The Last of the Guardians Part 1 - A Hobbit Fan Fiction

Chapter 8

***Thanks to everyone who has kept up with the story so far! Sorry it's taken me so long to update it but I'm going to try and make a real effort to get it out. Don't forget to comment and tell me what you think! I'd love to hear your views!***

In an dark cave close to the trolls camp, they found hoards of gold and jewels. The floor was littered with skeletons and crushed skulls and the whole place stank to high heaven. The dwarves busied themselves with burying the treasure so that, should they be lucky enough to return, they might retrieve them and add to their wealth.  

Gandalf moved to the back of the cave and examined the beautifully handcrafted pots and jars that were heaped in piles. In one pot which was as high as his waist, Gandalf found an array of weapons; swords, bows and axes. He pulled out a sword and inspected it on his way back to the cave mouth. When he saw Bilbo standing there, he passed him the sword and said "here, this should be about your size." 

Bilbo gazed at the sword in his hands, marvelling at its lightness. "I can't take this," he said, and tried to give the weapon back but the wizard continued talking and ignored Bilbo's protests.  

"The blade is of Elvish make, which means it will glow blue when orcs or goblins are nearby." 

"I have never used a sword in my life!" Bilbo exclaimed.  

"And I hope you never have to. But if you do, remember this," Gandalf looked at Bilbo with a serious expression on his face, "true courage is about not knowing when to take a life, but when to spare one.  

Bilbo nodded and tucked the sword into his belt. He then looked over at Nema, who was lying unconscious in a patch of soft grass. Bifur sat beside her, still carving his lump of wood, and Bofur was deep in conversation with Balin as they cleaned and dressed Nema's wound. Fili and Kili stood a little further away. The older of the two paced back and forth in front of his brother, running a hand through his hair every so often in agitation. He was listening to the conversation between Balin and Bofur.  

"I just don't understand where the arrow came from," Bofur was saying, as he tentatively wrapped a clean strip of cloth around Nema's middle. Balin was turning what remained of the arrow over and over in his hands. 

"It is definitely of Dwarvish make, but," Balin stopped suddenly and threw a worried glance in Kili's direction. Kili met his gaze and shook his head, then continued to watch his brother pacing. Balin narrowed his eyes at Fili.  

"Dwarvish? Let me see," said Bofur. He had finished tending to Nema, and now held out a hand towards Balin. The older dwarf shoved the arrow inside his robes and stood up, saying that they could examine it further later on. Bofur watched him walk away, a little confused. Absent-mindedly, he fiddled with Nema's hair, trying his best to neaten up the intricate braid. 

Balin now approached Gandalf. "You know who shot the arrow?" He asked, keeping his eyes fixed on Fili as he wrung his hands and paced before his brother.  

Gandalf nodded slightly and placed a hand on Balin's shoulder. "He had his reasons. Fili is not entirely at fault." 

"Not entirely at fault?" Balin gasped. "What did she ever do him?" 

"That's not it," sighed Gandalf, "but we cannot discuss it here where even the trees do listen to our conversations"  

Balin looked up into the eyes of the wizard and frowned. "There is something you are not telling us, Gandalf," he stated.  

"All will be revealed when the time comes, but for now, let us not talk of who fired the arrow. I fear neither Bifur nor Bofur would let Fili live to see another day." 

Balin observed Bofur playing with Nema's hair, and his cousin, Bifur, carving away whilst every so often checking that the woman was still asleep. "She has touched their hearts. I believe she has touched all our hearts, some more than others," Balin looked pointedly at Fili.  

At that moment, a loud crash sounded not far away and shortly after, a wooden sledge pulled by a dozen or so rabbits bounced into sight. Steering it was a man Gandalf recognised as another wizard, Radagast the Brown. The tiny man halted the rabbits, leapt off his sledge and ran to Gandalf and Balin. He started talking so quickly that what he said was all but lost on Balin who stood beside him, stunned by the brown wizard's sudden appearance. The other dwarves gathered round but none of them could make head nor tail of Radagast's speech. They occasionally caught the odd word such as "necromancer", "forest" and "poison" but apart from that they had to rely on Gandalf to translate into a slower speed for them.  

No sooner had the conversation come to a close then they heard howls in the distance, coming ever closer. Thorin yelled at them to get going and drew his sword. "Get to the ponies!" He shouted, making Radagast jump out of his skin with alarm.  

"The ponies have bolted!" Cried Glóin, picking up his axe and looking in the direction the howls were coming from. One warg ran at them from the side and charged at Thorin, catching him off guard. Kili drew back an arrow and fired it, striking the beast down with a single blow.  

"Run! I'll lead them away!" Radagast yelled, jumping back onto his sledge and tapping his rabbits into action. They sped away through the forest as Dwalin scooped the still unconscious Nema into his strong arms. The other dwarves rushed to gather their things and then, together with Bilbo and Gandalf, they bolted from the cave, running out of the forest onto rolling hills strewn with large boulders and rock formations.  

The group darted between the outcrops of rock, always narrowly missing the orcs and wargs that were set on their tails. They paused at one point behind a pile of rocks, breathing heavily and not daring to make a sound as an orc sitting astride a warg stood high above them, scanning the rolling hills. Eventually, the tension became to great, and Kili stepped forward, loosing an arrow at the warg and another at the orc. They both went down but not before making a lot of noise and alerting the other orcs.  

The dwarves ran again, following Gandalf's lead. A few orcs caught up with them, but Fili, Kili, Thorin and Glóin took them out mercilessly. Soon they were surrounded, with their backs to what seemed to be a solid rock.  

"Hold your ground!" Thorin yelled, brandishing his sword in the face of a warg to push it back.  

"Down here!" Gandalf called to them, sliding down a smooth slope which led under the rock. The dwarves jumped down without a second thought until only Kili was left above ground, firing arrows into orcs with startling accuracy.  

"Kili!" 

He finally jumped after them, sliding on the body of an orc. Above them, they heard the sound of horses hooves and the clang of swords meeting one another.  

"Come on," said Thorin, leading the way through the twisting rock paths, away from the dying orcs.