Hey, this is chapter 3! I'm hoping your enjoing my take on 'The Hobbit' and that you like my OC so far. Everything 'The Hobbit' and 'The Lord of the Rings' related belongs to J.R.R. Tolkien and Tauriel belongs to Peter Jackson. 'The Hanging Tree is from Mocking Jay and sung by Jenifer Lawrence.
"Gandalf" a deep voice said as the door opened. "I thought you said this place would be easy to find. I lost my way, twice. I wouldn't have found it at all if it had not been for that mark on the door"
"Mark, there's no mark on that door. It was painted a week ago" Bilbo said marching forwards.
"There is a mark, I put it there myself" Gandalf said shutting the door. "Bilbo Baggins let me introduce the leader of our company. Thorin Oakenshield"
"So this is the Hobbit" Thorin said studying Bilbo. "Tell me Mr. Baggins have you done much fighting?"
"Pardon me?" Bilbo asked confused.
"Axe or sword, what's your weapon of choice" Thorin asked making a circle around the Hobbit.
"Well I do have some skill at conkers if you must know, but I fail to see why that's relevant"
"Thought as much" Thorin said with his arms folded. The look of arrogance on his face made Solaris angry. "He looks more like a grocer than a burglar"
Thorin turned to the others who laughed.
"Do not talk about him or look at him like that" Solaris said stepping forward. He was tall for a dwarf; she was willing to bet he was half man.
"And what prey tell are you?" Thorin asked judging her now. Her hair had flopped over her ears so he could not see that she was an elf.
"This is Lady Solaris, daughter of Lord Elrond the elven Lord of Rivendell" Gandalf said stepping beside them. "I invited her"
"We do not need a Lady no more than we need an elf" Thorin said.
"I could skin you so fast that you'd still be standing and think there was a draught" Solaris spat. "Weren't you brought up to respect ladies and your host?"
"I was brought up on a battle field before you were even alive" Thorin said stepping closer to her.
"Then your old enough to have some manners" Solaris said giving him a steely glare.
"Tell me Gandalf" Thorin said addressing the wizard but still looking at the elf. "Why is it we have need of an elf"
"Solaris has a very good skill set" Gandalf said "She will be very valuable to us"
Thorin nodded "That is if she learns to hold her tounge" he said. He brushed past her and went into the kitchen. Solaris was left standing there fuming.
"You should know better than to challenge my Uncle" Kili said coming over to her.
"He is nothing special, just a dwarf with his head up his own…" Solaris stopped when Gandalf hit her on the head with the end of his staff.
"Come Solaris" he said.
"What news from the meeting in Ered Luin. Did they all come?" a white haired dwarf asked.
"Kili" Solaris whispered and the young dwarf nodded. "Could you tell me everyone's names?"
He nodded and took his pipe out his mouth "I am Kili and that's my brother Fili" he said. "Thorin, my uncle, you know, then there's Ori, Dori and Nori, Oin, Gloin, Bifur, Bofur, Bombur, Balin and Dwalin"
He pointed to each with the end of his pipe; Solaris watched and knew she would never remember who was who to start with apart from the easy ones.
"Aye, Envoys from all seven kingdoms" Thorin nodded while he ate some soup.
The others were all now sat calmly around the table with tankards. Fili moved up so that there was room for Kili and Solaris to sit down.
"And what did the dwarves of the Iron Hills say?" Dwalin asked. "Is Dain with us?"
"They will not come" Thorin said.
Solaris didn't pretend to understand what he was talking about but listened anyway.
"They say this quest is ours and ours alone"
"You're going on a quest?" Bilbo asked.
"Bilbo my dear fellow, let us have a little more light" Gandalf said and the Hobbit scurried to fetch more candles.
"Far to the east, over rangers and rivers, beyond woodlands and wastelands, lies a single solitary peak," Gandalf said unfolding a map onto the table.
"The Lonely Mountain" Bilbo read aloud.
"Aye Oin has read the portents and the portents say it is time" Gloin said.
"Ravens have been seen flying back to the mountain, as it was foretold. When the birds of yore return to Erebor the reign of the beast will end" Oin said.
"Uh, what beast?" Bilbo asked.
"Ah well that would be a reference to Smaug the Terrible" Bofur said. "Chiefest and greatest calamity of our age. Air-born fire breather, teeth like razors, claws like meat hooks, extremely fond of precious metals"
"Yes, I know what a dragon is" Bilbo said.
