Right everyone, last update before Christmas!
Since I'll be spending the holidays merrily with my better half, I will probably not update for a day or two, but no worries, the story will continue after the holidays.
What I will do too is to change the title and summary of the story because SormustenHerra was right in her review: the title doesn't fit the story anymore. I'm not sure about the new title yet but I thought I better let you know in advance, just in case you'll wonder where the hell that weird title suddenly came from.
I've also been very much inspired by the input from mellowenglishgal and thus have decided to send the dwarves onto completely unknown territory and areas of middle earth, that were not mentioned in the book. This is kind of my Christmas present to myself and hopefully to you guys as well.
Once again thank you for all your reviews and I wish you all Happy Holidays!
"Lads? Laaa ~ds! I'd like to revoke my decision. Please?"
The small grey mule stalked across the gravelly, narrow path and didn't look too happy with the situation. Neither did her rider. As they reached midday, the sun shone down mercilessly at them and since Kíli was the one, more or less, comfortably riding a mule, most of the members of the company had loaded their luggage on the poor animal as well. Thus Kíli found himself between sacks and satchels, holding onto the vast collection of Óins herbs, as well as Oris leather-bound book, that was however off limits to the young dwarf.
The party travelled swiftly, each of them fighting with the heat. Below them lay the deep caverns of the Misty Mountains and the few overlaying rocks above their heads only offered temporary shadow. Since Kíli had decided on trying the High Pass once more, Gandalf had made clear that they would not halt for rest and take the highest of the two paths, connecting Rivendell to the west and the Men-i-Naugrim, the old dwarven road to the east that led them directly into the Mirkwood, further to the Celduin and finally to the Long Lake, where they had planned to settle for a while before travelling on to Erebor.
A certain insecurity had crept amongst them, ever since they had entered the path. Fear of the Rock Giants made them a little paranoid and every now and then, one would point at a rock up above because he thought it moved. Goblin-Town lay below them, deep in the mountains.
"Lads?"
"You've made your decision, now live with it", Thorin yelled back from the tip of the company. The leader strutted ahead and seemed surprisingly content with the decision of his nephew. Though he wasn't keen on facing any more goblins, the way through the Gap of Rohan would have taken too much precious time.
"You alright up there?", Fíli looked up to his brother. He still led the mule by her reins, making sure that Kílis injured leg did not bump against any rocks to their sides.
"Yeah", Kíli grimaced, not wanting to admit that the rocking and tripping of the mule made his ribs hurt with every single step. "I'm fine."
"No time for chit-chatting there! We must hurry, unless you want to spend the night on the path", Gandalf reminded them.
"Will we make it over the path then, before nightfall?", Bofur asked, ramming his battle axe into the ground as a hiking aid.
"Not entirely", Gandalf admitted. "But if we keep up the speed, we will make it to one of the lower platforms, far enough from the Goblin-Town."
"And that is not too dangerous then?", Bilbo chirped up, walking ahead of Fíli, occasionally being nudged gently in the back by the older brother to prevent the mule from stepping onto his naked heels.
The two youngsters exchanged a quick glance, smirks growing on both their faces.
"Dangerous? Nah, no worries Master Hobbit", Kíli began.
"The goblins down there are leaderless now, it'll be a complete chaos", Fíli continued. "They won't even know what to do. I doubt that they'll come out on the slopes tonight."
"Oh but wait", Kíli contemplatively lifted a hand to his chin. "What if they venture out tonight to come looking for us? We killed their king after all!"
"You mean they'll sneak out of the mountain in the middle of the night when it's pitch black and you cannot even see your own hand before your eyes and they will crawl up the mountain to find us and slay us in our sleep?", Fíli asked innocently.
Bilbo had grown paler and paler with every word.
"Something like that, yes", Kíli approved.
"Oh well", Fíli shrugged. "As long as the Balrog doesn't wake up."
