NYMPH - Thorin Oakenshield

CHAPTER NINE

At some point, Nixie speedily reached down into her boot - holding her sword in her mouth she grabbed her smaller knife. She yelled furiously at Bilbo, after putting her sword back in her hand, "Bilbo catch!" the Hobbit yelped as he caught the handle of the tool in his mouth and began to vigorously cut down the middle of the sack.

 After freeing himself, he made his way towards the Dwarves that were cheering on the fight and began to take priority in cutting away the bounds of those who were being roasted. Bilbo, however, did not notice the ugly brute creeping behind him. It was the Dwarves that alerted both Bilbo and Nixie of this, but at the moment Nixie was being surrounded by two of the trolls.

"Help!" cried Bilbo shrilly, looking pleadingly at Nixie. 

Nixie saw this, as the troll came ever so close to Bilbo. "Hold on Bilbo, I'm coming!" she called desperately, one of the trolls made the fatal mistake of bending down to take a swing at Nixie. 

The Nymph dodged it, jumping onto a rock and then onto the trolls back and then climbed onto its head. The troll that she was stood on wondered where the Nymph had gone, the other troll tried to knock her off of its head. Nixie cringed as she ran across its arm, leaping up onto its skull - this troll was taller than the other one and Nixie saw the opportunity to leap and defend Bilbo. She took it, jumping over the fire and leaping down onto the troll's hand with her sword; it came clean off and the troll stumbled backwards in shock. 

Sweat poured from every crevice of Nixie's body, one of the trolls grabbed Nixie and her sword clattered to the filthy ground7. Now all of the Company were swinging violently in their sacks, screaming for Nixie's safety trying to distract the trolls it was to no use. "How about we have this feisty little one for our starter," growled the massive troll with the apron. 

The other one nodded in agreement as the one that was now missing a hand yowled to say yes, Nixie closed her eyes. This was her end. She had messed up. She now solely depended on Gandalf for her safety as well as the rest of the Companies lives. Nixie opened her eyes slightly as she was raised up in the air, she was being used as a vizor for the troll! 

"The dawn will take you all!" bellowed the familiar voice of Gandalf, Nixie breathed a sigh of relief - she'd be safe. 

Nixie smiled gratefully for the Wizard, "Who's that?" one of the trolls asked. 

"No idea."

"Can we eat him too?"

Gandalf brought his staff down on the rock, it made a loud crack and the boulder did indeed crack. Nixie had managed to wriggle herself out of the troll's hand whilst it was distracted and ran immediately for Bilbo, who was struggling to cut through the rope of the Dwarf-roast. The trolls groaned as their skin became solid, all struggling and hissing and gritting their teeth before they stopped - like statues. All of the Dwarves began to laugh. 

The Water Nymph extinguished the fire with water, the fire hissed in response at the iciness of it and went out. Nixie then began helping the Dwarves out of the sacks they had been put in. Last, of all, Nixie helped out the Dwarf Lord. 

"You have saved us all," Thorin uttered out, nodding respectfully to the much smaller woman. "If you don't mind me asking," Thorin paused looking at the Nymph, "Where did you go off to?"

Nixie smiled a small smile at the Dwarf Lord's curiosity, "I went to Nymeria Dale," she confessed, Thorin irked an eyebrow, "I went to go see how it was." Thorin gestured in a sign of  'continue', "It was just how I left it," Nixie explained, "Though someone or something had stolen my Mother and Father's crown." 

The Dwarf Lord looked amazed at how calm the Nymph was and then decided to ask the exact same question to Gandalf; Nixie stood between the two men, listening into Gandalf. "To look ahead," the Wizard simply said. 

"What brought you back?" Thorin quizzed, Nixie knew the answer to that. 

Gandalf chuckled lightly, "Cerberus seemed to be very adamant on me following him, as he never goes anywhere without Nixie," he lightly smiled, with a twinkle in his eyes. "So I looked behind." Gandalf continued, "You're still one piece."

Thorin let a lop-sided grin loose, which was a rare site than Nixie decided that she liked. "No thanks to your Nymph and Burglar," the Dwarf Lord looked at Nixie, who was wandering off over to the two Dwarf Prince's. 

Kili had been sat in a sack for the majority of the night, whilst Fili had been roasting over a fire. Between them, they were now discussing an issue which Nixie could not hear; but they stopped talking as soon as the Water Nymph showed her face. "You were brilliant, Nix!" exclaimed Fili, looking at the Nymph in absolute awe, "You never said how good you are with a sword!"

"I bet she's dead wicked with a bow," huffed Kili, with a loss of words. "Probably a far better shot than me!" 

The Water Nymph chuckled slightly, wiping a bead of sweat from her brow. "I am absolutely shit with a bow, Ki," Nixie admitted, "I'll teach you some of it one day," the Nymph promised, "When we kill Smaug, perhaps." 

Fili and Kili cheered, embracing the Nymph into a tight hug. Being completely truthful, they were both now extremely fond of the girl; she was like the sister they never had. They had only known each other for three weeks at most, but, the vast majority of the Company had grown attached to the Water Nymph; they treated her like one of their own, despite her hot-headedness which they became used to. 

Nixie eventually bumbled over to Bilbo, who was perched by one of the trolls, twidling with the blade that Nixie had thrown him. "You did well Bilbo," Nixie told him, resting a hand on his shoulder gently. 

The Hobbit scoffed, "I didn't even fight," he said, "You were far greater than me, Nixie," he complimented the Water Nymph.

"You had courage, Bilbo," the Water Nymph reminded him, "That is all that matters," Nixie truthfully stated. "Not many would so be quick to try and reason with a troll," she also said, "You stalled them, none of the Dwarves would've fought of that - you are smart, Bilbo."

A young Hobbit sat up slightly straighter, a chipper attitude now adorning his face with a hesitant smile. "Do you want your knife back?" Bilbo inquired, stretching out a hand with the knife. 

The Nymph shook her head, "You keep it, Bilbo," she told him swatting his hand back down, "I believe it may come in useful one day, for you." 

The Hobbit nodded studying the blade. It was of an Elven make, even Bilbo Baggins could tell - the handle was made out of white leather embroidered with intricate light blue lilies; it was beautiful. As Bilbo admired the blade, the Dwarf Lord watched from a distance and had a slight smile playing across his lips as he watched the Nymph's act of kindness. Thorin thought Nixie to be wonderful; but, he now felt guilty for all of the harsh words he had said to the Nymph before and how cold he acted. 

He truly regretted it. 

A/N: If you wouldn't mind showing support by giving the story a vote, it'd be much appreciated x