Blackfoot

Chapter 6

Night was starting to settle as they made camp, stopping next to a burnt out farmhouse. Selene stared at it, it was at least a week or so old, but what had caused such a thing, she could not say.

"A farmer and his family used to live here." Gandalf said, following her and staring at the building as well. "I think it would be wiser to move on." He said it even as Thorin shouted orders. "We could make for the hidden valley."

This got Thorin's attention. "I've already told you, I will not go near that place."

Gandalf looked unconvinced. "Why not? The elves could help us, we could get food, rest, advice."

"I do not need their advice." Thorin growls, clearly tired of the argument.

"We have a map we cannot read. Lord Elrond could help us."

Selene felt uncomfortable, there was another smell around but she couldn't place it, it'd been washed away too much by the rain. "I have to say, I agree with Gandalf. We need to move from this place."

"I did not ask for your opinion." Thorin said darkly, clearly still angry at her, before looking back at Gandalf. "A dragon attacks Erebor, what help came from the elves? Orcs plunder Moria, desecrate our sacred halls, the elves looked on and did nothing! You ask me to seek out the very people who betrayed my grandfather, who betrayed my father."

"You are neither of them." Selene felt this was a very valid point. "I did not give you that map and key so you could hold onto the past."

"I did not know that they were yours to keep."

And, for the first time, Selene watched as Gandalf stormed off in frustration, completely walking away from all of them and leaving some of them feeling very uncomfortable. Thorin stormed past her, ignoring her and causing her to scowl.

As night settled, her uneasiness grew worse, Gandalf still having not returned, Oin was also insisting that he take another look at her arm, but she was having none of it saying it was fine. She stood at the edge of their camp to avoid them all and stared out into the night, still trying to work out what the smell was, she even refused food so as to not drown her senses with it, but they took it to her feeling ill.

"You need to eat Selene." Bofur was insisting. "Keep up your strength after an injury like that."

"I am not hungry and I do not feel ill." She insisted. "Please Bofur, just drop it."

"Lack of appetite could be because of an infection." Oin said coming over. "If you'd just let me-"

Selene was losing patience. "It is not a lack of appetite, I just simply do not feel like eating right-" She froze, footsteps were quickly running towards them.

Fili burst through the trees, looking worried. "Trolls!" He said breathlessly. "They took some of the ponies and now they have Bilbo."

Selene couldn't stop the growl that rumbled through her chest, luckily, Bofur and Oin were the only two close enough to hear it. How could she have not recognised the scent of troll, even amongst all the rain, and now they had Bilbo.

Without even thinking, her feet were carrying her forward, pulling out her sword from her belt. Normally she would take on a troll as her wolf, but as that wasn't an option, she had no choice but to make this a sword fight.

The dwarves were following close behind, all armed and worried. A troll fight was anything but easy.

They rushed the trolls with shouts into the night, Kili having successfully caught Bilbo, and they moved amongst the three doing as much damage as possible to the thick skinned beasts. Selene's blade buried into ones leg and it roared in pain, kicking back with its other, something she avoided almost lazily while yanking her sword back out. In the midst of battle though, she lost track of Bilbo and suddenly the poor hobbit found himself back in their grip after he had released the ponies.