"I'm not afraid, I'm up for it. I'll give him a taste of Dwarfish iron right up his jacksie" Ori said standing.
"Good lad Ori" Nori said.
"The task would be difficult enough with an army behind us but we number just 13 and not 13 of the best, nor brightest"
"Here who are you calling dim?" Nori said.
Solaris remained silent, maybe if she sat here quietly and long enough they would all but forget her entirely.
"We may be few in number but we're fighters, all of us, to the last Dwarf" Fili said.
"And you forget we have a wizard and an elf in our company. Gandalf will have killed hundreds of dragons in his time" Kili said slapping Solaris on the shoulder. Gandalf denied the claim of slaying 100 dragons. Solaris looked across the table and her eyes met Thorin's. They then all started to argue over something.
"And what has my Lady elf slain?" Thorin asked.
Solaris heard him loud and clear but the others stopped their fighting and asked him to repeat. "I said what has my lady elf slain?" his eyes were gleaming.
"Put an apple in your mouth" Solaris said flatly.
"What?" Ori asked looking very confused.
Solaris picked up an apple and chucked it at Thorin. "Put it in your mouth" she said getting up. The dwarves murmured to each other while she was gone, when she came back she had her bow and a single arrow in her hand.
"Go on, shove it in" she said notching the arrow.
Slowly with raised eyebrows Thorin bit the apple between his teeth, his eyes never left the elf.
"Are you sure you know what your doing?" Kili asked from next to her.
Solaris ignored him and loosed her arrow. They all gasped as the arrow plunged into the apple but Thorin remained breathing. He slowly took the apple from his mouth and they all looked at saw that the arrow had just enough force behind it to go into the apple but not his throat.
"I think you made your point Solaris" Gandalf said.
"I hope so" she said placing her bow onto the table.
"If we have read these signs do you not think others will have read them too?" Thorin said slowly getting back on topic. "Rumours have begun to spread, the dragon Smaug has not been seen for 60 years. Eyes look east to the mountain assessing, wondering, weighing the risk. Perhaps the vast wealth of our people now lies unprotected. Do we sit back while others claim what is rightfully ours? Or do we seize this chance to take back Erebor?" he said shaking his fist. The others all cheered their leader.
"Will you help us Solaris?" Kili asked amongst the cheering.
"I shall try" she nodded.
"You forget the front gate is sealed. There is no way into the mountain" Balin said.
"Isn't there a back entrance?" Solaris asked. "There is always more than one way into a place"
"Brains and well as spirit you have there young Solaris" Gandalf said producing a key.
"How came you by this?" Thorin asked.
"It was given to me by your Father, by Thrian, for safe-keeping. It is yours now"
"If there is a key, there must be a door" Fili said.
"These ruins speak of a hidden passage to the Lower Halls"
"There's another way in" Kili said excitedly.
Solaris was excitement but she was also worried, this all sounded to good to be true.
"Well if we can find it but dwarf doors are invisible when closed" Gandalf said. "The answer lies somewhere hidden in this map and I do not have the skill to find it but there are others in Middle-Earth who can. The task I have in mind will require a great deal of stealth and no small amount of courage. But if we are careful and clever I believe that it can be done"
"That's why we need a burglar" Ori said pointing at Bilbo.
"Hmm a good one too. An expert I'd imagine" Bilbo said not really grasping what they were talking about.
"And are you?" Gloin asked.
Bilbo looked behind him as if they were talking to someone else.
"Am I what?" he asked.
"He said he's an expert, hey" Oin said holding his hearing funnel up.
"Me! No, no, no, no, no. I'm not a burglar. I've never stolen a thing in my life"
"Well I'm afraid I have to agree with Mr. Baggins. He's hardly burglar material" Balin said.
"Aye the wild is no place for gentle folk who can neither fight nor fend for themselves" Gloin said.
"He's just fine" Kili piped up.
They all started arguing again and Gandalf stood. A sickly feeling came over Solaris and she closed her eyes and put her hand to her head.
"Enough!" Gandalf said "If I say Bilbo Baggins is a burglar then a burglar he is!" a shadow came over the room.
"Are you well Solaris?" Fili asked.
"I'm fine" she gasped.
As the shadow faded and Gandalf sat down the sickness left her also. "Please don't do that again Gandalf" she said.
