Chapter 4: In the Heart of the Mountain

There were many paths that led up into those mountains and many passes over them. But most of the paths were cheats and deceptions and led nowhere or to bad ends; and most of the passes were infested by evil things and dreadful dangers. The dwarves and the hobbit, helped by the wise advice of Elrond and the knowledge and memory of Gandalf, took the right road to the right pass.

Long days after they had climbed out of the valley and left the Last Homely House miles behind, they were still going up and up and up. It was a hard and dangerous path, a crooked way and a lonely and long. Now they could look back over the lands they had left, laid out behind them far below. Bella had ridden her own pony of the path, no longer needing to worry about her pony tripping and sending her flying off. However, she'd be lying if she said she didn't miss riding with Thorin.

She shivered. It was getting bitter cold up here, and the wind cam shrill among the rocks. Bella didn't let on that she was cold though, because she knew that if any one offered her their cloak, then they would be cold.

At times, boulders would come galloping down the mountainside, let loose by mid-day sun upon the snow, and passed among them and over their heads. The nights were comfortless and chill, and quiet. Bella would huddle under her clothes to try to keep warm, and she forced herself to lay straight and still so it didn't look like she was cold. Even in her cold state, she could tell that the cloaks were the only things keeping the dwarves from being as cold as her. She should have brought more clothing.

All was well, until one day they met a fierce thunderstorm. Thunderstorms are terrible being low on the ground, but up high in the mountains at night, it seemed like the storms were at war. The lightning splinters on the peaks, and rocks shiver, and great crashes split the air and go rolling and tumbling into every cave and hollow; and the darkness is filled with overwhelming noise and sudden light.

There they were, sheltering under a hanging rock for the night, and Bella lay shivering under her cloak, shaking from head to toe. Glancing over, she spotted most of the dwarves huddled together for warmth. Gandalf sat on watch, and Thorin was sitting next to him as they conversed. As Bella pretended to be asleep when she spot them glance over, and heard Gandalf mutter something about "Bella" and "cold", she felt the familiar feeling of Thorin's cloak being draped over her cold form. The warmth was welcomed, and she faintly wondered why he kept offering her his cloak before she fell into a peaceful sleep.

Later in the night, they all awoke to the sound of wind ripping past, and rain and hail coming in every direction, pelting them harshly. They were all drenched, and their ponies stood with their heads down and tails clamped tightly between their legs. The sound of giants shouting came from what seems like all directions.

"This won't do at all!" said Thorin, having to yell over the rain. "If we don't get blown off, or drowned, or struck by lightning, we shall be picked up by some giant and kicked sky-high for a football!"

"Well, if you know of anywhere better, take us there!" said Gandalf, who was feeling rather grumpy himself.

The end of their argument was when Bella volunteered to look for better shelter, and was accompanied by Fili and Kili. In the heat of the argument, she had returned Thorin's cloak with a grateful look. Then the three set out, looking for shelter.

Carefully, the trudged on a ways until the found a small cave. "Bella! Kili!" said Fili. "Let's make sure there's nothing still living inside it!" They went inside and noted that it was large enough to hold all the dwarves, the ponies, and one hobbit, and one wizard, and that there appeared to be nothing living inside of it.

When they went back, the wind was coming in their direction. While Fili and Kili were strong enough to hold onto the rocks to keep from being blown backwards, Bella wasn't. As she got blown straight into the rock wall, she shouted "FILI! KILI! I can't follow in this wind! I'll stay in the cave!"

Nodding, the two brothers trudged onwards while Bella, who suddenly felt rather alone, went back inside the cave. She huddled in a corner and wrapped her arms around her legs. She stayed like that for quite some time before she heard the sound of shouts coming from outside the cave. "Please just be the company," she thought as she stood up.

Sure enough, the whole company squeezed into the cave, each leading their pony (or horse in Gandalf's case). Thorin was the last to come in, and she saw that he was leading both his pony and hers, and he had even placed all her belongings on the back of her pony. "Thank you," she said, blushing a little bit. She hoped he couldn't notice in the dim light.

