Chapter 16

Annelise followed closely behind Gandalf as they passed through the entrance at the back of the cave.

"Grab onto the back of my robes, Annelise, and stay close," he said quietly over his shoulder before muttering what sound like a spell under his breath.

"Are we invisible?" Annelise asked, realizing what the spell must have meant.

"Yes," the wizard replied quickly raising a finger to his mouth, signaling her to keep quiet, before moving out of the shadows.

Almost instantly, they were surrounded by goblins and forced to move along with the crowd. Annelise pushed herself even closer to Gandalf's back, hoping to avoid touching any of the disgusting creatures.

When Gandalf finally stopped, Annelise peeked around the wizard to see that they were on a platform surrounded by goblins. They all seemed to be focused on a large goblin with a crown on his head standing in front of a throne. Annelise could only assume that he was the Goblin-King.

Annelise could just make out the heads of her companions standing in front of the giant goblin. She could hear one of them talking, but could not make out the words.

"Shut up!" she heard the King yell suddenly. "If they will not talk, we'll make them squawk! Bring up the mangler! Bring up the bone breaker! Start with the youngest!" Annelise could only assumed that the King was pointing at Ori as he said this last part.

"Gandalf..." Annelise whispered in despair.

"Wait!" she heard her father yell from the middle of the group. At this, everything went quiet as the crowd began to part and Annelise was finally able to See the entire Company.

"Well, well, well...look who it is," the Goblin-King said as Thorin moved to stand before him. "Thorin, son of Thrain, son of Thror, King Under the Mountain."

These last words were said mockingly, as the Goblin-King bowed lowly.

"Oh, but I'm forgetting - you don't have a mountain, and you're not a king, which makes you nobody, really." Snickers ran through the goblin ranks at this statement.

The Goblin-King suddenly turned thoughtful for a moment. "I know someone who would pay a pretty price for your head. Just a head. Nothing attached. Perhaps you know of whom I speak. An old enemy of yours. A pale orc, astride a white warg."

"No," Annelise gasped under her breath. Gandalf quickly reached back and grabbed onto her hand, both signaling for her to stay quiet and to comfort her at this revelation.

"Azog the Defiler was destroyed," she could hear her father saying. "He was slain in battle long ago."

"So you think his defiling day are done, do you?" The Goblin-King laughed before turning to a mangled goblin hanging from a swing of sorts. "Send word to the Pale Orc. Tell him I have found his prize."

With this the goblin slid away on his seat to deliver his message.

Soon after, Annelise noticed various torture devices being brought near the king's throne and she knew that their window to save the Company was slowly closing.

The King began singing a vile song as the tools were being set up, and Annelise found herself clutching tighter to Gandalf and pulled her sword from its sheath on her waist.

Suddenly the King's song was cut off as one of the goblins threw her father's sword to the ground as though it had burnt him.

Annelise was surprised to see all of the goblins, including the King, recoil from the blade in fear.

"I know that sword! It is the Goblin-Cleaver!"

These words from the King caused chaos to break out among the goblin ranks. Thorin and the Company were soon surrounded and being beaten while they tried to get free.

"The Biter! The blade that sliced a thousand necks," the King continued. "Slash them! Beat them! Kill them!"

Annelise looked up to see her father being held down by four goblins, while one stood above him with a dagger.

"Cut off his head!"

"Gandalf!" Annelise yelled, no longer worried about being found.

"Stay behind me, hold on tight, and shut your eyes," the wizard ordered suddenly.

Annelise barely had time to do as the old man had said before a great force knocked into her and a bright light flashed before her eyelids.

Everything went still and Annelise opened her eyes to see that all of the goblins had been knocked down with the rest of the Company.

Gandalf and Annelise walked forward on to the platform in front of the still forms.

"Take up arms. Fight," Gandalf ordered the Company quietly.

"Fight!"

With this yelled order, Annelise jumped into battle with Gandalf, as the Company leapt to their feet.

Gandalf quickly took down the goblins that raced toward them, with Annelise at his side.

"He wields the Foehammer! The Beater! Bright as daylight!"

By this time, the Company had found their weapons and joined in the battle.

Annelise turned in time to see her father block an attack from the Goblin-King, before the massive creature fell from the platform beneath their feet.

"Hello cousins," Annelise greeted as Fili and Kili moved to her sides.

