A/N: I'm so glad that I have this update banked that I could cry. Massive migraines, canning season (soooooo much pie filling and tomato sauce...), and pain. And the next chapter is LONG man. Goblin Town and Golum... Also Thranduil makes an appearance!

I'm thinking about publishing my original stories onto platforms like Wattpad and Inkitt. Any thoughts? You know what? Let's just get to the story. Y'all can tell me later!

Now as I hope I have made obvious I write fanfiction for practice in the craft of writing. And if you like my writing style, my original works are much the same style, although varying subjects and genres. I just need to get over my own nerves and publish them. Can I get a supportive hug, please?

Also because my Ao3 readers have caught up with my readers you are now on the regular update schedule so you get parts of insanely long chapters. Cause 25+ pages in my writing program is a bit of an eye strain for me to write and edit each week. So love you all but I love not being sick all week from migraines and pain more.

Well on with the show and here we go! (I'm a poet and I didn't know it. Bad poet, but hey.)

Like, Subscribe, Favorite, Follow, Kudos and Review, (and consider following or supporting on P-atreon and Ko-fi. Cause you know adulting.)

Much Love

JR

P.s. P-atreon and Ko-fi update: Why aren't there tiers and goals yet on either? Mainly because I'm trying to get used to writing regularly on them. I don't want to promise my patrons something and not be able to deliver. So I'm working on building slowly and getting my routine down, then I will be doing some patron-only content like polls for story design and personalized thank-yous and inspiration videos or packages that contain some of the things that inspire each story and other various things. Maybe even some world-building polls. I dunno. I'm winging it. So hang in there with me, I'm still learning, and sign up to follow me so that when the tiers and goals go live you'd be the first to know. (There are 3 tiers up on P-atreon now and a goal up on Ko-fi. I'm working on others.)

Pps. I've caught up on posting on my older stories to Ao3. I am now free to post any deleted "scenes" and extras in conjunction with the older stories and the ones I am currently working on. They will only appear after a story is completed. And after Patrons get the first crack at them. Sorry. What do I delete? Mainly anything that needs to be edited out to meet the rating rules on this site. But also little interesting snippets that just slowed down the pacing. I will not be posting them here on this site. Apologies. But it has more "interesting" rules.

Supporter shoutout:

Thank you so much!

Nyx Thranduillion

Chapter 4 Departure

Several days later Sherilynn rode behind Bilbo, her own hardy mountain pony taking the pass with ease while the others jittered at the loosened stones under their feet. She made up her mind that before they went into the caves she would turn him loose and send him back home to Rivendel.

Not needing to keep silent, she and Bilbo spoke of many things. Family, friends, elves, dwarves, hobbits, the trail they would take, even music. She liked the little hobbit who missed his bed and pocket-handkerchief. He was sweet and unassuming. But when they got talking about food? Oh, the conversation nearly echoed along the mountain pass.

"Will you two be quiet!" One of the dwarves yelled back. So Sherilynn began a rousing rendition of One Hundred Bottles of Beer on the Wall. Which she caught Fili and Kili humming for days later.

But inch by inch, mile by mile, league by league, the company made its way closer to the high ridge of mountains that ringed Imladris beyond the River Bruinen. The pass through the Misty Mountains had been narrow but reasonable at least until the rain began coming down. The company slipped from their horses and began to lead them, but one look to Caelann had Sherilynn pulling her pack about her back and sending the pony home, a note to those that might worry in his now empty saddlebags that she was fine and had sent the stouthearted creature home.

"Why did you send the pony back?" Bilbo whispered to her as the Dwarves readied to lead their mounts.

Laying a hand on his shoulder, she patted it softly. "Horses won't do well where we're going from here on out."

With a frown, he followed her example, removing the pony's halter and stuffing it into his saddlebags as he pulled his own pack on before sending the horseback with her own who was carefully picking his way back to the city.

None of the others seemed to notice as they climbed higher into the mountains. Then the giants, who tossed boulders the size of small buildings around and slammed each other into the sides of mountains. There was no way to describe her own fears that welled up almost choking her when the one stood up.

