*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*Chapter 8*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*
[Her arms were nearly giving way, gripping the rock face so hard. Her foot slipped. She gasped. Once both feet found purchase in sturdier footholds, she closed her eyes.
"Come on Mae!" Katie called. She looked up at her eight-year-old sister.
"I can't!" She screamed.]
Megans' arms threatened to pop out of their sockets. Then she realized she wasn't rock climbing with her family eleven years ago. She was hanging from a mountainside with a Hobbit on her back.
"B-Bilbo-?" She called through clenched teeth.
"I-I'm here!" He answered. Suddenly Bofur peeked over and reached down.
"Grab my hand! Bilbo, Megan!" He shouted as his hat fell into his eyes. The bodyguard tried to lift one leg to nudge her charge higher, to make him safe.
"Get-up-there- ya little-pain in the-ass!" She near shouted. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Thorin jump down next to them. He grabbed the back of Bilbos' jacket and half-tossed, half-shoved the little guy to the waiting rescue team. Thorin slipped, but a huge muscled arm grasped his, the Dwarven king and the bodyguard looked up to see Dwalin.
The latter hoisted Thorin up with next to little effort. With the Hobbit off her back, Megan slowly climbed after them. Bofur lowered his hand again, and she took it. Surprisingly, the Dwarf was strong enough to lift her until she grabbed the ledge and pulled herself up.
"They have no place amongst us" Thorin said bitterly, stomping into a godforsaken cave in the godforsaken mountainside. Bilbo looked hurt, the kind of hurt you get around people who think you can do no right. The kind of hurt you try to hide because there are too many people around you. Bofur stood, then offered his hand to the Hobbit. Bilbo took it dropped his hand after hauling him up, and they made their way after the rest of the company. Megan followed them with her arms crossed, tears sprang to her eyes from the neverending throbbing.
"I have a place you could shove your racist/sexist attitude, Thorin son of Thrain!" She muttered through gritted teeth. Ori looked at her as if she parachuted from a UFO.
While Thorin ordered Dwalin to check the back of the cave, Megan tapped Bilbo on the shoulder.
"I didn't mean what I said, y'know. You're not a pain, I was just scared."
The Hobbit half-smiled. "That's alright. At least we're both here, so you're forgiven. I mean-" He let out an 'Oof!' as his bodyguard squeezed him in a death hug.
"Thanks Mr. Baggins." Her voice was muffled by his hair.
"Bofur, take the first watch." Thorin said in a slightly tired voice. Bofur looked like he was going to protest, but said nothing. So he sat by the entrance while everyone else rolled out their bedrolls.
"Sorry Bofur, you can take this so you won't get bored." Megan handed her phone to him and showed him how to get to the games.
"Thanks Megs, sleep tight." He replied. Megan and Bilbo found room by Fili and Kili, the former was fingering a small, oval-shaped instrument thing with holes.
"What's that Fili?" Megan asked. Kili answered instead.
"It's from our mother, passed down from her mother and so on. But since we don't have a sister, Fili got it."
"That's cool, it's so pretty! Can you play?" Megan asked, for it was an ocarina. Fili was about to respond when Thorin interuppted.
"Everyone get some sleep, we leave at first light." Grumbling, the others obeyed. It was hard to ignore an order from an extra-grumpy Dwarf, especially a tired one. Balin however said, "We were to wait for Gandalf, that was the plan."
"Plans change." Thorin replied simply.
Megan snuggled into her bedroll, and began to sing softly.
"Adventure Time
C'mon grab your friends,
We go to very
Distant lands
With Thorin the Dwarf,
And Bilbo the Hob-bit,
The fun will never end
Adventure Time!"
The bodyguard gave a tired chuckle when she caught the Company staring at her.
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Ian Mayfair patted his Warg as Azog sniffed the air. "They have taken the mountain path." The Orc announced. Ian grinned. It was not pretty. His hair was falling out, his teeth growing to points. One of his eyes had turned yellow. Once he began to notice these changes, he went looking for others like him, to help explain the terrible pain. The Orcs hadn't exactly welcomed him with open arms, there were tests. Cruel, painful, impossible for regular humans. But he had found a home in this world, he was part of something. He was one of the first to take up Azogs' call to arms. Especially when he heard the bitch was traveling with the prey.
They were close now, Ian licked his ruined lips. "The iron taste of revenge is mine!"* He said in his new native tongue.
