An Unexpected Journey

Chapter Twelve: Thalia the Evil Witch

Thalia chuckled under her breath watching the trolls hurry around her trying to keep her happy, she knew that she was pushing her luck but she was doing her best at keeping the trolls distracted at the approaching dawn.

“No, no, no… don’t do that they’ll never cook properly,” Thalia croaked, she waved her hand making the trolls look at her frightened; she stifled another laugh since they quickly hurried to change what they had been doing.

Thalia peeked at the dwarves relieved that they had stopped shouting threats at her, when the dawn came that she would have to explain what she had done to them later but right now all that mattered was everyone was alive.

Thalia glanced at the sky knowing that dawn couldn’t be more than an hour away, she truly hoped that until then she would be able to keep the trolls occupied.

“Is this okay?” Bert the troll asked as he quickly changed how he was cooking several of the dwarves; he looked at the evil witch hoping that this would appease her, if she could turn the burglar-hobbit into a rabbit that he worried what she could do to him.

Thalia thought for a moment before huffing, she muttered under her breath trying to sound angry; she watched as Bert looked at the other two as if wondering what they should do to make her happy.

Thalia smiled to herself as she spotted the rabbit Bilbo return, she sighed quietly in relief as she saw the start of the yawn coming from behind two rocks; she knew that soon everything was going to be alright.

“No, how can your ruin dwarf?” Thalia snapped turning back to the trolls, she swallowed she had to just distract them for a moment longer; she could sense an ancient magic moving around and she knew who it was.

“The Dawn Will Take All Of You!” boom a voice making Thalia almost sigh in relief, she turned quickly to see Gandalf standing on top of a boulder; she watched as he brought down his staff and cracked the boulder making it fall into two pieces.

Sunlight streamed through the gap blinding Thalia for a moment before she heard the trolls yelp and squeal in pain; then there was silence as they started to turn into stone.

Thalia smiled, she hadn’t been expecting help that quick and she was certainly relieved to see the wizard for once though she doubted that it would last.

The dwarves quickly set about freeing themselves while Thalia curiously checked out the now stone statues that had been the trolls; she’d never faced anything like them back in her world and she knew that she was going to have to quickly learn that this wasn’t her world.

Thalia stilled as she felt a sword press into her back before she turn and came face to face with Fíli, who looked prepared to kill her right there and then.

“I wouldn’t do that if I were you,” Gandalf called knowing who the evil witch really was, he chuckled amused that Thalia had managed to pull such a stunt without being caught out; he watched as a couple of the dwarves looked at him angrily.

“You can’t be serious… she turned Bilbo into a rabbit,” Kíli said furiously making Thalia roll her eyes while Gandalf chuckled amused as he rested a hand on the young dwarf’s shoulder; he was surprised how well the two princes had to the hobbit.

“But that was all a plan wasn’t it Thalia?” Gandalf said making the blonde laugh and nod her head, she pulled down the hood to reveal her face; she grinned as she saw the stunned looks that the dwarves gave her.

Thorin frowned as he looked at Thalia, he remembered telling her to stay away and now she had gone and down this; she could have gotten herself killed by getting involved.

Fíli lowered his sword as Thalia removed the cloak and handed it back to Dwalin before she turned her attention to Bilbo, who was still stuck in animal form; she did feel a little guilty about turning him into a rabbit.

“Undo the magic acted here, reverse the spell so all is clear,” Thalia said reversing the spell that she had casted hours before allowing Bilbo to return to hobbit form; he sighed relief as a couple of the dwarves moved to see if he was alright.

Thalia smiled as she crossed her arms, she had a feeling that she was going to have to explain that one later on but right now she didn’t mind.

“You know we didn’t mean what we said earlier,” Kíli said sheepishly approaching Thalia, he felt sort of guilty now that he knew that the evil witch was in fact her; he hadn’t suspected her at all and he had said some pretty harsh things when she’d turned Bilbo into a rabbit.

Thalia gave him a reassuring look before Kíli headed off to stand with his brother, she knew that they were all still warming to the idea of traveling together and she had only known them all for about a week now.

“I thought I told you to stay put,” Thorin said moving to stand next to Thalia, she sighed as she looked at him wondering what his problem was; if it wasn’t for her then most of the company would have been killed.

Thalia looked at the dwarven king knowing that he was going to be hard to please than the rest of the company; the blonde watched him for a moment wondering what he wanted her to say.

“You wanted me to leave you all to die?” Thalia asked making Thorin open his mouth to argue before his attention was pulled from the witch.

Thorin huffed as Gandalf moved closer to them, he didn’t know why the wizard had come back after his storm out earlier.

Thalia walked away from the two men, she had no interest in listening to Gandalf’s theories nor Thorin’s angry responses; she ran a hand through her hair wondering if she was really prepared for what this mission would do to her.

“Thalia?” Balin called making her look at him, she forced a smile to her face knowing that she needed to think; she took a deep breath as he explained that they were going to look for any sign of a cave that the trolls could be using for safety during the day.

“I’ll catch up… there’s something that I need to do,” Thalia said making a couple of the dwarves look at her, she quickly turned on her heel before she walked away without looking back; she knew that she was being silly but there was something that she wanted to test out.

Thalia walked towards the stream that she knew wasn’t far away, she needed to see if it still worked; she glanced behind her making sure that she wasn’t being followed before she disappeared.

Thorin watched her go then he looked at Gandalf, the wizard shrugged at the look that the dwarf king gave him; he didn’t know what it was about Thalia but he was sure that they would find soon.

“Come… she’ll catch up before we leave,” Gandalf said as he followed after the other dwarves, he glanced over to the way that Thalia had disappeared knowing that she was heading towards the nearby stream; he wasn’t sure why Thalia wanted to go there but he had a feeling that it was something to do with her powers.

Thorin frowned annoyed at how little the wizard seemed to care that Thalia had wandered off on her own, she didn’t have any weapons and he didn’t like the idea of her being unprepared for anything that might attack her; orc or not.

Thorin ordered the others to look for a cave, he just hoped Thalia knew what she was doing.