The horses had pulled and cried at the first crack, reminding her that animals were often much smarter than their riders. And when the giants began to move, they bolted. Taking any of the provisions that were still tied to them back down the trail and to safety. Much of their food disappeared with a screaming cry as the last pony circled a rocky outcropping.

Well, she thought, no hope for it now. They had to get past Goblin-town, the Orcs and their wargs, then to Beorn.

Luckily, the Dwarves had just managed to keep Bilbo from falling to his death when the mountainside crumbled away thanks to some stunning heroics from Thorin. Heights were not her thing, hence why she rock climbed back home. But there was a vast difference between dry rocks in a nice safe national park and a Giant's Thunderbattle.

"Fili! Kili!" Thorin yelled as Oin and Gloin pulled Bilbo to safety. "Find a cave! We need shelter!"

Seeing Caelann waving to get her attention, Sherilynn yelled for the youngest dwarves. "Caelann says there's a cave there!" She pointed and without any arguing everyone flooded inside, happy to be out of the storm and battle.

"Search the cave," Thorin said as soon as he was sure everyone was accounted for within and breathed a sigh of relief that they hadn't lost anyone to the giants. "Be sure we're alone."

"I'd advise not sleeping on the floor tonight," Sherilynn said, pulling a small loaf of lembas for everyone from her pack. It would have to last a while, but it was better that they had the good of it now if they wound up running for their lives from the goblins. "Caelann said all the other caves we could get to were blocked up and this was the only one open."

"A trap?" Balin asked, wringing out his cloak.

"That would be my guess." She replied, climbing up the wall to sit on a small ledge. "Probably goblin since we're close enough to Goblin-town. I'd guess that the floor is rigged to fall in after weight has been added to it for a while."

Dwalin, catching his brother's look began carefully sifting through the sand that covered the floor they stood on and cursed roundly when he found the crack in the center. Careful not to disturb it lest the trap spring prematurely, he followed it to the cave entrance then back sending most of the party up onto the rough ledges that had been carved into the wall by time and shifting stone. Thorin alone waited for his pronouncement. "Goes all the way to the back of the cave." He finally said. "Would dump us all in our sleep if the lass is right."

Turning to Gandalf, who at the moment was dry as a bone on a rock and carefully tamping his pipeweed, Thorin grudgingly admitted. "I suppose your singers have proven their worth."

Gandalf only lifted a single bushy eyebrow as if to say "yes and?" It did not help the would-be king's mood, but nor did it hurt it. And if it did, Gandalf was of the opinion that Thorin could use a little humbling. "I would suggest sleeping on the ledges." He murmured, sliding the stem between his teeth and lighting it by placing a finger over the bowel.

Addressing the party, Thorin turned to them the anger dying just a tiny bit, "we'll take the watch in shifts." The watch was quickly arranged. Apparently, Thorin still didn't trust Sherilynn enough to let her take watch by herself because she was paired with Bofur and was given first watch. Oh well.

Surprisingly, or unsurprisingly if one took into account that they had avoided the trap of the floor and had no ponies with them to make noise and alert the goblins of the mountain, the group slept through the worst of the thunder battle and wasn't troubled by any "wee beasties", as Caelann called the goblins, during the night. In fact, they slept so well on their stone ledge beds that Gandalf was loathed to wake them when during his watch a mountain giant returned to his rest and closed off the entrance to the cave by sitting on it.

"It'll do no good ta wake them." Caelann sighed as he debated it. In the end, in the spirit of keeping Thorin somewhat calm and capable of hearing anyone but himself, he woke the would-be king.

After trying his best to dislodge the giant, which did about as much as one would expect, and then trying to break through the wall around the giant, which resulted in a rock hitting him in the head making the invisible singer double over with laughter, he predictably blamed Gandalf and the singer for the cave being blocked.

And Gandalf fought not to laugh when Caelann mocked the petulant would be king right to his face. Not that he could actually see her, but since she had frequently mocked Thranduil to his face and gotten away with it only because she was very fast, Gandalf had no doubt that she would have done it even if Thorin could see her.

