Fixed the glitch, had to repost the chapter!
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"Be on your guard," Thorin called from the path leading away from Rivendell. "We're about to step over the edge of the Wild."
Thorin had decided to leave without waiting on Gandalf. Something I did not understand.
I was perched up on Alastor's back, I caught Thorin's eyes on me again when he glanced back at the Company.
He always seemed to find me in the Company, even if I wasn't even near him.
We haven't spoken since I told him one of my deepest secrets. I buried everyone in my Clan, eleven year old me.
The trauma I had suffered was enough to make someone hide for almost a hundred years. I was a coward for not fighting Smaug sooner, the shame of not journeying to the Lonely Mountain and ending his terror.
The Misty Mountains wasn't too far in the distance. Once we got to the base of the mountain range, I slid off Alastor's back. I got my bow, quiver and scimitar. "Might be best if you meet us on the other side," I said to him.
"Are you sure Milady?" he asked through our mindlink.
I nodded. "Be safe around the mountains, I do not know if the Stone Giants are fighting again or not."
Alastor waited for me to get the rest of my supplies before flying off.
"Why did you send him off?" Ori asked. "He's a good fighter."
"The Mountains is too treacherous on foot for a Dragon," I explained. "He'll meet us on the other side."
I was right about the Mountains being dangerous, especially for two feet, much less four.
The trail was narrow, barely perched on a steep cliff face. I was behind Thorin as we traveled up the trail.
"Hold on," Thorin yelled over the wind.
The wind was pounding against the cliff, daring to throw me down to the gorge below.
I slipped slightly, grabbing onto Thorin's wrist for support. He didn't turn his head but the way he tightened his grip on my hand made my heart flutter.
"Look out!" Dwalin's voice yelled over the wind.
Looking up, a massive boulder was flying through the air. Thorin turned immediately to cover me.
I was rather surprised by his actions, feeling my face heat up despite the fact I was soaked from the downpour of rain.
The mountain rumbled and shook by the impact of the boulder shattering.
More rocks shatter and splinter into smaller pieces. They tumbled down the cliff below causing more vibrations as they fell.
"This is no thunderstorm, this a thunderbattle!" Balin yelled over the wind.
"Giants," I yelled. The wind whipped in my ears, the rain becoming a fierce hail of arrows.
"The legends are true," Bofur added.
We braced as more rocks tumble down the mountain, turns out was standing on one Giants knees. We was split, all of us trying to hang on to the mountain and each other.
Thorin jumped to another section of the trail on the path. "Come on," he yelled at our half of the Company.
I followed him, leaping to safety.
The others follow suit, landing easily on the safer place of the path.
The other half of the Company isn't so lucky, the Giant they was standing on slipped from a hit by a boulder. It fell down the chasm, seeming as if they was crushed.
"No!" Thorin's screaming echoed across the mountain range. "Kili," he screamed for his youngest nephew.
We followed him, rushing to the spot where the other half of the Company had been crushed, I braced for bodies but they was safe.
"They're alive," Balin called to the other Dwarves.
Bofur’s voice got our attention. "Where's Bilbo?" He called. "Where's the Hobbit?"
We searched all around us not finding any sign of the Halfling.
"There!" Ori pointed to the edge of the cliff.
Sure enough, Bilbo was hanging off the edge by his fingertips. The other Dwarves reached for the Hobbit but is unsuccessful in pulling him to safety.
Thorin swings down on the cliff next to him, he was able to boost him to safety, but he slips.
"Thorin," I yell reaching for him. He takes my hand and Dwalin's, who was right beside me.
He climbed back over the edge hardly saying a word to me.
"I thought we had lost our burglar," Dwalin said when everyone was accounted for.
Thorin let out a gruff. "He's been lost ever since he left home. He has no place amongst us."
The new path from the Giants fighting had made an entrance to a cave. We followed Thorin inside. It was fairly spacious.
"Looks safe enough," Dwalin said.
I spoke up. "Caves in the mountains is seldom unoccupied."
"Ira's right," Thorin added. "Search to the back."
Dwalin nodded and walked to the back of the cave. "There's nothing here."
I sat down my pack and my weapons, I had forgotten how difficult it is to travel without Alastor for so long.
"Are you alright Alastor?" I send through our mindlink.
"Yes Milady, the storm had forced me to find shelter, waiting for you on the other side like you asked," his voice came through. He sounded sleepy as if I had awoken him.
I sighed feeling the separation anxiety building up, but I kept it to myself. Even then I couldn't sleep.
I tossed and turned trying to get comfortable.
Alastor was my safety net. His senses kept me safe, he was much more then a simple beast. He was my friend, my confidant.
I looked for Thorin, when he was near I was calm. He was on the other side of the cave, his back turned to me, seeming to be asleep.
