Chapter Seventeen: The Terrible After the Toymaker
"I am a bit confused, which is entirely understandable, as to where exactly we are going."
Emelia would have been in a significantly better mood if the company hadn't woken up to a torrential down pour the next morning. She had gone to bed shortly after she spoke with Kili. He hadn't said much to her, considering they were both still recovering from the undeniable awkwardness that had washed over them the second they had realized they were smiling at each other, leaving her with the only option of crawling back into her bed roll and stuffing her face so far into the fur lining of her thick jacket, she didn't see light until Fili ripped the blanket back to her moving in the morning. He had smiled at her briefly, helping her up and into a standing position, before he had stalked off to join some dwarf or another.
Fili, despite her best attempts, didn't really speak to her after he roused her from her unsteady slumber. She assumed it had to do with the exclamation his brother had made in front of the entire camp. Of course, she didn't get him to confirm her suspicions, considering he wouldn't look at her half of the time.
She couldn't bring herself to talk to Kili, considering her face inflamed every time she made eye contact with him. The previous night had been a complete and utter mystery to her. She had not planned on speaking to Kili, let alone apologizing to him. The words had gone tumbling out of her mouth in an embarrassing jumble of mutters and fragmented sentences. Now that she was looking back on it, she had thought she was more eloquent in her words. Apparently she had been wrong.
She found herself hiking next to Bofur, out of necessity of needing company, incessantly wiping her eyes from the horrendous amount of rain washing over her face. Even though she wore a thick leathery jacket, the rain had already soaked through, making her clothes feel sticky and tight. Her hair stuck to her, reminding her vividly that umbrellas apparently didn't exist.
Bofur looked over at her, sending water flying from the rim of his oddly shaped hat. He had been stubbornly attempted to smoke from his pipe, only to fail miserably, leaving him persistently upset. Or at least, as upset as Bofur could be.
"The mighty dwarf Kingdom of Erebor." Bofur said, a very large amount of pride dripping from his words. "We mean to reclaim it from Smaug the terrible."
She half expected Thorin to come thundering from out of nowhere, forcing Bofur to keep his mouth shut like he had done with Ori. She glanced around her, trying to see through the soupy rain that surrounded them, before she scooted closer to Bofur, feeling her interest being reluctantly peaked by the story Bofur had started. She wiped her face with the back of her sleeve, trying to rid her face of the ridiculous amount of excess water that coated her face.
"What makes him, or her, so terrible?"
"Well he is a dragon, for one thing."
Emelia had promised herself that she was going to start taking the dwarves more seriously. However, upon hearing him talk about a dragon sent her into an ungraceful fit of snorts and giggles.
"Come now, Lassie. It is not a laughing matter." Bofur said fixing her with a slightly stern look.
"I'm sorry." She said, sobering up when she saw the look on his face. "It's just that…" She trailed off for a moment, blinking rapidly in the bleary rain. "Dragons."
"Aye, dragons." Bofur said, reaching out to steady her as she stumbled in the mud. It splattered up onto her upper legs and stomach, causing her to let out a rather colorful curse. "Or more specifically, one dragon."
"So, he's a dragon that took the Kingdom of Arbor."
"Erebor."
"Right, Erebor." Emelia made a mental note to remember the name of the kingdom that the dwarves spoke of. The tone in their voices was one of reverence and awe, making her assume that it held a certain importance to all of them. "Why is it so important to take it back from," She paused trying to make her voice sound as least skeptical as possible. "The dragon?" The entire thing sounded ridiculous to her, but she made it her conscious effort to take what the dwarves said as fact. As much as that made her inwardly cringe.
"Ah, Lassie. You're in for a real treat." Bofur sported a very large smile on his face, spreading his hands out in front of him. "Erebor is beautiful; with huge columns of emerald and statues of gold. It is the most magnificent of all of the Kingdoms of Middle Earth and we intend to take it back."
