Present Day,
Misty Mountains
"What could have possibly happened that was so horrendous?"
Anaynah did not reply but simply stared into the night. She could not tell Bofur. She would not, for she knew that if she did, everything would change.
What she did not realise, was that more than one pair of ears were listening.
Thor listened with intent, absolutely intrigued by this apparently horrendous set of events that had taken place by Anaynah's hand.
Out of the corner of her eye, Anaynah noticed a small figure moving quietly in the shadows. Snapping her head around, she noticed their burglar was packed and ready, quietly making for the entrance of the cave.
"Bilbo?"
Bofur too noticed, his expression etched with confusion. A feeling of relief washed over Anaynah as finally Bofur was distracted from their intense conversation.
"Where do you think you're going?"
"Back to Rivendell," Bilbo replied sternly.
Anaynah's brows furrowed in annoyance.
"No, no, you can't turn back now!" Bofur pleaded, quickly standing up to face Bilbo, "You're part of the company. You're one of us."
"I'm not though am I? Thorin said I never should have come, and he was right. I am not a Took, I am a Baggins, I don't know what I was thinking. I should have never ran out my door."
The way Bilbo spoke broke Anaynah's heart. She knew that he had felt out of place in this expedition but for him to turn back so far into the journey, he must have felt incredibly lonely, and Anaynah hated herself for not picking up on it sooner.
"You're homesick, I understand." Bofur tried to comfort him, however, Bilbo grew enraged.
"No, you don't! You don't understand, none of you do! You're Dwarves! You're used to this life, living on the road, never settling in one place, not belonging anywhere!"
Silence filled the air after Bilbo's harsh words as both Anaynah and Bofur were taken back by surprise at his response. Bilbo realised the gravity of what he had just said upon their hurt expressions.
"I'm sorry, I didn't mean-"
"No, you're right," Bofur spoke sadly, his face sombre, "we don't belong anywhere."
Anaynah could see the guilt on the Hobbit's face, clear as daylight. His words struck a nerve for her as well. It was true. She did not have a home, rather, nowhere truly felt home to her. She did not want to be constantly reminded either.
"I wish you all the luck in the world," Bofur spoke with kindness still in his eyes as he smiled sadly at Bilbo.
The Hobbit turned to face Anaynah, wondering if she would too say something. But she remained silent. He could tell she was disappointed in him, and that saddened him even more so. He looked up to her and admired her. From day one, she had inspired him and helped inspire the bravery in his heart, and now he was letting her down... letting them all down.
Nonetheless, Bilbo remained true to his decision and resumed to exit. He however did not get far, for a blue hue emmiting from his swords sheath caught the eyes of his companions.
"What's that?" Bofur asked, pointing to Bilbo's belt.
As he pulled its sword partway out of its sheath, there was now no doubt.
"Wake up, wake up!"
Thorin's voice echoed through the cave causing the company to stir and sit up in confusion.
Suddenly, a cacophony of strange, mechanical noises erupts from the ground, causing Anaynah to raise her head in alarm. As she looked down, the sandy ground beneath her began to crack apart, revealing an ominous darkness below. Before anyone could react, the cave floor collapsed downwards, and the entire Company went tumbling down a chute, sliding through narrow tunnels and cavernous passages. The Dwarves, Anaynah and Bilbo all screamed as they were thrown downwards, their bodies flailing as they hurtled towards an unknown fate.
As they landed, one by one, on a rickety wooden cage, the Company struggled to rise, their bones aching and their heads spinning. Anaynah grunted as she shoved Gloin off as he landed upon her ribcage, wincing and wobbling to her feet.
But before they can get their bearings, a horde of Goblins emerged, attacking them, viciously taking their weapons and pushing them forward.
Anaynah and the Company attempted to fight back, but it was no use.
She kicked and thrashed as her weapons were stripped of her, a string of curses leaving her lips enough to stun a sailor
Goblins were too numerous and too fierce, and they quickly overpowered the Dwarves, dragging them along like prisoners of war.
The tunnels and bridges through which they were led are dark and foreboding, the air thick with the stench of rot and decay. Thousands of other Goblins snarled and jeered as they passed, their beady eyes glittered with malice and greed. The Company was pushed and prodded along, their captors showing them no mercy as they march towards their unknown destination.
Finally, they arrived in a massive throne room, the walls carved from rough-hewn stone and lit by flickering torches.