Getting up, I made my way over to him. I didn't bother saying anything, my back was turned to his. I didn't want him to see the fear and the anxiety I held within.
His hand went to mine, his fingers caressed my knuckles. "Separation anxiety from your dragon?"
"How did you know?" I asked keeping my voice in a whisper.
"My sister was the same way after Moria, Fili and Kili was mere children when their father was killed, she had to raise them on her own afterwards," he replied.
"Alastor is all I have, after Smaug we depended on each other. It's all we could do to survive. I was an eleven year old getting chased off by people in towns only because I was a Tamer."
I felt the tears forming. "Called me a Dragon's Whore and other sorts of names. Since we're over the Wild Edge, more people will be distrusting of my people."
I turned over to face him seeing his blue eyes grow softer the longer he looked at me.
His hand reached up to wipe away the salty tear on my cheek.
"I will not allow anyone to disrespect a strong woman such as yourself," he said.
I placed my hand against his bicep, my heart was pounding in chest at our closeness.
"There is one race that hates the Clan, the Shifters," I explained "Our bitter rivalry had been bloody at one point in time."
"Why?"
I sighed. "Remember when I said in Bag End we was accused of letting a Lost Tamed free? That was the war I was speaking of. They had killed a dragon's Tamer which caused that dragon to go feral. We didn't know of the tortured creature till they had invaded our lands. Once the Tamers had found the dragon, it was too late to save him from the grief of loosing his Tamer."
"They had to kill him?" he asked.
I nodded. "Yes, I was a child when it had happened, my grandfather explained that it was done out of safety for the Clan and the rest of Middle Earth. Most usually go off and die of their grief in mere hours but sometimes it affects a dragon or a Tamer differently, sends them into a rage. After the war a bitter armistice was forged when their chief was killed. The Shifters blame the Tamers and the Tamers blame the Shifters for the war."
Footsteps caused us to fall quiet, I raised up slightly seeing a small shadow walking near the entrance of the cave.
Bilbo was up and leaving?
“Where do you think you’re going?" Bofur asked him.
"Back to Rivendell," Bilbo answered.
"No, your part of the Company. You're one of us." Bofur sounded like he was trying to stop him.
"I’m not though, am I? Thorin said I should never have come, and he was right. I’m not a Took, I’m a Baggins, I don’t know what I was thinking. I should never have run out my door. Ira's much more of an explorer then me."
"No. You can't turn back, you're part of the Company. You're one of us."
"I'm not though am I?" Bilbo sounded disappointed. "Thorin said I shouldn't have come and he was right. I don't know what I was thinking, I should never have ran out my door. Ira is more of an adventurer then I'll ever be."
"Your homesick, I understand."
"No you don't!" Bilbo snapped. "You don't understand. You're used to this life, living on the road. All of you are! Never settling in one place! Not belonging anywhere!"
I have to admit that did make me feel a bit offended when he said that, looking at Thorin who was listening, I can tell it stung a bit. He was still hard to read on his body language but he seemed to regret what he said earlier.
I didn't know what was said between Bofur and Bilbo because I heard strange machinery. Cracks was in the floor of the cave, Thorin seen it too.
"Wake up! Wake up!" Thorin yelled at the Company.
Before we could react, the floor collapsed underneath us. A tunnel was carved into the rock itself untill we landed in a wooden cage.
Groans of multiple Dwarves filled my ears.
"Ira," I heard Thorin's voice called to me.
The feeling of weight even more on me made my bones feel like they was breaking as Bombur landed on top of us.
Goblins shrieking made my head snap up.
It was one of their traps.
They attack us, stripping us of our weapons. I'm groped all over they was looking for weapons and the fact that I am a woman. I kick one in the face who got a bit handsy underneath my skirt.
"Get your hands of me Kriel Gaie!" Disgusting pig!
They drag us away, kicking and yelling at us in chains. Bats fly in the darkness as we're being forced to walk through a vast network of tunnels and bridges.
The sound of a deep voice singing the utmost stupid song made me try to ignore it -then I see him. The Goblin King. He's massive with warts all over his swinging chin and fat body. A hideous one at that.
After he's done singing the song, he notices our weapons that was piled together. He jumps off his throne, swinging his staff topped with a skull, he also tramples several goblins underneath his feet.
"Who would be so bold to come armed into my kingdom. Spies? Thieves? Assassins?"
"Dwarves and this girl, Your Malevolence," the goblin said grabbing me by my wrist and forcing me in front of the king.
I'm thrown to the floor but I find my footing and stand up.
The king sees my style of clothing and grins. "Ah, a Dragon Tamer is in our company."
The goblins that surrounded the room laughed, it echoed off the rock walls. They shouted insults at me.
"Pretty girl, get your dragon little girl," I heard from some that was behind me.
"Hurei leen!" I shouted at them. Shut up!