"Why was it taken?" Emelia asked, slipping again in the mud for what felt like the hundredth time that day. "By a dragon?" She kept saying the word, hoping to believe it if she said it enough.
"Dragons, by nature, are obsessed with treasure. Erebor is filled with it." Bofur paused, shooting a look towards Thorin's back before he continued in a much quieter voice. "Thorin's grandfather and father amassed a treasure the size never seen before. Smaug was drawn to it."
"So you want this place back because…" She found it hard to want to go near anything that supposedly had a real life dragon in it. It was like a guard dog on steroids, making it something she was only to keen to avoid entirely.
"It is our home." Bofur said as if it was the simplest thing in the entire world. "It is only right that it should be ours again."
Emelia paused, slipping down the hill slightly. Bofur kept walking for a moment until he realized that she wasn't following along behind him. He turned back around, taking in her slack mouth and distant look. He moved back down to stand next to her. The rain bounced off her body, splashing onto the soaked earth in little droplets and puddles. The rest of the company didn't even notice the two of them stopping, with the exception of a curious looking Bilbo eyeing them from his spot next to a laughing Fili and Kili. Bofur stumbled slightly as his booted feet caught a particularly muddy spot on the ground. He placed his hand on her shoulder, drawing her attention over to him.
"Are you well, Lass?"
Emelia jumped slightly. She shook her head. "You know Bofur, I think I understand." She had a slight, disbelieving smile on her face. "I swear, I thought I would never get you short little men, but I do."
"What do you understand?" Bofur asked, shooting a furtive glance back up to the rest of the company.
"I want to go home too." She said simply, giving him a look that led him to think she was seeing him for the first time.
Bofur looked at her as she blinked at him in the steadily increasing rain. Her red hair was sticking to her face from underneath her hood. Her clothes were soaked all the way through, making them look heavy and sodden. The purpling of the bruises she had sustained while she was with the trolls was still visible, albeit faded, making her look more than a little worse for the wear. However, despite her disheveled and miserable look, she seemed relieved. The small smile that was slowly cracking its way across her pale face was steadily increasing in size until it became a full out grin. She spit some of the rain water out of her mouth that found its way in there before she laughed slightly.
"Bofur, I want to go home too." She reached out with her soaking arms, pulling the dwarf into a very unexpected hug. "I'd never thought I would find anything about you dwarves that I found to be redeeming, no offense, and here I find you want the same exact thing I do."
Bofur stood there awkwardly as she hugged him, glancing around at the increasingly barren landscape before he finally reached up his hands to pat her on the back. "I am happy we could help, Lassie."
She let out a laugh into the side of his hat, stepping back from him. "I swear Bofur, you just made my day."
"Well then, I am always happy to make a pretty girl smile." Emelia let out another laugh, shooting him a wry look. "We should join the others. Before Kili starts to make even more accusations about you." Bofur gestured with his arm, leading her back up to the tail end of the group.
They walked in silence for a moment before Emelia looked over at him bringing up an entirely new topic of conversation. "Obviously, you all aren't professional adventurers." Bofur looked over at her, raising an eyebrow. "So what exactly to dwarves do to make their money?"
Bofur looked thoughtful before he spoke. "A wide variety of things. Thorin is a rather accomplished blacksmith…"
"Fitting." Emelia said, shooting a look up at the angry dwarf.
"Dwalin is a mercenary."
"Also fitting." Emelia could just picture Dwalin being muscle for hire. He had that sort of look about him.
"Bombur is a rather wonderful chef, Oin is a healer, and Gloin is a diplomat, and Dori is rather accomplished with herbs and other natural things like that. Rather odd for a dwarf if you ask most others. Ori, Fili, and Kili are all too young to have real work besides helping their older relatives."
"What about you?"
"Me?" Bofur reached into his water logged pocket, digging around for a moment before he produced a small wooden carving and what Emelia assumed was a whittling knife. "I make toys."
