Early Christmas gift.

Chapter Sixteen

Once the dwarves were freed from the spit and from the sacks, they set about getting back into their gear while she got as comfortable as she could in the air, watching over all of them. They were all safe and in once piece, if a little singed in places. Though she felt like she was being forgotten up there. She watched Ori and Bifur go let the ponies out of the pen they'd been in most of the night, then going off to gather the rest.

Gandalf and Oakenshield were standing close together talking, the latter glaring to where she was hanging in the air, "Your burglar was of no help this past night."

"She had the nous to play for time. None of the rest of you thought of that." Oakenshield almost looked repentant, as the two of them examine the statues that she was stuck in, "They must have come down from the Ettenmoors."

"Since when do mountain trolls venture this far south?"

"Oh, not for an age, not since a darker power ruled these lands."

As the two looked at each other below her, she finally got fed up, "Will someone please get me down from here? I'm rather stuck." Only to receive a glare from Oakenshield for her trouble.

"Bofur, come get our burglar out of her chair." He stormed off, presumably off to do something even more idiotic.

It was beyond frustrating, she'd done everything she could do on her own to save them, and yet she was made to feel as if she was even more of a burden. Thankfully it didn't take long for Bofur to arrive, with his mattock to get her down.

"Watch yourself lass, stay as still as you can, don't want to hurt you now." He was aiming for the wrist, and Bombur was standing close behind to try and catch her as she fell. Iris quickly moved as much as she could away from the place he was aiming and may have let out a bit of an undignified squeak when the weapon hit the arm of the statue, causing it to shake then shatter. Once she was on the ground it took a few more careful hits to break her fully out of the grip.

"Lass, thought you were captured by those beasts, what happened?" Bombur was helping her up as Bofur leaned on his weapon, eyeing her closely.

She shook her head, "They never saw me, and if you'd only stopped for a moment before rushing in, you'd have seen it. Not that these three weren't a problem that needed to be taken care of. And I was having difficulty getting the ropes undone. As I'm sure you noticed, the damnable things were covered in some sort of slime." Of which she felt she would never get off of herself, she just wanted a good bath.

He had the heart to look sheepish, "Sorry mistress, we were worried about yah."

"Please, Master Bofur, call me Iris, and thank you." She gave him a shy smile, not knowing just how much it made her look just like her mother, "I wasn't sure if I'd be able to stop them from eating you. I hope I haven't ruined what little respect I've earned in this group."

"Only if you call me Bofur," he gave her a grin, while Bombur clasped her shoulder, "if they do, they're more of a half-wit than those trolls were. Speaking of, where'd they go?"

They looked around, only to see that there were only a few of them left in the clearing, but they could hear the lot of them not far off headed towards where the sound was coming from. The idiots had found a Troll horde. Of which Bofur immediately went in to join the others. As much as she liked shiny things, there was no way she was going closer to that horrible smell.

Ori and Bifur had already joined the rest of them, after leading the ponies closer to where they were now. Taking the chance, she went over and grabbed her bag, and re-equipped her weapons. She'd felt very exposed the night before without them on her person. She then went over and sat beside Ori, while lighting her pipe, needing a moment or two to get herself back to sorts.

After a short time, of which Iris was considering going back to the ponies and getting a small meal together, as she hadn't eaten in some time, Gandalf exited the cave and came towards her. He held out what seemed to be a sword to her, though she knew it would be considered more a dagger to anyone else.

"Here. This is about your size. The blade is of Elvish make which means it will glow blue when orcs or goblins are nearby."

Well, that would be very useful, "Thank you," she took it, "Though I have never used a sword in my life, do you think someone would be willing to train me?"

Gandalf put a hand on her shoulder and smiled down at her, "I do hope that you never have to use it my dear Iris. But if you do, remember this: true courage is about knowing not when to take a life, but when to spare one."

She barely had time to nod when Oakenshield yelled out, "Something's coming!" Oh, like that wouldn't carry in the silence of the wood.

Gandalf tried to gather them all together as they prepared for what could be their second battle in less than a day, "Stay together! Hurry now. Arm yourselves."

She carefully drew the sword, thankful that it at least wasn't glowing blue, and took off after the others who'd run off into the woods towards the sound. What they ran towards though was quite the surprise, it wasn't an attack, but an old, very crazy looking man, who was on a rabbit-drawn sled. Yelling about thieves, fire and murder. She sure hoped he wasn't upset they'd killed the trolls.

Gandalf called out, "Radagast! Radagast the Brown." This was one of wizards that Gandalf knew, he looked insane, "Ah. What on earth are you doing here?"

"I was looking for you," He'd gotten off his sled and gone directly over to his fellow wizard, clasping him by the arms, "Gandalf. Something's wrong. Something's terribly wrong."

"Yes?" They all watched as the Brown wizard opened his mouth to speak and then closed it looking completely confused.

"Oh, just give me a minute. Um, oh, I had a thought, and now I've lost it. It was, it was right there on the tip of my tongue." At which he sticks out his tongue and continues to speak while looking very surprised, "Oh, it's not a thought at all; it's a silly old..." Gandalf pulled something out of his mouth, "-stick insect!"

