The sky. The Dwarves. The fire. The trolls. That was all Athena could see, over and over again as the spit moved in a circular motion over the flames, the ropes constricting her movements while she was trapped with the other Dwarves the trolls were trying to cook, a pile of them resting in sacks to the side as they waited for their turn. She didn't have it in her to cry out in anger like the others did, instead just shifting uncomfortably at the boot wedged into her lower back.
"Don't bother cooking 'em! Let's just sit on 'em and squash 'em into jelly!" One of the trolls suggested, Athena's eyes widening in panic at the thought of them dying so suddenly, at least this way they had a chance of finding a way out before they were cooked to death.
"They should be sauteed and grilled with a sprinkle of sage," another rejected the previous one's ideas with his own, the other changing its mind and figuring that it would be nice.
"Never mind the seasoning, we ain't got all night! Dawn ain't fair away, let's get a move on! I don't fancy being turned to stone," the troll stated as he helped turn the spit, one moment she was warm and the next moment the chill of the night air bit at her skin. And so the cycle continued.
At the revelation that they'd be turned to stone should the sun rise Athena looked over at Bilbo with desperation and mouthed 'do something' in his direction before being turned from him once more, her eyes now forced to stare at the dark clouds which hung over them.
"Wait!" Bilbo cried out to stop their movements, the trolls looking over at the Hobbit that spoke up, "you are making a terrible mistake."
"You can't reason with them, they're half-wits!" Dori yelled to Bilbo as the spit began to move once more.
"Half-wits? What does that make us?" Was Bofur's retort, and he did have a valid point.
"I meant with the uh, with the seasoning," Bilbo clarified what he meant earlier as he hopped towards their position from within his sack.
"What about the seasoning?" One of the trolls asked as they bent down to look more closely at the Hobbit.
"Well, have you smelt them? You're gonna need something stronger than sage before you plate this lot up!" He exclaimed much to the dismay of the Dwarves beside him which began to protest and kick at him.
"What do you know about cooking Dwarf?"
"Shut up and let the flurgerburber-hobbit talk."
"What on earth is a flurgerburber?" Athena asked herself as she passed the fire that was slowly roasting them.
"The secret to cooking Dwarf is um," Bilbo paused as he attempted to think of what to say next, the trolls urging for him to continue while he continued to search his head for anything he could use.
"Tell us the secret!"
"Yes I'm telling you. The secret is... to... skin them first!" Initially he was proud at his outburst before the shouts and yells of the Dwarves and woman entered his ears, only now realising what had actually come out of his mouth. It seemed that everybody was now sending threats the Hobbit's way and Athena was no passerby in the threats, telling him that she'll skin him herself.
"Tom, get me the filleting knife," one of the trolls ordered, Athena now knowing that trolls actually had relatively normal names.
"What a load of rubbish I've eaten plenty with their skins on. Scoff 'em I say, boots and all!" a different troll retaliated, a sigh of relief leaving her as being eaten whole sounded a lot less painful than the alternative of being skinned alive.
"He's right. Nothing wrong with a bit o' raw Dwarf," Tom added on, picking up Bombur from his position with the other sacked Dwarves, "nice and crunchy."
"Uh, not... not that one, he's infected!" Bilbo blurted out when the largest of the company was about to be eaten then and there.
"You what?" The troll at the spit asked, the same one who said the exact same expression when they first met.
"He's got worms in his... tubes," thankfully his lie did the trick and Tom threw Bombur back to the pile in disgust, him crushing the others in the process due to the force of the throw and his hefty weight, "in fact they all have. They're infested with parasites, it's a terrible business. I wouldn't risk it, I really wouldn't."
"Parasites? Did he say parasites?" Óin asked in offence from the sack pile.
"Yeah, we don't have parasites!" Kili shouted, Athena letting out an exaggerated sigh at none of the Dwarves appearing to get the rather obvious hint. Bilbo was not trying to insult them, he was trying to save them. "You have parasites!"
She didn't see what happened next but figured that Thorin, who was the only Dwarf with common sense at the moment, had done or said something for them to have a change of heart seeing as they began yelling about how they were infested with parasites. It was almost a competition between them all about who had the most inside of them.
"So many parasites, honestly," Athena informed the trolls as the Dwarves on the spit began to yell about how they were also riddled with the creatures.
She threw her head back once the troll realised that Bilbo was taking them for fools, the spit moving faster while he returned to his station. It seemed that they would not be able to get out of this disaster with words alone.
"The dawn will take you all!" A booming voice called out over where they all were, a smile appearing on her face once she recognised who the voice belonged to. There was no mistaking the commanding and wise tone that was used.
"Who's that?"
"No idea."
"Can we eat him too?"
Those were the last words the trolls spoke before Gandalf struck his staff against the rock he was stood upon, it breaking in half and releasing the light it was previously blocking. As soon as the rays of the day's sun reached the trolls they began to harden, movements becoming slower as they tried to escape the one thing that could render them immobile and kill them. Their skin sizzled red before being coated in grey. Once mountain trolls were now only statues resembling their former selves.
Cheering encompassed the clearing as the company looked between one another and at Gandalf, realising that they had been saved and would not be troll fodder on this day.
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After she had been released she moved to help the others out of their binds, helping Bofur lower Bifer from the spit he once occupied.
"You aren't burned are you?" Fili asked her as he inspected her for any damage, her shaking her head. She didn't protest while he lifted up her arms and checked her for any red marks, it's a blessing that the trolls didn't have the time to completely roast them.
