Chapter Nine: Sunrise

I felt wetness under my head and there was something in my eye. I lifted back to consciousness and all the bodily pain started to seep deeply into my muscles and bones. I grimaced and eased one eye open with a groan.

"Lydia?" Balin whispered. "Are you awake?"

I nodded and tried to lift my hand to wipe my eye but I was restricted. I looked down and saw that my body was in a dirty bag and tied up around my neck. Most of the dwarves were in the same position as I was, but a few of the others were being spun over the fire.

"Fuck," I said, reaching as far as I could and whipping my eye with the gross bag.

One of the trolls snapped at the other saying, "Don't even bother cooking them. Let's just sit on them and squash them into nice jelly."

The cheffy one said, "They should be sauteed and grilled with a sprinkle of sage."

"Well, that does sound quite nice."

Once it felt like I had everything out of my eye I looked and saw that it was blood. I was pretty sure it was my own too. I looked to where my head laid and saw the small puddle of blood as well. I must have a cut on my face or head somewhere, but I wasn't feeling dizzy so that was a good sign. I needed to pull myself together.

"Never mind the seasoning and get along with it; we ain't got all night! Dawn ain't far away and I don't fancy being turned to stone."

Oh, I've heard that about trolls before…

"Oye Lads," I called out to them, "you really don't want to be doing that!"

They looked down at me and squinted. "Shut it, your turn will be coming up soon enough."

I struggled to sit up but did manage to get upright. "No, no, I mean about the seasoning."

They looked among themselves for a moment. "What about it?"

"Well damn boys, have you smelt them? You're going to need something a hell of a lot stronger than sage to get rid of the gritty taste and grimy smell of ripe dwarf."

The dwarves around me thrashed around and yelled at me in protest. I appreciated the theatrics, it helped me come across as believable.

"What does a tiny hobbit know about dwarf cookin'?"

"Let 'er talk! Come on, out with it!"

I took my time to roll around and very slowly get up onto my feet. "Yes, yes the secret." I hopped over in the burlap bag without falling on my face. "The top secret for cooking dwarf is very simple actually."

"Yes?"

"And it's a rule that you'll need to know before trying to eat them."

"We know! Spit it out!"

I cleared my throat and wiped my cheek on my shoulder, blood still running down from my injuries. "Well…what you need to do so you can eat them…is chop them into teeny tiny pieces to make sure they're cooked thoroughly."

The dwarves broke out into erratic shouting and swearing at me.

"Grab me knife, I'll have them chopped up real fast!"

"What a load of rubbish! I've eaten plenty completely whole. Let's just start scarfing 'em down, we're running out of time!"

I spotted a pointed hat over the horizon and my heart lifted, I started seeing the sky lighten as well, I just needed a bit more time!

"I'll help chop them up, I just need my hands," I offered, jumping closer to them. "As long as you don't eat me I can help!"

"Nonsense, let's just eat 'er as an appetizer and get into the rest of 'em!"

One of them reached down and grabbed me and took the sack off. I wiggled around, unfortunately stuck in its gross hands again. I tried to bite it like before but its grasp on me made it impossible to turn my head that far.

"This is the repayment I get for trying to help you half-wits?" I shouted. "Even goblins would have-!"

"Oh shut it." The troll covered my face to make me stop talking. I shouted and thrashed around as hard as I could, suffocating under the pressure.

A familiar voice of our dear wizard erupted and shouted, "The dawn will take you all!" The earth shook and I heard the trolls shout and recoil. The troll dropped its hand from my face but still held onto me as it tried to escape the bright light of day.

Their leathery skin shifted to stone and as much as they tried to run, their limbs froze and turned solid. Eventually their shouts stopped and their eyes were glazed over. I pushed on the stone hand to try and slide out but it was wrapped around me too tightly and I already hurt too much to really put all my effort into it.

"Could someone help me down?" I requested, searching around for assistance.

"Us too!" Dwalin shouted from the roast over the fire.

While the others worked on getting everyone untied and off of the fire, Kili climbed up the troll and started chopping away at the stone so I could be released.