Oh that, that was just disgusting, and she was more than happy to stay far away from either of them as Gandalf pulled the insane wizards off to the edge of where they were standing to speak. Though she did note that Nori had snuck closer to them.

After a few minutes, where they all took time to rest, there was a howl heard in the distance, "Please say that was a wolf." She looked towards her father, "There are wolves out here right?"

"Wolves? No, that is not a wolf." Bofur was already hefting his mattock, prompting her to pull her sword again.

All of a sudden a Warg appeared, leaping right into the middle of them, knocking down Dori. Oakenshield quickly struck out and killed the beast using a different weapon that he'd used so far. Almost directly afterwards, another Warg appeared from the other side, which Kili shot with an arrow, bringing it down instantly. However, it got back up right away, only to be killed by Dwalin.

Dwalin stood over the beast, glaring down at it, "Warg-Scouts!" He sounded disgusted, "Which means an Orc pack will be right behind."

Oh dear Yavanna, Orcs! She barely heard the argument between Oakenshield and Gandalf, but she did catch that the ponies had bolted. Of course the ponies had bolted, they'd only just saved them from trolls, to lose them to Wargs. They all very quickly donned their packs and were running; she hated running; chasing after the crazy wizard and his rabbits who was trying to draw the pack away.

She'd thought it was bad at first trying to run from them through the woods, but very shortly they hit open land, with rocky outcrops. That was so much worse, there was no where to hide or escape to if they came up on them. She'd already pulled out her hand bows, but had never used them in this capacity. She didn't know if she could even use them to take a life that wasn't meant for dinner.

As they periodically stopped to take cover, as the crazy wizard would draw the orcs too close to where they were running, she would ultimately find herself pushed behind one of the dwarves, between them and the rock face. Usually, with Ori right beside her after Oakenshield had to pull the youngster back when he'd nearly been exposed.

"Where are you leading us?" their leader hissed out at Gandalf, who promptly ignored him. She felt a little put out for Oakenshield at that, but quickly understood why everyone was very silent, some even holding their breath. There was the sound of claws raking over the rock above them, and a heavy sniffing sound.

Kili readied an arrow at his uncles nod and quickly stepped out, shooting the Warg in one smooth motion, causing both it and the orc on it to fall. They were all very quickly on the two, trying to kill it before it made a sound, but they were too late. The kill wasn't fast enough and that abominable thing was loud. Their cover was blown.

It went without saying that Gandalf's order to run, was met with them sprinting as fast as they could go. It wasn't fast enough though, they were very quickly being surrounded by Wargs, but they went as fast as they could, following the directions of Gandalf and hoping he was leading them to safety. Somehow, Bofur and Bifur were almost always on either side of her, staying as close as they could, without impairing the movements of there weapons. If they survived this, she swore to herself she'd tell them the truth soon.

Soon there was no place else they could run though, they'd lost sight of Gandalf and the orcs and wargs were on every side. She was trying to shoot them along with Fili, her arrows doing so much less damage then his. Yet, she refused to die here.

From behind she heard, "This way, you fools!" and she instantly turned to see Gandalf's hat disappear again behind a rock. She started backing up that way, trying to not take her eyes off of the wargs that were approaching, and her growing concern for Kili, who wasn't moving. At least, until she felt a sharp tug on her shoulder and was almost tossed down into the hole that the others had escaped to, sliding down into a cave, landing on her uncle with a grunt.

From above she could hear Thorin yell out, "Kili! Run!" and a few moments later, both of them were jumping down into the hole with the rest of them. They all had already regained their bearings and were looking up as a horn sounded. Although she didn't recognize the sound, she could tell that the others could and many of them didn't look happy about this addition. She, however, couldn't have been happier when the orc that fell down the shaft, had an arrow in it.

"Elves." Yet, Thorin didn't seem happy about it.

It seemed like the battle above was still going on, but they were going to take the chance to slip away. It would have taken too much to climb back out of the cave they found themselves in, and there seemed to be a pathway heading away from everything. It was quite narrow in places, and it wasn't long before the opening above was so far up, that no heat came down to them. When all of a sudden it opened up to a beautiful valley, seemingly untouched by the evil of the world. Beautiful architecture seemingly growing from the land, designed to flow with the life around it.

Gandalf had a smug, but pleased sound to his voice, "The Valley of Imraldis. In the Common Tongue, it's know by another name."

"Rivendell." Iris breathed. Her mother had talked about this place with awe. She'd been here before heading to the Blue Mountains and had made many friends. Although she wasn't sure if she'd be welcome, it was someplace Iris had always wanted to visit. She half listened to Gandalf and Thorin bickering, again, but her mind was already going over all the elves she hoped to meet. Lord Elrond, his sons Elladan and Elrohir and his daughter Arwen. Or Lindor and Glorfindel, who'd both made and taught her mother to use the hand bows that she now used.

So while most everyone else was looking as if they were going to their doom, she couldn't help but feel like a faunt again in her excitement.

Next chapter: Rivendell.

Note: I won't be posting again until the New Years, I scrapped the next chapter because it just didn't make sense. And with work being crazy, I haven't had time to write. My first day off in 3 weeks will be Christmas Eve.