A Heart of Gold

Chapter 6

"Uncle! Trolls!" He heard his youngest nephew exclaim, and all of the company members stood and readied their weapons.

"Where?" He asked, pulling out his sword.

"In the forest. They've took four of our ponies, and Helga's horse and now Bilbo's trying to get them back!" Fili explained and Helga sent a pointed look at the brothers.

"You let our hobbit go alone?!" She exclaimed, running towards the direction where they came from, her sword already drawn. Thorin looked at his nephews.

"We will talk about this later." He glared, running after Helga before all of them followed. They stopped when they saw Helga crouched behind a bush and Bilbo being picked up by a troll.

"Argh! Blimey! Bert! Bert! Look what's come out of me 'ooter! It's git arms and legs and everything!" The troll exclaimed. Thorin made a move to advance, but Helga held a hand to his chest, stopping him. He looked at her and her brows were furrowed in annoyance. She signalled all of them to crouch down and be quiet, which they did. Dwalin, Fili, and Kili approached Thorin.

"So what's the plan?" Kili asked and Thorin looked at him.

"It was your responsibility," He scolded. "You and your brother were supposed to watch over the ponies. It's a simple task! If you and your brother had done it well, then you both wouldn't have been careless enough to let a troll sneak past the both of you!" He said and Helga shushed him.

"Now is not the time to be pointing fingers! One of our members is covered in troll mucus and is caught by a troll, for Valar's sake! He's about to die if we don't make a decision now!" Helga hissed and was surprised when Kili suddenly stood up, his sword drawn, and walked up to the three trolls.

"Kili! Get back here!" Thorin hissed, but Kili continued walking.

"Drop him!" Kili exclaimed and Thorin made a move to go, but Helga held him , she was not looking at him, but at the scene; analyzing, assessing on how to execute this rescue with little casualties.

"Let me go! He is my nephew!" Thorin told Helga.

"Wait..." Helga said, still looking at the scene. However, Thorin was not in the mood and he was getting impatient and worried about his nephew.

"Is this how your kin died? Your nephews? You let them be because you were too much of a coward to make a move? Too late?" He asked and Helga looked at him, all emotions -the warmth he saw- was gone, and it was cold, and deadly.

"Now." She said as Bilbo was thrown towards Kili and in a flash, she disappeared in front of Thorin and she was letting out a battle cry, charging at the trolls. Thorin stood up, let out his own battle cry, and the rest of the company followed.

The following moments were a blur for Helga. Driven by her anger at Thorin and the determination of saving the poor hobbit, she hacked, slashed, and stabbed at the annoyingly thick skins of the trolls. Seeing that she was nowhere near penetrating their skins, she slashed harder and faster until a troll turned and swiped her away with a mighty swing of its hand, sending her flying towards the pot. All Helga remembered was a searing sensation on her left arm and a pain at the back of her head, before she was submerged in a dark dream of her nightmares.

Thorin was trying to remove his sword from the heel of a troll, when he heard his eldest nephew shout.

"Helga!" He turned, frantically looking for the blonde haired woman, when he saw her body lying near the fire, unconscious and with her left arm a hair's breadth from the fire. His nephew was already making his attempts to drag Helga's body away from the fire, but with her being human, she was slightly heavier than them. He ran to help his nephew and wrapped his arms around her torso and dragged her away from the fray. He held her head and felt a trickle of fear when he felt something wet on his hand. He sat her up and checked the back of her head and felt chills rise up from his arms to the back of his neck. The clean, blonde hair of Helga was now tainted with crimson red. He checked her arm, and saw that she only had minor burns, thanks to her leather armor. But before he could do anything about her injuries, he heard his youngest nephew shout.