There was a loud knocking at my door, before Gandalf and Strider came hurrying into the room. It'd been a few hours since Gandalf had talked to me and I had been half asleep when they entered. Strider threw me a bundle of clothing. "Put these on, we need to leave now." Strider's voice was tense, and worried. "Why..." "Please, Jemma, don't ask questions. We need to hurry." Gandalf said in a kind voice.

They left the room, and I put the clothes on as fast as I could. I was happy at the fact that I was feeling better, no more dizziness when I stood. Strider had given me a pair of woven pants, some leather boots, and a loose shirt, which I was glad of since they were easy to put on. Once I had finished, I opened the door, where Strider and Gandalf stood waiting.

"Sorry, I didn't have time to grab a dress." Strider apologized, while handing me a brown cloak.

I didn't get to respond, because there was a loud banging at the end of the hall. Gandalf and Strider sprung into action. Strider went down the hall to the door, which was the source of the sounds, and Gandalf stood in front of me. I peeked around him to see the door banging open. What came through the door was ugly. They were like men, except smaller with tight pale skin and large luminescent eyes. They had almost no hair and wore mismatched armor, which was mainly a chainmail shirt and a weapon.

"What are those?" I asked.

Gandalf grimaced, "Goblins."

"Oh." I replied, as if I understood completely through those little words.

Strider's sword was gliding through the air, landing killing blows to whatever came near it. Somehow I knew that there was too many for him to take care of all by himself.

"I think you need to go help him, Gandalf." I said as I continued to stare at the seemingly endless flow of goblins. He looked at me with surprise, then suspicion.

"I don't think it would be wise to leave you alone."

It was hard not to roll my eyes, but instead I bit my lip. "he can't hold out forever, and I thought you said we had to leave. So can you create a distraction or something?" My tone was pleading and soft.

Gandalf didn't respond, but a second later, the hallway filled with a bright light.I shielded my eyes. I heard yelps of surprise. The light dimmed, but only slightly, and I saw that the goblins were still cowering in the doorway. Strider was running toward us, and shouting something at Gandalf in that strange language, I think he called it elvish? Then Gandalf and Strider were guiding me to the other end of the hallway, where there was set of double doors. We weren't even halfway to them when the goblins started a charge. They had recovered from the distraction very quickly.

"Don't look back, keep moving." Strider commanded, and I listened. We reached the doors and Gandalf, who was in the lead, yanked one open and urged us through. The goblins were catching up, and I could have sworn I heard gleeful battle cries coming from the mob. As soon as we were all through the door, Strider and Gandalf barred it shut.

"I don't think that's going to hold them." I said softly.

"It will be for long enough. Keep moving, we may yet make it to the stables." Gandalf told me.

Then we were off again. In front of us there was a spiral staircase that went both up and down. The stairs were made of a white stone with metal on the sides, decorated like leaves, that held the steps in place. The rails reminded my of twisted tree limbs, only they were gold and silver. I wanted to sit there and stare at the stairs, they were so beautiful and perfect. On one side of the stair was a wall made almost entirely out of glass, with some silver supports and a small portion of white walls that helped shine light into the staircase.

"Wow." I was breathless, I had never seen such beautiful architecture before.

Much to my distress, Strider and Gandalf led me down the stairs at a hastened pace. I still stared as we went down, because what little light that was outside seemed to be magnified in the stairwell, causing the white to have a sort of glow.

When we reached the end, we exited through another set of doors and then entered a courtyard of sorts, which was also beautiful had there not been more goblins there. My guides hesitated for a moment, which I took advantage of and looked down. There were some goblins here who were dead. I assumed that whoever else lived here had started a defense. I picked up a dagger and held it firmly. The small blade felt familiar in my hands, reminding me of my late high school career. That'd been the years when I had started taking archery and knife lessons, although I didn't think I wanted to tell Gandalf and Strider just yet. I still wasn't sure what was going on, so it was better to have some secrets still on my side. I put the blade in my boot.

"There's too many of them for us to take by ourselves." Strider said.

"Agreed. We will have to make a break for the stables. Jemma, can you ride?"

"You mean a horse? Yes." I gave him a smile, for no other reason than to try and lighten the mood.

They didn't say anything else, and soon we were running across the courtyard. Strider slashed at any goblins that were within reach. The slashes weren't enough to stop the monsters, but they did slow them down. I tried to keep my breath normal as I struggled to keep up with the other two. Gandalf may look old, but I had to admit that he was pretty agile.

One side of the courtyard had an archway that appeared to lead into the wilderness. We burst through it and kept running, heading into the dark woods. Strider and Gandalf slowed down a bit a little ways in.

"Did we loose them?" I gasped, trying to catch my breath.

"No, but our horses should be nearby." Gandalf answered.

Soon we came to as clearing and found the horses. Three saddled horses waited at one end, while a group of other horses and ponies with riders waited near the middle. Strider and Gandalf pulled themselves onto some horses. I clambered onto the remaining one and then the horses were racing through the trees and the noises of the goblins faded behind. At least for now we are safe, I thought, and maybe now I can go and find Andrea. I need to find her, then that technology and get back home before they start asking questions again.

I really hoped that they would be too distracted by the threat of those goblins to ask anything else of me. Although, secretly, I knew that this would not be true.