"I'm really sorry everything went down that way Lydia," he apologized. "It was a really dumb idea to go up against three trolls with no backup."

"I think we can both agree that it was a bad idea," I chuckled. "I was stupid enough to listen to you two and that was on me."

He smiled and shook his head. "You're still sharp even though you took one hell of a beating." He lodged his sword in an indent on the hand and tried to leverage the stone apart. All that did was bend his sword.

I winced, worried he was going to slice me by accident. "If the brain damage doesn't get me, you will," I laughed nervously.

Fili yelled to us from the ground, "Kili, you know the things are dead right? Just hack off the hand already!"

"You come up and help then! You were just as responsible as I was for this whole debacle, you know."

"You think we're equal on this?" he scoffed.

"Of course! You lost the ponies too!"

They went back and forth bickering and I couldn't get a word in edgewise. I didn't care whose fault it was, I just wanted to get out of the stone! Giving up on them, I went back to trying to worm myself out of the grip. I convinced myself that even if I move an inch I would be able to slide right out…but I was pretty sure I was still getting nowhere.

"Will you two get out of the way?" Thorin ordered. They stopped arguing and got out of his way as he climbed up the troll. He nodded to me as Kili crawled down to join Fili on the ground. "Are you alright?"

"Going to be honest Thorin, I've been better," I responded, shaking my head as much as I could. "Will you allow me to apologize before you berate me like a child?"

"Let's get you down from here first and then discuss what brain failure you had to listen to my idiot nephews." He took out the two axes that were attached to his belt. "This may hurt, be prepared for that."

"Go for it."

He wound up and then chopped down at the wrist of the troll where it cracked and fell from the arm. I closed my eyes as the stone hit the ground and shattered apart. My body was freed, but the impact of the fall seemed to be the last thing it could withstand so I just laid there on the broken pieces of stone, waiting for my will to return. Fili and Kili stood over me and Thorin did the same when he climbed back down.

I wheezed, "You're right, that did not feel great." He reached down to pick me up but I quickly intervened. "Please leave me here for a little while. I think my body just realized how badly everything hurts so I'm giving it a moment."

"We do not have a moment. Come on." He lifted me off the ground and tried to put me up on my feet.

"Thorin, I'm serious, do not try to do that right now!" I gripped the front of his vest and stared him down. "I will just end up falling and hurting myself, just set me down."

"I can carry her," Kili offered. "I don't mind."

"I can as well!" Fili added.

He narrowed his eyes at both of them, said "No," then carried me off in the opposite direction. "Come on men! The trolls can't have traveled in the daylight so they must have had a cave around here somewhere!"

My face was bright red as I continued to demand to be put down. He totally ignored me as he and the other dwarves and Gandalf searched for the cave. Thorin did approach Gandalf while they walked along the edge of the hill face.

"Where did you go off to?" Thorin asked.

"Ahead."

"Hmm, and you came back."

"Yes, I had to make sure all of you were in one piece."

"No thanks to your burglar."

"Hey!" I said, grabbing his collar and pulling myself up higher in his grip. "I didn't see any of you trying to buy time to sunrise! You all just sat in your sacks, waiting to get eaten." I gained enough energy back into my body to swing my legs out of his grasp and planted myself back onto the ground with a slight falter. "Thank you for saving us Gandalf, I don't think I would have been able to hold the trolls off for much longer."

He bowed his head to me. "Glad I could assist. Are you doing well, Miss Lydia?"

"Totally fine, can't you tell?" My entire body screamed in pain and I grabbed back onto Thorin for balance. "Is everyone else as okay as I am? Because I feel great."

"A few bumps and bruises and cuts but generally everyone is fine."

Shit. I did not want anyone to get hurt from this but I also didn't want to be the one who got the most hurt because I couldn't be a burden to anyone or slow them down. I just need to suck it up and keep up with them.

"Over here!" Nori shouted. "I found the cave and it reeks."

"Be careful what you touch, it is a troll hoard after all," Gandald warned, rushing ahead to join the group as they entered the cave.

"Are you going to join in the plundering?" Thorin asked me as I tried to keep up.