"And if we could cut through the mountain?" Gandalf mused when Thorin stopped for a breath. "It would save us a week of travel than if we went by the mountain pass. Of course, that would mean trying to get past goblins. If only we had someone that could help us with that."

Thorin's gaze turned calculating as he scanned the floor for the trap that the Singer had told him about. Surely the wizard wasn't thinking about them springing it and falling who knew how far to their possible deaths to save a week. Yes, they could cut across country if they went through Goblin-town, which would take them closer to Lake Town. As he considered it through he remembered exactly what was between the goblin caves and Esgaroth with Erebor beyond.

"You would have us go straight through Milkwood?" He all but yelled, cautious of falling rocks. All of the dwarves used to his yelling and even unconsciously knowing the difference between anger and alarm, slept on. "Straight through Thranduil's halls! He will lock us in his dungeons to rot rather than see us on our way!"

Looking at the smiling invisible queen, perched on a rock shelf by her friend, Gandalf only took a puff on his pipe. "I highly doubt he will." He murmured between smoke rings. "And if he does I have no doubt that he will change his mind rather rapidly."

After more blustering, Thorin fell silent. And seeing that he would just be wearing himself out needlessly, especially if they were going to have to fight their way through Goblin-town if he stayed awake and trying to find another way out he went back to sleep for a few more hours of rest. At least if he was facing possible death, he should do it on a full night's rest.

It was whispers that woke him. The sounds of two females hissing back and forth to each other. "I'll stay with the little one." One whispered, her voice sounding oddly muffled. Who was she? They had left Rivendell with one female, not two and he did not recognize the low rolling voice as the one belonging to the female that had been with them. Hers rolled a bit but it was lighter and different somehow. "Ye'd be seen any road. I can keep an eye on him better."

"But you can't help him with Smeagol." The second one hissed in an effort not to be heard by the guard.

Turning soundlessly in the dark, Thorin checked and yes there was one of his men on guard and awake still. He could see his eyes track in the darkness by the slight shine from Gandalf's staff.

"Not without exhausting yourself." The one he recognized as belonging to Sherilynn continued. "And who knows how far you can push things without killing yourself." A quick surprised inhale was the only reaction as Sherilynn continued. "Didn't think I knew about that, did you? That the more you do the less energy you have? It's killing you and I know you, Cael. Don't think I haven't seen you getting exhausted and how long it takes you to recover." Sherilynn sighed in the darkness, the frustration and anger slipping out with the sound leaving only resignation in her tone. "But I see your point. He's smart enough to handle it so you should only need to watch. Just be careful, okay? I'll do what I can to help the others."

"Ye be careful. Ye are the one that can bleed here." Caelann, he belatedly put together, hissed back. "Thorin is waking."

He didn't know how she knew, but after realizing that he wasn't going to hear more he sat up in the darkness and coughed, the guard instantly straightening. "What watch is it?"

"Just after dawn." Bombur answered. "Nothing to report."

Pushing to his feet, Thorin set about waking the men. "Time to go!" As Gandalf stood and brushed off his robes, he turned to the much taller male. "I assume you and the Singer know the way out of here."

"Of course." He answered, shedding a little light on the cave with a tap of his staff. "When you're ready."

On the shelf, Caelann lay a hand on Sherilynn's arm when she went to tell him how to open the back door. "Let Gandalf do it." She murmured. "Thorin needs to respect him before all this is over. Ye're time will come later."

Unseen now, by all but Mithrandir and Sherilynn, she slid from the shelf and leaped to the stones by the backdoor. Catching Gandalf's eye, she lay her hand on three separate rocks in succession and he nodded, he had seen. "Gandalf, be prepared to kill the Goblin King. A dramatic escape will be necessary."

His nose wrinkled in disgust but he nodded. He had hoped that they could sneak through the caves, but hearing how much noise the dwarves were making just gathering what little they had he knew there would be no way they could make it through without drawing attention. "Thorin." He called, getting the future king's attention.