Greetings, fellow readers! I hope you have enjoyed the story thus far. I apologize for the delayed update. Nevertheless, it is here. Any constructive criticism is welcome, but remember that the word constructive means building up meaning to make my story better. Don't criticize for the sake of criticizing. Please have a purpose and don't flame me for it (as I'm sure no one enjoys getting scorched in their reviews). Please review and let me know what you like about the story so I'll know what bits you enjoy and would like to see more of as well as the bits you would prefer to avoid.
Lovest Always, Lady Merridell
Disclaimer: I don't own anything. Literally, nothing (well, maybe Smithy, well... and Bayard-well… he sorta gone for now :/ )
Chapter 5
When Mahal heard of the suffering of the dwarf girl he agreed to send her a guide.
Kumama sat down and panted, feeling an inane amount of surprise at Gandalf's impressive amount of endurance...then again, his legs were much longer and he covered more ground than she in one step. The sun was setting and they stood high on a hill overlooking the valley. In the not-so-far-off distance smoke curled up in a thin path towards the sky from where the company had set up camp.
"Come now, don't slow down just yet. I wish to put as much a space between us and that stubborn lot as possible," Gandalf growled. Kumama forced her aching legs to stand and followed him at a slight jog. She coughed slightly to relieve her burning throat.
"How far are we going?"
"Far enough," Gandalf replied. "Seeing as you are my apprentice I suppose I ought to do some mentoring, shall I?"
"You said-" Kumama panted, "-you would teach me to...deal with...stubborn dwarves."
"And so I am. First, remove yourself from their presence. Second, don't look back," Gandalf began. "A wizard never looks-"
Suddenly there was a loud battle cry in the distance followed by a deep bellow that was quite foreign to Kumama. She winced as the sounds grated against her delicate ears and she clamped both hands over them, wincing.
"What was that?" she gasped. Gandalf frowned.
"It would seem that those are the sounds of stubborn dwarves, most likely wondering where their wizard is," he mused.
"I thought it sounded more like they were in trouble," Kumama wondered aloud.
"That too," he confirmed, turning to continue onward.
"Shouldn't we help them?" Kumama called.
"Indeed, we should," he nodded.
"But you're going the wrong way!"
"My dear Kumama, I said that we should, but that does not imply that we will. After all, there are more important things to deal with than dwarves," Gandalf chuckled.
"Like what?"
"My pride," he answered, flatly.
"Better your pride bruised than the skin of those dwarves," she replied. Gandalf turned sharply to look at her.
"My dear, your tongue is much sharper than you let on. I suppose you are right then. Come along, but do try to keep up," Gandalf answered. Kumama frowned in slight confusion. That was rather easy.
Gandalf glanced back. "Oh, and Kumama?"
She looked up into his wizened features and at his clever blue eyes. "Yes, sir?"
"I never was going to leave those dwarves. It was taking far too long for you to finally speak up about it. Of whether or not we would go back, that is. I was beginning to worry. As the saying goes, one's true nature is revealed when the lives of others hang from a string. Or their own, I suppose."
Kumama stood stared after the retreating wizard. Everything and nothing he said made any sense. He said he was never really leaving the dwarves but...her eyes widened. Somehow, she wasn't sure how, but he tricked her. For what, though? To prove her loyalty?
Shaking her head, Kumama followed her mentor, feeling as though she had yet to learn anything.
Wincing as a branch scraped her cheek, Kumama lowered herself to a slight crouch behind Gandalf. She carefully put one foot in front of the other, trying to balance herself. Thankfully, for once, she was able to keep herself from tripping over her large feet or some unforeseen root and give away her position. It was difficult navigating herself through the underbrush since everything was blurred, but her ears picked up the slight rustling of the leaves from oncoming plants.
The two had swiftly made their way towards the camp and, finding that it was abandoned, followed the conveniently trampled path of branches and snapped twigs right to the clearing where Kumama and Gandalf had first heard the battle cries.