"B-b-b-balrog?!", Bilbo shrieked, immediately causing the brothers to break into laughter, occasionally disrupted by a half amused, half plagued "Ouch!" from Kíli, whose ribs still hurt whenever he laughed.
"Boys, what did I tell you about bullying the hobbit?", Thorin asked from the front.
"That it is all fun and games until he has a heart attack", they replied in union, rolling their eyes. Bilbo blinked irritated.
"Ye two keep on joking", Balin muttered in front of the hobbit. "Especially ye on the mule there! Ye barely made it out alive!"
"But I live, don't I?", Kíli determined cheerfully. Maybe they were too young. The scare of the previous days still sat in their bones but youthful carelessness quickly made them forget about the dangers of this world. Had they seen the dragon, had they actually been there that day in Erebor, their minds would most likely be less carefree.
The day passed by and by the time that nightfall came, they had walked far more than half of the path across the Misty Mountains. No Rock Giants had shown themselves and no noise had emerged from the depth below their feet.
They decided to camp on a small plateau, avoiding any form of cave, a solid stonewall in their back so that nothing could sneak up upon them during the night. Nori, Bofur and Bombur even checked the firmness of the ground to make sure that they wouldn't fall into another trap.
No fire was made, they had mead, dark bread and jerky and as the moon had risen above the peaks of the mountains, they picked Fíli and Bilbo as their lookouts. Kíli, a little hyper from the medication, decided to stay up with them even though sleep would have been the best for him.
"What do we need lookouts for anyways?", Bilbo asked, wrapping himself in a light blanket, leaning against the mountain. "We can't see anything anyways in this darkness."
"Just because you can't see anything, doesn't mean other creatures can't either", Fíli reminded him, for once not meaning to scare the hobbit.
Kíli sat by his brothers side, lazily chewing on the elvish medication. It didn't taste too nice but it helped and he only needed very little of it.
"What is it anyways, that you're eating there?", the hobbit asked curiously.
"They said it's poppy seeds", Kíli replied. "Never knew they helped but they do."
"They're probably bewitched", Fíli remarked and Kíli grinned broadly. "Sung upon in the moonlight by a waterfall while strands of silver decorate the holy altar?"
"Precisely like that", his brother replied bemused, even making Bilbo smirk a little. The one thing he had learned so far, was that dwarves and elves did not get along, though he didn't yet know why exactly.
They quietly joked along, the moon rising higher and higher above them and no sound was audible except for the occasional grunting or snoring of one of their companions.
The better they heard the sudden but quiet tictac in the dark, that came from a plateau a few feet below their position.
"Shhh, did you hear that?", Kíli asked, looking from his brother to Bilbo, who shook his head.
Something clicked again in the black deep and Fíli slowly got up from his spot by the wall to peek over the brim of the plateau. Below them lay nothing but impenetrable darkness and as he looked up to the sky, he noticed the moon disappearing behind some thick, dark clouds. The mules suddenly became anxious, tip tapping and pressing against the stonewall.
"Can you see anything?", Kíli whispered but Fíli merely shrugged.
"Boys, if you're just trying to take the micky again-", Bilbo began but was quickly shushed by Kíli, who slowly and quietly hobbled over to his brother, closely followed by Master Baggins who did not want to stay behind on his own.
Another clicking came from below.
"There's something moving down there", Fíli whispered.
"Goblins?!", the hobbit squealed anxiously, but Fíli shook his head. "Goblins wouldn't be that quiet. It's something else."
"The balrog?!", Bilbo nearly panicked.
"Master Baggins, do you know what a balrog is?", Kíli inquired curiously.
"Not exactly", Bilbo admitted, earning himself a content "Thought so" from the younger brother. "Trust me, if this was a balrog, you would know."
"Well, what is it then?"
Just now, a large shadow emerged from a narrow pass and they heard a quiet sniffing sound coming from below. Bilbo squinted his eyes but couldn't see properly. Another shadow followed the first.
