✓GLITTER AND GOLD⁰ ━ the hobbit

nine.

09. | LUCK ON OUR SIDE

We always are lucky, as if some higher power watching over us wants us to reach the mountain, wants us to succeed. An elf slides down the tree, graceful, lithe, one hand on the web.  It takes one stroke; and then the spider is dead. With another; his bow grazing Thorin's nose, millimetres away from being loose. 

Another elf appears — and then another — and then we are surrounded. 

I slide my sword back into its sheath, my hands shaking — unnerved by how smooth this all seems to be, surrendering immediately. Thorin looks around, suspicious, before doing the same. 

"Help!" A feeble voice calls, as I turn my head, searching for the caller.

Fili yells "Kili," in reply, and so I assume that it was Kili who asks for help. I hear a yell, the sound of a spider being slaughtered, Kili yelling, and then Kili is being led back to the group, a knife to his throat and a smile on his face. 

I raise an eyebrow, until I notice the red-haired elleth accompanying him. Oh. 

Kili cannot take his eyes of her; and who can blame him. She is graceful, controlled, pretty, and badass, everything the dwarves are not. 

"Search them," the first elf orders, presumably the leader. I look at him again; he's tall, blond, and classically elf. His face is sharp, holllowed by shadows that give him a strange haunted look, pacing along his face; he does not look happy, though he's handsome enough. Nothing like the elves at Rivendell, he glares at us all, hateful, distasteful, despising us. 

He stalks over to Gloin, pulling a picture frame out of Gloin's pocket. His lip curls; not amused, just cruel. "Who is this, your brother?"

"That is my wife!" Gloin shouts, outraged. I peer over his shoulder, but I cannot get a good look.  

"And what is this horrid creature? A goblin mutant?"

"That's my wee lad, Gimli." Gloin says, his chin rising defiantly. 

I snort, unable to help myself. "Gimli? You named him Gimli?" Really?

He glares at me, unappreciative of my usual remarks as the elf picks a new target. "An elleth." He speaks as if it some kind of novelty; I raise an unimpressed eyebrow. "Why do you travel with these..." He trails off, lacking a better word, "people?"

I shrug my shoulders, trying my best not to infuriate him. Perhaps then he will allow me to keep my weapons. "I'm just a traveler, and I happened upon these dwarves in the forest. I've been travelling with them, it's safer."

He looks me up and down once and scoffs. "Liar."

I am caught; I roll my eyes at him shamelessly. I don't particularly care that he can see right through me; though it is a little humiliating.  He takes my knives and my sword, even the ones I hid in my boot, before he gestures to my locket. "What?" I ask, confused. "It's not a weapon."

He curls his lip, as if I am deliberately stupid. "You could strangle someone with a chain like that."

I scoff, my eyes rolling yet again as Gloin shuffles away from us. "Yes, that's why I wear it. I don't need knives; I just need my locket, for strangling people."

"You could." He says shortly, holding his hand out imperiously. I take off my locket and shove it into his hands, forcing myself not to pout and sulk. Opening it, he finds only a single picture. "Who's this?"

I cross my arms over my chest, wondering what would happen if I told him it was none of his business — for it is. "My mother."

He glances at the picture, taking a good look. He turns to me again, wrinkling his nose. "You look nothing like her."