The scent of death was high in the air, accompanied by the horrifying sounds of people screaming in a terrifying crescendo. Hand-in-hand, Belladonna and Bungo ran past unseeing Goblins, forcing themselves to not look down at all for fear of what they would see.
"Help!"
"Somebody help us!"
Both wanted nothing more than to do just that, but instead, they kept to the shadows. One Hobbit taking a Goblin by surprise was one thing, but the two of them against the plague that had befallen the Shire?
They would surely be killed.
"From what I see, they've been working their ways up," Belladonna softly whispered,"so we'll take the road to Bree and hope we don't run into anymore of these hideous creatures."
Bungo could only nod. He felt as though he wasn't in his own body, rather an outsider watching things from a different perspective, and a terrible perspective at that. Not for the first (nor the last) time, he wondered if the whole thing was a particularly nasty dream.
He did not know how long Bella led him through endless pathways, alongside little streams which were coloured oddly pinkish, but soon, he realised that they were indeed on a road and that road was a familiar place.
"Bungo," Belladonna murmured. "Bungo, dear, come back to me."
"Why did they come to us, Bella?" Bungo asked, his voice suddenly strained. "What did we do?"
Belladonna gave no answer, simply tightening her hold on his hand and continuing her march on.
When the two got to the wooden gates, they knew immediately that all was not well. The gates were down, their splintered remains scattered across the earthy ground. When they walked closer, that was when they saw the bodies, broken and torn beyond any chance of survival.
"They must have gotten here, too." Belladonna noted, allowing fear and pain to colour her tone.
Belladonna was shaking. "This- this is all that fool's fault," she whispered.
"Bella?"
"Bullroarer, my granduncle. Remember, he killed the Goblin King and now there's hundreds of them..." she trailed off.
"We're going to be alright," Bungo said firmly, disliking the sound of broken sorrow in his wife's voice. "You hear me, Bella? We're going to be fine."
"We should go," Bella murmured after a short silence.
He could tell by the deadened expression in her eyes that she was now feeling the full extent of it all as strongly as he was. "Bella, love, where are we going?"
"To find my grandfather's kin. If we keep East, we'll find the city he was born in."
"Dwarves?"
Bungo looked doubtful and Belladonna could hardly blame him. Dwarves were hardy, stubborn, loud and as different from Hobbits as it was possible to be, but she had all faith in them, and she nodded her head in confirmation. He looked at her for a short while and then seemed to agree. Or maybe he was too exhausted to argue. Either way, Belladonna was only too glad to leave Bree.
For weeks and weeks they trekked. They climbed the Blue Mountains and when they came down from them, they crossed rivers and walked through fields of blooming plants and forests of strange animals that yowled and shrieked in the dead of night. They got lost in one of these strange places and wandered around, trying to find an exit through the numerous thin trees and on the third day of being stuck inside the woods, Bungo spotted sunlight and the two Hobbits found themselves in warmth once again.
"There's a mountain path going East," Bungo pointed out. "Should we go up there?"
Too tired from lack of rest, Belladonna didn't bother looking. If she had, she would have seen the ominous strands of mist around the peaks of the mountains Bungo had seen. "It may be a shortcut," she said, looking at the vast fields stretched out before them. "Let's go up there now and see if we can find a cave for the night somewhere along its path."
They ended up walking along the Mountain's crumbling edge far longer than they meant to. The jagged walls of the mountains offered no crevice for the three of them to squeeze into. The earth they walked upon felt...strange. Too cold, too hard.
Unforgiving.
She started noticing the mist around two hours into their walking. Thick, engulfing mist hung over them and she started to feel anxious. "Which mountains are these?" she wondered, a cold trickle of dread growing in her mind. The path ahead grew narrow and she felt Bungo's hands around her waist, directing her closer to the mountain.
"I think we should have stayed on the ground," Bungo said. "Don't much like these mountains!"
"Do you think we should go back?" Belladonna asked, placing a hand on Bungo's to assure herself he was really there.
"We've come this far," Bungo replied. "Let's keep going."
Belladonna silently agreed. The path seemed to be getting wider, if the view of the road ahead was any indication.
"Look, a cave," Belladonna murmured.
"Thank the Gods. You can rest now."
The cave was cold and dark and damp and they huddled together for warmth, cloaks spread over their bodies. Both kept stroking Belladonna's stomach as though to calm their baby.
All will be well. Nothing can harm you. We're here now.
Bungo didn't know quite when they fell asleep, but he awoke sharply to feel the ground trying to turn. He pulled frantically at his wife, to see if she knew what was going on. When she awoke, he could see that she was paling, from what little starlight poured into their cave.
"What's happening?" she asked.
"You don't know?"
And without warning, they started to fall.
Bungo did the only thing he could think of to keep her safe and pulled her towards him, hiding her stomach from hitting anything that could potentially cause their child harm. They lightly brushed against rock as the strange tunnel they found themselves in swerved and spun madly around them. He felt the supporting stone suddenly vanish and he pulled Belladonna tighter and braced for impact.
The fall, luckily, wasn't that long and while he certainly felt the air being pushed out of his lungs, he knew that he was, at least, unhurt. Belladonna was getting to her feet, he hand outstretched.