There, in a hollowed clearing, sat three large trolls. Kumama wrinkled her nose at the stench. They had tough, leathery pale skin with hooked noses squished flat to their faces, slightly enlarged ears, beefy arms and legs, and beady eyes. All three wore dirty rags fashioned like overalls and sat about a large fire. One slowly turned a spit on which several squirming forms were tied together. Nearby was a messily crafted corral, which was clear of any possible occupants. Several sacks lay wriggling to the side with many braided heads poking out, being the only part of their bodies allowed to be free through the synched opening. Only one of the sacks stood standing, apparently attempting to distract the trolls.
A nasty sort of feeling churned at the pit of her stomach when she spotted Bofur on the spit.
One of the great beasts lifted poor Bombur and held him high. The ginger dwarf kicked a bit, eyes wide with fear and face turning slightly red from being hung upside down.
"Not-not that one, he-he's infected!" The small voice of a hobbit, no doubt their burglar, called out in a panic.
"You what?" One of the trolls squinted at him in confusion.
"Yeah, He's got worms in his … tubes." The troll quickly released his hold on Bombur, looking quite disgusted. Kumama made a face at this. Worms in his tubes?
A staff poked at her side, causing her to jump and squeak a bit. Gandalf quickly shushed her with a silent icy glare.
"Wha' was that'?" asked one of the trolls in a rather high, squeaky voice.
Kumama shrunk into the shadows, hoping that their sight was somehow worse than hers.
"In-in fact," Bilbo interrupted, attempting to get the trolls' attention, "they all have, they're in-infested with parasites. It's a terrible business; I wouldn't risk it, I really wouldn't."
Kumama desperately wanted to ask Gandalf what the plan of action was, precisely, but as it turns out the trolls had a much better sense of hearing than she had counted on. Instead she followed the grey-robed wizard. The sky began to get a bit lighter in the east, little streaks of rose and gold dissipating the deep blues and dimming the surrounding stars.
Suddenly the dwarves could be heard loudly, as it seemed, protesting against the ideas Bilbo was implying about their health. She attempted to drown out the sound by placing both hands over her ears. Why do all of them have to shout at once?
"Parasites, did he say parasites?"
"We don't have parasites! You have parasites!"
"What are you talking about, laddie?"
Amid the chaos, Gandalf's rasp caught her attention. He waved a hand at her to come look. The two, wizard and apprentice, stood next to a large boulder that appeared to block the sun from the trolls.
"I will need your help for this," he whispered.
"My help?" she squeaked.
"I've got parasites as big as my arm!"
Oin declared.
"Yes, yours," he hissed. "Do not back down, Kumama Smitheen, for you will always be a Smitheen in my mind. It's about time you do some apprenticing, and now is as good a time as ever."
"Mine are the biggest parasites, I've got huge parasites!" Kili shouted.
"What can I do?!" Kumama exclaimed, only to be hushed by Gandalf. Thankfully Nori, Ori, and Dori, her outburst remained unnoticed.
"We're riddled."
"Yes, I'm riddled."
"Yes we are. Badly!"
"I would like you to say 'perya-cemna undu', but only when I tell you," Gandalf said.
"Does magic work like that?"
"Like what?"
"Saying a phrase and-" he shushed her as the dwarves quieted.
"What would you have us do, then, let 'em all go?" One of the trolls squinted.
"Well..." the burglar began slowly.
"You think I don't know what you're up to? This little ferret is taking us for fools!"
"Ferret?" Bilbo exclaimed indignantly.
"Fools?"
Gandalf stood quickly and leapt onto the boulder. "The dawn will take you all!" He glanced at Kumama and nodded.
"Who's that?"
"No idea."
"Can we eat 'im too?"
Gandalf gave her a slight nod before slamming down the staff.
"Perya-cemna undu!" she shouted. Gasping in shock, Kumama felt a slight downwards tug, like metal drawn to a magnet. She quickly slammed her hands down forcefully, unable to stop them. The earth beneath her cracked in several places as all the energy was exerted into the earth.
