Why Are You Here -Part 3

433 21 0
                                    

The thick club felt foreign in your grip, slick with Ori's blood. You tightened your grip on the base, and raised it in defense.

Shit shit shit, how the hell am I going to take on three of them? Dammit Ori, wake up already. I can't do this alone!

You watched as they drew closer, demented smiles dancing on their lips; they were toying with you. They knew you wouldn't be able to kill all three of them.

Why didn't I practice sparring more as a kid? Wait! The report, I can do this. I think.

The one in the center lunged forward with it's blade aimed at your chest. You knocked the blade to the side and grabbed it's wrist. You threw all of your weight into it's elbow and ripped the wrist back. There was a sickening snap and the blade clattered to the ground as the orc howled in agony, it's arm clutched to it's chest. You swiped the rough blade from your feet and sliced blindly at orc to your left. The blade sliced through it's pale grey neck, blood spurting into the air as it fell. Continuing the motion, you flipped the blade's position in your hand and buried it to the hilt in the chest of the final orc.

By durin, I can't believe that actually worked.

You turned your head in time to see Dwalin pull one of his axes free from a corpse and bury it into the skull of the orc you had disarmed. He tried to rip it out, but it was stuck. An orc charged forward to strike him down with its wicked blade raised. Dwalin roared in frustration as he grabbed the slain orc by it's legs, his axe still embedded in it's head, and swung the corpse with deadly accuracy. The exposed flat edge of the axe smashed into the charging orc, knocking it aside. The impact jarred the axe free. Dwalin brought it down in an arc on the orc as it was attempting to get back up.

"What was that?" Dwalin barked at you as we all slowly began to realize there was no longer an immediate threat, "You said you were a scribe! Where'd yah learn to fight like that?" He yelled, black orc blood dripped off his axes as he loomed over you. You opened your mouth to answer but no words came to your aid.

"WELL? ARE YAH GOING TO ANSWER MY QUESTION?" Dwalin spat.

"A book." You squeaked. You watched Dwalin's shoulders tense up as he furrowed his eyebrows, "What do yah mean, a book? A book can't train people in hand-to-hand combat."

"W-well that's not entire true, Master Dwarf, I've learned all about combat from books." You stuttered, "Although of course all of my research was purely academic- I never thought- I never dreamed I would actually have to apply my studies to real-life scenarios. Or that it would work out as nearly as well as it did if I'm being honest."

"Do you always ramble on like that?" Dwalin asked. He wiped the blood from his axes on a nearby corpse before returning them to their place on his back.

"Is everyone alright?" Thorin shouted while he tended to a deep cut on his arm.

Ori.

You spun on your heels and dashed to Ori's side. Dori and Nori were already tending to him as you collapsed to your knees beside them. Oín was pulling bandages from his side bag as Nori washed out the gash on Ori's left temple with water from his waterskin. Dori pleaded for Ori to open his eyes, to say something, to do anything.

Please be okay. He has to be okay.

"Why is there so much blood, the gash isn't even that deep!" Dori said panicked as he looked to Oín for an explanation. Oín sighed as carefully wrapped the bandage around Ori's head, "Head wounds are a dangerous thing. It can be a shallow cut, but they will bleed profusely. I've bandaged him up as best I can, we'll have to wait for him to come to before I can tell if there's anything else wrong."

"But he's stable for now?" You asked, tearing your eyes away from Ori's bloody form.

"For now he seems so, but I don't know how long it will be before he wakes." Oín said as he packed away his supplies.

He almost died because of me, Tears spilled down your face at the realization.

"Please don't cry, Y/N. He's going to wake up, just you wait." Nori promised you. You shook your head and wiped away the tears "But it's my fault that he's hurt in the first place. If I hadn't-"

"He made his choice, and if I know my brother I know he wouldn't regret his decision for a second." Dori squeezed your hand gently, "Don't blame yourself, it won't change what happened. He wouldn't want you to be upset."

"I will always blame myself for what just happened, but I'm going to try and make amends for it." You decided as you slowly got to your feet and pulled the straps of your bag over your shoulders.

"Y/N, what do you think yer doing?" Bofur called to you as you disappeared into the thick brush. You crawled back out with a long thick branch in tow, "Well we can't just leave him lying here. There isn't time to camp here and wait for him to wake, so we need a stretcher."

*Time skip*

A week had passed since the ambush, and everyone took turns in shifts of two carrying Ori. You took as many shifts as Thorin and the others would allow.

Today, you carried the rear of the stretcher with Gloín leading. You were lost in your own thoughts when a gruff voice pulled you back to reality, "There's one thing I still don't understand." It was Dwalin.

"What do you mean?" You asked. He hadn't spoken to you much beyond telling you when you had guard duty since the day of the attack.

"How did yah kill that first ugly bastard with yer bag? It doesn't look like it would hurt that badly to be hit by it." He asked, eyeing the bag on your back.

"Looks tend to be misleading." You shrugged your shoulders.

"Well what do you have in the thing?"

"Not much, soap, an extra pair of socks, a brush, my notebook-"

"Why the blazes did you pack a notebook?" Dwalin asked incredulously.

"It's special to me, it was a gift..." you explained, looking at Ori laying on the stretcher in your hands.
"Let me guess, Ori gave it to you?" Dwalin sighed.

You quietly nodded your head.

"Wait, is it leather bound? Real pretty gold artwork on the front with a bit of funny script?" Bofur asked as he jumped into the conversation. You furrowed your eyes in confusion, "Yes, how did you know?"

"Well lass, that's because I'm the one that helped him make it."

Little Hobbit ImaginesWhere stories live. Discover now