Chapter Four-- The Misty Mountains
As we climbed through the mountains, the terrain got harder steeper, and more rocky.
I walked right behind Gandalf, since I was now at my full height, which was much taller than all the dwarfs.
"You knew, didn't you?" I asked him as we walked. "You knew exactly who I was, yet you still wanted me to come. Why?"
"You need to see the world, understand its dangers."
"That's not why," I countered. I could tell, in his voice and my mother's, that was not the real reason they were letting me go.
He sighed, "I, we, thought that soon some of the more intelligent dangers will realize what we're doing, and raid Rivendell looking for you. By getting you out into the world, we're showing them that you don't only stay there, possibly delaying or stopping an attack."
"If anyone were to attack Rivendell, I would defend it to my last breath."
"That's exactly what we're afraid of."
"Why are you so keen to keep me alive?"
"You're something new to this world, we're not going to give that up lightly."
I sighed, and continued with the trek through the mountains.
Within a few hours of leaving Rivendell, rain started pouring down onto our little group. The mountain passed proved to be much harder than I first thought, especially once the rain started up.
A huge bolder crashed into the mountain above us, and rained down pebbled and broken rocks. In the gloom, I watched as a huge mountain took the form of a person, but none of the others saw it yet. Elves have much better eye sight and hearing then most creatures do.
"Storm Giants!" One of the dwarfs cried when he finally saw the thing. The Storm Giant plucked off a chunk of mountain, and threw it at the mountain we were on. Our mountain started to break apart, right in between Fili and Kili. Fili got stuck on the far side, and Kili was with me on the inside.
The entire mountain moved, as it too took the shape of a person. They both started grabbing rocks from the mountains, and tossing them at each other. Our mountain man stumbled, and all of us on the closer leg scrambled back onto solid ground. We watched in terror as the mountain the others were on, fell just above us. We scrambled up after them, and found then all laying there alive. Well, almost all of them.
"Where's the hobbit? Where's Bilbo?" I cried.
Everyone turned to the cliff face, and saw him hanging there, holding on for dear life.
I ran over to the edge, and held out my hand to him. Being as tall as I am, I was able to reach far enough, and pull him back onto the cliff, no problems. I'm pretty sure some of the dwarfs were astonished to see a woman pull up a hobbit with one arm, serves them right for thinking women can't be muscular.
"I thought we'd lost our burglar," one of the dwarfs commented.
"He's been lost ever since he left home," Thorin replied coldly. "He should have never come. At least the elf can fight, so I'm told."
I rolled my eyes, and followed him up into a cavern where they planned to stay the night. I took the liberty of searching the place for goblins, being as I had the best sight, but found nothing in the little cave.
"We'll rest here, and start again at daybreak," Thorin announced.
"I'll take first watch," I volunteered. I was not in the mood for sleeping.
He looked at me, not liking the idea. I smirked, "If goblins attack, I'm the best chance you have. Just let me take the first watch."
He let out a deep breath, "Fine. Everyone else, set up your sleeping materials."
They set to work setting up camp, while I found a nice little spot by the opening of the cave that I could sit at and watch.
Once all the others had gone to sleep, I pulled out my sword to examine it some more. I then realized that I'd forgotten to ask my father what the runes really said. I would have actually slapped myself for that, if the sword hadn't started glowing blue. Of course, elvish swords glow blue whenever goblins or orcs are around, and I really didn't want to contend with either.
Just as I'd put two and two together, Bilbo let out a shout, and a huge crack in the floor opened up. As quick as I could, I grabbed my pack, shoved it on my back next to my quiver, put the sword back in its sheath, made sure all my other weapons were accounted for, and jumped head long into the crack. I fell down, with the dwarfs and Bilbo, into some kind of basket. A goblin basket of sorts.
Goblins came poring in on us, grabbing each and every dwarf, one elf, but no wizards or hobbits. Gandalf had disappeared, and as they herded us away, so did Bilbo.
Some of them tried to take my bow, sword, knives and quiver, but I pulled them on and out of the short little goblin's reach.
"Tut, tut," I said to them as they took us through their under mountain kingdom. "Tut, tut."
They drove us up toward a huge room, with a giant throne that the goblin king was sitting on. I recoiled at the sight of him, he was hideous. I'd never seen something so nasty. But then again, I'd spent one thousand years with elves, the most beautiful creatures in Middle-Earth.
"What do we have here? Thieves? Robbers?" He cried.
"Dwarfs, sir," one of the goblins old him. "And an elf."
"Dwarfs? And an elf?" He looked down at us, and I stared back at him, a defiant look on my face. "Well, well, well. Echo, is it? I thought Elrond always kept his precious gem safe in his borders. But you're not under your daddy's protection anymore sweetheart. This is the real world, and in the real world there are many who want to capture you, and they will succeed.
"And Thorin Oakenshield, son of Thráin, son of Thrór, king under the mountain. But you don't have a mountain, and you're not a king." The goblin king laughed at his own joke, a pathetic joke, I might add. "There are some people who would pay a pretty price for your head, just a head, nothing else attached."
I stood there, staring up at the goblin king, hoping with all my heart that they wouldn't notice any of my weapons. If they took them, I was dead meat. I swear I saw the king look right at my shoulder where my bow was, but if he saw it he didn't say anything, which I found extremely odd.
One of the goblins took Thorin's sword from him, and pulled it out of the sheath. He dropped the thing when he saw it, and screamed. The king jumped when he saw the sword, and ran to his thrown to hide. "The goblin cleaver! Kill them! Kill them all!" He ordered.
I slung my bow off of my shoulder, and strung an arrow, daring any goblin to try and mess with me.
A blinding, white light filled the room, and silence fell over the whole cavern. As the light subsided, a figure appeared in the light, a figure with a pointy hat.
"Take up arms!" Gandalf cried to us. "Fight!"
He ran at the goblins, the sword he found in the troll cave in his hands. I shot my arrow at the first goblin I saw, taking him out with one hit. The rest of the dwarfs grabbed their swords, and swung at the goblins.
"He wields Glamdring, the Foe Hammer!" The Goblin king yelled. I smirked, and knocked another arrow, shooting it at the next goblin who dared attack me. I kept stringing arrows and firing them faster than the speed of light, never getting tired.
"Run!" Gandalf called. A smile appeared on my face, let the games begin.
~~**~~
A/N: Like the Hunger Games refrence there? Te gusta? No? Vale... How do you do an upsidedown question mark on a pc? Or accents? I had to just add them in with pencil on my last Spanish project that I typed up... Gosh I hate my Spanish teacher SO much. Everyone does, she's horrible. Anywho, like I said, following the movie more for this part. I think I'll finish out as far as the movie got with the movie? Maybe? I dunno... Should I do the movie orc scene? Or the book wolf/goblin scene? And sorry this is so short, I want to make a whole chapter out of their flee from the mountains, since its got a lot of action and stuff.
Love always,
KATE