Emelia couldn't help but smile as he showed her the little carving in his hand. It was small but intricately detailed with lines and swooping grains that showed just how talented Bofur was at his craft. It was of a dwarf, obviously, that appeared so kingly in nature Emelia couldn't help but feel like he was someone of great importance. He was stout and so magnificently bearded, Emelia found herself admiring it, despite herself. She had been around the dwarves long enough to see how much they prided their facial hair. The man that Bofur had carved would put them all to shame with his magnificent beard. He had carved him wearing extravagant robes and a crown atop his head.
"That is Durin." Bofur said, placing it into her hands. "Thorin, Fili, and Kili's ancestor."
"He is very," She flipped over the little figure, taking in his kingly appearance. "Regal looking. He looks like Thorin." She glanced up at the broody dwarf's back, feeling a scowl slide onto her face. " Unfortunately."
"Thorin does bear a striking resemblance to him I suppose." She gave it back to him before the rain ruined all of his hard work. He placed it into his pocket, patting it into place with a genial smile. "My toys are very popular amongst the little ones in human cities."
Emelia looked at him for a moment before she got an odd look on her face. She kept her eyes on the pocket that he had hidden Durin in, scrunching her lips up into a slight purse. She eyed it for a moment before she looked up to Bofur's face.
"Will you make a toy for my little brother?" She asked in a rush, feeling her face heat up at the speed in which the words came tumbling out of her mouth.
Emelia wasn't exactly sure why she was asking for a toy to be made. For some reason the desire had flamed up so suddenly in her stomach she couldn't hold it back. She knew it was almost impossible that she would be going home. Beyond impossible. She knew that she was more than likely never going to see Eddy again. The thought made her insides churn and pang with pain. However, despite that rationalization and knowledge, she couldn't really justify not asking for a toy. It seemed so right. If she ever did get to go home, Eddy would want something from her adventures. She would want something to share with him. Perhaps if she had the toy in her possession it would make the terrible journey that she found herself on a little more bearable.
Bofur had the decency not to comment on her sudden bout of word vomit, instead choosing to smile at her like he always did. "I would be honored to Lassie."
The rain did not stop even by the time the company settled down for the night. It had soaked all of them to the very core, making them all much more irritable and moody than they normally were. The rain was so torrential that the possibility of making a fire was lost as soon as they realized all of the kindling was far too wet and sodden to get a proper light. They were forced to huddle underneath the large few large trees that peppered the side of the stony mountain, using each other for warmth. It was rather lucky that the company had found those trees. They would have had to sleep in the pouring rain otherwise.
Emelia was rather proud of the fact that she wasn't shivering as violently as all of the dwarves assumed she would have been. She felt the prideful smile sneak its way onto her face when she realized that up on the mountain the temperatures were still warmer than the ones back in Kessog.
She pushed herself down into the safety of her leather coat further, feeling the dwarves on either side of her shift slightly at her movements.
"Stop moving, Emmy."
"Oh, so you're speaking to me now Fee?"
She looked over at the rain covered blonde dwarf, raising her eyebrows at him. He rolled his eyes, looking at her for a long time, before fixing her with the smile she had seen when they first met not that long ago. He shuffled closer to her, nudging her with his shoulder.
"I don't know what you are speaking of." He said with a small smirk.
"You've ignored me all day," She paused, trying to come up with a way that didn't make her sound needy. "I thought you might have missed my company." She finished lamely, slumping into her jacket even further. The rain was still hitting them, despite the fact that they were all huddled underneath the trees. The moon was barely peeking though, making it almost impossible for them to see each other unless they squinted their eyes so tightly it hurt.
Fili cleared his throat, shifting slightly next to her. He leaned closer so that only she would hear him. "Kili said you heard us talking."
Emelia felt her face blanch. She started to think all of the ways she could do damage control on the whole situation. Her entire face heated up as Fili looked over at her, ignoring the water dripping off from his blue hood and over his nose.
