Hello, hello!
I'm back with a new chapter and just to be clear: they are coming day after day because you guys are just really really motivating me! I love to see your reactions to the chapters :D
IceheartsChill: Nahh, not a trapped soul either, I'm afraid :D She's a bit complicated :P But you will find out what she is in this chapter... Although, I doubt it will help you that much because there are quite a few secrets about her that won't be disclosed immediately :D
To all you other reviewers: Thank you so, so much for your lovely reviews and gahh, I love you guys :D
The wizard looked at her intently. Of course, he had known about her identity right from the moment he set eyes on her just as she had known that he was a wizard from the start. She had always admired wizards. They were wise and kind protectors of Middle-Earth, she thought.
She had not met many of them, though, but she knew that there were five of them. In fact, only one of them had she met more than once. And even the word 'meet' was maybe a bit exaggerated. See and getting seen was more like it. This one wizard went by the name of Radagast, the Brown who didn't usually meddle in the business of Men, Elves or Dwarfs, but who cared more about animals and nature. He was a kind man and she quite liked him for that.
She had never met this particular wizard in front of her before but she was quite sure from the way he was looking at her that he meant no harm. Nevertheless, she was very surprised to see a wizard in this company of dwarves and one hobbit. That seemed to be a rather curious constellation.
"Now, what could possibly have led you here, my dear?" the wizard asked her curiously in a calm voice. She saw that some of the dwarfs looked at him rather funnily but he didn't mind. He knew she understood and he was waiting for an answer.
So, she looked up at the dwarf whose name she had learned to be Kili, and then back to the wizard.
"Ah" he breathed in slowly, considering her action. "You took a liking to our Kili here, then?"
She gave the wizard a doubting look and Gandalf chuckled lightly. Of course, he wasn't exactly wrong with what he said, she really had taken a bit of a liking to the young dwarf but that had not been the reason she had come back. It had just been an additional factor. She hadn't even intended to stay that long; originally she had wanted to be gone by morning. Well, it was obviously a bit late for that to work out now.
It was strange what had happened last night. This all-swallowing darkness that she had seen building up before her. But now that it was a new day and the forest was enlightened by the fair morning light she couldn't quite make out if it had all really happened like that. She had been tired, after all, and the whole affair might just have been a phantasm and not… well. Whatever it had been. But she wasn't sure of it and she didn't care to take the risk.
As it was, she felt that she might find help in this wizard who had just watched her calmly while she had revelled in her thoughts.
"What kind of wolf is this, Gandalf? What is going on here?" The tall dark-haired dwarf who had spoken to Kili before asked then. She looked at him for a moment and saw his gaze resting on her sceptically but he seemed a little curious as well.
"This, Thorin, is quite an extraordinary wolf as you already know, I take it." Gandalf said and turned to look at him and the whole company except Kili who was still sitting beside her.
"She belongs to a species that has inhabited Middle-Earth since time immemorial. They have been known for their wisdom, their strength and their kind hearts above all. Some used to say that they bare secrets that would bring great power upon those who managed to bring them to light." Gandalf explained, exchanging a look with her while he spoke.
She just let the wizard speak and sniffed at the young dwarf beside her. He didn't seem to mind and just let her continue her examination of him calmly as he listened to Gandalf.
Kili smelled of wood and dirt at the moment, but she didn't care about that. What she did care about was the scent that was hidden under the layers of what travelling brought.
And underneath it, he smelled like autumn wind. And something sweet that she couldn't recall ever having smelt before.
"I have heard of wolves like that before," another dwarf said then, one with a big white beard and a bit of a funnily shaped nose. She looked over at him and sat back down next to Kili.
The white-haired dwarf exchanged a quick look with this Thorin-dwarf and another bald one to his side.
She huffed lightly when they looked back at her. 'What of it?' she wanted to ask.
Gandalf nodded and she got slightly bored while everyone was looking at her. She knew what she was and what was being said about her race. She didn't need to listen to the wizard explaining it to his companions. In fact, most of what was told was utter rubbish anyway.
Kili was still sitting beside her, his gaze going back and forth between her and Gandalf. She had quite liked it when he'd caressed her before she realized when she looked at him. It wasn't really usual for her to get pet, so this came as a bit of a surprise.
Slowly, she got up then and wandered towards the rest of the company, already aiming for her goal, it being a little man with hairy feet, standing between the dwarfs. She felt she could move about between them now without having anyone chop her head off with an axe.
The hobbit stiffened when she arrived at his side, which was no wonder, she thought, since he was a very small man and she was a very big wolf. But she had no intention of hurting him and he watched her in surprise when she started sniffing at him, too.
She had never seen a hobbit before, so she was very curious as to what they smelled like, what they looked like, what they sounded like.
It turned out that the hobbit smelled like forest and sweat, which probably wasn't too much of a surprise if they had travelled through the woods for a while. But there was another scent to him as well that was hidden underneath, one that reminded her of grass and fresh bread. She liked it.
Gandalf watched the wolf examine Bilbo and couldn't hold back a little smile.
"What kind of wolves are you all talking about?" Kili asked, not understanding what had Balin and the others so intrigued and slowly losing patience. The old dwarf gave his uncle a hesitating look as if checking if Thorin was all right with the revelation.