"What in Durins-", in exactly this moment, the moon broke through the clouds, revealing the dark, shadowy frames of two massive beasts, big as oxen. Their fur was thick and dirty grey, their paws large as plates and massive fangs peeked from underneath their flews.
"Get down!", Kíli hissed and quicker than lightning did the three of them press themselves against the stony ground, Kíli gritting his teeth, not to cry out in pain.
"What on earth are those things?", Bilbo nearly collapsed, as he had never seen such abominable creatures before.
"Wargs", Fíli growled.
They robbed a little closer to the edge, peeking down again.
The massive animals moved slowly on the plateau below them, sniffing the ground and the surrounding air. It seemed as if they were looking for something, sometimes raising their large, furry heads into the night sky, searching for a scent to pick up. Their eyes were reflected by the moonlight and gleamed yellow in the dark. The closer they came, the better did they hear the razor-sharp claws scratching on the stone.
Fílis hand slowly moved to his boots to draw one of his daggers.
"Give me the other one", Kíli whispered.
"But you can't fight!"
"Give me the other one", the youngest insisted. "I can hardly shoot an arrow right now but my right arm works just fine."
Fíli looked displeased but nonetheless drew the other dagger as well, pressing it into Kílis sound hand.
"You- you don't really want to fight them now, do you?", Bilbo asked, fear spilling over in his voice.
"Not if it's not necessary."
"We should tell Thorin!"
"Wait!", Fíli held him back.
Both wargs were sniffing the air now, their fangs held up to the sky. One of them suddenly yanked its massive head and stared directly at the plateau that the company rested on. The three lookouts quickly ducked down even further, until they were firmly pressed to the ground. The beast let out a terrifying, deep growl and for a moment, their hearts stopped.
Bilbo already believed it to be the end of them, when the beasts looked at each other and continued on their way, trotting off into the darkness below, their noses dragging along the ground again. Only when the clicking of the claws faded, did the dwarves and the involuntary burglar dare to breathe again.
"Where in Durins name did these come from?", Fíli asked and flinched badly, when he heard Thorins voice in his back. "From the Rhovanion I suppose."
Bilbo let out a squeal and nearly toppled over, closer to the heart attack than any of the boys could ever manage.
"Get away from the edge", Thorin ordered quietly. When Kíli tried to get up, he hissed sharply, leaning too much onto his left arm. Fíli pulled him up gently and helped him back to the stonewall.
After they had wrapped Bilbo in a blanket and handed him some mead to soothe his nerves, Thorin sat with the boys, unable to fall asleep again.
"What did they want in the mountains?", Kíli asked, again chewing on a few poppy seeds.
"I don't know", Thorin admitted. "It is unusual for wargs to venture into the mountains. Some have been seen down at the slopes, but I never heard of them actually travelling on the mountain path."
"They seemed to be looking for something", Fíli mentioned, casually patting poor Bilbos back.
Elronds words about the allies of the goblins gathering rang in Thorins head. It was well known that the wargs and the orcs of the Misty Mountains occasionally joined forces to raid the villages across the Wildlands but that did not explain why those two had come up into the mountains.
"Could they have been searching for us?", Kíli asked quietly and the longer Thorin took with his reply, the clearer it became.
"Possibly", he finally agreed. "Though I wouldn't know why. A dead goblin shouldn't be a bother to them."
"You speak of those things as if they had some form of consciousness!", Bilbo blurted out. "Stop that, will you?!"
"Well", Thorin mumbled. "They do. Wargs are no mere wolves Master Baggins."
Thorins nephews skid a little closer, keen on hearing the story, whereas Bilbo wished to be somewhere else entirely.
"Some say they are inhabited by demons that make them smarter, larger, stronger and more agile than ordinary wolves. Others say they were bred and bewitched by Morgoth during the First Age but nobody really knows where they came from."
"Hah!", Bilbo exhaled. "Possessed wolves. Hahaha! Yes! Well, let's hope we'll never encounter them again, shan't we?"
"I'm afraid that won't be possible Master Baggins. After all, we're venturing straight into their territory right now."