"Think nothing of it," he replied as she took her ponies reins.

The cave was a fair size, and it had a dry floor. At one end there was room for the ponies where they ate happily in their nosebags. Oin and Gloin wanted to light a fire at the door to dry their clothes, but Gandalf would hear nothing of it. So they spread out their outer layers of their wet clothing on the floor (not wanting to make poor Bella uncomfortable) and settled down for the night. The dwarves and Gandalf sat talking, and Bella just listened as the night drowned on, the steady beat of rain eventually lulling her to sleep.

A nightmare haunted her dreams, about the cave wall cracking open. Lurching up in her sleep, she saw that indeed, the cave wall in the back was opened up and the last of the ponies' tails disappeared into it. Of course, she gave a mighty yell.

Out jumped the goblins, big and ugly and many. There were at least six to each dwarf and two for Bella; and they were all grabbed and dragged through the crack kicking and yelling. But not Gandalf. Bella's yell had done that much good. It had wakened him up wide in a splintered second, and when goblins came to grab him, there was a terrific flash, a smell of gunpowder, and several fell over dead.

The crack closed with a snap, and Bella and the dwarves were on the wrong side of it! Where was Gandalf? Of that neither they nor the goblins had any idea, and the goblins did not wait to find out. They seized Bella and the dwarves and hurried them along. It was deep, deep, dark, such as only goblins that have taken to living in the heart of the mountains can see through. The passages were crossed and tangled in all directions, but the goblins knew their way. They continued to go down, and it was terribly stuffy. The goblins were very rough, and pinched unmercifully, and chuckled and laughed in their horrible stony voices.

Now there came a glimmer of red light before them. The goblins began to sing, or croak, keeping time with the flap of their flat feet on the stone, and shaking their prisoners as well. They were pushed into a room that was lit by a great red fire in the middle, and by torches lining the walls. It was packed full of goblins. They all laughed and stamped and clapped their hands, when the dwarves were pushed in. The ponies were already huddled in a corner, and their bags all lying broken open, and being rummaged by the goblins.

The ponies were never to be seen again after this day, and neither was Gandalf's horse. Goblins love to eat ponies, horses, and donkeys, and they're always hungry. However, for right now, the prisoners were only thinking of themselves. The goblins had chained their hands behind their backs and linked them all together in a line, and dragged them to the far end of the cavern with the little Bella tugging at the end of the row.

There in the shadows on a large flat stone sat a tremendous goblin with a huge head, and armed goblins were standing round him carrying axes and the bent swords that they use. "Who are these miserable persons?" said the Great Goblin.

"Dwarves, and this!" said one of the drivers, pulling Bella's chain so that she fell forward onto her knees. She heard a few of the dwarves make angry noises when they saw this, the loudest being Thorin. "We found them sheltering in our Front Porch!"

"What do you mean by it?" said the Great Goblin, turning to Thorin. "Up to no good, I'll warrant! Spying on the private business of my people, I guess! Thieves, I shouldn't be surprised to learn! Murderers and friends of Elves, not unlikely! Come! What have you got to say?"

"Of the thing which you suspect," said Thorin, "and imagine we had no idea at all. We sheltered from a storm in what seemed a convenient cave and unused; nothing was further from our thoughts than inconveniencing goblins in any way whatever." Bella supposed this was true enough.

"So you say!" said the Great Goblin. "Might I ask what you were doing up in the mountains at all, and where you were coming from, and where you are going to? In fact I should like to know all about you. Not that it will do you much good Thorin Oakenshield, I know too much about your folk already."

"We were on a journey to visit our relatives who live on the East side of these truly hospitable mountains," said Thorin, not quite knowing what to say at all once in a moment, when obviously the exact truth would do no good at all.

