Title: Thoughts in the night chapter Eight

Author: Dís Thráinsdotter

Disclaimer: I don't own Tolkien´s characters, I merely borrow them.

Rating: M

Summary: Glóin sits thinking about his life one night when he can't sleep. Post Hobbit but before LotR.

The journey from the glade where we rested to Beorn´s house is one that I will always remember in a mixture of relief and fear. We had to get away from the Orcs before they came out of their caves in order to hunt us and we had to get off the mountains. When we went down in a landslide with stones and rocks around us, all huddled into a tight group, it felt quite frightening but fortunately we came to the forest and were rescued by the trees. But the most horrible part was the meeting with the Wargs in a glade and the Orcs encircling us with fire. We would have been burned alive but the Eagles of the Misty Mountains rescued us and took us to the High Shelf, as it was called, and gave us food and fuel.

The following morning we were flown to a place Gandalf called The Carrock and it was a strange place with stairs hewn into the rock. Gandalf told us about someone named Beorn who would be able to aid us if we didn't anger him and that sounded good, but he also said that he is easily angered and that was more worrying. Bilbo thought that he was a hunter when Gandalf described him as a skin changer, but then Gandalf told us that he is a Man who sometimes is a Bear. We came to a place near his house and Gandalf told us to wait there until he called or whistled, and then to come in pairs every five minutes. He then went away with Bilbo and we followed them with our eyes. There was many bees about and I had never seen such large bees anywhere, neither had anyone else of us.

Thórin divided us into pairs and told Bombur to come as the last, Bombur was quite angered at that but when he was told that Gandalf had also said that it would be best if he were the last he relented. It didn't take all that long until Gandalf whistled and Thórin and Dori left in order to go to them. When Óin and I came to the house, Gandalf had told a part of the story about our meeting with the Orcs and the rest of the story was told with the interruptions of the rest of us until we were all gathered on Beorn´s porch. He offered us a supper for the tale and we were most grateful for it. We were also given beds for the night and I could sleep peacefully there, the first time I had done that since we left the Last Homely House.

The following day we didn't do much, mostly we spoke about what he had been through and our plans when we had gotten the treasure but also the things that Beorn and Gandalf had told us. We sat at the supper table when Gandalf returned to us after having been away all day. He told us, after having had a bite and a smoke, that he had been following Bear tracks leading to the glade where we had had the meeting with the Wargs and Orcs. Bilbo spoke in fright, and I did feel some fear as well but Gandalf told Bilbo to go to bed, and he did while we sang about different things.

To the surprise of all of us a very happy Beorn who had breakfast with us and told us funny stories so we were roaring with laughter waked us. It didn't take so long for us to know why he was laughing because he told us about it. He had gone to the glade and seen the burned stumps that the trees we had been sitting in had become, also he had caught a Warg and an Orc and questioned them. They had told him about the hunt for us and this way the story that Gandalf had told him had been proven. We did receive aid from him and also advice, as he now knew where we were going. He also told us that the best route through Mirkwood would be a little known path to the north of Beorn´s house, the Forest Road that we had planned to go on was used by Orcs he said and we had no intention of meeting them for a while.

He also lended us ponies so we could get to the path quicker, Gandalf was lended a horse, and we were told to send them back when we reached the Forest gate. We were also told not to leave the path and not to get into the Dark Stream. "The water carries drowsiness and forgetfulness," Beorn said, and that didn't sound pleasant in the least. But with the aid of Gandalf we were able to get to the path without being attacked by Orcs.

Gandalf had told us before we had gone to Beorn´s house that he would leave us soon in order to attend so some pressing matters. Now he repeated that and when we looked sad he reminded us that he sent Bilbo with us. It did feel hard to see both the ponies and Gandalf leave us on the edge of Mirkwood; but we had to cross it in order to get to the Mountain and so we entered it, the last obstacle before the Long Marshes and the last lap to our home or so it felt. As we found out, the road was a bit longer than that.

TBC