The Great Goblin lounged on his throne, his grotesque form far larger and uglier than any other Goblin. His skin is a sickly shade of brown, and his eyes are yellow and bloodshot. He wheezed and coughed, his voice a harsh rasp that echoed through the cavernous chamber.
"Clap, snap, the black crack. Grip, grab, pinch, and nab.
Batter and beat. Make 'em stammer and squeak!
Pound pound, far underground. Down, down, down in Goblin Town,"
"You can yammer and yelp. But there ain't no help.
Pound pound, far underground.
Down, down, down in Goblin Town."
Finally, his despicable melody ended, Anaynah now glared daggers into their captor's nasty eyes.
"Catchy, isn't it?" The Goblin King asked them, "It's one of my own compositions."
"That's not a song, it's an abomination!" Balin yelled in disgust, causing an uproar from the Goblins around them.
"Abominations, mutations, deviations. That's all you're gonna find down here." Replied the King as he stomped his club. Anaynah almost struggled to look at his revolting appearance.
The Goblins piled the Dwarves' weapons together, and The Great Goblin leapt from his throne, leaning on a skull-topped mace for support. He surveyed the Dwarves with a cruel grin, his beady eyes glittering with malice. Anaynah was utterly terrified, her heart pounding in her chest as she awaited their fate.
"Who would be so bold as to come armed into my kingdom?" the Great Goblin spoke as he eyes the intruders, "Spies? Thieves? Assassin?"
"Dwarves, your malevolence." replied one of the Goblins, "and a woman."
"Dwarves? Women?"
"We found them on the front porch."
"Well done just stand there, search them, every crack, every crevice!"
The Goblin King's order was met with a swarm of Goblins who descended upon the company with a flurry of hands and fingers. Anaynah tried her best to shove off the creatures as they violently grabbed her, but the Goblins were relentless in their search, ignoring their complaints and manhandling them all.
"Made in Rivendell." Anaynah looked up to see the Goblin admiring a silver ornament, "Second Age. Couldn't give it away," he sneered before tossing it aside.
All eyes fell on Nori, Anaynah glaring at him at his dishonest nature.
"Just a couple of keepsakes," he said with a guilty look.
"What are you doing in these parts?" The Great Govlin demanded.
Thorin stepped forward, but a hand clasped his shoulder before he could say anything.
Oin stepped out in front of the company in his stead.
"Don't worry lads, I'll handle this."
The Goblin King glared at him.
"No tricks! I want the truth, warts and all."
"You're going to have to speak up," Oin replied, holding up a flattened hearing trumpet. "Your boys flattened my trumpet."
"I'll flatten more than your trumpet!" the Goblin King roared, stepping towards them again. The ground shook under his weight.
Anaynah quickly helped pull Oin back into the group, shielded from the king's wrath. The tension in the air was palpable as they waited to see what would happen next.
"If it's information you want, I'm the one you should speak to," Athena heard Bofur say as he spread out his arms to protect the others.
Anaynah scoffed.
Well, we're dead.
Bofur began to explain after a few seconds of trying to come up with a convincing lie in silence.
"We were on the road. Well, not so much a road as a path. Actually, it's not even that come to think of it, more like a track. Anyway, the point is we were on this road, like a path, like a track, and then we weren't. Which is a problem because we were supposed to be in Dunland last Tuesday."
"Visiting distant relations." Dori obliged and added.
"Some inbreds on my mother's side-"
Anaynah nearly got a headache just from listening to Bofur ramble on.
"What of the female? Strange for a woman to be in the midst of a group of Dwarves."
Anaynah gulped.
"Uh, well... you see... she's our cook!"
Really, Bofur? Cook?
"Oh, you should try her steak, its to-"
"Shut up!"
The company stared at at the King in shock of his reaction as he caught onto their rise.
"Well then, if they will not talk, well make them squawk," the King said with a most evil look, "Bring up the mangler! Bring up the bone-breaker! Start with the woman."
Anaynah's stomach dropped when she saw the King pointing straight at her. Before she could comprehend, she was yanked forward by the foul creatures.
"Get your hands off her!" Kili cried out as Anaynah was hauled away from his side, but no matter how many protests the Company yelled and fought, there were just outnumbered.
Anaynah's eyes locked with Thorin's as she passed him, a most terrified look in both their eyes. She shot him a quick stare, a shake of her head to warn him to not do anything stupid.
