The First Stranger

I do not own the rights to the Hobbit

AN: Sorry this took so long but now I'll try to update this as regularly as possible from now on.

Chapter Six

Gandalf and I went after the fellow members of our company as fast as we could. Surprisingly enough, for an old man, Gandalf was as agile as a much younger man. We made our way along an extremely narrow pass, with Gandalf just ahead of me, we kept ourselves pressed against the cliff wall as the rain knifed at us.

'There is a cave ahead,' he shouted over the rain.

'Then let's get there now,' I said, hoping for some sanctuary from the weather.

'Do not make haste Bartholomew,' the old man snapped at me. 'These caves are not always abandoned.'

'Brilliant,' I sarcastically remarked.

Gandalf approached the cave first and took a quick look into it before quickly moving back into a place where whatever was inside could not see him.

'Goblins,' he grumbled and reached into his robes.

'And what are they?'

'Wicked and cruel creatures that delight in blood and torture.'

'How many?'

'Five and all of them are armed.'

'If I'm fast I can take them,' I said and pulled out my mace.

'We,' Gandalf emphasised, 'will take them all quickly after I use this,' he said and pulled a small paper cylinder from an inside pocket. He whispered something at it before throwing it into the cave and covering his ears.

'What was that?' I asked.

'Pardon?'

'What was that?'

'Pardon?'

Just then a bright flash of light blasted out of the cave followed by screams of Goblins.

'What was that?' I shouted.

'No need to shout my dear friend,' he said quickly as he drew his sword. 'That was a very good firework. Now you may fight them.'

'Thanks.'

I lifted up my mace and charged into the cave letting out a war cry with Gandalf charging in after me. Those Goblins were terribly deformed, hunched over creatures wearing poor armour and carrying rusted weapons but in numbers they would be a serious problem. In my life I had seen many things. I had seen the savages who ruled Jerusalem in place of His true servants, I had seen the heathens who ruled the lands around the Baltic, I had seen my own comrades in arms looting houses at will but in my life up to then I had never seen a creature so disgusting or brutal. With both of my hands gripped on the shaft of my weapon I brought it down onto a Goblins head and blood splattered everywhere in a spray of bone and gore. I swung three more times, killing two more Goblins as Gandalf killed the others with two quick sweeps of his sword.

'They shouldn't be here,' Gandalf said and was extremely worried. 'The Goblins have a town beneath the mountains but the entrance should be in a different pass.'

'Clearly they've made a new door,' I commented as I noticed a slightly open door in the cave wall.

'And look,' Gandalf said and pointed at a pile of bundles on the ground. 'Our companions may have made camp here.'

'Damn,' I cursed loudly. 'Gandalf, are we going into a battle?'

'I think we might be.'

'I see,' I said and took off my pack before pulling out my mail shirt and helmet. I quickly threw them on but I kept the visor up. I then put the pack back on and I got ready to charge into the battle.

'Come on,' the wizard said. 'Let's go.'

We rushed through the door in the cave wall and through a long, twisting cave system with the floor littered by bones and filth. We hurried through the caves as quickly as possible, rapidly killing any Goblin we came across. My mace was soon covered in black blood with shards of bone and flakes of flesh mixed into it. As the two of us rushed on I thought I heard a very foul, high pitched singing. Eventually we made our way to the end of the long tunnel and entered a massive open cavern deep in the heart of the mountains. In the heart of it all was a massive wooden platform suspended above the rocks which was covered with hundreds of Goblins, some of which were dragging up torture devices, but in the middle of the platform was a large, poorly made excuse for a throne, upon which sat massive, obese pile of fat and flesh covered with foul looking hair, growths, blisters and boils. However, of far more importance to me was the crowd of Dwarves being attacked by the Goblins. My companions were there.

'Come on!' I shouted at Gandalf and I hoisted my mace into the ait as I charged forwards but after only a few moments the wizards hand gripped my shoulder and pulled me back.

'Patients,' he snapped at me before taking a few strides forwards and lifting his staff into the air which sent out a massive pulse of bright blue light which crashed into the Goblins throwing them all down and then, all the shrieking and wailing died leaving nought but silence.

For a few moments this silence was unbroken as the wizard and I slowly stalked forwards with our weapons raised, ready for a fight. With both of my hands gripped around the handle of my mace I held my weapon up as the Dwarves started to steady themselves.

'Take up arms,' Gandalf told our companions with a will of iron. 'Fight. Fight!'

At that the Dwarves grabbed their weapons which were scattered around the ground by them and began to fight against their captors. I charged in roaring as loud as I could and I swung my weapon straight into the side of a Goblins head and almost smashed it clean off. For the next few moments I was caught in a whirl of steel and blood and I tore through the Goblin ranks, smashing them apart as fast as I could trying to end the fight as quickly as possible. Soon though we had to retreat for any hope to get out alive and we raced across bridges, the cave walls around us a blur as we tried to escape. I swung my mace and smashed a Goblin in its ugly face, splattering gore onto a nearby wall and then swung my fist into the jaw of another. Eventually, as I was at the back of the group, I faced a Goblin who actually had some strength to it. It swung its rusty sword at me and I had to dodge the blow which was followed by three others. Eventually I swung my mace but it caught my weapon on its sword so I quickly drew my sword from England with my left hand and stabbed it through the stomach killing it. Usually I didn't fight with two weapons, it was harder to control my attacks but I didn't have much time to put my sword back. I swung my mace hard at a Goblin which attempted to jump on us from the side knocking it back into the wall and then I cut halfway through the neck of another beast, spattering blood across my blade. Eventually we came to a bridge where, across it, I saw a long downward slope leading to a pair of stone doors leading to sunlight at last. Felling immense relief I followed my companions across the swaying bridge with a horde of Goblins right behind us.