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The bodyguard was sleeping soundly. Dreamless oblivion. Until-
"Wake up! WAKE UP!"Thorin shouted. Too late. Before anyone could so much as rub sleep from their eyes they were falling. More like sliding. The cave was safe except for a trap floor, leading to a long slide that took the Company deeper into the mountain. The Dwarves, Hobbit, and human couldn't tell left from right, up from down. They slid, tumbled, rocked, rolled, bumped and hollered until they reached a hole in the bottom. Freefalling for couple of seconds they landed in some kind of open-ended cage, the sides of which looked as though made of very large bones. Bombur, having whooped the law of Physics' ass, fell last, landing on his smaller companions including the bodyguard.
"Oh!" She groaned. "I can taste my spleen!"
The next thing they knew, were Goblins. Goblins everywhere! The first thing the disgusting creatures did was snatch members of the Company, one by one. And the first thing Thorin and the rest did was throw up their arms in defense. It was no good. They were all taken, shaken, and dragged across a rickity bridge. Dwalin put up a good fight, getting an arm free and sucker-punching an unfortunate Goblin before he too was subdued.
Over several bridges they went. The Goblin city was all bridges and tunnels. Onto a huge platform they were hauled, and the biggest Goblin was hacking up a lung on a throne made of the same huge bones as the cage the Company landed in. Goblin king hopped off his throne and demanded,
"Who dares to come armed into my kingdom? Spies? Thieves? Assasains?!"
Everyone kept their cool, though they knew they could be torn to bits any second. "SPEAK!" The Goblin king ordered. Nobody said a word. Even after the Goblins beat and battered them, after having their weapons (and in Oins' case, an ear horn) taken away, they weren't giving the enemy anything.
"Very well," Said the Goblin king. "if they will not talk, we'll make them squawk! Bring up the Bender! Bring up the Bone Breaker! Start with the youngest!" He shouted, pointing directly at Ori, who gulped.
"WAIT!"Thorin stepped forward. As the Goblin king then proceeded to cut down Thorins' authority as a king, Megan looked around and inwardly groaned. Once again, her charge was out of her sight, where she couldn't protect him as she was hired to do.'Damn, can I do NOTHING right?!'She thought bitterly. Then again, they'd have to survive this rocky mountain hell before she could be fired. Fili stood beside her, holding his arm in front of her midsection.
"It'll be fine Megs." He whispered.
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As they waited for their doom, the Goblin king began to sing off key to an awful song:
Bones will be shattered
Necks will be rung,
You'll be beaten and battered
From racks you'll be hung!
You will die down here and ne'er be found,
Down in the deep of Goblin Town!
As he finished, a Goblin took Orcrist and unsheathed it slightly, howling at the sight of the blade. So too, did the Goblin king panic.
"I know that sword!" He cried. "It is Biter!" After that he ordered the Company killed, and Thorin beheaded. Just as this was about to be carried out, a bright flash of light invaded Goblin Town, rolling over everything like a tsunami.
Everyone, friend and foe were lying dazed and confused. Megan could faintly hear a familar voice.
"Take up arms." Said Gandalf. "Fight. FIGHT!" So they did. The first thing Thorin grabbed was Orcrist. The other Dwarves followed suit. Megan snatched up her hammer by the handle, while a Goblin grabbed the head. After a bit of tug-o-war, Megan thrust her weapon forward, catching the enemy in the gut. It let go, and she swung her hammer at its ribcage. Only a little bit of bile rose to her throat at the resounding crunch.
The Goblin king howled at the sight of Glamdring, calling it Beater. As he lunged, Thorin knocked him back, causing him to stumble backwards and fall off the platform.
There never seemed an end to the Goblin ranks. They ran from side passages, they cut off the Company at almost every bridge, they even crawled up from the deep. As they prepared to cut them off from the other side of the chasm by way of swinging across, Thorin ordered,
"Cut the ropes!" So Dwalin, Kili, and others did. Ignoring the frightened screeches of the falling Goblins, they continued to fight their way through.
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A/N: This took F-O-R-E-V-E-R! I can't write action scenes for the life of me, but whatever. Whew! But glad am I that this chap is over. I meant to write the rest of the 1st movie in one long chapter, but I'll do that next time because I wanna put a little filler between movies. Thanks for hanging in there!