Being at such a disadvantage, the goblins surrounded us in seconds, pulling us from the ground and dragging us along built bridges of wood and rock to where, I do not know.
Stopping before a very large goblin, we were completely surrounded; fighting would be armature to say the least.
Then he spoke. "Who would be so bold as to come armed into my kingdom? Spies? Thieves? Assassins?" the Goblin King asked.
"Dwarves, your Malevolence." One of the littler ones replied.
"Dwarves?" the king reiterated shocked.
"Well, yes, sir." The little one spoke again, "And an elf… I think."
"Show it to me!" he yelled.
I was thrust forward by some goblins into the open as the dwarves tried to grab me back. I stood before the Goblin King as he looked over me.
"You're much smaller than most Elves I have seen." He said as he looked at me, doubting my species briefly.
"Well, speak!" he commanded.
I inhaled the thick air before speaking, "I am full Elf." I confirmed and he nodded slightly. As to wither or not he believed me, I do not know, but that was his choice.
"You certainly dress like an elf… your ears, your clothes… your hair." He continued. As he commanded the other goblins to search the dwarves, my bow got yanked from my back as the Goblin king spoke to me. "What are you doing in these parts? Among dwarves for that matter. Speak!"
I remained silent.
"Very well, if you will not talk, I'll make you squawk! Bring up the mangler, bring up the bone breaker! Start with the she-elf!" The king commanded.
"Wait!" My arm was grasped tightly as he pulled me behind him as he shielded me from the Goblin King. Thorin walked forward, taking my place before the king as my arm left his grasp and the other dwarves pulled me back to stand with them.
"Well, well, well! Look who it is! Thorin, son of Thrain, son of Thror, the King under the mountain." He mocked Thorin by pretending to bow. "Oh! But I'm forgetting, you don't have a mountain, and you're not a king. Which makes you nobody really. I know someone who would pay a pretty price for your head. Just the head, nothing attached. Perhaps you know of whom I speak," he toyed with him, goading him on as it were. "An old enemy of yours. A pale orc astride a white Warg.
Thorin balled his fists, "Azog the Defiler was destroyed. He was slain in battle long ago."
"So you think his defiling days are done, do you?" he smirked and leaned back in his throne, "Send word to the pale orc, and tell him I have found his prize."
The goblin scribe began to write as he rode away on his seat in the air.
As the goblin king sung loudly, my ears were becoming overwhelmed by the noise from within the cavern. His minions began to search through our weapons on the ground. Luckily enough, they never searched me thoroughly enough as the king spoke, so I still held my daggers strapped to my thigh, hidden beneath my coat.
"Ahh!" one of the goblins squealed. I turned to see it running off towards the king as it dropped Thorin's blade to the ground.
"I know that sword! It is the Goblin-cleaver! The biter! The blade that sliced a thousand necks!" The king coward in his throne. "Slash them, beat them, peel them, and kill them all!"
As the goblins began to rally, and one of them grabbed Thorin and held him tightly.
"Cut off his head!" the king ordered.
I looked to Thorin as the goblin held his head back and had a blade ready in hand.
"No!" I screamed. Unlatching one of the blades from my thigh, I quickly threw it towards the goblin's head, killing it instantly.
As it released its grip on Thorin and fell to the ground, I held my breath as he looked at me shocked, his eyes wide and mouth agape. My chest heaved heavily as I looked back at him. For the briefest of moments, there was silence; I couldn't hear a thing other than the beating of my heart from inside my chest.
I snapped my eyes shut as a blinding light shone through the cavern, knocking the goblins off their feet.
"Take up arms. Fight. Fight!" I turned to see Gandalf enter the cavern, sword in one hand and his staff in the other.
The dwarves scrambled for their weapons on the ground before fighting off the goblins. I quickly retrieved my bow and began shooting as many as I could before we were overrun.
"There are too many, Gandalf!" I yelled to him.
"Follow me. Quick! Run!" he called to us all and we followed.
Being the most agile of the bunch, I could easily climb the ropes that were hanging from the structures. Taking the vantage point from above as the dwarves and Gandalf fought the goblins from below, I swiftly took many goblins out with my bow, but I was running low on arrows in my quiver. I leaped off the structure and landed before a large group of them on a bridge.
"Gaylia!" Gandalf called out to me.
The goblins made a run for me. I smiled just before I cut the rope that was tethering us to the pathway. The bridge that we were standing on now swung across the cavern, colliding with another that we could jump on to. As I jumped after the others, a goblin also jumped and caught onto my leg.
"Aghh." I yelled as its claws stuck into the back of my leg as it began to climb me. I held on with one hand as I tried to reach for my other dagger. Suddenly, the goblin shrieked and let go of my leg and I was pulled up to my feet.
"Can you run?" he asked me.
I nodded as I caught my breath, "Yes."