"Come on, we must run!"
There was a fear in her eyes he'd never seen before, and looking up at the beasts climbing down the walls around them, he knew why.
Goblins. So, so many of them.
"These must be the two Nwylin missed!"
"Let's do him a favour, shall we? Kill them for him!"
"Finish off the job!"
"Come on!" Belladonna urged.
He snatched hold of her hand and followed her blindly as she dodged past the creatures. He could feel cold metal scratching at his skin, could hear their terrible threats and vile insults, but he didn't dare react. Bella seemed lost and they temporarily lost the creatures, finding themselves at the top of steep stairs leading down to pitch black. No noise came from this place and with this knowledge, Bella put a foot forward.
"With luck, we can find a way out of this foul place." she said, trying to sound more confident than she felt.
Bungo wasn't very happy at the inky darkness and what would surely be a nasty and long fall down should one of them lose their footing, but knowing it was either this or them, dropped down and climbed after Belladonna as she started to make the long clamber downwards.
"Lost?! What do you mean, lost?!" The Goblin King snarled at the cowering creature before him.
"They slipped past us," was the reply. "We didn't know where they'd gone to, Your Greatness."
The Goblin King muttered furiously, his bulbous eyes narrowed as he glowered down at his pitiful servant. "Search every crevice of the Mountains. Those Halflings don't leave alive!"
Agreeing with enthusiasm, the Goblin made to leave his King, but was interrupted by a warning of, "Don't fail this again, Nwylin. If you do, I'll personally smear your remains over the entire Kingdom."
They could hear the shouts and calls of the Goblins. They knew they didn't have long until their scent was followed and then they would surely be found out. When one is in a hurry, climbing down, or up, a surface is frustrating and frightening all at the same time. It seemed to take too long, but the only way to speed up their journey was to take what seemed like a 1,000 foot drop, which neither particularly liked the thought of.
They simply hoped that none of the Goblins had, in fact, smelt their presence. Belladonna, peering over her shoulder, noticed with relief, a thin line of light illuminating the gloomy dampness of the ground below.
"Not long now, Bungo."
Nwylin had been searching high and low for the 'little problems' as the Shirelings in their midst were becoming known by. Suddenly a scent, a warm scent of sweet grass and other earthy scents caught his attention, earning a pleased snarl from the Goblin.
He would soon find them.
Sprinting along with this new scent, like a wolf chasing down deer, he stopped at the end of the drop, looking down, searching for movement.
And then he saw it.
Reaching for his bow, he set his arrow and took aim.
Belladonna reached for Bungo as he reached the last step. "There's sunlight coming through, hurry now, we can make it. The Goblins won't risk coming into contact with the sunlight."
He reached for her hand and yelled in surprised pain as a sharp, stabbing pain hit his neck. Staggering, he fell off the step, thudding onto the ground.
Belladonna went to help him up, thinking that he'd simply twisted his ankle. Touching his shoulder, she was alarmed to feel something warm...something sticky..
That was when she saw the arrow glinting in the weak light. She didn't scream, she didn't sob. She didn't know how to react, apart from quietly whispering her husband's name in the hope that he would be able to survive it, that the arrow was located somewhere non-vital.
"B'lla r'n."
She glanced up and saw little figures. Bungo was looking up at her, she could feel his gaze on her skin. He gargled something and then was quiet.
He was gone, but she couldn't leave his body in this place. She dragged one of his limp arms over her shoulder and pulled him up, started running as fast as she could towards the exit. He was heavy, literally a dead weight, but she was determined that he rest peacefully in a place where the sun's light fell.
Maybe he wasn't dead yet. Maybe she could heal him, or find help.
She didn't know how she managed to beat the Goblins, but suddenly there was bright warm sunlight, and trees, and birds chirping. She ran from the exit, and then stumbled and fell, bringing Bungo down with her.
There was so much blood. It was trickling from the wound like a waterfall. She could see that his eyes were lifeless and pale, and when she felt his wrist, his heart, she could find no pulse.
She sat back and stared at him, feeling a lump in her throat. "Oh, Bungo..."
"They are both dead?" The Goblin King asked.
"Both." Nwylin confirmed. "Got them both with one hit."
The Goblin King gave a pleased mutter. "Good. That's good. I think we managed to avenge my poor father quite well. No more Tooks left?"
"None."
"That is pleasing to hear," the Goblin King said. "I think that will be all, now."
Nwylin knew he'd got one, but what happened to the other, he could not say. Ah, well. What the King didn't know wouldn't hurt him.
Belladonna Baggins, the current last descendant of the Took clan (at least until her child was born) was asleep. She was tired, exhausted not only from running from the Goblins, but tired from the heartbreak of her husband and, now she thought about it, possibly her whole family being killed by those feral, violent creatures. She was holding Bungo's hand, her free arm clamped around her stomach, the bush that she'd found to hide both herself and Bungo from view softly swaying in the light breeze.
If she had been awake, she would have noticed the stranger arriving.
Made a typo last chapter, which has been fixed!
Aww, thanks for the reviews, you kind people! Feedback is always appreciated, Hopefully, this will be enjoyable too. Who will this stranger be? What will happen next? Will the cliffhangers stop?
Love from Shania. xx
