Alyssae was separated from the rest of the world for such a long time, she didn't even paid attention to the distant muttering in the first place. Who else would it be, except for the goblins?
No other living being came around in the last weeks. Well, that was not entirely true. After one of the first nights she was visited by an indefinable creature, which didn't bring forth anything but hoarse sounds and agitated hisses. He tried to grab her with his long, bony fingers, but Alyssae's cage fortunately was big enough to keep him away from her. After he figured out she was beyond his reach he left and never came back.
The voices became louder and Alyssae realized they differed from the screams of the goblins she got used to. Although she couldn't understand the words that were spoken, the sounds were deeper than those of her guards. Still she couldn't imagine the meaning of all this.
After a while she discovered the voices were in a screaming conversation. She raised herself with help of the bars, for she didn't had the strength to do it all by herself, and she ignored the splinters drilling in her skin. Her breathe speeded up while she tried to catch the new sounds.
From the distance an odd light approached, which was accompanied by the shaking of lots of footsteps, seeming to multiply by every passing second. Other sounds reached her sensitive ears and she couldn't remember hearing such a row before. There was something going on definitely.
The light came closer rapidly and in a short amount of time Alyssae saw it was held by a tall man with a sturdy beard. He ran across the slippery ground, followed by a row of smaller copies.
Alyssae did her best to attract their attention, but her cell was hidden under an inclining wall, which hid her from view. Her throat was sore because of thirst and brought forward only a weak wailing, which got lost in the noise of the rumbling footsteps.
She groped for the humid wall and humidified her fingers, after which she wetted her dehydrated tongue and palate. She shivered by tasting the metallic flavor, but noticed the spectacle next to her again soon.
'Help!'
This time her cry was nearly audible as well and tears of despair run across her cheeks. She hit the bars with her hands, which neither caused a lot of noise.
'Just help me please,' she whispered, whereafter she fell exhaustedly on her knees.
By a miracle someone seemed to have heard her, for a face appeared close to her's.
Because of her isolation she was frightened by the brown eyes in which she was staring and she wasn't able to say anything.
'Bofur!' the man yelled. 'Over here!'
Now that her rescue seemed so close, she was full of new energy and she got on her knees, while she encouraged the man in silence. He was half as tall as she was and she had seen enough dwarves in her life to know she was confronted by one, although it was remarkable he hardly possessed a beard.
Next to the man a second dwarf appeared, wearing a strange headgear. He started to swing his axe immediately. Alyssae stepped backwards frightened when the second dwarf almost cut her in twice by trying to hit the wooden bar. Nevertheless she crawled outside the moment his axe disappeared. All over the place she heard angry shrieks, by which she wondered if she was not safer inside the wooden bars of her prison.
Despite the fact that they were probably surrounded, she knew her freedom was not far way. She stumbled after the two dwarves, hoping to find a way out. However, she was rather weakened and she lagged further behind. The dwarf with the brown eyes looked over his shoulder and she read the doubt in his eyes. Would he risk his own life to safe a stranger like her? Begging she glanced at him, but she couldn't come up with a reason why he would actually do something like that.