Date: TA 2941
Thorin: 195 years old
Lina: 192 years old
Lina looked all about her. She wasn't sure where she was. The last thing she remembered was travelling with Gandalf and Nes. Now she was standing in a small cave, sleeping dwarves lying all about her. Her eyes darted about, trying to identify the dwarves in the dim light.
In the back corner, Kili had curled up beside his older brother. Fili had wrapped one arm protectively around the younger dwarf. Lina made a mental note to ask Thorin what had happened to make the two brothers cuddle up together. They were close, true. However she had not seen them this close since they were very young indeed.
Movement at the back of the cave drew her attention. The hobbit was packing his bag. Curious, Lina stepped over the sleeping dwarf at her feet and edged closer. Apparently he was trying to slip out unnoticed as he was very careful to stay absolutely silent. He was nearly to the entrance when Bofur appeared from the shadows. The conversation that followed left Lina absolutely speechless. From what Thorin had said to the hobbit, it appeared her husband was fast losing patience, and his temper.
Her eyes searched the darkness for Thorin. Hidden in a small alcove she saw him, motionless but awake. She recognized the expression he now wore. His conscience was bothering him, but his pride would not allow him to admit his fault in the matter. Lina wondered if he would at least speak up to convince the hobbit to stay. The company needed the burglar. They also needed everyone who had joined the group to stay with the group. If one left, what was to stop the others from leaving? Loyalty? Perhaps. Even if they all stayed, their morale would be severely damaged. A group fighting with low morale was almost worse than no group at all.
Lina watched with her heart in her throat as the hobbit turned to leave. The blue glow at his hip caught her eye at the same moment it caught Bofur's. Blue. Elvish blades glowed blue around goblins and orcs. The soft sound of sand sliding filled the cave. A crack appeared in the ground at her feet. The dwarves scrambled, trying desperately to get out before the ground opened. They were too slow.
"Thorin!" Lina shouted over the chaos. Her husband's head turned and he seemed to see her for one brief moment. The entire company fell as the ground opened the entire length of the cave. Then the whole scene went black.
Hands were on her shoulders, shaking her. Gandalf and Nes stood above her.
"The dreams are back," Nes stated simply.
"Lady Galadriel told me you have these visions," Gandalf murmured. "Tell me what you saw."
Lina, still shaking from the dream, related everything as quickly as she could. As she told the story, her hands flew to pack her bedroll and get it upon her back with her weapons. By the time her story had ended, all three were packed and ready to move.
"Goblins," Gandalf muttered, almost to himself. He focused for one brief moment. Then his eyes shot up the mountain pass.
"Goblin Town. They must be in Goblin Town." He started off into the mountains, both dwarves having to hurry to keep up with his long strides. The band moved in silence. Gandalf was focused upon the path. Several times he changed direction with no apparent purpose. Lina was left to follow and hope they found the dwarves in time. Not only was her husband in danger, but her nephews were as well. There would be no way to explain their injury or deaths to Dis and her mate.
What seemed like eternity for Lina was no likely more than an hour or two. The sun had risen just high enough to extinguish Gandalf's light by the time they reached the mouth of a small passage. The wizard halted their progress with a sweeping of his hand.
"Stay close to me," he ordered. "I shall cast a spell that will render us unnoticeable. Not invisible, as true invisibility is impossible, but unnoticeable. As long as none of us doing anything overt, the creatures within these caves will take no notice of us. Keep moving and be careful what you touch."
Each drew their weapons. Lina chose her hammer, goblin tunnels often widened quite a bit, enough for her to use the weapon effectively. Nes was wielding twin long knives, both of a make Lina had never seen before. Gandalf drew his own sword. They might be unnoticeable, but one never knew how long such a gift might last.
The wizard led the way into the dimly lit passages. The dwarves moved cautiously behind them. Though used to caverns and narrow passages, they disliked those made by goblins and orcs. Dwarves built things of great beauty, made to last for many generations as a testament to their people's might. Foul creatures like goblins simply burrowed wherever they chose like worms. And their tunnels were far less clean than dwarven tunnels. Even the filthiest dungeon was cleaner than the passage Lina and Nes now walked in.
As the group moved deeper into the mountain they began to encounter the first goblins. Lina had never spent much time among the foul creatures unless she was killing them. The last time she had gone willingly into a goblin hole had been on the first journey any of the dwarves had made from Belegost to the Iron Hills. One of their number had been pulled down a hole. Lina, Kira, and Dwalin had dived in after him without a second thought. Kira had nearly lost an eye that day and part of Dwalin's ear had been bitten off. A new scar had been etched across Lina's back that day. The dwarf taken into the tunnels had never been recovered. Only Thorin's daring plan had pulled the other three out in time. The earth mage had collapsed the tunnel behind them, keeping the goblins from following them.