Gandalf decapitated a goblin next to Annelise before motioning to her and yelling, "Follow me! Quick!," to the others.

Annelise ended up in front of the wizard with her father and cousins, with the rest of the Company following behind them. She briefly wondered how Bilbo was fairing, but quickly let the thought go as they continued to fight their way through Goblintown.

If you were to ask Annelise to describe their fight out of Goblintown, she would only be able to give you bits of it. The fight soon dissolved into an ongoing run of cutting down goblins in her path and trying to keep up with her father and cousins. Everywhere she turned more goblins seemed to be waiting to take the place of the last one that she had just cut down.

The Company found themselve surrounded, on a bridge and Annelise suddenly heard her father give the order to cut the ropes to make the path behind them collapse under the feet of the goblins standing on it.

Annelise turned when she heard the sound of something striking metal.

At her back stood Kili, using his sword to block arrows being shot at them from the path ahead. He quickly turned and grabbed a ladder next to him before pushing her further back into the middle of the group.

She watched as he lowered the ladder so that it was facing the goblins before running full speed toward them, clearing their path. The others quickly followed him, cutting down any goblins that were missed.

They then came to a break in the path, so the ladder was then used to make a bridge. Once everyone was across, Dwalin knocked it off, cutting the goblins off from following them.

They soon came to a dead end in the path and Annelise found herself near the back of the Company with Kili.

Annelise decapitated a goblin before Kili suddenly cut a rope to his right and the platform beneath them began to swing and turn in the air.

Annelise saw the other end of the broken path rushing toward her and before she knew it she, Kili, Balin and Bofur were jumping from the swinging path onto the other side.

The platform then swung back and some goblins were able to jump onto it where her father and the rest of the Company still were.

The dwarves and Gandalf were able to jump onto the path finally, and Fili cut one of the remaining ropes, causing the platform to fall into the caverns below.

"Fili!" Annelise cried, as her cousin had to jump from the platform into the waiting arms of the others to avoid falling himself.

They continued running, at one point Gandalf even knocked down a boulder to roll ahead of them, crushing anything in its path.

Eventually they came to a solitary wooden bridge, and Annelise thought that maybe they were almost out of the woods. Those hopes were dashed when suddenly the Goblin-King erupted through the boards in front of them.

Gandalf pushed back the others so that he was facing the giant goblin. Fili quickly pulled Annelise so that she was standing in the middle of the Company, as the others circled around with their backs to her.

"You thought you could escape? What are you going to do now, wizard?" the Goblin-King taunted.

As an answer, Gandalf moved forward and hit the King in the eye with the point of his staff before slashing his sword directly across his large stomach.

The Goblin-King fell to his knees and said, "That'll do it," before Gandalf sliced his neck, causing the Goblin-King to fall forward at the wizard's feet.

With this sudden drop, the boards beneath their feet began to move and crumble, before completely collapsing. They began falling down into the chasms below. As they fell, they hit more wooden structures and walls, causing wood and rock to crumble apart beneath them.

Suddenly the ends of the platforms got caught against the caverns walls, slowing their descent a little before they finally landed in a mess of wood and stone at the bottom of the cavern.

Gandalf quickly pulled himself from the wreckage and assisted Annelise to her feet beside him.

"Well that could have been worse," Bofur said and Annelise just shook her head at him.

Suddenly the Goblin-King's large body landed on top of the wreckage, crushing them even further.

"You've got to be joking!" Dwalin yelled loudly. In any other situation, Annelise might have laughed at the groans and complaints coming from the dwarves in front of her. Instead she looked up and saw hundreds of goblins climbing down the walls after them.

The others were slowly making their way out of the debris, and Annelise heard Kili yell, "Gandalf!," in panic, knowing that her cousin must have seen what she was looking at.

"There's too many. We can't fight them," Dwalin said, while assisting the others out of the wood and rock.

"Only one thing will save us: daylight! Come on!"

With this, Gandalf rushed to help the remaining dwarves stuck in the wreckage before leading the Company out, the goblins close on their tail.

Annelise looked ahead of them to see an opening in the rock and glorious sunshine streaming through.

"We're almost there!," she shouted happily, encouraging the others to keep moving.

"Quick! Quick!" Gandalf said, stopping to make sure everyone got out safely. "Quickly!"