"I'm good, I don't need more to carry."

While everyone rushed into the cave to see what they could find, I stayed outside and laid on the ground, my arms and legs outstretched while the sun washed over me. I did my best to find the cut on my face to make it stop bleeding, but I had to do so with the cleanest part of my sleeve I could find. From what I could tell it was a relatively small cut over my eyebrow, so it looked much worse than it was. The rest of my body also had small cuts but it was the bruises that truly wrecked me. As they developed further I could feel the pain seep further and further into my bones.

I sighed and accepted my punishment for going up against three trolls. I did learn my lesson though, if there's a possibility of a fight it's best to get as many dwarves involved as possible and keep the wizard close by.

I would kill for a hot bath right now, to sink deep into the hot water and lift the grime and sweat and blood off my skin. My muscles would relax and heal with every moment of warmth. The water would feel like a loving caress and make me feel fresh again.

I forget, if you possibly have a head injury are you supposed to sleep or not?

Before I could lapse over to unconsciousness I heard the dwarves already returning from the cave. I heaved myself back onto my feet, using a tree as support. I barely got to my feet before everyone spilled out with treasures and new weapons.

I gave out forced smiles as they showed me the gold coins and treasure they had shoved into their pockets. I warned them not to go swimming anytime soon and got a few laughs. We all migrated back to our base camp to round up the ponies and the rest of our things so we could hit the road again. I kept up from the back.

Gandalf came up to me and held a sword out in front of me. "I believe this will be your size, my dear."

I looked up to him unsure. "I already have swords and my bow, I don't think I need another weapon to carry."

"The blade is of Elvish make, which means it will glow blue when orcs or goblins are nearby. If you do not wish to use it then it will at least prove helpful to you in that way. Take it as a reward for winning your first battle."

I hesitated and then accepted it. It was hard to argue that such a weapon was better beyond compare to what I brought with me on this journey. It just felt unfit for an elvish blade to be in my hands, but I had to remember that not everyone in the company were warriors. Many were black smiths or toy makers or miners. A barmaid amongst this lot was not that abnormal.

I looked up to him and whispered so the others couldn't hear me. "Thank you for finding this for me. I know I'm not much of a fighter but I hope with this I can continue to be useful to everyone…not just someone who runs into trouble."

"We would have run into those trolls one way or another, and if we didn't then they would have continued to travel south and hurt more people. We stopped those foul creatures from doing more damage. You were very brave today. Though, I hope you remember that true courage is about knowing not when to take a life, but when to spare one. Those decisions are important."

I nodded in understanding. "Gandalf I-"

Dwalin shouted, "Something's coming! Everyone gather!" We both saw everyone looking into the forest. "Arm yourselves!"

I took my new sword and drew it, joining the company as we prepared for potentially another fight. My new blade was curved like a leaf and definitely still sharp. Luckily not glowing as well and I hoped I would never see it glow.

I had a feeling that on this journey that would not be the case.

I held my stance and squinted as I saw something approach us in the distance. It looked like…it looked like rabbits?

A sled pulled by hares flew up to us and the man driving the sled was a wild looking creature with brown robes, long hair, and a hat that somewhat resembled Gandalf's. He came to a jolting stop right in front of us and he stumbled from the sled.

The seemingly deranged man shouted at us, "Thieves! Fire! Murder!"

"Radagast!" Gandalf said, surprised and taken aback that he knew this stranger. "Radagast the Brown!"

We all recognized the name from Gandalf telling us stories about the other wizards of the world. We lowered our weapons and I breathed a sigh of relief, knowing we would not be going into another fight. Radagast, as he told us, was a man of the land, a friend to all animals, and most of all was peaceful. He may have been…unique but we would have never needed to worry about ill intention from him, especially if we were on Gandalf's good side. The only thing he mentioned was not to eat meat around him.

"Gandalf, I've been looking for you! Searching! We must speak this very instant about something deathly important!" He did not seem bothered by the dirt and sticks and animal feces that covered him. "Now, now! Come!"

Gandalf looked at us. "This will just be a minute."