"The trolls' cave should be around here somewhere," Gandalf said, almost completely to himself, as they stumbled along the overgrown forest path, searching for, as Gandalf had told them, a nearby cave that housed all of the trolls' treasure.
"Are you sure we want to go poking around in a trolls' cave?" Elle half-whined, running and panting to keep up with the company (a lifetime of hardly ever doing any physical activity was really catching up to her during this quest). "Haven't we had enough of trolls for… I don't know… a lifetime?"
"I assure you, Miss Elle, that there are no live trolls in the cave we are about to visit," Gandalf said reassuringly.
Elle was not reassured.
"Look! Over there!" Fili shouted, pointing to a dark crack in the side of the mountains that stood to their left. "I think I see a cave!"
"Fine eyes, Master Fili!" Gandalf said, a smile creasing his already-lined face. He led the company towards the opening that Fili had just noticed.
"Agh," Elle, Fili, Kili, Jasmine, Nori and Bofur gagged as they went to stand at the mouth of the cave, getting their first whiffs of the terrible stench that still lingered in the cave.
"Trolls are not known for being particularly sanitary creatures," was all the comfort Gandalf gave as he herded the reluctant, disgusted company further into the darkened opening, lighting his staff by a means of guiding them through the dimness.
Around her, Elle could make out the glimmer of treasure chests, coated in several decades worth of cobwebs and grime. Curiously, she peered more carefully through the murky gloom and saw great shadowy shapes of swords, chests and coffers that were piled carelessly along the sides of the cavern.
"We shall gather fresh weapons here," Gandalf instructed. "But we must not linger. Although I feel confident that we are quite safe now, I do not know how quickly that will change."
That made me feel loads better, Gandalf, Elle thought to herself, pinching her nose with one hand and holding a torch that Gandalf offered to her in the other.
The other dwarves, Gandalf, and Jasmine went right to work, opening the cobwebbed chests and unsheathing the swords from their racks on the walls, searching for new daggers, bows, blades and whatever else warriors-something that Elle was not-used and needed.
Nonetheless, Elle found herself fascinated by the jewels that lay inside treasure chests, and went to work sorting through them, tucking some into her cloak pockets when she knew no one was looking.
"Have you picked a sword yet?" Kili asked, causing Jasmine to flinch in surprise.
"What? Oh, right," Jasmine said, holding out her selection. It was a simple, curved blade, longer than a dagger by a wide margin, but not quite a real sword. She had mainly picked it because it was the fastest of the ones she had seen so far in the cave, and she greatly valued and relied on speed in combat.
"I haven't chosen mine yet," Kili groaned, looking at the walls of sheathed swords. "There's so many, and I don't know where to start."
"Don't you use a bow?" Jasmine asked, remembering seeing the oaken bow and arrows at the Durin prince's side. Why do I remember that?
"Good of you to remember," Kili gave her an irritatingly cocky grin. "I do usually use a bow, but Uncle says I have to 'expand my wheelhouse,' or some nonsense like that, and ordered me to find a sword to use and practice with," he moaned. "I hate swords. Always have. They're too tricky to manage."
I could help you pick one, Jasmine almost said, before restraining herself. Remember the plan, she reminded her brain. You can't get too close to him. You'll only make it harder for you to kill him later on.
"Good luck," she said shortly, making a move to walk away.
But Kili caught her by the wrist. "Aw, come on," he said, forcing her to face him. "You could at least point me in the right direction," he pleaded, his huge brown eyes rounder than saucers. "I know literally nothing about swords," he added, watching the refusal and sternness on her face slowly break away.
"Fine," she huffed. "I'll help." At Kili's irritating grin, she quickly looked away. "But only for a few minutes." She snatched a sword at random from an open treasure chest on the ground. She held it out in front of him, squinting slightly to test the proportions of the sword to his arm and body.
"This one's too wide and slow for you," she muttered, throwing it on the ground. Picking up a thinner, lighter one, she unsheathed it, only to immediately hurl both sword and sheath back onto the floor. "And that one takes too long to unsheath," she explained to the utterly bemused Kili.
"How do you know all that so quickly?" he laughed, looking skeptically at the two discarded swords.
"Lots of practice," Jasmine answered with a smirk, selecting an even thinner sword from the racks on the wall. "Try this one," she said, holding it out to him."
Taking it from her, Kili unsheathed the blade, giving the shining sword a few whirls through the air. "It's nice," he said, swinging it a couple more times. "I mean, I don't know much about swords, so I don't really-"
"It's not right," Jasmine said all of a sudden, snatching it back from him. "When you find the right blade, you'll know it immediately."
"Really?" Kili asked. "How can you be sure, though?"
"You just are," she replied, scanning the walls for another sword. Her eyes fell on a curved blade in a dusty, blue sheath. That's the exact same as my sword, she thought, her eyes turning downwards to glance at her own sword. There are two of them here in the cave?
Hesitantly, she handed the identical blue-sheathed sword to Kili, watching as he uncovered the curved, silver shortsword. The edge made a whooshing noise as he sliced it through the air, the faintest of smiles gracing his lips. His eyes flicked to the twin sword that lay sheathed at her side, and his grin broadened.
"I think I've found the one," he said, looking back up at her. When his eyes met hers, she felt something inside her clench.
"Good," she coughed, averting her eyes yet again. It's just a sword, she told herself.
Haha, Kili and Jasmine being such adorable twinsies with their new swords!
I made the troll cave in my fic a bit more abundant and glamourous than the one in the movies (and probably the books), but I thought it just fit better.
Thank you so much for reading! Please favorite, follow and review!