Wolf: Eh, no intro today, even though its been two weeks but hey! I graduated! :D Lets get into it. Bilbo, my baby, runs for his life, while his dwarf babysitters do the same. But while arguing... let us continue. I don't own the Hobbit c:
Transformers' BABY - update for you darling! :3
Nuka - Thank you! Your review gave me life. And now, just for you, may I present the dwarves being as irresponsible as losing a kid in a supermarket...
Okay, but really? How was that considered singing? Just because they pound some sticks on some flattened sheets of metal, made some sort of gargling sounds to the noise, did not make it music. And the "singing" from the Goblin King already seemed like torture enough.
"Bones will be shattered! Necks will be wrung! You'll be beaten and battered! From racks you'll be hung! You will die down here, and never be found! Down in the deep of Goblin-town!" ... To be fair, it was certainly a threatening... "tune"
The most threatening thing to happen though, was that a few minutes earlier the Company of Thorin Oakenshield was told that a certain Defiler's days weren't over... and a certain leader of the company had a price on his head with nothing attached... Delightful.
It also didn't help that the goblins decided to go through their stuff while the torture devices were being brought up. One goblin going through weapons found an interest in inspecting the swords and got to Thorin's. The screech echoed and the goblin dropped Orcrist as if burned and the outcry from the others was deafening. They immediately started beating their captives while the Great Goblin stumbled back panicked.
"I know that sword! It is the Goblin-Cleaver, the Biter, the blade that sliced a thousand necks!" The goblins began separating the dwarves as the Goblin King continued. "Slash them! Beat them! Kill them! Kill them all! " He pointed to Thorin, "Cut off his head!"
Goblins swarmed the dwarven king and held him down, and one of them pulled out his knife and prepared to behead Thorin. Suddenly, there was a massive explosion of bright light. A shockwave ripped through the area, flinging goblins in the air and destroying the torturing machines. Everyone was knocked down, including the Great Goblin. When the light faded, most of the torches in the area had been snuffed out.
A shadow with a tall pointy hat walked forward. It was Gandalf, holding his staff and his sword, Glamdring, which shone a light blue. Light slowly returned to the area as the goblins and the dwarves slowly looked up, recovering from the shock. They all stare at Gandalf.
The goblins in fear of the devastation from the being.
The dwarves?
... Just what in the name of Mahal took the damn wizard so long?!
"Take up arms. Fight." The dwarves were still fuming at him taking so long to finally show up. Gandalf was just questioning if their thick skulls made it difficult for them to hear. "Fight!"
Ah, see? That got them moving. Gandalf began slicing through a first wave of goblins that rushed him as the dwarves picked up their weapons and dealt powerful blows to any attacker attempting to swarm them.
"He wields the Foe-Hammer! The Beater!" The Great Goblin shouted while pointing to Gandalf. Nori had just gotten to the weapon pile before he was pushed over and the Goblin King readied to kill him.
"Nori!" Thorin ran over and deflected the Goblin King's strike and sent him stumbling back off of the large platform.
Gandalf looked back to them after beheading a goblin. "Follow me quickly." Still moving slowly... "Run!" Ahah. They started moving again.
Good job Gandalf. They began running through the tunnels and on wooden bridges weaving their way through the inhabitants of Goblin-Town.
Now to lead them out...But first.
"Where is Bilbo? Where is the hobbit!"
"...Uh," Gandalf probably would have face-palmed if he didn't have to decapitate another goblin. The mountain air grew heavy and thick as the wizard did his best to not light every living creature in the vicinity on fire.
The dwarves had some explaining to do...
Bilbo had been running for his life for what felt like hours. He stumbled on a rock and hit head first into a wall. The quiet in his ears ceased and a ringing began, Bilbo tried looking around for the source but only succeeded in seeing a droplet of something fall from his eyebrow. He lifted a hand to his head and a dark and sticky substance was on his fingertips.
He did his best not to panic but he was breathing heavily already and just trying to get as much air in his lungs as possible. He'd been running for so long... and his chest was starting to hurt, like no air would come to him. After some time Bilbo caught some breath and looked about again for some kind of place to go.
Which way was out? Follow the wall right or follow it left?
