Coincidence? →️The Hobbit fanfic

XI

Erlanda woke to someone shaking her violently. "Wake up." she could hear Fili say, "Erlanda, breakfast." that was all the motivation she needed to quickly sit up, banging her head against the dwarfs in progress. 

Rubbing her head she turned to the dwarf and smiled sheepishly at him, "Sorry." Fili laughed and waved it off as he joined the other dwarves at the giant table.

Erlanda stood up and padded the hay off of her clothes and combed her fingers through her hair to brush out the knots and the hay. She then made her way to the table and sat down between Dwalin and Bofur. 

"So you are the one they call Oakenshield," Beorn told Thorin after pouring something, probably milk, into a mug in front of Fili. "Tell me..." he stepped away, "...why is Azog...the Defiler hunting you?" he turned around again to face Thorin.

"You know of Azog?" Thorin asked. "How?"

"My people were the first to live in the mountains...before the orcs came down from the North. The Defiler killed most of my family. But some he...enslaved." Erlanda looked at Beorn's wrist and saw that there was a shackle around it. "Not for work, you understand...but for sport. Cagin skin-changer and torturing them seemed to amuse him."

Bilbo, who had just joined the dwarves and Erlanda at the table, asked, "Are there more like you?"

"Once there were many." Beorn trailed off and Erlanda could guess the rest.

Bilbo did not. "And now?" he asked.

"Now there is only one." there was a small moment of silence before Beorn continued, "You must reach the mountain before the last days of autumn." he sat down.

"Before Durin's Day falls. Yes." Gandalf, who was smoking his pipe away from the table, said.

"You are running out of time."

"Which is why we must go through Mirkwood." Gandalf nodded.

Beorn looked at the Wizard, "A darkness lies upon that forest. Fell things creep beneath those trees. There is an alliance between the Orcs of Moria and the Necromancer in Dol Guldur. I would not venture there...except in great deed."

"We will take the Elven Road," Gandalf assured. "That path is safe."

"I thought we had a strict no-elves-allowed rule?" Erlanda asked quietly but was overheard as Beorn asked, "Safe? The Wood Elves of Mirkwood are not like their kin. They're less wise and more dangerous. But it matters not."

Thorin, who had stood up while Beorn was talking, turned around and looked at the giant man, "What do you mean?"

"These lands are crawling with Orcs." the skin-changer explained. "Their numbers are growing. And you are on foot. You will never reach the forest alive." He stood up as Thorin seemed to grow angrier with every word he spoke. "I don't like Dwarves. They're greedy and blind." he picked up a mouse from the table that had been crawling in front of Erlanda, "Blind to the lives of those they deem lesser than their own... But Orcs I hate more." he walked in front of Thorin, "What do you need?"

Beorn had given them all ponies, except for Gandalf who was too tall for one. Erlanda had gotten one of the biggest ponies. She wasn't even sure if she could ride and would rather try her luck on something smaller than a horse. 

"What's wrong?" Balin asked her as she looked at her pony in doubt. "I'm not sure if I can ride," she explained. "Well, did you know you were good with a sword?" the dwarf asked. She shook her head. "From what I've seen with the goblins you are trained very well. Maybe you were a warrior before..." Erlanda knew what he meant. Before whatever caused her memory loss. She nodded. "I will give it a try then."

She watched how Thorin climbed on his pony and copied his movements. It seemed strange to sit in front after weeks of sitting behind a dwarf. 

"Go now. While you have the light." Beorn said. "Your hunters are not far behind." 

Erlanda watched how the dwarves made their ponies move forward and copied the movement with her legs. Soon enough, they were all riding over green hills. Erlanda's pony galloped next to Bilbo's who was at the very end. The Hobbit had once told her that he was not overly fond of ponies and therefore was not a good rider.

As they arrived at a forest, Gandalf dismounted his horse. "The Elven Gate." he spoke, "here lies our path through Mirkwood."

"No sign of Orcs." Dwalin commented, "We have luck on our side."

They got off of their ponies as Gandalf said, "Let the ponies loose now. Let them return to their master."

Erlanda looked ahead of her. The forest seemed dark and gloomy and the path itself was narrow and wound between the trunks. "The forest feels sick," Bilbo told Erlanda. Standing next to her he added, "As if a disease lies upon it. Is there no way around?"

Erlanda turned to Gandalf, asking herself the same question. "Not unless we go 200 miles north." the wizard told them. "Or twice that distance south." Gandalf walked into the forest and Erlanda back to her pony. She took her pack off its back with the help of Ori and then let it run free with the other ponies.

"Not my horse!" Gandalf called out to Nori. "I need it!" The Dwarves who had been chattering amongst each other now turned to Gandalf. "What?" Erlanda asked. "Are you planning to leave us?"

"I would not do this unless I had to." he then looked down at Bilbo next to him. "You've changed Bilbo Baggins. You're not the same Hobbit as the one who left the Shire." Bilbo looked up at him and Erlanda felt that it was a very personal moment so she turned to the dwarves as they began to unpack some of the things from their packs and load them onto themselves.

"What's that?" Gloin asked her as she got a small book out of her pack and put it in her coat. "A blank journal," Erlanda told the dwarf. "I've had dreams of places and people and some plants...a lot of plants actually...I wanted to draw them to maybe help me remember them." The dwarf nodded and went back to his pack. "Good luck then, with remembering."

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