"He is a liar, O truly tremendous one!" said one of the goblins. "Several of our people were stuck by lightning in the cave, when we invited these creatures to come below; and they are as dead as stones. Also he has not explained this!" He held out the sword which Thorin had worn, Orcrist.

The Great Goblin gave a truly horrendous howl of rage when he looked at it, and all his soldiers gnashed their teeth, clashed their shields, and stamped. They knew the sword at once. It had killed hundreds of goblins in its time, when the fair elves of Gondolin hunted them in the hills or did battle before their walls. They had called it Orcrist, Goblin-cleaver, but the goblins simply called it Biter. They hated it and hated worse any one that carried it.

"Murderers and elf friends!" the Great Goblin shouted. "Slash them! Beat them! Bite them! Gnash them! Take them away to dark holes full of snakes, and never let them see the light again!" He was in such a rage that he jumped off his seat and himself rushed at Thorin with his mouth open.

Just at that moment, all the lights in the cavern went out and a great fire went off into a tower of blue glowing smoke, right up to the roof that scattered piercing white sparks all along the goblins. Soon all the goblins were screaming and shouting as the sparks burnt holes in their flesh. They fell over, biting and kicking and fighting as if they had all gone mad.

Suddenly a sword flashed in its own light. Bella saw it go right through the Great Goblin as he stood dumbfounded in the middle of his rage. He fell dead, and the goblin soldiers fled before the sword shrieking into the darkness. The sword went back into its sheath. "Follow me quick!" said a voice fierce and quiet; and before Bella knew understood what had happened she was trotting along again at the end of the line, down more dark passages with the yells of the goblin hall growing fainter behind them. A pale light was leading them on. "Quicker, quicker! The torches will soon be relit!"

Bella could not run any faster, but Fili, a rather decent fellow, scooped Bella up as best as he could with his hands tied, and then off they all went at a run, with a clink-clink of chains, and many a stumble, since they had no hands to steady themselves with. Not for a long while did they stop, and by that time they must have been right down in the very mountain's heart.

Then Gandalf lit up his wand. Of course it was Gandalf; but just then they were too busy to ask how he got there. He took out his sword again, and again it flashed it the dark by itself. It burned with a rage that made it gleam if goblins were about; now it was bright as blue flame for delight in the killing of the great lord of the cave. It made no trouble whatever of cutting through the goblin chains and setting all the prisoners free as quickly as possible. Thorin had also managed to save Orcrist amongst the chaos.

"Are we all here?" said Gandalf. He quickly counted them out and was pleased to see that they were all here. "Well, well! It might be worse, and then again it might be a good deal better. No ponies and no food, and no knowing quite where we are, and hordes of angry goblins just behind! On we go!"

They took off at a run, having heard the cries of goblins coming from the passage they had just escaped. Bella pushed as hard as she possibly could to keep up with the running dwarves, but she was not built to keep up with their long strides. Yet, she managed to stay somewhat near the group, but she was falling behind, and the dwarves were too busy running through the dark to notice. Thus, that was why she was surprised when Thorin called out for her: "Where's the hobbit?"

"I'm back here!" she panted. The nearest dwarf was more than a few yards in front of her, and she was slowing. Suddenly, Thorin was next to her, and in one quick movement had slung her onto his back and was off running again. Embarrassment clouded her mind. "I could have kept up you know."

Thorin just let out a slight chuckle, despite the circumstances, and ran up to the front of the group. Bella was shocked at the amount of speed this dwarf had, even though he was carrying her. The goblins were getting closer, their angry cries and slap of their feet against the stone was getting louder. After a moment, Gandalf and Thorin slowed. "Draw your sword Thorin!"

Carefully, Thorin deposited Bella onto her feet. "Run!" he told her. She didn't argue. Turning tail, she ran, making sure that he was right behind her. As they rounded a corner, they were stopped by goblins that had appeared. The light of Orcrist and Glamdring caused the ones in the front to drop their torches before they were killed quickly. In the scuffle, Bella was knocked over and smashed her head against a rock, and remembered nothing more.