A snarl echoed off the walls and his decision was made. Right was a lovely direction anyway... Right?
The dwarves sensed much agitation from the wizard and instantly, blame was placed.
"I thought he was with Dori!"
"Don't blame me!" He responded in kind, albeit out of breath since they were still running through a goblin hive.
"Well where did you last see him?!" Gandalf just sent a rock tumbling down an incline that was part of the mountain, crushing goblins beneath it as the company continued after it. Soon, they approached a bridge between two walls of the cavern. As they tried to run across it, the Great Goblin suddenly broke through from underneath the bridge and pulled himself up onto the bridge in front of the Company. As the Company paused, hundreds of goblins approached them from all sides.
The Goblin King sneered, "You thought you could escape me?" and swung his skull- staff at Gandalf causing him to stumble back and be pushed back up by Thorin and Dwalin. "What are you going to do now wizard?"
Alright Gandalf wasn't in a good mood so instead of a one act kill it had three.
A jab in the eye with his staff for the hobbit not staying safe in Rivendell. That earned an "ow, ow, ow."
A slice across the gut for the dwarves losing that hobbit in a cave filled with goblins. Which earned a delayed, "That'll do it."
And a final cut to the throat and The Great Goblin fell, because now Gandalf had to run back and find the hobbit once he dealt with the dwarves. And then the bridge they stood on creaked and moaned beneath their feet and then they fell with it into the depths of the mountain.
Several dwarves, although they wouldn't admit it if asked, screamed. Fili and Kili are such dwarves however they had a good hug with each other during the fall. Kili may or may not have been laughing on the way down because hey, they weren't dead right?
They finally slowed down and the bridge hit the ground, hard, and Bofur, bless him the little optimist, "Well that could have been worse!"
The Great Goblin's corpse had other thoughts and landed on them instantly crushing them together. Dwalin was in a sour mood indeed, "You've got ta be joking!" As the dwarves tried to get themselves freed Kili looked back up and he allowed his eyes to widen.
"Gandalf-" He trailed off and looked to the wizard. The wizard peered back at him but didn't raise his eyes to the swarm of goblins above, only thinking about how he'd have to find another way up to look for a little hobbit probably hiding in a crevice in a wall somewhere.
"Dwalin grabbed Oin from the busted wooden planks, "There's too many. We can't fight 'em."
Gandalf finally tilted his head back and it immediately snapped back down to the dwarves. "Only one thing will save us. Daylight! On your feet!" Dwarves pushed and shoved each other up and forward to follow the wizard. Maybe there was another way out. They ran and it seemed Gandalf was done with the subject of their hobbit's whereabouts and after a while the dwarves finally stopped after about twenty minutes of running when he brought it up again.
"Explain quickly. We must move soon." Gandalf demanded.
"Last i saw him was when they just got us," Gloin stated.
"Aye, me too." Fili added.
There were several nods of agreement and the wizard sighed. "Did anyone see him later? Which way he went? Or did he just get lost to all of you at the same time?"
"No. I saw him slip off when they started leading us off." Nori finally got to say. Everyone looked at him when he spoke up, some with a relieved expression, some positively thunderous.
"He would be fine if he was with us! Now he's still lost in there?"
Nori allowed an eye twitch, "How were we to know? It was run or get caught by goblins!"
The Company quickly became divided some for keeping Bilbo with them, and some saying it was wiser to let him go because they hadn't known what would have happened.
Gandalf finally got his chance and he face-palmed. Bits of the argument seeping through his mental barrier.
"-no one knew-"
"-probably fell-"
"-it's not Nori's-"
"-no one else-"
"Enough!" Thorin shouted, "Although it would be easier if our hobbit was here now, he isn't. It was with the best intentions he is now lost, for now," He added louder because honestly, his companions thought he'd just leave him in a goblins' mountain? "For now we must go, the goblins are nearing, we can only hope he found a way out, for now."
Once he finished goblin cries sounded through the cave tunnels and the dwarves began running again.
So far Bilbo had been right in going right. He found a small opening that lead to a larger space that he could fit through. He thought Gollum wouldn't be able to fit through, with any luck. He'd had luck so far in the darkness of Gollum's cave, he hoped it held out.
