Here's chapter 5! As usual everything 'The Hobbit' and 'The Lord of the Rings' related belongs to J.R.R Tolkien and Tauriel belongs to Peter Jackson.
Solaris was woken by the crack of thunder and droplets of rain dripping onto her cheek.
"Time to leave my Lady" Gloin said giving her a slight nudge as he passed.
She got up and pulled her cloak from the saddle bags, it was her favourite cloak that covered her entire face apart from her nose and mouth. Most of the ponies were already saddled apart from Gandri who none were tall enough to reach. Solaris wasn't really tall enough but she had mastered being able to toss it onto his back and Gandri had learnt to lower his head for her to put the bridle on.
They set off back into the trees and walked for some while in the rain.
"Here, Mr. Gandalf can't you do something about this deluge?" Dori asked.
"It is raining Mr Dwarf" Gandalf called back over the noise of the rain. "And it will continue to rain until the rain is done, if you wish to change the weather of the world you should find yourself another wizard"
"Are there any?" Bilbo asked.
"What?"
"Other wizards?"
"There are five of us; the greatest of our order is Saruman the White. Then there are the two blue wizards do you know I've quite forgotten their names"
"And who is the fifth?" Bilbo asked.
"Well that would be Radagast the Brown" Gandalf answered.
"Is he a great wizard, or is he more like you?" Bilbo asked and Solaris bit her lip.
"I think he's a very great wizard in his own way. He's a gentle soul that prefers the company of animals to others. He keeps a watchful eye on the vast forest lands to the east. And a good thing too, for always evil will look to find a foothold in this world"
They continued to ride for the whole day and only stopped for a snack. They eventually did come to a proper stop on the side of a grassy hill.
"We'll camp here for the night" Thorin said. "Fili, Kili look after the ponies. Make sure you stay with them. Take Solaris with you if you like, she likes ponies"
"You hear that, you're with us!" Kili exclaimed up to Solaris who was yet to dismount.
"Oin, Gloin get a fire going" Thorin ordered.
"I think it would be wiser to move on" Gandalf said "We could make for the Hidden Valley"
Thorin walked over to Gandalf and they started to talk in hushed voices. Meanwhile the others set up camp. Solaris busied herself with settling the horses. There was a sudden gust of wind and a smell caught her attention.
"Can you smell that?" she asked Fili who was un-tacking a pony next to her.
"Smell what?" he asked.
"God it's foul!" Solaris exclaimed putting a hand to her nose. Gandri shuffled uneasy from foot to foot.
"It's probably Bombur" Fili smiled.
"I think you need to pick his hooves" Kili said pointing to the restless Gandri.
"It's not that" she said patting Gandri's neck. He could smell it too; it was bad what ever it was. Just to be sure she checked Gandri's feet before following Kili and Fili to where they had set up watch.
Night fell and Solaris's eyes started to drop, she was only awoken every time her head jerked forward.
"You can rest Laris" Kili said, he'd taken to calling her Laris. It was a name she'd been called before by her family and it was strange to hear it be said outside of Rivendell.
"I'm fine" she said.
"Come rest your head on my shoulder, I'll watch over you and the horses" Kili said.
"Stop flirting with her Kili" Fili said "We're all tired of it, you have more chance getting with a Warg than you do Solaris" Solaris and Fili laughed softly together while Kili stopped talking and stewed in silence.
Solaris was pushed roughly and her eyes snapped open.
"I fell asleep" she said started.
"There is a problem" Fili said pulling her to her feet.
He dragged her to where Kili was standing and Solaris followed his eye line to where posts had been broken and no ponies stood where ponies should have been stood.
"Where's Gandri?" she asked suddenly panicked, she looked around and couldn't see the black stallion anywhere. "Oh no" she said making to move but Fili caught her.
"Just wait while we think what to do" he said.
Bilbo then came forward juggling three bowls of strew. "What the matter?" he asked when they didn't take the bowls.
"We're supposed to be looking after the ponies" Kili said.
"Only we've encountered a slight problem" Fili said.