They soon ran out of the opening, onto the foothills of the mountain, surrounded by trees.

"Into the forest, hurry!," her father called from behind her.

When they had finally made it a safe distance from the mountain, the Company stopped to catch their breath and check over themselves for any wounds.

"Five, six, seven, eight," Annelise could hear Gandalf counting under his breath and she quickly began doing the same.

"Bifur, Bofur. That's 10. Fili, Kili! That's 12. Annelise, 13! And Bombur. That makes 14. Where's Bilbo? Where is our Hobbit?"

At this Annelise began looking around frantically, trying to catch a glimpse of her small friend.

"Where is our Hobbit?!" Gandalf asked loudly. This caused the others to look around hurriedly as well.

"Curse that halfling! Now he's lost?" Gloin said in exasperation.

"I'm sure he just fell behind as we were running out so quickly," Annelise said, mainly trying to reassure herself that he was alright.

"I thought he was with Dori!"

"Don't blame me!"

"Well where did you last see him?," Gandalf asked the dwarf in question.

"I think I saw him slip away when they first collared us," Nori said suddenly, causing Annelise to look down at her boots in defeat. There was no way that small hobbit would have been able to make it through what they just went through on his own.

"Then what happened, exactly? Tell me!" Gandalf shouted.

"I'll tell you what happened. Master Baggins saw his chance and he took it. He has thought of nothing but his soft bed and his warm hearth since first he stepped out of his door. We will not be seeing our hobbit again. He is long gone."

"Father!," Annelise moved to scold her father for speaking of Bilbo in such a way, but did not have the opportunity to as another voice cut her off.

"No, he isn't."

"Bilbo!," Annelise rushed to the hobbit and fell to her knees to hug him. "I thought something terrible had happened to you!"

"Bilbo Baggins! I've never been so glad to see anyone in my life," Gandalf said, moving toward the two.

Bilbo moved from Annelise, patting Balin on the back, toward Gandalf.

"Bilbo. We'd given you up!" "How on earth did you get past the goblins?" Kili and Fili spoke.

"How, indeed" Dwalin said to Thorin.

Annelise was a bit confused when Bilbo just let on a nervous chuckle, before putting his hands in his pockets.

"Well what does it matter? He's back," Gandalf said, with a strange look on his face.

"It matters," Thorin said suddenly. "I want to know. Why did you come back?"

"Look, I know you doubt me. And I know you always have. And you're right. I often think of Bag End. I miss my books. And my armchair. And my garden. See, that's where I belong. That's home."

"That's why I came back. 'Cause...you don't have one... A home. It was taken from you. But I will help you take it back if I can."

Annelise felt tears coming to her eyes as she looked at the faces of the dwarves surrounding her. She knew that the small hobbit's words had touched them even more deeply than they did her. She had always known a home with her father and cousins. She was not there when Erebor was taken from them.

She decided then that she was going to work even harder to make sure that the sad looks on the faces of those she loved would one day be smiling as they walked into the home they had lost so long ago.

Suddenly, their moment of peace was ruined by the sound of wargs growling in the distance, and Annelise knew that they could no longer run from their hunters.

"Out of the frying pan," said her father.

"And into the fire. Run," Gandalf finished. "Run!"

The Company took off running further into the forest, but knew they would not be able to escape for long.

A lone warg eventually caught up to them and jumped from a rock, landing in front off Bilbo. Annelise watched as he somehow managed to stab it before the rest of the pack could overtake them.

They were able to cut down the few that were amongst them before they reached a cliff at the end of the forest.

"Up into the trees. All of you," Gandalf ordered upon seeing that their escape route had come to an end. "Come on, climb! Bilbo, climb!"

Annelise was able to pull herself up onto one of the lower branches and looked back to try to help Bilbo. She saw him still on the ground, trying to pull his dagger from the carcass of the warg that he killed.

"Bilbo, come on!," she yelled frantically.

"They're coming!," her father yelled from the ground.

Bilbo was finally able to pull his sword out, only to look up and see that he was the last on the ground and the warg pack was almost upon them.

"Bilbo!," Annelise yelled, reaching down to help the hobbit up before pulling them both up higher. And not a moment to soon, as the warg pack had reached them.

Annelise pulled herself up so that Bilbo below her would be high enough off the ground, before turning to look at their hunters.

There stood a sight that made her heart ache.

"Azog."