At that precise moment there was a resounding crack as the boulder was split in half and rosy light filtered into the clearing, causing the three enormous trolls to writhe and squirm as they were turned to stone. Kumama stared at her hands in wonder and slight pain. They were red and burned from all the exertion, yet a new sort of energy pulsed through her being. What was that, she wondered. She felt as though she could run from Erebor to the far reaches of the Shire and back again, tireless.
"Gandalf? What did I just do?" she asked, eyes wide as she surveyed her work. Gandalf carefully navigated his way back to where she sat, legs folded back as though she had been kneeling at one point. He frowned ever so slightly as he observed the cracks, then knelt and brushed his fingertips over them.
"Does this make me a wizard? Or-or...a witch?" Kumama whispered. Her eyes widened at the thought, since many an elderly dwarf had told tales of witches living out in the forest, awaiting to attack and devour an unsuspecting child.
"I don't believe so," Gandalf murmured," however...it would seem that you channeled my magic."
"I what?"
"I could be wrong, of course," he murmured to himself, still solely focused on the web-like designs.
"What did I do?"
Gandalf hummed, then stood and left, leaving the hobbit-elf-dwarf?-something-or-other to stare after him in confusion.
By the time the sun had fully risen all the dwarves had been released from the sacks and cut down from the spit.
"Thank Mahal! I think I was actually beginning to brown," moaned Bofur, eliciting a bit of laughter from Kumama.
"Aye, you can say that again," sighed Dwalin, stretching his legs.
"Actually, now that you mention it, you do look a shade darker," Kumama said quietly to Bofur.
"You sure?" he asked loudly, glancing down at his arms. He pulled up the sleeves and peered at his skin. "Aye, now that you mention it, I do look a bit well done, now don't I?"
Kumama could only nod through the ensuing laughter.
"Oi, what are you laughing about? We almost got skinned alive," growled Gloin.
"No thanks to your burglar," Thorin nodded, glaring at Gandalf. Bilbo let out an indignant sort of squeak somewhere behind Kumama, as though about to say something but not quite forming words.
"He had the nous to play for time. None of the rest of you thought of that," Gandalf remarked. The company of dwarves shifted guiltily and a few of the more humble members nodded their thanks at Bilbo, who went quite red at this.
"Where did you go to, if I may ask?" Thorin's rumbling baritone broke the silence. This diffused the tension and the company returned to their tasks such as gathering the remains of their supplies and so forth, though a few looked curious as to what Gandalf had to say.
"To look ahead," Gandalf replied simply.
"What brought you back?"
Gandalf hesitated a bit as he glanced at Kumama."Looking back," he said. Kumama, once again, bust out laughing. The wizened mentor silenced his apprentice with a glare, then turned back to Thorin. "Nasty business." He turned to observe the now literally stone still trolls. "They must have come down from the Ettenmoors."
"Since when do mountain trolls venture this far south?" Thorin asked, glancing up at Gandalf questioningly.
"Oh, not for an age, not since a darker power ruled these lands," the wizard rumbled, sharing a brief and meaningful glance with the dwarven king. Kumama did not feel obligated to guess at what evil they spoke of. Instead she decided to attempt to engage in conversation, though she could not help to be curious about the mountain trolls.
"They could not have moved in daylight," Gandalf murmured, resting a hand on one of the statues.
Thorin thought a moment. "There must be a cave nearby."
Kumama's moment of concentration was interrupted by Bofur.
"What's so funny about lookin' back?" Bofur asked.
"'A wizard never looks back'," Kumama quoted solemnly. Bofur looked confused, which only made her laugh harder.
"Oh, what's that stench?!" Nori wrinkled his nose in disgust. Kumama gagged and kicked away the skull of some unfortunate creature. The smell was worse than a bloated decaying deer. The cave had, indeed, been nearby and was warm and musty. There was an unpleasant amount of dust, to which their burglar sneezed, as well as a wad of cobwebs layering the mounds of treasure.
