THE CELESTIAL AND THE COMPANY *A Hobbit fanfic*

Chapter 13; House of Beorn

"Who's house? Are they friend or foe?" Thorin demanded.

"Neither." I said. "He will help us or—he will kill us."

"What choice do we have?" soon a loud roar echoed over the mountains, a roar that I knew very well.

"None." Gandalf and I both said together. And without further argument a decision was made.

We ran across creaks and a wide spread field of wildflowers. Gandalf and I taking the lead as we urged the company onward towards the patch of woods just ahead of us. Whilst behind us, the creature kept a fast pace behind us roaring ferociously.

As we came to the woods, just a half mile till we got to the cottage, the roar sounded again and Gandalf cried out.

"This way! Quickly!" the company raced on ahead but I saw that Bombur was frozen with fear as he kept looking back. I grabbed his beard and snapped him out of his shock.

"Bombur come on!" he let out a yelp before following behind me before eventually getting ahead of me. We raced down the hills some jumping over small peaks and risen rocks until we finally came out of the trees and just ahead of us over a field of yellow grass was the house.

"To the house! Run!" Gandalf cried out. The dwarves, Bilbo and I racing ahead and I soon took notice of how Bombur managed to surpass everyone as he now took the lead pass the gate, across the yard and slammed straight into the doors.

Gandalf and I stayed at the gate to make sure everyone got in safely and that's when I saw him. With a crack and a snap of branches, a large black bear charged out of the trees and made a full charge right towards us.

"OPEN THE DOOR!" Gandalf yelled. I took notice of how the dwarves were forcefully trying to push the doors in.

"THE LATCH! LIFT THE LATCH UP!!" I exclaimed as I ran towards them, shoved my way through until I reached the latch and lifted it up. As soon as the doors were opened, we all yelled and exclaimed as we shoved each other inside all at once.

The dwarves then tried to close the doors only for the bear to stop it with his muzzle. He snarled and let out a terrifying roar. The dwarves pushed and pushed with all their might to close the door but the bear was relentless in wanting to get to us. I saw how Bilbo took out his sword, standing right in front of me to protect me.

I placed my hand on his shoulder and softly shook my head as he looked at me confused. With one final and great push, they managed to shut the bear out and latch it shut with a large wooden frame. Panting from the adrenaline drop Ori turned to Gandalf and I and asked.

"What is that?"

"That gentlemen is our host." I said. They all looked at me confused or in shock. "His name is Beorn. And he's a skin changer."

The Skin-changers. Now those were a rough but proud race of creatures. Having the ability to shapeshift from man to beast just by mere thought. I remember long ago when many of them roamed over Middle-Earth but now there is only Beorn himself.

"Sometimes he's a huge black bear, sometimes he's a great strong man. The Bear is unpredictable but the man can be reasoned with, however, he's not overfond of Dwarves." Gandalf explained to them. Some of our company looked at each other offendedly when we heard Beorn's growling getting softer.

"He's leaving." Ori said. That's when Dori came up and pulled him away from the door before lecturing him.

"Come away from there! It's not natural, none of it. It's obvious. He's under some dark spell."

"Don't be a superstitious naysayer. He's under no enchantment but his own." I snapped at the older dwarf. "Nori don't you even think about taking anything from here!" I snapped at him. Nori who was by Beorn's large cabinets that had his precious China plates and cups jumped at my voice.