"Are you done yet?" She asked him as he circled around her before he halted at her side and lowered the arm he was holding in the air, nodding at her with a satisfied smile that she wasn't injured before moving on to check on his brother.
She spotted Gandalf and Thorin a little ways from the rest of the group, lost in conversation and decided to approach them, making her way around one of the stone trolls.
"They must have come down from the Ettenmoors," Gandalf observed, a quizzical look on his face as she found her spot beside Thorin.
"Since when do mountain trolls venture this far south?" Thorin questioned with their eyes gazing upon the statues before them.
"Oh not for an age. Not since a darker power ruled these lands."
"You think there may be something more sinister at play here?" Athena asked him, a look of concern permeating across her otherwise delicate features.
"I do not just think, I fear," he responded as he held onto his staff with both his hands, the three of them sharing similar looks of confusion as well as worry. "They could not have moved in daylight."
"There must be a cave nearby," suggested Thorin before he took off in search of the cave, Athena on his heels as she followed after the King under the Mountain.
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It wasn't hard to find the cave. The stench from the hole was more than enough to lead them to their previous dwellings, accompanied with the constant buzzing of flies that had made their home there with the trolls.
"What's that stench?!" Bofur asked in disgust as the company made their way into the cave, Athena's hand covering her mouth which did little to block out the dreadful smell that entered her nostrils with each step that she took into the damp hole.
"It's a troll hoard. Be careful what you touch." Gandalf informed them all as they ventured further inside, a chorus of coughing and gagging following.
"Seems a shame just to leave it lying around. Anyone could take it," Bofur commented as he used his foot to shift around a pile of coins.
"Agreed. Nori, get a shovel," Glóin instructed. The greed of Dwarves never failed to amaze her, but even she had to admit that she was tempted to ransack the place and leave nothing behind.
However, it was not the gold that had intrigued her, instead it was the collection of swords hidden away in the darkness. "Elven," she murmured to herself while she brushed a cobweb from the hilt of one of the swords, pulling it out of the container in which it was placed.
Evidently she wasn't the only one interested in the weapons, Thorin approached her and examined the swords himself. She could already see his reaction when he was to find out that they were Elven. A part of her understood his hatred for the Elves, alliances had been broken the day that the Elves abandoned them as their home burned to the ground and a dragon took residence in their halls. She did not understand why the Elves had forsaken them that day, nor did she care for their reasoning of letting thousands of innocent people burn. Though she knew that it was not all Elves that had left them, only those that resided in Mirkwood were to blame. A part of her wondered if the ongoing feud between Dwarves and Elves had anything to do with how similar they were when it came to their pride and stubbornness.
"You could not wish for a finer blade," Gandalf warned, Athena catching the last of their conversation while she watched Thorin reluctantly keep the sword he was about to carelessly discard.
She herself decided to exchange her current Dwarven sword for that of the Elves, it wasn't that she didn't like the Dwarves' creations but their bulky weapons and armour did not fit her as well as the Elves' light yet sturdy craftsmanship.
She raised an eyebrow as she passed Bofur, Glóin, and Nori shoving a chest of gold into a makeshift hole in the ground, chuckling to herself at their behaviour while she exited the cave followed by Thorin who called for the others to follow.
To say that she was grateful for the fresh air would be an understatement. The dankness of the cave was not something that she wished to experience anytime soon, and it was refreshing for her nose to not feel so attacked as it did when searching the hoard.
She made her way to where Kili and Bifur stood, comparing treasures that they had found in the cave. "What did you get?" Kili asked her curiously.
"A sword. Made by the High Elves in Gondolin," she informed him as she unsheathed her blade, handing it for him to inspect. His awed expression was enough for her to know that he found the blade remarkable — as were most of the objects that the Elves made.
"It's a good sword," he told her as he swung it once, both Athena and Bifur moving out of the way out of fear that he would slice them with the blade.
"What about you guys?" She asked as she took the sword back from the Dwarf, placing it safely in it's holder where it wouldn't be able to cause damage to anyone around them.
Bifur began to show them both what he had found, but due to the axe in his head playing with his speech she was unable to understand the Khudzul he was saying while he handed Kili a skull and her a golden goblet. For a while she pretended to act interested in his new possessions until her attention was captured by Gandalf handing Bilbo an Elven dagger just a few feet from them.
"I have... I have never used a sword in my life," Bilbo whispered as he held the sheathed blade in both of his hands.
"And I hope you never have to. But if you do, remember this. True courage is about knowing not when to take a life, but when to spare one," Gandalf responded, once again reminding Athena that he was not merely an old man that donned a grey cloak.
She looked down at the goblet in her hands before handing it back to Bifur with a polite smile on her face, even if she couldn't understand what he was saying he looked happy and that warmed her heart more than anything.
"Something's coming!" Thorin exclaimed, the birds flying from the trees and away from whatever approached.
The company all whirled their heads around at the distant sound, Kili instinctively moving closer to Athena as they pulled their weapons out. If they weren't in a potentially dire situation she would have been warmed by his actions. Her legs took her where the Dwarves went, running amongst the small horde to face whatever came at them head on.
The Dwarves stood in a semi-circle looking out at the trees. The first thing that Athena saw was rabbits hurtling out of the foliage, flinching a little at the yelling that accompanied the person the rabbits seemed to be carrying with them. "Thieves! Fire! Murder!"
"Radagast. It's Radagast the Brown!" Gandalf informed the company as they all stared at the wizard that had found them.