Walking silently among them agitated Lina. Her first instinct was to kill them, but her love for Thorin and her nephews kept her following quietly behind Gandalf. Her hands, however, never loosened their grip upon her hammer.
More and more goblins began to appear, but none seemed to notice the trio passing them. In fact, most of them seemed to be heading the same way Gandalf was leading them. That made Lina more nervous. Wherever they were going, getting back out would likely not be easy.
The twisting and turning passage finally ended. All three stopped at the end of a wooden platform built into the side of the massive cavern. Looking up, Lina could barely see the dark underside of the mountain. Goblins seemed to cover the walls, thousands of them shrieking and howling. Their numbers extended down into the darkness far below the trio. All attention seemed fixated on the dais at the center of the chamber. The largest, most hideous goblin Lina had ever seen led his deformed masses in song.
The subject of the song was torture. Her heart began to race as she watched massive instruments of torture being brought up from the depths. The only ones these things could possibly be used on were the dwarves of Thorin's company.
Gandalf led Lina and Nes to the end of the walkway leading up to the dais. From her new vantage point, Lina could clearly see her husband. He stood defiantly before the goblin king, unarmed. Lina took a step forward, but was halted by the wizard.
"Not yet," he hissed, "the spell is not quite ready."
Her blood roaring in her ears, Lina waited. Every muscle in her body screamed at her. Yet she held her ground. The assassin at her side was just as anxious. Her lips were curled back, baring her pointed teeth as she snarled at Gandalf's restraint. Neither liked seeing their kin in such danger.
What occurred next was something of a blur to Lina. She heard the goblins shrieking in terror and then the cry.
"Cut off his head!"
The goblins cracked their whips across the shoulders and backs of the dwarves before them. Fili and Kili fell beneath the blows, Fili sheltering his younger brother from the worst of them. More of the foul creatures leapt upon Thorin, knocking him to the ground, trying to hold him down.
A blood-curdling battle cry leapt from Lina's lips and was echoed by Nes. The goblins in their immediate vicinity barely had time to jump at the sound before they were knocked into the depths of the cave. The rest were leveled suddenly by a blast from Gandalf.
"Fight!" Gandalf shouted, his voice booming through the cavern. Thorin snatched up a blade, deflecting a blow from the goblin king and sending the grotesque creature stumbling backwards over the edge of the dais. Within moments, the dwarves had retrieved their weapons and were fleeing back down the path behind Gandalf.
Lina could barely keep track of Gandalf as he led them out. Her hammer smashed holes in the gathering goblins as they group fled. All around goblins screamed as they fell to their deaths or were killed by some blow. Fili caught his aunt's hand and pulled her in a quick turn to avoid one goblin. She flashed him a grateful look before crushing a smaller goblin into the rocks with her hammer.
The group came to an abrupt halt as the massive bulk of the goblin king appeared before them, blocking the exit. As the goblin swiped at Gandalf, Thorin stepped protectively between his wife and the goblins coming in from the rear. A dreadful groaning sound made Lina's stomach flip nervously. That is, it flipped before it jumped into her throat. The wooden scaffolding dropped out from beneath the group under the dead weight of the goblin king.
Thorin's arm shot out to pull a teetering Lina firmly against him. Bofur and Bomber seized Nes's wrists as she fell, saving her for the moment. The wooden frame slid and bounced painfully down the uneven walls of the cavern, finally coming to rest far below. Thorin led Lina off the scaffolding onto the nearby rocks and onto the floor beside Gandalf. Nes dropped easily to the ground from Bofur's grasp.
As the dwarves wriggled out from beneath the massive corpse of the goblin king, Kili caught sight of the goblins swarming down the sides of the cavern toward them. Gandalf took off through the caverns, the dwarves hot on his heels.
Lina had never been so relieved to see the light of day as she was then. The passage ended on a rocky downhill, but at least they were out of the filthy goblin caves. She followed Thorin as the company bounded down the slope, trying to put some distance between themselves and the angry horde of goblins behind them.
"Are you all right?" Thorin asked, grasping his wife's shoulder the moment they'd stopped running. He looked her up and down, checking for any visible injury.
"I'm fine," she answered, smiling at his concern. "You?"
"Better now that you've arrived," he replied, pulling her tightly against him. His familiar scent washed over her, reassuring her that he was alive and in her arms once more. Lina had never felt safer.
A/N: Thanks to everyone who has been reading my story. I love you guys. Also, check the tumblr I've linked to on my profile for a very important update regarding the story.