"We had 16"Kili said "And Gandri"
"Now there's 14 and no Gandri" Fili said.
Bilbo looked at Solaris "No Gandri?" he asked.
"I can't just stand here" she said making to move again but this time she was caught by Kili.
"I will sit on you" he warned pointing a finger at her.
"We'd better see who is missing" Fili said.
They searched the ponies and came to the conclusion that Daisy and Bungo were missing along with Gandri.
"Well that's not good" Bilbo said following them still holding the stew. "And that is not good at all" he said gesturing to a tree that had been uprooted. "Shouldn't we tell Thorin?"
"Uh no, lets not worry him" Fili said "As our official burglar we thought you might like to look into it"
"Well uh. Look something big uprooted these trees" Bilbo said.
"That was our thinking" Kili agreed.
"It's something very big and possibly quite dangerous"
Solaris could not stand this any longer. She found some footprints and started to follow them, soon she could see a light through the trees and carefully she crept closer and closer. She came to a stop at a tree that had fallen long ago and pressed herself to it. A few seconds passed and Kili and Fili joined either side of her.
"Shush" she said as a large troll came lumbering out the trees carrying more ponies.
"He's got Myrtle and Minty, I think they're gonna eat them. We have to do something" Bilbo said.
"Eat them!" Solaris exclaimed.
Kili threw a hand over her mouth. "Be quiet" he said.
"Yes you should!" Fili whispered and took the bowls from Bilbo.
"Mountain trolls are slow and stupid and you're so small, they'll never see you" Kili said still with his hand over Solaris's mouth. She would have bitten him but she had no idea where his hands might have been.
"No, no, no" Bilbo said.
"It's perfectly safe. We'll be right behind you" Kili said finally removing his hand.
"If you run into trouble hoot twice like a barn owl and once like a brown owl" Fili said pushing the hobbit forwards. While his back was turned the dwarves grabbed Solaris and scurried her away.
"No, I want to help" she said struggling against them.
"Just let the burglar do his job" Fili said.
They stopped a few bushes away so that they could watch Bilbo. First he tried to free the equines but the rope was too thick. They watched as he tried to pick pocket a knife but the troll happened to grasp him by accident and blew his nose into the little hobbit.
"Ew" Solaris, Kili and Fili all said at the same time.
The trolls were trying to decide what Bilbo was when Fili and Kili jumped out the trees without so much of a warning to Solaris. While the dwarves worked to free Bilbo Solaris set the horses free, she whispered Elvish to Gandri and he disappeared in another direction to the ponies. Just as she turned Thorin and the other dwarves came running out the trees with blades and axes wielded above their heads. Jumping up into a tree Solaris called to one of the trolls who was trying to smash Bofur into the ground. She had no weapons and the dwarves all had something each so there was nothing left for her.
"Oi, you ugly slug!" she called and shook her head at how stupid she felt "Come get me!"
The trolls nearest her turned and looked up at her in the tree.
"Who are you calling ugly, tree rat" he called back up at her.
He then attempted to clamber up the tree towards her while Thorin and Dwalin attacked him from behind. Seeing a fallen blade on the floor Solaris leapt and grabbed it. She then flitted around the campfire slashing here and there. Then was grabbed and arms wrapped around her.
"What?" she asked.
"Look"
Thorin was gripping her tightly and in-front of them two of the trolls had Bilbo between them and the other got up from the ground after recovering from a slash to the knee.
"Lay down your arms or we'll rip his off" the troll said and Thorin let Solaris go to drop his sword. They all did the same and waited for someone to make a move.
They were all then put in bags and thrown into a pile. The trolls got a large fire going and started to discuss how they were going to cook them all.
"Kili, stop it" Solaris said.
"What?" he shouted.
"Quit touching my, you know what's" she said not being common enough to say words like that out loud.
"I'm not!" he exclaimed. "Who's touching Solaris?"
"Sorry, I thought that I was holding onto a peach. I was going to save it for later" Ori said.
"Oh god" Solaris and more than one dwarf groaned.
"Shut up all of you!" Thorin said.