"Watch your mouth with me filth, you are speaking to the Great Granddaughter of Chief Iron Breath the Great and the Granddaughter of Chief Astros. You will show me the proper respect," I screamed at them.
A yelp escapes me as he grabs the chains that hold my wrists together. I feel myself being lifted to face him, my arms over my head as I dangled from the chains at his mercy.
"I remember your Great Grandfather, mangled my eye and almost killed me," The Great Goblin growled. "He may be dead but you will be more then enough to get my revenge. I made a vow that his bloodline will end! Put her on the rack!"
Thorin's voice echoed around me. "Wait!" He yelled. "Let her go!"
"Well, well, well, look who it is. Thorin, son of Thrain, son of Thror; King Under the Mountain." He bowed as a joke. "I'm forgetting you don't have a mountain. I know someone who would pay a pretty price for your head. Just the head, nothing attached." He chuckled. "Perhaps you know of whom I speak, an old enemy of yours. A Pale Orc, astride a White Warg."
"Thorin?" I asked seeing his face shadowed of shock and anguish. "I...thought..."
He seemed to not hear me. "Azog was destroyed! He was slain in battle long ago!"
"You think his defiling days are done, do you?"
The Great Goblin turned to a tiny goblin. I saw that he was a crippled goblin sitting in a basket and he was holding a slate.
He must have been a messenger.
"Send word to the Pale Orc, tell him I have found his prize."
The tiny goblin wrote the message down and then pulled a lever and cascaded into darkness down a rope.
The Great Goblin laughed as he had me still dangling from his massive hand.
Blisters was starting to appear on my wrists. Spirits! The pain of the raw skin was enough for tears to form.
"I would have fulfilled my promise many years ago," The Great Goblin howled with laughter. "Iron Breath's legacy will be lost to the ages, the coward attacked me from behind with his Earthdrake!"
The sound of a sword getting thrown down made me look towards one of the Goblins running away from Thorin's sword -Orcrist.
The weight on my wrists relaxed.
My captor had dropped me in fear of Orcrist. He was currently retreating to his throne. I didn't have a second to scream or even attempt to save myself.
Two muscular arms cushioned my fall, I still landed on the wooden platform but I wasn't hurt.
I looked up seeing Thorin holding me. His arms around my body, bluish grey eyes scanned every inch looking for an injury, but he had found none.
He had rushed forward to catch me.
My heart skipped a beat, unsure how to react.
"I'm not hurt," I said softly.
He didn't reply but I could read his expression. It was different, it wasn't like in Rivendell. No. This was as if he had been afraid of loosing me.
The Great Goblin interrupted our brief exchange. "I know that sword!" He shrieked from his throne. "It is the Goblin-Cleaver, the Biter. The blade that sliced a thousand necks! Slash them!"
Thorin turned to cover me the best he could to block me from getting whipped but one did manage to get to my cheek.
My heart thundered in my chest, my temples hurt from the pain.
"Cut off their heads!" The Goblin King roared.
The Goblins separate us, our hands reached for the other, we was barely out of the other's reach.
"Thorin!" I screamed.
"Ira," He yelled back. "Get off her!" He yelled at the Goblins.
They wrestled him to the ground trying to take off his head.
I fought the Goblins, kicking trying to rescue Thorin. They jumped on my back forcing me to the ground. I crawl on my stomach reaching for him each time as he does the same for me.
The Goblins had the numbers, we was in their territory.
A shockwave of bright light causes the goblins to be knocked off me and the rest of the Company.
Our hands still locked together as it passes.
The chains around my wrists broke from the shockwave along with the Goblin's torture devices.
The torchlights flickered, they dimmed for a split second, threatening to cast all of us into darkness.
Gandalf came out of the darkness holding his sword and staff.
Thorin got to me first, he helped me to my feet. "Are you alright?" he asked me. It was a mere whisper, as if he didn't want the Company to hear.
"I will be," I reply.
Gandalf's voice echoed in the cave. "Take up arms! Fight! Fight!"
We started fighting the Goblins with fists and kicks until some of the Dwarves reached the weapon pile.
"Ira!" Fili yelled at me tossing my weapons.
I turned gracefully to notched an arrow seeing a Goblin sneaking up behind Thorin. It flew over Thorin's shoulder landing in the Goblin's forehead.
I didn't have time to look at his expression, I noticed more Goblins swinging on the ropes above us.
"Kili!" I yelled to the Dwarf Archer. "Aim for the ropes!"
We both manage to take out the majority of the Goblins swinging on the ropes.
Eventually we follow Gandalf through the winding tunnels trying to escape the Goblins.
I eventually switched from my bow to my grandfather's sword.
"Cut the ropes!" Thorin yelled back to us.
We continue to run down the maze of paths , hopefully there is a way out of this underground hellhole.