"It's a troll hoard. Be careful what you touch," Gandalf warned. There was much retching and groans as the company continued onward. However the curiosity of the trolls' hoard drove them on.
"Seems a shame just to leave it lyin' around. Anyone could take it," Bofur said suggestively, casting a sweeping glance about at all the coins and jewels.
"Agreed," Gloin nodded. "Nori, get a shovel.
Kumama, holding one hand over her mouth and nose, looked around at the collection hidden by the webbing and dust. A glint caught her eye and she wandered over to a corner of the cave where, tucked away under a layer of dirt, was the glint of a hilt.
Reaching out and taking hold of the glimmering hilt, she pulled out the sword. She pulled it out of its sheathe, ran her hands over it, and found it to be a beautifully crafted blade. Having been raised by a blacksmith, Kumama knew fine craftsmanship when she felt it. Whomever had forged this had a steady hand and had to have had dedicated their entire life to the art of smithing. In fact, it was almost too perfect to be anything of dwarven creation let alone troll's work...
"These swords were not made by any troll." Thorin voiced her thoughts.
"Nor were they made by any smith among men," Gandalf confirmed, turning over the sword that had been handed to him and unsheathing it to inspect the sword. Kumama squinted through the dim light at her sword (something told her it was most likely an ornately decorated letter opener or even a small dagger, though the latter was less likely seeing as the tip was sharper than the edges of the blade).
"These were forged in Gondolin," Kumama murmured, recognizing the swirl of patterns on the blade as well as the wonderfully delicate balance between blade and hilt. No other sword (or letter opener) could be so light, swift to cut, and sure handled.
"Indeed," murmured Gandalf," by the High Elves of the First Age. You could not wish for a finer blade," he added sharply. Behind her she could hear the heavy sigh of Thorin as he unsheathed the blade to properly look at it.
Kumama tied the sheath onto a belt belonging to some unfortunate and looped the belt onto her pants as tight as it could go. Eventually she was forced to poke out an extra hole and it finally fit. Satisfied, she made for the entrance and almost hit into Dwalin.
"Sorry," she apologized. Dwalin just grunted, then focused his attention on a few blurred shapes, looking quite disgusted.
"We're makin' a long term deposit," Gloin said defensively as his comrades, whom Kumama recognized as Bofur and Nori by the blurred shape of their hair, filled their freshly dug hole. Inside lay a chest no doubt full of gold from the hoard.
"Let's get out of this foul place. Come on, let's go. Bofur! Gloin! Nori!" Thorin called the three dwarves as though chiding their behavior.
Bofur grinned broadly at Kumama as he passed and winked. She felt her cheeks go red and quickly glanced at the ground in order to hide her blush. Nori snorted and rolled his eyes at his friend's behavior. He was much too friendly for his own good.
"Best not to encourage him," rumbled a voice behind her. She did not have to look to tell that-
"Something's coming!"
"Gandalf-" the voice of their burglar rose.
"Stay together! Hurry now. Arm yourselves," Gandalf cried. Kumama fumbled with her sheathe and tried desperately to pull out the sword. She grasped at the hilt and tugged, losing her balance and falling only to be stopped by Bifur, who grunted down at her in a sort of broken Khudzel. Next to him Dwalin and Balin pulled out their battle axes.
The undergrowth ahead rustled from the oncoming threat. Indeed, it seemed, something was most certainly coming...and it was coming fast...very fast...
Perya-cemna undu: Quenya phrase meaning "divide the earth beneath" (this being a rough translation since perya- means "divide in the middle")
What is this oncoming something? I is it a threat? Is it dangerous? Do we probably already know this anyways? Who warned Kumama against encouraging our beloved Bofur's behavior? Who knows?!
Please leave a review, any corrections as far as grammar goes or if there are any fluent Quenya linguists out their your help is much appreciated.
If you would like to see more of Life String take a look at Kumama's page on deviantart. She drew two very (as in extremely) impressive collages of my story with scenes from chapter one up to four as well as a fantastic drawing of what our pal Smithy looks like!