'Cut the bridge ropes!' I shouted, deciding that it would slow the Goblins advance.

'No time,' Gandalf told me. 'They won't follow us into the sun.'

I took a glance at the hundreds of Goblins right behind us, all screaming in fury as they charged at us.

'Then let's go,' I said and, as myself, the wizard and the Dwarves prepared to run a mocking roar tore through the air and, out of a side tunnel, rushed the massive Goblin leader, who was looking both angry and joyous at catching up with us. In his hand he held a staff with what looked like scythe blades attached to the end. It was a crude weapon but it could easily kill.

'Not so fast,' the Goblin king declared and advanced on us but the wizard stepped forwards and swung with his sword but the Goblin king blocked the blow.

However, the beast was not expecting Gandalf's talents for magic. The wizard sharply jabbed the beast in the gut with the end of his staff and a loud crack hit my ears as, in a flash of light, the Goblin was hurled through the air and crashed into a cave wall, splitting the rock and a large boulder fell down upon our enemy crushing him. After that we charged down the slope, easily dispatching the few Goblins ahead of us, until we at last burst out into the sunlight. The ground beneath our feet was still wet from the rain and the air had a chill to it but the sun, oh I had never been so grateful to feel the sunlight kiss my skin. Still, we kept running on and on as fast as we could in case a few Goblins dared t brave the sunlight but still there was no sign of anyone coming after us. Eventually, completely exhausted, we all collapsed to the ground to get our breath. I wiped the black blood and sweat off of my face, feeling relieved that we had escaped. Balin volunteered to keep watch for us while the Dwarves told us what had happened to them. It turned out that while they were asleep in the caves the Goblins had ambushed them. However, just then Gandalf realised something.

'Where's Bilbo?' Where is our Hobbit?'

'I don't know,' answered Thorin, his voice filled with concern over the safety of Bilbo but there was some guilt. He was the leader of our company and now we had lost one of us.

'Was he with you when the Goblins took you?' I asked him.

'I saw him being dragged along at the back,' said Gloin quickly.

'Maybe he escaped,' I said and I threw off my pack, planning to get the rest of my armour on. 'I'll go look for him.'

'That place is overflowing with Goblins,' said Fili. 'We'll need an army to find him.'

Knowing how hopeless this was I threw down my mace in frustration and sat down, feeling terrible that he was lost to us forever.

'We can't give up on him,' said Gandalf and unlike me he still sounded hopeful.

'You don't have to,' a chirpy voice said suddenly making us all jump and raise our weapons to see, standing on a rock nearby, and with a smug look on his face, was Bilbo.

His clothes were a little more ragged than I remembered, all the buttons on his waist coat had been torn off and I noticed him tucking something into his pocket but I didn't think on it at the time, oh if only I had known all the trouble it would cause at the time. To say we were happy that he was alive was an understatement. At once we bombarded him with questions of his survival and after a minute he calmed us down enough for him to tell us of his trials of adventures in the caves below us. We listened on in amazement at his tale of the encounter with the creature Gollum. Before I respected Bilbo for his intelligence but now, but now I truly admired him for his tempered cunning. I know that if I was in his predicament I would have attacked the creature at first glance but, as it turns out, Bilbo's solution to the problem was much better. When we asked how he escaped he told us that he hid in the shadows, following Gollum until he had found the doors, tearing off his waist coats buttons to get out. After he was done explaining what had happened to him, and we did likewise, we decided to move on before nightfall came and the Goblins would come after us.

AN: I know this wasn't the longest chapter ever but I just wanted to get this out soon. As I said earlier I will try to update at a more regular pace and I'm so sorry this came out so late. Anyway, I hope you liked this chapter. Also, I changed the death of the Goblin King from the one in the film because that was as stupid as the screenwriting for Kingdom of Heaven, actually that was an insult to the Hobbit, just mentioning them in the same sentence.

Review Response Time:

KiyaNamiel: Thanks for your review. I wanted to make Bartholomew a realistic knight character for his time so I thought that adding that his marriage was not one of love was necessary. Oh and by the way, don't forget what Galadriel called Bartholomew, "Dadwen".

Knowing Grace: I see that you're not a Tauriel fan. Personally I enjoyed Radagast that's mostly because I'm a Doctor Who fanboy. I hope that his reaction to the Goblins was good enough. I think that after his encounter with the Trolls he wouldn't be terrified of them and a character from the 15th century would compare them to "Heathens". Yeah the SJW's love me. Ha, ha, ha. I hope this chapter was worth the wait and met your expectations.