Anaynah found herself in a vulnerable position, on all fours before a towering Goblin King. She cried put in pain as she was roughly thrown to the ground. The creature's beady eyes bore into her, taunting her with his sinister chuckles.
Despite the fear that gripped her, Anaynah couldn't help but feel a seething hatred for this monster. As he locked eyes with her, she could sense the tension in the air.
"Ah, a Ranger, aren't you? Far from home," he sneered. But there was something else he detected. "Hmm, there's something else. There's an aura about you...search her again!"
Anaynah was roughly manhandled, jerked to her feet and searched once more. She didn't fight back, knowing it could blow her cover. Her plan was to set the scene ablaze, burn this mutation to a crisp and flee, regardless of whether the Company found out about her. Each of her arms was held by a Goblin as the rest rummaged through her clothing. Panic set in as they pulled back her sleeves in search of hidden weapons. But it was the markings on her arm that caught the King's attention.
"Well, well, well. What do we have here? Ropes!"
The Goblins rushed around her, approaching from behind as she struggled to turn around. They yanked her arms behind her back, causing her to grunt in discomfort.
Before she could react, a searing pain shot around her wrists, causing her to cry out in agony.
"Anaynah! Don't dare touch her!" Fili's voice sounded from behind her as the Dwarves tried to push through. from behind her as the Dwarves tried to push through, their hearts breaking at the sound of their friend in suffering.
Her wrists were bound with thick twine. She struggled to catch her breath with the burning pain. She knew what it was. These ropes were laced with Ashroot.
They knew.
"How dare you bring a beast of this magnitude to my domain?" King sneered at the Dwarves, who but merely stared back in utter confusion.
She had to think of something, and fast.
The Goblin King leant the end of his club forward to the Ranger's chin, using it to raise her head to have a better glance at her.
"Foul race, you are." The King spat as he looked down on Anaynah.
With a growl, Anaynah flashed her eyes gold, a warning to the abomination before her.
"Not fouler than you! Ishkh khaqwi ai durugnu! [I spit on your grave!]" The Ranger yelled with a sadistic smile. The Goblin King angered, swiftly removing his club from underneath her chin and swinging it across her jaw, launching her sideways to make contact with the rock floor, her mouth filling with a warm red liquid.
Anaynah's yell echoed through the cavern, the sound bouncing off the walls in a sickening chorus. The Goblins were laughing, their twisted faces contorted with glee as they tightened the ropes around her wrists as they hauled her back up. She could feel her skin burning, the Ashroot-infused fibers searing through her flesh like a hot knife through butter. The pain was indescribable, a white-hot agony that made her want to scream until she had no voice left.
The Goblins continued to yank her from side to side, pulling her hair and shoving her painfully. She gritted her teeth and tried to focus, tried to think of a way out of this nightmare. Her plans success rate was now dwindling, for Ashroot was her weakness, she would not reach the full extent of her power.
The Dwarves were shouting, their voices muffled by the sound of her own cries.
"Leave her!"
The Goblins halted upon the deep voice that sounded from behind them. Anaynah hung her head as blood leaked from her broken lip, out of breath, her cheek bruised and her vision blurred.
Thorin emerged from behind, he stepped forward close enough to Anaynahs saide. His heart broke as he saw her vulnerable figure.
"Well, well, well. Look who it is. Thorin, son of Thrain, son of Thror! King Under The Mountain." The Great Goblin taunted as he gave Thorin a mocking bow, "Oh but I am forgetting; you don't have a mountain. And you're not a king. Which makes you nobody really." Anaynah sneered at the words he spoke ,
"I know someone who would pay a pretty price for your head. Just the head, nothing attached. Perhaps you know of whom I speak. An old enemy of yours," Thorins expression darkened, Anaynah's too as she saw the fear in his eyes, "A pale Orc, astride a white Warg."
"Azog the Defiler was destroyed. He was slain in battle long ago!" Thorin protested in disbelief of what he was hearing.
"So you think his defiling days are done, do you?" The Great Goblin taunted as he giggled with a foul smile. He turned to a tiny scribe, sitting in a basket, "send word to the pale Orc. Tell him, I have found his prize, as well as a little something else to sweeten the deal." with that, the messenger zips away.
Anaynah shook her head in disbelief, they were about to be handed over to Thorn's arch enemy. She brought her head up to look at him, he himself meeting her gaze. Their eyes both seeping with trepidation.
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Sorry it's taken over two weeks for an update, making it up by posting two chapters this week :)
- I <3