𝐖𝐎𝐍𝐃𝐄𝐑𝐋𝐀𝐍𝐃 | 𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐇𝐨𝐛𝐛𝐢𝐭 𝐱 𝐑𝐞𝐚𝐝𝐞𝐫

Chapter Four: Stone Giants

"Lady Y/n, it's time to get up." Someone whispered, shaking Y/n awake. Her eyes fluttered open, revealing Kili and Balin standing over her.

"What time is it?" Y/n mumbled, not wanting to leave her warm and comfortable bed.

"It is almost five in the morning. Thorin wants us to make for the Lonely Mountain." Kili said, handing Y/n her pre-packed bag as she rubbed her blurry eyes. She was still in the same clothes as the prior night because when she got into her room, she crashed onto the bed and fell asleep almost instantaneously.

"Here," Balin said, handing Y/n a long, sheathed object. "You'll need this."

When Y/n's blurry eyes finally focused, she saw that she was holding a short sword that was sheathed in black leather. She pulled the sword out of its confines, revealing a glimmering silver blade that had elvish runes running down the centre of the fuller and had a crescent-shaped hilt.

"Its name is Sting. It was Bilbo's but he thought you would make better use of it." Kili said, taking a seat next to Y/n on the bed. "And it is Elvish, so it glows blue in the presence of orcs or goblins."

"This is a beautiful sword," Y/n said, sliding it back into the sheath. "But I do not know how to use it."

"No need to worry, I think Kili here would be more than happy to teach you," Balin said with a smile, ignoring the look Kili shot him.

"Yeah, I'd be happy to teach you," Kili said, rubbing the back of his neck.

"Great!" Y/n said, placing the sword beside her bed. "I'll get ready now, then." She said and pulled herself out of the warm comfort of her bedsheets.

"We'll wait outside for you to get dressed and ready," Balin said, making for the door, only to notice that Kili was still sitting on Y/n's bed, oblivious to everything with a smile on his face.

"Save me from the stubbornness of youth," Balin muttered and grabbed Kili by the arm and hauled the youngest Durin from Y/n's bedroom.

"Okay, I'll be out in a minute." Y/n yawned, just as the door closed. Little did she know that it would be one of the last times in a long while that she got to sleep in such a comfortable bed.

---

Many paths led up into those mountains and had many passes over them. But most of the paths were cheats and deceptions and led nowhere or to bad ends, and most of the passes were infested by evil things and dreadful dangers. Y/n, the dwarves and the hobbit had snuck out of Rivendell near dawn, leaving the homely house behind.

But Gandalf wasn't with them and this made Y/n feel uneasy. When she had asked why they were leaving without him, Kili explained that Thorin wanted to leave before the White Council tried to put a stop to their quest. Even Bilbo felt apprehensive about leaving without Gandalf, though he didn't voice his concern to Thorin in fear of angering him.

Hours after they had climbed out of the valley and left the Last Homely House miles behind, they were still going up and up and up. It was a hard path and a dangerous path - it was crooked and stretched uphill for miles.

A veil of darkness began to settle on the lands, and the company came to a brief stop as Thorin explained the path they were going to take the next day, pointing at the land that laid out far below them.

Bilbo explained to Y/n that far, far away in the West, where the sun was beginning to set and cast an orange glow into the sky, lay his own safe and comfortable country, and his little hobbit-hole.

"I miss my home, my books and my comfortable armchair," Bilbo said, staring longingly at the rolling lands to the West. "Though I suppose you miss your home too. I guess we are very similar that way." The Hobbit said, looking up at Y/n.