Suddenly there was a knock on the door.
Strange, everyone seemed to already be here. "Kili, open the door. Quickly" Gandalf urged. He looked tense. I opened the door and peered outside. Standing there was a great black wolf.
Little smaller than a...
"All answers will come, but not always when you expect them."
Kili.
I did not care to remember last night. Never had I seen my uncle that mad. But honestly, it was just a joke. He had reason to be upset, I suppose, but no reason to be that mad.
It was not just Thorin, but the wolf as well. At first it looked like Illdera was also enjoying the joke, but then she got all serious and asked me if I really thought it was funny. What was that all about? She must have a good reason to behave that way.
It was raining terribly as we rode on the next day. Gandalf lead, followed by Thorin, then Bilbo, then me. Fili rode at the back with Dwalin. The rain had soaked my clothes throughly. Illdera trotted beside Gandalf as she always did.
"Here, mister Gandalf. Can't you do something about this deluge?" Dori asked.
Gandalf looked at him and anwered. "It is raining, master dwarf. And it will continue to rain untill the rain is done. If you wish to change the weather of the world you should find yourself another wizard."
Dori sighed deeply.
Bilbo looked curiosly at Gandalf and asked, "Are there any?"
"What?" Gandalf asked.
"Other wizards."
Gandalf glanced at the wolf at his side. In that one instant, she seemed to nod, but her eyes wore a pained look.
"There were five of us. The greatest of our order is Saruman, the White. There always were two blue wizards, but one," He trailed off and looked back at Illdera.
I also looked at her and to my shock, I saw that her eyes were glittering with tears. But she straightened and kept on walking as if nothing had happened.
"And who is the fifth?" Bilbo asked.
"That would be Radagast, the brown," Gandalf answered.
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"Is he a great wizard or, is he more like you?"
Illdera snickered. "I think he's a very great wizard," She said still smiling. "In his own way."
"He's a gentle soul, who prefers the company of animals to others," Gandalf explained. "He keeps a watchful eye over the vast forest lands to the East, and a good thing too, for always Evil will look to find a foothold in this world."
The rest of the journey was quiet, so I decided to speak to Illdera about that other blue wizard.
"Illdera!" I called.
She looked back at me, stopped and waited for me to catch up with her.
"What is it Kili?" She asked me when I caught up with her.
"Who was the other blue wizard?"
She looked at me with her bluest, blue eyes. "Mellera, was my mother," She said simply.
"Doesn't that make Gandalf your-"
"Uncle? Yes, I believe that's about right."
"Then shouldn't you be a-"
"Human? Yes Kili. Now stop asking questions. You will learn soon enough," she said, a faint smile on her lips.
All the way I could not keep my mind off that wolf. No wonder she acted so odd the first time we met. I realised now that there was something almost human about her. It still made no sense whatsoever.
Finally we came to a hill. Standing there at the foot of the hill, was the ruins of a little cottage.
"We camp here for the night," Thorin said as we reached the ruin.
Gandalf, with Illdera at his side, went and looked at the cottage. I had no time to ask my questions.
"Fili, Kili, look after the ponies. Make sure you stay with them," Thorin commanded. "Oin, Gloin, get a fire going."
"Aye," Gloin said, acknowledging Thorin.
Fili and I moved into the trees with the ponies. I looked back once and caught Illdera's eye. If a wolf could blush, I'm sure she would have. There was no sign of the tears she had almost shead earlier.
Fili and I ended up taking turns to check on the ponies. We made ourselves a place where we could sit, a little ways off from the ponies. When it was my turn to check on the ponies, I stood up, walked to the them and started counting. Then I discovered something. We were 2 ponies short.
"Ah, Fili, we have a tiny problem," I said to him.
He frowned and stood beside me. We were still staring at the ponies when I heard footsteps. Paws and Hobbit feet. Bilbo and Illdera came walking towards us. Bilbo offered us the bowls of food, saw that we didn't respond and asked.
"What's the matter?" He asked.
"We're supposed to be looking after the ponies," I quickly answered.
"Only we've encountered a slight problem," Fili said
"We had sixteen," I continued.
"Now there's fourteen," Filli finished.
We went through the ponis to see exactly witch were missing.
"Daisy and Bungel are missing," I reported to Bilbo and Illdera.
Fili was standing next to a huge tree that had fallen down.
"Well, that's not good," Bilbo said and laughed nervously. "That is not good at all!"
Illdera gave him a 'duh' look and rolled her eyes.
"Shouldn't we tell Thorin?" Bilbo asked.
"Ah, no, let's not worry him," Fili said.
Truth was, we just didn't want to get in trouble for losing the ponies.
"As our oficial burglar, we thought you might like to look into it."
Bilbo looked taken aback by that, but soon recovered. "Well," He began "Looks as if something big uprooted these trees."
"That was our thinking," I said.
"Something very big and possibly quite dangerous," Bilbo continued.
I looked around me. Illdera was gone. Great, another thing to worry about!
"Hey," Fili called. He looked farther into the woods. "There's a light. Over here."
My brother waved me over and I followed as he lead me towards the light. Bilbo followed.
"Stay down," Fili urged.
There, from inside the trees came an ugly laugh. Of course it would be.
"What is it?" Bilbo asked quietly.
I steeled myself, I was ready to fight. "Trolls," I aswered Bilbo's question.
Fili and I leapt over the tree and Bilbo followed, pausing and going back for the stew he brought us earlier.