"I do not know how to approach this without offending you."
"If you're about to say that what Kili was saying was a total crock of shit, then you don't have to." Emelia said, nudging him her damp shoulder.
"It isn't that you aren't…"
"Fee, I swear I am not offended. Kili doesn't know what he's talking about half the time."
"You are both aware I am sitting right next to you." Kili said suddenly, drawing their attention over to him. He did not sound amused by the two of them. Emelia felt Fili stifle a small laugh, lifting his arm out before throwing it around Kili's shoulder, drawing his brother closer to him in a reluctant and one-sided embrace. "I can hear every single thing you say."
Emelia let out a small laugh, scooting herself down farther into the moist dirt at the base of the tree. "We have to keep ourselves entertained somehow. It's not like we'll be able to sleep anyway. Why not talk about you?"
"Why not?" Kili mocked, sarcasm dripping from his voice with every syllable.
"I don't really know why you said that Kili, you know I like my women a little hairier than Emmy." Fili said, looking out towards the slope of the mountain, taking in the landscape with a smirk on his face.
"Are dwarf women really that hairy?" Emelia asked, trying to hide her disgust at the thought.
"Some have more magnificent beards tha..."
Before Fili could finish his sentence, he was cut off by a loud reverberating screech. It vibrated through Emelia's chest, sending shivers down her spine. The dwarves immediately stood up, drawing their various types of weapons, leaving Emelia huddled in the mud, glancing around rapidly for the source of the blood curdling noise. She backed herself up into the tree, feeling her hands squishing in the mud underneath her. She felt herself slipping as she desperately tried to use the tree as a shield from whatever it was that made that noise.
It wouldn't have been so terrifying if the screech had been singular. It wasn't. Mere moments after the first screech, what sounded like hundreds followed.
The dwarves slipped and stumbled as the circled around the small clearing they were in, weapons trained in front of them. Emelia felt her sword, which Nim had strapped to her back with a look of warning, clanging into the tree as she tried to keep scooting backwards.
The sounds steadily increased in volume and number until they were so loud, Emelia was having a hard time hearing her own thoughts. The rain didn't stop as the noises increased, adding to overall feeling of stress and panic. The occasional lightning strikes threw all of the dwarves into sharp relief, highlighting their own looks of worry. Even Thorin looked worried as she shifting into what Emelia had been taught was a defensive fighting stance.
The dwarves circled around each other until the first sight of the creature that was making the screeching came into view.
It was small, pale, and grotesquely ugly. It wore a loincloth type thing over its privates, although it covered it very poorly, and straps covered in staples and bits of metal over its scar tainted shoulders. It was stooped, like a more appalling looking Quasimodo, and stumbled along like it was in need of a walking cane. Its teeth, which were bared and snapping, were so disgustingly dirty, Emelia had to fight the urge to vomit. The creature, in its entirety, made her want to vomit.
And it wasn't alone.
There were probably thirty of them, all of varying size and status of what Emelia equated to decay.
The dwarves, who Emelia had yet to see actually doing anything besides running away from their enemies, were positively lethal looking. If she wasn't so sure, relatively speaking, that the dwarves weren't going to hurt her, she would have been terrified at the looks on their faces as they launched themselves at the creatures now pouring down from the side of the mountain.
She tried her best to stay hidden. The creatures were holding swords, knives, bows, and what looked like, wires covered in massive spikes.
She would have been Swiss cheese if she tried to move from her spot.
Emelia slid her hand up to her back, feeling around blearily for the handle of the sword, keeping her eyes on the dwarves and creatures in front of her. The dwarves were cutting them down, with grotesque slices and stabs to their middles, backs, and necks. Blood was splatting everywhere, all over the dwarves and onto the ground, mixing with the rainwater and the mud. She felt her stomach churn at the sight of the black blood spilling everywhere.