But the dwarf-king spoke up himself, looking thoughtfully at the animal that was unceremoniously sniffing at the hobbit's trousers.
"You mean to tell me that this… is an Amarok?" The question was directed at Gandalf even though Thorin didn't look at the wizard.
"She is indeed" Gandalf hummed and inspected the incredulous faces of the dwarves. Even Bilbo looked at the wolf by his side in awe.
"I thought Amarok were only a legend," Fili spoke up, stepping closer to his brother who had gotten up from the forest floor now, "They were only parts of stories that you tell to small children. Massive wolves that roam through the lands, waiting to slay anyone foolish enough to venture through them alone at night."
Kili remembered having heard such a story when he had been a young lad. Another dwarfling had told it to scare them. Kili had believed the story back then but forgot about it as he grew older.
But as it now turned out it had been quite a bit overdone. In the boy's story, Amarok had been the size of bears and had spittle coming out of their always blood stained mouths. They had been aggressive and ruthless in his tale.
And now this wolf that was examining Mr. Baggins' feet with undeniable curiosity should be one of those creatures? Sure, it was quite large and had teeth so sharp and paws so big that they could definitely kill you. But this wolf was friendly. He was sure of that.
"Well," Gandalf said, "they have become a very rare sight, which caused them to become… well, quite legendary. In fact, today they are so rare that the fact of their actual existence mostly vanished from people's consciousness and they only exist as vivid representations of danger in stories. They don't come near towns anymore and they tend to avoid contact with others, be it animal or not."
"She", Kili had to get used to the fact that this wolf was a female and more importantly how Gandalf could be so sure of it, "doesn't seem to avoid contact."
The wolf had finished examining Bilbo by now and strutted back to Kili's side where it started sniffing at his pockets. He looked down at her and she sent him an asking gaze. She probably smelled the remains of the sausage that had rested in there the night before.
"Yes, well," Gandalf said, "She is still quite young as it would seem and therefore maybe a bit reckless. And as you have stated earlier, Kili, something has most definitely scared her. Otherwise, she would not be here. Amarok are quite literally lone wolves and very much capable to defend themselves."
The wizard seemed absent for a moment and looked at the wolf attentively. She returned his gaze.
Thorin watched the scene from a small distance. He still couldn't quite believe that this wolf belonged to this legendary race. He had heard of them, of course. And not only had they been part of stories he had heard in his childhood like it was the case for his nephews.
No, he had known that they existed since he had been a young lad. His father had told him of the big wolves that ventured through the lands. Some of them never to be seen, since they were rare in general, but there were some few that had belonged to certain people in his time. Well, not exactly 'belonged'.
They had been more of a partner to those people. Not – as you would might think – to kings or warriors solely, either.
It didn't take blue blood or power to get an Amarok's friendship and people knew that back then. It took something else, entirely. It wasn't easy and there had only been word of two people at that time, one of a Man, living far away in the deserts of Harad and another of an Elven king, who had made such a friendship.
Thorin had seen an Amarok wolf once a long time ago when King Thranduil of the Woodland Realm had made his appearance before Thror in Erebor and never again afterwards. That had been over one hundred years ago.
He had been of a completely different colour and much more conservative than this one but the height of this wolf and the way she interacted with them left no room for doubts. This was an Amarok, most definitely.
He was ripped out of his thoughts when Gandalf spoke up again. "Oh, well," he mumbled, talking to the wolf directly, "Thank you, Tarya."
"Wait a second! Tarya?" Kili interfered again and gave the wizard an incredulous look. Gandalf merely nodded.
"That is her name. Or rather what her name would sound like in the common tongue."
"How would you know she even has a name?" his nephew asked and Thorin couldn't help but shake his head slightly. Kili had obviously not much of an idea of what Amaroks were capable of. Or wizards for that matter.
"She told me, of course" Gandalf chuckled and as Kili looked down at Tarya, she started panting and it looked as if she was grinning at him.
"How is that possible?" he asked.
"Well, there is some benefit in being who I am." Gandalf smiled and the brunette dwarf raised an eyebrow at this statement.
"I would suggest that she accompanies us" Gandalf then said and leaned on his staff, "And since we are on that topic, we should soon start moving again, we do not want to lose anymore time in this place."
Thorin looked at the wizard for a moment, stupefied. "You are suggesting that a wolf becomes part of my company?" he asked then.
"Oh, not at all, Thorin. I am suggesting that an Amarok becomes part of your company. The question now is if you will open your mind as to what advantage she might bring to this mission."
Thorin thought about this for a second. He knew about the legends that entwined around those creatures. And he couldn't deny that he was tempted to see if those tales were indeed true. He had been ever since he had seen that large white wolf standing calmly beside Thranduil back in Erebor.
"If something has indeed scared her, what was it?" he then asked sceptically, looking first at the wizard who looked a bit hesitant, then at the wolf itself.
"I do not know." Gandalf admitted light-heartedly.
Thorin considered the thought of having an Amarok within their company for a moment while the others watched him curiously. Then – to everyone's surprise – he suddenly nodded shortly before turning around.
"Pack up and saddle the ponies, we are moving on."