He slunk through easily and found another opening. He continued through that and began running again. It seemed like there was a little light up ahead and he truly wanted it to lead to a way out of the darkness.
He continued running but heard what sounded like a rock falling and he looked back. As he looked back he saw empty space and turned his head forward again only to run into a very solid mass.
The goblins seemed to be falling behind, thank Mahal. There was light ahead and Gandalf moved the dwarves in front of him to ensure they'd all get out, during head count, Kili stumbled a bit and looked down.
"Bilbo!" He shouted, catching the attention of the Company who all followed his line of sight to see that, in fact, a hobbit child was sitting there. Said hobbit looked up from the ground he was on to Kili who picked him up with a hand under each armpit and set him standing again.
"Bilbo Baggins!" The wizard started but then couldn't go through with his lecture when he was looked at with the puppy eyes. He was a sucker leave him alone. "I have never been so glad to see anyone in my life." Which he received a small smile.
Bilbo was just too relieved and hugged the dwarf presented. Kili noticed a red line running down Bilbo head and cried out, "Bilbo! Your head! Did I do that?"
"I know!" He instantly released and drew back slightly, "No you didn't Kili-"
He would have finished if a blonde counterpart to Kili didn't snatch him up and nearly crush him in an embrace. "How on earth did you get past the goblins?" Fili semi-twirled him about before Bilbo started kicking and he released him.
Once Bilbo got some air in his lungs again he opened his mouth to answer when, "Baggins!" and he went still. It came from behind him, in the cavern he just ran out of. All of the dwarves looked to the darkness and Bilbo turned his head incredibly slowly and peered over his shoulder to see a shadow moving forward, no, backwards, and two milky orbs glinting in the distance.
A snarl came from it and it charged forward. Bilbo began shoving the dwarves to the light not too far off. "Weren't you running before? Go!"
"It's ours! Baggins!" Bilbo is immediately off his feet and being ran out into the light filled tunnel. The light got brighter and brighter until the Company was finally outside and breathing clean and crisp air.
Once they ran past at least five hundred trees, Bilbo was set down and he found out his carrier was Bifur. It seemed everyone but Bilbo was officially out of breath and at least he regained his. About half the Company were leaning against trees, a few, the princes and Bifur had hands on their knees and were inhaling as much air in their bodies as possible.
There were five that weren't completely out of breath, Bilbo included, well, maybe four, but Oin counted as not completely out of breath because he immediately walked to Bilbo and fussed over the torn bandages and head wound. The other three were Gandalf, but he had a hand on his hip and was leaning on his staff, either about to lecture or a sign he was actually catching breath. Thorin, but his chest was heaving, Bilbo could tell even with his arms crossed over his chest. Dwalin, the mirror of Thorin at the moment.
Apparently Oin lost most of his medicines in Goblin-Town so he settled for wiping away the blood on Bilbo's head with a wet cloth and rewrapped the cleanest part of his bandage around his head again. He huffed, clearly not pleased, and went to see to everyone else.
Bilbo placed a hand to his head and instantly retracted hissing, it stung plenty to be sure. He looked over to Oin but saw Fili and Kili in his side vision slowly moving away from the healer and finally plopped down on either side of the hobbit. Without much warning, Bilbo was being crushed in a hug between the two princes who rocked back and forth with him.
Bilbo could only ask, "Why me?" in as saddened a tone as he could muster. For added effect, he gazed to the sky as if searching for an answer from one of the Valar. The moment didn't last too long when something else caught everyone's attention. Gandalf the Grey, The Wandering Wizard, The Grey Pilgrim, Disturber of the Peace, walked right up to Thorin Oakenshield, grabbed him by the ear, and lead him off into the trees.
Everyone blinked once. Twice. And then Bofur, bless him, "20 septims says we'll need a new leader once Gandalf's done with 'im." And then the betting pool started.
Wolf: I know, shorter chapter, but I can't get my pacing down! I'm a mess and I've been busy. I'll get the next chapter up probably at the end of the week, I swears, on, on, the Precious!
Thorin: I hate you.
Wolf: Everyone does at this point. Chill.
Bilbo: Follow, fav, and review! :)