in the rider's throat within moments.
Upon all sides, the other wargs followed suit, beginning to strike forward.
"THIS WAY YOU FOOLS!"
Popping up from what appeared to be the inside of the rock, Gandalf shouted at the lot of them. As one most of the company turned and sprinted toward the wizard, Thorin urging them on, "Come on! All of you!"
Still shooting off arrows, Kili had yet to move even after Fili had smacked him on the arm and nodded toward the stone. Eyes darting from the wargs to her friend as she stayed beside him, that aching place in her chest unwilling to be anything but the last to turn, she commented with some urgency rising through her calm, "Kili, we should go. Kili…!"
He seemed not to hear her and they remained there until Thorin bellowed, "KILI!"
With that the dwarf turned and sprinted back, the hobbit on his heels. She leaped over the front stone, finding a concealed crevice behind it. Thorin's large hand practically hurling her forward, she skidded down toward the others, pitching forward and landing on her face at their feet.
Bombur and Bifur had her up on her feet before Thorin slid down behind her. They huddled together as a group as a foreign horn call echoed through the land above them, sounds of horses and fighting following soon after. Within moments, the body of a dead orc bounced down at their feet.
Frowning, Thorin stepped forward and ripped the arrow that had slain it from its throat. Looking at its make, he threw it to the ground as if it had burned him, a single word being spat from his mouth, "Elves."
At that discovery, Poppy froze, her face paling. She knew where they were, or at least what they were near. She knew where Gandalf had led them. Yavanna help her, she knew.
As the other jostled about, Bombur retaking his things from the motionless hobbit, she stared at the discarded arrow on the ground. From the back of the cave—or whatever the outcrop was technically called—Dwalin called, "I cannot see where the pathway leads. Do we follow it or no?"
A roll of the eyes in his very tone, Bofur answered immediately, "Follow it, of course!" They all struck out forward, pressing themselves into a line to follow the unknown passage.
Relief and a bit of a smile in the wizard's voice, Gandalf quietly commented, "Yes, I believe that would be wise."
The old man paused and turned when Fili urged, "Poppy come on." Eyes still wide, the girl had not yet moved, her hands clutching her staff nervously. Frowning as he grabbed one of those hands to pull her forward, the dwarf asked more quietly, not caring if Thorin saw or had something to say about it, "What's wrong? Are you hurt?"
Her head shook slowly. And quite suddenly Gandalf understood her hesitance. If word had gotten all the way to Radagast, if her name had traveled that far, then there was no possibility it had not reached the haven at the end of that passageway. The dwarves would not be pleased… The wizard tried to convey some sort of reassurance when her eyes found his, though he couldn't say that he did very well.
At the worry on his face as he wrapped his fingers about hers, Poppy turned to look at Fili. She whispered with a heavy, miserable sort of conviction, "You're all going to hate me…"
Falling silent again, she took an unhappy step forward without letting go of his hand. Confusion on his face, Fili followed in like quiet, intertwining their fingers with a squeeze to try and cheer her up. To his great displease, it didn't appear to work though she squeezed back. When he looked up at Gandalf who fell in behind him, the wizard only let out a small sigh and nodded toward her, as if to tell him to stay with her.
She would soon need it.
A/N: I made it! In an odd twist of fate that allowed me to actually not have a boatload of homework, I managed to get all this done and up. In about half an hour, I'm leaving for my conference, however, so that apology for a possible delay to perhaps Monday instead of Sunday might still apply.
So, as you can all see, we've almost reached Rivendell where some truly fun things will occur and we'll all learn some Elvish. It'll be a grand time. I do hope you enjoyed Radagast; he was rather fun to write. Thanks so much for your reviews. I love hearing you guys' thoughts. So I now bid you a good weekend and say thanks so much for reading, review if you wish, and I hope you enjoyed. :D