"Then run!" Thorin yelled.
Running along the last bridge between the goblins and freedom, we all stopped as the large king jumped down in front of us, blocking the way.
"You thought you could escape me!" He yelled.
He pushed Gandalf back and the dwarves caught him, steadying his large frame.
"What are you going to do now, wizard?" The goblin king taunted.
He paused for a moment before thrusting his staff into the kings' eye, and then swiftly drawing his sword across his belly, making a large incision, bringing the king to his knees.
"That'll do." The king swallowed.
Cutting the throat of the once great king, he fell onto his chest breaking the bridge that we stood on and plummeted us into the dark caverns below. Miraculously enough, we all survived the fall with minor scrapes, nothing too serious.
I moved a sheet of wood from my stomach as I climbed out of the rubble.
"Are you alright?" I turned around to look at Thorin as he looked at me, his eyes as wide as they were before.
"I am." I smiled lightly, "Thanks to you."
He smiled.
I don't think I had seen him smile before. I had caught him from the side of my eye slightly smirking but this… this was different.
"Well, that could have been worse." I snapped out of my trance as I looked to Bofur who spoke from under the rubble.
As I approached the rubble to lend a hand, the Goblin king's body fell from above, crashing on top of the others as they moaned.
"You've got to be joking!" Dwalin yelled.
As we struggled to get the others out, Kili spoke from behind us.
"Gandalf!" he called.
I pulled Ori from the rubble and looked upwards. Hoards of goblins were running down the sides of the cavern and straight towards us.
"There's too many, we can't fight them." Dwalin announced as he held his cleaver.
"Only one thing will save us. Daylight! Come on!" Gandalf yelled.
I helped him as we continued to help the rest of the dwarves from the rubble and then made our way for the opening ahead. As we broke out of the goblin hell, we made our way down the mountain side, one by one, being counted by Gandalf as we gathered at the trees.
"Where's Bilbo?" I heard Gandalf ask, "Where is our hobbit!?"
"Curse that Halfling! Now he's lost! I thought he was with Dori." Gloin answered.
"Don't blame me!" Dori shot back, annoyed at his kin's accusation.
"And where did you last see him?" Gandalf asked frantically.
Nori stepped forward, "I think I saw him slip away when they first collared us."
"What happened exactly? Tell me!" Gandalf pressed, but none of us had his answer.
"I'll tell you what happened," Thorin turned to face us, "Master Baggins saw his chance and he took it! He's thought of nothing but his soft bed and his warm hearth since first he stepped out of his door. We will not be seeing our hobbit again, he is long gone."
I stood to my feet, my hand that I had pressed against the wound on my leg that I acquired from the caverns dropped to my side as I approached Thorin.
"How can you speak of him in such a manner?" I asked, his lips pressed into a firm line as he narrowed his eyes. "You have wished for nothing more than for him to be gone, ever since you met him." I sighed as I slightly winced at the pain in my leg, but I continued on. "He has never done anything like this before; he isn't like you or I who has seen battle and loss. He is doing his best, and you should be grateful that he has come thus far. Bilbo has stuck by you throughout this quest." I looked at him, wavering in my words as his features eased slightly, "As have I."
Before anyone else spoke, a little voice comes from behind.
"I'm right here."
"Bilbo Baggins." Gandalf greeted happily, "I've never been so glad to see anyone in my life."
Everyone was glad to see him, as much as Thorin looked displeased, I knew he was glad too.
"How on earth did you get past the Goblins?" Fili enquired, wondering as much as the rest of us.
He nervously laughed and rested his hand on his right pocket, thinking over his words before he spoke. I could see the nervousness in his eyes as he stammered his words before being cut off by Gandalf.
"Oh, what does it matter? He's back." He smiled.
"It matters." Thorin walked past me, "I want to know. What did you come back?"
Bilbo sighed, "Look, I know you doubt me. I know… I know you always have. And you're right, I often think of Bag End. I miss my books, and my arm chair, and my garden. See, that's where I belong. That's home. And that's why I came back, 'cause… you don't have one. A home. It was taken from you, but I will help you take it back, if I can."
His words were honest, warm and frankly, touching to say the least. I think Thorin thought so too.
I sat back down on a fallen tree and tended to my wound as it lightly dripped with blood. An exposed wound to the elements was never a good thing to have. The tree moved from beside me as I turned to see Bilbo had taken a seat by my side.
"Here." He offered me a piece of fabric.
I took it from his hand and tied it around my wound, securing it with a knot.
"Thank you." I smiled.
"No… thank you." He said.
I looked at him a little confused, "For what?"
"For what you said to Thorin." He smiled, "For believing in me."
I grinned and got to my feet, holding my hand out for him to take.
"We all need someone to believe in us sometimes, master Baggins." I pointed too Gandalf as Bilbo took my hand and stood by my side, "You just so happen to have two."