"Wait, you are making a terrible mistake" Bilbo said rolling off the pile and jumping his way towards the trolls who were turning some of the dwarves on a spit above the fire.
"I meant with the seasoning" he continued.
"What about the seasoning?" a troll asked.
"Well have you smelt them?" Bilbo asked "Your gonna need something stronger than sage before you plate this lot up"
The dwarves called Bilbo a traitor for what he was saying by Solaris knew his plan, he was stalling for time.
"What do you know about cooking dwarf?" another troll asked.
"Shut up, let the flurgaburburhobbit talk" the lead troll said.
Solaris shuffled her back so that she was next to Thorin. "He's smart" she said and Thorin frowned.
"How, he's discussing how to cook us" he said.
"To bag us some time while we try and got out this mess" she said and he nodded slowly.
"Uh, the secret of cooking dwarf is..."
"Yes come on, tell us the secret"
"Yes uh, yes I'm telling you the secret is to skin them first" Bilbo said and the dwarves let out a cry.
"What a load of rubbish" said one of the trolls who was turning the spit said. "I've eaten plenty with their skins on. Scarf em I say, boots and all"
"He's right, nothing wrong with a bit of raw dwarf" the troll said picking Solaris up by the back of the bag. He stared at her and she scowled at it.
"I'm not a dwarf you idiot" she said and swung her bag high enough so that she could kick him in the eye. The troll whaled and dropped her to the floor, she managed to twist so that she landed on her side but the wind still left her.
"Solaris!" the dwarves shouted.
"That one kicked me!" the troll squealed.
"Leave it there to squirm" another troll said.
So the troll picked up Bombur and dangled him over his mouth.
"Uh, not that one" Bilbo said and the troll stopped.
"Why not"
"Uh, he's infected" Bilbo said. "Yeah, he's got worms in his tubes"
"Ahh" the troll said dropping Bombur onto Kili.
"In fact they hall have. They're infested with parasites. It's a terrible business, I wouldn't risk it. I really wouldn't"
"Parasites, did he say parasites?" Oin asked Kili who nodded his head furiously.
"We don't have parasites" he yelled angrily.
"Yes we do!" Solaris yelled from her position in the middle of the clearing. "Can't you see?" she used her fingers to make the hessian bag wriggle. She knew the trolls would be too stupid to realise.
"Eww, that one does!" a troll yelled. "Don't eat that one!"
The dwarves suddenly stopped yelling and changed their tune. "I've got parasites as big as my arm" Oin shouted.
"Mine are the biggest parasites, I've got huge parasites!" Kili shouted.
"What would you have us do then, let em all go?" the lead troll asked Bilbo.
"Well…"
"You think I don't know what you're up to, this little ferret is taking us for fools"
"Ferret?"
"Fools"
"The dawn will take you all!" a loud voice boomed and a silhouette stood on the top of a rock.
"Who's that?"
"No idea"
"Can we eat him too?" the trolls conversed.
The rock then suddenly split and the sunlight beamed into the clearing. Slowly the trolls all froze and started to turn into stone. The dwarves cheered and Solaris breathed a massive sigh of relieve. Hooves then thundered towards her as Gandri charged and came to a sudden stop above her. He nuzzled her face with his velvety nose and Solaris laughed as there was nothing she could do about it as she was still tied in the bag.
Gradually they were all released one by one. "I'm sorry for touching you inappropriately Lady Elf" Ori said.
"Don't worry about it Ori" Solaris said.
"Yeah, don't worry about it Ori" Kili said walking past giving Ori a massive slap on the back and a wink at Solaris. She bit her lip and raised her eye brows.
"Charming" she said as Gandri came forward and put his nose in her hands.
There was a gust of wind and Solaris caught that awful stench again. "Guys can you honestly not smell that?" she asked covering her nose.
"Yep, now we can" Fili said also covering his nose.
"A cave" Thorin said walking forwards.
They found the entrance to the cave and it had hundreds of flies circling in and around it.
"I can't" Solaris said stepping back outside. "I'll wait here"