She had thought she had done a good job of hiding herself. None of them had approached her, until she felt a hand wrap itself around her neck from behind.
Her body was wrenched roughly out of the mud, sending pain shooting down her neck from the pressure of the squeeze as she let out a puff of a scream. Her entire body went into panic mode as she felt the hand on her, pulling her closer to the body of her attacker. Her heart felt like it was stopping, her stomach was seizing, and her legs felt like jelly. The only part of her body that seemed to work properly was her arms. They were flailing, one hold her sword, trying to catch some part of the creature. She felt her sword slip into its skin, sending black blood spewing over Emelia's face, before she finally managed to catch it in the side of the neck. It fell to the ground in a heap, finally releasing its hold on her.
She suddenly felt a lot more bad ass than the scuffle would have indicated.
She stumbled slightly in the mud as she looked down at the creature that was bleeding in front of her. All adrenaline she had been feeling was completely lost as she looked at it bleeding. It was dead. Obviously. But that wasn't what bothered her. What bothered her is that she killed it. She had killed it. Murder didn't feel like the appropriate word, but she couldn't seem to get it out of her mind. Her hands shook as she glanced down at her sword, seeing the blood still on the blade.
What would her mother have thought if she had seen her? What would Eddy have thought?
She felt her chest tighten as she imagined their disappointed faces. She had killed something. Killed it. That just didn't happen in Kessog, Alaska. And it certainly didn't happen when Emelia Kinsington Montgomery was involved.
"Miss Emelia, are you well?"
She had never jumped so high as when she felt a hand on her shoulder. She spun around, brandishing her sword in a pathetically lackluster attempt at intimidation.
Ori stepped back from her, eyes wide as he looked down at her sword. She eyed him for a moment before lowered it, letting the tip sink into the muddy earth. "Oh god. I'm sorry Ori."
"Are you hurt?" Ori asked, shooting a look over his shoulder at the rest of the company. Bilbo was nursing a particularly nasty black eye, while most of the others appeared unhurt. He had not noticed her until she had let out a muffled scream, alerting their attention over to her. By the time they had seen her, she was violently, and ungracefully, attempting to kill the goblin that was holding her roughly by the neck. The dwarves had immediately moved towards her, only to see her catch the goblin by the neck, sending it down to the floor in a heap.
"I don't think so…" Emelia said, shooting a look over her shoulder at the creature on the ground. It was still bleeding slightly, making her stomach squirm slightly as she eyed it.
Ori placed a hand on her shoulder, drawing her attention back over to him. All of the dwarves seemed appallingly cavalier about the whole thing, making her feel even worse about her less than stellar reaction. She felt like she was the only one who was truly upset by all of the blood on the ground. She felt like the only one who seemed to notice that she had just killed something. She had never even hurt something, besides fish. And now there she was, cutting through some human looking creature like it was made of butter.
"I didn't do a ba.." She paused, feeling her hands shake even more as she looked at the thing she had just killed. Murdered. "It was trying to ki..." It seemed she was incapable of forming coherent sentences. "I didn't mean to."
"Emmy, that was beyond amazing." Emelia barely had time to recover before she was being pulled into a messy hug. She felt the mud squishing on her as Fili crushed her sending her stumbling slightly. "You killed a goblin, and a particularly nasty one at that."
She buried her face into his coat, feeling her heart rate finally beginning to slow down.
"I think it was luck." She said shakily, dropping her sword to the ground completely.
"Well, that was some damn good luck if you ask me." Another voice said, followed by a clap on her back. She leaned back from Fili, wiping the mud and blood off her of face before she turned to face the owner of the voice. Kili was smiling, albeit slightly, at her. She looked at him for a moment before she returned the favor.
"Damn good?" She said blearily, not being able to stop herself from shooting one more glance over at the creatures body.
"Damn good." Kili said, bending down to her sword, before plucking if off of the ground and handing it to her with a small smile on his dirty face.