"I apologise my lady" Gandalf said "I forgot that dark power like that hurts elves so. Now Hobbits are remarkably light on their feet, in fact they can pass unseen by most if they choose, and while the dragon is accustomed to the smell of Dwarf the scent of a Hobbit is all but unknown to him which gives us a distinct advantage. You asked me to find the fourteenth member of this company and I have chosen Mr Baggins, I even went so far as to go to Rivendell to seek an elf"
"That I did not ask you to do" Thorin said glancing at Solaris.
That was about as enough as she could take. Making sure she bashed the table and sending tankards spilling Solaris stood and marched into the living area. There was a fire burning in the hearth but Solaris found the room too hot and went and sat on the window sill. She lifted a leg up to her chin and unfastened her jacket a little. She stopped at the button just above her breast and sighed heavily while staring out the window. She jumped slightly when Gandri appeared at the window. He whinnied and tossed his head; Solaris laughed and tapped the window at him. He tossed his head a little more and then went back to eating Bilbo's grass. She could hear Gandalf and the dwarves talking and then there was some laughing and the shuffling of paper. She looked over at Bilbo standing in the lobby, he looked pale and clammy.
"Bilbo" she called. "Come sit with me"
"I need air" he said.
"And poof your no more than a pile of ash" Bofur said and Bilbo promptly fell to the floor. Solaris shook her head and went back to watching Gandri out the window. Bilbo eventually woke up and Gandalf took him into another room to talk. The dwarves slowly migrated into the room where Solaris was sitting. She ignored them filtering in and concentrated on the window even though Gandri was now dosing standing up. Solaris heard Thorin's heavy boots come in as he stood by the fire; she glanced and saw that he was staring into the flames breathing in his pipe. Fili and Kili were the last to come into the room, Fili sat in one of the arm chairs and Kili leant on the wall next to Solaris.
"He doesn't have anything against you" he whispered "It's another elf but you're all the same to him"
"We are not all the same, I do not know what an elf can have done to make him so sour but I shall do my best to make up for any wrong doings" she said and Kili smiled.
"The past cannot be made up, the wound goes to deep" he said patting her shoulder.
Solaris pondered what could have been so terrible that Thorin now hated every elf he had the misfortune to come across.
A low pitched humming had started. It filled the room and floated around Solaris like a warm blanket on a winter's eve. It annoyed her to think that it was Thorin's singing that warmed her so but she couldn't help it.
"Far over the misty mountains cold, to dungeons deep and caverns old, we must away, ere break of day, to find our long, forgotten gold" Thorin sang, Solaris found her eyes closing.
"The pines were roaring, on the height, the winds were moaning in the night, the fire was red, it flaming spread, the trees like torches, blazed with light" they all harmonised together.
By now Gandalf had come into the room. "How ever many time I hear that song it still chills me" he said sitting down. "What about you Solaris?" he asked.
"It was beautiful" she said not taking her eyes from the window.
"Why don't you sing something, the dwarves have treated you, why don't you treat them?"
Solaris looked around the room; the all looked expectantly at her. Thorin's eyes had even softened but Solaris expected that was from the ale he'd consumed. She turned back to the window and chose a simple song to sing that had very few words to it.
"Are you, are you, coming to the tree, they strung up a man they say who murdered three, strange things did happen her no stranger would it be, if we met at midnight in the hanging tree.
Are you, are you, coming to the tree, where a dead man called out, for his love to flee, strange things did happen here no stranger would it be, if we met at midnight in the hanging tree.
Are you, are you, coming to the tree, where I told you to run, so we'd both be free, strange things did happen here no stranger would it be, if we met at midnight in the hanging tree.
Are you, are you, coming to the tree, wear a necklace of hope, side by side with me, strange things did happen here no stranger would it be, if we met at midnight in the hanging tree.
Are you, are you, coming to the tree, where I told you to run, so that we'd both be free, strange things did happen here no stranger would it be, if we met at midnight in the hanging tree.
Are you, are you, coming to the tree, they strung up a man they say who murdered three, strange things did happen her no stranger would it seem, if we met at midnight in the hanging tree.
Are you, are you, coming to the tree, where a dead man called out, for his love to flee, strange things did happen here no stranger would it seem, if we met at midnight in the hanging tree"
It was a long song and by the time she'd finished most of the dwarves were either asleep or dozing.
"They will sleep well tonight" Gandalf said. "Now we must lay our heads, Bilbo show Solaris to a room"
The Hobbit nodded "This way My Lady" he said and Solaris followed.